Princess-Mina.com - Fabulous Awesomeness: February 2011

IHOP National Pancake Day - Free Short Stack

Tomorrow, March 1, 2011 IHOP is celebrating National Pancake Day...a week early this year. Stop into your local IHOP restaurant between 7am - 10pm for a free short stack of pancakes. It is not required but IHOP kindly asks that you consider leaving a donation for The Children's Miracle Network Hospitals or other designated local charities. Surely even $1 would be appreciated...a donation is a donation no matter how much it is! So...who's ready for some yummy flapjacks?!

From the IHOP Pancake Day website: "Join IHOP on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 7 a.m. - 10 p.m., for National Pancake Day and receive one complimentary short stack!* In return for the free flapjacks, we ask you to consider leaving a little something behind for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other designated local charities. Thanks to our guests' generosity, IHOP raised more than $2.1 million last year. IHOP began its National Pancake Day in 2006, and since then, has raised $5.35 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities and given away more than 10.1 million buttermilk pancakes."

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Free Workout Music Downloads From Nike

Workout mixes need variety too! So every week, Nike is hooking up the first 2,500 women with a free track download. Like the Nike Women Facebook page and hop over to the Music tab for free music downloads. A new track will become available on the download list every Thursday. If you miss out on the current week's download, just return the next week to try again as there will be a new song listed. I downloaded the 2 tracks currently available and they are pretty good...certainly good to get pumped up for a workout. Enjoy working on your fitness darlings!

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5 Question Friday

I was tagged to do a 5 Question Friday post but I decided to make a video instead. So here I am with the answers to 5 Question Friday.

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Gap: Buy Any Pants, Get Any Top Free

Gap is currently running a promo in which if you buy any pants, you'll get any top free. The offer was originally a one day only sale but Gap has extended the offer until March 2, 2011. The offer is good on regular priced women's and men's items, in-store at US Gap locations only. So if you are a Gap shopper, head to your local Gap store by 3/2/11 to jump on this deal. Happy shopping darlings!

Note: Does not include jackets, coats, vests, or blazers. Applies to regularly priced merchandise. Second item must be of equal or lesser value. Discount taken at register, and is allocated across items. Not combinable with other offers or discounts. Offer not valid online or at Gap outlet, Gap factory store, The Gap Generation stores, or in Gap 1969 stores located on Robertson Blvd in Los Angeles, or Spring and Broadway in New York. Not valid on Junkfood™. Price adjustments allowed only once within 7 days of previous purchase.

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Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation - Free 10 Day Sample

According to my March 2011 issue of Marie Claire, you can snag a free 10 day sample of Teint Miracle foundation by Lancome. Simply visit any Lancome counter for your freebie...no purchase required! For your convenience I made a simple shade guide image (pictured right) so you can pick the intensity level for your skin tone and call ahead to see which shades are in stock. There are 20 shades available so hopefully there's a match for most of you. Teint Miracle Foundation by Lancome retails for $37 so this is a great opportunity to try before you buy!

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Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Giveaway

The folks at peta2 are giving away a fab makeup gift basket courtesy of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC). The gift basket includes 9 brushes, 6 lip tars, 6 loose color eye shadows, 6 nail lacquers and primer. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics products are cruelty free and vegan. Giveaway entry closes on March 9, 2001 and the winner will be notified on March 11, 2011. Simply head over to peta2 to enter the giveaway. Good luck darlings!

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Free Web Hosting With NO Ads

Hello darlings! I'm often asked what web host I use and the answer is HostGator which I pay for monthly. But I can now refer you to 000Webhost, a free web hosting service thanks to my bestie Allen ( he hosts his site alentrepreneur.net with them). They provide hosting absolutely free, there is no catch. You get 1500 MB of disk space and 100 GB bandwidth. Also, there is no any kind of advertising on your pages like most free services require. Now, if like me, you require more space I still highly prefer HostGator and I will post info below on that topic. But first here is a glimpse of some the features you'd get with your free 000Webhost account:

1500 MB of Disk Space, 100 GB Bandwidth
Host your own domain (http://www.yourdomain.com)
cPanel Powered Hosting (you will love it)
Over 500 website templates ready to download
Easy to use website builder
Free POP3 Email Box with Webmail access
FTP and Web based File Manager
PHP, MySQL, Perl, CGI, Ruby.
Automated Scripts Installer (20 scripts)
No ads

Now, if you feel you need more space and other options then I recommend HostGator, my current web hosting provider. I am currently hosting 5 sites with them under my account for roughly $8 per month, however there are 3 hosting plans available. You get a deal if you pay annually but I prefer the monthly payments. If you choose monthly payments, you can get the first month for $0.01 using coupon code: princessmina which is basically like a 30 day trial or 25% off using coupon code: HOSTME25OFF during checkout. A glimpse of HostGator features:

Unlimited Disk Space and Bandwidth
Control Panel - Website Statistics, Web Based File Manager, Hotlink Protection & more
Unlimited Sub Domains, FTP Accounts, and Email Accounts
Free SiteBuilder and SiteStudio Website Building Tools
4,500 Free Website Templates
Free Website Transfer, Domain Transfer, MySQL Transfer, Script Transfer
52 Free scripts can be instantly installed on your account with a few clicks
$100 in Google Adwords Credit
Unlimitied POP3 Email with SMTP & IMAP
FTP and Web based File Manager
PHP, MySQL, Perl, CGI, Ruby & more

So there you go darlings, you now have 2 great hosting options and I get to save time from answering more emails about hosting. Also, I register my domains with GoDaddy and I know Yahoo! offers a cheaper registration but the trick is that Yahoo!'s renewal fee is $34.99 which is ridiculous! I know people who have used GoDaddy hosting and they like it but I personally cannot comment on it since I register domains but have never used their hosting. This is because I prefer not to host my site with the same company where my domains are registered...if something goes awry you'll lose your data unless you've recently run a back up.

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Planning My Travels, SniqueAway Style

So I have been looking for deals on hotels in Miami for my birthday, Canada in June and Sydney, Australia for my next big trip. Thanks to being a Bzz Agent, I received an invite to SniqueAway, an invite only site that offers it's members hotel accommodations at up to 50% off. I was skeptical at first until I saw that they are connected to TripAdvisor. Anyone who knows me is sure of the fact that I will not go on a trip to a new place without first checking TripAdvisor.com! So I logged in to my TripAdvisor account and hopped over to the forums where I found others who wrote about their experience with SniqueAway. After reading about their great experiences, I decided to go ahead and join.

I did not find a hotel deal for my planned trips but I did find an fabulously awesome deal for Nine Zero in Boston, MA. It's great because it's my home state, which I'll be visiting in a few months and I definitely plan to stop thru Boston while I'm home...plus Nine Zero is a Kimpton Hotel, which I love! Score for Mina! Anyway, SniqueAway works a bit different than other booking sites. It took me all of 2 minutes to figure this out. SniqueAway lists selected hotels in different locations and these sales last up to 7 days or until the deal sells out. So the way I look at it is, I'll keep checking back until Miami deals are listed and also consider SniqueAway a good source for when I feel the need to randomly...Snique Away (lol). I can't how many times my lovebug and I or friends and I have decided to plan a quick getaway with no clue where we wanted to go, this site will no be our go to "Getaway Idea Generator"...G.I.G....until I think of a cooler code name.

Oh, okay so I almost forgot your invitation! If you want to check out SniqueAway, you can join for free via my invite: Click here to join Sniqueaway

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ULTA: Free Shipping + 8 Free Samples

Hello darlings! I wanted to share with you this ULTA.com promotion which is valid until Saturday. ULTA.com is offering free shipping and an adorable sample bag with 8 free samples with any purchase of of $25 or more. Plus you still get the standard 3 free samples they offer when placing any order...that's 11 samples total! This is a great way to try new products or stock up on goodies for your travel bag. This offer is only valid thru Saturday, February 12, 2011.

Simply visit ULTA.com, add the "Love Struck Valentine's Day Beauty Bag" (Item #: 2229220) to your shopping basket, then add at least $25 of product to your shopping basket. Once you add $25 worth of product, the "Love Struck Valentine's Day Beauty Bag" will change from $30 to FREE. When you are ready to checkout simply enter coupon code 53131 to get your free shipping. Happy shopping!