My favorite Planet Mom t-shirt says “I need a play date.”

Sorry, was that off-topic?

I guess it would be hypocritical of me to run my own contest without telling you about other people’s. Tops 2 Bottoms is also having a contest to win a Planet Mom t-shirt.

Post from: Babylune

I ate too many sweets over the holidays, so I don’t really feel like cake. And really, I got enough enough in the present department too. That can only mean one thing: time for a party game.

Why?

Today is Babylune’s second birthday. Over the last two years, I’ve tried to write about all the major studies and issues surrounding recovery from childbirth and reproductive health, I’ve revealed quite a bit (perhaps too much) about myself and my family, hosted some competitions, participated in some contests and gotten to know you through your comments and visiting your blogs. But really, how well do we know each other?

The Babylune Birthday Bonanza Contest:

I’ve decided to post a little birthday contest with a little prize to find out how well you know this blog.

To make it even more fun, I decided to make the contest really, really hard:

Below, I’ve pasted seven images that have appeared in Babylune posts over the past two years. Your task? Six of the images are associated with three blogging events, post series or campaigns Babylune has held or participated in. Identify the three events and the two images associated with each of them. For a bonus point, identify the significance of the seventh image.

Leave your answers as a comment saying something like: image x and image y are from Sad, But True Speed Links for Saturdays. Image m and image n and image u are from Parenting Quotes of the Week, etc. Except, your entry should contain the right answers of course.

Determining the Winner:

The first entry that correctly identifies the 3 events, correctly places the six images with those events and identifies the seventh bonus image, will be the winner.

The Prize:

Since you need to identify ten pieces of information correctly, and this contest is in celebration of our second birthday, the winner will receive $2 for each correct answer to a total of $20.00 (US funds) payable by Pay Pal. The contest opens now and closes when someone has submitted all the correct answers.

The images:

a) b) c)

d) e)

f) g)

When you’ve figured it out, leave a comment below to submit your entry.

The Piggyback Contest:

This contest was inspired by the Week 7 Challenge of Project Blog. Please head over to Project Blog’s new home at BCS Frenzy written by Allison Boyer and support me (my name is Kate)  in the reader’s choice portion of the competition with your vote. If you leave a comment on the voting post and another elsewhere on the site, you can win a subscription to ESPN Magazine.

Post from: Babylune

The reader prize for week two is also very nice. It’s a copy of the e-book Chronicling the Fifth Deadly Sin by Gillian Pollack who writes the blog Food History. Gluttony is the focus of this cookbook, but, hopefully, only in moderation It in includes recipes for sinfully delicious dishes like Andy’s Hong Kong Curry Triangles, Trudee’s Canadian Chocolate Cheesecake, and Medieval Style Mushroom Pastries.

Since my father was an antiques dealer, I think I know a thing or two about how people lived in the past through the things they surrounded themselves with. Gillian’s Food History blog has been showing me how they ate. It’s an intelligent and entertaining read.
Want a chance to win this week’s prize? You can enter up to three times!

• For one chance, leave a comment on this post on Reality on Bravo with one “food fact” that you’ve learned from any post on Gillian’s website.
• For a second chance, blog about this contest on your own site and email the link to at allison.boyer-at-yahoo-dot-com.
• Want a third chance? Check back at Reality on Bravo on Friday, vote for your favorite in our Project Blog competition, and leave a comment showing support! The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries.

Post from: Babylune

The Family & Relationships Channel here at B5 Media is launching a month-long feast of contests on Monday, October 8th called Blogtoberfest.

Here’s the thing: the prize is a secret. Well, an open secret. A full list of prizes is under the cut, but you don’t know what you’ll win. It could be worth any amount between $2 and $65. Most of the prizese are only open to residents of the US and Canada, but there are a few (like the one I donated)  that can go anywhere.

If you’d like to win, look for the sponsored posts and the graphic above. Then, to be entered, leave a comment. On Monday,  at this blog, at Inside Fatherhood,  Our One Heart, Play Library, Solo Mother and at Thrifty Mommy the first sponsored posts will appear.

You will see other Blogtoberfest sponsored posts on the other blogs from Monday to Friday until October 19th. Watch out for our daily round-ups to point you toward the bounty.

Take a look at who’s participating and the prizes they’re contributing.

Gloves in a Bottle – Gloves in a Bottle is a shielding lotion that rapidly absorbs into, and bonds with, the outer layer of skin creating a protective layer while retaining the natural moisture from within. This makes it the perfect dry skin care product. Value: $12.95

Skin MD Natural is a Shielding Lotion is far more effective as a dry skin care treatment than mere moisturizing lotions or protective creams. If you suffer from dry skin, you know that just using a moisturizing lotion doesn’t solve the problem. Value: $25.00

5 Lara Gallagher Organizing Bags – Do you want to get more organized but you’re afraid if you put stuff away you’ll never be able to find it again? That won’t happen with my Organizing Bags because you can see exactly what’s inside and best of all they take up less space than a box! Value: varies by size.

10 Carpet Bocce Games by FunSlides – Ideal for players of all ages, Fun Slides’ Carpet Bocce combines the skill and strategy of Bocce with a rebound action of the award winning Carpet Puck. Fun Slides’ Carpet Bocce Set keeps things interesting by turning this traditional lawn sport into indoor sliding fun! (Ages 4 and up) Value: $17.99 ea.

12 assorted and beautiful gifts from BabySakes – BabySakes is baby memory book specialty store, featuring a selection of hundreds of baby memory books, baby scrapbooks, brag books, keepsake boxes and journals. Value: up to $39.95

15 Your Baby Can Read Starter Kits – Your Baby Can Read! is a 5 DVD and Word and Picture Card Set designed for children ages 3 months to 5 years. The multi-sensory languauge development system teaches children to read the written word at the same time they are naturally learning to speak and best of all it’s fun both parent and child. Value: $16.95 ea.

2 Hewlett-Packard HP Photo Books – The HP Photo Book includes all the things you need: a professional looking hardcover photo book, easy to use layout and design software, and HP Advanced Photo Paper (12 sheets). Simply add your photos and creative touch, and you’re ready to go. Value: $24.99 ea.

Make Your Own Onesies! A giant collection of original iron on patterns and decals created by a work from home mom who loves to craft! The images are provided in adobe (PDF) format and comes with instructions. Simply print out the image you selected on to iron on transfer sheets, and then apply direct heat with an iron to create your own unique onesie! You can make tons and tons of fun onesies (creepers) for your baby at a fraction of the cost! Or make a few onesies to use as gifts for new moms and for baby showers. They are fun and practical!

Eve Eschner Hogan – Author, Power Speaker and Coach – One of the greatest relationship authors of our time has graciously contributed a copy of How to Love Your Marriage and my personal favorite, Intellectual Foreplay (a book every relationship can use). Eve has just joined the blogosphere so she can share her relationship expertise even more – Ask Eve Advice – Value: $16.00 ea.

Dr. Leah Klungness – Dr. Leah has graciously donated a personally autographed copy of her popular book The Complete Single Mother. Recent statistics show single motherhood on the rise, at 12 million, up from 3.4 million in 1970. This reference will help single mothers overcome the challenges of daily life with dignity, wisdom, and courage. Value: $16.00

FeeFiFoto.com has dontated a Bucket Bag, Single Photo Mia Cameron handbag made from an extremely sturdy microfiber fabric, trimmed in microfiber or leather. They don’t use an iron-on process, which produces high quality colors, image quality and life. This prize will be handmade to order, and takes 3-5 weeks for delivery. Just in time for the holidays! Value: $100.00

MySuperSaving.com is sponsoring one 6-Month Membership – to a private collection of samples, savings, shopping, rebates and coupons to help you and your family save – And a Lemongrass Clay facial soap. Value: $18.00

Kate Baggott has donated a copy of The Practical Romantic A Confessional Guide to Internet Dating. Imperfect people are perfectly loveable. It’s a message that gets lost in the great air-brushed culture that is modern living. For those of us who seek both romance and the chance to get beyond the tyranny of image, Internet dating can provide a fixed point in the far-ranging search for companionship.

Busy Body Book is going to get two lucky winners a little more organized by chipping in 2 personal and family organizers. One Brown and one ZigZag.

Wendy Piersall from eMoms at Home knows the importance of coffee to many bloggers and blog readers, eMom herself is chipping in a Starbucks Gift Card. Value: $20.00

Just Paper Roses will be contributing one dozen beautiful and personalized long stem roses from their collection. You’ll choose the color and the personalization, they’ll do the rest. Value: $64.95

Post from: Babylune

Vacations mystify a lot of people. Some people can’t imagine spending a week or two away from home. They don’t want to break their carefully crafter routines. Others think that a vacation is about staying in a hotel and can’t understand why a family would live in one room voluntarily. My family is traveling family, but a budget travel one and we seldom stay in anything but the cheapest hotels when we do. We’re more of a family-run pension, youth hostel or stay with friends and relatives kind of crowd. Naturally, our friends and relatives are always welcome here too. The best part of this kind of lifestyle is that, when we’re not away, we have a lot of house guests to make life interesting.

Adventures, both accidental and planned, are always on the itinerary when you travel with kids. That’s certainly what the next to entries in the Family Vacation Group Writing Project show. All you need for that is a child or two.
A Mama’s Rant went up the mountain where she met a dangerous beast (or two) in a hotel room hallway.

Char the Weary Parent had 10 little adventures this summer.

Jenny at The So-Called Me is happy to be home after a camping trip.

You have until Friday night (August 31, 2007) to get your entries in for the Family Vacation GWP. The prize will equal $1 for every entry…so far, we’re up to $6. You could raise it to $7. Getting 93 of your friends to enter could raise it to the maximum of $100.

Post from: Babylune

It’s time for another experiment in the culture of parenting blogs. The last group writing project Babylune hosted was a great success in terms of quality of posts and entertainment value. I’ve also been inspired by the parenting GWPs run by Weary Parent and MamaBlogga.

The Theme:

This time, write a post about a family vacation that you have taken as a parent or as a child. What are your memories of the main event, your favorite parts, the successes, the advice for others, the fun factor and/or the mishaps?

The Rules:

All posts must link back to this post announcing the GWP. Once you’ve written your post, leave a comment below in case your trackback URL ends up in the spam filter.

While I relaxed on this point last time, this time normal Group Writing Project rules, as defined by Problogger, apply. All posts must be written especially for this contest. Only one post per blog or blogger (if you write 20 blogs, you can still only submit 1 post) will be accepted. The contest is now open and posts will be accepted until 11:59 PM on 31 August 2007. As usual, I reserve the right to declare any post I deem to be unsuitable for a family audience (or any other audience) as ineligible. Final results will be posted on 1 September 2007.

The Prize:

I thought we’d try something a little different this time. At the end of the GWP, there will be a cash prize payable via PayPal. The prize will total $1 per eligible entry up to $100.

That means, if 100, or more, worthwhile, eligible posts are submitted from 100 different blogs written by 100 different people, the prize will be $100. If there are only 98 entries, the prize will be $98 and so on down to just one entry in the contest with a $1 prize.

A little legalese:

The winner will be entirely responsible for paying any taxes and duties on the prize as required (or not) by their respective places of residence. This contest is valid only where legal and participants are responsible for determining legality before entering.

A Second Experiment:

Partly as an experiment and partly to protect my income, I am not going to promote this GWP. I am not going to email the other parenting bloggers I know, I am not going to announce it to any lists, forums or post it on any social networking sites. You’re the ones with the interest in driving up the prize amount, so it seems fair that you should be the one to tell other bloggers about the GWP. I’ll let you know how traffic is affected by this strategy.Updated on 21 August, based on day one stats, this was obviously just a horrible idea. I’ll promote it now.
The Third Experiment

Random draws usually determine the prize winner in a GWP. Winning a draw is about luck while writing a successful blog is about writing well. Therefore, I am going to choose the entry that I think makes for the most entertaining, though/provoking and interesting reading. In the event of a tie, two blogs will split the cash prize.

Post from: Babylune

 

As you may or may not know, I often complain about a great big pain in the leg. I’ve often waxed poetic about my support hose. I never fly home without them.

You may also know that I’ve done time as a freelance writer and sometimes, people offer me free stuff to review. In fact, a publicist recently offered to send me a sample pair of support hose. Since I already have mine, I thought I’d share this largesse with you. Ames Walker, the company behind the sites Maternity Hosiery.com and Life of Your Legs has agreed!

Make a comment on any Babylune post that goes live between Monday, July 23, 2007 and Saturday, July 28th by 11:59 AM on  Sunday, July 29, 2007. A winner will be randomly selected to receive a pair of maternity compression hose for yourself or to give a pregnant friend from Ames Walker Maternity Hosiery. Results will be announced on Monday, July 30, 2007.

Read more to review the email I received from our sponsors about the benefits of compression hose during pregnancy and right after birth.  

Hi Kate,

You may already be aware of the benefits of wearing graduated compression hosiery during and after pregnancy, but here is some information your readers need to know to protect their legs and health.

Why Your Readers Should Be Concerned

• 70% of women develop venous problems during pregnancy
• 20% of all pregnant women develop full-blown varicose veins
• 50% of these new mothers will suffer from varicose veins and other venous maladies for the rest of their lives
• 1 in 10 mothers will suffer from varicose veins for a lifetime

Why Pregnant Women Are at Greater Risk

• Hormonal changes cause blood vein walls to relax and stretch
• Blood flow to and from the womb puts added pressure on the veins
• Baby’s weight puts more stress on leg muscles and vein walls

How Wearing Graduated Compression Hosiery Can Help

(minimum compression of 12mmHg)

• Provide needed strength for the walls of your leg veins
• Regulate the flow of blood back to the heart
• Compensate for faulty vein valves to prevent backflow of blood in the legs
• Ward off the severity and the spread of varicose veins

If you would like more information on maternity care and the benefits of compression hosiery, please visit www.maternityhosiery.com.  For more information on the latest research and news on varicose veins as well as a community forum for those affected by this ailment, please visit www.lifeofyourlegs.com. 

Support hosiery is available in all styles and colors and is no different in appearance from your everyday hosiery. 

Post from: Babylune

Here are the details to win one blogger’s ten favourite beauty products:

• The Details from Shannon at A Girl’s Gotta Spa:

  Contest begins: July 6th 2007
  Contest ends: July 20th at midnight EST
  Winner announced: July 23rd

  I’m looking for that one mom who stands out above all others! A mom who desperately needs to be rescued with some really fabulous beauty products to help her get her glamour back. This mom can be age 24 or 94–if you are a mom (and US resident) you qualify! If this is you, please submit to me via email, in 600 words or less, your story on being a mom and why you deserve to win my Top Ten Favorite Beauty Products prize pack. Be creative, be quirky, be humorous, be truthful and be real. Please include your full name, age, town/state and how many children you have. Submissions should be sent to: contest (at) agirlsgottaspa (dot) com

Post from: Babylune

The winner of Vision: An Anthology of Winning Stories from the 2007 University of Hertfordshire Writing Awards is…

Michele whose comment was randomly selected in a draw performed by my husband. Michele, the book is in transit to me from England. As soon as I get it, I’ll ship it to you.

For the two of you who asked, the book is available via Amazon.co.uk

Post from: Babylune

Post from: Babylune