Adorable Children’s Hair Accessories

Since my baby girl was born, I have placed big bows on her head. I don’t think anything can dress up a simple outfit for a child better than a perfectly adorable hair accessory, and in my opinion, the bigger the better.

That’s why I was delighted to discover Ladybugs and Butterflies — a company that makes children’s hair accessories by hand, piece by piece.

Ladybugs and Butterflies offer their beautiful embellishments on four different types of hair clips. The toddler snappy clip, which is flat and 1 1/2 “, is the type of I clip I chose for my daughter’s hair accessories, and it really does hold just onto the smallest, finest amount of hair. They also offer the 1 1/4″ infant snappy clip, which is guaranteed to hold in the finest and just a few strands of newborn baby hair. They also offer the original 1 3/4″ alligator pinch clip and the 2″ French barrette that is great for big girls with thicker, long hair.

Ladybugs and Butterflies has plenty of products for those who like ponytails and headbands in sizes that work for all hair types. And the baby head bands are super soft and stretchy, so they won’t leave marks on your baby girls’ heads.

The site is easy to shop because it’s organized in so many different ways: you can view products by latest collection, headbands, hairclips and pony O’s, etc. Once you pick a product (like the Bella Marie, which is my favorite and which is often on my toddler’s head), then you choose the clip type and color. Prices range from $4 for pony O’s to $7 for most hair clips and about $16 for headbands.

Check them out soon to accessorize your daughter’s wardrobe, and don’t forget to look for items that will go perfectly with an Easter ensemble.

Simple Diamond Necklace Makes for a Perfect Gift

I was born in April, so my birthstone is a diamond. I received my first diamond from my parents in the form of a ring given to me at Christmas when I was a teen. My teenage daughter’s birthstone is a diamond, too, and I passed that very ring onto her a few years ago at Christmas.

This year, she’s going to get her first diamond necklace as a gift (Sssh! She never reads this blog, so don’t tell her). It’s a beautiful, elegant yet simple-enough diamond necklace from Kranich Jewelers Everlon Jewelry collection. Specifically, she’ll be receiving the Everlon Diamond Knot necklace in sterling silver.

I love the simplicity of the Everlon Jewelry from Kranich’s Jewelers.  It’s elegant, but isn’t “too much” to wear with jeans and a sweater, which is about as dressed up as my teen ever seems to get. In fact, it’s often as dressed up as I seem to get these days, so I may have to borrow her necklace from time to time. (Hint hint, dear hubby).

Taylor Gifts Offers Cool Organization Products

Do you have someone on your gift list this holiday season who loves to stay organized? Or maybe who needs to get organized? If so, you can find dozens of gifts for that individual at taylorgifts.com.

Helpful organization products – such as storage bins, shoe racks, closet organizers and garage and office organizers – can cost a lot money at specialty organization stores and even at discount department stores. Taylor Gifts offers a wide variety of these products at prices most department stores can’t beat. Plus, Taylor Gifts has a host of other gifts, including candles and candle accessories, picture frames and albums, home décor, cookware, home exercise equipment, gag gifts and even holiday decorations.

You can shop by category or price, and you can even request a catalogue if you prefer that option to online shopping.

The next time you’re doing some online shopping, click on over browse the site.

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Mother’s Bracelet Giveaway

Everyone knows that Moms love to brag. Many of us Mommy Bloggers started our blogs to do just that.  But you can’t wear ablog. You can, however, wear a mother’s bracelet – particularly one made with sterling silver beads and letters, semi-precious stones, Swavorski crystals and 14 karat gold-filled beads.

I’ve seen all kinds of mother’s bracelets out there at craft shows, specialty shops and mall kiosks. But I don’t think they compare to Bragelets– a company that started in St. Louis, MO in 1992 and is now owned by Rosie VanDorpe and based in Harvard, MA.

I recently sent my old mother’s bracelet to Bragelets to have my third child’s name added. Rosie re-designed my bracelet and I love it more than ever. It’s a classy, tasteful way to “brag,” and it coordinates with just about everything in my jewelry box.  It’s casual enough to wear to playgroup, and classy enough that I recently paired it with my David Yurman pieces for a wedding.

Here’s a picture of my new Bragelet:

Unfortunately, I don’t think this picture does my Bragelet justice.  Here’s a better picture of the style I chose from the Bragelets Web site:

It’s the Silver and Gold design with the toggle clasp.

Bragelets offers dozens of ways to personalize your Mother’s bracelet, from Swavorski crystals to birthstones to dangle charms. There are standard block and premier block letters, funky beads, Thai silver beads with a matte finish and special flower beads. You can design your Bragelet with all silver beads, all gold beads or a combination of both.  You can use pearls, turquoise or eclectic cloisonne beads. Bragelets also makes Baby Brags, a perfect keepsake or Christening gift, Lilbrags for young girls who love jewelry just like Mom, Family Birthstone Bragelets and Two-strand Grandma Bragelets.

Single-strand Mother’s Bragelets start at $45, but here’s the good news: One lucky reader is going to win a single-strand for free. (Of course, you can purchase additional strands to go with your free one if you wish.)

To enter this contest, you must:

• Go to Bragelets and pick your favorite style Mother’s Bragelet.
• Come back here and post a comment telling me which style you like the best.
• Leave a valid email address in your comment so I can contact you if you’re a winner.

For additional entries, you can:

• Tweet this contest with a link back here – one entry.
• Blog about this contest with a link back here – one entry.
• Subscribe to my feed – one entry.
• Make sure you leave a separate comment for each additional effort you make for an entry.

 The contest runs through 11:59 p.m. June 23. The winner will be chosen and asked to respond within three days or a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

Great New Song – and it’s free!

I  love the ITunes Single of the Week  free song deal, and this week the single is REALLY good. Diane Birch’s song, Rise Up, is available for a free download between now and May 25.  It’s a soulful, swing your hips kinda song that I can’t get out of my head.

According to Rolling Stone, Diane is a ”piano-playing preacher’s daughter with a shameless love for Sixties and Seventies south and singer-songwriter pop.” Her debut album,  Bible Belt, will be available June 2.

The song and album are worth checking out. Diane has been chose by the Apple folks to be a part of an elite groups known as the  ITunes Next Big Thing artists. That is also worth checking out if you’re a music junkie.

Winner of the 2nd Weight Watchers Membership Giveaway

Congratulations to Jill, the winner of my 2nd Weight Watchers Membership Giveaway.

If you entered my contest and didn’t win, I hope you’ll consider joining Weight Watchers and the Momentum Walk-It Challenge just the same. It’s a great program, and once you reach and maintain your goal weight for six weeks, you achieve lifetime status, which means you never have to pay again as long as you remain within two pounds of your goal weight.

Guess I Should Worry More About Electrocution & Less about Swine Flu

This is what my toddler does when she manages to get her hands on my keys:

Let's pretend this outlet is a car ignition and put a key in here!

Now before you freak out and call DFS on me, I did NOT risk my baby’s life for a photo opportunity. This outlet is protected by one of my favorite child-proofing devices. The outlet cover swivels, and it takes some dexterity and know-how to use the prongs of a plug to swivel the covers into place so the prongs can slide into the outlet.

That brings me to another of may favorite child-proofing devices, which is featured in the video below. It’s called a “Double-touch Plug N Outlet Cover” by Safety 1st which allows you to have items plugged into an outlet while also keeping it baby-proofed.  As you will see in this video, my toddler was NOT happy about having her favorite, face-level outlet covered with a more effective device. We had been using those little plastic outlet plugs, which she promptly used her teeth and tongue to remove.

I’m not sure what her fascination with outlets is, but between keeping her from getting electrocuted and preventing her from falling off of furniture or securing furniture to prevent it from falling onto her, I don’t have enough time to worry about the swine flu. So far, we’ve secured one bookcase and one antique radio as a result of this story on CBS This Morning.

Here is a post on two of my other favorite child-proofing devices. Do you have a favorite device of child-safety tip?

Another Weight Watchers Membership Giveaway

First of all, congratulations to Tori, winner of my first Weight Watchers Membership Giveaway. Tori was comment #88 and I just KNOW she will love Weight Watchers as much as I do.

Now it’s time to enter my second contest, which ends at 11:59 p.m. May 15. Here are the details:

Weight Watchers just launched the Momentum Walk-It Challenge, and to celebrate, they’ve given me two 3-month memberships to give away on my blog!

These memberships can be used for Weight Watchers in-person meetings or for Weight Watchers online. Meeting attendance costs $12 per week, plus the one-time registration fee unless you join during a free registration period. And the online membership costs about $65 for three months. So, these 3-month memberships are pretty valuable. Plus, you can get healthier and thinner and learn new/better eating habits, etc. etc. So, they’re actually priceless.

You can read more about the Walk-It Challenge and my confidence in the Weight Watchers program here.

Now, onto the contest:  To enter my second Weight Watchers Membership contest, all you have to do is post a comment below about why you want to win the membership and you’ll be entered into the drawing. Be sure to include your email address in the post so that I can contact you if you’re the winner. Again, the contest deadline is 11:59 p.m. May 15. The winner will have three days to respond to my email or the prize will go to someone else.

For additional entries:

• Subscribe to this blog in a reader or via email (see the buttons in the upper right sidebar). Be sure to post an additional comment that you did this.
• Tweet about this contest, and again, post an additional comment with the link to your tweet.
• Blog about this contest, and post an additional comment with the link to your blog post.

Good luck.

Win a 3-month Membership to Weight Watchers and Lose Weight!

Weight Watchers just launched the Momentum Walk-It Challenge, and to celebrate, they’ve given me two 3-month memberships to give away on my blog!

These memberships can be used for Weight Watchers in-person meetings or for Weight Watchers online. Meeting attendance costs $12 per week, plus the one-time registration fee unless you join during a free registration period. And the online membership costs about $65 for three months. So, these 3-month memberships are pretty valuable. Plus, you can get healthier and thinner and learn new/better eating habits, etc. etc. So, they’re actually priceless.

I’m a huge believer in the Weight Watchers program and I’ve written about that here and here and here. I lost all my baby weight on the Weight Watchers program and trained for my first marathon while also attending  meetings and learning to eat better. I’m  a lifetime Weight Watchers member, which means I attend meetings for free as long as I stay within 2 pounds of my goal weight. Unfortunately, I waned in my commitment over the last few months and I’m no longer within that range.  But that’s okay. I went back to my meeting today and re-committed myself to the program and to meeting attendance. I plan to be “free” again within two weeks. (There, it’s in writing).

I also signed up for the Momentum Walk-It Challenge (I’m a runner, so I’ll be “running” it) and I created a Walk-It Challenge team. That’s because my DH is joining Weight Watchers, too, and will be doing the challenge with me. We’re going to train for a 5K together sometime in the next eight weeks. I haven’t chosen our 5K event yet, but when I do, I’ll be writing about that, as well as my progress and my DH’s progress in the Walk-It Challenge training, here.

The Momentum Walk-It Challenge encourages all Weight Watchers meetings members and Weight Watchers Online subscribers to get active this spring. Between April 12 and June 6, set an activity goal for yourself — like walking 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) — and Weight Watchers will give you access to the tools you need to get there. Join or create a walking team, or sign up for a 5K event and you can get a FREE 8-week online training program to help reach your goal. (I downloaded my free 8-week online training program and it is very cool and fun to use). So, if you win one of my free memberships, you’ll want to consider signing up for this challenge.

Now, onto the contest:  I’m giving away one 3-month Weight Watchers membership between now and May 8 and one between May 9 and May 15. To enter the first contest, all you have to do is post a comment below about why you want to win the membership and you’ll be entered into the drawing. Be sure to include your email address in the post so that I can contact you if you’re the winner. The contest deadline is 11:59 p.m. May 8. The winner will have three days to respond to my email or the prize will go to someone else.

For additional entries:

• Subscribe to this blog in a reader or via email (see the buttons in the upper right sidebar). Be sure to post an additional comment that you did this.
• Tweet about this contest, and again, post an additional comment with the link to your tweet.
• Blog about this contest, and post an additional comment with the link to your blog post.

Good luck.

Great Hotel in Oklahoma City

We recently traveled to Oklahoma City for a swim meet and had a great experience staying in a SpringHill Suites by Marriott. The price point on this particular hotel is about $109, which is certainly reasonable. It’s even more reasonable when you factor in the  size the room, the breakfast, the amenities and the service.

SpringHill Suites, South MacArthur, Oklahoma City

There were four people in our party — my husband, my 10-year-old son and our 16-month-old daughter and me. The room was so large that we were able to put the portable crib (provided by the hotel at no extra charge) in the little cubby area by the sink, creating a perfect “out of the way” place for naptime and bedtime.

The living area provided enough room for the toddler to run around a little and for the rest of us to relax and watch TV.  I was able to work on my laptop, thanks to the free Wi-Fi, but the lobby also sported two updated computers with large screens and a nice printer.

Lobby

Our swim team also stayed at the hotel, and the complimentary breakfast was perfect for them. There were the usual eggs, waffles and pastries, but there was also a steaming pot of oatmeal with brown sugar, raisens and chopped walnut toppings, a vast array of fruit, yogurt and several healthy cold cereal choices. I was particularly fond of the multiple flavored Coffee Mate liquid creamer choices and the high-quality coffee that was available around the clock. And the employee who worked the breakfast was eager to help and kept everything fresh and refilled.

The desk staff was equally helpful and friendly, and Ryan was particularly courteous and efficient as he  helped us remedy a slight mix-up with our reservations. Then, the staff went above and beyond in the customer service department after we checked out. We left behind a bag FULL of dirty clothes and didn’t realize the clothes were missing until about four days after we returned home. We called the hotel and they had found the clothes in the room and were waiting for us to contact them. We received our stale, smelly laundry in the mail less than one week later. 

This stay — which was our first at a SpringHill Suites — definitely put this hotel on our radar for future travel.