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Charlie the Tramp – giveaway

Charlie the Tramp by Russell Hoban and pictures by Lillian Hoban. This book is a hardcover, 50th edition, reprint. After reading it I can see why it was the Winner of the Boys Club of America Junior Book Award, 1968. This is a fun book that my kids love to read and re-read.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Charlie the Beaver wants to be a tramp when he grows up. “Tramps don’t have to learn how to chop down trees and how to roll logs and how to build dams. Tramps just tramp around and have a good time. Tramps carry sticks with little bundles tied to them. They sleep in a field when the weather is nice, and when it rains they sleep in a barn.” Charlie sets off with his bundle. But when he hears water trickling, he can’t get to sleep. Will he be able to resist the urge to make it stop? As Grandfather Beaver says, “You never know when a tramp will turn out to be a beaver.”

An American classic is back in a special 50th anniversary hardcover edition.

This book is super cute. My younger kids enjoyed having this book read to them while my 3rd grader enjoyed reading this book on her own. It’s a beautiful, hard cover book that is a great addition to any kid’s library.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Russell Hoban (1925-2011) first became famous for his children’s picture books about a badger named Frances and other animal characters that have a lot in common with children we know – bedtime for Frances, A Baby Sister for Frances, Bread and Jam for Frances, and Emmit Otter’s Jug-band Christmas.

After reading Charlie the Tramp my 8yr old has requested a copy of Bread and Jam for Frances. Maybe I’ll surprise her for Christmas 🙂

ctrampABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Lillian Hoban (1925-1998), one of America’s favorite children’s book illustrators, is best known for a young chimpanzee named Arthur and his little sister, Violet. She also illustrated six of Russell Hoban’s books about Frances the badger, which have taken their place among the great classics of children’s literature. Lillian Hoban was born in Philadelphia and attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art. She studied dance for ten years and became a professional dancer. She began to write and illustrate her own stories only after having children, basing her tales on their experiences.

The pictures in this book are just beautiful and they really add color to the story and make it come alive.

Find out more about Charlie the Tramp at the Plough website or on Amazon.

Enter below for a chance to win your very own copy of Charlie the Tramp!

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification. Giveaways winners for this promotion can only be for residents of the continental U.S.

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Amy Grant, Tennessee Christmas – giveaway

agcoverAmy Grant Tennessee Christmas CD – I got this CD the other day and have been playing it on repeat ever since. The kids gave up on stealing it from me and resorted to asking our Amazon Echo to play “Amy Grant” songs.

I did finally relent and tell them that they can have it to listen to when they go to bed this evening. Though, I know it’s highly unlikely they’ll return it to me before Christmas.

I’m just loving the songs on this CD! Since I live in Tennessee, the first song, Tennessee Christmas is especially sweet. And especially meaningful today as we watch the news reports of all the fires in Tennessee this week. People around here are really hoping for rain, and would be overjoyed to get snow. Because, really, it’s hard to beat Christmas in Tennessee!

Even if you’re not in Tennessee you’ll still love this CD, it has some great Christmas classics like White Christmas and Joy To the World and some lesser known songs like Christmas for You and Me. There’s isn’t a song on this CD that I don’t like. They’re all beautiful.

Check out this YouTube of “To Be Together” from the Amy Grant Tennessee Christmas CD.

Also, Amy Grant is looking for fans to upload any videos of you surprising loved ones for the holidays. Post to your social media with hashtag #TNChristmasSurprise! They’re making a compilation video and posting it to Amy’s socials. So, post your favorite for a chance to be included.

The Giveaway winner will receive a physical CD copy of this album. It is also available for purchase and download on itunes.

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification. Giveaways for this promotion are only for residents of the continental U.S.

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Christmas List for the Home Chef – plus giveaway

This is a sponsored post.

Mom’s can be so hard to shop for! For me, I love to cook. So anything for my kitchen is awesome! Here’s 5 of my favorite kitchen items that I’ve gotten this year. AND a giveaway for a product of choice from the Youcopia range. (full details below). I’m just loving my new YouCopia products!

1. YouCopia StoreMore Adjustable Lid Holder – My tupperware lids had taken over! YouCopia came to my rescue! Seriously, organization is always a challenge in a busy kitchen and I was really tired of fighting my Tupperwares every time I had to hunt for lids. You know how you end up with half the cabinet out on the floor before you just pick a different container? All my lids fit so neatly in this lid holder.

It’s so nice to open my tupperware cabinet, pull out the container I want, and my lid is just sitting right there. No more digging.

I did receive this product free for purposes of my review, but all opinions are my own.

2. YouCopia StoraStack Food Container Storage Organizer, Drawer Solution – As you can tell, I love having things organized. It just makes cooking and cleaning so much easier and my kitchen just runs so much more smoothly when everything is organized.

This is an organizer for your drawer. It has an adjustable tab on the back so you can adjust it to snugly fit any drawer. That way our organized containers aren’t sliding all over your drawer. The tabs also adjust so you can organize any size container.

I did receive this product free for purposes of my review, but all opinions are my own.

3. YouCopia Spice Liner in Drawer Spice Organizer 6-Pack – This is another drawer organizer. Can you tell that I’m on an organizing kick this year?

I ended up using these to organize our pen/pencil/marker/crayon drawer – otherwise known as the art drawer. I store all my spices in my cabinet so I didn’t really need to organize them into a drawer. However, my art drawer was in desperate need of a makeover.

These drawer organizers worked great! Now all the writing supplies are organized and don’t roll all over the drawer anymore because this drawer liner keeps them in place.

I did receive this product free for purposes of my review, but all opinions are my own.

4. Bellemain Stainless Steel 3 Cup Flour Sifter – I needed a flour sifter. The reviews on this sifter were great. So I bought it. There’s a reason it’s marked as one of Amazon’s best sellers.

It’s super easy to use. The hand crank is so much nicer than the squeeze sifter that I used to have. All the four sifts through it so I don’t have any excess flour left in the sifter. The large open top makes it easy to pour my flour in. Then I just turn the crank and my sifted flour falls through into my bowl.

If you’re looking for an easy to use sifter, that works great. Look no further.

5. Cast Iron Flour Corn Tortilla Press – This thing is awesome! The directions that came with mine said to “line” with with saran wrap. Which was just too thin and tore up too easily. I tried wax paper instead and it worked great.

The dough is so easy to mix up, then you just smash little balls of dough in the press and cook them on a hot skillet for a couple of minutes. Super easy and you get fresh, warm, delicious shells when you’re done!

Now that I’ve shown off some of my favorite new “toys”, comment below and tell me, what new kitchen accessory have you gotten this year?

And enter below for a chance to win a product of choice from the Youcopia range for a value of up to $40.00. Giveaway ends 21st of December. Full terms and conditions can be read on the widget. Open to USA residents only.

Win a YouCopia product of your choice #4

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Bookroo Black Friday Sale

Curated. Wrapped. Delivered. Basically, it’s reading made easy. Bookroo is a subscription service that sends your child 0-6 two to three books every month.

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Bookroo’s mission is to help kids fall in love with reading. At $23 or less per month for your monthly book box they make it convenient and affordable for parents to build their children’s libraries. And, for Black Friday you can get an extra 25% off any multi-month subscription with code TREATYOSELF . That’s less than $16 per month if you sign up for a 12 month subscription! It’s hard for me to purchase even 1 book for $16. Talk about a great deal!

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Bookroo’s goal is to send the hidden gems that you don’t already own. They find books that are not easy to find online or in stores. Which means you won’t be getting books that you already have. If you receive a book that you already own, just send them a picture of you giving the book to someone else and they’ll give you $5 off your next subscription. Because Bookroo is all about giving back.  My kids just love new books!

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Their books are extensively reviewed by a panel of 12 families attending Stanford University and their combined 22 kids.

Bookroo helps parents build their children’s book collections in an affordable and exciting way through curated monthly book deliveries. Because it’s never too early to start reading to children! And what better way to encourage your kids to read than with a monthly box of books just for them! I know my children love opening any box that comes in the mail. And a box just for them is super exciting!

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Bookroo’s packaging is recycled (and recyclable!) and they donate childrens’ books to children in need through Reach Out And Read!

Check out Bookroo’s website for more details and to start your own subscription. And, don’t forget, enter code TREATYOSELF for 25% off your multi-month subscription.

This is a sponsored post.

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Christmas Love Letters from God – Review and Giveaway

I received this book free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

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Christmas Love Letters from God – by Glenys Nellisit and illustrated by Rachel Clowes.

Written for children ages four to eight, Christmas Love Letters from God cleverly combines both prose and poetry as the story of Jesus’ birth unfolds. The book includes seven stories, beginning with Isaiah’s prophecy and ending with the visit of the wise men. Following each story, the child will find his or her own letter from God, folded into a small envelope attached to the page. Each letter begins with a space in which to write the child’s name, so each one can be specially addressed to the child.

Written as if God is speaking, each personalized message gives the young reader a sense of wonder as they discover anew the Christmas holiday and the birth of Jesus. A very special Bible verse, entitled God’s Perfect Promise, also accompanies each story and letter as God’s personal words of love, promise, and hope.

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My 5yr old and 8 yr old were super excited to get this book! In fact, I had to go sneak it back out of their room so I could actually review it.

Each story has it’s own “Love Letter” from God. In each letter there is a line for a child’s name. My girls took turns and wrote their names in every other letter so they get to share the letters.

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They also stuck a little heart sticker next to their name on each letter.

These stories are perfect for them and they just love the personalized letters. This is definitely a favorite book this holiday season.

The stories are short enough that they hold their interest throughout and the book has lots of great colorful pictures for them to enjoy as well.

There are 4 stores you can purchase this book from:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
GoodReads
Zondervan

And you can enter below for a chance to win a copy of Christmas Love Letters from God

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

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Growing Up Social – Review

Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World – by Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane

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How has the digital age and technology affected our children? How does it affect my relationship with my children? How much technology is too much? What can I as a parent do to help my kids stay connected in real relationships?

All these questions and more are answered in this book. This is pretty standard Gary Chapman. He breaks the book down into sections like anger management (you’d be amazed at what research shows about screen time and anger) and shyness.

While there’s lots of research cited in the book about what is healthy screen time for you and your kids and how all this technology is changing our brains, Chapman also focus a lot on how to relate to your children and what skills need a little extra focus these days.

He gives great advice for setting guidelines for technology usage and what we as parents can do to set a good example for our children. Sometimes, something as simple as putting your phone away for dinner can make a big difference to your children. It’s important that my children know that they are way more important than my phone!

This book is great for if you’re just looking for some good guidelines or for if you need help to make some needed changes. Wherever you’re at as a parent, you’ll find some great info and suggestions for helping your kids use technology in a way that doesn’t interfere with their relationships with people around them.

I received this book free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

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Say & Pray Devotions – Review & Giveaway

This is a Sponsored Post.

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Bestselling children’s author Diane Stortz has sold nearly 300,000 books—Bible storybooks, devotionals for children, and more. This brand-new title, Say & Pray Devotions, is the perfect beginner devotional for little ones.

Parents who already know and love the Say & Pray Bible will love Say & Pray Devotions as it helps their youngsters continue to engage their faith in a personal way. Featuring the same fun style of artwork and the educational elements as Say & Pray Bible, this devotional for little ones will teach the basics of identification and comprehension while sharing biblical principles for life. Each devotion offers a topical message to help little ones learn and follow biblical principles.

This book is super cute and each page is really short. It fits the attention span of my 3yr old perfectly! He loves pointing out all the different animals and objects on the pages and likes to read it again and again.

He loves taking a book to bed with him and this has been his book of choice for the past week.

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I just love how simple and colorful each page is and how interesting it is to my little guy. We’ve had lots of fun reading this together!

You can get your own copy here and enter below for a chance to win a copy of this adorable book.

Follow Tommy Nelson Books on:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Or purchase on Amazon

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

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Boutique & Beauty Bar: Recipe for a Unique Shopping Experience

There’s always a risk when you create something new. Will people like it? Will it succeed? Will it be worth it?

When Madonna and Co. re-launched in Mid-town East Side, (bordering on the Upper-East Side) from our former location in Soho, we emerged as a different entity, incorporating what made us great in the past, but with new additions. We were more.

In addition to our new location on 60th street, we opened a full service salon and beauty bar within the store, bringing to a life a completely unique shopping experience.

Fashion and Beauty: An Innovative Convergence

The inclusion of the beauty bar inside our boutique converged the worlds of fashion and beauty in a way that’s never been done. For the first time, women have the opportunity to receive comprehensive beautification in a one-stop shop.

Bringing together fashion and beauty as we have done was not without risk, but innovation always involves a leap of faith. New creations don’t arise from the ether. Innovation comes as the result of unique combinations, whether it be a boutique and a beauty bar, our designs and exclusive designer capsule collections, or glam and chic, etc. Creating one-of-a-kind experiences from unique combinations is what Madonna & Co. has always done.

Our willingness to break barriers and defy categorization is what makes our selection of fashion and accessories so vibrant and original. All of the clothing in our store has been designed and hand picked from collections around the world. By dealing with the designer themselves and direct with our factories, we are able to offer luxury items at affordable prices.

The vast selection of unique affordable clothing featured in our shop is what makes us the best NYC boutique operating today. By shopping at Madonna & Co., you receive the peace of mind in knowing that you’ll never cross paths with someone wearing the same outfit; one-of-a-kind, wearable and affordable clothes for independent woman is what we do.

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Community of Independent Women

While the ability to get a full-service haircut, styling, and complete makeup treatment in the same place where you find all of your exclusive designs and luxury clothing is extremely convenient, the impetus behind opening the beauty bar had more to do with community than convenience.

We wanted to create a space where independent women from all walks of life and ages could come together to shop, socialize, and express their femininity. We imagined a world where the social aspects of a salon coalesced with the activity of shopping. Our love of fashion and beauty led us to invent a world that unites these spheres and offers women a place to have fun and engage in a dialogue about fashion and style.

At Madonna & Co. we believe in creating a personal style. We see it as our job to assist women in crafting their own individual aesthetic. Every woman that walks through our doors is a unique assemblage of beliefs, values, and traits. Her aesthetic preferences are a function of her entire worldview and identity.

Creating the perfect outfit involves a translation of sorts. Our aim is to help the women who shops in our store translate their core identity into an aesthetic that embodies and represents who they really are and how they feel. Every woman who comes into our store receives a unique treatment that results in a unique style – whether her preferences lean towards glam, chic, posh, or edgy.

The beauty bar allows us to take the crafting of a unique style one step further. In addition to helping women find their dream new fashions, our stylists bring years of experience and knowledge to the table, assisting women realize their dream hairstyle!

We offer every customer a free consultation at the salon and beauty bar before her first appointment. This consultation gives us the chance to learn about what the specific customer likes about her hair or makeup styling and what she’d like to change. Our stylists and make-up artists will then present some possible ways to enhance the aspects of her appearance that the customer would like to shake up.

While our head stylist is an expert in all types of hair, her specialty is curly hair and we call her “The Curly Hair Expert.” Our custom line of No Frizz Miracle Gel – designed specifically for curly hair – mirrors this focus.

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Come Join our Community

What are you waiting for? Come join in on the fun! Today’s the perfect day to unleash the beauty within you and find that perfect outfit you’ve been longing for.

Booking an appointment at the salon and beauty bar can be done either by phone or via styleseat.com or on our new on-line store www.MadonnaAndCo.com, for your convenience.

We also provide off-site makeup & hair services as well and can help you plan the perfect party or host all kinds of events in our luxurious boutique, including bridal/baby showers, fashion product launches, etc.

So come on down today and introduce yourself!

This is a Sponsored Post.

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Chipex Car Paint Touch-Up How-To and Giveaway

I received this product free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

Chipex Touch-Up Car Paint comes with a 100% color match guarantee and is fast & simple to use.

Step 1: Look in your car and find the paint code (it was in the sticker in my driver side door). If you don’t have your code you can look up your car by make, model, and year. But, in my case, there were a few too many similar colors for me to just guess based on the make and model of my car. So, I found my code and started there.

Step 2: Enter the color code and look at your options. You’ll see a list of car make, model, and year. Just pick yours from the list.

Step 3: Order and wait for it to arrive. My package arrived way faster than I expected. It took about a week and a half to arrive. Since I picked the slowest shipping option, I was surprised that it arrived this fast.

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Here’s my kit. There’s paint, cleaner, wax, gloves, paint brushes, cloth, towel, and a little cleaning block. It doesn’t look like much, but since it’s just for fixing scratches, this paint will last forever.

Step 4: Make sure your car is clean. I just cleaned the area I was planning to paint.

Step 5: Using the brush, apply the paint to your scratches or dings. I decided to test it on a pretty dinged up area on the side of my car. Just look at all those nicks!

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Step 6: Let paint dry for 1 to 3 minutes. Yup, minutes. It’s super fast!

Step 7: Wrap the blue towel around the black cleaning block and spray on a little bit of the cleaning solution. Wipe it over the painted dings to smooth out any excess paint.

Step 8: Squirt some wax on the yellow microfiber cloth and do a quick rub on/ rub off wax of the area.

Step 9: Don’t power wash for at least 2 weeks. So, if you need to wash your car, go to the car wash before doing your touch-up paint with Chipex. Also, if you didn’t quite get it and need to add more paint, you’ll want to wait 2 weeks as well just to make sure the paint sets properly.

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Just look at how much better that looks! The paint color was a perfect match as well. I’m very happy with how well Chipex works and as soon as I’ve waited my 2 weeks I’m going to wash my car and then touch-up any remaining dings that I missed.

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Along with Chipex Touch Up Paint I also got to try their Screen Wash. You’re supposed to dilute this in the screen wash container in your car. This one bottle is 5 refills. And I’ll help rain slide off your windshield.

My husband really wanted to use this on his car but his wiper fluid doesn’t spray so I made him a spray bottle and we treated the windshield with this a couple of times. I added the screen wash to my car container and sprayed and cleaned off with my windshield a couple of times. Of course, now that I’ve treated my windows it hasn’t rained so I don’t actually know how effective it is. It did a great job of cleaning off my car windshield though!

Want to try Chipex for yourself? Enter their giveaway today!

Win a Chipex Bundle #7

The giveaway will end on the 3rd of November it is open to US & Canada and Europe only. The winner will be able to order up to $80.00 worth of Chipex products on the website. The giveaway winner will be contacted by the sponsor with the details for redeeming their prize.

Can’t get enough of Chipex? Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

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A Lady Unrivaled – Book Review

I received this book free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

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A Lady Unrivaled by Roseanna M. White. Part of the “Ladies of the Manor” series. This book is full of mystery, intrigue, and of course, romance. A tad more romance that I usually read, but just based on the title, I was expecting that. It wasn’t over the top or anything so I really didn’t mind it at all.

Plus the mystery itself was interesting and gripping enough that I really had to read the entire book to find out what happened.

This book is easy to read. And is quite interesting. Once I started it I had trouble putting it down! Who wants the diamonds? Who has the diamonds? Who knows what? And who will get the diamonds in the end? All questions that I just couldn’t put the book down until I found the answers.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it makes a great addition to my mystery book collection.