Enter to Win!

Powered by Mom has joined with Kirsten Lew and a wonderful group of Bloggy friends to celebrate reaching 5K now almost 6K on Facebook. It's perfect timing to celebrate this milestone and our fans on Leap Year. It's ladies choice for Leap Year so our choice is to celebrate all of you to bring you an awesome giveaway!

We've got some amazing prizes for you!

Grand Prize: $65 Paypal Cash

2nd Grand Prize: $20 Gift Card from Kirsten Lew Jewelry

3rd Prize: $20 Gift Card from Everyone's Store Online

4th Prize: $5 Gift Card

A special thanks to our bloggy friends for joining us on this giveaway, we could not have done this without them. Stop by and visit their blogs, I promise it's worth the visit.

Mom Blog Society

Mom Does Reviews

Building Carpenters

Emptynester Savings and More

Sister's Saving Cents

Central Bargains and Giveaways

Our Share of Crazy

Bay Area Mommy

SaraLee's Deals and Steals

The Coup Diva

Peace, Love and Coupons

Secrets to Save
The Shoppin Queen

The giveaway runs from February 29th and will end on March 14th, 2012 at Midnight EST. Make sure you enter for your chance at one of these fabulous prizes!

Words to live by...

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life… He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil—he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.” They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win, Grandfather?” The Elder simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Leap Year Giveaway! Join Us!

We welcome all bloggers to join us. It's $5 ($4 towards the prize & $1 admin fee) this will include 2 links of your choice but keep in mind only Facebook links will be mandatory on the rafflecopter. If you'd like to join us for this fun and fabulous giveaway please sign up HERE.

Leap Year Giveaway! Enter to Win!

Leap Year only happens once every 4 years and Powered by Mom's 5K Facebook celebration only happens once so we're doing them together. The saying goes for Leap Year that it's ladies choice, I know it's supposed to mean the ladies can ask their guy to marry them. In this case it means that Powered by Mom and co-sponsor Kirsten Lew Jewelry along with some other wonderful & supportive lady bloggers are helping us to celebrate Leap Year and the 5K milestone.

Kirsten Lew Jewelry is celebrating Leap Year with a new name, new designs, and a coupon for $20 off anything in the store. Celebrate Leap Year with a new, handmade piece of jewelry by Kirsten Lew Jewelry!




Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 Versus Chapter 13

It’s stressful enough being in debt, but when a decision is made to consider filing for bankruptcy, new stresses emerge.  It’s a hard decision to make, especially if it is made prior to your bills becoming past due and if it hasn’t affected your credit score yet.  The main question, after the decision to file has been made, is, should a chapter 7 in Atlanta be filed, or a Chapter 13?  One removes all your eligible debt; the other creates a payment plan that is stretched out over three to five years.

According to Berry & Associates, “Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the most common form of bankruptcy and may be referred to as a straight or liquidation bankruptcy.”  A Chapter 7 gives you the ability to start over financially, though there are some debts that are not eligible to be claimed in a bankruptcy, like taxes and student loans, for example.  To qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia, there are household income levels that must be met, and if that level is not met, a means test must be done.  A means test is used to determine if you are financially able to repay your debts through a Chapter 13 plan if your income levels are higher than the established threshold for your family size.  If your remaining income after all bills are paid is less than $100, you can generally file for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Getting Businesses off the Ground

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted anything!  I've been busy with several business ideas, as well as my jewelry business.  I've got a few news items:

• Changed my business name
• Have been throwing around several business ideas
• Trying to keep calm with the state of the world

So I changed my business name to Kirsten Lew Jewelry last week.  I had taken a workshop about marketing a few weeks ago, and the one thing I really took away from the workshop was that my previous business name didn't tell my "story," so I was always having to explain it.  For those that don't know, my business name was Sunflower Designz, which meant something to me, but not a whole lot to anyone else.  During the workshop I was asked, why don't I just use my name?  The more I thought about  it the more I liked it because, it would tell my story without me having to be there.  Basically, my new business name answers two very key questions.