Supernatural Botanicals

Whose ready to win $1,000,000?  I am, bring it, Dough Boy!  Pillsbury is having their 44th Pillsbury Bake Off Contest.  They are offering their fabulous cash and prizes, as usual, with the grand prize being a cool mill! 

I love Bake Off time.  It’s always fun competing for great prizes, but the process of winning is just as fun.  You have to create original recipes, which lets you spread your creative wings in the kitchen to invent great dishes, many of which you’ll discover by chance.  My mind is constantly in motion, the wheels are always turning when I’m thinking of original recipes for Bake Off.  Inspiration is everywhere, so use it to your advantage and be savvy enough to recognize it. 

You’ll have four categories in which you can enter…Breakfasts and Brunches , Entertaining Appetizers, Dinners Made Easy, and Sweet Treats.  Are your wheels turning yet?  I feel like a strong contender in Breakfasts and Brunches and Entertaining Appetizers!  My mind is most definitely in motion. 

I love Bake Off!

For complete details on Pillsbury’s Bake Off, click the blue-eyed one above.  Test your recipes out on your friends and family for feedback.  Feed your neighbors,  your co-workers and see what makes them beg for more.  Throw a party and test out some Entertaining appetizers.  Host Sunday open house dinner for family and try out dinner recipes.  Try a double date.  Have the other couple bring the wine, and you test your Sweet Treat recipes on them all night. 

Good luck, foodies!

Enter for your chance to win a Wellness Retreat at La Puerta.  One lucky winner and a guest will escape to this award-winning health and wellness resort for one week, including spa treatments, access to over 50 fitness classes and complimentary meals and beverages.  Great giveaway.  Go get on that now!   Good luck!

   Enter for your chance to win a Zobha yoga two piece outfit.  I love the cut on the neck.  It really emphasizes sexy, toned shoulders. 

   It’s Bloggy Giveaway time again!  Supernatural Botanicals will randomly choose 15 winners to receive our ultra-indulgent Body Butter.  Visit our website www.SupernaturalBotanicals.com to view our entire skincare line,  then come back to this blog (there’s a link on the site back to this blog) and simply leave a comment here on your favorite body butter scent.  Good luck!  (*Update:  The contest ends tonight, 01/31/2009.  Winners will be notified via email on Sunday, 02/01/2009.)   

   With giveaways this cute, who can resist?  Enter to win one Oona Sera Kleo Mat Bag courtesy of Yoga Journal.  Compatible with eco-friendly mats and made in the USA.  Enter now for you chance to win. 

   Store your gear in style with this ultra cool 100% cotton backpack—perfect for those on the go.   Gaiam is one of my favorite companies for all things wellness and fitness.  This bag is perfect for the gym or yoga class…or even for that baby in Green training.   Love it?  Win it courtesy of Yoga Journal and Gaiam!  Click here for your chance to win!

One lucky winner will receive a five-day, four-night stay for two at the brand new Reserve at Paradisus Palma Real in the Dominican Republic, with one signature spa treatment (50-min. massage) for both guests. All meals, drinks and many activities are included. Approx. retail value: $4,400. 

Click here to win:  http://www.womansday.com/Giveaways/The-Reserve-at-Paradisus-Palma-Real-Dominican-Republic-Getaway-Giveaway

  Everything old is new again, and HGTV’s 2009 eco-friendly Dream Home is no exception.  There are so many things to love about the Dream Home this year.

   Lets discuss….First, the architecture is pure gorgeousness.  The old school traditional farm house style is enough to get interior design junkies salivating.  A huge porch made for lazy days, lemonade, and gossip welcomes you, as any farm house style house should, with opulent over-sized light fixtures and true-to-the-period plantings in the yard.  The front door is grand and wide, with gracefully-aged wood and beautiful hardware.

  The foyer spills onto an expansive entryway with gleaming walnut floors.  The family room, surprisingly modern for a farm house with leather sofas and local (Port St. Lucie, Florida) artwork, but it works.

   The study/home office has its own private entrance and a fully stocked wine closet.  HGTV calls it “decidedly masculine”, but I’d call it gender-neutral before I’d call it masculine.   …trust, I’ve seen masculine offices before.   The opposite sex could certainly appreciate this design, but so could the female persuasion.  I’m going to go with gender-neutral on the design.  The wine cabinet in the home office seems a bit on the multitasking side, but being eco-friendly means we can (and should) appreciate downsizing from our over-sized-everything economy.

   The dining room is perfection.  Coral colored walls against gleaming white mouldings color the farmhouse style tea parlor and dining space.  Skirted upholstered side chairs gather around a Ethan Allen Farmhouse Table.

   The kitchen, the sweet, sweet kitchen.  Twin refrigerators/dishwashers, wine cabinet, and a center island big enough for you and a few friends to sleep on comprise this farm house kitchen.  It’s everything you’d expect a farm house kitchen to be with its substantial vanilla-colored cabinets and wood flooring.

   The bedroom…take notes here.  Where to start?  It’s pure luxury, reminiscent of a luxury hotel.  The color of the walls appear to be an apple green, exact color being Sherwin Williams flat in Inland.  It pops against the white and creams in the furniture, curtains, and fabric that canopies the bed.  The sitting area screams…. Sit here on Saturday mornings with a carafe of coffee, the newspaper, and a hot member of the opposite sex!   Very crisp, clean, and minimalist.  Beautiful.

   The home’s most grand feature is spa-style master bath with a rolled edge tub big enough for two…or even three!  Stacks of white fluffy spa towels line the wall, and again, that shinny walnut floor.  The room is relaxing enough to do yoga in.

Once again, HGTV makes another dream home so good it hurts!   I really thought I loved the house in Maine, but this is a farm house loaded with eco-friendly features….it’s just calling my name!   It’s such a win/win.  This is my favorite, by far.  …of note, I’m super partial to farm houses, Victorian architecture, and the eco-awareness movement.

Take a virtual tour here:  http://www.hgtv.com/dream-home/index.html  And enter for you chance to win HGTV’s Dream Home 2009 on January 1, 2009 at www.HGTV.com.

   We could all use another stimulus package…and this one is in the form of a Weston Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa getaway giveaway!  

One lucky winner will receive a four-day, three-night stay for two at The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The winner and guest will enjoy ocean-front accommodations for two, breakfast daily and two featured spa treatments at the first Westin Heavenly Spa in the continental U.S. Approx. retail value: $1,250; westin.com/hiltonhead; hiltonheadisland.org

Located within the gracious Port Royal Plantation, The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa is set on a pristine stretch of beach along the Atlantic. With an average year-round temperature of 72 degrees, Hilton Head Island is the classic American resort destination, perfect for entertaining guests of all ages with its 12 miles of sandy white beaches, exceptional golf and tennis, and a wealth of arts and cultural events.

Enter here for you chance to win!  http://www.womansday.com/Giveaways/The-Westin-Hilton-Head-Island-Resort-Spa-Getaway-Giveaway

   Okay, so who is not addicted to the Travel Channel?  I know I am.  Actually, there are things I love about it and things that concern me.  See below. 

   Great things about the Travel Channel:  Sweepstakes!  Travel Channel offers a Trip A Month sweepstakes.  This month…Tahiti.  This, I love for obvious reasons.  Click here for your chance to enter.  http://win.travelchannel.com/index.tbapp

   Cool People on Travel Channel:   Tony Bourdain is the only food show on TV with a “Mature” rating.  You have to love that in itself.  Tony discovers crazy foods in different countries and enlightens us with his charm.   He’s a chef, a writer, a traveler, and, again, heavy on the charm.  We love Tony!

   More cool people on Travel Channel:  Samantha Brown.  She’s a girlfriend’s  girlfriend.  She gives you an all-access pass to her travels, and travels to the most luxurious places in the world.  Samantha is great and you can’t help but love her to pieces. 

   Disturbing things about the Travel Channel:  Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.  While I love Andrew’s insight and personality, he’s slowly turning me into a vegetarian…by force.  The foods he eats are definitely bizarre!  From eating the heads of animals to sucking the eyeballs out of carcasses to drinking animal sperm.  eck!  And…just in time for dinner.  His show always seems to be on at dinner time.  And I can’t be for sure, but I’ll bet his wife makes him boil his tongue before he kisses her these days.   And even though he makes me cringe much of the time, I still think he’s fantastic. 

Loving the Travel Channel.  Discover it for yourself.