Dove and $1000 Spafinder Gift Sweepstakes!

 I recently had the opportunity to try out another fabulous product from Dove. If you recall back In July I wrote about their new body wash and how wonderful it made my skin feel. This go round it was all about the hair. I have tested out the all new Dove® Intensive Repair Daily Treatment Conditioner for the past few weeks.

I don’t know about you ladies, but my hair took a beating this summer with the hot, hot , hot weather we had here in Virginia! So I was more than happy to try out something new that helps to repair and nourish my hair, as well as keep it that way in the future. Hot summer weather is one of the main factors contributing to or affecting dry, frizzy hair! I also just returned from a long-weekend at the beach where I spent many many hours in the sun, surf and sand wreaking havoc on my strands. All the while I was using the Dove® Intensive Repair Daily Treatment Conditioner however, and you would never know I spent so much time in the salt water!

The key to repairing your hair and maintaining its health is to keep it nourished, which is exactly what Dove® is so good at. Fiber Active technology penetrates deep inside the hair strand, helping rebind damaged proteins. Patented Micromoisture Serum targets damage, repairing the surface of hair by sealing lifted cuticles. 

The Intensive Repair Daily Treatment Conditioner is designed to be used everyday. It is a thick, rich formula and provides a luxurious treatment feel to restore softness and smoothness in the time of a daily conditioner. Leave it on for one minute, then rinse it out.

If you would like more information about the Dove Conditioner products thta are available you can visit their website here. 

Just for joining me today and reading my shout out to Dove, you have the oppotunity to enter to win a $1000 Spafinder Gift Certificate! 

Enter to win a $1,000 Spafinder gift certificate!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

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. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/4/2012 - 9/30/2012

Be sure to visit Dove®Hair.com to get a coupon for $1.50 off Dove Hair Therapy products.

A Guide to Increasing Your Creativity and Saving Money

Today we wanted to talk a little bit about how to increase your creativity level when planning and designing a dessert table or party. As most of you already know, we prefer to keep our parties and tables on a budget. Which means of course that being creative about how you spend money is absolutely paramount.

We make many of the things you see featured on our Dessert Tables. Some of them are things we found and simply redecorated. Others were objects meant to serve a completely different use, so when we use them to do something other than what they were originally intended for, we call that repurposing.

While these concepts of restyling or redecorating and repurposing is something we utilize a lot now, it wasn’t always the case. We used to spend a lot more time trying to find the perfect item, ready to go on the table, without alteration. If you are a budget savvy party planner we urge you not to do this. First of all, it is a time-consuming process, and who couldn’t use extra time when planning a party? Second, it is costly. It costs you more money to find something ready to use than it does to find something you can re-style or re-purpose. Of course if you are in a huge hurry you might find that a DIY is not an option. In that case we urge you to plan ahead more often and try to build in time for projects!

Here is a creative example of repurposing. Jason created this Space Helmet out of some very ordinary objects. He wanted a very specific look for it, retro-futuristic, large and bubble like. Now how hard would it be to find a helmet like that and not spend a fortune on it? Even if you did find one, it would be an antique and would cost at least a few hundred dollars. Our helmet cost us about $7 dollars to make. That figure includes the cost of a Slurpee, which is about $2.50.


This is a great example of restyling. Jason envisioned several Ray-guns on our Retro Space Dessert Table. Do ray-guns actually exist outside of the movie industry? I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. That would make them very hard to find. What he did find however were some squirt guns at Dollar Tree. The body style was spot on, but the color was all wrong. A little DIY project later and we had restyled those squirt guns to fit our theme perfectly. Oh, and they were only $.33 each. And we used materials we already had to do it.



Can you tell who the visionary is in this outfit? Haha. It isn’t me. Jason has that knack for figuring out how to make things work out the way he wants them to.

Here are some tips on finding objects that will work for your project:

  • Look beyond what something is already and further on to what it could be instead.
  • Search your house first. We have constructed many a DIY out of random objects from our kitchen pantry.
  • Soda Bottles and Food Containers have been pivotal for us. Jason likes to examine food containers at the grocery store when we shop to find the right shapes that he needs to construct.
  • Never count out the dollar stores. It is the first place we go when we look outside our home for something. I can’t tell you how many times we have found exactly what we were looking for at a dollar store. Seriously. They have the most random items sometimes. Hardware stores are also a treasure trove.
  • If it can be spray painted or hot glued, it can be turned into something else.
  • Foamcore Board and Poster Board are extremely useful materials, and you can get them at the dollar stores. They are not just for school projects!


We hope this information helps when it comes to planning and saving some money too!

If you have any questions, suggestions or helpful tips of your own, please do share them in the comments below!

 

Two Little Birds, Sit By My Doorstep

Two doves to be exact.

The first, nestled safely in her nest. We have been watching her build and nest her eggs for a few weeks now, but we still haven’t heard any baby birds!

And what about the second Dove? Well that one (not a live animal!) was wrapped up safe and sound in a box on our porch. A nice little surprise I had forgotten was on its way to me. It was a bottle of Dove® VisibleCare™ Toning Crème Body Wash with NutriumMoisture™.

Several weeks beforehand I signed on to product test for Dove®. I thought “What can it hurt? I like body wash. And if it really works, well then that is a double bonus for me! Plus, I don’t have to buy bodywash for a month.” So out of the box came the big bottle of Dove® VisibleCare™ Toning Crème Body Wash, and into my shower it went. 

Let me tell you a little something about myself, I am a skeptic. I don’t buy products at the store simply because they say they are going to do this or that for me. I want to KNOW that it really works. Likewise any product that promises to do something for me like help promote skin’s elasticity and strength, and actually improve the look of my skin, had better work, or else I am not going to pass along the message. I don’t believe in falsely advertising anything. Now that that is out of the way, I will continue.


Dove® VisibleCare™ Toning Crème Body Wash advertises that it will help promote skin’s elasticity and strength, as well as actually improve the look of your skin. It combines the best of Dove® technology into a luxurious experience for beauty seekers. Sounds good right? So here is the deal, this body wash will give you visibly more beautiful skin in just one week. One week is all it takes. And if you stick with it and use it every day until the bottle is all gone (which should last you several weeks) you will really see a difference.

I have used Dove® VisibleCare™ Toning Crème Body Wash every day since June 25th. Today is July 18th, so that means I have been using it for 24 days now. The first thing I noticed about my skin was that it felt properly moisturized. I am going to credit this to the high concentration of NutriumMoisture within the body wash. The second thing I noticed was after about a week. My skin felt significantly softer and looked healthier overall. Toning Crème is the product name, and tone is what it does! I am a someone who has dry skin just about all the time, no matter what time of year it is, so for me this was a welcome improvement!

I will be 32 next month, and let me just tell you how much your skin changes in a 5 year period between the end of your twenties and the beginning of your thirties. I hav noticed a general decline in the elasticity of my skin. Things are a little less taught than they used to be. I was really pulling for this Dove® VisibleCare™ Toning Crème Body Wash to help me feel my best, my most beautiful and more confident about showing off my skin. After three weeks of using this body wash, I am sold. It smells wonderful, making the experience of using it that much better. It feels great, lathers like crazy, and a little bit goes a long way, which is nice for the budget conscious like ourselves. But most of all it does what it says it will. It really does improve the look of your skin. 

Visit Dove® VisibleCare® to get a coupon for $1 off!

I urge you to try it out for a month and see what it can do for you. This revolutionary new product line comes in three different Dove® VisibleCare variants: Toning Crème Body Wash which helps to promote skin’s elasticity and strength, Renewing Body Wash which nourishes and replenishes skin and Softening Body Wash which softens skin and dry spots. Give it a try and let us know what you thought about it!

 

Enter to win one of two $500 Spafinder gift certificates!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

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. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 7/18/2012 - 8/22/2012

Be sure to visit the Dove® VisibleCare™ Crème Body Wash brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Sweet Info: Designer's Guide to Protecting Your Digital Artwork

Necklace No.19 from 26Ten on Etsy

You work really hard to create new and original ideas. You are proud of them and when you sell them, you want them to remain your work. But then it happens, you find yourself in a situation where your work, is being passed off as someone elses. Maybe even being SOLD by someone other than yourself. You’ve been design hacked, your artwork stolen. And there is nothing you can do to get it back. You contact the other party in hopes of an honest resolution.

Once you resolve this issue you find yourself wondering, “How can I keep that from happening again?”

LOCK YOUR FILES.

  • In order to keep persons other than yourself from being able to do anything to your files you need to LOCK them.
  • To do this you will have to export your files as a PDF from within the Adobe software program you use.
  • PDF files allow for security via password protection.

About Adding security to PDF files

When saving as PDF, you can add password protection and security restrictions, limiting not only who can open the file, but also who can copy or extract contents, print the document, and more.

A PDF file can require passwords to open a document (document open password) and to change security settings (permissions password). If you set any security restrictions in your file, you should set both passwords; otherwise, anyone who opens the file could remove the restrictions. If a file is opened with a permissions password, the security restrictions are temporarily disabled.

Security options

You can set the following options when you create a PDF or when you apply password protection to a PDF.

Use A Password To Restrict Editing Security And Permissions Settings

Restricts access to the PDF file’s security settings. If the file is opened in Adobe Acrobat, the user can view the file but must enter the specified Permissions password in order to change the file’s Security and Permissions settings. If the file is opened in Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign, the user must enter the Permissions password, since it is not possible to open the file in a view-only mode.

Once you have exported your files as a PDF you’ll need to set the security options that best fit our business of selling “printable” files.


Follow these steps:

Set a Permissions Password

Specify a password that is required to change the permissions settings. This option is available only if the previous option is selected.

Select: Printing Allowed

Specifies the level of printing that users are allowed for the PDF document.

Select: High Resolution

Lets users print at any resolution, directing high-quality vector output to PostScript and other printers that support advanced high-quality printing features.

Changes Allowed

Defines which editing actions are allowed in the PDF document.

Select: Inserting, Deleting, And Rotating Pages
Deselect all other options here.

Lets users insert, delete, and rotate pages, and create bookmarks and thumbnails. This option is only available for high (128‑bit RC4 or AES) encryption.

Un-check the box: Enable Copying of Text, Images, And Other Content

Lets users to select and copy the contents of a PDF.

Ignore the box: Enable Text Access For Screen Reader Devices For The Visually Impaired

Lets visually impaired users read the document with screen readers, but doesn’t allow users to copy or extract the document’s contents. This option is available only for high (128‑bit RC4 or AES) encryption.

After you have gone through these steps you will need to enter your specified password again before the PDF options are saved, be sure not to skip this step.


THAT’S IT!

Now your files are safe, and your customers are safe from themselves :)

For more information regarding this topic you can visit the Adobe website.