Need an awesome present for your pet this year? Need a gift for a pet lover in your life? If so, you definitely need to check out Big Paw Designs. First, they have really cute collar charms and they are around $10. They are made with in the US with lead free pewter. They also have Rescue Mom and Rescue Dad car magnets. These too are made in the US, are removable, and UV fade resistant. They even have pet stickers! One of my favorite things on this site has to be this:
Now, tell me that isn’t the cutest stocking you have every seen. After checking out this site, I want to get a pet just so I can use a lot of the really nice, really cute stuff that I found. There are a ton of designs to pick from, so there is definitely something for everyone. Now, I know you are wanting something from here as much as I do, so I have been able to arrange that one of my readers will get a $15 gift certificate for Big Paw Designs!
Each one of these things will give you one entry:
1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know what you would spend this gift certificate on over at Big Paw Designs.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).
For 5 additional entries,
1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:
This giveaway will end on November 21st at 8:00 pm. Good luck!
Do you or your significant other like romance novels? If so, you definitely need to check out yournovel.com. This site allows you to star in your own romance novel. There are 24 different novels you can pick from and you choose if you want a “mild” or a “wild” book. You can chose all sorts of setting including Tahiti, Rome, Alaska, Jamaica, Caribbean, and a ski resort just to name a few. You are able to choose if you want the book to be a softcover or a hardcover too. All you do is submit some information about yourself like your name, town you live in, closest airport, favorite color, where you work, eye and hair color, favorite music, and few more things (there are 26 questions). It is actually quite easy to fill out. The books average around 160 pages. The cover can even be personalized to your picture!
This is definitely a unique gift that keeps on giving. She won’t be expecting this on Christmas!
Have you heard of Bake Me A Wish! before? Bake Me A Wish! provides freshly baked occasional cakes for all seasons and celebrations. They deliver the cakes overnight in an elegant box with a personalized gift card. Now, you cannot leave their site without being hungry. I know that I wouldn’t mind a few of those cakes being sent to my house! They all look so good. Granted, I may need to walk on a treadmill after that, but it’s all in the name of research, right?
The reason I am including them in my gift guide this year is because of what else they do. When you order a cake from them, they send an identical cake to a soldier in Iraq for their birthday. 5% of all their orders is used to assist their efforts in sending gourmet occasion cakes to soldiers overseas. Now, if you know someone over in Iraq who wouldn’t mind a gourmet birthday cake, make sure you forward their name to them. I found myself tearing up just reading all the thank yous from soldiers receiving their cakes.
If you need a birthday cake, make sure you check out Bake Me A Wish! and see if you can help send a soldier a cake!
For the last year, I have been in the process of converting all of our CDs into MP3 and saving them to the computer. We have a lot of CDs, so it is something that is taking me a lot of time. The sad part is that I still have half of our CD collection to still do. This is where companies like AbundaTrade come in. They take your new and used cds and copy them for you. They make it ten times easier for you.
Now, once you have your CD collection as MP3s for your ipod or mp3 player, what are you going to do with those old CDs? Now, AbundaTrade.com will buy them from you (they also buy books and DVDs too). You give them a list of the CDs you have, and they tell you which ones they want. You then box up your CDs and send them in. The great thing is that AbundaTrade.com will send you the necessary materials to box and ship your trade-ins! Now, you then take your credits and are able to shop on their site for a ton of things. They have everything from TVs to cameras to a PS3. If they don’t have the electronic item on their site that you want, you can let them know, and they will see if they can get it! I love to be able to make extra money without really having to do anything extra. This is an awesome way to get the CDs you no longer use out of your house and give you some extra cash for either yourself or Christmas!
Ever feel like nobody would understand how you feel? Ever feel the need to connect to other moms? If so, I definitely have the place you need to check out: Moms Like Me. I love the community on this site. We are able to do everything from talk about cookie recipes to talking about how to get our kids to bed at night. It is one of those places that you get support from everyone even if they don’t have any helpful advice for you. I remember a time when it was just Madison and me at home all day, I would have loved to have found this site them. However, I am glad to be a part of it now. I don’t mind telling people my story and my issues. I have found Moms Like Me a great resource for me also. I just recently learned how to sign up for the Toys R Us Newsletter! There also have been some great giveaways over there for new members. You can also sign up under one of the groups there are if you find one you like. They have everything from a fundraising group to a blogging group to a knitting group.
If you are trying to find your place in this world, this is a great place to stop and check out. If you have any mommy questions, this again is someplace to check out. If you need a bit of support, you should definitely check out Moms Like Me!
I love finding new toys to put on my blogs This widget is something I am hoping to incorporate over at my travel blog shortly. However, I wanted to make sure that anyone who was interested in travel checked out this widget first!
This is Flash travel map that is very easy to embed into your site. You can display flight route information and is free to to download too. You can fully configure it so that you can show your readers a fixed departure point, fixed destination point, fixed departure and destination, or an ‘anywhere to anywhere’ open search. There are 20 languages to pick from, and it can also be added to added to iGoogle Netvibes, and your desktop.
Even though Skyscanner the most powerful and flexible flight search engine in Europe (which provides instant online price comparisons on over 300,000 flights and over 600 airlines), this maps tool widget works for the United States also. I used it to map all of the trips I took this year without any problems. When I typed Chicago into the Maps Code Wizard, I was able to pull up all three airports here (Midway, Ohare, and Rockford). This is a great way to show your readers where you are going when leaving for vacation. If you do live in Europe or have a big European readership, this is a great way for them to check prices for trips. (see Cheap Flights Map Widget)
Head over to Skyscanner and check out their maps tool widget!
Well, the first question you need to ask yourself is how fast do you type? Personally, I type pretty darn fast (over 70 wpm). However, what Dragon Naturally Speaking does for you is allows you to talk, and it types what you say. You do need to “say” the paragraph breaks and punctuation. However, you end up with typing 150 words per minute! Most people I know cannot type that fast! It makes it much easier to generate more content in less time too. I know when I am composing a post like this I am actually saying the words in my head anyway. However, my head works faster than my fingers. That is why I love this product. Do you do podcasts? You can use Dragon to convert your podcasts into a transcript that you can also post on your site! There are just so many uses that I can come up with for this. I know people who use this and absolutely loved it including the New York times (click here for the NY Times Review of DNS10). Some other uses include people with disabilities such as dyslexia and even people with carpal tunnel who can’t type anymore. Heck, I’ve heard that John McCain doesn’t use the computer due to his injuries suffered when he was a POW. This is would even be helpful for him!
If you would like to see this in action, watch the videos below:
Don’t you want one of these to make your blogging easier?
Have you heard of Bake Me A Wish! before? 
