Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Chez Nous Marketplace

For all of you crafty ladies out there, maybe this will inspire you to create and sell! If you aren't the crafty type, maybe this will inspire you to shop!
My two friends and I have decided to pool our creative ambitions and start a quarterly marketplace. We call it "Chez Nous Marketplace", which if you took a year or two of French you know means "Our Home Marketplace". We call it that because we are selling our handcrafted items out of our homes throughout the year. Our first market is this coming Thursday and Friday. I am super excited and super nervous! We will offer floral arrangements in the cutest containers ever, gifts, home accessories, burlap pillows, reclaimed wood signs, book page wreaths, fabric flowers, magnets, magnet boards, letter accessories, easter items and more. Here are a few pix of the things I'll be including from my Grace and Favor line:

Saturday, March 19, 2011

My Favorite Diapers

Well, I am one of those "full-spectrum" moms... my oldest child's voice is changing and he will be a "teen" in one month, and my youngest child is still in diapers. And in-between are 2 pre-teens. Pray for me.
Anyway, since my oldest was born, diapers have come a long way. I never considered anything but disposable diapers back in 1998, even though I was riddled with guilt about the amount of diapers I was heaving into our local landfill. At one point I had THREE children in diapers. I couldn't begin to do the math.
So when I became pregnant with my fourth I really researched other options to the name brand disposables. They have all sorts of groovy new cloth diaper alternatives. Which I thought would be great if I was having my first child, not my fourth. Because I already have about 27 loads of laundry a week (you think I'm kidding...) and adding poopy diapers or diaper liners to that wasn't happening.
And then I found Nature Babycare biodegradable all natural DISPOSABLE diapers. They are made from corn products and have no chemicals, chlorine, plastic... all the nasty stuff that makes regular diapers so bad for the environment, and I daresay our sweet babies. Check out the deets here.
They are available online only through http://www.target.com/ and http://www.diapers.com/. And I am here to say they are AWESOME! Totally absorbent, comfy, no leaks. I am not kidding. The only leaks my guy has ever had have been while wearing the other brands of disposables. They are also the same cost as Huggies or Pampers. That is because they don't advertise, it's all word of mouth. They are from Sweden, designed by a mom who obviously felt the same way about regular disposables but actually went out and did something about it. I should say this is just me, I don't get any kind of compensation for this!

Monday, March 14, 2011

The Salvation Army Tee to Help Japan

Yikes, the news out of Japan is dire. These people need help, fast. I saw on http://www.isabellaandmaxrooms.blogspot.com/ that the Salvation Army has designed a tee shirt that will help aid those suffering in Japan from the quake and tsunami devistation. Good: it's cool, I am getting it for my soon-to-be 13 year old. Even gooder: 100% of the proceeds go to help those in Japan thanks to some kind soul underwriting production costs. Check it out at isabella and max rooms or here at the Salvation Army merchandise site.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

New Favorite: Eye Cream

Well, even though Oprah claims that 50 is the new 30, I am here to assure you that 42 is most incontrovertibly not the new 22. And seeing as 42 comes with it's challenges, I have been searching high and low for a really good, creamy, non-irritating eye cream. For years. To no avail.
Until now! And it was at CVS! And Wal Mart! It retails for about $17.00. It has something in it that absolutely makes your skin glow. And it doesn't get me all red and blotchy, like 99% of the eye creams out there. It has Royal Jelly in it, which actually sounds kinda gross to me. But it's not gross, it's a good thing. I think it's a by-product of the honey making process. Thanks bees!
Next on my (long) list of things-to-get: Burt's Bees Radiance Day Creme and Night Creme.