Category: Promotions

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In Love with Monave

Another heartfelt holiday season is upon us and while most think that Valentine’s is just a Hallmark holiday, the rest of us like to take the day to truly celebrate love. So our friends at Monave have a very special giveaway to offer:

Think of a special woman in your life: mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter. Do you think you could guess which Monave products she would enjoy? Would you like to surprise her with a lovely gift-wrapped set of whatever Monave products you think she’d enjoy, for Valentine’s Day? If you are game, and want to take the plunge, please email Monave via information@monave.com , and describe a meaningful experience that you’ve had with this special someone. There’s no limit to how much you say. They will pick three winners, based on content, and the winner will choose up to $50.00 worth of Monave products that they think their special someone would love!

Your last day to enter is February 9th so be sure to get our submissions in just in time for Valentine’s Day!

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Reward Your School Box Tops for Education & Giveaway

Confession: I am one of THOSE moms. I save all the tabs off of pop cans to send with my son to school. I send in everything the PTO requests for fundraisers (otherwise they might fire me from my Board position) and of course I am a HUGE proponent for effortlessly snipping each and every box top from each and every participating product that prints box tops on the packaging.

Did you know that you can help your local school by sending in those box tops? While the cash amount may seem so menial the numbers slowly begin to add up and build and multiply exponentially. Just since the beginning of the school year my son’s school has been able to generate $500 in box tops for education. $500!! The number is truly huge considering that those funds, went right back into the school for the kids to help pay for field trips and extracurricular’s for the kids. The number makes me beam as a parent to know I am helping to make a difference in my child’s life and education by participating. Plus, what kind of PTO board member would I be if I wasn’t participating.

So when I received notice from MyBlogSpark that they, Kroger brand stores (which I only shop there….because I love my local Fry’s Food…they have AWESOME options) and Box Tops had a campaign to share about Reward Your School I had to share! I first went and shared all the information with the PTO to make sure the parents got the info as well and now, I want to share with you my faithful readers the way you and your child’s school can automatically receive FIVE free box tops just for registering, plus additional offers for MORE box tops on participating purchases. Just visit www.RewardYourSchool.com register and select your personalized offers for additional box tops. Those box tops will automatically go to your school so no worries about clipping additional packages either.

In addition to this great campaign to promote monies for schools I get to share with you a great giveaway on behalf of MyBlogSpark and General Mills for a $25 gift card to Kroger brand stores! Here’s how you can enter to win:  What do you do to help raise monies for your child’s school? Or tell me if you are a closet clipper too for box tops and pop can tabs? (answer this first to be entered)

Extra Entries:

  • Follow my blog
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Tweet this giveaway daily: Win $25 GC to Kroger Brand stores and Reward Your School giveaway from @KariewithaK http://bit.ly/aJfIWw
  • Subscribe to my feed
  • Fan The Fish
  • Email a friend this giveaway (2 entries)
  • Blog this giveaway (Worth 5 entries)
  • Leave me a substantial (not a load of horse minutiae) on a NON giveaway and NON review post (Worth 3 entries for each comment on a different post)
CONTEST ENDS FEBRUARY 12TH @ 11:59PM
Best of Luck!
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The Perfect Nursery from QTips

Each of my pregnancies is so rich in my mind. I can remember each one of them so vividly and how I planned out the layout of the nursery, the bedding, the window coverings, pictures, how I would arrange the diapers, my planning was impeccable. However, when the time came with my first I was frozen as to how to put the basics together with diapers, wipes, the essential baby needs.

By the time the twins came around I knew I was prepared. Celebrity nursery designer Wendy Bellissimo suggests that neutral colors be chosen if you are going to be “surprised” by the sex of your baby, store essentials like Vaseline, diaper cream, rubbing alcohol and Q Tips and hold off on the paint. She confirmed everything I had setup and planned in my double nursery with the twins. I knew I could not be over prepared with this double whammy of a blessing.

The new Q Tips packaging is stylish and sleek for any nursery with the slide out box, neutral colors, and fun themes. The new boxes also allow for safe storage of your Q Tips to protect the integrity as well as protect your baby. Q Tips are great for applying ointments in a delicate manner, cleaning baby’s delicate areas (umbilical cord), and for small cleaning of your baby such as outer ear, behind the folds of your baby’s ear, and other delicate areas. **When cleaning a baby’s ear you should never enter the ear canal as to avoid damage to the ear.

In addition to preparing the nursery with essentials why not add style and functionality. Yes…items can be both functional and stylish! Not to mention some fun accesories for your child to enjoy as he or she grows into their space. Fun accesories like pictures, keepsakes, and of course the all famed piggy bank!

The folks at Mom Select sent me a two pack of Q Tips and a stylish elephant piggy bank to enjoy and to share with you my readers! Yes, you can add Q Tips and the adorable piggy bank to your nursery or someone you know who will be creating their nursery. I know my nursery is now toddler territory and I am also the donations coordinator for my twin mom organization so I am donating my Q Tips and bank for one of the new expecting moms in the club to enjoy!

How can you win this gift pack of Q Tips and the stylish elephant bank? Tell me the various uses you have for Q Tips in your home, car, for your children or tell me who can put these items to good use!

Extra Entries:

  • Follow my blog and tell me you do
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Tweet this giveaway and attend the party on Twitter: Get nursery ready with this giveaway #QTipsBaby and @Kariewithak http://bit.ly/c3ZAgd
  • Where? Twitter February 4th @ 8pm EST
  • Who? @ResourcefulMom @MomTalkRadio @MomSelectAmy
  • What? #QtipsBaby
  • Subscribe to my feed
  • Fan The Fish on Facebook
  • Email a friend (worth 2 entries)
  • Blog this giveaway (worth 5 entries)
  • Grab my button (worth 2 entries) and tell me where you have it posted.
CONTEST ENDS FEBRUARY 6TH @ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME
Best of luck!
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Fleet Fiber Gummies

While we are still in January I wanted to bring this product to your attention and promote awareness that January is National Fiber Focus Month. Fiber. So many cringe at the sound of the word. When you think of fiber you tend to think elderly, those nasty food additives, or worse, the flavor lacking food that resembles the taste of cardboard.

But did you know that fiber is essential for a healthy diet, weight loss, blood sugar maintenance, and digestive health? However, our children don’t have to worry about this right? Wrong. Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics increased the recommended daily fiber intake standards. Especially because our lives have been so consumed with time or lack thereof and over scheduling our kids are not always receiving adequate intake in their meals, so many parents head for the drive through window because of time and convenience.

twins, salad, Karie Herring, Thefivefish.com

Foods that are naturally rich in fiber, apples, breads, rice, salad, green vegetables, just about everything that is a plant of sorts is rich in fiber for your diet. So what if your kids are like everyone else’s kids and they will not eat the green leafy goodness that helps us feel full, promotes digestive health, and tastes great? Why not a supplement?

(If you are curious those are my kids. Eating chicken salads. Yes, chicken chunks in a green salad. I am lucky with their eating habits.)

Pedia-Lax Fiber Gummies from Fleet are a great way to help your kids stay regular and get their daily dose of fiber in their diet. The gummies are a cute penguin shape and best of all they are sugar free, calorie free, AND gluten free. Recommended for children ages 2-11 to maintain better digestive health, three gummies a day are equivalent to a half cup of broccoli.

Now if you are not sold or sure on the supplement visit the Fiber Gummies site to get some great ideas on how to incorporate foods (such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains) into your child’s diet and even get a $1.00 off coupon to buy a bottle of fiber gummies. Or if you don’t want to buy them, try to win a bottle here on this blog.

Tell me what you do to get your kids to eat veggies? Do you hide it in their foods? What creative way do you try to get your kids to eat veggies? Leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra Entries:

  • Follow my blog and tell me you do
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Tweet this giveaway with daily Tweet entries available: Enter to win Fiber Gummie Supplement with @KariewithaK https://thefivefish.com Ends 2/4
  • Subscribe to my feed and tell me you do
  • Fan The Fish on Facebook
  • Fan Fiber Gummies on Facebook and get all the updates, sweet deals, and meal ideas!
  • Buy a package of Fiber Gummies (email me a copy of your receipt dated after the date of this post for credit) Worth 10 Entries!
  • Blog this giveaway (worth 5 entries)
CONTEST ENDS FEBRUARY 4TH 2010@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME
Best of luck!
*The Five Fish received a package of Fiber Gummies to review. In no way does this review intend to diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and in no way represent any medical expertise.
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Pure Energy, Pure Fun PlasmaCar, Win IT

Are your kids the imaginary play and or full of energy type of play kids? Mine are in every sense, if you give them toys that require their own minds and energy they are off and running, literally. I was seeking more toys for my kids to enjoy outside for play time since they are growing up so fast. I found the PlasmaCar.

The PlasmaCar is one fun ride! The “car” requires no battery power, plugs, just the inertia and energy or your own body and movement to really get cooking. But before the ride, some assembly is required.

But as you can see…the assembly is ever so simple. The wheels, the steering wheel, the steering wheel cap and a hex key to tighten down the nut and bolt on the steering wheel. I would suggest a rubber mallet as the instructions indicate for seating the front wheels and the steering wheel into place.

Once you have taken the short amount of time required to assemble your kids will be off and riding! To “power” the PlasmaCar all your kids have to do is grab the steering wheel at the most narrow location, while seated of course, and turn the wheel from side to side in a swift motion. Just think of how you see people on TV pretending to drive a car, same concept. This action coupled with inertia, centrifugal force, and gravity can really get this toy on the go! Just look at all the fun the kids were having:

Even more important than the fun is how SAFE the toy is to use by the kids (and adults, safe up to 220lbs of ride on fun). The PlasmaCar was recognized for the following safety standards: European Safety Toy Standard and American Society for Testing and Materials. A truly tough and rugged construction that allows for riders to take on even rough surface rides.  If you think the PlasmaCar is awesome you should check out the entire toy line from PlaSmart Toys! The toys are interactive fun based on your child, no batteries required, just brain power.
PlasmaCar Pure Energy Pure Fun from Karie Herring on Vimeo.
You can keep up on all the latest reviews and product offerings with Pla Smart Toys by subscribing to their blog and even see your own review featured as well as other bloggers and promotional publications. Or if you are a completely networked individual, fan on Facebook or follow on Twitter to keep up with all your latest updates and news about Pla Smart Toys!
An even better reason to fan and follow Pla Smart Toys is you can win your very own PlasmaCar for your kids to motor around, or you can motor around yourself! To enter to win, visit the Pla Smart Toys website and come back and tell me what other toy you would like to try (USA or CAN toys) and why! (Please do this first before any other entries will be counted, be sure to leave your email addy as well to assist in claiming your winnings.)
Extra Entries:
  • Fan and or follow Pla Smart on Facebook and Twitter (Worth 2 entries for doing both!)
  • Follow my blog or tell me you already do
  • Follow me on Twitter, or tell me you already do
  • Tweet this giveaway, available daily tweet entries: A giveaway of pure fun with @KariewithaK and @PlaSmart Ends 2/2  http://bit.ly/7M1c9i
  • Subscribe to my feed
  • Blog this giveaway (worth 4 entries)
  • Fan The Fish
  • Email a friend about this giveaway (2 entries)
CONTEST ENDS FEBRUARY 2ND
@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME

Best of luck!
*The Five Fish received a PlasmaCar in exchange for this review. Product receipt did not in any way influence personal opinion of product received and tested.
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Morsel Monday and NutraSalt Giveaway

If you haven’t already please partake in the Extraordinary Mothers Morsel Monday link up! Participating is a lot of fun and a great way to find new dining delights for the family and hey, linky love!

nutrasalt, potassium, sea saltThis week I am “spicing” up the post with a review and giveaway of a product I received to try from the fabulous folks at NutraSalt. You are probably wondering what NutraSalt is and how nutra and salt can be combined together and not be an oxymoron. The NutraSalt product is a balanced product of sodium and potassium, 66% less sodium, to be exact, compared to common table salt. The proprietary product in NutraSalt’s recipe is the harvesting of Red Sea and Dead Sea salts from the Mediterranean.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the extra pinch of salt here and there can add up resulting in excessive sodium intake based on levels of sodium in processed foods, natural sources, and the extra shake during food preparation and at meal time.

Excessive sodium intake lead to conditions such as high blood pressure, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease which results in hundreds of thousands of deaths a year if not lifetime treatments such as dialysis for kidney disease. NutraSalt helps to replace the use of common salt in a healthier alternative to traditional table salt, allowing for the flavor but not the health risks often associated with excess salt intake.

NutraSalt comes in a variety salts and seasonings to “spice” up any recipe:

  • Low Sodium Sea Salt
  • Seasoned Salt
  • Texas BBQ
  • Savory Garlic
  • Zesty Italian
  • Lemon Dill
  • Lemon Herbs
  • Robusto Adobo
  • Spicy Cajun
  • Bold Chipotle
  • African Medley
  • Asian Fusion
  • Classic Curry

I received to try in my home the Low Sodium Sea Salt, Savory Garlic Lemon Dill, Bold Chipotle, Asian Fusion and the African Medley. I used every single one on some of my favorite meals. The Asian Fusion is absolutely divine on chicken and pork, I used them both on the grill and they added just that extra kick of spice to the flavor. Savory Garlic, I used that on my spaghetti dish when making garlic bread. Finally, my favorite is the African Medley which I used to make my Turkey Chili. The African Medley has flavors of cinnamon, peppers, ginger, and again the right balance of sodium and potassium. I know you are thinking “cinnamon? In my Chili?” YES!

How can you enjoy a 4-pack of your choice of NutraSalt and make this a staple in your home?  Go to the NutraSalt site and tell me ONE fact in a comment (that I did not mention above. As a recap I mentioned it is derived from Sea Salt, is 66% lower in sodium, is rich in potassium).

Extra Entries:

  • Follow my blog or tell me you do
  • Follow me on Twitter or tell me you do
  • Tweet another fact about NutraSalt making sure to use @KariewithaK, the link to this giveaway, so I see your tweets. Daily RT’s are available!
  • Subscribe to The Fish in a Reader or via email (at the top)
  • Blog this Giveaway! (worth 10 entries if you mention a fact, link to NutraSalt and this giveaway!)
  • Email this giveaway to a friend (worth 3 entries)
  • Fan The Fish on Facebook
CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 30TH
@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME
Best of luck!
Turkey Chili:
1.5lbs ground Turkey

1 can Pinto Beans

1 can Black Beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 can of corn
1/4 cup onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 T. finely chopped Italian Parsley
2 T. finely chopped Cilantro
2 T. Olive Oil
1/4 c. Nutra Salt African Medley, divided (can be substituted with  2 tsp. cinnamon, 2 tsp. cumin, 2 tsp. ground corriander, 1 T. chili powder, 1 tsp red peppers, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp onion powder)
I used my Cuisinart Multi-Cooker but a stove top cook pot works well too. Pour Olive oil into pan heating over medium heat, sautee onions and garlic until almost translucent add in ground turkey, parsley, cilantro, and 1/8 c. of NutraSalt African Medley (or the above substitutes halved). Cook until meat is browned and spices are mixed well. Add the can of tomatoes, beans, corn and remaining spices. Bring to a boil (add water if needed, but the canned juices should provide enough), stirring well, reduce to a simmer for at least an hour to let all the flavors mix. Serve with cornbread.
VOILA!
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Business Cards Giveaway

Welcome to the new year and with the new year brings new opportunities right? In the new year are also new events, conferences, meetings, and with those events you want to be prepared right? I know everywhere I go I bring my business cards, I leave them for my server with my tip and by tipping a bit extra they also remember me, when I introduce myself to friends of friends I also give them a business card, I even use my business card in business meetings and for referrals.

Why?

You need something to identify who you are, your business, how to contact you. UPrinting is offering business cards to win that do just that! You can customize your cards with different sizes from standard 2 x 3.5″ rectangle, 2 x 3″. 2 x 2″ square or the sleek 1.5 x 3.5″ skiny card. Each card is printing on your choice of cardstock from 14pt gloss, matte, or 13 pt recycled uncoated for those of you with an eco conscious message.

With all of the blog conferences coming up from EVO, Mom 2.0 Summit, Blissdom, BlogHer now is the time to enter to win your business cards from UPrinting so that you are ready to network and connect to your fullest. Telling people all about your blog, your business, who you are! Here’s how you can win 250 business cards (you pay shipping):

Mandatory Entry: Tell me if you plan on attending any blog conferences, where, and what might you put on your card to really show of your blog?

Extra Entries:

  • Follow my blog (tell me you do)
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Follow UPrinting on Twitter
  • Tweet this giveaway with daily RT entries available: Win 250 business cards in time for all the big blog conferences with @KariewithaK and @Uprinting https://thefivefish.com/
  • Subscribe to my blog via email or a reader (tell me you do/did)
  • Leave a substantial comment on a NON review and giveaway post (Worth 2 extra entries)
  • Email a Friend (Worth 2 entries) and if you friend enters the giveaway (5 extra entries)
  • Blog this giveaway with a link back
  • Stumble my blog
CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 16TH 2010
@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME.
Winners will be drawn that Sunday the 17th.
Best of luck!
*The Five Fish will be provided with 250 free business cards in conjunction with this post.
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Monave: Beautiful New Year Giveaway

Welcome to a New Year and a new you right? Exactly!
I say new you because so often with a new year many men and women resolve to make the year a mulligan of sorts, start over, start fresh. Well I like to say that a new year and a new you means that you are reinventing yourself. So if you are reinventing yourself why not do so with a new look?
The wonderful team at Monave was so gracious to let me review the New York gift set, which includes the powder blush, foundation, eye shadows and corresponding brushes. I also reviewed the lip glosses if you recall correctly. I found Monave on my quest to find a better, healthier cosmetic line for my already “going green” reinvention of myself last year. As most of you know, I am a skeptic. I am always wanting to see the proof in the pudding with products; marketing is always great and sounds great, but I am a results driven individual. I want to see how the product really works for myself first hand to share with you, how well (or not so well) the product stands up past marketing.
If you read my gloss post you know how wonderfully rich and luscious the products are for women. Well the mineral line is just as fabulous. Honest! What I have found in using mineral products is that they tend to be cakey looking, albeit they make you look older, MUCH older, because the mineral powders settle into your fine lines and wrinkles. Especially if you use too much powder and your face is not properly hydrated and or moisturized. Not to mention that the coverage is not all that fantastic with some mineral powders; again the problem of too much or too little and a non-even look.
What I have thoroughly enjoyed about Monave mineral cosmetics is the amount of coverage with such little powder. This product is truly the swirl and tap that other powders claim to be. I have used everything too from Bare Minerals, Sheer Cover, Pure Minerals, Arbonne, you name it, I bought it and used it and was never satisfied. With Monave, my skin and make-up looks natural, bold, daring, or subtle if I want it to just based on application. But the bottom line is that the mineral foundation does not sink into my fine smile lines (yes I do have some even though I am in my 30s…the downfall of being a former smoker) around my eyes the powder does not look cakey and best of all, the tone is totally natural, totally true to the color of my skin.
Have you noticed that makeups have a pink hue? Um, the only person I know with pink skin is generally plastic and is branded with a toy name of sorts. Our skin has a yellow base, we all do, not pink, and the Monave line has wonderful products that are true to the tone of a woman’s skin no matter how fair or how dark.
Do you want to win this beautiful mini set? Oh you do? Well I am happy to say that THREE, yes you got it!
3 LUCKY ladies (well men too if I don’t want to be discriminatory here) can win this wonderful set of cosmetics from Monave!
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Pizza for You and Pizza for Me: zpizza

Who in the world does not enjoy a good slice of pie? I for one thoroughly enjoy a good piece (or two) of a pizza pie from a great pizza joint. Especially this year! Why this year?

I have hosted THREE, yes, I said THREE major holidays this year of which two are the biggest, Thanksgiving and Christmas. For each one, I fail to cook the night before because let’s face the facts; who wants to cook a dinner when the next day you spend the ENTIRE day cooking dinner for an army. Plus the baking, the cleaning, the humanity!

Pizza is a big fave in The Fish home and we also enjoy a good bout of organic goodies, I try to shop and buy as much as I possibly can because of all the benefits of going organic which you can read about here. Imagine my surprise when I heard of a pizza joint that has certified organic ingredients I was in heaven!

Seriously though even The Chad thought oxymoron, “Pizza” and “Organic” together? Not possible. Possible.

Well, until he tried zpizza with me and the kids.

Now zpizza is not just about pizza, but salads, sandwiches, and more. zpizza offers a healthy and lighter alternative to some of your favorite foods. The ingredients are some of the finest, exotic, and freshest. 100% certified organic tomato sauce and flour coupled with MSG-free pepperoni for a truly amazing dining experience.

The Fish family received certificates to enjoy a pizza (or other dining options) from zpizza in the last week and I tell you what, seriously some of the most filling, flavorful, tasty, mouth watering, no other pizza can whet your appetite like zpizza. No lie, hands down, some of the best pizza and not because we received certificates to try out the pizza on behalf of zpizza.

I have had a sampling of zpizza before but not like this night, it was HOT, fresh, and OH. SO. GOOD! We ordered locally here in Arizona at the Midtown Phoenix location of 53 W. Thomas Road. I love midtown, downtown Phoenix, lots of up and coming businesses, a very hip and modern area revived in the midtown, downtown area.

The hubs was raving, the kids were cheering, well they weren’t really because they were too busy scarfing down the pizza but you catch my drift. We ordered the American, a wonderful blend of fresh veggies, meat, comparable to a “Supreme” at other pizza places but this one is FULL flavor.

The crust was more of a light bread of sorts, not doughy, not too thick, not too crunchy, the true essence of a brick oven pizza if you have ever had brick oven pizza. The cheese was mild, not salty like traditional pizzas, the sauce was light and enough to add flavor to the pizza without taking over the pie and not dripping off the slices. The toppings. OH, the toppings were out of this world! Fresh! Cooked even, and still fresh. Large helpings of toppings that were full of taste, crispness, and color. If you recall “traditional” pizza the toppings are meek, pitiful, lack in color and taste and most often are soggy from the loads of grease. These toppings literally POPPED from our pie.

Big G wasn’t too hip on the toppings so The Chad and I gladly ate his veggie toppings, savoring, every. Last. Bite. Now “traditional” pizzas leave you full and dissatisfied with yourself, like a glutton, pure swine after you eat it, and even after we had our slices, we were pleasantly full. Not overstuffed like a turkey at holiday or the need to slip into sweat pants, but satisfied on more than several levels.

So does this pizza option sound tempting enough for you?
Is your mouth watering for this tasty delicacy so aptly misnamed as “pizza?”

GOOD! Here is how you can win a $20 certificate to zpizza and avoid cooking for one night!

Mandatory entry: Tell me where the nearest zpizza is to your home and which creation (pizza or otherwise) you would order in your home to chow on?

Extra entries:

  • Follow zpizza on Twitter and get all the “dish”
  • Follow my blog
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Tweet this giveaway (daily RT’s available): Enter this giveaway for $20 GC for @zpizza with @KariewithaK Ends Jan 5 http://tiny.cc/l1bE3
  • Blog this giveaway
  • Leave a substantial comment on a non-giveaway post (can’t just say Oh Hey saying HI, share the love for Pete’s sake) Worth 5 entries
  • Fan The Fish on Facebook
  • Enter one of my other giveaways and tell me you did (worth 1 entry per giveaway entry, this could be significant depending on the number of current giveaways)
CONTEST ENDS JANUARY  5th 2010
@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME
Best of Luck!!
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Going Green Into the New Year ecostore Giveaway

Finding a way to clean your home in an eco-friendly manner is tough considering the marketplace is FILLED with chemically laden and enhanced products. Ammonia based, alcohol based, harsh chemicals that linger and fumigate your home. I have two toddlers and my six year old and believe me, nothing I do not like more than to have harsh, dangerous chemicals in my home and around my children.

My cleaning is pretty unorthodox. I use cans of Coca-Cola to clean my toilet bowls (yes, just the way it eats at the porcelain at your teeth, it can acid wash your NASTY toilet too) so they are sparkling white, hot salt water and half lemons to clean my cutting boards, and cream of tartar to degrease. Need a bleaching? Lemon juice and the sun. What? You thought that combo was only for the nasty blond dye jobs? Think again.

I was asked by ecostore USA to review a few of the products in their line. I received Front Loader Laundry Powder and the Citrus Spray Cleaner to try in my home (in exchange for this review…*Hi FTC).

A bit of back information on ecostore USA:

Founded by Melanie and Malcolm Rands of New Zealand. The eco couple in their eco-village “shared a commitment to organic growing and healthy living, making this an ideal environment in which a young, environmentally conscious business could thrive. Each household in the village was responsible for their own waste water, which quickly highlighted the problems caused by using regular supermarket cleaning products that relied heavily on cheap, petroleum-based, synthetic ingredients” (ecostoreusa.com, 2009).

15 years later their idea to better the world with better and eco-friendly products now have them exporting into the United Kingdom, the USA, and Australia. How are the products better? How are they more eco-friendly? Well because the products are all plant based. Citrus, coconuts, palms, essential oils for fragrance, and minerals (like salt). The ingredients are not based on the creation in a “lab” but derived from nature

The Front Loader Laundry Powder:
I was highly skeptical of this product. The scooper was small, and when you have been accustomed to commercial laundry soap for many years the change is drastic. I was even leery of the scent, however, after my first few loads I was impressed. I was truly blown away, I know by soap? But seriously if you have a front loader you know the “funk” you can get from time to time. I actually lost an trace of “funk” in my Frigidaire front loader when using this product. I even enjoyed the clean scent where the clothes actually smelled clean and not perfumy clean.

The Citrus Spray Cleaner:
The cleaner was effective. I used it everywhere around my house; bathrooms, kitchen, dining table, high chairs, anywhere that was goopy, nasty, and needed a good thorough cleansing. However, I was not thrilled with the scent. The scent was rough, harsh, even though vegan, the scent did emit a harsh chemical smell and air to it and I had to be sure to use it in open areas with windows open. But the scent was truly citrus and possibly the scent could have been the mixture with old nasty chemicals in the rooms. All in all though the cleaner was effective.

Now here is how you can win some of these great green and eco-friendly products to use in and around your home. Choose up to $25 worth of products with a giftcard, here’s how:

Mandatory entry:

Check out the ecostore USA and tell me what two products you would like to have in your home (aside from the two mentioned above).

Extra entries:

  • Sign up for the ecostore USA newsletter (worth 5 entries)
  • Follow my blog
  • Fan The Fish
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Follow ecostoreusa on Twitter
  • Tweet this giveaway (Daily tweets available!!) : I’m going green with this giveaway from @KariewithaK and @ecostoreusa http://tiny.cc/nqOon
  • Blog this giveaway (worth 5 entries)
CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 1ST 2010
@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME

Best of luck!