AliLily | Category Archives: blog swap

Blog Swap with My BESTEST Friend Bella of Bella Before and After

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Ami Posted in blog swap 6 Comments

Hey everyone, I am so happy to be here at Alililly. I love my girl Ami, and am so lucky to have her as a friend. She is so awesome, and generous, and kind, and full of life. She was definitely one of my very first supporters, and I will always consider her very special to me. Thanks Ami for letting me say hi to your readers.

My name is Bella ~ Isabella~ and I am the one behind the blog:

I started on this blogging journey in August of 2010. After being a SAHM for 12 years, it started getting to me. I needed something to call my own, other than my kids, lol. Getting a job, unfortunately is out of the question for now, as my kids need me WAY to much, even more so as they get older. Plus being mommy is my number one joy, and duty in life, right now.

I am Romanian, born in Transylvania, came to the U.S. when I was just a baby, lived in California for a good 20 years, (Orange County) and now live in the south (sigh) with my husband who is from India, and 3 kiddos, who range in age from almost 12 to almost 4, with an almost 7 princess in the middle. I love to cook, and have learned quite a lot of Indian food, of course Romanian food, and I grew up loving Mexican food. I like to blog about food, and share recipes with my readers. I’m particularly passionate about organic, non processed home cooked meals.

Some HOT Kerala Indian fish curry, Bella style!!

Some crazy good BRICK Chicken!!

Savarine, a delicious Romanian pastry!!

Did I mention we make cakes too?

You can check us out on Facebook, for more cake designs!!

EURO STYLE CAKES on FACEBOOK

I also love to craft, and love to create, and LOVE to save money, and hopefully save the earth a little too, by trying to reuse things I already have, and upcycle other peoples trash. My most favorite kind of craft involves recycling products, and not spending money.

Making the cheapest possible St. Patty’s decorations

I am growing my own pineapple plant!!

Staying healthy eating oranges!!

Decorating the girls hands with Henna, Mehndi!!

I love to garden and can’t wait to work on it again!!

I also host a weekly party called

I’ve worked really hard at redesigning my blog so I can FEATURE my top 10 every week, on my SIDEBAR, the whole week. It’s a great way to be seen, by the masses, hehe ( I wish), but ONE day, I will be big, and you will BEG to be featured on my blog. Until then I do it happily and love helping out new bloggers, because after all, I’m still learning myself, and support is key to growth.

I love all my followers, and have made some wonderful friends, bloggy friends, and look forward to getting to know you too.

So come on over and see how I clean my stove with my shampoo!

And enter my giveaway, for a chance to win an original

AVOCADO ART PAINTING

be BELLA (me)

I really hope you enjoyed my post today! I loved sharing with you.

Come say hi to me on facebook, or twitter!!

Don’t forget to join me at my weekly party.

AMAZE ME AUGUST

Thanks AMI for having me, I had so much fun!

Isn’t she awesome! I love her! LOVE HER! I hope you stop by her blog and say hello! Bella you rock Mama! Thanks for stopping by today! OH and fellow AliLilly readers, just so you know, THAT Pink Avocado Painting is SO MINE!

Blog Swap with my GOOD friend Sunny of Life in Rehab

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Ami Posted in blog swap 4 Comments

Hello there, fans of AliLilly!

What would you do if your house caught on fire and there was $100,000 worth of damage,

not including your possessions?

If you’re us, you fire up the circular saw and start a blog so you can drag the internet along on your journey.

I’m Sunny Pritchard, head loon and proprietress of Life in Rehab, a blog about the misadventures of a family trying to dig their way out of the charred rubble of their beach house in gorgeous South Florida.

This is not your usual neutrals destination.

My children, known as the Minions, serve as slave labor while we demolish, reframe, sand down, install, repaint, reupholster, and upcycle everything from couches to wine boxes. You think I’m kidding? Come see some of the things we’ve done!

We brought our smoke and water damaged sectional back to life with a few bottles of dye.

The big mirror in the dining room became a blog star after her turquoise face lift.

We turned mismatched bargain patio furniture into seaside black elegance …

…and helped the chinese delivery guy find my house!

Holiday projects on a budget? How about some Chandelier Shade Ghosts?

We’ll show you how to use jar lids to solve a little insect problem.

And over here, your bad habits might actually come in handy!

Come on over for a shot of caffeine and a smile. Here at Chateau Inferno, we’re about six miles south of Normal, but we have some serious fun while we’re at it. Please do drop by and join us!

And many thanks to my dear bloggy buddy Ami and her delicious little dollop of a daughter for allowing us to disrupt the creative genius around here for a day! Love you guys!

Blog Swap with Stacy from Not JUST A Housewife

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Ami Posted in blog swap 4 Comments

Hi! I’m Stacy from Not JUST A Housewife and I am happy to be swapping with Ami today!

I am a stay at home mom to 4 little boys and I love it! Don’t get me wrong, it can be hard. Sometime down right crazy! But in between loads of laundry, at nap time, and into the late hours of the night I am able to find some “me” time. It helps keep me sane! Here are some of the things you can find on my blog.

I refinished this antique desk. You should see what it looked like before! I have a tutorial on how I did it HERE.

I needed more lighting in my front room but my hubby was unemployed at the time and I had zero budget for one. So I made this floor lamp out of scrap wood left over from other projects. Then I hand painted one of my own design on a lamp shade I had. I did have to buy a $10.00 lamp kit but I think it was worth the splurge! See the complete tutorial HERE.

With 4 busy boys I am always looking for fun activities to do with my kids. They love this felt face activity! I cut out a bunch of different noses, different eyes, mouths, etc and they can make their own faces however they want over and over. See how to make them HERE.

If I can’t find the right fabric I just paint my own!

See how I fixed up our old bathroom for around $75.00!

I also recently stenciled my entire bedroom ceiling. It took 4 days because I had 49 million interruptions, but it was worth it. I love waking up to a pretty ceiling! You can see more picture and how I did it HERE. There is also a tutorial on how I made the Chandelier HERE.

I host a linky party on Tuesdays called Show me what ya got! So come party with me on Tuesdays

I have an etsy shop called The Housewife Boutique too. I recently added a ton of necklaces, hair clips and headbands.

You can visit my shop by clicking HERE.

I also sometimes chat about “mom” things like BABY WEIGHT, bad days, traditions, cleaning, etc. So come and visit me sometime at Not JUST A Housewife

Blog Swap with Truly Lovely

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Ami Posted in blog swap 3 Comments

Hello friends and followers of AliLilly!!!

I am so excited to be here, blog swapping with Miss Ami!

PLEASE, PLEASE don’t brush aside this post as, ‘It’s just a guest blogger… No Ami loveliness today‘… and then carry on through your blog roll!

That would make me so sad!!

I am thrilled to get the chance to share a little about myself and my blog with you lovely AliLilly readers, so PLEASE stick around!!!

Ami is definitely my Bloggie bestie!!!

E-mails, facebook, twitter, etc… is NOT safe from us!!!

I’m so excited to hopefully get to meet Miss Ami someday soon in person since we share the same home state of AZ!!!

So… Now that I’m done gushing over Ami and her fabulousness…

My name is Kassi! I, along with my sister, Kayli, produce Truly Lovely!!

Yep, that’s me!!!

It’s a blog about the things that we find to be well… Truly Lovely!

We’ve only been blogging for a few short months, but like most things we Laney Sisters do, we jumped in head first!!

AND we love it! We love the community, sharing ideas, and learning new things from other bloggers, like Miss Ami!!

The things that we find to be Lovely include crafts, such as these personalized tile coasters that I made as a cheap, easy, but still lovely gift!

Or this upcycled purse that Kayli fancied up with some fun flowers!

We also enjoy sharing our favorite recipes… Which have included these tasty Mint Oreo Brownie treats!!

Besides our crafting and cooking endeavors, we share little tid bits of our lives, which at the moment revolve around Kayli graduating high school and picking a college. As well as my wedding planning for this summer!

We also love showing off YOUR projects, so we host a fun linky party every Friday, with our favorites featured every following Monday!

We would love to see you link up tomorrow at Fancy This Fridays!!!

*wink wink*