CLOSED- Giveaway Post!!! Win $100 credit to Minted.com!

I’m super-duper excited for today’s post.  *Insert girlish squeal here.* Today Minted.com and I are excited to be offering one lucky reader $100 credit to Minted.com.   Yup.  It’s giveaway time!  It’s giveaway time! 

I’ve wanted to say a big “Thank you” to y’all for your support for a long time now.  So when I was contacted about doing a giveaway, I jumped at the chance because it meant that one of you could win something nice.   

This is a one awesome giveaway.  Minted.com is a beautifully curated online store that sells seriously gorgeous stationary and artwork.  I go goo-goo when I scroll through the pages because everything is so lovely and special.   In fact, here are four of my current favorite items…   

    

Hee hee hee!  This Yeti or not Christmas card is uber cute.  (And bonus- they're currently offering 20% off their holiday card selection until 10/6!  Score!)

Ok....So apparently I have Christmas cards on my mind, but how could you not love this partridge in a pear tree card?  (Did you sing the words like I just did?)

We're still struggling to decorate Chuck's new big boy room.  So this poster and this poster totally caught my eye. 

Did you know that they have wedding cards too? A couple of my girlfriends are getting married, so I have weddings on my mind.  This lovely floral chalkboard invitation is just gorgeous. 

Now if you'd like the chance to win $100 credit to Minted.com, here are all the details:

This giveaway is open all readers worldwide.  (Yay!)  Here’s what you could possibly win:

• For US readers: 
• $100 credit
• Free FedEx Ground shipping on everything except art
• For the international readers: 
• $100 credit
• Free international economy shipping on everything except art
• However, you have to pay your own country's duties/customs 

To enter the giveaway

1. Visit Minted.com and find your favorite item from the store. 
2. Visit my FB page and leave a comment on the 9/16 Giveaway post with your favorite item. 

That’s it!  The giveaway will close midnight Thursday (PST) and I’ll announce and contact the winner via Facebook by Friday morning. 

Good luck friends!  

This is a sponsored post.  But all opinions are mine.  I received $100 credit to give to one lucky reader.  I'm super glad that I did. :) 

Make a sailboat out of a shampoo bottle

((Thank you to everyone for entering my Kiwi Crate Giveaway.  Before I talk about today's crapt, let me just announce that the winner of the giveaway is Mel!  Congratulations!  Please email me your mailing address so I can send you a Kiwi Crate straight away.))

Hi everyone!  Today I'm going to share how I made this shampoo bottle sailboat after being inspired by this DIY boat kit found here:

Materials:
- empty shampoo bottle <-- crap!
- 2 rubber bands
- wine cork <-- crap!
- drill
- stirrer <-- crap!
- straw <-- crap!
- pair of scissors
- triangle from a potato chip bag <-- crap!
- tape (packing tape is best, but I only had clear plastic tape)

Here are the boat's main components:

Directions:
1.  Cut your cork in half lengthwise.  Then, drill a hole through the middle.  The hole should be big enough to hold your stirrer (aka the mast) up.

2.  Your straw is going to be the horizontal bar holding up your sail (aka, the boom).  Cut your straw to the desired length.  Then, make two triangle cutouts on each side of the straw, so that your stirrer (aka the mast) can slide into the straw.  Both your stirrer and straw will support your plastic bag sail.  

3.  Cut your plastic chip bag into a triangle sail shape.  Tape the plastic bag onto your stirrer and straw to create a sail.



4.  Use two rubber bands to attach your cork to your shampoo bottle.  Then, stick your stirrer into the cork's hole and voila, instant sail boat.

The boat sails nicely in your bathtub, but Chuck and I took it one step further and sailed the high seas (eh hem... a nearby lake.)  We just tied a ribbon to it so that it wouldn't float away.

Hope you and your little one enjoy this crapt!

Kiwi Crate Review + GIVEAWAY-closed! (Yay! Free Stuff!)

Way back in April, a company called Kiwi Crate contacted me about trying out one of their crates and writing about our experience on the blog.  Of course,  I was super excited by the opportunity and jumped on it.  (Free kids' stuff?  Sure, send it my way!)  Within a couple of days, this box of goodies arrived in our mail:

Each Kiwi Crate box is filled with all the materials needed to complete 2-3 super fun, hands-on projects. The projects in each crate usually center around a certain theme (e.g., music, bugs, pirates, etc...)  Our box's theme was bugs.  It contained all the materials and detailed instructionos needed to make two bug related crafts.

Yeah, I was all set to shoot a lovely photo showing all the materials neatly lined up... but Chuck dove right in and wanted to start crafting

Wow.  Let's just say that I was super impressed by the quality and quantity of the materials.  They really do provide everything you need. (Our box even came with scissors for cutting!)  All of the materials felt really high end and nice. (No crapt here!)  Once we completed both projects, we even had plenty of leftover materials. (Cha-ching!  I've stashed those leftovers away into my craft hoard to use for other projects later... tee hee...)

They say that the crates are designed for 3-7 year olds.  Since, Chuck's not yet 2, we took things slow.  He only did one project at a time.  That was just fine by me because they were a great way to help pass long and rainy days (you know the ones I'm talking about... when you're cooped up in the house and both of you are bouncing off the walls.)

Here we are completing our first project in April (hence the hair):

He did not want to let this little bottle go...

Sticking a mini glow-stick into our bottle to make a firefly

And here we are finishing up our second project a couple of days ago: (Is it me, or does he look bigger?)

The crate provided us with everything- plate, paint, sponges, paper, and brush

Such concentration!

As you can see, we enjoyed all the pasting and painting.

You can sign up to get a buy one crate, or you can sign up to get a month-to-month subscription (where they'll send you a different crate every month, for $19.95 per month.)  If you're not too keen on spending the money, you should still peek at their website because they have a great DIY, kid crafts, and activities section, showcasing lots of great (and free!) ideas for projects.  I thumbed through the pages and definitely picked up a couple of good ideas there....

I'm amazed that there are companies like this out there for kids.  When I was young, I got a couple of mail magazine subscriptions and I remember being super excited whenever a new magazine would come in.  Can you imagine what a kid would feel like if a whole box of  goodies came for them every month?  Pretty neat, right?  So neat that I thought that this would be a great giveaway for you readers!

Yay!  My first craft giveaway!

**This giveaway is closed** GIVEAWAY GOODY and RULES:
I'm going to gift one reader a single Kiwi Crate box. To enter, simply visit Kiwi Crate's Single Crate page and leave a comment below telling me which Kiwi Crate you'd like to receive.  That's it.  The contest will close by midnight Friday, EST.  I'll announce the winner on Monday's blog post.

Sorry, this giveaway is open to US and Canadian readers only (since they don't provide shipping elsewhere.)



Good luck!  :) I'm excited that one of you will receive a lovely package of goodies.

(Don't have children?  Try out for the giveaway anyway.  You can always send it to a lovely, crafty kid that you know.)

Free book: From my library to yours

I love getting stuff in the mail.
Recently, I received a lovely box of goodies from a good friend.  Amongst the items was this book:

I'm a big time Project Runway fan and I really enjoyed reading the book.  Tim is a thoughtful and humorous writer and each chapter read like a conversation between beloved mentor and little ol' me.  While reading, I became familiar with Tim Gunn's background (did you know that he was a shy kid?) and I found myself privy to behind the scenes Project Runway gossip (can you guess which two designers didn't get along with Gunn?) and some juicy tidbits about various fashion icons (ahem, like a certain editor at Vogue).

So, now that I'm done with the book, I'd like to pass it along to someone else.  If you'd like the book,  just leave a comment below telling me your favorite article of clothing before 10PM this Thursday.  I'll announce the lucky winner on Friday.


Psst- is anyone else watching Project Runway All Stars?  Team Mondo all the way!