Meaning that CC is my lucky winner! I love getting emails that have Congratulations in the subject line, so you should be expecting one from me shortly. Thank you to everyone who visiting my blog and entered, I hope you'll keep coming back for more!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
We have a winner!
As I am a big fan of giveaways, it was pretty exciting for me to get to pick the winner of my first giveaway. My results from random.org for a Yoplait Whips! Summer Cool Down prize package are...
Meaning that CC is my lucky winner! I love getting emails that have Congratulations in the subject line, so you should be expecting one from me shortly. Thank you to everyone who visiting my blog and entered, I hope you'll keep coming back for more!
Meaning that CC is my lucky winner! I love getting emails that have Congratulations in the subject line, so you should be expecting one from me shortly. Thank you to everyone who visiting my blog and entered, I hope you'll keep coming back for more!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
GIVEAWAY: Solavie Hair and Skin Care
{This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to those who entered!}
Recently, my husband and I brought our girls to my in-laws' house for the weekend for the first night away from them I've ever had. I find it hard to believe that Big Sister E is nearly 3 and I had never been away from her for a night, but I really can't think of a time when it happened before. We've all gone places and slept elsewhere and there have been times when other people put her to bed, but I have always returned at some point and been under the same roof with her.
Hmmm. Maybe I need to get out more.
Anyway, my in-laws had a wonderful weekend plan that included all
of us having fun at a hotel nearby with an indoor water park. Big Sister E is all about the water and loves splashing and playing and going down water slides. It was Little Sister B's first time in a swimming pool and she wasn't so sure about the whole thing (apparently it is a little confusing as to why one can't actually hold onto water), but did have a good time.
At the end of the day, we packed the kids up, kissed them goodbye, and sent them off to go sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's. I really didn't need to be concerned that they would miss us, particularly because when I was giving Big Sister E one last hug, she gestured towards the hotel and said, "You stay here, Mommy." Well, fine then.
My husband and I marveled at our new-found freedom all the way back to the room, where I went to get the case for my contacts out of my toiletry bag... and found that something had leaked. All over the bag and into the suitcase. Of course I had just thrown this and that off of the counter at home into the bag and it had been a little full and... well, I should have thought better. Maybe that way I wouldn't have spent my first child-free hour washing off my deodorant and scrubbing out the inside of the bag.
What I really should have done, was brought a Solavie Hair Care duo-pack and then pretty much the only things I would have had to add to it would have been my toothbrush and contacts.
Haven't heard of Solavie? I hadn't. It is an amazing company that has introduced a radical new skin and hair care system harmonious with Nature and centered on your body's reactions to environmental conditions in six different enviro-types: Mountains, Urban, Tropics, Shore, Plains, Desert. Their products were developed at the Solavie Spa Retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho when they realized that clients from around the world found the items they had brought with them weren't working in the intensely sunny, dry climate.
It makes sense that the environmental conditions that you're in affect your hair and skin differently, so the shampoo that I use probably isn't going to be the same thing that someone living in the tropics would need (although they're LIVING in the TROPICS, so I'm not really all that sympathetic for them). Same goes for what I would use to nourish my face. Along the same lines, when I get to be lucky enough to visit the tropics (yeah, THAT happens all the time), why would I assume that the products I use to style my hair at home would work the same in the new environment? I should use something that is formulated for those conditions, right?
Solavie's One With Nature system is a simple two-step process -
wash and nourish. Each of the six enviro-type lines includes a face wash and nourish, body nourish, a hair/body wash and a hair nourish/style. Did you catch that part? One product does multiple things. Now that's just pure genius. You don't have to pack your toiletry bag with a million different bulky, leaky containers (these are even structured to prevent bursting during flights). You just go to the store and choose the few that you need for the enviro-type to which you are traveling and you're ready to go with products that are natural and nourishing.
But wait, there's more. Solavie uses a unique "yin/yang" design with their bottles, allowing any two products to be joined together in one compact unit for easy packing. There is a distinct clicking noise when you snap the bottles together, which I like. Plus, they're not just sort of leaning against each other, they're holding tight.
Not only are Solavie's products great for you, they are unbelievably eco-friendly. There is no outer packaging, meaning zero paper wasted. Those unique bottles and caps are 100% recyclable, and all of the ingredients are bio-degradable. Solavie even strives to be the most socially responsible, innovative personal care company serving the global marketplace. Nearly 100% of Solavie net profits are invested in Solavie Second Nature Foundation, whose mission is to fund projects that promote sustainable business practices and the cultivation of talent in children around the world. I love companies that care about the world, don't you?
Ready to head off on your summer vacation? Put a few Solavie products in your bag and your packing is halfway done. Fresh off of the success of our night away, my husband and I are getting ready to go to Las Vegas for a long weekend to ourselves. There is no chance of me repeating my sticky mess of a toiletry bag experience though, because this time I am bringing my Solavie Desert Hair Care duo-pack. And because Solavie products are unisex, I just finished half of my husband's packing, too. The desert scent ("spicy, natural aroma of desert plants and flowers reminiscent of hot desert nights") is perfect for both of us.
The Solavie desert scent has also received the Big Sister E sniff-sniff seal of approval.
Available at natural products stores, pharmacies, and natural beauty counters nationwide; and may be purchased online at www.solavie.com.
Recently, my husband and I brought our girls to my in-laws' house for the weekend for the first night away from them I've ever had. I find it hard to believe that Big Sister E is nearly 3 and I had never been away from her for a night, but I really can't think of a time when it happened before. We've all gone places and slept elsewhere and there have been times when other people put her to bed, but I have always returned at some point and been under the same roof with her.
Hmmm. Maybe I need to get out more.
Anyway, my in-laws had a wonderful weekend plan that included all
of us having fun at a hotel nearby with an indoor water park. Big Sister E is all about the water and loves splashing and playing and going down water slides. It was Little Sister B's first time in a swimming pool and she wasn't so sure about the whole thing (apparently it is a little confusing as to why one can't actually hold onto water), but did have a good time.At the end of the day, we packed the kids up, kissed them goodbye, and sent them off to go sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's. I really didn't need to be concerned that they would miss us, particularly because when I was giving Big Sister E one last hug, she gestured towards the hotel and said, "You stay here, Mommy." Well, fine then.
My husband and I marveled at our new-found freedom all the way back to the room, where I went to get the case for my contacts out of my toiletry bag... and found that something had leaked. All over the bag and into the suitcase. Of course I had just thrown this and that off of the counter at home into the bag and it had been a little full and... well, I should have thought better. Maybe that way I wouldn't have spent my first child-free hour washing off my deodorant and scrubbing out the inside of the bag.
What I really should have done, was brought a Solavie Hair Care duo-pack and then pretty much the only things I would have had to add to it would have been my toothbrush and contacts.
Haven't heard of Solavie? I hadn't. It is an amazing company that has introduced a radical new skin and hair care system harmonious with Nature and centered on your body's reactions to environmental conditions in six different enviro-types: Mountains, Urban, Tropics, Shore, Plains, Desert. Their products were developed at the Solavie Spa Retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho when they realized that clients from around the world found the items they had brought with them weren't working in the intensely sunny, dry climate.
It makes sense that the environmental conditions that you're in affect your hair and skin differently, so the shampoo that I use probably isn't going to be the same thing that someone living in the tropics would need (although they're LIVING in the TROPICS, so I'm not really all that sympathetic for them). Same goes for what I would use to nourish my face. Along the same lines, when I get to be lucky enough to visit the tropics (yeah, THAT happens all the time), why would I assume that the products I use to style my hair at home would work the same in the new environment? I should use something that is formulated for those conditions, right?
Solavie's One With Nature system is a simple two-step process -
wash and nourish. Each of the six enviro-type lines includes a face wash and nourish, body nourish, a hair/body wash and a hair nourish/style. Did you catch that part? One product does multiple things. Now that's just pure genius. You don't have to pack your toiletry bag with a million different bulky, leaky containers (these are even structured to prevent bursting during flights). You just go to the store and choose the few that you need for the enviro-type to which you are traveling and you're ready to go with products that are natural and nourishing.But wait, there's more. Solavie uses a unique "yin/yang" design with their bottles, allowing any two products to be joined together in one compact unit for easy packing. There is a distinct clicking noise when you snap the bottles together, which I like. Plus, they're not just sort of leaning against each other, they're holding tight.
Not only are Solavie's products great for you, they are unbelievably eco-friendly. There is no outer packaging, meaning zero paper wasted. Those unique bottles and caps are 100% recyclable, and all of the ingredients are bio-degradable. Solavie even strives to be the most socially responsible, innovative personal care company serving the global marketplace. Nearly 100% of Solavie net profits are invested in Solavie Second Nature Foundation, whose mission is to fund projects that promote sustainable business practices and the cultivation of talent in children around the world. I love companies that care about the world, don't you?
Ready to head off on your summer vacation? Put a few Solavie products in your bag and your packing is halfway done. Fresh off of the success of our night away, my husband and I are getting ready to go to Las Vegas for a long weekend to ourselves. There is no chance of me repeating my sticky mess of a toiletry bag experience though, because this time I am bringing my Solavie Desert Hair Care duo-pack. And because Solavie products are unisex, I just finished half of my husband's packing, too. The desert scent ("spicy, natural aroma of desert plants and flowers reminiscent of hot desert nights") is perfect for both of us.
The Solavie desert scent has also received the Big Sister E sniff-sniff seal of approval.Available at natural products stores, pharmacies, and natural beauty counters nationwide; and may be purchased online at www.solavie.com.
One lucky person will win their own Solavie Desert Hair Care duo-pack!
To Enter to win a Solavie Desert Hair Care duo-pack: Visit Solavie and tell me the destination of your dream vacation and which product (enviro-type and name) you would most like to take with you. Please do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile. I have to have a way to contact the winner.
Extra Entries:
1 Extra Entry - What enviro-type do you live in? Do you think that hair and skin products work differently depending on the environment that you are in?
3 Extra Entries (leave 3 separate comments) if you follow me on blogger! You know you want to!
4 Extra Entries (leave 4 separate comments) if you blog about this giveaway. Please leave an address where it can be found.
Giveaway will end on August 31st at 11:59pm CST. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. Giveaway open to US residents.
A big thank you to Solavie for providing me with information about their products and a Desert Hair Care duo-pack to review as well as one for one lucky giveaway winner.
To Enter to win a Solavie Desert Hair Care duo-pack: Visit Solavie and tell me the destination of your dream vacation and which product (enviro-type and name) you would most like to take with you. Please do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile. I have to have a way to contact the winner.
Extra Entries:
1 Extra Entry - What enviro-type do you live in? Do you think that hair and skin products work differently depending on the environment that you are in?
3 Extra Entries (leave 3 separate comments) if you follow me on blogger! You know you want to!
4 Extra Entries (leave 4 separate comments) if you blog about this giveaway. Please leave an address where it can be found.
Giveaway will end on August 31st at 11:59pm CST. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. Giveaway open to US residents.
A big thank you to Solavie for providing me with information about their products and a Desert Hair Care duo-pack to review as well as one for one lucky giveaway winner.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Spotlight on PR!
Well, hi there. Thanks for stopping by.
I started this blog not so long ago and have been overwhelmed at all of the wonderful people that I have met and the friendships that I have already made. It's like there's this whole world of bloggers out there that had been hidden away from me and now that I have my own blog, I have gained immediate access to the club. You pushed the Publish Post button? Then let's teach you the secret handshake.
However, the group of people that I haven't had a great deal of contact with are PR Professionals. They don't seem to just be hanging around reading about my trips to the zoo or Little Sister B eating yogurt. Or, if they are, it hasn't made too many of them want to have me review their products (how they can resist Little Sister B's chunky cheeks, I'll never know). How do I meet the elusive PR? Fortunately for me, Tara @ Feels Like Home and Adrienne @ Adrienne’s House have opened up a wonderful opportunity to help make these connections. They are running a special Spotlight on PR during the entire month of August allowing bloggers like me to get involved and create and foster some new PR relationships. To do so, I start here and introduce myself.
As the title of my blog implies, the mail carrier is a very important person around here. I love reading reviews and entering giveaways, so every day it's exciting to see what the mail carrier will bring us. It's fairly common in my house to hear my almost-3-year-old say, "The mailman bring this?" when she sees something new on the table. What can I say? I've taught her well.
So what better way to spread the joy that I feel at reading a well-written review or winning a great giveaway than by passing it along to my readers? I write honestly, using humor and cute pictures of my daughters and when I like a product, I rave! See a sample of my past reviews and giveaways here:
Baby Things by Jessica (review)
Yoplait Whips! Summer Cool Down Prize Package (review & giveaway)
YoBaby yogurt (review)
Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets (review)
Solavie Desert Hair Care (review & giveaway)
I am interested in products from almost any category because I think there are so many great things out there, how could I exclude something until I, or my family, have tried it? As well as myself (a SAHM), I am married and have two daughters, Big Sister E (the all-knowing almost-3-year-old) and Little Sister B (an adorable, happy 8-month-old). Big Sister E loves books, toys (both for girls and boys), dress-up, coloring... pretty much anything and everything that entertains a toddler and gives a good indication of a product's worth just in her facial expressions. Little Sister B is into pulling herself up on her crib rails, speedy crawling, pulling my hair when I carry her in a backpack and is a great tester of all things baby. As much as my husband might tease me for always going on about new items that I have found or tried or won, he would enjoy being able to try out and review products directed at men (even if he wouldn't admit it).
If you are interested in having Thanks, Mail Carrier review and/or host a giveaway of one of your products, you can rest assured that my family spends time with each item and I take writing my review seriously and would never do a cut-and-paste type of
write-up or just throw something together in order to get it done. You deserve more than that, as do my readers. Look at these faces, they mean 
business!Thanks for visiting and reading my Spotlight on PR. If you would like to contact me, I'd love to hear from you at xpsundell {at} gmail {dot} com. Thanks to Tara and Adrienne for this opportunity. And thanks, Mail Carrier, for making this blog possible by bringing your little truck down my street and making my day with each new delivery.
Well, honestly. Me?
With all that has been going on around here lately, I've been feeling a little low.
Then Sophia's Mom over at The Wannabe WAHM left me a wonderfully heartfelt comment that made me feel better. But to top it off, she also gave me an award! Who wouldn't be cheered up by receiving the One Lovely Blog Award?
However, I have to admit that I have two issues with accepting this award.
The first is that by posting how much I enjoy reading The Wannabe WAHM I have a sinking feeling that as soon as people follow her link and head over there, I'm not going to get them back. That's the problem with liking really great blogs. You recommend then, people read them and then they realize they rock more than yours. So, Sophia's Mom, can you just not have such a funny-but-not-too-funny-but-just-the-right-amount-of-humor-in-that-perfectly-sarcastic-sort-of-way-on-a-really-eye-catching-and-fun-to-read-blog type of blog? For a little while at least?
Second, even though this award isn't technically about the actual look of a blog, it is called the One Lovely Blog Award, so therefore the recipients' blogs should be lovely, right? The more blogs that I read, the more that I return to my own handmade template, tilt my head to the side and think, boy, I wish I knew more than ZILCH about design or html so that I could have a cute blog, too. At the moment, I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed that I'll be lucky enough to win a giveaway over on Eighty MPH Mom for a blog makeover by Subjective Beauty. If I don't win, well, maybe I need Google Blogger for Dummies or something. Oh, that really exists? Well, of course it does, those people think of EVERYTHING.
Now that I've dealt with my issues, let's move on to the award. I began to go through all of the wonderful blogs that I read and have discovered that this award has been floating around for a while (or else everyone else likes all the same blogs I do!) because I see it posted pretty much everywhere. Therefore, I will just say congratulations to all of the other wonderful Mommy Bloggers out there for taking the time out of your days to keep up with posting heartfelt, humorous, serious or informative posts on your blogs. And thank you for the support and kind comments that you've passed to me and to each other. Your blogs and your words are truly Lovely.
Then Sophia's Mom over at The Wannabe WAHM left me a wonderfully heartfelt comment that made me feel better. But to top it off, she also gave me an award! Who wouldn't be cheered up by receiving the One Lovely Blog Award?
However, I have to admit that I have two issues with accepting this award.
The first is that by posting how much I enjoy reading The Wannabe WAHM I have a sinking feeling that as soon as people follow her link and head over there, I'm not going to get them back. That's the problem with liking really great blogs. You recommend then, people read them and then they realize they rock more than yours. So, Sophia's Mom, can you just not have such a funny-but-not-too-funny-but-just-the-right-amount-of-humor-in-that-perfectly-sarcastic-sort-of-way-on-a-really-eye-catching-and-fun-to-read-blog type of blog? For a little while at least?
Second, even though this award isn't technically about the actual look of a blog, it is called the One Lovely Blog Award, so therefore the recipients' blogs should be lovely, right? The more blogs that I read, the more that I return to my own handmade template, tilt my head to the side and think, boy, I wish I knew more than ZILCH about design or html so that I could have a cute blog, too. At the moment, I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed that I'll be lucky enough to win a giveaway over on Eighty MPH Mom for a blog makeover by Subjective Beauty. If I don't win, well, maybe I need Google Blogger for Dummies or something. Oh, that really exists? Well, of course it does, those people think of EVERYTHING.
Now that I've dealt with my issues, let's move on to the award. I began to go through all of the wonderful blogs that I read and have discovered that this award has been floating around for a while (or else everyone else likes all the same blogs I do!) because I see it posted pretty much everywhere. Therefore, I will just say congratulations to all of the other wonderful Mommy Bloggers out there for taking the time out of your days to keep up with posting heartfelt, humorous, serious or informative posts on your blogs. And thank you for the support and kind comments that you've passed to me and to each other. Your blogs and your words are truly Lovely.
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