Clever Fashions: Coloring my Mother’s Day Weekend with New Outfits

 Collective Bias, Fashionista on a Budget  7 Responses »
Apr 302013

Hi, this is a sponsored story! I’m glad you are here, take a read through and let me know what you think of the outfits I found! You can find my full disclosure at the bottom of this post.

Do you have a color hue that you have been wanting to add to your wardrobe but have been a little hesitant? That is how I have been with the coral/peachy spectrum sensation. Since my skin is so fair, I have been fearful to try such delicate yet bold colors. But then I look at the latest fashion trends on Pinterest and I have found myself pinning more and more of these colors, especially paired with white. Oh white, talk about another color I am scared to wear. Not because of the color itself but because I seem to always get something on my clothes.

In just a couple of weeks it will be Mother’s Day. The kids and I used to have a tradition where we would travel to Sedona, AZ for the weekend. We haven’t done that in a few years and I miss it so much, I have been planning a trip back this year.  I decided to spoil myself for an early Mother’s day present and buy some new clothes for Mother’s Day weekend. I went shopping at Sears and found myself falling in love with these colors in person. There were so many bright orange hue colors that I just loved. Plus Sears has affordable fashions, perfect for this mom’s budget!

My first find was a sheer top in a bright coral color for only $10.99! I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the high low top but I actually love it, especially since it will cover the top of the white skinny jeans! Yes, I bought a pair of white skinny jeans. The deal was too good, only $12.99! Plus they fit perfectly in my opinion!

My next find was this maxi dress. A little background on my love/hate relationship with maxi dresses. I love them, I think they look gorgeous on women. My problem is that typically they are a knit material and they “gather” in the middle of my body which is not an area I want to draw attention to. I was happy to find this belted maxi that was 55% off and was not a knit! This dress was only $21.99!

I also treated myself to a necklace/earring combo set from Sears that would pair perfectly with both outfits.I absolutely love the spectrum of blue/turquoise! All in all I spent only around $51 for 2 complete outfits and the accessories thanks to the fabulous sales at Sears and the Shop Your Way Rewards program. It’s a program that gives you a certain percentage of your purchases back to use on a future purchase! I love when there are bonus points on certain items too!

Follow along in my shopping adventures in my Google + story: https://plus.google.com/photos/115520848880526546694/albums/5872683848950092705


 Of course there are some other things I have been eyeballing like new cowboy boots. Check out these boots from Sears! While real deal cowboy boots are out of my budget for now but maybe someone will get me a pair for Mother’s Day *hint hint*.

I actually found a cute pair of heeled boots for $29.99!

Here’s a clever tip: Never shop looking at the hanger for sizes. I should know better, I really should. I had to go back and exchange my shirt because it was 2 sizes off!  Remember to examine the clothes, even better take a minute or two to try them on and save yourself all kinds of trouble.

You can shop at Sears and keep up with their latest promotions and styles here:

Full Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Sears #cbias #SocialFabric #ThisisStyle

All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Posted by Clever Pink Pirate at 11:08 am  Tagged with: , , , ,

My Morning Printable Checklist & Seattle’s Best Coffee

 Collective Bias  1 Response »
Apr 282013


I was recently asked to share how I am taking back my mornings with Seattle’s Best coffee. So a little back story to this is that taking back my mornings is something I have been doing my best to work at because I am not a morning person. Not at all. So usually I’m hitting the snooze button about 3-4 times and moving at a snail’s pace. Mornings are just not for me and if it wasn’t for coffee I probably wouldn’t make it through a morning!  To help take back my mornings so that I’m ready to start my day early I’ve been working at completing a checklist with the kids every night before we go to bed.

Our checklist includes:

  • Having homework done and put away
  • Backpacks ready to go by the door
  • Lunches Packed
  • Showers done the night before
  • Keys in the “ready” spot (because sometimes I misplace them)
  • Clothes laid out and ready to go
  • Coffee programmed for the morning
To help keep us on track, I created a printable checklist:
A few other things I’m doing for myself to take back my mornings:
  • Enjoy coffee with my iPad to check the latest overnight happenings
  • Go running after taking the kids to the bus stop
  • Popping in a load of laundry and doing a quick sweep of the house so I don’t have to look at it with angst later
Speaking of coffee, I needed to stock up on more coffee so I went to my local Walmart Neighborhood market to grab a couple bags of Seattle’s Best and 2 bags of pod coffee for my single serve coffee maker.
I love a medium brew coffee, nothing too dark and nothing too light. This was a perfect blend for me!

Did you know you could share how you are taking back your mornings and try your luck at winning a bag of Seattle’s Best coffee instantly? It’s true! Even if you don’t win, you will still receive a $1.50 off printable coupon.

Go here to share and get your coupon http://bit.ly/13F6vZz

You can find more of my shopping adventures here: https://plus.google.com/photos/115520848880526546694/albums/5872110144987883809

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Seattle’s Best Coffee #cbias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own!

 

 

Posted by Clever Pink Pirate at 10:29 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Join Me and Pledge to Stop Bullying

 Mom Files  Comments Off
Apr 252013

I want to thank Linqia and TakePart.com for giving me an opportunity to talk about something important as a mom of two school aged children.

Bullying is a serious problem that affects communities across the country. Whether it’s name calling, cyberbullying, or physical violence, it needs to stop.

If you were to ask me what was the toughest part of growing up, I would probably say growing up a girl. Of course I am speaking one sided here but it was really tough always trying to “fit in” and I felt like I always struggled  with the being in with the “popular girls”. It’s not that I wanted to be popular, I just wanted to not get picked on or bullied against. Girls can be mean. Just downright cruel sometimes with no reasoning besides just to be mean. I still remember some of the things girls said to me in Jr High that emotionally scarred me back then.

I’m sure most of us have seen the movie mean girls, a funny take on the life of the popular girls. While I love this movie, it’s just a movie and not a true depiction of how mean girls can be. It saddens my heart everyday when I hear about bullying with kids and the unfortunate end results. It saddens my heart that 13 million kids get bullied every year. That is just a crazy!

How do you deal with this as a mom? I’d love to protect my kids from the evils of the world. All I can do though is have a listening ear and educate them on stages through life life. This includes keeping them in the know on how to deal with bullying situations at school. Of course with social media and texting this is even harder to battle. When talking to my kids especially Clever Tween who has access to these

Here are the key points I talk to my kids about when we discuss bullying and issues with kids at school:

  •  No one can make you feel anything, you are in control. Words hurt but they are not permanent.
  • You are amazing and if anyone bullies you it’s because they don’t value their own self worth and they think they can feel better by hurting others.
  • If you have an issue with someone who is threatening or bullying, come to me and/or a teacher. This is the same if you see someone else getting bullied at school as well.
  • If you receive a text or message from someone, please talk to me about it.

So what if you are in a scenario when your child doesn’t tell you? I can tell you I was just in this situation. I had saw a message on my daughter’s phone that was uncalled for. I talked to her about it and I actually went to the teacher. The teacher did a great job helping talk to the kids and diffused the situation. Clever Tween was a little embarrassed but I felt I had to do something. My first instinct was to get all mama bear and call the parents but I wanted to start the chain appropriately.

While we can’t control what happens in our kids lives we can educate them and vow to talk to them about bullying from BOTH sides of the fence! Our kids need to know that words impact us in so many ways even if it’s just teasing. I always tell my kids, treat others how you want to be treated. If you or someone you know is being bullied, let’s work together to squash it.

I haven’t seen the movie yet but the Bully movie (pictured above) looks like something my tween and I should watch. If you have watched it let me know your thoughts!

Please take a few minutes to sign the petition to stop bullying.

Disclosure: this post was sponsored by TakePart and Linqia, all opinions in this post are my own and this topic is something I feel strongly about.

Posted by Clever Pink Pirate at 11:57 am  Tagged with: ,

Bloggy Bootcamp ~ Where It’s at for Blogging Conferences & Why I go Every. Single. Year.

 Blogging, Collective Bias, Fashionista on a Budget  No Responses »
Apr 242013

Here is one of our first sessions, say hello to Anne from NotASuperMom.com!

If you have been blogging for a little bit, you’ve heard a little bit about blogging conferences. I’ve been to a few, in fact I just went to my 10th conference. Crazy, right? I just went to BBC Phoenix and in fact, it was my 4th Bloggy Bootcamp. I go to one every year and I will continue to do so because the return on my investment is always well worth it. Some people ask me why I attend this conference so many times and they want to know, is it repetitive? When I go to Bloggy Bootcamp I have the mindset that I will come home with these 3 things:

  • Motivation ~ I always feel the need to turn my blog into something more fabulous than it was before.
  • Something New ~ While I may hear things I already know, I ALWAYS come home with some valuable.
  • New Friends ~ I always make new bloggy friends at BBC and it’s great because there are not an overwhelming amount of people I go home meeting at least half of the attendees!

Another reason I go? The SITS girls are pretty awesome and know how to put on a greatly informative conference. Tiffany is just awesome. She is SO pretty and SO funny! She really just makes these conferences awesome and she is the real deal.

If you are looking for the “meat and potatoes” of blogging conferences, the Bloggy Bootcamps are worth the investments. The bonus is that usually they are priced low and capped around 100 to make everyone’s experience more intimate.

Just a few things I took from this blogging conference:

I need to put more attention into Google +. I’ve been hearing how important it is but it didn’t click until it was pointed out that Google + is a Gogle product and Google is the master of the web. Duh! I should have my info totally branded on there to make me and my website more searchable and favored by Google! One of the first things I did was complete my Google Aurthorship. You can do it for your site too here: https://plus.google.com/authorship

I learned more how to manage my sponsored posts, something I needed!

SEO seems to be constantly evolving, I’m appreciate of Casey from cbias who shared his knowledge on how to use it to our advantage!

Also, we heard about how to plug into the Speaker portions of the blogging conference circuit. When I saw this I thought, this is not something I would need but, on the way home I had an epiphany of something to talk about! Hopefully I can execute a plan and maybe speak at a conference soon!

Of course I had a blast, especially with my fav local bloggy peeps

 


Thank you to DownEast Basics for sponsoring our clothing for the conference! Don’t we all look fabulous?!

I love this Pink Sheer Shirt, it was definitely branding for myself at the conference.

I loved everything the girls chose from DownEast! I honestly had outfit envy!

Awkward Stretching anyone?

A bit shoutout to those who came and saw Kim & I at the Collective Bias booth and did some awkward stretching! You guys are talented!

If I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about Social Fabric/Cbias, feel free to email me!

I know Danielle says stop apologizing and that has stayed with me since I heard her say it BBCVegas. Because I do apologize for a lot, a lot that is completely out of my control so I have gotten better. I do want to apologize for scaring anyone with my “sick voice” . I normally don’t sound like that I swear! That was the worst part of the conference, coming home from BBC early because I was sick :(

Disclosure: I did receive giftcards from DownEast Basics to purchase clothing for the conference. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.
Posted by Clever Pink Pirate at 12:02 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Pick Your Plum Washi Tape, Only $1.50!

 Craft, Deal, Dealz  No Responses »
Apr 242013

 

 

Have you guys seen that Frank’s Red Hot Commercial where the lady says “I put that **** on everything”? That is how I feel about Washi tape because really you could put it on anything! I may have a surplus of it but I can’t pass a good deal on it!  Today Pick Your Plum  has rolls for only $1.50, check out the different ones they have perfect for Spring! I personally love the bicycle one! Go here to check them out: http://tracking.pickyourplum.com/SH30 (pssst that is an affiliate link, I appreciate every click:) )

 

Posted by Clever Pink Pirate at 8:45 am  Tagged with:
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