UPDATED: This giveaway is closed. The winner is Tracy and she has been emailed! Thanks for everyone for participating.

H&M Back to School Collection hit the stores today and I couldn’t be more excited! H&M’s Back to School collection is designed to be as fashionable as it is practical and H&M’s kids clothes are durable, safe, and comfortable and you will not believe the prices! Tees starting at $4.99, pants $9.99, jackets from $14.95 and with the money you save on clothes you can do something fun with your kid before the long school year starts. Or with the money you save on back to school clothes shopping for your kids, you can get something for you too!

20% OFF COUPON

For additional savings, print out the 20% off coupon and save 20% off of children’s clothing at H&M between August 4- August 14th.

SMART & STYLISH & SAFE

If you have been reading my blog before you know I have written about the safety measures H&M takes when manufacturing their clothing. Many of their children’s clothing in this fall 2011 collection have been made with organic cotton, which has been cultivated without chemical pesticides or artificial fertilizers. Their children’s clothing is also well tested to make sure none of the buttons, ribbons etc. will come loose. As a mom I can trust their clothing is made well and safe for my kids. You don’t even have to wash the clothes before use, since they have been made without chemicals.

See all of the pictures from the H&M Back to School Collection below and enter the $2,000 gift card giveaway! And check out the collection yourself at the H&M location close to you. The collection will be available in most H&M US stores. You can use the store locator to find a store close to you.

$2,000 H&M GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY

The giveaway is for $2,000 H&M gift for one (1) winner. The contest runs August 4- August 14th, 2011, 12 midnight EST. The winner is chose randomly. The winner will be contacted on August 15th and given 24 hours to respond back with a shipping address. The prize is mailed in four $500 gift cards one in every 3 months and the shipping is handled by H&M. The giveaway is for everyone over 18 years old within the US and the gift card is valid only in the US.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:
1. Check out the H&M kids collection photos here or visit H&M Back to School and let us know what you like about the collection the best. Leave a comment here with your email address so we can contact you if you win! Good luck!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
2. Subscribe to Skimbaco Lifestyle Newsletter and leave a comment you do.
3. Follow @skimbaco on Twitter and leave a comment you do.
4. Like Skimbaco on Facebook and leave a comment here you did.
5. Tweet:
Win $2,000 gift card from @hmusa for clothes for one year at @skimbaco http://ow.ly/5VvzK #HMkids
and leave a comment with a link to your tweet.

You can also connect with H&M on Facebook and Twitter @hmusa.

DOUBLE your changes to win and enter to a similar giveaway at Momma’s Gone City!

Award-winning syndicated cartoonist Bob Weber, Jr. and Emmy Award-winning creator Jay Stephens create the humorous nationally syndicated comic strip Oh Brother! for everyone in the family. The stars in the comic are brother and sister, Bud and Lily, and the younger brother is the ultimate prankster. Oh, Brother! is hosting a fun contest for YOUR child to appear as a guest star in the comic strip. I have a fun honor to be judging this contest among some other great bloggers. I have a prankster living in my house, in this case it is the middle sister, and I can detect a good character miles away.

Is your son or daughter an impulsive prankster like Bud, or maybe he or she is precocious like Lily? If so, tell us how and your child could win a coveted guest spot in the nationally syndicated comic, Oh, Brother! Share a funny story about how your kid is a character like Bud or Lily in the text box below. All submissions will be read by a select panel of impartial blogging moms.  If your story ranks as a favorite, your child may get the chance to be a part of the Oh, Brother! gang and get drawn into the strip as a classmate of Bud’s or as Bud and Lily’s neighbor!

Finalists will be featured on the Oh, Brother! Web site and the winning entry will be selected on March 21. Plus, five runners up will receive an autographed “Oh, Brother!” drawing by Bob Weber, Jr. and Jay Stephens. Please make sure to include your child’s name and your contact information on the form, then scroll down and hit the submit button once you’ve filled out all the information.  To check out some great artwork submitted by budding cartoonists, visit the Oh Brother! art gallery; and if you have a budding artist in your midst, feel free to submit their artwork for the chance to be featured on the site.

To find out the judge and official contest rules, visit Role Mommy.

The hottest toy of Holiday Season 2010 is the Fisher-Price BigFoot the Monster toy. It’s the scary, fun BigFoot that kids can remote control to do fun stuff like throw a ball, lift weights or even eat and sleep. This is “toy with personality” and his face shows several emotions and he can talk several impressions. This toy has made kids go gaga over and it’s the “Tickle me Elmo” of 2010 – and if you are buying a gift for a 3-6 year old boy, you can not go wrong with the Big Foot the Monster.

The BigFoot the Monster toy is recommended for 3-8 year olds, but my friends who have little boys say that even 2 year olds are excited about it. I found the cheapest price for the Bigfoot at Toys’R'Us website on sale now for $79.99 and Walmart has it for $84.99 but they are currently out of stock online, the suggested retail price for BigFoot is over 100 bucks. Good news for parents who want to get the BigFoot, there is a cool Bigfoot Facebook Application and all you have to do is to create your own BigFoot with a mood and background and post it on your Facebook page and you can enter to win the toy and you can enter daily.

Tip: you can recruit Grandma, aunts and uncles to win the BigFoot the Monster toy on Facebook too by inviting them to enter the sweeps.

Disclosure: This is is sponsored post but my opinions are my own.

I recently hosted a writing contest to win a Blissdom Conference ticket. I was overwhelmed with the amount of great blog posts the contest received and even more so with the support these amazing women received from their communities.

I am happy to announce that the winner is Layla Palmer with her post Living Life to the Fullest – Giving Our Home TLC, which got 657 comments. Layla writes The Lettered Cottage, and I can’t wait to meet her in Nashville.

Thank you for everyone participating, commenting, and supporting each others! I am so happy with the response this contest got that my question is… which conference ticket you would like me to giveaway next…?

Meet three new Hanes models: my kids!

I am part of the Hanes Comfort Crew and my family attended the Hanes Comfort Crew kick off trip to DisneyWorld earlier this year – and now my children were asked to be Hanes models for the summer ’10 catalog!

“It’s exciting and cool to try out being a model, maybe I’ll be in magazines and be famous one day”

The Hanes Comfort Crew is a network of social media influencers who interact with Hanes about clothing, comfort and online community. You too can interact with Hanes at their Social Mix Hub. There are amazing members in the group, and I don’t know how I got so lucky to be in the group. Maybe because I know how to chillax and be comfortable? Maybe because I have tried and tested (with three kids!) that their products last in use? Maybe because as a former clothing retailer I know a good brand and good quality when I see it?

The Hanes PR and brand people were able to meet my children this spring, and see in first person who they are, and now they offered all three an unique modeling opportunity!

“It’s gonna be awesome, I’m so excited, I want to be a model just like mama was when she was a teenager”.

My kids are getting an amazing opportunity to be in a Summer 2010 Hanes catalog. I am so proud, and yes, excited too! When I had my clothing store my kids used to model for my store, and they actually liked it. My two youngest ones auditioned for a movie this spring, and I think they have the same gene as their parents – they like to try out new exciting things. Now they are getting this opportunity to see what it is to be a model, have a professional photographer to take photos and what it really is. Who knows, maybe they are interested in pursuing modeling more after the trip – or just scratch it off as one of the things “I’ve done”.

“I’m excited to go because I know it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

We are leaving for a four day shooting trip on Saturday, and I’m already busy packing.

Can you guess where we are going…?

Yes! We are going for a Disney Cruise to Bahamas!

Ever since I did the Disney Cruise in January I have wanted to take kids for a cruise too. There is so much fun for kids and I sort of felt bad for going without kids. This time our whole family is going, so exciting!

$50 Hanes Gift Card Giveaway

I think this news requires a little giveaway, don’t you think? I decided to raffle one 50$ Hanes Gift Card for one Skimbaco Lifestyle reader.

Enter to win $50 Hanes Gift Card

1. Subscribe Skimbaco Lifestyle in your email box and leave a comment you are a subscriber.
OR
2. Post a picture of your little “Hanes model” (your kid) in your blog, and link back to this blog post and leave a comment with your link. I bet as one of the Comfort Crew members and all, I can ask Hanes to check out the posts… Just sayin’.

DEADLINE: September 27th midnight EST.

I am so excited to announce that I am the Video Marketing Competition Director for Startup Princess Touchpoint Conference and I will be speaking at the conference. Hope to see you there!

The Startup Princess Video Marketing Competition is part of the September 11th Touchpoint conference for Women Entrepreneurs in Salt Lake City. This is your chance to show off your video marketing skills, get some exposure for your company and enter to win fabulous prizes, including a Free FLIP video camera! The deadline to enter is August 30, *5 finalists* will be announced on the 31st.

Get the contest details at Startup Princess.com and see all of the videos so far entered to the contest at the Startup Princess SnazL.

I have exciting news…

I have just launched Skimbaco Home, inspiration for your home, interior design and home decorating finds that represent the Skimbaco lifestyle of enjoying life, and enjoying little things while living life to the fullest.

This is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. One of my first design posts was about Alvar Aalto Paimio chair on June 21, 2007, and I have always wanted to write more about interior design and especially about Scandinavian design, but haven’t really felt it fit this blog – and I have so many other things to say here, that the interior design posts were most of the time just left non-written. I hope you enjoy Skimbaco Home as much as I enjoyed creating it for you.

Check it out now and win 1 year subscription to Coastal Living magazine or this cool Stroller storage solution pictured below.

Win StrollAway compact stroller storage solution!

The High School Musical Show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

I don’t know about your kids, but my kids are huge fans of Disney Channel shows and movies. Hannah Montana rocks, Rock Camp rocks louder and High School Musical is like the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame of them all. On our recent trip to DisneyWorld (thanks to Hanes) we saw the High School Musical Show at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and even though it wasn’t even with the original cast members, and the TV/movie stars, my girls loved it!

Even I have to say that I liked the newest Hannah Montana movie, and my girls can’t get enough of playing with the new JAKKS Pacific’s Hannah Montana toys, especially with the horse set, they got from JAKKS.

I have a feeling that the Disney Channel stars will be part of my kids summer this year, even if just on TV and with the interactive toys.

Disney is offering a dream come true summer for hundreds of kids this summer by offering kids the possibility to hang out with their favorite Disney Channel stars. Disney just announced that this summer, during July 9th to August 2nd, stars from Disney Channel shows like Hannah Montana, Sonny With A Chance, Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck, JONAS, Camp Rock, High School Musical and Hatching Pete will sail on Disney Cruise line’s three- and four-night Bahamian cruises. Autograph session, Q&A sessions, stars performing in the cruise parties… Your kid will have several opportunities to interact with these stars.

This first-ever “Disney Channel Summer at Sea” is presented by Kodak, and it fits perfectly with their “It’s Time to Smile” campaign. Disney and Kodak are raffling away a trip to eight families, and Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Cameras to record the trip of a lifetime, for your change to win, visit disney.com/summeratsea.

HANNAH MONTANA TOY GIVEAWAY

Since everyone can not go or win the Disney Cruise, I wanted to throw a little something for one reader. I am giving away JAKKS Pacific Hannah Montana wig & microphone.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

1. Leave a comment with your kids’ favorite Disney Channel Star.
2. Leave your contact info so I can reach you if you win.

DEADLINE: May 25th midnite EST.

FULL DISCLOSURE: My kids received the Hannah Montana Horse Toy.

Here they are! The 10 finalists for the Huge Super Bowl Pepsi Giveaway Game.

Check out these ten finalists, and vote for your favorite below. Good luck and have fun with the voting!

Voting will end January 24th midnight EST, and who ever gets most votes will win and the Super Bowl Pepsi Giveaway Game winner is announced the next day.

10 Finalists:

Plus Size Mommy
Jen Reeves
Sky
Queen of the Click
Alisha
Valerie M
MWhaley
Sorka
Jean D
PartyElizabeth

PS. The Super Bowl Pepsi Giveaway runs also at these blogs: From Dates to Diapers and Beyond,A Ordinary Life, A Cowboy’s Wife, Classy Mommy and Moms Mama’s Faves.