Contest review This Week~~Almost CHRISTMAS!

Happy Tuesday!Hope your week is going well.Here in the lower south is was 22 night before last and 25 this morning at 5 am.Feels like winter now.lol..Big change from our 80's last week.We watched the meteor shower the other night,it was very pretty.I tink we saw like 40 or 50 this time.We have pretty good visability here ,14 miles from town.Hope you were able to view it as well.
Here are a few contest going on you may want to check out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BEAUTYBENTOBOX CONTEST~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Get a Holiday Gift from Moor Allure Naturals
I feel like Santa Claus. Er, make it, Mrs. Claus since Beauty Bento Box will be giving away some beauty loots to three (3) lucky women (or men — if they’re interested, LOL)! You can get the chance to enjoy a holiday gift set from Moor Allure Naturals that’s valued at $190.00!


Moor Allure Naturals are created from high quality ingredients that are 99% natural (formula includes a preservative) and rich in antioxidants.

Daily use works to:

* prevent premature aging
* protect from environmental damage
* regenerate skin for pure radiance

Benefits of using Moor Allure Naturals are:

* Protect Skin from Harmful Free Radicals - ANTIOXIDANTS - for Diminished Signs of Aging
* Reduce Redness and Puffiness - ANTI-INFLAMMATORY - for a Clear Complexion
* Regenerate Skin Cells - NUTRIENT DELIVERY SYSTEM - Reclaim Youthful Radiance
* Repair Damaged Skin - BIOAVAILABLE NUTRIENTS - for Plump, Smooth and Softer Skin
* Draw out Toxins and Impurities - ASTRINGENT - Deep Cleanse Pores for Acne-Free Skin

This is such a treat for your skin this yuletide season.

Contest Mechanics:


1. The contest will run from today, 10 December 2007 and will end on Thursday, 20 December 2007, 11:59 pm...........
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING AND GET A CHANCE TO WIN!
BEAUTYBENTOBOX!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~tThe Sun~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway
By Sun on Dec 16, 2007 in Contest


To celebrate the holiday and appreciate the support from everybody who read, comment on, and link to the posts in the past year, I am running an annual giving away of $200 Amazon.com gift certificates in the coming week, from December 16th to 22th.

The giveaway consists of two parts:

The first part is a daily $20 giveaway for guessing the closing number of the Dow Jones/S&P/NASDAQ index of the following day from December 16th to 2oth. Winner will be chosen from those who makes the closest guess. Very simple! This part is open to everybody and entries can be made by leaving a comment with a guess number to the posts published at every midnight. Enter every day until you win ...read more!

The SUN cONTEST!

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Everyday ME
Sallie over at Everyday Me.. life as it happens is having a blog contest and you can win a DVD copy of The League of Grateful Sons from Vision Forum. Go on over and sign up for your chance to win but hurry because the contest ends Wednesday night at midnight!
Vision Forum is giving its affiliates the opportunity to have a contest and they supply the prize, shipping, etc.. How great is that for me, and for you?! My husband and I absolutely loved the DVD The League of Grateful Sons and so that is the item we have chosen to give away.

This documentary was shot on location in Iwo Jima and it brought together the sons and fathers of WW II. These warriors are now in their 80's and returned to Iwo Jima to be mentors of what real Christian manhood looks like. These aged warriors share their love of Christ, and family, and country with a new generation that has risen up to honor their legacy! Some of these young sons never got to meet their father but have love letters from them as a lasting memento and a living legacy of what it meant to be a warrior and a man of God. I'm excited to offer it to you for free!! Click here to open a trailer that you can watch in a new window.

So, for the contest, here is what you need to do. Copy the phrase below that is in "quotation marks" and post it in your blog so you can share about the contest and then leave me a comment with the link to your post (or email me at anderklan@yahoo.com with VF contest as subject line if the comments don't seem to be working right). You can also leave a comment in the chat box with your link to your post as well. I will accept entries until midnight PST on Wednesday. The winner will be announced Thursday morning. The DVD will be direct shipped from Vision Forum but it will take 2-3 weeks so don't plan on this as a Christmas gift for anyone ;-)

CLICK AND ENTER!!!!
Everyday ME
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As promised, WoW Insider is giving away one Dell XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition and all the WoW goodies that come with it (estimated retail value $4,999). Under the hood of this bad boy is an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500, 2GB Memory 667MHz, 17inch UltraSharp TrueLife WUXGA, 512MB Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT w/ NVIDIA SLI, a 200GB HDD and a Blu-ray DVD player. And of course, the winner will be able to choose between the Alliance or Horde editions.

In addition to the laptop, you'll get an XPS backpack to carry it around in stuffed with WoW novels, game guides, retail boxes and more. And if you think it can't get any better, check out the full list of goodies included with your XPS notebook after the jump (including the World of Warcraft Beta Club card that contains 5 beta keys for upcoming WoW games!)
wIN iT nOW! WOWINSIDER

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Dear me! The (Internet) dust has barely settled on our previous contest, but we here at Shoeblog are very much into the spirit of giving. Especially when giving involves shoes.

It is with great pride that we announce a NEW!! EXCITING!! GIVEAWAY!! sponsored by our fabulous Barefoot Tess gals (can you tell I’m excited?)

All you have to do is submit a comment to this entry for a chance to win a $100 coupon to be used at Barefoot Tess. The winner will be announced on December 23rd–just in time for Christmas. Need I remind you that they have wonderful selections, suited for every taste and budget?

You could go for these beautiful, classic Delman “Brett” pumps, modestly heeled at 2.5″ high, and so lady-like that people will want to carry your bags and possibly kiss your hand. Or ankle.
SHOE BLOG!click now to enter!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MY FAMILY LOVES IT!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shrek Calendar Contest: 12/17-12/22
posted by Heather on December 17th, 2007

This week we are giving away THREE neat shaped 2008 Shrek wall calendars. They are shaped like Shrek’s head! John was supposed to put the picture up with this post but last night we were up VERY late with a sick kid. He was the one that cleaned up all the throw up so I’ll cut him some slack (he’ll add the picture later though)!
Here’s what you need to do if you want to be one of the winners:
post a comment for 1 entry
post about us in your blog if you want a second entry (remember to let us know)
the contest runs from Mon 12/17 - Fri 12/22 and the winner will be announced on Saturday 12/23/07 (US residents only....CLICK AND READ MORE!
MYFAMILYLOVESIT.COM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FREE HOME ED. CONTEST~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FreeHomed--click here now!

I decided to throw this contest to bring my lurkers out into the open, and to get the word out about this website. To get a chance to win this book set, you need to add a link to this contest (anywhere) and leave a comment to let me know you did it.



FreeHomed--click here now!

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Make it,Use it,Love it .DO IT YOURSELF!

I have been experimenting on solar ovens,not the sometimes expensive panels you buy in the store.I knew there had to be a way to make them yourself out of something ordinary,maybe something laying around the house or closeby.
There are a lot of good ideas out there so i am going to include some of these.Some are so easy my 5 year old grandson Billy can help with it.Now you may think ''why would i want to go to the aggravation of making something i have to leave in the yard and wait a few hours for it to get done''?
Here is why!Here in the deep south most of our down time from electricity is from hurricanes,tornado's etc.So is a lot of other areas.In the north would be snow storms and ice,much like what they are having now.If something happens and your electricity and/or gas is disruppted then you are out of ideas.You are still going to get hungry and the kids want to be fed.So on this scenerio would be really cool,if not logical,to know how to do it.GRANTED YOU WOULD NEED SUN ,but typically after the storm,there is sunshine,if only a few hours of it..That's all you'd need.
So that that idea you now find possibly silly or unneeded for a person such as yourself,Now makes you a very wise and prepared person indeed.Chances are everyone will be watching to see how you are getting by without the modern neccessities!Perhaps you were smart and prepared ahead of time..Yes,and what if something even worse happens?what if power were down for an extended time?
A lot of very smart people in high places are saying that there is a very high possibility that just this scenerio will happen in the very near future.An economic collapse.The people in the depression area did not plan for a collapse like that either.Most thought all was well and learning to live more modern.But the thing that differs from then to now is,Most people did still know how to take care of themselves without modern help.NOW THEY DON'T.TOO MANY GENERATIONS HAVE PAST THAT RELY ONLY ON OTHERS.
Worse case scenerio happens ,you at least have made a small step in helping yourself,best case,you can have fun camping and show off your newly acquired skills!
It is a win win situation for you..So come on,indulge yourself and try it!

Simply Southern~Betty R.
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Panel solar cookers are the first solar cookers that are truly affordable to the world’s neediest. In 1994, a volunteer group of engineers and solar cooks associated with Solar Cookers International developed and produced the first “panel” cooker, the CooKit. Elegant and deceptively simple looking, it is an affordable, effective and convenient solar cooker. It requires a dark, covered pot and one plastic bag per day or one high-temperature plastic bag per month. With a few hours of sunshine, the CooKit makes tasty meals for 5-6 people at gentle temperatures, cooking food and preserving nutrients without burning or drying out. Larger families use two or more cookers. The CooKit weighs half a kilogram, folds to the size of a big book for easy transport. CooKits are now produced independently in 25 countries from a wide variety of materials at a wholesale cost of $3-7 US. We expect that the new hand-assembled CooKits will outlast the manufactured CooKits which last for two years.

CooKits complement other cooking methods needed at night and on cloudy days. Coming about twenty years after the first efforts to replace open fires with improved cooking stoves, the CooKit uses no fuel at all. The CooKit is both user-friendly and environmentally friendly. Families can save scarce, expensive for when they cannot solar cook and when economically capable, add other, higher cost cooking improvements such as modern biomass, smoke hoods, biogas, or liquefied petroleum gas.
The CooKit folds to be about the size of a large notebook when not in use.The value of CooKits is outlined in the following manner:
Addressing fuelwood scarcities:



Solar cooking one meal a day, three times a week has been proven to reduce fuelwood consumption and related smoke by one third.
The CooKit saves more than four times its value in fuelwood each year. With careful use and storage, a CooKit can be used for two years, reducing fuelwood consumption by two tonnes.
Improving health:

The CooKit can pasteurize household drinking water, making it safe to drink.
The solar cooking process is smokeless, reducing respiratory diseases and eye irritation
Solar cooked foods retain vitamins, nutrients and their natural flavors; there is no smoky taste; the foods cook slowly in their own juices. Nutritious, slow-cooking traditional foods (beans, root crops, and some grains) are restored to the family diet
Clean up is easy as the food never burns or sticks to the cooking pot.
Solar cooks frequently report that the money they save on cooking fuel purchases is used to for many essentials, such as extra food, school supplies, and medical care.
Without having to gather wood or dung, breathe smoke, and tend a fire – all associated with traditional cooking – solar cooking is easy and safe for people with AIDS and other illnesses, the elderly, disabled and young orphans.


Rocks can be used to allow the CooKit to be used under windy conditions.Enhancing household and women’s economic status:

The CooKit represents a new opportunity for women to capitalize on an underserved market and better meet their own cooking energy needs
Solar cooking saves time as there is less need to tend a fire or collect firewood. A person can cook while at work, at the market, or tending crops. Young girls can attend school instead of searching for fuelwood.
Solar energy is free and abundant in many areas of Kenya, providing a safe, clean, healthy supplement to traditional fuels.
Co-developers are Roger Bernard of France and Barbara Kerr of the USA, with work also by Ed Pejack, Jay Campbell, and Bev Blum of Solar Cookers International. Extensive field tests in the USA and in many developing countries confirm its performance, convenience, low cost, acceptance, and adaptability to diverse needs.


Construction plans


Easy plans for making a CooKit
Plans for making a CooKit exactly as Solar Cookers International manufactures them. Start with a big piece of cardboard about 1m x 1.33m (3'x 4'). Cut and fold as shown. The angles and folds shown are best, but small variations are OK.Hints:


<<>>


To make clean straight folds in cardboard, first make a crease along the line with a blunt edge such as a spoon handle, then fold against a firm straight edge.
Make the slots a little too small and narrow so that they fit snugly to hold up the front panel.
Glue aluminum foil on the side that will form the inside surfaces when the oven is set up for cooking.
To set up, lay panel flat with shiny side up. Fold up front and back parts and fit back corners into the slots in front.
You're ready to cook! Put your food into a dark-colored pot. Then place the pot inside a plastic bag (an oven cooking bag will withstand the heat best). Close the open end of the bag and place pot and bag into the center of the cooker.

You will find more detailed plans in Solar Cookers and more tips and tricks on this one by going to main source loactaed here>>>>>>
solar cooking!CLICK HERE NOW


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Haybox Cookery --
What is a haybox? Simply an insulated box used for slow cooking. Haybox cookery saves energy. Hayboxes and solar box cookers go very well together. This tipsheet from the Centre for Alternative Technology shows you how to make one and suggests two easy recipes to start you off.


jOURNEY TO FOREVER-HAYBOX-

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Another really cool thing i have been looking at is a tipi.Native americans lived in them year round ,of course they were built properly.But all things considered would not be a bad idea to know the basics anyway.The kids would have a blast with it in the back yard,so try on just for fun.This peticular pattern uses pvc for tubing.i personally like using wood.

Backyard or Livingroom Tipi

The whole gang will love this mini tipi that’s perfect for every child's next backyard powwow.




Backyard or Livingroom Tipi

Materials:

tipi pattern (we used Terrific Teepees, available at www.sewbaby.com)
canvas
coordinating lining fabric
sewing machine
thread
heavy-duty sewing machine needle
masking tape
measuring tape
five 66-1/2" lengths of 3/4" diameter PVC pipe
drill
five 3/4" PVC end caps
five crutch tips
electrical tape (optional)
acrylic paint and textile medium (optional)

1. Follow the tipi sewing instructions provided with the pattern.

2. To make channels for the tipi poles, you will need to make a French seam. With the lining already stitched to the outside fabric layer at the top and bottom of each panel, lay two panels together, lining sides facing (figure A).

3. Mark and cut the corner, at the bottom of the channel, on a diagonal 2" from the side and 2" from the bottom (figure B).


Make this tent -from DIY NETWORK!


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A lot of talk has been going on now about everyone needing to go green,save the enviroment and the likes.I agree.i agree because i just think it makes sence!I know we should all do what we can do to help protect our earth.If we can live cheaper and more self suffcient-i know we should do that.We need to stand on our own two feet whenever possible just like our grandparents did.I assure you a lot less headaches come from that.The energy bills are not as high,gas prices are cut,grocery bills are not so scary and life is just much less stress free.Which by itself is eneough for me to think about it.
Been looking at earth ship homes. another house building method that caught my attention is this. You make a huge pile of soil with your tractor, as big as you want. You lay rebar and pour concrete on your soil dome. You then dig out all of the soil with you tractor and pile it on top of your concrete dome. Plant your garden on top of your house. Interior temp stays stable year round!
Check out these ''earthhomes''! Some are quite basic,others big,beautiful homes.I like this.I am going to try a smaller one.Would be good for food storage and as a storm shelter if built right....The first one is a large home.
earthship home

Here are some more links!
1>> The Earthship Global Website This is the "big daddy" of Earthship websites. It is the homepage for Earthship Biotecture in Toas, New Mexico. These are the folks that have been nuturing the idea for the last 30 years. Tons of information and tons of pictures.

2>>>>>>>>
TOUCH THE HEART HOME This is Mike Shealy's llama and tirehouse website. Mike lives in an Earthship not too far from us. If you are looking for a tirehouse designer, I recommend Mike. Right now he's working on a couple of tire-bale houses, check out the drawings on his site!

3>>>>>>>> CHECK IT OUT! New Mexico. A great commentary on the building process. Has great pictures of the outside of Allen and Pat Gooch's "Nest" with interior pictures too.

4>>>>>>>>> THE HUT A hut as a starter project then the building of a Nest. Good Pictures!
THANKS GOING OUT TO EARTH POWER FOR ALL THE INFO AND LINKS!

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Here is a really neat forum with all kinds of cool diy ideas!!! i like this forum...
lumenlab.com

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another really cool diy site..lots of fun things here kids can be involved in!
junk home!
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Till tomorrow--"think simple"
Simply Southern~Betty