Winner Announcement!

I'm going to break the winners up in a few different posts over the next few days, and hopefully I won't get everything all mixed up! Congratulations to the winners! And, come visit for more winners and new giveaways! I'm not done yet!

So, the winner of the Overall Beauty Mineral Makeup is:

Saretta said... 36

I follow you on Twitter as sarettagd (no. 2).

January 22, 2011 4:01 AM

The winner of the book The Club No One Wanted to Join is: (and, by the way, I was so glad to see the comment when this winner was chosen! However, there is not an email to contact her with, so hopefully she sees this post...if not, I will have to choose another winner.)

Tara said... 5

I would love a copy of this book as my parents were victims of Madoff. My mother was due to retire the May after this scandal broke. My father is on disability. They lost their entire life savings and now my mother will have to work till who knows when? They can't afford to come visit us often and see my children, their grandchildren. I could go on and on, but I would love to read this as it clearly hits VERY close to home. Lastly, I have never won anything! So, this would be nice to win since it relates to my life!

And the winner of the ShaToBu Shaper Tights is:

lclazar029 said... 96

2/8 tweet http://twitter.com/#!/momofnicnic/status/35200975136358400 lclazar029@yahoo.ca

February 8, 2011 11:59 PM

Congrats! I'll be emailing all of you today!

Thank You So Much!

I am awestruck! During my "downtime", I have received a plethora of emails in my inbox asking me how I am doing and I can't thank everyone enough for caring so much! When I was feeling yucky, it was touching to find out that my absence didn't go unnoticed!

I truly apologize for the delay in announcing winners of the giveaways that are currently sitting dormant and want to get back to posting more blog posts and, of course, reviews and giveaways! So, later today, I plan to announce a whole slew of winners and, again, want to thank everyone for your patience while I've been sick and for all of the wonderful, thoughtful emails that have been sent my way!

EdenFantasys Review

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Down For the Count

It's been a long week of feeling yucky, hot and cold, and ultimately useless. I'm still working on getting back up on my feet...

Hopefully, by the end of the weekend, I'll feel well enough to blog some more.

Until then, thanks for coming by...be sure to get your last entries in on the giveaways! Don't worry...I have more coming soon!

Time For Some Winners!

I know people are thinking, "Get with the program!" Start picking some winners! I apologize. :) I feel the same way when I enter a giveaway that I really want to win, so I will apologize again.

The Baby Bond winner is:

deanna said... 45

follow you on twitter @dlw447 deannalw47 AT hotmail DOT com xoxoxo The winner of the Cowgirl Chocolates is:

heartnsoulcooking said... 29

#1 - Subscribe to Mommy Rantings via email heartnsoulcooking[at]gmail[dot]com The winner of the Eden Fantasys gift card is:

Selective Sensualist said... 176

Tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/SSensualist/status/32993325107646464 selectivesensualist(at)yahoo(dot)com The winner of the Luvalla set is:

Tawnya said... 45

I learned "L'uvalla products work synergistically with your skin to deliver the short term results you need to provide you with deeply healthy and beneficial long term results you want to look your best." copperbliss at hotmail dot com And, the winner of the Zebra Pens is:

It seems we have a double-winner! (It's your lucky day!)

Tawnya said... 27

I follow you on twitter! @kopperkirlz copperbliss at hotmail dot com

I will email all of you - that is, unless you email me first! CONGRATULATIONS!

Also, please don't forget:

Nominate Me!!!!

I am vying for a spot for the AVONDreamers Ambassadorship! There are only three available and I really really want to be one of the three! It's very easy to nominate me!!! (and, right now, I am behind three other blogs for the running. Fourth place won't cut it! I want to be #1!)

Please please please please please take two seconds and go over to their Facebook page and copy and paste this:



I nominate www.mommyrantings.com for an AVONDreamers Ambassadorship!





This means products for Mommy Rantings readers, too!

I *heart* you in advance for supporting me!!!

Stride Everyday Review and Giveaway!

Whether you are the one that experiences leaks or you know someone who does, you'll be glad to know that someone has finally been innovative enough to make a pair of undies that are lined specifically for leakage issues. After giving birth to 6 kids, I am glad to say that I don't have this problem - yet!

However, I wonder if I ever will...and if I do, I would prefer a pair of undies like Stride's as opposed to some Depends any day!

That innovative "someone", Wendy Spencer, actually had the leakage problem after having her firstborn. As a marathon runner She came up with the idea for Stride panties during a trip to Korea and decided to "make it fashionable". Now, there are 5 different styles and cutsie patterns.Oh! and they're easily machine washable, too!

See, aren't they cute?

And, here's how they work:

This is the description directly from their website (so I don't happen to mess it up!):


"The first layer of the OQUOS™ technology wicks away moisture 8 times more effectively than cotton for superior dryness. It is designed to maintain its shape to improve body contact during normal activity (such as walking, running or sneezing) and will continue to provide comfort and protection for up to 100 washes. Plus, it’s so discreet no one will know you’re wearing it!
The patented OQUOS™ sub-layers rapidly disperse light leaks, naturally deodorizing while the super-absorbent fibers contained in the liner absorb up to an ounce of moisture."

My Opinion

I was actually surprised at how seamless these panties are! You can wear them under your "skinniest" outfits and they're undetectable. It's bad enough to experience those "oops" moments, never mind having to wear something big and bulky (or even small pantiliners - don't you hate those?) "just in case". Stride Everyday panties feel good when you wear them! Anyone who has leak problems is really going to love these panties.

Buy It!

You can order Stride Everyday panties on their website or you can also purchase them at Duane Reed, USA Drug, Kinney and Bartells. If you choose to purchase a pair to try, you can use promotion code STRIDE8882 for 25% off until February 14, 2011.

Win It!

Stride Everyday has offered to present one lucky Mommy Rantings follower with the choice of their own pair of Stride panties. (And, you can win them to give to someone that you know needs them, if you choose.)

Mandatory entry: Go to the Stride Everyday and tell me something else about their products that I did not mention.

The winner MUST be a Mommy Rantings GFC follower to win the giveaway.

Extra entries:

1) "Like" Mommy Rantings on Facebook. (2 entries) (right hand column of blog)

2) Follow QueenBMomma on Twitter. (2 entries) (left hand column of blog)

3) Follow Stride Everyday on Twitter.

4) Grab my button and put it on your blog (leave the link) (3 entries)

5) Update your Facebook status with this giveaway. (2 entries)

6) Subscribe via email (2 entries)

7) Blog about this giveaway - tell me your blog's URL (3 entries).

9) Tweet this giveaway (you can do this once per day!) (1 entry per tweet -leave twitter name)


Winners will be chosen through Random.org and the winning entries will be validated (I will make sure that you did the mandatory entry and the entry # that is chosen. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN ONE OF YOUR ENTRIES. RUNNING AROUND THE INTERNET TRACKING DOWN WINNERS IS NO FUN!

Thank you to Stride Everyday for sponsoring this giveaway! This giveaway will end on Feb 16th at midnight EST. I will contact the winners by email and they will have 24 hours to respond before the runner up is chosen. Good luck!

I received a product for the purpose of review. I did not receive monetary compensation. All opinions are expressly mine.

Nominate Me!!!!

I am vying for a spot for the AVONDreamers Ambassadorship! There are only three available and I really really want to be one of the three! It's very easy to nominate me!!!

Please please please please please take two second and go over to their Facebook page and copy and paste this:



I nominate www.mommyrantings.com for an AVONDreamers Ambassadorship!





This means products for Mommy Rantings readers, too!

I *heart* you in advance for supporting me!!!

Smart & Sexy Lingerie Winner!

I'm finally on top of things now, and I'm ready to announce some winners this week! First, I want to thank everyone for entering the giveaways, because giveaways would be unnecessary without you!

And, without further ado, the winner of the Smart & Sexy Lingerie giveaway is:

Kait said... 101

I follow you on twitter (@kpicco) #2 philadybug AT hotmail DOT com Congratulations, Kait!!! I will email you shortly!

NaturalSkinShop.com Glycolic Skin Peel Review

I had never tried a glycolic peel prior to NaturalSkinShop.com's offer to send me theirs. I couldn't wait to try it, but, like all products that I put on my skin, I made sure that I read all of the instructions first. It's a good thing that I did, because I didn't realize how very potent glycolic peels are!

First, here is a video:



I actually received the full set for review, which included:

• Glycolic Exfoliator10% 2 oz
• Glycolic 70% Peel 2 oz
• Hyluronic Moisturizer 1 oz

The instructions said to use the exfoliator for a week prior to using the peel. I couldn't wait to use the peel, but I was patient and went through the process, as recommended. I wanted to get the best results possible.

When the day came to do the glycolic peel (which, by the way, is the strongest percentage on the market at 70%), I was excited! I was also leery, considering the warnings on the instructions.

Burn, Baby Burn

There was an immediate tingling/burning sensation, but nothing that made me think: Stop! It actually felt really good - I could tell that something was going on underneath the layers of my skin! After the minute was up, I washed the peel as instructed and couldn't believe how smooth my skin felt and how shiny it was! The hyluronic moisturizer helped to sooth that burning feeling and smoothed my skin even more.

However, my skin continued to tingle/burn long after I washed it off. I would say about 3 hours after I was finished with the procedure, the tingling/burning was gone. But, the residual effects were awesome!

My Thoughts

I love this glycolic peel set! The exfoliator is great for everyday use and the peel - well, there is no doubt that it works! The moisturizer is an added "extra" that completes the system. I don't have experience with other glycolic peels to compare these products with, but I can surely say that I love how my skin feels and looks now that I am using NaturalSkinShop.com's glycolic peel set.

Now, the bottles are quite small, and compared to the price (which is $98 for this set), I would normally shy away from making the purchase, but a teeny tiny bit goes a long way! If used as suggested, this set could easily last me 3 months (yes, even these little 2 oz and 1 oz bottles!). The liquid is almost the density of water and smooths on easily. This set also came in a small zippered make-up bag and had a small box of gauze pads included to help with application. The gauze pads work much better than cotton balls, because cotton balls would absorb (and waste) a lot of the liquid, as opposed to the gauze pads, which won't.

Customer Service

They even offered me the services of a personal esthetician before I placed my order, in case I couldn't figure out the strength that was perfect for my skin! Now, that's customer service! (And, if there is anything you know about me, customer service is a vital aspect of dealing with companies. If their customer service is crappy, their products aren't worth it!)

NaturalSkinShop.com has a wide range of glycolic peels, with different percentages to suit you personal skin needs. They also carry many other products! Stop by their shop to see what they have for you!

I received a product from NaturalSkinShop.com for the purpose of this review. I did not receive compensation for this post.

Annoying Emails

I'm not going to call anyone out on this post, but I just might in the future!

I have received a plethora of emails that annoy me in the past few months. Maybe this post will make a difference...maybe not. But, let's start with the annoying...

Press Release Blog Posts for Free

You know, the emails that contain (basically) press releases and then..."If you would share this info with your readers, we would really appreciate it." I bet you would! Of course, free exposure is the best!

So, what you want me to do is do your job for you, right? You want me to take all of your information, put it in a blog post to my readers and essentially spread the word about your service, products, events, etc. just because I'm a nice person with a blog? You are the PR agent, so you need to come up with a more unique way of coming to me. Let me make this clear: I am not going to spread the word about your cause unless:

1) It benefits me, or
2) It has some close connection to what I believe in...

And even if you hit #2, there's a very slight chance that your product, book, service, event will make it into one of my blog posts because your email annoyed me!

Rejection Emails

I had an email conversation with a blogger that I am friends with just the other day. We were discussing reviews and giveaways and how we email companies to discuss opportunities to promote their products for them for free work with them. She had received a nasty email from a company which she had emailed and was a bit upset. She's not the only poor blogger who has been treated this way. I have received one that I was pretty ticked about. That company is lucky that I didn't blog about it and I am still wondering if I should.

Look, you uppity companies (and this comes from a former business manager!):

1) We are offering you a FREE SERVICE. Be thankful! Advertising of any type costs $$$$$$ and we are offering to do it for free.

2) What we do for you is benefiting you more than it benefits us! How do I figure this? The equation is simple: you send a product worth X amount of dollars. So, add the cost of the product and the shipping. I write a review and post it on my blog, which takes about an hour. Then, I send it out to all of the social media thing-a-ma-bobs (which takes even more time) and you get exposure through Google, too! And, this is ongoing exposure! Once your product is gone (like lotions and candles and finger nail polish), I don't have any residual, but there is a residual effect when I post up something on my blog...it stays there forever and is easily searchable through Google. So, who is really getting the shorter end of the stick?

3) If you know anything about Technorati and most of the other website-analysis tools that you use to see if blogger's blogs are up to your standards, you know that a lot of them are based on backlinks, not traffic. Understand what tools you are using to judge blogs before you reject bloggers.

4) If you haven't spent a moment of time reading someone's blog and checking out how many people respond to their blog posts (that means comments), you should never send a rejection letter that is mean. In addition, how can reject a blogger if you've never been to their site?

5) Did you know that bad exposure is 1000 times worse than a good review? One mean rejection letter could earn your company some bad exposure that never goes away. Be careful, polite, professional and remember that you are representing your company when you email bloggers!

6) Even if you think that a blogger does not have enough followers, the chances are that they have enough followers to spread the word about your mean email.

7) Bloggers are people with feelings. Duh! Be nice.

8) Back to the old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." 'Nuff said.

My final word on this "rant" is: the company that sent me that mean email is very lucky they got away with it. The next mean and unprofessional email that I receive from a company will get posted on Mommy Rantings! Exposure is the key. :)

So, I have three questions: Which emails annoy you? Should I expose the company that sent me the mean email? Would you?

My BlogSpark, MultiGrain Cheerios® and The Biggest Loser Club® Review and Giveaway!

Are you a fan of the show, The Biggest Loser? I actually love that show, regardless of the fact that I'm not overweight. It's great to see people working together to become healthier! I think if I had to make a resolution, it would be to eat and drink healthier - and to ultimately become healthier this year.

I started my water intake regimen in November (when I started to get sick)...I HATED water and I can't tell you how many people have told me that you "acquire" a taste for it once you start drinking it...I won't go THAT far, but I will say that my body now craves it. Or, maybe I notice the fact that my body craves it more, because I started drinking it. I like a lot of ice in it, nice and cold. I'm now up to 4 tall glasses per day and working on increasing it to one more soon.

So, My BlogSpark sent me an email offering to send me a prize pack for the Multigrain Cheerios Biggest Loser at Home Spark!

Even though I'm not on the track to losing weight, I definitely love the purple canvas bag (perfect for the gym), the water bottle and the little container with the cover! That little container - half of the top snaps open for little fingers to reach into - has been wonderful to put cereal in and let Dakoda run around the house with! He now asks for his cereal in HIS bowl. :)

And, if you have little ones, the little cereal bowl with the cover is perfect for on-the go!
The MultiGrain Cheerios are not my favorite, honestly, but add some sugar - the big No-No! - and they taste good!!!

If you are trying to lose weight, MultiGrain Cheerios has some awesome tools for you on their website! I was watching The Doctors (one of "my shows") the other day and they were talking getting healthier, too. They said that it's hard to know exactly how to lose weight if you don't know your "numbers". What they mean by this is that you should know your body mass index, fat content, etc...

So, you can go to the MutliGrain Cheerios and enter in the code from your cereal box and Viola! They have:

• A Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator. It will help you figure out how much weight you need to lose (or gain) to fall into the "healthy" category, which is also the area you need to be in to avoid serious health issues.
• A 7 Day Plan combining daily meal plans with cardio/strength training routines exclusively for you.
• 15 yummy recipes that will fuel your body.
• Daily workouts that pair cardio w/mobility and resistance exercises, focused on major muscle groups.

They also emphasize that people who eat whole grains are more likely to have healthier body weights, which is why MultiGrain Cheerios is a great breakfast cereal for you (without adding the sugar like I do) if you are trying to get healthier. And, on my show, The Doctors, the other day, they mentioned that you should eat your breakfast within an hour of waking in order to get the maximum effect.

Oh, and drink your water!!! It will help you lose weight! And your body NEEDS it!


GIVEAWAY!

Do you like the prize pack that I received??? MultiGrain Cheerios and MyBlogSpark are offering one of these prize packs to one lucky Mommy Rantings reader! (You must be a Mommy Rantings GFC follower to win)

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what you plan to do to be your own At-Home Biggest Loser!

1) "Like" Mommy Rantings on Facebook. (2 entries) (right hand column of blog)

2) Follow QueenBMomma on Twitter. (2 entries) (left hand column of blog)

3) Grab my button and put it on your blog (leave the link) (3 entries)

4) Update your Facebook status with this giveaway. (2 entries)

5) Subscribe via Mommy Rantings email (2 entries)

6) Blog about this giveaway - tell me your blog's URL (3 entries).

7) Tweet this giveaway (you can do this once per day!) (1 entry per tweet -leave twitter name)
Winner will be chosen through Random.org and the winning entry will be validated (I will make sure that you did the mandatory entry and the entry # that is chosen). PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN ONE OF YOUR ENTRIES. RUNNING AROUND THE INTERNET TRACKING DOWN WINNERS IS NO FUN!

Thank you to MultiGrain Cheerios and MyBlogSpark for sponsoring this giveaway! This giveaway will end on Feb 13th, 2011 at midnight EST. I will contact the winner by email and they will have 24 hours to respond before the runner up is chosen. Good luck!

I received a product for the purpose of review. I did not receive monetary compensation. All opinions are expressly mine.

Groundhog Day!

Unfortunately, I think the little groundhog is probably still under the snow! Oh, well...Spring will come when it comes, as usual! But, according to this Raw Video taped this morning, the groundhog predicts...



I LIKE THAT!

The Weather Rip-Off

So, we were supposed to see the "storm of the season" today.

Veronica: Mom, why are we staying home today?

Me: The weatherman called for the storm of the season yesterday.

Veronica: Storm of the season? It's not even snowing!

Me: Yeah, the weatherman ripped us off.

Anyone else get ripped off? It might have snowed an inch or two here overnight, but certainly nothing to close school over! I'm sure that everyone around this area is a bit confused this morning!