What's the Deal?

Do you love to read? I love having a good book to read. I didn't say I necessarily have the time to read it, but I still love to have a good book to read should the opportunity arise. Paperback Swap is an awesome site for anyone who likes to read. It's also a great site for people who have a growing stash of books that they've read and just don't know what to do with. Here's how it works... You sign up for an account and post all of the books that you have that you would like to pass on to someone else. They don't have to be paperbacks. Hardbacks and even audio books work too! When someone requests one of your books, you wrap it up (preferably in the printable wrapper provided by the site), pay the postage and send it on it's merry way to its new owner. Since you can ship books via Media Mail, shipping costs are generally minimal. It's just over $2 for a typical paperback. For each book you send, you earn a credit. Each credit is good for a book of your choosing. You can browse the site and choose books that you would like to read. The member who owns the book you want wraps up the book, pays the shipping, and sends it off to you!

I have found great books on this site and even found a textbook for a class! You can build a wishlist, which is pretty cool. It's nice to have a reminder of the books you would like to read (....someday). You can also choose to be alerted when a book that you have been looking for becomes available in the system. It really is tons of fun and a really economical way to get new reading material. I also like that my books are being read by someone else instead of gathering dust on my shelf! There are also sister sites for swapping CDs and DVDs.

Today I want to encourage you to checkout our Busy Moms Marketing Blitz featured shop Echo Endeavor. Have fun!



I just LOVE these earrings!

Tuesday's Time Saving Tip

Hi Busy Mom's! Hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend and I hope your week has started off on a good foot! :)

This week our Time saving tip is brought to you by Caroline of Newhopebeading.

Caroline's tip to save yourself some time is to clean the bathroom while your kids are bathing or showering. As Caroline states you can't get the tub but the floor, toilet, sink, etc. can all be done.

Great Multi-tasking tip Caroline!

I know that getting housework done with little ones is a chore in itself, so finding these opportunities to "kill two birds with one stone" is how most of us busy moms find the time to get anything done.

I love to use nap times as my "get things done" time. When my little ones are down I do as much as possible, of course vacuuming is out, but most everything else I try to do.

What do you do to save time while cleaning or getting housework done?

Leave us a comment below and share your tips.

Monday's a cool day!

MONDAY’S A COOL DAY! by pioupioukids

Well, here we are, its Monday again. I hope you all had a nice relaxing weekend, hopefully spring had brought some warm sunny days along. Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, winter is well on its way and my weekend was definitely cooler and wetter!

Today the featured seller is Caroline. You can find her beautiful handmade jewelry on her shop Newhopebeading and when you purchase an item there, you also help a good cause, the Epilepsy Foundation of NJ. Now that’s two good reasons to feel good about buying from Caroline.

Who are you? Caroline

Where do you live? Hunterdon County, NJ

What do you do? I'm a Mom and I make jewelry

How many kids? And husbands/partners? I have a daughter, age 9 and a son, age 6 and a husband, age...well a year older than I am :)

And so you have a shop…:

o What’s its name? Newhopebeading

o What do you sell? Jewelry

o But how on earth do you find time!?! Ask me this in a month when the kids are out of school. They are school aged so it is easy because they are gone most of the day. I only started the end of February so I have not lived through a Summer yet. Should be interesting!

Anything else you’d like to add…Newhopebeading donates 5% of every sale to The Epilepsy Foundation of NJ. From time to time we also feature items whose sale price is 100% donated to The Epilepsy Foundation of NJ. Right now I have 2 such items and they can be found in the shop section labeled "Benefit EFNJ."

Favorites:

Favorite book ..... The Lord of the Flies

Favorite movie ...... Sliding Doors

Favorite song/ band/ singer ...... Not sure anymore LOL

Favorite dish ....... Any kind of Chinese or Japanese food

Favorite hobby ..... Making jewelry

Favorite time of the day .....9:00 am The kids are off to school , my husband is at work, I have my cup of coffee, the house is quiet and I can work on my jewelry :)

Favorite time of the night... I Like 7:00pm dinner and idshes are done and we can play in the yard...love our yard.

Favorite color..... sage green

Favorite Sesame St. character.... gotta' be Grover!

If you would like to be interviewed, please contact pioupioukids: piou.piou@rocketmail.com

Tuesday Time-Saving Tips

Hi there Busy Mom's! Hope you are all having a great week! My name is Amy from Ozark Scents. I am filling in for AngelaSpots while she is super busy moving to her new house! Best Wishes with the move Angela and hurry back soon! :)



This week our Time-Saving Tip is brought to you from Bonnie who owns Flynn Orchards and FirstFruitllc.etsy.com.










Bonnie says "When I am making lunch or dinner, I will double or triple the main dish. Like when we have tacos I will make 3-4 lbs of meat at once. Then I can take what we do not use that first day and make nachos, burritos, or whatever Mexican dish I want to make next. I also have been known to freeze the rest for a later date."


Thank You Bonnie Great Tip!

There are so many easy ways to save time on food preparation and most will save you money as well, like freezing left overs for those busy, on the go nights and eating them instead of running through the drive-thru.

Another great food prep idea is to cut up fruits & Veggies when you have the time and put them in Ziploc baggies for an easy, healthy "on the go" snack. This also is friendly on your budget.










Check out all of these food inspired products brought to you by Busy Moms of Etsy team members! To find team members' shops just type busymomsteam into your etsy search.

What clever ways do you save time when preparing food? Leave us a comment below.

MONDAY’S A COOL DAY! by pioupioukids

 

This week, Bethany tells us a bit more about herself, her sister and their shop: Chickentattoo. Like many of us, they’ve turned their hobby/ passion into a business: check out some of the gogeous piece this pair has come up with! 

-       Who are you?  ChickenTattoo is run by myself, Bethany Childress, and my sister, Susan Weathington.

-       Where do you live?  I live in Alabama and Susan lives in South Carolina so it’s gets a little tricky sometimes!

-       What do you do?  I am a controller by day for an architectural firm and Susan is an interior designer for an architect.  By night, when we’re finally off “mommy duty” we both craft our butts off! 

-       How many kids? And husbands/partners?  I am married to my fabulous husband of 4 years and we have have one daughter (9mos.) Peyton.  Susan has been married to Matt for 4 years as well and they have one son (1 year) Emery.

-       And so you have a shop…:

o      What’s its name?  ChickenTattoo (confused about the meaning?  Check out the shop for the explanation!)

o      What do you sell?  Children’s clothes, accessories, and baby gear although we are expanding our selection to include custom coozies and personalized tea towels

o      But how on earth do you find time!?!  I’m addicted to this stuff so I make the time!  I even tote my craft bag with me to work to take advantage of my lunch breaks if I don’t have other plans.  I’ll cut patterns at work and pin pieces – any prep work I can get out of the way.  Because when I get home from work I take advantage of every minute I have with Peyton before she falls asleep for the night and that’s when the crafting goes into overdrive.  It helps me wind down from the day so I can actually fall asleep at night.

Bethany chose to share a few of her favorites with us too… Beth that favorite movie got some goose bumps out of my romantic teenage body!

 

-       Favorite book – I read so many different kinds of books so it’s hard to pick just one favorite.  I really enjoyed the Left Behind series though!

-       Favorite movie – Dirty Dancing

-       Favorite song/ band/ singer – Keith Urban (hubba hubba!)

-       Favorite dish – anything Mexican

-       Favorite hobby – crafting of course!

-       Favorite time of the day – 5pm because I can go home and see my little girl

-       Favorite time of the night – bedtime!

-       Favorite part of the body - eyes

-       Favorite color - pink

Favorite Sesame st. character – Oscar the Grouch

If you would like to be interviewed please contact pioupioukids: pioupiounz@gmail.com

What's the Deal?

Wow! I found a great site for deals this week! It's called Deal Seeking Mom and it's just packed full of good stuff! With frequent posts (often several each day!) you'll find out about sales, coupons, sweepstakes, giveaways, free samples and other great stuff! There are tons of links on this page that take you to other sites where you can find more free samples and coupons. I could spend hours here looking through all of the goodies! I really like the layout of this site. It has a clean look, it isn't overly busy, and the links are useful and take you where they are supposed to go! Have fun looking for a great deal today!

And don't forget to check out the Busy Moms Team for some great deals! Here are just a few... and don't forget you can always search for "busymomsteam" on Etsy to find more items from our Busy Moms!

Felted Market Tote from AngelaSpots

For the Graduate Bookmark from Bijoux Designs for You
And don't miss out on their Etsy-versary Sale that ends on the 15th!

Tuesday Time Saving Tip

To save time every week only hit the grocery store once (or even less frequently). Those 10 minute trips quickly add up. It’ll take some extra planning to get everything you need in one trip, but the time savings are well worth it.

Sunday crafts - by pioupioukids

Hello busy mums!

Well, I have no interview to offer you this week, so I thought I’d share a crafty idea with you. Sunday is (sometimes) dedicated to whatever I fel like trying. A couple of Sundays ago, I had some time on my hands. DS was having a nap, I had no custom orders to process and the garden could wait another few days. Most of all, I’d been wanting to try this for a while: my pot holders had had it! I’d bought them in an op-shop last year, so they already weren’ t very flash and I’d seen this great little tutorial on Etsy  (http://www.etsy.com/storque/media/bunker/2009/03/HowToPotholder.pdf) that made me want to give a go at giving them a second life.

I’m pretty happy with the result, although considering what I started with, it was never going to be worse. It was a fun project which took about 1h to complete for each pot holder. You have to sew free handed, so make sure the patterns you want on your pot holder are not too small or too tricky to follow with the machine. You can do a drawing of you project beforehand to se how it’s going to look or just go straight to the scissors and start cutting out your shapes!

Hope you enjoyed your read and got inspired. If you have any crafty ideas, send them through: piou.piou@rocketmail.com

Out of the Mouths of Babes

There was a commercial awhile back, for granola bars I believe, and the tag line was “Kids talking too much?” The idea being if your kids had a granola bar in their mouths they couldn’t say the wrong thing at the wrong time. My favorite from the commercial was a little boy meeting his Dad’s coworker at the office, “But Daddy his nose isn’t brown at all!”

Well we do eat a lot of granola bars in my house but my crew still manages to get some keepers in between bites. Here are just some from Busy Moms Team members.


Here are two from Angela of AngelaSpots :
*Heaven is in Florida. It is very warm and has a nice place to eat. You can cook food there.

*Three year old, after seeing a giant wooden play structure on display, "My swing set is getting old, I need a new one". If only it was that easy eh?



From Caroline at newhopebeading :

*Daddy you don’t have to lose weight (pause) I like your tummy big squishy because it’s better to lean on when I’m watching TV.
*Mommy your are not old (pause) you are just medium.
*Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! That story didn’t go over my head like you said it would …it went right in my ear!
*Pop pop, I am so sorry that you are sad because your brother went to heaven…I know how you feel. I lost a goldfish once.
*Pop pop my school principal is so sweet…he’s just like you, but with hair.
*Mommy you can convince Daddy …First, you use all your cuteness…
*When asked if we were getting a new minivan I said, "Not as long as this ones still going forward" to which my 5 year old asked, "But if it starts driving BACKWARDS then can we get a new one?"
*While listening to the priest over the loudspeaker in foyer of an over crowded church, "Mom shh...I think I just heard God talking."
*After having been told that mommy and daddy would have a 3rd baby if it was part of God’s plan… Four year old to priest at church, “Father, can you please give my Mommy a baby?”

(seems to have been an on- going confusion in our house between God and Priests LOL)

Comment below and give us your little one’s words of wisdom or one-liners that made you wish you had a granola bar on hand!

What's the Deal?

Do you like Land's End? They have some great classic styles, great shoes, and great stuff for kids. Have you ever checked out the Overstocks section of their website? You can find great deals in this section. You can find items for up to 65% off. Of course some of the items might be off-season and you might have to hunt for your size. But I found several styles of jeans on there today. I don't know about you, but I wear jeans all year round.

They also have a section for items that are "Not Quite Perfect". These can be a gamble, but the product descriptions list what the flaws could be. Sometimes it's just because the color doesn't perfectly match the other items in the Land's End line.

My favorite part of the Land's End Overstocks section is called "On the Counter". Each Saturday a new set of products are added to this section in limited quantities and at substantial discounts. To make it more fun, on Monday they are marked down another 25%, on Wednesday they are marked down 50% and on Friday they are marked down 75%. 75% off is awesome, if it's still there by Friday! If you like Land's End, you'll love their Overstocks section. Have fun checking it out!


And don't forget to check out these great deals from some of our busy moms!

BOGO Labradorite and Keishi Pearl Sterling Silver Necklace from Newhopebeading

Mothers Day Special---1-Soy blend candle- 22 oz apothecary jar- SCENT OF YOUR CHOICE from Ozark Scents CLEARANCE Outdoor Adventure Address Book -- was 10 dollars from Huggermugger

Tuesday's Time Saving Tip - night prep

Todays tip was contributed by Amy at Ozarkscents http://ozarkscentscandleco.etsy.com/ Anyone can contribute a time saving tip. Just contact me, AngelaSpots.

Lay out clothes, bookbags and anything else you need for work or school the next day.
This is key at my house as well. I do everything possible to simplify our busy morning. The less stress I feel before I leave the house the better my day goes.
Grab some of these items from Busy Moms (search busymomsteam at http://www.etsy.com/) to help make your busy day a little more beautiful.

MONDAY'S A COOL DAY!

MONDAY’S A COOL DAY! By pioupioukids

Here comes Monday again, and it’s time for your 5 minutes to yourself! So make yourself a nice smoothie (summer’s on its way after all) and sip it slowly while you read this week’s interview. My favorite smoothie mix: Put in a blender one peeled banana, 3 to 4 pitted dates (medjoul are best), a cup of milk (I like hazelnut best), a teaspoon of vanilla, a tablespoon of honey/maple/agave and a handful of raw cashews. Add some ice if you like it chilled, blend it all until smooth… Yuuuummm.
This week, I am going to talk about myself and my shop, pioupioukids.etsy.com!


- Who are you? Natacha Lee
- Where do you live? Gisborne, New Zealand
- What do you do? I’m full time mothering at home.
- How many kids? And husbands/partners? One 17 month old boy and one partner!
- And so you have a shop…:
o What’s its name? Pioupioukids
o What do you sell? Upcycled clothing for babies and kids. I also designed some special pants for parents who practice natural infant hygiene or EC.
o But how on earth do you find time!?! Some weeks I don’t! But I am lucky to have a supportive partner and a very cool baby…

- Anything else you’d like to add… I’m glad to be part of a great community of crafty busy moms. It’s just one of the many things I’ve been able to do since stopping work to look after my son, apart from being 100% involved in his upbringing.

- Top 5 clothing/accessory label
o Idea2 lifestyle.etsy.com
o kaylim.etsy.com
o urchinbags.etsy.com
o loranscrugg.etsy.com
o littlealouette.esty.com
o and so many more…!

- Top 5 sports
o Basketball
o Rockclimbing
o Rugby
o Cycling (tour de France!)
o Baseball/ Softball


- Top 5 vegetable
o Aubergine
o Courgette
o Broccoli
o Carrot
o Sorrel


- Top 5 fruit
o Granny Smith from our garden!
o Bosc pears
o Cherries
o Strawberries
o Blueberries

- Top 5 famous people
o Nelson Mandela
o Ghandi
o Johnny Depp
o Suzanne Boyle
o The Dalai Lama

If you would like to be interviewed please contact me: pioupiounz@gmail.com

Funny Mom Moment

This week's Funny Mom Moment comes to us from Amy of Ozarscentcandleco. I think we can all relate!


Here is her story...
I just love the things little kids come up with. I enjoy their reasoning of the world around them. They are so brutally honest in most cases, no sugar coating from them! Most of the time it is that complete honesty and child reasoning put together that make their statements so adorable and humorous. My 3 year old Ava is a perfect example of that. She is always coming up with something! She is the most “adult” acting child of my 4 kids! She is concerned and interested in her surroundings, she is picky and orderly. She is the kid that keeps her toys in somewhat of an organized state. She is also a little bit of a drama queen. She is always hurt “terribly bad” and needs urgent medical attention. She has recently informed me that kisses do not work anymore for boo boos and she just needs medicine (for everything little thing!)

A few weeks ago she somehow hurt her leg, she was whining and carrying on about it. I told her to let me take a look at it, nothing was wrong that I could really see. She had a little bruise from another time and that was about it. I told her there was nothing wrong with her leg and she would be fine. She looked at me crinkled face and very serious and said "Mommy it's not fine and that is not the problem, the problem is on the inside, it's like a worm in an apple, you know, like there is a worm in there, it's wiggling around inside my leg making it hurt, that is the problem." I couldn't help but laugh. She had really thought this one out…she was so dead serious and mature acting while she was explaining it to me.

Maybe you just had to be there but I couldn’t help but laugh. I am still not sure how she came up with that. I do know, she knew exactly what the problem was with her leg and she wanted me to know exactly what it was too, complete with hand gestures of a wiggly worm! I guess she wanted me to seek immediate medical attention for her leg to be de-wormed! :)

Take a peek around Amy's shop and maybe pick out something for your Mom for all the times you had to "explain things to her slowly"...especially when you were a teenager!

Comment below:
How old were your little ones the first time they had to "explain things" to you?