Herradura’s Red, White and Blue Berries Cocktail Recipe

The July 4th holiday is just around the corner and many of us will be celebrating Independence Day this year with friends and family. I don't know about all of you, but during the July 4th holiday I like to celebrate with a great tasting fruity cocktail.

This recipe and the photo was provided to us by Herradura's and I think you will agree...it looks delicious! Here is what you will need to make it and how to do it. Each recipe will make 1 serving.

Herradura’s Red, White and Blue Berries Cocktail Recipe


· 1½ oz. Herradura Silver

· 2 ½ oz. coconut water

· ¼ oz. agave nectar

· ½ oz. lime juice

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in to a cocktail shaker filled with cubed ice.

2. Shake hard and strain over crushed ice in to a tall glass.

3. Garnish with raspberries and blueberries.

Disclaimer: You must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcoholic beverages. Please drink responsibly and NEVER drink and drive.

New Swagbucks Around The World Promotion!

I have been a member of Swagbucks for well over a year now and I just love that site! I earn an extra $50 to $100 a month from Swagbucks which I cash in for Amazon gift cards or direct deposits into my Paypal account. This extra money has gotten us new things for our home (we are remodeling) and when I have elected the Paypal cash, it has helped to pay unexpected bills. If you are looking to make extra money online, I highly recommend you join Swagbucks and if you have any questions about the site or how to use it, feel free to ask me via my blog's comment form below.

Now onto some very important Swagbucks news!

Every once in a while Swagbucks has a promotion where you can win specially designed bills and get extra Swag Bucks for winning them all. Starting Monday, July 1st, 2013.... the newest set of Swagbucks Collector's Bills celebrate different places in the world where Swagbucks is available.

If you can earn all five bills (available exclusively through search) before Monday, July 8th, 2013 you'll get an automatic bonus of 20 Swag Bucks applied to your account. You can track which bills you've got by going to the "My Swag Bucks" area of your account and clicking the "Collector's Bills " tab. Click here if you're not earning on Swagbucks yet. You earn rewards for doing all of the things online you already do, and it's completely free.

Have fun swagging!

Purity Vodka Purple Melon's Majesty Cocktail Recipe

I love a good cocktail from time to time but I am pretty picky about the ones that I will drink. When it comes to selecting one...I am all about the fruity flavors and a great tasting vodka. The folks over at Purity Vodka sent over this recipe and information...so I am sharing it with all of you today. Yay!

This Fourth of July, celebrate "America the Beautiful" with this custom cocktail from Purity® Vodka! Mix a dash of red, a pinch of white, and a bit of blue to make the perfect patriotic blend of old world elegance and new school craftsmanship.

Purple Melon's Majesty Cocktail Recipe

3 oz Purity® Vodka
4 Watermelon cubes
1 small handful of blueberries


*Muddle watermelon and blueberries in a mixing glass. Add Purity® Vodka and ice. Stir until cold, then double-strain and garnish with watermelon and blueberries.

Disclosure: You must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcohol. Please drink responsibly. 

Voga Italia's Teeny Bikini Cocktail Recipe

Summertime means warm weather, pool side parties, cookouts and an array of delicious beverages. Beat the heat and dazzle your guests with your chic bartending skills by serving a refreshing wine infused cocktail instead of the expected liquor versions and filling beer.VOGA Italia Wine can be used to make quick and easy cocktails for any occasion this summer.

Voga Italia's Teeny Bikini Cocktail Recipe

3 ½ oz VOGA Sparkling

1 oz Watermelon Vodka

1 ½ oz Pink Lemonade

In a shaker, combine ice, VOGA Sparkling, watermelon vodka and pink lemonade. Stir gently and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel.

Disclosure/Disclaimer: Recipe and photo is courtesy of Voga Italia. You must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcohol. Please drink responsibly.

10 Tips for Planting Petunias in your Flower Garden

We love gardening and we have 4 flower beds and 2 small vegetable gardens that we have been working on this year. While our gardens started off small, they are all coming along nicely now.  In our one flower bed we planted nothing but beautiful Petunias. When we bought them they were quite small and none of them were even close to blooming.

Today, I wanted to share some Petunia planting tips with all of you that we learned along the way.

1. When buying petunia plants always buy healthy ones! Inspect them carefully and if you see any signs of disease, don't buy them! It is perfectly okay to buy them with no blooms and it's okay to buy them with blooms as long as they look healthy.

2. If the plants you are considering buying look wilted or have any funky odors coming from the plant or the soil the plant is sitting in...refrain from buying them! A flower plant should smell just like the flowers they are...any musty or moldy smells could mean that it's a diseased plant.

3. Your plants should be planted as soon as you get them home. If you can't get them into the ground right away, mist them with water so they stay hydrated. You do NOT need to flood them!

4. We buy our petunias in multi-packs and to make separation easier we like to lightly mist them and the soil with a water bottle. Wait a few minutes and they should separate for you a lot easier than trying to do it with stiff hard dry dirt.

5. We dig a hole that is about 4" to 6" deep and we place the petunia down into the hole along with the dirt it came in. We then use our regular soil on top of that. (the dirt they come in is very nutrient rich).

6. Once we have all of our plants in the ground we immediately water them with some Miracle Grow which helps them get off to a great start. We don't overly saturate ours with water but we do make sure that they get nice and wet.

7. We water our flowers and the vegetable garden every 3 days when we don't get any significant rain. Every week 7-10 days we water them with the Miracle Grow which keeps them nice & healthy and growing quickly.

8. Keep your flower bed weeded! We mulch around our flowers and then pull the weeds on the weekend which takes maybe 5 minutes since the mulch keeps the weeds at bay.

9. Keep animals out of your flower beds....if need be, put a small fence around the flower bed. Animal feces and urine can damage your flowers, especially the urine which contains ammonia.

10. If you notice your flowers are not doing well...try to solve the problem as quickly as possible. If you can't figure out the problem, dig them up and move them to another area before they get too shabby looking. Just make sure you dig around them, taking great care to not damage any of their roots.

Well there you have it...our favorite 10 tips when it comes to planting Petunias in your flower garden.

Delicious Frozen Blue Lemonade Cocktail Recipe for Summer

I love having a good cocktail from time to time, but I am really picky about the ones that I consume. When it comes to cocktails, I like them very cold and I love for them to have a fruity taste. Today, I am sharing with all of you this cocktail recipe that was sent over to us by the great folks at Sparkling ICE.

Frozen Blue Lemonade Cocktail Recipe - Perfect for Summer!

1.5 oz White rum
1 oz Blue curacao
3 oz Lemonade Sparkling ICE
Fresh berries (for garnish)
Ice


Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend on high until it becomes slushy. Pour into a chilled glass and garnish with a fresh berries.

Disclaimer: You must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcohol. Please drink responsibly and ALWAYS use a designated driver!!!

$1.00 off Coupon for new White Cloud Soft Bath Tissue!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of White Cloud for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Let's talk bath tissue today...yes, bath tissue! If you are like me, bath tissue is something that is an important part of your daily life and when you buy your bath tissue you want it to be super soft, strong and very absorbent. On top of all of that, you want it to be affordable...am I right? Of course I am!

Well, I have great news for all of you and its news about the brand new White Cloud premium bath tissue which is super soft, strong, absorbent and very affordable! That's right, it meets all 4 of my personal bath tissue requirements!

This new bath tissue is luxuriously soft and features the brand new TAD (Through Air Dried) technology where a special machine blows air between the layers of the bath tissue to make it amazingly soft! Why didn't anyone think of doing that before? I don't know but I am glad that White Cloud did!

You can Find White Cloud products near you and exclusively at Walmart stores (located in the bath tissue aisle). You can use their store locator to find one near you if you are unsure where one might be. Luckily for me, I have one close by.

Right now you can Like White Cloud on Facebook and get a $1.00 off coupon which you simply fill out the form, download and print! Super easy and we all like to save money...right? RIGHT!!! Now you can give this new premium White Cloud bath tissue a try and save money in the process! Yay!

How many of you are on Twitter? I know I am and guess what? You can Follow White Cloud on Twitter and get company news and interact with the brand there! They love hearing from all of their White Cloud fans!

If you are a picky bath tissue gal like myself, give the new luxurious White Cloud Soft Bath Tissue a try and for those of you who have already tried it...what did you think about it? I would love to hear your thoughts so please leave your comments in my blog's comment form! Thanks!

VOGA Spicy Sparkling Mimosas Cocktail Recipe



With Easter right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about ways to create the ultimate Elegant Easter Table. Fresh cut flowers, fine china, and pastel colored linens are all part of creating an elegant table setting, but don’t forget about what you are serving your guests. As friends and family arrive, greet them with VOGA Spicy Sparkling Mimosas, the perfect choice for a classy and beautiful springtime holiday!

VOGA Spicy Sparkling Mimosas Cocktail Recipe

1/2 Bottle of VOGA Sparkling
5 1/2 cups orange juice
2 3/4 cups pineapple juice
1/2 tablespoon finely grated ginger

Mix orange juice and pineapple juice in a pitcher. Pour VOGA Sparkling into pitcher. Add ginger. Stir and enjoy!

Disclaimer: You must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcoholic beverages. Please drink responsibly. This recipe & the photo is courtesy of Voga Italia, the maker's of fine wines!

Wordless Wednesday - The Physical Therapy Lamb

I went in to see my physical therapist in the office 2 weeks ago for a major workout session and I was really surprised to see that they have a new member to the physical therapy team. They already use a beautiful lab-mix dog as part of the team and now just recently they adopted a 2 1/2 week old little lamb!

The lamb's mother died during a c-section to remove the lamb twins (both twins survived) and they adopted them out right away as they need 24 hour care (bottle feedings, etc.). This gorgeous beauty that you see in the photo even wears disposable Pampers which I found adorable! That's right, Lambi isn't potty trained just yet!

All of the patients are in-love with the new addition to the staff and we are all looking forward to spending more time with Lambi during our physical therapy appointments! On that particular day...I received all kinds of kisses (licks to my face) from Lambi, so I think I made a new friend!

Well there you have it....my almost Wordless Wednesday for this week!

Make Money Online with Swagbucks! Free to Join!

 

Have you ever heard of Swagbucks? They're a completely free, no strings attached site that rewards you for all of the things you're already doing online. Search, Watching Videos, Playing Games, Taking Surveys, Shopping and more - as you do these activities, you'll earn Swag Bucks, which are reward points that you can redeem for all sorts of gift cards in the Rewards Store.

You can download their toolbar or download their OS and Android apps for more opportunities to earn. Choose the activities you like or have time for - how much you earn is up to you! I've used Swagbucks for over a year now and so far I've earned over $400 in Amazon gift cards which I use to buy things for myself, gifts or things we need for our house. You can do the same!

Swagbucks is really easy-to-use and in only a few minutes of online time every day, you can rack up Swagbucks to cash in for various online retail gift cards and/or paypal deposits...the choice is yours!

To sign up for Swagbucks, click this link and join me. It's totally FREE to join and it only takes a few minutes to register! Once you are registered, you are on your way to earning free Swagbucks! Over the next few weeks I will make additional blog posts on how I utilize Swagbucks to make the most of it! Enjoy!

Mom Bloggers and Dirty Competition

I have been blogging online for over 5 years now and I own or co-own 7 successful online blogs. My business partner and I own the highly successful Two Classy Chics blog and have been running that blog since January of 2010. We both love blogging, but we both hate the bull shit that comes along with it!

For the past 2 years we have been the target of some jealous mom bloggers and we have never done anything to these bloggers. Heck, for the most part, we don't even know who they are or which blogs they own (nor do we care). I think it's quite petty, immature and really unprofessional that mom bloggers can't all get along. We are indeed adults and we should act like adults when conducting our businesses online.

During the past 2 years, here is just a small sampling of some of the shit we have had to endure:

* Rude and negative comments left on our blogs via fake IDs and Anon names.

* Several of these bloggers sit around in online chat rooms, private Yahoo groups, send out group emails to their buddies and when at professional blogging conferences, sit around and gossip about other bloggers. What the heck is that about??? Really people?

* A few bloggers have went as far to contact our sponsors and advertisers...offering their blog, their writing services and other nonsense to them....telling them they can do a better job than us! WTH? Yes folks, there are bloggers out there who will come to your blog, contact your sponsors and email them garbage about you! We know this as FACT since some of our sponsors are also clients of our ghostwriting business & have forwarded some of these emails to us over the years! Shameful behavior for sure!

* Recently...someone or some group has been targeting our blogs and sending nonsense complaints to search engines (you know who I mean and it begins with a G) and the purpose of that is to try to get our Page Ranks yanked or get us in some type of trouble with the big G. Whatever...go ahead and do that because we are VERY by the book bloggers and unlike others...we don't scam the system by labeling paid posts as "GUEST POSTS" and other nonsense. That's right bloggers, other bloggers know that they are indeed PAID POSTS! How about being real and being honest and labeling them as such???? How about that!!!

* Someone sat on our TCC Facebook page for about a month and was flagging a bunch of our LEGAL & PROFESSIONAL posts left & right trying to get our page shut down for spam! Geesh, do you not have anything better to do with your time????

All kinds of things have been done to us over the years and said about us. We have always taken the HIGH ROAD and kept the information to ourselves instead of blogging about it on our TCC business blog and being unprofessional (hence why this bitch post is going on my personal blog). The few things that I mentioned above are just a TINY sampling of what has been done to us or the gossip/lies that has gotten back to us.

There is enough room on the internet for us all....competition can be a good thing when both parties act like professionals. We take competition as we must work harder & work smarter. We don't take it as...hey, let's run around and figure out how to mess with the competitive bloggers? Nope, we don't do that because we are indeed the REAL PROFESSIONALS and will not stoop to the level of those who want to play games!

Well....there is my big gripe & bitch fest for today. Just remember this.... Karma...what goes around, comes around!

Home Improvement Project: New Outdoor Porch Lights



The home we purchased and moved into is an older home (built in the late 1960's) and the previous owners never updated it or modernized it. We have been gutting the home inside & out since May of 2012 and remodeling all kinds of things to bring the home into the 21st Century. (photo above shows the new outside porch lights...pretty!).

Last weekend it was time to yank out the ugly, rusted and very outdated outside porch lights and install some new ones! It only took hubby about 5 minutes to have the ugly ones off and another 5 to 7 minutes to have the pretty new ones on!

We purchased the 2 outdoor porch lights from Amazon.com and we love to shop their site for the various home improvement supplies that we need. Often times, they are a lot cheaper than our local home improvement store.

We picked out square shaped porch lights done in an antique bronze finish. They are energy-efficient and use energy-efficient light bulbs. They look nice with our new window shutters, lampost and other outdoor items we have been adding to the house!

Next weekend we are tackling 3 other outdoor lights and replacing those too! We are really pleased with how many things we are getting done around the house!