One of My Favorite Things – Hot Air Balloons

I have to admit, I do have a lot of favorite things: my kids, grandchildren, waterfalls, flowers, and strawberries to name a few. Among those I also include hot air balloons.

Over the years I’ve collected hundreds of photographs – even close to a hundred rolls of film I’m guessing. This year was the first year I had the pleasure, the joy actually, of catching hundreds of shots of balloons with my digital camera.

You see, each year my home town hosts the “Hot Air Balloon Jubilee” this means 3 days of balloons drifting over the city and nearby countryside. There have been years the kids and I attended the jubilee all 3 days and even chased them for hours.

One year we had close to a dozen balloons come down in our neighborhood when they got a late lift off and many ran out of fuel to our great pleasure. You should have seen all the kids running out that Saturday morning still in their pajamas.

Another year one landed in my front yard but to my great disappointment I wasn’t home – the rule is if one lands on your property they will give you a ride.

I’ve never had the joy of going up in one but dream of someday looking down on the countryside with nothing but the roar of the burners forcing hot air up into the balloon. True, I am afraid of heights but that is one experience I know I will never forget.

Both of the photographs on this post were taken Sunday morning 2 weeks ago at the airport as dozens of balloons lifted off and headed for different parts of the city to collect points and win prizes.

You can't see it very well in the photo below but if you click on the picture you can see a larger version of the same picture. Among the many balloons you can see Humpty Dumpty, The Treehouse, The American Flag, The Lighthouse, and The Space Shuttle.

This Burns Me - Earning Sites with False Promises

The screen shot below is from the home page of the Paid to Click site 'Show Me The Cash' - well, I was particularly impressed with line 3 here - 3 cents per ad!



Well, you can imagine my disappointment when after over a week membership and my earnings are still at 0.00 Yep, I haven't earned a thing for one specific reason I refuse to waste my time clicking on the ads.

When you look at the screen shot below you can see why - points on a 30 second timer. Nope I'm a bit upset with the false advertising on this program and am not going to waste space on my blog including a banner for this program.



Note - If you like spending your time clicking for next to nothing feel free to join by clicking on the title of this post.

Faith Draper (byfaithonly)
Faith's Daily Life and Business Blog
ByFaithOnly.com

Summer Flowers in Michigan

The only bad thing about Michigan is there are no flowers in the garden or flower beds for several months of the year - winter. However I managed to get these great shots of a variety of flowers just around the yard.

I love all flowers but pinks, blues, purples, and whites are my favorites. Yellows and Oranges can be beautiful too though.

My 4 year old grandson helped me taking these photos. It amazes me what an eye he has at such a young age but not only that he is always looking for new things to photograph - when he's not possing for the camera himself that is.




Faith Draper - aka - byfaithonly
Faith's Daily Life and Business Blog
ByFaithOnly.com
More Photos by Faith - Complete List of Galleries

Summer - Not the time for the Computer

I just realized that I really have not been consistant in posting to my blog. Fact is there are a number of reasons for this but most of all I would say - IT'S SUMMER.

I don't know about you but I love being outside, digging in the garden, watching the birds and butterflies, discovering new flowers or veggies or hanging out at the pool or lake.

Granted that may seem like no big deal to some but hey - I live in Michigan and truth is we only get a few months of the year where we can truely enjoy the outdoors.

Afraid however in the process of enjoying the outdoors my computer has been negleted far more than normal and so has my activities on the Internet.

Although I have taken a bit of time to sign up with some new programs I honestly have not come across anything that really impressed me so not even going to bother reviewing them right now. Maybe in the fall when it's damp and chilly outside.

I have however moved into a new area of freelance writing. I've been assigned one blog to write to daily and another I'll be writing to a few times a month. I'm also looking forward to picking up another blog on travel in the near future - If I can't travel for real at least I will be able to vicariously through my writing.

Always looking forward to seeing my friends and readers around the Internet though and am always watching out for a familiar name, ID, or face.

Chickens Down on the Farm

I never knew until this past week but chickens are very camera shy. It seemed every time I walked out to the pen with the camera they ran under the bushes.

I have managed so far to get some photos though of this interesting group. We honestly don't know yet how many are actually chickens and how many are rosters but we do know there are more than one of the later and they are funny.

These are all what I think would be considered 'teenagers' the males voices are changing as they learn to crow and the females aren't laying eggs YET.

The main reason these 'chicks' were purchased was for the eggs. I'm sure we've all seen the normal 'white' chicken eggs and a few of us have seen 'brown' eggs but who has seen pastel colored eggs - pink, blue, speckeled and who knows what other colors. These chickens will eventually produce colored eggs.

I know I'm looking forward to seeing those first eggs and I can tell you if you've never had a fresh egg from the farm you truely are missing something - the yokes are almost orange unlike the washed out yellow you get in the store.




Faith Draper - aka - byfaithonly
Faith's Daily Life and Business Blog
ByFaithOnly.com
More Photos by Faith - Complete List of Galleries

SlashMySearch

A friend of mine at myLot referred me to this program a few weeks ago but do to so many other things going on such as moving, adjusting to living in the same house with 2 grandchildren, and it's summer - I want to be outside, not on the computer I honestly have not done much with it.

At SlashMySearch you actually earn by searching - that's right what you normally do on your other favorite search engine such as Yahoo or Google you can get paid for at SlashMySearch.

Now this may not mean much to some people but in my line of work where I'm doing a lot of research (freelance author) this could build into a nice extra monthly income.

The chart below shows how with a few referrals you too could add to your monthly earnings although I do think these figures are unrealistic it gives you a clear idea of how it works. And they do pay monthly with a minimum balance of $20.


I haven't obviously received payment yet but I do know people who have and highly recommend this program for earning from home. To sign up simply click on any of the links in this message.

PTC Sites - Hints and Tips

On the left hand panel of each page of my blog is a section titled "My Favorite PTC sites:". I never thought of it but there are I'm sure many people who have no idea what a PPC site is. PTC stands for 'pay per click' and that is exactly what you do to earn money at the sites I've listed and many I discuss here.

How these sites work, for the ones that do work, is advertisers pay a set price to show their web site or program. The members or PTCers are the ones who will be visiting, viewing, and getting paid a certain amount for their efforts.

Can the average person actually make money on PTC sites? YES! How much you might make depends on a number of different variables; the price being paid for clicking, the number of ads offered to click, and how many PPC site you belong to.

Tip #1: If you are new to PTC sites I would suggest you start with one or two programs at a time. The reason for this is when you sign with 50 sites in one day you are not going to get a real feel for the site and could find yourself over whelmed very quickly.

Tip #2: Right from the start, with the first PTC you sign up with open a new folder in your favorites or bookmarks to save your login pages. I say to do this because this way as you add more PTC sites they will all be in one place and you can and should check them daily (if not more often).

Hint - I do this and actually list the different sites in this folder in order of how good I think they are. Believe me, the last one in the folder of about 30 PTC sites doesn't get visited every day and I don't feel I'm missing anything.

Tip #3: Before or right after signing with a PTC site make sure you read the fine print so to speak. Terms of Service, Payout limits, and referrals are all important to me and should be to you also. It's true, you can make money on these sites without referrals but believe me if a site pays you a high percentage of what your referrals earn that money can amount to a nice payment. Also, if a site is paying $.005 (one half a cent) per ad and payout is $100 good luck ever seeing any money in the near future - it will take a long time.

Tip #4: Do a little research before you put a lot of time into a PTC site. Over my years on the Internet I've signed with hundreds of PPC sites that closed before I ever saw a penny. Ask around, if you belong to a forum such as myLot do a search for the PTC program and I'm sure you will be able to get an idea of how long the site has been around, do they pay, do they pay in a timely fashion, and many other questions you may have.

The sites on my favorite's list have passed my 'inspection' but you can be sure if I start to get a bad feeling or don't get paid they will not only be removed from my favorites but will be getting a 'Thumbs DOWN' rating from me.

My Favorite PTC sites:

RanosCash

AdverCash

ClixSense

Hits4Pay

AdBux

CashClix

AdBuddy

Myster-e-Mail

Deals-n-Cash

Please, if you have in the past or do in the future have a bad experience with these programs do leave a comment on this post letting us know about it.

I should also add, there is a difference between PPC (pay per click) and PTC (paid to click). In a coming post I will explain PPC.

In Honor of the United States of America

These Angels honoring America are available as pins, magnets, or ornaments. Each Angel is approximately 4 inches tall and each is handmade in America by me or my daughter. These Angels will be for sale in the very near future. For more information feel free to contact me (Faith) at faiths.business@yahoo.com or leave a comment on this blog post.

Office with a View

I’m sure most anyone who has worked in a small office cubical with no window and cramped spaces will truly appreciate this post.

I thought maybe it was about time I shared a little more detail about my new living spaces. With a private bed and bathroom plus the entire loft I have elected to use the ‘bedroom’ as a storage/dressing room. The loft is where I spend my time when indoors which working from home I am required to do at least occasionally.

I certainly can not complain one bit though. With my living space, office, and bed all in one central location it is really rather convenient rather than moving from room to room constantly. You know it never fails what you want or need is going to be in another room.

So, all three ‘rooms’ have the same view. To the north from my recliner I have two large triangular shaped windows pictured in these first two photos.

This photo shows the upper corner of one of the triangular windows as well as the beautiful chandler that hangs over the living room of the main area below.

Almost directly above my head is one of 4 skylights. This picture shows the one to the southeast of where I’m setting. The other two skylights bank the chandler.

Facing the south are these two large windows that look out over the driveway but from the comfort of my chair with laptop in front of me I see more sky and trees.

This last picture was taken from the railing of the loft and shows the fireplace on the lower level flanked by solid glass French doors on each side. Above the doors are 2 rectangular windows and above those are the 2 triangular windows mentioned above.

The fireplace and lower windows are in full view from my ‘desk’ which I’ve placed just next to the railing. Yes, I am enjoying my new office space with all the spectacular views of sky and greenery.

I have uploaded all of these photos to Shareapic where you can view them full sized along with many of the other photos I’ve taken the last few months.

If you have photos you would like to share with others a great place to do so is Shareapic just CLICK HERE to get started it's really fun and easy.