New to SwagBucks? Well this is a great time to join! Now through the 17th, Any new user who enters the code 5For5 during sign up will get a bonus 70 Swag Bucks, bringing them to a total 100 Swag Bucks to start with. The code is live now and will expire at 12pm PT on Monday, October 17th. Click here to get your free SwagBucks account started!

Once you are all joined up, there’s more for you! – Get at least 5 new referrals who are NOT members of your household or sharing an address with you. If these 5 new referrals earn just 50 Swag bucks after they join – YOU will qualify for 500 extra Swag Bucks that will be applied to your account automatically by the end of the month. Whoohoo! This is a one-time offer, just one bonus per person. Why not go for it!
Get your Swag Bucks account now!

As followers of my blog, you have some inside info that others do not. Here’s the tip: The first code will be put out on the Swagbucks Twitter feed (which you can follow if you aren’t yet: twitter.com/#!/SwagBucks) at 6:00am PT on Monday.

Another special offer, just for you. If you are new to Swagbucks, you can get an additional 70 Swagbucks, just for signing up, if you get going and sign up before 11:59pm PST Monday Oct. 3rd. You will need to use the code “BIGTIMEBUCKS” for this offer. Normally, you get 30 Swagbucks upon signup, but if you are reading this and take advantage of this great, limited time offer, you will receive a the 30, plus the additional 70, for a total of 100 Swagbucks instead!

There are many great prices and gift cards you can turn your swagbucks in for. I usually turn mine in for amazon.com credit. I get free amazon gift cards about every 2-3 weeks. It’s a really great deal and remember.. this is a totally free program.

Get in on the fun and rewards! Click here to get started today!

So, I’m considered a newbie at couponing right now. I’m learning through other coupon kings, queens and divas online who offer video tutorials, step-by-step how-to’s and tons of helpful start-up links. In the past, I thought couponing was just a matter of clipping and bringing to the check-out. I was so wrong! Why save just $.50 doing it that way, when, with a little research and planning, you can get the product for free, or pay very little for it at least!? Seriously.

I read somewhere that a good way to get started is with the store CVS. I already had a CVS customer care card and there’s a CVS super close to where I live, so this worked for me. I never paid much attention to the “Extra Care Bucks” (ECB’s) that print out at the bottom of receipts sometimes, but now I do. They are just as good as cash that can be used on your next purchase. ECB’s are given out with the purchase of select items in the store. IN CVS’s weekly flyer, it’s marked which items these are. You can maximize your purchase power when you: purchase something already on sale, have a manufacturer’s coupon for it and then use your extra care bucks from a previous purchase to pay for it. Now that’s couponing I can appreciate!

Today for example, I went to CVS for three specific items. I had $5.99 in ECB’s with me from a previous purchase over the weekend. The items I wanted to buy today were all already marked down with good sale prices and I had a coupon for one of them that brought it down even more. My three products, had I paid retail pricing on, would have cost me $13.35 plus tax. CVS had them all on sale, so that brought them down to $8.97 plus tax. I had a dollar-off coupon for one item, which brought it to$7.97 plus tax. I had the $5.99 ECB’s which brought the total down to $1.98 plus tax. The grand total for these three items today was just $2.55. But that’s not all. All three of the items I purchased today gave me new ECB’s for a total of $5.49 ECB’s I can use on my next visit to CVS. This was just a small purchase, but you can see the potential here for big savings again and again with just a little planning and organizing beforehand.

Do you shop at CVS and reuse those ECB’s too? I used to throw them out or forget to use them, like lots of folks. Things are different now. It’s actually kind of fun and maybe I have too much time on my hands, being summertime and all, but I can see this as being possibly addicting fun as well. I’m not interested in stock-piling or extreme couponing like they do on TV, but I certainly am enjoying the savings I’m seeing and have always been a big fan of “free”. :)

$6 for Two Games of Bowling and Shoe Rental at MaxBowl (Up to $16 Value)

Konjac root is another name for glucomannan, the fiber derived from the root of the konjac plant that grows primarily in Asia. It is helpful in decreasing food cravings, help lower blood glucose levels and decrease LDL – the “bad” cholesterol.

Anti-inflamatory spices in foods or as a tea can help boost energy. Scuh spices include: Ginger, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Basil, Cardamon, Chives, Cilantro, Cloves, Garlic, and Parsley.

Rosemary, besides being a very pleasant smelling herb plant, is an anti-oxident, disease fighter, rich in vitamin-A, which is good for skin, and whether fresh or dried, is rich source of minerals like potassium, calcium, iron, manganese, copper, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids which helps control heart rate and blood pressure.

Lemon juice, sprinkled over food, added to water, Lemon is a fruit that contains flavonoid, a composite that holds antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. It helps to prevent diabetes, constipation, and high blood pressure.

Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae Rhamnoides) is a source of herbal medicines, modern vitamins and nutrients well recognized around the world. It is used as active ingredient in anti-aging and medicinal skin care products, dietary supplements and health foods with nourishing revitalizing, and restorative action. In capsule form, it can boost your immune system. Use it in oil form directly on the skin and try it in drink form to help boost energy and possibly even aid in weight loss/management. On Dr. Oz, an impressive experiment was done where they fed 2 mice an identical high-fat diet. One of the mice in the control group became extremely fat, developed Diabetes and Heart Disease. The other mouse in the control group, that was fed the Sea Buckthorn juice, along with their high-fat diet, did not become overweight or have any of the health complications associated with obesity like Diabetes or Heart Disease. It seems that Sea Buckthorn signals your body to stop storing unnecessary fat. Wow!

Last but not least is Wheat grass. The chlorophyll in wheat grass is a natural deodorant for the body so it will help your not stink when you sweat. :)

It’s real. They pay. You should check it out.

Click this link to sign up. Please type my ID, wahmiam, in the “Referral Code” so they know that I sent you.

http://www.youdata.com/join/wahmiam

I’ve been spending some time at this beautiful egreetings website – Ojolie. “Jolie” means cheerful and pretty in English, beautiful in French and these artistic e-cards are all that and more. I’m very impressed with the quality of art and the ease of use at Ojolie. Created by Frederikke Tu – the Artist, and Timothy Tu – the IT guy. This couple make quite a team too, as there is a wide selection of beautiful internet greetings to choose from, with the option of sending to email contacts or social network contacts through Facebook. I like that flexibility. There are many free ecards to choose from, however, for a small annual fee, members can select from all egreetings available, including cards for the holidays, mother’s day, father’s day, concern, friendship, new baby, new year, anniversary, thinking of you cards, and thank you cards. You can view your card history, keep an online address book of contacts and even purchase paper note cards from some of your favorite designs. The wildlife, flowers and origami designs are some of my personal favorites. Independence day is coming up soon, send the festive “Parade” card or any of the other beautifully designed cards to your family or friends. Happy greetings!

View Ojolie’s ecard of the month:

I know, I’ve posted about JL’s ecard site before.. a couple of times in fact. It’s simply a favorite of mine, what can I say?

Every time I visit Jacquie Lawson’s site greetings site at jacquielawson.com, I am filled with gratitude and admiration for the amazing display of designs. I don’t know how she does it, but she sure does wonderful work.

I was just browsing the new Mother’s Day cards she added to her already hefty assortment of ecard designs and picked one out to send to my mommy friends on Facebook. Not only can I choose a beautiful animated card (screen-clip above), but it takes just a few moments to post on my favorite social network. Is that not the coolest?

Seriously though, if you enjoy stylish, fun, animated e-greetings of the highest caliber, you should check out JL’s design at JacquieLawson.com. I’m not affiliated with the site in any way other than just being a happy member. If you join though and are happy with your membership (which I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be), feel free to add me to your e-card greeting list: fromkarlyn@gmail.com.
Have fun sending ?

.. what that means is…  Despite it looking a little quiet around here, I’ve actually been quite busy – especially since the start of this new year. I have been designing, editing, blogging, blogging, editing and designing.. some of my favorite things in life!

I’ve totally redesigned the look and content (again!!) of wahmbuds.com. This time with my own custom graphic design and maybe I’ll stick with this theme design this time, who knows. Naw.. I’ll probably have something totally new by Valentines.

I was going to sell this site but changed my mind. I’m so glad I did too. I enjoy the mom content (new blogging here too) on this site and it’s been around for a while now (2004). I think all it needed was a new look. YeahMom! Can you say PINK?

I just recently started creating custom designed wordpress themes. I’m rather happy with this custom design I did for LP&P. I updated the site with new posts too.. I know it was feeling very lonely there for a while. Yes, my website have feelings – don’t yours!?

This site is easily my most posted on site.. mainly because I feel a little more liberal with it, posting more daily, life and fun stuff. It too got a new design and plenty of blogging. Also added a Good Reads widget here, great book/read tracking site.

MomsRewards.com – my oldest site (2000) saw a little bit of a face-lift with a new main image on the front page, a new design on it’s rewards blog and some new quality freebies of course. I’m happy to report it’s been seeing a lot of new visitors lately too.

I just get around to this site as often as I would really like to. Maybe this is something I can change for 2011. I did however, spend a good amount of quality time with this site just this morning, blogging about my favorite teachers blogs.

Also, worked on some custom graphic designs for a client and updated my design portfolio and paid some attention to AnotherBabyBoomer.com and Wahmiam.com with new blog posts.

It’s been a good couple of weeks at home on holiday vacation being able to get these updates done. I did manage to get up from my desk once in a while and eat, sleep, visit the gym, visit relatives and enjoy some quality family time playing many many rounds of Scene It too.

Wishing you a happy and fulfilling new year 2011 too!

Because I don’t eat meat, I get my protein elsewhere and tofu is usually a god default choice. I have gotten to like it with a variety of things, usually extra-firm, in some sort of a scramble with assorted vegetables. Recently though, I tried scrambling up some tofu with garlic powder, green pepper, mushrooms and chopped green olives. I thought this to be one of the tastiest scrambles I’ve ever done. I love olives I think it was the addition of the green olives in this particular dish that really added some zing. I will be making it again for sure.

Another tofu food mix I like is the tofu-strawberry-banana shake. It’s super easy and a healthy treat or light meal. Just mix together the following in a blender until smooth, then enjoy. The tofu naturally takes on the natural sweetness of it’s fruity partners.
+ 1 serving soft tofu, drained
+ 1 ripe banana
+ 1/2-1 cup frozen strawberries, slightly thawed

What is one of your favorite, easy tofu dishes?

It’s a morning routine for me, along with my coffee and checking the inbox. I do my circuit of points collecting and contest entries daily. I figure my persistence may pay off eventually, so I really don’t like to miss even one day.

Now these contests change every so often. Some end, new ones begin, etc.. But it usually looks something like this..

My Points daily spin [ Click to visit! ] :
My first stop usually.. It’s quick and sometimes I even win some points. No moola yet. But I’m a long time mypoints member.. since the year 2000. It’s a great way to get free store cards. This daily spin thing is sort of a new thing for them, and an easy thing to do to get a few more monthly points accounted for.
Interested in joining mypoints? Leave your name and email as a comment and I’ll send you an invite.

The Gift-A-Day Giveaway [ Click here to visit! ] :
This is my next stop, and it’s a new giveaway sponsored by Doubleday Book Club, of which I’m a member. However the contest is open to all, so feel free to give it a try if you’d like. They are giving away NICE gifts like TVs, Cameras, Autographed books and more!

Share the Love (Scrapblog) [ Click to visit! ] :
This isn’t a contest, but I enjoy it none the less because each time I click to this scrapblog app on facebook, I earn points. The points are used in fun scrap book style creations I can send to facebook friends on their birthday or other events. The graphics are really cute, it’s free with my points and I like the personal feel and uniqueness of it.

Kitchen & Bath Giveaway [ Click to visit! ] :
Then I hope on over to the DiY Network and enter this contest. It’s a $100,000 cash contest to create the bathroom and kitchen I’ve always wanted. I think I could redo this entire house for that amount of cash and sure would like the chance to try. =) This contest ends Nov. 19, but the DiY Network always has some fun new contest to enter.

Trick-or-Treat Sweeps [ Click to visit! ] :
This is almost over actually. Sponsored by HGTV’s Front Door, I enter daily for my chance to win $3,000 in cash to “trick” out part of our home or “treat” myself toward a down payment on my next home. =) This ends Nov. 1st.

Spice up your Pie Sweeps [ Click to visit! ] :
Sponsored by the Food Network, I enter this daily, through November for my chance to win $4,500 cash and a collection of Food Network Chef Cookbooks. Fun Fun.

PCH Search & Win [ Click to visit! ] :
As the name implies, you search and win. I have not won yet though. I still make it part of my routine because you never know and it only takes like 2 seconds to search for something. Prizes and Winners are random.

PCH Facebook & Twitter Cash Contests [ FB, Twitter ] :
Monthly $100 gift card giveaways for social networking with PCH through Facebook and Twitter.

PCHLotto [ Click to visit! ] :
I do several different Publisher’s Clearing House (PCH) Contests daily, as you can see. These are their Lotto games. There are 4 of them and usually for cash giveaways. You pick your own numbers or do a “Quick pick” and submit. The ad in between lotto games is standard for all PCH contests, but doesn’t last long at all.

PCHwonderland [ Click to visit! ] :
PCH wonderland is my next to last stop.. This one takes me a few minutes because it’s several contests in one. Here, I enter for a car, a trip, a home theater system, cash, a dream home and of course the 10 million dollar super prize. I have bought a few things through PCH, but normally I skip the ads. They’d like you to purchase of course, but it does not increase your chances of winning.

PCHgames [ Click to visit! ] :
This is my last stop in the point collecting, contest entering circuit. At PCH games, I usually participate in any free point giveaways they have there like the “instant spin” for cash or points they have going now. I may play a game or two while I’m there. They have some good ones, with ads of course. I usually let my points (called “tokens” at PCH games) build up pretty high and then I’ll use them for entries into the prize giveaways they do each month – usually for $100 & $200 store cards. I like the Target cards. =)

To help me keep all these places straight, I’ll usually bookmark the entry page in a folder called “Dailies” and I’ll move that folder to my Bookmarks Toolbar as in the screen-shot below. It makes it all much easier to access being on my toolbar means I’ll see it and get it done.

Happy winning!!