Goddess Top giveaway at Life Starring Ellie and Eve

The March Maternity Jamboree continues at Life Starring Ellie & Eve. Today's giveaway is from A Mother's Boutique and it's the Goddess Top. This top looks like it would be great for before, during and after birth. I would totally wear that!

Birthdays are hard work.

It's my DH's birthday tomorrow.
I couldn't think what to get him.

So I got him ... a shirt. Ughhhh is that the worst gift ever? I mean, it's a really nice shirt, but still... a shirt?! :(

I am also throwing him a party tomorrow night. With a homemade cheesecake and all sorts of other homemade goodies. And with a fully cleaned house. But I feel bad about the shirt. He's just so darn hard to buy for. What the man wants, the man buys himself. That doesn't make it easy to get him a gift.
*sigh*

See Kai Run at The Soothie Ranch

Yay, another chance to win a pair of cute See Kai Run shoes as they are promoting their new Spring/Summer collection. The Soothie Ranch is hosting this giveaway that ends on the 23rd of March.

Shoo Shoos at Cool Baby Kid

Shoo Shoos are definitely on the list for cute baby shoes. Love those Sand Puppy ones. Enter to win a pair of your choice at Cool Baby Kid! Ends March 25.

See Kai Run at Blessings Abound

One more See Kai Run giveaway for baby shoes. This one is from Blessings Abound as part of the Birthday Bash for her blog. Enter by the 22nd of March. I'm still crushing on the Addisons... Maybe one day I will win a pair or else I will have to break down and buy them (they are actually on sale for 25% off right now!) .

Baby wipes: A Giveaway & A Recipe

I keep reading more about cloth diapering, and realized that I hadn't thought too much about wipes. I think the most popular ones I've seen come in the plastic case and are just tossed or flushed.

Bummas wipes are cloth and re-useable. If you are doing laundry anyway, why not use washable wipes? Mommies with Cents is hosting a giveaway for a set of Bummas wipes, enter by the 19th of March for your chance to win.

I've found some recipes for making your own wipes (so that you know exactly what's going on the baby's skin). These are also disposable but can be more economical and use less chemicals than the off-the-shelf wipes. Here's a recipe for homemade wipes if anyone's interested:

Ingredients:
Round plastic container (Rubbermaid #6 or #9 works well)
Quality paper towels (use a non-bleached one like Cascade for more green wipes)
Sharp knife to cut paper towel roll in half
2 cups water that has been boiled and cooled to room temperature
2 Tablespoons baby shampoo or baby wash
1 Tablespoon baby oil

How to do it:
Cut the roll of paper towels in half with a knife and remove the cardboard.
Mix liquid ingredients in container.
Put half the roll of paper towels in the container with the cut side down. Save the other half for making more wipes.
Put on the lid and let it sit until the liquid is absorbed into the paper towels.
Turn the container upside down and give it another 10 minutes to ensure absorption.
Open container and 'start' the roll by pulling a towel from the inside of the roll.
Your wipes are now ready to use.

This recipe is adapted from babyparenting.about.com, where they also suggest this (with the recipe printed out and included) as a great baby shower gift. I agree!

Baby signs at My Organized Chaos

Remember in that movie Meet the Fockers, the baby who communicated with sign language? That was no joke - sign language is increasingly popular with families who want to communicate a little earlier with their babies. Babies can mimic movements much earlier than sounds! Check out My Baby Can Talk for more information. You could win the complete set of DVDs and books from My Organized Chaos - enter by the 21st of March.

Shoo Shoos at Dexter's Super Savvy Mommy

A pair of Shoo Shoos are up for grabs over at Dexter's Super Savvy Mommy! I like this pair, the Sand Puppies. There are so many to choose from, though. Enter by the 25th for your chance to win!

Little Chickie Wear at My Organized Chaos

Awww! May contain peanut! *Love*. It's from Little Chickie Wear.

Win your choice of onesie, hat or bib from Little Chickie Wear over at My Organized Chaos! They are all organic cotton and super-cute! Ends March 19th.

ANGeLRoX baby onesie at Amanda's blog

I'm loving the sweetness of this little onesie. Natural cotton with little angel wings, how cute is that?! Mommy Amanda is giving away a baby onesie from ANGeLRoX like this one.

While you are looking at ANGelRoX, check out the denim section... love those jeans.

Leg Huggers at Mommies with Cents

Have you seen Leg Huggers yet? These are so cute and practical. Keep knees from rug burn, keep legs warm, allow easy diaper changes... great idea. I just wish they had more gender neutral colours because I think with onesies or a tshirt and diaper cover, these would be good for boys, too. I mean can't you picture ones with little trucks or fish or frogs? Stripes or other patterns? Argyle for the baby prep set?

Anyway, you can win a pair of (girly) Leg Huggers at Mommies with Cents. I like the Butterfly Meadow pattern, Popsicle Parade is pretty cute, too. Enter by the 18th!

Ergobaby carrier at Give Them Roots

Give Them Roots is hosting a giveaway for one of the ErgoBaby carriers I was blogging about earlier. I think these look great. You have until the 31st of March to enter.

If you are looking into cloth diapers vs disposable, Give Them Roots also has some handy information on that, just read through some of the older posts. The DH and I have been discussing whether to go one way or the other. DH is pretty much dead set against cloth (his mum used them on his younger sibs when he was a kid, and all he remembers is nasty stinky diaper pail). I am pretty much all for cloth, with disposable supplements for travel or when a convenient diaper is needed. Cue debate!

DH is pretty green most of the time, I had thought that the green aspect of cloth would appeal to him. But I think that stinky diaper pail is a problem in his mind. Hmm. Not that we're in a place where we need to decide right now, but I am sure this will be an issue in the future!

Ecostore baby products from Dexter's Super Savvy Mommy!

I have talked about EcoStore USA before; here is another giveaway, hosted by Dexter's Super Savvy Mommy, for two of EcoStore's baby products. These (like all EcoStore USA products) are biodegradable, chemical-free and concentrated so you use less.

Personally I would love to try out some of EcoStore's products. For me, I'd go for the Coconut Soap. For my home, the Citrus Spray Cleaner looks good. The Beast (our chocolate lab, Cadbury) would like to try the Ear Wash or the Herbal Fresh Shampoo. And for baby - I'd go for the Baby Body Wash and the Baby Nappy Balm.

Sleep Talking

Scene: I have 1/8 of our queen bed. DH is sprawled across the rest, snoring.

Me: Honey, can you move over a bit?
DH: Why? Are the tigers here?
Me: No. But I need some more room.
DH: Put the animals away. Please. Don't lie to me.

Finally DH rolls over after I poke him a few times.

10 minutes later.

DH: (mumble) graphics trifecta (mumble) virtual spaces in the world.
(pause)
DH: Why is McDonalds offering that job?
Me: You're weird.

I commit to the insomnia, get up, look at computer.

AUGHHH I am tired! Wish DH didn't talk in his sleep! (Although it is strangely entertaining and I confess I talk back to see what he'll say next!)

Jack and Lily shoes at Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls

One more time! Jack and Lily is offering a pair of shoes to one Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls reader! You know my favourites... what would your pick be? Enter by the 18th!

practice kindness

A good motto for today as I have a serious grouch on.
You can win a t-shirt from Tees for Change with this motto (or one of their other mindful phrases) from the giveaway that True Cuddles is hosting. Ends March 15.

Snorg!

This is not only the sound my dog makes when he's sleeping, it's also a cool t-shirt company. Snorg tees are witty. I like 'em. You can enter to win your choice of tee from Snorg at Grocery Price Books - giveaway ends March 12th so hurry up!

$40 at Cottonseed Clothing

I came across this giveaway for a $40 gift certificate to Cottonseed Clothing. This company makes some great quality, solid colour onesies and other infant and toddler clothing in 22 different colours! Not your average! This is a family-run business. Looks like good stuff. You can enter to win at Coupon Divas, ends the 16th.

Jack and Lily shoes at My Organized Chaos

One more opportunity to win a pair of the cutest Jack and Lily shoes! I keep waiting for the lucky day when I win a pair. It hasn't happened yet! Maybe this time. Try your luck at My Organized Chaos! Ends March 17.

Little Red

Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls is hosting a giveaway for Picaflor kids. Picaflor is hummingbird in Spanish! I love it. The prize here is a very sweet hoodie for kids, this would work for a boy or girl since it's bright red! Enter by the 17th for your chance to win!

Ergobaby carrier at My Organized Chaos!

The ErgoBaby is one baby carrier I've seen a lot of lately. Not just online - I've seen happy hands-free parents and smiling/sleeping/burbling babies walking around with these in the REAL world! Whereas the ring sling has been in hibernation, that's my best guess, anyway - it is still pretty cold and miserable up here in Canada.
Right now, My Organized Chaos is hosting a giveaway for an ErgoBaby carrier system (carrier, backpack and pouch) in the winner's choice of colour! Pretty nice, eh? Enter by the 17th for your chance to win.

Stainless steel bottles

First of all let me say I'm really against bottled water. There is this huge - I mean HUGE - mass of plastics in the Pacific Ocean that is a disaster for aquatic and bird life. There's an article about it here. Read. It's important that we all know about this so that we can do our part to help prevent it from getting worse.

So if you don't want to buy cases of bottled water (don't do it!), and you don't want a potentially BPA-infused beverage in a reuseable plastic container (or even canned soft drinks, it was recently reported), here's a solution: Stainless Steel. And wouldn't you know it, there are several giveaways for stainless steel bottles out there in blog world.

An Optimistic Beauty is hosting a giveaway for an Otter Bottle. This is just for Canadian readers for a change. Ends March 15.

Momma in Flip Flops2 is giving away an Earthlust Bottle. Ends March 16, Canada and US.

And last but definitely not least, 1 Stop Mom is giving away a Family Pack (4 bottles!) from Otter. Also ends March 16, another one for Canada only!

Little Soles at The Mommy in Charge

Here are some baby shoes that I haven't seen on the giveaway rota before. These are Little Soles (the "Cream and Brown Euro Runner"). The Mommy in Charge is giving away THREE pairs of Little Soles.
Enter by the 31st of March.

Loyal Army Giveaway at Parent Reviewers

Okay, the shirt in the picture is NOT what's being given away, I just fell in love with it. It's from Loyal Army.

Parent Reviewers are giving away the winner's choice of either an Obama Wins t-shirt (a Kawaii US map with an 'under new management' banner, v. cute!) or a Lucky Star Tall Tote.

Enter by the 17th for your chance to win.

Jack and Lily shoes at Mommy Goggles!

I am so glad I didn't miss this one. It started on February 28th! But there is still time to enter to win a pair of those sweet Jack and Lily shoes for baby. I just love these shoes! Enter by the 14th at Mommy Goggles for your chance to win!

Fresh Baby at Grab Bag Reviews

Grab Bag Reviews is still rockin' Baby Fever Week. This giveaway is for the So Easy Baby food kit, which contains everything you need (except the ingredients) to make your own baby food. This is an economical and much more environmentally friendly (not to mention healthy) way than the standard jarred food to feed babies. Imagine how much processing, shipping, and recycling costs for all those baby food jars. Doesn't it make more sense to make your own, especially when a kit like this makes it so easy?
Enter by the 22nd for your chance to win a kit.

Bobux Baby shoes at Mommies with Cents

It's like a shoe-stravaganza out there these days! Love it. Here's a giveaway for a pair of Bobux shoes. These shoes apparently use Eco-Leather that is safe to chew on (you know babies) and will biodegrade. Mommies with Cents is giving away a pair, winner's choice of size and style (from the Originals collection). Enter by the 13th - and you can enter daily!

Bella Blu Maternity Wear at Momma in Flip Flops

Here's another giveaway for Maternity wear - this time a t-shirt from Bella Blu. Momma in Flip Flops 2 is giving away a Shade maternity t-shirt in the winner's choice of colour! I like the Baby Tee in Wine, myself, but there are lots of colours to choose from! Ends March 13th.

TTC anyone?

If you are Trying To Conceive, this might be helpful. Life Starring Ellie and Eve, as well as the Not-So-Blog Blog, are giving away a program called Ovusoft. It's a fertility monitoring program; you enter in your data, and it helps you predict when you are most fertile. What I think is neat is that it works based on your data and history, not on averages. If you are hardcore and using another type of monitoring as well (temperature, kits, monitors, etc) you can enter that data in, too. You can enter on each blog site.

Getting personal, my cycle is pretty irregular so I think this would be a great program for someone like me where the averages just don't work very well.

I have been thinking about doing a blog giveaway of my own as well - I have a set of Cyclebeads with instructions, that won't work for me because of my long and irregular cycles. The beads are a great idea, I was really disappointed to find that they won't work for me. So these are 'used' (although basically it just means the package was opened, the beads really can't be damaged and are not meant to be used in any sort of personal manner if you know what I mean).
Would anyone be interested in a giveaway for these?

Inspiration & Motivation? Haven't seen them lately.

I work at home. Sounds great, right? The DH goes off to work at 6:45 a.m. He works hard and lately has been putting in some crazy - like, 14 hour - days, and weekends too. Me... not so much. Now, we have a deal - he works like a bat out of hell (do bats work?) and I work too, not so bat-like, and also take care of house stuff like tidying, cooking (yeah, pretty much all of it), laundry, and the daily chores of running a house. We share the once-a-week major cleaning and things like snow-shovelling, mowing the lawn, that sort of thing. Not a bad deal although sometimes I get ultra ticked about random things like ...

• leaving dirty dishes on the counter right over top of the dishwasher. Is it that hard to open the door and put them in???
• leaving socks on the couch/floor/in shoes. ick.
• leaving one's dirty dishes from one's snack the night before up in the tv room. I know One has been in the tv room before work and also has made the trek to kitchen from tv room. Not sure why One ignores dirty dishes.
• leaving zippers unzipped when putting dirty pants in the wash basket. I know this is an odd one but I have had clothes ruined by catching on zippers from other clothes in the wash, so I make a point of zipping up zippers before washing. I wish the love of my life would zip his darn zippers up so I didn't have to zip up 7 flys on wash day. I have asked, he has refused. I could take a stand and not wash unzipped clothing but... not worth the fight. That said I get resentful with every zipper I zip.

Okay. So I have some little peeves. Rant over.

Anyway the point is, other than these little cleany chores that I have, I am meant to be working when I'm at home. And I have a lot of trouble getting down to it. I know that I could be making much more dough if I buckled down. I know that once I get going I actually enjoy my job. I know that I get to listen to audio books (love audio books!) while I work so it's really not so bad. But... I resist. I dilly-dally. I think, ok, I'll just read my book for another half hour. Then I'll make a cup of tea. Then I need a snack. Then I'll just look online for a bit... and it's practically mid-afternoon and I haven't gotten a thing done!

Kind of frustrating. I beat myself up over this. The guilt! But I still have trouble with procrastination.

Pediped Shoes and more!

Mom Giveaways is holding a giveaway for your choice of Pediped shoes (from the new Spring line - Flex or Originals!), and two adorable banks from Child to Cherish. I'm all over the baby shoes lately (haven't won any yet but here's hoping) with those three expecting friends that I need baby shower gifts for. I love these little Kyle shoes from Pediped. Cute, eh?! Enter by the 23rd for your chance to win!

Stylish maternity wear!

Life Starring Ellie & Eve has just introduced me to Japanese Weekend's maternity line. Holy smokes, who knew such awesome maternity clothes were out there! These are even better than my regular (non-maternity) clothes. I love, love, love the styles. And Life Starring Ellie and Eve is giving us a chance to win a top from the during and after collection. Enter by the 20th for your chance to win!

This top is from their clearance section and is only $19.99!!! It's lace trimmed and has an empire waist. Don't you love it?

bumGenius diaper at Hot Belly Mama!

Win a free Bumgenius 3.0 Diaper! This is a valuable All-In-One cloth diaper that you can use for yourself or give as a gift to someone expecting a baby! Go check out Hot Belly Mama's Blog for details on how to win this wonderful All In One Cloth Diaper. Hot Belly Mama will announce the winner on March 30th, after her 30th birthday!

Here is the direct link to her blog: http://hotbellymama.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

Breastfeeding book from Woman to Woman Childbirth Education

I have always thought I'd breastfeed (hopefully I can fulfill that wish in the future). Not only is it healthier for baby, it allows that bonding time for mother and child. Many women have trouble with breastfeeding, whether it's from forming that 'latch' or not having enough milk, pain, or from fear or lack of education about it. The last can be helped with the book Breastfeeding with Comfort and Joy. It's a book with lots of photographs, support and information for the nursing mother. You can enter to win a copy at Woman to Woman Childbirth Education! Enter by March 20th.

Make shopping less icky with Chic-Covers

Know how many germs are on a shopping cart? Me neither, but it grosses me out to think about it. And when you think of how babies always have their hands and mouths on everything... ugh. So I think these are a great idea. This is a shopping cart cover so that the seat, handle and whole baby-sitting area are covered with your own clean and washable cover. Brilliant, no? It's from Chic-covers. They also make other covers for car seats and such, and coordinating diaper bags, blankets, all sorts of good stuff. They are now having a giveaway for a shopping cart cover - check it out!

Jack and Lily shoes at Me and My Boys

Woo! Another chance to win a pair of adorable Jack and Lily shoes! I just love the sailboats (if you haven't noticed). Jack and Lily has so many different shoes to choose from. That makes it hard! The little smiling starfish are pretty cute, too. Oh, wait... they're ALL cute!
If you would like a chance to win a pair of Jack and Lily shoes of your choice from Me and My Boys, head on over by the 22nd of March.

Grow-Up! booster seat at Grab Bag Reviews

If your baby is getting to that age when they want to sit in a grown-up chair and not the high chair any more, you need a booster seat! The Grow-Up! seat from Musty looks like a great option. With a 5 point safety strap and some great colours, perfect for your little one.
Grab Bag Reviews is giving away a Grow-Up! in your choice of colour! Enter by the 22nd for your chance to win! Another one for Baby Fever Week!

Spa Time Baby at Mommies with Cents

Who doesn't need to make bath time more fun and cozy? Spa Time Baby has some great products to help make bathing a great experience. From Cozy Care Capes for parents (keep your clothes dry) to cute little washcloths, caps and natural soaps, massage oils for baby, they have it all.

Mommies with Cents is giving away a Cozy Care Mat from Spa Time Baby. The mats have a waterproof panel and are made with the cutest patterns. I like the Ducky Bubbles and the Fizzy Citrus ones! Enter by the 14th of March!

One more cloth diaper I'd like to try

Bamboo cloth diapers from Bagshot Row. I love that they are made of bamboo; if you have never tried this cloth it is super soft, breathable and sustainable too!