Julie's Journal

I don’t know about you, but a spa day that includes chocolate sounds like heaven on earth to me, so I entered the Girlfriend Getaway Contest. It’s a celebration of friendship created by Lorrie Morgan Ferrero, Shannon Cherry and Joanie Winberg. All three of their lives have been filled with challenges and they turned to each other for support when they needed it the most. Now they have created this great contest to give back to you and your BFF!

Chocolate Spa Getaway Contest Prize:

• Chocolate Spa Weekend Getaway at the Hotel Hershey from May 15-17, 2009.
• Air fare
• Limo service to and from the hotel
• A poolside room for three (3) days/two (2) nights at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
• Over $400 (four hundred) worth of Spa Treatments, including a Swedish Massage, a Facial, a Chocolate Wrap and Lunch in the Oasis- a lite lunch of salads, soups and wraps at the spa in your robe and sandals.
• Admission to the Hershey Gardens.
• Gourmet Dining in the restaurant of your chose.

Chocolate Spa Getaway Contest Rules:

• Tell us in 300 words or less why YOUR FRIEND deserves a Chocolate Spa Getaway Weekend. (For example has she had some extenuating circumstances, struggles, challenges, or just plain needs a break?)
• The contest is for all women- married, single or single again.
• Then COPY and PASTE your essay into an email (sorry, no attachments accepted) and send it off to us at chocolatespacontest@gmail.com by midnight April 17th.
• Winners will be announced April 24.
• Over a $3000 value.

Additional sponsor prizes include:

• Transition Resources Inc.
• author Katherine Woodward Thomas, MA, MFT
• NiteSweatz
• Cabot Cheese

So get to writing your story and good luck! This weekend getaway sounds just like something I need!

I’ve never seen a Peek until tonight, and they are so sweet! Jenn.nu is giving one away on her blog, and this is my entry to win one! Wish me luck! Jenn is one of my IZEA Swarm crew members for the IZEA Insiders program and she’s going to be a great asset!

For more information, see the official giveaway blog entry: Win a Peek!

I had 451 entries into my Sears – Don’t Just Give A Gift Grant A Wish contest on my blog. It’s been the best contest outcome that I’ve had here on Julie’s Journal and a lot of fun.

I had a great time reading all the things that people would buy if they won the $100 Sears gift card, and now comes to time to grant someones wish! Ted Murphy from IZEA made the winner announcement on TedTube just a few minutes ago, and you can watch the show here.

Were you the winner? You’ll have to watch TedTube to find out!

JUST KIDDING!!! (But you should watch it, he’s a funny guy)

The winner of my Sears $100 gift card is…Jeanette Malan and she said she would buy the Kodak 9.2MP Digital Camera, EasyShare C913 – Pink Sears item# 00353288000!

CONGRTULATIONS! I will be contacting you through the email you entered on your comment.

[tags]Grant a Wish, Sears, gift cards, shopping[/tags]

I’ve been wanting a Twitter Mug since I first saw them at CrowdedInk. All you do is enter your Twitter Username and they create a mug for you with profile pictures of all the people you are following.

I asked for one for my birthday coming up in 6 days (most girls want sexy lingerie, but geek girls like me, want geek things like this), but today I saw that Owen was having a contest on his blog giving away a Twitter mug, so I decided to try my luck at winning one. This is a picture of the Twitter mug that he ordered. Isn’t it cool??

If you want to win a Twitter mug, just post about Owen’s Twitter mug contest on your blog, then leave a comment on his blog with the link to your post. You can also tweet about his contest on Twitter for an extra entry. Good luck!

[tags]Twitter mug, Twitter[/tags]

This post is a sponsored post on behalf of Sears via Izea. The opinions are mine.

It has been many many years since I have shopped at Sears. Not because I don’t like the store, it’s just that I always picture Sears as the big ticket items, and lately there are no big ticket items on my wish list. Speaking of a “wish list,” what’s on yours this year? What’s on your families? What’s on your favorite charities?

With the layoffs in my family, and the struggles we’ve had to endure these past few months, wishes are what get me through most days. Just the other day I was talking with my boys about what they wished for Christmas this year. They know we are struggling, but I wasn’t prepared to hear their answer. I thought they would still rattle off all the high dollar electronics that they normally want, but they didn’t. They said they wanted socks.

Now like any mother of a teenage boy will tell you, there are never enough socks. With all the sports they do, and the the general roughness of boys, you can’t keep enough socks in the house. They’ve even resorted to raiding their step-father’s sock drawer, leaving him with no socks to wear.

So when I got a $100 gift card to go shopping at Sears, what do you think I bought? Yes, socks! $100 worth of socks! My boys wish for socks was granted! I was pleasantly surprised at all the things Sears has in their store. It’s not just appliances and Craftsman tools.

So there you have it. My boys will receive their wish of socks for Christmas, and I had an absolute blast going to Sears with my gift card. The Sears gift card is a great gift idea because you can use it to purchase any item of your choice, yes…even socks!

Now for the fun part! I want to give one of you a $100 Sears gift card for you to go shopping and grant a wish for yourself, a family member, or your favorite charity. You can enter up to three times using the different entry methods listed below.

Have fun and good luck to everyone! I feel like freaking Santa Claus all of a sudden! This is great!

Sears Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish Giveaway Rules

3 Ways To Enter:

1. Receive one entry by going to Sears.com and pick out the items you would buy with a Sears gift card (up to $100). Then come back to my blog and in my comments tell me the item #s of the things you would buy.
2. Receive one entry by Twittering the following
   “RT @JustJulie please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card – tweet to make your own wish http://urlbrief.com/73028a”
   Leave a comment telling me the URL of your Twitter (example: http://twitter.com/JustJulie/status/1050355129).
3. Receive one entry by writing a blog post about the Sears Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish campaign with a link to my contest Julie’s Journal – Sears Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish. Leave a comment with your blog post URL so I can check it out.

Contest Details:

1. December 23, 2008 – Contest ends at midnight EST
2. December 29, 2008 – Winners chosen by IZEA at random based on all the entries
3. December 29-31, 2008 – Winners will be shipped Sears gift card

Official Rules

Now get to entering and good luck again!

[tags]Grant a Wish, Sears, gift cards, shopping[/tags]