My New Year’s Resolution – Best Put by Someone Else…

Image via Flickr by quinn.anya

I love Peter Shankman for a bunch of reasons, but this is the latest – his blog post on Why You NEED to Get Up Earlier (And How To Do It!).

Please read and share.  I think it is so important that we find time for ourselves in the day (especially for mothers).  Get up, actually get to drink that fresh cup of coffee and take some time for you.   Check email, read, stare out the window…you get my drift.

Mother’s Day Giveaway – Win an ECOSYSTEM Set!

Aren’t they just pretty?

Lately, when I have been asked by my husband what I want for Mother’s Day, I have been thinking the same thing over and over: I need to be more organized.

No more taking notes on the nearest scrap of paper while my son is yanking on my pant leg.  Only to lose those vital scraps of paper in 2 minutes flat.  No more jotting down important appointments on the backs of receipts, only to get quickly swept into the trash.  One word: Please.

That is why I was pretty psyched about my new little set of ecosystem books.  They come in 4 types – Artist (blank), Author (lined), Architect (grid), and Advisor (calendar).   You can also choose the color and size.  They current colors they offer are Kiwi, Clementine, Lagoon, Watermelon, and Onyx.  Soon to be added: Grape.  In addition, all ecosystem books are made from 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper using low-impact processes that are environmentally savvy and responsible

But here is what really sold me – each notebook has a unique ID, which you enter on the ecosystem website when you receive your book.  If, per chance, like any mom out there, you get forgetful and lose your book, the finder can go to the website and enter in the code.  A lost and found system!  If only every stuffed animal had that feature!

And here is the fun news – for Mother’s Day, ecosystem is going to give one very lucky reader a set of books!  The set includes the large watermelon 12-month weekly planner, a medium clementine author (lined) and a small kiwi artist (blank).

Here’s how to enter: Just leave a comment below by midnight, May 13th.  If you would like extra entries, each of the following will count as one entry: Like us on Facebook, subscribe to our emails, or tweet this giveaway!

In the meantime, check out the other ecosystem notebooks and like their awesome Facebook page. 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Best Bargain Shopping

Photo by gingerbydesign

Lately I’ve been feeling a touch dated in my current wardrobe, yet I don’t want to break the bank buying new things.  I’ve spent the last couple weeks trying out various discount stores to see what I could do with a little cash.

Here are my top 4 stores/websites of the moment:

1. TJ Maxx

How can you not love this place? If I can invest the time, sifting through the racks upon racks of clothes always nets me something of value. And, oddly, I seem to be able to find things that are relatively unique.  They also have the new designer area that while a bit pricier, does have great jeans and other stellar finds.  Plus, never overlook the children, toy and home departments.

2. Loehmanns

This is a new spot for me.  I always felt I couldn’t find things there in the past so I gave up going.  I’ve now gone a few times over the past month and have found some great things.  I love their clearance racks.  I got a rockin new shirt for under $15.  It is also a great spot for bras, underwear and shoes.  They even have quite a nice selection of salon products.

3. Bluefly

I didn’t have much luck with Bluefly in the past, but lately I have found some basics, including a new swimsuit!  I get their emails and wait for an extra discount to come through.  Recently I took advantage of an extra 15% one-day sale they had and saved even more off their already discounted prices.

4. Gilt Groupe

This one is a little trickier.  They send you emails once a sale is about to open, then it is a mad dash to get the deeply discounted designer clothes.  I typically don’t use them, but when I saw a sale for my favorite brand of jeans, I scored three pairs for the price of one! Needless to say, I was psyched!

Have other favorites?  Leave a comment – I’m always looking for new bargain spots!

New Year Resolutions Revisited

Image by loop_oh

OK, so by the end of January most of us have New Year’s resolutions that are a distant memory.  But, as I said a few weeks ago, I was going to check in again at the end of the month.  How are you holding up? Have you made progress or are you giving up?

My progress is slow and was further slowed by sickness sweeping through our house over the past two weeks. However, I have started to get back on track and doing as much exercise as I think my body can handle without making me too tired and more susceptible to illness.

However, I did find an article that I must share with you:  50 Ways to Cut 500 Calories a Day.  It suggests things like tapping your foot to burn up to 350 calories/day. Or going window shopping and trying clothes on for an afternoon can burn up to 548 calories. Works for me!

If you are still on the organizational kick, check out Evernote, an online service that lets you organize all your thoughts, ideas, webpages, etc. into one neat space.  I’ll go into it in more depth in another post.

Good luck with your toe tapping!

Coupon Organization Conquered.

Ever gone to the grocery store, filled you cart and discovered at the check-out that you had forgotten all your coupons? I have.  All too often.  That was until I discovered my ultimate system of coupon organization.

After delivering my son and getting ready to leave the hospital, the staff gave me a gift diaper bag that was full of samples, etc.  In there was this handy little wallet/organizer.  I’m not sure what its intended original use was, but I knew immediately what I would be using it for.

Now, I load all my coupons in this and carry it in my purse wherever I go.  The only time I take it out of my purse is when I am clipping coupons on Sunday morning, loading printing coupons or using them at the store counter.

Here is what it looks like:

So, I keep grocery coupons in the left-hand side, and bigger, more random coupons in the right pocket (Bed, Bath & Beyond, oil changes, etc).  I can’t tell you how many times I used to make a quick stop into Bed, Bath & Beyond and be cursing at myself in the check-out lane when I realized I had forgotten my 20% off coupon.  No longer!

The big thing about this system is that you must carry the same purse, or be diligent to move your wallet and the coupon organizer into your other purse every time. Because, you know the day you forget will be the day you make that stop into the grocery store.

New Year’s Resolution Check In

Image from Flickr by D Sharon Pruitt

Here I am, the little voice you are going to want to ignore or pretend you don’t hear: How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Have they fallen off? Are you still going? I am checking in with you today and will do so again on the 29th of this month.

Remember how you felt about yourself when you decided on your resolution.  You could picture a better life, one more organized, more fit or whatever you wanted to focus on.  So what happened?  Is it just too hard to change your life overnight?  Need more inspiration?

How am I doing on my own resolution?  Well, just okay.  I need to renew my commitment.  When I was deciding on mine for this year, one that included eating healthier and actually starting an exercise regime, I found several resources I thought would help.  I’m going to share them with you here.

• The WholeLiving Whole Body Action plan.  This includes detox smoothies and soups, healthy recipes, wellness tools and calculators and much, much more.
• Buttoned Up organization tools and downloads.  Create goal lists, download their monthly spending form, gift lists, thank you notes and more.
• SparkPeople.  A free fitness and weight loss community. I’m a little obsessed with this right now.  It tells you how many calories you need to burn per day and per week.  It also gives you exercise and nutrition suggestions based on your goal weight.  Trust me, this is awesome.

My trick for resolutions: Set a realistic goal in the near future.  Don’t set a goal weight(or whatever your goal may be) that you hope to achieve in 6 months.  Set your goal for one month out, hit it, and then add your next goal for the following month.  It’s much easier to stay motivated and feel like you are achieving your goals that way.

Good luck! And please share any other great motivators with us!

Download Free Organizational Forms Before the New Year!

Image from Flickr by Sir_Adavis

Quick, before the holidays, get yourself ready to be organized!  I always have the highest hope that I will be more organized and agendas, planners, and to-do lists always help me think I’m somehow going to do it this time.

That’s why I got all giddy when I got an email from Mommy Tracked that sent me to their website for all these free organizational downloads.  Menu planners, dailies, weeklies, carpool to-dos, baby schedules, you name it.

Go check it out.  You owe it to yourself to be organized!

A Free Resource to Back Up Your Files Online

A few months back a friend told me about Syncplicity:  a website that allows you to back up your files online.  A free account gives you 2 GB of space to upload unlimited files and folders.  That’s a lot of free space.  You can also get a few more GB of space by inviting people to their service (1 GB/person, max 3 extra GB)  If you need a lot more, you can purchase 50 GB of space for $15/month.

The great thing about Syncplicity: you can log in from any computer and retrieve your files.  At Grandma’s house and want to download some of your photos to her computer?  Done.  It is very user friendly and secure.

From the Syncplicity website:

Syncplicity Personal Edition is for individual users and makes everyday sync, back-up and sharing files easy. Accidentally lose a file, a folder, or your computer? Get your files back, instantly. Our SyncStorage means your files are protected with real-time, automated back-up and instant restore. You can safely share your files with anyone you designate, effortlessly. From Google Apps to Microsoft Office, photos and other media. Your files can be on every computer you use – instantly.

You can chose which files you want to upload.  Maybe you just want a place to back up your photos in case you get the blue screen of death.  Or just some old important documents that you want to have in a safe place.  The end of the year is a great time to have all of your important items from the year backed up.

And, of course, I love free services like this!

Want to Gift a Fabulous New Cook Book?

Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, one bite at a time is not just a cook book, it is a guide to a new way of approaching food, its preparation, and the way we eat.  It is also a wonderful guide to getting back to the basics of food.  Certainly not easy, but overwhelmingly fulfilling.

I shudder to think of the amount of prepackaged food I buy and I am someone who works hard to buy all-natural, organic food.  That still doesn’t mean it is all good for you.  Why is it that I feel better about myself when I buy organic boxed-pasta?  It’s organic, it must be healthier, right? No.  I realized after reading this book that I desperately need to get to know my ingredients again and to remind myself that often, the best way to prepare food is to use simple, basic, and most importantly, fresh local ingredients.

Michele Carbone, the author, lives La Dolce Vita in Santa Barbara, California with her husband and two daughters. After her daughter Kristin’s catastrophic brain injury in 1996, her life in the fast lane came to a screeching halt. Her career ended, and life in the slow lane became the norm. Throughout the sleepless nights, days of therapy, and slow rehabilitation, her life’s priorities changed. Her love of cooking and eating sustained her creative urges and became the catalyst for a transformation into a new, simpler, and more rewarding culinary lifestyle, based on using recently harvested local seasonal foods.

From the book jacket:

“Michele reveals to us her techniques for shopping, taking advantage of fresh seasonal produce, equipping a kitchen and producing authentic meals the Italian way.  Her seasonal menus and humorous stories will inspire you to begin your own culinary journey.  Michele reminds us that the most important aspect of living is Friday Evening with la cucina e la famiglia!“

I’m not sure if I can do this book justice, but I can promise you this: if you know someone that loves to cook or someone that is an aspiring cook, this would make a fantastic, inspiring gift.  You can’t go wrong, the book also happens to be absolutely beautiful and would look great on a coffee table!  Find it here.

A Great Holiday Gift Idea

Every year it seems like we buy the same things for our loved ones.  Perfume, ties, gift cards, you name it.  Blah.  That is precisely why I was thrilled to meet Lonnie Tyler, the woman behind Memory Divas, a photo gift company with Heritage Makers.  I love making photo gifts for people. They are personal and everyone always loves them.  And I found that Lonnie had some unique items I have not seen elsewhere.

I have been eyeing her wire-bound cookbooks($24.95) for our family recipes.  I would love to get a gift like that!

I asked Lonnie to put together some gift ideas for different gift budgets:

Under $20:

8.5″ x 11″ Calendar*, Photo Swatch Book, or a package of 10 Photo Postcards

Under $30:

Wire-bound Cookbook, 11″ x 16″ Calendar*, Photo Pendant Necklace (great idea!),  or 18″ x 24″ Photo Poster

Under $40:

Photo Bracelet(pictured below), 5″ x 7″ Storybook($39.95), or 5″ x 5″ Storybook($34.95)

Under $50:

8″ x 8″ Storybook

*Calendar prices are discounted until the end of November, 2009

Really, no matter what your budget is, you can get a wonderful, personalized and thoughtful gift anyone would love.  However, because these are personalized, you do need to plan ahead. Ideally, you want to get them ordered before Thanksgiving.  Nothing like being ahead of the game!

A little about Lonnie:

I am a stay-at-home grandmother and of Diva of preserving memories.  My love affair with Heritage makers is not that of most independent consultants.  My daughter gave me a book that captured some of the memories between the two of us.  After I received that book, I was hooked.  I couldn’t wait to show off my custom made book to all my Diva friends and encourage them to begin to preserve their own precious stories.

I love, love, love helping people discover, preserve and celebrate family stories and heritage through  the power of “storybooking.”   Storybooking is the unique process of combining photographs with personalized story text into hardbound storybook keepsakes.  It is such a pleasure for me to see the overwhelming expression a person has not only while making one of these treasures, but also the love expressed when receiving one of these priceless gifts-diva moments at their finest.

Let’s make some diva moments and preserve your stories.

You can visit the Memory Divas website or contact Lonnie directly here.

Good luck!