Hi ladies! 

I am so excited to be a part of AWB!!

I know this probably sounds corny..but AWB gave me a sense of community and made me feel connected with the bloggy world. I thought is was super cool to find out that there was quite a few bloggers from Arkansas. You know Arkansas is known for bare feet,  moon-pies, and sweet tea..not internet savvy blogging women like ourselves! We are breaking the mold ladies!! Yay!! 

I literally did a happy dance when I got the email asking if I wanted to be Blogger of the Month February..I don’t know if ya’ll just ran out of bloggers and I was the last one that had to be picked but either way I am SUPER excited! 
 
I live in a little town south of Fort Smith. I came from an even smaller town called Midland that has a populations of about 150..now they have grown a little since I left but I my heart will always be there and I will always be a small town girl. I am a child of God and I attend a United Pentecostal Church..Yes..we are Holy Rollers and that is quite alright with me! I am totally addicted to Dr. Pepper and dream of being vintage. I love old antique things. I love handmade stuff with a history behind it. I have a 1923 Singer sewing machine in my bedroom that I adore! I love to read, organize and I take way to many pictures. I craft in between laundry, dishes and cleaning up the mess that “no one” makes. I am a mom to one little girl who is convinced that she is a princess and two spoiled dogs..all thanks to my wonderful husband who just recently joined forces with the United States Air Force. We have been married for five years and looking forward to many many more! I am currently working on getting my Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education and plan on my husband making a lot of money one day where I won’t have to work at all..so I am hoping that all I am doing now..will be a waste of my time! 
 
I blog at Just Lovely where I capture moments of time that God has blessed me with. I also love to throw in some book reviews and maybe a craft or two. I use a tremendous amount of dots (….) and to many exclamations points (!!) when I blog so I will apologize in advance for that. 
 
I am so honored to be here with you fine ladies and to have you actually reading about me! 
Thank you!!

From the AWB Facebook page: “FYI: In the most recent 90 days, Arkansas Women Bloggers has been the second highest source of traffic to my blog. Second only to Twitter. So, thanks for the extra efforts to link us up and get traffic headed our way. It is paying off big time for me!” Karen Weido, Ting’s Mom

We have an exciting year planned  here at Arkansas Women Bloggers and want you to know all the fabulousness that is going to happen so you can get involved! Here are the topics for the next few months, so get your creative juices flowing. We will give further details on each as they get closer.

February 2013
Theme: Sharing the Love: Blog Crushes & Blogger Matchmaking
Details: Pay tribute to your favorite AWB blog crush, and be matched with an AWB blogger for some kind, constructive and objective blog feedback!

March 2013
Theme: Better Your Blog
Details: It’s time to take your blog to the next level.  We’ve compiled tips, resources, tools and experts to help you make your blog everything it deserves to be. Plus, an exciting month of posts from one of our fantastic AWB members that is now a published author. You will love her and her new book!

April 2013
Theme: Making the World A Better Place to Be and to Blog
Details: Pay it forward, and get your hands dirty!  Live sustainably, cultivate a garden, cultivate kids, build a homestead, “put back” food or just cook dinner!

And, oh my, wait until you hear about the conference we have planned. Details coming very soon!

How to Bundt

Ingredients

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons milk

2 cups flour

1 bag cranberries

Directions

A few weeks ago we invited you to participate in a Secret Santa Style Handmade Ornament Exchange.  32 of our wonderful members signed up to participate.  Each player was given the mailing information of another AWB member and had 10 days to make and mail an ornament.

Today is the day that we reveal who we received from and who we sent an ornament to!  I can’t wait to see what everyone got!  I can’t wait to start collecting new ideas for making ornaments! As the final pictures start coming in we will be making a Pinterest Board to show off everyone’s creations.  If you aren’t following us on Pinterest yet, you can click here to do so.

If you participated in the Ornament Exchange, please take a moment to link to your reveal post in the LinkyTool below.  If you missed out on the ornament exchange, take a few moments to check out all the posts below and just remember to join us next year!

Thanks to everyone who made this a successful exchange.

Note: The LinkyTool below is NOT an open Linky.  Only links relating to the Handmade ornament exchange will be allowed.  All other links will be deleted.

Blogging IS Real Writing
Written by AWB Blogger of the Month, Miss November 2012, Angie Albright of A Growing Season. 

I wonder how many of my fellow bloggers the world over have been part of a conversation like the one I had with Well Meaning Woman:

Angie: I can’t wait to write about this! What a great story.

Well Meaning Woman: Oh yes, you should.

Angie: This is perfect for my blog.

Well Meaning Woman: Oh no, I meant real writing, not your blog.

What exactly constitutes “real writing”? Writing is words strung together with the intention to communicate. Isn’t that what a blog does?

After many years in academia I was a writing snob also. Unless you had been in a graduate writing program of some sort or had a natural genius, you couldn’t possibly be a real writer. Then I went and taught college composition for 17 years. Guess what? I have thousands of former students writers whom I worked hard to convince that they were writers. Those writers changed my mind. They were writing papers, emails, notes to their friends . . .  They were writers.

I started my blog because I had stories to tell, and I could see that blogging was where it was at in the 21^st Century. It combined my love of technology and fooling around on computers with writing. Blogging kept me coming back in a way that “real writing” did not. I have lots of that real writing in computer files, in notebooks in boxes, and it’s not doing a dang thing. My blog, on the other hand, and your blog, dear reader, is doing something. It’s communicating with people. We have something to say and for whatever reason, the blogosphere is where we find our voices every day.

Lots of bloggers are also “real writers” in many ways, but convincing them they are is not always easy. Kyran Pittman, of Planting Dandelions fame, offered the bloggers at the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged Conference this sage advice: “Give yourself permission to be a writer.” This is hard to do! Her words had an effect on many of us, including my friend Jody who blogs at Mindless Wanderings and for Single Parent Scholarship Fund of NWA. She’s a great writer, but has said over and over that she’s not a writer. Now she knows better.

Lela Davidson just published her second book, Who Peed on My Yoga Mat?. She is a blogger also and understands about as well as anyone I’ve ever known the power of internet marketing and how to use a blog to build a platform and establish her voice. Heather Davis, author of Minivan Momma, made a recent appearance on the Dr. Oz show and has a book coming out soon as a result of her blog.

Many of my readers are readers of “real books” as well as blogs. So when Beth Stephens at The Little Magpie tells me she’s a fan of my blog, I know it’s coming from an experienced and avid reader of all kinds of literature. This kind of support that bloggers offer each other also stands out from what I’ve seen among the “real writers.” Bloggers are a generous bunch, and Arkansas Women Bloggers is a perfect example of that. Julie, Stephanie, Beth, and Fawn push us all to go farther and do new things while also promoting our work. I have a couple of local writing/blogging groups that I adore and who offer me support on such a regular basis. Stephanie McCratic, who blogs at Evolved Mommy, is one of those supporters. She brings bloggers together in all kinds of ways.

The next time someone questions whether blogging is real writing, ask Well Meaning Woman how many readers that “real novel” sitting in the desk drawer has had. Ask her if writing isn’t about communicating, and if it is, then isn’t blogging doing that? The answer, of course, is YES!

You, my blogger friends, are writers. You move me, make me laugh, teach me things, and show me the world every single day. Thank you for being brave enough to put your words out there and for being generous enough to share them with the rest of the whole wide world.

Written by Jamie of Jamie’s Thots.

Like most people on Pinterest, I love pinning ideas for recipes including healthy alternatives and some not-so-healthy-but-oh-so-freaking-good delights. I especially love the cute holiday-related recipes including the Pilgrim hats made out of cookies and Rolo candies, or the deli dishes made into the shape of a Christmas tree.

One night when I was pinning away, I daydreamed of actually making all of those pretty dishes with my nieces and nephew someday. Or making them for co-workers or other friends at a potluck. I envisioned making the dishes then showing the beautiful creations to anyone who would look. I’m a woman of multiple talents but making pretty food is not usually one of those talents so I loved the idea of making pretty food that actually tastes good.

Then it hit me. I don’t think I could handle it if people mangled my beautiful creation. I think I would be OK with individual servings being eaten, but I can imagine myself standing over the Christmas tree-shaped deli tray and rearranging the pieces as people fill their plates. I’ve never been that neurotic before, but I can see it happening.

That’s what makes my Crispy Christmas Wreath recipe so perfect.  It’s kinda pretty, it tastes fantastic and it’s so easy that I don’t mind when it gets mangled.

This recipe is really perfect for potlucks, office parties or just to have around the house. Fill the center with other candies or cookies, and it’s a perfect small gift for a friend.

Basically, all you have to do is make a standard recipe for rice krispie treats but add green food coloring to the mix and instead of shaping them into bars, shape the goo into a wreath shape then put red candy on it.

Would you like the instructions in one place?
Here’s what you need:

6 cups crisp rice cereal (any brand is fine. You can also use cornflakes to make it more holly-looking)
Bag of marshmallows (I think the mini ones are easier to handle)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons butter/margarine
Red hot imperials (or red M&Ms if that’s more your family’s preference)
Green food coloring
Pizza pan or similar circular pan (plate might be too small)

What do I do with all that stuff?
The first part of this is going to seem really familiar as it’s the standard recipe for making rice krispie treats.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan (don’t let it scald, that will ruin it and smell nasty)

Slowly add the marshmallows, stirring them in over medium heat and making sure that you’re coating the melting marshmallows in the butter (that last part is important).

Add in the vanilla extract

Add in green food coloring, mixing until the desire darkness.

Slowly add in the cereal, stirring about two cups in at a time to make sure it’s properly coated

When this part is done, immediately transfer the goop over to the pizza pan and let cool just enough that you can tolerate touching the mix with your bare hands. Don’t let it “set” or harden, it just needs to be cool enough that it’s touchable but still pliable.

Form mix into the shape of a wreath and sprinkle the red candies over the wreath, pressing each one slightly into the still warm mixture so they stick.

Let cool … then enjoy!

Jamie Smith is a professional reporter and writer who enjoys “letting her hair down” on her blog, Jamie’s Thots. With her business, Jamie’s Notebook, Jamie writes social media profiles, press releases and website copy. She is also a freelance reporter for The City Wire where she loves finding creative stories about business and the arts. Jamie and her husband John purchased their first home in December 2011 in Elkins and are enjoying raising their two dogs and two cats. When not writing or spending time with her fur kids, Jamie loves to spend time scrapbooking.

I think I speak for all of us (Julie, Stephanie, Beth and Fawn(who claims to have moved away to Missouri but I refuse to believe it)) when I say,

1. I am clearly no good at punctuation, grammar or spelling. Thanks for putting up with me!
2. Arkansas Women Bloggers is growing into something totally amazing.
3. We have loved getting to know all of you in real life and online.
4. Arkansas Women Bloggers is what it is because of YOU!

We are so thankful that you have chosen to jump on this wild ride with us and that you have helped us to grow Arkansas Women Bloggers into something that is becoming even more amazing each day.  We love and appreciate each and every one of you no matter how small of a part you play in all that is AWB.  From those of you who follow us on Facebook and Twitter, to those who read our blog, to those who read the blogs of our members.  We appreciate those of you who have attended our conferences and meetups and those of you who couldn’t but wanted to.  We appreciate those of you whom have submitted posts and those of you that participated in our recent Blogging Challenges.  We even appreciate those of you that are lurking in the shadows and have yet to make yourself known!

We are thankful for you and hope that you have the opportunity to spend today reflecting on what is wonderful in your life because too often we get bogged down in the negative.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part of Arkansas Women Bloggers!

Love,

Julie, Stephanie, Beth and yes, even Fawn!