Finding a cure for breast cancer in our lifetimes is a cause that GirlfriendCelebrations is proud to support. So, we are thrilled to tell you about The Pampered Chef’s efforts to raise funds for breast cancer education and early detection programs through its “Help Whip Cancer” campaign. There’s no better feeling than gathering your girlfriends for a girls night that contributes to a great cause. Our girlfriends at the Pampered Chef have given us a delicious *pink* recipe you can use at your next girls night in, plus a martini glass giveaway you’re going to love!

Since introducing the Help Whip Cancer campaign in 2000, The Pampered Chef has raised more than $7.9 million to support breast cancer programs through the American Cancer Society.  Last year, the campaign raised more than $875,000 from Help Whip Cancer Fundraiser Shows and special pink-themed product sales.

“Almost everyone knows someone, whether it be a mother, sister or friend who has been affected by breast cancer,” says Marla Gottschalk, chief executive officer of The Pampered Chef. “The goal of this campaign is not only to raise awareness and education for breast cancer, it’s also about supporting women who have been affected by this disease.” There are two ways YOU can help:

1. Raise Funds with a Cooking Show Fundraiser

This May, in honor of Mother’s Day, The Pampered Chef invites people to celebrate the women in their lives by hosting a Help Whip Cancer Fundraiser Cooking Show. Up to 25 percent of total Help Whip Cancer Fundraiser Show sales will be contributed to the American Cancer Society for breast cancer awareness and early detection programs. If you don’t already have a Pampered Chef Consultant, find one HERE.

2. Buy Special Pink-themed Products

A contribution of $1 will go to the American Cancer Society for every pink-themed product purchased from The Pampered Chef between May 1-31, 2010. The following special Help Whip Cancer products apply: Pink & White Dots Martini Glasses  (shown below); Pink Color-Coated Tomato Knife; Pink & White Twixit! Clip Combo Pack; Sweet Honey Vanilla Sprinkle; Help Whip Cancer Reusable Shopping Bags. Guests who spend $60 or more in May get Help Whip Cancer® Reusable Shopping Bags (a set of two) for free, and they are also available for purchase. See all the Whip Cancer products HERE. We are so ready to buy that pink tomato knife! These products are available for purchase online as well as at cooking shows.

“Through Pampered Chef Fundraisers and pink product purchases, people can help the American Cancer Society save lives by raising funds and awareness for breast cancer this May,” says Scott Bennett, national vice president of marketing for the American Cancer Society.  “With the continued efforts of The Pampered Chef, we are getting closer to a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays.”

Heavenly Lemon Angel Cake

The lovely pink cake pictured above would make a great addition to your next girlfriend gathering or Little Pink Party to honor a friend with breast cancer. Here’s how to make it:

5 drops red food coloring

1 pkg (16 oz or 430 g) angel food cake mix

3 lemons

2 cups (500 mL) powdered sugar

2 cups (500 mL) thawed frozen fat-free whipped topping

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen raspberries in syrup, thawed

1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). For cake, add food coloring to amount of water specified on package. Prepare cake according to package directions. Pour batter into Rectangular Baker. Bake on center rack 35-40 minutes or until top is golden brown, cracked

and center is slightly sunken. (Do not under bake.) Remove baker from oven; invert onto Stackable Cooling Rack. Without removing baker, let stand until completely cool (about 1½ hours).

2 Poke holes in cake about 1½ in. (4 cm) deep and ½ in. (1 cm) apart with large fork. Zest lemons using Zester/Scorer to measure 1 tbsp (15 mL) zest. Juice lemons using Juicer to measure 1∕3 cup (75 mL) juice. In Small Batter Bowl, combine sugar, juice and zest; whisk until smooth. Pour glaze over cake, spreading evenly. Let stand 30 minutes or until glaze is set.

3 Attach open star tip to Easy Accent® Decorator; fill with whipped topping. Garnish each serving with whipped topping; top with raspberries.

Yield: 15 servings

U.S. Nutrients per serving: Calories 220, Total Fat 0 g, Saturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Carbohydrate 52 g, Protein 3 g, Sodium 300 mg, Fiber 1 g U.S. Diabetic exchanges per serving: 2½ fruit, 1 starch (3½ carb)

Now for the Giveaway

OK, girlfriends, here’s how to enter to win those gorgeous pink dot martini glasses. These fun, polka-dotted glasses are perfect for get-togethers with girlfriends, a romantic dinner, baby showers or bridal showers. Use them to serve everything from drinks to desserts! Wouldn’t they look great at your next girls night? Here’s what to do:

1.Head on over to the Pampered Chef website and check out the Whip Cancer products.

2. Come back here and leave a comment stating which Whip Cancer product is your favorite and why.

3. For extra entries, tweet about this contest using the following:

I want to win some Pampered Chef pink dot martini glasses! http://bit.ly/pcgcga #whipcancer #girlfriendcelebrations

Please note: You must use the #girlfriendcelebrations hashtag AND the link for your tweet to count as an entry.

One extra entry per day is allowed. U.S. shipping address only, please. We’ll keep the contest open until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12. Winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries. Good luck, girlfriends!

This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to our winner Viveca! Want to get away? Girlfriend getaways are all the rage—really.  Even the Chicago Tribune noted in a recent article, “Women are signing up in droves to vacation together.” Why? Well, as we can attest from a recent girlfriend getaway, vacationing with a group of girlfriends is a great way to remember who you are. It’s a great way to strengthen your bond with girlfriends you don’t see often. It can be more relaxing than vacationing with your family; you don’t have to take care of your girlfriends, they will let you shop in peace, and they share your enthusiasm about everything from mani-pedis to Manet. Finally, it’s just plain fun.

With summer coming up, our friends at Gracious Bridal want to help you get away with your girlfriends in style. They are giving one lucky GirlfriendCelebrations reader a fabulous Printed Oil Cloth Garment Bag in Orange Toile, along with the matching Passport Cover, Luggage Tag and Cosmetic Bag.  Total value of this package, which includes shipping, is $87.85. Gracious Bridal has been a great girlfriend to our website, offering our readers several giveaways over the years. They have excellent taste, and their wedding favors and gifts are also perfectly suited as party favors for many girlfriend events.

How to enter

Girlfriend getaways run the gamut from adventurous to indulgent, and we’d love to hear about yours! So to enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling us about either:
-your favorite girlfriend getaway,
-a girlfriend getaway you have coming up
-a destination you think would be perfect for a girlfriend getaway
Winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries. U.S. shipping addresses only, please. We’re keeping this one open for TWO weeks, so you have until 11;59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7 to enter.
Good luck, girlfriends!

Giveaway has ended, but enjoy the author interview! Are you happy, girlfriend? Why the heck not? Are you letting the little things get in the way? According to a new book, women tend to let their momentary mistakes overshadow  their episodes of excellence, until self-doubt shakes the foundation of even the happiest life. Unfortunately, this is the way many women think about everything—their love lives, their friendships, their bank accounts, their family life, their career, and their body image.

Lucy Danziger, editor in chief of Self, and Catherine Birndorf, a psychiatrist and expert on women’s mental health issues, teamed up to write The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life’s Little Imperfections. (Voice; March 2, 2010; $24.99). In it, they use the simple metaphor of a house to illustrate the central problem: when women should be grateful for what they have in their lives in the room at hand, they are either seeing the room’s imperfections or, worse, worrying about another room.  The book takes women through different parts of their lives (homes), helps them understand their patterns, and gives them new ways of thinking to solve their own problems. You can find out much more about the book, the authors, and the nine rooms at www.ninerooms.com

And guess what? One whole room (chapter) is devoted to women’s friendships! So, of course, we had to find out more, because who doesn’t want to be happier? Here’s our exclusive Q&A with the authors. Scroll to the end to find out how you can win a FREE copy of the book.
Q. Let’s talk about friendship. Why is friendship The Living Room? How is it connected to the other emotional rooms?

A. The living room is where all your socializing takes place. It’s where you interact with your neighbors, your friends, where you entertain and throw parties, and where you end up comparing yourself to other women, for better or worse.

How you behave in the living room is not exactly how you behave in other emotional areas of your life…you’re typically on “good” behavior, trying to look and act your best and put forward your social self…but this doesn’t always equate with how you feel on the inside. Many women feel insecure in this social arena, and it can come from feeling like a nerd as a high-schooler (these memories are stored in the basement) or being more concerned about how you look in your jeans instead of who you are talking to (body image belongs in the bathroom).

Q. Why is female friendship so important?

A. We know from extensive research that strong social ties can make you healthier and happier. The more connected you are to your community, and the happier you are, the healthier you are. The two are connected. So keep those friendships intact, for their sake and yours!

Q. What are some of the most common problems or issues women have with friendship?

A. From the women we spoke to for our book, and we interviewed hundreds, we found that saying “no” was a major struggle. Women seem hard-wired to help, to give and to do it at their own expense. This is where our key process:  too much of a good thing is a bad thing… So the takeaway message here, or “pearl” is: you have to know your limits.

Having limits and sticking to them is essential. Women can feel selfish when they say “No, sorry, can’t help out today,” or I have to cancel because I am totally worn out, but in fact, we tell women in the book that this isn’t selfish, it’s self preservation. You simply have to take care of yourself…because only then can you be healthy and happy and giving to those around you, including being a good friend. BTW, this is why we sometimes call the living room, the “giving room”.

Q. How can we be happier in regard to friendship?

A. Many women believe that a happy friendship is one without conflict. We hear lots of women say they don’t like to disagree with their friends. They believe that really close friendships should always run smoothly. But this may be because you are smoothing over differences or issues that actually need to be discussed. If you don’t figure out how to disagree or tolerate a difference of opinion, you can end up with lots issues getting swept under the rug. And then the rug or the atmosphere in the living room becomes problematic, bumpy,  or messy, since always avoiding conflict leads to a whole new problem!

One of our favorite key processes in the book is: “It’s not Either/or, .. instead think Both/and”… which means that you can be both best friends and disagree on something. In other words, conflict is okay. (We love our siblings and often disagree with them… sometimes our gal pals become surrogate sisters, but the fights are uncomfortable because unlike the family room, where everyone has to love each other no matter what, girlfriends can choose to break up or move apart, and that often happens because there’s a breakdown in communication. You have to tell each other when you’re upset. (For friends who are different and disagree, but love each other through thick and thin, think of the great movie and TV rolls where the conflict is played out in dialogue, like in Sex and the City or Friends!) But you may have to learn to live with a little discomfort in the name of a healthier and ultimately happier friendship!

Q. What is your favorite thing to do with girlfriends?

CB: Almost anything that involves talking…especially sharing a cup of tea or taking a long walk.

LD: I talk with my best friends too, but usually it’s either while we exercise or while we eat! I do different things with different people, so it’s often their call.

Lucy Danziger has been editor-in-chief of Self magazine for over eight years. Catherine Birndorf, M.D., is a psychiatrist and the founding director of the Payne Whitney Women’s Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Both women live in New York City.

And now for the giveaway

You have TWO chances to win a free copy of The Nine Rooms of Happiness, courtesy of Hyperion Voice.

1. Simply leave a comment on this post, telling why you are interested in the book.

2. Click on over to the wonderful Friendship Blog and read Irene Levine’s review of the book. Then, you can enter her contest as well.

EXTRA ENTRIES: Tweet the following:

“I’ve entered to win a copy of #NineRooms of Happiness, courtesy of @irenelevine, @girlfriendceleb and @hyperionvoice! http://bit.ly/9QDMV8″

You may tweet one extra entry each day.

Winners will be selected at random from all entries received by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. U.S. shipping addresses only, please. Good luck, girlfriends!

Loneliness may be the most dangerous epidemic women face, according to this guest post by Shasta Nelson, founder of GirlFriendCircles.com, a web-based service that matches its members with potential girlfriends offline, in real life. Lucky for us, she has some concrete ideas on how to beat loneliness and make new friends in this new year. Shasta also puts her money where her mouth is: She’s giving away a six-month GirlFriendCircles membership to one lucky GirlfriendCelebrations reader! In addition, she is offering YOU discounts on membership and other GirlFriendCircles events. See below for all the details.

By Shasta Nelson
While many of us have stood in line for the flu shot, bought abundant amounts of antibacterial hand soap and increased our daily intake of immune boosting vitamins, research published last month suggests there’s something besides Swine Flu and the common cold that we need to protect ourselves from  – loneliness. And it’s apparently equally, if not more, contagious as run-of-the-mill germs.

The Impact of Loneliness

With the holidays over and social calendars cleared, January becomes one of the loneliest months of the year. A study published in December’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that loneliness not only affects our personal health and well-being and the way we treat others, but it also increases the sense of loneliness in our friends, family and neighbors. It can spread from person to person, up to three degrees of separation.

Protect Yourself

Here are three ways to help build your relational immune system this New Year:
Get a Check-Up: Determine your current relational health by evaluating your circle of friends. What friends do you have and what friends are you still hoping to find? Do you have enough local friends? Do you have the women surrounding you that help you feel rooted and supported right where you are?
Is your circle broad enough to accommodate different areas of your life? What interests or types of friends would enhance your life? Are you someone who connects with everyone but needs to pull a few people closer to you in more meaningful ways? Or do you tend to only have a few in your life so that when one of them moves or life changes that you find yourself not knowing who else to call?

Identify Long-Term Health: Write out what it looks and feels like to have a close circle of friends in your life. This step is crucial, but often skipped. While we all know you can’t go to the gym once and all of a sudden reach your health goals, the same is true for our relationships. Hold that truth with a willingness to not give up after a few scheduled events or attempts to reach out. This is one of the most significant health goals of your life and it very well may take three to six months before you can create a sense of belonging and connectedness.

Schedule your Steps: Based upon the awareness from your check-up in step one, you should be able to identify action steps that will foster more meaningful friendships in your life. For example, if you already know plenty of people but need to transition a few of them into something more meaningful, there are two primary ways of deepening friendships: more consistency (most of us will need to connect with someone at least twice a month over three months before we feel close) or more topics of sharing, which means broadening the conversations beyond the area that we currently have in common whether it’s work, our kids or a specific project. What can you commit to trying? Or, if you need to meet new potential friends, be open to trying lots of things such as joining sites like GirlFriendCircles.com, participating in a local choir, inviting your neighbors over for drinks or attending more events where your current network can help introduce you to more people.

This January, drag yourself to the gym and try to eat better, but for all the New Year’s Resolutions you may set, few of them will impact your health, physically, emotionally and relationally, more than surrounding yourself with good friends.

Shasta Nelson is a relationship and transition life coach and CEO of GirlfriendCircles.com, an online community that matches women with offline friends.

Exclusive Discounts

GirlfriendCelebrations readers, use this special discount code: “GFCELEB” to save 20% on any of GirlFriendCircles.com upcoming events:

21 Days of Friendship Journey, starts this Sunday, Jan 10 (workbook and coaching calls— participants can be from anywhere) http://newyearjourney.eventbrite.com/

Portland Speed Friending, Tuesday, Jan 12 (http://portlandspeedfriending.eventbrite.com/)

Seattle Speed Friending, Wednesday, Jan 13 (http://seattlespeedfriending.eventbrite.com/)

Or, receive 20% off membership in GirlFriendCircles.com, the only online community to match new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas, to expand your circle of friends!

And Now For the Giveaway

GirlFriendCircles has generously offered to give one of our our readers a 6-month membership free! GirlFriend Circles matches members up with a small “Connecting Circle” of local women first, then after that initial meeting, you are free to use its resources to find other friends in your area as well. Please note the cities in which memberships are currently available: San Francisco and Bay Area, Portland, Seattle, Chicago and New York City. You must be able to use the membership in one of these cities to be eligible.

To enter:

1. Simply leave a comment on this post that says why you would like to try the GirlFriend Circles membership.

2. Tweet this contest for an extra entry.

3. Blog about it, linking back to this post, for an extra two entries.

Contest will remain open until 11:59 PM CST on Friday, January 22, 2010. Winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries. Good luck, girlfriends!

Win this very festive set!

Setting and Setup

Personally, we love the idea of a Girls Night In for New Years Eve. Not only is it inexpensive, compared to going out on the town that night, but we find our girlfriends tend to be more relaxed when we’re all just hanging out at somebody’s home. Keep it small and intimate, and if your girlfriends have far to drive, consider offering your couch or guest room for the night. You may find yourself with an impromptu sleepover on your hands, but you can handle it!

Invitations

You could always phone up the gals or send a festive evite, but why not hand-deliver some homemade “crackers” to set a party tone and let your gal pals know that you really want their company? These aren’t too hard to make, according to this great step-by-step article. (The article has you actually making your own wrapping with hand-picked photos, but you can just use any bright wrapping paper.) Just write the invitation details on a piece of festive paper, roll it up and slip it inside the tube along with some confetti. If you don’t have enough time to do this as an invitation, you can try it for a fun party activity (see below).

Food and Drink

The Girlfriends-in-Chief were lucky enough to tour the headquarters of The Pampered Chef with our Chicagonista gal pals and we were treated to a sampling of the recipes in their Easy and Impressive Appetizers recipe collection. You could easily prepare a gorgeous spread of appetizers using nothing else but this book. And, here’s what’s so great about Pampered Chef recipes: They are specially developed for home cooks and rigorously tested by staff chefs, so they are practically foolproof! That is important when you’re having a party and you don’t feel like “experimenting” on your guests.

These recipes are fun and simple to make; so feel free to let your girlfriends help in the kitchen. Why not select a few dishes to make together? Seriously, these are some good recipes. Steak Crostini with Chive-Cream Sauce? Prosciutto Spirals With Balsamic Glaze? Savory Pecan-Crusted Blue Cheese Bites? Your girlfriends will love them! You can also search the Pampered Chef website for dozens of tested appetizer recipes.

To drink? A signature cocktail for the evening is always a nice touch. Pampered Chef has a great recipe for Raspberry Tequila Sangria, which is pretty, festive, and delicious. Please drink responsibly, girlfriends!

Connecting Activities

Here are some things you can do to add some structure, meaning and fun to your New Year’s Eve bash:

-Do a “year in review,” recapping the year’s funniest, most important, or most memorable moments with your girlfriends. If you’ve been having regular girlfriend dates throughout the year, then you should have lots of memories to share. This is a great time to get out photos taken during the year, too. If you don’t have that many shared memories of 2009, then let each girlfriend talk about her own funniest, most embarrassing, most important, or favorite moment of the year. It’s a great way to learn more about each other.

-Write your New Year’s Resolution on a slip of paper and put it into a bowl. Take turns drawing out slips, reading them aloud and trying to guess whose resolution it is. (No one said they have to be serious, though they can be.)

-Assign Resolution Buddies to help each other stay true to your intentions for the New Year. Read more about this idea here.

-Make “crackers” (as mentioned above) but have inside them a “fortune” for the New Year. These can be funny or sweet. Here’s a list of fortunes to get you started (these are a little bland, but you can “girlfriend” them up!)

-Get one of the new DVD “Scene-it” games and play, just for fun. The 1980s trivia version looks like a blast! Or, play What’s a Dame to Do? for lots of girlfriendly laughs!

-Watch the ball drop, of course. Instead of kisses at midnight, how about a group hug?

-Put on some tunes and dance! A new year is beginning, after all, and you have FRIENDS. There is no better reason to celebrate!

Party Favors

Give each girlfriend a fun 2010 wall calendar (they’re on sale already!) with your monthly girlfriend dates already marked in it. Use the opportunity to assign each girlfriend a month or two to plan the get-together.

And Now For the Giveaway:

Pampered Chef has generously given us this adorable ice bucket and cocktail shaker. The Pampered Chef entertaining products are very attractive and highly functional, and these are two great examples. They feature double-wall design to minimize condensation. The shaker has a snug silicone seal and a 1-oz jigger cap for easy measuring. The cute dots pattern coordinates with their Dots Stemware and Martini Glasses. Want to win this for your own New Year’s Eve party? Then here’s what you must do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. That’s it. (It’s so easy. Our holiday gift to you!) Will you get extra points for saying something girlfriendly, or sharing your New Year’s Eve plans, or your resolution to spend more time with your girlfriends? Nope, but do it anyway.  ”Pick me!” gets a little boring.

-Retweet AND leave a comment saying so for an extra entry.

-Blog about it AND leave a comment saying so for an extra entry.

That’s it! This is another quickie, so contest will close at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, December 27. The winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries. Watch your email Monday Dec 28. You must respond same day. If we can reach you in time, you’ll have your shaker and ice bucket in time for New Year’s Eve! U.S. shipping addresses only please. Good luck, girlfriends!

]]> http://www.girlfriendcelebrations.com/celebration-ideas/new-years-eve-appetizer-party-and-pampered-chef-giveaway/feed/ 58 http://www.girlfriendcelebrations.com/celebration-ideas/local-foods-holiday-breakfast-and-cookbook-giveaway/ http://www.girlfriendcelebrations.com/celebration-ideas/local-foods-holiday-breakfast-and-cookbook-giveaway/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:38:35 +0000 Dawn http://www.girlfriendcelebrations.com/?p=906

Here’s another great party idea designed to help you fit some girlfriend time into the busy holiday season, while doing good for the planet (more multitasking – we love it!). Our friends at Florida’s Natural want to help you host a holiday brunch for your girlfriends while promoting the selection of locally produced foods. We think this is a great idea! 

North Georgia Apple and Crispy Brussel Sprouts

Since many of you “green”girlfriends are interested in eating locally produced food, we thought you’d be interested in this party idea. Florida’s Natural has created a PDF guide to help you plan your own local foods brunch. Click here to see it. Did you know much of the orange juice in your grocery store is imported? Take a look at the label, and you may see that it comes from Chile or Brazil. Florida’s Natural, on the other hand, is 100% grown, produced and packaged in Florida.

Florida’s Natural Food-for-Thought Breakfast Sessions include some suggested recipes which you can download here: Farm to Table Brunch Recipe Options. They recommend choosing three to four recipes depending on what you find at your local farmers market and retailers who sell local foods. If you pick it from the garden in your backyard, even better. Here’s a sample recipe from the PDF guide:

YUMMY FRUIT DIP

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sour cream (low fat or regular)

• ¼ cup of Florida’s Natural Brand Premium orange juice

• 2 tbsp. brown sugar • Serve with seasonal local fruit, cut for dipping

Instructions: Whisk all ingredients together until well blended and sugar is dissolved. Chill in the refrigerator at least 1/2 hour. Serve with your favorite local in-season fruit, including apples, grapes, peaches and pears.

Find  some more great recipes from Florida’s Natural website here.

Cookbook Giveaway

In addition, to help you create a delicious breakfast for your girlfriends, Florida’s Natural is sponsoring a giveaway of this beautiful cookbook: Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm,just for our readers! This book would also make a great gift for your foodie girlfriends!

Here’s all you have to do to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post sharing your holiday traditions with girlfriends. If you don’t have any, what would you LIKE to have as your girlfriend holiday tradition?
2. Extra entries: Tweet, facebook, or blog about this contest, but you MUST leave a comment saying you did so. Total of 3 extra entries possible.

All entries must be received by 11:59 pm CST on Monday, December 21. U.S. shipping addresses only. Good luck, girlfriends!

Congratulations to Trin! Thanks to all who entered. Hey, girlfriends! As you may know, we just opened our t-shirt and gifts shop on Cafe Press, and we’d sure love you to consider our “Girlfriends Make Life Better” items when you’re making up your holiday gift lists. We’ve added some “gifty” items to the top of the shop for the holidays.

411906394v9_150x150_front_color-pinkwhite

How to enter: It’s SO simple!

1.Just visit our Cafe Press shop RIGHT HERE and have a look around.

2. Then, come back and leave a comment telling us which item is your favorite. We’d appreciate any feedback you have on the items too!

The winner will be drawn at random from qualifying entries, and will be able to choose any short-sleeved t-shirt in the shop as her prize. U.S. shipping addresses only, please.

Extra entries: And, as usual, get one extra entry if you tweet this contest. Use the tweet button at the beginning of this post. Share on Facebook and get another entry, but you’ll need to show us the link. Get two additional entries if you blog about it and let us know in a comment.

This is a quickie! We want you to have your t-shirt in time for the holidays, just in case you’re gifting it, so the contest will remain open until 11:59 PM CST  on Friday, December 11. Good luck!

Wouldn’t you love to give your best friend (and yourself) a girlfriend getaway for the holidays? Now that would be the ultimate girlfriend gift—but it may seem way out of reach in the current economy.  To help girlfriends “get away,” our very own contributor Casey Wohl, founder of  the Girls Getaway Guide, has announced The Getaway Girl’s® third annual “12 Days ‘til Christmas” holiday promotion—a chance to make your travel wishes come true! Visit the Girls Getaway Guide online at www.GirlsGetawayGuide.net to sign up for more than $7,000 in fabulous giveaways.  The winners will be selected on each of the 12 business days starting December 8, with the Grand Prize selected on December 25. Look what you can win:

CONGRATULATIONS TO CALISTA MYERS! THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED! Hello girlfriends! If you are reading this, you probably met one of the Girlfriends-in-Chief at BlogHer (for those who don’t know, BlogHer is the world’s largest conference of women bloggers. We’ll be attending it this weekend in Chicago). Or, you found out about our Blogher contest on twitter. Welcome! We’re so excited about meeting new girlfriends at Blogher that we’re having a fabulous giveaway just for you, thanks to the generosity of Liz Claiborne New York. You can be the proud owner of this beautiful Heritage Plaid large tote, which was created as part of the LCNY line, designed by Isaac Mizrahi. This bag makes a fabulous carryon or weekend bag, has a pink interior that just makes us happy, and it’s is HARD TO FIND! It was never actually sold in stores, and only a small quantity were made. It’s gorgeous! A real traffic-stopper, and there are goodies inside. You might see Dawn carrying one in the hotel at Blogher but that one is HERS and this one will be YOURS! Here is a another photo from an in-store event which might give you a better idea of the size of the bag. And guess what you will find inside?

• A gray-and-white, silk LCNY logo scarf,
• a “Liz Rahi Miz Claiborne” t-shirt (one size fits all)
• a copy of Isaac Mizrahi’s book How to Have Style,
• LCNY blank book, mouse pad, and more.

All courtesy of Liz Claiborne New York. WOW! Here’s all you have to do to enter:

1. Sign up for our weekly email by clicking here. All new signups by midnight on Weds., July  29, 2009 will be automatically be entered. You must sign up for emails to be entered. Now, if you want extra entries:

2. Tweet this contest AND leave a comment saying you did so.

3. Blog about this contest AND leave a comment saying you did so.

4. Add our button to your site (grab code from the right-hand column) AND leave a comment saying you did so.

5. Leave a comment telling us your favorite thing to do with your girlfriends.

If you do them all, you can have up to 5 entries. w00t!  U.S. shipping addresses only, please. Winner will be drawn at random from all eligible entries received by 11:59 PM on Weds., July 29, 2009. Tell your girlfriend–you don’t have to be attending BlogHer to enter. Good luck ladies!

Summer is wedding season!  As those of us who have been bridesmaids or brides already know, weddings are expensive, and the list of expenses goes on and on. If you’re responsible for throwing the bride a bachelorette party, you can reluctantly add another “cha-ching” to your list, OR you can have a fabulous bachelorette party without going into debt. We thought you’d prefer the latter, so we asked some of our girlfriends for their best tips on budget bachelorette parties. And if you add a tip of your own, you can enter our giveaway for a great little bachelorette gift at the end of this post. Photo via flickr.

Skip the bar-hopping

This post from MSN Money estimates that a typical bridesmaid spends $75 – $100 on the bachelorette party. That’s just too much for many girlfriends right now. Most of the cost of traditional bachelorette parties comes from spending the night out on the town at pricey restaurants, bars and clubs, drinking expensive drinks, hiring limos, and seeing tacky shows. The obvious way to cut your costs? Host part or all of the evening at home. 

There’s no need to drink expensive cocktails out when you can recreate specialty drinks at home for a fraction of the cost! Burst Bar Shots are a great way to offer your guests a delicious shot to get the party started without having to fuss with multiple mixers and alcohols. The newest flavors include Sex on the Beach (our favorite), Lemon Drop and Alabama Slammer. Priced at only $10.99 a bottle, they are a great value, and a fun, festive and easy way to start your evening. We brought these to a party last weekend and they were quite a hit!

Our girlfriend Jennifer Luby, home entertaining blogger at Second City Soiree, suggests starting the party with your own ginger martinis (find the recipe at www.domainedecanton.com) and then visiting just one favorite watering hole. Or, she suggests, “skip the bars and hit the late-night fast food stands” if you crave some people-watching. If you must go to the hottest club, Jen suggests going early to avoid the cover charge.  ”Also, some clubs have restaurants attached, and if you eat there, they’ll often let you in the club for free.”

Get Cooking

And speaking of dinner, you don’t have to blow out your budget with a spendy restaurant dinner. You can have just as much fun, Jen says, if you potluck at home. “Everyone but the bride brings something; just be sure to have a balance of food types.” Or why not take this thinking a step further and have a more creative type of bachelorette party? We asked our girlfriends at Gracious Bridal to put on their thinking veils for us, (they are in touch with brides-to-be and their wedding parties every day, after all!) and they suggested a cooking party. We think this is a fabulous idea for girlfriends who have had their fill of clubbing. Some of the best girlfriend bonding times come from hands-on activities. Here’s how to do it:

Have the Maid of Honor pick a couple of her favorite recipes (the bride-to-be needs a break from decision making). You can all pitch in on providing the ingredients. Then, proceed to make a feast together! Show off your culinary skills, have fun with the girls, and of course, enjoy a glass of wine while doing so. Have each bridesmaid walk away with a decorative recipe card (and of course a belly full of fabulous food). Gift the bride-to-be with a Jessie Steele Vintage Apron for all of her future culinary endeavors. 

Make a Splash

How about a pool party for your bachelorette bash? Everyone needs a touch of bronze before walking down the aisle, and this is a fun way to get sun-kissed together. Gracious Bridal suggests mixing a batch of Bachelorette Barbie Cocktails (Coconut Rum, Vodka, Orange Juice, and Cranberry Juice) for this poolside celebration. If the bride is giving gifts to each of the bridesmaids, their Monogrammed Beach Towels fit the party theme, will be reused again and again, and make an excellent photo op! (NOTE: Don’t have a pool? How about a patio party? You can even set up a mister or sprinkler to keep cool.)

Hunt Down Some Fun

Here’s an easy and FREE way to create a memorable evening: Have a scavenger hunt! Bachelorette.com has some free printables for bachelorette party planners including these bachelorette scavenger hunt instructions. All the work is done for you! If this scavenger hunt is a little too “adventurous” for you and your gal pals, you can easily adjust for your own taste. (Please note: This site contains some risque items, putting it mildly. You’ve been warned!) This is a great way to get the girls out and about and guarantee some laughs the bride-to-be and her friends.

Share Your Tips and Win!

Now for the giveaway, girlfriends! We want your budget bachelorette party ideas, tips and stories. Leave them in the comments and you’ll be entered to win our giveaway, which includes:

A copy of The Daughter-in-Law Rules: 101 Surefire Ways to Manage (and Make Friends with) Your Mother-In-Law! by Sally Shields: great gift for the bride-to-be or recent bride!

Set of six high-heel wine charms – a colorful way to keep track of your drink at the bachelorette bash

Gonzo WineOut Red Wine Stain Remover 1 oz. - the perfect addition to a bride’s emergency kit (no wine stains on the wedding dress, please!)

Three ways to enter:

• Leave a comment with a tip, suggestion or story about money-saving bachelorette party ideas
• Blog or tweet about this contest AND leave a comment saying you did so
• Subscribe to our weekly email (new subscribers only) AND leave a comment saying you did so

This contest will remain open until 11:59 PM CST on Friday, June 5, 2009. Winner will be chosen at random from qualifying entries. Winner will be notified by email and must respond with a U.S. shipping address within 48 hours of notification or another winner will be selected. Good luck, girlfriends!