Friendly Friday is here!

Hi and welcome to Friendly Friday! As many of you know, Friday Follow ended as of last week. I, along with many of you, had a lot of fun participating in it each week because it was such a good way to find new blogs, and get a lot of great traffic and followers along the way.

Since Friday Follow is no more, Christi at Frugal Novice, Charla at Healthy Home Blog and I have teamed up to create something new for each Friday so that there's still something fun for us to be a part of every week. We wrote Lynn at Midday Escapades and she's wished us the best with this new venture. We hope you'll participate so we can continue to get to know more of the great bloggers that are out there!

We're calling this Friendly Friday, because it's all about making friends in blogville. We'll post the link list each week at 11pm on Thursdays CST. Include your link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect - this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other!

When people comment on your blog and let you know they're a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it's a win-win situation! :) If you'd like to make a Friendly Friday post, you can include our great button from up above (the grab code is right on over in my sidebar) and be ready to meet some great new friends! Making a post can also be helpful because then people visiting your blog have a perfect place to leave comments.

In addition, each week we'll select three blogs at random and will feature links and a write-up for those blogs in the content of next week's Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a wonderful way to highlight some of those each week.

We hope you'll be a part of Friendly Friday and spread the word to your friends! We look forward to getting to know you and provide a great way for bloggers to support each other.

Since this is the first week, we thought we'd let you know a little bit about each of us:

Well hi, I'm Xenia. I apologize right off the bat that your brain is wondering how in the world to pronounce my name, but I'll just blame my mom for wanting me to be unique. Try not to let the X throw you off, it's Za-knee-a, with the stress on the second syllable. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, it's nice to meet you! Here at Thanks, Mail Carrier, my wonderful husband, 3 and 1-year-old daughters and I love the vrooooom sound the mail truck makes when it heads down our block. Who doesn’t get excited about receiving mail and wouldn‘t like to know what the best products are that they could have their mail carrier deliver right to their door? I love knowing that the information I give to readers helps peak their interest and hopefully aids them in becoming a better consumer and I take a lot of pride in my thorough, honest reviews of items of all kinds. When we're not trying out great new products, my girls and I love to spend time with good friends and fit as much laughter into the day as possible. Stop by anytime and say hello!

Hi, I'm Christi. I'm 28 years old, and have lived in Texas all my life. I'm a Christian and love the church family we've found in our town. I do advertising sales and design, and do a lot of freelance work on the side. I'm married to Brian, a graphic designer, and we have two adorable little boys - J, who will be 3 in August, and C, who turned 1 in April. My other "baby" is our 6-year-old miniature dachshund, Josie. I love spending time with my friends and family, baking, crafty things, shopping (for bargains), and working on fixing up our 1972 house bit by bit. I've had a family blog since 2007 when J was born, but started The Frugal Novice more recently after my mom encouraged me to give it a try. I love blogging and all the friends I've made through the process. I started my blog focusing solely on ways to save money, but quickly decided that if I'm going to write I want it to be about all sorts of different things I love, so it's expanded a little since its start. :)

Hi! I'm Charla, definitely the oldest of the three. In fact, I'm Christi's mom, and I can tell you that it's such a blessing to have a daughter who is also one of my best friends. Here are some things about me: I'm not only a Christian wife, mother of two, mother-in-law, and grandmother to Christi & Brian's two precious little boys, but also a teacher. I taught school in the Texas public school system for 19 years, and this past year I've been doing substitute teaching, hope to get a full time teaching job again in the fall. I was encouraged and motivated by our son (who's a college student) to start blogging back in the summer of 2007, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, the money helps out, but what I value most is the connection to all my blogger friends. :) My favorite thing to do? Spend time with family!

Now that you know about us, it's time for you to join in! Add your link below and we'll see you back here every Friday!