Kindle Fire Giveaway!

KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY!
Techy Tribe, Mom to Bed by 8, the Iowa-Mom and Bella Savvy have teamed to giveaway a Kindle Fire to one lucky reader! This is a perfect gadget gift for anyone on your list including mom! No matter if your are a social media junkie, book lover or even a ole' fashioned web surfer, this is one product you want to win. Special thank you to the wonderful bloggers who made this possible including our co-hosts: Giveaway Bandit, Mommy's Memorandum and eReading on the Cheap.
Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi - RV: $199
Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon's revolutionary, cloud-accelerated web browser

• Over 20 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
• Thousands of popular apps and games, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and more
• Ultra-fast web browsing - Amazon Silk
• Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
• Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle - same as an iPad
• Fast, powerful dual-core processor
• Favorite children's books, graphic novels, and magazines in rich color
• Amazon Prime Members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming on thousands of popular movies and TV shows.
• Amazon Prime Members choose from over a hundred thousand books to borrow for free.

Giveaway starts on April 30 at 12:01AM EST and ends May 14 at 11:59PM EST. Open to the US and Canada only; must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

Who is ready for some techy summer fun? Enter to win a Kindle Fire below on the rafflecopter form.

Atypical Sightseeing: C&O Canal in Georgetown

Atypical, def: Not typical, irregular, unusual.

I live a short walk from the Erie Canal and I grew up singing the Erie Canal Song, so old canals have a special place in my heart. I'd so love to take a canal holiday in England! When I read that there was a canal in Georgetown it piqued my interest. To be honest, before this trip I didn't know Georgetown was in D.C. It is so cute and the frou-frou shops made even cheap-ol'-me want to spend a day shopping! We just happened to be in the area one evening and I asked my Sister-in Law if the canal was nearby. Turns out they new exactly where it was and that it went in the direction we were going anyway!
My good friend Wikipedia says:
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, and occasionally referred to as the "Grand Old Ditch,"^[1] operated from 1831 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River in Maryland from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, D.C. The total length of the canal is about 184.5 miles (296.9 km). The elevation change of 605 ft (184 m) was accommodated with 74 canal locks. To enable the canal to cross relatively small streams, over 150 culverts were built. The crossing of major streams required the construction of 11 aqueducts. The canal also extends through the 3,118 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. The principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains. The canal way is now maintained as a park, with a linear trail following the old towpath, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

It was beautiful and stirred my imagination!

In my next D.C. trip installment, the Marriott puts on a show...of flowers!

Tropical Traditions Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Review

I really like using virgin coconut oil! The Internet has a lot of summaries of research done on the health benefits of coconut oil. Or if you enjoy perusing research articles like I do, you can search Pubmed! (I spent more time reading research papers than writing this post, and I'm a slow writer.)

Virgin Coconut Oil is wonderfully moisturizing to the skin and can be used as an ingredient in homemade beauty and hygiene products (moisturizers, conditioner, deodorant, diaper cream, etc). My absolute favorite use is to moisturize and calm the sting after shaving my legs!

I recently had the opportunity to review Tropical Traditions Gold Label Organic Virgin Coconut Oil. I have tried several coconut oils and this one is my favorite by far! It has a light, clean coconut scent and is so much richer and more delicious than refined coconut oil. I really like that it is processed by a simple, traditional method right on the farms. Its not the cheapest, but I really would recommend this product for its high quality and organic good-for-the-Earth production!

To elaborate, here are some of my experiences with the Gold Label coconut oil.
Baked goods: I replaced the oil that was called for in banana muffins and brownies with coconut oil. I had to melt it (in the measuring cup, not the whole bottle) to measure it and then when it combined with the cold ingredients, like eggs, it solidified again. I just made sure I mixed quickly and thoroughly so that there were no big chunks and it was evenly distributed. Everything came out just fine, so I would definitely do it again. I didn't really notice any coconut flavor in the muffins, but the brownies were an amazing coconut-scented chocolate!

Stir-Frying: I stir-fried chicken strips in the oil which filled the house with its smell--not bad at all. I didn't taste coconut in the dish, but  it was seasoned with curry powder, which is strong in itself.

Assorted Goodies: There are oodles and oodles of ways to make delicious goodies with coconut oil and Tropical Traditions is a really great resource for recipes. I will blog about my Cocoa Cherry Energy Bites and Tropical Sugar Scrub soon! Right now I'm having fun tweaking an experimental recipe for satisfying my dark chocolate cravings.

Sneak peek at the Cocoa Cherry Bites!

Buy It: You can buy your own coconut oil and many other healthy and delicious products at Tropical Traditions. If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you :-)

Win It! Come back May 1st for the Green Your Mom blog hop for your chance to win a quart jar of Gold Label Organic Virgin Coconut Oil! I know a bunch of green moms who would be thrilled to get this versatile oil for Mother's Day :-)

Virgin Coconut Oil, Gold Label - 1 quart

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Fibertastic Yarn Giveaway!

Win a skein of your choice from Fibertastic! I'm in love. Ends 4/26/12.