Giveaway Time!

Once upon a time, many moons ago, I used to be a rep for Southern Living at Home. Southern Living at Home isn't around anymore, I believe they were reorganized under a new name after the parent company of Southern Living magazine sold off that division. But I digress...
During my time with Southern Living at Home, I picked up lots of really great things at great prices with my consultant discount. I was cleaning out my laundry room this morning, and ran across one of those items. Don't ask me why it was in the laundry room. There were lots of things in there that really didn't belong! I will post the after pictures later, the before pictures were just way too scary.
The item I ran across is a copy of Southern Living Ideas for Great Kids' Rooms, a soft cover book, that is still wrapped in shrink wrap.
A quick bit of research shows me that it doesn't appear to be generally available new anymore. You can pick up a used copy for $4 on amazon, or $7 on ebay. Or, you can comment here and I'll give you my new copy for free! :)
Just post a comment. Any comment. Say hi, talk about the weather, whatever, as long as it is nice!
We will collect comments over the next few days, and post the winner on Friday 3/30.
So, be sure and comment before midnight 3/29. Domestic shipping to the winner is included. So, if you are international, please be prepared to pay the difference in shipping if you win.

**** This Giveaway is now Closed *****

Hair We Are~ Ready for a Giveaway too?

Today I'm going to do a product review~ Pantene Medium-Thick Hair Solutions. I tried this for the first time this morning, and got a compliment from another Mom when dropping off my kids at school, so it must work! :-)

It's super easy to use~ comes in a package with 5 little tubes~ you put it on like conditioner, and leave it in for 5 minutes to really soak in. Then, rinse! Easy-peasy!

So, according to the Pantene website, these "Professional Level Damage Repair ampoules penetrate deep to strengthen dry hair against damage and to prevent breakage. Hair is left silky, smooth, and protected against future damage." It definitely made a difference in my hair just with one treatment~ but I'm going to follow their instructions and use the other ones at a 2-3 day interval and see how much more it can help!

SOOOO, if you'll post a comment, we'll choose a winner to receive a free package of 5 ampoules to try for yourself! I'd love to hear what other people think about this too!!!

Green Lunches Revisited! Snack Baggie Tutorial/Giveaway

So, last week Missy had posted about Green lunches~ helping to keep our world a better place! I thought I'd do a tutorial on these fun reuseable snack bags to follow up on that. They're super easy and will be loved by your little ones!



Start with a piece of fabric 6" wide by 16" long~ this will make a sandwich size bag. For the smaller snack baggies, cut that measurement in half~ to a 6" x 8" piece.



Cut a piece of lining material the same measurement as your main fabric. I use a ripstop nylon, but I have a friend who uses recycled cereal bags! Serge across the two short ends with wrong sides together.



Apply velcro across the two short ends~ Put the hook side of the velcro (the scratchy side) on the right side of the fabric. Put the soft side of the velcro on the lining side of the baggie. That way, when your little one puts their hand in the bag, they're rubbing up against the soft velcro instead of the scratchy one! Also, make sure you go around a couple of times to really secure the velcro!



Now fold the baggie up so the velcro strips will line up when the flap is folded over~ You don't want a gap at the top for snacks to sneak out! Once you have the closure lined up, serge down the sides. Tack down the serger ends and you're done!



Now, if you're not especially looking forward to making your own baggies, here are some for purchase on etsy!



Here's a great zoo one.



This is a super fun forest one~




And a Cat in the Hat!

I hope you are inspired to add these little bags to your re-useable lunch setup! To help you get started, we are giving away the three argyle bags shown in the first photo. Remember, we don't offer these for sale anywhere! So, enter and see if you win! To enter, post here what you are going to do (or are already doing) to have more earth-friendly school lunches. Giveaway will end midnight, Sunday 8/28/11. Share this giveaway on twitter and facebook for two additional entries. Please post separate comments for each entry. We will draw and post the winner here on our blog, Monday, 8/29/11.

Monday Morning Love

Okay. So you probably wonder why I have titled this morning's blog post, "Monday Morning Love". I thought that I should remind myself that there are things to love about every day. And, Mondays in general get a bad rap, dontcha think? So, what do I love about today? About this Monday?
I love that today is the first day of school for my oldest two girls (the youngest is a preschool camp this week before taking next week off and her first official day of this school year begins the week after). Georgia is in third grade this year. Olivia will be in kindergarten again. In California, they allow four year olds to go to kindergarten as long as they will be 5 by December. Olivia has a late October birthday and we wrestled with the decision to have her begin kindergarten last year as a four year old. As far as I know, most of the rest of the country requires kids to be five already before they can start kindergarten. Even California has recently changed the law so that in the next few years they will be aligned with most of the other states. We really felt that Olivia was ready to start kindergarten, but weren't sure she would be ready to go on to 1st grade after. We also thought long-range about her being barely 17 and heading off to college someday. So, we decided before she started kindergarten last year that we would give her the gift of time, and that she would do kindergarten twice to really reinforce the basics. So, she is starting kindergarten part deux!

I love that I love what I do and am always eager to start another week of Sweet Funky Vintage! It is always crazy, always busy, sometimes hard, mostly fun, and always challenging. If you can't say that about where you work, bummer dude!

I love that my husband has been deployed since February, but will be home soon. The anticipation of his return gives us all reason to celebrate.

How lame that this blog post hasn't included any pictures. Sorry about that! I'll do better tomorrow!

Before I go, I want to announce the winner of our earth-friendly lunch giveaway of reusable cloth lunch napkins. The winner is Kate! Kate, please send us an email with your mailing address!

Earth Friendly School Lunches

I was reading today that each child who brings a “brown-bag” lunch to school every day will generate 67 pounds of waste by the end of the school year. That’s 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for every average sized school. Many of us rely on plastic bags and water bottles for lunch storage, which contribute to the estimated 50,000 pieces of plastic per square mile in the world’s oceans. Holy Toledo, Batman! That's a lot of garbage!
So, what can you do to reduce waste? I can tell you what our family did. I made a commitment to try to use a more earth-friendly school lunch three years ago. It has worked out beautifully. My girls carry lunchboxes (really cute ones from Garnet Hill) and inside are aluminum water bottles (more about those later) and re-usable, plastic bento box lunch containers, and cute little cloth napkins I sewed up for them from some SFV fabric scraps.
Sadly, the re-usable bento boxes only lasted 3 years (tongue in cheek here, because really three years is a long time for them to have lasted! Yay earth!) and we are in the market for some new lunch solutions this year. The company that I bought the boxes from is no longer carrying them - I think the manufacturer actually discontinued them. Bummer. So, I researched a few options:
Amazon carries these animals - so stinkin' cute. I am seriously tempted.

Panda at Amazon
And, really, how can you not love that they also have a frog and a pig!

Frog at Amazon

Pig at Amazon
They are priced at $12.99 or all three for $38.89.

This is similar to what the girls are using now - a simple 2-tier box. Only ours are pink, with polka dots (of course). And, at $7.90, quite a bargain!

Simple 2-tier box at Amazon

Another option we have read about and are considering, is the Laptop Lunchbox.
They are pricier at $27.99, but three of the interior compartments come with lids, a pretty nifty feature. The drawback that I see here, and the one that has made me hesitate to buy them is that they are so much pricier. With the simple, inexpensive ones we have now, we own 6 of them - 2 per child. So, I don't have to wash them by hand, I can pop them in the dishwasher and use a different one the second day. By the third day, we have run the dishwasher and have clean ones again! I know that I can probably manage hand-washing them, but what a pain!

Laptop Lunchbox

Moving on to water bottles. We have two sets. I think this is pretty important so when one of my children who shall remain nameless forgets her water bottle at school, AGAIN, we still have a spare to use for gymnastics or soccer practice, and to send to school the next day.
One set that we have came from Sweet Funky Vintage. We carry waterbottles from EmTanner Designs and Lima Bean Kids. Totally cute and perfectly personalized!

EmTanner Waterbottles

Lima Bean Kids Waterbottles are available at your local SFV trunk show, and soon will be available on our website.

The second set of waterbottles we have are Klean Kanteen waterbottles. We bought ours on sale from Pottery Barn Kids a few seasons ago. They still offer them, at $19, plus $7 for personalization. They are super durable and have great sports caps.


I mentioned earlier that I sewed up some re-usable cloth napkins for my girls from Sweet Funky Vintage fabric scraps. But, for those of you who don't sew or have access to re-purposed fabrics, you can purchase a fab set of 5 for $11.95 from Kathie at Lilypad Baby - she is super nice - tell her we sent you!


Now, hopefully, you have been inspired to dedicate yourself to packing "greener" lunches for your kids! For those of you who have decided to give it a try, we will give away a set of 5 re-usable Sweet Funky Vintage cloth napkins. Remember, we don't offer these for sale anywhere! So, enter and see if you win! To enter, post here what you are going to do (or are already doing) to have more earth-friendly school lunches. Giveaway will end midnight, Sunday 8/21/11. Share this giveaway on twitter and facebook for two additional entries. Please post separate comments for each entry. We will draw and post the winner here on our blog, Monday, 8/22/11.

Favorite Things Giveaway Winners!!

Yahoo! We have winners! I used the random number generator to select winners for each of the wonderful and generous prizes!
I don't have contact information for the winners, so I need you all to email me (missy@sweetfunkyvintage.com) with your email address by this Friday, if I don't hear from you, I will redraw a new winner.

Laurie's Lagniappe - #13 - Erin
My Sweet & Sour - #57 - Sheri
Mine for the Making - #5 - Lene
Lima Bean Kids - #20 - Nila Listiana
Our Charming Party - #7 - Kirsten Eitreim
The Pleated Poppy - #42 - Jan Schluter
Anders Ruff Designs - 2 - Christen
Kathi's Kreations - #16 - tcapps96
BariJ - #45 - Tami Ruffner
Jolie Marche - #44 - Silly, Sillier & Silliest
Paper + Cake - #37 - Anonymous (Jessica)
Sweet Designs Boutique - #36 - Justin & Misti Bryant
Sweet Funky Vintage - #50 - Monika

So, if you are one of the lucky winners - send us an email asap!! :)

For those of you who love our crazy facebook sales, mark your calendars - we are going to have an impromptu facebook sale this Thursday, 8pm Eastern time. We will also have a spring 2011 sample sale next Friday, May 20th.

:)

A few of our favorite things...

We love spring! We love pink, pennants, chocolate, cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, soap, hydrangeas, pretty stationery, school supplies, monograms, fabulous quotes, jewelry, and...

We could go on and on. But, most of all, we love to share. So, we are sharing with all of you, a few of our favorite things. And, in addition to sharing them with you, you can enter to win them! Isn't that swell?!

You will find instructions on exactly how to enter this delightful giveaway. But, in the meantime, please enjoy some of our favorite things.

Introducing... Laurie's Lagniappe


Laurie offers so many personalized items, I couldn't possibly list them all. They are all beyond cuteness, but here are a few that I love...




Don't you love these? Well, Laurie has generously donated a $50 gift certificate to her fabulous website!



Introducing... Sweet & Sour, unique and personalized art for kids.

I love wall art. I love personalized wall art. Laura creates the most wonderful things and the winner of her prize donation will win two small wall hangings, or one large canvas!


Here are a few of my favorite of Laura's beautiful creations...






Introducing... Mine for the Making!

Kara makes beautiful, handmade items that I just know you will love. She has donated to our giveaway, the winner's choice of a yellow or strawberry wildflower ring.





Introducing... Lima Bean Kids!

You are probably already familiar with Lima Bean Kids if you are a regular Sweet Funky Vintage shopper. We started carrying their products a few seasons ago. But, if you haven't browsed their adorable designs and purchased and experienced their terrific quality - you definitely should!

They will be giving one winner the waterbottle of their choice!



Some of our favorite Lima Bean Kid products:






Are you ready for some serious cuteness? Are you ready to throw parties that are the absolute envy of all of your friends? Do you want to throw children's parties that make Martha Stewart green with envy? Then, you will want to meet... One Charming Party.



I discovered One Charming Party last fall and totally fell head over heels in love with their Thanksgiving ideas. You may remember us showing our take on their Thanksgiving turkey back in the fall.


One Charming Party will send one winner the DIY party plan of their choice - a $25value! So, you will be ready to throw a show-stopping party!

Choose from one of five rockin' themes. I am torn between the art gallery party or the baking party.






Introducing.... The Pleated Poppy.



Do you know The Pleated Poppy? I have followed Lindsey's blog for quite awhile. So long that I feel like she is an old friend and I just know you are going to love her too! She does a blog feature called, "What I wore Wednesday" that is the best for getting new outfit ideas. Whenever I feel like I am getting in a rut and wearing the same tired outfits all the time, I hop over and check out Lindsey and the links posted by all of her blog readers who all post pictures about the different outfits they have been wearing. I can usually find a couple of really great looking ones that I can copy from items I already have in my closet. Now, I did have to buy a couple of cute accessories from Lindsey - I just couldn't help myself! And, because I know you won't be able to help yourself either - you are in luck! Lindsey is giving one lucky winner a $25 gift certificate to spend in her shop. You lucky girl!





Introducing... Anders Ruff Designs.

In a suburb of Charlotte...
Maureen (Anders) and the new girl, Adria (Ruff), were complete strangers until a preschool open house. In the hallway before parting, they realized that they had a lot in common - the love of all things paper, parties, design and art. From there a wonderful friendship formed and they decided to embark upon a business together! Both devoted and passionate about graphic design, they hoped to change the face of celebration style for those who love it as well.




We know Adria because she is a Sweet Funky Vintage customer. So, when we discovered she was getting her graphic on, we became hooked right away! She recently invited us to participate in a photo shoot they were styling for their Easter Collection. Divine!


If you need a printable party package - Anders Ruff has some wonderful ones to offer and they are offering one winner a $50 gift certificate to shop with!





Introducing... Kathi's Kreations.



Kathi sells her adorable crafts on etsy. I purchased some of her re-usable fabric snack bags for my girls awhile ago and we are asked about them all the time! They are the perfect earth-friendly solution for taking snacks with us on errands or in the girl's lunches to school.


Kathi will be giving one winner their choice of fabrics on a medium sized fabric bin.




Introducing... Bari J Ackerman a.k.a. BariJ!



If memory serves me, I first met Bari a few years ago in Chicago at the Country Living Women Entrepreneur's Event. But it might not have been until the International Quilt Market in Houston. Bari is a remarkable artist and I have been delighted to watch her successes over the past few years. She has designed several fabric collections, designed sewing patterns, been featured in numorous books and magazines and just recently had her first book published!





For those of you who would like to unleash your inner craftiness... Bari will be giving an autographed copy of her new book to one lucky winner!



Introducing... Jolie Marche!


I can often be found at the computer, drooling on my keyboard over the art and artists that etsy has to offer. Recently I added, Jolie Marche, to my favorites. Sigh. Her work is just scrumptious. See for yourself...




Jolie Marche will award one winner with a $40 gift certificate to her shop. I sure wish I could win!




Introducing... Paper + Cake

When we hosted our Lemonade Stand for Japanese Disaster Relief recently, we found the perfect printable party package at Paper + Cake. It was just the right thing, and super easy to use! Paper + Cake has divine printable party packages and the photo booth props are too stinkin' cute! We contacted Abigail about creating a patriotic themed photo prop set for our upcoming school carnival and she created a set that is absolutely perfect! We can't wait to use them!



Abigail has offered a $50 gift certificate for a winner to purchase their own perfect printable party sets!



Introducing... Sweet Designs Boutique.

I find myself really drawn to signs and quotes lately. I just cannot get enough of them. When I ran across the Sweet Designs Boutique store on etsy, I kept it as a favorite so I could visit again and again.



The winner of this prize will be able to treat themselves to a $30 gift certificate!



An "Our Favorite Things" giveaway wouldn't be complete without a giveaway from us, so we are going to send a lucky winner a box of a few of our favorite things...
including one of our fabulous and funky hostess aprons (may be different than the one pictured, though), our favorite soap - Cherish by Primal Elements, our favorite guilty pleasure - People magazine, our favorite microwave popcorn - Pop Secret Homestyle, our favorite lip glosses set - from ELF cosmetics, and last but totally not least - a $40 Gift Certificate to Sweet Funky Vintage - a total value of approximately $100!




So, how do you enter? Easy Peasy...

1. Click on the link for each vendor below and become a fan or follower of their site. This step is a must! You must like EVERY vendor in order to qualify. Please feel free to leave a comment when you're there to let them know what you like most about their shop (because who doesn't love a compliment, right?).

2. Come back to this blog and leave ONE COMMENT indicating you've "liked" all the vendors. This completes the first way to enter the contest. : )

OPTIONAL second entry:
3. Repost this info on your own wall on Facebook (copy and paste--be sure to type the @ symbol before sweetfunkyvintage, so it links back to me!


I just entered the Favorite Things Giveaway at @sweetfunkyvintage. Check out this amazing giveaway: http://www.sweetfunkyvintage.blogspot.com

4. Come back to this blog and leave a second comment indicating you've completed step #3. This now qualifies you a second time for the contest.

The contest runs until 9 pm pacific time Sunday, May 8th. The winners will be chosen through random.org. Have fun and good luck! : )


Laurie's Lagniappe

Sweet & Sour

Mine for the Making

Lima Bean Kids

One Charming Party

The Pleated Poppy

Anders Ruff Designs

Kathi's Kreations

Bari J

Jolie Marche (look down the left side and you can choose the facebook "like" button)

Paper + Cake

Sweet Designs Boutique

Sweet Funky Vintage