Make it Work Giveaway with T Shirts for Wearing

I first heard about T Shirts for Wearing from the girls at Crafterhours.   When I hopped over to the Etsy shop to check it out, I was just so impressed with the fun and unique designs.  We buy a lot of t shirts around here, and fun t shirts aren’t anything too hard to find.  But fun, cute t shirts with sewing-related designs?!  So very awesome!

Tell me those aren’t the coolest designs ever!  They also have a great variety of other designs, including for children and men.  And you have to read the write-ups on all the designs, highly entertaining.  The talented folks at T Shirts for Wearing are offering up a coupon for one free shirt of your choice, plus free shipping to one of you!

All you have to do
-Leave a comment telling me which T Shirts for Wearing design is your favorite.
-One comment per person.
-If you need to leave a second comment, please delete the first. Or I will :)
-Your email address MUST be either in the comment or directly linked to your profile so I can contact you if you are the winner.
-Comments open for entry now through next Friday, May 27th at 8:00 a.m. MST.
-Winner will be chosen at random using Random.org.
-Winner announced, May 27th, 2011.
-Winner has until Tuesday May 31st at 10:00 p.m. MST to contact me back, or I will choose another winner.
-Winner will receive a coupon code via email good for one free t-shirt of their choice, and free shipping,  from T Shirts for Wearing, shipped directly to the winner from T Shirts for Wearing.

Thank you so much, T Shirts for Wearing, for this sweet giveaway!  I would totally be entering if I could!

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Have you entered the Make it Work Challenge yet? If not, upload your entry to the Flickr Group HERE after reading the rules HERE, then go daydream about the prizes as seen HERE.

Colette Patterns Giveaway

When I was organizing and planning Make it Work, I had a “dream list” of sponsors and participants.  I feel so lucky to have gotten the sponsors I did, all of them from that list.  Colette Patterns is such an amazing company.  I love their fresh and fun designs. They are modern and hip, but so well written. I also love that they allow for so much versatility and individuality when making.  They even have two new patterns out, designed especially with the beginning sewist in mind, The Ginger and The Violet  :

Both have a variety of options laid out in the pattern itself, so you can make the look however you want, with clear instructions the whole way. 

Colette Patterns has a great selection, including the famous men’s Negroni Shirt , which I’m pretty sure is about the only decent modern menswear pattern out there.

These are two of my favorite patterns.  The skirt will be mine.  I love it so, so much.

And one of you will get to choose a free pattern of your own!  Colette Patterns is giving away one free pattern to a Sew a Straight Line reader, maybe even YOU!  To enter:
-Leave a comment telling me which Colette pattern is your favorite.
-One comment per person.
-If you need to leave a second comment, please delete the first.  Or I will :)
-Your email address MUST be either in the comment or directly linked to your profile so I can contact you if you are the winner.
-Comments open for entry now through next Thursday, May 19th at midnight MST.
-Winner will be chosen at random using Random.org.
-Winner announced Friday, May 20th, 2011.
-Winner has until Tuesday May 17th at 10:00 p.m. MST to contact me back, or I will choose another winner.
-Winner will receive one free pattern of their choice from Colette Patterns, shipped directly to the winner by Colette Patterns.

That’s it!  Good luck and happy sewing!

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Remember to submit your entry to the Make It Work Challenge

Review and Giveaway: Freschetta Simply Inspired Pizzas

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FRESCHETTA® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.


Frequently some girlfriends and I get together for a play date and lunch. We try to make something a little bit more fancy than the usual PB&J or grilled cheese that serves as our normal lunch fare. At least for us. The kids still get the other stuff. But these lunches really are often the highlight of our week, since we get to eat “chick food” like fancy salads, soups and whatever else our husbands turn their noses up at while looking for the meat and potatoes.

This past time that my turn came around, it also coincided nicely with my receiving the opportunity to do a review for Freschetta’s Simply Inspired Pizzas. According to the website, they have eight amazing-looking varieties. I live in Rural Town, USA and shop in Only Slightly Less Rural Town seven miles away. There were only two varieties offered at my grocery store, but it still took me a few minutes to decide between the two. I finally went with Harvest Supreme because I was super hungry while grocery shopping and it looked to have the most food on it. And that’s how I make major grocery-related decisions, I let my stomach do the thinking.

So at lunch, I told my friends that I was doing the review, and that I wanted their honest opinions. And I’m going to share those with you. First of all, we were all impressed with the small amount of packaging. Freschetta calls it their “Fresh-Taste Seal” and claims it locks in the flavors, while using 30% less packaging. It’s not a box, but more like a molded plastic case for the pizza, with a peel-back cover. It really was very low-profile. Secondly, you know how things on packaging always look better than in real life? Well, out of the oven, our pizza really did look like this: Except with slightly less perky onions. But it really looked delicious and not at all like a frozen pizza. The crust was nice and crispy on the outside, but as it got more towards the middle of the pizza it was softer, but not soggy—just not as crisp as the outer edges.

So how did it taste? Honestly, the flavors were a bit strong for me. Between the feta cheese and the sun dried tomatoes, I did find myself picking some toppings off to tone the intensity down a little. But I’m kind of a pansy that way. One of my friends agreed, the other really liked the strong flavors and even opted for less dessert so she could have more pizza. There was one piece left over when my husband got home. He finished it off and wanted more. He thought the flavors were perfect. And he doesn’t even like tomatoes!

All in all, it was a really good pizza. I did like the combination of flavors, there were just so many toppings that I thought it tasted better with some of them narrowed down. And I guess that’s really a sign of the quality and freshness of the ingredients. It didn’t taste like your typical frozen pizza. We all agreed we would totally buy it, and wanted to try some of the other flavors (if our local grocer ever decides to expand inventory).

And you can try it for yourself, one of you for free even! I have one coupon for a free Freschetta Simply Inspired Thin Crust Pizza to giveaway, along with a fun bamboo cutting board and serving set. And as the check out clerk at the store commented when I used my coupon, “Holy crap! This is a great coupon!”

To enter, leave a comment telling me your favorite pizza toppings.
Make sure your email is either linked to your profile or included in the body of the comment.
The contest is open to anyone in the USA, since I’m not sure the coupon is valid in other countries (sorry!).
And if you like Freschetta Simply Inspired on Facebook, they’ll give you a coupon for $2 off. So you can all be winners! But only one will get the cutting board and little sharp guys. Good luck! 
FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ 

BlogHer Review: Libman Freedom! Mop

I’ve mentioned before my feelings on mops, yes?   Anything I can’t take off and wash grosses me out.   I won’t buy disposable pads just to throw away my money and take out more trash.  For the past few years I have been using a disposable-pad mop, but employing microfiber auto rags instead of the paper refill pads.  It worked great and I had no complaints.  Well, you know how sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing until you find something better?  Yeah, enter Libman Freedom Mop and its friends.


When Libman offered to send me this mop package to review, site unseen, I decided I would be brutally honest.  I assumed I wouldn’t like it as well as the status quo mop situation in this house.  I didn’t want a disgusting germ/slime magnet, and I didn’t want to have to go the store whenever I need to mop my floors.  When the Libman mop arrived, I may have squealed.   It was perfect, my dream mop, or close.  There are some things I don’t love, but we’ll get to that in a minute…

Years ago, as a young wife, I actually asked for a spraying mop for my birthday.  True story.  I wanted one that badly.  I was sick of filling a bucket or the sink, and sick of wringing things as I moped.  My husband, ever the romantic, made that wish come true and I unwrapped a spray mop (from the plastic grocery bag it came in) for my 23rd birthday.  But I only used it for a few weeks before giving up on the spray feature because I was sick of buying the disposable proprietary solution canisters.  But while it lasted, Oh! how I enjoyed its spraying, n0-bucket-or-sink-of-disgustingness virtues! 
Well guess what?  The Libman Freedom mop takes the awesomeness of a spray mop and ads the *genius*, and practicality, of an empty bottle. 

What’s so great about an empty bottle?  You can fill it up with whatever you want!  This is especially important for freaks like me who have very specific needs when it comes to how a mopped floor should smell; two words: piney and soly.
I know a lot of you make your own cleaning solutions.  You can mix them right up inside the bottle.  The opening is fairly wide and there are measurement markings down each side for ratio control.

The other love? A reusable, washable microfiber pad with *scrubbers*.  This was actually something I missed when using the auto rags—a decent scrubbing quality.  The Libman pads have strips of, like, Astroturf in them-very scrubby. (fun fact: My aunt’s entire back patio was carpeted in plastic grass carpet.  The rug-burns of my childhood can attest to the abrasive qualities of the stuff!)(Though still gentle on floors.)(But seriously? Not on knees.) 
I think I would have preferred the Astroturf to be all in one area, like to one side, to allow for more concentrated scrubbing.  But it did end up easily getting tw0-day dried syrup off the tile, so what do I know?

The pads attach to the mop base via these crazy hooks covering the naked base on the flat side. 

So you just slap it on there, with no pushing anything through little rubber grabber things that also sometimes catch your finger and make you swear.  Just lay the pad down, smooth, and go. 

And while we’re on the subject of the mop head, it swivels and pivots so you can mop in awkward areas.  Like behind toilets.  Also, it’s long enough, I could get the first few inches of the under part of my stove without moving anything.  And since that’s all anyone sees, I can pretend for a while longer that any mess further back doesn’t exist. 

The mop comes with one pad, and you can purchase additional pads for rotating when the others are in the wash.

Fancy.  And so thoughtful.

You can also purchase an additional bottle.  I would think this would be really nice if you had various kinds of hard surface flooring?  Like, tile in one area and hard wood in the other.  With an additional bottle, you can switch out your cleaning agent depending on the surface.  We only have ceramic tile and cheap-o, ugly linoleum, so this isn’t really a huge selling point for me, personally, but I can see where it could be really handy for others.   

The extra bottle comes with a  stand so you can store the leftover solution.  The bottle itself has a rubberized plug-friend thingy that seals the dispenser opening when not inserted into the mop itself, so it doesn’t leak. 

Again, thoughtful and convenient if you need to have multiple solutions ready to go.  But one of my dislikes is actually the stand the extra bottle comes with.  It doesn’t seem very stable.  Not that the bottle leaks when it falls out, but still kind of annoying.  Mine kept getting knocked over on my counter.  And with flat horizontal surfaces at a premium in my closets and cabinets, I would have preferred something wall-mounting. 

But onto more good stuff.  How about that even my five year old can now mop up the apple juice he is constantly spilling, since he doesn’t ever have to handle the hot water/chemicals?  He can even carry it upstairs to do the bathrooms by himself.  Awesome.  Now to just get him to control that over-anxious trigger finger. 

And finally, back to the pads.  Here is what the once-pristine-and-white new pad looked like after moping my kitchen and two bathrooms.  I have three little boys.  Don’t judge.  Okay, go ahead, just don’t comment it.  Please.

And after being washed with our other rags?  The one on top is the same pad as the above picture, the bottom pad is a new, unused pad

No, I didn’t use bleach, just my regular detergent.  I’m sure a few more weeks of hard labor in our house will dingy it right up, but I have no doubt it will still clean the floors.  Just maybe not look so pretty doing it.  But the same can be said for me, so I’m casting no stones.

AND
YOU can win a$100 Visa Gift Card from BlogHer and a Libman Freedom Spray Mop from Libman (all to go to one winner), open to those 18 and up, USA residents
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a)      Leave a comment answering “What's your favorite cleaning tip?”
b)      Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c)       Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d)      For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
 
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.      

Visit the Official Rules
Visit the Exclusive Offers section
Need some cleaning tips?  Check out Libman’s tip site here.
Visit the Official site