From the category archives:

Giveaways!

I've added a few new features to Musings of a Housewife that I hope will be helpful. Over the weekend I created a Whole Foods Resources page that is a great place to start if you are interested in learning more about the whole foods lifestyle. I also compiled my design tutorials into one convenient location. Both are linked in my nav bar. And there is now a Print Friendly button at the bottom of each post, should you feel like printing recipes or information for future reference. Before printing, you will have the option to delete any photos or content you don't need.

TGIF!  This week I’m especially thankful it’s almost Friday because tomorrow afternoon I hop a train to NYC and for 24 blessed hours I do not have to cut anyone’s meat (but my own) or wipe anyone’s snot (but my own) and I get to pretend to be a grown up and wear clothes without any stains on them (except my own) and maybe even some cute shoes.  And even better than all that, I get to hang out with her and her and her and her and her and her.  I. can’t. wait.

Speaking of cute shoes, this morning I was getting ready for the day and putting on my sneakers in hopes that I would find the motivation to run later, and my 4-year-old said to me, “I don’t like those shoes.  They aren’t cute.  But you only wear cute shoes when you’re going to New York, right?”

Sadly, that pretty much sums it up.

But before I go pack, let’s talk summer sandals.  It’s been so nice here in Philly this week that I actually had to climb up into the attic one morning and pull down some warm weather clothes and shoes, and that is when I realized that my sandal/flip flop wardrobe is sorely lacking.  Everything I have is, well, OLD.  And worn looking.  Fortunately for me, Dansko reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d like to try a pair of shoes from their new spring 2010 line.

Well, twist my arm, why don’t ya.

After perusing the site and considering the likes of these (the Mila)

dansko-mila

and these (the Serena),

dansko-serena

I decided on these — the Carmen Capri in sangria.

dansko-carmen

I wore them all day today, and I can honestly say, this is THE most comfortable flip flop I’ve ever worn.  The foot bed is AMAZING.  It has a contoured PU bottom and an EVA insert, which is the magic that makes them so incredibly comfy and supportive.  And the adjustable fore-strap keeps them from sliding or flopping too much.

Aesthetically, I think I’d like them better without that strap, but from a comfort POV, it’s perfect.  I have kind of flat, slim feet or something, and while I wear flip flops almost exclusively during the warmer months, they do tend to, well, flop a lot on my foot.  I mean, I know they’re supposed to flip and flop.  But these?  They stay put.

me

I’m not surprised how comfortable and supportive these are, as I was a Dansko fan before I received these sandals (in fact, that’s why they reached out to me, so keep writing about brands you love!  You never know when you might get a fun surprise like this in your inbox.)  But I really didn’t know a flip flop could have this much support.  If you’re on your feet a lot but don’t want a clunky shoe, Dansko is your brand.

WIN IT! Yes!!!  I get to give a pair away!  To enter to win, all you have to do is comment on this post with your favorite new Dansko style (please include color and size.)  You can earn one extra entry by sharing about this giveaway on Twitter or Facebook.  Just leave a second comment so you get your second entry.  I will randomly select a winner next Friday, March 26.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an overnight bag to pack.  WOOT!

Disclosure: Dansko provided me with a pair of shoes to facilitate my review and will provide a pair of the winner’s choice as a giveaway.

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One More Chance to Win a Palm Pre Plus!

by Jo-Lynne on March 17, 2010

in Giveaways!

300x250_New-Title1 Guess WHAT?  Tonight there is one more chance to win a Palm Pre Plus.  Along with the rest of TheMotherhood.com’s Verizon Palm Pre Plus mom blogger team, I will be hosting a Smart Mom/Smart Phone Twitter party tonight, Wednesday, March 17, from 9 to 10 PM EST.

In preparation for our guest appearance on The Fly Lady radio show tomorrow (YES!  I’m going to be on the Fly Lady’s radio show tomorrow; I hope you’ll tune in), we’ll be talking about balancing our busy lives and our best Palm Pre Plus tips and tricks.  At the end of the party, one lucky winner will receive  a Verizon Palm Pre Plus.

Here are the deets:

Participate and follow our Twitter party with our custom tweet grid at 9PM EST tonight — St. Patty’s Day!  Shamrock shakes optional.

The hashtag for the party will be #VerizonPalmPrePlus.

In order to win the Verizon Palm Pre Plus (you must have your own Verizon  contract with a data plan in order to use the phone), simply post your Twitter ID in Mister Linky below and participate with at least one tweet during the party.  When you add your link on my site it automatically gets added to the other bloggers that are participating in the Twitter party.

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200x200_PalmBadge_020110For months I had been hankering after a new phone that would organize my life, cook our dinner, put away our laundry, and bring peace to the Middle East. I also wanted a cellular network that doesn’t cut me off when I’m in the middle of a life-or-death conversation with my hairdresser and gets reception at the northern most point on the Maine coast.

So when I was asked to test drive a Palm Pre Plus on Verizon Wireless, I immediately turned to my good friends at Engadget to see if the Palm Pre was a phone I might want to try.  I don’t care to waste my time (or yours) reviewing products I don’t think I will enjoy so I always research them before I accept offers like this.  Unfortunately there was no word on the phone’s ability to sort lights and darks, but it did tout multitasking capabilities, crisp web browsing, and a sleek, compact design.  Because if a phone isn’t stylish, what good is it?

While the Palm Pre hadn’t been on my radar before, I was instantly intrigued when I read the reviews about it, and Verizon’s good reputation made me eager to try it and see if I noticed a remarkable difference from the network I was used to.

The rest, as they say, is history.  If you’ve been following my posts in this series, you know that I found the Palm Pre to have a crisp, vivid touch screen with phenomenal web browsing and video capabilities, convenient multi-tasking and status updates, and clear, dependable reception on Verizon’s wireless 3G network.  I haven’t had a single dropped call or found myself without cell phone reception since I started using the Palm Pre Plus.  In fact, I am currently in the process of breaking contract with my current provider and switching over to Verizon so that I can use my Palm Pre Plus full time, I am that happy with it.  As for dinner and the laundry, a girl can dream, right?

As this Verizon Palm Pre campaign draws to a close, it’s time to announce the winners of the three $25 Verizon gift cards and the Palm Pre Plus.

The winner of the first Verizon gift card from the first post is #29 — Elizabeth.

The winner of the second Verizon gift card from the second post is #7 — Courtney.

The winner of the third Verizon gift card from the third post is #143 — Nancy.

And finally.  Dunh-dunh-dunnnnnnnnnnnnhhhh…

The winner of the Palm Pre Plus is #77 — DeAnn.  CONGRATS!!  I know you will love having a smart phone that lives up to its name, but don’t call me complaining when it puts a red sweater in with your load of whites.  We’ve come a long way in the world of technology but some things are just better left to human hands.

I also want to give a big holla to my dear friends Cooper and Emily at TheMotherhood.com.  Thank you SO much for the opportunity to work on this campaign.

Fine print: If I don’t hear back from someone by Monday at 8am, I will select another winner. I wrote this review while working on a Verizon Palm Pre Plus campaign by TheMotherhood.com on behalf of Verizon Wireless and was given a Palm Pre Plus (and prizes for giveaways) to facilitate my review.

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Modern Bird Studios

by Jo-Lynne on February 22, 2010

in Giveaways!

This giveaway is closed.  In addition to one 12×12-inch custom piece from Modern Bird Studios, Megan and Gregg have offered to give a second winner a 50% off gift certificate.  The randomly selected numbers were 25 and 4, so the winner of the 12×12 piece of personalized artwork is Hillcrest Cottage.  And should she wish to accept, the 50% off coupon goes to courtney.  Congrats, ladies, and thank you Megan and Gregg for providing this giveaway.

In this challenging economic climate, it seems that there’s no end to the creative and innovative ways people are keeping food on the table.  Case in point: Modern Bird Studios.

modernbird_logo

Modern Bird Studios is a small family business run by Gregg Deal and his wife Megan, inspired by Gregg’s interest in urban art and his desire to use his talent to provide for his family.  He combines technology and painting to turn personal photographs into pieces of hip modern art.  Seriously, you’ve got to check it out.

Megan contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d be interested in receiving a piece of their artwork and offered to provide a giveaway for my readers as well as a discount code.  I’m pretty choosy about the reviews and giveaways I accept these days, especially the ones that I put here on Musings of a Housewife, but as soon as I saw their site, I knew I had to tell y’all about it.

The process was a piece of cake, and Megan was delightful to deal with.  I knew immediately which picture I wanted to use.

kids

I got to choose two colors from this color chart.  I was tempted by the tan and white, but I knew I wanted to hang it on the rust-red walls of my office and I thought the black and white would be the perfect contrast, so that was my final answer.  The very next day Megan sent an image proof for my approval.  It looked great, so she said Gregg was going to get to work painting it.  He painted it on a 12×24 block of wood.  In their FAQ section, you can see a description of the process and an explanation of why he uses wood vs. canvas.  A few days later Megan contacted me to say that my painting was going in the mail, and it arrived on my doorstep the next day.  Even she was surprised at how fast it came.  I unwrapped it to find this:

669654761

I KNOW!  That’s my view whenever I look up from my computer.  What a treasure!

I guess you know what’s coming next…

WIN IT! One lucky winner will receive a 12×12-inch painting from Modern Bird Studios.  That’s a $215 value.  You will supply them with the photo of your choice and the two colors you would like the piece created in.  To be eligible to win, there are a couple things you need to do:

1. Follow @Modern_Bird on Twitter

2. Follow Modern Bird on Facebook

3. Leave a comment on this post telling me anything relevant to the artwork at Modern Bird.

I will randomly select a winner next Monday, March 1st.

Finally, if you don’t win, Modern Bird is offering MOAH readers 15% applicable towards a custom piece (from a photo) or for any of the Bloom Pre-Designed Series.  This offer expires on March 8, and the code is MUSINGS.

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A Giveaway. Just Because.

by Jo-Lynne on February 16, 2010

in Giveaways!

This giveaway is closed.  The winner is Mel @ A Box of Chocolates!!  I hope you enjoy your new jewelry.

At Blissdom, I received a $50 gift card to the vintage pearl and I met two of the lovely ladies behind the beautiful hand stamped jewelry.

Like this.

CircleChainBracelet

And this.

FusedHeart

And since I already have a couple of pieces of hand stamped jewelry in my dresser drawer, I thought that I’d use this gift certificate as a giveaway, just because I appreciate you all.  And because I have a minor case of the winter blues, and I thought it might be fun to make somebody squeal with delight.  And because I hit 1400 subscribers today, and that’s as good a reason as any to celebrate.

I’m going to ask one thing.  If you already have a meaningful piece of stamped jewelry, please pass on this giveaway so that someone who doesn’t have one might have a chance.  Of course, if you want to use it as a gift for a special someone, that’s entirely your prerogative.

Just leave a comment and tell me anything — serious, funny, sad… anything.  Just not “great giveaway!” or “pick me!”

I’ll randomly select a winner sometime next week.

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Merry Christmas from Sharpie!

by Jo-Lynne on December 7, 2009

in Giveaways!

This contest is closed.  The winning number is…109.  That’s Leanne K.  Congrats, Leanne!

Remember when there was just one kind of Sharpie?  It was gray with a black cap, and it came in black ink ONLY.  Then they came out with the fine tip.  Now they make Sharpies in every color of the rainbow, in every kind of tip imaginable, baby Sharpies, fancy aluminum Sharpies with replaceable ink cartridges…  You name it; if it’s a pen, Sharpie makes it.

Just look at what they sent me.

sharpies

How cute is that?  A festive ball ornament full of different kinds of Sharpies.

And like the pens, when it comes to uses for the Sharpie, the possibilities are endless.

If I was craftsy, which I most certainly am not, but if I was, I might do something like create flower pot bell ornaments for the tree using Sharpie paint markers.  You could color small terra-cotta flowerpots and let them dry.  In fact, I might just have to go to the craft store and pick up some of those flowerpots and set my 7-year-old daughter free with the Sharpies one afternoon.  She’d have a ball.  Heh.  Get it?  A ball.  Ahem, sorry.

Or you could create your own wrapping paper.

Or make your own holiday cards or thank you cards.

They make great gifts too.  Just place an assortment of Sharpies in a large soup can covered in plain white paper and decorated with Sharpie markers. Wrap it up, top with a festive bow and there you have it — the perfect gift for your child’s teacher or babysitter.

Oh and hey.  Sharpie wants to award one of my lucky readers with their very own ornament of Sharpies. I KNOW!  Fun, huh?  Just tell me in the comments how you would use your ornament o’ Sharpies, and you are entered to win.  And for an extra entry, you can tweet about the contest using the hashtag #sharpie.  (Be sure to leave a 2nd comment that you tweeted it, so you get two entries!!)  I will randomly select a winner on Saturday, December 12.

THEN. Blissfully Domestic is hosting contest where participants can show off their Sharpie-inspired creations and enter to win a $250 gift card. Feel free to use one of my suggestions above, or create your own.  Then you will need to upload a picture of your creation onto the contest post, or you can write a post on your blog and link up.  I’ll update this post with a link to the contest when it goes live tomorrow.  The winner will be drawn by random number.

This post is part of a Blissful Media campaign.

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School Days Are Here Again *GIVEAWAY*

September 15, 2009

This post is sponsored by Hallmark.
And the winner of the $50 Gold Crown card is Emily E. Congrats!!
Last Tuesday morning, otherwise known around these here parts as First Day of School, dawned bright and early as I hauled myself out of bed at dark-thirty to make myself presentable to appear at the bus stop.  My [...]

38 comments Keep reading

Blog Hop 09 Giveaways!

July 26, 2009

The giveaways are now closed.  The winners are Christine @ Live Laugh Love & Bloggings, Michelle Smiles, and Dana.  Congrats, ladies!
It’s hard to believe, but BlogHer 09 seems to be wrapping up already.  The chatter on Twitter this morning is all about saying good-bye to Chicago and looking forward to next year.  And next year?  [...]

27 comments Keep reading

We Need An Alice.

June 23, 2009

This giveaway is closed.  The FIVE winners of $100 to Alice are Kellyn, Christa, Misty, Stefani, and Christine Bowman.  Congrats, ladies!  Enjoy shopping at Alice.  As for the rest of you, don’t forget that EVERYONE gets $10 off your first $50 order, so go forth and shop!
Ever since we had kids, my husband has [...]

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Fashion Friday: The Denim Jacket

May 1, 2009

Stephanie says:
For future fashion posts, I’d love to see your write about “how to choose a stylish denim jacket.” I, too, love the idea of a denim jacket, but it’s hard to pick the right kind. Some denim jackets just look way too “80’s.
Did someone say denim?  Ah, one of my favorite topics.  I heart [...]

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