A few weeks ago we had some of our college friends over for a get-together.   One of our friends has an iPhone, and since he doesn’t have kids and isn’t accident prone like me, he doesn’t need a big bulky case to protect it.  But he didn’t want it to get all scratched up either.  So he found this little gem of a website, and made pretty, unique cover to protect his phone.

On UniqueSkins.com, you can create a custom vinyl skin for your electronic devices.  You choose the type of skin you want(cell phone, ipod, laptop, flip, etc) and then design it in the very user friendly designer application.  They have several backgrounds to choose from or you can upload your own artwork, background or photograph.

I ordered a skin for my Blackberry and one for my mom’s Dell Mini, and I LOVE them both.  I put a picture of my kids on both of them, and for only $6.99(for my BlackBerry Pearl) I can get one for each season and not feel bad about it.  (Although I should note that the website says that they’ll last for about 6-9 months on mobile devices with regular use and years on gaming consoles and laptops!)

See how cute this is??  (The kids, the computer and the UniqueSkin are all cute.  Right??)

So…why am I even telling you all about this?  Well, when I find a product I love, I want to tell everybody else about it.  I want to share some of the awesome with my friends…so I contacted UniqueSkins.com and declared my love for their product and asked if they would be willing to give a little somethin’ to one of my lucky readers.  And they said yes!

There are a few ways that you can enter to win a $25 gift coupon to uniqueskins.com.

• You can get ONE entry by going to their website and looking around, then come back here and leave a comment saying what kind of skin you would get.
• You can get ONE entry for tweeting about this giveaway and leaving me a link to that specific tweet’s URL in the comments of this post. (Not sure how to do that?  Click here.)
• You can get FIVE ENTRIES by going to uniqueskins.com and making a skin for your phone or computer and then displaying your fantastic creation on Flickr!
  

In order to do that, you’ll need to follow these directions:
Once you’ve made your skin, capture it in a screenshot like this:

Then download your UniqueSkins creation onto the group Flickr stream I created.

A winner will be chosen by 11:59pm EST on Friday, September 18th.  The winner will be chosen by using random.org, and will be contacted via email.  If I have not heard from the winner in 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

If you do not leave an email address, your entries will be disqualified and you cannot win!

By now, most of you know the story of Maddie Spohr, the little girl who captured the hearts of many, including mine.  When she passed, I felt helpless.  (I still do.)  And I kept looking for things to do to help Mike & Heather, and this is what I came up with.

After I made that, I made this offer to my handful of readers many adoring fans.  I have just about finished all of the orders I recieved, and want to share some of my favorites with you:

(Don’t steal the picture, not the child.
Well, don’t steal the child either…
but you know what I mean!!)

And now I’ve decided that since I don’t have enough stuff to do(yeah, right), I want to give away a FREE one!

So here’s your chance!  Giveaway #2 of 3: a FREE PERSONALIZED MOSAIC!!!

Just like before, there are several ways to win:
-Simply post a comment here, telling one word comes to mind when you think of me(because it’s my giveaway and I’m on an what-do-others-think-of-me kick).
(You can do this twice a day.  That should help you non-bloggers and non-tweeters.)
-Tweet about this giveaway and then comment here, leaving the link to your tweet.
(You can do this once a day.)
-Show some bloggy love and link your blog readers to this post.
(You can do this once.)
-Follow me in your favorite reader(like Google Reader) and leave a comment here saying that you did.
(You can do this once.  If you’re already following me, comment about how you’re already awesome.)

That’d be 8 chances to enter, if you were counting…

This giveaway starts at 12:01am EST on Thursday, June 4th and go until 11:59pm EST on Friday, June 5th.

I will then use random.org to pick a winner.

I first started blogging back when Carter was 3 months old.  He’s now FOUR(I know…hard to believe, right?), and I’ve been through a lot of different blogging phases since I started.  At first it was just pictures with little captions beneath each one(kind of like the slideshows I do now).  I had 3 megapixel camera.  Yeah…3 megapixels.  I think my blackberry is 5mp.  My big camera is 10mp.  I didn’t know how to edit anything.  And I really didn’t know what I was doing!  (I’ve learned a lot by trial and error since then!)

And then there was the “newsletter” style webpage I had, which was still predominantly pictures with a running list of what we’d done and what he’d said.  I documented Lydia’s birth and early months this way.

And then my photo-blog host went out of business and I had to figure out a new format.  I went from queenofhaddock.com to theiveyleague.com.  My new blog host offered many new and exciting options-formats, widgets, etc.  And I played with those and set up a “pretty” site, but it was still mostly just a play-by-play of our lives.

It wasn’t until November 22, 2007 that I really found my blogging voice.  That is still, to this day, the hardest post I have ever had to write.  Can vividly remember sitting at my computer desk in the basement of our old house.  I remember typing and sobbing and typing and crying.  And I promise you that it was better than any therapy session I’ve ever been in.

Since then I’ve blogged my way through Marshall’s residency, a move, and another baby.  Sometimes it’s a glimpse into our lives- little stories about the kids, pictures(there will always be pictures!).  But a lot of times my posts are like my journal-what I’m thinking about, what’s important to me.  I’ve heard some people say that blogging is narcissistic, and to a degree it is, but to me it’s more about having something to look back on.  One day I’d like to take all the posts and all the pictures and have them bound into a book.  My journal.  My heart, my thoughts, my feelings…laid out not only for you to read now, but for me to remember later.

I will admit, however, that there is definitely some degree of satisfaction when I get a comment about a post.  Sometimes being a stay-at-home-mom gets really lonely, and it’s nice to have adult interaction-even if it’s through a computer screen!  And there have been times when I’ve posted things I’d never ever say out loud, only to be greeted with more love, compassion, understanding and uplifting than I could have imagined.  (Thank you for that, by the way!)

A few days ago I took a trip down memory e-lane, and had a look at some of those old posts.  It was then that I realized that I have, as of now, posted 300 times.  Three hundred posts.  (If there’s something from the past that you want to re-read, but can’t find…you can use the handy-dandy search box I’ve placed at the very bottom of the page.)

To celebrate my 300th post, I’m gonna be passing out door prizes to those of you who come visit my site!!  Nothing high-tech, big or fancy.  But some fun stuff that I love.  I will be having 3 give-aways, each lasting 2-3 days.  Hopefully one on Tuesday, one on Thursday, and one on Saturday.  Check back each of those for details on what the products are and how to win!