Hey guys, Hickory Farms wanted me to be a part of a little blog program dedicated to letting you know that they can ship many of their products overseas to APO/FPOs, and they do it FREE. As many of you know, my husband was deployed last Christmas, so this one was a little close to my heart. Getting packages is a big treat for our service members, and the holidays are truly very tough. To be honest, the only time I cried on his last deployment was Christmas. Christmas apart just hurts the heart more than regular deployment days. The packages they receive that are filled with foods of the season mean a lot, as it is a tangible part of the celebration they are missing.

Now, Hickory Farms sent me some samples to enjoy and also so I could tell you what my favorites are. I am a HUGE fan of the cheeseball (C’mon, how can you not love an almond encrusted ball of cheese?) I also am very, very fond of the hot and spicy mustard. It is great on their foods and a plain old ham sandwich as well. I would definitely suggest getting a bottle.

Please remember the troops this Christmas and send something- it can be a card or something bigger- but find a service member who you can give a little service to. It will make your Christmas. If you need a service member, I knwo of several who could use a little extra love, so just drop me a line.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review.”

MY WINNER IS:

I’m a Facebook Fan!
helen.gunther@gmail.com

141. Comment by Helen — December 5, 2009 @ 5:35 pm

December 4-11, 2009 GRAND PRIZE WINNER announced December 14, 2009.

Congrats Helen!

There are 12 ways to win and 12 blogs to visit to enter with a special way to help The Original Scrapbox give back!

Enter to win a NEW EZ View Desktop and an entry in the Grand Prize Giveaway for a NEW EZ View Craft Desk from www.theoriginalscrapbox.com for FREE! Your entries will help The Original Scrapbox GIVE 2 of these desks to charity!
Yes—these are two separate items. The desktop is not a desk, it is designed to sit on a table or desktop and the drawers can be pulled open from either end. Click here to see more pictures and details of the EZ View Desktop.

One of the newest products at The Original Scrapbox.com is the EZ View Craft Desk. This desk is designed with a clear, glass-like top and the dimensions are 50″W x 25″ D x 31″ H

The desk is big, with 4 drawers with built-in partitions for easy organizing on any home project. How would you
like one for FREE?

Enter this giveaway for a chance to win a FREE EZ View Desktop and for a chance to be put in the grand prize drawing for the EZ View Craft Desk. Contest ends December 10, 2009 at 11:59pm

The drawing for the EZ View Desktop will take place on December 12th.
The Grand Prize Drawing for the EZ View Craft Desk will take place on December 14, 2009.
How will The Original Scrapbox give back?

We will be tracking web traffic to The Original Scrapbox during the giveaway. When we reach 12,000 hits during our giveaway The Original Scrapbox will donate an EZ View Craft Desk to the Friends of Utah County Children’s Justice Center. This charity helps abused children.

‘Tis the season of giving and The Original Scrapbox wants to give back to a charity of your choosing. When we reach 25,000 hits during our giveaway they will also donate an EZ View Craft Desk to a charity nominated by you!!

Would you like to nominate a charity to receive this spectacular gift? Please send an email to RachellewritesATgmail.com with the name of your charitable organization as well as a description of what they do. We would like to choose a charity that will be able to utilize the EZ View Craft Desk in their program. Tell Rachelle why these products would benefit your charity.
Email the charity organization name, description, and contact person for receiving donations to
RachellewritesATgmail.com
Rachelle will review all nominations and The Original Scrapbox giving board will choose a recipient.

When you visit the website to choose your favorite product and enter the giveaway, you’ll help us get one step closer to our goal.

Enter to win:
You may earn 1 entry each for doing the following (Please make a separate comment for each entry-I’ll be checking.)Make sure your contact info is easily accessible so I can contact you if you win: No purchase necessary to enter. Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered.

*Note: the contest will be open to residents of UK and EU countries as well as the United States and Canada.
You must at least do entry #1 to be eligible for this contest. Visit the website–every hit counts toward our goal to help The Original Scrapbox give back for Christmas!

1. You must visit The Original Scrapbox website to be eligible for this contest. Choose your favorite product. Leave a comment here and tell me what your favorite is and how you would use this product.

10. Blog about this contest with a picture of the Workbox and the EZ View Craft Desk. If you have a private blog, it will not be eligible for this part of the contest. In your blog post, please use the tags: The Original Scrapbox, Scrapbook storage, Workbox, EZ View Craft Desk. Link back to me, http://lifeaslou.blogsome.com/ so your readers can enter.

There are 12 ways to win and 12 blogs to enter with a special way to help The Original Scrapbox give back!

There are 11 other awesome bloggers holding a contest to give away an EZ View Desktop (Yes, 12 EZ View Desktops will be given away—one from each blog!) and at each of these blogs you can also enter for the GRAND PRIZE– EZ VIEW Craft Desk. Stop by their blogs and enter for more chances to win:

Vanilla Joy

PriscillaStyles

Capadia Designs

Crafty Makes

Just Me,My Soldier and My Two Little Chicks

Random-Ish by Nichole

Auntie Thesis

Park City Girl

Lovely Little Handmades

The Queen of the Clan

Rachelle Writes

Get as many entries as you can by telling your friends about this contest and stay tuned to my blog for more incredible giveaways! Good luck and remember to follow the rules correctly to earn more entries in the contest.Contest ends December 11, 2009 at 11:59pm.

On December 12, 2009, I will announce the name of one winner of the EZ View Desktop available in black or vanilla color from my blog. That winner will then go on for the grand prize drawing of The EZ View Craft Desk. If you are the winner, I’ll email you and you must respond by December 13th or a new winner will be selected to go on for the Grand Prize.

Then on December 14, 2009, Rachellewrites will hold a drawing using Random.org to select one winner from the 12 entries to win The EZ View Craft Desk!That winner will need to contact her with their shipping info by December 16th or another winner will be randomly selected. Sorry, there is no Christmas delivery guarantee.

Hi Guys, Shutterfly is one of my newest blog sponsors. I love this company! I’ve checked out several photo book companies, but I am always very pleased with the high quality and ease of the Shutterfly system.

I have about a million digital photos sorted away in computer files that rarely get looked at. I can’t scrapbook every favorite shot I take, nor would I want to. And I never scrapbook chronologically. I also don’t keep regular photo albums because they take up so much space! I started doing Shutterfly books and I love them! Every year I go through and try to locate my favorites and put together a book that we keep in our living room. My children get the biggest kick out of these, and they are enjoyed frequently. Sometimes my kids even ask to read them as bedtime stories.

Here are some shots of my books. You can get these in a variety of sizes, even 12x12- which is great if you wnat to copy a scrapbook into photos.

You can have pretty pattered backgrounds behind your photos, or keep it plain white or black. I usually do white, as I like the photos to pop. I did a gift album for my mom’s birthday one year and chose gorgeous blue swirly papers as the background. I did that book’s photos in all black and white, and was very pleased with the final results (so was Mom).

These make the perfect gift for family members, and they are having a 20% off sale right now. They ship fast, so they will be ready for Christmas.

One of my favorite features on these books is the ability to do one book, and then have it copied to a second project. That makes it very easy to change the size of the book, the inscription, or to slightly change the photos. I also love that every book I’ve made is saved in my projects in my account. If the house burns down, all of my photos are right there, and I can re-order my albums. Since the projects save, I’ve already started my next book! I had a hard time finding all of the photos I wanted to use in my last one, so I am doing this next one slowly, adding a photo or two every time I get some great shots. When I am ready to order it, it will be ready for me!

The Winner is #8- Congrats Linda, Tobi and Nathan! Happy Christmas

Today’s blog sponsor is the wonderful Stubby Pencil Studio! Many of you may recall my review of their fun eco-friendly art supplies last year. This year, the shop has expanded and they carry even more environmentally friendly craft supplies for your budding artist!

The prize package above includes all of the following:

Holiday Art Tote from Stubby Pencil Studio
Value: $85+
Includes the following:
Box of 8 Washable Markers
Ecojot 6x9 sketchbook (winner choice of design)
Set of 5 Holiday Smencils
3 Jumbo Grip Graphite Pencils
3 #2 Learner Pencils
Waldorf Chalk
Snifty Pens Holiday set - gingerbread and candycane
Jumbo Trimax Color Pencils
Color ‘n Kids Frosty Friends cards
Set of 16 Crayon Rocks
KUM pencil sharpener
Picky Penguin wooden toy
Red gingerbread (reusable) felt tote

My kids love it when a box from Stubby Pencil Studio shows up! I arranged for a big box of new art supplies to arrive during our Thanksgiving break. I don’t know about you, but my kids go batty when they’ve been out of school too long, and they spend so much time saying “Mom! Mom! Mom!” out of sheer boredom that I’m temped to change my name. The day my box arrived, my kids had given up on all creative play and were glued to my husband’s XBox360.

I yelled, “Box of art supplies!” and they dropped their controllers, abandoning their video game for the next several days and started coloring, painting and doing things that engage the brain and keep them occupied enough for me to sit back with some eggnog and a book.

They put on their snazzy new art aprons (No nasty chemicals! Lovely art aprons and no polyvinylcan’tpronounceitcholride giving off fumes. These are easy to clean, durable, eco-coated, cotton aprons made with an acrylic (not plastic or PVC) coating that makes them permanently water and soil resistant). Then they got started on their newColor n’ Kids Cards and colored pencils and water color pencils .

I am always amazed at how much they love these cards- but it does combine art and getting mail, two of their very most favorite things. They did up a few Christmas cards for grandparents (I think we’ll need to order some of the thank you variety for AFTER Christmas to keep them polite as well as festive).

Jonas was stoked to receive this Charlie Harper coloring book , and spent hours coloring in the linear drawings. He was also thrilled to get a whole package of holiday smencils to take to school with him. He adores these, and they are a huge hit at his school.

Maggie was all over these new star shaped crayons.

Last year the crayon rocks were her favorite. We still have several and they still get pulled out and played with. They are the perfect stocking stuffer, as my kids let me know last year. The cool thing is that this year you can get them in both primary and pastel.

Gabe’s favorite goody was the wooden top included in our order. He is fascinated by the spinning. I am biding my time until he is big enough for these Big Pencils For Small Hands. At this point, he would still just eat them, but next Christmas they will be the perfect starter tool for learning artistic dexterity.

Stubby Pencil Studio always has great specials, which you can see here. Don’t forget to put the ones you qualify for into your cart before you check out!

We love this company, and I hope you will too.

Now, if you want to win the amazing prize package they have put together for a lucky Life as Lou reader, just drop me a comment here and tell me what you think the kid in your life would be most drawn to from the Subby Pencil Studio! If you would like two extra entries, blog about Stubby Pencil Studio and show me the link in the comments. For one extra entry a piece, facebook, or twitter about this give-a-way with a link. Make sure to leave one comment per entry earned, as I will chose using a random number generator. The winner will be drawn on December 10th to leave time for holiday shipping. It is open to residents of the whole wide world so good luck to everyone!

PS: How cool is this banner? I ordered one for the boy’s room and can’t wait to see it up!

P.P.S: Online shopping is so much less stressful than fighting those crowds. LOVE IT!

I do so enjoy reading. I was asked to review the newest book by Susan Wiggs, Lakeshore Christmas. Here is what the publishers had to say:

Maureen Davenport lives for Christmas—and there’s nothing more magical than Christmas on Willow Lake.

The prim librarian is finally getting her chance to direct Avalon’s annual holiday pageant, and she’s determined to make it truly spectacular. But it might just require one of those Christmas miracles she’s always read about.

Because her codirector is recovering former child star Eddie Haven, a long-haired, tattooed lump of coal in Maureen’s pageant stocking. Eddie can’t stand Christmas, but a court order from a judge has landed him right in the middle of the merrymaking.

Maureen and Eddie spar over every detail of the pageant, from casting troubled kids to Eddie’s original—and distinctly untraditional—music. Is he trying to sabotage the performance to spite her? Or is she trying too hard to fit the show into her storybook-perfect notion of Christmas?

And how is it possible that they’re falling in love?

I love how reading can take you to a different place and time and let you be in someone else’s shoes for a few hours. I love the thrill of vicarious living! Lakeshore Christmas came at such a great time because I just needed a few hours to chill, and this book is perfect for that. It has a little mystery, a little nostalgia, a likable heroine, and a story that is the perfect little escape from the craziness of life at this time of year. It put me in the holiday spirit, and was the kind of story I could read after a long long and feel the stress melt away. The characters were believable and the book is a well written holiday fantasy, perfect for curling up by the fire to just relax!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by MotherTalk on behalf of Lakeshore Christmas and received a copy of the book to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Also, if you are wondering if I say nice things about every book that I read, I don’t. I have actually sent a few books back when I’ve found them trite or filled with gratuitous violence or sex. There was one time the book in question was just really poorly written. So, if you want me to review your book, I will only say nice things about it in public. . .if I like it.

Just wanted my readers to be clear on that!

My friend Shaina delivered a beautiful baby boy today! Kimble Paul Nunnelly arrived this afternoon, born to a happy family with a great Mom and Dad and 4 older siblings. He is lucky to have such a great family, because he will need all the love and support he can get.

Kimble was born with a congenital heart defect. This was detected while still in-utero, and the Nunnelly family has been working hard to prepare for this little guy. He is in the NICU right now, doing well, but he faces multiple major surgeries very soon. Shaina will be basically living at the hospital for the next few weeks to keep up with his care. If you wouldn’t mind adding Kimble and the Nunnelly family to your prayers, I know it would be appreciated, and would definitely help along the miracle that is needed here.

Now, if you can help in a more tangible way, Shaina has written a cookbook during this pregnancy to help fund the steep medical costs of surgery and NICU care. Shaina is a great cook, and I’ve sampled quite a bit of her cooking as well as been on the receiving end of meals when my daughter arrived. You won’t go wrong with these recipes, and you will be helping a good family with your purchase! So treat yourself to a whole lot of yummy, and please buy a copy of, “Just Because I Like To Cook“.

PS: Also makes a good Christmas gift.
PPS: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!

Gabe loves our new Frigidaire Affinity Washer and Dryer.

And I admit, that occasionally, when I want to get something done. . .I take advantage of that love.

And he gets to watch the dryer dry.

Or the washer spin.

And I get a significant amount of free time.

So, the More Me Time campaign they are running? It doesn’t mention this as an added benefit. It tells you about the great cycle settings and the even wash/dry time and the efficiency. But today- THIS is my favorite benefit.

Drum roll Please!

Congrats to Becky Williams, the lovely Number Six!

You’ve won yourself a Ribbon Box or ScrapMaBob - and a chance for the big prize- a full sized Work Box!

Good luck!

And get Ready to see the final winner over at Rachelle’s Writing Spot on October 12th!