Happy New Year!!!

Dear friends,
30 minutes before 2010 is officially here I want to wish you and your loved ones all the happiness and joy in the world!
May your new year be healthy, filled with love and blessings! May 2010 be more prosperous than any year before it and may you never need anything you deserve!

I hope we will have many reasons to enjoy our company in the future, for I have prepared for you many surprises!

It has been a long and trying year for me and my family but at times like this we understand what separates the important from the meaningless, the true from the false in life. I end up this year feeling content and happy that we are all together, we are healthy as we can be and I am filled with hope for the future, for I am sure it has great adventures for us and I can't wait to have them all!

I WISH YOU VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


P.S: as a present I have a LeapFrog Coupon Code for 30%Off.
The code is LEAP30, it is valid until Jan 14, 2010.

Free gift from me and "10 things you sould remember if you want to survive Elementary school Cultural days"

First of all, let me tell you that I am giving away as a freebie my PDF presentation about the Christmas and New year celebration in Bulgaria.
The presentation is in English, it's for grade level 1-2, the size is around 3-4 MB

If you are interested, all you have to do is to subscribe to my site and send me an e-mail from "Contact us". Make sure you include your e-mail address, otherwise I would not be able to send you the presentation.
So if your school is doing cultural days, this might be the perfect thing to save you some time.

"10 things you should remember if you want to survive Elementary school Cultural days"

1. Involve your child! He is the star, not you! Don't overshadow him/her, let them participate and help you. I guarantee you they would love you for it!

2. Don't be tempted to get into too much details. Kids love details...whenever they ask for them. Lead them to ask questions, don't just dump the information on them.

3. Food. That's the most important part. No matter what you talk about, no matter what you bring as a visual aid, if you don't give them food, they are not going to be happy. That applies if your food stinks too. Oh, and always bring more than you think you'll need.

4. Presents. This is one of the things that the kids are going to remember the most, they are going to bring them home and talk about them with their families. Don't overdo it, it needs to be small and meaningful, not big and high priced.

5. Visual aid. The most boring thing for a kid is to sit through a boring and long, and boring and with no pictures, and boring and with no video, and boring presentation given by a grown up that is only happy to be out of there as soon as it's over. Did I mention boring? So, consider pictures, video, music..something to "show", rather than to tell.

6. "Show-Tell-Touch". If you want to show your Grand-grand-grandma's china at school, forget about it. The most important thing for the kids after seen what you talk about is to touch whatever can be touched. Bring things that they can touch and discuss later.

7. Ask questions! Ask the kids what they think, ask them what they know! You would be surprised of the things you are going to hear!

8. Changes. Prepare to make changes on the go, because most likely you'll have to. Think of all the worse case scenarios that might happen ( like your laptop wouldn't work or you can't find something you brough to school , ask me about it, I know...) and prepare to have plan B, C, D, E F and pray you wont' have to go down to Z.

9. Read the "Boring-meter". If the kids don't look at you, they most likely are not listening to you either/. If they become restless, just skip a part of the presentation and do something interacting. You might even have time to come back to the skiped part later. It's not important to do the presentation " the right way", but to know that whatever you say actually is heard by the kids. If you lose their attention, you are wasting your time and theirs equally.

10. No matter how well you are prepared, just accept the inevitable truth that it never would be enough.
You might not have enough time, you might have too much time...but the fact of the matter is that you would always think that you could have done more or differently.

Good luck and remember that no matter what, your kids are going to love you for doing this! :-)

Up and running + a 30%OFF Inkubook coupon!

I am flying! Seriously!
My Christmas came early this year- one Quad core, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, 23" and a ton of husband's love later I am extremely happy!
I think I finally found the solution to my never ending computer problems!

Anyway, I announce that we had a deal with my better half-if I ever ( and mean EVER) start complaining about my new computer he has the right to install Linux on it without further authorization from me!
Here, I said it, it's official!

I mean, I don't work for NASA after all, quad core should suffice! :LoL

So, to celebrate the good news, I have good news for all of you last-minute-present givers! Yes, I mean, YOU right there, the store-roaming, bag-hauling, over-present-stressing people, your problems are over!

Inkubook.com has a big promotion going on for the year's end and they are giving a - 30% OFF coupon until Dec, 31st.
Let me say it again....Inkubook! 30% OFF!!!!!

Isn't this awesome?! I already ordered my gifts for the grandparents, so it's your turn! I mean after all what could be a better present for your a grandparent than an "awwwwwwww..." and "ahhhhhhhhhh...." album with pictures of their grandkids?

The COUPON code is : YEAREND30
Valid through: Dec 31st for photobooks and calendars.


So, while I'm trying to figure out how to make more videos for you with my new camera and while I'm cooking a post about my new workspace ( I got a new desk and a couple of shelves,we moved furniture around of course, my husband's favorite endeavor ;-), wait for my Christmas cookie post, which would give you a glimpse of the Chamber of torture Bakery, where I baked 275 cookies, sheet by sheet for 8 hours!

Ta-ta for now!!!

Annie

Bad news and good news

Dear friends,
Unfortunately I have good news and bad news!
The bad news is that this Friday my laptop AND my server both died unexpectedly so I am computerless and Internetless this week( might be even more than a week).
Weep and feel for me, because my pain is great :-)!
The good news is that I have the good fortune to have been very good Christian and I SAVED pretty much everything in a back up storage a month ago, so not a great harm was done ( just a couple of recipes are lost).

I will do my best to post while I don't have a computer but I just wanted to warn you not to despair if you don't see many posts from me in the next week. All the posts I meant to post are safe and as soon as I have my new computer I'll post them for you.

I am looking at this as an opportunity in disguise because I was needing badly a new computer for some time, so I think now is the time to invest in something better than what I had. If I could find what I am looking for ( and I am pretty sure I will) I'm going to post a lot more video tutorials, since my computer would be able go handle them( even now I have couple that are waiting to be edited).

See you all very soon,
Annie

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Скъпи български приятели!
Имам една добра и една лоша новина.

Лошата новина е, че лаптопът и сървъра ми умряха едновременно и в момента съм без компютър и интернет.

Добрата новина е, че съм запазила почти всичко, което имах на компютъра си, може би няколко рецепти да са се загубили, но не повече от това. Много неприятна история, но какво да се прави, случва се и в най-добрите английски семейства, само се радвам, че пораженията не са големи.
Засега не знам колко често ще мога да поствам в следващата седмица, надявам се да имам тази възможност изобщо, но съм в активно търсене на нов компютър и съм сигурна, че съвсем скоро ще мога да съм отново активна тук.

Като цяло се опитвам да гледам позитивно на нещата, имах нужда от нов компютър от много време, и ето това сега е възможност да инвестирам в нещо по-сериозно като техника. Ако надеждите ми се сбъднат, мога да успея да обработя и всички видео обучаващи филмчета, които направих, които за съжаление стояха и чакаха реда си, защото компютърът ми не беше в състояние да поеме натоварването.

Ще пиша скоро и ще ви държа в течение!
Ани

A new option for my Bulgarian readers!

Dear friends,
I have been asked numerous times to translate my content in Bulgarian but I always thought it very time consuming.

Although I still think that translating would be indeed very time consuming, I think I found a way to make it work and I have the pleasure to announce that my Bulgarian readers would have the option to read my posts in their native language along with my English speaking readers!

I came up with the idea instead of translating word for word the postings to re-write the post's content in free writing ( I would still translate word for word the recipes of course)!

That way it would take less time, the general idea would be the same, but it would give my Bulgarian readers the option to enjoy my blog's content without translating it with Google Translate, which had proven insufficient at times.
I already started to " double post" as I call it so you can go right away and check the postings that are already there.

My double posts will be for the most part of my Food, Art and Craft and Cakes pages.
You can find that option in the sub-menu of each part of the site except Life, e.g.



If there is enough interest I might consider translating older posts ( especially in the Food section), so if you want a certain post translated, please let me know by leaving a comment with the name of the post and I will do my best to have it translated in the next couple of days.

Don't forget to sign up for my stamp designing contest too!

Have a wonderful holiday season!
Annie


Скъпи приятели,
Много често читатели на сайта са ме молили да превеждам постинги от блога си на български език. Винаги съм смятала, че това е доста времеотнемащо занимание и затова дълго се колебаех дали да го направя.

Въпреки, че все още смятам, че това занимание ще отнеме много време, мисля че намерих начин да дам възможност на българските си читатели да четат постингите ми в оригинал без да се налага да прибягват до помоща на Гугъл Транслейт.
Имам удоволствието да обявя, че вече ще имате възможност да четете повечето от постингите и на български, като кликнете на опция Bulgarian oт менюто на всеки раздел на сайта ( справка снимка по-горе)! Последните ми постинги имат превод и на български, така че може да ги погледнете ако ви е интересно.

Идеята ми е да поствам двойно, като няма да превеждам всеки постинг дума по дума ( с изключение на рецептите, където има точни мерки и т.н.), a просто ще пиша втори път постинга по смисъл на български език. Този тип "двойно постване" както аз го наричам ще се отнася за раздели Food, Art&Craft и Cakes.

Замислям се дали да не преведа и някои от старите постинги, особено що се отнася за тези в раздел Храна ( Food) и затова искам да ви дам възможност ако имате любима рецепта или искате да видите някой конкретен стар постинг на български, просто напишете заглавието му тук като коментар и ми дайте ден-два да го постна!

Не забравяйте да се регистрирате и за конкурса ми за печати разбира се! :-)


Весели празници!

Ани

Dear friends,
You have probably noticed that I haven't posted very much this last week.
The reason to it is that Christmas time this year repeats the unfortunate pattern from last year and brought me a great deal of concerns with a health issue, which prevents me from working.
It grieves me deeply that at this especially inspiring for me season I won't be able to work on the projects I have planned and promised you all to publish, but my main goal right now is to get better and hopefully to completely reverse the current situation.
I want to assure you though that I would continue posting on the blog, I have many pictures and postings that have been waiting to be published for quite some time. So don't worry, you wouldn't have the chance to notice anything is different, except that I won't be able to finish some of the projects I started.
I would keep my postings for the next week or so short, because I can't stay on the computer too long, but I want you to know that I'm here and I'll continue to find ways to publish informative and inspiring content for you to enjoy!

I also wanted to thank you, all of you who wrote me in the last couple of days wishing me faster recovery, I really appreciate the thoughts and prayers for me and my family!

Have a wonderful holiday season!
Annie