This was the first time I visited Organic Valley’s Website! Shame on me, right!?
We are all trying to keep our families happy and healthy, well Organic Valley will help. They have a fantastic website and even two apps for Apple devices (Organic Valley and Organic Moo Can), they are FREE and you can download them from Organic Valley’s Site! **Sorry, they don’t have it for Android at this time**
On this site you can Find your Farmer, Organic Valley Products, Recipes, Reason to Choose Organic Products, and more. Organic Valley’s website is full of wonderful information.
Head to the Tab “Community” – on the right you can a subscribe section. Enter your email and zip code. It will then take you to where you can sign up for newsletters and the “Farm Friends Welcome kit” – “The Kit contains Rootstock Magazine, a Kid’s Activity Booklet, a Go Organic! bumper sticker, and a booklet of useful Organic Valley coupons.” Sound good to me!
Head to Organic Valley and start your next organic journey!
After our Blogger Olympics, we ate dinner at Surf Burger. It was so funny because being the social media mavens that we are all of us could be seen with our phones tweeting, posting to Facebook and Four Square what we were doing! I had their Surf Chick, which came with their stick fries and a grilled chicken sandwich. It was very good. The service was friendly and very hospitable too.
Brandcation would not have been possible without all the awesome sponsors our hosts worked with in providing so many of our activities. So I hope you will join me in giving them some social media love.
Event Sponsors:
Adventures Unlimited: Post coming up this afternoon, but we spent all day Saturday here on a beautiful piece of property! In the air and in the water…
Portofino Island Resort: Which I already posted about here.
Dunkin Donuts: Sadly, I don’t think I ate a single Dunkin Donuts bagel, but I hear they were delish!
Jambu: They sponsored our Blog Olympics which I posted here.
Hotel Coupons: A great place to save money and start planning your next trip!
Circle PR: Thanks to these ladies we got to see dolphins in real time.
Dole: Fruit breakfasts thanks to Dole.
Star Gazing: This was amazing and would have been the coolest homeschool field night! Dewey even had an accessory that allowed us to connect our iPhones to the telescope to take photos and videos of the moon!
Brandy Goleman Photography
Swag Sponsors:
After dinner at Surf Burger, we all gathered in one condo in our pjs for a Swag Party. Jambu Footwear had provided bags and our event hosts had filled them up with goodies from all the sponsors listed below. There were some oooos and ahhhhhs as well as a few squeeeeees as things were handed out! (Right, Jenn? ) I haven’t even tried everything yet.
Brandy Goleman Photography
Sorry for the red eye, tried editing and I blackened whole heads!
Mogo Charm Tervis Water Bottle – This kept my water for hydration on the river while tubing Capsul Cases The Village Company Hasbro Kidz Bop – My little ones are loving rockin’ to this. Carex – Definitely a handy little kit to have in the medicine cabinet. Lush Gourmet Foods – They’ve got yummy sugar coated nuts! Nivea - My daughter and I haggled over the lip glosses. Lady Fortunes Pami Pocket - I ditched the little compact wallet I took to Florida for this, as it was perfect to hold my cell, cash and identity during all of the fun activities over the weekend.
Photos are mine taken with my iPhone, except the full view of the Jambu bags and the first photo of the swag party those are Brandy’s, since I left our Nikon home…good thing too because I didn’t have much time to take photos!
Thank you to all of the above sponsors for taking an interest in 32 bloggers who went coastal in Pensacola, Florida! We appreciate all you gave to make this event possible!
I was one of the last ones to arrive at Brandcation on Friday afternoon. There were about four of us who were latecomers. After we arrived it was basically time to start Blogger Olympics. We were all put on teams in advance according to condos. 4 condos = 4 teams. I was on Lynsey’s team, Beachin’ Bloggers in blue, along with my other condo mates. Then the other three teams were: Trisha’s team was SEO’s in white, Kim’s team Ladybugs in red (they had adorable red wings even!) and Nicole/Blondie’s team Snark Attack in pink. Our four team leaders are also the fabulous women behind this event.
We did everything from a digital scavenger hunt to building White House sand castles, water relay, a hula hoop competition (my teammate Denise won that one! Yay! She rocked!) to the Hawaiian relay (had to dress in a grass skirt, necklace and coconut bra thingy!)
Jenn, my teammate, getting read for Hawaii!
We laughed, cheered and I even chased Alison to try and get a photo of her fruity drink for the digital scavenger hunt. Just plain old fun!
In the end, the SEO’s won. Runner ups in order: Snark Attack, Ladybugs and Beachin’ Bloggers. We were last, but hey that didn’t affect our level of fun!
A sheep trophy was awarded to the winning team, the rest of us received a Brandcation medal for our prize.
You are going to be hearing a lot about Brandcation. We had amazing sponsors and all of us really want to show our appreciation to each and everyone of them. Jambu Footwear was the main sponsor of the Blogger Olympics. Check out their snazzy footwear and please consider following them on Twitter and Facebook too.
Nudge your kids with a Nudge Tee that is! So, what has your child accomplished on their own? Brushing their teeth? Making their Bed? Feeding an animal? Reading or writing? Celebrate with them! For $20.00 you can praise their efforts, and by wearing one of these tees they can let everyone else know of their good doings!
Guess what! They have them in adult sizes also! If your husband’s like mine and doesn’t like washing dishes. Get him a shirt that says “I wash dishes”! lol……! I Love You, Honey!
My Review:
Here’s the shirt my daughter received from Nudge Tees.
Granted we are still working on this, but she’s getting better. I would have shown my daughter in her new shirt Nudge Tee shirts as my daughter achieves more accomplishments. I love these shirts and what they do to boost my child ego.
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Growing up I remember using the bottle with a little girl loosing her bottoms to the puppy. Well, here I am years later still using Coppertone for myself and family.
I received a brochure called “Sunderstanding”. It has great information, I’d like to share.
I’ll be updating you periodically on how we are doing with our Coppertone Sunscreen. We’ve really only had one day so far here in NJ where temps were above 70, and I didn’t have my Coppertone Sunscreen then. It’s been rainy and soggy here, so I’ll keep you posted! But, for now you can head to Coppertone’s webpage and print out a coupon or download their MyUV Alert app through Itunes.
I’m very excited about being selected to be Coppertone Water MOM!
Thank you Coppertone and MomSelect!
“As a member of the Coppertone Water MOMS group, I receive product samples and promotional items to share and use as I see fit. No monetary compensation has taken place and any opinions expressed by me are honest and reflect my actual experience”
I had a lovely weekend away at Brandcation in Florida. We stayed at Portofino Island Resort and it was beautiful! The white sand beaches, the clear water and gorgeous views of the “Sound” (kind of like a bay but not, and it’s what is shown in the photos of this post) and the Gulf of Mexico. I had never been to this part of Florida before and would love to go back again….with my family so they can experience all that I did! As it was I was texting my husband, sending photos and videos so they all could see what I was seeing.
The resort not only had beach access, but a outdoor water park right in the water at the beach area and each one of the five towers had their own pools. There was also a spa and cafe/restaurant on site as well.
Portofino Island Resort was spectacular. It was clean, snazzy and the service was excellent. Truly topnotch accommodations. For 32 bloggers we had four rooms with eight women in each. Each room had three bedrooms and each bedroom had its own bathroom, I think, at least ours did! We also had a walk-in closet and the master bedroom had an even larger bathroom and walk-in closet! Then there was the living room/dining room, a kitchen and laundry room. Very spacious.
Even though we did not have time to use all of the amenities offered, it is definitely a place I would visit again.
All photos are mine, unless otherwise stated. I was too lazy to watermark them! And in the words of my daughter, please do not steal them! If those that steal photos even read blog posts!
Mother’s Day is coming! What a better way to celebrate than to receive a new shirt celebrating motherhood! Head over to PeaceLoveMom and get one today!
They have a variety of shirts and other products, including short and long sleeve shirts, tank tops, even Maternity! In addition, PeaceLoveMom also has accessories and kids and baby items! Can’t find the perfect gift? They also have gift certificates!
I received this burnout short sleeve shirt. Turquoise is shown here.
My Review:
I received a burnout shirt in a mossy color. For those who are not sure what a burnout shirt is. Here’s a picture.
It’s got a worn out, weathered, vintage look to it. You really can’t tell unless you hold the shirt up. If/when you wear a shirt like this you may want to wear a tank underneath to better cover your undergarments. The weathered look makes the shirt very soft and it’s long enough to keep everything covered.
The shirt says “Peace Love Grateful Mom”, which suites me just fine. As I am VERY grateful to be a Mom!
There are wonderful presents for expecting moms or any moms! Don’t forget Mother’s Day is May 13th! Head over to PeaceLoveMom to order today! Happy Mother’s Day!
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
We have not taken a family vacation in a number of years. We’ve enjoyed staycations right here at home. However, I am really hoping to surprise my husband with a real vacation this year or next. The last time we took a vacation it was on the fly. Seriously. My mom and her best friend were here visiting. My mom is a huge country music fan and has always wanted to visit Nashville. Mom and her friend were here during my husband’s unemployment so while I was all gung-ho to take my mom to Nashville, my husband was not too sure we could swing it. I think I finally convinced him by telling him that we had our hotel points to use and we would eat if we were at home anyways, so it was just our gas money that would be an expense.
At that time I was house cleaning to earn extra income on top of getting my VA business off the ground and that Friday morning I had to clean a house. When I returned from cleaning my husband decided we were going to Nashville for the weekend! Oy! I was excited, but a bit unprepared to say the least. My husband, children, mom and “Aunt” had done most of the packing but there was food and other items to buy.
This is not the way I usually plan our family vacations. I have been known to make lists, print them off and hand them to children to gather things on the list so my husband or I could pack the items in bags or in the van.
Here are 5 tips for family vacation traveling or planning tips, if you will:
1. Make lists of what you will need in the areas of clothing, personal care products and food. That way you won’t forget anything, unless you forget to put it on the list!
2. Take a crock pot and food items that can be warmed in it so you can save money on eating out. We also take fruit, veggie sticks and other snack items as well because you can never know how expensive food will be at your destination.
3. Choose a lodging that offers you at least a refrigerator so you can store food.
4. Plan your activities for your family vacation before you leave so you can budget time and finances accordingly.
5. Plan on using more convenience items, after all it is your vacation too. One example of this would be in the area of food like a family sized can of chili or baked beans. Another would be the DiaperBud. It is a disposable diaper in a vacuum sealed package that is compact, easy to store in your purse, diaper bag, pocket or glove compartment. It’s really hard to stuff a normal diaper in the pocket of a jacket, even some purses won’t accommodate a diaper nicely. Also, the larger packs of DiaperBuds could save room while traveling. DiaperBuds are available at buybuyBaby, BabiesRUs.com, diapers.com and Amazon.com
Family vacations are a lot of work, but with proper planning it can definitely be enjoyable for all, including mom and dad!
“I received a DiaperBud to review as a part of my participation in a MomPact.com campaign. DiaperBuds have been invented by moms, for moms.”
It is important to do some marketing for your business. For the longest time I only marketed my business when I needed to, silly eh? But I have learned that I get far better results if I am continually marketing my business(es). After all a business does not always grow itself, it needs to be watered – garden analogy since it is gardening season.
If you are a mom in business, then you probably use business cards in your marketing plan. I have used a number of different companies to purchase business cards and have even received them free on rare occasions. This is one occasion I get to be the source of helping moms market their businesses by offering a giveaway of 250 Free UPrinting business cards! You’ll also get a chance to share your business (or blog) as one of the Rafflecopter options!
UPrinting offers some cool looking business cards. I have used a try fold, but like the look some of the ones UPrinting has to offer and will be ordering some for our farm or blog.
Prize Information:
250 Die-cut Business Cards for one winner
2×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5 Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half-Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, or 2.5″ Circle
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated
6 Business days print turnaround time
Free US shipping only
Restrictions:
1. This giveaway is open to US residents only, 18 years old and above.
2. No prize substitutions allowed.
3. Winners are allowed to win once over a six-month period.
4. Only email addresses used for the giveaway will be eligible to claim the prize.
) I haven’t even tried everything yet.
