Read. Write. Mom!

Get Amazing Personalized Metal Prints And Holiday Gifts At Black River Imaging

Posted on January 7, 2016January 10, 2016 by Mandy

Holiday Gifts

If you’ve been on the hunt for holiday gifts that are unique, then Black River Imaging has many different products for you to choose from. You can create greeting cards or holiday cards that are specialized in shape and size as well as having a personalized picture on it. You can also choose photo prints that are large enough to put on the wall as a poster. You can get bookmarks, stickers, folio prints, photo prints, wall decor, photo albums, and more when you choose to go to Black River Imaging.

Personalized Metal Prints

Anyone who’s ever had an interest in creating a different kind of photo will love metal prints, especially since they can last forever and can be shaped to your specifications. Instead of a square piece of metal being imprinted with a photo, you can change the edges to look more round and have a personalized shape for the print.
These prints are absolutely gorgeous, and the prints can be displayed in many different ways. You can get a large or small easel, a floating wire hanger, stand-off posts and more to display the beautiful finished product. There are many different print sizes to choose from, all the way up to 40 x 60. With sizes so diverse, it’s possible for you to have a gorgeous metal picture on your wall that you know can be passed down to family members over the years or given to someone as a great gift. Everyone would love a personalized gift such as this, especially around the holidays.

DIY Home Decors

Black River Imaging has many home decors, and some are do-it-yourself decors. Ordering personalized home decors are easy, all you have to do is send in the image that you want on the product, and once the image is printed, then the rest of the assembly will be sent directly to you to allow you to finish it yourself.
Completing certain home decors on your own not only gives it a personalized touch but also gives you the lowest cost possible for your product.

Personalized Stickers

Have you ever made your child’s lunch and wanted to let them know how much you love them, but they’re rushing out the door and have no time to talk?
A personalized sticker with a specialized statement would be a great way to let your kids know that you love them, and they can show off to their friends that they have a sticker with their own picture on it. These stickers can be personalized with not only pictures but different messages that can relay love to others as well as advertising a birthday, anniversary and more.

First Grade Writing Prompts – 8 Free Printable Pages

Posted on January 5, 2016September 21, 2021 by Mandy

First-grade writing prompts are a great way to help first graders not only practice their handwriting but also get them thinking on a deeper level and organizing their thoughts on paper. I use quite a few first-grade-level writing prompts in my library after reading a book to my students and I always love to read what my students come up with about certain topics. Some of their answers can be pretty stinkin’ cute! I’ve been known to save a few just because they make me smile!

First Grade Writing Prompts

This first-grade writing prompts packet contains 8 sheets filled with fun writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing for your students or for your children to practice with at home. Topics include:

What is your favorite color?

If you could have any pet, what would it be? What does your pet eat? Where does he live?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

If you could be on any TV show, what would it be, and why?

If you were a superhero, what superpower would you have?

You have the magical power to breathe underwater! What do you do first?

How do you make a cupcake?

What would you do with a hundred dollars?

These topics are so fun and I know your kids will enjoy writing about them! students could also practice their presentation skills by volunteering to read their work aloud to their classmates. Doing this at home? No problem! Give your child your undivided attention and let them practice their speaking skills!

Each sheet has a first grade writing prompt, a colorful picture to go along with the topic, and plenty of room for little hands just learning how to write sentences.

If your child is one who enjoys coming up with writing prompts of their own, this writing journal for kids with room to draw a picture to go along with the story is a great tool for getting kids excited about journaling and drawing.

Pair that journal with some fun erasable colored pencils and you just might have a budding writer on your hands!

Click here to download your FREE First Grade Writing Prompt Packet. Enjoy!

DIY Valentine’s Day Pillow Box Printable

Posted on January 4, 2016January 17, 2022 by Mandy

DIY Valentine’s Day projects are always something I look for on Pinterest every single year. Now, there’s nothing wrong with store bought Valentine’s, because Lord knows THIS mama has done that herself a time or two. Or three. But there is just something special about a cute, hand-made Valentine that makes my heart smile. I love them because they are eye-catching and you also know a lot of thought and work went into them. Ditto for all of the cute little handmade Valentine candy treats. If you’re like me and you love the look of a DIY Valentine’s Day project, but you don’t have tons of time to spend creating them, these DIY Valentine’s Day Pillow Boxes are just the thing to make for your special Valentine’s or if your child has to take Valentine’s Day cards and candy to school.

DIY Valentine’s Day Project

So how does this work? Just click on the picture above which will take you to the instant download of this DIY Valentine’s Day Pillow Box. It’s absolutely free! You will probably want to go with a thicker paper like cardstock for these. Print it out, cut along the pattern, and then glue or tape the ends together! That’s it! Be sure to put your special treat inside before you glue or tape the other end up!

What to Put Inside

So what can you stuff inside these adorable little DIY Valentine’s Day Pillow Boxes?

-Candy- Of course! This is perfect if you’re passing out lots of these at school.

-Gift Cards- This makes a cute little box for gift cards or gift certificates

-Cash- Everyone loves cash!

-Jewelry- Necklaces, rings, bracelets, etc.

-Coupons- If you’ve made a small coupon book for your special Valentine, it might just fit inside here!

I’m sure you can think of many, many more ideas! Just stop in your local dollar store and you can find tons of fun, inexpensive trinkets that won’t break the bank if you’re having to have quite a few of these out. This is also a fun idea for co-workers as well!

Read about the worst blogging mistakes I ever made and how you can avoid losing readers and earnings from making these small changes.

Blogging Mistakes: The Worst I’ve Made and How You Can Avoid Them

Posted on January 3, 2016July 7, 2019 by Mandy

Blogging mistakes. We all make them. After reading quite a few great articles concerning things like social media, SEO, and general trends, I was able to narrow down a few huge mistakes I’ve made on my blog that are fixable, thankfully. I decided to share my own blogging mistakes here in case you might find yourself in the same place, wondering what you are doing wrong when you see everyone else around you passing you by in terms of income and opportunities.

Have You Ever Made These Blogging Mistakes?

Ignoring Your Social Media Accounts- Or Not Having Any At All

Like any good blogger, I have social media accounts for my blog. I have a Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account. If I publish a blog post I usually share it on those outlets and that’s that.

Why is this wrong? For starters, I’ve learned your audience wants to relate to you in some way. Just making all of your posts about yourself is pretty boring. It dawned on me that some of my favorite bloggers I follow through social media were always asking simple, random questions that I enjoyed chiming in on. It’s a great way to get to know your readers. To test this theory, I posted a funny picture on my Facebook account. Now, I normally maybe got one or two “likes” on a post when I posted random updates showcasing one of my blog posts. Do you know that funny picture was seen by over 15,000 people and shared by quite a few? I have never had a Facebook post reach that many people ever! That’s 15,000 potential people who might possibly stop in to check out my blog.

Along with having some fun interaction with your readers, are you posting on these outlets consistently? I wasn’t. Working full time outside the home as well as being a parent makes it difficult. I can’t hop on social media during all hours of the day and post to all of these social media outlets. I just didn’t see how I could keep up in this area. Thanks to Tailwind, I can schedule Pinterest pins or Facebook updates any time of the day or night I choose! You can also send out links to past posts to still keep that older content in front of people. Bottom line? If you aren’t consistently sharing your content, then nobody is really seeing it. That’s one of those blogging mistakes I feel really silly for not realizing so much sooner.

Ignoring Your Followers

This goes hand-in-hand with being active on social media, but although I had these social media accounts that I was ignoring, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why my other blogging friends had so many followers and I was stuck. I seriously maybe gained 100 followers a year on all of my social media accounts and most of those were from a free giveaway entry for following my blog, but my blogging buddies were in the tens of thousands, and some in the hundred-thousand range! What was I doing wrong?

Well, duh! Another one of those major, major blogging mistakes! I wasn’t posting consistently, but I also wasn’t being very good about reciprocating when people followed me. I sat down and went all the way through most of my followers on Pinterest and Twitter. There were some pretty awesome people following me (which I appreciate so much) and I was not following them. I also wasn’t participating in these places as well. I’d share my own content and then close the window. I’m working my way through all of my accounts and following back those people that genuinely align with my interests. I have gained HUNDREDS of followers in the past two weeks on each account! And it just keeps growing!

Not Monetizing Your Posts

This may be one of the worst blogging mistakes I am seriously kicking myself over. I missed SO many opportunities to earn even MORE money because I failed to fully monetize and SEO all of my main traffic-driving posts. I wanted to cry when I realized that I could have been putting affiliate links in those posts to earn even more than what the Adsense ads I have on those posts bring in. Some of those posts go back two or three years and are consistent traffic drivers to my website. How many years of earnings did I just throw away?!

I love Adsense, but unless you are getting traffic in big numbers, it’s not really going to be a big money earner on your blog and another one of my biggest blogging mistakes was not branching out. In the past, I had stuck a big Amazon ad in my sidebar just hoping someone would click on it and buy something. It never happened. However, closer to the holidays I took that big clunky ad down and started inserting Amazon Affiliate links into my posts where it would naturally fit the content. I mostly forgot all about it, but randomly checked my account around Thanksgiving. Guess what? I started making sales! My affiliate earnings just keep going up and I am so excited about this new stream of income, but kicking myself at the same time for not doing it right from the beginning.

Waiting Years to Do a Newsletter

Newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your readers and keep them up to date on what’s going on with your blog if they don’t check in daily. I have over 500+ subscribers to my blog by Feedburner, and more by email. That’s small potatoes to most bloggers, but I appreciate each and every single one of them. However, I just recently made the decision to start a newsletter for my blog after listening to several podcasts about it.

Why would I want a newsletter? Like I said, most people don’t check here daily or even weekly. Readers do, however, check their emails almost daily. I personally subscribe to a ton of blog newsletters (the ones I read the most) to stay up to date when I just don’t have the time to pop in on a regular basis. I don’t want to miss any of their bests posts, and that’s what a newsletter can do; showcase your best posts for the week or month or as often as you publish one. I finally got myself in gear and got a newsletter going. It’s only been a couple of weeks and I have more subscribers than I could have imagined possible in that short period of time. Another one of the major blogging mistakes I’ve made. What if I had done this YEARS ago? Again, hindsight is 20/20.

Has beginning to correct these mistakes made a difference? Absolutely, and in a very short period of time, might I add! I’m nowhere near finished cleaning up the years of mess here at my blog, so I have plenty to keep me busy this year. Will I still make mistakes? Of course. Blogging is always evolving and a new way to do things comes out every other week it seems. It’s a lot to keep up with, but I love blogging and I know if I want to keep growing, I have to keep learning.

If you think you’ve made these blogging mistakes as well, pick one thing and start working to correct those blogging mistakes. You might be surprised at just how quickly it can turn things around for your blog.

Looking for more great ways to help you get organized as a blogger? Check out these must-have books for bloggers!

Mermaid Calendar Free Printable for 2016

Posted on January 2, 2016January 10, 2016 by Mandy

This adorable free printable mermaid calendar for 2016 is super fun and absolutely free to download! The very first mermaid anything I ever owned was a Sea Wees toy. Am I dating myself yet? She was a cute little plastic mermaid with beautiful long brown hair that floated in the bathtub on a little sponge made especially for her and her little mermaid baby. She also came with a tiny little plastic comb to comb her hair with. I was probably only about five years old when I had this mermaid toy and I had no idea why she had a fin instead of legs. All I knew was that she was just fun to play with. What a difference a few (ok, maybe more than a few) years make! You can literally find mermaid anything now: costumes, dolls, clothing….and the list goes on and on! If you have a special little girl in your life, then you are probably very familiar with just how big the mermaid craze is with this age group!

Download Your Free Mermaid Calendar

If you know a little girl (or maybe yourself) who is crazy about mermaids, this is a great way to keep up with important dates while having a cute little sea creature to look at. She is quite adorable! There’s even a small space at the bottom to make notes if you need to. Print this mermaid calendar off for school or just to hang on the wall in their bedroom. You could even get a three hole punch and make your own cute little planner out of it. The possibilities are endless! Just click the image above to start the free download and stay organized in one of the cutest ways possible! This download is 13 pages in total.

New Year’s Eve Party Food

Posted on December 30, 2015June 26, 2021 by Mandy

We normally spend New Year’s Eve quietly at home, but perhaps YOU have big plans. Maybe you’ve been invited to an awesome NYE party and have to bring an appetizer and you’re stuck as to what to choose to bring. Or, maybe you’re staying home but want to make some delicious food to enjoy with your family. Either way, this roundup of fabulous New Year’s Eve party food recipes will give you some great choices and ideas. Most are easy to make and are the perfect finger foods to take to a gathering. What I love about these is that they’re not the normal appetizers most people make. You know what I mean…chips with store-bought dip or a cheese tray. Not that those are bad at all, but why not wow your fellow party-goers with something deliciously different? If you’re looking for some unique party food ideas, check out these recipes below. And if you’re looking for a fun activity to do with your family for New Year’s Eve, print out this free New Year’s Eve printable, fill it in, and compare notes next year to see what you accomplished!

Happy Deal Happy Day – Feta Pepper Spinach Cups

A Healthy Life for Me – Loaded Sweet Potato Bites

Healthy Seasonal Recipes – Roasted Cranberry and Goat Cheese Flatbread

Gator Mommy Reviews – Veggie Pizza Appetizers

The Thrifty Couple – Apple and Cheese Quesadilla

Peas and Crayons – Sausage Garlic Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms

Sweep Tight – Bacon Wrapped Chestnuts Appetizer

Madame Deals – Spicy Crock Pot Kielbasa

Living Sweet Moments – Roasted Red Pepper Burrata Crostini

Farm Fresh Feasts – Sweet and Sour Ham Balls

Peas and Crayons – Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Hello Little Home – Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Blue Cheese

Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch – Hot Crab Dip

The Thrifty Couple – Pull Apart Pizza Bread

The Freshman Cook – Festive Shrimp Bites

Will You Take My Blog Reader Survey?

Posted on December 30, 2015January 10, 2016 by Mandy

As this year of blogging is quickly coming to a close, I first want to thank you for being a reader here at Read. Write. Mom! I am so thankful that you come here to read about whatever it is you like reading about here. Which is why I need YOUR help! To improve my blog for the new year, I want to know more about YOU. I want to know what you like to read about, what you don’t like, and what I can do to make this blog just a little better in the coming new year. This Blog Reader Survey will help me get a better idea of who my readers are and how I can improve. The survey is really short. It consists of 10 multiple choice questions in which you just tick a box.

What exactly will you be asked? First of all, please know that all questions are anonymous. Your name and email will not be collected. I’m just looking for a little feedback on the topics I write about, the ads on the blog, and what you would like to see more or less of.

Once the survey closes I will take this information and get started on the improvements I need to make. I will also share the results here in a future post. This blog is a huge passion of mine and although criticism may be a little tough to hear, unless you know better, you can’t do better. Honest feedback is the only way I can improve, and I welcome it.

2016 New Years Goal Sheets Printable

Posted on December 28, 2015January 11, 2016 by Mandy

Now is the time that just about everyone is reflecting on the year they’ve had and ready to set some goals and resolutions for the new year ahead. I used to think goal setting was a waste of time, but I’m slowly coming to realize that it’s not such a bad idea after all. Of course, it’s important to be realistic about things. I used to set these really unattainable goals and they would all but be forgotten by the second or third week into the new year. Having a printable new years goal sheet was something I knew I needed and I am so excited to share it here!

This new year’s goal sheets printable can help you set goals for your finances, health, and physical and spiritual well-being. It also give you a space to reflect back on the year you’ve had and see what you accomplished and learned. Reflection always gives me a better starting point for beginning something new.

A fun idea would be to have each member of your family or have a few of your friends fill one of these out and then compare them at the end of the year at a New Year’s Eve party to see what everyone’s year was like. I plan to do this for my family for the upcoming year.

Grab your free New Years Goal Sheets printable and cheers to a great new year!