GIVE-AWAY WINNER!

I'm pleased to announce the winner of my first ever blog give-away! The winner is post #4 Crystal!! Crystal is expecting twins any day now so I'm super excited that she won this mug. I see lots of coffee early mornings in her near future! Congrats Crystal and thank you to everyone who played! I hope to do more of these in the future! Thanks to all my new followers!

GIVE-AWAY

This will be my first give-away post. I want to try to do these more often. I will give one lucky reader a Personalized Bistro Mug from my etsy shop Over The Moon Gifts

This large bistro mug is one of my newest products and makes a GREAT teachers gift. It retails for $6 and is personalized with your initial. You can choose the color of your initial. The mug fits perfectly in a Keurig.

Here's how the give away will work- to gain an entry, follow and comment on my blog. To gain additional entries you can follow my twitter @OTMGifts and refer a friend to leave a comment saying you sent them. I will use a random number generator to pick the winner on Tuesday 11/1.

Good Luck!!

New House Make-Over

My husband and I recently bought a house and have been working hard to make it our own. Here are a few rooms we have finally finished! For you readers, I would never suggest getting married and buying your first house all in the same two weeks! Life. Is. Crazy. Hectic!!

***EDIT*** My walls aren't NEAR as yellow as they appear in the photos :)

Before Living Room:

AFTER Living Room!

and my personal favorite change....

Dining Room Before

Dining Room AFTER

Thanks in advance for the comments!!!

Just for a Laugh

So as most of you know, my "real job" is in college recruiting. Basically, I go around to high schools and talk students into coming to the university that I work for. You would be surprised at the things high schoolers (and some parents) say...Here are a few of my favorites from this year:

Student: I want to major in Anthropology
Me: Well what do you want to do with Anthropology?
Student: (Blank Stare)
Me: Do you know what Anthropology is?
Student: No, I just like the store...
Me: Well in my Anthropology class we studied insestious tribes in third world countries, so it's really nothing like the store

Student: You got hair?
Me: You mean cosmetology?
Student: What's that?

(at a fair in TX)
Parent: Do TX students get instate tuition?
Me: No mam, Texas students would be considered out-of-state in Alabama.
Parent: Well I thought schools gave in-state tuition to states boardering their state...
Me: mam, Texas doesn't boarder Alabama.
Parent (obviously embarrassed): Texas touches everything!

Student: Do you make toys here?
Me: No, we make rockets.

Student: A school in Alabama?? What do you learn there? Hunting?
Me: No, more like Aerospace Engineering
Student: What's that? Like flying planes and S!
Me: No, like Rocket Science

Student: I'm sorry for the messy handwriting, it's really tiring walking around all day with this ankle bracelet on.

Me: Hi! Do you have any questions for me?
Student: Yeah, do your football jerseys have numbers or names on the back?
Me: We don't have a football team.
Student: Oh, nevermind, I'm not going here then.

Hope you have enjoyed these! I could tell you stories for days, but for now I'll let you keep some hope in the next generation :)

My Pintrest addiction got the best of me...

I'm a severe Pintrest addict, like I need a support group haha. This week I have tried several projects I have found on pintrest and here is how they turned out :) The first was to wear to an Alabama game with my sweet husband...Here is the tutorial
I used this tutorial and here is how it turned out

I really wish I had taken pics a long the way....oh well. I will for sure next time!

I also tried this recipe for Creamy Chicken Pockets and it was sooooooooooooooo good. It was pretty easy so you should all try it too :)(her blog wouldn't let me snag a pic to post)
Creamy Chicken Pockets

I'MMMMMMM BACK!!!!

Well I am officially back to Etsy, and blogger, and FB...and Promo Frenzy team! I am very glad to be getting back into a routine. The past two months have been a whirlwind! I have gotten a husband, a new last name, moved to a new city and bought our first house! The wedding was all I ever dreamed of and more! Of course a lot of it was DIY, here are a few of my favorite DIY wedding projects!

DIY Aisle markers

Tablescape

And of course this blog post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the bride and groom!

Tweet... Tweet Tweet

BASIC INFO:
Today I want to talk about the importance of using Twitter to promote your shop. Twitter is quickly growing in the social media scene and it's super easy to use (not to mention FREE). I have been using twitter for a couple of years now, both with a personal account and through several accounts that I manage for the university that I work for. Here are a few things I have picked up along the way.

If you haven't created a twitter account exclusively for your shop, I would encourage you to do so. This will only build brand recognition and hopefully in return help your shop be seen. You can put your shop website in your profile information providing thus another backlink to your shop.

I have created a twitter account for the Promotional Frenzy Team so if you are a member, be sure to tag us either with the hashtag #promofrenzy or by tagging our account directly @promofrenzy so that I can retweet you.

MOON'S TOP THREE WAYS TO GAIN FOLLOWERS:
So you've created your twitter account, you've made your icon and background consistant with your shop appearance...you are ready to begin tweeting...but you need followers. Here are some tips to begin to gain a group of followers.

1. The number one way to gain followers is by following others. Most people love to have followers so if you will first follow them, they will likely return the favor.

2. Tweet, and Re-Tweet often. Want to make a quick friend? Retweet someone's tweet! If someone sees that you are retweeting what they post, they will feel you value what they are posting and are likely to follow you...they may even return the favor! It's a simple theory really...the more you post, the more you will be seen and the more you engage yourself in the fourm, the more exposure you will gain.

3. Use #Hashtags. I will be posting more on this later but for now, just know they are out there to help you gain exposure. What is a hashtag? When you use a # in front of a word, it starts a "trending thread" then, everyone that uses the hashtagged word after you will show up on a single thread. For instance, in your tweets, please include #promofrenzy, then you can click the word after you post and see EVERYTHING anyone has posted with the same tag. Some good ones for you to use are #handmade, #etsy, #sale, #freebie, and of course #promofrenzy.