I started my Christmas shopping yesterday (finally!) and it hurt my feelings to hand over all my lil’ bit a money to The Man. Like seriously. You should have seen me cross-referencing and googling and checking shipping fees and coupon coding my way through my list. See, these days, I can’t afford to be anything but frugal when it comes to what I buy, because really, I need every penny of our hard-earned cash to stay in our bank account as long as possible.

Period.

Which is why I’m SO excited about today’s giveaway—the last in the MyBrownBaby Happy For the Holidays Giveaway Week. Today’s giveaway is *sung/shouted like Oprah on her Christmas show*…

Cold.

Hard.

Caaaaash.

That’s right: I’m giving away a $110 Visa Card, courtesy of Kodak, as part of the “Kodak Save $110 Tour,” which is traveling across the country to show families how they can save an average $110 annually on ink by using Kodak’s All-in-One inkjet printers. Kodak’s All-in-One inkjet printers are revolutionizing the inkjet printer business by offering what they say is the lowest total ink replacement in the industry—$14.99 for color cartridges, $9.99 for black—which means you’re putting more money in your purse, and not in your printer. In fact, Kodak is so serious about its economical inks that it’s touring the country to let prospective customers test-drive Kodak’s latest printers (which are being offered at $50 off at Staples and Best Buy through January 2010!) and learn firsthand how to save on printing costs. For sure, if you stop by a “Save $110 Tour” van (click HERE to see if the tour is in a city near you) to get the 411 on Kodak products, you’ll have a chance to win the newest Kodak ESP 3250 or 5250 or a $110 Kodak Visa Gift Card.

That’s what I’m talking about! Putting money in a girl’s super cute purse is a great look—for sure!

Want to try for a chance to win a $110 Kodak Visa card here at the MyBrownBaby Happy For the Holidays Giveaway Week? Let’s get it! Here’s how:

MANDATORY: (separate comments for each, please!)

Follow Kodak on Twitter @KodakSave110 and tell them MyBrownBaby sent you.

Visit Kodak’s Print and Proper website and tell me which printer will be on your wish list.

FOR EXTRA ENTRIES (separate comments for each, please!)

TWEET “I’m trying to get @KodakSave110 and @MyBrownBaby to put a $110 Kodak Visa Card in my purse! http://shar.es/aIt52″

FOLLOW MyBrownBaby

SUBSCRIBE to MyBrownBaby

ADD the MyBrownBaby button to your blog

THIS CONTEST ENDS AT 11:59 P.M. on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009. THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10th, 2009. It is open to residents in the continental U.S.

Here’s what you should know about me: I’m a closet interior design freak. I mean, the moment I could form the words, I was asking my Dad to push my dresser from one side of my room to the other, and by the time I was a teenager, I was demanding hot pink on the walls, frilly curtains on the windows, and all manner of dressy pillows and bedspreads to set it off up in my room.

Now that I’m in my own house, I really get to play—and play, I do. I love earthy colors—oranges and browns and greens—and I never pass up an opportunity to add an ethnic touch to a room, whether it’s a beautiful piece of artwork by an artist of color (my latest obsession is THIS ROMARE BEARDEN at one of my favorite galleries, Avisca Fine Arts, which I can not afford but dream about nightly), or a beautiful tribal mask, or a textured vase, mirror, or picture frame to make a tabletop stand out.

I carry on this same philosophy in my daughters’ rooms, which are adorned with hand-crafted pictures of smoochie little brown girls and lots of beautiful brown dolls and pictures of our family—all that stand alongside pretty, kid-friendly pieces that shout out Mari and Lila’s funky, girly sides. And I’m always on the look out for great pieces that speak to this aesthetic. In today’s MyBrownBaby Happy For the Holidays Giveaway, I’m hipping you to some awesome artists who specialize in beautiful home décor pieces that’ll make your rooms stand out from the rest. Witness:

KISHA’S KIDS
“See yourself, be yourself” is the guiding philosophy behind this online boutique for décor products featuring African-American babies, children, and moms, and Kisha’s Kids works double time to bring its vision to fruition. The boutique’s founder, Kisha Holt, created her business after she went on an exhaustive-but-unsuccessful search for décor and accessories reflective of her brown babies. Now, she manufactures rugs, growth charts, picture frames and more with images of brown-skinned children; the products are high-quality, vintage-inspired pieces that are all-at-once joyful and inspiring. For the MyBrownBaby Happy For the Holidays Giveaway, Kisha’s Kids is giving away one item of the winner’s choice from the boutique’s personally manufactured line of original African-American children’s canvas wall art, area rugs, picture frames, growth charts and clocks—the latter of which was featured on Oprah’s “The ‘O’ List!” Value of up to $125.

LUCKY + LOVELY
Go ahead—take a look at the Lucky + Lovely blog and ETSY site try not to drool! I’ve known the proprietor, Melanie, since our days together at Honey magazine, where, as a top designer, she made my words look super fresh. These days, she owns her own custom letterpress and makes all kinds of lovely stationery, invitations, creative prints, and more, plus she designs logos and websites and, when she has time, posts perfectly delicious links to beautiful things she finds in her daily e-travels. For the
MyBrownBaby Happy For the Holidays Giveway, Lucky + Lovely is graciously giving away this whimsical Kid’s Alphabet Print, printed with high-quality inks on artist’s matte non-glare heavyweight stock. A $35 value.

RWANDA PATH TO PEACE BASKET
I can’t say enough about these breath-taking handcrafted baskets! These one-of-a-kind pieces, woven with sisal leaves by Rwandan artisans practicing this ancient craft, are not only beautiful, but changing lives. Indeed, proceeds from every sale of these baskets, available exclusively at Macys.com, go toward life-changing projects in this African country, which is still recovering from the brutal 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed more than 1 million people in just 100 days. The women who weave the baskets use their earnings to set up clean water supplies, purchase mosquito nets, pay school fees for local children, and buy life-saving medication for HIV-infected villagers, plus much more. My red and white fruit bowl is absolutely stunning; it sits in my living room, on a time-worn iron and wood coffee table from India, next to my collection of art books. It’s simply perfect there. Thanks my friends over at The BlogRollers and Macys.com, one lucky reader will get a basket of her/his own through the MyBrownBaby Happy For the Holiday’s Giveaway, a $46 value.

ONE LUCKY READER WILL WIN ONE OF EACH OF THESE BEAUTIFUL GIFTS—A MORE THAN $200 VALUE! Here’s how:

MANDATORY

• Visit Kisha’s Kids, Lucky + Lovely and the Rwanda Path to Peace sites and leave one comment telling me about your favorite products on each of them.

• Be/Become a MyBrownBaby follower.

FOR EXTRA ENTRIES (please leave separate comments for each)

• TWEET “I just entered the @MyBrownBaby Happy for the Holidays giveaway for over $200 in home décor products http://shar.es/aEKsk”

• BLOG about this giveaway

• BUY a product from one of the featured stores in this giveaway, and email a copy of your confirmation order to mybrownbabycontests@gmail.com (2 entries!)

• BECOME a MyBrownBaby email subscriber (you MUST verify your email subscription to qualify) OR get the MyBrownBaby RSS feed HERE (leave a comment letting me know you’ve done so, and include an email address so that I can contact you if you win).

• ADD my button to your blog

• Become a follower on Lucky + Lovely or Kisha’s Kids blogs—or both!

THIS CONTEST ENDS AT 11:59 P.M. on MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2009. THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10th, 2009. It is open to residents in the continental U.S. and Canada. Prize fulfillment will be handled by each individual shop.

My daughter Mari was just a little peanut in my belly when I gave her her first gift— copies of Ezra Jack Keats’ “The Snowy Day,” Faith Ringold’s “Tar Beach,” and “More More More Said the Baby,” by Vera B. Williams. They were—and still are!—beautiful books with incredible stories—about the simplicity of a little brown boy and his dog enjoying a cold, winter day; about a little brown girl’s love of New York City and a party with the neighbors on the rooftop of her apartment building and; about a multiracial cast of toddlers getting smoochie hugs and kisses from their adult loved ones. It was important to me as a mom-to-be to surround my daughter with books—works that would spark her imagination and encourage her to dream. Just as important to me was that those books feature characters that look like her so that she could see herself in those stories and know that brown babies’ lives are worthy of documentation—their culture worthy of celebration.

Mari is 10 now, and she’s a wicked little book lover—she rips through one chapter book per day—and I know this is so because she’s been taught since the womb to revere the written word and the authors who share them. For years, we gave books as birthday presents to all her friends—I think we’ve single-handedly purchased and given at least a dozen copies of Debbie Allen’s “Dancing in the Wings,” and “A Snowy Day,” and “Tar Beach”—and we’ve amassed a serious collection of children’s books that we treasure.

Indeed, the gift of reading is transformative, and to kick off the first annual MyBrownBaby Happy for the Holidays Giveaway Week, some of my author and illustrator friends graciously donated AUTOGRAPHED copies of their books for the incredible collection of children’s books in the picture above. Included in this 18-book, $200+ gift package are:

Olu’s Dream, by Shane Evans. My girls and I are HUGE fans of Evans’ work; he’s the artist whose illustrated more than 25 books, including the gorgeous girl pie faces in our personal favorites: Home Made Love, by bell hooks, Jean Marzallo’s Shanna series, and; My Brother, Charlie, an upcoming picture book I wrote with Holly Robinson Peete. But these days, Shane is all about Olu’s Dream, a new series he wrote and illustrated, about a little boy who dreams B-I-G! Olu and his Oluizms are absolutely addictive. In addition to Olu’s dream, Shane autographed No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance, a picture book he illustrated for author Doreen Rappaport.

VISIT OLU AND SHANE EVANS HERE.

March On!, The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World, illustrated by London Ladd. London is an astounding artist who made his book debut with the impressive Christine King Farris-penned March On! the definitive tribute to her brother, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the march and speech that changed our nation. A video rendition of the book, featuring London’s illustrations and performed by Lynn Whitfield, recently won a prestigious 2009 Andrew Carnegie Medal. His next project, Oprah: The Little Speaker, will be in stores March 2010. In addition to March On!, London autographed a poster portrait of President Barack Obama.

VISIT LONDON LADD HERE.

The Ruby and the Booker Boys series, by Derrick Barnes. I. Super. Heart. Derrick. Barnes. Period. With seven books to his credit, he marched right into my heart when he introduced the super spunky, super smart, super fly cutie pie lil’ Ruby to the world. The series is absolutely adorable (see my review HERE), but even more, Derrick is just a good brother. We’re FaceBook friends, and on his page, he’s always singing the praises of his college sweetheart/beautiful wife and their three breathtakingly gorgeous sons (see Derrick’s MBB Father of the Month profile HERE), which just makes me love him more. Who wouldn’t love a man strong enough to father three boys, but tender enough to breathe life into the perfectly delicious Ruby? In addition to Ruby and the Booker Boys: Brand-new School, Brave New Ruby, Trivia Queen, 3rd Grade Supreme, and Ruby Flips for Attention, Derrick autographed two of his earlier works, Stop, Drop, and Chill, and The Low-Down, Bad-Day Blues.

VISIT DERRICK BARNES HERE

Catwalk, by Deborah Gregory. The cheetalicious author of the bestselling Disney franchise The Cheetah Girls has a new amazing series—Catwalk, about a foursome of friends who work together to rip the runway with their own fashion line, the House of Pashmina. Wake up and smell the catnip! The second in the Catwalk series, Strike a Pose, hit bookshelves in September, and further proof that Deborah is on her grind, Catwalk has been optioned by Teen Nick network for a TV series, with Deborah attached as the executive producer and co-writer of the pilot episode. Work, Deborah! In addition to Catwalk, Deborah autographed a Cheetah Girls poster and donated a Cheetah Girls t-shirt and a picture of The Cheetah Girls, autographed by the four stars of the best-selling TV movie series.

VISIT DEBORAH GREGORY HERE.

Boycott Blues, Peggony-Po: A Whale of a Tale, Jackie’s Bat, We Are One, and Abraham Lincoln: Letters from a Slave Girl, written and/or illustrated by Andrea and Jerry Pinkney. This celebrated husband-and-wife team is downright iconic, and their books were quickly added to Mari’s burgeoning collection when she was a baby. Even when books featuring black characters were at a premium, it was the Pinkneys—she writes, he illustrates—who dedicated their careers to bringing great stories about African Americans to the bookshelves. Biographies, fairy tales, sweet stories about friendship, tall tales about little boys and whales, real-to-life stories about Civil Rights icons—you name it, the Pinkneys have done it, and with a style and grace I absolutely admire (see my review of Boycott Blues HERE and Andrea’s MBB Mom of the Week profile HERE). They are, in a word, incredible. In addition to autographing the five books mentioned above, the Pinkneys donated Harlem Summer, by Walter Dean Myers; Sassy: Little Sister Is Not My Name, by Sharon Draper; Crow Call, by Lois Lowry, and The Sound of Kwanzaa, by Dimitrea Tokunbo.

VISIT ANDREA PINKNEY HERE and BRIAN PINKNEY HERE.

WHEW! Is this the hook-up or what?! That’s 18 books featuring characters and stories your child will flip for, with AUTOGRAPHS OF THE AUTHORS AND/OR ILLUSTRATORS! This is a $218 value, but the autographs of each of these rock stars is absolutely priceless, and would make an incredible holiday gift for the special children in your life. You absolutely cannot and will not find this gift anywhere but right here at the MyBrownBaby Happy for the Holidays giveaway. Want it? Here’s your shot:

MANDATORY

• Visit at least three of the authors’ websites (though I encourage you to visit all of them!) and leave one comment telling me what you learned about each of them.

• Be/Become a MyBrownBaby follower.

FOR EXTRA ENTRIES

• TWEET “I just entered the @MyBrownBaby Happy for the Holidays giveaway for over $200 in autographed children’s books http://shar.es/aEHNe”

• BLOG about this giveaway

• BUY one of the books featured in the giveaway, and email a copy of your confirmation order to mybrownbabycontests@gmail.com (2 entries!)

• BECOME a MyBrownBaby email subscriber (you MUST verify your email subscription to qualify) OR get the MyBrownBaby RSS feed HERE (leave a comment letting me know you’ve done so, and include an email address so that I can contact you if you win).

• ADD my button to your blog

THIS CONTEST ENDS AT 11:59 P.M. on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2009. THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10th, 2009. It is open to residents in the continental U.S. and Canada.