If you love Barbie, you're going to love this post…

A new DVD-Blu Ray is coming out next month called BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER and I have three (3) copies of it to give away to my readers.

All you have to do to win one of these copies is leave a comment below. I will choose winners out of a hat from all commenters on Friday February 27th at 5 p.m. so get busy commenting!  I'm sure that even if you're not a Princess and/or Barbie fanatic (everyone should be), that you know someone who will love this. It will play on a dvd or dvd player or computer with dvd drive!

 Barbie^™ stars as Kara^™, a modern-day princess with an everyday life. One day, after being kissed by a magical butterfly, Kara^™ soon discovers she has super powers allowing her to transform into Super Sparkle^™, her secret, crime-fighting alter ego who flies around the kingdom ready to save the day! But it’s not long before her jealous cousin catches the butterfly and also transforms – this time into Dark Sparkle^™, her nemesis. Their rivalry takes to the skies, but when they discover the kingdom’s true enemy, can they put aside their differences to form one super team? Soar to new heights and discover that there’s no greater power than the power of friendship!


DISCLOSURE: I have been give three copies of this dvd to giveaway to my readers by a PR firm. I got no compensation for this post.  I can only mail to US addresses!

It's the beginning of the end???

During our  much needed walk along Hollywood Beach this morning, my husband and I stumbled upon the newly destroyed park and parking lot which was bulldozed to make Margaritaville. This is not going to be your usual Margaritaville restaurant. It is a Margaritaville resort where parrotheads from around the world can live the Jimmy Buffet lifestyle while on vacation.

There was a poster up showing what the 349-room resort was going to look like in 18-24 months when it is completed. 

Even though my husband and I are not "parrotheads", we stood at the rendition and wished it was open already for a check in. We could use a few days of  margaritas and island music. While I was daydreaming about the thought of lounging by the pool while my kids played on the hotels planned flowriders, two cranky locals came up to us and said "It's the beginning of the end".


You see, Hollywood Beach is one of the last commercial beach areas in South Florida that has not been upgraded. Many of the beachy places, most famously, South Beach, had developers move in and buy up properties and upgrade them.  This led to many small places being kicked out, mostly due to higher rents. It also led to world class hotels and restaurants being opened in our back door. Amazing shops and big festivals such at Art Basel came to Miami Beach.

The Beach in Hollywood is absolutely gorgeous. The little mom and pop souvenir stands and cafes look like cheap-y beach. Hey, I never complain about the delicious breakfast with the million dollar view that my husband and I often partake in for less than ten bucks at a tiny little cafe. However, the hotels and apartments along the beach look down-right dingy. If they were not on the beach, you would expect crack moms to be hanging out in them.  Bringing a beautiful resort to the area makes such sense. 

To the two old cranks who interrupted my daydream about being wasted away again in Margaritaville, please keep your negativity to yourselves. The place is going to create jobs and re-vitalize the place. Plus, cheeseburgers taste better in paradise! 

Swag Bag Part 2...

I've gone sticker crazy. I wanted to order glossy shaped-stickers with my logo but the cost to make them was more than one ticket for the cruise itself so I figured out how to make them myself! I'm not the craftiest girl so this is very exciting to me. I also don't want these swag bags to look like a craft project gone bad so I'm super excited.

First of all, I took the logo and printed it out on a sheet of paper. I tried to use my printer to print out on glossy paper but it smudged. I took the glossy paper to office depot and for 8 cents a sheet, they copied them for me. The pages don't smudge.

I then cut out the logo and ran them through my xyron 500 sticker maker.  I bought this one sale years ago and never used it. I bought it because I thought the kids could use it for school, but of course, it has sat unused.

The sticker maker puts a permanent adhesive backing on any sheet of paper. It is a fickle little machine but did the trick. I love the results and now want to put my logo stickers on everything! Uh oh.

Going through the baby photos...

     Generally when one throws a Bar Mitzvah party for her child, there is a slide show to prepare. At some parties, there is a slide show of the guest of honor at various ages with family and friends which plays in the background.  At other Bar Mitzvahs, the parents stop the party all together, turn down the lights and show a long chronological montage of the Bar mitzvah boy from birth to present day. 
     My preference is to have it playing as background art because who really wants to watch 15 minutes of photos from the life of a 13 year old other than the parents and grandparents of said child? This is what I did at my first son's party. This was an easy way to do it as I did not have to edit the photos to songs or cut out any photos. The slide show played during the party and honored my son without boring anyone to death. 
     For my youngest son's upcoming big event, we are going on a family cruise, so unless I can convince Royal Caribbean to play photos of my son on the close circuit televisions in every single one of the 2730 cabins on the ship, I'm not doing a slide show.  This is quite a burden lifted as I have 11,000 photos on my trusty mac and hundreds more in albums and boxes from the pre-digital camera age.
     That being said, I made a personalized photo album from Shutterfly featuring about 20 photos of my son at various ages.  It is a hard cover bound book. I  kept the pages around the photos white and will bring it on the trip and let everyone sign it with well wishes for him. 

     My blog is supposed to be anonymous but no one would recognize this guy today. He is almost as tall as me and his blond hair is now curly and brown.

   The big challenge was narrowing it down to around 20 photos of my son. It was like  Sophie's choice. Especially when it came to Halloween costume photos. Infant in a dog suit (in). Superman with muscles (out). 7 year old elvis complete with white jumpsuit and wig (in of course!).  I got so frustrated last week that I just gave up. How can I pack 13 years of cuteness into one little album.

  

     I promised myself that I would cross this off of my list this weekend so I hunkered down and finished it. My husband was mad that I did not give him final approval before I ordered it but I saw a tear in his eye when I showed him the proof online.

    One down, 7000 more things to do before the big day. Wish me luck that I will get it all done without needing to color out my gray more than once before the trip!

GIVEAWAY for South Floridians!!!

The taste of Grove is Miami's original family-friendly food festival. Me and my clan are going to eat, drink, rock and stroll.

The festival was nice enough to give me a four pack of tickets to giveaway to one of my lucky readers. Leave a comment if you want to win. Tell your friends. I will hold a drawing of all entries on Fiday April 5th at 11:30 p.m. so leave your  comments by then.

Even if you don't win, the tickets are only 10 bucks for adults and 5 dollars per kidlet so it is totally affordable.