Dreams

We were at a house, but we were packing up, because we were leaving soon. Sylar was there, but he was hurt and couldn't move. So my husband kindly burned an audiobook onto cd for him to listen to so that he wouldn't get bored. Wasn't that nice of my husband?

The other night, I was lost on some urban island, and Jim from The Office was a policeman trying to get me back to the middle of New York to catch a plane. For some reason, we had to stop at his apartment, which was full of toys and robots (toys and robots? where did that come from?).

This is what my mind comes up with while I'm sleeping? I swear I don't watch very much tv. (Though if random men from tv must show up in my dreams, I will admit that Zachary Quinto and John Krasinski would probably be the most welcome. Next time, guys, you don't have to be so PG-13!).

At least the cast of Glee hasn't shown up (yet? eek. cringe).

Now that you are all thoroughly bored - after all, what's more boring than other people's dreams?! - at least there is eye candy! - here are some giveaways for you to go enter.

For baby:

• Win a Little Giraffe blanket and hooded towel in pink or blue at Project Nursery. Ends January 15th.
• Win a Thirsties Duo diaper at Organic Girl. Ends January 25th.
• Win an AppleCheeks MiniTest diaper at Simply Stacie. Ends January 20th.
• Win a Mother-Ease OS diaper, liner & cover (size 10-20 lbs) at Suburban Saving Mama. Ends January 25th.
• Win one item of clothing from Barley and Birch - your choice (love their designs!) at Getting Kinda Crunchy. Ends January 23rd.
• Win an organic Speesees one piece (size 3-6 months) at Hip Little One. Ends January 20th.
• Win a BambiniBags ring sling in taupe at Organic Girl. Ends January 20th.
• Win a Bumbleride Indie stroller (!) at Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous. Ends January 31st.
• Win an Exergen Temporal Scanner at My Silly Monkeys. Ends January 22nd. Also known as the 22th.
  

For the ladies:

• Win a Bella Band from Ella Bella at Simply Stacie. Open to Canadians only! Ends January 22nd.
• Win a Belly Bandit at the Best Baby Organics blog. Ends January 30th.
• Win a maternity dress or tunic from Moody Mamas at Simply Stacie. Ends January 21st.
• Win a Hana Pro flat iron from Missikko at Your Mama Reviews. Ends January 14th at noon.
• Win a dress from Know Boutique at Today's Diva. Ends January 25th.
• Win a very pretty (and also zebra print, which I love) handbag by Made By Lissa at The Fancy Fritter. Ends January 13th.
  

For grown-ups:

• Win a $25 gift card to Eden Fantasys at Coo Coo Courtney. Ends January 20th.
• Another chance to win a $25 gift card to Eden Fantasys at Health, Beauty and Family. Ends January 25th.
• One more time for a $25 gift card to Eden Fantasys at Today's Diva. Ends January 18th.

For anyone:

• Win a $30 Starbucks gift card at Make Money With Your Brain. Ah, Starbucks. The other love of my life. Ends January 14th.
• Win the audiobook version of James Patterson's I, Alex Cross at A Sea of Books. I know I've mentioned that I love audiobooks before! So nice to be read to, and it makes the work day fly by. Ends January 10th.
  

(more to come...)

And don't forget to enter my giveaway here for a Prego Planner! Great for those planning a pregnancy or for expecting moms-to-be!

Yowza!

I don't usually do more than one post a day but... I can't give up on my giveaway lists. And there are a few that I bookmarked to share with you that I'm not entering so I wanted to make sure I shared those before I forget.

SO, a little list happiness...

For baby:

• Win a Sleepy Wrap carrier at The Cloth Diaper Report - I already have one so I'm out of this one, but you could be the lucky one this time! Ends January 15th.
• Win an ErgoBaby carrier at My Wee View. Ends January 15th. Again I'm set for carriers, I think, but you might want to get in on this one!
• Win a Mother-Ease OS cloth diaper and pink diaper cover (size medium) at Coupon Mommy of 2...Now 3. Ends January 10th - maybe? Or perhaps the 17th? It just says the '1th' so those are my guesses!
• Win a Mommy's Touch Easy Clean Diaper at Take Time to Smell the Rose. Ends January 17th.
• Win a Fuzzibunz OS diaper from Thanks Mama at the Thanks Mama blog, Cloth Diaper Talk. Ends January 17th.
• Win a Dropper Stopper at Creative Madness. Ends January 18th.
• Win a PlanetWise wet bag at Minnesota Mama's Must Haves. ends January 14th.
• Win a set of Bummas cloth wipes at Ladybugs and Tonka Trucks (isn't that a cute name for a blog?!). Ends January 15th.
  

For the ladies:

• Win a Hot Mama gown (for hospital and breastfeeding) at My Silly Monkeys. Ends January 20th.
  
• Win a Bravado lingerie set (Sublime Nursing Bra & Matching Panty) at {Natural} Mommie. Ends January 15th.
• Win a jar of Fresh Organics Bubble Bath Petals at Simply Stacie. These look so pretty! Ends January 17th.
• Win a Timono at Fabulous Fun Finds. What's a Timono? Go find out! Ends January 10th.
• Win 15 samples of Mineral Basics makeup at Emmy's Boos and Rawrs. Ends January 19th.
• Win a handbag from Handbag Heaven at Wishing Penny! Ends January 13th at noonish.
• Win a set of 3 eye shadows (a collection, or your choice) from Orglamix at Today's Diva. Ends January 15th.
  

For anyone:

• Win yummy tea and a Starbucks card to celebrate Dairy Free Betty's 100th post! Ends January 11th in the morning.
• Win a jar of Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Peanut Butter at Sweeps4Bloggers! That sounds delish! Ends January 12th.
• Win a No-VOC Memory Foam Pillow from Relief-Mart at dkMommy Spot. Ends January 13th.
• Win a tin of Golden Moon Tippy Earl Grey Tea at Mommy 2 Two Girls. Ends January 14th.
  

and don't pass by the opportunity to win a Prego Planner right here on my blog!

Prego Planner Review - and a Giveaway!

***This giveaway is CLOSED***
The winner is: *Mirage* (confirmed)

As you may know if you have been reading along, DH and I have been trying to start a family for a while now. The first time I was pregnant, I was using a pregnancy planner that I picked up at a major chain of bookstores. There were about three options, all ugly, none with the kind of customizable format I was looking for. I used it, but I wasn’t happy with it. (You might remember my complaints about it here.) It was downright embarrassing to pull that ugly beast out at my midwife appointments. The second time, of course, didn’t get far enough to use a planner.

Next time – hopefully in the near future – I will be using the Prego Planner. I was lucky enough to win one over at Jo-Jo’s Place, and as soon as I saw it I knew this was what I’d been looking for.

The Prego Planner is not only stylish (I picked the zebra design – love it!), but functional as well. It has lots of room to write, tabs keep you organized, and I really love that because it’s a binder format, I can add my own pages. If I run out of room to write, no problem. If I want to add anything random – like an extra sleeve for ultrasound pictures or documents (it comes with one sleeve already), or, as we get ready for pregnancy #3, charting pages – no problem.

The planner already contains a lot of useful pages. There is a 12-month calendar that you can write your own dates in. Pages for your important contact information (from your health care practitioner to the people you want to call once the baby is born!), as well as a place to write your questions for your next appointment. Lots of checklists and even a gift list so you don’t forget to send your thank-you notes. The tabs make it easy to flip to the section you need.

What I really like is how customizable it is (and did I mention, not ugly?!). At 7.5x9”, it will fit in my handbag. It’s not irritatingly cutesy – it is designed for women, not children. It has lovely quotations from mothers at the beginning of each section. I can’t wait to use it!

The Prego Planner is available online, of course, as well as in a ton of stores in the US. Lucky for us Canadians, they have just begun distribution in Canada! You can now buy the Prego Planner at these stores:

Springy's, at 1048 Barton Street East in Hamilton, Ontario
Bloom Maternity at 4937B Sherbrooke Street west in Westmount, Quebec
Rolz and Sassy at 791 Queen Street East in Kincardine, Ontario
Bug and Blossom at West Market Square at 509-1851 Sirocco Drive S.W. in Calgary, Alberta
Blossom Maternity at 112 Wyndham Street North in Guelph, Ontario
My Bump at 944 Kingston Road in Toronto, Ontario

For the most up to date info on the Prego Planner (including events, reviews and giveaways of this great planner from around the web), become a fan on Facebook (search "Prego Planner").

Heather – the mother behind it all – has been generous enough to offer one of my readers a Prego Planner of her own! Whether you are planning for a baby, pregnant, or know someone who is expecting, this would make a welcome gift for those mothers-to-be.

(No, that's not Heather in the photo - it's yours truly - excuse the still wet hair and poor quality! I wanted to give a better sense of the size and how it looks in real life!)

The giveaway: A Prego Planner of the winner’s choice.

How to enter:
Visit Braelyn Bounty Bug, and tell me which planner you would choose, OR something you learned from the website. Please be sure to include your email if it’s not public in your blogger profile!

Extra entries (leave an extra comment for each):

• Follow Braelyn Bounty Bug on Twitter (@BountyBug)
• Follow my blog (publicly) – 2 entries, leave 2 comments
• Add my blog button to your blog - leave the URL
• Blog about this giveaway, linking back to this post and to the Prego Planner website – 2 entries, leave 2 comments
• Let me know - would this be something you'll use yourself, or will you give it to someone lucky that you know who's expecting!
  

Eligibility: Open to US and Canadian residents.
Ends: January 19th at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be emailed and announced on this post and a separate post on my blog. If I don't hear back within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.

This review was based on a product that I received as a prize from another blog. No payment was made for this review. Prize will be shipped directly from the sponsor.

Hmmm

I'm thinking about spoiling myself a little with this...

a watercolour sky pointed me to this set of videos that feature a super talented and extra pretty make up tutor....

*love* the colour palette she uses - but being 33, mostly home all day alone, not having lovely eyelids, not to mention not having makeup skills - I think all those bright colours are too crazy for me.

I used to be that kind of crazy. I used to use eyelash glue to stick rhinestones under my eyes like the lovely photo of Björk on her Debut album.

Now, I'm just... well, old, I guess. Phooey.

Anyway I've been looking at tired old me in the mirror and thinking something has to be done about this. And besides a few other people raving about makeup brushes lately (I seem to recall a few ravey posts when ecoTools brushes were making the blog rounds and, more recently, the Lancome blog), especially as opposed to the old finger painting method, I think it's high time at my ripe old age to get myself some brushes.

For goodness' sake - I'm a painter. I'm actually fairly skilled with brushes. Why on earth don't I have a set for makeup?

Anyway... Having never delved into the whole makeup brush thing, does it seem like a good deal? That set is $39.95 (US, I believe). I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I saw a Quo set the other day - it was a holiday set and the 50% off price was $52. I also like that this has a case, since I tend to just toss things in my drawer (disaster for brushes), and I don't want to add to counter clutter with a holder.

I averted the Stila Crush Crisis (barely). This time what I'm craving is (cough) double the price.

Crazy? Too impulsive? Have a better suggestion?

It's been a hard day's night...

Yesterday's event-laden schedule for Cadbury: He got up early with DH and had his breakfast, then headed back to bed. After sleeping in, we went out to shovel the driveway. That is, he played frisbee while I shoveled half the driveway - he got too cold and went inside to lie down while I finished off the shoveling. Then he had another snooze by the fire for a while. I went to work and he wandered off to bed.

Hours later, DH came home and we all hopped in the car to go to the vet, where Cadbury was poked and prodded, diagnosed with a staph infection (a pretty common skin problem with dogs), given some pills for that, and had a veterinary assistant rudely poke him in the leg with a needle to draw blood. Then another car ride home, where he got peanut butter treats (his new pills enrobed in peanut butter - shh, don't tell him) and his dinner. The rest of the evening was spent snoozing, until bedtime (his self-determined bedtime is about 7:30 pm).

He's a lab. He sleeps a lot. He has skin troubles. He's about 5 lbs overweight at 85 lbs.

Today we got his test result back. He has canine hypo-thyroidism. Who knew dogs could get thyroid problems?! Apparently, it's pretty common. So now he'll be on two pills a day for the rest of his life. And hopefully it will improve his immune system, give him more energy, and help him lose those extra few pounds. Luckily, the pills aren't too pricey - about $27 for three months' worth.

But think of the cost in peanut butter!

A few giveaways for today...

For baby:

• Win a Tiny Tush Elite diaper (3 winners!) at Dirty Diaper Laundry. Ends January 18th.
• Win a Bumkins diaper bag at Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous. Ends January 13th.
• Win a Fleurville Re-Run Hana diaper bag in Ogo Print from Toads & Tulips at My Silly Monkeys. Ends January 18th.
• Win a Mrs. Smith's diaper bag at Simply Stacie. Ends January 16th.
• Win a Squishy Fish onesie or tee at Canadian Natural Mama. Ends January 18th.
• Win a Sherpa sleeper from Snug Organics at BabyLuxe {daily}. Ends ?
  

For the ladies:

• Win BearPaw boots at Newly Wed, Newly Bred. Ends January 17th.
• Win a pretty jujie handbag at (oh, hello friend.) Ends January 10th.
  

For anyone:

• Win a $100 to shop at CSN Stores at Running Just as Fast as I Can. Ends January 8th at noon.

OH! And some exciting news - I'll be posting a review and giveaway right here tomorrow! This is for a product that will be great for those planning a pregnancy, expecting a baby, or if you know someone who is! Curious? Come back tomorrow to see and enter for your chance to win!

I got nothin'

Nothin' much to write about, that is.

I'm feeling a little mopey today. A little sorry for myself. Which is not fun to be or to hear about.

As an aside, here's a little call to arms for Canadians from the WSPA. I just wrote a letter to the Hon. Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. If you feel like writing a letter, I urge you to do so. The WSPA has some suggestions to help write your letter, but if you feel like simply cutting and pasting, I would be happy to forward the letter I just wrote to you to adapt to your own needs.

Now let's skip directly to giveaways :)

For baby:

• Win a Dear Baby keepsake box at Minnesota Mama's Must Haves. Ends January 12th.
• Win an Evenflo Symphony 65 Convertible car seat at Mommy Goggles. Ends January 22nd.
• Win a clothing item of your choice from Kuki Kids at My Wee View. Cute stuff! Ends January 15th.
• Win an organic quilted ErgoPouch at My Wee View. Ends January 15th.
• Win a set of Bummas cloth wipes at New Age Mama. Ends January 13th.
  

For the ladies:

• Win a Lamaze Mom-to-Be gift set at Baby Makin{g} Machine. Ends January 9th.
• Win some Sothys bath products at Parent Reviewers. Ends January 9th.

For anyone:

• Win an audiobook of Jeffrey Deaver's Watchlist at Sweeps4Bloggers. Ends January 9th. Have I not mentioned a million times that I love audiobooks? I listen to them all the time as I paint.
  

Going eggless

I'm doing it. I'm cutting out eggs. Well, if they're in products (like pasta, for instance), I'll still eat that. But I'm going to try not eating eggs, quiche, baking with eggs, that sort of thing. I think baking is the biggest place where I eat eggs anyway - I don't really like them straight. I'll miss quiche. But I'm going to give it a go.

Here's why... (in a convoluted post)

So today I baked for the first time without eggs in a recipe that called for them. The result? Judge for yourself:Don't they look delicious? Oh, they are! And they're just as puffy and rich tasting as any time I've baked this recipe before. The only difference is that for each egg, I substituted 1 Tbsp of ground flax mixed with 3 Tbsp of water. Easy. Plus, I didn't get slimy egg white on my hands. I didn't have to crunch up the shells for the compost. And the flax adds lovely omega-3 fatty acids.

Works for me.

Just one quick giveaway for today -

For baby:

• Win a gDiaper gPant and inserts at Chelsea Said So. It's a 24 hour giveaway and ends tomorrow so hurry on over!