Cedar Valley Publishing

We invited a group of girls ranging in age from 7-9 to watch Barbie and the Diamond Castle and they loved it!  It’s about friendship and best friends, so this group of friends and best friends enjoyed watching it together! 

Barbie and the Diamond Castle tells the story of best friends, Alexa and Liana who lose everything during a storm. Their friendship and love of music holds them together.

After a chance meeting with an old woman, they meet Melody, a girl locked inside an enchanted mirror. Melody holds the secret key to the Diamond Castle and embodies the last chance to defeat the selfish Lydia from ruling.

Alexa and Liana help Melody journey to the Diamond Castle, defeat Lydia, and release the Diamond Castle from her rule.

Another wonderful movie from Barbie!!!  WOO HOO! 

Click Here for More Information!

Everyone nowadays wants to reduce their eco-footprint and show off that they’re green, and here’s a low cost way to do it.

Powered Green provides $16 wind energy sponsorships for laptop computers and provides an attractive/stylish sponsorship emblem for the owner to visibly display on her computer that it’s ‘powered green’ and carbon neutral. The sponsorship certificate and emblem arrive in compact and attractive eco-friendly packaging that could easily fit in any gift bag.

The sponsorship pays for wind turbines to produce the amount of energy a laptop computer uses over the course of its lifetime, stopping more than 1000 pounds of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from reaching the atmosphere. Each sponsorship comes with a unique and stylish ‘Energy Seal’ emblem that visually represents and certifies that the renewable energy has been produced to offset the computer’s energy and carbon footprint.

Energy Seal sponsorships are brand new but are already generating a tremendous amount of interest and a devoted community of supporters.

Please visit www.poweredgreen.com or call for more information.

My webmonster, Tammy, just told me that one of her two elementary children’s teacher’s sent home a note about their classroom Halloween party this week - and they have GONE GREEN!  Wahoooo!  The fifth grade class of Medina ISD in Medina, Texas deserves a very special “attaboygirl” from us, for asking that parents send healthy foods for snacks, and for asking the kids to make their own costumes out of supplies that they already have at home.  Use and re-use!

Here’s a photo of Tammy’s son, who is homeschooled, but who already embraces the GREEN Halloween concept - he and his dad made the helmet as part of an art project…and her son-man put together his very own sword and shield from his stash of KNex:

Way to go GREEN, Master H! 

Come-on - join me and many others across the nation, by GOING GREEN!

For more information on having a Green Halloween, rush on over to www.GreenHalloween.org - where you’ll find great tips and ideas for parents, kids and schools!

Meet Sheila of Love Prints

Tell us a little about you . . .

My name is Sheila McGoldrick and I am a mom to three fabulous kiddies. Their ages are six, four and one. I am married to my high school sweetheart, who makes me laugh every day. I am truly blessed and I take nothing for granted. I am also the mom-inventor of the Handy Burpee and the Handy Burp’ems, which are new style burp cloths with a protective covering for your hand ans protects baby, as well, from wearing spit-up.

You can find my product at http://www.loveprints.net/, all Babies R’ Us locations nationwide, and http://www.mom4life.com/ with more stores to come. We are very proud at successful they have been so far.

Is it mom-owned, invented, created . . .?

Absolutely! I was a mom in pain and totally invented it out of necessity! I had an allergic reaction to a preservative in their washes and wipes and needed something to protect myself from constantly wearing spit-up and washing my hands. It has worked perfectly for me and figured I could surely help others if I just followed my dream of getting them out there.

A little about your entrepreneur journey so far?

Well, it has been a four year journey so far. I invented my product in September of 04’ and it was not until September of 06’ when I launched my site. I had so much wonderful feedback from family and friends and orders were coming in for more. Someone asked me about a website and then I thought that would be great to get them out there nationwide. So in October of 2006 we launched Love Prints. Some people could not quite get the name, but to me my kiddies little hand and foot prints are my Love Prints and it was a perfect fit for me and reminds me of them and why I started this journey. I was selling, advertising, going to craft shows, applied for my non-provisional patent, filed it and continued on selling and advertising. Then in February of 08’ WE WERE FOUND. A large manufacturer of baby and children’s products found me on http://www.mom4life.com/ where they were being sold. She ordered and tested it on herself with her baby and FELL IN LOVE with them. WOW, what a huge compliment coming from such a large company. I actually re-designed the original Handy Burpee at that time and added a dribble catcher pocket to catch those quicker and larger spit-ups. What a wonderful addition and it really added to the protection of the burp cloth. They name was also changed to Handy Burp’ems to go with the added feature. I trademarked the name and filed for my provisional patent. We are now in the patent pending stage.

Win a Handy Burp’ ems from Love Prints!
(We’re giving away two!)

Here’s how . . .

1. Check out Love Prints at www.loveprints.net. 
2. Come back here and leave a comment telling us your favorite pattern.
3. Be sure to leave your e-mail if you don’t have a blogger ID.

Who wants extra entries?!
(Please leave a separate comment for each entry.)

4. Sign up for our Mommy’s Idea feed or e-mail feed. (Over to the right.)
5. Add our button to your blog or link to http://www.mommysidea.com/. (If you add our Mommy’s Idea button AND Ellie Bags button, you get 2 entries!)
6. Blog about and link to this giveaway. Please leave your blog url in your comment.
7. Become a follower of Mommy’s Idea.
8. Stumble this post.

Open to residents of the US and Canada.
Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on Monday, October 30, 2008.

This blog post was copied with permission from Mommy’s Idea:  http://www.mommysidea.com/2008/10/win-handy-burp-em-from-love-prints.html

I am so incredibly proud of the mother and daughter GREEN team of Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson who have released their long awaited book, Celebrate Green! 

What incredible tips to make the holidays more about the holidays and less about the sugar!  I absolutely love this book and am proud as a peacock of their movement www.celebrategreen.org and www.greenhalloween.com. 

If fact, I recently was on Milwaukee’s Morning Blend sharing some of the ideas that I love from Lynn and Corey’s book. 

We can all do our part in simple steps to be more green and help save our planet.  I love this book because it makes it easy with simple ideas and recipes for each holiday to help the whole family Celebrate GREEN!

Now that our girls are back to school and fall schedules are in full-swing, we want to be sure that they are as well-taken care of as they are when they’re at home. School lunches and on-the-go snacks are not notoriously healthy and to add to that, there is a growing awareness about the dangers of growth hormones and pesticides in the foods our kids consume.

So with the flurry of activities starting with the new school year it can be tough as Moms to make the right food choices to ensure our families are getting the nutrients they need.

There are, however, products out there that make it a little easier for us to attack busy schedules and stay healthy. Horizon Organic’s Flavored Single Serve milk provides essential nutrients without the dangers of antibiotics, pesticides, or growth hormones-making school lunches and after-school snacks something we can feel good about.

My girls love it!  And it comes in Chocolate, too!

Go to www.HorizonOrganic.com for more information - and sign up for their coupons!

As a parent, I’m sure you’ve encountered the same thing I did when our girls were younger — the boxes, wrapping paper and bows were way more fun for the babies and toddlers than the gift was!  Since then, when I hear of a friend or neighbor who is getting a new appliance, I immediately ask if we can have the box from the item - it becomes a castle or a fort or the coolest clubhouse on the block!

Enter www.BoxWorks.biz - the coolest website I’ve seen in a long time!  Not only is Jason promoting the GREEN life that I so desire for myself and for others, he’s offering some exceptionally entertaining fun - instructions for box creations such as fire engines, jets and SO much more!

Here’s an illustration of how to make a candy bag out of a box:

The whole goal is to get kids engaging in building, spending quality time with their parents and re-using resources to create fun things they can then play with.

Visit www.BoxWorks.biz today!

Since I’ve been promoting a more GREEN world, I wanted to share a couple of contests with you, that www.GreenHalloween.org is promoting!

Follow these links to some Green Halloween contests:

• Green Halloween® T-shirt Design Contest
• Crayons® Beverages Pumpkin Design Contest
• BabyLegs Photo Contest

Don’t wait!  Begin to change the world around you, one GREEN Halloween at a time!  And if you do, please leave a comment and tell us how you’ve “turned GREEN”!

I love to post and I love it when people comment on my blog, but there is an art to posting!  Here are my top 5 tips to making the most of posting on a blog!

• Be genuine!  Read the post and respond from your heart!
• If you don’t have anything of value to add, don’t post!
• Many bloggers only accept comments with real names, pens names or avatars rather than posting as anonymous!
• Don’t be buy me, buy me, buy me!  It’s a turn off! 
• Get in the habit of exploring other blogs and comment often!  It’s all about networking!

I have some great friends today that started with a simple blog post!  Check out the MIMA Summit Blog Carnival blog at http://mimasummit2.blogspot.com/ for more information.