Whirlwind of Surprises: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

3 x $100 Amazon Gift Cards #Sweepstakes US/CAN Jun 1-18

We've been bringing you lots of Amazon.com gift card giveaways lately and here's another one. And who couldn't use a little extra cash to spend? 3 Random Winners will each win a $100 Amazon Gift Code. What would you do with a $100 in Amazon.com gift cards?

Life's a Beach #Summer Essentials G!veaway Jun 1-14 US/CAN

My goodness, this year is going by fast. It's already summer time! The sun is shining, the beach is calling...this calls for a fantastic giveaway from the members of the Mom's Do it Better community. It's like getting that extra scoop of ice-cream! And guess what, it's open to US and Canada. Check out these sweet prizes!

Mmm Mmm Mmm...who could use a cup of premium coffee in the morning? Wouldn't you love your own personal brewer? It'd be pretty neat, wouldn't it? I could totally us a cup of joe in the morning. I'm always dragging my feet. LOL, not a morning person, if you haven't guessed yet. Are you like me? We can help you out!

How cute! You all know I'm a dog lover...having two of my own fur babies so as a rule, I watch all dog-related movies. I know, I'm dog-crazy! I should've been a vet instead. My SO always laughs at me...kind of groans, because I'll make him watch all these movies just because they have dogs in them. Yes, I watched a lot of the Buddies movies, even the latest, Spooky Buddies. They were so cute! Anyhow, Frankenweenie has a new poster and it's pretty adorable so I thought I'd share it with you.

Winners and Reminders for G!veaways!

Last several days in these voting events. Help WOS get into the judging phase!
1) LAST DAY for this...Help my two cutiedogs get a bed...just go to this link and hit 5 stars. You can do this daily. And I've added incentive in the giveaways I host, you get bonus entries!
2) Click 5 stars for the Raspberry Tart! Can be done daily for bonus entries!

So I reviewed this book not too long ago and it is such a cool thing to have whether you're a traveller or planning to travel. You know what else it'd be good for? A Father's Day present! It's a #1 New York Times Bestseller by Patricia Schultz, 1000 Places to See Before You Die. It'd be so cool to have. I think my dad would actually love this because he's loves travelling. As a matter of fact, he's travelling right now with my mom! So here's your chance to win 1 of 3 copies for your dad or yourself. You might not be able to give it to him once you get it in your hands.

Playing with your balls in #K9Kamp Wk 2

Week 2's challenge was Play with your balls. Teehee, I was so tempted to post a picture of Baby Pom's balls up. What exactly were you thinking? We are playing with balls...tennis balls to be exact but isn't the name hilarious? To be honest, we kept up the running and walking this week and added the ball activities on the side. I'll let the babies take it from here.

New opportunity for 11 of you to pick up some Amazon Gift Cards and all of you to get a free book! This book blast features the book Frequent Traveller, the first book in the Cathy Dixon series. You can download a copy for yourself free from May 31-Jun 4. A good summer's read filled with travel and mystery...how could you not want to read it? Especially when it's free! This book blast is also a little different in that there'll be 11 winners. 1 grand prize winner of a $50 Amazon.com Gift card and 10 runner ups with $5 Amazon.com gift cards. So, enter to be one of the lucky ones!

Guys are ridiculously hard to buy for, especially when they're your dad. I've always had a tough time deciding what to pick out for my dad for Father's Day. He never wanted anything and I didn't know what to get him that he wouldn't find useless...When we were little, we bought him a bag of green apples because he likes to eat them. I know, kind of lame, but we weren't even 10 at the time and we were pretty happy to buy dad something that he liked. LOL...do you ever have those situations? Maybe we can help you out this year. The Collective Media Magic team, Closer To Lucy, Have Sippy Will Travel, Just Like June, 3 Princes and a Princess 2, and That's What She Said, have found an assortment of gift ideas for all sorts of dads so you can please him no matter what this Father's Day! And what about if you get it all for FREE?? One lucky Grand Prize Winner will receive the following $500 prize pack of the following items.

It has been gorgeous out lately and what a better time to take the dogs out and have some fun. It's good exercise for dog and owner alike. For us, we've been participating in K9 Kamp and we push ourselves daily more than ever before. I think it's helping to keep that ice cream off my waist! LOL...Join us and you could win prizes while feeling great. The 5K Fanbration for Camp Wags and Route 249 also gives you great incentive to take your dogs out and have some fun! In order to thank their fans, we're helping to hold this Fanbration event where ONE Winner takes both prizes!

Shopping Bonanza #Sweepstakes May 30-Jun 7 #Worldwide

Well, you read the title, what are you expecting? A shopping spree? Lots of gift cards? Well, you can have both! How does $200 in gift cards sound to you? $100 to Amazon, $50 to Victoria's Secret and $50 to either Target or Walmart all for ONE lucky winner. This is a good chunk of change for groceries, clothing, and anything else you need or want! Who's excited? And it's open worldwide too so no one gets left out! It's time to go shopping, woot woot! Grab some easy cash and lighten your load this summer.

Have you entered the Louis Vuitton Giveaway yet? Enter to win a $25 Fandango Gift Card in this 24 hour flash giveaway.

#Pixar #Brave wants to share some delectably Scottish #Recipes with you! #Disney

I'm so excited for Brave and today they had a couple of Scottish recipes to share with you. They fit pretty well with the mood of the movie, don't you think? And they're on these cute little recipes card that you can print out and put in your recipe box. :) I don't have one of those but I'm sure a bunch of you do, right? Featuring the Brave family, we have the Scotch Egg Recipe and Great Granny May Scott's Cullen Skink Recipe!

$100 Amazon Gift Card #Sweepstakes May 29-Jun 5 US/CAN

Lots of chances to pick up a win with the Amazon Gift Cards here and the latest one involves a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card. It also features Betrayed by Ednah Walters. Betrayed is the sequel to AWAKENED in the Guardian series and falls within the Young Adult category of books. All I can say is that it sounds pretty cool so far...take a look yourself.

Sesame Street, Childhood #Obesity and the First Lady? #Sweepstakes

Happy Memorial Day, my American friends! This long weekend, I'd like to share with you a couple things...You want a quick sneak peak? Well, we're going to talk about Sesame Street and then how you can win a trip to take your little one to have a meal with the First Lady, Michelle Obama! Let's start with Sesame Street but don't forget to keep reading for all the juicy details!

So, I guess Bella is now Snow White? LOL, I'm sure everyone knows but me because personally, I think her acting is less than impressive. Ah, I can see it now, all the Twilight fans are going to be at my throat. :) Pun intended. I like Twilight too but I preferred the books. I am definitely curious how Snow White and the Huntsman is going to be though. They're turning a classic into a movie. How exciting!! In celebration of that, HSN has partnered with Universal Pictures to create a 24-hour Snow White and the Huntsman event on Wednesday, May 30^th, across all of HSN’s platforms, including TV, HSN.com and HSN mobile.

#Nutrisystem #Womens Week 20 Results, #Mens Week 12 Results #NSNation #weightloss #health #diet

How can it be? I just finished week #20 week of my Nutrisystem program and the SO has passed his 12th week. So, I know I had said the goal this week was to work off the rest of the weight from the trip a couple weeks ago...but I ran into some slight setbacks...in the form of my SO...

Do you travel? Or do you want to travel? One of my absolute favorite things and goals in life is to travel. I've been to many places but want to go to so many more! So, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you this #1 New York Times Bestseller by Patricia Schultz, 1000 Places to See Before You Die.

Help me vote and the latest draws...

Just several days left in all of these voting events. Help WOS get into the judging phase!
1) Help my dogs get a bed...just go to this link and hit 5 stars. You can do this daily. And I've added incentive in the giveaways I host, you get bonus entries!
2) Cooking contest is at the last day of voting! Help us get it into the judging phase. This one's a little more work but still, not that bad. After you vote, make sure to share it on facebook/twitter and you automatically get entered to win 1 of 5 $20 Paypal cash prizes. This is to reward you for your effort. But that's not all, I also have more bonus entries on my giveaways for you as well. Here are the steps:

200 bucks worth of Blog Frog Fun #Worldwide 06/17

I'm helping a buddy of mine promote a giveaway. What does that mean? It means I'm bringing you an amazing giveaway and you can enter right here on this page! Imagine you had $200 extra bucks, free...what would you get with it? A Kindle Fire? A camera? Gas money? Designer clothing or accessories? Groceries? You get to take your pick this time. Choose a prize or better yet, choose the cash! And...the cash prize is open WORLDWIDE...That's not even the best part about this contest yet... There are actually 2 ways to win $200. Madame Deals loves Blog Frog and that's why she is giving you a $200 prize.

Before living in New York, I had no allergies...I was healthy! After I started living here, I discovered, NYC = Allergy Central. I still remember a local telling me that "New York has one of the highest pollen indexes and if you weren't allergic before, you will be now." I now had a problem. I'd go home and be fine but as soon as I came back here, especially if it was pollen season...like now, I'd face a myriad of problems. Oh my, my nose would run, my ears would get plugged up, my eyes itchy and of course, my chronic sinusitis would get worse. I've been dealing with difficult breathing on and off due to my congestion but it's always worse in New York. Most of the time, I deal with it unless my allergies get really bad.

It's always exciting to see your blog grow. For me, although I've blogged for 2 years now, I've only made the step to owning my own domain a little over 3 months ago and have already seen exponential growth in my blog. So, I'm so excited for my friend at 7 on a Shoestring because she's now celebrating 10K facebook fans and her 1 year blogiversary after moving to Wordpress May 21, 2011! You know all our celebrations comes with giveaways too, right? Remember you're entering on Whirlwind of Surprises.

Cheesecakes are a weakness of mine. They just happen to top my favorite desserts, I've been eating them since I was little. My aunt would always bake them for me and since then, I've suffered an addiction to cheesecakes and all things cheesy. I have found a new source of cheesecakes!!

Father's Day Gift Guide and Preview to a $1210+ #FathersDay #Sweepstakes

Father's Day is coming up as you can tell by all the Father's Day giveaways going on. Here's a sneak peak at an upcoming Father's Day Giveaway that starts June 1. For now though, check out 2012 Father's Day Gift Guide hosted by Blog It Forward! Here are some great gift ideas for dad because men are so hard to buy for! We have gift ideas for all of the special men in your life! From hammocks to bathrobes to digital filing systems, we have ideas that will make your shopping easier!

Disney fans, have you heard? Disney Junior's "Yo Ho, Let's go Summer!" is coming back June 4-August 24th and of course, there's lots of fun activities planned! You can expect to see new episodes of all your favorite Disney Junior series all summer long. What shows will be airing? Only cable TV's #1 (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and #2 (Jake and the Never Land Pirates) series among kids aged 2-5 and other favorites, including Jungle Junction and Octonauts. Watch on the Disney Channel, Disney Junior On Demand, Mobile and iTunes, and on DisneyJunior.com.

#Summer #Savings #Tip

It's not a matter of wanting to save money, it's I NEED to save money because I'm neck deep in student loans. LOL, so when I see coupons or discounts, I'll jump on them. It's a good habit to save money, who knows when you'll need it! Sometimes, a little bit saved here and there could turn out to be a great treat elsewhere, like money saved for a nice dinner or even a vacation, right? So, here is a great summer saving tip for those of you who spend any money online.

Happy Mother's Day! This month's featured Chicken Soup for the Soul book is Stay at Home Moms, which echos with many of my readers and is a great follow up to last month's Mother's and Daughters post. It features 101 Inspirational stories for Moms about hard work and happy families. It was originally published as Power Moms but is the same book, just with a new cover and title.

100 bucks to spend at Amazon.com #Sweepstakes US/CAN May 24-31

Have you seen our review on this Book Blast's featured book yet. Read our review for Masters of the Veil by Daniel Cohen here. Sorcery and magic mixed with a bit of sports...sounds like a good read to me!

Holy cow, do we ever have a lot of Kindle Fire Giveaways going on! Don't forget to check our current giveaways while you're here to find out what else we have going on. So, yes, I know, I gave this post a slightly cheesy name...Be My Friend. You want to know why? I want you to put Whirlwind of Surprises as the blog that you're entering on because if you win, I win too! Hence, friends, right? LOL, and the best part is, this is open to both my US and Canadian friends! I have to put this here because I know sometimes, some of you get so excited that you skip through most of the text!

Week 1's challenge was Walking on Sunshine. The goal? Walk at least an hour with your dogs in some absolutely gorgeous weather. We all live busy lives and sometime, you may find it hard to take your dogs out walking consistently. JR's a princess and refuses to walk when it's pouring so we were lucky that this week was gorgeous and sunny! Okay, guys, take it from here!

Our results form Week 1's challenge are going up tonight? Are you ready? But in celebration of K9 Kamp 2012, we decided to make a scrapbook page using the Photopad app on Facebook. It's pretty neat, it can create photo albums, e-cards and so on. Then you can even share or send them to your friends afterwards or print them.

24hr Flash #Sweepstakes 05/23 $25 Home Depot GC US #LouisVuitton

Have you entered the Louis Vuitton Giveaway yet? Enter to win a $25 Home Depot Gift Card in this 24 hour flash event.

Another new clip from one of the highly anticipated animated films that I'd love to watch...Brave, live June 22nd in theaters everywhere. I have a new clip to share. Need a quick break or need something to cheer you up? I present to you "Freedom Broch”, a compilation of 19 Classic Bagpipe Hits! The stars of Brave are coming out with their very own "unique music", all on one CD! It also features my favorite little bears! Woot!

Have you been claiming your free cupcakes? I know I haven't had a chance to and I'm pouting. There is something that puts a smile back on my face though and that's the new “Family Outing” clip from DreamWorks Pictures’ PEOPLE LIKE US, which will be on the big screens on June 29th. Mmm...I love seafood and I haven't eaten in a restaurant that does that in awhile. What, you ask? Watch the clip to see.

It's been awhile since I've had time to read a book for enjoyment and I really do miss it. I was able to scrounge around for some time in order to read Masters of the Veil, the first in a trilogy, by Daniel Cohen. So I'm happy to give you a quick review on it before we showcase it during the May 24-31 $100 Amazon GC Bookblast.

$50 #Amazon Book Blast #Sweepstakes May 22-29 US/CAN

It's time for another book introduction. Today's book is Colors Like Memories by Meradeth Houston and with the introduction, comes a great giveaway...a $50 Amazon.com Gift card!

Let's start off the Mission Giveaways this week with a bang! WOS is proud to host today's 24 hour flash giveaway! Only 2 mandatory entries where one is for you to enter the week's mission giveaway. This flash giveaway is being hosted in conjunction with the Hip Fusion Mission Giveaway where you can win $100 in Hip Fusion Jewellery gift cards for you and a friend. However, we'd be happy if you also went and entered the other Mission Giveaway too, where you can win $100 in Amazon Gift Cards for you and a friend.

Have you heard? We're doing 2 Mission Giveaways this week. Enter this one and then go check out the other one for $100 in Amazon Gift Cards for you and a friend. And wait, that's not it, we're also holding the flash giveaway for this Mission giveaway on May 22, the very first day, so don't forget to go enter that too! Okay, back to the subject at hand...graduation is coming up! Do you know anyone who's graduating? Do you have a gift for them yet? I, personally, love jewellery, especially earrings but that's me. Wouldn't you love to get your graduating someone or even someone special some jewellery? And what's better than to get it free by winning this giveaway for 2 $50 Hip Fusion Designs Gift Certificates: $50 for you to WIN and $50 for you to GIVE a friend!

Woohoo, this week we're doing 2 Mission Giveaways. Enter this and then make sure to go enter the other one too if you like jewellery and the flash giveaway we're holding for it on May 22nd. Cardstore.com has a variety of products ranging from birth announcements to greeting cards.

I need a vacation...I really do, and I've never been on a cruise before either!! So, this next giveaway is going to blow your mind away. Acadiana's Thrifty Mom and American Family and an awesome group of bloggers are here to bring you our BIGGEST giveaway yet! One lucky fan will win a Disney Cruise for a family of 4 valued at $3000! I want it sooo bad! Special shout out to American Family and Acadiana's Thrifty Mom, and the hosts Frugality For Less, and Debbie Does Coupons.

Fundraising and Kindle Fire #Sweepstakes US May 21-31 #SuperEvents

Need to fundraise for a project? We've got some information for you here with Big Fundraising Ideas along with another #SuperEvent Giveaway hosted by Full Price? Never! and cohosts CuzinLogic and MyCraftyLife.

How about another e-reader giveaway? Embracing Beauty is making it possible to giveaway a Kindle Fire to one lucky reader. The prize would be great for Dad or anyone else! A Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi and did I mention, it'll be open worldwide!

Alright, so we said we had 2 Canadian camps to share with you since summer is right around the corner. Will you be sending your kids to summer camp? Our first recommendation was CircleSquare Camp, another great kids camps recommendation is #PioneerCamp. These camps offer personal growth for your children and a pretty awesome sweepstakes for a trip for 2 to go to Punta Cana, Mexico and a week of free camp time! Keep reading to find out more!

Alright, you know I love my fellow Canadians too so here's a hop that is full of giveaways that Canadians can enter. Yes, each and every giveaway in this hop is open to Canadians! Exciting, eh? This is the Canadians Welcome, Eh Giveaway Hop hosted by Simply Stacie & Sassy Mama in LA! All the giveaways will be either open to Canada, US & Canada or worldwide.

Summer is coming! Are you sending your kids to summer camp? If so, I have a couple recommendations for you, some life changing kids camps. They have perks too...how about sweepstakes for a trip for 2 to go to Punta Cana, Mexico plus some free camp time! Keep reading to find out more! The first one is #CircleSquare Ranch. You know, I visited the site and was surprised! I can't believe I lived in Canada for over 20 years and never even heard about it. When I saw the images, all I could think about was, "that looks like so much fun, I really missed out!"

Who needs a new computer? Who wants a new computer? Coupontrade.com and HP are sponsoring a massive HP Omni 27t series giveaway up for 1 winner and it includes Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010, Norton Anti-Virus, keyboard, mouse, 3 Care Pack House Service, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Since I'm currently renting my apartment, I understand the need for no drilling home furnishings. In fact, it makes my life easier when I move too. So, here we are, at a super event with $900+ in no drilling required bath accessories.