#CommentHour... From Twitter Hashtag To Social Phenomenon!

Are you a part of # commenthour? If NOT you should be! Click here to learn more about #commenthour and how you can be a part of it.


 

Tonight will be my fourth night participating in #commenthour since I started blogging and I must say that tonight I am more excited than ever. The reason why I am so excited is because #commenthour is expanding. Not only is it a twitter hashtag but it is now also a website. Yes, #commenthour has a home of it's own. A very beautiful home and let me tell you what I think... I think that #commenthour is going to be  the next big thing! Thanks Pepper Scraps for being a wonderful host and friend!

3 Reasons I LOVE #CommentHour...

1) Comment Love: Who does not love to get comments on their blog or website? I know I absolutely LOVE comments especially when they are coming from loving and supportive people. Each week 25 blogs are randomly selected to be featured and they get LOTS of comment love. I was featured during my second week participating in #commenthour. It was so much FUN!!

2) Networking: During #commenthour you have the opportunity to chat with other bloggers and build business relationships while making new friends. If you tune in before #commenthour starts you can catch up with other bloggers, ask question, and get blog help. It is a wonderful way to network and make new friends on Twitter.

3) New Blogs To Read & Follow: Since 25 blogs are randomly selected each week you never know what blogs you will come across. You can find blogs within your niche and blogs outside your niche. I love reading new blogs and getting new ideas. There are so many creative people out there!

As a new blogger I have to say that being a part of #commenthour is one of the best decisions I have made. I am proud to be a part of something that is growing from a hashtag to a social phenomenon!

Is Your Kitchen Really Safe? Information On Foodborne Illness & Preventing It!

If you are anything like me then you probably think that your kitchen is a safe kitchen. I have always believed that as long as you keep your kitchen clean, wash your hands before cooking, and properly store food that you have safe kitchen. I must admit though… I was so wrong, well not that wrong. However it wasn’t until I visited a website called Home Food Safety that I realized how much I did not know about having a safe kitchen.

Home Food Safety is a very warm, family oriented program with a website full of tips and advice on how to create a safe kitchen. They are on a mission to raise consumer awareness about the seriousness of foodborne illness. They provide valuable information on everything from safe grilling to microwave safety for kids. They even have a great lunch box safety checklist for parents to help make sure that your child’s food is safe even when they are away from home. You can never have too much information especially when it comes to keeping a safe home. So I encourage you to visit their website and help spread awarness of foodborne illness.

With that I said I would like to share with you some things you should know about foodborne illness and how to prevent it. "Sharing is caring" and I want to make sure that everyone is aware of this.

What in the world is foodborne illness?

Foodborne Illness/ Disease is a sickness resulting from acquiring a disease that is carried or transmitted to humans by food containing harmful substances. I had no idea that this even existed.

Who can get infected by foodborne illness?

Although anyone can be infected by foodborne illness some people are more at high- risk than others. Those people include pregnant woman, very young children (infants and toddlers), senior citizens, and people with certain chronic illness including AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and liver or kidney disease.

When you are BUYING food:

Remember to always check food labels, never purchase or consume anything after the expiration date, pick up meat/poultry/ and seafood last, make sure each package of meat is wrapped in a separate bag to prevent dripping, and always place meat at the bottom of the shopping cart.

When you are PREPARING food:

Remember to always wash hands before, during, and after meal preparation. Proper hand washing may eliminate nearly half of all cases of froodborne illness and significally reduce the spread of the common cold and flu.

 Other ways to prevent foodborne illness:

By washing your hands often, keeping raw meats and ready to eat foods separate, cooking at proper temperatures, and keeping your refrigerator below 40° F you are making steps to prevent foodborne illness in your home. Also making sure that your children always wash their hands before entering the kitchen.


*This disclosure policy is valid from 07 June 2011

 This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact  Jasmin Collier- Queen J. or visit my Contact Page. 

 This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.*

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4 Lessons From Motherhood That Changed My Life

When I stepped into the wonderful world of motherhood I did not know what to expect. All I knew is that I had to adapt fast if I wanted to be the wonderful mother my child deserved. I have to admit though before Princess S. came into my life I had some pretty bad habits. However I realized that those habits were something that I did not want her to pick up. So I set out to change my ways and be the best mother I could be and boy let me tell you motherhood kicked me in the butt a couple of times. Nevertheless I have learned so much along the way.

Here are 4 lessons that I have learned that really changed my life...

1) Take Responsibility: As a mother you are no longer only responsible for yourself. You have a child to be responsible for. You have to make sure that everything is on point and stay on top of things to make sure your child is okay. By no means is anyone asked to be perfect but this is your child so you must do everything you can to make sure they are well taken care of.

2) Change Your Attitude: Before Princess S. came into my life I had a bad attitude. I always thought that I did not have to please anyone so no one else mattered. I did not care if people wanted to be my friend. I just stayed in my own lane. I had a attitude of selfishness. However when Princess S. was born I decided to live life by the golden principle "treat others like you want to be treated". This has come a long way because I have raised a very respectful child.

3) Always Speak Proper English: Children copy everything and most of all they repeat everything they hear. Since I was a fluent slang speaker I had to change that fast. I did not want Princess S. going to school saying "Yo, come over here" to the other children. Just like I taught her, her ABC's I had to teach her the proper English language. She's still learning by the way.

4) Handle Situations In A Positive Manner: Have you ever had a bad moment? A moment when everything just went wrong? I can not even begin to count how many bad moments I have had. You just want to scream and go crazy. However with a child around you have to opt to handle things in a positive manner. You want to show them that if you stay calm things will get better much faster. This was hard for me but I learned to breathe in and out and let God handle it.

So many lessons learned but these are the ones that really changed the way I act and think. What are some lessons that you have learned as a mother that has changed your life?

Tantrum Thursday- Live Your Own Dreams!

Tantrum Thursday is a personal weekly blog series ran by my good friend Krafty Max. I love all her Tantrum Thursday posts and thank her for allowing me to use her lovely idea. I thought it would be a perfect fit for Tranquility, Tantrums, & Tiaras. Click here to read all her Tantrum Thursday posts.

Have you ever wanted something so bad in your life  that you could not imagine your life without it? I know I have. I am a very strong believer of going after your dreams, but everybody's dream is not your dream.

Over the years I have witnessed and heard about a lot of parents who put their dreams onto their children. If they have a business they automatically want their child to join that business. If they wanted to do something in their life ( sports, singing, dancing, etc. ) that they never got a chance to do they assume their child will grow up to want to do those things. If their child is talented in something that they feel will bring them more family income they force them to pursue that talent at very young ages. Beating them in the head to follow the "family dream". Talking about morals and values as if that is the child's destiny. NO!

Everyone has their own dream and I think that it is so unfair if you don't allow your child to follow their own dream. What if he/ she does not want to do the same job as you or work for the same company. Is that wrong? Do they deserve punishment? I can not understand this. It really gets me upset to see parents treat their children like this. I know we all want what is best for our children but sometimes what is best for us, or what works for us is not the best option for them. When your child is old enough to make their own decision about what they want to do in life why not allow them to?

How do you feel about parents living their dreams through their children?

Tantrum Thursday- Will She Go To Bed Already!

Tantrum Thursday is a personal weekly blog series ran by my good friend Krafty Max. I love all her Tantrum Thursday posts and thank her for allowing me to use her lovely idea. I thought it would be a perfect fit for Tranquility, Tantrums, & Tiaras. Click here to read all her Tantrum Thursday posts.

If your a parent with an active child then you know one of the hardest things ever is getting your child to go to bed at night. If you do not have a problem getting your child to go to sleep then I envy you, just kidding. Let me tell you though Princess S. absolutely hates going to bed. If you allow her to she will stay up until the next morning, believe me I have seen it happen. Whenever it is time for bed we have a major girl fight and it drives me CRAZY! I have tried everything from bedtime books and snack promises to bubble baths... NOTHING WORKS!

It wasn't always like this though before she turned two, everything was great. We had an amazing bedtime routine. Then here comes terrible two messing everything up. I love Princess S. but this just has to change because mommy needs some me time. I do not know how I'm manging on about 6 hrs or less of sleep a day with a jumping off the walls, crayon tasting, tiara breaking princess. I just try to make the best of it because all things strength within me is God doing his job. It just gets so hard sometimes.

I really don't know what to do at this point but I know as Queen it is time for me to put my foot down. What will it take to get a sleeping princess around here? Am I doing something wrong? I really need to know. If you have a child and your reading this can you PLEASE help a friend out!!

Tantrum Thursday- She's Too Skinny!

Tantrum Thursday is a personal weekly blog series ran by my good friend Krafty Max. I love all her Tantrum Thursday posts and thank her for allowing me to use her lovely idea. I thought it would be a perfect fit for Tranquility, Tantrums, & Tiaras. Click here to read all her Tantrum Thursday posts.

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” -- Bill Cosby

Every since I was a young girl I struggled with my body weight. I have always been skinny. Growing up I was the skinny little girl with the glasses. The one who was teased by everyone and YES it did bother me. It bothered me every single day that I was teased. I know that some of you are thinking... "what? you were teased for being skinny?", "what about the big girls who get teased everyday?". The big girls are the one's society looks down on for being "too big" or "obese" but I feel their pain. Skinny girls get teased too. However this is not what drives me crazy and makes me angry. The teasing does not bother me anymore because I'm older now more mature.

The problem is the "perfect weight people". You know the ones who think they have the best body ever and the authority to judge other people's body. I really dislike running into people like this. Whenever I hear, Oh my gosh your so skinny or get asked how much do you weigh? It just drives me insane. Why does it matter? I always get so snappy whenever I hear statements like this and I wish I could explain why. It just makes me come out my character. I roll my eyes, suck my teeth, and sometimes even scream. Why does my weight matter to you? What makes you so perfect? I wish I could just wave my magic wand and make people like this disappear, yes disappear!

Okay, okay let me calm down. I know I should act like in adult. I just don't think this is fair. Yes, I'm crossing my arms because I am mad. I wish I could be more content because I love my body and I am confident but I'm just so sick and tired of this. My new solution to this has been prayer. Prayer changes things! So tonight I will pray for the "perfect weight people". I will pray that God blesses them no matter what or how they make other people feel. Then I will pray for myself that I learn to deal with things better. 

Wordful Wednesday- Princess S. Conquers The Swirly Slide

It's time for Wordful Wednesday again. If you would like to participate in the fun please visit my friends over at Seven Clown Circus.





Every since Princess S. could walk the park has been her favorite place to play. So you can only imagine how excited she was to have her first Spring visit to the park.

 

At first she was in love with the swings because she had an infant swing at home that she loved. Then as she got a little older she began to fall in love with the slide. So I wasn't surprise that when she came to the park she would only want to play on the slide. However I was surprised that she wanted to be a brave princess and conqueror the big kid swirly slide. 

Once she reached the top she seemed a little hesitant but she wanted to slide down anyway. I must admit I was so scared. I kept telling her be careful and she kept saying okay, okay mommy.

Once she was done the first time she was so happy she made it down the slide. She spend the rest of the time in the park on the swirly slide. I was so proud of her! I can not wait to see what she does the next time we go to the park.

Raising A Princess... Things I Wish Somebody Would Have Told Me!

Princess S. at 1 year

Sometimes I really wish that my child would have came with an instruction manual when she was born. Something that would have gave me a little heads up on how things were going to be because raising a princess is far from easy. I blame myself for not attending one of those royal prenatal classes while I was pregnant or reading one of those wonderful how to raise a princess books. I have so many questions that have been left unanswered and so many things that I have not experienced yet. However, in spite of all this I have managed to create a list:

All The Things I Wish Somebody Would Have Told Me About Raising A Princess...

• That from the day she first started smiling she would try to get over on me with the flash of a smile and sometimes it would work.
• That I would have to deal with a lot, I mean a lot of whining. 
• That I would enjoy playing dress up more as an adult then I ever did as a child.
• That I may have to deal with a drama princess. I should have taken a drama class!
• That if I did not know much about cooking I should take a cooking class because when my waiter is on vacation I would be filling in.
• That tea parties would be so much fun.
• That I should store my closet with lots of tiaras because princess's break things.
• That before I go to sleep there would be a million hugs & kisses.. I must say I LOVE this part.

If You Want Something Done... Do It Yourself!

When I decided to create this blog I had millions of ideas on my mind of how I was going to put things together. With the all the chaos running through my mind I remained focused on my top two goals:

1) GET STARTED

2) NEVER GIVE UP!

With these two things in mind I knew that I had to get started. So without hesitation I jumped right into the blogging world and created my blog. Google quickly became my new best friend. I was searching everything from top bloggers to mommy bloggers. I knew I wanted my blog to stand out so I decided it was time to work on the design. I did not know where to start, I did not even know how to start. That is when I began to search for the answer. I searched until I came across a site called  Makin' Cute Blogs. I was fascinated with how cute this blog was and the first thing I thought was I want my blog to look like this, well not exactly. I just knew that this was the blog I needed to see.

After reading through their about page I came to the tutorial page where I found a section of three tutorials which consisted of: 

• Easy DIY Design Tutorials ( no professional software needed)
• Intermediate DIY Design Tutorials (basic professional software needed )
• Advanced DIY Design Tutorials ( advanced professional software needed )

So with me not having much free time or the money to invest into professional software I decided to try the easy way.

It taught me how to create a header using Picnik which is one of my favorite online picture editing sites but never did I think about using it to create a header for my blog. It also taught me how to use a site called COLOURlovers to create a background. I have never heard of this site before but I am so glad I found it. You can create and color so many amazing patters to make backgrounds for your site or blog. I played with this all night just for fun. 

I created two headers using Picnik: 

Then I created two backgrounds using COLOURlovers:

Then I combined the two that I thought would fit my blog template best to come up with the final design for Tranquility, Tantrums, & Tiaras. I must say I had so much fun doing this and it really was EASY. 

So the next time you're thinking about paying someone else to do something remember that things are so much more fun when you do them yourself!

Wordful Wednesday- Under My Umbrella

This is my first time participating in Wordful Wednesday. I am so excited!! If you would like to participate in the fun please visit my new friends over at Seven Clown Circus.









"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without rain, there will be no rainbow."- Gilbert K. Chesterton

*Smiling at the rain with no worries at all.*
I never met anyone who loved the rain as much as Princess S. Whenever it rains we must leave the castle and run outside. Once we get outside we sing, dance, and laugh as the cold drops run down our faces. We sing Barney songs like "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops oh what a rain that would be. Standing outside with my mouth open wide... ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah." while we stand outside with our tongues out tasting the rain. After that we sing the popular nursery rhyme "The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain, and washed the spider out. Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again" moving our hands to follow the song. Then we put up our umbrellas and walk around as we listen to the rain drops fall on our umbrellas. Once the rain stops we put our umbrellas down and look up at the sky and wait for a while to see if we see a rainbow. We have not seen a rainbow yet, but seeing Princess S. smile just warms my heart.