blogs, blogs, blogs

I've come across a few new blogs in the past few weeks - thought I would pass them along since that's how we all find the good ones...word of mouth. (I hope you are all still enjoying Young House Love and Catalog Living as much as I am).

And if you haven't discovered the beauty of Google Reader yet, you really need to climb aboard. I thought about posting about Reader *ahem* years ago but I figured everyone knew about it already. Sounds like some of my friends out there are simply sliding into their 30's, not even pretending to stay up on things ;)

• Simple Organized Living - I came across this site through some Facebook friends. I want to be that really organized person and sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't. She has great tips on staying organized, time management, saving money, etc.
 

• Money Saving Mom - I go through phases where I sign up for freebies on-line like crazy and then phases where it doesn't even cross my mind. I appreciate sites like this one that list them all for you, so you can visit this site when the mood strikes and sign up for some free stuff. You have to pick and choose your offers but I've gotten some great stuff FREE in the last few months - Starbuck Via samples, a Fisher Price TRIO car, and handful of shampoo/conditioner samples (great for travel). Stick with the companies you've heard of before so you don't end up with crazy offers filling your inbox (I use my gmail account for these which filters out the spam pretty well and you can usually opt out of the email marketing right away).
 

• Simple Mom Reviews - I picked this one up from Facebook too - a friend of a friend writes reviews for this site. Most of their reviews involve giveaways so this is essentially a giveaway site. I am determined to win something fabulous one of these days* so I've been entering them a lot - especially when they are relatively easy and don't take much time. The ones on this site usually involve leaving a comment or "liking" a page on Facebook. [*I have won in the past few months, some loot from Thirty-One, a newsboy cap from Rylee's Collection and a $5 Seattle's Best gift card from Joyous Photography - these were all Facebook deals though...I'd love to win something through a blog giveaway as well...it's a simple pleasure in life).