Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party 2009!

Welcome to my second UBP! Last year I was a little late to the party, but this year here I am writing my post 1 whole hour before the Mr. Linky goes live. Woo Hoo! Progress!

So, what's changed in a year? A lot! One year ago, I was living in Orange County, teaching Spanish part-time, and leading a MOPS group, all the while figuring out how to sell hair clips on the side. Now I'm a stay-at-home mom in Corvallis, filling my days with pseudo-homeschooling our preschooler and running my Etsy shop, Ladybug Limited. My blog has had its moments of neglect over the past year, but if you stick around, it seems to be turning into a book review blog -- who knows what I'll be doing with it next year!

With the launch of my shop in December, I've branched out from no-slip hair clips to fabric button clips and ponies, which I love! This January I added my original hand-printed fabric button items, too. My little shop has had some review attention these last couple months, so I decided this would be the perfect time to host a prize on the UBP 2009 Prize Page-- I'm number 16 on the list.
However, I'm guessing that if this year's Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes for Mom is anything like last year's, the competition for all of those great prizes will be fierce! So shall I double your chances for you? Yes, I'm already giving away a $20 gift certificate on the Prize Page, but I'm going to give away one here, too.

So how do you win? Just click on through to my shop (over there in the sidebar) and browse a bit. Tell me how you'd spend your certificate in your comment and that's it!

And now for the details: just one entry please. I'll leave the contest open until the UBP is over and then draw a name and post the winner here. The winner will have 72 hours to claim their prize, so please be sure to leave a way for me to e-mail you. By the way, if you don't want to miss a single shop promotion, you can find my shop blog here.

And if I win anything at this year's Ultimate Blog Party, these would be my top 3 choices:

• The $25 gift certificate to Amazon from Just Say These Words
• The $20 gift certificate to Amazon from Want to Know What I Think?
• The $15 gift certificate to Amazon from tree, root, and twig

Can you tell I love Amazon? My book wishlist from there is pages long-- I'd love to be able to put a dent in it. If my top 3 are chosen, I'd love any of the following: International 1, 3, 21, 22, 28, 33, 35, 36, US/Canada 1, or US only 19, 21, 22, 43, 56, 83, 97, or 99.