And the winner is!!!!!!!!!

Comment #5

Melissa Lindenbaum

Congrats!!!! Contact me at fairytalesdocometrue at ymail dot so I can get your shipping information

Free Headband Giveaway

I will be giving away this adorable tropical pink flower headband. I will pick the winner on August 4th.

Here's how to enter:

If you are not already following me add me to your blog roll.

Post a comment and let me kno that you are a follower.

I will assign each comment a number and pick the winner via a random number generator.

Good Luck!!!!

Pay it Forward Fridays

Last week I started Pay it Forward Fridays. To see the original post click here.

I am not sure what my random act of kindness will be today, but I will make sure to update as soon as it happens.

I would like to share with you a few people that have recently payed it forward and their generosity has warmed my heart. I am going to put together a donation to the NICU at Good Samaritan Hospital in honor of Tarynn's birthday. I would like to donate some preemie outfits, reading material, ect. Another thing I was really interested in donating was preemie hats. Preemies are unable to regulate their body temperature and as most heat escapes through the head having a little hat is important. Tarynn had the cutest little yellow crocheted beanie on when I got to see her for the first time. I asked the nurses where it came from and they informed me that people donated them. The benefit of this little hat was twofold. It kept her warm, but it was also comforting to me as a parent. Before she was able to wear clothes, it was the one personal item she had. The NICU is also filled with multiple "beds" and they move them around based on the nurse scheduling. Your baby is not always in the same place when you arrive from one day to the next. I could always find Tarynn by looking for her little yellow hat.





I am trying to learn to crochet, because this is something I would love to donate. I have been practicing, but I don't think I will be able to make hats by September. I knew there are so many talented artists on Etsy.com, so I decided to see if anyone was interested in donating. I put up and alchemy request and in a matter of minutes had many responses. My request got taken down in a few hours (can't ask for donations, OOPS!!), but in that few hours I received an overwhelming number of responses, and these adorable little hats starting rolling in.



These etsians have been so kind and generous and I am so thankful. I'm sure the recipients of these adorable little hats will be as well. I will make a post in the near future with pictures of that hats and information if you are interested in making a donation. I wasn't going to post about this for awhile, but I couldn't wait to share the kindness from these crafters.



Yarn Graphics

Signature Boutique

Leaping Lizzie

Conixon Creations

Crafting Addiction

The Fiddlin Trucker

Kenda Designs

Gems 2 Jewels

While you sleep I crochet

99 Lollipop

Sunshine Handmade Knits

Uniquely Yours Crafter

Schiers Knits

If an Hour

Judy and Cheryl's craft boutique



Check out there shop's and please leave a comment with a random act of kindness you did for someone today or if you were the recipient of a random act of kindness.

Income ideas for stay at home moms

I have heard a ton of mom's asking if anyone knows of a way to earn some pt income. Marco and I decided we were not willing to put Tarynn in full time daycare, but I still wanted to earn at least a little something.

These are a few of the ways I have found to earn some extra income while still having a very flexible schedule. Feel free to share any of your own knowledge on the subject.

Mystery shopping:

Be careful with this one. Most of the offers I get are not worth my time. Many pay $8 for something that will take two hours of your time. I also live in a small town and most offers are out of town, so if you are adding drive time into it, it's def not worth it. However once or twice a week I get an offer that is worth my while. A couple days ago I did a COACH shop that paid $24 and took me 10 minutes. I have done shops on gas stations that pay $15 plus free gas. Trader Joe's also has a shop program if you are under 26 that makes sure their employees are checking ID properly for alcohol sales.

Now you will not make enough to pay your rent doing this, but if it's stores where you already shop it's a great way to earn extra income and get free products. Movie theatres, zoos, bowling alleys, and amusement parks all do mystery shops. Awesome way to get free admission and earn some extra money.

Here are some websites to get you started:

www.dynamic-advantage.com/

www.kernscheduling.com/

Another option is babysitting. I myself am not able to do FT daycare. I go to school and my schedule is pretty sporadic. I do offer on call day care for friends and family when their regular day care is not available. I also watch a couple of kids two days a week in their home. A good way to find people that need PT daycare is care.com

There are many elderly people that need assistance. I used to help a woman that was 92 and lived on her own. I would go for two hours in the morning make her breakfast, make sure she took her medicine, and straighten up the house. The best way to get something like this is word of mouth, but care.com also has a section for the elderly.

Speaking of care.com let me just go over all of the income opportunities you can find on the site. There are ads for child care, elderly care, tutoring, and pet care.

Tutoring is also a good way to earn some extra income and do something impactful at the same time. Check care.com, craigslist.org, call your local schools and give them your info, and check the bulletin boards at your local college.

Doing promotions is also a quick way to earn a few hundred dollars. Companies hire people to promote their products ranging from alcohol at a night club to working in a booth selling t-shirts at a festival. You can find these by googling promo companies or looking under gigs on craigslist.org. When you sign up for an "agency" keep in mind they will have a wide range of job postings. They will have gigs that require wearing a string bikini and gigs that require wearing khakis and a polo passing out samples. The pay for these usually ranges from $15-$30 an hour.
The availability of promotions will vary greatly on your location. In San Fransisco there are many convention promotions available-professional dress, providing information, $30 an hour. In other areas you will see more offers to be the "Coors Light girl", paying $17 an hour.

A girlfriend just told me about becoming a process server. She said it pays about a hundred dollars per papers you serve. I haven't looked into much, but I found this ehow to article.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2099796_become-process-server.html

Also use your talents. Resume services, website design, typing, business card design, housekeeping, home organization are all services people are in need of. Check craigslist.org under gigs and you will see people need all sorts of help. I recently saw an ad that a musician needed someone to manage their social networking sites--twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.

As I said, if you have any suggestions please feel free to share.

Thrifty Thursdays

Here are some of my thrifty finds for the week. I am missing a few pictures because they are on my other phone and I have no way to get them off.


I answered a craigslist ad for baby girl clothes. The poster just had a little boy and needed to clear out some space. When I arrived at her house I understood why. Between the 3 year old little girl and 4 month little boy there was toys and clothes taking up every square inch of her house. She brought the boxes and boxes of clothes and toys into the living room for me to look at. I was impressed, out of all the clothes I looked at only 2 or 3 were stained. I wanted to ask her for her laundry secrets.


I chose 36 items of clothing. She wanted me to buy the entire lot, but some of them were off season or just didn't look like they would fit. (Tarynn has very short legs) I got a ton of footed jammies--my absolute favorite. I hate buying them though. $8 a pair adds up and Tarynn usually goes through 2 pairs a night.


I also got an activity table and a ton of toys. I gave her $45.


Here is a pic of the table and one of my fave items of clothing, a crocheted little pancho.




My neighbours had a garage sale this weekend and I found a few good finds. I have been looking for shelves for Tarynns room. She has a few picture frames I would like to display and the dressers and bookshelf are out of room. I found two white shelves and this really cool veggie steamer thing for $5. I'm excited about the steamer too. It's made out of ceramic or something and you can put it on top of the pot and it will steam the vegetable and then it can go straight to the table as a serving dish. It will also be great from steaming veggies for Tearynn. Anything that cuts down on dishes is a winner in my book. They also threw in a pair of riding pants and 2 jerseys for Chop.





Target donates to our local Goodwill, so you can often find brand new items with damaged packaging. I actually got Tarynn's bedding there for $20. I rarely, however, go because it is sooo dirty. This week I wandered into Gilroy's Goodwill and it was so much better. I don't feel any guilt about buying from them because you don't pay sales tax at GW. I was way more clean and organized, and had a better selection. I found a little unicorn that lights up and sings for $2.99. Tarynn is still a little to small for it, but my friends 4 year old son has sure been enjoying it. I also bought a small blow up pool and a big pack of plastic balls and made Tarynn a ball pit. I wish I had a picture to show you. When I reconnect that phone I will have to post pics because it is too darn cute. I also got a few other toys. All in all my total was $23. Awesome.


Sorry for the bad pics. They are with my old camera phone. If the items look grungy, they are not. It's because of the camera.


So, with all these thrifty purchases I've been making my house has been taken over by primary colors. And you know what Tarynn wants to play with: the remote, my phone, and the computer!!!!!

Pay It Forward Fridays

On one of the blogs I follow I noticed they had a pay it forward day every week. The blogger made a point to do a random act of kindness on that day and challenged the readers to do the same. I thought this was a fantastic idea and decided to do the same for my blog. I have been on the receiving end of many acts of kindness. You never know how much a simple thing can really help someone out or brighten their day. I can be stressed and running late and a simple thing like someone offering to let me make my purchase before them because I only have one item can totally change my mood. I cannot count how many times people have handed me money that I dropped on the floor or chased me out of a store with my sunglasses that I left on the counter. I would have been literally crying when I got home and realized that I had lost my glasses.

I always try to help older people unload their groceries and have never thought anything of it. One day I helped a woman a disabled woman unload her little cart. She got tears in her eyes and profusely thanked me. I was a little taken aback. I was just standing there anyway. It took very little effort for me to help her. She explained to me how much she hates going shopping and is always embarrassed to ask for help when unloading her cart. I wondered why is she having to ask?

A few weeks later my grandmother told me about her experience at Safeway. My grandmother has really bad arthritis and due to a stroke sometimes her hands don't do what she tells them. She usually goes to Nob Hill because the checker unloads the cart, but that day she went to Safeway. She was having such a hard time unloading the cart and the people in line behind her were getting frustrated because she was taking so long. She was so embarrassed and kept apologizing for taking so long and left the store in tears. This infuriated me. Why didn't anyone help her? Why didn't the checker offer to help her when she apologized for taking so long to unload the cart?

I thought about this for the entire day after she told me the story. We can get so caught up in the chaos of our day that we don't see the people around us. We are all so busy and most of us don't have the time or resources to save the world. We can, however, do a random act of kindness at least once a week. You never know how much it will be appreciated by the person on the receiving end. It can be something big or small. Hold the door open, make a meal for a friend that is sick or just had a baby, let someone cut in line, take your granny to lunch, just do something nice for somebody.

I decided to choose Friday's as my pay it forward day. One because pay it forward Friday's flows well and two everyone is usually in a good mood on Fridays :)

Feel free to post a comment about what you did nice for someone today.

My pay it forward for the week:
My friend Candy's sister suffered an awful tragedy last week. Her baby girl died at birth. Losing a child is the worst pain one can experience and unfortunately there are many costs associated with it as well. When Marco and I dealt with this issue we experienced such overwhelming generosity from people we had never even met. Everyone scared us so much about how much burial expenses were going to be. We didn't know what we were going to do. I had been on bed rest for three months so Marco's salary was our only income. They must have felt sorry for us or something because when I called the funeral home and cemetery to make arrangements both offered their services for free. The funeral home donated their services and the casket and only charged us the fee for filing the death certificate. The cemetery donated the plot. I cannot express how helpful this was. It was such a huge weight off of our shoulders that were already so burdened with grief. The least I can do is try to pay it forward in someoneelse's time of need.

Candy is holding a yard sale and the proceeds will go towards Baby Belen's final expenses. I am not able to donate any funds at this time, but when Tarynn wakes up from her nap i am going to head over to some shopping. If you have any time available stop by the sale you may find some hidden treasures and remember it's totally green to by previously owned items ;)

610 Argonne Ave.
Hollister, CA 95023

Trying to learn to crochet

I am on a mission to learn to crochet. I have seen some absolutely adorable crocheted baby items lately and would love to learn to make them. Not to mention being able to make my own scarves and beanies in the winter. Scarves would also make great Christmas gifts.

So far the learning process has been a big FAIL. My hands just do not do what I tell them to do. I think crocheting is easy for most people, just not me. On Thursday I went to a meeting of Gavilan College's KnitWits. The ladies were kind enough to try to get me started. They tried to show me how to do a granny square. I told them I better practice doing a chain for awhile.

Yesterday Marco's grandmother tried to show me how to make a blanket. I also told her I better practice on making a chain for awhile...lol I think I just need to get the hang of manipulating the needle and yarn. I am not good at doing things with an audience and both times I've tried I had more than one person watching me to make sure I was doing it right.

I'm going to practice tonight and am supposed to meet w/ Marco's granny and the KnitWits again this week for some more instruction. Wish me luck.

Here are some pics of some of my favorite crocheted items. Just click on the link below the item to be directed to the seller. Absolutely A-Dorable!!!


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Product Rave

I have very sensitive skin and a strong family history of breast cancer so I always use all natural bath and body products. (The correlation between breast cancer and bath products deserves it's own post as I've mentioned before and one day I will take the time to post it)Living in such a small town we have very limited shopping options, no natural foods store, and the stores we do have do not carry their full inventory. I used to have to drive to Santa Cruz or stock up while in Sacramento on face wash, body wash, lotions, ect. Last year I discovered that Vitamin World (there is one in Gilroy) has a section of natural products and this year I discovered that Target and Walmart are carrying some Alba products. While I have a little bit easier access to natural products, I still have to leave town to get them and go to multiple stores. Better, but still frustrating. I try and like to shop locally, but in Hollister it is very difficult.

Now to the point of this post...

I went to the farmer's market last Wed and came across the Foxhollow Herb Farms' booth. They had quite a selection of products from soap to lotions to body scrub and much more. I picked up an exfoliating salt scrub. The 16 oz. container is only $10. If you have any experience buying natural products you know that is a great deal. The salt is pretty fine which makes it last longer. I have been using the ALBA brand, which I like but the salt is very chunky, so it only lasts me one week. At $12.99 that gets expensive. The Foxhollow scrub is perfect for daily use.

If you are not familiar w/ natural products a salt scrub can be used daily in leui of soap. The oils cleanse your skin and are less drying that soap. The ingredients in the Foxhollow scrub are Olive, grapeseed, and almond oil, salt, vitamin E, and essential oil of grapefruit. (NO PARABENS YAY!!!) Now if you are actually dirty you may want to use soap, but for an average day the soap and salts will provide enough cleansing. They carry lavender and orange, peppermint and spearmint, and grapefruit. This is my only gripe w/ their product line. I don't like citrus or mint smells. I wish they had something fruity, floral, or like vanilla or brown sugar. I chose grapefruit as it's fragrance was the most mellow of the bunch.

I can't wait to try the face wash, lotions, and clay mask. Maybe I will have a local place to buy all of my bath products:)

Foxhollow's website

Sneak Peak

For those of you that don't know I have been working on a product line for infants I have a long way to go, many items to add, and inventory to build up. I had a mini photo shoot today w/ Doreen Anne Photography and can't wait to see the pics. I will be working on my website and getting some products together this week. Every square inch of my living room is covered with ribbon, tulle, butterfly wings, and flowers!!!

I can't wait to officially announce my business with the name, website, pics background, and everything else, but until then here is a little sneak peek.

These are horrible pics just taken w/ my phone.

Oprah struck a nerve with Chop today

Chop and I were watching Oprah's show today regarding over consumption. We decided to modify her challenge for our own household. In case you didn't tune in one family went without shopping and electronics for a week. A single gal reduced her grocery bill, shopping ,trips to the hair salon,and water consumption.

We brainstormed a bit and there is no way we can go without tv or the internet, but we are going to cut at least an hour of tv watching a day. We will replace it with reading, walking, or going to the dog park.

We can't really cut our grocery bill, but we can try to make the food go further and be better about using the leftovers. I have also been composting and am going to plant a small veggie garden.

I am going to try to cut my showers down to 15 minutes and Chop will cut his to 7. We are also going to turn the water off while brushing our teeth.

Wish us luck and if we think of anything else I'll let you know.

Chop gets a math award

Chop received the most improved award in Math!!! Last year he really struggled and thanks to the help of two fabulous tutors Christina for 5th grade and Summer for 6th he has now received a math award and has a B:)

Tarynn's first time in the pool

After the March of Dimes walk I decided to reward myself w/ a relaxing Sunday afternoon in the pool. My friend Diane had us over to her fantastic home and we enjoyed a day of lounging in the pool. I am so in love w/ her backyard that I informed her and her husband I will be using their pool house as a summer home. Diane and I enjoyed some ice cold Coronas and Tarynn had some frozen mango.

Slowly but surely the entire baseball team trickled in and we made hot dogs and smores. The boys played some baseball and the day ended w/ a dads against kids basketball game which got pretty intense. The boys drew blood...literally!!!! All in all it was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

*Do not buy this floatie. The head kept whacking her in the face.

Tarynn got her first car!!!!

I tried and tried to find this walker used w/ no success. This color was only available online, so I'm thinking not that many people had it to sell. Why does everything I like have to be online only? I scoured the net and found it for only $69 at justkidsstore.com, not bad compared to $100 at Babies R Us. There was one catch $30 shipping charge. That took away almost all of my savings. There went my being able to justify buying it.

Then I saw it. Spend over $150 and free shipping. Hmmm, I decided to buy two...lol I got a black one for baby Sebastion!!!! I also found a cute onsie for him that says Born Lucky and got myself some bottle brushes.




Tarynn is trying to crawl w/ all her might. She has started getting the push up position and lunging forward then belly flopping. So funny.


Sibling Bonding

Poor Daisy :(

Take me out to the ball game

Chop has three out of the park homeruns so far this year. He hit two in one game on Saturday!!!!

Long ball club banner

Chop w/ his two home run balls. I don’t know why the kids doesn’t smile. He has nice teeth. I guess those teenage hormones making him think he’s to cool to smile






A few weeks ago we attended an A’s game w/ Chop’s little league team. We had a great time, although it was FREEZING. The boys were able to run the bases. It was Chop’s first time stepping on a professional field and he’s hoping it’s not the last ;)

March of Dimes-March for Babies

We did the March of Dimes walk this Sunday. We had a great time and the weather was PERFECT. I was worried because Sunday was going to be a scorcher. The event started at 9, we finished the 5 mile walk right around 11:30, and we just beat the heat.

I've known I wanted to participate in this even for a couple of months, but being so busy and the procrastinator that I am, I forgot to research the details. Details as in when it was going to be held. Kind of an important one. So last Thursday 5/14 I decided to look it up. Uh oh, to my dismay the walk was on Sunday 5/17. I was so mad at myself. There was no way I would be able to put a team together and raise money in 3 days!!!!!

I decided to give it a shot anyway. Every $ helps right? My fundraising goal was only $200 and I didn't think I was even going to make that. I figured I would check it out and get some good ideas for next year.

Well thanks to my A-MAZING friends and family I had a team of 7, raised over $600, and there are donations still coming in!!!!

Thank you so much for your generous donations and well wishes. It means so much to us. I would like to give a special thanks to Grandma Chrisi, Angel, Candace, Georgina, and Lillian for walking w/ us.

Steph-a-fest

We went to Sac for Steph's 24th bday. It was her Golden Bday 24 on the 24th!!!! We started the evening w/ a yummy dinner. I made asparagus stuffed chicken w/ a dijon sauce. Super easy to make...

• Season and fillet chicken


• lay asparagus bell pepper and swiss cheese in the middle of chicken


• Roll chicken and secure w/ a toothpick


• Bake for 20-30 min


• Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over chicken and bake and additional 10 min


• In a sauce pan combine dijon mustand, sour cream, and milk and season to taste

After dinner we headed to Stephany's good friend Ave's house, where in honor of her bday the beer olympics were being held. Stephany and Marco were the champions in beer pong, I did not fare so well in quarters. There was also a beer bong competition. Steph's friend Ryan constructed an awesome double beer bong. I am not a baker and have no desire to be, so I bought a cake from Raley's. All I have to say is BOMB!!! I don't even like cake. White choc, strawberry, and pretty too!!!!

Baby Shower Gift

So my latest craft project was a baby shower gift. I made a diaper cake, blanket, and some head bands. I'm working on another diaper cake and blanket today. I'm also making some hair bows for a birthday gift. I will post pics of those when I'm done.

I looked up the registry for the shower and the room decor was brown with pink polka dots and also some garden elements and colors. I tried to stay with that theme for the cake and blankets. I love Burt's Bees baby products, (all the reasons why deserves a post of it's own) so I of course included them on the cake. I loved the fleece for the blanket and got some to make Tarynn a blanket too. It has flowers embroidered on it so it was about double the price of regular fleece, but I used a 40% off coupon.

Cost of cake around $20-$25

Cost of blanket $15