Giveaway Day! -- Back to School Giveaways!

If you haven't ever visited the informative and inspiring blog- Balancing Beauty and Bedlam- you should definitely take a gander this week.  Jen is giving away Bissell steam cleaners, $150 Staples gift cards, Acer laptops, and more.  Take 5 minutes and enter to win a couple- who knows....you might win something!  Enjoy!

Giveaway Day! -- Free Books

I love books.  I love them even more when they're free.  We've all heard about Amazon.com's Kindle.  But we also know they cost $150+.  This is where the amazing Kindle apps come in handy.  Amazon has created apps for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Mac and Windows computers. Basically, instead of buying their gadget (and who needs something else to carry around?) you just read Kindle books on something you already own.

My bookshelf - decked out for
Christmas last year

I love my iPhone app.  I use it all the time.  Keep in mind that when Kindles were first introduced, I thought the idea of e-books was awful.  But now as life is much busier and complicated, I find it so nice to grab my iPhone and be able to catch a few short moments to read- waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting to get my hair cut, at stoplights....just kidding about the last one- but I have been tempted to at times....

So how do you get this?  Go here.  Pick the app you want.  Then begin to download books.  Thanks to the Gutenberg project, Amazon.com can offer thousands of older, classic books for free.  I have all the Jane Austen books, many of Charles Dickens' works, and many more.

Not a huge fan of classical literature??  What about the master of mystery- Sherlock Holmes?  You want fairy tales to read to your children- Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales are quaint and charming.  Every once in a while you will see newly published books offered  for free as well.  And of course, you can buy just about any book you want via Amazon.com.

I could go on and on about the Kindle apps and free books, but try it for yourself- it's free! :)

Giveaway Day! -- Swagbucks

I. Love. Swagbucks.

Seriously people, you need to try this.  So far, I have gotten four $5 gift cards from amazon.com simply by accumulating enough points to cash them in for a gift card.  You can get so much more than that too- just check out the other cool gift cards on their site.

All you have to do is

1. Click this nifty button:


2. Sign up for an account.

3. Start searching the web using Swagbucks instead of Google, Yahoo, etc. Or do many other things to earn Swagbucks.  I sent my old cell phone in and got enough for one amazon.com gift card.  Can't beat that!

4. Watch your points add up!

Seriously- this is no gimmick or gag or goof.  It's real, and you will love me forever if you try this. Still have questions?  Click here for FAQ's.  Then come back and click on my button to join.  Try it...you know you want to...