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Category: Everything Else

Guest Post: 4 Holiday Shopping Tips for Moms (from the Experts)

Are you ready for Black Friday shopping?

Read these Holiday Shopping & Black Friday shopping tips from Dawn Sandomeno and Elizabeth Mascali, entertaining experts, authors of Plan to Party, and founders of The Party Bluprints Blog before you plan your shopping trip for Friday.

These two moms know everything there is to know about parties and gift giving. Dawn and Elizabeth are judges in this year’s Holiday Giftee Awards by Gifts.com and they have appeared as featured experts on TV, radio, and in national publications like the Today Show, Good Housekeeping, Redbook and many more. Their approach to Holiday gifts and Holiday parties is pretty much the same: make it fantastic, but save time and money where you can, and there are here today to share their tricks and tips.

Dawn and Elizabeth are busy moms just like us, and they know what it is to get everything done and how to make the household budget to stretch to make Holidays happen! This Holiday season Dawn and Elizabeth teamed up with CheapSally.com to find the best deals for the gifts they recommend in their Holiday Gift Guide to ensure that you will find the best gifts for your family for the lowest price possible.

Tips for Smart Holiday Shopping:

1. Buy that Expensive Electronic Gift!
I bet you didn’t expect that as the first money saving tip, now did you? But really, these two experts explain that by buying one main gift for the family instead of big present for each member you will get a bigger bang for your buck.

When you choose something like the XBOX Kinect from Dawn and Elizabeth’s Holiday Gift Guide, it will also be a great family fun to enjoy together. You can find the cheapest price for XBOX Kinect on Cheap Sally’s Black Friday page.

2. Make a Plan and Stick to It
Check out the hottest gifts for everyone in the family from the Party Bluprint Blog’s Best Holiday Gift Ideas for 2011 list before you head out. Many of their recommendations will be available on cheaper prices on Black Friday. Plan ahead and make a shopping list of everyone you are gifting this year and try to avoid last minute impulse shopping.

3. See all Black Friday Deals in One Place
The easiest way to get all Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals is by getting all from one place. Many deals sell out quickly so you need to locate and act on the information fast! Save time and money by visiting CheapSally.com’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday pages, they aggregate all the best deals across the internet for you, offering a one-stop resource for saving.

4. Double Duty Gifts
Purchase presents that pull double duty and give a portion of the proceeds to charity – don’t forget this is the season of giving! Dawn and Elizabeth recommend gifts that pay it forward, like AnnieWear pet related children’s clothing line that donates proceeds to animal shelters or Heart of Haiti products sold at Macy’s made by Haitian artisans giving them a livelihood.

Happy Shopping and Saving!

Guest post from Katja Presnal. I luvs her and you should too.

November 20, 2011
Just Another Manic Monday: the Bangles on Tour

Me with the Bangles. Love this pic because I forgot to hide my braces & they don't look too terrible!

Time, time, time
see what’s become of me…

____________________

It’s the springtime of my life.

Seasons change with the scenery
weaving time in a tapestry

Won’t you stop and remember me?

-The Bangles,
“Hazy Shade of Winter”

Saturday I got to play VIP and pre-game the Bangles concert in Philly. Even better than walking past the line of peeps patiently waiting to enter the TLA, or noshing on freaking gigantic slices of South St. pizza courtesy of Lorenzo’s?

Getting to shake paws and rub elbows with the Bangles.

Oh, hai. Have you met my inner fangirl?

LOOK at those women. They haven’t aged a bit. (Or, as my husband said, “If you get a chance to talk to Susanna Hoffs make sure you tell her she’s still pretty hot.” DONE, babe. Check that one off my life list.)

Susanna Hoffs is tiny, by the way. I felt like a bumbling ogre next to her. Oh, and I’m dressed in 80s gear (neon pink tights, purple Chucks, asymmetrical lace skirt), so I look like an idiot too 🙂

Now, in my mind, which is a twisty and confusing place, every musical act has an equal and opposite musical act, and you only like one. So, were you a Debbie Gibson or Tiffany fan? Madonna or Cyndi Lauper? Go-Gos or Bangles?

I have always been very firmly in the Bangles camp, and I’m gonna have to say: they can still rock the house. Much more so, in fact, than the lackluster crowd who paid to see them; I’m pretty sure I was annoying those around me as I bounced and bobbed, and I don’t care. I’ll have time to be old and boring when I’m dead.

Antigone Rising opened, and those women can play some guitar. Is there anything sexier than a tough woman playing glass slide on a steel resonator? NO. There is not. Also, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never seen a female musician who didn’t have some seriously cut biceps. Coincidence? Or maybe just a lot of moving instruments around.

The Bangles played all the old favorites- ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’, ‘Manic Monday’, ‘In Your Room’, ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’; and they broke out some songs from their new album Sweetheart of the Sun that was just released last week. My favorites there were ‘I’ll Never Be Through With You’, which Debbi Peterson (who smokes the drums AND the guitar, thankyouverymuch) affectionately dubbed Stalker Rock, and a tougher, snarky song that had me jumping up and down called ‘Ball and Chain.’

(Yeah. I miss concerts. And being younger.)

All good stuff, nostalgic and yet still fresh and fun, and it basically left me thinking we need more girl bands that rock their own instruments. Who meld sweet harmonies and lovely personalities with kickass riffs. Know what I mean?

I don’t play an instrument, really. I can still play my first book and a half of Suzuki songs on the piano; they’re part of my muscle memory. I can read music, and pick out a few chords on a guitar. But I can’t pour my soul and my angst and my fire into song. I envy those who do.

Music is something primal. It’s something tattooed onto our collective consciousness; it brings a roomful of individuals together for the love of the beat. The best songs are the ones that feel like old favorites even as you hear them for the first time (Adele excels at these).

I think I’ve been inspired to urge Cass to take up an instrument. Happily, our public school offers music lessons once you hit the middle grades.

And maybe I’ll pick up a guitar again, myself.

Sigh. The arts in school!! They matter.

Have you revisited some of your favorite songs of your youth recently? Seen any of them in concert? (I know some of you saw New Kids on the Block when they came around. ‘Fess up.)

Do you play an instrument? Do your kids?

Me with @Valerie4012. My shirt shows The Misfits, the equal but opposite musical group to Jem & the Holograms.

Photo credit: I think both of these were taken by Jessica at Delaware County Moms. Thanks man!

And many thanks to the good folks of 95.7 Ben FM who bravely gave 20 Philly area mom bloggers VIP tickets to the concert, and to the Bangles for not making fun of my outfit, and to Jeff for watching the kids TWICE in one day.

October 3, 2011
Unexpected Circumnavigation

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
-Henry David Thoreau

When I was young, I wanted to be two things. One I think everyone knows: to be a writer.

Two, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I wanted to swim with dolphins and save the whales; to travel the oceans and dive in lagoons, and I don’t know what all. I wanted to make a difference.

I can’t swim, and I suffer a touch of the agoraphobia. Meh. Mere complications.

What really killed the dream for me was sophomore year Biology.

In August, I picked up my Biology textbook from my high school book sale. It was a beautiful, heavy, photo-filled hardback, hugely satisfying, and I kid you not when I say I remember what it felt like to open that book and hear it crack for the first time.

I read that textbook like it was the latest Neil Gaiman offering (that’s what I was heavily into at the time). I took notes. The school year hadn’t even started yet. I couldn’t wait to learn. Yes, I realize how geeky that last sentence was, but it’s true.

My teacher… let’s just say our personalities did not mesh. And that she was not the most inspiring educator in the world. Oh, and by the way, she totally killed my love for science. The Godzilla of learning.

________________________________________

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.
Daniel Burnham

A few weeks ago I saw the movie Coral Reef Adventure in IMAX at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. I’ll talk more about that movie in its own post, but suffice to say: I wept over how coral reefs have been affected since that summer 20 years ago, when I was poring over photographs of reefs in science magazines. I was awed by the divers who used their talents not only to document and access the damage done, and possibilities to turn the tide, but also to bring the vivid imagery of the beauty of our oceans to a wide audience. Who used visuals and music and words to inspire.

Who reminded me of who I used to be.

Just for kicks, since that day, I’ve signed up for swimming lessons. I’ve checked out scuba lessons, just out of idle curiosity. And I’ve priced out how much a family trip to Fiji to the Cousteau resort might cost. You know. Just wondering how much an eco-tour might set me back. Just curious as to how a citizen scientist like myself might help the cause.

I was just messing around. I couldn’t acknowledge what I might be thinking. C’mon. I’m 34 and I can’t even swim. I took a train to NYC recently by myself and I was practically having anxiety attacks worrying over whether I could miss my stop. How could I ever manage to get us to Fiji?

But, you know. I also got onto a train to NYC by myself. That’s so far out of my comfort zone it’s not even funny.

______________________________________

And then I read The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People. I read about a couple, with almost no boating experience, dedicating two years of their lives to circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat. They learned what they needed to begin, and they learned the rest as they went. They persevered. And along the way they experienced so much, saw so much… that my heart just sort of cracked open.

I thought, if they can do it… if they can realize their dream… then why can’t I?

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
–George Eliot

It probably is too late for me to become a marine biologist. I’m a dreamer but I’m not an idiot.

But it’s not too late for me to make a difference.

It’s not too late for me to learn to swim, to dive, to take control of my fears and see the world for myself. And to write about it. To inspire.

I’ve always said that I want to be the next Henry David Thoreau. And HDT, god bless ’em, said, “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

It’s not too late to step confidently in the direction of my dreams.

___________________________________________

It’s an unexpected circumnavigation of my own… to discover that after all this time, I’m still very much the same person I was at 14. That I still have the same aspirations and castles in the sky.
It’s an astounding feeling. I can’t even tell you. I’ve circled back and yet so much has been opened up ahead of me.

What’s your dream?
Is it the same that you had when you were young?

__________________________________________

As a member of From Left to Write online book club, I received a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

You can read other members’ posts inspired by The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part I on book club day, June 28th (that’s today, folks) at From Left to Write.

June 27, 2011