Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

$65 CSN Stores GIVEAWAY!!!

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It seems like the entire country has been having some crazy weather this winter. Places that NEVER get snow are getting lots of it, dry places are seeing record amounts of rain, and we are all freezing our buns off! I have to tell you, I’m not really a fan of summer, but I sure am craving some warm temps right about now! Tim has been taking Darah to the local park lately, and even in the cold weather, she has wanted to stay and play for a really long time! It has taken me by surprise, and prompted me to do a bit of searching into backyard swing sets. I’m curious to hear from you: do you have a swing set in your back yard? Do you just go to the local park? Do you do a bit of both? I’m not sure what the right answer is for us…

Whether you need a swing set or a set of tools for your little one, CSN Stores has got you covered! They have over 200 stores and pretty much everything you need to outfit your home, end to end! I’ve been shopping with them for a while now, and have always been impressed with their speed, quality and customer service! CSN Stores is fast becoming one of the first places I look when searching for an item online. More often than not, they have just what I’m looking for!

Win it!: CSN Stores would like to offer one lucky Stuff Parents Need reader a $65 credit to any of their 200+ stores! You can even purchase items from multiple stores in one simple transaction! Woo hoo! The contest will run until February 23rd at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States and Canada. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: This contest is for Stuff Parents Need subscribers only, so for your first entry, you must subscribe to this blog via RSS or email and then leave a comment letting me know you did. If you already subscribe, thank you! Just leave a comment below saying so!

Additional entries:
1. Follow CSN Stores on Twitter
2. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Google Friend Connect (found on the sidebar of my home page)

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my home page.

Disclosure: I received nothing in exchange for hosting this giveaway. I just love CSN Stores and my readers!

Closet Catastrophe Solved: CSN Stores to the Rescue

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When we moved from Memphis to Chattanooga, a good chunk of our furniture did not make it on the trip with us. We sold our dressers, which seemed like a fine idea at the time. They were just in ok shape, I think we even got them for free, and we valued other stuff more than them (the POD was so packed that we had to choose).

Once we got unpacked and saw that our clothes now lived in a big pile on the floor, we realized that we needed to re-think our brilliant strategy to “make excellent use of the closet space.” Our closets are much more spacious here, and we are definitely making great use of them, but still, we need space to put underwear, jammies, socks, etc. Organizational FAIL!

I wanted to give priority to Darah’s room, and made peace with needing to get her some sort of a dresser. One problem: there’s no space for a dresser in her room! We decided to throw a queen bed in her room for our occasional guests, along with her crib, glider, bookshelf, and huge pile of toys. So a dresser would have to be, um, suspended from the ceiling? Yikes.

Upon looking more closely, though, I realized that there was this great space in the back of her walk-in closet (such a luxury as compared with our teeny tiny closets back in Memphis!). If we could find just the right piece to fit in that nook, we’d be in business.

So I turned to CSN Stores to find the perfect solution. It had to be just the right dimensions and it needed to look like something appropriate for a little girl. It was actually a really tough order to fill. But did I worry one bit? NOPE! Why? Because CSN Stores has everything you could ever need, and then some, when it comes to home furnishing! I am continually impressed with the ENORMOUS selection of products they offer in their 200+ stores (yes, you read that right!).

Wanna see what we got????


LOVE IT!!! It fits in her closet SOOOO perfectly! The wicker basket storage unit shipped the day after I ordered it, and was on our front porch by the end of the week. It did require some assembly, but Tim had it together in about 30 minutes. I think he only swore once! 😉

I really love that this dresser will be able to grow with her for several years, and that both rows of drawers are down low, so that she can open and close them when she gets a little bit older and wants to try dressing herself. The top is also sturdy, which means we just created an extra shelf in the closet. Woo hoo!

Big thanks to CSN Stores for helping solve our closet catastrophe. I would recommend this piece to anyone, and I can say that I have had a very positive experience each time I have placed an order with CSN Stores. Check them out the next time you are looking for just the right item for your house. I bet they have it!

Disclaimer: I received a $75 gift certificate to put toward a purchase for review. I paid the difference between the price of the furniture and the certificate myself. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

New Furniture for a New Home

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I’ve mentioned this a few times before, but if you missed the notes, WE MOVED! Our living room is completely full of boxes and we are slowly unpacking and trying to figure out where everything will live.

We moved from 2,000 square feet to 1,300 square feet. Oh boy.So when we left Memphis we got rid of the majority of our furniture. And now we are looking for new (and smaller) as replacements. Currently I’m looking for a new dining table. I haven’t been shopping for one of those in several years, and this time, I’m going to get something very functional. I would say that we have an eat in kitchen now, as opposed to a separate kitchen and dining room. I imagine that Darah and I will be spending a lot of time in that area, and I don’t want a big dining room table hogging all the space. I really like the look of this drop leaf table…it even has some storage space underneath! Most of the time, we would keep the leaves down and that would leave lots of room for Darah to play, which is what we really need!

In addition to looking for dining room/kitchen furniture, we are also looking for a couch and some dressers. I’m excited to tell you that I’m partnering with CSN Stores again and will be reviewing something super cool to help keep Darah organized. I’ve had very positive experiences with CSN Stores in the past and can’t wait to try out another one of their stores! Stay tuned for all the juicy details…

What piece of furniture would you most like to replace in your home?

Woah! $80 CSN Stores GIVEAWAY!!!

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Edit: This giveaway is CLOSED


Do you ever get really obsessed with one particular thing that you want to improve in our house? I do from time to time, and I find myself spending hours searching the web for solutions to whatever problem we might be having with our house (sometimes the problem is real, and sometimes calling it a “problem” all just depends on your perspective).


One thing that recently caught my attention (and not in a good way) is a light that we have in our inside entryway. It looks like a lamp post, and to me, it is strange to put something that looks like a lamp post inside (maybe I’m in the minority on this one? Thoughts?). Anyway, I did stumble upon some really beautiful (and much more appropriate-looking) wall sconces, and you’ll never guess where I found them…through CSN Stores, the online shopping mega-store (home of over 200 different online stores, remember?!). They have an entire site just for lighting! I think my favorite is this one, which is simple, but updated.

Now that I’ve told you what is on my current wish-list, I want to hear what is on yours! Maybe you are looking for some new lighting for your home, too? Or what about lighting for the outside of your home (they have a store for that, too!). Or maybe you aren’t too concerned about the state of your home right now, but sure would love some new summer shoes. I bet whatever it is, you can find it through one of CSN’s stores, for sure!

Win it!: CSN Stores are amazing, and so are the people who run them. They are giving one of you the chance to snag something that you’ve been wanting for a long time! One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win an $80 gift certificate to CSN Stores! Holy Smokes! The contest will run until June 26th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner will be drawn. Open to residents of the United States or Canada!

Mandatory Entry: Two things: 1. Submit a link to an item from any CSN store that you’d like to purchase with your gift certificate if you won and 2. You must subscribe to my blog via email, RSS or Google Friend connect (let me know which one in your entry).

Additional entries:

1. Follow CSN Stores on Twitter

2. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

3. “Like” CSN Stores on Facebook

4. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to check out my other current giveaways (there’s a list on the sidebar of my homepage!).

Getting Ready to Celebrate!

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Bang on the drums, shake the maracas, rock out on the guitar and tickle the ivories! Make some noise, because we are just days away from my 100th post on Stuff Parents Need!

I’m definitely excited about hitting this milestone. I feel as though Darah has been helping me celebrate, because she has REALLY been getting into making noises and sounds. She has a little drum set that she loves to bang on, and she seems to really like hearing new music. She really loves to try to make noises herself, too (let’s just say that she has discovered the power of her lungs, and she really enjoys YELLING…just for fun…)!

I’m really excited to tell you that I’m going to be working with an amazing company called CSN Stores in the upcoming weeks. This company has over 200 web sites that each specialize in something different and fabulous (ranging from kids bedding to wall art)! I’m thrilled to have discovered all of these sites…this just made shopping so much easier for me! Together, we’ll be taking a look at simplifying the search for quality toys and games. This site has an entire section devoted just to musical toys, something of particular interest to me at the moment. Get excited, and get ready to make some noise about CSN stores!