Winner of the Mombo nursing pillow

I drew a number using Random.org to pick the winner of the Mombo nursing pillow.
True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:3Powered by RANDOM.ORG The winner is Lauren.

Lauren said...

I would love to try this! I'm due in August and am hoping to breastfeed my little girl.

Lauren, watch for an e-mail so that I can get your address to send this off to you.

Are you local? Have a teen driver? Want to join me at the EMP?

Hey local readers, I'd love you to join me at the Drive it Home Show, presented by the National Safety Council and Allstate Foundation, Tuesday, May 21, If you have tween, teen, or are concerned about teen driving safety, it will be an informative (and entertaining!) event. Please feel free to share this post with anyone who might like to attend. Details are as follows:

What: Drive it Home Show, presented by the National Safety Council and Allstate Foundation

When: Tuesday, May 21 from 7pm - 8:15pm

Where: EMP Museum - Level 3 (325 5th Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109)

Price: FREE!; no tickets required

Parking: Pay lots are available near the museum and metered parking is available on the side streets across 5th Avenue N.

BONUS: You can enter in the sweepstakes at the event for a chance to win gas cards and a brand new car!

If you'd like to attend, click here to register and when checking in, let them know that Clever Girls Collective sent you. Hope to see you there!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Garage Sale Finds Friday

Welcome back to another week of garage sale finds Friday.

Where I share with you some of my favorite garage sale finds from the week.

We all grew up with Pyrex dishes.

When I saw these Pyrex bowls in these fantastic blues and yellows, I knew I had to snatch them up!

The colors are amazing!

I got the whole stack for $5.

I love vintage tins so when I saw this vintage honey tin for $1 I was sold.

It still has great colors to it, and despite holding five pounds of honey, isn't the least bit sticky!

If you are from the Pacific Northwest you know all about Frango mints.

People out here love their Frango mints!

I didn't grow up here, but I can't tell you the amount of times I have heard the story about how kids grew up going to Fredrick and Nelson and getting a Frango mint!

This tin is from the Bon Marche, which was bought up by Macy's shortly after I moved here.

The nostalgia of it makes people out here think it's the best thing ever!

I'm not a smoker.

I don't think you should smoke.

Smoking is bad for you.

BUT, I love these tobacco tins.  

The graphics are cool.

The packaging is awesome, and the colors are pretty sweet.

What's not to love?!

I got the whole lot for $5.

So, what did you find this week at garage sales? Anything worth writing home about?

Origami Owl lockets + giveaway!

Just in time for Mother's Day last week, I got this cute little box in the mail.

It came with a cute little handwritten note, packaged and inspected with care.

Love that!

This is what was inside that sweet blue box.

Once I put everything together, this is the necklace I had made and lovingly selected just a few weeks prior.

I filled this locket with a "love life" plate and put a few of my favorite things inside.

I adore the beach, warm breezes and sand between my toes, and everything in this locket reminds me of that.  It's like a warm day at the beach condensed down into a locket full of goodness.

I love it!

One of the things I want my readers to come away with from my blog is to be inspired.

I also only share products that I love with my readers, 

and I am in love with Origami Owl!

Put those two things together, and you have this awesome custom necklace in our giveaway prize pack.

I'm sure you could find 100 different things to wear this necklace with!

The locket includes:

• Large Silver with Crystals Locket
• 32" Silver Link Chain
• Three Dangles: "Open my heart" dangle, pink pearl and vintage crystal
• Large Gold "Inspire" Plate
• Five Charms: Large Rosegold Gear, Silver Crystal Heart, Vintage Flower, Black Cameo, and Fleur de lis

Want to win?

I know you do!

And you will love your new Origami Owl locket as much as I love mine!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What's in my cart at the Dollar Store

Last month, I started a fun little series called,

What's in my cart at the Dollar Store,

Where you get to have a glimpse into the things that this Dollar Store expert is buying.

So, want to see what's in my cart this month?

I usually buy my make up at garage sales.

Seriously.

During the summer, I can almost always find a Mary Kay salesperson selling off her makeup dirt cheap.

I've actually been using some Mary Kay concealer that I bought three years ago!

My guess is, they discontinued that particular concealer because the packaging held too much and people weren't running out.

Well, I finally ran out.

And I got a zit.

So, I headed to the second best place to get my makeup, the Dollar Store.

{You can read more about what other makeup I suggest you buy at the Dollar Store here.}

I picked up some concealer and some lipstick with built in lip gloss.

My youngest son loves our Jacuzzi tub.

He takes a bath every day and usually snorkels while in the tub.

Not joking.

He goes through a lot of shampoo.

I love the Breck kids 2 in 1.  

He's a boy.  It works.

I cook from scratch a lot.

I like to use fresh ground pepper but when I have a recipe that requires more than a teaspoon, I go with the black pepper already ground up.

If you buy spices at the Dollar Store, just read the label.

Make sure you are getting what is in the bottle and nothing extra.

I don't want to buy black pepper with anything added.

The label says black pepper, so I buy that.

Seems legit.

{You can read more about the food items I recommend at the Dollar Store here.}

I also buy most of my wax paper and freezer paper at garage sales.

I think this may be the first time in my whole adult life that I have actually purchased wax paper from an actual store.

I buy more storage bags from the Dollar Store.

Sure you can tell they aren't the ziploc brand, but I'm not paying twice as much for them now am I?

They do the trick.

I love these cello bags for packaging things.

I used them for packaging brownies for a bake sale.

They worked great.

So that's what was in my cart at the Dollar Store.

Freezer paper burlap bunting banner

Every time I walk into a craft fair, bunting banners seem to be all the rage!

Every booth seems to have one.

When my friend Mandi at Persnickety's moved her shop to a cute little town called Sumner, she asked if I would make some burlap banners for her to sell at the shop.

Today, I will show you how I made them.

I cut my burlap into pennants with a pattern that I made.

It's not hard, just a triangle with a little extra at the top so you can fold it over.

I used twine and some hot glue to secure the top of the burlap to the twine.

Burlap unravels and is sometimes really thin, so I thought I would secure the loose ends in place with some mod podge.  I mixed my mod podge with some white paint and painted it on.

It doesn't take long to dry.

I thought it would be easiest if I had freezer stencils made up for the letters.

I cut my freezer paper down to size to fit in my Silhouette.

I always use spray adhesive to secure the paper to the cutting mat.

After I got my font and letters the size I wanted in my software, I cut them out of the freezer paper.

I cut the freezer paper down so that I had a small surrounding area around the freezer paper.

I positioned it in place

and ironed.

I used tulip fabric paint for the lettering.

 Carefully dab your paint in place on your stencil.

Once it's dry, you can peel off your freezer paper and your letter is done!

That's it!

Somewhat time consuming but a fun little addition to any room, for a baby shower, or for your craft booth!

Where do you find support as a parent?

For the past two years I have had the honor of being in the top 25 creative blog moms at Circle of Moms.

Circle of Moms by popsugar is a community of moms providing support in all areas of parenting.  If you are a working mom, a stay at home mom, a mom of a teenager or a newborn, you will find information and support at Circle of Moms.

From the moment I became a mom I sought out other parents who could help me normalize parenting.  I have been involved in lots of co-ops, play groups, moms Bible studies, MOPS, and on-line pregnancy/parenting support groups.  The ability to talk aloud about what you think only you are experiencing was so helpful to me and those groups helped me get through some difficult times in parenting especially in the early years.

Circle of Moms has a video series in partnership with Kia discussing some of the very parenting topics that I discussed with other moms at the playground.   Topics of discussion that you could eaves drop on just by showing up at any pre-school drop off!  Below is the latest video from Circle of Moms by POPSUGAR.

I loved this video discussion!  It was like sitting around with a bunch of girlfriends at a play date chatting about the latest with your kids.  

One of the hot topics of discussion is how to tackle a weight issue in your child.  Many parents aren't sure how to have this discussion with their children.  A therapist gives some great tips on how parents can open up the dialogue with their kids so that change can occur to promote a healthier lifestyle.
**Tip: Being a good role model is key!**

Another favorite topic of discussion in mom groups that I have been a part of is birthday party celebrations. The circle of moms video series in partnership with Kia takes some time to discuss this as well.

I remember going all out for my oldest son's first birthday, and yet it's a celebration that he won't remember!  There are whole blogs and websites dedicated to birthday party planning.
Are you a parent that likes to keep it simple, or do you go all out with a huge themed party each year?

And finally, all parents of multiple children struggle with how to incorporate a new baby into the family without making the older children feel left out.  
It was always really important to me to spend one on one time with my older children when there was a new baby in the house.  Even if I was tempted to put a movie on and take a nap when the new baby slept!  My oldest son and I would build trains that would take up the whole downstairs.  My daughter and I would read books together or play kitchen.  We would spend time with the baby monitor plugged in to the garage outlet and ride bikes in the cul de sac.
If I needed to get some cooking or laundry done, I would try to incorporate the things that I needed to get done, and let the older kids be involved in it too.
The circle of moms video series in partnership with Kia has some great tips on how to make that new baby adjustment easier for your older kids.

Where do you find parenting support?  
Are any of these issues things that you have talked to your girlfriends about?

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Kia through their partnership with Circle of Moms. While I was compensated to review the Kia Motors video and write a review, all opinions are my own.