Swapiversary Blog Hop and Contest!

Thank you so much for stopping by this week's Blog Strut #12 - The Special Swapiversary Edition! Our Linky Parties are always rule-free! There are a set of guidelines below but they are just that, guidelines! We want you to post what you want, share what you want, and not have to do anything in return but share the bloggy love!

We encourage you to Pin the posts of the bloggers before and after you! We understand that there may be a lot of entries so just pick a few of your favorites and pin them!

Every week we pick our favorite posts The top clicked post and a random wildcard choice and Feature them! We'll also send out a social blast to ask everyone to check out your posts! From last week's Strut we have:

Angela's Pick 22 Re-Purposing Ideas by Family Home and Life

Sande's Pick Tasty Breakfast Casserole by In Him We Live and Move and Have our Being

Amber's Pick How to Make a Halloween Witch By Penny's Vintage Home

Top Clicks chosen by you DIY Fall Monogram Door Hanger by This Ole Mom

Wildcard Pick Make a No Sew Apron for Under $5 by Erin's 2 Cents

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We need your vote! Today the Secret Subject Swap is joining the Blog Strut for a very special occasion. It is the one year anniversary of the Swap and we’re celebrating with a Strut!

The Secret Subject Swap is a challenge open to all bloggers. It’s meant as an exercise to push our writing boundaries. Each participant sends in a writing prompt and is secretly assigned someone else’s prompt. Two weeks later, on an assigned day and time, we all divulge the subject we received, who it came from, and publish our posts linking to each other.

And now on the one year Swapiversary we want you to tell us, who is the Queen of the Swap? Read them all and strut back here to cast your vote. Who will win the Award? It’s all in your hands!

An InLinkz Link-up

Featured Post: DIY Bold and Beautiful Vanity Trays

Meet the Ladies of the Secret Subject Swap

Featured Post: Things To Do on a Rainy Day	Featured Post: *Gasp* Paparazzi Are At My Door
Featured Post: Hello My Name Is Hypocrite	Featured Post: Fort Worth Is All Kinds of Awesome

Featured Post: One Time In High School I...	Featured Post: Don't Let Fear Take Over
Featured Post: Keeping Up With the Hansons	Featured Post: It's the End of the World as we Know it And Google Feels Fine

Featured Post: Why is Halloween Liked/Disliked in Your Home?	Featured Post: Behind the Scenes of an Insomniac
Featured Post: A Moving Starring Me And...	Featured Post: Be Okay

An InLinkz Link-up

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October Secret Subject Swap, 1st Swapaversary! - "Hello, my name is Hypocrite."

So pretty much everyone that's ever heard the word 'blog' knows about the Secret Subject Swap. If you don't, allow me to school ya: It's when several bloggers pick a secret subject for someone else and are assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Then we all simultaneously divulge our topics and submit our posts. It was started one year ago this month by Karen from Baking In A Tornado. She is an amazing, fantastical blogger and person, and I want to wish her the happiest of Swap Anniversaries! 

This time around 12 bloggers participated and I highly suggest you check out each of the posts (after you read mine of course!). I'll put everyone's links at the end.

My topic is:  "Halloween: Worst/Best costume ever."  It was submitted by The Insomniacs Dream. Definitely check out her writing after reading the swaps.
Here goes: 

*****

Sit back and get ready for a tale of deceit and deception. Of hiding and sneaking. Of a mom breaking the rules.

Yes, that mom was me. For reasons I will decline to get into here, I made the decision 15 years ago not to have our family celebrate Halloween. We ignored it every year. We didn't do trick or treating or parties or dressing up. Nothing.

Well, except for that one year. That I did. 

It was in my post-divorce, swingin single, losing my mind  exploring my freedom period.  That also, is a whole other story  *wink* .  A friend of mine who was also a single mom exploring this "time for yourself" theory we had heard so much about, invited me to a Halloween party at this great night club not far from where we lived. That in and of itself is a small miracle, that there was anyplace worth going to in our small, out of the way area. Anywho, this place apparently had pretty epic Halloween parties. Two dance floors, two bars, the best DJ in the area, and oh the costumes!

But wait, how could I go to a Halloween party? I didn't allow Halloween in our family. How hypocritical of me to even think about it. Dress up in a costume, go to a place packed with people and amazing dance music, alcohol flowing.....  Screw it, I'm going.

Thus began my quest to get to this fabulous Halloween party, without my kids knowing.

At work I searched online for a costume. I mean during my breaks I did. Not during work hours, psshh, that would be wrong. Psshh.  Can I just say that trying to find a woman's costume that is not off the Playboy bunny runway is tantamount to nailing jello to a tree? So I did the best I could and settled for a 'sexy' costume, instead of straight up slutty. It was a referee. Not very original I guess, but I didn't know that because I hadn't dressed up for Halloween in two decades. It had a minidress, black and white stripes with a black skirt, and tall white socks with stripes at the top. I had a pair of black high heeled mary-janes that looked similar to the girl's in the catalog picture so I wore those. And it had a whistle.

But how was I going to explain to my kids what I was wearing? Well, I did what any stressed-out-needs-a-night-away-just-let-me-go mother would do:  I shoved my costume in a bag, and went to my friend's house to dress there, and drove to the party with her. I told you, sneaky.

Now comes the part where I tell you that I got to the party and just couldn't have fun, because I felt guilty. That I sat in the corner by myself because I felt foolish in my costume, hated the music, and didn't know anybody. Well, I can't tell you that; because I had FUN!! I danced, and had a few drinks, and hung out with people I knew, and danced some more. The stress of being a single working mom had slimmed me down and I felt confident in that costume. Confidence was not something I was particularly used to, and you know what? It felt good. And the music was awesome and guys were asking me to dance. And asking "Hey can I 'blow your whistle'? Duh huh huh".  *eye roll*



So was this my worst Halloween costume? Or best?

I'm not proud of doing something that involved me sneaking around like a teenager in lust. But - I really had an amazing time, making memories that help me to not feel like such an old fuddy-duddy when it's 9pm on a Saturday night and I'm in my pj's with my Nook. I can say "I was cool once, not too long ago, and kind of a bad-ass, and the world didn't end! It was great!"

So I'm leaning toward Best.

*******

http://BakingInATornado.com                              Baking In A Tornado

http://themomisodes.com/                                  The Momisodes

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                          Just A Little Nutty

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/       Moore Organized Mayhem

http://crazyasnormal.com                                     Crazy As Normal

http://singlemumplusone.blogspot.com                   Searching for Sanity

http://www.homeonderanged.com                         Home on Deranged

http://dawnsdisaster.blogspot.com                        Dawn’s Disaster

http://www.theinsomniacsdream.com/                 The Insomniac’s Dream

http://www.outsmartedmommy.com                    Outsmarted Mommy

http://www.bethteliho.wordpress.com/                  Writer B is Me

Make sure to come back after 8pm EST tonight thru Sunday to vote for your favorite SSS post and to join in The Blog Strut linky party!

~*~*~*~*HAPPY SWAPAVERSARY KAREN, MY FRIEND! YOU ARE THE BEST!~*~*~*~*