Sunday, March 3, 2013

Sunday Surf: News from NPN


Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the best blogposts I've read throughout the week.

brothers sitting on toilet paper in the grocery aisle
While I was out shopping, I decided to grab some boys.
They were on sale.

Today's Sunday Surf is dedicated to the exciting happenings at Natural Parents Network. Pull up a chair!

What Natural Parenting REALLY Looks Like! — NPN Flickr photo contest

NPN's Flickr Launch and Contest: What Does Natural Parenting Really Look Like?

Win some of the almost $1100 in prizes by contributing your photos of "What Natural Parenting Really Looks Like" to the new Natural Parents Network Flickr Pool.

Photos submitted to the NPN Flickr Pool from now through March 31, 2013, will be considered entries into the contest. Please read the full Photo Submission/Contest Rules before submitting your photos.

We're looking for high quality, beautiful, tender, funny, but above all honest digital depictions of natural parenting. We are interested in images that showcase one or more of the principles of the natural parenting lifestyle.

Please enter only photographs you are comfortable having published on Natural Parents Network (including our social media accounts, newsletters, etc., and with attribution), whose subjects have given their consent to the same. Please caption each submission with the photo's title and a short description.

Each photo must be submitted via Flickr™ to the NPN Flickr Pool. If you do not have a Flickr account, you can sign up for free at Flickr.com using your Yahoo! or Google ID or Facebook login.

Each group member may add up to four images per day.

Contest is open to all amateur photographers. Please, no watermarks or professional photographs.

From April 1-10, our contestants, readers, and volunteers will vote by "favoriting" the photos they like best. To add a photo to your favorites, sign into your Flickr account, go to the picture you want to "favorite," look at the top left corner of the screen, and click on the star next to the word "favorite." Once the star turns pink, you have "favorited" that photo.

On April 11, our editorial team will tally the votes, and the top twenty photos starred as a “favorite” by the most people will go head-to-head in a voting-enabled featured post from April 15-25 on Natural Parents Network. We encourage you to drum up support for your own photos — or those you admire! — by sharing the link on Facebook and Twitter, as the top eight entries (and the editors' favorite) will win an assortment of fabulous prizes donated from a range of photography-happy Etsy sellers and a place of honor in their very own Wordless Wednesday post on NPN.

Of course, once the contest ends, the NPN Flickr pool will remain a great place to share your best photos and get some inspiration. Plus, you never know when your work might pop up on NPN (hint: keep an eye out on Wednesdays)!

See details at the link, and please share this contest with your parenting friends! We'd love as wide a range of natural parenting photos as possible in our pool and can't wait to see what wonderful photos you submit.


New joint newsletter for Hobo Mama, Natural Parents Network, and Code Name: Mama

news boyIf you've signed up for my email newsletter, you should now have received your very first issue — hot off the virtual presses!

(If you didn't receive it and think you should have, let me know so I can help troubleshoot your subscription.)

Our fabulous NPN volunteers have stirred together natural parenting resources, inspiration, original content, exciting giveaways, and exclusive coupons and baked up a monthly newsletter! Dionna and I will have our own corners in each issue, so you'll also get the latest Hobo Mama news as well. I'm excited to have this newsletter finally reaching your inboxes!

If you haven't subscribed yet, sign up now, because there are a lot of subscriber-only benefits in store!


Carnival news:

Carnival of Natural Parenting -- Hobo Mama and Code Name: MamaCalling for submissions for March 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Tough Conversations
Theme: Tough Conversations: How do you address challenging topics with your kids (death, race, sex, injustice, etc.)? Recall a tough conversation you had, share your thoughts or tips on how parents can handle these challenges with grace, or find your own way to tackle this topic.

DeadlineThis Tuesday, March 5. Fill out the webform and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: CarNatPar {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com 

Check out other upcoming carnivals in the Parenting Blog Carnivals Calendar, and add your own carnival information into the form.

Six Ingredient Challenge:

Six Ingredient Challenge buttonI hope you're enjoying reading along with the six-week Six Ingredient Challenge! How's it going for you so far? If you haven't started yet, feel free to join anytime!

Posts so far:

Start formulating your answer to the fifth writing prompt, and publish it on your blog by March 7 (or save it to paste in the comments when we post our responses then). You can also read the interesting responses to our fourth writing prompt from the linky and comments! No matter how far along we are, we invite you to sign up and join in now — we're excited about the conversations we're having!

Deals:

Rah rah: 25% off Varsity Styles at BabyLegs!
BabyLegs is helping you cheer on your favorite team for March Madness with 25% OFF all Varsity styles! These larger-size warmers come in 15 different team colors, perfect for little cheerleaders or the whole family! Only $9 each through March 15.

FREE hardcover photo book at MyPublisher: Last day!
Try MyPublisher with a FREE hardcover photo book! MyPublisher is what we use for our photo books. We made one of Alrik's first year for Christmas gifts for all the grandparents (and us!), and we've been making ones of Mikko all along as well. I love them and consider them heirlooms. The quality is top-notch. They would also be perfect for preserving wedding memories, travel diaries, or other scrapbooking occasions. If you hurry, you can get your own hardcover photo book for free! This promotion ends today, March 3.

Giveaways:

I've got two nice big giveaways going on right now, both for $100 CVS gift cards!
Staying well during sick days + $100 giveaway from Children's Mucinex! {3.31; US}
bathtime foam shapes art collage play
Being sniffly doesn't have to mean being miserable.
7 ways to turn sick days into fun days + $100 CVS gift card giveaway {3.31; US}
Enter with one easy comment on each post for a chance to win one of two $100 gift cards to CVS. It's nice to have a little extra spending money during cold & flu season!


Surf with us:

Sunday Surf with Authentic Parenting and Hobo MamaWe love following along with fellow Sunday Surfers. If you have your own post of reading links to share, please link up your post on Hobo Mama or on Authentic Parenting. The linky will go live every Sunday, and you can link up any day that week. You only need to add your post to one of the sites, and the linky will automatically show up on both sites.

You can get the Sunday Surf button by Jenna Designs and some code to add to your post from my Sunday Surf page.

Check out previous editions for good reading, and you can find more shared items during the week at my Tumblr blog, Hobo Mama's Shared Items.





This linky list is now closed.



Disclosure: Deal links are affiliate links.
I try to seek out only products I think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
See my full disclosure policy here.

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