Summer is almost here and that means fleas and ticks.  YUCK!  Now is the time to start preparing for the care of your furry friends.  Join me at the upcoming Twitter party to learn the best ways to take care of your pet, keep them in good health, & find out how easy it is to donate to AHA pet shelters across the U.S.!

Whether you’re a new or seasoned pet owner, join this party and share tips on fleas, ticks, dental problems, obesity and much more!

Twitter Party Details

When: Tuesday, May 21, at 1pm ET (the party will last one hour)

Where: We’ll be on Twitter – follow the #SergeantsPet hashtag to track the conversation. You can see the details and RSVP via this Twtvite: http://twtvite.com/sergeantspet2

Hashtag: #SergeantsPet

Prizes: We’ll award five prizes throughout the party to random participants who have answered a trivia question correctly.

Each prize includes free flea & tick product for the winner’s pet, the pet health kit (as seen on the emBARK website), an emBARK on Pet Health t-shirt, a head shot of campaign spokesperson Tiffani Thiessen, and a DVD copy of White Collar (Tiffani’s hit show on USA Network).

Join me!  I think it will be not only educational but FUN!!

Leading pet care product company Sergeant’s teamed up with actress and animal advocate Tiffani Thiessen (@TAThiessen) to share easy ways that everyone can emBARK on Pet Health!

Since February, Sergeant’s has asked pet lovers to take an online pledge committing to care for their pets. For every pledge, Sergeant’s sends a pet health kit (retailing up to $50 in value) to participating shelters with the help of the American Humane Association (AHA). These kits go home with newly adopted pets from AHA shelters nationwide to ensure their health care regimen is off to a great start.

Each person who takes the pledge will receive a coupon for $3.00 off their next Sergeant’s or Sentry purchase to help keep their own pet care plan on track.

I took the pledge, now you can too!

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.  What are some of your southern traditions?

Have you ever considered ordering personalized candy for a special occasion?  I considered ordering it for my sons graduation — that is until I saw the price tag.  WOW!

Following his graduation ceremony my son has a “welcome table” where he displays personal memorabilia.  On this table he is suppose to have something sweet to offer guests who come by.  My first thought was a candy table with cute personalized candy.  I searched the Internet for options and only came up with wonderful ideas that I just couldn’t afford.

Not being easily discouraged, I thought how hard can it be to just make your own.  I went to Walmart and purchased two 40oz bags of assorted mini-candy bars and a pack of labels.

You might be wondering how I knew what size labels to purchase.  I carried the bag of candy to the school supply section where I picked up a ruler and measured the bar from inside the bag (I didn’t open it).  Judging from the rough measurement I knew I needed something wider than 1 inch but smaller than 2 inches.  Luckily Walmart carried a 1 1/3 inch x 4 inch label.  Although this label would be to long it is just the right width and the remainder can be trimmed.  The labels were a little costly but nothing compared to the price of personalized candy bars.  I purchased 1 package of Avery Labels #48862.

I went to avery.com and looked at the templates available.  Avery offers many choices of designs for their labels.  The problem was that all the label designs were horizontal and  the candy wrappers labels needed to be vertical.  Avery also offered a blank template to download.  With this template I was free to create anything.

From Microsoft Word I inserted a text box and made some labels with Brandon’s name and the graduation date then rotated the image 90 degrees.  Some of the labels were created with just the year.  And others had an image of a graduation cap.  Other options could include a scroll, CONGRATS!, Class of 2013, etc.  Remember not to center the design on the label but offset it to the right or left in order to trim away the excess.

I chose 4 designs per page.  After printing the labels, trim the excess using a scrapbooking cutter.  Then simply peel and stick.  One package of labels wrapped one bag of candy, give or take a bar .

Since I had another bag of candy that needed covered  I just decided to print them on plain paper and cut them out and tape them.  This is even a cheaper option and they look the same.  They are a little more labor intensive but if money is a problem, it’s the way to go.

Do you remember that I had to trim the Avery labels?  I used the label “scraps” as tape for the paper labels.  It worked perfectly.  Another option would be the photo mounting squares or just invisible tape.

Don’t be discourage by the high costs of personalize candy.  Try making your own at a fraction of the cost.

For more money saving graduation idea check out Graduation Invitations On A Budget.

This is Pixie and Dixie.  Pixie is the one with the white spot in the middle of her face.  They were born last Thursday.  They will be a week old tomorrow.

They are soaking up the sunshine.

This pair of beauties are Gypsy and Jewel pictured with their mother Magina.  If there mom is around they want to eat.  Jewel is the one with white spots over her body.  They are three weeks old.

Invitations can become a costly part of any ceremony and can break a budget if you are not careful.  The particular invitations that we favored consisted of a full photo with the graduation details overlayed and they had a not so nice price tag.  I needed to come up with an alternative that wasn’t so costly.

I was very fortunate that Jenn from Sweet T Makes Three was able to capture some wonderful photos of Brandon.  It is imperative that you begin with a good quality photo.

Not being very techno-savvy nor do I have the latest and greatest photo editing software I needed a source for adterine the photos.  I had heard people talk about altering photos and making collages at picmonkey.com so I checked them out.

PicMonkey does not require a download.  You simply open your photo at their site and begin editing.  At PicMonkey you can crop, resize, rotate, change the exposure, do overlays, textures, insert text, etc.  It has everything the amateur photo enthusiast could ask for.  NOTE:  This is not a sponsored post I just love the website!

To create the invitations I opened the photo and created a text box for each element of the announcement, i.e. the name, place, and date.  By placing each element in a different field I could move the text to different places on the photo and change the fonts until I found a layout that I liked.  I faded the font in order to make it look like part of the picture.  When I was finished I merged all the layers into one and saved the photo onto my hard drive.  So far the invitations have been free.

Now to print them.  I looked at several options, Walgreens, Walmart, Shutterfly, and Picaboo.  I chose Shutterfly because they offered 50 free 4×6 prints and I also got a coupon for 40% off.  I wanted 5×7 photos therefore the 50 free prints didn’t help the invitation cost but I was able to use them for the graduation party invitations.  All in all it cost about $50 for 75 graduation invitations and 50 party invitations.  I purchased envelopes in the appropriate sizes at Walmart and Michaels.  They were around $3 to $5.

There was a problem with the initial order from Shutterfly.  The wording was cut off and I was unable to use the invitations.  I panicked and called their customer service.  They were very helpful and said that I needed to view the photos in the actual size that I was ordering.  When I did this, they were cut off.  I had to remake them however, Shutterfly sent the new photos out right away with no charge for the photos or shipping.  They were really nice to work with.

Have you ever made your own invitations?  What is your favorite budget friendly photo editing software?

For more money saving graduation ideas check out Personalized Candy – On The Cheap.

The sad truth is that my 11 year old daughter is a much better photographer than I.  Maybe she will give me lessons.

I have been making and using my own laundry detergent for about 6 months.  In that time I have just recently made my third batch and half of one of the batches I used as gifts.  That should tell you that one batch lasts a long time because I wash a LOT of laundry.  It makes well over 100 loads.

I know that people have been making their own detergent for longer than me, I’m a little late to jump on board.  A few years ago I made liquid detergent.  It was adequate and did the job but it was a little time consuming to make, the liquid would separate so you needed to stir it, and I just wasn’t sure it was cleaning as thoroughly as what I was accustomed to.  For those reasons I didn’t continue to make the detergent.

Then I decided to try powdered detergent, now I’m hooked!  It’s simple to make, easy to use, and does a great job cleaning!

To find out how to make these wonderful invitations for a fraction of the cost read Graduation Invitations on a Budget Part 2

My mom loved hummingbirds.  I can’t see one that I don’t think about her.  She loved to sit and watch them for hours and she passed along that joy to me.  I have a hummingbird feeder right outside the living room window.  I also planted a small tree beside the window in hopes of enticing the little creatures to build a nest.

Spring is the time of year to hang out your hummingbird feeders and enjoy the attention they get from our feathered friends.  Just like Mom, I always make my own nectar.   There is no reason to purchase high dollar nectar when you can make your own for pennies.  It is a simple mixture of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar.  That’s it!  You can heat the water if you wish to help the sugar dissolve and slow fermentation  but it isn’t necessary.  If your water is highly chlorinated you can either boil it or let it sit out overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate.  Another option would be to use purified water.   Red dye is an ingredient that can be left out.  It isn’t good for us and it sure isn’t good for the hummingbird (personal opinion).  I have never used dye in my mixture and the hummingbirds swarm the feeder.

At the beginning of the season I just put out a small amount of nectar into the feeder then add more once the birds start arriving.  Nectar will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.  So be sure and not make any more than you can use in one week to avoid waste.  Remember to change your nectar and wash the feeders weekly.