O.C. Styles Giveaway!

As I was doing my daily browse through Etsy, I came across a fantastic shop called O.C. Styles.  Michelle, is so creative, and makes the cutest things!  She sells everything from handmande clutches and diaper bags, to trick or treat goodie bags!  She loves custom orders, and her items make the perfects gifts for any occasion.  These are just a few of my favorites items in Michelle's shop:

football clutch/diaper bag

autumn apron                                       trick or treat bag

fobkey wristlet

I thought it would be fun to do a little Q&A to get to know this Etsy seller.

How long have you been doing this, and how did you begin?

I have been sewing since I was a young girl & inspired by my family members who are all very creative. I have had an Etsy shop for a little over 2 years & before that I was doing private "trunk shows" --so OC Styles has been around for 3 years.  The way it began was when I made purse & a coffee cuff "Java Bling" for myself & my friends saw them & had to have them. So I started making them for my friends and it took off from there.

What is your favorite item you sell, and what is your most popular?
One of my favorite items is the Java Bling--coffee sleeve & the crayon keepers. They are so much fun to make & so very different from each other. My purses are the most popular item, but during the holidays, Java Blingz are super popular. The card holders & the checkbook cozies are also very popular.
What do you like to do in your free time?
When I do have free time...I spend it with friends & my family. My 5 year old daughter is a lot of fun & my husband & I love hanging out with her at movies or outdoors, at Disneyland or just playing in the pool or the backyard. We also love to host pool parties & BBQ's in our backyard with all of our friends.
Tell me a little about yourself!
I am a mom & a wife. I have been married for 9 years & I have a 5 year old daughter and a sweet doggie who is 7 years old. We have lived in California for 16 years, & before that, both my husband and I grew up in a very small town in southern Indiana. My favorite part of it all is a few things...I get to create items for someone special everyday. I love when I get an order from some place far away like Finland, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia. It's great meeting so many people in my shop from all over the world. I love knowing that someone, some where is carrying one of my items in their purse, or even using one of my purses in their wedding. It's really fun to see what people request for custom items.

Michelle is generously giving one of my readers a $20 gift certificate to her Etsy shop!

Required Entry:(please leave email address with one of  your entries)

Visit O.C. Styles and comment on what you will buy if you win!

Extra Entries:

Follow Michelle on Twitter

Follow my blog (if you do, let me know!)

Contest ends Friday September 24, at 11:59 pm.  Winner will be choosen via random.org, and contacted via email.

Good Luck!

We have a (soon to be) walker! And meetup Monday....

1. 
   
   So I hope you all had a good weekend. I did. We did NOTHING, which is my favorite type of weekend. We played, relaxed, went to the park and went for many walks. Summer hung around another weekend, and it went by way too fast.

And....Jack is almost walking! I am thinking he will take off any day now.

This is his favorite thing to do now.  We sat for an hour today while he walked back and forth between my husband and I.  The look on his face while he walks is the cutest thing ever, like "I can't believe I am doing this!!!"

Be sure to join Meetup Monday, and I hope you have a great start to your week.  Have an extra cup of coffee for me.

<a href="http://www.justanothermomday.blogspot.com"><img border="0" alt="Photobucket" src="http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i219/agrip76/coffee.jpg" /></a>

If this is your first time linking up to Meetup Monday, here's the info:

Add a link below to a specific blog post or your main blog address
If you could grab my button and pop it up on your blog someplace visible, that would make my day!

Most importantly: Make someone's day by commenting on the blog post of the two blogs (or more) before you.

then I had a taste......now I'm a believer!

I am not a soda drinker.  I will have MAYBE one can a week.  I do, however, love sparkling water. So when the great people at SodaStream sent me one of their machines to try out, I was skeptical.  How could a machine make soda or sparkling water/juice like I buy at the store?

I received a SodaStream machine, the CO2 Carbonator, two reusable bottles, and a huge variety of soda flavors!! I was so excited when it came in the mail! We opened it up right away and gave it a try.  We decided to try cola first since my husband and I both love Coke. We could not believe how simple it was to make and use!  First open the back part of the SodaStream machine, screw in the CO2 Carbonator, then close back up the back. Then, rinse your soda bottle, fill it with cold tap water, and screw it onto the machine. Press the button on the top of the machine (about 3 or 4 times) until you hear it make a funny noise.  Choose your flavor, mix it in, shake, and enjoy!!!!  Regular old tap water is instantly turned into sparkling water or soda!  Genius! It was amazing, and tasted exactly like the name brand soda.

SodaStream soda is healther than regular soda or juices and is better for our planet!
Now for some info from the Sodastream website:
How Does SodaStream Help the Environment?

SodaStream is an "Active Green" product, meaning that consumers are actively reducing their CO2 footprint every time they make soda or sparkling water at home instead of buying it from the store. The more the system is used on a daily basis, the more CO2 footprint the user actively saves. (This differs from "Passive Green" products, which use green-friendly production processes, but their products are not inherently helping the consumers save on their daily footprint.)

Globally, 206 billion liters of bottled water were consumed in 2008 (Zenith International Global Bottled Water Report, 2008). The energy required to make water bottles in the US only, is equivalent to 17 million barrels of oil (Container Recycling Institute, 2002).

According to the US Recycling Institute, more than 80% of bottles in the US do not get recycled and end up in landfills. Also, an estimated 4.7 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were produced in the process of replacing the 134 billion bottles and cans not recycled in 2005.

Using your own home carbonation system means:
•Less packaging waste from cans and bottles.
•Less pollution caused by transport of bottled beverages.
One SodaStream carbonator makes 60 or 110 liters, equivalent to 170 or 310 aluminum cans! When empty, the carbonator is refilled and reused, ready to make more fizzy and tasty soda whenever you want it.

Be sure to check this out if you love soda or other sparkling drinks! You can click here to find out where to get your own SodaStream!

Happy Friday

Welcome new friends and old! I hope you all have a great weekend! I will be catching up on things this weekend and will post more then, this week has been hectic!!!

In the meantime, please check out the Centsationsl Girl's blog with her amazing decorating ideas.
This is just one of them;

Enjoy your weekend!

Wordish Wednesday

Jack has recently become obsessed with airplanes.  Everytime he sees one he yells.  Now when we ask him "Jack where are the airplanes?", he does this:

Have a great Wednesday,  and be sure to check out more Wordless Wednesdays at the paper mama!

just one of them days....and a winner!

Do you ever feel like going back to work on a Tuesday is sometimes more stressful and hectic than Mondays?  I do.  I am having one of those days.

But I we had a great weekend.  We had family in from Florida; my aunt, uncle, cousin and her family, which includes my god daughter.

We had such a great time, and I love seeing them.  I am a little disappointed in my photos.  I wish I got more, and I wish they were better quality.  Nevertheless, we celebrated birthdays, had bbq's, went to the zoo, (Jack's first time!) and went to the beach. 

It was the perfect end to the perfect summer in a perfect city.

How did you spend your holiday weekend?

And I have a winner!  Congrats to Jen @ South of Sheridan!

You will be contacted via email!

Happy Labor Day

I am still trying to sqeeze every last drop out of this last weekend of summer, which means no Meetup Monday this week.  I hope you are having a great weekend and I will be back tomorrow!

the last fling

I wanted to welcome all of my new friends, I hope you all return! I have been a semi bad blogger this week. I am still trying to get in the swing oof things with work, family and everything in between. I am so excited for a three day weekend! We have family visiting from Florida; family that has never met Jack, so I am sooooo excited!

I will be back with tons of pictures from the weekend I am sure. Until then, have a great "last" weekend of summer and thank you for stopping by!

Box Tops Contest Winner!

Congrats Mari, you will be contacted by email!

Also thank you to all my followers, I have reached 400! I can't believe it, appreciate every one of you.

A little piece of heaven? I think so.

It is September.  Which means cooler weather is on the way  I LOVE the smell of burnt leaves, cooler days and much cooler nights, sweaters and everything that goes along with Fall.  Fall also means pumpkin spice lates have arrived at Starbucks.

My little piece of heaven.

Wordless Wednesday

All you with little girls...he's available!  ; )

Check out other wordless Wednesday photos at The Paper Mama!

Just wondering...

If Michael Bolton said he loved you but he lied, would you be upset?

Have a great Tuesday. 

Summer is definitely not over..and meetup monday!

I love summer.  I love the pool, the beach, summer nights.  But this summer is one of the hottest I remember. Our air hasn't stopped running.  It's been over 90 most of the summer and the humidity has been awful!  I am lucky we live in the midwest where we get a change of seasons, because I need a change.  I am finally getting ready for fall. 

But for now, we will enjoy those final days of summer.  We swam, visited family, and went to a birthday party. 

It was so fun!

But also soooo exhausting...if you can't tell from Jack's face.  Oh yeah, he is also really into sticking out his tounge lately.  Have a great week, and PLEASE, join meetup Monday!

If this is your first time linking up to Meetup Monday, here's the info:
*Add a link below to a specific blog post or your main blog address
*Make someone's day by commenting on the blog post of the two blogs (or more) before you.
*If you could grab my button and pop it up on your blog someplace visible, that would make my day!

so I turn to you..........

Welcome all my new friends! New Friend Friday also means the weekend is here! I made it through my first week back with the kids.  I have to tell you, it is hard.  Harder than when I came back from my maternity leave. Jack is so much more aware, and interactive and I just miss him like crazy.

I am also having a hard time juggling everything.  I get home from work with Jack around 5.  We play, go for a walk or to the park and it's bath and bedtime at 7:30.  Then my husband and I eat, wash bottles, pack for the next day, clean up and it's bed time for me.  I feel like I have no "me" time.  No time to relax, or workout or do things I need to do like grocery shopping or running errands.

So that's where I turn to you, my wonderful, loyal followers.  How do you juggle it all?  How do you balance work, family and also have time for yourself?  Can it be done?

With that, have a great weekend, enjoy it.  It is going to be beautiful here, so we will be doing lots of outside activities.  I will also be catching up on my photo taking this weekend and will post so new ones on Sunday! Have a great Friday!

I really do clean...and a Kool Kid Legs giveaway

I am a clean freak.  I have to have the house dust and dirt free every day.  I can't sleep at night if the dishes are not clean and put away or if laundry is not folded.  With Jack crawling around the house I have been extra careful to swiff and wash the wood floors like crazy. 

After a day of crawling the other day I looked down at Jack's legs and was in shock!  They were filthy!  I have since learned that there is nothing I can do about the dust and dirt, it happens.  I can, however, protect his legs, and knees by putting these "kool kid legs" on him! 

Jen at Mama Runs With Scissors sent me these for Jack, and we both love them!  They protect his little legs from the hard floors and sun, and I love the designs!  They are all handmade, can be used as legwarmers, and they make diaper changes super simple.  Older kids can turn short sleeve shirts into long sleeve shirts and they look great under skirts!

Jen, is offering one of my readers their very own pair of  14 inch, "Kool Kids Legs". 

To enter:

Visit Mama Runs With Scissors, Etsy shop and comment on which design you would choose!

Extra Entry:

 Follow my blog (if you do, comment below)

Please leave your email with one of your comments.  Contest ends Sunday, September 5th, at 11:59pm.  Winner will be choosen via random.org, and contacted via email. 

Good luck!!!