Around the Internet 8

Olympic Edition!

Did you know it’s only 14 days until the Opening Ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics?!  Crazy!!  I can’t believe how quickly the time has approached!

Here’s some linky love for following along:

1 – Olympic.org – official website of the Olympic Movement.

2 – Vancouver 2010 – official source for all things related to this year’s Winter Olympics…including schedules, results, and medals.

3 – CTV Olympics – for a Canadian perspective on the entire event, eh.

4 – NBC Olympics - for an American perspective on the entire event, y’all.

5 – Cheer Gear – show your support wearing something cute and patriotic from lululemon (I might have a tee on it’s way!)

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Now, how ‘bout a little Olympic giveaway action ? 

Got your attention?

I searched high and low around Halifax but came up empty handed multiple times while trying to get my hands on a pair of the much coveted red mittens!  Amy offered to send me a pair from Ottawa, but her hubby kinda “borrowed” them.  haha.  So I sent out a Twitter plea, which Tarilyn answered…and 2 days later I had not one, but two pairs of these awesome mitties at my door!

Two pair?  Why would I need two pair, you ask? 

Well one for me, and one for you silly people!!  :)

Want to sport some cozy red Olympic mittens (size: S/M) while watching the opening ceremonies and all your favorite events next month?  Here’s how!

• Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite Winter Olympic sport(s).
• For a second entry, Tweet “@balanceblog is giving away #Olympic mittens: http://bit.ly/d6LYvv”
• And for a third chance, post a link to this giveaway on your blog and email me to let me know about it.

Easy peasy!  Contest open to US and Canadians (although I suspect you silly Americans might not want gloves supporting us Canucks!).  Contest closes Sunday, Jan-31-10 at 11:59pm Atlantic time.  I will post a winner Monday morning using a random number generator.

Yay!

Around the Internet 7

Tis that time again!  I let a few weeks go by over the holidays and got caught up on all of the festivities, resolutions (although my personal ressie post isn’t up yet!) and happenings that come with a new year…but now I’m back with some good linky love for you all.

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1 – Haiti Help – By now, we have all heard about the devastating earthquake that recently rocked Haiti and essentially wiped out the capitol city.  The death toll is predicted to be within the hundreds of thousands.  Red Cross seems to be the best place to offer a financial donation if you have a few dollars to spare.

• Canadian Red Cross
• American Red Cross

2 – A Different Kind of Giveaway – in keeping with the Haiti donation theme, Pioneer Woman has set up a contest of sorts for her readers.

She is giving away two (2) $500 donations to the Haitian-related charity of the winners’ choice.

In addition, so that all of you can help make a difference, she will donate one dime (10 cents) for every entry received in this giveaway to Haitian recovery efforts.

3 – How to Make Wall Panels – on a lighter note, I came across this fun how-to post on Kyla Roma’s blog and wanted to share.  We have a few empty walls in our house and I’m wondering if FH and I could agree on a fabric to use for a couple of these.  :)

4 – Turkey and White Bean Chili – one of my favorite cold weather foods is a nice, simple chili.  Usually I use my Mom’s recipe and just modify it based on ingredients on hand.  This one caught my eye because it’s white beans, which I love!

5 – Just for Haligonians – Susie’s Shortbreads & Cupcakes – I actually won a Twitter contest for a dozen lovely cupcakes that I have yet to claim (I won the day before I flew home for Xmas) so I’ll have to get on that! 

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Around the Internet 6

Holiday Edition!!

1 – Crazy Christmas Lights – every year my friends back home and I would drive around and look at all of the houses that really went all out with the lights.  The tradition slipped when I moved away but I still hope we can do it again one year!  Of course, we never saw anything quite this elaborate!

2 – How to stay out of the ER this Christmas – LOL.  It’s like it was written just for accident-prone me!  Most of this is common sense, but it’s still a good read…and includes a foodsafe homemade egg nog recipe!

3 – Green Gift Giving – I love these ideas!  I remember a Christmas when I was a little kid where our packages arrived from Grandpa all wrapped in brown paper with little stars drawn on in pen.  He included a little note stating “see! festive paper!”.  Ever since, I’ve always thought it was cute and personal. 

4 – Classic Gingerbread Cookies – gingerbread is one of the “healthier” options for a holiday baked treat.  Generally they call for far less butter and sugar than your average cookie.  If you follow this recipe and stick to the recommended 5cm size, each one weighs in at only 62 calories!

5 – Just for Haligonians! – ‘My Hometown Elf’ Christmas Dinner Theatre – this is what FH and I did last night for a festive double date with our BFF’s before leaving for the holidays.  Funny little musical written and performed by East Coasters.  Yummy holiday dinner included…all served by the actors themselves. 

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Do you have any cute Holiday links to share? 

Christmas traditions only your family understands?

Around the Internet 5

I bet you thought I forgot about these weekly posts!  (or maybe you didn’t even notice they were missing…LOL)  Either way, here I am!!

With a Christmas theme of course!!

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1 – NorthPole.com – Too fun!  Countdown ‘til Christmas. Send Santa a letter and he’ll write back. Personalize a story with YOU as the star. Stuff for teachers and parents. Recipes, games, and puzzles. 

2 - “Night Before Xmas” Coffee Cake – OK, I totally found this on NorthPole.com so this is a bit of cheating!  But it sounds so good I wanted to make sure to share it. 

3 – Guilt-Free Holiday Eating – We all know how to do it, but it’s good to have a reminder in black & white sometimes.

4 – Truly Jess – blogger shout out!!!  This girl gives a lot of love, motivation, excitement, and ideas to the healthy blogger world so I wanted to show some love back.  It’s fun because she video blogs instead of just giving us something to read! 

5 – Just for Haligonians! – Symphony Nova Scotia – a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win tickets to the local Symphony and quite enjoyed it.  Tomorrow night FH and I are going to see The Nutcracker with some friends.  How much more festive can you get?!

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Have any holiday linky-love you want to share?  Let me know and maybe I can use it in my next instalment!

Around the Internet 4

Wow, Friday already?  This week has flown by for me.  Oddly I haven’t really done anything to make it go fast.  It must be because work is keeping me busy.  Well, whatever it is I’ll still give a shout out of TGIF! 

And now on with this week’s linky love…

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1 - Exclusive First Listen: The Swell Season : NPR - Remember that lovely song from the movie Once? If you liked that, they have a whole album coming out. Beautiful.

2 - Don't just stand there...BUST A MOVE – Halifax’s first known flashmob, in support of Breast Health.  Who doesn’t love a dance party in the local shopping centre!?

3 – 20 Minute Abs – titled as The Best Ab Workout for Women.  I don’t know about that but it does look promising and I’m sick of just doing bicycle crunches all the time.  :)

4 – Bakerella.com – In lieu of the weekly recipe link, I decided to give you a whole blog instead.  Not only does Bakerella have cute and easy baking ideas, including some fun Halloween choices, but also check out the awesome wedding proposal she helped pull off.  Love it!

5 – Just for Haligonians!  Things to do for Two – A young, married East Coast couple offers up ideas of fun, local things to do together that won’t break the bank.  (Now if only my date was home to do these things!)

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If you ever have something cute you think would make a nice addition to the Around the Internet series, feel free to let me know.  Email is on the sidebar -----> 

Around the Internet 3

So I missed the actual week 3 because I was too busy partying it up with my girls (OK, I was actually working on Friday but way too busy to make time for an extra blog when I was racing to get to our Thanksgiving Dinner).  :)

But here I am.  I know, you were riveted on the edges of your seats.  haha.

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1 - the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks - Hot off the Twitter presses, this site was just brought to my attention by the lovely Lex a few minutes ago.  It has extra special hilarity for anyone that attended our GTG.  Let’s just say we now have our own inside “quote jokes”.

2 - LipDub – I Gotta Feeling - Who doesn’t love a group choreographed lip sync?  Another link brought to you by Twitter.  Actually Ashton Kutcher posted this link.  Not only is it cool (and there’s a whole bunch of these on YouTube) but it’s perfect timing since this was our GTG theme song!

3 - Jillian Michaels on Facebook - (and Twitter for that matter)  I’m not a hardcore Jillian loving superfan, but she’s really mastered the art of funny status updates and cute pictures and videos.  And she makes a lot of fun of Bob, which is quite entertaining.  :)

4 - Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts – it seems to me that many folks around the blogosphere are in need of recipes to use up the last of this season’s zucchinis…and I love nothing better than a good zucchini bread.  This one uses yogurt to keep it moist without added fat.

5 - Just for Haligonians! East Coast By Choice – Another blogger transplanted in Halifax.  Torontonian by birth, East Coast by choice. The trials and tribulations of living in Halifax. One blog posting at a time.  I especially appreciate her restaurant reviews.

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Now get back to work!  TGIF. 

Around the Internet 2

Welcome to week two of fun things I’ve found on the internet that I think you might like.  Week One seemed like a success so hopefully the momentum keeps going!

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1 - 100 Greatest Hits of YouTube in Under 4 Minutes – I’ve left the link to my buddy Mikey’s blog because he deserves the credit for finding this one.

2 – DIY Matchbook – super cute, easy craft idea from writer and bookmaker Rose over at one of my favorite foodie blogs.  I’m adding these to my “to-do” list…which is currently about 127 pages long.

3 – Chatelaine At-Home Exercise Guide – genius idea!  Simply roll your mouse over the illustration and click on specific parts of the body for easy-to-follow exercises.

4 – Spinach & Pomegranate Salad – tis the season for these beautiful, bejeweled fruits to appear in stores…and since we all know how much I love a biggass salad I think this one should make my Autumn menu plan.

5 - Just for Haligonians!  “Why Not Now"?” – a local blogger offers her description of a day trip to St. Margaret’s Bay and the surrounding area.  I was excited to read this because it’s close to home but I may never have discovered these things on my own.

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Now get clicking and let me know what you think!!

Around the Internet

So I constantly think I should have at least one weekly post that everyone can count on.  You know, one that comes up at the same time every week and has a theme.  Since I’m so scattered with my blogging (is she going to post once or twice?  is she going to post in the morning?  will she get here before midnight?) I think this might be a good idea.

Let’s try it!

My idea:  Fun stuff I find on the internet each week.  Maybe food related, maybe health related, maybe blog related, possibly TV related, but maybe just completely random.  I suppose we shall see!

The day:  I chose Fridays because that gives everyone all weekend to cruise by and check these out without too many other posts going up. 

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1 – Starbucks Channel on YouTube – currently running their series of videos for the launch of VIA, their new instant coffee packets.  Worth watching.  Seriously.  (You had to know Starbucks would make my list, right?)

2 – Oprah Kickoff Flash Mob – seriously coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.  Although I am easily impressed.  :)  (hopefully this link continues to work since the video keeps getting pulled due to copyright infringements)

3 – The best Summer salad, ever.  Or so they say anyway.  Of course I love this because of the serving size:  “Serves -- 1 adult a really huge salad”.  If only they’d said “bigass salad”.

4 – Eight Health Foods with Super Powers – yup, we read this stuff on blogs, etc everyday…but it’s still a good reminder.  And happily I already eat most of these foods on a weekly basis.  :)

5 – Just for Haligonians!  A new creperie in town.  Chez Tess.  If I can’t coordinate with friends to go there, I’m checking this one out on my own!

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Week One down.  I wonder if I can keep this up.  Leave me a comment if you found this useful, useless, fun, boring, lame, great, worth keeping?  Happy Weekend.