Posts Tagged: Review
Monochromatic Wall of Lane
I’ve been dreaming about creating a photo wall, up along the stairs, for as long as I can remember, since our first house, back in Buffalo. I’ve finally gotten around to it, and I’ve decided that the whole wall is going to be black-and-white portraiture. Right now I’ve only got three photos up there, but I’ve got a growing folder of pictures ready to get printed, either to be framed or made into a canvas print. I want a mix of both, really. I also want a mix of posed and candid shots. This summer I want this wall to be covered in photos!
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Yesterday, Davey and I traveled into Atlanta for a birthday party for Renee’s little boy, Mekhi. Davey was so excited. Not only did he get to see Mekhi again, the party was at Imagine It! Children’s Museum and there would be so much for him to see and do. Add pizza and cake; Davey was in his element!
I brought my camera along—50mm f/1.4 affixed—and snapped away. I wanted to document the day, from my perspective for my friend, but also I was sure that there would be some cool captures that would make it into the folder for my “Monochromatic Wall of Lane”.
They aren’t the typical posed portrait, but I love them just the same.
I was contacted by Easy Canvas Prints to turn one of my photos to canvas and they also gave me an 8×10 canvas print to giveaway, to [you] one of my readers.
The middle canvas, of all four of the kids, was from them.
The site was easy to use, and the canvas is just awesome. At Easy Canvas Prints, turning your favorite photo to canvas is so easy that all you do is choose what size you want, upload your photo, select the border, and you even have the option to apply affects.
To be entered in the 8×10 CANVAS GIVEAWAY just link me in the comment section to a photo (on your blog or photo sharing site) that you would love to have printed on canvas. You can change your mind as to what picture you actually print, if you win, I just love an excuse to see your favorite photos!
The giveaway will end a week from today, and you can share a link a day, everyday of the week, to be entered!
That’s good odds, yo…
[Easy Canvas Prints provided me with a 12×12 canvas print, but I was not compensated monetarily for this post.]
New Marie Callender’s Multi-Serve Bakes
When Michael and I were newlyweds, I hate to admit it, I didn’t cook. He did all the cooking because, quite honestly, I was known to burn a pot of water that was boiling for pasta; I was THAT bad. In 2003, though, I started to learn. I added many dishes to my repertoire, and became confident enough to even cook meat. Meat was my nemesis. I can still remember that first chicken breast I cooked—or didn’t cook—being cut into on our dinner plates. Pink.
Now-a-days, I love to cook and try new things in the kitchen. I’ve learned to follow recipes (who knew it was that easy?), and I even enjoy putting ingredients together. It’s the cleaning up that I really could do without, but I digress.
Last year I was spoiled and didn’t have to take the kids to any soccer practices, as all their extra curricular activities were earlier in the day. This year? No such luck. This year, Olivia sings with a local youth chorale. Her practices run from 5pm-7pm, which makes for a busy night. And, it’s virtually impossible to juggle dropping her off, coming back, cooking something, picking her up, and the coming back to eat. These nights have easily become our easy-meal night.
Enter Marie Callender’s frozen dinner entrees—
I chose to make two different entrees, because I like to live on the edge that way. Actually, some of us love lasagna layered with chicken, crimini mushrooms, spinach, and rich ricotta cheese, while others do not. The ones who do not are more than happy with chicken and bow tie pasta tossed in a creamy Alfredo sauce, tossed with broccoli, carrots, and sun-dried tomatoes. Then there are some of us (cough*cough*Michael) who are more than happy to eat both.
The first thing that really made me happy was that I could actually read the ingredients of these dinners. Of course, there has to be some kind of preservative, but there isn’t a whole whacked out list on the box like other frozen entrees I’ve seen at the store.
The other thing that really made these great were the taste. They tasted so yummy that I wanted more than my portion. But, I stayed strong!
Don’t you love how I tricked everyone by putting them in semi-fancy-shmancy serving dishes?
The servings size was just enough, and went along well with a quick Caesar salad (which didn’t make it into the pictures above because when I put the plates in front of Mikey and Davey, they tore into it too fast!) Three kids (2 boys and 1 girl) loved what they ate. One boy ate oatmeal, however, because anything that starts with a “v” and ends with a “-table” is definitely not something he loves.
The entrees were under $5.00 at my local grocery store. I thought that was pretty good, considering two pizzas for our family costs us about $15.00.
All-in-all, I was very pleased with switching it up on our busiest night of the week! I’m so happy to share these meals with two of my readers. Just leave me a comment telling me what you do for dinner on your busy nights. Two commenters will be randomly chosen to receive their very own coupon. Plus you can receive a hand written card from yours truly! I will email the coupon recipients a week from today, on Saturday, November 27th.
[Disclosure: I was asked to review these Marie Callender’s Multi-serve Bakes by The Motherhood. They provided me with coupons for myself and two readers. They also paid me a stipend for my involvement. My feelings expressed in this post are purely my own.]
Picture It Postage Stamps
I recently had the opportunity to create personalized PictureItPostage Stamps™ with my Mishelle Lane Photography logo. Oh My! I just love them. I’m going to use the bulk of them on the Christmas cards that I send out to the clients that I had the pleasure of working with this year. I love them so much I will probably order more personalized stamps for the other cards that are going out this Christmas.
Each set of twenty stamps costs $18.95. However, Picture It Postage is offering a $4.00 discount just for you, my readers. By entering MOTHERHOOD, during checkout, you can claim your discount. The coupon code expires January 31, 2011, so you have plenty of time to create and stock up one these signature stamps that can be made with your favorite family photo, cool abstract art, or your business’ logo. It’s that personal touch that will make the recipient of your card or letter feel that much closer to you.
{Keep Reading for a Great Contest from PictureItPostage and find out how you can be entered to win $500 just for ordering and and using the MOTHERHOOD discount code to order your very own personalized stamps.}
Picture It Postage Giveaway with TheMotherhood.com
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. PictureItPostage by DYMO Endicia™ is conducting a $500 prize giveaway. All PictureItPostage customers who enter code “MOTHERHOOD” upon checkout for purchases made on PictureItPostage.com from November 17, 2010 through December 15, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time will be entered to win one (1) $500 cash prize giveaway.
2. One (1) winner will be selected at random on December 20, 2010 by PictureItPostage by DYMO Endicia, or DYMO Endicia’s designee. Odds of winning will be determined by the total number of eligible entries received. Winner need not be present at drawing to win. Winner will be notified by phone or mail no later than December 31, 2010. Entry into contest constitutes entrant’s permission for Endicia to contact entrant for sales and marketing purposes.
3. The prize package consists of one (1) $500 cash prize.
4. Contest is open only to PictureItPostage by DYMO Endicia customers who are legal U.S. residents 21 years of age or older except employees of DYMO Endicia, its affiliates, subsidiaries, sales representatives, distributors, or advertising and promotion agencies and the immediate families and household members of each of the above. Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited by law.
5. No prize substitutions allowed except that DYMO Endicia reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value if an advertised prize becomes unavailable. All taxes on prizes are winner’s responsibility. Sponsor: PictureItPostage by DYMO Endicia, a Newell Rubbermaid company, Palo Alto, CA
[Disclosure: I was contacted by The Motherhood to order and review PictureItPostage Stamps™. They provided me with the stamps as well as paid me for my time and participation in a chat that took place today. All opinions expressed in this post are completely my own.]
Oh, Poppy *UPDATED*
Thank you to everyone who entered.
I wish each of you could win your own set of posies.
But, the True Random Number Generator spit out the number seven.
The seventh comment was left by Jodi.
Congratulations, Jodi!
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“Summer set lip to earth’s bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there”
—Francis Thompson
“This mind and body are so imbued, and this tongue is dyed in the deep crimson color
of the poppy. Through the Love and the Fear of God, we are dyed in this color.”
—Sri Guru Granth Sahib
“Far and wide, in a scarlet tide, The poppy’s bonfire spread.“
—Bayard Taylor
Accessories. The part of my wardrobe that I could not go without.
A bold necklace. A sassy scarf. A great pair of bold earrings. A stylish belt.
And, now….
I first heard of these brilliant little accessories at Blissdom 2010. Everyone had one on, and I was mesmerized by them.
“What is that you’re wearing?” I asked a friend.
“It’s a Pleated Poppy Posy! Oh. Em. Gee. You have to find the woman who makes them. She’s giving them out with her business cards. Her name is Lindsey Cheney,” she replied.
“For REAL?” I said, all flabbergasted.
“Yes, for real,” she claimed.
I did finally find her and my friend was right, she had Pleated Poppy posies attached to her business card.
This cute-as-a-button-woman-whom-I-really-wanted-to-fold-up-and-put-in-my-pocket-to-take-home-with-me was a genius; giving away her poppies with her business card was, I don’t care who you are, GENIUS!
I wore the heck out of that one poppy. I’d wear it on tops, on a necklace chain (yes, a necklace chain), on a headband, and even affixed it on my purse. And then Olivia stole it from me.
Something about, Mama, Mama, I love it, please can I just keep it in my room, blah, blah, blah…
I’ve yet to see it return to my dresser.
Luckily for me cute-as-a-button-Lindsey-whom-I-really-really-really-wanted-to-fold-up-and-put-in-my-pocket-to-take-home-with-me-when-I-met-her-in-Nashville contacted me recently to see if I’d be interested in giving away some poppies to my readers!
It didn’t take me but 4.7 seconds to respond to her email.
Would I ever?
Absolutely!
To win your very own set of posies just visit Lindsey’s shop and tell me which are your favorite.
That’s it. Super simple. I’ll announce the winner on Friday. Good luck!
*Disclosure: The Pleated Poppy posies photographed in this post were sent to me, free of charge, to photograph, enjoy, love, and not let Olivia steal from me!
“We’re like chocolate in the sun, and in this heat we are melting into everyone.”
Last week I was invited to see an actual music concert. The kind where it’s loud, and dark, and really cool to tell your friends all about. I thought about who I would ask to accompany me to the show, and ultimately decided on my very own, music loving, eleven year old daughter Olivia.
When I told her about it I could tell that she was really excited by how wide her eyes grew. It would be her first concert. I knew she would absolutely love it.
I listened to the self titled, debut album, One eskimO, from the critically-acclaimed English band, a few days before learning of the concert opportunity, and I immediately fell in love with their infectious sound.
I wanted to create a sound of my own: magical, ambient, filmic, acoustic, beautiful and meaningful. I wanted to write about how I felt about life, love, losses and failures, highs and lows, even heartbreaks. But also about how amazing human life is and how mind-blowing our very existence is.—Kristian Leontiou, lead singer
Leontiou set out to create this beautiful, atmospheric sound, and he totally succeeded.
A live show can make or break a musical group. If their album sounds great, but their live show sucks, I am instantly turned off. One eskimO’s live show was incredible. All four of the band members contribute to the creative structure that makes up this band. There’s a talented acoustic guitarist, Pete Rinaldi; an insanely wild drummer, Adam Falkner; an amazing percussionist/bass guitarist, Jamie Sefton; and—of course—the dreamy voiced lead singer, Kristian Leontiou.
Here’s a little snippet of video from the concert we attended at Smith’s Olde Bar. (Yes, we were that close.)
I’d like to extend the opportunity to win One eskimO’s CD and a t-shirt! All you have to do to be entered is leave me a comment in the comment section telling me what the last live show you saw was. I’ll announce the winner a week from today!
[Disclosure: I was provided with the CD and tickets to the show, and by doing the review I am entered to win one of six gift-cards. I was not paid otherwise, and all the opinions are purely my own.]
