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Recent Highlights

Father’s Day Gift Guide Coming May 28th!

Father's Day Gift Guide Coming May 28th!

May 20th, 2013

Contest Corner is pleased to announce our first-ever Father's Day Gift Guide, starting May 28th [...]

Educating Your Children On Money

Educating Your Children On Money

May 17th, 2013

The following is a guest post by Sam Peters. Consideration was received for the editing and publ[...]

Menthe Blanche Microfoliator Cleanser Review

Menthe Blanche Microfoliator Cleanser Review

May 17th, 2013

I'm always looking for ways to improve my skin care routine. I've been vocal about the fact th[...]

Ultra PestChaser Giveaway – Ends 05/31

Ultra PestChaser Giveaway - Ends 05/31

May 16th, 2013

If you didn't win our last rodent trap giveaway, don't worry: This giveaway will be of interes[...]

Tropical Trends Hat Review

Tropical Trends Hat Review

May 16th, 2013

The weather has been warming up here in Seaside, and we're getting all the tell-tale indicator[...]

Scroll down to view all our recent posts!


$100 iTunes Gift Card or Paypal Giveaway at A Hen’s Nest

June 29th, 2012

Contest Listings

Site Name: A Hen’s Nest

Site URL: http://ahensnest.com

Prize Description: One lucky winner will receive a $100.00 iTunes Gift Card {paypal option available to winner’s outside of the US}

Entry deadline: July 1, 2012

Open to: Worldwide 18+

Enter this giveaway here: http://ahensnest.com/2012/06/win-100-itunes-gift-card-giveaway.html

Sterling Silver Bead Necklace And Matching Bracelet Giveaway at The Adventures of J-Man and MillerBug

June 29th, 2012

Contest Listings

Site Name: The Adventures of J-Man and MillerBug

Site URL: http://www.jmanandmillerbug.com

Prize Description: Win a 10mm Sterling Silver Bead Necklace and Matching Bracelet valued at over $300!

Entry deadline: July 1, 2012

Open to: US, Canada, 18+

Enter this giveaway here: http://jmanandmillerbug.com/2012/06/accessorize-your-summer-look-in-style-with-meme-jewels-review-and-giveaways.html

$25 Gift Certificate to Fantastic Sams Hair Salons Giveaway at Life With Lisa

June 28th, 2012

Contest Listings

Site Name: Life With Lisa

Site URL: http://www.lifewithlisa.com/

Prize Description:$25 Fantastic Sam’s Gift Card & Shampoo and Conditioner

Entry deadline: June 30th, 2012

Open to: US, 18+, No PO boxes

Enter this giveaway here: http://www.lifewithlisa.com/fantastic-sams-coupon-and-beauty-gift-pack-giveaway

Smile Brilliant Tooth Whitening Giveaway Winner!

June 28th, 2012

Smile Brilliant Giveaway

And the Winner of the Smile Brilliant Tooth Whitening Giveaway is…

Comment Number 71, samantha w, who said “blog update subscriber”

Congratulations!!!

Mini Artist Gift Set Giveaway at The Free Art Blog

June 28th, 2012

Contest Listings

Site Name: The Free Art Blog

Site URL: http://freeartblog.blogspot.com

Prize Description: The Free Art Blog is giving away 2 special Mini Artist Gift Sets to blog readers this month, for checking out info about the Homeless organizations we are helping. Inside this kit is:

6 Mini Acrylic Paint Tubes
1 Mini Easel
1 Mini Canvas
1 Paintbrush
Various mini vintage art pieces/ACEO cards.

This giveaway will end June 30th. Best Wishes!

Entry deadline: 6/30/2012

Open to: USA residents over the age of 18 are eligible.

Enter this giveaway here: http://freeartblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/june-art-freebie-mini-artist-gift-set.html

Ark Clothing $30 Gift Code Giveaway Winner!

June 28th, 2012

ArkClothes

And the Winner of the Ark Clothing $30 Gift Code Giveaway is…

Comment Number 162, trisha mckee, who said “I might buy the Retro Button-up V-neck Cardy Cardigan.”

Congratulations!!!

Maroon 5 – “Songs About Jane” 10th Anniversary Edition CD Giveaway – Ends 07/12

June 28th, 2012

Songs About Jane

It’s been ten years since Maroon 5 released their debut smash album, Songs About Jane. In honor of hitting the decade mark, the band has released the 2-CD Songs About Jane: 10th Anniversary Edition, which includes the original album as well as a second disc complete with demos, unreleased material, and rarities. In addition, the second CD allows you access to a private section of Maroon 5′s website which hosts 2 previously unreleased videos featuring studio footage from the recording of the album as well as the electronic press kit video. You can find this CD on iTunes and Amazon; and for one very lucky reader, I have a special treat. One of you will win a copy of Songs About Jane: 10th Anniversary Edition by Maroon 5! This is a perfect prize for anybody. If you’re a casual radio listener, if you’re just getting into Maroon 5, if you’re a huge fan and want to check out all the bonus unreleased content and videos, or if your old copy of Jane has worn out over the last decade. ;) For a full overview of what you can expect from this anniversary edition, click here to read my review.

Please note, this giveaway is just for the CD, not the lithograph. To enter, please use the Rafflecopter widget below. If you experience issues with the widget not showing up, please reload the page.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules, regulations, and other important stuff: Giveaway is open to US residents, 18+, and ends on July 12th, 2012 at 12:01 AM EST. Winner will be chosen through Rafflecopter the same day and notified via email. Winner has 48 hours to respond to our notification email, or a new winner will be chosen in their place. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. We hereby release Facebook of any liability. By entering this giveaway, you are releasing Facebook and understand that you are providing information to Contest Corner and the giveaway sponsor, not Facebook. Contest Corner is not responsible for late entries or entries lost due to technical malfunctions. Please see our Privacy Policy and Disclosure for further details on our site’s policies. Sponsor is supplying the giveaway prize and provided Contest Corner with a promotional copy of the CD for review purposes.

Fiber One Outdoor Prize Pack Giveaway at Your Fun Family

June 28th, 2012

Contest Listings

Site Name: Your Fun Family

Site URL: http://yourfunfamily.com

Prize Description: One lucky reader will receive an awesome Fiber One Chewy Bar outdoor prize pack which includes: (1) Box of Fiber One Chewy Chocolate Bars, (1) Box of the Fiber One Chewy Strawberry PB&J Bars, Drawstring Sack Pack, Water Bottle, Flexi Flyer, Soccer Ball, and Sidewalk Chalk. This prize pack contains plenty of outdoor fun and all of the healthy snacks to keep active kids going strong!

Entry deadline: June 30, 2012

Open to: US Resident

Enter this giveaway here: http://yourfunfamily.com/blog/2012/06/23/fiber-one-outdoor-prize-pack-giveaway/

Making The Switch to Rafflecopter

June 28th, 2012

Rafflecopter

You may have noticed that as of today, all of our giveaways are now utilizing Rafflecopter. What do you think? I’m personally very excited about the switch as it not only makes it much faster for my readers to enter giveaways, but much faster for me to post them. And time saved = more giveaways so that’s always a good thing!

The reason I have waited to make the switch is that I wanted to give it time and see how widely Rafflecopter would be adopted and also how they dealt with their initial technical kinks. I know that many of my readers are using older computers and I was concerned about compatibility issues; I’m also reluctant to use third-party services when I don’t need to as I don’t have direct control over certain aspects of the functionality – for example, if Rafflecopter has downtime, there’s nothing I can do about it. However, I think Rafflecopter has responded to its extensive popularity with bigger servers as they have not appeared to have an outage for some time. Also, at this point Rafflecopter has been adopted to the point of almost being the new standard – I infrequently see blog giveaways utilizing comment entry methods now and I don’t want to turn off my readers by having a system that is more time-consuming than what most other blogs use. Therefore, we’ve decide to transition over and so far I love it and you guys seem to love it! Of course, if you have any feedback – good OR bad – please feel free to leave a comment below or email me at supercoupongirl@gmail.com.

What do you think of Rafflecopter?

Maroon 5 – “Songs About Jane” 10th Anniversary Edition Review

June 28th, 2012

Songs About Jane

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been ten years since Maroon 5 released their debut album, Songs About Jane. It’s definitely been an eventful decade in my own life and Maroon 5′s music has been there through it all. You should know by now that I’m a Maroon 5 superfan, and Jane marked my introduction to the band and is one of my favorite records of all time.

2004

Here’s a photo that I took at my very first Maroon 5 concert in 2004.

2005

This one is from a show I saw in 2005. I took this with a disposable film camera – remember those? ;)

As time has progressed, technology has advanced too. Here’s a video shot with my iPhone at the most recent M5 concert I attended in 2010. Man, things change a lot in a short period of time!

To celebrate a wonderful decade of Maroon 5, the band has put out a 10th anniversary edition of Songs About Jane which includes a bonus disc full of previously unreleased demos and other rarities along with previously unseen video footage. I received a complimentary promotional copy to check out and I was so excited to give it a listen – any time there’s new material released is a big treat, and getting a behind-the-scenes peek at how their songs evolve is really fun.

Disc 1 is the standard Songs About Jane album release, which you may already own. If not, then I (Naturally) suggest picking up a copy! No matter how many times I hear these songs, I will never get tired of them. In my humble opinion, this album is absolutely stellar and holds a universal appeal. Of course, I already know this record inside and out – I could probably sing it backwards at this point – so when the reissue arrived I immediately popped in the second disc of unreleased material.

Disc 2′s bonus content contains 17 tracks, most of which were previously unheard. Songs one through twelve are the demo versions of every single song on Jane, so you’re hearing the earliest known version of the album before the final recordings were made. I LOVE that they included all of the demos and find them to be really fascinating to listen to. Growing up in the music industry has given me an inherent interest in the recording process, so it’s neat for me to hear the initial versions of these songs and learn what they kept and what they discarded. For example, cuts like “Must Get Out” have more of a rock edge in the demos than in their final versions. I also enjoyed hearing a rough studio version of “Not Coming Home” since the final version was actually recorded live.

After the Jane demos, we’re treated to a few other rarities. The first of these is “Take What You Want”, an unreleased song that has been floating around for ages. It’s nice to finally see it released! As far as I can tell, this is pretty much identical to the version which has made the rounds on the web, except with better sound quality. It’s so nice to have a “Real” copy of this song after many years!

Following this are “Ragdoll” and “Woman”, two of Maroon 5′s lesser-known tracks. They’re marked as “Demo” on the liner notes, but this version of “Ragdoll” is the same one that’s been released previously as far as I can tell. I have “Ragdoll” on the deluxe edition of Songs About Jane, which I actually bought with money that I received as a present on my 21st birthday. Oh, how the time flies! “Woman” is the same version that I’m used to hearing, but it is different from the one you normally hear played, which was released on the Spider-Man soundtrack. The one I heard initially must have been this demo, because it’s always bugged me that you usually hear the “Other” mix, which I don’t like quite as much.

The disc of bonus content ends with “Chilly Winter” and an alternate mix of “The Sun”. “Chilly Winter” is a demo that is brand new to me, so I was excited to hear it and very much enjoyed it.

Once you’re done listening to the songs on the bonus CD, you can pop it into your computer to access the bonus video content. This includes 19 minutes of footage from the recording of SAJ along with an 8-minute EPK – electronic press kit – for the album which would have been distributed during its release in 2002. The footage of the band in the studio is awesome – you see a camcorder being held by members of the group at various points during the making of the album, chronicling various aspects of recording. This isn’t really a documentary, but rather compiled raw footage of various moments during the sessions, most of which (If not all – they never really elaborate on who is holding the camera at any given time) was taken by the band themselves. It’s such a cool look behind the scenes – it’s fascinating to watch these songs taking shape and see the band work out parts for songs that would later become huge hits. The footage here captures the band right on the cusp of success – at one point, guitarist James Valentine shows the camera a disconnect notice for one of his bills and quips, “We don’t ‘Pay bills’ at our house…because we have no income!” But his hard work paid off in the end! Of course, all the members of the band are funny people so it’s entertaining as ever to watch them crack jokes and goof around in this footage.

The second video included with this reissue is a clip that served as the album’s electronic press kit, which compiles various bits of footage introducing and interviewing the band and their producer on Jane, Matt Wallace. Both the EPK and the studio footage gave me interesting insight into how the band works together and records their material. Being both a huge Maroon 5 fan and a music nerd, I very much enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek!

My only complaint about this reissue is that you have to go online to access the bonus videos – they aren’t included on the CD. To watch, you have to load Disc 2 in your computer, open up their website, go through a verification process with the CD in your drive, register for an account, and then you can stream the videos online. They’re only accessible to US & Canadian buyers (?!) and won’t be available after 2015. This just seems crazy to me – I mean, I have an enhanced Britney Spears CD that I bought in 1998, and I can still pop it into my computer and watch her “…Baby One More Time” video. Since this is being marketed to collectors, there really ought to be a way to at least download the videos so that you can watch them in the future. Given how cheap CD-ROMS and jewel cases are to produce wholesale, I’m pretty sure they’ll actually have to spend more money on bandwidth costs hosting these videos than if they just made a 3rd CD.

Songs About Jane: 10th Anniversary Edition is both a fan’s must-have and a reminder of how time flies. I’m so happy that they decided to release all of these unheard goodies and I hope that they do something just as awesome for the 20th anniversary edition!

You can pick up this special reissue on Amazon, iTunes, or on Maroon5.com. And watch this space for a very special giveaway later today for your chance to win a copy!