Happily Blended Product Reviews, Giveaways, and tales from a Mommy Blogger of three

A Computer of Your Own

August 20th, 2010 · No Comments · Miscellaneous

Back in the day my hubs used to build custom computers as a second income for our family, and I always thought it was so much fun to sit back and watch him customize each computer not only from hardware choices but by color of the desktop case. Recently I ran into a website called Howard custom computers and they offer a huge variety of services from hardware to IT services.

Although I am familiar with custom computers I haven’t ever really been in person with someone who can build a custom laptop and that my friends would be totally cool. I am lucky as of this moment my laptop is still working, but the day it no longer has life left to it I will certainly want to get a new customized laptop based on my needs as a blogger and business owner.

Now a days it seems everyone needs a custom computer in their household, if you don’t know how to use a computer it is going to be hard for you. As most of the job openings around the area need IT professionals who can help them with their computers, machines and other computer run equipment. Technology is a booming field and I am glad my virtual business is part of it!

So have you ever ordered a custom computer or custom laptop? Do you just love your current computer or is time to upgrade soon?

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

@Crayola Green Back To School Giveaway #myblogspark

August 20th, 2010 · 59 Comments · Product Reviews, giveaways

I love Crayola, don’t you? They are the best crayons in the whole wide world and yet they also have colored pencils and markers too, not to mention many more products. Well did you know that Crayola has started going green? Oh yes indeed, they have started to use solar power to reduce waste! As part of Crayola’s ever-evolving green initiative, this back-to-school season, Crayola is making crayons with solar power, markers from recycled bottle caps and colored pencils from reforested wood. Pretty neat, right? I know my daughter is all of a sudden interested in recycling our products or trash from home as a way to save energy and reduce waste. I have no clue where she learned it from but clearly many kids around the world are looking to help and when a big name company that kids love starts getting involved it only gives those kids ideas a leg to stand on even more!

There is new packages that you may have noticed while doing your back to school shopping, if you have even done it, I know I am slacking and haven’t yet, with only a couple weeks to spare I better go soon! The new packages from Crayola that are “green” will have special icons so that you can see that they are the “green” Crayola products. These “green” essential back to school products include:

Crayola Markers – Thanks to new, innovative ways to manufacture Crayola markers from recycled bottle caps, “black” is the new “green!” Crayola markers will now have black barrels instead of white, which allows for more recycled plastic to be used and gives a second life to more than 1 million pounds of plastic bottle caps. Plus, switching to black barrels keeps hundreds of tons of plastic out of landfills each year. Available in 10-ct. Broadline Classic Colors, 10-ct. Broadline Assorted Colors, 10-ct. Fineline Classic Colors, 8-ct. Washable Broadline and 8-ct. Washable Fineline.
Crayola Green 24-ct. Crayons – The quintessential school supply found in virtually every elementary classroom will be made with the power of the sun. More than 26,200 solar panels will convert sunlight into electricity, generating the energy required to make 1 billion of the 3 billion crayons Crayola makes each year, which equals 60 million 24-ct. boxes. Mother Earth will be smiling down on every forest green, pine green and jungle green crayon that rolls off the assembly line!
Crayola Green Colored Pencils – Committed to protecting the rain forests since 1987, all Crayola colored pencils have been made from reforested wood instead of wood sourced from tropical rainforest or endangered species. For every tree used, a new tree of the same species is planted. The 12-, 24-, 36-, and 50-ct. boxes of Crayola Colored Pencils will be among the first to carry the “Eco-Evolution” callout on their packaging.

Today you can enter to win a prize package from Crayola and MyBlogSpark! What will you win? A Crayola “Green Back-to-School Essentials” prize pack that includes Crayola Green Markers, Crayola Green Crayons and Crayola Green Colored Pencil!

Giveaway starts today and will end at 11:59pm EST on September 4th

Open to U.S. Residents

HOW TO ENTER:

Leave a comment below telling me what you like best about color green Crayola products?
Follow @crayola and @brandyellen on Twitter. Leave a comment with your Twitter username below.
Tweet up to three times per day including @brandyellen and #myblogspark in the tweet. Leave a link below to your tweet.
Share this giveaway on Facebook, leave a comment with your Facebook profile name.
Follow Happily Blended through Google Friend Connect (right hand sidebar). Leave a comment with your username.
Subscribe to Happily Blended’s newsletter. Leave a comment telling me you did this.
Subscribe to Happily Blended Blog Updates via RSS or Email. Leave a comment stating which way you subscribe.

Good luck and have fun entering!

Disclosure: I received the same prize package from Crayola and MyBlogSpark for free. All opinions are based on my own 100%.

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Working My Way Toned … Again

August 20th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Brandy's Life, fitness

I’ve never been a person to pop diet pills, I personally feel they are a lazy way to try to lose weight. To me the feeling of pride and accomplishment with a daily workout routine not only helps with weight loss but boosts your spirits. Due to the leg issue I was and still am having I stopped my EA Sports Active workouts. Within just a few weeks of not working out I found myself feeling insecure about my body.

Without workouts my stomach and biceps were getting larger and it was happening fast. All my life the tummy and biceps were my trouble spots. After giving birth to three kids the trouble spots became even worse without a workout routine. So I am in need of focus and energy for a workout routine again. The insecure feelings cause me to become the “old Brandy” who questions everything and worries constantly. I refuse to become an insecure person and am a firm believer that my mindset is easier controlled with a workout routine.

I have taken measurements and weight as well as noted I am in a size 13 pants. I am determined to keep up with workouts this time and have even taken current pictures, that I can’t get to at this moment because my home server computer is down and the hubs is working. I plan to share my before photos soon and try to update with pictures as often as possible. I am serious about getting rid of that extra flab and I know with the support of the online community I will be able to do this!

Who’s going to work with me on this and help support each other? What has worked for you to keep up with a regular exercise routine?

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Can You Defend Yourself?

August 20th, 2010 · No Comments · Miscellaneous

Back in the day I used to be a bit crazy and would use self defense as an excuse when getting into an argument or physical confrontation with someone, however, that is different when you are talking about true self defense against a person or animal that you are in danger from. Whether you are male or female having self defense products such as pepper spray will give you the one up on your attacker.

Don’t think pepper spray will totally suck on that attacker or intruder? Well think about it, pepper spray is derived from hot cayenne peppers so head on over to your local produce place and pick up some of these and touch them, from there proceed to touch your eye. It will burn really badly, so please really do not do that for your own safety, hot cayenne peppers are nothing to mess with unless you are using them in something you are cooking!

Self defense is something many people lack, we are not usually trained self defense techniques in high school, however, there seems to be more and more classes on self defense and let me tell you what I know a can of good ol’ MACE will get that job done for you to deter your attacker from proceeding so that you can call for help or run fast as fast can be away from the situation.

So tell me, what types of self defense personal security products have you used? Have you ever taken self defense classes, how did they work out for you?

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Stylish Way to Feed Your Infant & Toddler @mommaus

August 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Product Reviews

Today I get to introduce you to a new style of feeding products for infants and toddlers, it’s called mOmma and it’s all about entertaining your child and eliminating spills at the same time.

These are the coolest looking products and Baby K just loved using them! They kept him entertained and allowed a happier, more peaceful meal time for our family! AJ really liked the looks but the mOmma Warm Developmental Meal Set which included a warming plate, spoon and fork didn’t seem to be something he even wanted to try out. AJ is four and Baby K is 2 therefore it seems the products I happened to receive from Team Mom were more suitable for my 2 year old rather than my 4 year old, however, that’s not to say your 4 year old wouldn’t enjoy them. My 4 year old son is quite the stubborn little guy and shows little interest in anything that’s not related to a superhero!

The innovative collection of cups, plates and utensils blends form with function to transform a child’s breakfast, lunch or dinner into a moment of learning and pleasure. mOmma’s ergonomic design features a distinctive “roly poly” shape that allows cups, forks and spoons to rock back and forth when uncovered. The stylish collection comes in a choice of brilliant orange of vibrant green and is PBA and phthalate-free.

You can purchase these products on the mOmma US website as well as on Amazon and diapers.com.

Be sure to connect with mOmma US on Twitter and Facebook to get up to date news and information!

Disclosure: I received a mOmma non-spill cup, cup with straw, mOmma wash cleaning accessory and the mOmma warm developmental meal set for free in order to full facilitate this review for Team Mom and mOmma US.

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

The Baby Bunch Crayon Rompers Giveaway

August 19th, 2010 · 87 Comments · Product Reviews, giveaways

I am flat out excited to be working with The Baby Bunch again, this time I received Crayon Rompers and get to giveaway a package to one lucky entrant as well! As you know I don’t have any romper aged children so these great Crayon rompers went with my sister to a baby shower. The recipient loved them and thought they were just adorable along with the cupcake onesies I recently had up live on site from The Baby Bunch!

About The Baby Bunch Crayon Rompers

Each new baby can enjoy a colorful set of Crayon Rompers that come in three different colors being useful for both a boy or a girl. The Crayon Rompers include: one red one-piece, one green one-piece and one orange one-piece, each of these rompers look like a crayon {no joke}; the baby clothes are so cutely packaged in a box that looks like a crayon box. These rompers are made of super-soft 100% cotton and sized for infants 0-6 months, or up to 16 lbs.

Would you like to win these? Go ahead read on and follow all rules laid out to ensure your entry is not removed for not following the complete rules! VALUE IS APROX. $25

OPEN TO US AND CANADA – ENDS 11:59pm ON SEPTEMBER 1

First REQUIRED Entry – Head on over the The Baby Bunch and have a look around, what other product beside the Crayon Rompers appeal to you? Leave a comment below before doing any of the optional entries telling me which product(s) appeal to you besides the crayon rompers.

OPTIONAL Additional Entries -

“Like” The Baby Bunch on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook profile name.
Follow both @brandyellen and @BabyBunch on Twitter. Leave a comment telling me your Twitter username.
Blog about this giveaway linking to both this giveaway and The Baby Bunch (www.babybunch.com). Leave a comment with a link to your live blog post in a comment below.
Tweet up to THREE TIMES per day about this giveaway to both @babybunch and @brandyellen. Leave a comment with link to your Tweet below.
Follow Happily Blended through Google Friend Connect (right hand sidebar). Leave a comment with your username.
Subscribe to Happily Blended’s newsletter. Leave a comment telling me you did this.
Subscribe to Happily Blended Blog Updates via RSS or Email. Leave a comment stating which way you subscribe.

Disclosure: The Crayon Rompers were provided to me free in order to facilitate this review/giveaway. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Happy Birthday Baby K You are TWO Today

August 19th, 2010 · 8 Comments · Brandy's Life

I must start this blog post with a cute little video I took a couple nights ago of Baby K …

Oh Baby K it’s been a fast two years and you have entertained us the whole way! Sometimes a very active boy like your big brother and other times a sweet caring child like your sister. Oh you are the perfect mix of both your siblings and always keep everyone in the house smiling. The first to give a hug and kiss when someone is hurt.

We love you dearly sweet boy and we are happy that you are now officially a BIG TWO YEAR OLD BOY! Okay well I am not looking forward the “terrible twos” as they are called because we are already seeing a bit of that in you … guess Mama is going to have to get more sleep to keep up with you!

Enjoy your special day son, can’t wait to give you a big birthday hug and kiss!

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

How Giveaway Winners Are Chosen

August 19th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Blogging Support

You know it was recently brought to my attention, that maybe many people who enter blog giveaways don’t realize how a winner is chosen. I wanted to take a moment to explain how I choose a giveaway winner and how most other bloggers do as well.

When a giveaway submission comes through to me first I find out if I am going to charge my giveaway fee for hosting it or receive the same or similar product package in exchange for hosting said giveaway. I then wait to receive whatever form of compensation I will be receiving and if a product is submitted I must take time to fully review the product so that I can share my opinion based on the family experience with said product.

Once I am ready to write up the giveaway I get online and log into my dashboard for my blog. I then write up the giveaway based on my normal practices and requests the sponsor has asked of me to include. From there the giveaway will run about 7-14 days depending upon the request of the sponsor or my personal feeling of how long I think the giveaway needs to run to fully be promoted.

The giveaway date and end time come along, I try to close the comments and if I didn’t then I delete any comments received after the end date/time. The next steps are easier written in bullet points so here goes:

I review all comments to ensure everyone followed the rules.
For those comments who did not enter correctly based on that particular giveaway rules I delete them without notice (as is usually written in all my giveaway posts).
After I get a total number of comments aka entries I open a new tab in my browser to go to Random.org.
Random.org has a true random number generator on their site on the right hand side that I place the number 1 and then the last number of entries into the number fields.
I then click “generate” one time to have it choose a number.
The number chosen is the winner so I go back to the other tab where my giveaway post is open and look at the numbered comments.
Once I get to the correct number I then know who the winner is.
After the process is complete I try to take screen captures but do not always do this to ensure I can include a photo so that there are no questions on who the winner is.
If I did take screen shots I will upload them to my site and include them in the winning post and schedule the post to go live at my next set posting date/time.

After the winner has been announced live, and sometimes beforehand, I contact the winner and let them know they won. I ask the winner to leave a comment on the winner announcement post and reply to my email with the information I need for that particular giveaway. So there you have it, in a nutshell “how giveaway winners are chosen” in a blog giveaway or at least a Happily Blended Blog giveaway.

Any questions? Any tips on what you do as a blogger for giveaway winner selections?