A Few of my Favorite Things

I thought it might be fun to compile a list of some of my favorite things right now. Some of them are small and really quite ridiculous but I feel that they have or will make my life easier some how and that is why I love them. I wanted to share my list in case any of you have yet to discover these wonderful things. Here they are in no particular order:

1. http://www.lowesfoods.com/default/index.cfm/onlineshopping/lfstogo/ One of our grocery stores has a "to go" service which is absolutely awesome. I haven't needed their services in a while but I will be calling on them again very soon. You order your groceries online then you drive to the store ring a door bell and they will put them in your car. They charge a small fee but it is well worth it. I generally make a couple of impulse buys when I venture in the store which would make up for fee. You can also peruse the weekly sales online so you're not missing any deals. You don't even have to get out of your car!
2. http://www.diapers.com/ is a website I've heard about many times but have never utilized. I got curious the other day and finally checked it out. Why have I not used them before? They sell diapers, wipes, formula and a ton of other baby gear and deliver it to your door. And they offer free shipping on all orders over $49. One of the big boxes of diapers will get you close to that $49. Their prices seem to be comparable to Walmart and Target. Newborns go through so many diapers in the beginning I think It will be nice to have them as an option when I don't want to go to the store. For my cloth diapering friends, they do sell cloth diapers and other products on the site so you should still check it out. I would love to give cloth diapering a shot if I could keep our ever-growing mountain of laundry under control.
3. The Magic Eraser Where have you been all my life? I had heard people talk about the magic eraser and it's wonderful abilities but just tried it recently. We've been trying to get our house ready to put on the market and boy has this thing come in handy. When you live with two little monkeys you get crayon and other spots all over your walls. I've attacked said spots with The Magic Eraser and they have either disappeared or are greatly diminished. It has drastically reduced the amount of touch-up painting we're going to have to do.
4. http://www.etsy.com/ Is another absolutely awesome site. You can find so many handmade, unique items. I've mostly shopped etsy for my kids and friend's kids. We always get compliments on our etsy finds. I just ordered our little brother and big sister shirts from etsy and they are really cute. You can find personalized items at a pretty reasonable price. It's also an easy way to shop local. You can key in your city and state and watch a ton of local sellers pop up.
5. http://www.weeruns.biz/1IndexOnSeason.htm Fabulous Friday is fast approaching! I love going to the Wee Runs consignment sale in High Point. I am fairly picky when it comes to consignment shopping for the kids and having so much in one place really helps me out. I always walk out with a ton of finds that become staples in the girls' wardrobe. We always get a ton of compliments on our Wee Runs finds, too. I get brand name clothes and I find a lot of things that still have their price tags. I lucked up in the fall and actually found the girls' matching Christmas dresses. (I have a picture of Megan in her dress on a previous post. They wore them to the Christmas Eve church service.) I always go on Friday, which is the first day of the sale. You have to pay $10 admission on Friday but it has paid off for me. I like to get there before everything has been picked over.
6. http://littlepinkchic.com/ Our invitation lady. I can't remember how I discovered her. We've used her numerous times. Her invitations are reasonably priced and she always responds and ships quickly. If you're looking for something and don't see it on her website you can contact her and she can usually make something for you.
7. http://warm-baby.com/ I've had a ton of people ask me where I got the girl's personalized winter hats. I found her on ebay and I absolutely love her hats. They were only $11 a piece! $11 for a custom hat! She has some hats already made. Megan's hat was already listed but I had to contact her to have Makena's hat custom made. I was planning on giving the hats as Christmas gifts but didn't get around to ordering them in time. I may try to do it next year.
8. http://www.salemgym.com/ Phil and I are both fans of Salem Gymnastics. We generally become fans of anyone who goes out of their way to help us out. Some of you may remember that we had to reschedule Megan's birthday party last Fall because she was sick on the day of her party. I was anticipating a big ordeal when we had to cancel/postpone the party. But their party coordinator was terrific. We paid a non-refundable deposit before the party date. She offered to let us change our party date at no additional charge or refund our "non-refundable" deposit. She also seemed genuinely concerned about Megan's well being. Obviously, this woman is a mother, too.
9. http://www.mrspumpkins.com/ Mrs. Pumpkin's is another place that really offered to help us out. They are closed on Sundays, when Megan's party was originally supposed to take place, so I had scheduled to pick her cake up on Saturday. I had thought about canceling the order when Megan was sick on Friday and again Saturday but I was afraid she would miraculously recover on Sunday and then we would be without a cake. Phil took Makena to pick up the cake. He told them them about Megan being sick and they told him, "Well you don't want this cake then. We can recycle it." We're talking about the personalized cake that said Happy Birthday Megan! and had Pooh Bear, Barney and Blues Clues on it. She said she could scrape the top off and use it for something else. I don't think there are many bakeries that would offer to do something like that. Phil did take the cake but we quickly decided that we would become repeat customers of Mrs. Pumpkin's.
10. http://www.empiretoday.com/ I think everyone has heard of Empire. They run a ton of commercials on TV. We needed some new carpet in our one of our rooms. We got estimates from Empire and Home Depot. Home Depot's estimate turned out to be cheaper. A lot cheaper. Like $800 or so cheaper. So I called Empire to cancel their installation. I told the Empire guy why we were canceling and he put me on hold. He came back and asked if I had heard about their price matching and said they were willing to change their price . They beat Home Depot's estimate by $100 and still had our carpet installed next day. And we didn't even have to fax in a copy of Home Depot's estimate. They took our word for it. Phil and I both did a happy dance after that phone call.
11. Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags These are great little bags that you can use to clean breastpump parts and other feeding accessories. You just add a little water and pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes. You can reuse each bag 20 times and can buy 5 bags for about $5. I discovered these after Megan was born and wish I had known about them when Makena was a baby.

I'm sure there will be plenty more favorites to come as I think of them.