Stuff Parents Need

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

Know Who Made Your Stuff? Novica Will Tell You

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Novica

Every once in a while, I come across a company that has a mission that just warms my heart, and makes me feel like they are truly working to make the world a better place by connecting us to each other. Novica is one such company.

bracelet from novica Here’s what Novica is all about: “We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow. We want you to know about who you’re buying from. We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it.”

Have you ever looked at an item in your home and wondered who made it? Even if it was machine made, there were likely people in that factory, making sure those machines worked and making sure the final product was correct. I wonder about that sort of thing all the time, actually. How many different people from how many different countries have played a role in creating something that I use or that I admire? I bet the answer would blow my mind.

platter from novica It is so very cool to me that Novica gives me information about the artisan who makes every single product. It gives me some context for where it came from, the love that was poured into it, and the person whose livelihood I am supporting by making my purchase.

I was given the opportunity to do a bit of shopping with Novica in order to see what it is like to shop on this site. It was a very cool experience, I must say! I looked around the shop for a gift for my mother-in-law, a woman who has been to many different parts of the world, and who really appreciates fine craftsmanship. I knew she would be very pleased with and appreciate a gift from Novica. While I won’t tell you what I picked out (sorry! MIL reads the blog!), I will tell you that I received notification of when the product would be shipped, and it got to me surprisingly quickly. I will also tell you that what I got is GORGEOUS. It looked pretty on the website, but I audibly gasped when I unwrapped it. It truly looks like the work of an artisan, and not something mass produced. It also came with a card telling a bit more about the person who made it. The Novica website also has videos on many of the artists they work with, and I was really tempted to put a video up of the artist I bought from, but it would give away the gift! Here’s a different artist for you to check out.

http://www.novica.com/media/publicPlayer.swf?id=81

Buy it!: I can tell you from experience that ordering a gift from Novica is a special experience, and being able to give a gift that supports an artisan and gives you information about the person who made your item is very cool. I would recommend this site to anyone who is looking for something extra special and meaningful this holiday season!

Win it!: Just in time for the holidays, Novica wants to give one lucky Stuff Parents Need reader a $50 gift certificate to use on whatever the heck you want at their store! You will be able to get a truly beautiful and unique gift for someone on your holiday shopping list! Or…you can give a wonderful present to yourself! 🙂 The contest will run until November 15th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me about something you own that is from another country (not talking about “made in China,” unless you are referring to something you got while in China!). Perhaps it is something you got while traveling, or perhaps someone you love who was traveling brought it back to you. Perhaps it is something you inherited! For me, I love my beautiful ceramic vase that my mother-in-law got for me in France. It is simply gorgeous and I will be passing it down to Darah one day!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Follow Novica on Twitter
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

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

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Bambo Nature: Eco-Friendly Disposable Diapers

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If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that we have switched from disposable to cloth diapers. We feel really great about this change that we have made for a million different reasons that I won’t go into right now.

But…

I am of the opinion that disposable diapers have their place. I don’t think they should be the primary source of diapering (though I wouldn’t judge someone for choosing them, as I don’t know what it is like to be you and to live your life, and so I won’t assume that you should live your life as I live mine!). But I DO think that if there are times when disposable diapers will make your life a little less hectic, then they should be a resource to you. That’s our approach to diapering; it’s totally cool if yours is different.

Eco-Friendly Disposable Diapers?

bambo nature eco-friendly disposable diapers So when do we reach for disposables? Largely, at night (at least until we got the amazing Ecobubs diaper!). Disposable diapers can hold an awful lot of pee, folks. Mostly that is due to them having a bunch of awful chemicals in them that can get the job done, but that are actually quite dangerous for baby. We also are using them when we take Darah to daycare. They are willing to accept cloth diapers, but I’m just not quite ready to start bringing them in. I’m hoping to have her potty trained before I turn to cloth for daycare, but if she isn’t done with potty training in a few months, I’ll start sending cloth with her (my logic for not bringing cloth now isn’t really sound, but it makes me feel less stressed, so that’s that).

When I was pregnant, I used coupons extensively to buy as many disposables as I could for the least amount of money, and I amassed quite a stockpile. I paid absolutely ZERO attention to the fact that disposable diapers tend to be loaded with really harsh chemicals that could be quite dangerous for your baby. To be perfectly honest, I had abolustely no idea how disposable diapers worked, and didn’t think I had any reason to need to know.

Now, of course, I know better. If you have ever really looked into what is in a typical disposable diaper, it will shock you. Even if you don’t care about the negative environmental impact of diapers (which is massive, by the way), I want to encourage you to look closely at the health risks.

Ok, so since disposable diapers tend to be full of gross chemicals, and tend to be horrific for our landfills, what’s a gal to do if she feels she needs to use them from time to time, as I still do?

Bambo Nature

Bambo Nature eco-friendly disposable diapers Well, there is a solution. Check out Bambo Nature diapers, which you probably won’t find at your nearest Walgreens, but which can be found on Amazon.com and direct from the company’s website. These diapers are chemical free (woo hoo!) and they have been given the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, which means that this product has been assured to be eco-friendly and a safe product for baby.

On the Bambo Nature website, you can sign up to receive discounts and free samples of wipes and other chemical free products from Denmark (that is where these diapers are from), so definitely check that out. They disclose everything that is in their diapers, which is amazing!

Additionally, Healthychild.org has just declared Bamb0Nature the ONLY disposable baby diaper available in America that meets their high standards for safety. This tells me that the ingredients in this diaper are even safer than what you will find in any other eco-friendly diaper on the shelves.

So how do these diapers work? Well, they work great! When Darah wears them overnight they go the distance, just as you would expect Huggies or Pampers to do, only without those gross chemicals that those companies use. I think they are a little bit thicker than other disposable diapers, but they are thinner than a cloth diaper, for sure.

One thing I did notice about the diapers is that after she has been in them a long time (like overnight), they do smell like pee. But that’s because they don’t contain any perfumes to mask the odor, and I’d rather have to deal with that smell for the 1 minute it takes me to change her than to have her bottom exposed to those chemicals all night long just so that I can’t smell it for a moment.

I am extremely impressed with Bambo Nature diapers, and will look to these anytime I decide that a disposable diaper makes the most sense. I still believe that cloth is the best choice in many situations, but for me, not in every situation. Bambo Nature offers diapers that I can feel confident (and not guilty!) about. I give them my highest recommendation.

Where to Buy Bambo Nature Diapers: Bambo Nature diapers are available through their website, and also on Amazon.

Edit: this giveaway is closed.

Win it!: I am thrilled to tell you that Bambo Nature wants to give THREE lucky Stuff Parents Need readers a case of Bambo Nature diapers in your choice of size! Depending on the size you get, that will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 diapers! How awesome is that?!?! The contest will run until November 13th at 11:59pm EST when the winners will be selected using Random.org. The winners 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. Limit one entrant per household, please.
Mandatory entry: Tell me anything about how you diaper (or used to diaper if your kid is potty-trained). Do you use cloth? Disposable? Have a favorite diaper brand? Have any concerns related to how you diaper? Have a question you’d like to ask Bambo Nature? Anything relevant to the topic at hand will work!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Bambo Nature on Facebook.
2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need via email or RSS!
3. Bonus opportunity: Tweet: “#Win free eco-friendly disposable diapers! http://tinyurl.com/26cfzjd! ” You can do this as often as you want, but only your first tweet will count for an extra entry.

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage!

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Real Food on a Real Budget

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Many of you know that Tim and I are actively trying to take steps to “go green” in various ways. We are doing it because it is good for the planet, good for our health, and in some cases (hello, cloth diapers) good for our budget!

But there are some cases where “going green” is very painful, in terms of the monetary cost. I struggled to figure out how to feed our family as much organic food as possible when we were a dual-income family, and now that we are a single-income family, I’ve been pretty much at a loss for what to do. In the past two months I have purchased very few organic items. I avoid our local Whole Foods (Greenlife) whenever possible because I get depressed looking at all the scrumptious stuff in there that I can’t afford! I’ve even had to stop buying organic milk for Tim and me so that I can keep buying it for Darah. It has been a source of sadness and guilt, but I haven’t really known what other choices I had.

I recently learned about an e-book on this very topic, put out by the wonderful blogger, Stephanie, at Keeper of the Home. Stephanie is very committed to feeding her family the very best food that she possibly can on her limited budget, and she has a variety of strategies that she employs to make it possible. Her e-book is called Real Food on a Real Budget, and I had the opportunity to review it.

Now, I’m not going to tell you everything I learned in the book, because that would take forever, but let me tell you, I learned A LOT. I consider myself a savvy person, especially when it comes to finding a good deal, but Stephanie really challenged me to think creatively in ways I hadn’t before. There are many things you can do to provide nutrient rich, whole foods that are seasonal, and to preserve those foods so that you can still enjoy them when they are out of season. Does it take hard work? You bet. Is it worth it? I’m starting to think so.

I really appreciate that Stephanie is very real about what works for her family, and is real about the fact that she DOES spend more time in the kitchen, and she DOES spend more time looking for good deals, and she DOES have to think more about making smart choices when it comes to food. This is not an effortless process. I think the truth is that I have pretty much exhausted the “effortless” or “near-effortless” ways to save money on food, and I just sort of stopped there, thinking that was all I could do. WRONG!

Now, does this mean that I’m going to do every single thing that Stephanie does for her family, and do it now? No. And she doesn’t necessarily encourage you to do that, either. What is most important is that I start somewhere, and that I change the way I think about how I get our food. I’m not about to start my own garden, simply because I’m not interested in gardening. Maybe I will be by spring, or by the spring of 2012, but I’m not now, and that’s ok. But if you are interested in starting a garden (a container garden on your patio or even several rows in your big backyard) Stephanie has some wonderful ideas and inspirations to get you started.

So what am I going to do right away? I AM interested in doing some sleuthing around town to find alternative ways to buy produce (I’m on the lookout for roadside stands and local CSA groups that are affordable). I’ve also requested some library books on canning…I think I’ll try my hand at canning one or two types of things that are relatively easy and see how it goes. Finally, I’m convinced that making my own bread is really something I should do, and that once I start, I will really enjoy it.

Buy it!: Do you struggle with affording REAL food for your family? I highly recommend Stephanie’s e-book. It is well-written and offers many wonderful ideas that can help you provide better food with the budget you have. I absolutely loved reading it, and I know you will, too! The e-book is available for $18.97 (that’s money you will make back ten times over by implementing just one or two of Stephanie’s ideas!), or you can purchase a hard copy of the book for $25.97, including shipping.

Win it!: Stephanie wants to give one lucky Stuff Parents Need reader an amazing gift: a copy of her e-book! The contest will run until November 5th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Share a tip for making the most of your grocery budget. Any tip you use will do, and it doesn’t have to be about how you buy organic or whole foods! For example: my tip would be to pick one item out of your pantry each week or so and commit to using that item up in a dish. That’s a great way to use up things that might otherwise be forgotten, and you’ll likely find a cool new recipe if you don’t have something in mind for the item! You’ll also buy less at the store because you’ve already got one thing you need at home.

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: subscribe to Stephanie’s wonderful blog, The Keeper of the Home.
2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need via email or RSS (subscription buttons are on my main page if you aren’t already subscribed).

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

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Kraft Cooking School: A Great Resource for the Home Cook

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I hope everyone is having a really fun Halloween weekend with their families and friends!

Now that the fall holiday season is in full swing, I wanted to share a resource I learned about that I’m enjoying. Kraft has a “cooking school” online that has some quick and helpful videos with cooking tips and techniques, step by step recipes and more! I’ve been cooking for many years now, but I still have lots to learn in the kitchen (let’s just say I’ve never been up for any “cook of the year” awards!).

Anyway, if you need some holiday recipe ideas, want to learn a few tips and tricks, or just need a refresher in the basics (like how to boil an egg), check out the Kraft Cooking School!

Pillowcase Purse: Affordable, Green, Unique Gift Idea

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Are you currently trying to come up with ideas for gifts to give to others this holiday season? Have you been asked to give ideas for yourself and are drawing a blank? Well going green is HUGE for a second year in a row, so I would love to suggest that you think closely about gift ideas that support reducing, reusing and recyling in all its various forms. One way that has really caught on big is something called “up-cycling.” This is basically when you take an item and repurpose its parts to make something way cooler than what it originally was. Today I’m bringing you a very cool up-cycled product!

pillowcase purse from uniquerabbit Check out these pillowcase totes from Unique Rabbit! Kimberly, the owner of Unique Rabbit, has taken vintage pillowcases and turned them into fabulous bags that can serve a variety of purposes. These can hold your groceries, serve as a diaper bag, a toy holder, a library book holder (that’s what I use mine for every single week!) or any other number of purposes. And since it is made from vintage fabrics that are pretty much one-of-a-kind at this point, what you have will be totally unique. And isn’t it fun to have something that NOBODY else has? You know it is! The bag is also super soft, which simply makes it nice to carry! 🙂 Every time I take my bag out (which is every week!) someone comments on how very cool it is.

I can’t say enough about what a fantastic gift idea this is, especially if you are on a tight budget. Including shipping, this bag will set you back $10.50. That’s $10.50 for a handmade, one-of-a-kind, super cute, super green, super functional gift. Kimberly only has a few of these in stock, so jump on them now before they are gone!

Unique Rabbit is one of the very first stores that I ever featured on my blog. For that reason, and because Kimberly makes wonderful products, this is a store that I have so much love for in my heart! Please take a moment to look around her shop and see if anything catches your eye. Oh, and if you aren’t using paperless towels at this point in your kitchen, please do yourself a favor and purchase some right now. Her prices can’t be beat!

Win it!: Would you like to win an up-cycled tote? Of course you would! Here’s your chance! The contest will run until November 7th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is drawn Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me about a time you re-purposed something. Sewing doesn’t have to be involved! For example: I recently re-purposed a beautiful short stem vase that hadn’t been used in years into a pencil and pen holder on my desk!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Add Unique Rabbit to your Etsy favorites!
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Google Friend Connect (totally easy and no big deal to sign up if you haven’t before! Just check out my sidebar).

Be sure to check out the other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage. My giveaways typically have good odds!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Natural Mosquito Repellent: Cake Face Soap

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So Chattanooga, or at least my back yard in Chattanooga, seems to have a bit of a mosquito problem. Just now, here at the end of October, the mosquitoes seem to be finally leaving/dying/whatever it is that bugs do for the winter. Thank goodness! Darah and I like to sit on the back porch and wait for Tim to ride home on his bike, and EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. we do this, I get bit once if I’m lucky, but usually 3 or 4 times. I hate it!

I thought about breaking out the Off! with Deet, but that stuff is so toxic, and Darah is always sitting with me, so that’s just not an option. I want something that is not as bad for me as it is for the mosquitoes.

Natural Mosquito Repellent

natural mosquito repellent: cake face soap There’s a fabulous little shop on Etsy called Cake Face that offers a soap designed to keep you smelling fabulous AND keep those little buggers off of you. I am totally in love with this soap. It smells like citronella and sunshine. What a fabulous trick Mother Nature played by making something that smells so great to humans smell so repulsive to mosquitoes!

While mosquito season is probably over in your neck of the woods, too, I think this soap is a something you’ll definitely want to have on hand for when those blood suckers make their triumphant return. This is also a wonderful gift idea for anyone you know who seems to be a strong target for bugs (I’m extremely tasty to mosquitoes, and I envy those of you who aren’t!).

I think Cake Face is a very cool company because the owner, Kelsey, has a passion for offering natural skin care products. She has personally experienced the health benefits of using natural products, and she pours her love of all things natural into her work. I can tell that she does so, because the quality of her soap is truly outstanding.

natural mosquito repellent In addition to offering this delightful and useful soap, Cake Face also has a beautiful selection of other cold pressed soaps (that eucalyptus tea soap looks AWESOME!), bath fizzies and candles, and even a few soaps geared towards men (I LOVE the Optimus Prime soap…that was one of Tim’s favorite tv characters growing up!).

Buy it!: Looking for some budget-friendly but delightful holiday gift ideas? Shop Cake Face and you’ll definitely have some happy gift recipients!

Win it!: Cake Face would like to offer one lucky Stuff Parents Need Reader a bar of soap of your choice! Woo hoo! This will make an awesome holiday gift, or keep it and spoil yourself a little bit! 🙂 The contest will run until November 5th 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. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell Kelsey a smell that you love, especially at bath time. For example: I LOVE this scent that Bath and Body works makes (or used to make, not sure if they still carry it) that is rice flower and shea. To. Die. For.

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Cake Face on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Google Friend Connect

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

I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Shoes for the Shoe Hating Baby!

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Ladies and gentlemen, Darah is FINALLY walking! She started a few weeks ago and hasn’t looked back! She still crawls around a bit here and there, but she’s getting better every day at walking. She is SO PROUD of herself, too, which just adds to the cuteness of the whole thing.

You may recall that Darah hates shoes. HATES them. I went at least 6 months without even attempting to put them on her, because I knew it was an exercise in futility. This is been a source of concern for me, because I know that she needs to wear some shoes to protect her feet as she starts walking everywhere. I’ve been hunting around for a quality shoe that Darah might actually wear for more than 45 seconds. I discovered pediped, a brand whose tag line is, “the next best thing to bare feet.” I thought that this had to be my best shot at getting her to wear shoes. And if they didn’t work, I’d just be thankful that we’d be saving thousands of dollars over the next 18 years since she wouldn’t need any shoes. 🙂

You guys, what I’m about to tell you is so unbelievable that I have been struggling to put it into words. But I’m just gonna report back to you the facts, which are as follows:

1. Darah wears these shoes. At first she wore them for an hour (which was completely unheard of). Now she wears them for 5 or 6 hours.

2. Darah still won’t wear ANY other pair of shoes that she owns.

3. She brings the shoes to me and asks to wear them. This is after she attempts to put them on herself.

I can hardly believe it myself. Is this shoe magic? What is the secret?! It turns out that pediped Originals line closely mimics barefoot walking. From their site, “When children learn to walk they tend to shuffle, so rubber soles or shoes with grip force children to change their natural stride and can actually make them trip. Originals have a durable, slip-resistant leather sole. They’re roomy so the foot can move and grip and they’re flexible so your child can actually feel the floor. The hand-stitched leather sole allows your child’s foot to breathe.”

I’ll tell you one thing: Darah is going to be getting pediped shoes from now on. They are definitely more expensive than the cute shoes I find on clearance at Target, but clearly a closet full of cute but cheap shoes that go unworn is a waste of money, and I’d rather put her in 1-2 pairs at each stage that she loves and that are good for her growing feet!

I also wanted to let you know that pediped has a great contest going on right now, and you should definitely enter! In celebration of the latest Tinker Bell movie, pediped is giving away a trip for 4 to London! Go to the pediped website and fill out the simple form, and you’ve got a chance to win!

Buy it!: pediped offers amazing shoe options for the pre-walker, early walker, toddler and full-on runner in your house! I am one thrifty mama but I’m telling you, these are worth every penny they cost. Check them out; you won’t be disappointed! I’m thinking about snagging the Annie shoes that are on sale! edit: I DID snag them! 🙂

Disclosure: I received a complimentary pair of shoes in exchange for my post. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

People Towels: Green and Clean On the Go! (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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I’ve never been to Japan? Have you? It seems like a gorgeous country, and also a fascinating culture, since they seem to be on the cutting edge of technology, fashion and also eco-consciousness!

I recently learned that in public restrooms in Japan, paper towels are nowhere to be found, and they haven’t been for about 40 years! It has become a cultural norm there for folks to carry their own personal reusable hand towels. While America has certainly started to get more serious about going green (at least this American has), I have to admit that the thought of bringing my own hand towel with me never even occurred to me until I learned about PeopleTowels which is a fabulous company pioneering the “B.Y.O. Towel” eco-habit in the U.S.!

people towels Why have I never considered this idea? It really isn’t that strange, if you think about it. Do you have paper towels in your bathroom to use after you wash your hands? Doubt it! You have a hand towel, don’t you? Good point, Tiffany, but what a pain it would be to carry around a bulky hand towel. I don’t have room in my purse for that!

Quite true, but People Towels has developed a perfect solution. They offer 9 x 9 towels that are extremely lightweight and roll up to a tiny size, so they can be tucked away in your diaper bag, purse, or even your pocket, if needed! I’ve been breaking in the towel at home, and I can tell you that it successfully dries one adult pair of hands, but then it needs some time to dry (10-15 minutes seems to do it for my towel and it is ready to go again). Check out their information on how they were inspired to make such an excellent product!

I’ve gone paper-free in my kitchen, I am mostly paper free in the diapering department (yay cloth diapers and cloth wipes!). Why not go paper free when I’m out and about (rare though those moments may be!)?

I also think that these are the PERFECT introductory hand towels for kids. They have really cute designs that kids will be drawn to, and once they are used to drying their hands on a People Towel at home, drying their hands on a People Towel somewhere else will be totally normal to them. It would only take one generation growing up NOT using paper towels to bring a People Towels revolution to the U.S. and help us ditch disposables in one more area of our lives.

I bet you never even think about your paper towel use in the office and out on the town, do you? I know I didn’t. But guess what: the average person uses between 2,400 – 3,000 paper towels at work alone in a given year. If you work at home, you are already using a reusable hand towel in your bathroom (most likely) so keep it going when you leave home!

Buy it!: People Towels are an awesome gift idea for the eco geek in your life, and they are also great gifts for yourself if you’d like to make this change for the greater good! You can buy sets of 1, 3 or 5 for yourself or your loved ones! One People Towel is $8 but if you buy 3 or more, they are $7 each. My favorite is this 3 day supply. So cute!

Win it!: Lucky you, and lucky planet Earth! One Stuff Parents Need readers is going to win a 3 day supply of People Towels in your choice of available prints! The contest will run until October 30th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me about something you are doing now that is eco-friendly that you are pretty sure you weren’t doing 3 years ago. For me, I’ve switched over to clean cleaning products, and I was using harsh chemicals throughout my house 3 years ago!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Follow People Towels on Twitter
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

Be sure to check out my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my main page.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary item for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

$75 CSN Stores GIVEAWAY!!!

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Oh joy of joys! Today is the day that I’m bringing you one of your favorite giveaways!!!

I’ve got a $75 gift certificate to CSN Stores up for grabs!!!!

Many of you already know the joys of shopping with CSN Stores. If you don’t, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite online shopping resource!

Perhaps you are looking for a beautiful and functional way to store stuff in your home? Then you need to think about getting an ottoman coffee table, and CSN Stores has one for you, I promise! (We LOVE our coffee table/gorgeous leather ottoman/covert toy box!).

Or perhaps your floors are looking a bit drab, but installing carpet is out of the question and budget. CSN Stores offers area rugs that are to die for!

Whatever you are looking for, the odds are unbelievably good that CSN Stores has them (remember, they are a network of over 200 stores!).

Win it!: Let’s get this party started! One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win $75 to spend as you see fit at CSN Stores. This will no doubt help with your holiday shopping! The contest will run until October 27th 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. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Show me something you would love to own that CSN Stores sells. Here’s an example: I love the natural look of this Adirondack chair, and would love to have a pair on my front porch! http://www.csnstores.com/Shine-Company-Inc.-4611-XSH1019.html

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” CSN Stores on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need via RSS or email (if you don’t know how, just email me and I’ll help you figure it out!).

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways found on the side bar of my home page. I only offer a few entry options for each giveaway, which makes the odds of winning better!

Disclosure: Nothing was received in exchange for this post. This is pure love coming to you from CSN Stores!