Thursday Giveaway Linky

by Kate on May 19th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Giveaway Linky, Weekly Features

Thanks for stopping by to link up and browse giveaways. Make sure you head over to Baby Loving Mama to link up there, too.

Stylish Travel Accessories from Vera Bradley

by Kate on May 17th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  For Mama, Reviews, Spring Into Spring

If only airline companies put as much thought and consideration into travelers as Vera Bradley does… Well, a girl can dream. If airlines did, the result would be a lovely and practical experience like that envisioned by Vera Bradley. The company known for its beautiful fabric handbags has expanded its accessories collection to include a number of products that are perfect for traveling mamas – whether you’re going solo or with the family in tow.

Travel Wallet

Travelers, meet your match! This long wallet style was designed to hold your passport, boarding passes, receipts and ID. A magnetic closure secures your valuables and you’re all set for the next terminal.

I used the Travel Wallet on a recent plane trip, and while that was an unpleasant experience, I am pleased that at least *I* had my stuff together! But, seriously, the Travel Wallet ($42) is a plane traveler’s dream. With easy access pockets specifically for traveling documents like boarding passes and passport, the Travel Wallet ensures everything you need is at your finger tips. In addition to those compartments, the front flap also has a see-through ID holder, which is obviously helpful when flying – and in every day life. The wallet is useful for more than airline travel, as it has two areas for money, eight credit card spots and a zippered area for change. The back also has a pocket the length of the wallet for coupons and such.

Stylish Travel Accessories

Now that you have the wallet covered, check out some of the other pretty and practical travel accessories from Vera Bradley.

Hanging Organizer ($48) – Organize all your beauty and toiletry items in one pretty place. Not only does this make packing more simple, but you can unfold it and hang it at your destination for easy access to everything you need. For shorter trips, try the Mini Hanging Organizer ($35) that will fit nicely in your carry-on bag.

Weekender Bag ($92) – Ideal for short trips, this bag has pockets galore – four interior, two outside and a zippered pocket. The long shoulder strap is removable and the packed bag is standard carry on size. It just happens to look much prettier than the basic black roller.

Translucent Travel Pouch ($18) – Sure, you could store your carry-on liquids in a plain plastic baggie, but what fun is that when the Translucent Travel Pouch exists? Besides, you can use this checkpoint-friendly cosmetic pouch over and over again and even when you’re not traveling.

Shop! Vera Bradley Travel Accessories like the Travel Wallet are available in a wide variety of distinctive Vera Bradley prints. Check the great Travel Products section for everything from Duffel Bags to Curling Iron Covers to Laptop Sleeves.

Vera Bradley provided a sample product.

Little One Books: Spring into Spring Review + Giveaway

by Kate on May 17th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Giveaways, Reviews, Spring Into Spring

It’s no secret that all of us here at The Shopping Mama love shopping for, reading and sharing great children’s books. Buying books for my kids is always a no-guilt, feel good mission that makes the whole family happy. Little One Books offers a well-curated, thoughtful selection of books (and more) for kids.

About Little One Books

We specialize in quality books, music, and video, for children birth through age five, and have personally reviewed and selected each and every item in our store. You’ll find detailed information on why we prefer a particular product in our “Why We Chose” section of each product page.
At Little One Books, we match each product to what we believe is the youngest appropriate age group. However, our carefully selected items can and will be used for many years to come. As children develop they often find pleasure in revisiting illustrations from old favorites, and eventually learning to read them on their own.

One Watermelon Seed

As the end of the school year nears and summer approaches, One Watermelon Seed is a great choice. The book is about gardening – a great spring and summer family activity – but also incorporates numbers and lots of counting.

One Watermelon Seed Synopsis

In this deceptively simple counting book, Max and Josephine tend their garden while readers follow along, counting from one to ten as the garden is planted. Then readers can count in groups of tens as the garden is harvested, while they search through the pictures for the many small animals that are hiding throughout. A concise and clever text introduces color and rhythm, and the illustrations are bright and engaging, making this a perfect counting book.

The bright, fun colors of the growing garden is a fun backdrop for the basic number skills your child will gather from reading the book. I think One Watermelon Seed is solely responsible for the fact that my son learned to count by tens – a skill introduced in the book – and that he now boasts he can count to a thousand. While he may be exaggerating a lot little, the book definitely did introduce a new math and counting concept. And, frankly, if a fun to reach children’s book can help me to teach or reinforce a math skill, this totally math-challenged mama will take it.

Children’s Books for the Summer

The Little One Books shopping experience is easy because the books are categorized by age group so you can target your search to books for your children. I searched the preschool aged books to find some other books to reinforced educational ideas while your tots are on a break from the rigors of pre-K.

Alphabet City: Letters aren’t found only in books, they’re everywhere around us. Take a tour of Alphabet City, and soon you’ll be seeing letters in the unlikeliest places.

Can You Count Ten Toes?: In this dynamic counting book you can learn to count in ten different languages: Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Hindi, Hebrew, and even Zulu.

Alphabet Explosion! Search & Count from Alien to Zebra: 18 things in this book begin with the letter “A,” 19 start with “H,” and there are 37 ways of counting “S.” Can you find them all?

To Buy or Not to Buy

To Buy… Whether you’re well-versed in children’s literature or not, shopping Little One Books is easy and guarantees you’ll purchase a good book for a young child. I appreciate that the  thoughtful collection of books, like One Watermelon Seed, is organized by age and includes a blurb on why they chose to sell each one.

Or Not to Buy… Little One Books focuses on books for babies and children from birth to five years. I’d love to see the collection expanded to include older kids, too.

Shop! One Watermelon Seed is $19.95, and the prices for other books vary. Books are always a great book for kids, and Little One Books offers great Gift Bundles that offer the perfect combination of books, movies and music.

Win! $30 Gift Certificate to Little One Books!

How to Enter: Visit Little One Books and check out the great selection. Leave a comment with another book you’d love to read with your child.

Bonus Entries – valid only after completing the first required entry. Please leave a separate comment for each you do.

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Thanks to Little One Books for providing samples and the giveaway prize.

Serena & Lily World Repair Kit: Review + Giveaway

by Kate on May 16th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Giveaways, Life, Reviews, Spring Into Spring

Serena & Lily is a wonderful brand of home decor for babies, children and the family alike. They also offer a wide assortment of interesting and unique toys, gifts, fabrics, decor and furniture for the home and your family.  I love getting the colorful catalog in the mail and seeing all of the new and exciting items.  One of the items I saw recently caught my eye. It is the World Repair Kit for kids. I was happy to learn more about it.  With a little guy getting older, it is important to me that I teach him about the world around him, both near and far; and I like this healthy and not overwhelming way to introduce him to some “heavier” topics.

About the World Repair Kit

  • Quick facts about environmental issues, conservation, protecting endangered species and more.
  • Hands-on ways to help those in need of food, shelter, clean water, education and health care.
  • Great ideas for volunteering, planning creative fundraisers and hosting World Repair Parties.
  • A Resource Guide connecting you to amazing non-profit organizations.
  • Everyday ways to find your passion and get inspired to be the best world citizen you can be!
  • 100% of net proceeds go to the Serena & Lily Foundation, funding youth initiatives around the world.


We’re Repairing the World

The World Repair Kit from Serena & Lily comes in a sturdy box with loads of goodies inside. There are a lot of little fun facts concerning world issues and places around the world. It also gives kids and families ideas for making a difference in their own communities. I love the stamps that accompany the guidebook so that kids can stamp the “Did it? Stamp it!” icon in the corner of the pages.  The main book is set up to look like a tour guide book, and is cleverly designed to help kids see that there is so much more to the world than what happens in their neighborhood or school, without being scary or intimidating. That said, I have a 3 year old, and most of this is pretty  far out of his league as far as what I am ready to have to explain to him (world hunger, malaria, etc.). But, there are also pages that I can share with him now such as “Find the good in everyone”, or “find your passion”. Concepts that I definitely want him to learn at an early age. The recommended age for this kit is 8+ and I think that is probably a good fit. I think this would be a fantastic gift for a child around that age!

To Buy or Not to Buy

To Buy… I think this is a great gift idea for a elementary aged child. 100% of the net proceeds go to the Serena & Lily Foundation, which funds youth initiatives around the world, so it is a gift you can feel really good about.

Or Not to Buy… The only reason I can think of not to purchase this is if your kiddos are still babies, you aren’t ready for this kit. But you will be before you know it, and it is a wonderful way to help you kids learn about being an active global citizen.

Shop! Visit Serena & Lily and take a look at the World Repair Kit, which retails for  $24.95, as well as other fantastic decor and gift items. We also love the Serena & Lily Gypsy Tote, in particular.

Win!  A Serena & Lily World Repair Kit !

How to Enter: Visit Serena & Lily and check out all the great products. Leave a comment telling us how you would use the World Repair Kit with your family.

Bonus Entries – valid only after completing the first required entry. Please leave a separate comment for each you do.

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Giveaway ends May 30. Open to US mailing addresses only.

Sample products and giveaway prize provided by Serena & Lily.

Easy Organic Living Challenges: Recipe & Reading Labels

by Kate on May 15th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Life

It’s been a few weeks since our last installment for the Easy Organic Living Challenge offered by BabyCenter.com and Healthy Child Healthy World and sponsored by Stonyfield.

I promise I did not take time off from eating organic; however, I did take a break from writing about it! I’m sorry to have fallen behind, but my husband, who’s serving a year tour in Iraq, was home for a two-week visit and we made lots of good food, but didn’t find time to chronicle it.

If you’ve been following the challenge, you know it has four parts:

To catch up and be able to award one lucky reader of The Shopping Mama a bag full of goodies from challenge sponsors, I’m going to cover Challenges 3 & 4 in a single post.

Challenge 3 – Make a recipe with at least one organic ingredient

There are lots of ways to incorporate a single organic ingredient into a family favorite recipe. Of course, fresh organic fruits and vegetables are an option. But there are many other emerging products to consider as well.

I recently made homemade “no fry” fish tacos for my family. I found a great recipe at RealSimple.com for no fry fish sticks and turned them into tacos. During preparation, I added organic chili powder and cumin to the breading and to sour cream to make a sauce. I also used organic olive oil for baking the fish.

If you’re baking, consider purchasing organic flour, sugar and/or eggs that are available in many local markets.

Challenge 4 – Become an informed consumer; read labels

I began reading food package labels three years ago. My family has not eaten the same since. Fresh prevails. However, there are times when packaged food provides comfort and convenience. After all, who doesn’t love to have macaroni and cheese in under 10 minutes? Since mac and cheese is a personal favorite, I chose boxed versions for the label reading challenge.

The leading brand of boxed macaroni and cheese features chemical preservatives and artificial dyes (yellow 5 and yellow 6). This same brand is sold in other parts of the globe without these ingredients, as they are banned in many other countries due to health concerns. On the other hand, Annie’s Homegrown has a luscious boxed macaroni and cheese with all natural ingredients. Nothing scary in this list.

As you begin to read labels, also pay attention to the order of ingredients. The ingredients are listed in order of their percentage makeup of the product. For example, if water is listed first, there is more water than any other ingredient in the product.

I recently needed taco seasoning for a Mexican pasta salad I was making. I, for the first time, read the label of the taco seasoning pouches available in my local grocery store. The first ingredient for taco seasoning? Chili powder? No. Cumin? No. Maltodextrin? Yes. I put the pouch on the shelf, came home and Googled “spices in taco seasoning.” I found a very easy recipe to make my own with spices already in my cabinet.

After incorporating an organic ingredient and reading labels, my family and I enjoyed a meal of homemade fish tacos with macaroni and cheese on the side. I’d like to blame the macaroni and cheese on the fact that I have a toddler to please, but I’ll admit to eating my share as well.

Be sure to respond with your comments about Challenges 3 & 4 to be entered to win our Easy Organic Living prize!

Your comments on this and other Easy Organic Living Challenge posts will enter you to win an Easy Organic Living Reusable Tote Bag filled with goodies including a wide variety of coupons and samples of organic foods, an Eric Carle growth chart, Body + Soul Greener Living Guidebooks, Healthy Child Healthy World’s newest educational DVD, “Wake-Up to 5 Easy Steps,” Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen wallet cards, kids activity books and more.

Crocs Chameleon: Kids Shoes Change Color in the Sun

by Kate on May 14th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Clothes, Reviews

Crocs are synonymous with summer. The airy lightweight shoes are ideal for warm weather and now they’re making the shoes FUN with color-changing Crocs Chameleons. Chameleons start with a faint translucent shade and change color to a rich, deep color in the sun.

Crocs Chameleons for Kids

It’s like magic! The new Crocs Chameleons™ Translucent Clog changes colors in the sun. Using exclusive breakthrough patent-pending technology, these kids’ clogs transform from one color to another almost instantly when exposed to sunlight. So kids can watch them change right before their eyes!

Color-Changing Shoes

To say my son is obsessed with these shoes is a major understatement. He’s tried to wear them every day since they arrived. He going outside to watch them change from translucent to deep green. The only problem we’ve encountered is that he’s convinced they’ll change a different color if he goes outside in the moonlight. I haven’t quite figured out how to explain that to him. The shoes are two-tone and the bottom, sole color doesn’t change, but the primary color does change quite noticeably.

(Yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet in the second photo. As usual. I was so relieved when I saw another preschooler wearing his Cros on the wrong feet the other day because my son always puts them on backwards!)

The shoes have all the function and features of traditional Crocs shoes with the added fun of the cool color changing technology. If you don’t think that’s appealing to kids than you must be too young to remember HyperColor shirts. And, again, the technology is much cooler on cute accessories like shoes than it is on grown up sunglasses.

Shop! Crocs Chameleons are on sale NOW for $39.99. The Translucent Clog is available in 3 colors and the adorable Shirley Girls shoe (above) comes in two colors.

Crocs provided a sample product.

In the Know with Current Events with #thecollection iPad App {+ iPad Giveaway Info}

by Kate on May 13th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Blogging

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Ogilvy Interactive for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you ever feel like the only topics you’re prepared to discuss with other adults include potty training woes, the latest episode of Dinosaur Train and sneaking vegetables into your child’s meal? Well, you’re not alone. I find it increasingly difficult to stay on top of and knowledgeable about current events. Well, now there’s an App for that.

the collection is a brand new “appazine” – app + magazine – that uses ground-breaking technology to provide in-depth information in an entertaining method. In addition to first-class articles, audio, photos and videos, inter-active elements will include panoramic photography, 3D digital animation, creative morphing, rubbing, X-Ray lens and much much more. The app is free, but you pay to download each month’s appazine.

I downloaded the collection to my iPad and the premiere appazine focuses on Prince William. It’s separated into three parts with a collection of more information than you can imagine but it’s nothing like reading a long newspaper article. The content looks extremely cool, and is totally interactive. Search “the collection” in the app store to check it out.

iPad Giveaway!

Stay current with the collection on your very own iPad (and the collection App free for the remainder of the year)! All you need to do enter to win is send a tweet with the following message:

Stay up-to-date with current events by using #thecollection iPad App

Visit Sponsor's Site

Bugaboo Meets Missoni

by Kate on May 13th, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  Shopping

Bugaboo + Missoni combines the sleek modern lines of the high-end stroller with the bright colors and patterns of the iconic Italian fashion house.

Madeleen Klaasen, Bugaboo CMO says of the collection, “At Bugaboo we always aim for exciting unexpected collaborations. We feel privileged to be working with Missoni, this partnership combines excellence and innovation in stroller design combined with the unmistakable bright colour patterns of Missoni”.

The Bugaboo Cameleon can be prettified with a block print sun canopy and bassinet apron.

bugaboo missoni cameleon strollerbugaboo missoni cameleon bassinet

You can add vibrant zigzag sun canopy to the Bugaboo Bee. Each collection includes a knitted Missoni blanket (pictured with the Bee below).

bugaboo bee missoni stroller

Shop! The Bugaboo + Missoni collection will be available in July 2011 exclusively at Neiman Marcus. The Bugaboo Cameleon + Missoni accessory set is $269 while the Bugaboo Bee + Missoni accessory set is priced $199.

What do you think of the Bugaboo and Missoni collaboration? Will you be adding these bright colors to your Bugaboo?

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