Are You Pining for a Great New Handbag?

Instead of a bag in a car, a car in a bag

Good Housekeeping and SheBuysCars have partnered on a giveaway of designer handbags.

When my oldest daughter graduated from college, my husband and I wanted to get her something special. I suggested her first ‘real’ pocketbook and he balked - what a terrible gift, he said.

Reader, she loved it. We gave her carte blanche to choose a bag and she even chose me as her shopping partner. It was a great day of mother / daughter bonding, and my husband got to share her joy when she came home with what she deemed the perfect designer bag.

The Toyota Camry looks great with a designer bag

Some parents mark milestone for their kids with a car, but Hallie didn’t even learn to drive till she was 19 (we live in New York City, and for much of her life didn’t even own a car) and when she graduated, she moved back to the city to work for a couple of years. A car would have been a ridiculous gift.

And I remember when I had my first job, a crummy, low-paying servitude publishing job, but my boyfriend (now husband) and I were couch surfing before it became a thing, so we had disposable income to blow on the more essential items, like travel and expensive handbags.

Good Housekeeping and SheBuysCars understand that pocketbooks and cars go, well, hand in hand. I mean, what woman doesn’t throw her car keys into her pocketbook, and then think about where to place said bag once she gets into the car?

The environmentally friendly Prius

The Toyota Camry is a great car for a style-conscious woman who doesn’t want to spend everything on her drive (maybe she wants to have a few bucks leftover for, say, a nice spring bag?). The car isn’t cheap; fully loaded, it’s in the mid-30s, but it offers a lot of luxury bang for the buck. It features soft leather seats, heated steering wheel, and a wireless charging pad so you don’t have to clutter up your car or handbag toting a power cord.

For the eco-conscious, the new Prius has many luxury touches too, along with upgraded technology and safety features - and you still get amazing mileage. So you don't have to feel guilty taking it to the mall, where you can shop for, you guessed it, a new handbag.

See these cars and more at the New York Auto Show, which runs from today through April 3. And be sure to enter SheBuysCars’ promotion with Good Housekeeping, giving away a handbag a day the entire time. Just take a picture of your handbag in your car (or a photo of with one you love at the car show and tweet or post on Instagram with the hashtag #GHDrives.

There is no purchase necessary, and you can only win one bag.

Oh, and as for my daughter? When she started grad school, we bought her the car.

Note: this is sponsored post. Opinions expressed are my own.

Get Happy - Giveaway of a New Plush Toy, The Happy's

Stuffed animals have a place in most homes, but kids often want the ‘real’ thing. But  allergies, lifestyle, or apartment rules on pets can limit the ability to get a furry friend.

Enter the new line of plush interactives, The Happy’s™. These battery operated puppies and kittens run around on hardwood floors or tile (they don’t move so well on carpet) and may get your pet-deprived kids chasing after them.

The Happy’s are also easily trained - each cat or dog comes with a treat that makes the pet do a trick. Your pet may chase, wiggle its butt or pounce - and if you have a friend or a sister with a different Happy’s, your pet will do the other one's trick with the second treat. Unlike real animals, the cats and dogs don’t mind playing with each other, or their toys.

You can also expand the play with a Chase & Play ball. The toy doesn’t fetch, but it does chase after its ball. And again, kids are often motivated to run around after the pet. We tested this out with a tired puppy and she chased after the motorized fur ball.

The Happy’s are a new line from Cepia, makers of ZhuZhu Pets.

Unlike needing to buy kibble and treats, you only have to feed these pets batteries. And no vet bills or fleas!

Want to try out The Happy’s™? You can get them at Toys ‘R Us, Wal-Mart, Target, Justice and Radio Shack. 

Or leave your name and email below for a chance to win one of your own.

Note: this is a sponsored giveaway

Giveaway: milk for the lactose intolerant

Cooking vegetarian meals for my family got more challenging when my oldest daughter stopped eating dairy. She loves cheese and milk, they just didn’t love her back.

So cream soups, cheesy lasagna and pizza were all out. Or so I thought until we tried Lactaid. This lactose-free milk looks and tastes like regular milk (it is just slightly sweeter, though without any added sugar) so we could sub this into regular recipes.

Chef Melissa d’Arabian is a mother of 4 daughters, one of whom is also lactose intolerant. She said recently that even many lactose-intolerant people, like her daughter, can eat hard cheese and yogurt. So aged cheddar and Gouda, which are quite tasty, can be eaten in small amounts.

And goat cheese has less lactose, so many people with dairy insensitivity, like my sister, can eat goat cheese.

I am also lactose intolerant, and can almost never eat ice cream. I was pleased to find out that Lactaid makes 5 flavors of lactose-free ice cream, including chocolate.

And if you like buttermik, you can make your own by adding a little vinegar to Lactaid. My kids like ranch dressing, and I found this dressing recipe on Lactaid’s website:

'Buttermilk' Dressing'

·       3/4 cup mayonnaise

11/3 cup LACTAID^® Fat Free Milk

·       1 teaspoon chopped garlic

·       1 teaspoon chopped onion

·       1/4 cup cider vinegar

·       1 teaspoon chopped parsley

·       1/4 teaspoon salt

·       1/4 teaspoon white pepper

·       2 ounces goat cheese

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a large bowl, mixing until smooth. (The cheese might still be somewhat lumpy, but that is fine). Refrigerate until ready to use.

But things couldn't be easy forever. One of my daughters decided to become a vegan.

Lactaid provided me with a coupon to try a product free, and I am giving one away to a reader. To enter, please leave your email address below and tell me who in your family is lactose intolerant.

Fitness: Giveaway for your pet

Now that you’ve taken the emBARK on Pet Health campaign pet health pledge, win a pet health kit for your pooch!

The giveaway includes:

·       Sergeant's Whiff Shampoo

·       PurLuv Sizzlin Strips

·       SENTRY Petrodex Dental Kit

·       SENTRY Calming Collar for dogs with Good Behavior pheromone technology

·       Sergeant's Vetscription Joint Eze Plus

It’s easy to enter – just leave your name (not your pet’s name) and email below.

One winner will receive the package.

Winter Skin & Family Travel

Sunscreen is not just for summer. Whether your family vacation is taking you to the Caribbean or Hawaii (lucky you) or the ski slopes, your skin still needs protection. MDSolarSciences provides broad spectrum UVA-UVB protection in non-greasy, non-comedogenic, water-resistant formulas. The Natural Mineral Screen Stick SPF 40 is great for travel; stash it in our bag or ski jacket. And kids can use it to easily apply sunscreen to their face and lips. If your kids, like mine, prefer a spray, the organic Quick Dry Spray SPF 40 offers great sun protection.

For travel Another handy sunscreen to stick in your jacket pocket, or carry on an airplane, is Adventuress sunscreen swipes. These individually wrapped wipes are fragrance and paraben free, so they are perfect for sensitive skin. And you don’t even have to remove your gloves to apply the SPF 30 sunscreen. Each packet has a finger pocket so there is no muss, no fuss – just great UVA and UVB protection. The swipes have aloe vera and vitamin E to soothe skin while they protect. The cold weather can dry skin out, so restore it with Udderly Smooth moisture rich creams. These were developed to soothe cow’s udders, but you might want to focus on how the cream moisturizes chapped skin. Giveaway! One reader will win a one12-ounce jar of Udderly Smooth Body Cream, one 4-ounce tube of Udderly Smooth Udder Cream, and one 8-oz. jar of Udderly Smooth Shea Butter Foot Cream. To enter, comment below on how you keep your skin moisturized in winter. Note: I received samples of these products free of charge but received no compensation for this post.

I Spy: Road Trip Games & Giveaway

If I Spy is one of your favorite road trip games, then you need to book a trip to New York. Discovery Times Square has a new immersive exhibit, SPY: The Secret World of Espionage, that is the antidote to summer boredom.

Or fall or winter – the exhibit is in NYC through March 2013.

This is where you can see both high tech spy gear, like briefcase tricked out with an infrared camera, or low tech, but unique items. Kids may be particularly intrigued by the hollowed out rat that was used in ‘ dead drops’ to exchange information. The rat’s guts were replaced with classified info, and the body was Velcro-ed back together. But cats foiled the info exchange, thinking they’d found dinner.

The exhibit has artifacts like a collapsible WWII motorbike, that parachutists could use once they hit the ground, and a spy sub, used against the Germans, that employed German engineering.

Kids and adults can channel James Bond as they negotiate a laser field. My daughter was more Mr. Magoo, but she and her friend happily tried to avoid the lasers several times.

There is also a station where you can disguise your voice.

Tickets to the exhibit are rather expensive: $27 for adults; $19.40 for kids ages 4-12. But I am giving away 2 tickets to the exhibit. Just leave a comment with your favorite road trip game.

Have Booty, Will Travel

If you have teens or tweens in the house, surely you know that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens May 20.

What you may not know is that the great snack Pirate’s Booty is also getting in on the action. The all natural rice & corn puff, Pirate’s Booty, is gluten free and made without trans fat. The cheddar cheese puffs are also relatively low in calories and sodium, so you don’t have to feel guilty about snacking.

Which is good, since you’ll want to look your best if you win the Fountain of Youth Caribbean family vacation. Enter at Pirate’s Booty for a 5 day family vacation for 4 at Casa De Campo in the Dominican Republic.

Pirate Brands, makers of Pirate’s Booty, is also donating $.05 for each package sold unitl 7/31/11, up to $100,000, to Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Got Curls - Giveaway

If you have curly hair, you understand the concept of a destination haircut. Recetly on twitter, a travel editor wondered about that – she was at Devachan, in Soho, when she met a woman from the Midwest. I am a Devachan devotee myself, and have also been to Ouidad, in midtown (there’s a branch in Santa Monica as well), another curls Mecca.
But if you don’t want to travel for a cut, you can buy Devachan or Ouidad hair products. Another new product specializing in curls, Curly Q, specifically targets kids ages 2-12.

And I am giving away a Curly Q Princess Glaze Sample Kit.
You get
Curlie Cutie Cleansing Cream
Coconut Dream Conditioner
Moist Curls Moisturizer
and
Curly Q Princess Glaze
The organic products moisturize and enhance curls, leaving them bouncy and frizz-free.

To enter, follow my blog, and leave a comment about your curly headed kid.

Get another entry by following me on twitter, @judy511 and RT the following:

Got curls? Follow Veggie Mom and tell her why your kid needs Curly Q for a chance to win a Princess Glaze kit.

Winner will be contacted by Dec 20