I never knew how much baby stuff I had accumulated until I began preparing to move. OMG, I never knew that I had bought so much STUFF- especially clothes. I don't want to throw things away - things are expensive and I don't want to give everything away. I had 2 yard sales but that was frustrating. Well, what if you could get rid of some of your clutter and trade for things you want? In most major cities (we have it here in Phoenix girls) you can use http://www.freepeats.org/. On this site, you can trade and find baby and kid gear in your local area. Pretty cool idea, huh??
I love books and now so does my daughter. What do you do with all of your old books you have read? Collect them all? Do you reread them over and over again? At least for me, once read they just became collections on bookshelves- but why?
Check out http://www.swaptree.com/. On this site you can list the books, CD, DVD, video games you have. Choose the items you want to receive. Then just swap your items through the mail. All you pay for is shipping. This also a very "green" thing to do. What a great concept! Hope you enjoyed this weeks websites. Leave me a comment. Thanks.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Traveling with tots
We are getting ready for vacation. This year, we are going on a cruise to Grand Turk. I am so excited however, I'm not looking forward to traveling with an almost 2 year old! Last year we flew from Phoenix to Nassau, Bahamas. It took us all day with time changes and connections. Miss Maddycakes was 11 months then. It wasn't too bad on the way there but awful on the way back. She continuously dropped her pacifier and it just seemed like I was reaching into the diaper bag under the seat every 5 minutes. Of course, I was in the middle seat - talk about uncomfortable. 
So this year I decided to look for possible things to occupy her and things to make traveling easier. I came across this tray bien flight organizer it goes over the fold up tray in front of you. How ingenious! Why can't I come up with this stuff? I am definitely getting this. Imagine having all of baby's essentials in one easily accessible spot. This way I'm not elbowing the lady next to me digging into the diaper bag looking for the 20th pacifier! How awesome is this??
The website is full of all sorts of great travel gear to make your life easier traveling with your little ones!
http://www.littlejetset.com/
So this year I decided to look for possible things to occupy her and things to make traveling easier. I came across this tray bien flight organizer it goes over the fold up tray in front of you. How ingenious! Why can't I come up with this stuff? I am definitely getting this. Imagine having all of baby's essentials in one easily accessible spot. This way I'm not elbowing the lady next to me digging into the diaper bag looking for the 20th pacifier! How awesome is this??
The website is full of all sorts of great travel gear to make your life easier traveling with your little ones!http://www.littlejetset.com/
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tablescape Tuesdays
Do any of you watch Sandra Lee on the Food Network channel? Every show she has a theme and coordinates everything from her entire kitchen decor and equipment, to matching clothes, and great tablescapes. Well, every Tuesday check back in for a feature tablescape. Today, it is one of mine. I had a few girlfriends over for a luncheon and wanted some color and fun. Each of my friends has a daughter and they had their own table and we had ours.
The centerpiece is filled with kiddie mix. I wanted to use layered either jelly beans or gum balls the same colors as the flowers but couldn't find what I wanted in time. So I opted for the kiddie mix. I got the daisies (my favorite flower) at Michael's.
I hope you can see that the napkin rings are butterflies- got from Target and the plates have butterflies on them as well- got from The HomeGoods store.
On each plate I put an little notebook with each friends first initial as name cards. Got from the dollar bin at Michael's - they matched perfectly.
Menu was simply fruit, crackers, cheese, tuna salad, chicken salad, deli wraps, and gourmet cookies (which I found in the food section of Marshall's- I love looking down that aisle).
Hope this sparks some ideas...please send me pics and/or comments!
By the way this post posted on Thursday's date because I started this last week. I'm new at blogging hopefully I will learn all of the tricks soon!
Earth Day
Okay so today is not officially Earth Day, it was yesterday- I'm running a day late this week. However, this morning I was throwing away a plastic gallon jug and my neighbor's son (about 7 yrs old) yells across the street " I wouldn't throw that away if I were you, why don't you recycle it?" I sheepishly reply to him that I don't have a recycle bin so he tells me that he does and asks for my water jug. So I dig in the big green dumpster and retrieve it for him to put into his family's recycle bin.
I have thought about this all day that it took a child to tell me about recycling...even though I have heard about it a million times. It had a really big impact on me this morning! I feel like I do my part to save Mother Earth such as always turning off unused lights and not wasting water but there is so much each one of us can do. So in honor of Earth Day attached are some really neat products found by Rod Stafford Hagwood.
Some of the dates on the sales have expired- sorry but still cool products.
Fashion Sun-Sentinel Blogs: Fashiony Celebs Adrian Grenier, Kate Hudson, Erykah Badu GO GREEN
Posted using ShareThis
I have thought about this all day that it took a child to tell me about recycling...even though I have heard about it a million times. It had a really big impact on me this morning! I feel like I do my part to save Mother Earth such as always turning off unused lights and not wasting water but there is so much each one of us can do. So in honor of Earth Day attached are some really neat products found by Rod Stafford Hagwood.
Some of the dates on the sales have expired- sorry but still cool products.
Fashion Sun-Sentinel Blogs: Fashiony Celebs Adrian Grenier, Kate Hudson, Erykah Badu GO GREEN
Posted using ShareThis
Wednesday Wonderful Websites
Okay, so every Wednesday I will post a website that I think is awesome. The websites will be all types not just about party planning. I'm a mom first so many of them are sites that make my life easier. That way you can spend more time with your family and on yourself!! I realize that today is Thursday- this is my first week so I'm getting out the kinks now. But I will do better in the future!
I love to scrapbook but since I've had Madison it has been so hard to dedicate time to scrap. So here comes Smilebox to save the day. You can do digital scrapbook in seconds and they are so beautiful! You can choose from hundreds of designs and each design comes with three music selections to choose from. You just drag and drop your pictures of video clips and add text. That simple! I love, love, love this product!! It is free with an ad adjacent to the pages; $2 per card for no ads and more music selections; or go all out (like me) and for only $6 per month you can get unlimited ad-free cards!!
I love to scrapbook but since I've had Madison it has been so hard to dedicate time to scrap. So here comes Smilebox to save the day. You can do digital scrapbook in seconds and they are so beautiful! You can choose from hundreds of designs and each design comes with three music selections to choose from. You just drag and drop your pictures of video clips and add text. That simple! I love, love, love this product!! It is free with an ad adjacent to the pages; $2 per card for no ads and more music selections; or go all out (like me) and for only $6 per month you can get unlimited ad-free cards!!
Since I'm a day late, I will give you an additional website as a bonus. At Animoto.com you can create very cool music videos for free. Just upload 12 to 20 photos, pick a track from the site's library and in about 5 minutes you will get back a 30 second video emailed back to you. Longer videos are $3 or pay $30 a year to make as many as you want. I am totally technology challenged and both of these sites are so user friendly. If I can figure it out - trust me - anyone can!!
Blessings,
Michelle
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Dedication to Mix, Mingle and Glow
I went to The Special Event in San Diego in January. For those of you not in the event planning industry...this convention is huge! It is full of classes, seminars from seasoned event planners...masters of design and decor! Just a cornucopia of creativity and ideas. I met many of my event planning heroes. (I wanted autographs but didn't want to seem like a dork)
So one of my classes I attended was taught by Robyn Bomar and it was life changing...okay maybe that's too strong at least business life changing. Her class was about blogging and how it could help your business. Since now I am going full time into my passion upon retiring from the Marine Corps after 21 years- I took copious notes and I'm finally started my blog. Hope you enjoy.
So it only seem right that my first blog would be dedicated to the woman who inspired me to blog in the first place. In her blog, she has started doing tablescapes from items found in dollar bins from various stores. I have always adored Dollar Tree and find so much stuff to transform into fabulous decor. Now many other stores have jumped onto the bandwagon and have dollar bins as well. So, I used ideas from Robyn's zoo theme party ... hope you enjoy. Thanks Robyn!!
http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=945
Found the bags at Target for $2.50 and used them as chair sashes. I found some Animal Planet books at Dollar Tree and many zoo items from Oriental Trading to put inside bags.
The masks came from Oriental Trading. I used Robyn's idea for putting the silverware in the slipper and added a flower sucker as the napkin ring. The zoo favor boxes also came from Oriental Trading and it was stuffed with "animal" trinkets all found from either Dollar Tree or Oriental Trading.
I used the bath mats from Target and put a Dollar Tree plastic plate on top as well as animal bowls and plates also from Dollar Tree. The sippy cups also came from Dollar Tree. Boy, I really LOVE Dollar Tree, huh? I really do....I find so much stuff there.
So one of my classes I attended was taught by Robyn Bomar and it was life changing...okay maybe that's too strong at least business life changing. Her class was about blogging and how it could help your business. Since now I am going full time into my passion upon retiring from the Marine Corps after 21 years- I took copious notes and I'm finally started my blog. Hope you enjoy.
So it only seem right that my first blog would be dedicated to the woman who inspired me to blog in the first place. In her blog, she has started doing tablescapes from items found in dollar bins from various stores. I have always adored Dollar Tree and find so much stuff to transform into fabulous decor. Now many other stores have jumped onto the bandwagon and have dollar bins as well. So, I used ideas from Robyn's zoo theme party ... hope you enjoy. Thanks Robyn!!
http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=945
Found the bags at Target for $2.50 and used them as chair sashes. I found some Animal Planet books at Dollar Tree and many zoo items from Oriental Trading to put inside bags.
The masks came from Oriental Trading. I used Robyn's idea for putting the silverware in the slipper and added a flower sucker as the napkin ring. The zoo favor boxes also came from Oriental Trading and it was stuffed with "animal" trinkets all found from either Dollar Tree or Oriental Trading.
I used the bath mats from Target and put a Dollar Tree plastic plate on top as well as animal bowls and plates also from Dollar Tree. The sippy cups also came from Dollar Tree. Boy, I really LOVE Dollar Tree, huh? I really do....I find so much stuff there.
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