Come Join the Party!

Living a Mom's Life and My Little Monkey Boutique are partying with 5MinutesforMom at their annual Ultimate Blog Party. But the party ends tomorrow, Friday, March 14th.
Be sure to get on over to 5MinutesforMom to sign up for the chance to win a ton of cool prizes!

Virtual Baby Shower to Honor Adoptive Mother and Guests

My Little Monkey Boutique - my online baby and toddler boutique - is proud to be a sponsor in Little Ladybug Designs' baby shower and virtual giveaway for an adoptive mother to be.

Please read the press release below for information on this exciting event.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 07, 2008 – Baby showers have come an incredibly long way in the twenty-first century. When it comes to rejoicing the arrival of a new baby, the Internet has provided an excitingly fresh venue to celebrate new mothers and their children. Trailblazing the way for digital baby showers is a mother-owned and operated company called Little Ladybug Designs that has announced the winner of their giveaway contest of gifts, baby products, and other necessities for a newly adopted child.

Adoptive mother, Dawn Vasco, winner of the contest and mother of her new son Steven, will be the guest of honor at Little Ladybug Designs’ shower. Dawn won’t need to worry about baby announcements, clothes, diaper bags, bibs, or towels, among many other baby accessories—and most of hers are personalized or handmade.

Little Ladybug Designs’ own website, http://www.littleladybugdesigns.com/, will be hosting the baby shower in the excited mother’s honor. Set to take place March 27th to March 29th, guests can simply visit the website in order to have the chance to play baby name games and test their knowledge of celebrity baby names, among many other amusing activities.

For the past five years, Dawn has longed to have her own child. Having always been fascinated with Latin culture, Dawn began her search with Guatemalan adoption agencies last year and was thrilled to discover that the country allowed single-mothers to adopt. After finishing her adoption work, Dawn found out that she was chosen as the winner of this enormous adoption giveaway. She was thrilled. “I felt like I had won the lottery,” she exclaimed. “I was ecstatic!”

“Adoption is very near and dear to my heart,” said Kim Neufeld, owner of Little Ladybug Designs. “I wanted to shower an adoptive mom-to-be who had just been through the financial and emotional struggles of adopting a baby.”

Music, gifts, and entertainment are also planned for the three-day event. Dawn isn’t the only woman receiving a bundle of presents. Mothers and other guests attending the event have a chance to win prizes from any of the celebration’s sponsors by leaving a comment in the site’s guestbook about the giveaway or aspect of the party that they enjoyed the most. Gifts come from a range of options, including return address labels, personalized and embroidered blankets, jewelry, gift certificates, and diaper cakes.

Winners are to be picked randomly. The event draws on the generous support of a force of mother-owned businesses. The tremendous list of supporters includes: Kandi with A Love of Coffee; Tiffani with Bitsy Bows & Tinsy Ties; Megan with Burp Itty Burp; Janet with Chic Pockets; Christine & Barbara with Cute Creations Design; Kelly & Deb with Custom Lifebooks.com; Sabrina with Dot Tot Boutique; Amy with Essential Family Living; Katie with Foxglove Cottage; Domonique with Kess Informant; Stephanie with Memaw's Sweet Babies; Tara with Merritt's Momentos; Kyna with Micah & Co.; Lisa with My Colorful Treasures; April with My Little Monkey Boutique; Kimberly with Oh My Baby; Amy, Holly and Carol with Papoose; Rebecca with Quote the Walls; Lisa with Regionz Kidz; Alexandra with Sassy Tees; Ann with Sharmooz; Altha with Stuff a Can; Dawn with Sweet Pea Cakes, Etc.; Diana with The Emilee Grace Company; Janine with The Fairy Princess Garden; Tina with The Polka Dot Frog Boutique; and Julianne with The Wish Place.

About Little Ladybug Designs: Little Ladybug Designs is a mom-owned business specializing in unique, modern, custom adoption and birth announcements, baby shower birthday invitations, thank-you cards, and video montages. The company recently announced that it is also expanding its product line to include wedding invitations, save-the-date cards, bridal shower invitations, and wedding announcements. Little Ladybug Designs is expanding to offer business promotional items such as business cards, postcards, and return address labels.

Winners of Tough Three's Contest

Congratulations to WAHM Tara! Tara is the winner of the $5 gift certificate to My Little Monkey Boutique.

Congratulations also goes to Candace for her advice on how to deal with three year old terrors :) Candace reminds us to give our children tasks to keep them busy while letting them feel like a big helper. She also suggests giving praises to your child throughout the day to encourage him or her to do the right things. Candace will get the Time Management for Moms Ebook.

Both ladies can contact me at april.barney @ amb-services (take out the spaces) to claim their prizes!

Thank you to everyone who commented! I really enjoyed reading all of your stories and tips.

It Will Suck You In!

If you love to create and are looking for a place to show off your wares, Etsy is for you - but be forewarned, it will suck you in. I just joined Etsy a couple weeks ago and have found myself consumed by it!

Between creating and listing my products, promoting my shop and chatting on the forums, I have spent way too many hours to count in front of the computer. Right now I'm waiting for a fun game of Secret Shopper to start!

Please feel free to check out some of my most recent works at my etsy shop - including these adorable wall hangings perfect for a baby's nursery or child's room.

Product Review - Carrying your Wipes in Style

When you're a mom, you quickly find out that one of the most important and most used necessities is the diaper wipe. Whether you're using them to wipe butts, faces or noses, diaper wipes are an essential item in the world of Mom.

Little did I realize as a young mother, just how long I would be buying diaper wipes. I always thought once he's out of diapers, what's the need for the wipes. Well let me tell you, I have realized just how wrong that thought was. My son is out of diapers, but I still find uses for wipes - wiping his runny noses, cleaning his messy face, getting the food off of his clothes, and so on. At least now, I have a stylish and fun way to carry this catchall product.

While many diaper wipes manufacturers have been kind enough to provide a traveling case to tote them around in, let's face it, plastic just isn't that exciting. Thankfully Shawna at Ballerinas and Buckaroos put her creative talent into designing fun, decorative and classy cases for moms who like to have their personality shine through their gear.

At Ballerinas and Buckaroos, there is a large selection of custom wipes cases to choose from. I, being the mom of a three-year-old who already thinks skateboarding is the coolest thing ever, choose the Skater theme wipes case. This wipes case allows me and my son to both show off our personalities ... I always had a "thing" for skaterboarders growing up :) But it also allows me to tote around the much used wipes conveniently.

Another favorite of mine - that I didn't notice until after I ordered my Skater theme case - is the My Little Monkey wipes case. This case just looks so adorable on the website. It's hard for this design not to grab my attention though, being that my nickname for Reagan is "monkey."

Ballerinas and Buckaroos has a variety of themes to choose from including classy gingham prints, fairies, sports and so much more. And Shawna has been so generous to offer all Living a Mom's Life readers a 15% discount on your purchase with coupon code SAV10 at checkout. So go on over to http://www.ballerinasandbuckaroos.com/ and pick out your favorite case to match you or your child(ren)'s personalities.

Swap the Old for the Old, But Different

As publicity coordinator of my local Mothers of Preschoolers group, I am in charge of sending out all the emails and notifying members of our events, among other things. I just finished emailing my group about one of my most favorite events that we do - the Clothing Swap!
I LOVE clothes! I love buying clothes for myself, and before my son was even born, I was stockpiling cute little outfits for him. My dad once told me that when I was working retail in clothing shops, it was like an alcholic working as a bartender! That is how bad I am :)
So needless to say, I am constantly going through my son's drawers, finding outfits that he's outgrown and trying to figure out what to do with them - outside of just bagging them up and putting them in the attic.
Thankfully, every year about this time, my MOPS group has our clothing swap. This is my chance to take those clothes that he outgrew during the year and trade them in for clothes in his size - or a year or so bigger for future use. This year I will be swapping a lot of 2T stuff for 4T or 5T toddler clothes.
Of course there are those items that I cannot part with. You know, the baptismal outfit, the Easter outfit, the first Christmas outfit. And alot of clothes now go to my one-year-old nephew. But the others, I'm more than happy to give to my friends, while taking their kids' clothes off of their hands.

Here are some more ways to "get rid" of that pile of outgrown clothes that are spilling over your child's drawers and closets:

* Pass them down to siblings/other family members/friends
* Give them to the Goodwill or DAV
* Make a little extra change by selling them at a yard sale
* Make even less change by selling them to a consignment shop
* Cut them up and get a little crafty with them - turn a baby sweater into a miniature pillow
* Have the really special items mounted in a shadow box and hung on the wall

I'd love to hear what you do with your outgrown kids' clothes. Leave a comment with a tip or unique idea.

Gotta love the 80s

I've been busy cleaning this morning. When cleaning I can't stand quiet, I just must have music playing so I can get energized and psyched up ... cleaning is not the most fun chore in the world you know.

So I turned on the 80s XM channel and have been remembering some great times in my life. For instance, right now the New Kids on the Block song "Don't Go Girl" is on .... Wow! That one brings back some memories! I was 13 and so excited to see the New Kids on the Block in concert with two of my best friends. I thought it was the coolest thing to get the autograph of one the group's roadies. And, of course, when Jonathan sang the Happy Birthday song I just knew he was singing it to me - I was celebrating my birthday just days after that concert after all.

I admit it - I was a HUGE New Kids on the Block fan. I had posters covering every inch of my bedroom walls - mostly individual photos of Jordan and Joey because they were the ultimate cuties of the group. I even had a New Kids on the Block pillow case and the Jordan and Joey dolls!

So since I'm reminiscing of the 80s today, I thought I'd post a video of one of the best Monday songs of the 80s. Who remembers this one?




So enjoy the video and feel free to share YOUR favorite 80s memories, singers, bands, actor/actresses ... anything that made the 80s special for you.

BTW, I hear rumblings that the New Kids on the Block are making a comeback .... looks like I may bring out my New Kids on the Block T-shirt back out of hiding.