Mommies With Style

Last week, our preschool had a raffle and table sale going on. 

One of the tables was a local rep from a company called Juice Plus.  They promote healthy eating with their product.  But what lured me over to to the table was the display you see in the image here. 

It’s a Kid’s Happy Meal from McDonald’s.  Looks pretty normal, right? 

The crazy thing about this Happy Meal is that it’s 4 years old.  That’s right.  It hasn’t rotted, decomposed with time or really changed it’s appearance at all that time.

Needless to say, it was shocking.  I’m making a vow to try and eat healthier with the kids.  But I need help, people.  When we’re out on the road – what are our healthy options?  Wawa?  Chick-Fil-A?  What do you guys feed your kids when you’re in a hurry and need to pull in somewhere quickly?

Because cool toys and convenience or not, I don’t know that I can continue to feed my kids something that’s going to be dug out out of the ruin by future archaeologists in its original state.

I’m a big water mom. The kids bring water to school every day for lunch (juice boxes rarely enter or leave our house.) And at meals and snack time, the kids know they have 2 choices for drinks: water or milk.

Of course, I naturally wanted to try out a new water.  I wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean, water is water, right? Well, kind of. WAT-AAH is water with a bonus. Its water with minerals infused into it to enhance your well-being. WAT-AAH offers 4 choices: Energy, Body, Bones and Brain. While “Body” is straight, pure water, the other three have minerals (like Magnesium in “Bones” to strengthen the bones.)

There is really no difference in taste. The kids never would have known they weren’t drinking our regular water from SAMS Club, had they not been drinking from really cool bottles. The packaging includes easy to handle, crisp bottles with a bright label and a cool kid on it. Getting kids’ attention, of course. Making it cool to drink healthy water.

WAT-AAH was created to give kids a cool, healthy alternative to sodas and juices. And with no artificial coloring or sugars, but still with a cool look, WAT-AAH is a great option for water-friendly households, and even more for households that want to become water-friendly.

Thanks to WAT-AAH for the sample bottles as well as the fun extras like t-shirts and tattoos that were sent for this review.

The following is a sponsored post from Wallquotes.com:

Vinyl letters and designs give you a personalized, elegant, painted-on look without the stress and mess and cost of painting.  So if you’re looking for something special to customize your space or add a little inspiration to your life, wallquotes.com is the perfect place to find it. 

Our unique designer quotes will add style and personality to help make your house a home; or try our custom vinyl lettering and wall quote generator to create a special quote of your own in one of dozens of fonts; select from 43 designer colors to make a perfect match to your existing décor – and voila! instant style. 

In our expanding collection of wall art, you’ll find just the thing to complement your quotes, your home, your life.  And check out our blog for giveaways, design ideas, and more.  Until the end of March, use MWSTYLE at checkout for 10% off.

Hey Mommies, I heard about this worthy campaign from Audrey from Mom Generations & Totsy and wanted to spread the word.  

Excerpt taken and slightly edited from Audrey’s post on Totsy:
 Electrolux Appliances is teaming up to support the Ovarian Research Cancer Fund. Kelly’s Cake Off for a Cause in support of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. On February 9th, 5 teams of baking lovers took part in Kelly’s Cake Off by decorating their own cakes.Kelly-Confidential, where you can cast your vote for your favorite cake from Kelly’s Cake Off. This is the ultra-amazing part:for every vote cast, Electrolux will donate $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund as part of its $500,000 commitment to help fight ovarian cancer . How incredible is this? You can also check it out at the Facebook page or follow them on Twitter (hashtag #CakeOff).

Kelly Ripa (who is the Electrolux brand ambassador) and Buddy Valastro from TLC’s “Cake Boss,” have teamed up with Electrolux to host

Head over to

Help us spread the word! Every $1 helps in the fight against Ovarian Cancer. If you mention this information on your blog, please email Audrey (Audrey@MomGenerations.com) with the link. Everyone who blogs about this amazing cause will be entered to win a new a brand NEW Induction Range from Electrolux!

About OCRF:
The mission of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is to fund research to find a method of early detection and ultimately a cure for ovarian cancer. In support of our mission, we help patients and their loved ones understand the disease and its treatment, and provide outreach programs to raise public awareness. The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization. For more information, visit www.ocrf.org.

After 8-fun-filled days in Disney World, my family landed back home last night to a world of snow.

While I promise to bring you some great travel-related product reviews in the coming weeks that pertain to my trip, I wanted blog about the second half of my trip to start. It was the catalyst to our even going to Disney World at all – the Disney Social Media Moms conference.

I have to say, this has been the best social media conference I have attended thus far. It was fun, intimate and both inspiriting and educational.

Disney’s involvement in the conference was to let us know about Disney’s Give A Day, Get a Day program. To date, 600,000 volunteers have signed up and completed the program. Basically volunteering at Disney for a day gains you a one day pass into the parks. Meg Crofton, President of the Walt Disney World Resort, spoke to us our first night as we gathered at the ESPN Wide World of Sports for a short briefing and presentation, followed by a fun night of entertainment – dancing for the kids, characters visiting our tables, and schmoozing with other Moms.

Melissa from Girly Mama Blog, Colleen from Classy Mommy, Marissa Winokur & Whitney from Mommies with Style (me!)

Guy Kawasaki was my personal favorite at the conference – he was engaging and funny. And as a working Mom & blogger, I couldn’t help but be captivated with his advice for folks on utilizing Twitter as a power tool in business.

It was fabulous to see so many old faces – and to meet so many new Mom bloggers who I hadn’t yet had the chance to meet. Plus, this was a first opportunity for many of us to meet the inspiration behind all of our blogs – our kids!

On our last day at the conference, we heard from various speakers like Maxine Clark, the CEO of Build-A-Bear. She was truly inspirational.

Kathy Ireland spoke on being a Mom and a successful entrepreneur (one of the most successful women in business in the country!). She was captivating; genuine and nice and obviously as stunning on the inside as she is on the outside.

Here’s the first bit of her presentation – not the best quality visually but you can get the gist from what she’s saying:

Chris Brogan gave us some common sense advice on marketing.

Of course the best part was socializing with so many of my blogging friends: my girls from Philly – Colleen from Classy Mommy & Melissa from Girly Mama. Elizabeth from the Party Planning Professor, Bay from the Queen Mother Blog. Great to see Audrey from Mom Generations again, and Margaret from the Disney Moms Panel. And so many more – women I’ve been talking to via email and Twitter for years.  I couldn’t possibly shout out to everyone because I truly could go on and on, but overall, it was a fabulous experience.

Thanks so much to everyone who made it happen – Disney, 5 Minutes for Mom (Sue is a doll!), Resourceful Mommy (thanks 4 the bus chat Amy, hope your trip home was no where near as crazy as the one down!) and Mom Talk Radio.

Disclaimer: while I paid to attend this conference, it was at a discounted rate. Disney gave us a stay at the Polynesian, plus Media Fast Passes & Park Hopper tickets for my entire family.

With my family in Epcot

9 friends and bloggers came to my house Thursday night, where we had a fun evening of drinks, hair and make-up.

In my living room, we had Lauren, a local stylist, testing out Suave products in one room while we played with make up from E.L.F. in my dining room.  Officially, I was having a Suave Style Party as well as an E.L.F Make Up At Home party – these parties were basically an opportunity for my friends and fellow bloggers to try products from each line.

A fun time was had by all.  Local bloggers Colleen from Classy Mommy, Shannon & Sarah from ChescoMoms and Kelly from the Centsible Life came along with several non-blogger friends.

Lauren works on me with products from the Suave Professional line

with Kelly from A Centsible Life

my friend Jodi gets her hair styled

Chatting in front of the ELF makeup

Let me tell you guys a little bit about my kitchen.  My husband and I bought our current house in the summer of 2001.  We were engaged and living in a tiny apartment at the time.  We bought new construction and I had no idea what to do about options.

The one and only thing I knew I wanted:  a white kitchen.   While we knew we wanted kids someday, who thinks about kids in relation to white cabinets and white appliances when they are barely engaged?  Certainly not us.

Here we are 8 1/2 years later and I’ve long been yearning for something other than white in my kitchen.  I’m sure you guys can imagine how not-white-looking my kitchen now is with two active boys.  (Not to mention that our dishwasher and stove have been falling apart for some time now.)

So I was thrilled when I was chosen by Frigidaire to be a part of their Super Influencer Team as a Test Drive Mom in 2010.

What does that even mean?  It means I’m getting a new Frigidaire fridge, dishwasher, stove/microwave and washer/dryer.

And they will all be stainless steel!  Here’s a preview of the new appliances for my kitchen.  I’m positively giddy about this:

For the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging and vlogging on Fridays to tell you about my new appliances and share photos along the way.  I intend to share them on Friday, which I’ve dubbed Frigidaire Fridays.  Check back next week for more news!

In the meantime, some info on Frigidaire: Frigidaire introduced more than 250 new appliances in 2009, all designed with the idea of creating more time for Moms. Standing behind its claim, Frigidaire offers a “More Me-Time Guarantee.” Moms will save a minimum of eight hours a month or their money back.

In addition, Frigidaire announced a new partnership in September with admired actress and philanthropist, Jennifer Garner.  The pair teamed up to launch the new Frigidaire line and to kick off the “Make Time for Change” campaign to support Save the Children.

Starting, January 18th, you can log  onto the Make Time for Change to play Spin & Win for a chance to win prizes including a new time-saving Frigidaire Affinity washer/dryer. Plus every day you take a spin, Frigidaire donates $1 to Save the Children as part of their $250,000 commitment to this worthy cause.

–

I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive Campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Frigidaire and will be receiving a Frigidaire Refrigerator, Range/Microwave, Washer/Dryer set, and a Dishwasher to facilitate my review.

Photo credit to CBC News

The power of social media never ceases to amaze me.  In the wake of the tragedy & situation in Haiti, blogs everywhere are spreading the word about different ways you can help. 

Here are some links for you to check out and find ways you can support.  I’ll update this post as I get more links to add:

Kelly from the Centsible Life is donating all of the income she generates from ad and affiliate sales in January, and by commenting on her blog she donates another 10 cents.

Shannon from For the Mommas is donating 25 cents for every comment on this post today, January 15th.

Jo-Lynne from Musings of a Housewife recommends Compassion, a charitable organization that she trusts.

If you have a Wegmans in your area, they are taking donationgs for the Red Cross right at the cash register at check-out. (Thanks to Shannon from Chester County Moms for passing along that tip)

All profits from sales made this weekend (Fri thru Mon) at GoBaby will go directly towards aiding the recovery efforts.

Over at Just Precious, Julie started a “Skip the Sitter… Help Haiti” campaign. She’s asking families to cancel their babysitters this weekend and enjoy family time, while sending money to assist in emergency efforts. 

See Kai Run has put together an emergency shoe donation of nearly 3,000 pairs to help the children in this ravaged part of the world. The donated shoes will be distributed through Soles4Souls, the international charity dedicated to providing footwear to disadvantaged people around the world. You can give to Soles4Souls by donating lightly used or new shoes as well.

In addition, you may have heard about the mobile phone campaign but if not and if you would like to donate money, you can text “Haiti” to 90999 on your cell to send a $10 donation to support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.  The mobile giving effort raised more than $3 million by Thursday morning, and all money raised goes to support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

So I recently received a pitch from Family Dollar for the holidays.  It hit my inbox and I thought, duh, all of these dollar stores are such a great place to shop for stocking stuffers and small gift ideas!  I know, I know, the rest of you are rolling your eyes at me because you already know this.  But it was a great reminder of a place I could find affordable gifts.

Family Dollar sent over a box with some sample products, each item $5 or less and I was impressed with the items and their price tags.  Check out this list of seasonal toys they currently have for sale.  If you have a local Family Dollar, be sure to take a visit for any last minute gifts you are looking for.

And as a bonus, Family Dollar has donated one $50 gift card for one lucky Mommies with Style winner.  Enter to win by leaving a comment below.  Do you shop at your local dollar store?  What do you like to buy there? 

This giveaway will close end of day, December 22nd.  One winner will be selected at random on or after the 23rd.

For Him:
Does he like to run?  Consider getting him the Nike+iPod device.  I’ve been coveting one of these myself for so long that I did what any sane woman would do, I bought it for my running hubby and plan on borrowing it when I can.  (Good thing he never reads this blog, otherwise the cat would be out of the bag there!)

This product comes with a device from Nike that sticks to his running shoe.  It communicates with the runner’s iPod, giving them audio cues and taking down data along the lines of how fast and how far they are running.  He can sync up when he gets home and keep track of his running in a log on his computer.  Pretty neat.  I got it at my local Apple store.  You can find it at your local store or buy it at Apple online.  And be sure to check out which one you need – there’s one for $19 for newer iPhone and iTouch devices, some of the older ones will need the $29 version that comes with an add-on widget for the iPod.  $19 or $29 at the Apple Store.

For Her:
I became a big fan of e.l.f. Cosmetics last summer after attending a cocktail hour they hosted at BlogHer, a women’s blogging conference.  In short: their make-up is cheap and it’s awesome.  I’m no make-up expert but what I’ve tried, for the cost, is great product.  My favorite is the Mineral Booster, but I also use the Mineral Blush and several of the eyeshadows.  Guys – this is a great one for her stocking this year.  Troll the web for coupon codes because they often have sales, but even not, how can you argue with $3 eyeshadow and $1 lipsstick?  Right now they have a coupon code to receive a free mini-make up kit, use coupon code LOYAL to do so.

For the Kids:
So I got these Glow in the Dark Stars in-store at the mall for my kids for their stockings, and now see that they are 80% off on Amazon!  I’m too lazy to return them but you guys can take advantage.   They stick to the ceiling and I just know my kids will get a kick out of having these to look at.  They’re normally $19.99 marked down 80% to $3.99 on Amazon and ship for free.

I love this Christmas version GoFish from Alphabet Alley that you can buy on Mom4Life.  Use the special Mommies with Style link to get an automatic 8% off your order and then search on “Go Fish” and it will come up.  It’s $5.51 by the discount.  But hurry – you have to order by December 16th to ensure delivery for Christmas.