Everyday Baby Steps

I just learned about a contest that I think is worth talking about. It's a chance to win a Chocolate Spa Getaway to Hershey, PA. The winner and a friend will receive a Spa Weekend Getaway for two, May 15 - 17, to the Hotel Hershey, including airfare and limo service to the hotel! The package includes a 3 day/2 night stay at the Hotel Hershey, $400 worth of spa treatments, admission to the Hershey Gardens, and gourmet dining. I'm in!

Let me tell you that if you've never been to Hershey, you want to go. The whole town really does smell like chocolate, and the street lights are shaped like Hershey's Kisses. I've never been to the Hotel Hershey, but I grew up in South Central Pennsylvania and always heard how fancy it was.

To enter, just write in 300 words or less why a special friend of yours deserves this incredible weekend of pampering. You'll copy your essay into the body of an email and send it to choclatespacontest@gmail.com by April 17th at midnight. Winners will be chosen April 24th. Surely, you've got a friend who could really use this luxurious trip, and wouldn't you have fun going with her?

I just received information about an amazing contest in which the winner can get $2K toward the Cartier's Love Collection! Cartier, people! Beyond incredible jewelry. What struck me as strange at first was that the contest is sponsored by the LIFE foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes the importance of life insurance.

The LIFE Foundation's campaign is called Insure Your Love, and it really makes a lot of sense. Valentine's Day is the holiday of love. We all want to protect our loved ones, our most prized possessions, in the possible event of our death. Reading about the campaign has certainly caused me to think about my lack of planning.

I wanted to spread the word about this worthwhile foundation and the amazing contest they're sponsoring. For your chance to win, just visit The Selfless Love Contest and nominate a friend or loved one who has demonstrated a selfless act of love. The deadline is Valentine's Day, February 14th, so hurry over and enter!

Remember the tagline contest I won for Blissfully Domestic?  Well, they've unveiled the tagline along with a whole new look for the site!   The tagline I wrote is - "Your Life. Your Bliss."  Go check it out at the newly revamped Blissfully Domestic.  What do you think?  Be sure to take a look through all the great channels for some great information on all kinds of subjects, including home, style, health, marriage, and photography.  Don't forget to leave a comment if you love what you read!

I had something exciting happen to me over the weekend.  I won a contest.  You all know I LOVE contests.  This one was a contest by Allison Worthington, also known as Mrs. Fussypants.  See her link down there on my blog roll?  I love her.  She's also the editor of Blissfully Domestic, the online lifestyle magazine I contribute to.

Alli put out a tweet on Twitter last week asking people to submit their idea for a new Blissfully Domestic tagline.  The prize?  A piece of jewelry from her boutique, Fussypants Designs.  When you see this jewelry, you'll understand why I started brainstorming.

I don't consider myself a very creative person, but a cute tagline idea did come to me, so I decided to tweet it to Fussy.  I didn't give it another thought until yesterday morning when I received a message from her saying, "morning. You won the BD tagline contest. Email me your address, OK? I haz bling 4 u!"  Ooh, bling!  I was ecstatic.

Then I realized that I wasn't happy simply because of the prize itself (although I do love beautiful jewelry, don't get me wrong), but because of the other gift Alli gave to me - validation that my ideas are good.  You may remember that I left my previous job as a college adviser due to a negative work atmosphere, with people who really brought me down.  I spent a long time in that working environment, feeling like my ideas didn't matter and wouldn't be received favorably.  I allowed my self-esteem to plummet.

Since leaving my job, I've worked very hard to get back to my former self.  Starting this blog has helped me more than I can express.  Receiving a nod from Alli and the Blissfully Domestic editors that my tagline was the best submission for the magazine means the world to me and helps me to remember that I am a smart and savvy woman with some great ideas.   Thank you so much for choosing my entry and helping me to regain my sense of who I am.

** I will not divulge the tagline yet, as I'm not sure what Alli and the Blissfully Domestic editorial staff have planned for its unveiling.

It's official.  I didn't win either of the contests I entered over at MomDot.  But that's okay, the kids and I did have tons of fun doing them!  I was entered into a random drawing of five finalists for the blog header contest, but my number wasn't picked.  You know what, though?  I actually do like my flowers.  My blog doesn't look like anyone else's, and I think that's cool.  I was pretty bummed that my hideous earrings didn't win me the cute Little Windows jewelry.  But check out the winner - her earrings deserved the ugliest jewelry ever award!

Now onto what I'm NOT losing - weight!  The email tips from Self.com are not at all the motivator I expected.  I thought I would get a daily exercise and diet tip, but what I received was a how-to for a particular exercise move.  Not that I can blame my lack of willpower and willingness to get off my butt on Self - that's all me, baby!  But I HAVE been focusing on my writing and on making contacts in the media world.  I'll update you on that soon!  Maybe once the kids go back to school NEXT WEEK, I can start trying to improve my diet.  It's hard to resist when they're coming to me every hour saying, "Can we have a snack?  We're STARVING!"

I've decided to enter another fun contest at MomDot - this time the prize is jewerly!  By the way, I did not win the blog header contest, though I was one of five chosen to be put into a random drawing.  Oh well, I'll keep my pretty flowers.

From flowers back to jewelry.  The prize in this newest contest is a $50 gift card from Little Windows.  This company makes beautiful photo jewelry.  The frames are clear resin, allowing all the color from you photo to be seen - no frame obscuring your picture.  They're very classy looking, and I just love personalized things (as you may know!).  So I'm in it to win it!

But I forgot to tell you the fun part of how I'm going to win it.  All I have to do is get a picture of myself with the UGLIEST piece of jewelry I own.  MomDot will pick the ugliest piece from all entries received by today's deadline.  So here it is.  These earrings came from my mom.  They're clip-ons.  I gave them to my daughter to wear for playing dress-up, and even she won't touch them!

So what do you think?  Are these earrings ugly enough to win?  Go check out the competition and let me know!  I just got my hair cut yesterday.  Do you like it?  I do.  It's so easy to take care of.  I need all the help I can get at making my life easier.  Have a Fun Friday and a wonderful weekend!

For What If...Wednesday, I've decided to enter a contest.  A really fun contest at MomDot.  The prize is a new blog header!  Wouldn't that be awesome?  I like my flowers; they're from my wedding, and my best friend and I made the bouquets ourselves.  But a really cute blog header would be fabulous, as I really didn't know what the heck I was doing when I put this layout together.  I still don't, but I'm learning.

Anyway, to win the header, you have to make a sign and take a picture of it.  Your sign can say anything, and your picture can be of anything (as long as your sign's in it).  So here's our entry!

[caption id="attachment_233" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Babysteppers say, "MomDot rocks! Pick our mom!""][/caption]

 Gosh, they're cute!  What do you think?  I don't consider myself the most creative mom, but I think it's pretty good.  And it was a lot of fun.  Go to MomDot to enter for your chance to win a cool, new blog header!