blog Archives - The Mom Maven

PR Friendly Blog Hop

cindy — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:08:10 +0000

I love finding new blogs to read and that is why I love blog hops, carnivals and the like. This one is from Mommy PR. All of these bloggers are PR Friendly. You can join too and if you do, please share the linky love!

The post PR Friendly Blog Hop appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Join Me for the #Community Sitewarming

cindy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:22:32 +0000

I am part of an amazing community of bloggers called Global Influence. We are headed up by Amy of ResourcefulMommy.com. Through our community I have the privilege of bringing you great public service announcements, product reviews and giveaways. As you may know Amy was the inventor of the Twitter Party and is actually a finalist for a Shorty Award in advertising for her creation!

Anyway, every month or so Amy and her associate Shannan host a #community sitewarming on Twitter to introduce members of the Global Influence community to a wider audience. I am thrilled that this Friday 2/5/10 I am one of the five featured bloggers! Shannan, @slpowell on Twitter, will be hosting the event Friday from 9-10pm ET. Please visit ResourcefulMommy.com and scroll down to the #community sitewarming post to RSVP for the party and to find out how to register to win great prizes!

I look forward to chatting with you all on Twitter tomorrow night!

The post Join Me for the #Community Sitewarming appeared first on The Mom Maven.

IZEAFest Here I Come!

cindy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:34:01 +0000

The time is finally here, I head to Orlando tomorrow for 4 days of fun, networking and learning. I feel like it has taken forever to get here. I can’t wait to meet tons of online friends in real life! I wouldn’t be going if I hadn’t won a ticket from IZEAInsider Corrin Renee and received a sponsorship from Hotels Combined. Please check out Corrin’s blog and if you are making hotel reservations anywhere in the world please use Hotels Combined’s search engine to find the perfect hotel for you.

I thought I’d give you a few hints into how you will be able to recognize me.

I have 4 of these shirts so I'll be wearing them each day.

I won this when @shamu was @realshamu on Twitter.

This goes with my dress for Friday night's party at Ice Bar Orlando.

I’m just about packed and I’ll be hitting the road around lunch time. This is my first blogging conference and I can’t wait to get started. I’m not going to the kick off at Howl-O-Scream so if you are hanging out at the Renaissance Hotel and want to network, tweet me @MomMaven. I will be tweeting, blogging, whrrling and Facebooking the event so stay tuned and make sure you check out hashtag #izeafest on Twitter.

Friday and Saturday are the conference days and there are tons of the top bloggers who will be speaking. I know I have so much to learn so that I can take this blog to the next level. Sunday is Bloggers Invade SeaWorld Day. I will be riding Manta at some point in the day, yikes! I am not a roller coaster lover but, I promised I would ride it so I will.

I hope you have a great weekend! I’m sure I will.

The post IZEAFest Here I Come! appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Win 250 Custom Greeting Cards

cindy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:41:45 +0000

My blog sponsor UPrinting.com is at it again. They are offering an awesome prize to TWO of my readers. The winners will receive: 250 7 x 5″ Greeting Cards (Half-Fold); 10 pt Cover with matte or gloss coating, Full Color Outside and Blank Inside (Shipping Must be Paid by Winner. Offer Valid for UNITED STATES SHIPPING ONLY.) WOW!

What would you do with 250 Custom Greeting Cards? I think I would either create our Christmas cards or a card with my blog header on it and use it to send with the prizes I send my winners.

Even if you aren’t one of the lucky winners you can visit UPrinting.com for Custom Greeting Cards, Custom Postcards and lots of other printing projects.

Mandatory 1st Entry: Leave me a comment telling me what you would use the 250 free Custom Greeting Cards for.

Bonus Entries:

Tweet this giveaway. Make sure your tweet includes @MomMaven and a link back to this post. You may do this 1x each day
Mixx, Digg, Prop and/or fave on Tecnorati this post. Leave 1 comment for each one you do.
Subscribe to my blogs RSS feed. Current subscribers you get an entry too.
Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. Current friends you get an entry too.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. The winners must pay shipping. This giveaway ends 8/27/09 at 7:30pm EDT. Good luck!

The post Win 250 Custom Greeting Cards appeared first on The Mom Maven.

UPrinting Blog Sponsorship

cindy — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:28:21 +0000

You have probably noticed that for the last 2 months UPrinting.com. Basically what this means is Uprinting.com provides my readers awesome giveaways, like the 16×20′ poster print for Mother’s Day and the 18×24″ poster print for Father’s Day. They are also sponsoring the Summer photo contest that I entered last week. In exchange for hosting the giveaways and promoting their site I get additional traffic to my site (people who come to enter the giveaway) and occasional free posters and other printed items. My partnership with UPrinting.com has been a lot of fun so far. UPrinting.com is an innovative company and they would love to sponsor more blogs!

Why UPrinting.com isn’t your average printing company:

Blog Sponsorships: If you are looking to find a sponsor for your blog, UPrinting.com is definitely interested. We offer giveaways, advertising and more for qualified bloggers.

Non-Profit Sponsorships: The U-Community Program sponsors hundreds of non-profits and education to improve our local communities.

Social Justice Projects: The UPrinting Kiva account promotes small business growth in developing countries.

Green Printing: UPrinting supports a sustainable future by recycling, using non-toxic inks, and offering eco-friendly recycled paper stocks for business cards and postcard printing.

The post UPrinting Blog Sponsorship appeared first on The Mom Maven.

I’m Going to IZEAFest!

cindy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:55:55 +0000

I have wanted to go to a blogging/social media conference since January. Money is tight and I can’t afford to gallivant around the country at the expense of our family budget. I can’t tell you how many contests I have entered to win trips to Blissdom, Blogher, SXSW, Twitter by the Sea and IZEAFest. Saturday morning when I logged on to Twitter I found out I had won a ticket to IZEAFest!

I have been a fan of IZEA for a while now, I believe in what they do to promote sponsored conversations on blogs and other social media forums. I feel that with the FTC looking at regulating bloggers and the compensation they receive for blogging about products, sponsored conversations are going to become the norm and IZEA is the cutting edge.

Izeafest will take place October 1-4 at SeaWorld Orlando. The list of speakers at this event is a who’s who of blogging and social media:

Ted Murphy CEO of IZEA
Aaron Braazell of technosailor.com
Chris Brogan of ChrisBrogan.com
Darren Rowse of Problogger.com
George Smith of Crocs.com
Sarah Evans of PRSarahEvans.com
Wendy Piersall of Sparkplugging.com…….and many more

The IZEAFest website describes the event as,

“An interactive event designed to educate, inform and connect social media enthusiasts. Meet the world’s foremost social media experts in a collaborative, fun and open setting. Learn how to grow your traffic, build your brand and make more money online.”

The only thing that has me concerned is…on Sunday 10/4/09 the IZEAFest bloggers are invading SeaWorld Orlando. Ok, I love SeaWorld-Shamu, Clyde, Seymore and all of their friends. What has me concerened is…to enter the contest I had to agree to ride Manta, SeaWorld Florida‘s newest roller coaster and the only flying coaster in Florida! I am not a roller coaster lover but I will ride Manta. (Yikes!)

I have 16 weeks until IZEAFest and I need to reach a few personal and business goals before then. I need you, my loyal readers to hold me accountable and help me towards these goals.

I would like to lose at least 20 lbs before I go.
I need to earn enough additional money monthly so that I can upgrade to a smartphone & pay for the plan- so I can blog and tweet from the event. (It just isn’t practical to lug my laptop through SeaWorld-and my battery only lasts 15 minutes anyway.)
I need to find a sponsor to cover the cost of my lodging and dinners during the conference. If you know of a business, company or benefactor who may want to sponsor me, please share this link with them http://themommaven.com/sponsorship-opp/

If you would like to come to IZEAFest there are still tickets available, just click the IZEAFest link. October is a beautiful time to visit central Florida and I’d love to get to meet you.

The post I’m Going to IZEAFest! appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Free Twitter Signatures

cindy — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:46:30 +0000

Do you like this cute Twitter signature? How about the one in my footer? You can get one or more for free! Yes, I did just say FREE. Just click on this link to get yours today Twitter Signature Styles.

The post Free Twitter Signatures appeared first on The Mom Maven.

momAgenda Review and Giveaway

cindy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:01:21 +0000

I love to be organized and I love tools that help me to organize my life. The momAgenda is one of those tools. The momAgenda is a day planner for moms created by a mom. A mom’s life is different than that of a business man. For years I have tried to make various planners, agendas and PDAs function for my life as a homeschooling mom who works outside the home part time. Mom has to manage more than her own schedule though. She is also in charge of the kid’s schedules and often dad’s too. A normal calendar or day planner doesn’t allow for all of that. The momAgenda does all that and more.

As you can see in the photo, the week runs Monday through Sunday. The top portion of the page is for mom’s schedule and to-dos and is broken into AM, NOON, and PM. Below that are slots for 4 additional schedules (kids and husband) and then at the bottom is a slot for dinner! How awesome is that?

In the front of the book there is reference material including favorite websites, online resources, important toll free numbers, and holidays. Each month starts with a monthly calendar so you can see the big picture and that is followed by the weekly calendar pages. In the back of the momAgenda there is a mini 2010 calendar so you can make note of any birthdays, anniversarys or upcoming plans before you get your next year’s momAgenda. The back also features pages for you to notate books to read, movies to watch, gifts to purchase, party planning notes, vacation planning guide and lots of blank pages for you to fill however you wish. Also in the back is a removable momEssentials booklet which is an address book, phone book and so much more.

The momAgendais a must have organizational tool for every mom! I have the marine blue 2008-2009 desktop momAgenda to give away to a reader of The Mom Maven or you can purchase your own buy clicking on any of the momAgenda links in this article or the banner on my sidebar.

How to Enter:

1. Visit momAgenda website and look around. Come back here and leave me a comment telling me which of their products, other than the desk top version, you would love to own. PLUS you must click on the orange heart shaped RSS feed button and subscribe to my blog and leave a valid e-mail address or Twitter name so that I can contact the winner. The winner must respond within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen.

For additional entries, please leave a separate comment for each one of these that you do:

for 10 extra entries make a purchase from momAgenda
and leave me a comment about your purchase
for 3 extra entries-Place my blog button on your blog and leave me the link you your blog in a comment here
for 1 extra entry each day-you can twitter about this giveaway and leave the URL of your tweet in a comment
for 1 entry for each of these that you do-Stumble up with a review, fave on Technorati, fave on MomFaves

Good luck! This giveaway ends on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 9:30pm. US entries only please.

The post momAgenda Review and Giveaway appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Party Time!!

cindy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:14:00 +0000

It’s Party Time!! Today marks the beginning of the Ultimate Blog Party 2009.
I have been looking forward to this for a few months.

If you are a regular Mom Maven reader-when you finish reading this post click on the Ultimate Blog Party banner at the top of the post and it will take you to Party Central. There you will find Mr. Linky’s with hundreds of other blogs to visit. This party is all about sharing the bloggy love and making new friends.

If you are visiting Mom Maven for the first time WELCOME!! I love my readers! I enjoy sharing reviews, giveaways and parenting tips. I love reading comments and you suggestions for parenting topics that you would like me to cover. Please leave me a comment before continuing down the party path.

**Announcement** I have been working on a blog re-design and move since January. Most of the background work is now complete. I got my new header and blog button last night and I am soooooo excited. Please make sure you follow my blog via e-mail or subscribe to my RSS feed. Sometime within the next 2 weeks we will be moving from Blogger to WordPress. If you are following me you will get all the updates and info you need to move with me.

What would a party be without prizes? 5 Minutes for Mom has brought together hundreds of bloggers, stores and companies to donate prizes for the Ultimate Blog Party click here to check out the prizes. I donated prize #95-it is a Kernal Season’s Popcorn Prize Pack worth over $27.00.

The prizes I am most interested in are:

#INTL 27 Lifetime Membership to Mom Masterminds
#INTL 19 Sponsor spot on Tip Junkie
#113 $25 Office Max Gift Card
#19 $50 Target Gift Card
#81 $25 Gift Card to MJ Jennings Designs
#USC58 Handmade Retro Apron

All of the prizes are great and there truly is something for everyone! Make sure you follow the prize link and read how you can win too!

The post Party Time!! appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Laundry Alternative Contest

cindy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:27:00 +0000

I don’t know about you but laundry drives me crazy. In my house we do 1-2 loads every day. Sometimes these aren’t full loads but they are things that just have to get washed now. I also have several handwash items and I usually wait until they all need to be cleaned and then have a massive handwashing session so I can get everything done at once. Well, my friend Amy from Resourceful Mommy
told me about this awesome product that uses 90% less water and detergent than regular machine washing, uses no electricity and completes a load in less than 5 minutes! I haven’t gotten to see this in action yet but I sure would like to! It would really help tame my mountain of dirty laundry and save me time and money.

I would like to introduce you to the Wonderwash from Laundry Alternative – the space saving, time saving, energy saving Green Clean solution for your laundry needs! As seen on The Rachael Ray Show, through a patented pressure system, the Wonderwash thoroughly cleans a five pound load in just minutes using less water and detergent than even hand washing!

What can you wash with the Wonderwash? How about a week’s worth of dress shirts, 10 t-shirts, 30 pairs of socks, bibs, cloth diapers, burp clothes….the list goes on and on.

How does the Wonderwash work? When you put warm or hot water into the drum, fit the lid in place and seal the machine,the air inside the drum will absorb the heat of the water and expand (i.e., just like a hot air balloon). When the air expands it creates pressure inside the drum. The pressure forces the detergent (which is diluted into the water) into & through the fabric (which is porous) about 100 times faster than you could by hand or machine.

Tell Us How It Could Work for You – And Win a Wonderwash PLUS a Mini Countertop Spin Dryer, which quietly spins the water out of your clothes in just minutes.

To participate follow these easy steps!

1. Blog on your site about what YOU would use the Wonderwash and Mini Countertop Spin Dryer to clean.

2. Post a photo or a video of your mess and be sure to link back to Laundry Alternative at www.laundry-alternative.com.

3. Fill out this secure participation form to be entered to win! (Do not comment here at Mom Maven)

Then join us on Twitter Friday, March 13th from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. (EST) to tweet with Green Cleaning experts and find out who won the grand prize! Five attendees will also win The TrueGreen Laundry Washing Ball, which cleans your clothes without bleach or detergents in cold water. It does not contain harmful synthetic detergents, perfumes, dyes, or oils!

RSVP here: http://resourcefulmommy.blogspot.com/2009/03/show-me-your-mess-and-win.html

Contest is open to all U.S. residents and runs from Friday, March 6th to Friday, March 13th at 8:00p.m. EST. All winners will be contacted within one week of closing to verify participation and obtain shipping information.

The post Laundry Alternative Contest appeared first on The Mom Maven.