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Things My Mother Left Me

May 8, 2009 By

For this week’s special Mother’s Day Blog Blast, Parent Bloggers Network is asking us what our Mothers handed down to us.  I was adopted when I was 16 months old,  so I might not have resembled my Mother physically, but she definitely passed some traits down to me.  She passed away in 1997, a month before Ryan’s first birthday, and Chris and I both wish she was still here to see how the interests she passed down to me have passed onto our kids.

My Mother taught elementary school, mostly second and third grades. And she LOVED books. She would go to teaching conferences and come home with canvas tote bags stuffed full of the latest Newberry and Caldecott Award winners.  When she passed away, my Dad had me go through the books and choose ones I wanted to keep before donating the rest to a special collection created in her honor at the public library.  I definitely think that I inherited my love of a cute  canvas tote from my Mother :)

I lived with my parents for a while after I graduated from college, and after my Mom retired in 1991, I helped her catalog her books. As we went through them, she would hand me certain ones and say “just look at these illustrations”. She had an eye for books with the most amazing illustrations, and she taught her second graders as much about the artists as she did about the authors and their stories. To this day when I browse the childrens books at Barnes & Noble, I look for ones with unique  illustrations as much as a good story line.

My Mom loved Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit. I have a tea set in my china cabinet, with tiny plates and cups and a teapot, with the most beautiful Peter Rabbit illustrations on them.  I find myself drawn to Peter Rabbit stuffed toys and board books, to baby blankets and onesies, to Christmas ornaments and china figures.  I’m saving the tea set and the little  The World of Peter Rabbit books in the presentation box, and I would be thrilled if one day, one of my kids said “hey Mom, can I have that?”

So. Those are the things my Mother left me, the things she passed down.  The Parent Bloggers Network Mother’s Day Blog Blast is sponsored by JOHNSON’S® Brand,  Their second annual Celebrity Hand Me Down charity auction runs from 7 pm PT on Thursday May 7 through 7 pm PT on Thursday May 14, featuring items donated by celebrity moms Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba.  All proceeds will benefit the new global JOHNSON’S® NO MORE TEARS® Clean Water initiative via their well-known charitable giving site, Baby Cause.

So tell me in a comment- what did your Mother pass down to you??

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Make Mother’s Day Gifts At A Free Michaels Workshop

May 4, 2009 By

Until I became a Mom, I never would have guessed that a homemade Mother’s Day card with flaking glitter and crayon drawings that show me with four teeth would mean so much to me. This week at Michael’s, there are free daily workshops where kids can make a personalized gift for their Mom (or other special person in their life). This is the schedule:

– Mon 5/4 – Corsage for Mom (6-7pm) FREE

• Create a corsage for Mom that will last a lifetime

– Tues 5/5 – Paper flower bouquet for Mom (6-7pm) FREE

• Using colorful papers you can create your own unique flower bouquet

– Wed 5/6 – Personalized coupon book for Mom (6-7pm) FREE

• What better way to show your love than giving Mom homemade “coupons” she can redeem for chores, nights out or even a massage!

– Thurs 5/7 – Mother’s Day card making (6-8pm) FREE

• Using this cute template you can color your own memorable card for Mom with your own masterpiece inside

– Fri 5/8 – Wooden frame for Mom (6-8pm)

• Create a thoughtful frame for Mom to hold her favorite picture of you

• Purchase any of $1 wood frames and decorate for free using our supplies

– Sat 5/9 – Make it for Mom Bead Event (1-4pm Three Make-it Take-its) FREE

• Come learn the latest trends and techniques and create gorgeous gifts for Mom, or even bring Mom and create together

– Sun 5/10 – Mother’s Day Wilton Cookie Decorating (1-4pm) FREE

• Bring Mom and Grandma in and decorate a cookie you can eat or take with you

Visit the Michaels new Mother’s Day website to get more great Mother’s Day ideas and to locate a store near you.

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Scanalog Giveaway-Keep track of your magazine clippings!

February 16, 2009 By

edited to add: I mistakenly listed the prize as a complete Scanalog system, the actual prize is a Scanalog CD-Rom and Mousepad. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Scanalog Product PhotoDo you have piles of pages torn out of magazines like I do? Do you tear out recipes,  pages of design ideas, pictures of the perfect garden? And then you have no idea what to do with them or how to store them? Yeah, me too.  Well, Scanalog CD-Rom Software to the rescue!

With Scanalog, you scan, save, and organize, dealing with both your current pile of clippings and any information you want to save in the future. As you go through a magazine, you mark pages with information you want to keep with the included ScanTabs labels, then scan the pages and use Scanalog to categorize them  You can then pass the magazine on to someone else without having torn out any pages!

So, what exactly can you organize with Scanalog?  It comes already set up with these categories-Home Decorating, Gardening, Home Maintenance, Food & Wine, Travel, Antiques & Collectibles, Crafts, Parenting, Health & Beauty, Career, and My Spirit.

For parents, you know all those papers your kids bring home, those adorable handmade Valentines and Christmas Cards and Mother’s Day Poems? And you want to save them but don’t know where? Scanalog them instead! The Parenting category allows you create a subcategory for each of your children and is a great place to scan and store artwork, awards and newspaper clippings of your child’s school years.

The Scanalog Magazine Cataloging System is available for PC and Dual-Processor Mac, costs $49.95 and includes:

CD-ROM Software Program

Printed SCANALOG User Guide

SCANTABS Label System

SCANALOG Mousepad

WIN IT: I have one Scanalog CD-Rom and Mousepad to give away, value is $39.95,  to a lucky reader!  For your entry, visit the Scanalog website, click the “Enter” link, and click on any of the 11 categories. Then come back here and leave a comment with your real first name or blog name, valid email address, and the answer to this question- for the category you clicked, what is ONE of the available sub-categories?

Enter by Monday March 2nd at 12:00 noon. I’ll choose one winner at random from all eligible entries and email them for their address.

Extra Entries: I’ll give you one extra entry for each of the following that you do or have done:

  • Subscribe to the MomReviews Feed
  • Link to MomReviews in your blogroll
  • Mention this giveaway in a blog post, linking back to the post URL and to http://www.scanalog.com/
  • Not a blogger? No problem!  Tweet this giveaway using @Table4Five and this tinyurl:  http://tinyurl.com/darvrx Leave me your Twitter username.

Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

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