Does slipping into something comfy and reading a good book sound like heaven to you?  Us too!!  That’s why we are giving away a signed copy of all three books we reviewed this week AND a Demi-Bella T-Shirt to FIVE READERS!!!  That’s right!  We will have five winners this week!  Oh yes!!

To enter, visit www.DemiBella,com and also take a look at our Favorite Books and leave a comment letting us know what you think about everything!

This SWAG ALERT will be open for daily entry until Monday, May 4th at midnight PST.  Our same fabulous SWAG ALERT rules apply, including EXTRAS, but if you need a refresher on the details just CLICK HERE or visit our “SWAG INFO” page by clicking the tab at the top of this page. Winner will be chosen from the comments posted and our subscription list on Tuesday via random.org.

How many times have you answered the question: “So, how many kids do you have?”  Do you ever just need a simple but stylish, yet totally comfy tee?  How about the perfect tee?  Oooh yeah!  We do too!!!  Introducing Demi Bella’s fabulous line of t-shirts!  It’s definitely one of our Favorite Things!

They have been featured in publications such as People, Baby Couture, Pregnancy & Newborn & American Baby as well as having a huge celebrity following!  Some of the celebrities wearing their shirts are Brooke Burke, AnnaLynne McCord of 90210 (who wears it for her cat!), Natalie Morales, Marishka Hargitay and many more!

Designer and founder of Demi Bella, Marlo Moleski, gave us a few minutes to talk about her tees!  She said: “Demi Bella tees are different than your basic mommy tee because of the stylish design and fit. It’s a young fresh look for the moms of today who are fashion conscious. Moms want to look and feel good and our tees help you do that. Being a mom is something to be proud of and brag about and our shirts do that for you!”

Check out all of their great products including their new line of burnout tees (pictured above)  at www.demibella.com and tell them who sent you!

There is nothing like a good book to quiet a Mom’s soul.  Here are some of our Favorite books that any book loving Mom will happily receive!  And don’t forget to give her the quiet time to read them!!!

Note to Self: 30 Women on Hardship, Humiliation, Heartbreak, and Overcoming It All by Andrea Buchanan: This book features stories and insight from 30 women who have “been there, done that”!   Celebrities such as Grammy Award-winning rock star Sheryl Crow and Emmy Award-winning actress Camryn Manheim tell their most humiliating, challenging and life changing moments.  This book shows that no matter who we are, celebrity or not, we all go through the same issues and feelings as women!  And if they can grow stronger through their tough times, so can we!!

Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box: Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Still Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting by Ann Dunnewold, Ph. D.: If you’re feeling overstressed, overtired, or overscheduled, noted psychologist Ann Dunnewold can help you rewrite the rules of motherhood by introducing a new, healthier paradigm–one that replaces the dysfunctional myth of the June Cleaver mom.   We all try our best and we all fail…daily!  But that’s OK!!!  That’s what this book teaches you!  A must read for all busy moms!!

Today’s Moms: Essentials for Surviving Baby’s First Year by Mary Ann Zoellner and Alicia Ybarbo: The first year is hard enough!  Why go at it on your own?!   Two producers of the morning show, Today, share their experiences and wisdom on baby’s first year, along with priceless advice and anecdotes from the anchors and experts on America’s number-one morning show.  Contributors include Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, Matt Lauer, Al Roker, Kathie Lee Gifford, and many others. It’s a delightful book full of honest and insightful advice!  Today’s Moms will help all moms feel more confident about their first year of motherhood!  And what new mom can’t use a little confidence!!

Mother’s Day…the day when we get the recognition we deserve for ALL we do!!  Do you need to impress a fellow Mommy this Mother’s Day?  Are you are certain that your spouse, like so many others, needs a little help impressing you? (Be sure to “accidentally” leave this post open on their computer!!)  Or are you a man looking to get that perfect something for the beautiful, deserving Mom in your life?   Then you have come to the right place!  We have put together a list that will get you brownie points and then some!!

For the Gadget Mom – The Smart Shopper Deluxe is a handy little kitchen appliance will get the gadget mom in your life buzzing!!  The Smart Shopper is so economical and practical!!   We all know that you can save money and time when you grocery shop with a list in hand, right?  It also helps every mom (June Cleaver or not!) stay organized while doing the all important task of grocery shopping.  Any member of your family can add an item to your list with its easy voice recording feature!  And talk about organized, The Smart Shopper prints your list in store categories!!!  No more wandering around the store aimlessly!  You may just want to go ahead and treat yourself with one of these for Mother’s Day!  It’s totally justifiable.

For the Comfy Mom – When it comes to comfy Mom T’s, it just doesn’t get any better than this!  Check out our separate review of Demi Bella!

For the Sexy Mom (Or the fellow Sexy Mom Wannabes) – My husband knows that he better not let a holiday go by without making a stop at Victoria’s Secret!  I just love their super comfy and practical (yes, practical!) BioFit 7 way Bra!  You change the straps seven different ways!  No more bra straps showing!!  And the Sexy Moms all run to get out their tube tops and halter tops on!

For the Spa Mom – Every Mom needs a little pampering now and then.  It’s no secret that a Spa day is the perfect gift!  With a Spa Finder Gift Certificate, you can spoil her with no limits!  They are accepted at over 5,000 spas worldwide or can be used in the SpaKist Boutique for unique spa-at-home products!

For Chef Mom – Is there a Mom in your life who you are always asking, “Ooohhh, can I have this recipe?”  Now she can pull out her very own cookbook filled with her famous and most requested recipes!  With Heritage Cookbooks you can custom make a cookbook for the Chef Mom in your life!  Heritage Cookbooks was featured in O Magazine, so you can be sure it’s the best!!

For the Coffee Mom – My Mom has a saying, “If I haven’t had at least two cups of coffee in the morning, don’t talk to me!”  Can I get an Amen on that one!  Your Coffee Mom just has to have her own espresso machine!  She just has to!!!  I just love the Espressione Café Retro Espresso Machine! They have an adorable retro look and are sold in some really fun colors!!

For the Wine Connoisseur Mom – Most of those “Of The Month Clubs” are not something I’d be really happy about receiving.  But a Wine Of The Month Club?!  Now that is something I can get excited about!  Try out The California Wine Club for the Mom who could use a new bottle of wine every month to look forward to!!

For the Humanitarian Mom – For the Mom who has everything and doesn’t want any more!  You can visit www.JustGive.com and honor her by donating towards a cause that’s as close to her heart as you are!  With over a million charities to choose from, you are sure to find the right cause!

For the Ooh la la Mom we just LOVE last but definitely not least Momma Jewels!  We don’t mean to tease you, but we will give you more details about Momma Jewels next week!  We really love them…and you know what that means!!  So stay tuned:)!

The Mom Song sung by Anita Renfroe. Does it GET any funnier than this?!?!

Every Mother should be served breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day!  (Did you hear that, Honey?)  With a little help from Emeril you can kick Mother’s Day up a notch too!

If you have someone in your life who is handy in the kitchen, pass on this recipe as a little inspiration!  Or if you are like me and you are the only one who can cook, forget the recipe and insist on being taken out for breakfast!!

The recipe for this delicious Mascarpone and Marmalade-Stuffed French Toast straight from Emeril’s Kitchen can be found at ABC.com where Emeril has known for surprising deserving moms around the country with breakfast in bed!  Now….how can I get him my address?

Tasha

Listen up all posh mamas and anyone buying presents for them now through Mother’s Day, save 15% on any of Plain Mary’s Diaper Changing Pads!

Changing dirty diapers is bad enough.  Why make it worse with an unsightly old diaper changing pad?  Let Plain Mary glam up the chore!!!

Their exquisite designs are lightweight, sturdy, highly stain-resistant and machine washable!  A perfect accessory for Stylish Moms on the go!!

Use Discount Code: mom15 to buy yours and spoil the diaper changing Mommy in your life!

Also be sure to check out Bellaziza Favorite, The Plain Mary Kensington Play Mat!

Congratulations to subscriber Meg T. who is the winner of our $500 Green Makeover!  ENJOY!!!

Many thanks to our very generous and very green sponsors!  And thanks, of course, to our loyal readers!!

Even if she’s never won an Oscar or scored a number one hit, every mom is a star.

Does yours spoil her kids with a glamorous lifestyle like Heidi Klum? Or is she more of an eco queen like Julia Roberts?

No matter which celebrity is most like your mom, this Mother’s Day, it’s time to celebrate her parenting performances with an A-list gift!!

Check out the Celebrity Gift Guide at www.gifts.com to help you find the perfect gift for every kind of Mom!

Ready for a Green Makeover?  Well, we’re ready to give you one!  This week we are giving away almost $500 worth of some of our Favorite green products!  So here’s what we’re swagging you with!!

An entire Plan Toys Eco Town playset, An Eco Me Baby Kit, Your Choice of a Set of Napkins from Litter Free Lunch, A Taj Pyramid Tiffin Lunch Box Set from Happy Tiffin, AND The Potent and Pure Collection from Kiss My Face !!!

To enter, visit each of our sponsors and take a look at their products.  THEN simply leave a detailed comment on this post saying what you think about their products, their websites and/or their companies!  Our generous sponsors want to know YOUR OPINION!!!

This SWAG ALERT will be open for daily entry until Monday, April 27th at midnight PST.  Our same fabulous SWAG ALERT rules apply, including EXTRAS, but if you need a refresher on the details just CLICK HERE or visit our “SWAG INFO” page by clicking the tab at the top of this page. Winner will be chosen from the comments posted and our subscription list on Tuesday via random.org.

Haven’t you heard?  Green is the new black!  Mother Earth is definitely one of our Favorite Things and we know you love her too!  So here are some of our Favorite Green Things to help you celebrate Earth Day, every day!!

Of course, we can not even begin to mention Eco Friendly products without mentioning our Favorite Toy Company!  Plan Toys keeps the Earth and our kids safe by making top quality toys using organic rubberwood and other recyclable materials, water based dyes and soy and water based inks.  Our newest Favorite is their Eco Town which teaches kids all about living in an Earth Friendly world!  The Eco Town consists of an eco home, eco train station, eco charging station, eco street accessories and eco play mat, all of which have been created to encourage clean energy playtime.  What a unique and fun idea!

If  you read the stats from my Tasha Goes Blue-Green post, we know that we have you convinced to be more green with your kids’ lunches!! Kids Konserve is ready and waiting to help you make lunch time green!   Visit www.KidsKonserve.com to buy your Reusable Lunch Kit.  For only $40, you and your child can make a huge impact!!  Kid’s Konserve is giving our readers 10% off your purchase with the coupon code: Bella.  So get over there and order yours and while you are there enter to win a free Lunch Kit!!!  (Oh, and it’s a celebrity favorite too!  That’s Isla Fischer and her sweetie, Olive Baron Cohen to the right using their Kids Konserve lunch bag!)

Litter Free Lunch is also one really cool way to make a difference at lunch time!  Not just for your kids, but in your lunch too or at the dinner table!  The garbage statistics alone should convince you to use these napkins!  Visit www.LitterFreeLunch.com to get some super cute, really practical reusable napkins!  They work great and my son is oh so proud to bring them in his lunch and tell his friends all about being Litter Free!!  How great is that?!  News Break!!  Litter Free Lunch has just added Stainless Steel Lunchbots Containers to their line of products!!

You didn’t think we leave out your lunch time, did you?  You may not be as into sporting a Reusable Caterpillar Lunch Bag as your child, but don’t worry!  You can make your lunch time green and be totally hip at the same time!  We love, love the Happy Tiffin!!  And with their many Tiffin Sets you have a great variety of styles and prices to choose from!  Not only great for lunch time, Happy Tiffins are great for storing left overs in the fridge without relying on plastic containers!  Now that is something to be happy about!

Now that you have lunch time covered, let’s move on to the bathroom!  No, no…we will not be making potty jokes here, but we will tell you about a fabulous company that will help you make your bathroom habits more green!  Kiss My Face provides natural and organic body care to keep you and the Earth clean!!  From make up and lip gloss to deodorant and shampoo, Kiss My Face will change the way you think about your toiletry products!!  And they didn’t forget the kids either!!  Our Favorite parts about the Kiss My Face line?  Their extremely reasonable prices and availablility and they provide a list of ingredients which cuts through the confusion about what’s in their products and why!!

Once you have spent hours in your bathroom trying out all of your new natural and organic toiletries, it will be time to clean your mess!  Don’t you just hate the chemically filled cleaners out there?  There is nothing better than a clean home without the harsh smell and traces of chemicals lingering!  I have tried making my own homemade cleaners, but Eco-Me has made the process so much easier!!  By simply adding some products you have at home (like vinegar and baking soda, for example) you can have all natural cleaning products in every room of your home!  They also make wonderful homemade cleaning kits for Baby, Body and Pets!

Being green is easy and fun when you can use products like these!  That’s why we love ‘em!

Okay, so this is something I never thought I’d see myself doing, but (drum roll please) we are going to attempt to quit disposable diapers!  (OMG, I know!)  Do I not have enough on my plate between this lovely blog that you all come back to read so faithfully, our two sweet babies, my dear husband and oh yes, we have a product line too!  So why bother?

I do care, however I’m just not one of those ultra eco types.  Convenience is my dear friend.  My laundry gets laundered no prob… but is sometimes, ahem, not promptly folded (visualize: the mountain on the guest room bed, a.k.a. The Situation Room, thanks to my dh.).  I can’t shake the thought of our landfills though and all of the diapers and everything else that our family contributes that’s going to affect the planet our girls inherit.  I won’t go over to the brown-paper diapers either since I’m all about the premium super duper comfy deepees for our little girls.  What is more premium than cloth though?  Being that I am a high thread count type of gal, I think that’s what got me interested.

BambinoMio’s system is what finally got me to give cloth diapering nappying a shot (”nappy” because it’s a British company… hey, is ‘nappyING’ even a word?).  It’s supposed to be convenient and even affordable!  I was sold there since easy is just that, EASY… and who wants to go out and invest $500 or so to get started in cloth diapers when you’re not 100% sure you can realistically commit?  Bambino Mio kits are about $100 per size which is totally do-able even if you go back to disposables.  There is also some sort of special bucket / storage / laundering system that makes it all very easy …and a DVD.  Dumb it down for me, sil vous plait:)!

So I’m excited!  If I can do it with how crazy things get here, I know others of you who have been toying with the idea of cloth can too.  I’ll keep you posted:).

Crista

PS – In the mean time, there’s a great Celebrity Baby Blog poll that you should check out on cloth diapering and the trend of going back to it that’s started over the past few years.

So I promised you that if I can make a green effort, that you can too!  So here are some of the small things  my family and I have done to make a difference…a small but important difference!!

The Earth’s future lays in the hands of our children and if we do not teach them about being Earth Friendly, who will?  Here are some facts about kid’s lunches:  The USA alone is using 100 billion plastic bags each year!!  If 1 out of 5 people in the USA used a reusable bag we would eliminate 1,330,560,000,000 plastic bags in a lifetime!  That is a lot of plastic bags and a lot of oil (not to mention a lot of zeros)!! The average American child generates 67 pounds of lunchtime trash, children’s lunches create 3.5 billion pounds of garbage, and 18,760 pounds of trash are generated each year from the average elementary school.  Those are some crazy stats!!

Plastic Baggies – You have read the statistics about the amount of trash we throw away!  We have been making an effort around our house to use reusable containers instead of plastic baggies.  My boys adpated to this idea very quickly.  It’s amazing how much of the things we do are just habit!  Put the baggies away and you will be surprised how easily you forget they were ever there!

Water Bottle Madness – With our Klean Kanteens in hand, it’s easy to give the water bottle the boot!  Using a sport bottle of some kind rather than grabbing a water bottle is quite easy and convenient!  And if you can’t stand to give up your water bottle habit, or if that’s all that’s available to you (like at the Little League concession stand after you have forgotten the reusable sport bottle you left in the fridge at home!  ahem…experience talking here…) at least, at least, recycle them!!

Clean and Green – I have found a little trick for saving on plastic use and a more natural approach to washing up!  Instead of buying the plastic bottles of body wash and hand soap, we have switched to bar soap.  The packaging is far more Earth Friendly and you can find bar soaps with a much smaller amount of ingredients added to them!  I heard somewhere (don’t ask me where – I can’t remember the water for baseball night, so do you think I can remember where I heard this random fact?!)  that gel soap is chemically altered to be in a gel form whereas bar soap is more likely to have less “stuff” added to it.  Now I’m sure it all depends on what kind of soap you buy, gel or not.  (That’s my little “I may be wrong, I’m not an expert” disclaimer.)  But I do feel better knowing that I am using less plastic packaging and giving our washing up more thought!!

Recycle – DUH!!!  Recycling is probably the single biggest thing you can do to make a difference that will count!  Even my youngest has learned what the three little circular arrows on the bottom of plastic containers mean!  No matter what the size of your town, most have some kind of recycling program or at least somewhere you can bring your recyclables.  And if you have to go to the next town over, do it…for the love of Earth!!!

I don’t know about you, but I have had enough of those big brightly colored tubs the town gives you for recycling!  Could they be any less chic?!  I love the ideas I found below for making a recycling space in your home with some attractive containers and a little imagination!

The Inspired Room posted this picture to the left which really did inspire me!  I love the idea of the hideaway containers.  Now if I can just find a cute little nook like that!

These stainless steel containers are from Simple Human.  To the right are the Front Load Recycle Bins that are super practical and decor friendly!  Simple Human has a few recycling options, so you should check them out!  Get creative and have fun so your recycling habits can be easier and prettier!

Oh my!  When I saw this, it all just made sense!  Go GREEN!  It’s not just for the tree huggers, floks!

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard is a tiny yet impactful video about stuff… and so is this blog, essentially… but I think that they work together as we show you lots of the best stuff so that you only have to buy said stuff one time rather than stuff, upon stuff, upon stuff.  Thus ends my stuff rant.  Buy the best, buy once. Makes sense to me.

Take a few minutes and enjoy The Story of Stuff!  Your kids will thank you and it will all just make sense.  It sure did for me!

Crista