Six Kodak 40% Off Coupon Codes Up For Grabs: Hurry Expires 12/01

First six interested can have the codes for 40% off at Kodak Galleries.  Leave a comment please.

Thanks!

I'm Truly Thankful

Not only am I mother to five (two step children in Texas), I work full time from home.  I am a telecommuter and although telecommuting affords many advantages, it also provides disadvantages.  I have to be able to shut down from the house to focus on work and I have to be able to shut down work to focus on the house.  It's a delicate balance to maintain and perceptions of others adds to the burden.  My husband feels I have an advantage as I don't have to commute to an office so he feels that I do have the "extra" time to tend to chores, the kids and the numerous household requirements from service people.

Working from home is trying especially when you have an ADD mind (self-diagnosed).  I'm all over the place with all the grand things I want to do from being a great mother, a great wife, a great daughter, a great sister and so forth, it's hard. 

It's a daunting tasks to say the least with little recognized appreciation.  At least that is what I thought until I stopped and looked at my two younger girls dancing to Single Ladies by Beyonce.  Watching them play nicely, laughing from the belly or telling me how much they love me makes it all worth it.  I realized that everything I do is truly for them and for this year at Thanksgiving, I am sticking to my Lenox and TwitterMoms posting of a new Thanksgiving tradition of going round table on what are you thankful for with a picture added and bound in a memory book.  I want to pass these down to the girls so they can build on this and treasure our memories.  The idea will be adopted every year which next year will be even more special as my husband will be in Kuwait. 

What will you do or do you do to make Thanksgiving special?

Rue La La Lenox HUGE Sale Along with Furla & LinQ

Go here for fantastic deals on a huge variety of Lenox products ranging from glasses, vases, serving sets, Christmas decor and more.  Furla and LinQ is also on sale.

HauteLook Great Sale on Toys, Chocolate & More But You Have to Hurry!

HauteLook has great sales going on but only for a limited time with a flat $4.95 shipping rate.  Here are some of the brands on sale.  I just indulged on the chocolate!

More Christmas Ideas: Customized Wine Labels, Santa Postcards & More

I always enjoy making or at least partially making my own Christmas gifts or personalizing them to make them more special or unique.  This year is no exception but the hunt for new ideas or creative ways is harder.  I usually pay quite a bit of money for personalized wine labels but I can get a sheet of six for only $5.10.  Here are some of examples:

Black and Silver Christmas Wine Labels by jbranam
Shop all other stickers available at zazzle

Santa on Gold Customized Wine Labels by jbranam
sticker printing from zazzle

Gold Christmas Tree on Red Background Wine Label by jbranam
Design custom stickers at zazzle

For Santa letters, I'm using this postcard version and instead of paying for postage, I'll just sneak them into the mailbox and give to the girls.  It already has the Santa postmark on it.  I can use it to acknowledge the girl's letters to Santa or just to remind them to be good.

Customized Santa Dear Child Postcard by jbranam
Post cards made online at zazzle.com

Here are some shirt/onesie options:

Mommy/Daddy's Liltle Reindeer by jbranam
View more Reindeer T-Shirts

Dear Santa Please Define NAUGHTY by jbranam
Make customized tshirts at zazzle

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Need Creative Help for Christmas Presents, Pictures, Cards & Gifts?

I have posted about picnik.com before but in preparation for Christmas, they have added all the great Christmas features of costumes, jolly red nose, hats, fancy text, ornaments and other objects and so much more.  You can make slide shows for creative displays of your work.  The great thing about picnik.com is membership is free for the basic plan but with all the great bells and whistles, you pay yearly but it's inexpensive for what you get.  The photo features are amazing and it's comparable to those expensive photo shop programs you buy for hundreds of dollars.  In fact, I prefer the auto-fix and manual fix option out of all the other programs I have. 

There is just so much you can do to be creative without having to be Martha Stewart.  It's so easy too!  It's mostly click and approve and if you make a mistake, click undue and it's that easy!

Here is an example of drop and add gift cards.  You can save everything you create to your computer, add it to blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and more!  You can even print gifts straight from the site.

You can create cards from here and collages.  If you have a photo special somewhere else, not a problem.  Since it downloads, you can choose the size to make it larger for better quality once you upload it into another site's printing specials.  I created cards here and had them printed.

Mr. Bluelight's Christmas Countdown

The Spirit of Giving to My Loyal Subscribers

I have a host of giveaways wrapping up by December 15 with new one's coming such as Mastermind Toys and Chicken Soup for the Soul Count Your Blessings Book AND Game.  My goal is to have them all over in time hopefully for a Christmas delivery to help you.

Each day, I'll provide a task to do to earn five extra entries to increase your chances to win. 

Today's task is to go to my post on Mastermind Toys, go to each and every giveaway you choose and write five comments on what you would choose. 

For example, after choosing the toy you prefer from that post, go to the Handy Manny giveaway and list that toy five times.  Easy!

Have a great day!

Eat Your Way to Happiness Book Review by Another Mommy Blogger

This review provided a lot of good information on my path to getting healthier and losing weight.  I'm a definite carb craver!   KennedyandZach.blogspot.com has this great review at her site:

I believe I have found the best nutrition book! I recently have been reading, and following, Eat Your Way to Happiness by Elizabeth Somer. Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of Eat Your Way to Happiness, is a registered dietitian and author of several books, including 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman's Diet, Food & Mood and Age-Proof Your Body. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of Shape magazine and editor in chief of Nutrition Alert, a newsletter that summarizes the current research from more than 6,000 journals. She appears frequently on NBC's Today and other national television shows.

Want to read the rest?  Go HERE.

Great Gift Idea for Christmas: Intentions Hand Crafted Soap: Review Update

UPDATE TO POST

I just received my beautiful, fragrant hand crafted soaps by Intentions and they are amazing!  I love them so much it's going to be hard to give them away.  Those are the pictures I took of them to try to show the work that went into them.  Some have beautiful tops with the fragrance type while others have "Intentions" stamped into them.  They too pretty to use but I will just so I can add to this review (which I provided on my own without any compensation by Intentions).

If you are looking to be pampered, need something gorgeous for your bath or want to wow someone with a great looking present, check out Intentions.

I just purchased these wonderful hand crafted soaps from Intentions, an Etsy store and I cannot wait to get them!  They are so beautiful, unique and reasonably priced.  I've never been much into the whole "pretty soap" thing but these were screaming at me to buy them!  The one above is intended on being a gift but I just might make it my own personal gift!

The Soap Trio Treasure has three soaps tucked into a treasure chest with a small charm adorning the front. The chest can be filled with additional treasures when the soaps are rehomed to the edge of a basin.   Comes with either pink or burgundy ribbon so I'm picking the burgundy one.

The following fragrances can be chosen:

FLORAL FRAGRANCE CHOICES:

• Flowerfull
• Wistful Winter Wishes
• Honey Can I Bee

FRUITS FRAGRANCE CHOICES:

• Berry Tart
• Fresh Apple (soap is pictured in very front of basket)
• Fall In
• Berry Me

FRESH FRAGRANCE CHOICES:

• Greener Pastures
• Summer Lime

I also bought the Pink Sugar Natural Sugar bar because it's another natural soap bar with more than 10% grapeseed oil, a luxuriant, emollient skin oil. Coconut milk and sodium lactate act as skin humectants.  This might be too pretty to us!

The Flowerful Sachet/Soap Bar is the next one I couldn't resist.  A so sophisticated floral! An extremely mild soap bar excellent for normal or dry skin. Super filled with cocoa butter, olive oil, coconut oil, honey, micas, Vitamin E.

I was nice this time and bought something for my husband ... a late Veteran's Day present!  It states it's a perfect uni-sex scent. Cedar Forest. Crisp. Clean. Jam packed with skin loving oils of hemp (filled with EFA's, you know the essential fatty acids everyone and their news anchor keep talking about) olive oil, palm and coconut with castor thrown in because it does create awesome bubbles. The big, rainbow throwing ones.

Want to know more about all the great products?  Remember, these make amazing Christmas presents!

Check out Intentions at Etsy!

THERAFIRM GOGO Energy to Go Review & 2 Pair Giveaway: WINNER

CONGRATULATIONS TO....

CHECKERS!

An e-mail has been sent!

Thanks to everyone who entered and don't forget to enter all my other giveaways!

Did you know that through the science of a controlled amount of pressure greatest at the ankle and gradually decreases towards the top of the stocking (thus the name Gradient Compression) - promotes better blood flow?  This gradient compression helps to reduce leg swelling and prevents pooling of the superficial veins which allows the blood to pump quicker to the heart.

GOGO Energy To Go, designed by women, for women, work with your body to make you have more energy.  GOGO also states they aid in the prevention of varicose and spider veins, reduces swelling, and improves circulation.

My Review:

I was provided a pair of GOGO trouser socks by THERAFIRM to try.  See, there I am on the right?  I wished!

After a week, I have tons of laundry thanks to having five people in the house, I can state that my legs feel much better.  When you slip them on, you immediately feel a cooling sensation.  The amount of compression was 10-15 mmHg which was not too tight nor too loose.  The biggest test of all came wearing them with high heeled boots while shopping as that is a killer for me in terms of sore bottoms of my feet and sweating when I wear normal hosier.  I had no pain and no sweating. My legs felt great as well as my feet.  In fact, when I took them off, that's when the bottoms of my feet started hurting.

I would recommend these to anyone as they feel great, are made of high quality material so you don't have to replace them like regular socks and who doesn't need a little help in the vein department?

Choices include:

• 
  
  Trouser socks
  
  
  
• Tights
• Footless Tights
• Knee High
• Thigh High
• Panyhose
• Footless Pantyhose <-- how cool is that?  I didn't know before now that those were available.  I can wear those cute Barbie shoes now and have support.
• Maternity Pantyhose

Colors Very Per Product:

• Winter White/Ribbed
• Black/Ribbed
• Cocoa/Ribbed
• Coal/Ribbed
• Winter White/Diamond
• Black Diamond
• Cocoa Diamond
• Navy Diamond

The Giveaway:

Two pairs of your very own GOGO Energy To Go trouser socks. 

To Enter:


Leave a comment and follow my blog.

Extra Entries:

Follow me on Twitter for 2 comments.
Subscribe to my blog for 2 comments.
Enter one of my other giveaways and leave 2 comments.
Tweet about the giveaway for 2 comments (can be done daily).
Blog about the giveaway for 2 comments.
Vote for me at DivineCaroline (see widget on left side of blog) for 5 comments.


Giveaway ends 12/01/09 at midnight.

Winner will be chosen by random.org.

Good luck!

Martha Stewart Pomegranate Turkeys to Make

I wished pomegranate's were less expensive and my family would eat them because Martha Stewart's latest e-mail of ideas has this great pomegranate turkey that would be easy for your grade school one's to create and use at the Thanksgiving dinner table.


Tools and Materials

Turkey template
Autumnal-colored cardstock
Stapler
Craft knife
Toothpicks
Tape
Rubber cement or glue stick
Beautifully round pomegranate
Pen (optional)


Pomegranate Turkey How-To

1. Download and print turkey template.
2. Fold a piece of autumnal-colored cardstock in half. Staple the template to the folded cardstock, and cut on the solid black line, through all the layers, with a craft knife.
3. With one set of cutouts, tape toothpicks in place, as marked on the template.
4. With the opposing set of cutouts, apply a layer of glue and attach to the first set, sandwiching the toothpicks in between the layers of paper. If you want to make these cute decorations into place cards, write the names of your guests across the fan of feathers.
5. Make pilot holes in the pomegranate with an extra toothpick: two holes in the stem end (for the turkey head) and two on each side of the stamen, about two inches apart (for the tail). Insert turkey head and tail cutouts into pomegranate.


Resources

Get more one-of-a-kind ideas with our holiday table decorations photo gallery. For more seasonally inspired crafts, check out television's fall favorites.

Go HERE for the full article.

Black Friday Ads & More Good Shopping Deals

TGIBlackFriday has nine store's Black Friday Ads up HERE.  They include Target, Walmart, Best Buy, JcPenney, Kmart, Kohls, Toys-R-Us and Sears.

Here are just some deals:

• Over 40 games at $10 each
• Power Wheels Ride On at $88
• Nintendo Wii Value Bundle at $249
• Acer Netbook at $149.99
• Playstation 3 Console w/ Batman at $299
• Nintendo DS Lite at $98

Overstock has this 500 Thread Count Siberian White Down Comforter normally priced at $479.75, now at $102.99

Musician's Friend has Rogue Starter Acoustic Guitar at $34.99 normally priced at $99.

Best Buy has Sony Cybershot DSC-G1 6.0MP Digital Camera for $199.00 normally priced at $599.99.

Today from 10 am to 3 pm, 30% off of orders $60 or more at Personal Creations.  Use Code LNCH36.  They have nice personalized products that are great for gifts.  High quality!

Red Envelope has free chocolates with your order.  Offer expires 12/03.  Check out the personalized animal books.

ProFlowers has 20% off until Sunday with code GOBBLE.

Snapfish has 20% off until November 30th with code SENDEARLY or free shipping with code SENDFREE.

1-800 Flowers has a free Thanksgiving upgrade ($10 value) until 11/25.

Lands End is having 30% off regular priced turtlenecks, polos and tees using code NOV20 and the pin 00008111 with free shipping.  Valid until 11/20.  They also have women's cashmere sweaters at $49.50 regularly priced at $89.50.

Buy.com has the following:

• Curious Case of Benjamin Button Widescreen for $9.00 expires 11/20.
• Complimentary 12 Week Subscription to USA Today.
• Brother QL-570 Professional Label Printer $35.00 normally $169.95.

Much more HERE.


Beauty.com has free Origin's Ginger Souffle Body Cream with the purchase of $55 of other Origin's products.  Value of $29.  Ends once all are gone or 12/03.


Gap.com has 25% off until 11/24 with code GAPSALE25.

BananaRepublic.com has 30% off of outerwear and free shipping on any purchase $50 or more.  Expires 12/15. No code needed.

Cheryl&Co has 15% off entire brownie shop.  Use code BROWNIE15. Expires 11/23.

HauteLook has:

• Coach bags 45% off. Ends late Saturday. 
• Hello Kitty 20-60% off.
• Armani Fragrances
• PurMinerals
• GoSmila & more
  

50% off of Personalized Gift Wrap at StorkAvenue HERE <-- Great deal at $9.95!

 

Don't Forget Enter Any Other Giveaway & Get Bonus Entries

When you enter any of my on-going giveaways, you will get five bonus entries to each and every giveaway.  If you enter the Oompa Animal Dominos giveaway and the $10 Starbucks giveaway, that's 10 bonus entries for each.

Sneak Peak at Kmart Bluelight Specials This Weekend 11/21 - 11/22

Get ready for this weekend, Kmart is giving a sneak peak at this weekend's bluelight specials:

• Home/All Frames 50% off (reg range $1-$29.99)
• Boys and Girls Basic Edition turtlenecks $2.99 (reg.$7.99)
• Home/All Cookware 40% off (reg. $6.99-169.99)

Gift Ideas:

Picture frames with your children or old photos of grandparents, aunts and uncles make great gifts for your parents.  The picture frames shown here are under $10 and with the Bluelight Special, it will be under $5!  What a great gift his makes and it's inexpensive.

These stylish turtlenecks are adorned with rhinestones.  They come in many colors and other styles for both girls and boys (non-rhinestone).  At $2.99 each, you can stock up and save a lot of money.  They also make great presents for The Angel Tree.

For the cook in the family, 40% off of cookware lets you get this fabulous set at a fraction of the cost.  This T-Fal Premier Hard Enamel 11 piece set normally sells at $99.99.  Five customers gave this four stars.

So much to choose from at great prices!

Don’t forget to follow @KmartDealsnNews and use the #KmartBLS hashtag for a chance to win every day!

For more info & rules: http://tr.im/KmartBLS. Good luck!