Blissful Wardrobe

When I decided I was going to Nashville for the BlissDom '09 Conference I knew I was going to need new clothes. I read the schedule and saw there were two cocktail parties going on plus a pajama party. Considering I'm a single mom who doesn't get out much and my sleep wear usually consist of an over sized t-shirt I heard the mall calling my name. Then I realized what a great opportunity to wear clothing from sponsors during the event and help promote some businesses I love.

First up I have the gorgeous dress I wore to Friday night's cocktail party. This dress was handmade out of a satin-type material and was stunning. When I received the dress in the mail from Cowgirl Heaven, an etsy shop, I was impressed! I couldn't believe that it was handmade. Very professional work and if I must say so myself I thought it looked amazing on. I received many compliments and it sure felt good knowing I was prompting a work at home mom of handmade items.

Back View

Next is the customized shirt I got to wear to the Friday night pajama party. I was very excited to be the one wearing the original BlissDom '09 sparkle tee made by Sassy Sparkle, just for me! I am so excited about being given the opportunity to post about this shirt that she also offered me a discount code to share with my readers. If you order anything from her site between now and March 14, '09 and use the code bliss then you will get 10% off your total.

Last but definitely not least here I am sporting my Joe's Jeans. I just LOVED my Joe's Jeans. The denim material was so soft and they were extremely comfy. I wrote a past post announcing their special they have going on for Valentine's Day where you can buy one pair and get second half off. How great is that? Plus it's pretty funny how I finally got the correct size. I will have to admit though, if you are short like me, you better get the petite size otherwise you will have to get them altered. I had about six inches cut off the bottom.


Each one of these articles of clothing made me feel alive and fun while at BlissDom '09. Not only did I feel great in the clothing, get lots of compliments but I was comfortable as well. You just can't beat that!

MomFaves Launch

Photo captured at BlissDom '09 of co-founders Josh and Rebecca with Dwan
{Welcome MomFaves}
MomFaves.com is an on-line networking site where mothers can go to seek and share advice. Not just any advice, either... Advice on their favorite products, sites, services and others. Did you recently try out an awesome appliance that worked wonders for your family? Do you highly recommend a website that offers great articles or services? MomFaves.com is the place to go and fave those items so other moms can read your referral. This word-of-mouth networking site is a wonderful place to come and find answers to your questions from other moms like you.

The greatness behind the network is the touching story about how MomFaves was founded. I was blessed to have the chance and meet the co-founders of MomFaves during my weekend trip to BlissDom '09 conference. How exciting, right? Josh and Rebecca Unfried are not only the best looking couple in town but very sweet and compassionate too. You can tell by their presence that they feel a strong pull in the right direction with MomFaves. Working hard behind the scenes to be ready for this amazing launch! So what are you wanting for? Go check it out and join now. It's absolutely free and you can meet other great women just like yourself.

MomFaves.com is holding their Sitewarming Party with Amy from Resourceful Mommy by celebrating their launch on Friday, February 13th from 8:00 PM CST to 9:00 PM CST. Did I mention that I am a panelist during the party? That's right, so come join us on twitter and maybe even win some great prizes.

I Feel the Magic!

I'm not quite sure there are words that would be enough for this blog post. Looking back I believe I e-met Jyl from GNO around October/November time frame. Jyl and Carissa were holding a Random Acts of Kindness giveaway where they were searching for entries showing any amounts of kindness, big or small. Of course like most GNO conversations it started on twitter. I announced that I was planning to donate a bunch of stuffed animals to the local children's hospital and wanted to do whatever I could to help give back to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. We had purchased items for Christmas gifts, where the proceeds went to Make-a-Wish. Jyl personally contacted me and wanted to know more about my ventures in giving-back. Since Gab was in the hospital the previous year {2007} during all the holidays we were very blessed by local churches and even the hospital with gifts for the children. Also before Gab's brain surgery the Make-a-Wish Foundation sent us to Disney World for Gab's one wish. During the toughest times in our life we were very thankful for all the kind people out there. Now that we are home and although we still continue to go through rough times we are strong believers in trying to help out in anyway possible. After getting to know me better Jyl asked if I would be willing to allow her to place a photo of Gab and myself in a short video she was creating to enter a contest. The theme was "Mom's Make a Difference" and of course I said YES. I am happy to share my experience with any mom if it will help. I knew that Jyl and Carissa were planning to enter the HP Magic Giveaway that Sugar had running on her blog with the video. I was excited to take part. I knew that the Mom It Forward team planned to do great things with it. I was feeling the magic just by participating.

Little did I know they had other plans....



Prior to Gab's disabilities becoming so severe I used to volunteer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and mentored pregnant teens. I am a young mother myself and feel a passion towards helping build strength in young mothers. I also love to speak with teens to try and prevent pregnancy at a young age. Once Gab's disabilities began to take up more of my time I had to place most of my volunteer work on hold. Being able to donate or help at one time events is my way of doing what I can with limited resources. I look forward to the day when I am able to make full swing at it again, like old times. Because I have faith that the day will come where Gab is more independent.

Publicly I want to thank Jyl, Carissa, Sugar and HP for making this happen. Sincerely from the deepest of my heart I feel truly blessed even more than I thought I could. More tears of happiness have been shed since Saturday than I can remember.

Love is in the air... or music!

You may or may not know back in December I wrote a review on Seal's Soul Album. I also got to give one away, how exciting! The album was so touching and filled with love that I wanted to remind everyone about it during the week of Valentine's Day. Plus there is a special e-card you can send out from Seal to your loved one.

So why not give a little soul and love this Valentine's Day?

Would you just love to enter for another chance to win a Seal Album? Perfect Valentine's Day gift to yourself or late gift for your loved one. It is too late to receive by V-day but never too late to listen to some soul music. Plus did I mention the copy of the Soul album will be signed by Seal himself?! Yes, your very own autographed copy. {I don't even own one}

To enter the contest leave me a comment telling me what your Valentine's Day plans are. Whether it is staying home with your children or going out on the town, what are you doing to share the love this Saturday? One comment per person please. Contest ends on Friday, February the 13th. Also please go send someone you care about an e-card featuring Seal, it's a great way to share great music.

Also I want to mention this Thursday, Feb. 12th at 9:00 PM CST Seal's PBS soundstage show airs. You don't want to miss that.

Random Sequence Generator

Here is your sequence:

* 6
* 5
* 4
* 7
* 2
* 1
* 3
WINNER IS: JERRI ANN, Congrats!

BlissDom '09 ~ Day One

Day One at BlissDom '09 is officially complete. I can't express how wonderful it has been to meet everyone. I took a ton of photos as well as videos and plan to post soon. The photos I took on my digital camera I can not upload until Sunday night when I get back home because I forgot my adapter. Sorry, guys... However I did upload a pic of myself wearing my awesome BlissDom '09 shirt from the pajama party that I took with my iPhone. Also if you want to see short clips throughout the weekend watch on twitter and my 12seconds.tv channel. I am trying to post periodically to keep everyone up to date.

I am headed to bed to try and get some shut eye before another early start tomorrow. Will try to post again tomorrow evening.

{Sending love from Nashville}

Happy Valentine's Day from Joe

In November I was contacted by Joe's Jeans to conduct a review for them on my blog. I was so excited! I got to pick out my style from their website and then I had to tell them my size. Should be easy, right? You would think I would know my own size but NO. Let me explain of course how I came up with the wrong size. I am used to purchasing pants that come in sizes such as 0,1,3,5,7,9,11,etc. I am very petite so I do still shop in the juniors section unless I am shopping at Petite Sophisticated. Joe's Jeans come in sizes such as 24,25,26,27,28,29,30. I must have been having a blonde moment when I decided to take out a measuring tape and measure the outside of my pants. I thought it seemed like a good plan, how could I go wrong? Well apparently I didn't know what the heck I was doing and the number I came up with was way off from the number I wear. To tell you the truth I don't even know how I came up with this number. I have been married in the past and my former spouse used to wear about a 32/34 therefore I should have known if the number I got was close to that, then it was wrong, of course keyword there is SHOULD. So needless to say when I received my Joe's Jeans, while jumping for joy, ripped them open to be highly disappointed I couldn't wear them. They were five sizes too big. Yes, FIVE. I know, what kind of idiot measures five sizes larger? The company has been so gracious to let me send the jeans back and exchange for the right size. They found a way to dumby proof my sizing guess by sending me to Nordstrom's to try some on. Now my jeans are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday and again I am super excited! I can't wait to conduct my full review, although I know I'll love them, the denim was so soft. I also plan to sport my new jeans at BlissDom!

Joe's Jeans is loving him some mommas. Their blog campaigns have done so well they wanted to offer a special Valentine's Day coupon code for all our wonderful readers. You can buy a pair of jeans for yourself and get 50% off a pair for your LOVE. Or you could just get yourself another pair half price. Use code: Joeslovesmomma which is good until February 23rd.

Super Bowl Commercials

I know today was all about the Super Bowl Buzz. To be honest I am not a huge football fan, I know - shame on me. Plus it's not like my state went to the Super Bowl or anything... However, I do like to watch the commercials. Although I must admit the past couple of years I wasn't as impressed as I used to be. I watched as many commercials this time as I could while caring for children but there was one commercial that stood out the most. Did you see the Jack in the Box commercial where Jack got hit by the bus? At the end of the commercial they posted a web site link which of course struck my curiosity, apparently like many others from the speed of the site. They created a whole blog along with You Tube account just to go along with this one commercial. Now that is dedication. The thing I didn't understand was why would they show Jack being hit by a bus with his head literally cracking? I personally thought it was a little disturbing for kids to see but it also left me wondering what it meant. Was that the point of the commercial, to leave you wondering? My first reaction was that the bus symbolizes the economy and Jack was suffering as the economy crashes... Does that sound right? The first thing I said was, "is Jack in the Box going bankrupt?" Once visiting the web site/blog that they set up I couldn't gather any more information then what I saw in the commercial. There were over 300 comments left by various people. So, readers, tell me... did you see this commercial? If not go view it over on You Tube and tell me what you thought. I am curious to hear what other views are on this. Is the economy suffering so bad that even fast food restaurants are 'crashing' and creating commercials to display their hurt? If Jack in the Box fast food restaurant is not hurting economically then is it just entertaining to see Jack get hit by a bus? I am curious to know what is the real point? Also if you are concerned, on their blog they even list ways to send Get Well Wishes to Jack, along with places to upload your own videos wishing him well or a way to sign up for text message alerts letting you know Jack's update. By the way Jack in the Box is on twitter and facebook too. Am I the only one that thinks this is far fetch?