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

I do most of my reading at night in bed.  But I don’t like bright or direct light (yes I know it is bad for my eyes, blah blah blah).  I use a dimmer switch to make a low light that won’t bother anyone else in the room (HA!).

I am thinking to redo my bedroom (yes, I know that involves cleaning it first. again blah blah blah) and I would like to update the switches and outlet plates.  Most of which have not been changed since before we moved in.  I was checking out Leviton on Facebook and seeing their new Renu products.

The Renu® collection includes:

-switches
-Combination switches
-wall plates
-dimmers/Remotes
-Tamper Resistant Outlets
-Tamper Resistant GFCI Outlets
-QuickPort Connectors

Checking it all out, I think even I could do it by my self (of course I can’t do the cleaning by myself tho, whatever!), everything is easy to switch and come in 20 different paint colors that I can choose from.  I like the blue my room is now, but am thinking of going more of a green for the update.

Maybe I will get more ideas during the Leviton Twitter parties coming up.

Wednesday, April 18th 9pm EST
Thursday, April 26th 9pm EST
Wednesday, May 2nd 9pm EST

Follow @Leviton and #Renu for the twitter events and participate and maybe one of us will win a Home Depot gift card!

When I come home from anywhere I grab the mail from the box and as it has been since schooldays I head straight to the bathroom. Somehow my bladder knows the minute I walk in the front door of my house.

As I “do my business” I go through the mail. Separating it into piles for the various people who live here and opening my own. I realized that I could save a step afterwards by putting another trash can in the bathroom and putting the unwanted junk mail and envelopes right into a recycle bin then and there.

Of course not everyone that uses your bathroom will realize the reason for two cans so you may want to label them.

I am so not crafty in the least, but I have always had an interest in other’s abilities to make their own jewelry.  In this economy when you just can’t afford to go out and buy some new pieces my friends at Beads Barn have written this compensated guest post to help you make your own.

Making earrings is one of the best ways to teach yourself new bead weaving stitches and how to incorporate different jewelry making techniques into your projects. Earring projects are normally small and are not as intimidating as making necklaces or taking on other beading projects that require a lot of time and patience.

Earring making is a great way to get a little bit of beading work in during the monotonous holiday season. Not only do beaded earrings make great personal gifts for yourself, but they can also be given away as last minute gifts to friends and coworkers.

The good thing about making earrings is even if you do not have a beading pattern handy to go off of, there are a lot of ways that you can simply pick up your beads and start creating some elegant designs. There are some people that find using special beading patterns to be difficult. These four ideas will help you make the task of creating earrings for yourself or others easy and fun.

1. Create a brick stitch diamond earring. Creating a brick stitch diamond earring is pretty basic. Earring making does not get any easier than this. All you need to do is stitch up a simple brick stitch diamond design by incorporating some of your favorite beads into the design. You have the choice of incorporating some funky fringe along the bottom section of the earrings, or leaving the fringe off for a classic bead style earring.

2- Make beaded beads earrings. Beaded beads earrings are easy to create. Making these types of earrings literally takes minutes out of your day. Simply stitch up a piece of peyote than zip it up, and your creation is complete. You can add a little bit of fringe or some fancy edging and hang a seed bead loop to the bottom section of your creation.

3. Create beaded fringe earrings. Contrary to popular belief, beaded fringe is not just for creating breathtaking beaded necklaces or amulet style bags. Making earrings using beaded fringe is a fast and easy way to give your earring creations the “wow” factor that you desire.

4. Practice creating beaded bezel earrings. Beaded bezel earrings are elegant and refined. Plus you can stitch a beaded bezel around almost anything that you have lying around your home. Scrabble tiles, typewriter keys, bottle caps, and crystal stones all make incredible earrings.

My daughter found this picture on Face Book and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Photo Credit Shut The Front Door

This is a great re use of a simple item that you would normally throw away.  The uses are endless, chip clip, binder clip, hair clip (in a pinch).

I can organize you, your home, your business.  I can make your office run more effectively and efficiently than you ever imagines. But what I can’t do, is clean my bedroom.

I used to do a fairly thorough cleaning and rearranging once a year.  I would only do it for one reason – Mom was coming to visit.

Bama and Caity (Oct. 2006)

The last time that happened was 2006.  5 years ago this fall.

When Aunt Mary passed away in January 2007, mom coma out on short notice.  I didn’t have time to “clean”.  One morning she and Erika and I were lying in my bed (I have a really big bed) together.  Mom and I were convincing Erika to go on our up coming cruise with us (she did!).  Mom said something about it being warm so I offered to turn on the ceiling fan.  Erika scoffed saying she didn’t want one of the dust bunnies to fall off and bite her.  At the time we all laughed.  But even the memory of that is not enough to motivate me to clean my room.

Kathy has the house for sale.  She holds an Open House every weekend.  The realtor brings people by to show the house.  My room is still a mess.  None of these reasons motivate me to clean.

I am going to have to move soon.  Kathy has bought a new home and whether I go with her or not, I am going to have to clean my room.

I am not ready to face a clean room knowing Mommy is not going to come and visit me anymore.

Our 10 Winners have all be notified and are in the process of sending me their snail mail addresses.

Be sure to be on the look out in January for another amazing giveaway from The UPS Store and LovingLogistics!

Winners:

Comment#

7:

Amber December 19, 2010 at 7:44 pm [edit]

Liked on facebook

13:

Gretchen December 19, 2010 at 7:48 pm [edit]

I subscribe to your blog

15:

chris
Twitter: godotchris
December 19, 2010 at 10:43 pm [edit]

I liked the UPS store on FB.
chris recently posted..appreciate

18:

Erika December 20, 2010 at 5:23 am [edit]

I liked you on FB
Erika recently posted..Quiet Sunday- Loud Party

22:

Amy Anderson December 20, 2010 at 9:49 am [edit]

Like UPS on FB
Amy Anderson recently posted..Tea By The Sea at Getty Villa

28:

LeAnn V. December 24, 2010 at 12:13 pm [edit]

I like UPS on FB (leann brandner voyer)

29:

ILIANA BLAIR December 24, 2010 at 12:20 pm [edit]

I Like Adrienne’s House on Facebook

37:

Ellen Lapaglia December 24, 2010 at 12:29 pm [edit]

I like UPS on FB

39:

Mary Ann Linder December 24, 2010 at 12:31 pm [edit]

I follow UPS on twitter

44:

Michelle Bartolotta December 24, 2010 at 10:43 pm [edit]

Follow you on twitter.
@mich0520

mb3653us at yahoo dot com

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We ship a bunch of stuff.

I sell things on Ebay.

I have family living on the other side of the country.

And my son is getting ready to move to Australia.  AUSTRALIA!  Acccck!

Sometimes I have to stop and wonder if it is worth all the bother.

The gathering the packing the taping the labeling the driving the shipping the waiting blah blah blah blah blah.

But when I use The UPS Store it cuts all of that complaining down to shreds.

Yes I still have to gather everything I want to ship, but the nice people at The UPS Store will pack it for me, they will tape it and label it and they will give me a tracking number so I can know exactly where it is at all times.

Even better?  The UPS Store wants to do all of this for you too!

They are giving 10 of my readers a $25 gift certificate.

There are many different ways you can enter.  (Each entry requires a comment to let me know you have done them)

1. Like Adrienne’s House on Facebook
2. Follow TheUpsStore_PR on Twitter
3. Like The Ups Store on Facebook
4. Follow @Adriennevh on Twitter
5. Subscribe to this fabulous blog by email or RSS
6. Tweet and/or Share on Facebook about this giveaway use the hashtag #lovinlogistics in your tweet (leave link in comments)

Leave your email/contact information in your comments!

This contest will end on 12/26/10 and the winners will be notified via email.

Legal Schtuff:

I am writing this post in part as a The UPS Store Brand Ambassador and in conjunction with the #lovinglogistics campaign at Collective Bias.

Related articles

• The UPS Store Offers Everything But Cheeseburgers (uptownflavor.com)
• New Luggage Box from The UPS Store Expands Luggage Shipping Solutions (eon.businesswire.com)
• Printing at The UPS Store #lovinlogistics (momblognetwork.com)

From Good Housekeeping April 2010:

“Choose concentrated or “ultra” cleaning products, which use 50 to 60 percent less packaging than traditional formulas while cleaning just as thoroughly.”

Ok, yes, this is a good idea, again, in theory.  But really, unless you are the only person to use the product, what makes you think the other people are only using the right amount?

Take laundry detergent, I use a capful, I don’t look at the bottle to see the “recommended” amount, it is ingrained in my head that a capful is what I should use and less will not get my clothes clean.  So really this is just not going to work for me.

From Good Housekeeping April 2010:

Get off Junk-mail lists.  Register with the Direct Marketing Association’s DMA choice mail preference service and you’ll see a significant reduction in mail after 3 months.

UGH!  Why can’t mass mailers stop being allowed to mass mail?  How about if you send out a gabillion postcards in one month instead of giving you a discounted rate we are going to charge you MORE!  Yes, I know the postal service is in dire straits and they keep raising their prices for the little guy because people use email now instead of the mail.  But good grief, do we really want to pander to the spreaders of this ugly disease?

Also, retailers, can we talk a minute?  Perhaps if you didn’t send the same catalog to three different people at the SAME address, perhaps you could then curb your costs a bit and lower your prices a tad, ya think?  And we won’t even mention how many catalogs we get for died people who haven’t shopped with you , since ya know they DIED!

But in the meantime, go ahead and click on the link up above and get yourself listed.  It can’t hurt.  Or do you like receiving mail no matter if it is junk or not?

Hmmmmmm wonder if there is a quit bothering me I have no money for you Mr. Bill Collector list?

No?

Just wondering.

When you think of Fed Ex, you think of sending packages.  At least I always do.  Now, within the last 5 or so years, you link the name Kinko’s with it and think of copies and printing and such as well.

But have you have heard the name Fed Ex and thought of Organizing or Time Management?  You should.

Fed Ex has a new Blog that is all about how to make your life easier, whether at home or at the the office.  And especially at a home office.

All next week they will be posting up ideas for New Year’s Resolutions and helping you to keep them.  They range form organinzing, to event planning to just figuring out a time for you to breathe amongst the chaos that is our lives.  I love the placemat idea!

There is information on how to utilize your local Fed Ex store to your best advantage, like Fed Ex Office, Print Online.  You can send stuff to their printers and pick it up at your convienence.  Even ask for a certain number of copies to be made before you get there, all from the comfort of your favorite chair (and even without pants!).

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of FedEx Office. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.  The opinions and view are mine all mine.