The Shopping Mama

{handmade} holiday gift idea by Drawn to Letters

by Amy on December 15th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Holiday Toys, Shopping

Christmas is quickly approaching, and it’s increasingly difficult to buy handmade gifts in time for the holiday. Drawn to Letters has a few of these adorable (and educational!) Match Memory Games left in stock, and they are ready to ship in time for Christmas!

This super sweet memory game includes 15 sets of animals from original hand painted illustrations by Drawn to Letters’ Joanne Gilbert, and are printed on 2″ squares of heavy acid free bristol board. Priced at just $14, you can’t go wrong. These are the perfect way to teach baby first words, or for older kids to practice memory skills. They’re great for on-the-go, too.

Happy {handmade} shopping!

Prince Lionheart Toddler Bundle Giveaway

by Kate on December 15th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Giveaways

Throughout the past year we’ve been happy to share various Prince Lionheart products as a member of the Elite Writers Group. In case you missed it, we reviewed the Balance Scooter, Soft Booster Seat and Woody the Rocking Horse.

As the year draws to a close, it’s time to celebrate with a great Prince Lionheart giveaway. This one’s geared towards the toddlers, offering some must have gear.

The Bundle includes:

Universal Drawer Organizer: The Universal Organizer will keep things tidy, while keeping frequently used items at your fingertips. The versatile four row tray design saves space in pantries, keeps drawers neatly organized, or stands alone on countertops for immediate accessibility. A removable divider is perfect for smaller items such as utensils or small household gadgets. Can store cutlery, spices or other pantry items and office supplies once Baby grows.
boosterPOD: boosterPOD® makes sitting safe, comfortable and fun! The soft seat design and practical base attach securely to both child and chair. Little ones can now get a safe and secure boost that actually feels good.
2-Stage Seat Saver: Its high-density foam construction prevents depression damage that is caused by car seats. The bottom tray keeps all cars seats level and in proper position, and the kick plate protects upholstery from shoe scuffs. Works with all LATCH compatible car seat systems and fits all automobiles.

Shop! The Prince Lionheart Universal Drawer Organizer is $13, the boosterPod is $50 and the 2-Stage Seat Saver is $22. Shop or find a retail partner at PrinceLionheart.com.

Win! Prince Lionheart Toddler Bundle! {$85 Value}

How to Enter: Visit Prince Lionheart and leave a comment with another toy or baby product you’d like to gift this holiday season.

Earn Extra Entries – valid only after completing first mandatory entry. Please leave a comment for each you do.

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Giveaway ends December 31. Open to US residents only.

Thanks to Prince Lionheart for providing the giveaway prize.

Thursday Giveaway Linky

by Kate on December 15th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Giveaway Linky

Happy Thursday! Thanks for stopping by to link up and browse great blog giveaways. Before you take off, you must enter to win some of the fantastic prizes we have up for grabs.

The Preppy Poppy: Choice of Personalized Girls Christmas Tee or Christmas Pillow

$250 American Express Card

Summer Infant Prodigy Infant Car Seat

Petunia Pickle Bottom: Wanderlust Wallet & Shopper Tote

While you’re linking up, enter your giveaways at Baby Loving Mama. You also must enter some of the Holiday Gift Guide giveaways, including this awesome Crayola Holiday Gifts bundle worth $85.

Happy linking!

Partum Me?! Preparing for Charlie’s First Christmas

by Laura on December 14th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Life, Partum Me

Charlie’s gradual discovery of the world outside his co-sleeper is making this holiday season especially fun. We moved into our little Philadelphia row house almost six years ago, but we never got a Christmas tree. There were a lot of reasons why – space restrictions, our busy holiday travel schedule to see relatives, a general lack of interest in decorating a house in a city that has never really felt like home. But not having a Christmas tree was especially tough for me. Christmas trees are in my blood! Until I was in high school, my family owned a Christmas tree farm. I loved being out in the woods with our customers, helping them find the perfect tree, and watching as they were loaded into their cars and taken off to homes to be decorated. I got a kick out of “visiting” the trees that were purchased by my friends’ families. And our tree was always a big beautiful specimen from the farm, decorated with ornaments from three generations of my family, including handmade items from my grandmother, my mother, and me and my brother. Working on the farm and decorating our tree was time well-spent with my family.

This year, we decided we would do whatever it took to make room for a tree. It was for Charlie’s sake, of course. (Wink wink.) I realized we missed out on five years worth of advances in Christmas tree decoration technology. No-tip tree stands…LED Christmas lights…I’m in heaven! We found a small space to fit a tree and found the skinniest, but tallest, tree we could find that would fit. And I must say, she’s quite a beauty:

“]
The first annual T Family
Christmas Tree – before.

The tree has now been up for a few days and is fully decorated with a mix of old and new ornaments. Each morning, I bring Charlie downstairs, turn on the tree lights, put him in his bouncy chair, and he drinks his morning bottle while checking out his tree. Each night I’ve carried him over to the tree and talked about a different ornament, telling him stories from when I was a kid. I’ve lamented here before about the fact that his Nana (my mother) died when I was a teenager, so this has been a great way to keep her spirit alive at a time of year when I miss her the most. Having the tree has also made me put more effort into decorating other areas of the house for Christmas. We now have LED candles in the windows, a pine swag hanging on the front door, and a few other decorations to make the first floor of the house much more festive. And to top it all off, my dad and my brother and I have been in talks about starting up the Christmas Tree farm again. It’s as if our collective Christmas spirit was hibernating and Charlie awakened it.

And that’s a very good thing, indeed.

The first annual T Family Christmas Tree
in all of
its “after” glory.

Ice.com Makes a Great Jewelry Collection Possible {Discount Code}

by Laura on December 14th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Shopping

My jewelry tastes range from the classic and staid style of a string of pearls to the bold fashion of statement necklaces. But myfavorite pieces are the ones that are feminine with a bit of edge. There’s a toughness within my jewelry collection, but the traditional aspects of each piece help it stay timeless. One item that I have been coveting ever since it made a comeback on one of my favorite NYC shows of all time is the name necklace.

When I was a kid, I envied the girls who had these necklaces. They were always the ones who didn’t take any guff from anyone and always looked effortlessly pretty. I was excited to find a mature, high quality version of the name plate necklace at Ice.com. Paired with Ice’s peridot studs, it makes a girly statement while still hanging tough.

Shop! For a limited time, Ice.com is offering a special deal to our readers. Use the code FBBOC at check-out to get 20% off!

I Saw It On Pinterest… And Made It Myself!

by Shannon on December 14th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Crafts with Kids, Life

I wanted to start this post in so many ways:

After all the expenses of moving (that continue to this day), how on earth am I supposed to afford gifts for my daughter’s preschool classmates this year?
“I could spend HOURS on Pinterest!” is all I hear from friends. This is true for me, as well. However, with the approach of the new year, I want to challenge myself to actually DO something with the things that inspire me.
Oh my word, this is such an easy craft to make with (and for) preschoolers!
I’ve used store receipts for bookmarks my entire adult life, but as preschool girl is starting to read chapter books (hurray!) I’d like for her to have a cool bookmark to use each night when we close “Because of Winn-Dixie” or “The Happy Hollisters” (terribly outdated, but I clean up the bully and gender stereotypes).

So, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m starting a new series of posts in which I recreate something I saw on Pinterest for my home and family (or as gifts). Haven’t heard of Pinterest? It’s a relatively new online forum for sharing and storing everything found on the internet. And by everything, I do mean everything.

How to Use Pinterest

Here’s how it works:

1) Visit Pinterest.com and create an account for yourself.
2) Once you have an account, a “Pin It” tab will appear in your internet favorites bar.
3) Anytime you see anything on the internet (in a catalog, on a blog, on a professional site, etc), you click “Pin It” and it pins to “your page.”
4) When you are finally ready to craft or make a purchase, you can visit your page and view all the items (with links to the original site intact).

Gone are the days of “Now, where did I see that snowman made of popsicle sticks?” or “Who had the best deal on red corduroy pants?” Simply visit your page to see all your inspiration, or compare products at a glance. I love my Pinterest page, but have heard more than one person I know complain about the amount of time they spend on the site. It can be overwhelming because, in addition to seeing your pins, you can see all of your friends’ pins as well. You can even view pins from general categories.

I often see more inspiration than I can stand. Which brings me to my challenge for the new year. I am making a resolution to “take action” on the things I see on Pinterest at least twice per month. Whether it be a craft, recipe or home decor idea, I want to do something with the ideas generated in this forum.

Project Inspired by Pinterest

I’m starting my resolution early in the month of December with some really cool, quick, easy and inexpensive bookmarks that inspired me. They are incredibly relevant gifts as my preschool daughter, and many of her friends, are starting to read chapter books (she can’t read yet, but I read to her) and will be perfect to give to her classmates at preschool. And as with any craft you create yourself, you can customize them to any color or pattern you wish.
This is what I saw on Pinterest:

The original post can be found at Altered to Perfection and the original creator sells these items on Etsy if you find yourself short of time. The originals are created with jumbo colored paper clips, but I couldn’t find any large ones in various colors. I purchased a package of ten really large brass paper clips at Staples. As for ribbon, this project is perfect for using your scraps. Each piece is small and you use multiples, so you can clean up your ribbon drawer and cut costs while creating these super-cute stocking stuffers!
Here’s my version:

The pen is there to show scale. These are some very cute, sturdy bookmarks. I made several more that don’t appear in the photo because my children have absconded with them. I did find that I need to purchase some additional ribbon that will appeal to the boys in preschool girl’s class. Total cost for gifts for an entire preschool class? Less than $10.00, even with an additional ribbon purchase.

January? Of course, it will include exercise. Stay tuned to see what’s getting done, or better yet, share with me what you are doing with the things you find on Pinterest! You can also follow me on Pinterest to see what’s inspiring me.

Mrs. Prindable’s Gourmet Caramel Apples and Gift Baskets {Holiday Gift Review}

by Kate on December 14th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Reviews

When discussing this post with my husband and asking for his feedback on a title he suggested, “A slice of heaven in a basket.” I think he’s on to something. We received a fantastically delicious Mrs. Prindable’s gift basket for ~~me to scarf~~ review.

The Story of Mrs. Prindable’s

Mrs. Prindable’s invented the “Gourmet Caramel Apple” as we know it today. It started with the thought of creating the most unique hand made confection indulgence using the nostalgic tradition of a caramel apple. Since unique was the premise, no small apple would do. It had to be the biggest and best apple available. Next, the caramel had to be the most decadent and luscious. So the recipe required the freshest cream, butter, pure cane sugar and natural vanilla. Finally, we topped off our creation with the highest quality chocolates, nutmeats or candies.

Enough words… let’s get some pregnant lady food porn and look at some of the Mrs. Prindable’s deliciousness.

From left to right: Jumbo Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Almond Apple, Milk Chocolate Toffee Walnut Apple, Triple Chocolate Caramel Apple = YUM

Mrs. Prindables Gift Basket

Perfect for the holidays and gift giving for those hard to shop for people, Mrs. Prindable’s offers a range of gift baskets. The specially packaged holiday gift baskets range in price from about $35 and go up. Some include only caramel apples and others contain a variety of chocolate goodness. We received the Mrs. Prindables Classic Holiday Gift Basket and my mouth immediately started watering.

As you know, I like to take photos and share my experiences on a variety of goodies for families. Unfortunately, I ate everything too quickly (I’m not kidding) to take my own photos, so the ones from Mrs. Prindable’s will have to do. The basket contained two chocolate covered apples: one Milk Chocolate Walnut Petite Apple, one Triple Chocolate Petite Apple. I cannot believe those things are called petite – they were plenty big. I will pretend that my husband and I shared them, but the truth is I did most of the eating. He has some crazy thing called self-control with which I am not familiar. Clearly the chocolate and caramel and everything drizzled on the apple is delicious, but the actual apples inside are also incredibly tasty: juicy and a little bitter to balance the sweet. I did share one of the two Holiday Pretzelswith my kids who maybe have liked it almost as much as I did. My favorite non-apple item in the basket was the 4.5 oz Classic Vanilla Caramel Gift Bag. However, including the word gift implies that it was meant to be given to someone else. I actually ate every single piece myself so, oops. Seriously, these caramels were the best ever. Next up on my eating marathon (for the purpose of providing a thorough review, of course) was the Peppermint Bark. This is such a great holiday dessert and the Mrs. Prindable’s version is classic and very tasty. Finally, I enjoyed the Milk Chocolate Pecan Nut Cluster, which is basically a big chunk of all the good stuff they cover the apples with in a delicious mound of yum.

One thing that is noticeable about the Mrs. Prindable’s apples and sweets is that they arrived in great condition. The instructions recommend refrigerating everything and removing them from shortly before you plan to eat. They were really fresh and delicious and definitely didn’t taste like something sent through the mail. If I didn’t know, I’d think I was eating something I picked up at a chocolate store earlier in the day.

To Buy or Not to Buy

To Buy… Um, YES. Get some goodies for yourself, get a basket for the in-laws, get a basket for the teacher and then get yourself another. You won’t regret it.

Or Not to Buy… If you’re watching your figure it’s best not to have anything this delicious around. (But, who watches their weight during the holidays!?)

Shop! The Mrs. Prindable’s Classic Holiday Gift Basket is $49.95. There’s a great list of gifts under $50 that has a variety of goodies for everyone on your shopping list.

Thanks to Mrs. Prindable’s for providing a sample for the purpose of this post. No, really, thank you!

What I Wore {27 Weeks}

by Kate on December 14th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Fashion & Beauty, Life, What I Wore

Welcome to What I Wore Wednesday – the pregnant 27 weeks edition. This week brought yet another formal dressing occasion and I also received several Cyber Monday shopping spree packages so I feel like my maternity wardrobe doubled overnight. Here are a few things I wore this week.

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Last Friday was my husband’s holiday party. I loved this dress. LOVED. I can’t wait to wear it again. It was so comfortable and I didn’t feel self-conscious or uncomfortable the whole night. Except maybe when I was doing the Electric Slide after too many Shirley Temples. It’s been unseasonably chilly so I wore my favorite bright jacket from Tulle over the dress.

Dress: Seraphine Knot Front Dress
Jacket: Tulle
Shoes: Bandolino
Earrings: Lia Sophia

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One of my maternity spending spree packages that arrived was from Tulle so this post is all about Tulle – both new (this outfit and next) and old (the yellow jacket). I love this cardy, but it’s no longer available online. While it doesn’t look particularly flattering with the cardigan, I love this shirt and imagine I’ll wear it a lot. I wore this outfit for hanging out with the kids during the week. (And, TMI, but holy cow I need a new bra. Good lord, pregnant boob fairy!)