Welcome to AnneOnLife!

For those of you just stopping by for the first time, ‘Hi!’ {imagine me jumping up and down waving my arms like a crazy very friendly person} I have been writing here for a little over 2 years now. What started as an outlet for me to pass the time after losing my job has become a fun and interesting way of meeting new people and trying some neat products.

What you will find here are posts about chickens, kids, savings, great products, and great people.

A little about me…

1. I’m a newlywed. Yep, it took 10 years for me and Dwayne to finally tie the knot. When we did, I chose Friday the 13th, because that’s how I roll.
2. I have 3 kids. Megan is a junior in college, Amanda will be graduating this year, and Stephen is a Freshman in high school. They grow up so fast.
3. Scrabble is my favorite game.
4. I love math and grammar equally. Yes, I’m a total geek.
5. My lifelong dream is to sell everything I own, pay off all of my debt, have a little in savings, live in a travel trailer and travel the US (and anywhere else I can) and work as a waitress in a truck stop, just because.

And if all that doesn’t intrigue you, how about a giveaway just for stopping by.

One of the products I reviewed recently is one I actually use all of the time. I love that it’s functional, green, and altruistic. Check this out:

Once someone purchases the recycled and reusable bottle, $10 of every purchase will help fund a well to provide clean water in Africa or Asia.

Win your choice of a blue or white Isabella Water Bottle

Leave a comment on this post telling me how you go green.

Want more entries?

Follow AnneOnLife on Facebook or Twitter.

Leave a comment below for each thing you do. If you follow on Twitter, please leave your Twitter name. This giveaway will end on April 8, 2011 at 7 pm EST. Winner will be announced within 48 hours of close of giveaway.

Disclaimer: This giveaway is paid for and sponsored by AnneOnLife.

It’s Time for the Ultimate Blog Party, Let’s Celebrate with a Giveaway {closed} is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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I have a couple winners to announce this morning, but before I do I wanted to ask a question:

What are you looking for in a giveaway?

I have subscribers via email, RSS feed, Facebook, & Twitter. I list my giveaways on link-up sites. I made it easier (and more fair) by limiting the number of entries. And yet, I only get a handful, if I’m lucky, of entries into any of my giveaways. I have done some searching and find many entries on other sites for the same products. Some times it’s due to the many ways one can enter, but often it is many different people entering.

The form for entering is supposed to make it easier on you, the reader, to enter. I can assure you that it does not make it easier on me. It is actually more work on my end. Yet, I am disappointed at the number of entries. I would be happy with 50, but am lucky to get even 1 at times.

So, if you are reading this, please leave a comment letting me know how you prefer giveaways. Do you like many entries? What kind (follow, like, friend, subscribe, tell me something, etc.). I want to make this as easy and enjoyable for everyone because, right now, it’s not very enjoyable for me. Feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact me via email. Thanks!

So, let’s get down to the name calling, uh, drawing.

The winner of the Tie Buddies for kids is…

Congratulations Sarah T.!

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Note: There were 2 valid entries for this giveaway.

The winner of the 60-Day Trial to Declare-It! is…

Congratulations Theresa O.!

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Note: There was 1 valid entry for this giveaway. If anyone else is interested in trying out this service (see my review here), leave me a comment as I had 2 free trials to give away.

An email has been sent and you have 48 hours to respond.

Didn’t win? Want to win even more stuff? There are more giveaways going on right now.

• $15 to enGreet – send real cards through the mail without leaving the house (2 winners), ends 12/3
• Booty Shapers – keep your favorite boots crease free (2 winners), ends 12/10
• Twinlab Marine Friends Omega-3 Powder for Children, ends 11/21
• bookmark giveaways on AnneOnLife and look for these upcoming giveaways:
  • Udderly Smooth – originally for cows (I know), but amazingly great for us!
  • Shortcut Carabiner Keychain – great for the handy-person
  • Seventh Generation Laundry Prize Pack
  • Mozaik Prize Pack – plastic dinnerware that looks like fine china

image credit

Winners: Declare-It 60-Day Trial & Tie Buddies is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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Review: MyTies Free Social Networking App for iPhone is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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Instead of a half-hearted ‘Thanks for the linky!” comment on each of these sites, I have decided to give them all their own post (well, collectively) and a big

THANK YOU for allowing me (and others) to spread the word

about great giveaways going on at our respective sites!

I have linked up my current giveaways at all of the following sites. Be sure to check them out for some other great giveaways (I spied an iPad, Flip camera, and lots of Gift Cards!)

Army Wife Jesse Mac

BizziMommi’s Blog

Busy Mommy Media

Coupon Clippin’ Mommy

Frugal Living and Having Fun

Frugal, Freebies, & Deals

Mommies with Cents

Nickels & Dimes

Stockpiling Dads

Stockpiling Moms

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Thank You for the Linky! is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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I miss the ocean. Having grown up around the Atlantic makes living so far away from it somewhat disorienting. The pull of the waves as they are drawn out to sea. The lapping over ones feet causing them to sink into the sand like magic. The constant push/pull keeping balance, establishing a rhythm.

Blogging is like the tides, ebbing and flowing in a rhythm of words, information, thoughts. Posting every day, once a week, once a month, whenever.

Low tide

I can see the sandbar way out in the distance.  So far from shore, yet only about a foot deep. A place my grandfather and I would swim to then rest.

Right now my blog is experiencing low tide. Not much going on. Keeping things simple, relaxed. A post here and there; possibly a giveaway.

Mostly I’m just enjoying the waves roll over me as I lounge on the sandbar and gaze at the shore.

What about you?

Is your blog in high or low tide these days?

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Reflection: Ebbs & Flows is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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I’ve been working on a few improvements around here and need your help. Please take a moment to take a short survey. As a small token of my appreciation, at the end you will have the option of entering your email address for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card.

Survey will close on August 18th at noon EST. Winner will be chosen by random.org from all entries received. One entry per person.

Take a Survey & Enter to Win a $5 Amazon Gift Card {Closed} is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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A few months back I invested in Headway (more on that later) for my blog theme in an effort to customize my site and minimize the clutter. I’m still working on both, btw. It has taken me some time to decide how I want my site to look and I’m still not 100% on whether or not I’m there.

Lately I’ve been working on tweaking my header. I’m still using a variation of an image of flowers I received last year for my birthday, but instead of being predominantly blue I am now grayish with hints of green, etc. Yet, I wasn’t satisfied.

I decided to add a border and tweak my navigation bar.

Better, but still something was amiss. Do people really say amiss?

So, I decided to break up my header. Almost like pictures hanging on a wall. I was getting there, but not quite.

Then, it hit me. I wanted visitors to be able to click on images in my header and be taken somewhere other than my home page. What was that called again?

It’s like an old friend you haven’t seen in awhile. Not everyone understands her like you do, or sees her value.

Image Map Your Header

with minimal techie-ness

Do a search of image mapping and you will find several really good articles on how to use Photoshop and writing code. This is not one of those articles.

Fun fact, I purchased (not for a lot of money, but still) a program to help me image map my header. Then, not an hour later, I came across a FREE program online. Can I get a head slap? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Live and learn.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. I was going to share with you how to create an image map header for your blog, any image for a post, even customize an image for your Facebook page.

Creating Your Code

① You need an image. Any image will do, but one that makes sense for your purpose is best.

I added buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and my RSS feed to my header.

② You will need to map your image.

Mapping requires knowing the coordinates of the areas where the links will go. This is best accomplished with an image editing or mapping-specific program (this can be accomplished manually, or so I read, but a program is much easier).

Image-maps.com will do the heavy lifting for you. Upload your image and start adding rectangles (or other shapes) and your links to specific areas on your image.

For more on using image-maps.com check out How to create an image map for a static fbml tab on a facebook page.

③ You need a code.

Click on get code, then html code for blogs & other websites or css code for your Facebook page. If you are comfortable with custom css, then you can just use that for your blog (but, then why are you here getting advice from me anyway, right?).

You have your code, now what?

This is where things get a bit tricky. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where to put the code once I had it. Seems many people had this problem, yet no one ever answered the question. Well, they didn’t directly answer the question.

Blog Header

✗ In Headway – go to Headway Configuration and add your code under General Options/Header Scripts. I’m not familiar with Thesis, but if there is a header scripts area, then you should be able to drop your code there as well.

Note: I haven’t dug down too deep yet to rid my site of the header name that automatically shows when the header image isn’t uploaded in Visual Editor. So, I just made it the same color as my background and 6px in height in an effort to hide it for now.

✗ In other themes – find your header.php file. Add your code after <head>. You will want to play around a bit with alignment to get your header to show exactly where and how you want.

Blog Page/Post

This is the easiest way to add an image map. Just create or edit any post or page, add your image code using the HTML tab and you are done.

Facebook

You will need to have your fan page set up. Then go to edit page and add the application FBML. Once you add FBML you can edit this to show as a tab, create a name for the tab, and insert anything you wish to show in this tab. This is where you will insert the css code you got from your image mapped picture. To see an example check out AnneOnLife’s Facebook Page and click on the tab Life is…

That’s it!

Now you can add image with links easily and at no cost to you. Play around with it and just have a little fun.

Online Image Mapp Tool

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Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with image-maps.com. No compensation was received for this post. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate link for Headway used.

Tech Life: Image Mapping is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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This is a great deal for those wanting a more professional software option to keep up with their blogging business income. Oh, yes, blogging income is taxable income.

My thoughts on Peachtree

Honestly, I’m a Quickbooks person, but to me Peachtree and Quickbooks are similar enough that I would have no problem using either. Then again, my main experience with accounting software is organization specific and not off-the-shelf.

That said…

Peachtree helps you set up your chart of accounts, keep track of income received, expenses paid, then generate reports based on what you need to know. This makes life so much simpler come tax time.

Here’s the deal

1. Staples has Peachtree Pro Accounting 2011 on sale for $165
2. Purchase between 8/1 – 8/7 and get $165 back via mail-in rebate (limit 1 per household)
3. Mail in your receipt, proof of purchase and rebate form by 9/7/10.

Make this an even sweeter deal

As always, I recommend shopping through a site that pays you back whenever you choose to shop online. Big Crumbs (.8%),Cashbaq (0%), Ebates (2%),  Mr. Rebates (3%), & ShopAtHome (3%) are all highly recommended. Each one varies slightly ~ Big Crumbs has no limit on payment but some of the other sites offer sign on bonuses.

Save for college with UPromise (1%).

Additionally, be sure to look for more coupon codes at Retailmenot.com.

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Disclosure statement: Affiliate links used for Big Crumbs, Cashbaq, Ebates, Mr. Rebates & ShopAtHome.  If you sign up through one of my links I benefit according to the affiliate terms of each site.

Deal Alert: Peachtree Accounting Software is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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I’m going shopping with Megan today.  But before I go I want to invite you to read my guest post at Website in a Weekend on how I got hacked and lived to tell the tale

Thank you, Dave for giving me the opportunity to share my experience with others.

Image credit

What a Hack! is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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It’s been awhile since I last posted… uh, it’s been HOW LONG? Well, these things happen when you decide to change themes, have to move programs that run said themes, get injected with junk code which screws up your feed, pray, reinstall, and lose tons of stuff and consider scrapping the whole enchilada, so to speak.

I digress…

For those who are still finding me {jumping up and down, waving arms, and shouting ‘hey, I’m over here‘} I will be writing all about my adventures down the rabbit hole. Yes, I defeated the evil red queen and re-emerged from whence I came. Ah, smell that fresh spring air. Look for it next week.

For those of you who read me in a feed reader you may have received a ton of post updates that were old. I lost about 20 posts and reconstructed them, hit publish, and they reappeared. Not sure how Google is going to like all of that, but I really had no choice. They were going back up one way or another! {Ugh!} I lost some comments, but I still have the memories of them. That has to count for something.

Oh, and like a big dummy I deleted my feed in an attempt to resurrect it. Yeah, I would not recommend that. So, I have only a hand full of subscribers now. If you are finding this through Facebook or Twitter and were an email subscriber and would like to continue receiving updates in that manner, then please re-subscribe.

In taking a cue from one of the masters, here’s a video that sums up my feelings on the whole mess.

If you like my writing why not subscribe and never miss an update. Let’s be friends. Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter, too.

Let The Lovin’ Come Back To Me is a post from: AnneOnLife where life happens quite regularly. If you liked that, you'll love me on and .
© AnneOnLife 2008-2010

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