Shopping — Page 20

{Guide to Great Gifts!} Gifts for the Fashionista!

“The difference between style and fashion is quality.” – Giorgio Armani

Do you have a total fashionista to shop for this year? Would you love to buy a gift for the teenager in your life that will make her consider you to be “Cool” again, at least momentarily? {Teenagers are a fickle bunch, aren’t they?} Well, if you need a gift that’s guaranteed to impress, I have a couple favorites to share with you!

“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.” – Coco Chanel

Remember my “No More Frump Mom Challenge?” Well, I have not been as successful as I had planned. That’s putting it nicely, lol. But, I’m still working on it – and as I have been putting together some New Years Resolutions {both personal and business} – I asked for some tips from the smart women I know. Based on their tips, I knew that one thing I really needed to invest in were some new style tools. So, as after researching a couple that I think are totally awesome, I wanted to share them with you too! These are both amazing gadgets to invest in for yourself – and would also be perfect gifts for any women on your list! {How excited would one of your girlfriends be to get a gift to help HER out of the frump mom slump too?}

This ceramic hair flat iron by Karmin is a voters favorite, and has a ton of really cool features – it heats up super fast, so you can style in a hurry on busy mornings. It’s made of a totally cutting-edge ceramic, which leaves your hair smooth and super shiny. And it’s got a curved edge, which means you can use this to curl and flip too!
The best hair blow dryer ever – this one has ceramic coils and an ionic technology, which means you get a totally frizz-free experience! I’ve been told that investing in a really good quality blow-dryer is going to totally change my life {and they promise that this is not an exaggeration!} so I’m going to give this one a try.

What do you think?

Do you have a little diva to shop for this year? Or maybe another super-busy-mom friend who totally needs these tools? What are some other great gift ideas? And what are your biggest challenges in staying out of the “Frump Mom Slump?” Let’s chat in the comments!

{Disclaimer: I received a complimentary compensation in exchange for sharing my honest opinions and favorite products – as always, all opinions are 100% my own! I’m totally lovin’ both of these products, and think you will too!}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 4, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping | No Comments

Busy Mom Solution: Simplify Your Deliveries, and Never Miss a Package Again!

Take Control of Your Shipments and Deliveries!

The Challenge:

Isn’t is such a bummer to get a notice that there was an attempt to deliver your package – but they needed a signature, and you missed it? Or getting a packaged delivered while you’re out, and it gets rained or snowed on out on the porch? How cool would it be if you could specify when and where you want your packages delivered? Or to be able to submit an electronic signature online, to ensure you get your delivery on time? How about being able to reroute a package to a different address when needed, or to the nearest UPS location so you can do a quick pick-up? That would sure come in handy when you’re traveling for the holidays, right?

Busy Mom Solution: UPS My Choice!

“UPS is committed to making the on line shopping experience better – not just for shippers, but for the consumers who receive packages at their home as well. That’s why UPS is transforming the package delivery experience with a first-of-its kind, customizable delivery service for residential receivers called UPS My Choice.”

Here are a few of the ways UPS My Choice Can Help You:

Delivery Alerts: Avoid the disappointment of missing a package you were super excited about. Now you can schedule deliveries to fit YOUR busy life!
Reroute options: Visiting family for the holidays? Have your packages rerouted to your new location – or just pick them up at a local UPS site!
Electronic Signatures: Submit your signature online if you won’t be home, so that your package can be delivered on time!

Sign up for UPS My Choice for FREE today!!

The perfect solution for every mom!

This is totally perfect for someone like me – I win a lot of giveaway prizes, and many need signatures to be delivered. I get a ton of shipments of products for reviews – and I want to make sure that they’re delivered safely. I’m often out of the house, and love that I can see what’s coming each day, and plan the delivery to meet MY schedule. This is such an amazingly helpful tool – and it’s totally FREE! How much better can it get? I wish ALL delivery companies could be this good!

Membership levels:

UPS My Choice Basic Membership: This is totally free and includes a ton of great tools – receive phone, e-mail or text alerts notifying you a day in advance of when packages will arrive. Get a four-hour approximate delivery time frame. You also have the option to electronically authorize release of packages that require a signature and, for a $5 transaction fee, to reroute a package to another delivery address or have it delivered to the nearest The UPS Store® location.
UPS My Choice Premium Membership: Available for a $40 annual subscription, this provides all the benefits of a regular UPS My Choice membership at no additional cost and in addition, members gain access to an online delivery calendar that shows the status of UPS home deliveries. Premium members also are offered a two-hour delivery window. A $5 transaction fee is charged only upon successful delivery of the package within the two-hour commitment. As a Premium member, consumers can even provide their UPS driver with detailed instructions on where to leave a package. They just select from a drop-down list of location options like — leave it at the Side Door…the Garage…on the Porch…in the Management Office of my apartment complex or the Shed out back! How cool is that??

Set up your FREE UPS My Choice account today!

{Disclosure: I received compensation from UPS in the form of a gift card to participate in this campaign promoting the UPS My Choice delivery service. I only share sites, products, and services that I use myself – and all opinions are 100% mine. I love UPS My Choice and I know you will too!}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 4, 2011 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 3 Comments

{Christmas Countdown} I Love Christmas Lights!! #Searsrealcheer

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” – Norman Vincent Peale

I love Christmas. For me, as cheesy as it sounds, it truly is “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” While some people complain about the crowds, the expenses, and the commercialism – I instead look towards the brighter side of the holidays. In our home, Christmas means family. It means the excitement of finding the perfect gift for someone special, the suspense of keeping those surprises a secret, and the anticipation of what you’ll find under the tree! We still wrap presents from Santa. We bake – working together we bake, arrange, and wrap enough cookies, bread, fudge, and candy to create over 50 giant cookie plates to deliver to friends and family. And we decorate. Oooohhhh, do we decorate!!

“People really act weird at Christmas time! What other time of year do you sit in front of a dead tree in the living room and eat nuts and sweets out of your socks?” – Anonymous

Like Buddy the Elf, we decorate the heck out of everything we can get our hands on!! Just yesterday I told you more about my big, blended, overcrowded house filled with family – {Bloggers Have Messy Homes, and other Thoughts on Housework…} – so you know that my house is filled with not just Me, Mike, and Abby – but also with my brother, my two crazy nephews, and my mother. While we have challenges at times, with so many people and opinions crammed in one house – at the holidays I’m more than happy to let my mom take over! I pride myself on being a little Christmas elf, and I clearly got it from her – she is the total Queen of Christmas. Seriously. She’s good.

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
**–Charles Dickens, Ebeneezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol**

In our house – tradition is to put up our Christmas tree as soon as our belly’s have all settled from Thanksgiving dinner. We made the switch years ago to an artificial tree, since we keep it up so long. And we are always one of the very first houses on the block to have our lights up! We moved into this house late last November, so we didn’t have much time to decorate the outdoors. So this year, we had to pull all of our gear and outdoor decor out from the garage, and made a plan on how to make out the lights from our old home fit our new one. We did a quick inventory, made a list, and headed to the Sears Christmas Department to stock up!! When I was a kid, we had a really cool older home, and mom would take charge in directing us on how to decorate it – she did such a great job that we would be on our towns “Festival of Lights” directory. So I totally let her be the boss of this lighting business.

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” – Larry Wilde

We mistakenly thought that the mall was already on holiday hours – so we had a short {super cold!!} wait outside. Abby was a little fussy at waiting in the frosty weather – but the other shoppers joined us in singing her some Christmas songs! {Love the holiday spirit!} – Once we got inside, all tears were forgotten when she saw the amazing selection of outdoor decor at Sears – especially these big inflatables!! I wish I had a video of her giggles – totally priceless.

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” – Burton Hillis

Other than the Lighted Christmas Pig – see my Google+ story for details on the rest of my shopping trip – these Reindeer were my favorites. We live on a hill, and it’s incredibly windy. So I’ve got the Mister of the house working on a project to make these guys more stable and secure, so I can place a few of them out in our back field. I think they’ll look amazing out there in the snow at night. And with all of the sales and deals at Sears this season, I can totally afford to go back and get a few of them.

“At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.” – Thomas Tusser

We found everything that we needed – including a super cute reindeer hat for Abby! – and headed to check out. We bought their entire shelf of icicle lights, some super cute snowmen lights to line the walkway, and much more. I can’t wait to show you more pictures after we finish decorating this weekend! {Moms boyfriend was in a terrible hit-and-run accident, and things have been a bit turned upside down around here lately – so we’re late getting our lights up. But by Sunday evening, it’ll be a masterpiece! Stay tuned…} Mom and I are both pretty loyal Sears shoppers, and earned points and an extra discount for using our Sears cards. Total bonus!

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!” – Santa Claus

This was Abby’s biggest shopping trip ever – and as you can see, all of the excitement totally wore her out! She fell asleep with her new Reindeer {another impulse purchase of the day. She grabbed him, hugged him, called him her bay-bee, and gave him a kiss. Of course I had to buy him!} as soon as she was in the car seat. I can’t wait for her to see the lights outside when we’re done – Last year she was just a baby at the holidays. She’s now 15 months, and old enough to really have a lot of fun. So, I’m off to finish some work, get some sleep – and get up early tomorrow and get my decorate on!

Do you have some amazing holiday displays at your home?

Then stop by my Facebook page and share ’em! Post pictures of you fun holiday decor – so the rest of us can be inspired too!

And don’t forget to stop by and see the rest of my shopping trip on Google+ – and if seeing what I got makes you excited for some shopping too – head over to Sears.com and use code REALJOY for free shipping! {See site for details}

{This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias -I received some promotional items for sharing my experience – All photos, thoughts, and opinions belong 100% to me! Happy Holidays!}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 2, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping | 5 Comments

Mystery Box Sale: Only $9.99 {Limited Amount Available}

Mystery Boxes Available Again from Graveyard Mall!

I first found Graveyard Mall this summer… And I have been totally hooked ever since. They have tons of truly amazing deals – not just a great price on an item, but really cool package deals that you’re not going to find anywhere else.

Here are a couple examples of what you’ll find there:

Get 10 Lubies at one great low price! Get a huge assortment of the adorable Lubies plush toys for only $19.99 – this is a $99 value!!! Lubies Giant Assortment Package.
Comic Book Collectors Edition, 25 Comics Shipped Free! Includes The Green Hornet, Kato, and more. All unread copies in Mint or Near Mint condition. Included in this mix is the Winx Club Debut Issue which consistantly sells on Ebay for $6.00 shipped by itself. Comic Book Collection – 25 – Shipped Free. Great gift for the collector on your list – or at this price, it’d make cool stocking stuffers too!
Women’s Luxury Gift Set: There is a ton of amazing stuff included in this Women’s Luxury Git Set package – Gift set of 3 Lauren by Ralph Lauren Spaghetti Strap Camisoles in white, great for layering. Plus a Flat Iron Kit: Conair Infiniti Infrared Nano Tourmaline Ceramic Flat Iron, heat resistant storage mat, handheld styling mirror, brush, combs, clips, and headbands. The regular price for all of this would be $212, but you get it for just $29.99!!!

Women’s Guaranteed Gift Mystery Boxes!!

Now to the part I’m most excited about – the Mystery Boxes!! These are limited to only ONE per household – and they are totally GUARANTEED. If you’re unhappy with your package when it arrives, they’ll refund the price plus the shipping for both ways! Awesome, right? You can see in the pictures above what I got in one of my past boxes – it was PACKED FULL of stuff – all of those pictures are from just the one package. The one above was a different type of box – it was the regular Mystery Box, which usually run around $30. As you can see, this has a value WAAAY over $30 bucks, so these Mystery packages are a great deal. Every Mystery Box of any kind that I’ve bought this year have been seriously amazing. And this Women’s Box that’s available now is only $9.99!!!

Holiday Gala Daily Prizes Giveaway Event!!

Shop, Share, Earn – and now WIN – with zuuzs!!

You’ve been hearing about zuuzs everywhere lately. All of your favorite bloggers are talking about it, you’re seeing the advertisements all over the web, and you keep hearing people talk about the free money that they’re earning. And there’s a reason there’s so much buzz – this site is new and totally awesome. I’ve used tons of cash back sites over the years – but this one is a total rockstar compared to any of the others that I’ve used!

Learn more: How to earn money with zuuzs.com!

Win Daily Prizes in the Holiday Gala Giveaway Event!

15 great prizes, with a new winner picked each day, from December 1st to December 15th, 2011! Today’s prize is a $25 Gap Gift Card – and an awesome new prize will be announced each day! {Learn more about the daily prizes, and read the official rules on zuuzs.com}

7x $25 Gift Cards from Amazon, Target, Best Buy and More
4x $50 Gift Cards from Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Walmart
An iPod Shuffle, Garmin Nuvi GPS, Canon PowerShot Elph Camera and a Kindle Fire

How do I win??

Great question! There are three difference ways to get entries – but you can get way more than just three entries – the more you share, the more entries you can get. This is what earns you entries into the daily drawings:

Becoming a member of zuuzs (1 entry)
Connecting zuuzs Email Account to Facebook (1 entry)
Getting Friends to Join (1 entry per friend that joins!!)

Get started now – and get more chances to win big!!

Sign up for a totally FREE account at zuuzs today to get your first entry. If you’re already a member, make sure to connect your Facebook page for the extra bonus entry – this makes it easier to share sweet deals too. Then, use your personal referral link to share zuuzs with your friends and family, and earn tons of entries to win! I’m not eligible to win, but I can share a few tips to help YOU be a lucky winner…

Share your personal link on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks.
Add it to your email signature – to maximize the amount of people who sign up in your circle.
Share it on your blog, tumbler, pinterest, or any other account that you can find a way to post it. Is anyone still using MySpace these days? Who cares! If you have one, post it there – someone will see it, and be excited to check it out!

The point is, get creative, and share this awesome new shopping site everywhere you can. You’re helping them save some extra money, and they’re helping you win some awesome prizes. And there’s another sweet bonus in it for you –

Get Unlimited Double Cash Back Rewards

For every 5 friends that joins zuuzs, get 1 double cash back coupon.
Use the coupon on ANY store on zuuzs within 30 days. So, the more friends you refer, the more entries you get towards the amazing prizes, and the more DOUBLE CASH BACK coupons you’ll earn too! If you have any questions at all about zuuzs, leave them in the comments here, or on my Facebook wall, and I’ll be sure to answer them for you. Good luck!!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 30, 2011 Filed Under: Giveaways, Contests | No Comments

How To: Earn money with zuuzs.com

Shop, Share, and Earn with zuuzs!

I’ve used tons of cash back sites over the years, and didn’t think I could get excited over another one. But after checking out zuuzs and getting started, I can honestly say that this is my VERY favorite cash back site I’ve ever used. Seriously. It rocks my socks.

What is zuuzs??

Here’s how it works – Sign up for a free zuuzs account. No, really – go ahead and get signed up, I’ll wait….

Sign up for your totally free zuuzs.com account today!!

Ok, now you’re signed up and ready to Shop, Share, and Earn. What does that mean? Well, when you are ready to do some online shopping, log in to your zuuzs account first, instead of going to the merchant directly. It takes less than a minute of extra time – and it’s totally worth it. Do a quick search on zuuzs, find the store you want to shop with – and bam, you’ll find some cool online coupon codes that you can use to save extra cash! Score.

Get Paid to Shop!

Now, click the button and head to the store you want to shop at – like Target, or Walmart. Shop and check out just like you usually would – but since you shopped through zuuzs, you’ll get totally free cash back deposited into your account, just like magic. Getting paid every time you shop?? Double score!

Friends Don’t Let Friends Pay Full Price

You’ve heard me say that a million times, right? Well, zuuzs is filled with smart cookies who feel the same way – so they reward YOU for your awesomeness when you share zuuzs with your friends, family, and networks! As you can see in the graphic – when your friends earn cash back, so do you!! And when their friends earn cash back – you ALL do! This is called your Circle of Friendz, and I’d love to have you join mine today…..

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 30, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping, Deals and Coupon Codes | 1 Comment

{Giveaway!} Win a $25 Gift Certificate to Dapper Snapper!!

I am VERY excited to be able to give away a gift certificate to Dapper Snappers to one super lucky fan this holiday season – This is one of my favorite companies – Mom-Invented products, Made in the USA – All of these simple products will totally solve your families wardrobe challenges! Read more to learn how to win…

Win a $25 Gift Certificate to Dapper Snappers!

You can read a little more about why I am totally in love with this product in my review here:

Busy Mom Solution: Dapper Snapper Rescue’s Droopy Drawers!

Something for Everyone!

Dapper Snapper is best known for the snappy little gadgets that keep kids pants from drooping – but they’ve got a ton of other great products too!

You can find great options for the whole family on DapperSnapper.com – These fun products are the perfect “Busy Mom Solution” to tons of daily wardrobe challenges. Do you totally hate that gap at the back of your jeans? Clip the women’s version to your favorite pair – problem solved. They’re a great maternity solution too – see how they can loop and snap right on, and give you an extra month of two of wear from your “regular” jeans? Wish I’d known about these when I was pregnant with Abby! They’ve also got a clip-style snapper, for little girls skirts that don’t have belt loops – plus one of my current favorites – the Mitten Clips! These totally solve the “lost mittens” problem we have ever year – you just clip the mittens or gloves right to their jacket sleeves – done! They hold really well, and have been working great for us. My littlest nephew is the most forgetful kindergarten kiddo of all time – but with the Mitten Clips he actually gets home from school each day with everything he left with.

My fans can use this exclusive discount code – SSC15OFF – at check out to save an extra 15% off their total order!! Sweet savings – expires December 31st, 2011!

Win Your Favorites!

One lucky Sunshine and Sippy Cups reader will WIN a $25 Gift Certificate that they can use to buy their own favorite products! Use it for Holiday shopping, or for yourself! Good luck!

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