I was thrilled when Kelly, owner of Card Me Kelly designs, agreed to sponsor a giveaway for my Mad About Mama event. I had seen her work featured on other blogs around the blogosphere, and I just knew she would be a perfect fit for my event! Let's face it....As moms, there is one thing we do a LOT of. (No, I don't mean deal with poop and spit-up,lol) We take TONS of pictures. Of everything. From sleeping baby shots, to photos of our newborn's scrunched up faces and tiny little toes...To first smiles, first steps, messes our children make, and let's not forget about holidays! As proud mamas, we want to document every little thing our babies do. We want to capture each and every singular detail, since babies grow and change on sometimes even a weekly basis! I know looking back at photos of Sophie when she was tiny seems almost surreal....She was so small, so delicate...And now she is a very active toddler, with a devilish smile and sweet disposition. (Unless you make her mad. Then she is 100% diva!) Even looking at Xander, my 2 month old, I see changes. I am one of those moms that takes a quadrillion photos of my kids. But I never DO anything with them! Sure, I share them on Facebook, but other than that, I haven't ever used them for anything, like making cute greeting cards or announcements to share with family and friends. Not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't know HOW. I lack the artistic ability and technical know-how to do so. And I usually don't order from expensive online photo retailers, as the costs of designing, printing, and shipping can cause a crunch on the wallet! Well Kelly at Card Me Kelly has come up with a wonderful alternative to using these online services. Kelly is a very talented Mama who, like all of us, spent a lot of her time photographing her little guy after he was born. She then began creating unique and whimsical photo greetings that she sent to her friends and family who lived near and far. They all raved about her abilities, and encouraged her to go into business creating these special keepsake cards for others. Well, this is exactly what she did! And the best part is, all you need to do is choose one of her designs, send a photo, and she customizes it just for you. She can even create a NEW design for you based on your needs and desires. The other very cool thing about Card Me Kelly is that you can totally bypass all of the printing and shipping fees associated with most photo services. That's right! Kelly offers her design services 100% digitally! (Although she DOES have the option to have them professionally printed on card stock, and shipped for a flat rate.) Once Kelly designs a card for you, she will send it to you in a digital file, and the image is YOURS. You can save tons of money by printing as many copies as you would like! You can also use these images in e-mails, on websites, or in any other way your heart desires, because they become YOUR images. I personally couldn't decide what type of image I wanted to get to sample her work....I have a 2 month old, but thought that might be too late to do birth announcements, so I simply sent her one of my favorite Sophie pictures and told her to work her magic and surprise me. Boy, did she ever! She made a custom, NEW design for me, featuring my little "Bunny". I LOVE it! I know I should probably save this image for when I post the actual review and giveaway, but it is too darn cute not to share now! How adorable is that? Kelly is incredibly talented, and her work can be seen here at her etsy shop. You can also visit her here on Facebook.
During my Mad About Mama event, Kelly will be offering one of my very lucky followers a custom design of their own!! Want some early-bird entries? You know you do....I'm going to keep this simple. Please leave your early entry comments HERE, as there will be instructions during the giveaway as to how to redeem them. PLEASE LEAVE A VALID E-MAIL ADDRESS!!! EARLY EXTRA ENTRIES:
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I am pleased to announce our next sponsor for my Mad About Mama Mother's Day event, the GoodOnYa Bar! I was thrilled when I got the chance to work with this San Diego based company who strives to promote healthy, green living by providing wholesome, organic, and TASTY alternatives to candy and other not so healthy grab-and-go snacks. As a mom with way too much on my plate at times, I know how easy it can be to grab the quickest, easiest snack available when hunger calls.... I usually try my best to keep my diet healthy, but when I am out and about, this isn't always easy. I mean, I can't just carry a salad around in my purse when I am running errands or taking the kids to the pediatrician's office. And some of those so-called healthy snack bars are anything but! Have you ever stopped to read the ingredients in even that very popular fruit and cereal bar you find in the breakfast aisle? You know the bar I mean, but it shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, lol...Next time you're shopping, just take a look at how many ingredients are listed that you can't even pronounce. These ingredients are not organic, and are anything but natural. As a matter of fact, these bars and others like them contain very limited real nutritional value. They even include many fillers, like puffed whole wheat. Not that they're necessarily BAD for you. They're just full of...well, nothing. Fillers add weight to the bars and extend the product's yield, but they don't extend the important proteins and nutrients our bodies need as fuel. The GoodOnYa Bar's founder, an Olympic athlete, Kris Fillat, recognized this problem and has created a truly organic, healthy snack bar that includes NO FILLERS of any kind, and utilizes only the highest quality raw and natural products, such as organic honey, flax seed, and Valencia peanuts. These bars may look smaller than some of their competitors, but they actually weigh MORE and provide a protein packed punch that will keep you going throughout your busy day.... Without having to grab a candy bar or stop at a fast food establishment. And did I mention, they taste GOOD? Here are the flavors they currently offer: The Breakfast Bar In a word, amazing! The ingredients in this bar are so unique, and the nutritional profile so wonderful that we have to boast just a bit. We didn't set out to make a high fiber bar. We simply combined healthy superfoods that tasted great together. When we got the nutritional analysis back we were shocked. 28% of the daily recommended allowance of fiber in just one bar. Now we don't subscribe totally to the USDA food pyramid but we do know that unprocessed, live, organic foods are what we should be eating, so that's what we are about! You can buy Fruit Loops with added fiber! Yeah, right! And don't be afraid of the fat. Read the Fat vs. Sugar document, you will be happily surprised to know you don't have to skimp on your favorite foods! Obviously what we are doing in this country isn't working. It's time to rethink things! We have done that with our bars. Peanut Butter Honey The best peanut butter in the world comes from New Mexico. Valencia peanuts are smaller, sweeter and they grow in a very dry climate. This means that the mold, aflatoxin that is an allergy and carcinogen, isn't present in our peanut butter. We love peanut butter and we know you love it, so we searched out the best! Combine that with raw, organic honey, flax and sesame and you are in for one protein packed, tasty treat. It's time to love peanuts again, in fact it's all about love! Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Well, seriously. It's peanut butter, it's chocolate, it's kind of a no brainer! However there are ways to make this classic combination right! Start with the best peanut butter in the world (see above), 70% dark chocolate, raw honey and now you are talking about a healthy version of what I dreamed of getting at every house on Halloween! Cold milled flax, sesame, vanilla.....we are not kidding around here, we care about what we are doing, and we care about you! Don't these just sound delicious?! The very generous folks at GoodOnYa care about what you are eating. During my Mad About Mama event, GoodOnYa will be offering one of my US readers the opportunity to try all 3 flavors for themselves! How cool is that?! In the meantime, how about the chance to earn some early entries for this upcoming giveaway? I'll keep it simple for you. Please leave your extra entry comments HERE. There will be further instructions on how to claim these entries during the giveaway! EXTRA ENTRIES:
Out of 366 entries, Random.org's lucky number was 4! It's odd to see Random.org pick such a low number, which I have had happen TWICE lately! So maybe getting in and entering early will be a strategy I adopt now when I enter giveaways!
Anyway, the lucky winner is Lisa, who said: lisa Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:34:17 GFC follower. tmi4grdma Congratulations, Lisa! I will be e-mailing you shortly! You have 48 hours to get back to me and claim your prize, or I will then have to choose another winner! Thanks to all who entered, and stay tuned for LOTS of fabulous giveaways during my Mad About Mama event! Okay, I am officially an idiot. I am NOT the World's Hippest Mom. (Who knew?!) I do not know a THING about super-heroes or comics, and I don't watch cartoons. Unless you count what is aired on Sprout or Disney movies. So needless to say, I haven't seen ANY of the Spider-Man movies. Wait. Scratch that. I had to suffer...oops, I mean sit..through whichever Spidey movie has the evil black Spider Man in it. And I wasn't even paying attention to it. I think I was actually entering blog giveaways or updating my Facebook. I also haven't seen any X-Men movies, the Hulk movie, Fantastic 4 anything, and I have not seen any of the Transformers movies. I probably never will watch a Transformers movie, since I am officially boycotting Megan Fox. She is a freak of nature, and people who look that "perfect" just shouldn't exist. It simply isn't fair to real women whose bodies bear the evidence of childbirth and pregnancy, who don't have an 18 inch waist like she does. Anyway.....Yeah. I don't like Megan Fox. At all. She makes me feel horribly inadequate, and I will not watch her. "Nuff said. (Yeah, I'm jealous, so sue me...At least I can admit it!)
So anyway, a friend of mine, Gabby over at California Monkey Momma, got a tattoo recently of some sort of thingy called Optimal Prime...Or Optimus Prime...Or something like that. She posted photos on her Facebook. I asked her what it was, since I obviously had no clue whatsoever, and she started messing with me and wouldn't tell me. A bit later while I was talking to her, she mentioned something about the Decepticon Army trying to steal the sun. I have a 14 month old, an 11 year old, and a newborn. I am horribly sleep deprived, and I haven't been watching the news much lately. I didn't even know about the civil unrest in Libya until well after a week or so of it making headlines. I have had so much going on that I just haven't been keeping up with current events. So since I am ignorant to the world of super-heroes, I thought that maybe the Decepticon Army was some odd cult or terror cell that actually thought they could steal the sun. Stranger things could happen. Look at Heaven's Gate, for instance. The followers thought that if they dressed in odd outfits and Nikes and drank the poisoned Kool-Aid, the Mother Ship would come and get them. And then of course, we have Charlie Sheen and his "tiger blood",lol...There are some CRAZY people out there. So while I knew there was no way possible that anyone could find a way to "steal" the sun, I didn't put it past some nutty person or people to think they could try. So when my husband came home from work, I casually asked if he had heard anything about this, and explained that I haven't been watching the news lately. He told me he HAD heard this, and shook his head at me. He refused to give me any details. I felt dumb, so I made him turn on FOX News, MSNBC, and CNN, thinking SOMEONE would have coverage of these lunatics known as the Decepticon Army. I watched for awhile, and not a word was spoken about it. So then I ask my 11 year old who is very into space and astronomy if HE had heard anything about this. Let me point out that he isn't at all interested in super-hero movies or cartoons, either, so he had no idea what this was, and was as clueless as his mama. He proceeded to FREAK OUT. He thought it was real, too, and that some crazy people were going to exterminate all life on earth. He was crying his eyes out, saying he needed a big gun to kill the Decepticon Army and save all of humankind. He thought we were all going to die! Finally, my husband felt bad and couldn't take it anymore. He took the laptop from me, and Googled the Decepticon Army.....Then he gave the computer back to me, and staring back at me was the picture at the top of this post. True story. Gabby, you got me good! And Kyle too, for that matter. You know you all wanna laugh at me now. Go ahead. I think it's funny, too...A bit mortifying, but definitely funny. But I still won't watch any super-hero mov Breakfast in my home can be hectic...My husband usually grabs it to go, as he starts his days early, my son is "too cool" to have his mommy make him breakfast anymore, and likes to try and cook himself. Of course, I don't let him use the stove, but he can make oatmeal and cereal no problem. Then there are the babies...Xander is still too young for solids, but my Sophie is a somewhat picky eater. She likes what she likes, and that's that. Try and give her something new or something she doesn't like, and it will end up being thrown somewhere...Usually at the wall or on the floor. One thing my Sophie-Monster DOES love is chocolate. I would have to say it is her favorite. When my husband eats candy bars, Sophie immediately runs up to him and begs like a dog would. She then takes little pieces of chocolate and walks around happily as they melt all over her hands and cover her face like a little chocolate goatee. Yes, she IS her father's daughter! So finding things that Lil' Miss Thang likes to eat for breakfast isn't always easy. Of course she'll eat cereal, toast, bacon, and eggs. But sometimes for some odd reason, she resists eating fruit! How weird is that?! So we've had to get creative in getting her to eat various fruits. So when I got the chance to host a Nutella Mommy Party, I was really excited. I am a long time fan of Nutella, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, this would be the perfect way to get Sophie to eat some different things for breakfast, and do so willingly. If she won't eat a waffle or fruits smothered in a rich, chocolate hazelnut spread, I officially give up! Not only did she EAT the Nutella, she inhaled it! She ate it on waffles with a sliced banana, she ate it on a strawberry, she ate it on toast....You get the picture. I am fairly certain that when I have guests over this week to sample Nutella, she will probably try and steal everyone's food! A few neighborhood SAHM's and their little ones will be coming over for a Nutella Play Date. The kids can eat and play, and the moms can sample Nutella in many different ways. I plan on making more waffles, as they were a hit in my household, as well as some Nutella Ricotta Crepes and some fresh fruit to dip! And I will also be sending the mamas home with valuable Nutella coupons, samples, recipes, and a Nutella brand travel coffee mug! Here is some information about Nutella, and some facts you may not have known about this decadent spread:
Next on my list is to make a Nutella cheesecake! I know, not the healthiest choice, but doesn't that sound yummy? I'll let you know in a future post how it turned out! Disclaimer: I received a Nutella MommyParties kit from Nutella and MommyParties™ an extension of MomSelect/BSM Media for the purpose of hosting a Nutella Mommy Party and writing a blog post about it.
I recently decided to have a special blog event for Mother's Day, to celebrate all of us moms who tirelessly spend our days (and nights) doing all of the rewarding, yet often under-appreciated things that only a Mom can do. Who else can cook a delicious yet nutritious meal, burp a gassy baby, (possibly getting covered in goo in the process) help an older child with their math word problems, and administer Magic Mommy Kisses to a boo-boo to make it all better...all at the same time? Only a mom can do these things! I am going to host Mad About Mama, a special event running from April 20-May 8. I may even start earlier, as I am having a lot more sponsors rolling in than I first anticipated, which means that there will be a lot of wonderful products I will be sharing with you and of course, lots of giveaways just to say THANK YOU for being what you are: A nurturer, a chef, a nurse, a maid, a taxi-driver, a tutor, a baker, a monster-exterminator, a master in the art of snuggles, a playmate, a mentor, a professional diaper-changer, and all of the other things that make you what you are: A MOM. In my opinion, this is the single most important job in the world, since in being mothers, we are literally helping to shape the future. Our love and guidance we give to our children is unlike nothing else in the world. Nothing compares to the love a mother has for her child. As a taste of things to come in my event, I will be doing a Sponsor Spotlight post for each of my generous sponsors. I will post these as I finalize the details with my sponsors and receive my product(s) for review. In these posts you will be introduced to the wonderful businesses who I will be featuring during Mad About Mama, and you will also have a chance to earn EARLY EXTRA ENTRIES into each sponsor's giveaway, if applicable. Just follow the instructions at the end of my Sponsor Spotlight post, and then when the giveaway becomes live in April, you will have the chance to claim these extra early-bird entries! You MUST follow the instructions on the Sponsor Spotlight posts, and yes, I WILL be checking, so let's be honest! The first sponsor I will be spotlighting are the VERY generous folks at Vedette Shapewear, who will be offering 5 of my lucky followers one of their amazing products. I just received mine today, and I am blown away! Their items are incredibly effective and are definitely high-end. One thing I like about them is that they create shapewear that is beautiful as well as functional. I received the item pictured to the left, and I am loving it! But I am not going to go into too much detail and spoil my review which will be featured with the giveaway in April during my Mad About Mama event. Let me tell you a little about Vedette. They are recognized worldwide as one of the leading shapewear manufacturers. The make garments to suit every occasion, and have several different levels of compression to suit women of all body types and sizes. Their garments are all beautifully created to double as lingerie, as they feature pretty details and elegant designs all while remaining comfortable to wear. They also have a wide variety of items and styles, so there is something to suit every woman's own unique personality. Vedette features 4 different levels of compression, so you can choose the ideal garments made specifically to address your problem areas. Here is a little about each level of compression that Vedette offers: Their strong line has been designed with a Natural Hevea Latex layer to maintain a strong compression. The medium line is designed to provide long lasting every day help with the last few pounds exercise has not been able to shed. The Dual Compression line has the long lasting comfort of the medium compression line but with the addition of Latex layers targeting trouble areas with extra support to transform your body. Lastly, their Powernet line is a Hosiery type fabric that provides a uniform Medium Compression with very little stretch. They even have a tool on their website that allows you to name your problem area, whether it be your waist, your hips, your butt, or your thighs, and they will match you with the absolute best products for your specific needs! I LOVE this feature, since it takes all of the guesswork out of finding the perfect garments for YOUR body! Are you excited yet? Here is your chance to earn early, extra entries into the Vedette giveaway that will be featured during my Mad About Mama event, beginning in April! NOTE: These are EARLY entries. This is NOT the giveaway. These extra entries will give you extra entries once my giveaway is posted in April! EXTRA ENTRIES: Please leave a comment stating you have completed the said requirements, along with your name and VALID e-mail address so I can verify these entries once the giveaway has begun.
One Little Smile Can Melt My Heart Into A Big Pile O' Goo... Xander's FIRST SMILING PHOTO!!3/10/2011 I just had to share this with you all. This is my Xan-Man smiling in a photo for the first time ever! He's only been truly smiling for a few days now, and it's SO hard to get pics when he's always in my lap. But he smiled for his pseudo-cousin, Kayla, and I was able to capture it! Man, I love this little man!
Today is a great day for winners! I have been running around like crazy, and haven't been able to use the computer much, but I didn't forget about my 2 luckly bloggy friends who have won the chance to participate in the K-Y Brand Intimacy Experiment!
Soooo....The winners are: Cassondra and Elaina!! Congrats, ladies! I have e-mailed you both and you have 48 hours to respond! Hope you have as much fun with the campaign as I did! Out of a whopping 319 entries, Random.org chose lucky number 8!
Congratulations, Melissa E.! Melissa said: Melissa E. Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:08:22 I subscribe via e-mail (#5/5) I am e-mailing you now, Melissa! You have 48 hours to claim your prize, or I will have to choose another winner. Thank you to everyone who entered! Please stay tuned for my Mad About Mama Mother's Day event, coming in April! I already have some wonderful sponsors lined up and more great giveaways coming! In the meantime, I still have 3 active giveaways open! Every night, it seems to be the same occurrence in my household....(insert whine here) "But Mooo-ooom, I don't want to eat that! Can't I just have ramen noodles instead?" Umm...No. Maybe if ramen provided any kind of nutrition whatsoever other than a whole week's allowance of sodium I *might* go for that, but I don't see that happening any time soon! Getting my stubborn and very picky 11 year old to eat his veggies is on ongoing battle in my house. He's very picky when it comes to food. (Wonder where he gets that? Me, Picky? Never....~guiltily stares at the floor~) My son has an aversion to vegetables. Except for peas and corn, oh, and potatoes. But do potatoes even count? I think potatoes should be awarded their own separate food group, but that's is just my humble opinion!
I usually need to "hide" the veggies in his food. Sometimes even going as far as pureeing them and adding them into sauces, or being uber-sneaky and substituting some spaghetti squash for actual spaghetti noodles. Yep, I am sneaky like that! The truth is, I am like a lot of moms. I want my kids to eat healthily and get all the vitamins and minerals they need, but I hate being the bad guy. I hate the constant battle over dinner. Luckily, Sophie and Xander are too young to be too picky, and it's just Kyle I have to fight with. I do realize that this will change in a few years as the munchkins get bigger! I want family dinners to be a pleasant experience, and I want my son to actually enjoy his food rather than sit there, sulking, as he chokes down whatever his "mean mommy" is forcing him to eat. That's why I was so excited to hear about Ragu Pasta Sauce's new online community, Mom's The Word On Dinner. This is a fun and informative place for moms like me to find awesome tips and tricks to get kids to eat and enjoy their meals! Yes, even the pickiest ones, like my son. It is a place to meet and talk with other moms in the same boat, share funny dinnertime stories, or major Mommy Fails, and to laugh about situations that only another mom would understand....All while learning more about how to ensure the proper nutrition for our little ones. There will even be dinner-time discussion tips to get the conversation going, as well as parenting tips from author Dr. Michele Borba and Registered Dietician, Dr. Felicia Stoler. And all of this is taking place on Facebook! I'm sure you're there at least a hundred times a day, so why not stop on by Mom's The Word On Dinner and see for yourself what an awesome community of moms this is! I know I will be taking part, and I hope to see some of my readers there, as well. I'd love to hear what happens in YOUR home during dinnertime! In addition to the ongoing fun and conversation, the Mom's the Word on Dinner community will feature videos, photos, polls, quizzes and dinner ideas with quick and easy recipes. With two full servings of veggies in every half cup of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional pasta sauce, Ragú® provides nutritious meal options for parents to help them on their mission to feed their kids well. This wouldn't be a true community without interaction and Ragú® wants to hear what happens at dinnertime in kitchens and homes across the country! Moms can join the conversation and tell their story for a chance to be featured in a Ragú® ad in PEOPLE magazine at Facebook.com/ragusauce. See you there, ladies! I need to go start dinner! "Disclosure: I was entered for a chance to win a Ragú® prize package in exchange for this post. No monetary exchange took place." |
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I'm Brandy, a happily married, proud Mom of 3 amazing kids. If you're interested in building a working relationship, please feel free to e-mail me at: NewlyCrunchyMamaOf3@gmail.com Links We Love :Archives
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