And the winner of the boardgame giveaway is...

Homemaker!! Congratulations! Thanks to everyone for playing. :-)

Huephoria - hand painted stemware and glass

HuePhoria artists Jen and Lisa first met at their daughters' preschool "Mom's Coffee" in 1998. They quickly found common interests: throwing parties (fun & spontaneous), painting everything (even toilet seats), and wanting to make some extra pocket change. After selling their hand painted goods at local fundraisers and through word of mouth, they were no longer able to keep up with demand.

In Fall of 2004, HuePhoria and has been having a "ball" ever since! Check out their website for some deliciously girly glasses, salt and pepper shakers, and ornaments!

GIVEAWAY: What's a Dame to Do? boardgame

NOTE: THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

Last week I reviewed my last board game obsession, What's a Dame to Do? The mastermind behind this game, Games for Dames, has generously agreed to give away a copy of What’s a Dame to Do to one lucky reader! Here’s how to enter:

NOTE: You can enter multiple times using the methods below and will only have to post once. Just be sure and mention everything and don’t forget to leave a way for me to contact you if I can’t do so through your Blogger profile!

1 ENTRY: Leave a comment.

1 EXTRA ENTRY: Begin following this blog or mention that you already do so.

1 EXTRA ENTRY: Join The Sweet Jelly Bean’s page on Facebook. Please let me know if you do so by commenting on this post!

2 EXTRA ENTRIES: Mention this giveaway on your own blog and link baack to this post. Please let me know if you do so by commenting on this post!

This giveaway ends Monday, April 27, 2009, at 7pm PST. All eligible entries will be thrown into a bowl and a winner will be drawn. The winner will be announced here and contacted following the close of the contest. Good luck everyone!

PlumParty.com - gift ideas galore!

Whenever I'm stumped on what to get a friend, I head over to a site like Plum Party for some inspiration. They actually tout themselves as a party supply webstore, but I have found so many good ideas for stocking stuffers and last minute hostess gifts! Some of my favorites:

Peace, Love, Happiness Quick Change Watch, $21

Bag of Happiness Pocket Charms, $10

Tacoma Flower Box with 4 Plates, $16

AskGinka.com - your theme finder for parties, weddings, and more!

AskGinka.com includes hundreds of themes and ideas for just about any kind of shindig you can come up with, including weddings, bridal showers, birthday parties, showers, holiday parties, reunions, retirements, and more! Simply browse through her list of themes or select by topic (animals, flowers, historical eras, careers, etc.) and pick out something you’re interested in! Once you click on a theme, the site takes you to either a list of ideas relating to that theme or to at least one website that might provide you with party goods or thoughts.

Some of my favorites:

1920s/Art Deco/Roaring 20s Theme Wedding & Party Guide – complete with costume ideas, cake designs, and décor!

Fishing Party Guide – perfect for a guy’s birthday or retirement! Love the fishy string of lights!

Hydrangea Theme Wedding & Party Guide – great for wedding or shower ideas and more! The hydrangea themed little girl dresses are adorable!

What is your favorite theme?

Why moms are at risk for Internet addiction

By Rachel Mosteller, found on CNN.com (link below)

I was scrolling through family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies, when I spotted a disturbing trend: My laptop was open in almost all of the pictures. There's my daughter, at 8 months, playing at my feet while I typed away on the couch. There's me and my son, a year later, with the laptop at my side as I held him in my arms.

I'd heard about Internet addiction before, but always assumed it was something limited to socially challenged guys who played too much World of Warcraft. Now it seemed my Internet "habit" was slowly but surely crossing the line. Sometimes I found myself up into the wee hours of the morning, surfing the Web while my family slept. I read the news, kept up with friends, and looked up answers to endless questions. I wrote my personal blog and read dozens of others, just for something to do...

Continue reading this article on CNN.com here.

My $0.02: I'm not even a mother yet and I do feel that I have a mild addiction to the Internet. I've never done anything really crazy like call in sick so I could stay online for eight extra hours, but I do start getting antsy if I can't check my email, etc. What are your thoughts?

What's a Dame to Do?!

During my time here in sunny California, I’ve been so fortunate to meet a great group of girlfriends that I can hang out with and just be silly. Friday night I hosted a board game night where I got to try out a new board gave called What’s a Dame to Do?!

Think of the game Apples to Apples but with a feminine twist. Each player (2-8 players can participate) takes a turn and reads a dilemma card out loud (“I’m doing yoga and my pants split. What’s a dame to do?!”) The other players each contribute a reaction card that can range from practical response (“Hide in the bathroom.) to silly (“Blame it on shrinkage.”). The person who drew the dilemma card awards points for her favorite answer, whether it’s the most realistic or it makes her laugh the most.

We were laughing so hard the whole time, and we played much longer than we intended to (board game night turned into this board game only night). The printed directions were a little confusing, but you can see a quick video on GamesforDames.com that explains the game play in less than 5 minutes. You can pick up the game at GamesforDames.com OR visit The Bean again next week to enter a giveaway to win a copy of your own!

ThinkGeek.com

Geek Week here at The Bean continues with a truly nerdy (but in a good way) website: ThinkGeek.com. I continue to see items from this little web shop highlighted again and again in magazines and online resources, so I thought I'd share with you. As for how it go started, the website explains:

ThinkGeek started as an idea. A simple idea to create and sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged. ThinkGeek started as a way to serve a market that was passionate about technology, from programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture.

This website has a little bit of everything. From beaker shaped coffee mugs to runaway alarm clocks, you can pretty much find anything here you never knew you needed. Some of my personal favorites:

Super Mario Bros. Wall Graphics, $69. Oh Lord, please do not let me ever have a son. If I do, Mr. Bean will probably insist we nerdify him early by decorating his nursery in this!

Titanium Spork, $8.99. When a white plastic just won't do for all those sporking wars you are busy with during office hours.

Monty Python Holy Grail Killer Rabbit Slippers, $34.99. Sometimes Isotoners just won't cut it.

ShoppingNotes.com

It pays to be thrifty, and usually half the fun of getting a great deal on an item is waiting until the perfect sale comes around. Thankfully you can now stop going to GAP obsessively 3x every day to see if that hoodie has made it to the clearance rack by using ShoppingNotes.com, a free service that will email you if a price drops on a certain product. Just enter the URL for the item you want to watch, provide an email to receive price alerts, and you're good to go!

SwitchFlops giveaway winner

So my SwitchFlops giveaway ended last night and I’ve only now gotten around to announcing a winner. 45 of you gorgeous ladies entered the contest for a total of 74 entries! I only wish that I had the opportunity to give you each a pair of these fantastic floppies for your tired tootsies. Okay, enough alliteration. The winner is….

Bee and Rose

Well, she certainly deserves it! This girl was one of my very first followers and always leaves such thoughtful comments! Congratulations to her, and thank you to SwitchFlops for agreeing to let me host the giveaway. And to all of you – try, try again! I’ll have another giveaway coming up soon, so stay tuned.

Geek Week and DigMyPics.com

Ah, workweek. How I missed you over the weekend. Ok wait, no, I didn’t. At all. To celebrate all things Monday (paper clips, copier jams, broken fax machines, that overly perky coworker), I’d like to officially declare April 6-10 as The Bean’s geek week. I’ll be covering a few nerdy things that I find extra useful and or entertaining.

Let’s start with a handy service – as a child of the 1980s, my parents have a ton of tiny camcorder cassettes lying around their house with no way to play them. Some made it to the VHS, but I don’t know if they even still have a VCR with which to play them. One of my goals this year is to secretly gather them all up and send them out to DigMyPics.com, a service that will put all of your old home movies onto DVDs.

Basically it works like this: DigMyPics takes your old films (VHS, VHS-C, Super VHS, 8mm Tape (Hi8), Digital 8, and Mini DV) and puts them onto cds for $14.95 (per 2 hours tape). Want to play them on a DVD player? Only $6 more per tape – not bad for preserving your personal history.

I know there are lots of other services out there that do this sort of thing. Have you used DigMyPics.com or any others? If so, let me know how it went!

InStyle.com's Virtual Makeover Studio

Hey, it's Friday. Let's just be ridiculously silly and conclude this hellish workweek by playing with InStyle.com's Virtual Makeover Studio. I only discovered it last night, and instead of using it as it probably is intended, I made myself into a 1980s chic/drag queen. Oh, and Eva Longoria Parker (below).

This post concludes The Bean's Go Glam Week. Join us on Monday for the SwitchFlops giveaway wrapup and the start of Geek Week! Have a great weekend.

Emitations Jewelry

Go Glam Week continues here at The Sweet Jelly Bean with the introduction of an online jewelry shop I’ve had my eye on for a while. I possess neither the money nor the desire (aka I am lazy) to try and imitate celebrity style very often. However, every now and then I’ll run across a pair of earrings a movie star is wearing that make me want to say, “Hey, I want those!”

Enter Emitations Jewelry, a place for cubic zirconia and sterling silver jewelry for those of us who haven’t quite made our first $10M just yet. This shop boasts affordable versions of the latest celebrity and movie trends along with rings, earrings, necklaces, and men’s jewelry in just about any color or style! Some of my favorites:

Star Necklace, $34.95 (inspired by The Hills) - I can’t say I ever have watched this show, but I love this little starfish!

Mother of Pearl Ring, $99.00 (inspired by Alice on Twilight) – I try to keep my mostly-in-the-past Twilight obsession to myself, but this ring sure brings back the memories!

Dogwood Flower Earrings, $54.95 (inspired by Hayden Panettiere, Kate Winslet, and Penelope Cruz) – Adorable yet elegant little studs would perk up any outfit!

Emitations is featuring a couple of deals to help your wallet out. Get $0.99 shipping on any order through 12pm on Thursday, April 2, by entering coupon code M991.

Not ready to buy just yet? Join Emitations’ email list and get $5 off your first order (to do so, scroll down to the bottom of their website home page and jot down your email address).

Happy shopping! We are all movie stars at heart, right? :-)