General Mills is taking you to the movies-Giveaway

I have fond memories growing up with General Mills cereals. My mother bought a box of Cheerios every week shopping and my sister and I ate cereal almost every weekday morning before school. Often we came home from school and we'd both grab the box of cereal, pour milk into our bowls and settled in front of the t.v. for afternoon cartoons and a bowl of our favorite cereal.

The tradition continued with my own children. My daughter loves Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs and my husband is a big fan of Lucky Charms. I, myself, have continued to favor Cheerios in all the flavors General Mills makes.

Now buying our favorite cereals has a bonus attached! For a limited time (11/08/2012 - 12/06/2013) you can receive a free movie ticket when you purchase two specially marked packages of General Mills cereals including Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Golden Grahams, and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs.

Yes, just two boxes of your favorite General Mills cereal will score you a Movie Cash ticket good at participating Movie Cash theaters for admission to your favorite movie up to $12. After purchasing two participating cereals, visit www.generalmills.com/moviecash to enter the unique code found inside each box of cereal and print-off your free Movie Cash certificate. To find a theater that participates in the Movie Cash program go to www.emoviecash.com/dis_locator/

General Mills and My Blog Spark were kind enough to provide me with a box of my favorite Cheerios and two Movie Cash tickets that my husband and I used for a date-night out to see Lincoln. Now they want to offer the same to one of you! Use the Rafflecopter form to enter your information and I'll draw a winner on February 27, 2013 and My Blog Spark will send you a movie loving gift pack like mine.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving...may you all have a blessed & safe holiday today!

Lilla Rose- Giveaway

I think over the past few years, I must have spent a small fortune in hair products. Why? I have a daughter due to turn 16 in just two more months. When my sons were small, I could barely get them to run a brush through their hair on their way out the door to school in the morning. My daughter...she gets up at least 1/2 hour before she really needs to in order to make sure her hair is "perfect". It is a bit funny because Didi was recently diagnosed with ADD; her hair will be perfect in the morning but she'll be wearing two different-colored socks or a pair of pants so wrinkled, they look like she slept in them. Her hair is one of the few ways she's allowed to express herself at school since she attends a Catholic high school and everyone wears the same uniforms. She loves wearing clips and bands in her hair; anything colorful catches her eye.


Holly Noble contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me if I'd like to take a look at Lilla Rose. I had never heard of Lilla Rose before, maybe you haven't either, but I have to say, I'm impressed with what I see. The signature line for Lilla Rose is their hair jewelry; it's stylish as well as being super-functional. Holly sent me one of their Flexi Clips to try--the Etched Tiger Lilly.

Not only is it pretty but it works! Best of all, it's all one unit...no pin to be lost because it's attached to the Flexi Clip. Most days, Didi wears her hair in a ponytail. I thought it might be too heavy at first; the product is solid, but the piece that is the heaviest is the pin..and it has to be, it holds the hair into the flexible "figure 8" band. Didi said the only time she knew she was wearing it is when her friend commented on how pretty it was. It comes in various sizes and depending on how you plan to wear it and your hair type, you can choose from the mini, extra-small, small, medium, large, extra-large and the mega large. My daughter has long, straight hair and, after watching the informative video tutorial, we decided on the small for her hair.



Don't worry if you pick the wrong size. Lilla Rose will exchange the item within 90 days if you made a mistake and ordered incorrectly. There's also a full 1 year warranty on any defective items. The hardest part is going to be picking which one you love best; there's hundreds of styles, colors and embellishments to choose from. The Lilla Rose website has 8 different videos on various hair styles and how to incorporate your Flexi Clip to manage the style.

The price ranges from $11.00 (most mini styles) to $30 (the most adorned Mega with draping beads). The Flexi Clip we reviewed was $14 which is more than reasonable for a product designed to look great and last.

Lilla Rose also carries other stylish hair items like hair bands, O-rings, hair sticks, bobby pins and you-pins. They also carry lanyards for badges and eyeglasses and even necklaces.

Best of all, you can try one too. Lilla Rose Independent Consultant, Holly Noble, has offered the chance for one of you to have your own Flexi Clip. You can choose any Lilla Rose item up to $16. Holly has a Facebook page she'd love for you to join where she will announce specials, new items, videos, photos, styling tips and even more giveaways.

Use the Rafflecopter form to enter your information (be patient, it sometimes takes a minute to load). The giveaway will run until Tuesday, May 22, 2012.
Winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond with their prize choice and shipping information. The giveaway is open to all US residents, Canada and Mexico. This giveaway is sponsored by Independent Consultant Holly Noble who will ship the prize to the winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fabric-porn in the mail

Nice to get something fun in the mail today besides the usual bills. A bit of fabric-porn for me to lust over courtesy of Hancock's of Paducah.

Home Ec 101

Today I lament the fact that I never paid attention during Home Ec in high school. I was the girl who had safety pins hold the back of her skirt together during the "Fashion Show" because I couldn't get the zipper seated on the back of the skirt I made to model. Now, many years later, I've purchased a sewing machine and I mutter while trying to thread the bobbin and somehow, now, I think I'm going to be able to sew. Be proud of me...my sister, my daughter, my niece and I are all signed up for Sewing 101. Classes start in a few weeks. My dream...to make quilts. My Pinterest "Crafty Stuff to Do" board outgrew all the "Quilty Things I'm Going to Do" and I had to migrate all the quilty things to their own space. We even had to subdivide into "Fabric" because I'm now obsessed with becoming a fabric hoarder. I see how addiction starts. My first quilt: a circus-themed boy's quilt for a friend due in the Fall. Time is of the essence. My hope is that my sewing instructor is a stitch-master and can pull a rabbit out of his/her hat and transform me into a stellar seamstress by summer. I've already begun purchasing fabric for the quilt. My favorite so far:

{{Sigh}} I adore it and I've got a myriad of other coordinating fabrics already picked out and waiting as well as a simple pattern that I think even I can master. And I am amassing tools! An Olfa rotary cutter that, quite frankly, scares the poop out of me. I'm destined to lose a digit, I'm sure, or at least a cut requiring an e.r. visit because I attempted to wield the cutter like a ninja sword. A cutting mat designed for rotary cutters (because I'm sure my husband wouldn't like to see a 10 inch gash on our dining room table); one bitchin' seam ripper (which I think I'm going to buy a holster for since I'm sure I'll be using it frequently); and plenty of pins in various sizes, enough to compensate for those that end up on the floor and in the bottom of my foot. And I stalk...I stalk the quilting blogs, learning terms like "jelly roll", "fat quarter", "charm pack", and "layer cakes". Hell, all the terms make it sound like fun, patterns like "Flying Geese", "Dresden Plate", and "Cathedral Window". Spare moments find me with a set of headphones on, watching YouTube videos on making "quilt sandwiches" and "seam binding". Amazon now sees me coming and pops up a list of quilting books in the right margin for my perusing pleasure. They're kind enough to see how green I am and proffer "beginner's quilting" books (isn't keyword tracking on the internet a marvelous thing?) I'll document my progress, or lack of, as I go. I have quilts in mind for quite a few people and it's one thing I've wanted to do for years, but just never thought I was "crafty" enough to master. I'd love to be able to have a craft, any craft, that's mine and that I do well. I can't draw to save my soul and finishing any craft project takes an act of Congress..but this one, I really want to learn and learn well.