Birthday Week: Day 5

Seems to me like there is a lot of "90s pride" going around. Allow me to indulge myself and join in all the fun. As a 90s child I can see saw where all the hype is coming from, I LOVED my childhood and all the memories it contains. The cartoons were great and the technology was (at the time) incredible. Nowadays I see kids who are not satisfied with the phone they have, the mp3 player, the computer, etc. Perhaps kids from the 90s felt more satisfaction with the things they had and enjoyed more simple things like a yo-yo or sock-em-boppers (I totally wanted some!). And how about the movies?! I grew up watching Disney princesses and yes I saw Clueless several times (Do you prefer "fashion victim" or "ensembly challenged"?) For some reason I never saw Dumbo.. it looked too sad. My all time favorite Disney movie is Beauty and The Beast, the story was beautiful and Belle is a great heroine. Going back to the topic of cartoons, shall I list them all? No that would take forever, I watched Hey Arnold and Rugrats mostly, but I also watched Sailor Moon with my older siblings quite often. My older brother made me watch the Ninja Turtles too, not a big a fan but it made me crave pizza like no one's business. In honor of 90s day I have the following giveaway:

• Beauty and The Beast DVD (US Only)
• Clueless DVD (Special Whatever! Edition) (Int'l)

To enter fill out this form: Birthday Week Day 5

Extra Entries:

• +2 Leave a comment telling me your favorite thing of the 90s!
• +1 Tweet about it!
• +5 Put a button up. Find 'em here

There you have it folks! All giveaways end tomorrow, March 2nd at midnight PST. I will announce winners on March 3rd! Good luck and thanks for celebrating Birthday Week with me!

Birthday Week: Day 4

Today for y'all I have some homemade corn bread made by yours truly! I have to say I bake pretty often, if I could I would bake every single day, unfortunately there isn't always someone willing to eat everything I make. It falls under the category of "too much of a good thing". Who can have too much bread? I sure can't, but I can't eat a whole batch by myself either. Growing up I mostly ate my grandmother's Mexican food, (beans and rice on a daily basis) with enchiladas and chile rellenos at least once a week. I also ate a lot of Mac n Cheese, random eh? I especially liked when the noodles were shaped like cartoon characters (more on that tomorrow). These days I eat more simple food like salads, nuts, fruit, veggies, lots of cheese (and lots of Italian food), and of course no meat. I have been a proud vegetarian since 2008. It was a very "duh" decision, I never loved meat and sometimes would avoid it because I didn't like the texture. 2008 was also the year I became a tea fanatic, I drink several mugs a day and I am always on the look out for a new brand or flavor. Right now I am drinking Yogi Egyptian Licorice. So yummy *grins*. Cold weather is also the only time I drink hot chocolate, it just doesn't go well with warm California days so... gotta enjoy it while it suits. I think I can go on and on about food, so I'll force myself to stop now and announce today's (delicious) giveaway:

• Paula Deen's the Deen Family Cookbook (Int'l)

To enter fill out this form: Birthday Week Day 4

Extra Entries:

• +2 Leave a comment with your favorite food!
• +1 Tweet about it
• +5 Put a button up :) Find them here.

See you tomorrow for Day 5 (it'll be the funnest one yet)!

Birthday Week: Day 3

I started blogging this past May with a personal blog. I would blog about everyday life and whatnot, I found The Maddy Chronicles around that time and thought Maddy took awesome pictures. I wanted to be just like her so I picked up my sister's digital camera and started snapping pictures. The rest was history, I haven't put my camera down and as I mentioned yesterday I love taking pictures of nature. Whether it be my favorite hiking trail, a lake, or a park I always find a million things to capture. I also love taking pictures of my nieces and nephew, cute kids are the hardest and most enjoyable subjects. I don't call myself a good photographer just yet, but I am having a lot of fun learning and experimenting. My next major purchase I am saving up for is a camera, I'm currently in the "research" phase, wish me luck (picky shoppers where you at?!) In honor of Day 3 I have the following giveaway:

• Camera charm key chain w/ "Capture Life" hand stamped pendant (Int'l)

To enter fill out this form: Birthday Week Day 3
Extra Entries:

• +2 Comment with your favorite hobby or something you picked up from blogging!
• +1 Tweet about it!
• +5 Put a button up on your blog :) Find them here. 

Good luck and see you tomorrow for Day 4!

Birthday Week: Day 2

Sorry guys no cupcakes today! I have a quince coming up, if you know-what-I-mean ;) I have to fit into my dress. There is no better way to get in shape than heading for the outdoors and going for a run or hike. The picture to your left was taken in one of my favorite parks, Ed Levin. The outdoors is my favorite subject to photograph (more on that tomorrow). Like any California girl worth her salt I also LOVE the beach. Gray skies + fresh air + sand = my perfect outdoor running scene. Growing up I didn't play any sports, it wasn't until high school that I played some softball. Even though I only did one season, I have a lot of fond memories of playing catch in freshly cut grass and walking home carrying my dusty bat bag. I picked up hiking soon after I graduated from high school, it was intense and addictive. There is a trail in Santa Cruz that I want try but I think I have a little more training to go before I feel confident enough to take it on. Trees are one of those things I wish there were more of, I'm a bit of a tree-hugger. Palm trees are my favorite, they have always been around my house both inside and outside and nothing screams "tropical" like a palm tree. So in honor of Outdoors day I have the following giveaway:

•  Palm Tree Shaped Cookie Cutter, so you can make your own dessert for today ;) (US Only)
• Hiking (101 Essential Tips) by Hugh McManners (Open Int'l)

To enter fill out this form: Birthday Week Day 2: The Outdoors

Extra Entries:

• +2 Leave a comment on this post with your favorite outdoor activity!
• +1 Tweet about it!
• +5 Put a birthday week button up :) Get one here.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow for Birthday Week Day 3!

Birthday Week: Day 1

I promised cupcakes didn't I?! In honor of Music Day I got music-themed cupcakes, so cute *passes one to you* I'm one of those people who carry their fully loaded iPod everywhere. I consider myself to have a wide range of musical interests, from Classical to Alternative to Country (that's a relatively new one) as I get older my taste in music continues to grow and expand. I seem to be going back in time too, about a year ago I discovered 60s music. Ah, now that was a great decade, The Beatles (of course), The Animals, Beach Boys, the list goes on. A current obsession of mine is  Mumford & Sons. If you follow me on Twitter you might have heard that I created a fan page for them on Fantourage here, come join the fun if you're a fan too! Other favorites are Incubus, Jason Mraz, and The Dirty Heads. Now, I take music very seriously, if they don't sound good live I will cease being a fan on the spot regardless of how good they sound on the radio. I won't name any names, but they do exist *shudders* I don't play an instrument, but I hope to one day take Piano lessons, it's a beautiful instrument that I have adored since I was a kid. Growing up I listened to whatever my older siblings and mom listened to (my dad isn't much a music lover) so that means that 90s music is essentially the soundtrack to my childhood. Spice Girls, Nirvana, Sublime, Hootie & the Blowfish... oh and that whole boy-band phase? Yep I was a total fan, I could sing all Hanson songs from memory (oh and I knew their favorite colors and I think one of them liked Jello?) Nowadays I am more into Spanish music than I was back then, Mana, Juanes, Enanitos Verdes... a word of advice: You don't need to understand the lyrics to enjoy the music. So next time you're browsing radio stations, try a different language! In honor of Day One: Music of Birthday Week there will be a music themed giveaway:

• Mumford & Sons Sigh No More CD (US Only)
• $10 iTunes Gift Card (Int'l)

To enter fill out this form: Birthday Week: Day One Music
Extra Entries:

• +2 Leave a comment with your current or past music obsession 
• +1 Tweet about today's post or Birthday Week in general
• +5 Put up a Birthday Week button on your blog, you can find them here 

All Birthday Week Giveaways end March 1st. See you all tomorrow for Day Two of Birthday Week!

Birthday Week Announcement!

Some of you may have already noticed the coming-soon birthday week button on my sidebar, well here is the official announcement! Starting February 24th there will be giveaways, *secret* posts, and cupcakes! Well maybe not real cupcakes, but you get the idea. I'm going to use birthday week to get to know you and for you to get know me. Each day will have a theme of some kind, one will be music, the rest are a secret. It will end on March 2nd (my 20th birthday) where I will announce the winners and reveal the grand prize (winner of that will be announced on the 3rd). To kick things off I am doing a promotion giveaway with two $10 giftcards to Amazon! All you have to do is post a button on your sidebar, copy and paste the code beneath the button you want to use:

<&It;div align="center"><&It;a href="www.ladyandthebooks.com" title="Lady and The Books" target="_blank">&It;img src="http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff404/nizmart/baloons-2.jpg" alt="Lady and The Books" style="border:none;"/>&It;/a>&It;/div>

&It;div align="center">&It;a href="http://www.ladyandthebooks.com" title="Lady and The books" target="_blank">&It;img src="http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff404/nizmart/cupcake-1.jpg" alt="Lady and The Books" style="border:none;" />&It;/a>&It;/div>

Leave a comment with the direct link to wherever the button is posted and I will pick two winners on February 23rd. After that you may want to leave the button up as it counts as extra entries towards all the giveaways during Birthday Week. Good luck to all and *raises glass* here is to a fantastic Birthday Week Celebration!