Category Archives: New posts

August 23rd sample sales – Gilt, Rue LaLa, Totsy, Zulily and more..

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Don’t miss these online sample sales for Monday August 23rd:

Totsy – Couture Clips, Jusami, Cavichi, Me Too Infants, Tea Collection

ideeli– Beetlejuice, da nang, hype kids

Gilt -HABA Kids, Maclaren Strollers, Beryll eyewear

Zulily – Smocking You Love by Jayne Copeland, Celebrity Studded Diapees & Wipees, Little Society, Pluie Pluie: Children’s Rain Gear, Kaloo, Keep Her Warm in Bina Outerwear

Editor’s Closet – Fendi accessories, See by Chloe, Invica watches

Haute Look – Joe’s Jeans Women’s Denim, Stila, H. Potter Outdoor, Glowology, Joe Jeans Kids, Jalda, Grayce by Molly Sims, LnA

Rue LaLa – Max and Cloe, Koolaburra, Elie Tahari

Beyond the Rack – Guess Watches, Puma Kids, Minnie Rose, LaDuca, Burberry

Billion Dollar Babes – Vintage Gucci Handbags & Watches

* View our full list of sample sale websites here.


I’m attending Variety’s Power of Women event in Beverly Hills!

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I am so excited!

Myself and 10 other great women (list coming soon) were selected by Honda to attend Variety’sPower of Women event September 30th.
And to top it off, I’m ‘competing’ (I don’t really like that word) with the 10 other winners to cover the event from the RED CARPET!   The 10 other women who are in the running to be on the red carpet are fantastic so good luck to them and I’ll see you there!
To vote for my essay, the 7th one, (or any of the 10 wonderful essays), visit Honda Odyssey’s Power of Women Facebook page here and click on the ‘VOTE’ link to the right of the essay you want to vote for.  If my essay gets the most votes, I win and cover the event from the red carpet at the Power of Women event – which quite honestly.. I’m not sure that I want to do so vote for my essay if you LOVE it but otherwise, feel free to vote for another essay.

Meanwhile, I’m going to the not-so-hot (as Atlanta) west coast to attend Honda’s Ride N Drive Event later this week and can’t wait to tell you all about it, afterwards.

You can learn more about Variety’s Power Of Women event here.

What do you pack for your child’s school lunch? I need ideas!

Food and Drink, New posts, Preschool, , ,
Looks healthy, but really?

Today I decided that grapes, crackers, carrots, and ranch dip might not be a delightful lunch for Madelyn to take to school every day.  It’s a little boring I think.
So I Googled “preschool lunch ideas” in hopes of finding a sandwich that doesn’t require jelly or meat as Madelyn’s not too fond of either.. on bread at least.

I can’t believe some of the things that the resulting parenting websites/magazines are telling parents to prepare and pack in their kid’s lunchbox!

  • Cauliflower soup (eeeewww!)
  • veggie mac & cheese
  • sandwiches shaped into funny faces

Yes, I’ve heard of all of those things before and they are cute and healthy but pllllease!!!, is a busy mom really going to make cauliflower soup (yes or no?) even if just once  week then refrigerated, to put in her preschoolers lunch box?  I’m not.  Despite the fact that I work from home, I’m barely home (and not working) for more than 2 hours a day.  I don’t want to spend my time with my kids making cauliflower soup or cutting sandwiches into funny faces.  Albeit, these are GREAT ideas and I do feel bad saying that I won’t do it, but these sites have done  nothing for me except make me feel less adequet as a mother and like I’m lazy and unwilling to do what I can to send my child to school with a healthy lunch.

So.. I guess we’re back to last year’s school lunch:

Hummus, crackers, and carrots, apple slices and/or grapes, and a cheese string.  Madelyn never complained and most days she ate everything.

Do you have any jelly-free sandwich ideas? Madelyn might tolerate a sandwich with meat on it but she’s not fond of ham and cheese sandwiches.

What does your preschooler take to school for lunch?


Hurry, the Add Up the Savings Event at Kroger Family of Stores ends August 21st!

Contests, Food and Drink, New posts, ,

As summer winds down, it’s time to start picking up new supplies for the upcoming school year.

Both of my kids had school supply lists this year that included things like tissues, hand sanitizer, copy paper, notebooks, etc.. and as I’m sure you are aware, all of those items add up.   That’s why I was thrilled to learn about Kroger’s Add Up The Savings Event going on through August 21st.

While you’re out and about, be sure to stop at your local Kroger Family of Stores (which includes Kroger, Ralph’s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith’s, Fry’s, QFC, Baker’s, Owen’s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets and Scott’s Food & Pharmacy) to take advantage of their “Add Up the Savings” Event and stock up on your favorite General Mills & Kimberly Clark brands.

From August 8 through August 21, when you buy 8 participating items from any Kroger store, you’ll receive $4 off of your purchase. Some of the great participating brands include: Cheerios, Yoplait Yogurt, Pillsbury Cookies & Biscuits, Kleenex, Huggies, Betty Crocker Brownies, Cottonelle, and Lucky Charms.

You’d better believe that I stocked up on Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Lucky Charms in the last couple of weeks.. and I even ate Lucky Charms this morning.. gasp!

In addition to these great savings, be sure to take advantage of the special Bonus Box Tops Offers and get a jumpstart on helping the participating school of your choice this year.  I have to divide our Box Tops up into two piles so both kids have some to take to their schools.

All you have to do, if you haven’t already, is register at www.RewardYourSchool.com. Once you register, you will automatically receive 5 Bonus Box Tops just for signing up! You will also receive custom offers for Bonus Box Tops for purchasing participating products.

These great offers are:

  • Buy any 4 Box Tops products and get 10 Bonus Box Tops
  • Buy any 8 Box Tops products and get 25 Bonus Box Tops

The offers you select will then load onto your Kroger Shopper Card to be redeemed once you purchase the items – you don’t have to do anything but buy participating products. It’s extra easy because there’s no clipping and cutting Box Tops! Just remember to scan your Kroger Shopper Card and the Bonus Box Tops will automatically go straight the participating school of your choice.

$25 Kroger Family of Stores GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY

To enter to win, do any number of the following:
1) Leave a comment below telling us 3 things on your child’s school supply list
AND/OR   2) Follow us on Twitter (@mommyinsider – link opens in a new window or tab) and Tweet about this giveaway and use this link: http://ow.ly/2qwsh
AND/OR   3) Subscribe (link opens in a new window or tab) to our newsletter or RSS feed – be sure to leave a comment using your subscribed email address telling us you subscribe!

Entries accepted through August 31st, 2010.

Disclosure: The Kroger Family of Stores gift card, information, and giveaway we received were all provided by The Kroger Family of Stores, General Mills, and Kimberly Clark through MyBlogSpark.  All opinions are my own.


HTC Aria review and why it’s great for social moms

Electronics, Gadgets, New posts,

HTC has introduced another phone, the Aria that brings superb functionality, quality, productivity, and social networking features to moms and teens, without a huge price.  The phone casing has a ‘sure-grip’ texture which is great for busy moms as we as we don’t always have the best grip on things, right?  The 3.2-inch display makes viewing web pages, photographs, emails, and videos, a pleasure.   On the back side of the Aria is a 5-megapixel camera that doubles as a VGA video recorder and speaker. On top of the phone is the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack and on the bottom is a microUSB jack.

With Android you get seven home screens which enables moms to have a different screen for each child.   For example, you can have a screen just for your toddler’s apps while your older child can have a screen of her own with apps she’ll enjoy.  Now if only you could clone the Aria when you’re at a restaurant and your kids are cranky and you want them both to be occupied. Maybe next time.

Social moms will appreciate the included FriendStream app, which is an app that aggregates your Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates.  If that doesn’t sound exciting to you, just wait until you try it out.  Having all of your social networks mashed up in one place is a huge time saver.. and great when you’re in the carpool line.

HTC Aria - seven homescreens

Music and Multimedia Entertainment

  • Aria users can watch YouTube or MMS videos and have the option of subscribing to MobiTV and AT&T’s Mobile Video app giving users plenty of video entertainment choices.
  • The Aria includes an FM radio app and Android’s music playing app.  Plug in your headphones, play your favorite music, and go for a walk – or simply turn up the tunes and tune out the kids for a few minutes.
  • Check the weather, email, and see what your Facebook and Twitter friends are up to with the free and included apps.
  • Inside the Aria is a pre-installed 2GB microSD card that can be swapped out as needed.  Take lots of photographs & videos?  No worries.
The Mommy Insider website on the HTC Aria

Phone Functionality

  • Watch out moms.. even tiny toddler fingers can navigate the small icons on the Aria.
  • When you’re in the car you can use Aria’s speaker phone or bluetooth capabilities.

Camera & Video

  • The Aria takes great photos making it a good alternative to searching for your digital camera every time you want to take a quick snapshot.
  • The Aria has a VGA recorder instead of an HD recorder but that shouldn’t be a big deal to most users as the quality is still great and serves the purpose which is most likely shooting a 30 second video of your child singing a silly song or your kids running around the yard shooting Nerf guns.

Web

  • What else is there to do when you’re waiting in the carpool line at 1:00 but surf the Web?
    The Aria allows users to easily find websites and look up search terms such as “find a mommy’s helper now!” and you’ll get quick, easy to read, results.   Some image-rich web pages may take a few seconds to come up but mobile versions load fast.
The HTC Aria is slim

Battery Life

  • Despite the fact that the Aria is a small phone, the battery offers up to six hours of talk time. In actual full-day usage (phone calls, emails, Web surfing, social networking, taking photographs, etc), I usually had more than 35% of battery life left by bedtime whereas with my iPhone  I am down to about 20% by day’s end.

Other useful features

  • Calendar
  • Google maps
  • Voice guided GPS
  • Memory expandable up to 32GB
  • Contacts can including social network status, pictures, and auto-populate from social networks
  • Create music playlists
  • Talk on the phone and access data simultaneously

Conclusion

The HTC Aria is a great phone for busy, connected, social moms as well as for teens.   The Android platform offers users lots of productivity, social, and entertainment features.  The Aria’s compact design allows the phone to fit in any diaper bag pocket or your favorite clutch for those rate and muh needed date nights.   As tempted as you might be though, don’t text the babysitter 10 times during your dinner date!  Oh, and speaking of.. I found that I had less typos on the HTC Aria than I do on my iPhone.  I’m not sure if that’s due to the size of the letters or the way the phone reads the touches/taps but I appreciate not having to go back and correct tons of spelling errors.

You can buy the HTC Aria at the HTC website or at your local AT&T store.

Disclosure:  The Mommy Insider was provided with an HTC Aria from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide on behalf of HTC for review purposes.  The opinions in this review are my honest opinions and you may experience different results.