On Tuesday, a package arrived, in it were costumes for the kids.  To say they were excited would be a total understatement.  They wore the costumes while they watched TV, played Guitar Hero, watched over their brother and ate lunch.  So the idea of wearing them to the Disney Store in Chicago nearly kept them awake the entire night before.

We honestly had no idea what to expect.  We arrived to see a very long line.  Disney was offering a limited edition Jessie doll, only 2010 were created.  Fans arrived early to purchase their dolls and have them signed by Joan Cusack, the voice of Jessie.

Fortunately, we were able to walk past the line to the media area, where we were allowed to join the media frenzy that surrounded Joan.  IT. WAS. FUN.  Anna and Noah were being interviewed by TV and radio stations.  They really did not understand what was going on, honestly, neither did I, I just felt so lucky to be there.

Needless to say, we met Joan and she was amazing.

After talking with Anna and Noah, she offered to buy them whatever they wanted from the store.  Her two sons helped the kids shop, her sons were the nicest boys.

I was wearing Eli in my sling, Joan approached me and said “I want to hold him.”  I said “NO WAY, HE’S MINE, BACK OFF.”

Okay, that’s a lie, I said “You do?!  Okay then!”  And she held him in her arms and seemed to really be loving him.  I was like “can I get my picture taken with you?”  and she said something like “uh uh, sure kid, whatever you say.”

“CHEEEEESE!”  I said.

“You’re such a cute little baby,” she said.

She was smitten.  (how could you not be?!)

You get the idea, we met Joan, she was awesome, Anna is in AWE of her, we can’t wait to see Toy Story 3 and now I have a giveaway for you!

Our friends at Disney are offering up a fun Jessie prize package -

One lucky reader will receive A Jessie Talking Doll, Jessie Backpack, Jessie Lunch tote & a Jessie Journal! ($67 value)  This is bound to make one Jessie fan very happy.  Anna picked out a Jessie doll and loves her, Jessie has been to WalMart, Target, the park and Anna wears her around in a sling.  (she also sleeps by her bed in a bed she made of tissues.  It’s all about hospitality in my house.)

What do you need to do to enter to win?  3 ways to enter:

-Leave me a comment telling me who your favorite Toy Story character is!

-Tweet about this giveaway, leave your link to your tweet in a separate comment.

-Blog or Facebook about this giveaway, leaving your link in a separate comment!

That’s it!  This giveaway will close on Friday, June 25th at 9:00 CST, winner to be announced this weekend.

Good luck!

Thanks to Disney for this great giveaway and for giving my family the opportunity to meet Joan Cusack!

Hi, friends!  Over the next 24 hours I’ll be giving away a series of items to celebrate you and Mother’s Day!  I hope you enjoy yourselves.

The first item is a $50 gift certificate to Snapfish.  I LOVE Snapfish and I’m not just saying that because they sent me Georgetown Cupcakes last month to celebrate Snapfish’s 10 year anniversary, I really love them and order from them every Christmas.  So, I’m excited to share this giveaway with you!

This year Snapfish is offering many items perfect for Mother’s Day including collage blankets, photo jewelry and photo cards!  (among many other items.  Seriously.  They have A LOT to choose from.)

And just because Snapfish is extra nice, they are offering you an additional 20% off thru 5/9, just enter MOMSDAY10 as your coupon code.

To enter this giveaway:

Just leave a comment telling me why you love Mother’s Day – please do not say PICK ME because that makes me stabby.

Also, you’ll receive an additional entry if you tweet, blog or write on facebook about this giveaway, just leave the link to either of the three in a SEPARATE comment!

Contest ends Thursday, 5/6/10 – winners will be announced Thursday evening!

Good luck!

She has amazing talent, a great eye for design.  (couldn’t you just have these pieces of art hanging all over your walls?)

Stephanie is generously giving one 10×10 canvas (with words or photo & words) to one lucky winner!  An $89 value.

What do you need to do to win?  Check out the Geezees Gallery and come back and tell me who you would like to see on your canvas print if you won!  (I’M NOSEY, OK?)  But don’t worry, if you win, you can choose whatever you want, it doesn’t have to be what you leave in the comments.

But wait, you can get a second entry simply by tweeting about this giveaway!  Just leave the link to your tweet in a separate comment.

{oh and please do not say “PICK ME” because I will put a fork in my eye!}

{also, I’m very jealous of whoever the winner will be.  There.  I said it.}

Open to US residents only …  this giveaway will remain open until Tuesday March 23, 2010 at 9:00 pm, CST.

Good luck, friends!

Thanks to The Vintage Pearl for this wonderful giveaway!

and in other news…I do plan to write a real post like tomorrow morning.  I promise.  I even have a gigantic belly shot JUST FOR YOU.

Recently, The Vintage Pearl approached me about doing a review and giveaway, they have some of the best looking jewelry I have ever seen, many with wonderful sentiments that would mean something to somebody.

I found a necklace where I can honor ALL of my kids, including the baby in my belly and it makes me so happy.

This is the one I received:

I love it, it’s beautiful.  It’s called The Mother Bird.  *sigh.*

I’m excited to be giving away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky reader!  What do you need to do to win?

Just head over to The Vintage Pearl and come back and tell me what your FAVORITE piece is!  (this does not mean you have to pick that piece if you win, it just means I’m really nosey.)  Also, tweeting about this giveaway gives you a SECOND entry, just leave your tweet link in a separate comment.    And thirdly, if you have a blog, blogging about this giveaway gives you a THIRD entry.  THREE WAYS TO WIN!

The winner will be chosen AT RANDOM on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 9:00 pm CST.  The Vintage Pearl ships anywhere – so anyone can join in on the fun.

(please do not say PICK ME in the comments because that is annoying and again, IT’S RANDOM.)

FTC regulations require me to tell you that this product was given to me for free, for review purposes, which is pretty obvious, don’t you think?

Good luck, friends!

The entire month someone in our house was sick, mostly my daughter who caught the flu on November 2nd and was treated for flu and sinus infection on December 1st.  We all had the sickies at some point or another which made things difficult for me because not only was I sick or caring for someone who was sick but I also wanted to bake.

ALL OF THE TIME.

My dilemma wasn’t so much that I didn’t have energy to bake even though I wanted to, it was baking without spreading these nasty germs to other family members and friends that I was preparing these sweet treats for them to enjoy.

So, what did I do?  For one, I washed my hands endlessly, and two, I used paper towels to dry my hands every single time I washed them.  Which was a lot.

I could not stand the thought of using the same towel over and over again, I just imagined the germs manifesting inside of it and knew that using paper towels would be safer for all of us.

And to combat stubborn chocolate or maple glaze stuck to my countertops?  I used paper laid out on my work area.  It worked out perfectly.

I call this my “mess catcher.”

So now the holidays are in full swing, I seem to be baking something nearly everyday and we are finally, once again, all healthy.  Which makes me want to celebrate…with some Christmas cookies.

(and with all of the germs gone from the kitchen, I feel much better about licking every last bit of chocolate off of my fingers!)

mmmmm…..

Get the recipe for these chocolate beauties by clicking here!

Win! Our friends at Viva are giving one of you a $50 Visa Gift card to spend however you wish!  To win, leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite holiday tradition, your favorite holiday dish or what you do to ensure your holiday travels go smoothly!

Receive a second, third or fourth entry by tweeting, facebooking or blogging about this giveaway! (please leave the links to each entry separately in the comments!) Who’s going to be the lucky winner?

Winner will be chosen at random on Sunday, December 13th at 9:00 pm. CST.

This post was sponsored by Viva Towels. For fun, fork-free recipes – including videos – and snappy entertaining ideas, get over to the VIVA® Diva Café.

I have winners!

The individuals who each won a $50 gift certificate to Tiny Prints are:

Katie (no blog), who said “I love the Inspirational Square!”

And Saj at Saj Advice.  Both winners have been notified!

Thanks for participating and special thanks to Tiny Prints for the great giveaway.  I received my Christmas cards today and they are BEAUTIFUL.   And stunning!  And perfect!

Seriously, they are.

_____________

If you’re looking for a real post from me, you can find one of those here!

I’m so good to you.  If you had been here just five minutes earlier, I would have shared my ice cream with you.

Do you love sending and receiving Christmas cards as much as I do?  If you do, then I have a treat for you!

This morning I finally placed my order for my Christmas cards from Tiny Prints today, I’m so excited because their selection is amazing and the quality of their product is BEAUTIFUL so the process of choosing and ordering a card of our very own makes me very, very happy.

Just this year, I received a birth announcement from both Erin and Crooked Eyebrow that were printed by Tiny Prints and I can’t even bear to take them off of my refrigerator, they are so beautiful.  (doesn’t help the cause that their babies ARE SO CUTE.)  Anyway, it’s all good stuff.  All of it.

This is why I am so excited to be able to give away a $50 gift certificate to TWO lucky readers just in time to order your Christmas cards.

And if you’ve already ordered your Christmas cards from Tiny Prints this year, that’s okay, you can enter, too, and get $50 back from your purchase!

Winning is simple:

First, visit the Tiny Prints Holiday card section and pick out your favorite card, come back and share the link with me in the comments section.  (don’t worry, you’re not obligated to get that card if you win…)  That’s the first way to win…

Second, write about this giveaway on your blog and come back here and leave the link to your post in the comments.

Third, Tweet or Facebook about this giveaway (OR BOTH!) and leave a comment with those links!

That’s FOUR ways you to win.  So, get busy…AND GOOD LUCK!  (please leave separate comments for each entry…)

Winners will be chosen at random on Thursday, December 5th at 8:00 pm CST.

Good luck & Happy Holidays!

I agreed to this for two reasons.  One, organization is really important to me, but I’m not really good at it, so any help would have been greatly appreciated.  The second reason is that I loved the idea that there was finally a safe website for listing items to sell locally.  Back in June I listed two couches on Craigslist, rather than being excited when people would respond to my ad, I found myself skeptical and actually scared by their responses.  I trusted NO ONE.  Especially to COME TO MY HOUSE.  Every response came across as shady.

Rather than responding to the interested parties, I hid in the corner with my hands over my ears screaming “what I have done, I listed my couches ONLINE!!  WE’LL NEVER BE SAFE AGAIN.”

Needless to say, I did not sell the couches using Craigslist.  It was then that I read that people can actually sell sex on Craigslist and I thought “you know, maybe this place needs some work, some security and maybe I QUIT IT.“  (p.s.  if you’ve used it and it was a good experience, that is awesome, I’m just overly paranoid, I’m sure.) (Not that I have anything against selling sex on online except that REALLY I DO.)

So, when I found out about Kijiji, I was very excited and instantly felt better just by visiting the website.  And honestly, I wanted to tell all of you about it because obviously the more people who know about it…the better.

Posting on Kijiji is unbelievably simple and straightforward.  I did it!  It took just a few moments, LOVED IT.

GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate Kijiji and organization, I am giving away a $100 gift card to Organize.com which may be one of the greatest websites in the history of the world.  I’m not kidding.  If you go there be prepared to be inspired and also, be prepared to go broke because the laundry sorters, the closet storage, the kitchen organization, the office supplies…GAH!  It’s beautiful.  All of it.

And one of you lucky dogs will get ONE HUNDRED BIG ONES to spend in this glorious place.  *cough*totally jealous*cough*

There are many ways to win!

1.  Post about Kijiji and this giveaway on your blog and leave the link in the comments section.

2.  Tweet about Kijiji and this giveaway on Twitter and leave the link to your tweet in the comments section

3.  TRY IT! List something you’ve been wanting to sell on Kijiji and leave that link in the comments section.

Three chances to win!

Comments will be closed on Wednesday, September 16th at 9:00 pm CST.  Winner will be chosen at random.

BEST OF LUCK!

(don’t forget to follow Kijiji on twitter – @kijijius!)

***

I feel so lucky to have been sponsored by Snapfish for Blogher – I love the company and their products and it’s all focused on photography, which makes it double (triply?  quadrupally?) awesome.  (leave me alone, I’m allowed to make up words.)

As if them sponsoring wasn’t generous enough, they are hosting two really cool giveaways for my (beautiful and friendly) readers.  (that would be you.)

So, let’s cut to the chase.

Today I am giving away a $35 gift certificate to Snapfish to TWO LUCKY READERS.  Have you been to Snapfish lately?  You can buy A LOT with $35.  Cups, post cards, PRINTS, calendars, it’s a DREAM OF A GIVEAWAY, if you ask me.

What do you need to do to win?

THAT’S EASY.

Just leave me a comment telling me one of your favorite moments of summer so far.  Maybe you went on a picnic with your family or you sat alone on your front porch and watched the storm clouds roll in.  ANYTHING.   Just tell me about it.

The winners will be chosen randomly, so please do not say PICK ME because that, my friends, is annoying.

But wait, you can gain other chances to win, here’s how:

*tweet about this giveaway and leave the link to the tweet in a separate comment.

*blog about this gvieaway and leave the link to your post in a separate comment.

*post about this on Facebook and leave the link to your post in a separate comment.

Wow.  That’s a lot of chances to win.

The contest ends Thursday, August 13th at 9:00 pm CST.

Good luck and special thanks to Snapfish!