New eBook “Hair Gone Wild: Recipes & Remedies for Natural Tresses” FREE to 20 Readers!

15. March 2012 · 23 comments · Categories: Health · Tags: , ,

My new ebook Hair Gone Wild: Recipes & Remedies for Natural Tresses has just been published on Amazon, and I’m excited to give away copies to several dkMommy Spot readers and Twitter followers. This ebook is loaded with recipes and remedies for everything from henna techniques and hairspray recipes to how to ditch the shampoo and clean your hair naturally. I’ll be giving away up to 20 copies, and not just to those of you with Kindles. If you have a PC, a Mac, an iPhone or other device, you can easily grab a free Kindle app with which to read your copy. (I use my Kindle app for PC all the time – even though I have a Kindle too. It’s great for reference type material.)

This is NOT a heavily publicized giveaway, so your chances of winning will be much higher than usual. This is geared towards you, the readers of dkMommy Spot and my Twitter followers.

To Enter: All you have to do to enter for one of 20 free copies is to swing by Hair Gone Wild’s Amazon page and see if it looks like something you might enjoy owning. If you like what you see, please click the bright orange “LIKED” button to the right of the cover image. Then come back here and leave me a comment with your email address and let me know you’d like a copy. On March 22, 2012, I’ll select 20 people to receive one. Winners will be contacted by email.

 

 

 

Traditional Japanese Origami Gift Set Giveaway

09. October 2009 · 207 comments · Categories: Books, Contest, Toys · Tags: , , ,

Click Here for Giveaways & Coupon Codes

Add your giveaways

Traditional Japanese Origami Gift Set

Traditional Japanese Origami Gift Set

I’m rediscovering an ancient Japanese art that keeps both mind and hands active.  With all the focus on Japanese pop culture these days, it just may be time to show your older kids that Japan indeed existed sometime before the dawning of Manga.  Traditional Japanese Origami: The Art of Paper Folding can head them off in the right direction.  

I have been having a great time playing with this one.  The set came so beautifully presented that I almost didn’t want to open it!  It includes a paperback book (Traditional Japanese Origami – The Art of Paper Folding by Duy and Tramy Nguyen), and a selection of 75 sheets of gorgeous origami paper.  The book starts you out easy, giving you the basic instructions for the most common folds used, and works its way through increasingly more difficult projects.  I started out making a kimono, then moved next to a Samurai hat.  Next was the goldfish.  The book ends with items as complex as flying dragons and humpback whales.  Although I’ve yet to accomplish such creatures, my three-year-old eagerly awaits them.  He’s been right in on the process, waiting for finished products that he can line up on our bookshelves and play with.

There is something really peaceful about the art of origami, I’ve learned.  After a day spent on the computer in my high-tech telecommuting world, it’s nice to sit down with something that requires nothing more than a piece of paper, my imagination, and two hands.  It also stimulates parts of the brain most of us probably neglect, having to check the folds and predict the outcome so as to end with the correct shapes.

And what more glorious way to recycle paper!  Just imagine – junk mail becomes something worth keeping.  Mobiles can be made out of magazine pages and scrap paper.  Old receipts found in the bottom of your purse can be transformed into playthings for your children while waiting in long lines at the bank and the post office.  And bills?  Well…  I can’t make all your bills disappear, but can you imagine folding your over-inflated payment to the cable company before mailing it?

If you want to experience Traditional Japanese Origami: The Art of Paper Folding ($10.95 retail, or $9.31 on Amazon) for yourself, you’ll be happy to know I have TWO sets to give away!  Keep it for yourself or save it for a special gift; either way, it’s an impressive set.

Multiple Options for Multiple Entries:

1.) Just visit Sterling Publishing and tell me what else you liked there and why.  (***You may enter once a day, but please list a new item you like each time.) Remember, leave an interesting comment. If I cannot contact the winner, you might be chosen instead based on your comment.

2.) Blog about, Twitter, Subscribe and/or Become a Fan on Facebook! Get an extra entry for each of these activities.  This time just leave a separate comment for each (only one time for each extra activity completed), giving me a link to your blog post, your Twitter name, and/or a note saying you’re an FB Fan and/or subscriber.  SUBSCRIBE HERE!  

(Psst!  My Twitter name is dkMommy.)

Feel free to do all five to gather multiple entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Friday, October 16, 2009, to enter.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Home – Book Giveaway

26. August 2009 · 78 comments · Categories: Books, Cooking, Product Review · Tags: , , ,

Follow the “In Over My Head Giveaway Week”!

Click Here for Giveaways & Coupon Codes

Learn About Renewable Energy and Save Your Dough!

Learn About Renewable Energy and Save Your Dough!

So you want to reduce your energy consumption.  Perhaps the bills are just too high, or maybe you’re really ambitious and want to live off the grid.  But you don’t really know where to start, aside from making the family sit around in the dark in the evenings.  That’s where The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Homecomes in.

I’ve reviewed several of the books in The Complete Idiot’s Guide series, and as always, this one is easy to maneuver.  Readers will be able to delve into the nitty gritty or flip through the pages and find straightforward answer to their questions.  Want a windmill?  Then you’ll probably want to know how much it will cost, how long the thing will last, and how long it will take to get your money’s worth out of wind power.  This book will answer those questions.  Perhaps solar heating is your thing.  What kind of system will you require?  How does it all work, and WILL it work in your circumstances?  Yes, this guide will certainly answer those questions for you.  

Personally, I loved learning about geothermal heat, something I’d love to do someday.  It was also helpful learning about other alternatives as well, perhaps figuring out what we can do now as opposed to waiting for a more drastic alteration.

Whether you’re looking for a few simple changes, or you want to take the plunge and get off the grid entirely, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Homeis a sure way to get you going.  Want to win your own copy?  Of course you do!  Then let’s get going and see if we can save you some dough on those energy costs, shall we?

Multiple Options for Multiple Entries:

1.) Just visit The Complete Idiot’s Guide’s Official Website and tell me another guide you liked AND WHY. (***You may enter once a day, but please list a new item you like each time.) Remember, leave an interesting comment. If I cannot contact the winner, you might be chosen instead based on your comment.

2.) Blog about, Twitter, Subscribe and/or Become a Fan on Facebook! Get an extra entry for each of these activities.  This time just leave a separate comment for each (only one time for each extra activity completed), giving me a link to your blog post, your Twitter name, and/or a note saying you’re an FB Fan and/or subscriber.  SUBSCRIBE HERE!  

(Psst!  My Twitter name is dkMommy.)

Full Rules for Sweepstakes at dkMommy Spot 

Feel free to do all five to gather multiple entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Wednesday, September 2, 2009, to enter.

The Earthwise Herbal – A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants by Matthew Wood

19. May 2009 · 252 comments · Categories: Books, Contest, Product Review · Tags: , , , ,

Click Here for Giveaways & Coupon Codes

Add your giveaways 

This past October I read and reviewed The Earthwise Herbal – A Complete Guide to Old World Medicine.  It quickly became one of my favorite books in my herbal reference library.  So when herbalist and author Matthew Wood recently published the companion book The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants, I couldn’t wait to dig in.  Every bit as fascinating for the herb lover, this second of two books is loaded with a multitude of wondrous North American native plants.  Wood offers a thorough materia medica that’s easy to reference.  Each plant within the book contains such interesting historical and general background info that you may just find yourself reading this reference book from cover to cover (which I’d highly recommend). His ability to explain these plants in a way that makes the information stick is of great value to anyone studying herbs.  If you’ve ever read through a list of the uses for any one medicinal herb, for instance, you might have discovered it was difficult to piece together how one little plant can do all that! But Wood’s approach allows the reader to make sense of each plant as it is used to treat the whole person, not just a smattering of seemingly disconnected symptoms.

In addition, readers will find the chapters preceding the materia medica to be packed with useful information covering such things as Southern blood typology, an explanation of the six tissue states, specific medicine, and holistic pharmacology.  Overall, it doesn’t matter what page you randomly flip to – you will learn something and you’ll learn something useful!  

I can’t say enough about The Earthwise Herbal.  Matthew Wood has put his over 25 years of experience as a practicing herbalist into the heart of this book, giving us all something worthy of study and reference no doubt for generations to come.  His understanding of the spirit of herbalism, along with his love of the craft, is contagious – I sincerely hope many people will catch a good dose of his knowledge!

North Atlantic Books, the publishers of The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants, is giving away a copy to one of you!  ($29.95 retail)

Multiple Options for Multiple Entries:

1.) Just visit the North Atlantic Books site and tell me another book title that interests you and why. (You may enter once a day.) Remember, leave an interesting comment.If I cannot contact the winner, you might be chosen instead based on your comment.

2.) Email subscribers get an extra entry for as long as their subscription is active.

Already a subscriber? Leave me a separate comment on this post to let me know you’re interested in this giveaway.

Want to subscribe? Just click here: Subscribe to dkMommy Spot by Email (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you do not receive it, check your junk mail. Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)

3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to this post. Come back and leave me a Comment with a link to your blog post. (If your comment doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry – I may have to approve it first. My blog might think it’s spam but gosh darn, I certainly don’t!)

4.) I’m feeling Twittery. If you Twitter a link to this giveaway, come back and comment here to let me know your Twitter name for another entry!

Feel free to do all four to gather multiple entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, to enter.

No TV??? Living Outside the Box – Book Review & Giveaway

29. March 2008 · 108 comments · Categories: Books, Contest · Tags: , , , ,


Have you ever thought of getting rid of the t.v.? For many this sounds like a scary and even radical decision. In fact, if you were to ditch the television, there’s a good chance some of your friends and family would think it was downright child neglect. But what if you did it anyway and discovered your family had added extra hours to their day to enjoy each other, take up new hobbies, and just plain relax? This is the purpose of Barbara Brock’s book Living Outside the Box – TV-Free Families Share Their Secrets.

Barbara Brock has spent years researching the effects of television on families, and her information is thorough and fascinating. In 1999, Barbara set out to survey t.v.-free families to see how living without the television had affected their lives. She put out some small ads in national magazines and was flooded with responses. Over 500 families wished to fill out her extensive survey, happy to share their personal stories. Later, hundreds more families agreed to turn off their t.v.’s and relay their experiences. The result is this powerful book

What Barbara discovered were hundreds of families enjoying themselves, relaxing, taking up worthwhile pursuits. Their children had higher grades and weren’t pressured into wanting all the latest toys and video games. They spent more time outside, were healthier, talked to each other more than ever. And what’s more, the children simply were not interested in television and even complained after visiting their friends who wanted to sit in front of the box for hours.

We have a television, but funny thing is, no one really watches it. I can tell you from personal experience that not watching television has been one of our best decisions ever. When I was pregnant and about ready to have my son, I suddenly was repulsed by things I was seeing on television and didn’t want to watch. Call it nesting, hormones, whatever. But when we made our beautiful new bookshelves the focus of the living room and moved the television to the basement, no one was sorry to see it banished. We do watch occasional DVDs and plan on having a select collection for viewing every now and then with our son, but television no longer plays a role in our daily lives. Because of this, we do spend a lot of time talking, reading and blogging about it, taking walks, and just plain living. I could only nod my head in agreement throughout my reading of Living Outside the Box. Barbara Brock certainly has a noble cause in helping families go t.v. free, and I can do nothing but applaud her.

Each April, National TV-Turnoff Week comes around, and this year it’s April 21 – 27. Want to give it a go?

To help you prepare, I have one free copy of Living Outside the Box to give away. There are three ways you can enter. 1.) Subscribe to this blog to be automatically entered into this and all future giveaways here at dkMommy Spot. 2.) Leave a comment telling me about your family’s television watching habits and what you’d like to change. 3.) Post about this giveaway on your blog with a link back. OR you can do all three and have three entries! I’ll draw a winner at random on April 2, 2008, 12noon EST.

An interesting blog: While doing research for this post, I came across a great blog called Unplug Your Kids. Hop on over and take a look to see how this mom keeps her kids busy without the t.v.!