Wordless Wednesday ~ A Little Bit of Pre-Bliss

This was a great surprise last week. I love how Blissdom Canada sends out a little package before Blissdom. It is a great little pump up for Bliss! Tomorrow I will be on the road heading to Blissdom Canada '13. If you will be there, stop me and say Hi!


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Great Deals on More Than Just Business Cards

As I begin to really get ready for the two social media conferences (BlogHer '13 & Blissdom Canada) I will be attending this year I realized I needed more business cards to hand out. I also decided I would pick up some business cards for my new hobby Genuine Jenn Designs, where I make and sell beaded jewelry and stitch markers for knitting (Don't forget to "Like" my new Facebook page).

I found some great coupons for Vistaprint and they offer coupons for more than just business cards. I have been been purchasing my business cards and other promotional items from Vistaprint for the last few years and have been really happy with my items. They have a wide variety of items that can be customized or you can use there own designs from pens, magnets to t-shirts and bags. Right now I am just getting business cards but I may pick up a few other things in the near future.

Now that my cards are order that is one less thing to have to worry about while packing for BlogHer!


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn on behalf of Vista Print Deals. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Top 5 Things I loved about Blissdom Canada

This past weekend I was in Toronto at two social media conferences. I stopped briefly at ShesConnected conference and then headed over to the main event............BlissDom Canada! I have so much information swirling around my head at the moment and have been thinking about how I want to write them down. I have decided I will likely do a couple posts and this one will be the Top 5 things I loved about BlissDom Canada '12. I know there are likely tons more things. I may add to it as I think of them.

1. Connecting with old and new friends! 
2. Connecting with great brands
3. Eating a kick a@@ breakfast at Caplansky's Delicatessen 
4. A short walk through historic Kensington market
5. Meeting Lucy Waverman & Emma Waverman 

This years BlissDom Canada was a little different than what it was last year. Instead of the panels that we would attend we were asked to pick three microsession that we would be interested in attending. These microsessions went for the morning and in the afternoon on Saturday we sat in on a great line up of BlissDom Canada speakers. And this year there were many great sponsors to network with and I know I missed some that I was really looking forward to stopping by to say hi. Just not enough time to see everyone and I apologizes if I missed you.

I met many amazing people this weekend and look forward to growing these friendships. Two people I spent a lot of time getting to know over the weekend was Nolie from Nolie's Place and Cheryl from The Beautiful Side of Hectic, if you have a moment check out their blogs and facebook pages. They really are amazing women!

 

Saturday night was the famous Blissdom Canada Costume Party. With fabulous costumes by everyone, yummy eats and even a surprise visit by Andy Kim who sings the famous song Sugar Sugar.

Sunday I spent the day on a FABULOUS excursion, a foodie excursion. I will be writing a whole separate post for this but we had the chance to check out Caplansky's Delicatessen, historic Kensington market, meet with Emma and Lucy Waverman and cook a soup on a whim at the Cuisinart Canada Soup cook off challenge.

I also want to say another HUGE Thank You to Field Agent Canada for a partial sponsorship to attend the conferences this year.

 
~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Please Vote!

Normally I don't enter myself into voting contests or ask for votes but I have a friend I met last year when I was at the Fall blogging conferences and she has entered a contest to win a pass to Blissdom Canada! She made it into the four finalist and now voting is coming to a close on August 14th, 2012 at 12:01am.

I am asking pretty please for everyone that sees this post today to head over to I Don't Blog and please vote for Coleen from Thyroid Cancer: It's not the good kind

Thanks a bunch! 



~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Thinking About Attending BlissDom Canada '12?

I am excited to tell you that plans are in the works for this fall’s conferences, for the second year I will be attending BlissDom Canada! This is a women’s conference put together by women. It is a conference to help bloggers learn more about social media, writing, connecting with brands and so much more.  

Last fall I made the trip to Toronto to attend BlissDom Canada without really knowing what to expect. I read all the blog posts from the conference in 2010 and it looked like a great experience to grow as a blogger. The tickets went fast! Less than two hours but I was able to get two tickets, one for myself and the other for a friend.

The other day I was asked to answer the question “What does BlissDom Canada mean to me?”

I sat back and thought about the conference from last year remember all the fun and learning I did over that weekend in Toronto. A great part of attending conferences like this is the networking but attending BlissDom Canada wasn’t just about networking, it was about being part of a great friendly community. It was about meeting new and exciting bloggers woman from all over Canada. Being a new blogger and also attending my first conferences everyone was very accepting and welcoming. A great place to learn more about myself, my blog and were I would like to have my blog head. A few months after I started a new blog called Marvelous Mommy Meals. 

There were many great highlights of BlissDom Canada ’11 that will never be forgotten – The CBC red carpet event, meeting Jordan Knight & Gail Vaz-Oxlade and all the wonderful brands, hearing other great bloggers tell their stories and give their insights and getting to connect with them over the weekend. It was a wealth of information that I have carried with me and using to help my blog, the best one – be authentic. I live by this and blog by it also.

Finding my niche, after just over two years I think I have figured this one out. I am in the works redesigning this blog into something more of myself, I still will share great products we discover but I will be working on my writing through family stories and writing prompts.

I look forward to attending BlissDom Canada again this fall and connecting with tons of new people. I know I will arrive home with great lessons learned and tons of surprises as BlissDom Canada is known for their surprises!

Will you be joining in on the fun at BlissDom Canada ’12? I hope to see you there!

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by CCM. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Out for Breakfast while at Blissdom Canada

Over the last few days I have been in Toronto for the 2nd Annual Blissdom Canada Conference. Just as I arrived in Toronto I found out I was accepted to join in a Social Fabric shopportunity by #cbias. The mission? To enjoy a coffee while at the Conference with my fellow bloggers and see if the restaurant offers Equal.

Today I want to talk about coffee sweeteners, Equal sweeteners to be exact. I LOVE coffee! I also love good food and conversations with a great friend.

On my last day in Toronto, Alyssa from A Motherhood Experience and I headed out early morning to have breakfast on our last day in Toronto. We decided we wanted great coffee with our breakfast so we head just down the street to Tim Horton's on King St, I believe. This weekend there was a big running marathon going on downtown which made the Tim Horton's SUPER busy.

This meant we had a pretty big line up that was twisted and almost out the door when we arrived. To our surprise the line moved very fast which was great as we needed a coffee and food badly.

While standing in line I noticed a sign that asks if customers have seen their new recycling bins. I really enjoy seeing stores and restaurants recycling! To my surprise there are still quite a few that don't.

Yay! We are just about ready to order our breakfast! The staff where pretty friendly even when the customer beside me wasn't understanding or maybe listening that the coffee she had grabbed was my coffee not hers and almost walked off with it while I was paying :(

While waiting for my food I noticed something great behind the counter...

I didn't know Timmies was getting a Latte machine! Am I that out of the loop? I don't remember my usual one having it. I am now super excited, hoping my home town Timmies will have it soon also.

I ordered a Breakfast sandwich combo with a Large coffee and hash brown. I used to drink sweetener in my coffee but I don't anymore. I was curious to see what they do offer people to sweeten their drinks. The young man at the counter handed me a Splenda and a regular white sugar. When I asked him about Equal he didn't know why they don't offer it and apologized about not having it.

Alyssa and I had a conversation about the lack of choice for sweeteners in restaurants and who we know that use sweeteners and why they use them. It actually was nice to get to know each others personal life more than we already know.

While we were waiting in line we noticed a QR scan code, when scanned customers could fill in a customer survey and be entered to Win coffee for a year! Based on 1 medium coffee for 365 days. Wouldn't that be nice? So I scanned the code and filled in the comment survey for my pretty good service on a very busy day. I did request more options for sweeteners with Equal being my main request.

So in the end? Mission #EqualCanada failed but we enjoyed a great breakfast between two good friends.

Follow @EqualCanada on Twitter, "Like" Equal on Facebook and Visit Equal  on their website for more information and great recipes using Equal.



~*Disclaimer: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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@KidZoomer Twitter Giveaway

We are heading off to Toronto today for a 3-day conference extravaganza at Blissdom Canada '11!

We have been awaiting this moment all year long and can not thank KidZoomer enough for sponsoring our trip and making it all possible for A Motherhood Experience and myself.

In light of our fabulous sponsor we will be running a #KZBliss Twitter giveaway on behalf of KidZoomer while we are away!

Starting October 13th through October 18th Tweet with us for your chance to WIN a $500 Gift Card to The Children's Place courtesy of KidZoomer.com!

To be eligible to win all you have to do is Follow @KidZoomer, @CouponMomCanada and @AMotherhoodBlog and Tweet the following: "Win a $500 Children's Place GC - Sign up @KidZoomer to enter! RT daily for more chances! #KZBliss http://bit.ly/q1FWAY"

For extra entries don't forget to:

-Like KidZoomer on Facebook
-Like Canadian Coupon Mom on Facebook
-Like A Motherhood Experience on Facebook


Leave a comment below that you liked us on Facebook for extra entries!! This is the only way we can count your "likes"



Rules: Open to Canadian residents only, subscribe via email to KidZoomer.com, Follow us on Twitter and Tweet the assigned tweet to be eligible to win. One Tweet per day per person. Giveaway prize provided by our sponsor KidZoomer.com


Good luck and have fun!   




~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom and A Motherhood Experience on behalf of our #BlissdomCanada trip sponsor KidZoomer. Giveaway prize provided by KidZoomer. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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What to Wear

So here I sit trying to figure out how to gain a new wardrobe that is stylish, inexpensive and get it before the two biggest Canadian blogging conferences, ShesConnected and Blissdom Canada. Yes, I know, I have waited likely too long to really find anything but I thought I was going to be fine buying a few tops, sweaters and a couple pairs of pants. I still haven't found anything.

I have bought a few things from this one online store thinking WOW the prices are AWESOME but when receiving the clothes they fell apart right away. Did I mention that when I emailed them they haven't returned my email? I think if I purchase from across the world again I will stick to eBay.ca. Trial and error I guess, just sucks it took over two weeks to get to me and I spent $50 I could have put else where on better quality clothes.

Now to look for higher quality clothes hopefully on sale... It has only been about 7 or so years since I turned my style from Business Casual to Casual. I never wore jeans, always dress pants and dressy shirts. Now it's the total opposite and all I wear are jeans and t-shirts. I blame that on work not on the kids. I work in a health care field and well its really hard to keep dressy going without ruining it all with cleaners or grease.

I believe I have the make up thing covers with an E.L.F haul that I will be putting in by tomorrow. I will likely head out to Ardene's to pick out something for accessories and see what they have for new flats. I still need clothes though! AHHHH!

I would like a dressy outfit for evening parties (pants and a couple dressy tops will work fine) and also some business casual for daytime stuff, again I figure nice jeans or black pants and a few nice tops. I need another sweater also as I have only one that is dressy.

I am reaching out to my readers for your help in choosing some great clothes, Where do you shop? Any online stores you can point me to?



~*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, it was written by Canadian Coupon Mom. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Blissdom Canada '11 Sponsorship Announcement !!

As you may know Alyssa from A Motherhood Experience and I have been on a mission to find the perfect Canadian sponsor to attend Blissdom Canada '11 in October. We planned everything from securing a ticket to booking the hotel. Crunching numbers and making lists. We then went about advertising that we were looking for a sponsor or sponsors. We sent out emails, tweets and even posted on Facebook. This honestly felt like FOREVER even though it only started in March with a let's go to Blissdom Canada comment and we were hooked. I will say when Alyssa and I are on a mission we work hard and never give up!

I will be honest with you, we did get a list of no's, maybe's and no answers. This didn't get us to discouraged we just kept on our mission to find the right Canadian sponsor that would like our help in promoting their company in return for our attendance at Blissdom Canada '11! I am excited to say our hard work paid off and we found our sponsor, well actually they found us! Alyssa and I are very excited to introduced our sponsor....

KidZoomer.com- Is a Canadian, Educational resource website geared toward helping Moms, Dad’s, Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents and other caregivers by offering one time promotional prices on KIDS activities, products and services around your city, a Daily deal site. They have had some fantastic past promotions for those from the Toronto area including discounts on personalized stationery, birthday parties, Glam photo shoots, Lego camp and maternity fitness classes just to name a few. We can’t wait until they start releasing some great local promotions for Ottawa too!

How does KidZoomer.com work? KidZoomer negotiates amazing promotions on kids products and services. KidZoomer sends all these amazing promotions on kids products and services to KidZoomer.com subscribers. Kids get to enjoy the fantastic KZ promotion in their area!

Head on over to www.KidZoomer.com and sign up via email! You will receive the latest KZ promotions right in your inbox!


A Motherhood Experience - Alyssa and I are extremely excited to be able to attend Blissdom Canada this year on behalf of KidZoomer. We are looking forward to the next few months working together with our fantastic Official Blissdom Canada ‘11 trip sponsor!

Do you use social media like Twitter? Make sure you are following @CouponMomCanada, @AMotherhoodBlog and our sponsor @KidZoomer while we chat about what KidZoomer has to offer and our preparation for Blissdom Canada ‘11 this fall. Also keep your eye out for upcoming posts and tweets including KidZoomer themed twitter parties in the upcoming months!

THANK YOU!!

Thanks to all our loyal Twitter followers, blog subscribers, face book and Google friends connect fans for having faith in us and cheering us on during our search for the perfect sponsor. Thank you so much @KidZoomer for believing in us, we will make you proud!



~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom in participation with our Blissdom Canada ‘11 Trip Sponsorship. A Motherhood Experience and Canadian Coupon Mom will be attending Blissdom Canada ‘11 this fall on behalf of KidZoomer. All opinions expressed are honest and those of Canadian Coupon Mom.*~

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Happy 1 Year Blogoversary!!!

It's official Canadian Coupon Mom turned One today!! The weather was great and the kids enjoyed a TON of outdoor play! I enjoyed the fresh air and a nice Iced Caramel Coffee. I am now red as a lobster but it was a nice change from all the rain we have been having!

So here Canadian Coupon Mom blog is one year later and I am still loving every minute of blogging. I don't see an end in sight, just tons of idea's for the next year! One highlight is the Blissdom Canada conference in October. I will be attending with A Motherhood Experience Blog. We are looking for sponsors for our trip and if you are interested please contact me for more information at jennifer at canadiancouponmom dot ca

I also have another little surprise in store but today was just too nice out to spend anytime inside. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

I have really enjoyed growing Canadian Coupon Mom over the last year and I hope to continue to grow. I love helping others save money, tell you about products I have tried, and just give you an idea about my family. I am not one for sappy notes so I will finish up this post and call it a night.

I love hearing from everyone, so please do feel free to leave me a comment or a email. You can also connect with me on Twitter.

~*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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BlissDom Canada '11

It's Official Canadian Coupon Mom has teamed up with good friend Alyssa from A Motherhood Experience and we are going to Blissdom Canada '11!

This year Blissdom Canada '11 is taking place at the Hilton Hotel in Toronto! Alyssa and I are working on a little thing we decided to call "Project Blissdom '11" We are in the works of organizing our trip to Toronto as we speak. Our room has been reserved and our tickets purchased. Can you imagine that the tickets sold out in under an hour! We are stoked to be going.

"Project Blissdom '11" is in the works. We want to represent a brand or brands that would be willing to sponsor our trip to Blissdom Canada, small sponsors are great also!

If you’re interested in sponsoring us as a team please take a look at our sponsorship media kit for more information about what exactly we can do for you and contact us via email at foreverhealthyaloe@hotmail.com

~*Disclaimer: This is not sponsored post. All opinions are my own and honest.*~

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