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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
Hottest Holiday Toys throughout History

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys,
showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously,

and that Christmas Day in the company of children
is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.

-Robert Lynd

I love this infographic! It’s interesting to see what toys had real staying power (1903’s hot toys were teddy bears— named for the bears that Teddy Roosevelt hunted!— and Crayola crayons) and which ones have gone gently into that good night.

I don’t recall ever being caught up in the “must-haves” of the season, although I definitely owned My Little Ponies and the Simon game. Jake’s first birthday was the year of Tickle Me Elmo, and his family was so sweetly determined that he have it that he would up opening three of them that day. (And by he, I mean Jeff and me. Jake was only 6 weeks old and slept through Christmas at THREE different houses.)

I’m not into buying more than you need. But I know that sometimes kids NEED a certain gift during the holidays and that’s totally cool. That squeal of delight upon opening a present to find “it” inside? That’s the magic of childhood and one of the best things about parenthood.

What hot-ticket toys have you owned through the years? Are you snatching anything up this year for your own kids?

Disclosure: This is a paid post for Black Friday 2011, where you can find the Target Black Friday ad, Red Envelope coupons and more for your must-have holiday shopping. 🙂

November 20, 2011
Compostable Pumas, Clothes Made from Milk, More: Fashion Friday

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
-Oscar Wilde

Found some interesting headlines about eco-fashion this week: enjoy!

(Photo is of Cass in a hand-me-down dress with headband made of recycled materials. Friendship bracelet from Kelly at Design Crush. The purse was a present from Danielle Liss. This is how she dresses to go grocery shopping.)

Puma’s New Tack on Sustainable Consumption:
Compostable Clothes

“In the biological cycle, I can make shoes and shirts that are compostable so I can shred them and bury them in the back garden. We are working on products that meet these two criteria.”

Why is this not already a thing? In any case, I love my Pumas and I’m happy to love them even more.

Anke Domaske, German Fashion Designer, Creates Environmentally Friendly Clothing Made From Milk

After two years of trial and error, working with a research lab, Domaske and her team of six finally landed on a process of reducing milk to a protein powder that is then boiled and pressed into strands that can be woven into a fabric… She uses only organic milk that cannot be consumed because it has failed Germany’s strict quality standards.

And? AND?! Two pounds of fabric can be produced using only 2 liters (a half gallon) of water. Two pounds of cotton? OVER 10,000 LITERS OF WATER.

This is full of the awesomesauce. And by awesomesauce I mean milk. It does a body good… inside and out.

T-Shirt Remix:
Recycling America’s Used Clothes for Social Impact

“Our consumption is so rampant that we are dumping 95 percent of our clothes in the developing world,” Lohr says. The clothes we buy here in the U.S. and barely use—like that bar mitzvah party-favor tee—end up in thrift stores, which sell their excess in bulk to third-world distributors, supplying a global chain of used goods.

The good folks at Project Repat are raising money to launch the No More New project: paying workers in Kenya a fair wage to rework our cast-off clothes into bags and scarves. They’ll retail for $30, and include a donation to a nonprofit. (The pilot plan just involved restamping old shirts and reselling them for $25. They sold 500, raising enough money to build a solar-powered computer lab in Kenya and put five girls through school for one year in Tanzania. HOW HARD DOES THAT ROCK.) You can be a part of this innovative project and help back the funding by donating $1 or more.

Over-Consumption Invokes the Six Items or Less Experiment

Surveys show that most women own seven pairs of jeans but wear only four regularly and buy approximate 50 percent more shoes than they need.

‘Tis the season for feeling kinda gross and crappy about rampant commercialism and the GIMMEs. Could you go for a month only wearing six items from your closet? Chances are, you trend toward your favorite few anyway. There is an official 6 Items project underway, but you might want to try it just for fun. (Underoos, socks & shoes, bathing suits, accessories, workout gear, uniforms, coats and sleepwear don’t count towards your six, and you’re allowed multiples of the exact same item, which makes this SO EASY for me). It’s like the Uniform Project but less intense… using clothes you already have and are comfortable with.

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Thus concludes this week’s episode of Eco Fashion Friday.

Stay tuned until the next time I remember that I like to do this on Fridays.

If you liked this, leave me a comment! Maybe that will help me remember. 🙂

November 18, 2011