UPDATE: An Eliza Parker Gift Certificate giveaway is live!

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I took my own advice before I knew it was my advice: I asked for something in return for something else.

This time, I asked for a clothing sponsorship for BlogHer ’10 from plus-size social occasion dress company, Eliza Parker, in exchange for my honest opinion on how I liked the dress.

If you’re new around here, (and really, if you are, where have you been? I’ve missed you!) you know that I’m honest to a fault. Almost to a tee. It’s pretty much a detriment to my social being, but whatevs. I’m honest, is my point.

To be honest (see: above), I was hoping, but not sure, I’d like the dress I had picked out with the help of one of the more-than-super-friendly associates over the phone. (Yes, an internet store who will help you over the phone. Like, help you style yourself and everything. It’s almost a lost art in this digital age, but I digress.)

When picking out a $189 dress, even if it’s given to you in exchange for your opinion, especially for someone like me with larger lady lumps, it’s nerve-wracking. There are SO many things to think about: belly chub, arm flaps, boob strapping, thunder thighs. And again, considering this was a $189 dress, I was hoping for the best.

Holy crap on a Baby Jeebus cracker.

I actually looked H.O.T. in my dress. No shit. For realsies. I’d even do me.

(Note: the photo used in this post to represent me in the Venice dress is clearly distorted and does not accurately portray the hotness I was protruding out of my every stretched pore. Just take me at my work. Again, see: above.)

This dress is so fancy, without being over-the-top (cause this mama don’t do over-the-top), it comes with a sash. This girl doesn’t do sashes. Until this dress. I put on that sash and sashayed my happy fine ass all around New York City with my snazzy sash.

This dress is so nice, I didn’t even wear Spanx, and I still felt unlumpy.

This dress is so nice, I could wear it to a funeral, then to a wedding, then to a funeral.

This dress is so nice, I ordered it in the size I think I am, and I could actually wear straight out of the box it came in.

This dress is so nice, I actually felt good about myself.

And that, my friends, is priceless.

(Actually, it costs about $189, and if you have the bone$ to spend on yourself, consider an Eliza Parker dress if you’re a size 10+. You can send me your thank you note after you get over your sexiness.)

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogher 10, cute plus size dresses, dress, eliza parker, new york city, plus size, plus size clothing stores, Sponsored

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Minor disclaimer:

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I love receiving “sponsored” products.

There’s rarely a person, online or off, who would say they don’t like getting things sent to them in return for writing about the products. It’s kind of one of the perks to being famous on the internet a moderately successful blogger.

Yes, there are many people who disagree with me who want to be paid actual cash money for writing a review or mentioning they received “sponsored” products, but for me, if I like something, I’m going to tell you about it whether it’s sponsored or not. <<<< long sentence alert

I used to feel obligated to tell the people of the internets all about a sponsored product I received and make sure I told the world about it in a succinct and proper professional manner. But times have changed. I’m the one in control of my blog and my online persona. I get to tell you want I want you to hear. I’m not controlled by the companies and PR firms sending me the free stuffs.

Yes, I’m a rebel.

OK, not really, but I do a good job of playing a rebel in my head. I’m also insanely rich, have a pet spider monkey, and can dance like Michael Jackson in my head, but that’s a different story.

Not everyone agrees with me, and that’s OK for me. I’m not sure if it’s OK for them, but c’est la vie. <<<< totally googled that

Above disclaimer aside, I’m in LUUURRVE with the Sorrelli jewelry I received this year to wear at BlogHer ’10. LOVE. Wanna marry. Would live in a cabin by a mountain lake for eternity with this jewelry.

Before I started blogging, I found out about Sorrelli because every gay man, woman, and rich child in my hometown was wearing it with everything from t-shirts to evening gowns. It’s stunning jewelry. When I started this whole conference-going thing and realized I could ask companies to send “sponsored” products to me in exchange for my opinion and spreading the word about the products, I twittered @sorrelli and asked if they’d want to participate in “Decorate Angie for BlogHer ’09.” Because I’m Awesome, they loved the idea, and they sent me and a few other lucky ladies some jewelry.

Jump ahead to this year’s BlogHer ’10, I asked again, and since they still love me, Sorrelli said, “Heck yeah, we wanna send you some fantastical jewelries!” or something like that.

This year, I received THE. MOST. GORGEOUS. necklace and earrings combo.

SOOOO, since that picture isn’t the best representation of the gorgousness this necklace embodies (is that even proper verbage?), here’s Sorrelli’s stock photo of the earrings/necklace combo (click on pics to see more about the jewelry on Sorrelli’s site):

Flat-out beautiful, right? If I want to be noticed (see: hair is fixed, clothes without an elastic waistband), I wear one of my Sorrelli pieces. It’s impossible NOT to receive a compliment when I wear one of my necklaces. It’s also a good way to pretend I’m important, and it distracts people from my fat belly rolls.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, blogher, jewelry, sorrelli, Sponsored

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You know you want your kids to grow up to be nerds. Don’t tell me differently. Nerds have all the cash. It’s much easier to be a nerd and make monies than it is to be a sports superstar and rake in the cash. Plus, when your kid makes it as a sports superstar, then eventually is outed as a serial cheater, TMZ will hunt you down as you leave El Pollo Loco with bags of chicken and beans. And really, you’re not looking your best when TMZ finds you with bags of chicken and beans. Just ask Grandma Woods.

I digress.

You want your kids to be nerds. Geeks. Techies.

Start them off young with the VTech V.Smile. Let them spend their every-waking hour glued to a hand-held gaming device. It worked for my husband. He’s a major dork nerd. He makes the monies.

VTech sent me a V.Smile Cyber Pocket for my 3-year-old to play with. I won’t lie. My kids have pretty much all of the hand-held gaming devices available in the modern world. We are raising nerds. On purpose.

My 3-year-old loves the V.Smile. It’s her very own nearly-indestructible nerd creator. We already had the VTech V.Motion thanks to last year’s Christmas, so we had a few games on hand. Luckily, the games made for the V.Motion will work with the Cyber Pocket, just without the motion aspects. No loss there because the Cyber Pocket goes anywhere.

The Cyber Pocket is available on Amazon right now for only $29.99, and you can totally still get it in time for Christmas. I was able to get games at Toys R Us a few weeks ago for $9.99, and I recently saw them on sale at Target for the same price.

So really, it’s much cheaper than sending your kid to Harvard preschool. Just work out their nerd brain with the Cyber Pocket.

You want little nerd kids, don’t you? DON’T YOU? Don’t you dare lie to me. I’ll have my 5-year-old evaluate your lying facial ticks like that British guy on Lie to Me. She’s totally smarter than he is.

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Disclosure: I was sent a VTech V.Smile Cyber Pocket in exchange for telling you about the product. I like it. My kids like it. I wouldn’t have told you about it had we not liked it. Cause that’s how I roll.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cyber pocket, gaming, hand-held, system, vsmile, vtech

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See? I don’t lie:

I can only hope that I’ll look this hot in these sexy panties (5 for $29 panties from Lane Bryant).

She totally has that “come hither and take this lace trim cami off of me” look.

Really, what’s sexier than a good sale. Not much, I’ll tell ya. Not. Much.

Except this guy:

Disclosure: I was provided a Lane Bryant gift card in exchange for the information I shared in this post. Still tho, it’s all my own opinion. I don’t lie. Nor am I shady. I’m also awesome. Obviously.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lane Bryant, Sponsored, underwear

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I’ll just say it. I lucked out. Completely.

I was/am lucky enough to be given the new HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer. (Try saying that 3 times…) Being a writer for Aiming Low has its many privileges.

In receiving the printer, I was asked to write an honest, personal review of the printer as I use it in my home and with my business. That’s good, because it’s hard for me to NOT be honest. I’m a horrible actress. I’m also a horrible joke-teller, but that’s for another day.

That said, I LOVE THIS PRINTER. I’m considering introducing a bill to congress making electronics marriage legal, that would probably pass here in Florida. We’ve always been an HP printer household, so I knows my HPs. I know what to expect: that they’re good darn printers.

Seeing that I loves a list, here are my pros & cons lists for the Fancy Pants (a technical term) printer:

Pros:
• My 3 year old can use it to print Disney and Nickelodeon coloring sheets.
• The picture and graphics print quality is FAR beyond what I ever expected from a home printer.
• You don’t need a computer, just an internet connection. You don’t even need a WiFi connection – you can plug right into your modem or ethernet.
• It’s pretty. It’s shiny.
• It’s pretty much idiot-proof. (see: My 3yo can use it. Not that she’s an idiot, but really, if my 3yo can use it, any adult idiot can use it.)
• Print cartridges are cheap (~$10 each) and last longer than other printers’ I’ve used.
• It prints double-sided. As a small business owner, that’s completely awesome.
• Dual paper trays, which means you don’t have to get up off your booty every time you want to print out a photograph of your adorable (but not as adorable as mine) kids.
• Because it’s connected to the web, there are updates to the printer that download themselves. (see: idiot-proof) HP has promised to add more apps to their already-large app library. And you know, apps are the new black.

Cons:
• My 3 year old can use it to print 100 Disney and Nickelodeon coloring sheets.
• As a small business owner who prints up to 100 pages at a time, I had problems with the printer feeding more than one paper at a time.
• It’s pricey, but they just dropped the price to $340. BUT, when you trade in your old printer (ANY old printer, in ANY condition), you can save $50. That makes it under $300 for those of you who are math-slow.

So tell me, if you were in the market for a printer (and aren’t you always in the market for something way-awesome?) would you buy this printer? Why or why not? What do you look for when you buy a new printer other than it being able to actually print?

The fancy folks at HP will be reading what YOU have to say here. (*waving HI!*) Tell them what you like/don’t like/wish-it-could-do in regards to this printer or any other printer. I bet they’ll write down, in a fancy-pants HP kind of way, what you have to say. They’re cool like that.

Gotta say it: My disclosure statement.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aiming low, hp, HP Web Printer, printer, review

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I have rules for things. Things that don’t need rules.

• Rules for naming my girls: no nicknames (“Angie” for “Angela”), no double letters (Lily Lynch), no uber-popular names (Katelyn, Emma).
• I’m a grammar nerd, and I expect other people to live up to my expectations with the written word.
• I possess the TV remote unless sports are being shown.
• Kraft Mayo.

My own rules can be hard to live by, yet I still make them.

I have a rule for Christmas/Holiday cards: no pictures of the parents. No one wants to see you. They want to see cash your kids, if anyone. Really. If you put your own picture in your Christmas/Holiday card, I will compare you to your last year’s photograph to see how much weight you’ve gained. I know you’d do the same to me.

My Christmas/Holiday cards also have to prominently feature the photograph(s). They have to be pretty, but not frilly. They need to be simple, but not boring. They need to be flat so I don’t have to think of anything witty to write on the inside of a folded card.

It takes me an estimated 3 weeks every year to search for the perfect Christmas/Holiday card. I’m not joking. It’s kind of sad.

This year, I was lucky enough to be approached by Tiny Prints to print and review Christmas/Holiday cards. Oh sweet Jeebus, that makes me narrow down my search to just one photo card site.

It still took me 3 weeks to search for the perfect card. Sad.

It took me 3 weeks because there really are THAT many incredible designs from which to choose for our Christmas/Holiday photo card. To top that, if there’s something I wanted to change on the card, the Tiny Prints graphic gurus would change it for me. (Not just for me ’cause I’m awesome, but they’ll do it for anyone.)

I finally picked a card I liked that matched my girls dresses (yeah, I do that. shut it.), that was simple, yet cute, and also featured my girls in all their cuteness. The cardstock quality is FAR beyond any other photo cards I’ve sent out in years’ past. My snail-mail-only family and friends will think I’ve hit the big-time.

Yeah. Flippin awesome.

Discount
Tiny Prints has a whole page on their website dedicated to giving customers discounts. The best one, in my awesome humble opinion, is FREE Shipping PLUS Up to $30 Off Holiday Orders with code TPSHIPSALE.

Giveaway
I loves me a giveaway. Tiny Prints is allowing me to give away a $50 gift certificate good for shopping their store. Pretty awesome, I know.

To enter, leave a comment below telling Tiny Prints which Christmas/Holiday photo card is your favorite. Leave a second comment by tweeting about the contest and leaving a comment with the tweet link below.

1 comment & 1 tweet comment are allowed per day (that’s a total of 2 entries per day for the mathematically challenged) now through Wednesday, November 18th at 11:50pm EST.

The winner will be announced here on this post, on Prizey.net, and will be contacted directly by Tiny Prints with your gift certificate code to use as you wish.

Good luck!

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Our winner is…..
Jennifer Ferrara!

Check your email in the next few days for your gift certificate from Tiny Prints!

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Disclosure: I was provided products from Tiny Prints in exchange for this honest review.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 76 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: christmas card, Giveaways, photo card, photograph

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I really don’t know what to think about all the “plastics” controversy. I tend to be an optimist with pessimistic tendencies, so I believe the best in people and things with hesitation. I’d like to think that the government protects us and our children from the hidden dangers found in food and products, but with the current *ahem* administration, my faith is all but gone. Recently, the plastics and lead controversies have entered my house and business. I have just added two safe products to my store: The Safe Sippy Cup and Green to Grow BPA-Free Bottles.

I’m not really writing for shameless self-promotion; I really do want to know the attraction that people have that makes them beg and plead to get these bottles.

Are the bottles and cups I use with my girls really going to give them cancer, stunt their growth, and lower their IQ? What and whom should I believe?

I’m so confused.

What do you think?

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© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2007. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Looking for Mamas Like? We’re still fine-tuning our new blog, so please check us out here: http://mamaslike.com

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2007. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Dawn at Mom2My6Pack has started a new product review blog! Who doesn’t love a new blog? And, coming from Dawn, you know it’s good because I’m featured.

Bonus – she chose MY online store as her first feature. ME! Your favorite blogger.

Check it out – you could win a fabulous partying gift just for commenting! And, I have a special coupon code for Dawn Fan bloggers.

Because I Said So Review

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© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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It’s time for shameless self promotion!

I’ve given myself a platform, so what better place to peddle my wares than my own blog. Plus, it’s good search engine optimization. A win-win for me!

Today, I’m hawking promoting the personalized stamps that I’ve recently added to my online store, Good for the Kids. Personalized address and name stamps are the PERFECT holiday gift. They are inexpensive, unique gifts that show you thought about the person you are giving them to for your holiday or special occasion. I’ve included some of the designs that are featured on the website, but there are literally hundreds to choose from for your personalized gift for someone else or yourself.

Great for holiday gifts, birthday, wedding, anniversary, bridesmaids, sorority initiation, or just because, these personalized stamps are sure to be appreciated of as a token of your thoughtfulness.

I know, I know, it’s only October, but to absolutely guarantee holiday delivery, start thinking about ordering now!

Just for my bloggers, use code 15BLOGGER for 15% off your order this week (expires Oct. 13th). Thanks, guys!

Holiday Stamps and Gift Tag Stamps

Personalized Monogram and Name Stamps

Whimsical Stamps for Children, Scrapbooking, or Everyday Use

Collegiate Logos & Mascot Stamps and College Sorority Stamps

Thanks SO much for your support!

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© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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