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Theta Mom®

Redefining Motherhood

Toile Tales Etsy Review and Giveaway

***This contest is now closed. Congratulations Julia! An email has been sent.***

Toile Tales  is created by Amy and Lori, a team of two stay-at-home-moms who had a passion for sewing, crocheting and photography. They put their talents to good use by living through their inspiration as they brought their craft and ideas together to begin their own Etsy shop! Toile Tales offers absolutely adorable (and functional) hats, scarves and other accessories. In addition, between these two busy moms they are raising eight children, seven of whom are girls so it’s no wonder where they get their inspiration from! Once you check out their designs on Etsy, you’ll quickly see why Toile Tales is becoming increasingly popular.

I reviewed a crocheted visor brim beanie from The Sweetheart Collection. It is a rose pink color in the size of 2t-4t to fit my daughter. I also had the ladies add one of their beautifully crocheted flowers to accent the hat {which can be done to any piece in their collections for an additional $6}. The flower is also easily removable and looks cute in my daughter’s hair alone as well. Totally multi-functional and we love that! The beanie is made with 100% cotton yarn and this is how absolutely adorable my daughter looks in it:

Too cute for words and my daughter actually leaves it on her head! You can follow Toile Tales on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook here.

You can purchase The Visor Brim Beanie from The Sweetheart Collection here  OR  you can enter to win because Toile Tales is giving one lucky Theta Mom reader the chance to win a $30 gift certificate to shop at Toile Tales – And ladies, you can shop for YOURSELF as they offer adult sizes as well! How awesome!

How to Enter The Toile Tales Giveaway:

****Required Entry: Follow my blog publicly and tell me you are.

Extra Entries: (You must leave a separate entry for each extra entry to count and extra entries won’t count unless the required entry is done)


1. Follow Theta Mom on Twitter here and leave me your twitter name. (1 entry)

2. Become a “Like” of Theta Mom on Facebook here and leave me your FB name. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to Theta Mom via email. You must activate the subscription for this entry to count. (2 entries)

4. Subscribe to Theta Mom any other way. (1 entry)

5. Grab one of my cute buttons and add it to your website. (2 entries per button)

6. Click to vote for me at Top Mommy Blogs. Just click the banner on the right side bar and tell me you clicked. (1 entry per click-can click up to 3x)

7. Click to vote for me at Top Mommy Blogs in subsequent entries. (1 entry per daily vote/click)

8. Tweet this giveaway! Just copy/paste the following: Not just for your daughter ladies! Enter to win $30 to shop at #Etsy Toile Tales #giveaway @ThetaMom  http://bit.ly/dvw6qE Please RT  (1 entry per daily tweet)

9. Post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to me. Leave me your link to show the post. (2 entries)

10. Add Theta Mom to your blogroll. (2 entries)

Giveaway Rules:

This giveaway is open to US residents only. It begins on May 16, 2010 and will end on May 27, 2010 at 8 pm. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. The winner will be announced and must respond with a current email address within 48 hours to claim. Otherwise, another eligible entry will be chosen. Enter as many extra entries as you would like Theta Moms and good luck!

I was provided a Visor Brim Beanie with a crocheted flower accent from Toile Tales. I was not compensated for this review. These are my own honest opinions and experience with the product.

Featured TMC Blogger: Tales from the Sippy Cup

TMC welcomes Shari and her blog Tales from the Sippy Cup. Shari and I connected a few times through email earlier this year and we immediately hit it off. Like other fabulous TMC ladies, Shari is a huge supporter of both Theta Mom and this Community. She blogs about motherhood with honesty and humor – the two things that we all gravitate toward as bloggers. Here is how she descibes her blog in her own words:

“Hello, my name is Shari (I can’t get past how much that sounds like a support group intro – but then I guess in a way that is what blogging has become for me), I’m a first time mom to a fantastic one and a half year old little man that definitely has his own thoughts and views on his world.

 

I began blogging in October 2009 after I had reluctantly left my job as a marketing communications professional to take care of my kiddo full time. Becoming a stay-at-home-mom was definitely harder than anyone had ever led on. I barely had time to put on clean clothes or brush my teeth and it hadn’t even occurred to me that I would never use the bathroom alone again.

I wondered how all those recently showered, perfectly styled, pulled together fashionista mamas managed to pull it all off.  Looking down at my chipped and neglected pedicure, I thought there just had to be other moms like me out there running around with fuzzy teeth and unruly hair.

Tales from the Sippy Cup was created in an attempt to find some much needed therapy, as well as an outlet to tell my story and reach out to other moms to hear their stories. Through blogging, I have become connected to an amazing group of supportive women who are smart, creative and always inspirational.

The blog is a collection of rants, raves, challenges and successes revolving around this crazy adventure called mommyhood and how as moms, wives friends etc., we somehow find a way to “do it all”.  I hope you will join me and share your story as well to inspire, support and sometimes just make a mommy laugh – because let’s face it, sometimes we just have to laugh.”

Be sure to show her some love on the blog and follow her on Twitter!

New to TMC? We would love to have you! Click here to join us!

Only a Stranger but Once

This post is dedicated to every single one of you Theta Moms reading this right now because I get it. I get you. And YOU are NEVER alone.

My son joined a soccer league that’s run by the town and it’s his very first experience playing the sport so you can imagine my excitement as we were gearing up to see my first born actually play for the first time. I had the camera ready to go with extra batteries and the camcorder all charged up. We had the uniform perfectly set along with some brand new cleats and a full water bottle in place for the big day. We all hopped in the car and drove to the field excited.

We got there and immediately began to get settled. Before I knew it my son was out on the field smiling, kicking, laughing and having an awesome time. It was such a joy to see him having fun with the other kids, playing a sport he so clearly seems to enjoy. But, I never realized how hard it would be to actually attempt to sit down with my 19 month-old AND watch my son in his glory. Upon arrival, what began as a calm situation (which lasted a total of ten minutes) took a turn for the worst when Miss Fuss Pants decided that she no longer wanted to be there.

She was done.

She’s at that difficult age where she doesn’t want to sit in the stroller for more than five minutes but the moment I let her out she runs away from me. Since she was screaming bloody murder to get out of that stroller I had no choice but to take her out. However, as soon as those little feet touched the ground she was gone. She ran straight onto the field and almost got demolished by a bunch of four year-olds and a flying soccer ball.

This was going to be a problem.

I couldn’t put her back in the stroller yet I couldn’t let her roam free either since she would simply run away – right back into harms way. She would not walk hand-in-hand with me and so she continued to scream like someone was killing her and this was around the same time the tantrums started. She was utterly relentless.

Yes, I was THAT mom on the soccer field.  The mom that EVERYONE was staring at.

I got those looks from others with puzzled faces like, “What’s wrong with your daughter – can’t you keep your kid quiet?” I was frazzled, worn out and frustrated. Every ounce of patience in my body was gone and I was about to give up and just wait in the car with her until the game was over but then, it happened…

A few feet away I began to hear the sharp cries of another toddler. I turned my head and I saw another mother in my exact situation. There she was, holding her son in her arms and rocking him side to side. She was moving up and down the field in a desperate attempt to keep him calm and quiet. She looked tired, restless and out of patience herself.

And then our eyes met. We glanced at each other, quickly processed what was happening and gave each other a smile across the field.

I understood her. I knew EXACTLY what she was going through. I got it.

I wanted to run over to her with my screaming child and say, “It’s ok. I get it. I get you. YOU are NOT alone.”

But I didn’t have to. No words needed to be exchanged because with a smile and a nod I knew that this woman understood me, too. So with this new found energy I gathered the strength to pick up my daughter from the ground and confidently placed her back in the stroller. After realizing that as long as the stroller was in constant motion, she was surprisingly quiet. I continued to wheel my daughter up and down the field for the rest of the game to keep her pleasantly content. I was relieved.

And who can I thank for that?

A fellow Theta Mom on the soccer field who I haven’t had the pleasure of formally meeting yet, but someone I already know is no longer a stranger.

V is for Violets: The Epic Parent Fail

I picked up my son from pre-school recently and when we got home it was routine as usual; he took off his shoes, went potty, washed his hands and got ready for an afternoon snack while I unloaded the backpack.

I like to be the one unloading the backpack because it gives me a chance to sort through the parent notices, clean out his lunch bag and organize the work folder. You see, my son is four years-old and he brings home 9,000 pieces of art, colored papers and worksheets and it ALL comes home. If I kept every single slice of work he’s ever created my refrigerator door would not even be able to open. So I came up with a little organization technique that I like to call The Swap: When I hang up a “new” piece of work one comes down and ultimately lands in the garbage (without him seeing of course) which is my way of keeping this kind of clutter under control.

However, on this recent de-clutter fest I made an epic mistake. As I was sifting through his work folder {routine as usual} I grabbed a piece of work and quickly placed in the trash. Since I was about to throw the entire trash bag out, I knew my son wouldn’t see it but I was soon distracted by my daughter and forgot about it…

Before I knew it my son went to throw out the wrapper from his snack and that’s when he saw V is for Violets sitting beneath some wet chicken and rice.

And then the tears came.

“But I can’t ever make it again. I made it for you Mommy and now it’s ruined,” he muttered as he continued to cry.

My heart was broken. Words can’t express how I felt at that moment as I watched my four year-old crushed by the revelation that his mommy just trashed his beautiful art work. Obviously my son was really upset so I tried to explain that mommy made a grave mistake and that it would not happen again. I tried to divert his attention to the other 8,999 pieces of art hanging up on the fridge that we could admire…

“No, I picked it for you because I told my teacher that purple is your favorite color and now it’s ruined.” {I may be blonde, but I still wasn’t making the FULL connection here to this specific piece of work}

“What do you mean you picked it for me?”

My son ran into our mud room and grabbed a plant from the bottom of a bag. He said, “This is for you Mommy…for Mommy’s Day.”

Now it began to make sense. The V is for Violets artwork went along with my Mother’s Day plant that he picked out at school all by himself knowing it was my favorite color.

Epic fail.

I reached into the garbage and wiped the chicken and rice off the top of the construction paper and told my son that it was the best piece of art work he’s ever done, especially for me – and that I love it and I love him to pieces. I kissed his forehead, wiped away his tears and told him how sorry mommy was and from that moment forward anything that is super special will go into a “super special folder” and anything that gets thrown out would have to meet his approval first. With tons more kisses and hugs, he seemed to like that plan.

So now?

I gladly hide the side of my fridge with 9,001 pieces of art because I never want to make that kind of mistake again.

Because V is for Violets and L is for a Lesson Learned.

Featured TMC Blogger: Coffees and Commutes

TMC welcomes Christine, author of the blog Coffees and Commutes. Christine joined TMC right at its inception and has been such a huge supporter of Theta Mom! Ever since she has found TMC we have been blogging together and I really enjoy her posts because they range from all kinds of topics – including those about being a working mom or simply the role of motherhood itself. Here is how she describes her blog in her own words:

“I’m Christine. I’m a full-time communications professional and mom to two boys trying to balance career, parenthood, marriage, and a sense of self. I love all four but struggle because they compete with one another. Can’t we all just get along?

Coffees & Commutes is where I write whatever is on my mind. It’s constantly evolving, changing and growing as I change and grow. There is no specific formula. Sometimes I write about self-discovery and my inspirations and other times about being a mother and surviving life with children. It’s a place for me to discuss my thoughts and observations on all parts of my life, though I admit my children tend to dominate. Some call it navel gazing, I call it soul searching. Either way, it helps me get by. That and a Starbucks thrown in as often as possible for good measure!

When I first started blogging two years ago I had no purpose, no idea what I wanted my space to be. I was curious, but hesitant and unsure. I wrote random posts about everyday experiences. They weren’t a reflection of my real self. They were more a series of stories, safe and under-explored. Fast forward more than a year to when I found my writing voice. Now with every post I write I uncover a better understanding of myself and make connections that make a difference in my life. This is what it’s meant to be, a place to find meaning and comfort through the sharing of words, experiences and life lessons. It’s a rich opportunity, one that has become an integral part of who I am.

I hope you’ll stop by and offer your own perspective when you visit. I learn from, and am often inspired by, everyone who does.”

So be sure to show Christine some love on the blog and follow her on Twitter!