Reverie Giveaway

Hi all! 

As most of you know I am a photographer. Right now theres an AWESOME giveaway going on over at Reverie. Go and enter it! It lasts until the 21st. How sweet is that? With new giveaways every day.

Reverie Mine

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PayPal PayDay!

Welcome to another round of PayPal PayDay. This event will end at Midnight EST on 10/31

As always, there are NO mandatory entries.

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Gourmet Gift Baskets Review & Giveaway!

My goodness Easter flew by so quickly! I was lucky enough to get to review a Classic Easter Bunny Basket from Gourmet Gift Baskets in time for Easter. I got it in the mail super quick- it just happened that a few days later my water broke and  didnt really have any time to enjoy it until now. It is so cute and pretty perfect. Its not too big and not too small. Plus the bunny that was inside is in the cute side as well.

 

Here's what was inside:

Super cute Easter bunny

Dots

Twizzlers

Gourmet Jelly Beans

Nerds

A chocolate rabbit (an Easter basket standard!)

M&Ms and 

some blue Peeps.

My husband and I were pretty pleased with everything inside- though neither of us are fans of Peeps. I think were the only two people in the world who arent fans.. not even of the chocolate covered ones. My favorite was definitely the Dots. I love me some Dots!

Over all I was very pleased with the basket. It had just enough stuff inside and it wasnt all too too Easter'y. Which I think is good for most people since not everyone loves Easter candy specifically. Now that I know about them I think I will definitely be using them in the future. Gourmet Gift Baskets have a T O N of different baskets for everyone. I like that they have baskets that offer fruit and organic produce. They also have military baskets to send overseas to our awesome guys and gals over there. I will totally be using them in the future for all my far away gift needs. :)

To take a look at all of their basket offerings check out their website here:

Gourmet Gift Baskets

Mandatory Entry

Become a fan of Gourmet Gift Baskets on Facebook. Feel free to tell them I sent you!

Extra Entries:

• Become a Follower via GFC (top right hand side)
• Leave a comment about a product you would like to try from them
• Follow Gourmet Gift Baskets on Twitter
  
• Follow @trulescentMAMA on Twitter. 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each)
• 
  
• "Like" Scrumtrulescent Mama on Facebook 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each) 
• Tweet the following: " #Win an Easter Basket from @gmtgiftbaskets via @trulescentmama! http://bit.ly/kZ1vyG #giveaway
  

Please leave a valid email in the comments if your Blogger profile is private so that I can contact you if you win. Giveaway ends 5.10  at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. 

The opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced by the company.

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TheraBreath Review & Giveaway

About TheraBreath: TheraBreath is a revolutionary premium oral care system created by Doctor Harold Katz at the California Breath Clinics. The exclusive, original formula went on the market in 1994 and has been used by over 1,000,000 people world wide to solve the problems of bad breath and unpleasant mouth taste. In that time, our original formula has gone through dozens of refinements, making it the most complete and effective solution to the embarrassing personal problem of halitosis. Continuing his pioneering research, Dr Katz expanded on the original TheraBreath Toothpaste and Oral Rinse products to address other problem areas in personal care. TheraBreath now manufactures very popular products for teeth whitening, the clearing of tonsil stones, premium periodontal therapy products, specialty chewing gums, and even bad breath treatment systems for pets!Some of you may or may not know that I'm a teeth person. I like good clean, white teeth. Its the first thing I notice about people when I see them. Ive been using TheraBreath toothpaste and mouthwash for about a week now. I wanted to give it a chance. 

My first thought is that I ABSOLUTELY love the packaging. I love the vintage'y/ retro fonts and the colors. If I were to see it in a store it would definitely catch my eye.

Upon using the toothpaste for the first time my mouth definitely didnt like the fact that in the end I didnt have the minty fresh feeling so it definitely took some getting used to. It was still fresh feeling though. I didnt miss the "minty" taste much but like I said, definitely takes some getting used to.

How To Use This Product
Place a bead of TheraBreath toothpaste on your toothbrush and brush thoroughly. Be sure to brush all over - the inside of your cheeks, roof of your mouth, and back of your tongue.
 



I was able to try the TheraBreath mouthwash as well. The two paired well together and comparing TB's to most other washes it was a lot more mild which I like. It wasnt overwhelming like others. Its missing these ingredients: Alcohol, Saccharin, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Benzalkonium Chloride. So im guessing thats why the lack in overbearing mintyness.

How To Use This Product
Use TheraBreath Oral Rinse 2-3 times per day.

Use 1-2 capfuls and gargle thoroughly. Try to let the oral rinse reach as far back in your throat as possible without gagging. Gargle for at least 30 seconds, or as long as you can.

With a new capful of rinse, swish rinse completely around your entire mouth for at least another 45 seconds.



My favorite of the three products are the TheraBreath mouth wetting fresh breath lozenges. They are minty and yummy. The official flavor is mandarin mint. These are Kosher and approved for Diabetics according to the box. They do the job and Im glad I can add these to my purse for those times I dont have anything else to make my breath fresh. Now that my husband is home from deployment I may need some fresh breath more often ;)



Stage 1 uses our pleasant citrus mint formula to quickly eliminate any unpleasant flavors or odors in your mouth. Stage 2 uses the power of Zinc, Oxygen, and Xylitol - our clinical strength active ingredients -to attack the germs that cause bad breath. Stage 3 introduces our proprietary salivary agent to eliminate dry mouth and stimulate your body to produce saliva, a powerful germ fighting agent.

How To Use This Product
Eat a lozenge whenever your mouth feels dry or you experience an unpleasant flavor. Three or four a day should keep your mouth fresh, moist, and free of bad breath.


TheraBreath products can be found at Target, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Harmon, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and at TheraBreath. Be sure to “Like” TheraBreath on Facebook and Follow TheraBreath on Twitter. TheraBreath is giving one lucky winner two full size products: TheraBreath Toothpaste and TheraBreath Oral Rinse.

Mandatory Entry

Leave a comment with your email address. THATS IT!

Extra Entries:

• 
  
• Follow @trulescentMAMA on Twitter. 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each)
• 
  
• "Like" Scrumtrulescent Mama on Facebook 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each)

Please leave a valid email in the comments if your Blogger profile is private so that I can contact you if you win. Giveaway ends 4.8  at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. 

The opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced by the company.

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Earth Mama Angel Baby review & giveaway!

Since Ive been pregnant I have seriously got into tea drinking. Maybe its one of my best friends rubbing off on me(she LOVES tea.) I hear there are a lot of teas us pregnant folks aren't supposed to have, which is no fun. Ive been watching whats inside all of my teas Ive picked up along the last few months. A while back I discovered Earth Mama Angel Baby. They have a ton of awesome products and they are all natural, green and super safe for you AND baby. Earth Mama Angel Baby ingredients are the purest available. They are made with the highest quality organic ingredients and herbs unless the herb or oil is not safely, sustainably available in certified organic form. All of Mama’s products are safe, vegan, and toxin-free. You’ll never find 1,4-Dioxane, formaldehyde, phthalates, or any other toxic ingredients in any EMAB product. No lanolin, beeswax or nut oils either.

A few other products I hope to try over the next few months are:

I registered for this kit and my friend Giselle got it for me. Cant wait to try it out!

They sent me their Third Trimester Tea to try out.

I got this from their site about the tea

"Blended with 100% organic herbs, including Red Raspberry Leaf (an all-around great pregnancy herb), iron-rich Stinging Nettle, calming Chamomile and Rosehips (both full of vitamins and bioflavonoids), and calcium filled Oat Straw, Third Trimester Tea is a brilliant blend of Mother Nature's gifts to mamas-in-waiting."

I was glad to try it out especially since for the past few weeks I have had a bit of a cold. Colds are no fun when you're pregnant and usually I N E V E R get sick. So this made my sore throat feel tons better. For starters it smelled really good(well, from what I could tell through my stuffy nose.) It also had a coupon inside the cover. I love finding unexpected coupons in places. They have coupons on their website too if you want to give it a try.

I usually put lemon or honey in my teas but since I was reviewing it I figured Id let it go without for my first cup and since it DID smell good. It was a bit too bitter for my tastes. I still drank it. I added some honey in with my last cup and it definitely made it 100% better. But, like I said above I like my teas sweeter than most. I was meandering around their website, checking things out and they have recipes to use the teas in! Genius! One of them may have been good for the Cocktails and Mocktails Baby Shower I attended a few weeks ago.

I feel good that I dont really have to go searching through ingredients from them. I know what's inside is good for me and the baby. I like that. I love companies that care about the people. Another cool thing I found while looking through their site is a Free Birth Plan. I dont know about you, but im coming up with a lot of nothing in the way of saying how I feel about everything and my opinions. This is a great place to start.

BUY

 

Earth Mama Angel Baby

GIVEAWAY

Win -

Earth Mama Angel Baby is giving away one package of teas to one lucky winner. Winner can choose what sort of tea they want(that way its not limited to 3rd trimester folks.)

How to Win - Maximize your chances of winning. Leave a separate comment for each entry. Only valid after you complete the first mandatory entry:

Mandatory Entry

Tell me what other item you would enjoy from their site and be a public follower of this blog. (located in the top right hand corner)

Extra Entries:

• Follow Earth Mama Angel Baby on Twitter.
• Like Earth Mama Angel Baby on Facebook.
• Follow @trulescentMAMA on Twitter. 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each)
• Tweet this (can be done daily): "Win an Earth Mama Angel Baby tea via @trulescentMAMA ends 3/19. http://bit.ly/esMpRB #giveaway #vegan #pregnant @EarthMamaHQ"
• "Like" Scrumtrulescent Mama on Facebook 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each)

Please leave a valid email in the comments if your Blogger profile is private so that I can contact you if you win. Giveaway ends 3.19 at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. 

The opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced by the company.

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InvisiBUMP Review and Giveaway (ends 2/18)

So the other day my husband asked me what my favorite "pregnancy purchases" had been and I instantly knew my favorite purchase.

The invisiBUMP!

Ive got a lot of hand-me-downs in the way of maternity clothes. Most of which dont exactly fit perfectly but im cheap and I dont want to buy more pants Ill only wear a few months. In comes the BUMP. I remember at the beginning of my pregnancy wanting to wear tight shirts to show off my belly but since my pants didnt fit I couldnt because I had a huge belt outline. I discovered the BUMP a few months ago and it has seriously been a life saver! Now I can wear my tight shirts to show off the belly AND my pants that are too big for me without feeling frumpy. 

My favorite things about the InvisBUMP:

• Its adjustable so it will fit most any belly bumps.
• No bulge = a sexy bump

and my most favorite thing about it:

• You dont have to take it off at the airport!

With my thinnest belt you can still see frumpy belt underneath

With the invisiBUMP! No lines. Just awesome smooth-ness.

I am so glad I made this purchase. You should too!

BUY

Invisibump website

Right now when you buy 2 belts you get a free Rock Candy belt for free! Its PINK!

GIVEAWAY

Win - Not one but TWO lucky winners will win an InvisiBUMP.

How to Win - Maximize your chances of winning. Leave a separate comment for each entry. Only valid after you complete the first mandatory entry:

Mandatory Entry

Like Invisibelt on FB

and

Sign up for Dishing with Kathy (invisibelt's newsletter)

Extra Entries:

• Follow Invisibelt on Twitter
•  Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect (top right hand corner) 3 entries
• Follow @trulescentMAMA on Twitter. 2 entries(be sure to leave a separate comment for each)
• Tweet this (can be done daily): "Win an InvisiBUMP via @trulescentMAMA ends 2/18. http://bit.ly/fbqUa2 #giveaway #baby #pregnant"
• "Like" Scrumtrulescent Mama on Facebook 2 entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each)

Please leave a valid email in the comments if your Blogger profile is private so that I can contact you if you win. Giveaway ends 2.18 at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. 

The opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced by the company.

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registries and other stuff

I started registering for things pretty much as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I started small and would add things after I read review after review on multiple sites. Now, I sorta know more of what im looking for. Registering for me is different because I dont want a lot of crap and neither does Jack. He's going to have enough in his diaper ;) It is so hard to find cheaper things to add to my registry. Im already full up on things like clothes(thanks to the folks giving them - hand me downs FTW!) and blankets. My goodness, I have a ton of blankets already and I havent even had any shower yet. I can only imagine how many I will get then. Anyway, its also a bit different because were going to be cloth diapering. Back in 2005 I started doing research on cloth diapering. Why on earth I did that I have no clue! What 18/19 does that? Anyway, I kept up with the trends and what to do and what not to do. Now im pretty glad I did it because I think I would be a bit more stressed reading reviews on all of the options out there. Its a bit ridiculous the amount of even cloth diapers there are out there. Our plan will be to start out with prefolds in covers and then about a month in move up to All in Ones. Were going to go with Bum Genius as I read they are better at fitting more babies. Hopefully they will work out for us in the end. Im quite excited about it. Well.. now I am. Right now im not having to see poop and then wash it. Possibly wash it again and then hope its all out. :)

Anyway, I just wish stores like Target and BabiesRUs would sell more organic exciting things I actually wanted to register for. I was reading OohDeeDoh.com as normal and came across this post. I found it awesome. A lot of this stuff I hadnt even thought of adding to my own registry. I also liked a few of the suggestions like: a new track suit in a size up from the moms typical size (because moms dont typically shrink back and she needs something comfy, the idea of a gift certificate to a local newborn photographer ( being one, I think thats a great present and im quite surprised no one has asked for any of our local mommies) <-- that being said my plan was to gift a session to them but when I asked who wanted me, no one did. I didnt want to gift someone a gift they didnt want. :( I also liked the idea of gifting someone 3 months of cleaning service or grocery service. How awesome would it be to get a huge box of fresh fruit from a local farmers market!? That would be a pretty sweet present anyway. Which reminds me, I cant wait until Strawberry season this year. Ill even get to try out my new canning system my mother in law got me.

For our nursery were going with a loosely based woodland theme. Isnt everyone these days? Ive pretty much fallen in love with these though: the owl and the gnome. The gnome would most likely be my pick but im a cheapo and its not 69$ its 68 so its just not meant to be. These might be a good substitute though. If I were doing a flight/plane themed room I would jump on this! I havent decided how I want to display his name yet. Ill most likely make up some big fabric letters or maybe even pillows? That may be cute. For the big display in his room Im collecting random letters in random fonts and im going to decorate them in fun ways and display it above his crib. I need to get working on them now that I think of it. Perhaps that will be on my list in a few weeks. Im just excited to get where were going to get so I can paint and make it my own again. I feel like Ive never given this home a proper introduction. I feel like we didnt love it to its fullest.

Also, this is a random part in this post. But its something Ive been meaning to address or blog about rather. Giveaways. They are the bomb. Ive been entering them since I first found out about 'mommy blogs' and their usefulness. Im also quite good at winning. Really you just have to pick the right ones. So today I gathered up all that I could find/remember about that I had won.


So, whats all in this photo?
Kalorik blender
Super cute handmade bib
Handmade toddler tie
Grasshopper Cloth Diaper
4 board books
Simply Saline gift pack
Juno Baby DVD for toddlers
1 pair of baby legs

Other random stuff Ive won, a HUGE jar of pickles, a lot of gift cards to local restaurants, CSN giftcards, Amazon giftcards, a baby, a free photography session(with an awesome photographer), photography actions, a newborn diaper cover(for photoshoots) and im sure there are others

This probably isnt all of it but its what I could find off the top of my head. For the most part Ive only been entering baby giveaways in hopes that I may be able to safe on baby presents. But, most of what Ive won I want to keep for myself. :) Figures. Ive won other stuff on its way to me too like most recently I won a Britax booster seat. Now yes, Jack wont need it for a few years but its free and its BRITAX which is an awesome, safe brand. A lot of the winning I think comes in when you tweet about it a lot. Each tweet gives you more enteries to the giveaway. So when I find something I really want, I tweet about it anytime I can get credit for it. Currently Im working on 4 giveaways and I can tweet 4X a day. Thats a lot, so I made a new twitter account specifically for me to post about giveaways and so I can post about this blog.

Follow me here!

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Tis the season

for giveaways! There are a ton for photographers right now! Id really like to win one of them! This one has a lot of neat non 'photog' stuff too.

Check out my most recent find over at: Laura Winslow Photos!

Here's another fun one to enter from Paint the Moon Actions

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Signs by Andrea Giveaway!

A while back I saw a sign in someones house and it had their last name and the year they were married. I instantly fell in love with it and I have been looking for something like it for some time now. Well I found it and they are having a giveaway. PLUS! Right now they are running a 2 for 1 special. So BAM! Theres a Christmas present out of the way right now!

So go and check them out!!

http://www.andreasteed.com/node/1069

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