Pampered Chef - January Specials and Shows

As many of you know I love Pampered Chef so much-- I sell it!! I love that this is my hobby. I love cooking, baking and helping families and friends come together with great food. I'm going to start showcasing new Pampered Chef recipes - maybe even show pictures of when I make them.

I'd love to cook for you at your very own cooking show. If you're not interested in having a cooking show we can also get you some great tools by just having a catalog show (taking your catalog along to friends and family). Many of my friends and family have been cooking much more than ever because they have the right tools in the kitchen.

I am going to be placing an outlet order this weekend. You can view special outlet items by following these steps to my website:

Go to www.pamperedchef.biz/bridothager and follow these steps:

1. Click "SHOP ONLINE" (top right hand corner)

2. Select "PLACE AN ORDER"

3. Click "OUTLET SPECIALS"

If you'd like to host a show in January here's what you get - if you ask me it's one of the BEST months!

• 50% more FREE product - my average host gets $140 FREE so how does $210 FREE sound??
• Up to 2 Bamboo items for 60% off
• Up to 4 items of your choice for 50% off
• Any items you don't get are eligable for 15%-30%

AND you get 10% off any order you place for the rest of the year!! AND if someone books a party from your show you can get the host special the month they have a party. Really the rewards are amazing. I'd love to help you grow your kitchen and enjoy cooking more. Don't feel intimidated with cooking anymore.

Contact me to schedule your show or place an order - no matter how far away you are!

Do you like my blog?

I'm so glad you have stopped by my blog and enjoyed seeing what I've been up to. I am often asked what my blog site is. I want to help those of you that are interested in keeping tabs on what I'm up to. You can see I have "followers" on the right side of my blog. Here's how you can follow me and visit my blog easily:

What is Following? Do you have a favorite blog and want to let the author and readers know that you are a fan? Well now you can do that and more with the Blogger Following feature! You can even keep track of the blogs you follow via your Reading list on the Blogger dashboard.

How do I become a Follower of a blog?

There are several ways to become a follower of a blog. One of the easiest ways is to visit a blog that has added the Following widget and (1) click on the "Follow" button under the "Followers" widget.

You'll then see a (2) popup window with the options to either follow publicly or privately.

(3) Select how you'd like to follow the blog, then click the "Follow this blog" button. It is that simple, you are now a follower of the blog!

When you become a follower of a blog, the blog will also be added to your reading list on your Blogger dashboard.

OR

You can just record my website on your list of favorites.

Thank you all for following me or visiting!

**Also, I love to get comments - click on the "comment" label at the end of each post and let me know what you think.

New Years Resolution

Putting a New Years resolution in writing is scary. Mostly because you are reading this and when I slip up and turn back to my normal tendencies...

My resolution for 2010 is Love.

It sounds so simple and maybe to some of you a little hokey. Well it is simple, but don't we sometimes forget to do some of the most simple things in life sometimes?

We have been discussing many topics in our Sunday School class this past year. Each time a new topic is brought up I'm constantly drawn to think about the situation if more love were present.

We've discussed bitterness... judgementalness... anger...homelessness...complacency. How many of our circumstances/ issues/ daily life could be slightly different if there we responded with love?

Mark 29-31: Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."

I love this song "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath

My prayer this year:

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach.

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

I'd love to hear what your resolution is.

A New Year - A New Room!

I know how the slogan goes... a new year a new YOU. I like a new ROOM much better, don't you? Enjoy the pictures below of my newly arranged living room. Can you guess what's different?

New

Old

You guessed right! I have a new chair. We went into a new furniture store after lunch today and it was one of the first I saw... loved... but really didn't need. It was a great price and just the right size and color for the front room. I had to rearrange the room. Don't you feel such a sense of newness when you just change a room around? My husband loves that it's free decorating... unless you count his back pain the next day.

The picture doesn't show the two buttons on the backrest of the chair. How cute!!! The color matches the armless chair perfectly. I love that it's both a neutral and interesting chair.

I would encourage all of you to take a room you are all too familiar with and try something new. Who knows... it might just feel like a new room!

The Tipping Box

Hummm what could the tipping box be? Is it about tipping people around the holidays? Not at our house. The tipping box is something we got on Christmas Eve on our long drive home from Aurora. This is how it goes...

We're driving down our street around 12:30am Christmas Eve night... early morning. As we pulled into the driveway I noticed I didn't see the mailbox. I turned around after waking from my 4 hour nap while Kolin drove home. What did I see.... the mailbox was flat on its side in the front lawn. I quickly jumped to conclusions... while we were away some kids must have had batting practise with our mailbox. I was totally irritated and just went into the house.

Kolin went outside to examine the damage while I went through the wet mail on the kitchen counter. He came inside to tell me that it was probably the way he installed the mailbox. See he didn't use any concrete. Maybe I should back-up even further... we moved to this house without a mailbox. The lack of a mailbox didn't even cross our mind until the Monday evening after moving day when neither of us got the mail. Anyway, the mailbox was a shotty installation and it needs to be reinstalled. That's not all the laughs that came with the tipping box.

The next day at Kolin's parents for Christmas we learned about their encounter with the mailbox. Kolin's dad had been bringing in the mail for us while we were away. One day as they were driving by then noticed that a man was pulled into our driveway. They drove to the house to see what he needed. The man was looking for the pastor that used to live in our home... this isn't the first time as another man woke us up on Thanksgiving morning with a pie for the pastor. My in-laws gave the gentleman directions to the preachers house and he was on his way. Then they proceeded to drive home. Just before the man turned onto the next street he made a U-turn back to our house. He stuck his head out the window and exclaimed that he did not run over our mailbox, but it was down when he arrived.

The day after Christmas Kolin went outside to try and get the mailbox up again. He jumped all over that dumb thing to get it standing in the ground again. I used my new iPod to take a video of him trying to get it standing again. I would share it, but it captures me laughing throughout most of it.

I hope you had a laugh at our tipping box- we sure did!

Christmas Stockings

Now the mantle is complete! My mom came down this weekend and inspired me to finish them. She helped me figure out how to sew the top of the stockings... just like you would a sleeve. I bought the supplies on Black Friday at JoAnn. The felt was $1.50/ yard. I had most of the ribbon.

The top of the green ones have an embossed red felt. I found the cutest RicRac on Black Friday... it's much larger than normal. Kolin seems to think the stockings are giant, but I think they are just right... more for him to fill up! ;)

These two are my favorites because of the toes. The ornaments on the red one were fun to make. I found my inspiration from a pampered chef flyer and a site on etsy. If you ever have a creative block - go to etsy and you will have more ideas than you ever imagine.

Merry Christmas!!

Our home is ready for Christmas!

The presents are wrapped... The tree is lit... The nativity is out... FaLaLaLa... isn't that cute? The door is ready for guests... The candles can't wait to be burned... The stockings just need to be hung... Coming soon - I'm making our Christmas Stockings! Santa can't come without them. Merry Christmas!!