Giveaway: Personalized Photo Keepsake

My friend, "Gert," over at Chicken Scratches is having a great giveaway from her Etsy Shop! Perfect for this time of year! How cute is this ornament? And of course you get to personalize it with your own photos! I am thinking it would make a beautiful keepsake of your past year. A new baby? Wedding? Family Portrait? I love it. She is so talented! Go take a look at all of her fun stuff at her Etsy shop and then go enter her contest! She's asking that you spread the word about her contest and shop through your blog or facebook, etc. and that is how you get an entry (don't forget to tell her about it in the comments). The winner of this giveaway will be announced on November 20, 2009!

Review and Discount: Lovable Labels

Today is Friday. Which at my children's elementary school means School Spirit Day. Everybody is supposed to wear red-preferably their red school t-shirts or sweatshirts. The class wearing the most red gets to keep the coveted school spirit trophy for the week. This is great-- my kids love dressing all in red. It is fun to go to the school and see the sea of red on the playground. But at this time of year, when the mornings are chilly and the afternoons are unbearably hot, my kids will take off their sweatshirts and they don't always make it back home. This is a problem when 10 other school sweatshirts ended up in the lost and found too. Last year we lost one forever because it was taken off at school and some kid probably thought it was theirs. Solution: Lovable Labels.
I was given the opportunity to review Lovable Labels for my family at the start of this school year. I am eager to see how they continue to hold up throughout the school year, but so far they have been great! I received the Back to School Mega Pack which includes:

*15 Sticker Labels *60 Slimline Labels *48 Press N’ Stick Clothing DOTS™ *16 Shoe Labels *2 Mini-Metal Tags * 5 Book/Binder Stickers.

I have the clothing dots on all of their school sweatshirts just in case they don't come home from school one day. We will quickly be able to identify them. The labels also hold up incredibly well in the wash so far. I half expected them to be a little beat up after going through the washer and dryer, but they still look good as new after several washes. I've used the slimline labels on their lunchboxes and thermoses. These labels have again held up like new even when going through the dishwasher or being handwashed. I am impressed with the durability. I haven't used the shoe stickers yet because I plan on putting them on the boots in the winter to see how they hold up, because in reality those are the only shoes my kids have ever left behind at school. But based on how well the others hold up, I have no doubt they will do a great job sticking to the boots.
Since I have 5 kids in grades 1-6, we end up with a lot of hand me downs and shared items. So I just put our last name on the stickers with a star because I figured it would be well reecived by both my girls and my boys. They all want the bag tags of which there were only 2 so I have had to choose which kids get those-although they can be easily moved from one pack to another so they can easily trade off--if they are in a sharing kind of mood. I received more than enough labels to cover the needs of my large family. I felt that was a great value. I have plenty for now and some to spare as we add items throughout the school year that will need labels. At their website they have lots of other fun products like stationery and household labels.

Right now Lovable Labels is offering my readers a special 10% discount on the purchase of the Back to School Mega Pack-which is only available til Sept 30th!

Hurry on over to www.lovablelabels.ca and choose the country which you reside in (there is no price difference per country). Click on the Back to School Mega Pack (which is on the home page) and during the purchasing process enter your reader discount code: buttercupsgrotto to get 10% off the normal price. This code will be valid for 2 weeks from today--until Sept 26th.

Withdrawal...

I have to be honest with you, when I won Autonet, I was excited at first because I won it, but then I was like what is this thing? Really? I am I EVER going to use it? I even tried to trade it away, but found no takers on the trade. I brought it home and looked up its value and decided maybe I could sell it and at least get something for it, but the Autonet people were so nice and would call me and email me and offered to install it in my car and give me 6 months for free, so I thought, "what do I have to lose?" Nothing really. I got it installed in my car. All it cost me was about an hour of my time while they installed. I didn't use it for the first week. I really had no use for it. Wasn't sure how I was gong to use it. From time to time it came in handy with my laptop, but the truth of the matter is that I hated lugging my laptop around just in case I might need to look something up. Then we went on vacation. We used our Autonet connection and loved it. We were so grateful for it on our road trip vacation. and then my usage declined again because I'd have to lug my laptop around. And then I lost my job and my laptop with it. hmmm.... how can I use it now? Well, my husband got a free iPod Touch with his new laptop for work and well, it is MY iPod Touch now. And I use it all the time in the car to check my email facebook, update twitter, schedule my dvr, listen to music on Pandora, etc. And for the past couple of days it hasn't been working (I think I am at the end of my free trial period) and so I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal, because I liked being able to just "check in" from wherever I was. I am so ready to be signed up and a paying subscriber!

Is there such thing as an all day lipstick?

Dear Christy,

I read your post today and watched your video about looking for a good all day lipstick-maybe I have found some for you!

Your Friend,
Robyn



Today, my friend Christy posted a video about lipstick. She is looking for an all day lipstick that actually stays on! So I thought I'd share with her my findings with Revlon ColorStay Overtime. Please forgive the shaky camera-I did this as a quick response and I'm trying out my new Flipcam!

Here are my lips after dinner so about 6 hours after I applied the lipstick. I haven't reapplied the gloss.

Giveaway: Sew Cute Shop Amy Butler Birdie Sling

Whenever I see an Amy Butler Print I can't help but think of my dear friend, Amy (this one's for you!). And on top of it all this bag is absolutely precious! Head on over to Grosgrain's Sew Cute Shop Amy Butler Birdie Sling GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! This giveaway is for Amy Butler Birdie Sling w/ 2 large pockets featured, sewed by Sew Cute Shop with an Amy Butler fabric of your choice. How fun is that?

Giveaway: Downeast Basics

Supermom, Lauren is hosting a fabulous week of back to school giveaways! (See Link Button in my Side bar) Today she just posted a giveaway from DownEast Basics for the cutest little skirt and long sleeved lace tee. I popped over to the DownEast Basics Site and was so impressed with their affordable and cute clothes. Why haven't I shopped there before? Although it is simple, I really like this girls mini classic tee. It is exactly the kind of shirt I have been looking for to put on my 10-year-old Tomboy. Not too girly but it has a nice feminine cut. Perfect. Contest ends Sunday, Aug. 23 at 11:59 pm MST

Back To School Giveaway Event 2009

My favorite Twin Bloggers over at 5minutesformom.com are at it again! This time with a week's worth of back to school giveaways. Every day check back through August 28th to see what amazing new giveaway they have going on! So far they have A Lands End Back Pack & Lunch Pack and $50 to Famous Footwear. Have fun! I can't wait to see what other fun giveaways these ladies have!