The Spaz restarts a Give Away

So now I get to purge my house of all the actual physical books in it.  And there are a lot of them to purge.  If you're a long time reader of my blog, then you'll remember back a long time ago, circa 2008, when this blog actually got traffic (like hundreds of readers every day... yeah... I know, I'm a big shot) and I did this little give-away thing.

It was simple. One book, once a week, to one reader.  Comment that you want to get the book, I do one of those nifty random integer generator thingies and the winner gets the book. Easy peasy.

Well, I'm bringing it back.

The first book is The Host by Stephenie Meyer (of Twilight fame).

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.


Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.


Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

The copy I have to give away is a hardcover and has been read. Leave a comment here for a chance to win it. And if you want two chances to win it, post about it on your own blog with a link back to this post (and be sure to let me know you did so in the comments).

Good luck!

I love my dripping pots

This week I'll be showing you one of my favorite things about my kitchen. Every time I use this particular feature of my kitchen I'm just so happy about it. Here it is:

No, it's not my sink. It's the hooks those pots and pans are hung upon right above my sink. When we bought a new set of pots and pans The Man put these nifty hooks up there so I wouldn't have to stack them on top of each other in the cabinet and scratch them all up.

I LOVE it and I thank him for doing it frequently. Now I can just wash the pots and pans and stick them right up there to drip dry into the sink. It's FABULOUS.

Totally works for me.

Bonus to anyone who can point out two other things in that first picture that I've blogged about before! I don't know what the bonus is... how about a long distance pat on the back?

BEFORE YOU GO!

OMGOSH - isn't that the most annoying thing ever?! But seriously, if you know of any bloggers you'd like to nominate as the Little Fish of the Week, please let me know here. I'm really hoping to be able to feature a lot of smaller bloggers like myself but I need to know about them from you! So please, please go nominate someone!

Last week's winner of This Body for the Book A Week Giveaway is Dawn from Snakes and Snails and Sugar and Spice! This week I'm taking a break from the give-away but I'll be offering something else up next week so come back to check. :)

Working from home Works for Me!

(First, can I just preface my entire post by saying that being number ONE on the Works for me Wednesday post is what REALLY works for me??! How the heck did I manage that? Do I get a trophy?

That's all I have to say about that... on to my real post!)

*This is a reposted entry from a previous Works for me Wednesday. :) I thought it was worth revisiting and reworking a bit.*

**Don't forget to scroll down for the Book A Week Give Away!**

When people find out I sell on eBay there are so many questions... how did you start?, what do you sell?, can you sell something for me?, can you teach me how?

The truth is that selling on eBay is my full time job and it's a LOT OF WORK. I work on my eBay business harder than I have ever worked at any job in my life. I don't take lunch breaks and the time I would spend commuting from home to a job is spent answering emails. I am constantly at the mercy of eBay's policies which can be scary!

It all started back in 1999 when I was pregnant with my 1st child. I had a good friend who started cleaning out her closet and selling everything and she was making a ton of cash. Since finances were tight and about to get tighter I decided to try it, too. At first it was just the designer wardrobe I had outgrown, silver jewelry I didn't wear, and some odds and ends around the house. I was HOOKED. Everything sold for more than I could have dreamed to get at a garage sale and I loved my new access to instant cash. Watching auctions close began to be my nightly addiction.

Shortly after my son was born the company I worked from home for underwent some big changes and I lost the marketing position I was in love with. I sent out my resume and went on interview after interview but found myself in a position I hadn't found myself in before. I was now a mother. Employers were wary of hiring a mother with an infant and I was wary of leaving my new little Bug in the care of someone else during the day.

It was then that I decided to give eBay a full time go. I started out by begging my friends and family (and my family's friends) to clean out their closets and let me have the loot. I lived for months on that before I had to actually source my own inventory. I learned where and how to find barely used clothing that would sell. I learned name brands, what couture was, how to tell counterfeit from the real stuff.

Eight years later I'm still selling (with small breaks throughout the years while I tried other things) and I've learned to adapt to all the changes that have been thrown my way. Now, The Man and I are a team and he, being the computer genius he is, has streamlined our business so we can maximize the amount of items we can offer.

Because of my work from home job choice I've never had to put my children in day care, I've never had to ask my boss for a day off to spend taking my kids to the zoo. When one of my little monsters is sick (and when I inevitably come down with the bug, too) I can spend the entire day feeling foreheads and cleaning up vomit and I don't have to worry that my job is in danger. Sometimes I don't put shoes on all day. I don't even own a business suit or a pair of panty hose and I do my grocery shopping at 10:00 AM.

Nowadays people are making a great living selling on eBay, but it's no cake walk. It takes a lot of self-discipline and time management to do well. That can be difficult, especially when blogging is so much more fun! However, I do know that anyone can do it. It just takes time to learn the ropes, like any job.

For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

PS - for all of you wonderful Works for me Wednesday readers that used the Restaurant.com coupon from last week's entry and got 50% off, I got a NEW code this week. If you enter ALLSTAR at checkout you can get 60% off your order until the 20th.

PPS - if anyone is interested in an "I'm not going to BlogHer" Margarita Party, please let me know here. The Man is looking into setting up some chat apparatus for this weekend and I'm just wondering if anyone would show up to chat. :)

PPPS - Okay, he actually DID create it! And it's BEAUTIFUL. You just have to go see. :)

Last week I gave away This Body to Shirley at My Army of Five. This week I've got another book to give away. This week's Book A Week selection is Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio. I read this a while ago and I absolutely loved it. It was truly heart breaking and heart warming at the same time.

From Publishers Weekly

The diagnosis of Tourette's Syndrome isn't mentioned until the last pages of Rubio's sensitive portrayal of a young girl with the disease. Instead, Rubio lets Icy Sparks tell her own story of growing up during the 1950s in a small Kentucky town where her uncontrollable outbursts make her an object of fright and scorn. "The Saturday after my [10th] birthday, the eye blinking and poppings began.... I could feel little invisible rubber bands fastened to my eyelids, pulled tight through my brain and attached to the back of my head," says Icy, who thinks of herself as the "frog child from Icy Creek." Orphaned and cared for by her loving grandparents, Icy weathers the taunts of a mean schoolteacher and, later, a crush on a boy that ends in disappointment. But she also finds real friendship with the enormously fat Miss Emily, who offers kindness and camaraderie. Rubio captures Icy's feelings of isolation and brings poignancy and drama to Icy's childhood experiences, to her temporary confinement in a mental institution and to her reluctant introduction?thanks to Miss Emily and Icy's grandmother?to the Pentecostal church through which she discovers her singing talent. If Rubio sometimes loses track of Icy's voice, indulges in unconvincing magical realism and takes unearned poetic license with the speech of her Appalachian grandparents ("'Your skin was as cold as fresh springwater, slippery and strangely soothing to touch'"), her first novel is remarkable for its often funny portrayal of a child's fears, loves and struggles with an affliction she doesn't know isn't her fault.

If you'd like to win my pre-loved copy of Icy Sparks, leave a comment here asking me to enter you and I'll draw a name on Tuesday! Please make sure there's a way for me to get a hold of you, though, or I'll have to leave you out of the drawing. :(

PS - Don't want to miss the Spaz? Subscribe!

Book A Week Results & a Margarita Party?

The Man, being the super techno geek that he is, has suggested putting a little chat thingie on domesticspaz.com. So he's working on that and if he can get it working by this weekend I'd love to host a little "I'm not going to BlogHer" Margarita party.

Would y'all like that? Please say yes. :)

We could all make ourselves a girlie drink of choice and hang out in our PJs laughing about how much fun we're having at home and NOT at BlogHer.

It would be so much cooler than twitter.

In other news, it's time to declare the winner of this week's Book A Week Give Away!

The winner of This Body is Shirley at My Army of Five!

Email me your mailing address to spaz AT domesticspaz DOT com and I'll mail your book out to you.

PS - I updated the Restaurant.com code that was so popular last week. Until the 20th of this month you can enter ALLSTAR at checkout and get 60% off your order.

PS - Don't want to miss the Spaz? Subscribe!

Restaurant Dining on the Cheap! And Book A Week 8!

**Update! The Restaurant.com code until July 31st is CRAVE and now you can get 70% off! That's only $3 for a $25 certificate. Even better!**

I'm sick of cooking. Every day this family of mine wants to eat and they expect me to provide nutritious meals for them. Ugh. Lucky for me The Man and I have gotten a lot more thrifty about eating out and I have to cook a lot less. Works for me!

The first way we're saving coin on our outside dining is by using coupons we buy at Restaurant.com. If you go there and put in your zip code, you can find all sorts of restaurants in your area and you can buy $25 gift certificates to them for only $10. Cha ching! Not JUST that, but if you enter the code "DELICIOUS" at checkout (until the 13th) you can get 50% off of that price. So now they're just $5 for a $25 gift certificate. The Man and I like to use these coupons for the nights that we're child free (it's rare these days) because a lot of the restaurants there are a little nicer. They still have some kid friendly options, though, so even if you never get a night out without the monsters, there should be something there for you.

So when we have to feed the kids, too, we like to go to one of our favorite little Sports Bars where they have a weekly Kids Eat Free night. There are a couple of websites that are supposed to help you locate good "kids eat free" deals but they haven't proven to be very effective for our area at least.... if you know of a good one, let me know!

Now, not only does this restaurant have a "kids eat free" night, they also have a card that we scan every time we go there that accumulates points. For every dollar we spend we get a point and when we get 200 points we get $20 added to our card that we can apply to our bill. We like to go to our restaurant whenever we meet the family for dinner, too, so those points can add up! Last week we visited there for "kids eat free" night and our total bill with an appetizer, main dishes, and drinks totaled less than $30! I can barely feed us on that from the grocery store!

Not only do the kids get free meals, but there is usually some sort of entertainment for them as well. One time they even took all three of the kids into the party room and helped them make crafts while The Man and I enjoyed our appetizers! I could have kissed the wait staff that night!

There is always a balloon guy there and he can pretty much make anything the kids request. Last week Goober requested that he make a brain. Yep, that's my kid. :)

I'm sure there are Kids Eat Free nights in your area, too, and maybe even some loyalty programs like our little card program. If you really try, you can enjoy a night out with the family without having to refinance the house.

For more great tips, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

This week will be my 8th book a week giveaway! Last week's winner of Jemima J was Lori. Congratulations!

This week I'm giving away This Body by Laurel Doud. I read this book a while ago and I packed it away in a box to put in a bookcase if I ever get one. The other day I was searching through that box and found it again and I'm so happy I did! Because now I can offer it to you. :)

From the back of the book:

"What if you had life to live over again? What if you were rick? What if you were skinny? What if you had a second chance to find true love? Katharine Ashley, in the prime of her life, is a dutiful mother of two whose heart suddently stops beating. Thisby Bennet is a rick and skinny young woman whose dangerous taste for drugs and men leads to her equally untimely death. When Katharine's departing soul finds its way into Thisby's lifeless body, the story of This Body begins..."

From Library Journal:

The premise of this Shakespearean tribute is arresting: a middle-aged housewife dies suddenly of a stroke. A year later she wakes up in the apartment and body of a slim 22-year-old substance abuser, alcoholic, and drug courier, Thisby Bennet. Katharine's painful quest to integrate her consciousness with Thisby's body and its demands and to accept the loss of her former family is beautifully rendered, as is her complex relationship with Thisby's Shakespeare-mad family. Desperate for information about the family she has left behind, especially about her beloved teenage children, Katharine hires a detective, and complications ensue. The names of all the Bennet clan come from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and most of the words they utter are quotations from Shakespeare. This can be annoying, but the richness and intricacy of the plot propel the reader swiftly toward its satisfying conclusion. First novelist Doud is a librarian.

About the Author (from Amazon.com):

"I'm a research librarian with a tattoo of a two-faced woman on her chest. I refuse to wear make-up, but I like to dye my hair interesting colors. I play the classical flute, but listen to alternative rock. I've written a book, but I like to work with my hands. I've restored a carousel horse and I'm currently working on a 1941 Plymouth automobile replete with suicide doors, a two-dead-body trunk, and a backseat girls can get pregnant on. (I grew up in a VW Bug and I always thought, "Yeah, right!")

I have two grown children who I adore and who are into their own versions of body ornamentation and have their own views on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I like Shakespeare but I love movies, and I'm having a wonderful time following the very slow but fascinating process of Hollywood adapting This Body for the silver screen. My middle name is Marian, and the tattoo I got is the same tattoo my character Katharine gets--a Janus symbol of one face looking into the future, the other face looking into the past and both of them guarding the portal into my heart. Life imitates art."

To win this book all you have to do is comment on this post that you'd like to win and I'll draw a winner next Tuesday.

*Book A Week Give-away books are pre-loved copies from my own library that I think are wonderful enough to share. They are not new copies.

Book A Week 7 - Jemima J by Jane Green

Last week's book giveaway winner was dolls123 by default because no one else commented. :P

Was it because everyone has already read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood? Either way, I have more books to pass on to the world!

This week's giveaway is Jemima J by Jane Green. This copy is in great condition except for a sticker on the cover that won't come off. I hate that! But Jemima is such a great character, I'm sure you'll forgive her.

Comment here and I'll pick a winner next Tuesday. :)

Book a Week! Week 6!

Congratulations to Hil'Lesha on winning Bookends!
I'm off to contact you now. :) I've just checked our her blogs as well and I just have to say what a resource for awesome coupon codes!

This week's giveaway will be an oldie... but SUCH a goodie. I think everyone and their mother (literally) has read this book but if you haven't you absolutely MUST comment so you can read it. If you have read it, you should read it again.

This week's giveaway is for my pre loved copy of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. This book is the reason my friends and I started a book club back in 1999. It made us want to get together and drink wine and giggle. It's absolutely wonderful.

So comment here and I'll pick a winner next Tuesday. :)

***And the winner is Dolls123! By default. :)

Book A Week Give Away! Week FIVE

Congratulations to Michelle at Life with Three for winning Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in last week's giveaway! Email me your address and I'll have it right out to you. :) spaz AT domesticspaz DOT com

This week's giveaway is much more lighthearted. This week we have Bookends by Jane Green. This book is the epitomy of a summer read. For the most part it's an easy, fun, sweet read but it'll make you feel a bit, too. It's the kind of book you can read in a couple of trips to the beach or pick up here and there whenever you get a chance. Besides, if you've ever read anything by Jane Green, you know just what you're getting into and you know you'll love it.

So comment and win it! I'll pick a name next Tuesday when I announce next week's book. :)

*Book A Week books are used copies of books I have pre loved. They are not new. :)

Hello?? Anyone out there?

Really? No comments at all?

Was it something I said? Was it something Mr. Berendt said? It's a good book, really! I wouldn't offer it if it wasn't.

Book A Week! Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

This week's give away is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

I read this book years ago and am giving away my hardcover copy. This book is haunting and beautiful and will make you want to jump in the car and drive to Savannah to see it all for yourself. In fact, this book DID make my mom jump in the car to go visit Savannah. She almost got there, too... but that's another story for another post. :)

Comment away and I'll randomly pick a name next Tuesday!

Book a Week Results - Week 3

Results for this week's Book Giveaway!

The Boleyn Inheritance goes to....

Bahama Shores Mama!

Congratulations. :) I'm off to let you know you're the winner now!

Book A Week - Week 3!

This week's giveaway is The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory. You may recognize her name as the writer of The Other Boleyn Girl which was made into a major motion picture and all that jazz.

I absolutely love everything written by her and anyone I've ever talked to that has read anything by her has loved her as well. I'm currently reading another one of her novels that has nothing to do with the Tudor period called Wideacre that will be up for a giveaway whenever I finish it. :)

This book is from the perspective of three different women at the Tudor court; Jane Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, and Katherine Howard. It is told in chapters alternating between the three women and really paints an amazing picture of the time following Anne Boleyn's fall from grace.

You'll be sure to fall in love with the time period and the writer upon reading this book.

So comment away and maybe you'll be next week's winner!

*Book A Week books are pre-read copies of books I have pre-loved. :)

Confessions of a Slacker Wife Results!

Congratulations to Bethyann who won this weeks book giveaway!

I'm off to contact you now!

:)

Book A Week Giveaway - Confessions Of A Slacker Wife

Congratulations to Mah-Meeee over at Raising A & C for winning last week's book giveaway! I'm still waiting on your shipping info so I can mail it away. Send your info over to spaz AT domesticspaz DOT com and I'll have it right out!

Now - on to THIS week's giveaway!

This week I am giving away Confesions Of A Slacker Wife by Muffy Mead-Ferro.

This book was a great read on my vacation over Thanksgiving and now it's my turn to pass it over to you. So comment here and I'll randomly select a winner on Friday!

Book A Week Results - With or Without You

I was going to put all your names in a hat and have one of my adorable kids draw the name out and make a cute little YouTube video to embed.

Y'all... I'm tired. It's after 11:00 and I still have two spice cakes to make and a 65 gold dollars to affix to a poster and frame before the morning. My 4 year old is still awake and cranky as I've ever seen him.

So I used this random number generator instead. :)

Here are the results!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2008-05-24 03:12:24 UTC

Checking back at the original post, the 6th comment and therefore winner of her very own pre-read copy of With or Without You by Carole Matthews is Mah-Meeee at Raising A & C!

Congratulations. :) I'll go over and harass you to give me your mailing information right after I post this.

A Book A Week

I have a gazillion books. I read them and then they sit here and take up space. Last night I had a brilliant idea! At least I think it's brilliant. :)

Once a week, as long as I have them to give, I'll be giving away a book. All you have to do is leave a comment here and I'll draw one comment out of a hat and send the book on to you!

This week I'll be giving away With or Without You by Carole Matthews.

I just finished this book and it was really a great read. When I found myself with a few hours to myself on Mother's Day all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and read this book (and eat m&ms). This book has everything that makes for a good girl read. Drama, comedy, and love, of course.

So leave a comment here! I'll pick a name some time this weekend and get it ready to send out.