Music Monday - Nightbird by Stevie Nicks

I think this song fits the season and anticipates the winter to come. It's so beautiful.... one of my favorites from The Wild Heart album. This video is from 1983 and performed with Lori Perry Nicks.... one of Stevie's best friends.... and long time back-up singer.... who also happens to have married Stevie's brother Chris.

So wrap up in a warm blanket on a cool frosty night... and remember the nightbird....




Lyrics | Stevie Nicks lyrics - Nightbird lyrics

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!



Don't forget to visit the official Stevie Nicks web site The Nicks Fix!

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Decisions and Changes and Pass Me an Aspirin.... I Have a Headache From Thinking Too Hard....

Well I've got some changes to think about. About a year ago I joined quite a few affiliate programs.... you can see their links and banners over on my side bar.... or on my web site A Lil Enchanted. I was desperate to find a way to earn money working from home because we were struggling just to buy food. I put 100's of hours into building my web site and keeping it updated and even more trying to advertise my site and get some sales. The first year of my web site was free... but as of October 28 (which also happens to be my birthday).... I will have to pay $15 for the site and another $15 for my domain. Not really a bad price at all..... I was hoping the business would at least earn enough to pay for this come renewal time.... but it hasn't. I also have a mirror site which is free on Free Webs.... I started my site there then moved it to Microsoft Office Live.... I never took down the Free Webs site 'just in case'. So now I have to decide whether or not to pay to keep the site up and running. I have had one sale from it and earned a whopping $2.... so it's not doing well at all.... but I also put a huge amount of time into building it..... so just losing all of the work I did on it leaves me feeling at a loss. Of course I could keep the free mirror site.... but to be successful in a web biz I really need to have my own domain.... then again I could keep the domain and use it for my blog. This is really a bad time for this to come due.... we're broke from all of the birthdays.... I made an accounting mistake which cost me $70 in bank fees.... and my car tag has to be renewed by the 28th as well..... so money is very tight right now. So my options are:

A) Pay the $30 to keep the site and domain and hope that it does better this year.... www.alilenchanted.com ... that is if I can scrape up the $30 by the 28th.

B) Pay the $15 to keep the domain and use it for my free mirror site on Free Webs (which has limited features, ads, and a few other issues) http://www.freewebs.com/enchantingtreasures/

C) Keep the domain for $15 and use it for my blog

D) Let the domain and web site go and just keep the free mirror site and hope to drive traffic there and generate sales from my blog.

E) Forget the whole thing and just drop both sites

Now admittedly I haven't done much to promote my site since I started my blog because I've just been enjoying the blog world... even though I started the blog to help promote my site. And I haven't been keeping my site updated since then either.... I've put all of my online time into my blog.... so both sites need updating at this point.

Also... whatever I decide I will still be here blogging my lil heart out.... but I'll have to find time to work on the business should I decide to keep it. And also should I decide to keep it I would like to change my blog layout and have a small column on each side with a posting section in the middle.... I would put my business links etc in one column and my blog related links etc in the other. I don't know how to get 3 columns on this blog... I don't see any 3 column templates on blogger. So where do I find those??? I've seen many other Blogger blogs with 3 columns.... where did they get them??? I can't afford to pay someone to design a layout for me (remember I tried to win one... but I didn't get it).

So I'm asking for opinions.... and advice on the business issue. And I'm asking where to find a free 3 column layout for this blog.

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

A Fall Full Moon

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I just had to share one of my favorite seasonal pics with you all.... I don't know where it originated.... I got it in my e-mail couple of years ago. I would just love to put this in my yard! LOL

I have to apologize for not being around much.... the kids and life are just keeping me busy and I can't seem to sit in my chair for more than a few minutes here and there. I'm trying to get back to my regularly scheduled program.... so just bear with me... or is it bare?.... or is it neither ?.... and does anyone really care?

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall so far. As of now we have not had one single leaf change color ..... hopefully soon though... what is fall without beautiful leaves... right??? And finally after 4 weeks my cough and congestion are gone!!! YIPPEE!!!

So I'm off to see the wizard..... I mean visit some blogs.... have a great Saturday!

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Most Inspirational Blog and Friends Awards - Thanks Kat!!!

I got this wonderful award from Kat over at Candles, Crafts and Whatnot. I am so thrilled to get this award.... and it makes me smile to know that my blog inspires you and that you keep coming back. Thank you!! Kat's blog is very inspiring as well and she would be on my list if she hadn't been the one who sent it to me.

Kat also gave me this "Friends" award.... it really means a lot to me. Kat is one of my faithful followers and I can always count on her comments to cheer me up!! I love friends like that! Thanks again Kat.... you are one of my dearest bloggy friends :)

So I'm passing these awards on to some friends that I find inspiring....

1 - Chatty at Chatty Crone
2 - Vicki at Frugal Mom Knows Best
3- Wendy at Athena Academy
4 - Stacey at All Stace, All The Time
5 - Jenn at My Kids Are My World
6 - PJ at PJ's Prose
7 - Annie at A Nice Place In The Sun
8 - Dorothy at Women's Self Esteem Blog
9- Grampy at Grampy and You
10 - Stacie at Super Mommy To The Rescue
11 - Russ at Senior Explorations
12 - Patsy at Patsy's Word's of Wisdom

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

One Lovely Blog Award.... Thank You Vicki!!!

This past week I was very honored to get an awesome award from a wonderful blogger.... Vicki over at Frugal Mom Knows Best. Vicki has a great blog... she has tips for Moms... tips to help you save time and money.... and even great giveaways. Plus.... she's doing a 31 days of Tricks and Treats for our Little Sweets.... every day she will have a new craft or activity to do with your family. There will be giveaways, guest posts, fun times, and even a contest that YOU get to choose the winner of!! Sounds awesome, right?!.... so go check her out!

The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Well I'm not sure exactly how recent these new discoveries should be... they' are all kinda new to me since I've only been blogging for about 6 months.... so I'll take it to mean in the last several weeks or so...

Here are my choices......

1 - Chatty at Chatty Crone
2- Kat at Candles, Crafts and Whatnot
3- Wendy at Athena Academy
4 - Annie at A Nice Place In The Sun
5 - Russ at Senior Explorations
6 - Stacie at Super Mommy To The Rescue
7 - Dawn at Domestic Witch
8 - Jingle at Just Jingle
9 - Sharkbytes at My Quality Day
10 - Patsy at Patsy's Word's of Wisdom
11 - Lizzie at Ramblings of a Psychic
12 - Ma Fat Woman at Reflections On A Middle Aged Fat Woman
13 - Shaunalynn at Who Needs School?
14 - Texan Momma at Who Put Me In Charge of These People?
15 - Granny Annie at Writers & Witches & Words, Oh My!

Thanks Vicki for sharing this lovely award with me!!!

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Give Me Five Monday

Give Me Five things you would do, if money were no object.

1. Buy a house and car for all of my kids.... and of course Adrian and myself..... that pink victorian I've always dreamed of....
2. Take trips to the places I know I'll never be able to go.... Hawaii.... New Orleans.... Wales... Ireland.... Stonehenge.... Disney World
3. Open a no kill shelter/sanctuary for animals.
4. Shop like crazy furnishing our new houses.... what do you expect from a shopaholic???
5. Hand out money to everyone who needs it..... isn't that just about everyone????

Wow, it's fun to dream, isn't it?? Sometimes it's just nice to let your mind be free to think of the unthinkable, in a good way :)

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Music Monday - Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac

Silver Springs was a song that was supposed to be included on the Rumours album in 1977... but of course back then not as many songs would fit on vinyl as you can fit now onto a CD... so Fleetwood Mac had to eliminate some of the songs that they wanted to include..... Silver Springs was one of those songs. Stevie was very upset by this decision... but she went along with it and Silver Springs became the B-side to the singles Go Your Own Way and The Chain. It was revived however in 1997 when Fleetwood Mac did The Dance Tour... and became a much loved hit. So after 20 years Silver Springs finally became what it should have been.

This a beautiful and haunting song.... Stevie pours her heart and soul into this song.... as she belts out "Time casts a spell on you... that you won't forget me.... I'll follow you down till the sound of my voice will haunt you.... you'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you".... you know she means it! This song was written to Lindsey (Buckingham... the guitar player... in case you don't know the history of this band and these two.... and the Rumours album for that matter) ... and as you can see in 2009 Lindsey Buckingham has still not gotten away from the sound of her voice.... that was a spell that took!

So a beautiful love song... and also a haunting and powerful spell cast by a broken hearted enchanting Witch surely fits this season....




Lyrics | Fleetwood Mac lyrics - Silver Spring lyrics

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

A Lazy Saturday

Steffie and I spent our Saturday just hanging out and playing.... oh and doing laundry.... had to get some kind of work in there ... right??? We played with her new V-Smile... which she really likes a lot. She loves to play games and these are just right for her age... they don't move too fast and they are just challenging enough for her to be fun and not frustrating. She loves the Handy Manny one.... and the Dora one... but her favorite is the alphabet one that came with it. She is very into learning to write right now and it has a feature that lets you write the letters with the special pen that comes with the joystick. I think this is a great first gaming system for her age..... and I love that it's pink and purple. The one thing so far that I don't like is that it did not come with an AC adaptor! What's up with that???? You have to put batteries in it ( 4 AA) or buy one separately.... we have enough toys that require batteries... so I guess we'll be investing in the adaptor as soon as our budget allows. We're broke again already... her party cost a fortune :(.... but it was worth it.... they're only little once.... and birthdays should be fun.
We also played play dough.... she loves her play dough and we haven't played in awhile.... she used to want to everyday. I bought some halloween cookie cutters at the Dollar Tree the other day so we cut out halloween shapes and decorated them. Actually I spent more time softening up the stiff play dough than playing.... which was no fun. We need to buy some new.... again when payday rolls back around...lol... or maybe just make some..... I'll have to check and see if I have everything we need for that. I'm sure she would love to make her own. If anyone has a suggestion for keeping play dough soft please share.

So that was pretty much our day.... a long lazy Saturday....

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Sarah's 21st Birthday

Last Saturday we celebrated Sarah's 21st birthday. I mentioned before that her friends had bailed on her when it came to going out to the club... and how I was now left to entertain her and make her birthday a fun and memorable one. She was disappointed that the Chuck E. Cheese thing fell through because ours no longer serves beer. So after much thought and stress we finally decided to take her to Hooter's.... because as my hubby put it "Sarah enjoys a nice pair of boobs as much as any man".... I died laughing and said "you're right".... so it was decided that Hooter's would be a great place to take her. We didn't tell her where we were going until we got there... and she loved it!

But before we went to Hooter's Steffie helped me bake her a cake... she wanted German Chocolate....

I forgot to take pics of the surprise process that followed.... but I bummed a shot of Tequila from my son... and hollowed out a hole for it in the bottom layer of the cake... covered the shot glass with plastic wrap.... and proceeded to frost the cake.... no one was the wiser.

Here are our pics from Hooter's

With some Tennessee football fans

With the Hooter's Girls

Now here is the video of Sarah cutting her cake and finding her surprise... her first legal shot.... oh be careful of lil ears... there may be some not so family friendly words in here... I can't remember what all was said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Happy Birthday Lil Steffie!

Just wanted to wish my baby girl Steffie a very Happy 4th Birthday!!! She had a great party at the park with friends and family.  She was sooo tired afterwards... but of course all wound up.... she cried when her Daddy told her she would never be 3 again.... I told her that I wanted to be 3 too... she quickly got over it and we snuggled as she drifted off to sleep.  Here are a few pics....

The Cake... Steffie picked it out

Our 8 Guests

Blowing out her candles

Cousin Gracie and Steffie

Lexie and my Grand Daughter Makaela

My Grandson Austin having a blast popping balloons and ripping down streamers

Reading her birthday card

Opening gifts ... V-Smile

Peeking in the bag

Strawberry Shortcake and Orange Blossom

Sweet Surprises Strawberry Shortcake

All done

Another shot of our guests

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEFFIE!!!!

A Lil Enchanted,

~LaShan~