Let's exchange Business Cards, shall we? A giveaway

Many of the blog posts I read pre-BlogHer focused on designing and acquiring just the right business cards to pass around to the throngs of bloggers that had never had a face to face, so to speak.

The right business card can often be a keepsake, a momento, or a bookmark, depending on the style, the colors, the quirk. You get the drift. I know that I have held off having business cards printed because I can't quite commit to a design yet. Not that I really have hordes of people asking for my business cards at the moment, that whole little fish, big pond thing after all.

But when I do get them, I want them to reflect who I am and have some element that attracts the eyes of those that receive them.

In the scope of the job that really pays me, I receive and disperse business cards all the time. I keep a Rolodex filled with them, so I can grab the right contact for the issue at hand. Tremendously helpful. When I went to a business conference several years ago, I ran out of the supply of business cards I had brought with me, on the first day, and felt so lame when people continued to ask for my card as they handed me theirs. So much for networking!

Digital Room is giving me the opportunity to present two wonderful readers with 500 Business cards each, just by telling me how you would put these cards to work for you.


Tow (2) lucky winners will be able to choose among 3 different Business Card Sizes.



There will also be a choice of paper and color options:


~14pt cardstock (matte or gloss coating) & 13 pt cardstock uncoated



~(4/4) Color both sides; (4/1) Color 1 side , B/W backside; (4/0) Color 1 side, black backside!



Just leave a comment here on what you would do with such lovely business cards if they were yours to share with the world, or your neighbor. And spread the word, of course, because we've got Business Cards to giveaway!

updated 8/27: Umm, I seem to have forgotten to mention the September 9th deadline. So, please, if you will, comment by midnight on 9/9.

Digital Room also offers various Die Cut Business Cards on their site for variable style tastes and design options.

Disclaimers!
Available to US shipping only and winners must pay shipping. (Not my call, but Hey! Free Business Cards!)

By hosting this giveaway, I also received the option of receiving 500 free business cards from Digital Room, and pay for shipping. Just so you know.

The Weight of Silence

When the opportunity to participate in the book blog tour for The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf, presented itself through Mothertalk.com, I eagerly signed up. The excerpt I had read on Barnes & Noble, previous to the books release, had put the title on my “to be read someday” list. Mothertalk.com upped the timetable by sending a review copy pretty quick.

The first pages reach out with slithery fingers to snatch at your curiosity and pull you in pretty quick. Calli Clark is a seven-year-old girl who has chosen silence. She hasn’t uttered a word in three years and no one in her family really knows why. Calli’s silence is heartbreaking to her mother Toni, who longs to hear her daughters voice again. Toni wonders if her volatile marriage is responsible for Calli’s silence and questions her ability to be a good mother and if her children are damaged beyond repair.

The Weight of Silence revolves around Calli’s silence and the disappearance of Calli and her best friend, Petra Gregory. The girl’s families discover they are missing one morning and the hunt begins to find the two lost little girls in Willow Creek, Iowa.

Soon the possibilities of what happened to the girls begin to emerge. Calli’s father, a known angry drunk, with violent tendencies, can’t be found. Ben, Calli’s older brother, has recently been in trouble for threatening a schoolmate. And Calli’s school counselor is among the missing.

Petra’s parents also face their own inner troubles, and their daughter’s disappearance tests the bonds of their marriage, while the search for their Petra is under way.

Gudenkauf has crafted a deft mystery that forces her characters to look closely in the mirror. By telling the story through alternating character voices, a chapter for each person, the threads of the town and the families involved, weave the fabric of small town life, exposing its darkened undercurrents. Initially, after the beginning pages, I found this style a little disturbing, and almost put the book down, as the narrative breaks up a bit in the beginning, as flashes of the past are presented and a picture of the person speaking unfolds. Once I got through the second chapter, I felt more in tune with who was who, and the alternating viewpoints really brought the story to life.

The terror and heartbreak of the families came through in each of their voices. Calli’s fear and bravery, as she struggles through the woods avoiding her tormentor, and finds comfort remembering her time in the woods with her brother Ben, was so real I wanted to go and check on my own daughter to make sure she was safe and sound.

There are some usual plot diversions thrown in, such as the previous kidnapping and death of a young girl in another town. The past romance between the Deputy Sheriff and Toni. The federal investigator, brought in to help the small town investigation, casts aspersions on each of the families, focusing for a time on Calli’s brother Ben.

As the story winds down, there were a few surprises I didn’t see coming, which made the story more explosive. All in all, the Weight of Silence is a good mystery that keeps you wondering, and hoping that Calli can find her voice in the midst of such turmoil, and for her family to remain strong.

What I got from Large Format Posters

As part of the Large Format Posters giveaway hosted here just recently, the very nice people at Large Format Posters offered me a similar 18" x 24" digital poster of my very own for participating in the program and I enthusiastically agreed that they could send me one!

It was a cinch to upload the image, review the proof they provide for quality assurance and click the Yes! send to me now button. Which they did.

Here is the image I sent them and folks, the poster is exactly what you see.

These people do a great job.

This is not a compensated endorsement, by the way. I was just so thrilled to get this poster in the mail yesterday that I had to gush. It is teh Awesome and I can't wait to hang it up.

Glacier Outdoor Combo Pack giveaway

Mom Central is in the final week of the Summer Giveaway 2009 and the Glacier Outdoor Combo Pack is definitely one for the wish list.

This dual action pack seems like it would be most convenient for those hiking and fishing days. Given my son's newest obsession with fishing, this would be a great pack to strap on him for those treks to the lake, beach or stocked pond. This way he can do the heavy lifting!

Have I mentioned before that I might be a bit bag obsessed?

Go check out out Mom Central

and we have a Winner

Tracey from Just Another Mommy Blog is the winner of the Large Format Digital Poster!

Enjoy your poster Tracey!

Thanks for commenting!

How Large Format Posters can make U happy, especially when U win one

My brain has been too tired to think, let alone blog, so that will wait until I can formulate thoughts once more.

In the meantime, giveaway goodness!

Large Format Posters, a blog sponsor, has given me the opportunity to give U, one lucky reader, the chance to win a High-gloss or Semi-gloss 18x24" Digitally Printed Poster of your favorite photo.

How superfantastic will it be to have that special moment U caught in action, the one that has been wasting away in the hard drive of your computer since U downloaded it from the camera, up on your wall, all sparkly new to Ooh! and Aah! over?

Let's get the details out of the way so U can begin to win.
1. Just leave a comment here describing what photo U would love to have in Large Format 18x24" Digital Poster and why. (To qualify for entry this is necessary.) Unfortunately, the giveaway is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.
2. For an extra entry, post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to mine, and comment back here about your post, with link.
3. By posting about this giveaway on Twitter or Facebook and commenting back here on such, an entry for each will be provided.
4. Contest ends Wednesday 8/5 at midnight. I will post and alert the winner on Thursday, 8/6

Large Format Posters is a great place for Poster Printing and Custom Poster Printing.


Please note the disclaimers from Large Format Posters:
Disclaimers:Giveaway is open to US/CAN residents. Ground shipping of prizes is free, but there is a $5 handling fee that must be paid by winner.

Large Format Posters reserves the right not to print obscene or offensive materials.
All designs submitted in the form of a giveaway may be used by Large Format Posters for online marketing and promotional uses.

The designs will be used solely as examples and will not be printed or commercially distributed.