Blog Community Support at MomDot Forum

Pay It Forward

Where the Blogging Moms Go

Whether you’re a newbie or seasoned blogger, we all can use a support system at times.

Perhaps you’re looking for a fresh perspective, or someone to bounce an idea off of.  Maybe you need another pair of eyes to help solve a problem or share some ideas on parenting tips.

At the MomDot Forum, women come together to pay it forward.   The MomDot Forum is a community of women (and a few men!) – comprised of moms , grandmoms and dads,  who enjoy keeping the conversation going, while nurturing friendships.

I can honestly say that I’ve met some wonderful people, and learned so much from the group!  It’s the one forum I check first thing in the morning and last thing at night!

If you also are a Product Reviewer, MomDot has a special VIP Co-Op Share Board that you can join, as well as a place to list your Contests and Carnivals.

When you join, let Trisha know that Moomettes sent you!

For more information and to complete an application visit MomDot.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Thanks for visiting! Comments are always appreciated! This blog is Do-Follow Links!

Rustic New England Barns – Wordless Wednesday

Local Charm

I guess you could say I’m on a roll taking photos of local history.

I did a post earlier this summer and was waxing nostalgic about how I used to take my kids to camp along a country road when they were younger.  The country barns are gone, and senior citizen condos were built where the barns once stood.

So I’ve set out to photograph some of the still-standing structures left in the surrounding Connecticut towns near me before they’re gone.  It reminds me of the old Joni Mitchell song “Big Yellow Taxi” where she sings “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Are You Having Trouble With Spyware or Malware?

Internet

Tools to Protect Your Computer

As any parent of teenagers knows, or if you’re a blogger or WAHM, we spend a tremendous amount of time on the internet, – downloading plugins, using Skype, spending time on Twitter, Facebook, in forums and chat rooms.

My computer will be one year old shortly.  It’s amazing how much data accumulates in that short time!  My Dell Inspiron 530S was a birthday gift from my brother.  I really like it and recommend that if you’re looking for one, check out the Dell coupons for any special deals.

An important thing to know is how to protect yourself while on the computer. Criminals have found ways to steal your information especially when you thought that you were safe. One way to thwart them is to employ anti-spyware and malware tools to protect yourself when you’re on the Internet.

Computers have become such an important part of our daily lives.  We do everything from order pizza to shop for household appliances online. With that level of traffic and financial information floating around, it’s no wonder criminals have turned their attentions to the Internet. Fortunately, so have software manufacturers.

No one wants to be the victim of identity theft or fraud. Even though it may not be your fault, the burden of proof always falls on you and the red tape is nothing short of monstrous. So, do all that you can to protect yourself as well as family and friends while they’re online.

One way to do that is to arm your computer with anti-spyware and malware tools. Spyware constitutes programs that hide within other programs, hence the name “spy.”

Here’s how it works: You’ll go to a site and download a program. The program may be hiding another program within to track how you use it. This is a non-lethal spyware program. It was probably employed by the site for statistical purposes.

Then, there are other spyware that, when downloaded, will go in and rewrite certain things on your computer without your consent. If you’ve ever downloaded something and then your home page changed, it was probably courtesy of a spyware or malware program.

Both of these are mild examples compared to what usually happens. Even the mild spyware you don’t want. If someone has to do something behind your back to get you to try it, steer clear. More lethal spyware will search your files and retrieve financial information.

Anti-spyware tools and programs seek out these dastardly additions and eliminate them. A well-protected computer will have both antivirus and anti-spyware installed for a wider net of protection. Spyware tools, like antivirus can be obtained for free or paid for.

Shop Around

Know what you’re buying. Be sure that free programs offer you adequate spyware protection. Sites like STOPzilla and pctools offer free spyware tools for you to use. These tools work behind the scenes in real-time and on schedules to detect spyware. They also clear your browsing history and prevent pop-ups all over your screen. Spyware also lets you know if a site in your search results is dangerous for you to visit.

Paid spyware offers a few more perks but make sure that you actually need those perks for your system. If you choose to pay, find software with multiple user capabilities so you can arm all of the computers in your home. Some good companies are Avast and AVG.

In the past, I’ve let my readers and forum friends know that I really like Avast, which has a free version.

My favorite malware program that I recommend to all my forum friends is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.  I run the program at least once a week, and it does the job for me.

Protect yourself from the beginning. Use anti-spyware tools to prevent and remove spyware that threatens your computer.

If you have any tips you’d like to pass on, let me know.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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WordWorld: Kooky Spooky Halloween Childrens DVD

Kooky Spooky Halloween

WordWorld, Where Words Come Alive!

I live in an historic town in Connecticut.  In New England there’s never a shortage of colonial homes with some kind of “history” or aura of days gone by.  I can tell you stories about babysitting in homes with front and back stairways, beehive ovens, missing floorboards – but that’s best left for another post.

Trick or Treating at homes which date to the 1600, 1700 and 1800s was certainly an experience when I was a kid!

Now, just in time for fall Halloween fun- Thanks to NCircle Entertainment we have a chance to let you know about WorldWorld – Kooky Spooky Halloween.

Word World can currently be seen daily on PBS Kids, and features the vibrant, personable characters Duck, Shark, Sheep, Ant and Robot.

In WordWorld’s Halloween special A Kooky Spooky Halloween the WordFriends get their share of scares the night before Halloween and Sheep is busy making herself a super special fairy costume to wear for the big Halloween party. It’s Kooky, it’s Spooky, and it’s so much fun!

There are two delightful enchanting episodes:

• A Kooky Spooky Halloween

• Sheep’s Halloween Costume

• Bonus – “Monster Maker” Music Video
  

A Department of Education funded study demonstrates that WordWorld works to improve children’s early literacy skills, including oral vocabulary and their ability to read and recognize words featured in WordWorld.

WordWorld helps to support skills such as phonics, spelling, letter knowledge, language development, cognitive, vocabularly building and more.

Kooky Spooky Halloween DVD hit the store shelves in August.

Length: 30 Minutes
Suggested Price: $6.99
UPC: 843501007099

Available at Toys R Us, Amazon or online at: NCircleEntertainment

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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More Family Fun At The Durham Fair

It’s County Fair Time again!

Durham Fair

Really, Autumn has to be one of our favorite times of the year.  There’s still plenty of fairs going on, and we really wish we could visit all of them.

Saturday night was crisp and clear, and we visited the Durham Fair.  This particular fair always coincides with the Big E that goes on in Massachusetts.

My husband and I have been going to the Durham Fair even since before the kids were born.  Once they came along, we always enjoyed a family night (or day) out.  When the girls were in high school, it was always a big deal, and they’d always look forward to a night out with their friends.

The girls would even make it a point to try to come home from college to visit this fair.

Now, we travel with my oldest daughter, charming son-in-law and the grandkids.   It’s a fun family night out.

I like to visit this fair at night, because the setting is so pretty – lots of hills, and of course, the colorful amusement rides and midway.

We always head for the farm buildings with the animals – goats, pigs, chickens, roosters, rabbits, cows, llamas,  – everyone always  seems to be smiling…

On to the Midway were even ‘Lil Moomette gets to try her luck – she managed to come away with a few prizes!

The rides at the Durham Fair are geared more towards the teens and adults, but everyone, including Slugger, likes to watch the colors go by!

Against my better judgment – I made it a point to eat dinner here – we always enjoy supporting the local civic organizations – The Boy Scouts, Fire Departments and churches all have food booths set up.

We enjoyed hot dogs, pulled-pork sandwiches, kielbasa and sauerkraut grinders, ice cream, fried dough and more!

Wandering around and looking at the homemade prize-winning pies, cheesecakes, cakes, jams, jellies, canned tomato sauce, relishes, pickles and more just made my mouth water!

Of course, for me, no trip to a would be complete without a visit to the Arts & Crafts tent!  I managed to come away with a therapeutic magnetic Hematite ankle bracelet – it’s supposed to help with pain from sports injuries, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, stress, headaches, migraines, Fibromyalgia, arthritis, high blood pressure and more.  It’s very pretty with the black and green beads.  I hope it works!

Oh – and I did get one of those Euro-Shine Dutch Rubber Brooms  that magnetizes dust hair & lint.  Guess I was into magnets that night now that I think about it!

Have you gone to any of the local fairs this year?  Tell me about your favorites!

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Tweaking My Blog and Sharing Tips I’ve Learned Along the Way

Spreading the Word

WAHM Blog Tips

As any blogger knows, we’re always trying to build the perfect mousetrap.

This week I tweaked my blog a bit and would like to share some tips about the cool things I added.

Build A Better Blog

I’m learning quite a bit and slowly incorporating the advice from Darren’s new eBook, 31 Days To Build A Better Blog.

Even though I have a “Contact” page with a contact button, I still add my email address because all things being techy, sometimes they don’t work.  In order to avoid spam, most people will list their email address with an (at) and a (dot) whatever.

I was able to generate an email icon image from E-Mail Icon Generator.  You can generate one for GMail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL and many others.

Find out more at: E-Mail Icon Generator

More info I’d like to share -

For Blogger Blogs

Before I combined all my blogs, one was on Blogger.  I often tried to tweak that myself, and came across some very good websites for information on how to do things yourself.  You’ll usually find some type of helpful information when you sign up for their newsletter.

Visit: Blogger Buster

For Wordpress Blogs

Now that I’ve combined my blogs and am strictly a wp gal, I try to keep up with the latest happenings with Wordpress.  I get a lot of good tips about plugins, and more from Lorelle on Wordpress.

Another thing I did was add a Wordpress plugin that allows you to insert any affiliate links between posts, RSS feeds, or several other options.  What I like about it is that by adding your own html code, you have the ability to switch-out banners easily.

Check it out here: PostPost

You can also find some great basic blogging info from Melanie Nelson on Blogging Basics 101 “Where there are no stupid blogging questions.” Melanie has a master’s degree in technical writing, and her website is a top resource for beginning and intermediate bloggers.

I hope you found this WAHM blog information helpful!

If you have any other good ideas, let me know!

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Bebe au Lait Hooded Towels – Review and Giveaway

Stylish Maternity and Baby Couture

Fashionable Yet Functional

Since the birth of my grandson, my daughter is finding that her daughter, ‘Lil Moomette, who’s 3, is vying for the attention of her brother.  What we’re trying to do is give one-on-one attention to Moomette, since the two grandkids are only 21 months apart.

All kids like bath time, making it the perfect opportunity to having heart-to-heart conversations and finding out how their day went.

I recently had the opportunity to review a beautiful new hooded towel from Bebe au Lait.

We all know that little girls take their cues from their moms and develop a fashion sense early.  These hooded towels are so chic and luxurious, making the little ones feel like a diva!

I received the Parfait hooded towel, which is an ultra soft, 100% cotton terry, in shades of pink and brown, with a pink peacock feather pattern.  It came packaged in a beautiful box with a see-through top, suitable for gift-giving. The hooded towel had sleeves opening at the bottom, as well as an optional closure that used two hidden magnets – one on each side of the hood neckline.

This enchanting hooded towel for toddlers fit babies and toddlers ages 12mos-3T and is machine washable. The piping was finished and stitched very nicely, and the towel was a good size.

What I liked about this hooded towel is that it’s pretty enough to bring on vacations and use pool-side!

Some of Bebe au Lait’s signature print fabrics and yummy elegant patterns include:

*Papillion
*Chocolat
*Mint Chocolate
*HotDots
*Savilla
*Valencia
*Yoko
*Soft Dots
*Shrine Pink
*Shrine Aqua
*Parfait

They’re also known for their fabulous collection of PTPA Award-Winning  breastfeeding Nursing Covers known as “Hooter Hiders.”

Bebe au Lait also offers Gift Sets and Free domestic ground shipping, making it perfect for gift shopping for new moms or the holidays.  The products can be found in select boutique and upscale baby shops worldwide.

For More Information Visit: Bebe au Lait

Moomette’s Magnificents  is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of  one (1) Toddler Hooded Towel in the pattern of your choice (based upon availability) from Baby au Lait.

Please include a way of contacting you. Should you be the contest winner, this information may be shared with the contest sponsor in order to send your prize.

Main Rule:   (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)
a) Sign up for my free Newsletter Updates to my blog through my e-mail Feedblitz link (on the top of my right column or let me know if you already are, in a separate comment) AND

b) Visit Bebe au Lait and leave a comment about another fact not mentioned in this post and another product you’d like to try.

This contest will run until October 7, 2009 at 11:00 pm.

For Additional Entries, check out my Contest Entry Rules.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Enter The Vistaprint Video Contest – Your Chance To Win $5,000

How Do You Use Vistaprint?

I’ve been using Vistaprint for my business cards ever since I was a Power Seller and had an eBay store.

Now that I have several blogs and host Giveaways, I always include my business card when I send out gifts to the prize winners.  I even have cute coordinating notecards and address labels that I had printed by Vistaprint as well!

You don’t have to be a WAHM or Mommy Blogger to be able to find so many things at Vistaprint to personalize!

Many moms have “Mommy Cards” printed up to hand out to teachers, moms at playgroups and more!

Do you have a teenage daughter who babysits?  When my daughters were teens, they had their own “business cards” printed up to hand out advertising their babysitting services – even works well for  pet-sitters!

Vistaprint is hosting a spectacular contest!

Let them know how you’ve used Vistaprint products to make an impact in your personal or professional life and you could win $5,000!

Make a video. In a clip less than 3 minutes, tell how Vistaprint has helped you make an impact.

Complete the entry form and upload or link to your video. Vistaprint will need to contact you if you are the winner!

Remember these dates.

• The deadline to enter is December 15, 2009.

• The winner will be announced February 11, 2010.

Grand Prize

$5,000 in Vistaprint credit, good for one year.

4 Consolation Prizes

$250 in Vistaprint credit, good for one year.

See Vistaprint for Rules

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Charter High Speed Sweepstakes – Win a 2010 Camaro SS

Win A Camaro

My husband and I started dating when we were 18.  Over the course of these 35 years, he’s had many cars.  The one that we remember best is the one we had when we got married.

My then-boyfriend, now-husband had taken over the payments of his brother’s 1972 Camero.  It was a 2-door, brown standard.  I don’t think it had air conditioning, but it was so long ago, I don’t remember!  All I know is I can’t drive a standard well, and actually drove it only a few times.

I’m short, and the seats weren’t adjustable like they are now, so I really had a tough time reaching the pedals and the clutch.  When we left our reception, his friends had written “Just Married” all over it with shaving cream- papered it, and generally, just did a number on it.  We actually took it to the carwash while we were still in our tux and wedding gown before we left for the airport!

Several months ago I did a post about how Charter was giving away a laptop every day for two months.  Now Charter switched to giving away a brand new car – a Camaro! And not just any Camaro, the hard to get 2010 Camaro 2SS. (Sales Tax included in the prize)

The contest runs from September 15 through November 26 at noon.

In addition, you can get a $100 gift card when you buy 3 Charter services, $50 gift card for 2 services, and $25 gift card when you buy 1 Charter service!

Charter loves fast. And this new 426 hp Camaro is one of the fastest and hardest cars to get in North America, and they’re giving it away free.

Charter services have always brought your home to life, now they’re bringing your garage to life!

The Gift Cards Charter is giving away are from major retailers in clothing, home and accessories, restaurants and more!

Visit Camaro Sweepstakes to register today and to view the complete rules, specifications on the Camaro and more.

Charter continues to outpace the industry in creative and newsworthy contests from giving away an HDTV every day to Xbox 360s to a Hybrid Car last year.

Follow Charter on Twitter

Follow Charter on Facebook

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

Follow Me on Twitter
@Moomettes

Will You Stay Or Will You Go? Find Missing Friends

Our country has become a very mobile and transient society.

Years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to be born and live in the same town their entire life.  Nowadays people move from state-to-state at the drop of a hat.  Parents may be on one coast, and the kids and grandkids on another coast.

I’m one of those people who has lived in the same town my entire life.  I’ve watched my friends leave, one by one.  Some of my high school friends I’ve kept in contact with, while others have drifted away.

I did go away to college and had a roommate and friends from all over the country.  I often think I’d like to reconnect with my roommate and friends to find out what has transpired in those almost 40 years since we’ve first met.

Now there’s a site called MyLife where you can find everyone all in one place.  MyLife uses sources from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr and other sites to try to locate everyone you knew at one point in your life.

I tried to locate my roommate from college, but would have had to have a membership to pursue the search further.

If there’s someone you’d like to connect with – a childhood friend, stray family member, college buddy, or the one that got away – give this site a try.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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