Giveaway & Review: Recycle Market/Tote Bag & 3 Fabric Markers from ColorTime Crafts & Markers

What a fun activity to have at a child's birthday party, sleep over, girls scouts event, church gathering or just to do on those "boring" rainy days!! ColorTime Crafts & Markers has so many different items (shirts, bags, pillow cases with different designs) for your little one to personalize with ColorTime's non-toxic permanent fabric markers!

Our man-child LOVES to draw his own creations and color items that he can keep and display or use! He was "soooo bored" during a rainy day, had already used up his 30 minutes of game time for the day and wasn't interested in building his Legos anymore.... Perfect time to bust out his new Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Tote Bag, Fabric Markers and let him go to town!

He now uses his personally colored bag to tote around his toys to and from his friend's houses for sleepovers and/or hanging out.   

About the company ColorTime Crafts & Markers:  
We give our customers the chance to color and decorate their own t-shirts, pillowcases, backpacks, tote bags, bandanas, and more for parties, slumber parties, and scout meetings with our permanent fabric markers. Since 1990 over 2 million children and adults throughout the country have enjoyed Colortime Crafts And Markers ™. With a broad line of products, along with our special Colortime™ quick-drying permanent fabric markers, we have provided our customers the opportunity to take home a very special keepsake. Also, we are a licensed vendor of the Girl Scouts of America.

Coupon: 15% off online retail purchases. 

Use coupon code 15for30C when you check out. Coupon must be entered at the time of purchase. Offer not valid on sale items and may not be combined with other offers or discounts. 

Offer expires on August 4, 2013.

 

Free Shipping:  Free ground shipping on orders over $60. In the continental US. Only for retail, web-based orders, placed on their website. Not to be combined with any other offers and discounts.

To get the free shipping, use code FRSH11W.

WEEKLY GIVEAWAYS: Colortime is doing a giveaway via their Facebook page HERE. 

It is a weekly fan giveaway. Here are the instructions:
Each week Colortime Crafts and Markers will randomly draw 3 lucky FANS who will receive a special craft package, which includes a Colortime color-your-own "Recycle Tote Bag" and three special permanent Colortime FABRIC MARKERS. All you have to do to be eligible is to "like" and become a fan of Colortime Crafts and Markers on Facebook.

Rules:
1) You must be a fan of Colortime Crafts and Markers Facebook page.
2) Once you win a prize, you are not eligible for additional prizes for this promotion for 12 months after the prize has been awarded.
3) Prizes not claimed within 2 weeks will be forfeited.

You can find ColorTime Crafts & Markers on  

Twitter HERE  

Facebook HERE 
Pinterest HERE
To order shirts, totes, pillowcases, or fabric markers for your little one you can click HERE. 

ColorTime Crafts & Markers is giving one of my lovely friends the chance to win a Recycle Tote Bag & 3 non-toxic fabric markers for his/her little one to enjoy too!!

Enter & Follow the Rafflecopter below! 

A few entries can be done Daily to increase your chance of winning!  

Winning entry drawn will be verified.
Open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Our Little Monkey's 1st Birthday Party!

On the Friday our Little Mikey Monkey turned 1!! 

On Sunday we had his 1st Birthday Party! The road to make this possible was beyond bumpy though! Between wanting to ring my husband's neck, wanting to consume more than a bottle of wine and wanting to just not do it all together, it turned out Perfect! Lesson learned: Start planning more than two weeks ahead of time and DO NOT wait until the day before to pick up decorations, food, etc...(It's so much easier for older kids! Still trying to get back into the swing of the everything with a little one).

I was able to find a bakery that made custom cakes & cupcakes! American Dream Cakes, Bakery. They are an hour away in Jacksonville, NC, but they have a store front that is only 30 minutes away and were able to bring the cupcakes and SMASH cake there for pick up! I LOVE how they all turned out!Perfect for the Monkey Themed Birthday Party that daddy chose!

Daddy decided to BBQ for the party which turned out to be great with the first day of amazing weather! Friends, the man-child's friends and even Baby B's buddy Baby R enjoyed the time outside!

 With it being a Monkey Party I HAD to find the perfect shirt for our Little Monkey/Mini Marine. After looking online and through Etsy, I came across several but fell in LOVE with this one! It is made by LittleGoodieTutus who also happens to be the wife of an Air Force Veteran! (MAJOR Bonus there! I love supporting Spouse owned and Veteran owned businesses!!!) She did an Amazing job and the shirt itself is so soft for baby's skin!

We took the party inside for snacks, play time and present time!

Then it was SMASH cake time! I'm not sure who was more excited, Baby, daddy or the kids...

 He didn't know what to do with it at first. Thought it was a toy, looked like he was trying to pick it's nose, tried turning it upside down. Then we took off a little piece for him and he went to town!

 Big Brother had been begging for a piece since we got it. We said he could have a bite but I don't think Mikey Monkey was too thrilled with it. ;)

  

Back off my cake man!

 Of course daddy wanted to help him along as he was enjoying the cake and taking slow small bites...

 From there it was ALL OVER... The Messy Monkey came to life and he dove in!

 Between our Little Monkey, Big brother and Daddy, that cake was destroyed!

Daddy took him in for a quick bath and then it was more outside play time to run off all that sugar!

Banana splits to wrap it up! A must for a Monkey Party!

Later that evening Big Brother and Little Man built a Castle together with his new blocks.

Then it was bed time for our Little Monkey as he enjoyed his new Sleepytime Monkey to sooth him to sleep. (We are still amazed that he went to sleep after all that sugar!)

I'm Not A Poet.....

As I go through my hard drive trying to organize items, delete duplicate pictures and file them under the proper month, day and year, I came across a file that had a few old poems I had written.... 

I found myself writing a lot throughout junior high & high school. Lyrics, poems, letters to friends, etc. This is one I had written years and years ago. I never got around to titling it though, but now looking back, it really doesn't need one. 

The soft tepid sand beneath my feet

   is swiftly cooled as the tide rolls in.

Sunset illuminating the sky’s crisp blue

   with fiery shades

The outlines of sailboats passing

   directly in the suns rays

Smells of the ocean arise

   the air now feels chilly following a balmy summer’s day.

Your lips meet mine and this moment

   becomes motionless, embedded in time.

We gaze into the distance as the sun

   settles in for the night.

My heart yearns for this point in time to remain

While now it appears only in my memories and dreams.

Rain gathers on the roof

Thunder bellows in the night's sky.

Silence between us as we take pleasure in

   all that is.

Words are not necessary

   as I’m assured that you are nearby,

   if only for a little while.

I can tell that you are bothered

   knowing it is from the time we were apart,

   yet suddenly feeling so lonely,

   though you are beside me.

I shake it off, although it still haunts me,

   there is nothing I can say or do,

   except wait…

Wait as I have before,

   wait as I will continue to do…

He’ll come around, I reassure myself

Just be here for him, let him know that you love him,

   show him that no matter what you care…..

Then when all is right, he’ll do the same for you…

I continue to patiently wait,

   hoping that our chance might transpire….

What we do for our children..... :)

Thursday night was like any other night. Study time for spelling words, no friends allowed over, dinner as a family..... Then a call from my girl friend came through. The day before I had offered to make shirts for the kids for Dr. Seuss Day at school. They had to wear one or they had to wear their normal uniform. I had been sent a number of awesome crafts on my Blog FB Page by a fan/friend of things that she had made for family as gifts and fun. One was a Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirt for her kiddos! 

 So, when this came up for my son's and friend's kids school I thought I could do that! 

Well the kids were "if'y" about it, and it wasn't until the last minute that they realized they weren't going to have anything to wear and became excited to have those shirts done..... Last minute being Thursday night.... My girlfriend had bought what good Ol' Wally World had in stock red shirt wise, that THIN ass breathable material and the fabric paint..... She brought it all by around 12am (once she was off of work)....Do you know HOW long it takes to paint white on red material that doesn't stick well..... On THREE shirts..... 

Sure I could've easily half-assed it, let the red bleed through a bit, not taken my time to make sure it was right and layers dried in between with a blow dryer... But that is not me.... I can be bit of a perfectionist when it comes to projects and crafts.

I did not sleep. Nope not a wink.... And the weird thing was that I didn't even realize 5 hours had gone by.... I put the last G on at 620AM.... As my oldest woke up for school. 630AM the hubby walked out of the bedroom as I was blow drying the shirts.... He knew I'd been up all night and smiled and praised my work. :) I had fun doing it, but those last minute decisions from the kiddos.... OOOYYYYY!!! 

 

All three were pretty darn stoked about them & received lots of compliments of how cool they were. They got a big kick out of it and had a fun day with Green Eggs & Ham for breakfast at school!