Tip Hero is putting together another fabulous giveaway event for all you poor tuition-toting graduates:) Bloggers you still have time to join the lot of us! Yah, for Tip Hero giveaways!

• Event is free to join with an announcement post. If you don't wish to post the announcement, please send the $5 non-post fee to tiphero@gmail.com
• You'll receive 1 free link for participating (either Twitter or Pinterest)
• Additional links (RSS/Email, Twitter and Pinterest) are available for $5 each
• Sign-ups for this event end on May 5th
• Event runs from May 7th - 21st
• Prize: $100 Amazon gift card

Please send all payments to tiphero@gmail.com as a "gift" via PayPal. Sign up for this event here

Monday, no tacos for you;-) Like'EM on Facebook

Open your minds and stomachs to TacoLu located in Jacksonville Beach, FL. Sunshine and tacos as it happens are a fabulous mix. Complimentary valet parking is just the beginning of your experience at TacoLu. Step inside to a world filled with fluorescent skulls, tequila-lined windows with matching chandeliers, and a rustic ambiance courtesy of the elderly building. Tacos anyone?


TacoLu has tacos, but not the Taco Bell kind most Americans expect. The TacoLu menu centers around a taco bar of sorts where you can mix and match from a list of unusual sounding tacos. My husband and I had two stand-out tacos: carne asada and the cheeseburger. Holy taste buds...these unusual tacos are delicious! The cheeseburger taco had{as you might expect} tomato, lettuce, onion, mustard, ketchup, and pickles on top. It tasted just let a burger, but it's a taco{crazy man}. Most of the food items at TacoLu are handmade on location throughout the day for guaranteed fresh foodie fare.

 Look at these fine gentlemen:) Do yourself a favor and stop by TacoLu for lunch, dinner, or both while visiting Jax Beach! See you guys real soon;-)

Weird Little World mimosa wreath Giveaway Winner:
Rachel D. *Confirmed*

Shabby Apple $15 Gift Card Winner:
Danielle L. *Confirmed*

LUSH Dorthy Bubble Bar Winner:
Latanya T. *Confirmed*

Northernly Paisley Headwrap Winner:
Jennie F. *Confirmed*

essential8 natural cleaner Winner:
Katrina B. *Confirmed*

Spring Statement Ring Winner:
Anissa B. *Confirmed*


Wanna be the next winner? You still have time to enter the Sassy Pants giveaway {05/02;US} ENTER HERE.

Upon exiting my Bikram class and entering my SUV I noticed something funny about my car. My dashboard lights disappeared when I turned my headlights on. Strange right? My apparent options were: A.) Drive with no lights and see my speedometer OR option B.) Drive with lights and tell the officer pulling me over for speeding that my speedometer is invisible{I can visualize the officer handing me a ticket without even an inkling of a smirk}.

So, I am driving down the road flicking my lights on and off to sporadically see my speedometer{appearing like a lunatic to the other drivers beside me} when it dawns on me. My three year old was helping my husband clean out the car! And there it was an obscure dimmer switch to the left of my steering wheel turned completely down. That smiling little angel got me! Good one son:)

Happy Sunday Lovas!

SHOP Lush///Like'em on Facebook


Dear Lushies and soon-to-be Lushies,

Lush has a new creation that is going to blow your minds*KA-POW* Lush has released The Dish Fairy soap for your dishes{yep you heard that right DISHES}. I am so excited about this Mother's Day Lush edition that I am starting a giveaway right now! We are going to give this dish soap on a wand a twirl;-) Evidently, all you do is twirl the wand in some warm water to get the bubble dish-cleaning action started. The scent is a combination of lemon and gardenia! You may ask, why am I so excited about a fancy soap for cleaning the dishes aka work?

I do a plethora of dish cleaning:( Anything that can make the experience more enticing for me is A-okay in my book. This giveaway is for all you hard working mommas out there! Happy Early Mother's Day lovas! Oh, you wanna win?!

Giveaway starts now! The giveaway will end 5/20 at midnight eastern time. Open to US residents only, 18+. Leave a comment after completing two small tasks: Follow me on Bloglovin' & Share this giveaway {leave the URL to your Bloglovin' profile, URL to your share, and your contact e-mail should you win}. Winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Good Luck!

Hosted By: Mommy's Favorite Things & Mama's Baby Cupcakes "For The Home" This Blog Hop giveaway is going to be items that are meant For The Home. Anything that has to do with the home. From decorating to cleaning products. From food to Bedding. Whatever goes in the home. There are lots of options for finding a prize for this wonderful event. Your only mission is to find the perfect prize pack for your blog! Because this is a blog hop, each blog will be responsible for securing their own prize on their own blog. Each prize must be a Minimum of $25. The Prize can be sponsored OR you can self sponsor. Each blog can have more than 1 winner, but each winner must win at least $25 in prizes.  Joining this Blog Hop is FREE with Announcement. When: 7/8-7/22 Who: Anybody with a blog can sign up for this one! Sign ups close 7/1 Click HERE to find the HTML for the announcement post and Don't forget to add yourself to the Linky Below! You MUST post an announcement post in order to enter this hop! You can also join the Facebook Group for our events here

love.

My dear husband and I got ONE night to spend all alone together!*happy dance* If you have small children you thoroughly understand how I feel. We had such a wonderful time together in Jacksonville Beach, FL last week and I wanted to share our coastal foodie adventures with you. There are so many beaches to visit on the east coast alone, but Jacksonville Beach remains our steady favorite. My husband and I had just one goal for the evening: to consume as much deliciousness as possible. Our dinner venue was scoped out far in advance back in Virginia. Ocean 60 was our dinner destination.
Ocean 60 boasts American Contemporary style cuisine with a menu that changes daily{always a good sign}. The romantic ambiance is complete with candles and fresh flowers. First thing first...you need alcohol:) My mood that evening required a girly beverage.

I ordered a mojito spin off with blueberries and vodka. The drink was pretty, but a little hard to drink with all the blueberries floating about. I would order the classic rum mojito in the future. The food and service are the reason for a return visit to Ocean 60...simply outstanding! Feast your eyes and stomach on this gorgeous scallop appetizer;-)

The appetizers were an easy decision. Fried calamari and clams with a citrus chipotle aioli dipping sauce{YUM}. The seafood was well prepared and the dipping sauce was a balanced combination of spice and flavor. In addition, we also ordered scallops with a tomato-based sauce lying on a bed of risotto. This dish was over the moon amazing! We would have continued our feast at Ocean 60, but I needed to save some space for a true Florida classic: THE key lime pie.

You must eat key lime pie while in Florida. It is sacrilegious otherwise. We questioned a few local folk about where to quench our key lime craving when North Beach Fish Camp came on the radar. The place is busy and the key lime pie is GOOD! The key lime pie had a strawberry puree that balanced the tartness of the key lime. Oh foodie heaven take me away;-)

Thank you Jacksonville{Atlantic Beach}, FL for a divine time;-)

Beach season announced it's arrival seemingly overnight this year. Surf's up! Time to pack those beach bags. The beach bag has the capacity of turning into an awkward overflow mess. Some folks simply require a few basic necessities such as your suntan lotion, a nice beach read, and a towel. Most of us transition into the umbrella, multiple beach chairs, BBQ grill, cooler, extra pair of shoes, sunglasses, hats{we are not even talking about baby items or the folks who roll with their jeeps}:) What could you really use in this situation?

Answer: A well organized beach tote from Thirty-One Gifts. 
Thirty-One Gifts has personalized totes, home storage organizers, and even beautiful stationary. All geared towards making your life easier. Chryste Story is your local California independent consultant for Thiry-One Gifts and she sent me the Easy Breezy Tote{perfect for the beach} stylishly monogrammed with my initials! Whether you are a heavy packer, a weekend beach mama, or have a bus load of children this tote can carry it all{probably more};-)

Interestingly enough, whilst on vacation this past week I indulged in some extra Bikram yoga classes and met another Thirty-One Gifts consultant! The yogi consultant complemented my tote and starts showing me her Thirty-One Gifts tote that she brings to yoga! I also chatted with her about the celebratory card set, which I received with my tote. This card set has a broad variety of cards for just about any occasion you can think of!:) The celebratory cards are beautiful, witty, and far more affordable than your standard Hallmark version. What are you waiting for? Surf on over to thirtyonegifts.com and hang ten with their personalized offerings the whole family will love!


EXCLUSIVE: 31 GIFTS: 10% off your ENTIRE order plus get ANY thermal product for HALF off for each $31 you spend! Spend $100+, get BOTH 10% off AND free shipping– ONLY available here: http://tinyurl.com/Spunky31
PERFECT time to score gifts for upcoming birthdays, showers, etc.– this show will close out on the 22nd of May and items will arrive about two weeks later.

PLEASE NOTE: You will NOT see the discount in your cart, but your card will NOT be charged until your invoice is adjusted to reflect 10% off!

Who is ready to personalize and organize with a Thirty-One Gifts Giveaway? a Rafflecopter giveaway

Straight off the beach and into the garden I go:) Garden shows really inspire one to pull on the gardening gloves and yank out those dastardly weeds! Our little town of Leesburg, VA has a lovely flower and garden show each Spring with an excellent variety of flowers, demonstrations, herbs, vegetable plants, garden decor, live entertainment, and tasty eats. This year I have two favorite honorable mentions.


The first is Holly Heider Chapple Flowers. Holly has her roots set in Lucketts, VA with a specialty as a wedding florist. Texture, color, and pure beauty exude from her arrangements. I could not wait to get one for my very own. Holly is warm, inviting, and a pleasurable conversationalist. She graciously whipped up a lovely bouquet to suite my tastes. I wanted texture and she delivered. My only sadness is she does not sell bouquets to "the common Joe" {yet}.

Holly's future plans include floral workshops and possibly a night to sell her extra wedding florals to the public. Fingers crossed folks;-) After my flower powered perusing I am starving!


Fried emporiums as far as the eyes can see. They are poorly organized and a general cluster *ahem*. When what do my wandering eyes should appear, but The Randy Radish truck with veggie appeal. My foodie heart leapt with joy! The line was long, but moved quickly and efficiently.


I ordered the veggie frankfurter with all the fixings {chili, sauerkraut, onions, relish, mustard, and ketchup}. What a breath of fresh foodie air! This veggie inspired dog would trick even the most developed palates into thinking you are eating the meat version. Loudoun County carnivores and vegans alike should prepare to adore The Randy Radish food truck! The Leesburg Flower and Garden show with continue today Sunday April 21st, 2013! Come and enjoy the Springtime show:)

Tip Hero is my inspiration for this little natural cleaning number! They have so many fantastic ideas, but I loved this one so much that I just had to share;-) Everybody deals with the dreaded soap scum in their bathrooms. I have used every cleaner{natural & chemical alike} and nothing has done the job better than a lemon! Well actually half a lemon:) Here is how it works:

Cut a lemon in half and coat the juicy side with a natural abrasive{coarse sea salt or baking powder}. This is really all you need, but I took this natural cleaning recipe a step further. Grab your favorite essential oil {grapefruit, lavender, or sweet orange work best} and drip some drops right on top! Now scrub, scrub, scrub. Not only does this erase soap scum in an instant, but it leaves behind a natural scent-trail for your enjoyment:)

Natural and Organic bath products are very important to me. I am always on the hunt for natural "stand out" bath products. Dark Woods Soap Co. instantly drew my attention with their thickly luscious bars of soap, natural packaging, bold labels, and uniquely yummy soap scents. Among my favorite bath products are shampoo bars! Duel products are my fave. Use on your hair or bod...the choice is yours! Dark Woods has many delicious looking shampoo bars to choose from, but my choice was the Fresh Lemon Shampoo Bar!


A light lemon scent with plenty of bubbly lather. The Fresh Lemon Shampoo bar rinses clean and leaves the conditioner in the optional section. That last point is important, because many shampoo bars still require the companion use of a conditioner. In the end, however, it is the small details that win a customer over. The Dark Woods Soap Co. wrapper is seeded and an Eco-conscious babes best friend! Take it off, water, plant, and watch it grow! LOVE, love, heart this! Overall, I am supremely pleased with the Dark Woods Soap Co. experience and more importantly so is my shiny-happy hair:)
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Get to Andrea at the Glam Hungry Mom as quickly as possible! She has a fab, fabulous group giveaway for you all! You have a chance to win a 250x250 primo ad space from yours truly right here at Spunky Real Deals. Action starts ASAP. Hold tight my little pumpkins:) You can also enter here, but visit Andrea anyway. I adore her!

Tip Hero really is my money-saving hero! Today they are the gracious hosts of a "Spring Cleaning Giveaway". Tip Hero wants to help you get a jump start on the unearthing, cleaning, and renewal of your home for Spring! Sorry loves there are no cleaning supplies in this giveaway, but you could buy some with a $100 Walmart gift card!!!! Now that could buy a lot of Magic Erasers;-)

Make sure you also stop by Tip hero and scope loads of amazing money saving Spring cleaning tips{I am going to post a stellar one right here later today}! Tip Hero has a FREE homemade cleaners ebook featuring some excellent homemade cleaner recipes. These tips come directly from the hero and great folks like you! Now what are you waiting for sunshine? This $100 Walmart gift card could buy you a plethora of cleaning supplies or toilet paper{that is your prerogative}.

This giveaway begins on April 10th and will run until April 24th at 11:59pm US Eastern time. It will be open to residents of the US only, 18+. Use the PromoSimple form below to enter and be sure to take advantage of the many entries you can gain. You can also come back daily for more chances to win.



 $100 Walmart Gift Card

Stories. I love a good story and I love drawing bits and pieces of stories. Even when I draw real people, I'm drawing part of their story and that makes me happy.

I also wondered who her favorite artists were. She had a lengthy list of artist crushes including: Katie Daisy for her great color pallet and sweet folk tale aura. Jo Klima from The Darling Tree. James White for  his very manly art with super vibrant colors. Lois van Baarle for her phenomenal drawings of people. And Kristen Kemper, because Melody believes she is as addicted to stories and story telling as she.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

This weekend I had the astute pleasure to peruse around the Ida Lee Craft Show in my hometown of Leesburg, Va! No plans for networking and even forgot my business cards, but sometimes work finds you regardless of intention:) Poking around a booth chocked full of delectable looking bath & body goodies brought me face to face with Laura Faulring the owner of Scented. She graciously packed me a goody bag with three items for me to share with lovely all of you: Sleep Tight baby lotion, Butt Naked baby lotion, and Fresh Squeezed Citrus bath salts. Let me start with what I dove into first: the citrusy bath salts!

The intense citrus scent of the Fresh Squeezed Citrus bath salts were in the air even before I opened the container! You will even note from the photo little citrus peel chunks floating about! Dead sea salts pull out impurities while the Jojoba oil does the moisturizing job! Citrus will be your companion the whole day through after soaking in the Citrus Scentedco.com bath salts! Let's slide into some moisturizing and relaxing Sleep Tight baby lotion by Scented;-)


Baby approved {at least by my babes}. A terrible cold has attacked our household and Sleep Tight really calms the babes right down. I love the unusual combination of essential oils: cedar leaf, clary, chamomile, orange rose, and ylang. The scent is pleasant and very light, which heightens the relaxation even more! The texture is light and absorbs quickly.You can clearly see the list of ingredients are natural with nothing artificial touching your sweet babe. Scented does have a unscented baby lotion named appropriately Butt Naked with just the butters and oils if you want to take "au naturel" a step further. Before you leave my cyber world there is one more very important philanthropy issue we need to talk about:)

I know diapers are expensive, but I did not know DC had a Diaper Bank!*now we do* Please support the DC Diaper Bank and make a donation now! OR just go and buy some Scented products for yourself and they will make the donation for you;-)

Now that I am all Scented and moisturized....it's giveaway time!
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Sign-ups are now open for this fabulous event!

• Event is free to join with an announcement post. If you don't wish to post the announcement, please send the $5 non-post fee to tiphero@gmail.com
• You'll receive 1 free link for participating (either Twitter or Pinterest)
• Additional links (RSS/Email, Twitter and Pinterest) are available for $5 each
• Sign-ups for this event end on April 8th
• Event runs from April 10 - 24
• Prize: $100 Walmart gift card

Please send all payments to tiphero@gmail.com as a "gift" via PayPal. Sign up for this event here.

Online Sweepstakes

Are you Sassy? How about Grumpy, Cranky, Fancy, or Bossy? We are all of those at times right? Well, lovely ladies I have some adorable fashioned sweat pants for you! Designs by Jess has assorted vinyl-printed sweatpants that let you express how you are feeling or humorously how others may feel about you!;-) Jessica Levine {the fine owner} sent me a pair of my choice to lounge about in and give my final verdict! Verdict: I am sitting in them right now....HA!

The most fascinating thing to note about these sweatpants is they only come in men's sizes. This threw me off a bit, but then I realized it was for "extra comfyness". Then it hit me. I steal my husband's sweatpants daily for bedtime. Jess must be genetically linked to Albert Einstein, because this is GENIUS!:) And it is. My Sassy pants have the right amount of slouch linked to amazing comfort. Double-napped fleece gives a light and fur lined feel to these fashionista sweats! The bright pops of color against the black are right in tempo with modern day styling. These are lounging sweats, gym sweats, cannot live without sweats, do I really have to change my pants sweats:) Yeah you will love'em that much!


What type of Designs by Jess fashion sweats are you...GIVEAWAY TIME?!{Giveaway starts 04/02 midnight tonight} *rafflecopter will be up soon! Sorry for any confusion my loves:) a Rafflecopter giveaway