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Custom iPhone Case with Blog Logo: $9.99 – plus save 50%!!

Super cool personalized holiday gifts – Super cool prices too!

Pexagon offers unique and exciting personalized products that make great gifts for your friends, family, or business contacts! From custom USB flash drives to personalized pens and smartphone cases, show them you think they’re awesome with a customized gift from Pexagon! Best of all, custom laser engraving is available on most products and is absolutely FREE!

Add personalized text, upload your own logos, choose from our stock themes … you imagine it, we create it! And just because our items are personalized with no order minimums and inexpensive shipping options that doesn’t mean our prices are high – In fact, Pexagon’s complete line of Custom USB Flash Drives start at just $5.49!

Take advantage of this spectacular SocialSpark Deal and get all of your holiday shopping done early this year. Some of the cool features:

  • USB flash drives, personalized pens and smartphone cases
  • Hundreds of color combinations
  • Custom laser engraving
  • Free personalization with text, logos, and themes

What I ordered:

I ordered a super, amazingly cool, iPhone case with my Sunshine and Sippy Cups logo on it! Totally awesome, I know. Best part?? ONLY $9.99!! What?? Serious. And YOU need one for YOUR business too! There is a ton of other cool stuff, the prices rock, and I know you will love this.

Let me know what YOU get!

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Save the World: Win a Hydros Water Bottle!!

That title might sound dramatic, but it isn’t. Learn more about the true cost of bottled water. This affects everyone, all around the world.

Read these startling facts:

  • Sixty million plastic bottles end up in American landfills daily.
  • Thirty-eight billion water bottles are discarded into landfills every year.
  • Last year, consumers spent $15 billion on disposable bottled water.
  • It takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water.
  • Consumers use 1.5 million tons of plastic for water bottles each year; less than 5% of this plastic waste is recycled.
  • You can get approximately 450 gallons of tap water for the price of one bottled water.
  • Producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation.

Surprised?

So was I. It seems crazy that in a country filled with people suffering from a financial crisis, we’re spending that much money a year for something that we can get almost free from the kitchen faucet. And what an incredible waste of resources, right? We switched to reusable Stainless Steel bottles, one for each family member, last year – we did it mostly for frugal reasons, but now I’m glad to know what a huge environmental impact that simple switch is making too.

What you can do:

Well, simple – stop buying bottled water! Easy peasy, right? Making the switch to ANY type of reusable bottle is better than going through all of those disposable bottles. It’s worth it to invest in a few quality water bottles too – check out what you’re paying for those disposable bottles:

For this example, I’m using an average family of 4, where each member drinks a couple bottles of water each day. Say they’re buying Nestle Purelife Bottled Spring Water, at $6.99 for a case of 24. That’s only .30 cents a bottle, great deal right?

  • Four people drinking 2 bottles per day = 56 bottles per week.
  • 56 bottles per week at .30 cents each is $16.80 per week.
  • That’s $67.20 per month.
  • And a whopping $873.60 per year – just for some water bottles you throw away! How crazy is that, right??!!

Why we buy bottled water:

There are a ton of reasons people buy bottled water, but here are a few of them-

  • It’s more convenient for busy families to have bottles ready to grab in the fridge.
  • You’re worried about the safety or quality of your tap water.
  • Maybe you just don’t like the taste of your tap water – so you buy bottled.

Hydros BottleBusy Mom Solution!

No matter what your reason for buying bottled water – The Hydros Bottle is your solution! The Hydros Bottle gives you great tasting, filtered water right from your tap, with it’s super cool built-in filter! As they say, “Hydros Bottle is the first everyday filtering water bottle. Get 24 oz of refreshing great tasting water on the go and revitalize your body and the planet we live on.” How can you argue with that, right? Good for you, good for the earth, and good for your wallet? Winning.

Sounds super cool, right?

I was going to share some pic’s of mine, but this video below shows it perfectly! I’ve never even had a problem with the taste of our water – but I actually could tell a difference when drinking it from the Hydros Bottle! It just tasted cleaner, if you know what I mean. I don’t drink soda, and go through about 5 or 6 bottles of water a day. I have quite a few different types of water bottles, as you can probably imagine – but this new Hydros Bottle is my first with a filter. I am totally hooked now, and bought more for gifts. See it in action…

Looks Good, Tastes Good – and the Company Does Good too!

Almost one billion people around the world—that’s one in seven people—do not have access to clean water. Although fresh water is becoming increasingly scarce, the global water crisis is caused not by a lack of water, but by a lack of access. Read these heartbreaking facts:

  • The global water crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through weapons.
  • Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease.
  • Half of the world’s hospital beds at any given time are occupied by patients suffering from a water-borne disease.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it?

But you can help! Operation Hydros contributes $1 for every Hydros Bottle that you purchase. Learn more about what they do and why they do it, and how they choose which organizations to help. They fund projects locally and around the world – and they are making an incredible difference in the lives of children and their mothers, everywhere, every day.

Win a Hydros Bottle!

I’m so excited to be able to introduce you to such an amazing company – they have incredible products that fill a need, solve a problem, and give back to our communities! What more can you ask for when searching for a new product? And one of you lucky fans are going to WIN a FREE Hydros Bottle for your family! Use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form to get your entries in – and make sure to come back each day for your daily entries. Not only are you giving yourself additional chances to win, but you’re helping to really spread the word about a great company, and helping support their charitable giving!

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Fit2Fight Diabetes – Show Your Support this month!!

Better 'n Eggs

Fit2Fight Diabetes – Show Your Support!

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month – a time to show support for those dealing with this preventable disease that affects
25.8 million children and adults in the U.S. With the rates increasing all of the time, I’m sure that almost all of us know someone who is living with Diabetes – so I’m here to give you some great tips you can use or pass to those who need them, and some fun ways to show support for National Diabetes Awareness Month too!

How YOU can show your support:

  • Join me in adding the Better ‘n Eggs Fit2Fight Diabetes campaign Twibbon to your Twitter profile!
  • Party with us! Join me, Bob Greene, and Better’n Eggs for a Twitter party on November 16th from 8-10pm EST as we discuss Type 2 Diabetes, how you can prevent it, or how you can manage it should you be living with it today.

Great healthy recipes!

Get tons of great recipes featuring the great-tasting alternative to regular eggs – Better n’ Eggs and All Whites – on their website. Here’s my personal favorite…

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups (16 ounces) Better’n Eggs®:
  • 1 package (10 ounces) 100% whole wheat thin crust prepared Italian pizza crust
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
  • 1 cup (4 ounces) Crystal Farms® Reduced Fat Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Easy Peasy Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 450° F. Spray 10-inch nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Cook Better’n Eggs in 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. As egg starts to set use spatula to lift edge of cooked eggs letting uncooked egg flow to bottom of skillet. Cook until eggs are set but still moist.
  2. Place pizza crust on large cookie sheet. Top crust with cooked Better’n Eggs, chopped tomatoes, basil and cheese.
  3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Then eat, and enjoy!

How has Diabetes affected YOUR life?

Do you have a friend, or family member who is living with Diabetes? Or do are you living with it yourself? What are your best healthy-living tips to share? Share your ideas in the comments here to help others who are dealing with this in their life too!

Women’s Health is a fresh, smart, informative and inspiring magazine that speaks to today’s active, youthful women in a way that is passionate, authoritative and relevant to their lifestyle.

Get 3 Issues for only $5.07. No Auto Renewals. Click Here to take advantage of this awesome deal today!!

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Sharing for Christmas Charity Giveaway: Carmex Rafflecopter Prize!

Hauling and Trucking

Hauling and Trucking & Makobi Scribe present Sharing For Christmas!

I gathered together with a bunch of amazing blogging friends to donate to Parker’s Pals, which is an organization that helps children who are diagnosed with cancer under the age of three. The bloggers hosting this event donated just under $200 to go towards a Parker’s Pail. The cost of a pail is $240 so we came really close! Please check out this worthwhile organization!

Tears in my eyes…

Reading about the wonderful work that Parker’s Pals does seriously made me cry… Yes, I am a very emotional type of momma, and my heart just goes out to any parent dealing with such a serious illness in such a tiny little loved one. I can’t even imagine how hard that must be. So anything that we can do to help these families have a little extra happiness, and a little less stress, is so important. Make sure to check them out – and remember that if you can help, every little bit helps.

Ok, putting away my tissue!

Dried my eyes, and ready to share the excitement with you! To help bring attention to this amazing group, we’re all doing some super fun holiday giveaways! You can use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form to enter mine here – then check out the big linky list of other great blogs you can enter to win on too! Just click down the list, one at a time, and enter as many as you want – the more you enter, the more chances you have to win!

Carmex GiveawayWin a Carmex Winter Healing Lotion and Cream Package!

Ohmyheck I love Carmex! We have just about every different kind of Carmex lip balm around our house – every single person in my family is totally hooked on it. When I learned that they had a skin care line too – I was super excited to learn more! You can read my full review in this post – Busy Mom Solution: Carmex Healing Lotion! – but to give you the short version…. This stuff rocks. I have terribly dry hands that just get worse as the weather gets colder – but this stuff is making a real, noticeable difference. I need something that I can put on multiple times per day, and be able to get right back to typing after applying – and this does the job. My hands are soft and soothed, with no sticky icky residue. Perfect. One lucky winner will get the same set that I received:

  • One full-sized 5.5 oz Carmex Healing Lotion
  • Another full size Carmex Healing Cream
  • A travel size of Carmex Healing Lotion
  • A purse size of the Carmex Healing Cream
  • All wrapped up in a super cute travel bag!

Enter to Win!

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Shutterfly Family Photo Days – Fun Tips & Free Holiday Cards!

Paullin Family Pic 2010Getting Perfect Family Photos…

Everyone has that one perfect family photo. The one where everyone is smiling, the lighting is perfect, no one has a weird lamp growing out of their head…. You know, perfect. And you try again every year to get it right again, with no luck. At the holidays, you’re often sending out cards to people you seldom see during the year, so you want to show your family in the best possible way – it’s a lot of pressure, right?

The holidays are getting closer every minute…

As you can see from my new little gadget in the sidebar, there are only 47 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 22 seconds until Christmas! That might seem like a lot of time, but it’ll be here before you know it. And the very best tip to have a relaxing, peaceful, and enjoyable holiday season it to get things done early. One of the big reasons I hear from people for putting off creating amazing personalized holiday cards is that they don’t have a great photo to use. Well – I’m here, armed with some great tools from Shutterfly, to save the day!

Holiday {or any day!} Photo Tips:

  • Coordinate: You don’t have to dress everyone in matching holiday sweaters! But choose a theme, or color story, so everyone’s outfits work well together. Solid colors work better than a lot of pattern, layers work better than short sleeves, and a couple cute accessories can really pull things together! Choose one color that everyone pulls into their outfit somewhere – Example: If you chose red, then mom would wear a red top, dad might have a red shirt layered under a sweater, baby could have a red bow in her hair – you get the idea.
  • Shake it up: Don’t take stuffy, boring photos on the family couch. Get outside! Jump in fall leaves, play in the snow, run in the grass. Find an interesting landmark in your city to take photos with. The more unexpected the better!
  • Props: Some fun props can make a world of difference! I love, love, LOVE bringing big wooden letters into photos – have the kids hold letters that spell a word, like JOY or LOVE. Or have each kid hold a sign with a different word – spelling a phrase like Joy to the World. Have everyone wear hats and scarves – or big winter boots in the snow! Eat snowcones, shovel snow, throw the kids in the air, kick a soccer ball – trust me, when you’re having fun, it’ll show in your photos!

Have a Family Photo Day:

Shutterfly wants to help families across the country have an easier time capturing those perfect family moments to share in their Holiday Cards and Photo Books by helping you host Family Photo Days!  What’s a Family Photo Day? Well, it’s a super smart idea, a total Busy Mom Solution – get a bunch of your friends together, set up some fun props to share, brainstorm fun ideas and silly settings, grab your cameras, and prepare to be delighted by some amazing holiday photos!

It’s not about the professional photographer or the dull photo shoot in front of the mantle. It’s something anyone can do. Get together with friends and brainstorm! Think about creative ways to show off your families’ personalities.

Online Tool Kit:

Check out Shutterfly Family Photo Day online for some super cool tools and features:

  • Learn more about Family Photo Day, and watch a really great video that will seriously give you some awesome ideas. So easy, and so fun!
  • Download the digital toolkit for a HUGE list of photo tips – including indoor shots, outdoor ideas, setting and prop ideas, wardrobe tips, and so much more. You’ll feel like a pro in no time!
  • Get FREE Holiday Cards! Enter your favorite family photo – and get 5 totally free cards just for entering! And the winner will get a full YEAR worth of free cards! Awesomesauce, I know.

Secret Trick for Holiday Photos:

If all else fails, and you just cannot get one picture where everyone looks good, use my secret trick – use an easy and free editing program like Picnik.com to crop your photos – take the best parts of a few of your favorites, make sure you’ve got everyone in at least one pic, and put them all together in a fun multiple-photo Christmas Card! No one will ever know that you had to crop out the brother pulling sisters hair. We’ve done this for many of our cards, and they turn out perfect.

More Holiday Fun:

Check out a few of my other Holiday Prep posts too! Learn my super easy peasy secret for amazing Bake Pop desserts, read my Top 10 Tips for Holiday Planning, learn how to get a great 25% off coupon for Melissa & Doug Toys, and get your business ready for the holidays too!

What do you think? 

Did you watch the video? Does it make you more excited for great holiday photo shoots now too? What do you think of the idea to pull your family and friends together for a fun Family Photo Day? Share your thoughts, along with your best holiday photo tips, in the comments!

{Disclaimer: I received a complimentary set of holiday cards for sharing this amazingly cool promotion with you – but I would’ve shared it anyway, because I know you’ll love it. Fun tips and advice, creative inspiration, and free photo cards? That’s what I call super-cool.}

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Super Fun Bake Pops Ideas!! #baking #holidays #recipes

Bake Pop Ideas

Who Loves Bake Pops?

Heck I know I do! I think that these are one of the funnest baking ideas to come around in a long time. {Is funnest even a word?….} So, if you’re like me, and love Bake Pops, and love fun holiday baking ideas, you’ll love this post! You’ll learn some super creative ideas, and find out why using the Bake Pop pans are WAAAY easier than making pops by hand!

Why I love Bake Pops

We just got our Bake Pop set last Friday – and I am SO excited to start creating some fun goodies! And the set is pretty impressive – it comes with so much stuff. Check it out – the deal is still available:

Get the Bake Pop Double Kit – 150 Pieces of Baking Fun!! Only $19.99!!

This little gadget makes it SO easy to make fun baked goodies that look like you’re a pro – even if you’re not! {I love to bake, but am super likely to run into total catastrophes! Lol.} You whip up any cake mix – from scratch or from a box – pour it into the Bake Pop pans, cook ’em up, pop ’em out, then dip ’em and decorate! It is seriously so easy peasy to make them look really impressive!

Love From the Oven:

The first pic above is from Love from the Oven – she has SO many absolutely adorable ideas! This is a really simple Bake Pop – just dipped and covered in sprinkles – then she simply put it in a cellophane bag, and tied on a printable card with ribbon. How fun would this be for a bake sale, kids birthday party, or gifts? So easy, so pretty!

Cake Pop IdeasAnother fun idea: This one comes from Bake Me a Wish – and again, shows you how even just super simple decorating can give you a really cool dessert by using the Bake Pop system!! She dipped these Bake Pops into melted Candy Melts, then covered them with fun sprinkles. She’s got some great tips – but she makes her Bake Pops by hand, and shares some of the problems you can run into doing it this way. That’s why I love my Bake Pop maker! I don’t have to worry about rolling ’em up and keeping them held together.

Bake Pops IdeasMore super fun ideas: If you’re looking for some really fun ideas for your Bake Pop pans, check out this adorable book – Bake Me I’m Yours…Cake Pops: Over 30 designs for fun sweet treats – it’s filled with 30 amazing ideas to make for holidays, birthdays, parties, or just for after-school snacks to impress the kiddo’s! You’ll find a ton of other great books on Amazon too, filled with great recipes for unique cake mixes, fillings, candy coatings, and more.

I LOVE BAKE POPS!!

Have I already said that I love my new Bake Pops kit?? We’ve made brownie pops, dipped in chocolate candy melts, and rolled in one of four toppings – coconut, chopped almonds, oreo cookie crumbs, or chocolate sprinkles. And we made super-yummy French Vanilla Bake Pops, covered with cherry flavored frosting and Edible Pink Glitter – one of my favorite baking “secret weapons” that help make it look like I’m a real master of the kitchen. I’ll share pictures soon! They came out amazingly pretty!

Get your own Bake Pops Double Set today!

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We LOVE Pet Super Store – Plus a Chance to Win! {Rafflecopter}

Pet Super StorePet Super Store

As you can see, I have a couple of pretty serious little Seattle Seahawks fans – Abby was SO excited to see Deuce wearing a jersey that matched her Seahawks jacket – she had to hug him and squeeze him. Adorable as all heck, right? She loves her dog, loves the Seahawks, and would love for YOU to win an NFL Dog Jersey from YOUR families favorite team from Pet Super Store!

Last Chance to Enter to Win!!!

Check out the giveaway on my site – Winners Choice NFL Dog Jersey from Pet Super Store! How fun would this be at your Super Bowl Party this year, right?

This giveaway ends tonight at Midnight – so make sure to get your entries in now! I’m so excited for one of you to win this – and I hope you’ll share pictures of YOUR dog showing his or her team spirit with us on my Facebook page!

Puppy Chow Healthy Start

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