I ♥ Neela Bags

Reusable bags are everywhere these days. While I applaud the effort to get the average American consumer to think about the environment and our impact on it, I must admit that most reusable bags aren't really attractive enough to haul around all the time. Sounds insipid, but I for one would be way more likely to keep these bags at the ready if they were…cute.


Heeding my call is Neela, a new woman-owned company that recognizes the need for pretty AND practical. Neela offers bags that are reusable (for up to two years with regular use) and recyclable (#5 plastic) in lovely patterns that guarantee you will actually want to use them. They are hand-washable and can carry as much as three standard plastic grocery bags! Most styles also feature shoulder length straps, which make them much easier to carry than traditional shopping bags, in my opinion. As an added bonus, most Neela styles retail for less than $10.



There are quite a few different styles of Neela bags available and most fold down for convenience. The Fold-Up Market Tote is my personal favorite. A go-to size (slightly bigger than a standard paper grocery bag) that folds down to a dainty clutch size and retails for a very affordable $5. You can also get a set of five bags in their own carrier, The Market Pack, for $22, which I highly recommend. It is gorgeous and so handy! The whole case is only a bit larger than a diaper changing pouch, so it's easy to keep in the car or stroller and remember to take into the store. In my case, that's half the battle.



The Wine Tote would make a fabulous hostess gift and is a real bargain at $2.25. There's also a 4-bottle version, the Quattro Wine Tote, for picnics or your heavy drinking friends…



Neela is a new company and promises to keep introducing eco-friendly, style-conscious goods regularly. I am so curious to see what they will come up with next.

Mama Mio, Here We Go Again…

I hate to admit it, but some product lines actually make me wish I was pregnant again. Mama Mio, for one. Oh, how I loved rubbing my belly with their sublime Tummy Rub Oil. Truth be told, I wasn't impressed on first use. I have always been a greasy girl, so the concept of dousing myself in oil was not very enticing. But Tummy Rub soaked in quickly and its scent (Gravida, a proprietary blend of ten essential oils) reminded me of the ocean. Happy times.



Fast forward ten months and it's hard to find time to pamper myself with a ten month old who only likes to sleep on me and a four year old budding drama queen. I miss the giant belly that gave me a pass to have some downtime every once in a while. Luckily, Mama Mio makes stuff for post-partum mamas, too. I've been using Boob Tube to try and minimize the effects of nursing two hungry babies. It helps to retain elasticity and firmness. Perky!



Tummy Toner is a serum that seeks to lift, tighten and tone slack skin. I didn't get any stretch marks with Roo, but Jasper gave me some. This helps me resent him less.



Shrink to Fit Cream is amazing. It reduces the appearance of cellulite (which I don't have too much of, thankfully) and water retention (which I have in spades, not so thankfully). The website touts its active ingredient as Adiposlim™, an amazing new ingredient proven in lab testing to help shrink fat cells and then prevent new fat cells for forming. I don't know about that, but it makes my skin look smooth and almost bathing suit ready. Plus it has the Gravida scent that makes me happy, happy, happy.



Mama Mio has a ton of gorgeous gift baskets that are perfect for gifting to expectant mamas and yourself. The next product of theirs I want to try is OMega Body Oil, which I am thinking might give me all the jollies of belly-rubbing pregnancy, without all that extra added… baby.

You've got Cahooties!

I never learned to make a cootie catcher. There, I said it. I've never been much of a girly girl and lots of the things most women remember about their childhoods mysteriously eluded me. Baby dolls, jumprope rhymes, cootie catchers. Fine, I was a total antisocial bookworm weirdo from a very early age! Both of my parents are pretty gregarious and sporty but not me. I was not interested in fitting in. Until I realized that I didn't. And now that my four year old is experiencing her first playground politics, I am keenly aware that I should really make more of an effort to learn these things, if only for her sake…


Cahootie is a line of cootie catchers updated for today's kids. Better than the homemade version, these games feature tear-resistant paper and reusable stickers that allow the user to continuously change things up. Current Cahootie themes include Wishes & Dreams, Truth or Dare (G-rated!), Sporty Girls, and Birthday Wishes.



In addition, in honor of the election year, Republican and Democrat Cahooties are available.



In order to encourage creativity, they offer a downloadable template so you can learn to make your own Cahootie. There are also templates for quotes and stickers to make yourself. When you're done, you can photography your masterpiece and submit it to their web gallery!



To enter and win one of five Cahootie games, please comment on this post with your favorite theme from their website.

Entries will be accepted through June 11th and I'll pick the winner using Random.org. US/Canada readers are eligible. Only one entry/comment per person, please.

Make sure you leave an email address in your comment or that you have one accessible on your blog so you can be contacted if you win! Or, you may choose to check for your nickname at Prizey.Fetch, a new site that compiles winners in one convenient place:

Natural Mat Loves Your Baby

Natural Mat is a line of natural, organic crib mattresses handmade in the UK with no chemicals, no plastics and no PVC. They believe that natural fibers allow for better ventilation and stronger support, with the added benefits of being non-allergenic and anti-dust mite. All of their mattresses have a removable organic cotton outer cover that can be washed, adding further hygienic allergy protection.

There are three standard Natural Mat styles: The Coco Mat, which features a coconut husk coir wrapped in lambswool bathed in extracts of lavender, lemon and eucalyptus:



The Latex Mat, their most allergy safe and supportive model, with all the same features as The Coco Mat but an additional natural rubber latex springy core:



Natural Mat's most luxurious offering is The Mohair Mat, which boasts a horsetail hair (the longest and most durable natural fibre in the world, who knew?!) inner core, surrounded by the coconut husk coir and silky mohair fleece to act as a thermal regulator:



It should come as no surprise that such a thoughtfully engineered, handmade product does not come cheap. The mattresses sell for $375, $525 and $625 respectively at Bare Babies, online retailer of Natural Mat products in the US. I think they would make a fabulous shower gift, or a very thoughtful gift from grandparents who want to make a lasting investment in their grandchildren's future good health. (If they could entice Jasper to sleep in his own crib for once, it would definitely be well worth it… I am getting sick of having a ten month old tyrant in my bed. He kicks and flails all night long. Perhaps he knows something we don't about the invisible toxins in his hand-me-down crib mattress?)

A less costly introduction to the line would be one of Natural Mat's gorgeous organic cotton crib sheets, available in crisp percale for warmer zones and soft flannelette for cooler zones. They are unbleached and undyed and can be machine washed and dried.

Superdumb Supervillain Bonus!

Get a 10% discount on Natural Mat products at Bare Babies:
Enter code sds10offnm at checkout.

To enter and win a Natural Mat organic cotton crib sheet, please comment on this post with your favorite items from Bare Babies, online retailer of Natural Mat.

Entries will be accepted through June 11th and I'll pick the winner using Random.org. US/Canada readers are eligible. Only one entry/comment per person, please.

Make sure you leave an email address in your comment or that you have one accessible on your blog so you can be contacted if you win! Or, you may choose to check for your nickname at Prizey.Fetch, a new site that compiles winners in one convenient place:

Genetic Memory

I recently wrote about how much I think Roo resembles my paternal grandmother, pictured here with a bunch of her brothers probably in the 1930s.



Here's a detail of grandma, along with a picture of the Rooster for comparison:




Sure, there's a family resemblance. But this week, I received another photo in the mail. It's obviously from a long time ago, too, but it looks amazingly like a picture of Roo. Crazy curls, mischievous twinkle in the eye, etc.



Bob's paternal grandmother sent the photo. She always tells us that Roo reminds her of one of her cousins and boy, does she ever!



Coincidentally, this cousin ended up living in Hawaii, where I grew up, not in West Virginia where Bob's family is from. She should be in her sixties now. I would love to take the kids to Kauai one of these days to meet her and introduce her to her tiny doppelganger. Obviously, Roo is a pretty good mix of both sides of the family!

Suck it up

Years ago, way before kids, we bought a Dyson Animal to deal with the detritus of our three cats. Now we have six cats and it's that lovely time of year when all of them are shedding their winter coats. There is literally fur flying everywhere. I can't keep up with it. And Jasper is trying to learn to crawl. Ick. It doesn't help that our old vacuum is kind of on its last legs. (Mind you, this is not due to poor design, but the fact that it's been used to clean up sawdust one time too many. Hmm, I wonder who's responsible for that?) Or that it features an ill-conceived Incredible Hulk color scheme: purple and green. With sparkles. It's time for an upgrade, obviously.

Kristin from An Ordinary Life is actually giving away one of the new-fangled Dyson Ball vacuum cleaners. They're like other Dysons, with the cyclonic suction, but they are even more maneuverable and sexy, with a swivel in their hips, so to speak. This one and the Animal handheld are totally on my wishlist…

Bonne (Bonnet) Voyage

I've mentioned before that my aunt Ellyn got us a Bugaboo Frog for Roo's baby shower. We've used the thing almost every day for over four years now and while it still handles like a dream, it is getting a little faded here and there. When the Cameleon and Gecko were introduced with their wacky color combinations and accessories, I was a little jealous. Bob, on the other hand, likes the sleek neutrality that is our Frog's hallmark. Yes, it is very plain and black and bare. Interestingly, we only ever get comments about it from dads. Hmm.

It was exciting to receive a new pick-me-up for our beloved Frog from Bonne Bonnets, providers of custom canopies for Bugaboo strollers. They graciously sent us a Neon Spring model Bonne Bonnets, which I think is very mod indeed. Bob thinks it's too girly but Roo and I love it. I think Jasper does, too!




Bonne Bonnets currently offers custom canopy covers only for Bugaboo strollers but will expand their product line to include other accessories and high end stroller lines soon. Footmuffs, diaper bags and stroller liners are things you can expect to see at Bonne Bonnets in the very near future.





To enter and win a custom stroller canopy (note- Bugaboo strollers, only!) from Bonne Bonnets, please comment on this post with your favorite fabric style from their website.

Entries will be accepted through June 11th and I'll pick the winner using Random.org. US readers only are eligible. Only one entry/comment per person, please.

Make sure you leave an email address in your comment or that you have one accessible on your blog so you can be contacted if you win! Or, you may choose to check for your nickname at Prizey.Fetch, a new site that compiles winners in one convenient place:

Food For Fun

Lilly Bean wants you to play with your food. And you will definitely want to play with their food once you see it. They specialize in artisan-designed, largely handcrafted wool felt play food. I love the fact that Lilly Bean's founder was inspired to start the company when her son asked her what stuffed animals were supposed to eat…

We received a lovely Lilly Bean lunch set in a happy meal-esque box. It contains a stackable sandwich, an apple and an oreo-type cookie. I had a momentary urge to hide it from the kids and not let them play with it. That's how great these things are!




Roo looked at it and asked "why isn't there a pickle?" which I thought was odd since she never eats the pickles that garnish plates at restaurants. I might have to order her a Lilly Bean pickle, though. Look how cute it is!



You can buy items a la carte or in ready made meals, like the appetizing picnic lunch, replete with drumstick, watermelon, potato chips and a sugar cookie:



My current favorite are the seasonal veggies. Our asparagus is coming up in the garden, so I am loving the Lilly Bean version:



All of the desserts are adorable, of course, but I am partial to the fortune cookies, which come in a set of six and may be personalized however you see fit.



Lilly Bean food looks good enough to eat but, more importantly, it's good enough to play with. The design is well-conceived and the craftsmanship is excellent. Parents will covet these toys but kids will actually enjoy playing with them, too.

To enter and win a Lilly Bean lunch set, please comment on this post with your favorite menu item from their site and one that you would like to see rendered in felt.

Entries will be accepted through June 11th and I'll pick the winner using Random.org. Thanks to our generous sponsor, all readers are eligible, even international! Only one entry/comment per person, please.

Make sure you leave an email address in your comment or that you have one accessible on your blog so you can be contacted if you win! Or, you may choose to check for your nickname at Prizey.Fetch, a new site that compiles winners in one convenient place:

Spring Cleaning

I am not, by nature, a tidy person. I am sure everyone is shocked, especially those of you who know me personally… no, not really! I come from a long line of clutterbugs, on both sides, so it's not a big surprise that my housekeeping style falls into the stacks-and-stacks zone. What I can't stand, however, is actual dirt. Germy, icky mess dirt. Like the kind that just naturally occurs when you have six indoor-outdoor cats, a four year old explorer and a ten month old food-flinger. Not to mention an artist husband who works with messy materials and dabbles in outdoorsy pursuits like, say, cutting the tails off roadkill. Gross.

I am so happy to know that Clorox has my back. Their Disinfecting Wipes are handy for just about everything in the house. (Except for the things I have to use baby wipes on, like the baby himself. Although, honestly, sometimes I wish I could disinfect that little stinkmaker!)



The new, improved Clorox Disinfecting Wipes I received to try are thicker and more durable than ever. They still kill 99.9% of bacteria, (including salmonella, E.coli and the flu virus) but they've been reformulated to be used on more surfaces (stainless steel, marble, granite, glass). They also dry to a streak-free shine on window glass and mirrors. The sample I tried was lavender-scented, a novelty in the heavily citrus-scented world of cleaning products. I keep a container under every (babyproofed) sink in the house, just in case!

The Glamorous Life

Not surprisingly, Glamorous Girl Accessories makes all sorts of fun baubles for little girls and grown-up girls, too! Hair accessories are their specialty but they also offer cute aprons, handbags (none in stock right now) and pajama pants (via their other Etsy storefront). The designs are adorable and their prices are hard to beat, starting at $1.50 and capping out at $15. Most items fall into the $4-$5 range.




We received a set of Glamorous Girl pink felt flower clips to try out and they stood up to the test that is Roo's crazy hair. Perhaps even more impressively, she kept them in all day at school.




To enter and win your favorite item from Glamorous Girl Accessories (any in-stock item priced at $5 or less), please comment on this post and let me know which one you would choose.

Entries will be accepted through June 4th and I'll pick the winner using Random.org. US/Canada readers are eligible. Only one entry/comment per person, please.

Make sure you leave an email address in your comment or that you have one accessible on your blog so you can be contacted if you win! Or, you may choose to check for your nickname at Prizey.Fetch, a new site that compiles winners in one convenient place:

Wordless Wednesday- first strawberries from the garden

Think-Ets Memory Toy

Think-ets are a fascinating new toy/game for creative kids. Each pouch contains 15 tiny trinkets that can be used in any way you see fit. You can use them as accessories for dolls, you can lay them out and then try to remember what sequence they were in, you can make up intricate histories for each item…anything you want.



I love the fact that the Think-ets pouch fits into a shirt pocket, so you can take it anywhere. I whipped it out at a restaurant where Roo was growing tired of scribbling on a menu with crayons. She loved poring through the bag and assigning values to each item and telling us about them. She is obsessed with treasure these days, so it definitely played into that. Her favorites were the microscopic potato masher and sombrero. Her daddy likes the real working pliers. (Big surprise!) I liked the itty bitty book. And the fact that everything made it back into the bag. Apparently, tiny=precious, so Think-ets are safe from the usual preschooler destruction.



Obviously, Think-ets are not for kids who tend to stick everything in their mouths. Roo was quick to point out that they were much too small for Jasper to play with and volunteered to confiscate them if they should fall into his grasp. Nice big sister. If your child needs to be told how to play, Think-ets would probably not entertain them for long, but if you have an imaginative kid, they are a lot of fun.

Snap, Crackle, Pop…

Remember Rice Krispies? The classic cereal is just like it was when you were a kid. Actually, it's more than I remember, personally, because there are so many new varieties to choose from. Cocoa, berry, cereal bars, etc., there are a lot of ways to eat Rice Krispies these days.



The familiar Snap, Crackle and Pop seem even louder now with the creation of Operation Spark. This collaboration between Rice Krispies and the non-profit group Playing for Keeps brings parenting experts together to provide insight and advice on how busy families can make the most of their time together.



The new Rice Krispies website, Childhood is Calling, features your standard nutrition guides and printable coupons, but it also includes downloadable reports from Operation Spark as well as games to play and recipes to make with your kids. The history of Rice Krispies is interesting to read and you will learn how people in other countries pronounce their famous tagline:

Sweden: Piff! Paff! Puff!
Germany: Knisper! Knasper! Knusper!
Mexico: Pim! Pum! Pam!
Finland: Poks! Riks! Raks!
Canadian French: Cric! Crac! Croc!
Holland: Pif! Paf! Pof!
South Africa: Knap! Knaetter! Knak!

My absolute favorite website feature is the searchable database that lets you see what the cereal box looked like for every year since Rice Krispies were first created in 1932.

I feel a strong urge to make some Kellogg's® Cocoa Krispies® Marshmallow Treats®…

Holy cow!

Online lady hangout Capessa had a Mother's Day contest to recount your defining "defining mom moment" and I won! (This totally makes up for the fact that my Mother's Day gift this year was a card that Roo drew an anatomically correct representation of me on: "see, there's the vagina!") So now I need to figure out how to spend $500 at Zappos. Poor me.

Here are my current faves:

French Connection Kissing Klimt dress
Probably the closest I'll ever come to Pucci.



Custo Barcelona Kelly Papillon dress
Although "dry clean only" is usually a death sentence in this house.



Puma GV Spadrille shoes
So awesome, who cares if it's open-toe season?! Also available in a simultaneously thrilling/revolting Pepto pink.




I'm not committing to anything yet, though. What would you choose?

New Look

Blog makeover queens Be Design gussied me up! What do you think?