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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.

 

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Fall Break

As a homeschooler I don’t usually plan to officially take fall break. I usually plan something the week before or the week after because there’s no crowds on those weeks.

This year, however, with no extra curricular activities, no co-cop, and everyone talking about fall break. My kids decided that fall break was a must. We were needing a break anyways, so I got a lot of organizing and cleaning done around the house, and since the weather was beautiful the kids spent a lot of time outside.

Really, if I’m going to take a fall break, this is the way to do it. So, what did we do?

1. I replaced my huge desk with something smaller. This desk took me several hours to build but it was totally worth it. My previous desk was pretty flat and not well designed for how I like to use a desk.

This one is great. Things are way more organized. And I’ve gained several square feet of space in my den. Horray! I’ve been working this year to clean some things out and better organize. I have a few more things I need to swap out in my den and then the room will be way more organized and useable.

With all the building and moving, and organizing, this took up two days of fall break. The kids took my boxes that my desk came in and hung out in the yard making posters, boats, beds, houses, and all sorts of other things. They’ll probably get another week of play out of these boxes before they are destroyed and I throw them away.

img_20161014_1414569002. We met friends at the Aquarium one day this week. The kids had a blast looking at fish, petting crabs and jellyfish and watching the divers feed the fish and such. Plus it was lots of friend to see some out of town friends again.

I have promised the kids another trip to the aquarium this winter because they want to go back – and they have discount days for locals sometime in January.

3. The kids played outside a lot! The weather was beautiful this week. Dry, and in the 70s. Just perfect for playing outside all day. The kids spend every minute they could outside, which aside from being good for them, also means they didn’t mess up the house that much and it was way easier for me to get things cleaned up and organized.

I’m also loving having the windows open and airing the house out after a really hot summer!

What did you do for fall break?

This post does contain affiliate links.

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Rentailor – Rent That Fits

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I’ve been on both sides of the rental process. Both as renter and as landlord. And many of the frustrations in this process can be solved by making it easier for renters to find my property and submit an application to view or rent.

Being a landlord is frustrating. But, let’s face it. I hate being a renter even more. My husband and I have been discussing purchasing a new home, and top of the discussion list is how we avoid having to rent during this process. So many of our friends have had to rent for a month or so while they were between houses. Or they sell their house, rent, and then start looking for a new home. The one thing we really want to avoid is renting. Why? Because it’s so frustrating.

I have to call each apartment complex for details, fill out their application, have my credit run a gazillion times, and eventually finally get to look at apartments (or houses).

I know as a landlord, people looking at my houses really don’t want to fill out and pay for ANOTHER credit check, because they’re getting tired of filling out all that paperwork. Plus, paying for application after application is just expensive.

So, here’s where Rentailor comes in, and solves this problem:

  1. Run your credit once. You only have to fill out a credit and rental application once. Once approved, you enter what you’re looking for and look at available rental properties on their site. If you see something you want, you click a button to contact them and submit your application, which has already been processed. No need to fill out more paperwork for every single place you might want to rent. You can submit your application to multiple properties with just a few clicks.
  2. Properties bid for you. Property managers can see your application, and if they have a property that they think you’ll like they can make you an offer. Not only are you looking for something to rent. Property managers are looking to rent to you. Rentailor is all about helping you find what you want for the price you want.
  3. Pay rent online. Once you find your property, Rentailor has a secure online system that you can use to pay your rent online. So even if you’re renting from a private owner or smaller company that doesn’t have an online system, Rentailor has you covered.
  4. Don’t see anything you want, you can ask Rentailor to help you out. They already have your application and can help you find the property that you want to rent.

Rentailor takes the frustration out of renting.

Check them out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube as well!

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Valentia Night Revive Retinol Serum – Review

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

It’s just so much fun that the Valentia brand is named after The Roman Goddess of healing, Valentia. She relied on nature’s gifts to heal the citizens of Umbria. And that is what Valentia does as well. Valentia Skin Care products have been formulated with natural and organic cosmetic ingredients that will repair and protect the skin. Their products are free of toxins and paraben-free.

And they work great for me. I have tried several Valentia products and every one of them has been wonderful. Both gentle on my skin and effective. The perfect combination in facial products.

This time I got to try Valentia’s Night Revive Retinol Serum. A transformative retinol serum that fights wrinkles and provides hydration, for visibly smoother, rejuvenated skin.

This Retinol Serum Will:
– Diminishes wrinkles
– Stimulates collagen
– Improves skin tone
– Manages breakouts
– Conditions skin

Specially selected ingredients work together to achieve optimum results.

KEY INGREDIENTS:

– Retinol (Vitamin A): Works at the cellular level to stop winkles, manage breakouts, and evens out skin discoloration.

– Vitamin C: Guards skin against environmental free-radicals to prevent premature aging.

– Vitamin E: Provides intense hydration to diminish the drying effects of retinol.

– Squalane: Derived for pure olive oil to soften and condition delicate skin.

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USAGE:

As with all Retinol Serums, you don’t want to use it every day. I did this without thinking with this serum and used it 3 days in a row, the 3rd day my skin was just a tad irritated. Nothing terrible, but then I remembered reading on the bottle that I probably only wanted to use this a few times a week or every other day at the most. I dropped back to every 3 days and the results are way better – and non-irritating.

I use it in the evening before applying my nighttime moisturizer. It helps my skin absorb my moisturizer better for softer and more moisturized skin. Just don’t use it every day.

This is another great product from Valentia!

Purchase some for yourself at Amazon or from Valentia.com.

Follow Valentia’s Instagram and Facebook for product updates and beauty tips.

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Every Day With God Veggie Tales Devotional – Review

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I Received a copy of this product free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

About the Book:

Every Day with God is the latest 365-day devotional (one for boys and another for girls) from VeggieTales. The updated content and art offer the perfect opportunity for parent and child to share time together each day. Each entry includes a Bible verse, short devotion, Thought of the Day, and prayer. The content will help children learn more about God and develop a daily practice to keep Him close in their lives. The book is perfect for bedtime reading, family devotion time, or as a fresh way to start each day!

Format: Trade paperback
Page Count: 384
Trim Size: 5 X 7.25
Retail Price: $9.99
Reading Age: 4-7

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My girls are 8 and 5 and they just love this book! The devotions are short and easy for them to understand. In fact, they’ve basically taken the book for themselves and hidden it from me. They’re having so much fun doing this together that they’ve asked me not to read it to them. They want to do it themselves. Each evening the 8yr old will read a devotion (or 2) to the 5yr old before they go to sleep. This is in addition to our usual family devotion each night.

I think it’s so awesome that my girls want to learn more about God together and it’s a great start to them learning how to have their own devotions instead of just family devotions.

We received the girls version of this devotion. And the girls are loving all the VeggieTales princess pictures and such that are throughout the book.

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At $9.99 this is an awesome devotional book to read to your young child or to have an older child read to a younger child. Whether you’re wanting this for your children or as a gift for a child in your life, this is such a fun and exciting devotional for children.

Every Day with God Boys
Every Day with God Girls

Plus, if you have Amazon Prime, shipping is free!

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What’s even more exciting? I get to give one away! The winner gets to pick the boys or girls version. So, let me know in the comments who you want to win this for and how much fun you’re going to have sharing it with them. And enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Every Day with 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. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

If winner has not responded within 36 hours of attempted contact, another winner may be selected.

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Vibrance Healthy Hair Vitamins – Review & Discount

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

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I just love beauty products! I love trying out new nail polishes, new hair styles, and new makeup! What’s even more important than having fun with my beauty products is maintaining healthy nails, healthy hair, and healthy skin.

About

These Vibrance healthy hair vitamins are designed to help me maintain healthy hair. Because styling my hair is no fun if I’m fighting with hair that just isn’t in good shape.

Each soft capsule is packed with 23 vitamins, minerals, and herbs, including Biotin and OptiMSM®, that revitalize your hair from the inside. These nourishing ingredients support the growth of thicker, longer, and stronger hair.

Vibrance products are made in the USA without any extra fillers, binders or junk. They use only the purest and most potent natural ingredients. And they’re gluten, wheat, and dairy free!

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Plus they have a 90 day guarantee. You can purchase these vitamins at their online store or at amazon.com.

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And, they have a special promo on their vitamins. You can get a bottle for just $5! Check out their giveaway here, and try these out yourself.

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Review

Side note: Capsules use fresh and natural ingredients, and may have a “smell”. They recommend airing out the bottle for a few seconds for the smell to go away. I’m glad I knew this when I first opened my bottle, because it did not smell good! After leaving it open for a minute or two it was fine though.

Also, if you don’t like taking pills the contents of the capsule can be opened and put into a smoothie! I don’t really drink smoothies so I haven’t actually tried this, but it sounds like a great idea for if you’re not wanting to swallow a capsule.

My hair is pretty good and I was already using a vitamin with biotin before this, so I wasn’t expecting dramatic results. They say to try it for 30 days to see results, I’ve been using it for about 20 days now and haven’t really noticed a difference in my hair, which means that it’s definitely as good as the product I was using previously.

My hair is still soft, shiny, and strong. It’s ready to go for any way I want to style it!

What I really like about this product is that it’s made in the USA and it doesn’t have extra fillers or binders. I’m pretty sure my previous vitamins have fillers and binders and gluten. With Vibrance I don’t get any of these, and I still get the benefit of great hair! And it’s quite nice to know more about the vitamins that I’m taking.

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Smart Stuff Sunscreen Review

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

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We love our end of Summer family vacation at the beach and this sunscreen arrived just in time for me to test it out on our many days of sun and sand. A good sunscreen is an important beach essential. So, I was pretty excited to try out SMART STUFF sunscreen.

SMART STUFF™ products are all natural and effective for children and adults alike. They are also environmentally friendly.  A portion of the profits from SMART STUFF goes towards supporting Luv Michael, a non-profit dedicated to educating, training and employing individuals with Autism.

In fact, doctors Lisa A. Liberatore, MD and Dimitri N. Kessaris, MD have an autistic child who was the inspiration behind them creating the SMART STUFF brand.

As physicians, they understand a product’s effects on a molecular level. As parents, they simply won’t compromise when it comes to health and safety of their family and friends. SMART STUFF was born from necessity, and based on one simple concept: well-designed products should work great day in and day out without compromising your health. Sounds great to me!

I got to try out SMART STUFF 30 SPF Mineral Sunscreen.

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This sunscreen is water resistant – for 40 minutes, but if you’re not in the water you can wait about 2 hours before you need to reapply (depending on your skin). Water resistant is an essential to any sunscreen on the beach, since we spend a large portion of our time surfing the waves.

I like that this SMART STUFF sunscreen has no synthetic chemical sun filters, it’s non-whitening, free of parabens, PABA, Petroleum, Phthalates, and Gluten. And it’s also eco-friendly and bio-degradable. And it’s made in the USA.

I think it smells like basically nothing, but both of my girls complained about the smell. I think they’re just used to the usual sunscreen smell and this one is different since it’s mineral based. Honestly, once I rub it in, I don’t notice it at all (unlike traditional sunscreen).

It takes a little extra time to rub in – if you don’t take the extra time you’ll look white for a little while, so just rub it in a bit longer. And, it’s impossible to rub in if you’re wet, or close enough to impossible that it’s just not worth it. You’ll want to towel dry before reapplying if you’ve been swimming. The first time I tried to reapply, I had some very white-faced children because it just didn’t rub in on their wet faces. I learned my lesson and dried them off the next time and it rubbed in just fine. It’s not sticky and doesn’t seem to make my skin as oily (especially my face) as my usual sunscreen.

For an SPF 30 it seems to last a long time and I’m very pleased with the sun protection it provided me and my children. We spent many hours in the sun, reapplying as needed, and it worked better than I expected. Actually, I think it worked just as well or better than my usual sunscreen.

If you have sensitive skin, or just don’t like the chemicals in traditional sunscreen, you should give SMART STUFF sunscreen a try.

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“Sponsored Post”

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The Biggest Story – Review & Giveaway

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

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The Animated Short Film: Featuring beautifully animated illustrations adapted from the book, The Biggest Story: The Animated Short Film will captivate children and parents alike as they see how all the classic stories in the Bible connect to Scripture’s overarching message about God’s glorious plan to redeem his rebellious people.

This is short animated story of the Bible for kids. It’s only 26 minutes total and it’s divided into 10 chapters.

It’s simple, fun to watch, and all 3 of my kids liked it (even the 3 yr old). They do a really quick walk through of the Bible starting in Genesis with Adam and Even and ending with how all of this leads to Christ and God’s plan to redeem us.

The animations are quite interesting and I would honestly watch it several more times just to see more of the animations.

The narrator is the same as the Audio Book. We watched the DVD first and while the kids liked it, I thought the animator was a bit monotone for them and they probably would like the audio CD. Boy was I wrong. We’ve only watched the DVD once but the kids have listened to the Audio Book at least 10 times now.

IMG_20160830_223352982The Audio Book: This audio book of The Biggest Story — written and narrated also by the best-selling author Kevin DeYoung—leads kids and parents alike on an exciting journey through the Bible, connecting the dots from the garden of Eden to Christ’s death on the cross to the new heaven and new earth.

This CD is the same story as the DVD. My kids love listening to it over and over while they play. It’s only 26 minutes long and they have listened to it at least twice a day since we’ve gotten it.

I honestly assumed that with the animations on the DVD my kids would prefer that, but while they like the DVD they would much rather listen to the Audio Book and play while listening.

Either way, I like that they’re hearing over and over the progression from Adam and Eve to Christ, and how God has a plan of redemption for each of us.

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Want a copy of The Biggest Story? Enter below for your chance to win.