Brad Pitt Watch

I may not be part of the competition anymore, but Reality on Bravo still has great give-aways with their sponsors! Check it out…

Week Four’s Sponsor: Solay Wellness, Inc. (www.natural-salt-lamps.com)
Week One’s Prize: Himalayan Bath Salt Crystals

Ah…who doesn’t like a nice, relaxing bath? (And come, all my male readers, admit it - whenever you’re lady’s out of town for anything, you like to relax with a bubble bath too!!! Ok, even if you don’t, I bet your wife/girlfriend/mother will LOVE this prize!)

Thanks to some awesome sponsorship by Solay Wellness, Inc., we can all de-stress a bit with some Himalayan Bath Salts. Solay’s Himalayan Bath Salt Crystals contain 84 essential minerals (more then any other salt) such as magnesium, potassium, bromide, and calcium. These minerals are all readily absorbed into the skin, giving you that calming, age-defying effect. Really guys, I’ve researched and used Himalayan Salt in the past - it’s toally good for your health.

Solay’s products are all naturally harvested from mineral-rich ocean waters that dried and crystallized 250 million years ago. This makes an especially great Christmas gift for that lady who has everything. Just add a few ounces to your bath, put on some relaxing music, pour some wine, and tune out the world. Ahhhhh…..

Have I convinced you to check out the site yet? You can buy bath salt products here (that’s the prize for the week - but believe me, you’ll want more than one), or you can peruse the other salt products they have for sale. I’m especially fond of the salt lamps, and just may have to put in an order myself. Using one of these salt lamps is like having a natural air purifier in your home.

(Note - the weekly winner for Project Blog will be receiving a set of Himalayan Salt Tealight Candle Holders - but if you want to snag them, you either have to suck up to the winner or head over to Solay’s site!)

Want a chance to win this week’s prize? OF COURSE YOU DO. You can enter up to FOUR times this week, since Week Four is part of the two-week uber challenge!

For one chance, leave a comment on this post on Reality on Bravo with the product from Solay’s site that you most want for Christmas (simply head to their website and browse around until you see something that catches your eye.)
For a second chance, blog about this contest on your own site and email the link to me at allison.boyer-at-yahoo-dot-com.
Want a third and fourth chance? Vote for your favorite in our Project Blog competition, and leave a comment showing support! The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries. You can vote once per day for your favorite (and please do), and you can comment ONCE PER WEEK (so, twice) to be considered as entered into this drawing - once on this post (comments close on Wednesday night) and once on Thursday’s post (this link will go live on Thursday morning).
Please note that comments on other post on my site are not considered as entries.

The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries, so get your comments and posts in today! (Deadline for commenting and posting is Monday, December 10 at noon EST)

After a very rough start that saw me in the bottom two, I’ve decided to step up my creativity for this round of Project Blog! Here’s the challenge:

On Project Runway, contestants were asked to create an outfit with a partner for fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker’s newest line, Bitten. This week, blogtestants, you have to write with a partner too - yourself. That’s right, I want to see your leadership skills, but to make it fair, YOU are the one you’ll be leading. Pick a post from the past - any post will do - and use that as your inspiration for a new post. You can give us an update on a past news story, revisit a topic, or give further opinion on a factual post. Or hey, do something else - it’s all up to you! Just remember, the goal is to use your past post as inspiration, and you MUST include a link to the past story in your new post. (It can be a post from yesterday or a post from a year ago…timing is not important, any post you choose is fine!)

To fulfill this challenge, I dredged up one of my older posts, which you can see in its entirety here. This blog started in January of 2007 (wow, we’re almost a year old - how about that!), and this post was one of the ones I liked the best back then. It was the first post that brought a small bit of my attitude into the story. The life of the Jolie-Pitts changes very quickly, so I decided to meet this chellenge by putting up the original words and then updating what has gone on since. The old story is in regular font, the update is in italics! I hope you enjoy it!

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought a house in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Apparently they are planning to live there while Brad is filming his movie, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

I don’t think that the duo has even used the house since they left it! They bought it, lived there for a few months, then headed off to Prague. I wonder what happens to the houses that they’re not living in – do they get closed up? Are there caretakers there making sure that the plants get watered and the dust doesn’t pile up?

Jolie confirms the movie to Us Weekly, saying, “We love it there. The kids are going to go to school there. We’re really looking forward to it.”

It’s true that Maddox did go to school in New Orleans – for all of a few months! Since then he’s gone to school in Prague, New York City, and is now in L.A.! I think that he spent the least amount of time in New Orleans!

While Pitt is working, sources say Jolie, 31, plans on being a low-key mother to the couple’s three children, Maddox, five, Zahara, two, and seven-month-old Shiloh. A source close to the actress says, “She’s interested in befriending normal moms so she can do things with the kids.”

How interesting is it that this was written in January and then, in March, they added another child to the brood! Pax was born in Vietnam and was adopted by Angelina on March 15. Vietnam law is very strict when it comes to adopting, and they only allow single parents or parents that are married to adopt, which is why Angie adopted Pax herself. A few months later, though, Pax had his named changed and was adopted by Brad as well.

On another front – Angie being friends with normal moms? It would be totally cool…if it ever happened! So far you never see Angie hanging out with anyone…except her family, Brad, and her totally hot bodyguard. Also, she didn’t stay home for too long either. By May she was in Prague to work on Wanted, which will be coming out soon.

Okay, if you’re interested in being “low-key” and being able to do normal things, why move to New Orleans?! It’s a major city, and once that’s also still under crucial watch from the entire nation still. Why not move to somewhere isolated…like Vermont?

Turns out that Angie and Brad weren’t really able to hide well in New Orleans. Again and again we saw the famous couple – it was almost worse when they were in Prague! They were also fodder for the Paparazzi in New York City, but now the power duo seems to have found a place to hide in one in Los Angeles! Talk about hiding out in the open! But it seems to work for the two, since we’ve seen very few photos of the family out and about lately.

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, head on over to Reality on Bravo to vote for me and to enter for your chance to win an awesome prize - this round the prize is a delicious-looking e-cookbook written by 451’s very own Gillian! Gillian runs Food History and has written an amazing e-cookbook called Chronicling the Fifth Deadly Sin, which contains delicious recipes like Andy’s Hong Kong Curry Triangles, Trudee’s Canadian Chocolate Cheesecake, and Medieval Style Mushroom Pastries. For your chance to win, and to root on your favorite Brad Pitt site, head on over to Reality on Bravo!

You can see the rest of the competitors entries here:

Kate, Babylune: “Has Sex Really Left the City?”
Winnie, Watching the View: “Three Ways Rosie O’Donnell Changed The View”
Kara: Colorado Review: “Weather Update: We’ve Got Clouds”
Sally, Style Fix: “Because I Slacked on my Promise: A Total ANTM Recall”
Jodie, Gossip on Sports: “Project Blog Week Two Challenge”
Cynthia, TV of the Absurd: “Supernatural Origins: Take Two”
Mark, Get Incensed: “We’re Still Not Friends”

I hope everyone has a happy, filling, and safe Thanksgiving!!

I’m still alive in Project Blog - but barely! I was in the bottom two this week - yikes! I guess I’ve got to stop my game up - especially if I want to win this week’s prize! This week’s sponsor is Gillian at Food History. This would be an extra special prize for me because Gillian is a fellow writer here at 451 Press and I’ve had numerous conversations with her - she’s such a sweetheart!

And the prize is awesome! The prize? A copy of her e-cookbook, “Chronicling the Fifth Deadly Sin,” which is a tasty collection of recipes from around the world. And I do mean tasty.

This isn’t your typical cookbook, and Gillian’s not your typical blogger! I obviously haven’t had a chance to check this e-book out yet, but I’ve been told that it’s got some amazing recipes and funny lines, like this one:

Add lemon juice to taste. Stir well. Serve hot or cold. This is a VERY filling dish - very solid (like my waistline).

Some of the recipes that are in this book include Andy’s Hong Kong Curry Triangles, Trudee’s Canadian Chocolate Cheesecake (I’ve made that one - DELISH), and Medieval Style Mushroom Pastries. Mmmmmm…

If that sounds interesting to you, check out Gillian’s site for a sneak peak of what you could win! Her site includes recipes from around the world, as well as the history behind them. There aren’t very many blogs that explain where the food you eat comes from - and with a sense of humor, too!

And, if you like fiction, your can also purchase Gillian’s novel, Illuminations, from Barnes and Noble - this is definitely a book that I’m really interested in reading! It’s about an Australian that finds a lost manuscript during a trip to Paris and the story that unfolds when she reads the manuscript.

For more info on Project Blog, and to win your own e-cookbook from Gillian, head on over to Reality on Bravo!!

It’s time for the first official challenge of:

Here is the challenge:

Let me first start with why I blog. I began blogging a few years ago when an old family friend actually explained what a blog was. See, I live in a very rural part of Vermont. It may shock you, dear readers, but the area I live in doesn’t even have a Starbucks, much less a Target or Walmart! I realized that the blog was the perfect place to get my words and feelings out. Have you ever had a song stick in your head, and you felt as though you would burst unless you started humming or singing it? That’s the way writing is for me. I can get things out much easier on paper (or on a computer) than I can vocally.

I loved reading blogs. Personal blogs are a way to become the fly on the wall in someone else’s life. It was through reading blogs that I learned that 451 Press needed a writer for the new Brad Pitt blog they wanted to launch. I’ve always loved Brad and Angie and thought that the position was absolutely perfect!

As to why I love Brad and Angie? That’s simple - let’s take Brad first. Brad worked his way up through the Hollywood grapevine to become one of the greatest American male actors. He’s now furthering his career by having his own production company. Angie has struggled a bit in her life. She used chemicals to help get her through the difficult times and has had notable issues with relationships. She turned herself around, however, when she adopted Maddox, and has now become an icon for all Hollywood working mothers. Both Brad and Angie have firm beliefs and don’t settle for just talking about their beliefs - they actually do something. So why do I love Brad and Angie? How can I not?!

That marks the end of the first challenge! If I win, I get a beautiful, environmentally friendly bracelet from the Ecoist as well as (and probably more importantly) IMMUNITY! Head on over to Reality on Bravo in order to vote for the person that you think did the best on the competition, and you can win a bracelet as well!

Here is the list of the other contestants, and I wish to offer my heartfelt best wishes to all of them!

As I said the other day, I’m participating in Project Blog, a competition going on over at Reality on Bravo! Keep checking over there, because not only can the contestants win - the readers can win too! Each week there will be a sponser. This week’s sponser is Ecoist. The prize? The official Stop Global Warming Ecoist Bracelet!

Just like Brad and Angie, I’m a huge fan of any company that tries to help the enviornment. At Ecoist, they’re combining environmental responsibility with something else we all love - fashion! Their eco-friendly bracelets are created for recycled papers like candy wrappers and soda labels. For every “Stop Global Warming” bracelet sold, the company promises to plant a tree! Now that’s what I call environmental responsibility!

“Our objective is to merge design with social and environmental consciousness to provide stylish, functional, and durable products that people will love to own. All our products are made from recycled, organic, or earth-friendly materials, and are manufactured through our network of fair trade partnerships around the world.” Jonathan Marcoschamer from Ecoist says.

They don’t make just bracelets either. At Ecoist’s website, you can find all sorts of handmade items made from recycled products. Check out the movie billboard handbags, the recycled records bowls, the reusable shopping bags, and all of the other great products available for purchase at their site. The best part? Everything is moderately priced, so you don’t have to break your budget to grab some great gear at their site!

Want a chance to win this week’s prize? You can enter up to three times! For one chance, leave a comment on this post on Reality on Bravo with your favorite product from Ecoist’s website (make sure to use a valid email address to win). For a second chance, blog about this contest on your own site and email the link to the writer of Reality on Bravo at allison.boyer-at-yahoo-dot-com. Want a third chance? Check back to Reality on Bravo on Friday, vote for your favorite in our Project Blog competitor, and leave a comment showing your support! The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries.