Scrimpalicious Anniversary Giveaway - CLOSED

Hey friends! I just checked my calendar and I'm shocked and amazed to realize that it is almost the two-year anniversary of the beginning of Scrimpalicious.

The first logo was nowhere NEAR
as cute as this

This has been a wonderful two years and I've loved writing my blog and sharing my thoughts, projects, recipes, and ideas with all of you.

So, to thank you for sticking with me through it all, I've decided to have a giveaway. There will be one winner, who can choose one of the following fabulous prizes. Each one of these has been chosen to celebrate one of my favorite blog entries from the last two years.

• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen - Menu Planning Monday
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 - Julia I Ain't
• Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Bacon, by Mr. Scrimp
• A scarf, t-shirt, or cardigan from Maggie's Organics - Why Organic?
• Roma Traditional Style Pasta Machine - Recipe: Homemade Pasta

So, what do you need to do to enter?

Facebook: How to Get Likes, Blogs, and Site Pages Back on Your Feed

With the recent Facebook redesign, I've noticed something. Scrimpalicious facebook posts that were being seen several hundred times are now being seen only 10-15 times on average. Basically, because of the new facebook algorithms, if you don't comment on the Scrimpalicious facebook page, you're never going to see when new posts come up.

If you ask me, it sounds like someone broke it.

For some of you, who follow Scrimpalicious in a reader or via email, this won't be a problem. For the rest of you, there are two things you can do.

1. Comment! Visit the Scrimpalicious facebook page and do some interactions with it. Leave comments. Answer questions. Ask questions. Share photos of your food or craft projects. Whatever it is, the more you do it, the more likely you are to be notified when new posts come up.

2. Make a list. This is what I did to make sure that I can still follow my favorite facebook pages and blogs. On the left-hand sidebar of your facebook page, you should see a section called "Lists." If you click on this, it will take you to the List page, and you will see that facebook has given you the option to create a list by clicking the "+ Create a list" button. If you click this button, you can create a new list (I called mine "Blogs and Sites") and manually add the blogs whose facebook posts you like to follow. Some of the ones I added were Cheeseslave, Real Food Whole Health, and Food Renegade, but there are more. They will not always show up on my facebook feed because of this, but the Lists sidebar will now alert me with a little (#) if there are new posts by those people.

And as always, if you're not yet a fan of Scrimpalicious on facebook, I'd like to ask you now to consider going to the page or clicking the "Like" button on the right hand side of the blog. You will be able to access syndicated blog posts, extra links and content, questions and discussion. Plus, you'll make me feel good and increase the likelihood that Scrimpalicious will be able to offer more giveaways and guests posts in the future.

Surgery

It's been an exciting time at Casa Scrimp. I had to have emergency surgery yesterday to take care of an issue that wasn't immediately dangerous but could have become dangerous if not taken care of asap.

Home again now, feeling tired and sore, but good. Look for a new post later today.

So, About That...

So maybe you've stopped visiting Scrimpalicious recently.

Maybe you've noticed the dearth of posts.

Well, let's be real. I love writing Scrimpalicious, but work comes first, and work has been crazy crazy crazy lately!

We'll be back soon, with lots of exciting new stuff. Hang tight, friends.

Hmm..

Well I just can't seem to pull my mind together this week, I've been so distracted by all the real-life drama. So I'm going to extend the mini-hiatus until Monday, and Mr. Scrimp and I are going to brave the snow and take a weekend off in Pittsburgh.

I'll probably tweet a lot of the trip, but aside from Twitter, don't look for another post until then, when I expect to be refreshed and ready to jump back in!

Mini-hiatus

Blogging has been light for me these last few days, I know. Partly this is a money issue--we had some car trouble, so we don't have extra funds this month for buying the items I need to complete craft projects, leaving me with less to blog about.

It's also a health issue. While I am generally healthy in the sense that I'm rarely sick via contagion, I do have a chronic illness (endometriosis) that frequently leaves me tired or in pain. We've just started dealing with a new issue connected to that, so I spent a lot of time at the doctor's yesterday and was so emotionally exhausted by it that I didn't do anything last night except curl up in bed with Mr. Scrimp and watch TV.

Tonight is our weekly game night with friends, so I expect I'll be ready to go back to regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow morning.

In the meantime.. leave a comment and give me one link to YOUR blog and at least one link to another blog you read so I can have some fresh inspiration!

Facebook

I am pleased to announce that you can now become a fan of Scrimpalicious on facebook. I set the facebook page up partly as an easy way to alert readers of new updates, and partly as an experiment in social networking. Can a social networking site actually boost blog traffic?  Well, we'll find out.

If you read Scrimipalicious, and you use facebook, you can now search for Scrimpalicious and become a fan. Be sure to do that in order to get facebook updates about blog news, posts, and photos. Also, why not invite some friends to become fans too? You'll boost traffic to the blog, and help spread the word about living frugally and, well, scrimpaliciously!

A Mini-Break

Hello, Internet! Mr. Scrimp and I are getting ready to kick off the year twenty-ten by driving to Columbus, Ohio to spend time with friends, revisit Mr. Scrimp's old stomping grounds, and hopefully eat a lot of great food (we'd better--all I've been hearing about Columbus for the last two years revolves around how good the food is there).

I won't be blog posting again till we get home on Sunday, but I will be tweeting from my phone, so hop on over to Twitter and follow our antics there.

Hectic Weekend

There was no post yesterday, because Mr. Scrimp and I leapt out of bed late, threw some clothes on, and drove 3 1/2 hours up to Buffalo to celebrate early Christmas with his extended family. We also drove 3 1/2 hours back and didn't get home until around 1 in the morning when all was said and done.

So, I didn't have a chance to be on the computer really at all.

I will have some links and things tonight for you all to peruse, but in the meantime, I have a question. Have you ever sewed pajama pants or shorts? I have, but only from a pattern, and I was thinking that it would be silly to go spend money on a pattern if it's fairly easy to, say, make a pattern from an existing pair.

What do you think, Internet-land? Help me out here.

I'm working today and tomorrow and then Christmas vacation commences! I will finally have time to thoroughly clean my house and finish wrapping presents, and blog to my heart's content.

Whoops

So after I got home yesterday, I somehow managed to forget that it was Friday. Don't ask me how. It's ludicrous, I know.

I'm working on a day-late Five Dollar Decor post now. In the meantime, check out the Bargainist's list of ten last-minute stocking stuffers under ten dollars.

Food for Thought, addendum

I've got some work to do this evening, but then it's blog, blog, blog until bed--I'll finally get caught up! I'm not entirely over being sick, but I went back to my job today after two miserable days at home and a weekend of sleeping and moping.

I grabbed lunch at work today--Jif peanut butter on processed potato bread and a slice of American cheese, because that's what was there. Then I spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out why I suddenly felt so sick to my stomach, and it didn't hit me until this afternoon that it's been long enough now since we started trying to eat organic/nonprocessed et cetera that maybe I just don't tolerate processed foods very well anymore. Is it possible that I used to feel like this all the time? What a horrifying thought.

Whoops

Well, between one thing and another, I'm two days behind on posting, which is terrible. Poor little blog--I haven't abandoned you, I just have been too sick to be very creative.

But a lot of sleep and an intense antibiotic regimen have done their work. Mr. Scrimp and I are on our way out to hear an Advent sermon at our church, but when we get home, I will have time to post.

Lagging

I had a couple posts I was intending to write yesterday and it didn't happen. Those will go up this afternoon or evening, towards the tail end of Mr. Scrimp's and my busy day. There's church to go to, in-laws to visit, Christmas trees to get and put up, and actual work to do in addition to blogging.

Here's a question for you in the meantime, though--Mr. Scrimp won a $25 gift card to the Melting Pot through his work yesterday. Can anybody tell me anything about this place? I've never eaten there.

To come:

- The results of my attempt to make and fray that plaid scarf I posted a link to on Friday
- Photos of our newly bedecked Christmas wreath
- A bonus Five Dollar Decor post

Dollar Store Crafts

Good morning, Scrimpalicious readers! It's a balmy 43 degrees this morning in Ohio, and it's hard to believe that we're already in December.

I have a guest post up today at Dollar Store Crafts, which I'm sure you're all going to check out. While you're there, be sure to read the rest of Heather's great blog. It's full of ideas for crafts of all kinds on about as limited as a crafting budget can get.

And while I'm at it, hi to all the Dollar Store Crafts readers who check out Scrimpalicious today. Leave a comment and say hello!

Coming Attractions

Soon to come on Scrimpalicious...

- Ornament craft how-tos
- Pictures of our "couch remodel"
- A mystery photo
- A discussion of classic Christmas movies and songs
- The best (and easiest!) apple pie recipe
- Gingerbread houses
- A guest post for Dollar Store Crafts
- A hair flower / flower necklace how-to
- New blog layout and http://www.scrimpalicious.com domain name!

Stay tuned!