Sunday Moment of Gratitude - So if you are reading this....

This week, I am grateful for:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - I suppose after all the hoopla on the news about the world coming to an end, that I should start by simply saying that I am grateful for today! The news has been amusing if nothing else, a 'rapture', then an apocalypse, then even more comical was the reports of a 'zombie apocalypse'. Thankfully I love Horror Movies, so I still remember the sage advice from the movie 'Zombieland'. Stock up on Snacks my friends, just in case.... LOL

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Ascending Butterfly will always be a place where all expressions of Faith and Inspiration are very much welcome. Today I took comfort in these words from the Holy Bible:

Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Because we don't know 'when and if' live each day as if it's your last, dance like nobody is watching, and in this day, be it large or small, make a BOLD move. Whatever you deep down, secretly thought you'd regret if the world had truly ended. DO IT. No more excuses. Make this an 'Excuses-Pacolypse'. (OK, that might have been a lot of creative liberty, writers prerogative, but you know what I mean!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - I am still sorting through the mess that having my servers (both email and website) crash caused, thankfully entries appear to be returning and none have been lost so far, it's just taking me a bit to sort through them all, I've been burning the midnight oil most of the weekend, and hope to soon have winners selected and notified very soon for the Earthies, B-Glowing and 1800baskets.com Giveaways.

REMINDER: Again, PLEASE do NOT post duplicate entries for the Wilson's Pelle Camden Satchel if your entries still don't appear. I am working on sorting the entries that are being returned by the server in order of giveaway close out date, and since that giveaway doesn't close out until May 31st, the entries for that one aren't currently being sorted so that we can get the outstanding giveaways squared away first. As soon as we are fully caught up, new giveaways will launch, begining with our very patient friends at Borghese.

What are you grateful for today? I'd love for you to write in and share what you are grateful for this week. The more you say it, the more you speak it, and the more you live in gratitude, the more you will find reasons to be grateful for, and the more reasons that the universe will send you to be grateful for. So join me on this journey of gratitude and inspiration. And you can post here daily (even though my list will be posted weekly).

Remember, attitude really does determine altitude.

It is OK to *Re-Tweet* the link to this post and You can find me on Twitter here (@Tracy_Iglesias) Twitter love: re*tweet by copying and pasting the following into your update field at Twitter:

OK to RT: @Tracy_Iglesias This Week's 'Moment of Gratitude' and Great giveaways! - http://tiny.cc/n4Thx

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Active Giveaway!

1) Ends 05/31 - Featured Handbag in the Spotlight: Pelle Camden Belted Leather Satchel Giveaway! Winners choice of color! ARV $225 (Birkin Style for the girl who doesn't want to sacrifice style while sticking to her budget!) Enter HERE

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For those of you who are interested in keeping a gratitude journal this year, here is my recommendation and where to purchase it:

Make this Your Best Day ever, Bless and Be Blessed!

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Ascending Butterfly: Today's Words of Inspiration!

After many days of chaos, I thought today would be a perfect day for some inspiration! I've been hearing a lot of 'I Can't's' in my personal and professional circles lately, and I've been repeating the quote above all week to friends and colleagues!

Today's Quote: Whatever the Mind Can Conceive,  Then Beleive, It CAN Achieve!

I fully beleive this to be true. The fuel to make that possible is true desire. If you don't desire the outcome with your whole heart, you won't be fully invested, and if you are not fully invested in something you will never achieve the results you desire!

Today's Words of Inspiration'

 

Use 'Today's Words of Inspiration' as a breathing meditation to still your mind, quiet your thoughts and bring in positive energy. As you inhale bring in only positive energy by saying in your mind, I breathe in positive energy (or you can say creative energy if that is what you wish to create more of) and as you exhale, Affirm out loud 'I affirm that what I can conceive, I can achieve.'

Spend some time each day enjoying focused breathing AND soul guided meditative visualization, in doing so, you can bring about profound and powerful changes in your life.

Visualize yourself manifesting something unique, guided by universal forces that emerge spontaneously from within your soul. Do this at least twice today and see how by taking a moment away from the hectic pace and breathing in positive energy and affirming what you wish to create, your thinking will become different.

Remember, attitude really does determine altitude.

It is OK to *Re-Tweet* the link to this post and You can find me (@Tracy_Iglesias) on Twitter ! Twitter love: re*tweet by copying and pasting the following into your update field:

@Tracy_Iglesias #ascendingbutterfly - Today's Words of #Inspiration - http://tiny.cc/n4Thx

Make this your best day ever, Bless and Be Blessed!

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Active Giveaway!

1) Ends 05/31 - Featured Handbag in the Spotlight: Pelle Camden Belted Leather Satchel Giveaway! YOUR choice of color! ARV $225 - Enter HERE!

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I am still sorting through the emails and entries after our servers went down last Wednesday. Winners have not yet been selected for the Earthies, B-Glowing, or 1800Baskets.com giveaways because entries are still slowly being restored to our queue. I don't want to select a winner until I'm sure EVERY entry has been recovered to keep things fair. I thank you all for your patience. Our Borghese Giveaway will launch shortly.

A special thanks to all who came out for the #BWEchat and I hope to see many of you at the upcoming BlogWorld New Media Expo in New York City from May 24-26th. If you are planning on attending, feel free to post here and let me know! I'd love to meet as many of you as possible!

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Ascending Butterfly: Wordless Wednesday! - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!

Check out Ascending Butterfly at last night's New York City Screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!

Full Review Coming Soon!

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#BWEchat Twitter Party – WIN a Free Pass to BlogWorld NY and More!

Exciting News Butterflies, I am helping the BlogWorld Expo spread the word that they are coming to NYC this year by co-hosting a Twitter Party! And as always, YOU are invited! Yes 'The Twitter Party DJ' is playing hostess again this week alongside @blogworldexpo 's @allison_boyer - I couldn't be more excited to see the Expo come to New York, while you all know I love to travel, my schedule would not have permitted me taking that week off, so to have the Expo coming to the Big Apple makes it a whole lot easier for me to attend!

BlogWorld will be hosting its first ever virtual Twitter party on Wednesday to help spread the word and answer your questions about the upcoming New York event. It will also be a great way to connect with others who will be attending, so I hope to see you there!

Here are the details:

What: #BWEchat Twitter Party

When: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST

Where: Twitter!

Twitter parties (also called Twitter chats) are held online, with virtual attendees all following the same hashtag (in this case, #BWEchat). You can follow through Twitter’s main website or a desktop client like Tweetdeck, but they move really quickly, so I recommend using a site like Tweet Grid or Tweet Chat to follow along.

Who: Attendees, speakers, track leaders, BlogWorld staff, and anyone interested in learning more about the conference and meeting others who might be attending or have attended in the past. The chat hosts will be @blogworldexpo and @Tracy_Iglesias so make sure you follow these accounts!

PRIZES: By attending #BWEchat, you’ll have a change to win awesome prizes:

• TWO 2-Day passes
• TWO 1-Day passes
• SIX Exhibits-only passes

This is important: To qualify for one of the prizes, you must tweet the following message sometime between now and the party:

I’m attending #BWEchat Wed 5/18, 8 PM ET. Join us for a chance to win a free pass to BlogWorld NY! http://bit.ly/mDHNXT #BWENY

RSVP: Once you've tweeted, let us know by posting the link to your tweet here: http://www.blogworld.com/2011/05/16/bwechat/

You can tweet it as many times as you want until the chat starts! You must also come to the virtual party on Wednesday and participate by tweeting at least once between 8 PM and 9 PM EST (introduce yourself, shares some tips, ask a question, etc.). We’ll announce the winners throughout the night, so the earlier you get there, the more chances you’ll have to win! If you have a specific question about BlogWorld NYC, please feel free to ask when you leave us your comment with your tweet link, make sure to put your twitter name in the comment field to, so we reply to you directly!

Please remember to RSVP by tweeting and posting the link to your tweets at the link above, do not comment here to RSVP, the RSVP's are being taken directly at blogworld's site!

I hope to see you at the Twitter Party and I hope to see you at the Expo next week too!

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Got Motivation?

I am still trying to sort through the mess that a routine 'one hour site maintenance' (last Wednesday), left behind. With over 12,000 emails and comment entries still slowly returning, I'll be burning the midnight oil for a few days to get caught up!

My Monday Morning looked like this when I opened my emails:

Can you relate?

As Monday is nearing to a close, I'm still feeling kind of like this:

Our Borghese giveaway will launch shortly, and we will announce winners for both the Earthies and B-Glowing Giveaways soon! (Winners have not yet been selected or notified, they will be soon once we are sure that no entries got lost!)

Don't forget to enter our Active Giveaways for 1800baskets.com (3 winners will receive the basket of their choice under $100) and the Pelle Camden Satchel in your choice of color from Wilsons Leather! (ARV $225)

 

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Sunday Moment of Gratitude!

This week, I am grateful for:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Finally having full access restored to our site and email servers. While I sort through the mess created by my site host, I am also very grateful for YOUR patience. Please do not put in duplicate entries, we are sorting through the entries that were restored after the servers came back, this is going to take some time.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - For a very simple yet profound reminder, that truly made me feel uplifted after reading it. Read these words from Joel Osteen, I hope they make you feel equally inspired:

Get this down in your spirit: God has preordained moments of favor for you. He has already lined up the right people, the right breaks, the right opportunities. He's got amazing things planned out for your future. ~ Joel Osteen

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - I've had a very mixed week this week (and much to share, posts to come), but sometimes negative self talk tries to undermine my optimism, and when it does, I seek inspiration, that's the only way to keep inspiring. When I read the passage above today it truly resonated with me. It spoke directly to my heart. And no, this is NOT a sponsored post, nor should it be interpreted as me endorsing any one religion over another. I take wisdom from all sources, and the words above are a very powerful reminder to step back from day to day frustrations, worries and fears, cast them aside and claim better for yourself. YOU deserve it! And BTW, the Sunday Moment of Gratitude will never be sponsored, it's from my heart to yours!

What are you grateful for today? I'd love for you to write in and share what you are grateful for this week. The more you say it, the more you speak it, and the more you live in gratitude, the more you will find reasons to be grateful for, and the more reasons that the universe will send you to be grateful for. So join me on this journey of gratitude and inspiration. And you can post here daily (even though my list will be posted weekly).

Remember, attitude really does determine altitude.

It is OK to *Re-Tweet* the link to this post and You can find me on Twitter here (@Tracy_Iglesias) Twitter love: re*tweet by copying and pasting the following into your update field at Twitter:

OK to RT: @Tracy_Iglesias This Week's 'Moment of Gratitude' and Great giveaways! - http://tiny.cc/n4Thx

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Active Giveaways!

1) Ends 05/18 - Basket of YOUR choice $100 and under from 1800baskets, 3 winners! (We thought the deadline for this shouldn't have been affected by the server outage, but if you feel it should be extended because your entry did not appear, just comment on this thread, NOT the giveaway thread and let us know!) Enter HERE

2) Ends 05/31 - Featured Handbag in the Spotlight: Pelle Camden Belted Leather Satchel Giveaway! Winners choice of color! ARV $225 (Birkin Style for the girl who doesn't want to sacrifice style while sticking to her budget!) Enter HERE

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For those of you who are interested in keeping a gratitude journal this year, here is my recommendation and where to purchase it:

Make this Your Best Day ever, Bless and Be Blessed!

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Look Out it's Behind You! Happy Friday the 13th! Cocktails Anyone?

Did I scare you? Did you look back just for a second?

Chaos and Apologies

Friday the 13th Mayhem started a bit early! Wednesday night my site hosting went down and I lost access to the site as well as emails, it's been pandemonium!

Please note while I get things sorted, the entries for ALL current giveaways are being extended to accomodate those who were unable to get entries in during our site maintenance. If you put in entries since Wednesday and noticed they haven't appeared, it's because we didn't have access to our server until now. If you have sent me an email in the last 3 days, please be patient as the email server was also down.

Friday the 13th

I am a horror movie buff, making today a close second to Halloween as my favorite day to watch scary movies. Usually I'll just go to the Theater and catch the newest Horror Movie released today, but this time, my Friday night Wii Game Night with friends, is becoming a Horror Movie themed Fest including some fun cocktails and great eats!

I experimented with some new recipes (and ultimately decided to make some minor alterations to the original recipes! So read the notes alongside recipe ingredients to see where I made changes)

The Stone Place - I am respectfully changing the name of this one to The Stone Grave, I am going to use mini coffins that I have for Halloween decorating and use them as the Coasters for this when I serve it)

Ingredients:

One orange wedge

1/2 oz. Organic Fresh Lemon Juice (I bought lemons at the local market, they may not have been Organic, lol)

3/4 oz. pomegranate grenadine (I couldn't find Pom Grenadine, so I used regular Grenadine)

2 oz. Appleton  Estate Reserve Jamaican Rum

Nutmeg (I omitted this, I'm Not a big Nutmeg Lover, I do have it on hand for guests who like it)

Directions: Shake with orange wedge and ice, and strain into a  chilled coupe dust with nutmeg. (Again, if you don't like Nutmeg, feel free to omit)

Golden Margarita

Ingredients:

⅓ oz Alizé Gold Passion (I prefer Alize Gold, if you prefer one of the other blends of Alize you can substitute)

⅓ oz tequila (I prefer Sauza Silver, it's very smooth and blendable, perfect for Mixed Drinks)

⅓ oz lime juice

1 oz triple sec

Directions: Serve in a margarita glass coated with salt and garnish  with a lime wedge.

Pork Belly Tacos

Both cocktails pair nicely with the Pork Belly Tacos or if you prefer you can make Chicken Tacos (which will also pair very nicely with the Tequila in the Margarita) and one of my personal favorites, Fish Tacos. I'm actually making one of each, Pork, Chicken and Fish!

Ingredients:

·          Soft Tacos

·          Crispy Iceberg Lettuce

·          Pickled Garlic

·          Fresh Lime

Me and my pals will be enjoying cocktails, an assortment of Tacos and some Horror Films tonight, in between movies there will be some Wii time, How do you plan on spending your Friday the 13th?

We will resume our regularly scheduled Mother's Month Buying Guide this weekend with something super special from our friends at Borghese!

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FTC Disclosure: This is a non-compensated Post. No Monetary Exchange took place. I really am a Horror Movie Film Lover and the makers of Appleton Estate Reserve and Alizé Liqueur provided samples to facilitate the making of the cocktails listed in this feature.

{CLOSED} Basket of YOUR choice $100 and under from 1800baskets, 3 winners! Ends 05/18!

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This giveaway is now CLOSED. Thanks so much to our wonderful sponsor 1800baskets.com! We look forward to working with you again! The winner has been notified and upon confirmation, follower name will be posted both here and on our homepage. Remember: There are great giveaways active on the upper right hand side of the page!

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Ascending Butterfly's Annual Mother's Month Buying Guide Giveaway, brought to you by:

1800baskets.com is back with another fun giveaway for Ascending Butterfly Readers!

And you can double your chances by making sure you are already 'liking' them on Facebook, where they do random, surprise, basket giveaways (Hint: there is one going on right now for a Baby Basket). What makes their Facebook Giveaways super fun is the fact that they ask you to actually evaluate the basket as your method of entry, and they really take your feedback to heart. They have made changes to existing configurations based on entrant feedback. I for one love when a company truly engages with me, don't you?

I personally think you can never go wrong with a Gift Basket, there is always a little something for everyone! But trust me when I tell you not all Gift Baskets are created equal. There is an art to a Gift Basket done right, the right contents, in the right amount, packed super carefully so it arrives not only in tact but with it's content super fresh. For some categories, that's not so easy to pull off, yet 1800baskets has never failed to impress me in this regard. I am partial to baskets with food, be it organic fruits, gourmet cheese, chocolates or some combo of all of the above. I have yet to receive a basket where the food was less than fresh, I've never received one melted chocolate, and I've never received a basket where it contained more filler than content. That's exactly what I want to receive, and I will send no less! Especially when it comes to Mother's Day!

A Treat For More Than The Eyes

Pictured Above: Premium Cheeses Gift Basket bottom and on top Mother's Day Mira Luna Wine Gift Basket

Pictured Above: Denarii Lavender Spa Gift Basket

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Premium Cheeses Gift Basket - This basket is cheese overload! It's chock full of an incredible variety of tasty cheeses. My personal favorite was the Brie, but really picking a favorite from this basket would be much like picking a favorite child! For hot wing lovers, the blue cheese included int this basket is a perfect partner! There were artisanal cheeses, hard cheeses, goat cheese and more! It was the perfect pair with the next basket I selected.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Mother's Day Mira Luna Wine Gift Basket  - The star of this basket is the Alazar 2008 Sonoma County Sangiovese, more commonly known as a Red Zinfadel, this basket contains an assortment of treats, including chocolate, shortbread cookies and more as well as a great wine to pair them with and went absolutely PERFECT with the Premium Cheeses Basket. I added some local fruits and my preferred brand of crackers and combined the wine and cheese assortment for a fun Mother's Day Pre-Lunch. This red also pairs perfectly with tangy ribs or herb marinated Lamb. (Yes my butterflies, this butterfly can throw it down in the kitchen, I love to cook!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Denarii Lavender Spa Gift Basket - This basket is filled to overflowing with Lavendar Spa Essentials from Source Verite! Bath gel, Body Butter, Bath Mitt, Exfoliating Towel, a Reed Diffuser and MORE. This basket definitely puts the AH in relaxation. All three baskets combined are a Triple Play of Perfection. The handled pumice stone included in this set is fantastic by the way! You can wine her, tempt her tummy and bring the Spa home at the same time!

My Take

Baskets are a great gift anytime, and I can't think of one category of mom that 1800baskets.com doesn't have covered. Baskets make great birthday gifts, hostess gifts, and do you have a teacher to buy for soon? Trust me, she'll love this way more than an apple! (While I appreciate the joys of fruit, as a former Special Ed Teacher, I can tell you that your childs teacher will love this way more!).

You didn't think I'd forget about you right? Who loves you butterfly?

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - WIN IT! - Ascending Butterfly and our friends at 1800baskets.com have a very special surprise for 3 lucky winners! 3 winners will win the gift basket of their choice $100 and under! We will select one person who is 'Liking' BOTH 1800baskets.com and Ascending Butterfly on Facebook (this is optional, we never make following on social media required!), one winner that follows BOTH 1800baskets.com and Ascending Butterfly on Twitter and one winner who is either a google follower or email subscriber. This way no matter how you choose to connect with Ascending Butterfly and 1800baskets.com you still have a chance to win! How sweet is that?

Don't you just ♥ 1800baskets.com? I know I do!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - How to Win: (1) You must be a PUBLIC follower of Ascending Butterfly to be eligible for this and all giveaways. Indicate in your entry that you follow (if your 'comment name/user id' differs from your profile id, please let me know what name you follow under) and (2)MANDATORY entry-Visit 1800baskets and  Link us to the basket you would pick if you won! (3) You must also leave your email address somewhere in your comment. (You can format it this way for security, example: ascendingbutterfly AT mail host DOT com). (If your email is clearly visible in your profile, you can just say so, that's OK!) Please follow the easy 1, 2, 3 steps to winning (or in this case, the A,B,C’s of winning!) This giveaway is open to USA residents who are 18 years of age or older. No PO Boxes.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Please follow directions or you will be disqualified! All comments are moderated, they may not appear on the site right away (comments like "I want this" or "I want to win" will not be entered). You have from Wednesday, May 11, 2011 until Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 03:00 PM (EST) to comment and be entered for a chance to win. You will have 48 hours to confirm if we do not hear from you we will be forced to move on to an alternate. (We only notify winners DIRECTLY via email, so if your profile or your comment does not have an email your entry will not be processed)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Blog about this giveaway, linking to this giveaway post. Leave the URL in a comment. (If your blog post contains more than just a pic and link you'll get 5 extra credit entries!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - In the spirit of Mother's Day Fun share with us your favorite advice that your mom has given you! (and yes, if you were not raised by your mom, you can share with us the best wisdom received by the person who did raise you!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Grab our NEW Button and put it on your Blog. Leave the URL where we can see it in a comment (if you have our old one, please swap it out, our URL address has changed!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow @Tracy_Iglesias on Twitter (this is ascendingbutterfly’s editor) and give me your twitter ID in a comment

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow @1800baskets on Twitter

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow @Ascending1 on Twitter (this is Ascending Butterfly's new account, we will soon be hosting twitter parties which necessitates having a second account so we can make updates throughout the entire party!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ -Tweet this:

Pls RT Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - @Ascending1 + @1800baskets Basket of YOUR choice $100 or under #Giveaway! Ends 05/18 http://tinyurl.com/3gnwprs

(Leave a comment with the tweet’s url so you can get a valid entry (click on the time your tweet was sent to get the direct URL and then copy and paste it here). You can Tweet TWICE per DAY. If you Tweet more than that, that entry will be disqualified.)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Digg about this giveaway and leave your digg username in your comment

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Fave this blog on Technorati and leave your Technorati user name in your comment

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow Ascending Butterfly on Facebook HERE

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow 1800baskets.com and tell them Ascending Butterfly Sent You (I'm sure they'd love for you to tell them which Basket you most want to try also!) on Facebook HERE (Please post the link to your facebook comment, you can get that link the same way you get your link to your tweets!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow Ascending Butterfly on Networked Blogs HERE

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Join Ascending Butterfly's NEW Community/Real Time Chat, Group HERE

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - One time only, NOT a daily: Vote for Ascending Butterfly on: Fuel My Blog

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Have you entered another active giveaway on Ascending Butterfly? Let me know which one and you’ll get more extra credit!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Have you commented on a non-giveaway entry? Let me know which one here and you’ll get more extra credit!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Press the button below and join, you get an extra entry for this giveaway and a shot at more great prizes, lets win together! (one time extra credit, will be verified before entry can be accepted)

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FTC Disclosure Info for this Giveaway: This is not a paid insertion. This is a non-compensated post and all opinions regarding the product and the sponsor are my own experiences. I was provided product to facilitate the review and giveaway. The sponsors are fulfilling directly to prize winner(s), this in no way influenced my opinion of the products. Once a winner is selected and their information has been forwarded to the sponsor, the responsibility of prize fulfillment rests with the sponsor.

Winners Announcements, Giveaways and more!

It's my favorite time of the day, time to make YOU smile with another winners list! All Winners Listed Below Have Confirmed Their Win!

Giveaway Name: Easter Basket of Your Choice Giveaway - Ended 04/19

Winner: JS22

Special Thanks to the Happy Easter Store for hosting!

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Giveaway Name: Win a Rug Mother's Day Giveaway with Madison at Main! Ended 04/30

Winner: Stephanie (I know we have several Stephanie's, please note that Stephanie A. has already confirmed this win)

Special Thanks to Madison at Main for hosting!

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Active Giveaways!

It's Mothers Month at Ascending Butterfly!

1) Ends 05/10 - Clarisonic Review and $200 B-Glowing Gift Card Giveaway! (so you can get a Clarisonic, or anything else your heart desires!) - Enter HERE!

2) Ends 05/13 - Give Mama A Little MOR for Mother's Day Heart Shaped Gift Tins Giveaway! Indulgent Products in a Heart Shaped tin - Enter HERE!

3) Ends 05/31 - Featured Handbag in the Spotlight: Pelle Camden Belted Leather Satchel Giveaway! (It's Birkin Style, without the sacrifice your budget price tag!) - Enter HERE!

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Earthies Giveaway Entries are being processed and we will announce the winner soon! Hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Butterfly!

Our Mother's Day Buying Guide will continue on Monday, as you know, the entire the month of May we will be celebrating moms here on Ascending Butterfly!

I couldn't resist this perfect Mothers Day Graphic with butterflies!

Wishing all my butterflies AND their moms, grandmas, Aunties, Madres, Mamas, and Titi's, a very Happy Mother's Day!

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Give Mama A Little MOR for Mother's Day Heart Shaped Gift Tins Giveaway! Ends 05/15!

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This giveaway is now CLOSED. Thanks so much to our wonderful sponsor MOR Cosmetics! We look forward to working with you again! The winner has been notified and upon confirmation, follower name will be posted both here and on our homepage. Remember: There are great giveaways active on the upper right hand side of the page!

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Ascending Butterfly's Annual Mother's Day Buying Guide Giveaway, brought to you by:

NOTE: Entry Deadline Extended for this giveaway due to server maintenance causing site issues, we apologize for any inconvenience!

Is your mom the hostess with the mostest? Is presentation important to her?

I have a long time love with creative packaging ,wrapping paper and presentation, which is probably why I'm so in love Mor Cosmetics. Their products are amazing, don't get me wrong, but much like a kid at Christmas, I can't wait to see the packaging! I didn't think it was possible to fall more in love with their packaging, I love all their packaging be it paper or tins, and I fell head over heels with the packaging (and the products) included in the Dear Mr. Patridge limited edition holiday gift set (see HERE for review), I don't know how they manage to keep topping themselves, but they have come up with another 'perfect gift'. Their Mother's Day Heart Shaped Gift Tins are brilliantly pacakaged as always, and contain a Soapette and Hand Cream in your choice of scent. Each of the colors represent a different scent choice.

I can't gaurantee you 'favorite' status, but I can assure you mom will love these, and YOU for being so thoughtful!

MOR Mother's Day Heart Shaped Gift Tins

These sets offer Super Luxe Love for your skin, at a price that won't break the bank! At $17, you should totally splurge and buy mom all three! For less than the cost of a dozen roses you can get mom a more longer lasting gift, that's good for her skin, whose scent will transport her, and the tin can be re-purposed!

The Sets:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Hand Over Heart - (White Heart) - Snow Gardenia Scented Soapette and Hand Cream - Gardenia, Juniper Berry and Angelica introduce the classical Snow Gardenia fragrance with a touch of Ylang Ylang, Vanilla and Sandalwood to finish the base accords. (While picking a Mor favorite is much like picking a favorite child, I have to admit Snow Gardenia is my favorite Mor scent!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Heart of Gold - (Pink Heart) - Lychee Flowers Scented Soapette and Hand Cream - scent is produced with sparkling sweet lychee flowers united with ripe Berries, soft powdery Florals and the slightest hint of Green Forest Woods.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Sweet Heart - (Black Heart) - Marshmallow Scented Soapette and Hand Cream - Vanilla Musk and Jasmine Flower, Sugar dipped Rose petals with White Carnation and Cotton Candy play beautifully to create a deliciously sweet perfume!  (It's not a clawing sweet, but the florals do make the Vanilla Musk a little less heavy, this is so hard to describe for some reason! You really just have to experience it for yourself to fully understand! You won't be left smelling like candy, trust me!)

My Take

Mor definitely has done it again! The products not only are contained in a re-purposeable and beautiful gift tin, they even put a very pretty bow on it for you. Literally the only 'thinking' you have to do with this is decide on a scent (unless you of course take my advice and get all three!).

These are great to buy and tuck away for a ton of gift giving needs, in addition to mother's day, these make great birthday gifts, hostess gifts, and do you have a teacher to buy for soon? Trust me, she'll love this way more than an apple! (While I appreciate the joys of fruit, as a former Special Ed Teacher, I can tell you that your childs teacher will love this way more!).

You didn't think I'd forget about you right? Who loves you butterfly?

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - WIN IT! - Ascending Butterfly and our friends at Mor have a very special surprise for 3 lucky winners! 3 winners will win one MOR Mother's Day Heart Shaped Gift Tin in their choice of scent! We will select one person who is 'Liking' BOTH Mor and Ascending Butterfly on Facebook, one winner that follows BOTH MOR and Ascending Butterfly on Twitter and one winner who is either a google follower or email subscriber. This way no matter how you choose to connect with Ascending Butterfly and MOR you still have a chance to win! How sweet is that?

Don't you just ♥ Mor? I know I do!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - How to Win: (1) You must be a PUBLIC follower of Ascending Butterfly to be eligible for this and all giveaways. Indicate in your entry that you follow (if your 'comment name/user id' differs from your profile id, please let me know what name you follow under) and (2)MANDATORY entry- tell us which of the three scents you'd most love to try! (3) You must also leave your email address somewhere in your comment. (You can format it this way for security, example: ascendingbutterfly AT mail host DOT com). (If your email is clearly visible in your profile, you can just say so, that's OK!) Please follow the easy 1, 2, 3 steps to winning (or in this case, the A,B,C’s of winning!) This giveaway is open to USA residents who are 18 years of age or older. No PO Boxes.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Please follow directions or you will be disqualified! All comments are moderated, they may not appear on the site right away (comments like "I want this" or "I want to win" will not be entered). You have from Saturday, May 07, 2011 until Friday, May 15, 2011 at 03:00 PM (EST) to comment and be entered for a chance to win. You will have 48 hours to confirm if we do not hear from you we will be forced to move on to an alternate. (We only notify winners DIRECTLY via email, so if your profile or your comment does not have an email your entry will not be processed)

DISCOUNT ALERT: Free Samples on Mor E-Boutique purchases over $30, enter MOR38 at checkout to redeem!

EXTRA CREDIT:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Blog about this giveaway, linking to this giveaway post. Leave the URL in a comment. (If your blog post contains more than just a pic and link you'll get 5 extra credit entries!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - In the spirit of Mother's Day Fun share with us your favorite advice that your mom has given you! (and yes, if you were not raised by your mom, you can share with us the best wisdom received by the person who did raise you!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Grab our NEW Button and put it on your Blog. Leave the URL where we can see it in a comment (if you have our old one, please swap it out, our URL address has changed!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow @Tracy_Iglesias on Twitter (this is ascendingbutterfly’s editor) and give me your twitter ID in a comment

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow @MORcosmetics on Twitter

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow @Ascending1 on Twitter (this is Ascending Butterfly's new account, we will soon be hosting twitter parties which necessitates having a second account so we can make updates throughout the entire party!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ -Tweet this:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - @Ascending1 + @MORcosmetics indulgent products Mother's Day Heart Shaped Gift Tins #Giveaway! Ends 05/15 http://tinyurl.com/3p9qlnf

(Leave a comment with the tweet’s url so you can get a valid entry (click on the time your tweet was sent to get the direct URL and then copy and paste it here). You can Tweet TWICE per DAY. If you Tweet more than that, that entry will be disqualified.)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Digg about this giveaway and leave your digg username in your comment

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Fave this blog on Technorati and leave your Technorati user name in your comment

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow Ascending Butterfly on Facebook HERE

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow Mor Cosmetics and tell them Ascending Butterfly Sent You (I'm sure they'd love for you to tell them which Mother's Day Gift Set Scent you most want to try also!) on Facebook HERE (Please post the link to your facebook comment, you can get that link the same way you get your link to your tweets!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Follow Ascending Butterfly on Networked Blogs HERE

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Join Ascending Butterfly's NEW Community/Real Time Chat, Group HERE

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Vote for Ascending Butterfly on: Fuel My Blog

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Have you entered another active giveaway on Ascending Butterfly? Let me know which one and you’ll get more extra credit!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Have you commented on a non-giveaway entry? Let me know which one here and you’ll get more extra credit!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Press the button below and join, you get an extra entry for this giveaway and a shot at more great prizes, lets win together! (one time extra credit, will be verified before entry can be accepted)

˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•●•٠·˙˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•●•٠·˙˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•●•٠·˙

FTC Disclosure Info for this Giveaway: This is not a paid insertion. This is a non-compensated post and all opinions regarding the product and the sponsor are my own experiences. I was provided product to facilitate the review and giveaway. The sponsors are fulfilling directly to prize winner(s), this in no way influenced my opinion of the products. Once a winner is selected and their information has been forwarded to the sponsor, the responsibility of prize fulfillment rests with the sponsor.

Cinco De Mayo!

Cinco De Mayo (5th of May), commemorates the victory of the Mexican Militia over the French Army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican Capital City of Puebla. While there is limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, it is primarily celebrated in US Cities, and it is NOT, I repeat IS NOT, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually on September 16th.

What should be a celebration of Mexican Culture including food, music, and customs has sadly become a full day Drinking Fest here in the states! It's a mis-conception I'd like to see de-bunked once and for all. (Although I have a feeling I may have to repeat this next year!)

How are you celebrating Cinco De Mayo?

Today I celebrated by co-hosting a super fun Twitter Party (#curiousgeorgemoms) for PBS Kid's Curious George, which highlighted  the upcoming television show celebrating Dia de Las Madres (Mother's Day), and Curious George's new friend, Marco! See yesterday's post for more details HERE.

I want to thank all my Ascending Butterflies who joined in on the party to win great prizes and show their support!

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