The winner of our Shop7 $28 gift certificate is comment #4, Lynn Matthews. 
Congratulations!! Just in time for some holiday shopping!
For those of you that didn’t win, we have some great Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals for the whole weekend, so be sure to check them out. Also, on Friday 11/27, you can use the coupon: TwitterDoorbuster at Shop7 for 50% off orders of 2 items or more. This deal is ONLY available through Twitter, or for the readers of this blog.
Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: Black Friday Ballroom Dance Course Sale – $100 PLUS 15% OFF
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th
Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: $100 OFF ALL Learn and Master Courses
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th
Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: Used Learn and Master Courses Only $89
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th
Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: 15% OFF All Home School Courses
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th
Merchant Name: Two Little Hands Productions – Signing Time
Offer: Take $15 Off Any Order of $50 or more!
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Start and End Date: November 28th
Merchant Name: Ecopaper
Offer: 15% off use code – For Black Friday
Coupon Code: ECOFRIDAY
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: Now thru November 30th
For those of you that are looking for cold and flu medications that don’t have all the extra ingredients that we don’t need, check your local Whole Foods. My husband had the 24 hour flu, and while they didn’t have any liquid medications, or those that you would put into a glass of water, they did have several different types of medications. I was very happy to find that Hyland’s makes a flu medication as well as a cold medication with zinc. I’ve been looking for a cold medication with zinc ever since they took the Zicam swabs off the market, so this made me happy. Hopefully this will help someone out this cold and flu season! Let me know what else you use for colds and flu!
In the spirit of the holiday season, I wanted to post some Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals that I am aware of through merchants that I work with. All of these companies also have affiliate programs, for those of you that are interested in adding them to your sites!
Merchant Name: Shop7 – Where everything is $7, Every Day
Offer: Buy 2 Items, Get 1 Free
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
I am one of the artists on this site.
Merchant Name: Our Handmade Gifts – Handmade Jewelry & Gifts
Offer: 35% off all orders
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
I am one of the artists on this site.
Merchant Name: Loxly Gallery – Photograph and Art Prints
Offer: 50% off all orders
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: Cool Butterflies
Offer: 50% off all orders
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: Engravable Gifts 2 Go
Offer: 10% off every order over $50 – including sale items
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: The Baby Shower Gift Store
Offer: 10% off every order over $50 – including sale items
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: Engraved Crystal Shoppe
Offer: 10% off every order over $50 – including sale items
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: Custom Signs and Plaques
Offer: 10% off every order over $50 – including sale items
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: Custom Ceramic Stoneware
Offer: 10% off every order over $50 – including sale items
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: American Tea Room
Offer: 10% off all orders, including already on sale items
Coupon Code: BlackFriday
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: M-Rock Camera Bags
Offer: Take an additional 5% off their already low prices (including their 40% off clearance items!)
Coupon Code: 5Disc
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: SWAK Designs – Plus Size Fashion
Coupon code: BF35
Offer: 35% off all regularly priced items
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
Merchant Name: SWAK Designs – Plus Size Fashion
Coupon code: BFSALE25
Offer: 25% off already discounted sale and clearance items
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 26 thru December 1st
We’re doing our first giveaway!! I spoke with the other artists on Shop7 and we agreed that we wanted to offer a $28 gift certificate to one of my great readers! The reason that it is a $28 gift certificate is that everything on Shop7 is $7 everyday, so the gift certificates are available in multiples of $7. The winner will be chosen on November 26th at 9pm PST using Random.org. Entries received after 9pm Pacific Time on November 26, 2009 will not be counted. The winner will have 48 hours after notification to respond. Open to US Residents & those on US Military Installations Worldwide (APO & FPO).
Here’s how to enter:
1. Visit Shop7.com/shop and tell us how you would spend your $28 gift certificate. This is mandatory for any other entries to be considered. Be sure to include your email address, if it is not available in your profile.
Additional Entries for:
2. Follow this blog through Google Friend Connect, then let me know that you have!
3. Follow RuleOfThumb1 and SevenDollarSale on Twitter. Leave your twitter ID in your comment
4. Tweet the following message up to once per day. Leave a link to the tweet in your comment. “Win a @sevendollarsale gift certificate from @ruleofthumb1 by visiting http://cli.gs/uX7eSH today!”
5. Make a purchase at Shop7 (Good for 5 entries, please leave 5 comments stating you made a purchase.) Use the coupon code: RuleOfThumb to Get 1 Free Item when you Buy 3 Additional Items.
6. Become an approved affiliate for Shop7 and post a banner or link. Please leave the url where the banner or link is, in your comment.
7. Receive 3 entries for each affiliate sale you send during the giveaway. Leave 3 comments saying affiliate sale, for each sale. All affiliate sales will be confirmed.
8. Check back at Shop7 each day for new items. Post at least one new item that wasn’t there when you first visited.
Ok, so I’m a little behind 
A couple days ago, I was given my first award!! Thank you to “Living Just Like Grandma” for giving me the One Lovely Blog Award. I so appreciate it, especially as a new blogger!
So here are the official rules:
Ok, I’ve got my 15 blogs that I would like to award this to. Boy did that take a while! I was trying to give it to people who haven’t already received this award, which made it even harder. Here they are!
So, this is twice now that I’ve bought something with honey butter flavoring and fell in love with it to only realize there was a slight after taste, yep you guessed it, they both had artificial sweeteners in it. The first was Honey Butter flavored snack stix of some kind that I can’t think of right now, but this most recent one, just now actually shocked me. I love my Pillsbury crescents, grands and grands jrs, but have now learned that I need to check the ingredients on any of them that are flavored. The new Pillsbury Grands Jrs in honey butter flavor contain sucralose!!
If you are trying to avoid artificial sweeteners, be sure to stay away from most flavored waters, including the new pur filters for your faucet that flavor your water, most energy drinks except Regular Red Bull & Rockstar, and pretty much any individual serving powder drink mix. The only individual drink mix that I’ve found to NOT contain any artifical sweeteners is Country Time Lemonade, everything else has them, Kool-Aid has both.
It has pretty much come down to this; You have to read the ingredients on literally everything you consume.
Another ingredient that is quite prevalent that many people don’t realize or pay attention to is petroleum. Petroleum is found in products ranging from paraffin candles, to cosmetics, to bath & body products, skin care and more! Most of your inexpensive moisturizers that you will buy aren’t really hydrating your skin. They are putting a thick layer of petroleum on your skin so that it FEELS moisturized, rather than actually being absorbed into your skin. A lot of facial products will do the same thing, so that you think they work great and are fixing the problems, but are instead hiding them. All that vaseline is, is petroleum, the same thing that we put into our cars!! When you burn paraffin candles, and you notice the black soot? That is a result of the petroleum in the wax. I LOVE soy candles because they burn completely clean, and I know that I am not polluting the air that I and my family are breathing. Ever wonder why it seems like you constantly need chapstick once you start using it?? It’s a result of the petroleum in the product. There are many reasons that I have changed over much of my skin and body care to natural products, and petroleum is a big factor. If everyone would do a little research to learn more about ingredients, we would find that we are much healthier, as well as depleting less of our natural resources.
If you have never tried a Scentsy warmer, you are definitely missing out! Not only are they safer than burning a candle because you aren’t burning anything, but they are safer for the environment. The fragrances are made of soy wax which means that there isn’t any petroleum or other poisons being released into the air and effecting the quality of air that your family is breathing. Because the wax is soy, that also means that it will not burn skin if it’s spilled, and I can definitely vouch for this from personal experience! That makes it great for those with kids and/or pets.
The lightbulbs are low enough wattage, that it is safe to leave them on for as long as you want. The plug-in warmers make great nightlights in your bathroom or hallway! My son even uses one as a nightlight/air freshener in his room at night.
Of the scent bars I’ve tried so far, my favorite by far is the Sunkissed Citrus. I definitely need to order some of the Fall & Winter scents to put my whole house into the spirit of the season. The fragrance carries extremely well and is great for anyone living in a dorm, senior center, rv’s, and of course ANYONE.
Scentsy ships in a very timely manner, so that it has never taken longer than a week for me to receive my order. Of course going into the holiday season, it may take a little longer, but it’s definitely worth it!
**This review expresses my own opinions, and was done based on products that I purchased and chose to wrote a review on because of how much I like the product. I have become an independent consultant with this company since this review, so the links in this post earn me a commission, at no additional cost to you.
