This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been contacted.  Congrats Monie!

Last month on Our Happy Happenings I was able to give away a $50 gift certificate to Photofiddle.  I did a review of their services which you can read here.  Here is a quick explanation of what they do:

“Photofiddle.com allows users to create art from photos with free online photo effects software. Photofiddle will transform any picture into art with over 50 photo art styles to choose. Select oil painting, Warhol pop art, watercolor painting, modern art, abstract art, Leroy neiman art style, Lichtenstein art style, outline sketches, color pencil sketches, photo collages, impasto art, film strip photo collages and more. Have us add a photographic tint like a sepia tint, blue tint, red tint, or green tint to any photograph. If you prefer have Photofiddle can put your photo to canvas.

Whether you choose to have your prints on canvas art or printing your photos on art paper or art print. We can produce art on stretched canvas, rolled canvas, framed art print or even art posters.

Our custom art is great for interior decorating ideas. Use your artwork to liven up any home decor. Turn your photo in a stretched canvas for the bedroom. Create a pop art poster for decorating a kids room. Transform your photo into a painting for living room decorating. Create your own French country decorating framed art form pictures. Decorating a baby’s room or decorating a baby’s nursery is easy with custom made canvas art. Photofiddle personalized art has been used for bathroom decorating ideas. Even if decorating on a budget creating photo art with photos will fit all budgets. Even office decorating is simple with free online photo software.”

Check out my picture of Hailey that was fiddled and then printed on a stretched canvas:

Photofiddle has graciously agreed to do another $50 gift certificate giveaway!  Aren’t you excited?  Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

• Leave me a comment and tell me who or what your favorite subject is to take pictures of.

Want some extra chances to win? Leave an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH extra entry.

• Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then leave me a comment with the direct URL.
• Subscribe to my RSS feed and then leave me a comment letting me know you’re a subscriber.
• Stumble this post (please leave a short review) and leave me a comment letting me know and tell me what your name on Stumble is.

This giveaway is open to US shipping addresses and will end on January 26, 2009  February 1st at 11:59 pm (I have extended this giveaway so it can be a part of the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival.) EST. The winner will be chosen on January 27th, 2009 February 2nd via random.org and notified by email. Please read all of my giveaway rules here.

Isn’t Hailey just the cutest?  And isn’t her hat the cutest too?  I KNOW!

Last month over at Our Happy Happenings I held a giveaway for one of these fantastic Lollitop hats.  And since Kim from Lollitops is so generous- she has agreed to giveaway another one over her at Livin’ With Me.  Isn’t this exciting?

If you’d like to read my review about Lollitops you can see it at my Lollitops Giveaway post.  But just to give you a quick summary- these hats are the cutest little hats EVER.  And they are well made and easy to clean too.  Not only that- but these adorable hats can be very easily turned into an adorable purse.  Since I know you’re just dying to get one for the cute little girl in your life, I’ll get right to it.

Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win a Lollitop of your choice:

• Stop by the Lollitops website and have a look around.
• Come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which Lollitop is your favorite (If you click on “Purchase a hat” and then “thumbnails” you can see the entire selection very easily.)

Want some extra chances to win? Leave an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH extra entry.

• Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then leave me a comment with the direct URL.
• Subscribe to my RSS feed and then leave me a comment letting me know you’re a subscriber.
• Stumble this post (please leave a short review) and leave me a comment letting me know and tell me what your name on Stumble is.

This giveaway is open to US shipping addresses and will end on January 20, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be chosen on January 21st, 200 via random.org and notified by email. Please read all of my giveaway rules here.

This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been contacted.  Congrats Leah!

Back in November I had a review and a giveaway over at Our Happy Happenings for some fantastic Naturally Nora cake and frosting mixes.  If you’d like- you can read the whole review here.  But- here is  a brief summary- Naturally Nora cake and frosting mixes are super yummy! 

And the great news is that Nora from Naturally Nora wants to do another giveaway.  Woo Hoo!!  So- one lucky winner will get a ONE YEAR SUPPLY of cake and frosting mixes from Naturally Nora.  That’s a $95 value!  AND, as if that wasn’t enough- Nora has teamed up with Olan Mills to also give the winner a certificate for a Favorite Pose Package- which includes 1 8×10, 2 5×7’s and 8 wallets from Olan Mills. That is a $38.97 value.  So- as you can see, this is a pretty fabulous prize package!!

What do you need to do for a chance to win?

• Go on over and visit Naturally Nora and then come back here and tell me something you saw while visiting the site. It can be anything at all.

Want some extra chances to win? Leave me an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH of the following things letting me know what you did:

• Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the direct URL to your post.
• Stumble either this post or my blog.
• Subscribe to my RSS. If you are already a subscriber leave me a comment to let me know.

This giveaway is open to US shipping addresses and will end on January 14th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be randomly chosen on January 15th and notified by email.  Please see all of my giveaway rules here.

This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been contacted. Congrats Elsie!

Do your kids still believe in Santa Claus or are they getting to that age where they start to question how it all works and whether or not he is real?  Hailey is only 2 so she believes in Santa Claus and the sparkle I see in her eyes every time she sees him or talks about him is just magical.  I love seeing how excited she gets and I want her to believe in Santa for as long as possible.

I found a fantastic site yesterday that helps to keep your kids believing in Santa.  So, I immediately contacted them to see if I could do a review and giveaway- because I want to share this with all of you.  And I want one of you to be able to win this before Christmas.  And they agreed!  Woo Hoo!!  So- what is the fantastic site?

It’s called Capture the Magic and it’s very, very simple.  All you have to do is take a picture of the room your Christmas tree is in, the way it will look on Christmas Eve.  Then you upload your picture to Capture the Magic and then you can pick from over 200 Santa Claus images (they have it set up to make is extremely easy, it will only take a few minutes).  Once you pick your Santa Claus you place him in your picture.  Now it will look like you caught Santa in your house and took a picture of him.

Read this short press release for more information:

“An enterprising team of Santa’s elves has launched a clever Web site for the Holiday Season that will bring smiles of joy and wonder to millions of children, and help parents make this coming Christmas morning unforgettable. With a simple, three-step process, www.CaptureTheMagic.com allows parents to upload a photo of their living room decorated for Christmas, drag and drop in a stunningly perfect image of Santa (over 200 poses to chose from) to share with children on Christmas morning.

‘Kids will go crazy with excitement when they see proof that Santa was in their home kneeling next to the Christmas tree,’ said James Hallihan, a real life elf who created the innovative site after recognizing the curiosity and fascination about Santa with his own children, Brooke, age 6 and her brother Chip, age 2. His first prototype of the new technology was created last year and his daughter loved it so much that he turned the idea into a company.

Over the past year, Hallihan and his fellow elves have conducted extensive research about the magical beliefs of children. ‘Three out of four children under age 7 still believe in Santa Claus, and one percent never stop believing’ he says. ‘We’re on a mission for Santa to make more believers,” he adds with a grin.”

And now, so you can see how it works- check out my before and after pictures.

Before 

After

See- I told you it was fantastic!!  Plus, this was super easy to do.  I am not a techie person at all- Rich always has to help me with anything technical.  BUT, I was able to do this in minutes, all by myself.  The thing that took me the longest was actually cleaning my living room to take the picture!

Now that you’ve seen how easy it works- I’m sure you want to be able to have a picture to show your child Christmas morning so you can say, “Yes, ……….., there is a Santa Claus!” So you’ll be happy to know that Capture the Magic has kindly agreed to let one you of you win your own.

What do you need to do for a chance to win?

• Go on over and visit Capture the Magic and then come back here and tell me something you saw while visiting their site.  It can be anything at all.

Want some extra chances to win? Leave me an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH of the following things letting me know what you did:

• Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the direct URL to your post.
• Stumble either this post or my blog.
• Subscribe to my RSS. If you are already a subscriber leave me a comment to let me know.

This giveaway will end on December 23rd at 10:59 pm EST. The winner will be randomly chosen as soon as the giveaway ends and notified by email. PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR EMAIL TO SEE IF YOU WON SO THAT YOU HAVE TIME TO MAKE YOUR PICTURE!!!  Please see all of my giveaway rules here.

This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been contacted. Congrats Rebecca!

I’m sure that most of you have noticed this, but just in case you haven’t- our economy is a mess!  Everyone I have talked to is spending less money this year for Christmas.  Buying less presents or being more creative with their gift giving.

Here is another idea to reduce your spending this holiday season- make your own yummy goodies.  Sure it might be easier to buy all of your baked goods, but it will save you a lot of money if you make your own.  And you might even find that you enjoy baking!  Especially if you have kids- you should definitely do your own baking- you’ll be creating lifelong memories of fun times in the kitchen.

Last weekend my parents were here for a visit and I made some delicious brownies using this Pillsbury mix.  Then for a fun twist on the brownies I added some Pumpkin Spice Smuckers Toppings to the brownies.  It was much cheaper than buying a dessert, it took me only a few minutes to make them, and they made my house smell delicious!  Best of all, everyone said they were very yummy- and they were eaten pretty quickly, so I’m quite sure they were well loved.

If you are looking for some great ideas to make for a Christmas party this year, for your child’s teacher, for your neighbors, etc- you can check out some fabulous recipe ideas from Pillsbury.  All are very simple to make and a whole lot cheaper than buying your baked goods at the bakery.  One of my favorite recipe ideas is the Holly-Day Mint Brownies.  Sounds delicious!

And if you’re looking for fun ways to dress up your baked goodies or your ice cream then you just have to check out the specialty toppings from Smuckers.  We were able to check out the Pumpkin Spice and it was sooooo yummy that I might have even eaten it right from the container when no one was looking.  It is a limited edition topping so don’t wait around to check it out.  There is also a cherry topping that sounds simply fabulous.  Plus, Smuckers is going to create a third topping- and you get to help decide what kind they will make.  You can cast your vote for the best smuckers toppping idea.  (I’m totally voting for the Apple Cinnamon choice- can you imagine how yummy that would be on some vanilla ice cream?)

One more exciting thing I just have to tell you about is the $5000 kitchen makeover from Pillsbury.  You just have to tell Pillsbury how you make things sweeter with your favorite desserts and you can have a chance to win!  Entries have to be submitted by December 31st- so hurry and get your entries ready!

Since I know that you have lots of baking to do this holiday season- how about a little giveaway?  I thought you might like that!  One lucky winner will get a box of Pillsbury brownies as well as both of the limited edition Smuckers toppings.  Pretty exciting!!

Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

• Tell me what your favorite Christmas treat is- something you enjoy making or something that someone else makes that you just love to eat!

Want some extra chances to win? Leave me an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH of the following things letting me know what you did:

• Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the direct URL to your post.
• Stumble either this post or my blog.
• Subscribe to my RSS. If you are already a subscriber leave me a comment to let me know.

This giveaway will end on December 17th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be randomly chosen on December 18th and notified by email. Please see all of my giveaway rules here.

This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been contacted. Congrats Julie!

Hailey and I were recently fortunate enough to check out this fabulous Smart-e-Dog and I can not even tell you how excited we were when we saw the UPS truck pull up with the box that held Hailey’s new dog.  And I was not disappointed with all of the fun things this Smart-e-Dog can do- he’s pretty amazing!  And Hailey loves him too!

Now technically this toy is called a Smart-e-Bear but you can get it as a bear, a dog or a cat. And what is it about this Smart-e-Bear that is so impressive?  The best way I can think to describe Smart-e-Bear is that it is like an iPod- except that he is soft and cuddly and made for kids.

There are songs, stories, games and more that your Smart-e-Bear can play with your child.  Hailey absolutely loves singing and dancing along with the music.  Plus you can go online to Smart-e-Bear and download more songs, stories and games for your child.  There are some extra things you can download for free but most everything else costs .99 cents- which really is pretty cheap when you consider that you can use this feature to help your bear grow with your child.

One of my favorite features is that you can program your bear (cat, dog) to say your child’s name.  And when Hailey’s dog says, “Hi Hailey!” her face lights up and she says, “He knows my name!”  Another favorite feature of mine- he can be used with headphones.  That means your Smart-e-Bear will be perfect for the car or airplane.

This Smart-e-Bear (or dog or cat) costs $79.99 and can be purchased at stores like www.toysrus.com, www.target.com, www.hammacher.com, www.amazon.com.

“The National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) is the “go-to” source for caregivers and professionals looking for the best children’s products for parents. They recognize the qualities that make a good product truly stand out from the crowd. This season NAPPA’s prestigious Gold Seal goes to smart-e-bear, a cuddly bear that contains revolutionary software that enchants children and gratifies parents.

Intellitoys smart-e-bear is a joint venture with award-winning Kids Preferred. Together they created the newest software tucked in a very soft bear, dog and cat. These technology-friendly pals are simple to program and easy to customize. Parents need only connect, click and then hand over for cuddling.

The NAPPA recognition signifies that smart-e-bear has been rigorously evaluated against stringent criteria by expert judges and family testers and that it stands out among hundreds of products from around the world.

As a 2008 Gold Award winner smart-e-bear joins a short list of toys and games that are deemed the most entertaining, appealing, safe, educational, age-appropriate and enduring products.

Designed primarily for non-reading 2 to 6 year olds, smart-e-dog encourages children to discover and explore through a library of literally thousands of award-winning songs, interactive stories, educational games and other content that parents can selectively purchase through the Internet and download to the toy with a super-easy USB connection.  There’s always something for kids to discover as the software changes and grows with the child’s interests starting with the nursery to kindergarten.”

• Check out the Smart-e-Bear site and let me know which animal you would want if you win.

Want some extra chances to win? Leave me an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH of the following things letting me know what you did:

• Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the direct URL to your post.
• Stumble either this post or my blog.
• Subscribe to my RSS. If you are already a subscriber leave me a comment to let me know.

This giveaway will end on December 15th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be randomly chosen on December 16th and notified by email. Please see all of my giveaway rules here.