Mingle Monday and KdBuggie Boutique Giveaway!

If you haven't stopped by since last week, I have officially reached 600 followers and over 200 sales on ETSY! As a thank you to everyone, I am giving away a set of 20 note cards and envelopes. You can choose your wording and design from the ones in my etsy store. I will soon be adding some Christmas and Holiday cards too! Scroll down to read the entry rules or click here!

*********************************************

Let's Mingle!



mingle mondays button


Here are the rules:
1. Please follow my blog through GFC. If you are new and would like a follow back, leave me a comment. It may take me a week or so to get back to you (we are getting ready to move).

2. Stop by and take a look/follow/comment on the spotlight blog for the week (#2 in the linky).

3. Visit as many blogs on the hop as you like. There are lots of fun creative people out there in bloggy-world!  Make sure to tell them you stopped by from Mingle Monday!

4. Grab my Mingle Monday button (on the left side bar) and add it to your blog somewhere I can easily find it. You will then be entered for a chance to win the spotlight blog position for next week. (This week I went through 4 blogs before finding one with my button!)

5. HAVE FUN!!

**This blog hop is open to family friendly blogs only. All others will be deleted!!!

Spotlight blog: House On The Corner




Donna from Texas has this cute blog! She shares her experiences, thoughts, and a little about herself. She had me laughing while reading a couple of her recent posts! Be sure to stop by and check out her blog!

KdBuggie Boutique GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

***Giveaway is now closed!***

I have officially reached a grand total of 600 followers!!! It is so hard to believe that in less than a year I have gotten so far! Thanks to all you followers out there that continue to come back week after week for my Mingle Monday blog hop, and to those of you who check in once in a while and leave comments just to say hi!

In honor of this fantastic milestone, and also in honor of my 200th etsy sale I am offering a giveaway!!!

You can enter to win a set of 20 notecards!!! (a $20 value) You choose the style (design) and the wording for your notecard. Here are a couple samples to show you what's out there.










Choose your wording from these options or create your own:
*thank you
*congrats!
*thinking of you
*just a note
*(your name)

Here is how to enter:
Mandatory Entry: You must be a KdBuggie Boutique follower through GFC! If you are already a follower, just tell me you are!

* 1 extra entry: Visit my etsy shop here and tell me which of my notecard/invite designs you like!

*1 extra entry: Become a fan on Facebook here.

*5 extra entries: Blog about my giveaway! Please leave me the link to your post.

(You MUST leave a comment for each entry. For example: If you blog about my giveaway, please leave 5 seperate comments telling me that you blogged about it!)

All entries must be received by Saturday November 13, 2010 at 11:59 pm PACFIC TIME.

Mingle Monday!!

In case you haven't seen my last post... I have great news today! We finally bought our first home! YAY!!! I am so excited and can't wait to post all my home renovation pictures, ideas, and tutorials!!! In the meantime, I have taken to invitation designing. Take a look at my last post to see some of the fun things I have been doing. Also, any followers who would like to place an order on any invites, announcements, thank you cards, or other paper goods will receive a 10% discount on their order! So, be sure to contact me if you are interested! [kdbuggieboutique@yahoo.com].


Welcome to another great week, and another Mingle Monday blog hop!!



new button

Here is the deal:
1. Please become a follower of KdBuggie Boutique using GFC. If you are new, leave me a comment and I will try and stop by your blog in between packing and shopping for the move!
2. Stop by and follow/comment on our spotlight blog for the week -- #2 on the linky list.
3. Grab my Mingle Monday button and put it on your blog somewhere -- you will then be entered for a chance to become the spotlight blog for next week. (chosen by random.org)
4. Stop by as many blogs on the linky as you like. Be sure to tell them you are stopping by from Mingle Monday!

5. HAVE FUN!

**Family friendly blogs ONLY!! All others will be deleted!!!

*****************************************************

Spotlight blog: Linda's Lunacy
Linda's Lunacy

Linda is a stay at home mom who home schools her 6 kids. She lives on and works on her farm. She is a very busy woman with some great things to share. Make sure you stop by!

New Products and A Special Offer!!!

I have really been enjoying taking some time away from sewing to do some digital designing. We recently purchased our first home (YAY!) so we have been so busy taking care of all of the paperwork and planning that goes into purchasing a home that I haven't had much time to break out all of my sewing "stuff". Instead, I have been spending time in front of my computer screen designing some fun invitations, announcements, and notecards.

All invites, notecards, and announcements will be printed on high quality, heavy weight linen paper giving your invite a classy look! You can choose from square or rounded corners. They all come with white envelopes, but colored envelopes can be purchased instead for an additional $2. You can view all of my currently listed item at my etsy shop here.

Take a look:


Simple and elegant baby shower invite available in 3 different colors!

Matching thank you notecards also available in 3 colors.  


Minnie and Mickey Mouse birthday party invitations... and matching thank you notecards.


Mickey and Minnie Mouse thank you notecards can also be used as invitations. They can be customized with our without a photo.



This cute birthday or baby shower invitation features fun farm animals! You can customize the wording to suit your event!



If you are planning a party.... let me know! I would love to design an invitation, thank you notecards, favors, mailing labels, cupcake toppers, or anything else you need! Let me know that you saw my stuff on the blog and receive 10% off your purchase!

New Sponser!!

I have the pleasure of introducing a new sponser today.. and the best part is.... she is family!!! My husband's cousin Shillawna is an amazing photographer and mom!!! She has two little kiddos that she LOVES taking pictures of and has covered several weddings, parties, and various family photo shoots!

 Here is a sample of some of her work:

Shillawna has the great ability to turn something simple into the perfect photograph!


She also has a talent for being able to capture emotion in her photos...


In addition to already great photos, she will photoshop them to make sure you have options to choose from! 


She is located in the San Diego, CA area... so if you ever need a really great photographer I highly recommend her. Feel free to take a look at her blog here and browse all of her photographs!!


Make sure you become a fan of hers on Facebook too to see all the fun pictures she is taking and to hear about her latest promotions and giveaways!
**************************************

Shillawna has graciously allowed me to use some of her photos in my invitation and announcement designs... which makes her even more awesome!

Here is one of the designs I am working on:


Take a look at this baby announcement here.

Guest Post - Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables

I am so excited to have a guest post from Melanie at 2boys+1girl=one crazy mom. She is a cloth diapering momma! I have always been a little nervous about trying out the cloth diaper thing, but I am thinking of giving it a go with my next one! If you have ever considered trying it out, or are thinking of starting cloth diapering... this is a MUST read!!! 

**********************************************

 There are so many views out there and when my baby Girl was born I wasn’t even thinking about cloth diapers.. Eww.. who would use them.?. only weird people.. right…? I’m a cool mom I don’t use cloth diapers… Well that’s how I was thinking … When my Baby Girl was about 4 month I started to freak about money, no particular reason, and both my husband and my job are secure and haven’t changed, BUT I freaked and started to research as much as I could about saving money, so I started with coupons and then somehow between researching for coupons and me still in the money saving mood, I came across Cloth diapers. I don’t remember how, where and what but I found them..Looked into it and got kind of fascinated with how cute they looked and will they save me money??

So I did the math, We need about 6 diapers a day ( or more, just a guess) and the average diaper is about $.25 each, so we will be in diapers for about 2 ½ years, that’s an average of 5400 diapers roughly $1350 give or take a few more Hundred $$... Wheee… what a number and that’s just the diapers… really??


That is a HUGE number and will be even bigger if you don’t shop sales or use more than 6 diapers a day… well I had to come up with a plan, because at the rate I was going my money was going down the drain.. And Ms. Cheap here won’t let that happen. I found some really cute diapers called Fuzzi Buns , I told my hubby about them and his first words were “NO way I will let you get those, I rather work two jobs and buy diapers then using cloth, are you out of your mind??” well I guess I kind of was, still not sure what I was doing but I was fascinated with the idea of saving money we agreed on me buying 2 diapers. I was excited and while I waited for those two to get in I came across BumGeniuse and I knew they were calling my name, so quietly I ordered 6 BumGenuise diapers without even telling my husband or anyone else in the family, they all thought by now I lost my mind and I got weird looks from everyone when I just mentioned cloth diapers…


So here I’m with 2 orders of cloth diapers about to arrive … By now I was excited to try them… I know I’m a dork and crazy, who gets excited about diapers…Well they got here and they did NOT leave my house till Baby Girl potty trained. We were hooked on the diapers; even my husband got hooked on the Bumgenuise diapers. We had one incidence where MIL was watching baby girl and we forgot the cloth diapers at home, MIL didn’t think of anything and went to Walgreens and bough a box of diapers ( not even on sale!!!) and as soon as Hubby found out he made her return the diapers to Walgreens and told her were the hid a key was for the house so she could come over and pick up OUR CLOTH diapers… He was raving and telling everyone about the cloth diapers and that this is the BEST thing ever… now enough about my background story … here is Cloth VS. Disposal


VS.


Disposable:

Over a 2 ½ year life span you need about 5400 diapers on average (don’t count me to the tee, this is just a rough guestimate on 6 diapers a day for 2 ½ years) You will spend $ 1350.00 on diapers in 2 ½ years (that is for $.25 per diaper if you find a sale maybe a little less, maybe a little more.. again rough guestimate)



Cloth:

You can start with about 6 diapers, what I did and I washed them every day start up cost was about $110 for 6 diapers and then my favorite item a sprayer was about $40.00 so for $150 I was ready to go. I did go on 6 diapers for a few months till I had enough money saved up to get 6 more diapers and so on, in the end I had 24 diapers with a cost of roughly $ 490.00 for 24 diapers and the sprayer

Once I had my stash of diapers up to 24 diapers, I washed about every 3 days and it didn’t take no time at all, the machine did it all for me. Once washed and I put them to dry in the dryer they were ready to go… They all came clean in each wash and always looked like new. I know some people said to use Special diaper soap, I never did I used Tide or All Free and Clear and never had a problem, one Bottle of Tide will last you about a 1 year or 1 ½ if not longer and that is the small bottle of Tide, you will use such a small amount ( 1 teaspoon per wash with 2 rinse cycles to follow the wash cycle), but it will come clean and won’t smell at all. If you are worried about the perfume in the Tide you can always use All free and clear and use very little amounts as well… never had a problem. None of my diapers ever leaked or had any smell problems at all…

Best part we spend roughly $490-$500 on our stash of cloth diapers, used them for 2 years and once we no longer needed the diapers I was able to sell all of them and made over $300 cash back !!!!!! So in the end we spend about $200 or less for 2 years worth of diapers.. Not a bad deal at all is it…??? So you can spend $1350 on disposable diapers over 2 years or $200 … what would you do?? Also Cloth diapers can be used on more than one child if you plan on having more or already have little ones that are in diapers.


There are lot of different diapers out there, some are pre-fold, some are pocket diapers, some are size specific some are one size fits all. I used the One size fits all and they went from Newborn till potty train all in one set, it’s all up to your liking and how much time you have to invest. I was a work outside the home mom and needed it simple for Babysitters and grandparents so the One Size pocket diaper was my diaper of choice, but you may like a different one.. lots of options lots of great products out there… and remember we tried the Fuzzi Bunz in the beginning?? I did not like them at all on my baby girl, other mommies LOVE them.. it really is a trial and error and once you find the one you like and works best for you, you are hooked. There is a forum where you can buy or swap diapers called Diaper Swappers, they have lots of Cloth diaper information, sales, trades and lots more if you want to find out more about cloth diapers. This is where I started and it was well worth the time to read up on stuff and invest a little upfront.

I know it may not be possible to bring up $150 right of the back, start saving a few $$ every month till you have enough, you still will save money even if you only use them for a year. The re-sale value is HUGE and they sell great… Also with cloth diapers you never need any Diaper rash lotion, my baby girl only once had a rash while in the cloth diapers and she had it because I used too much soap, I changed soap and we had no problem after that. So you don’t have the expense of Diaper rash lotions on top of that.

Now you probably think, Cloth diapers must be HOT, actually they are not. We are in central Florida and it gets HOT and Humid here, and baby girls bottom was as dry as can be, not wet at all even after she wore the diaper for ½ day if needed, it all stayed nice and dry. I heard children who use cloth diapers Potty train quicker.. Not sure if this is true or not but my Baby girl potty trained in a day, yes I’m not making this up. She was not interested in the potty business at all, till one day this past April just a few month after her 2nd Birthday she came up said I Big Girl I want to go Potty, and that was it, no more diapers from then on, we are now going on 6 month and only less than a handful of accidents, even at night she is dry. Did the cloth diapers help her with that, maybe, but I will say that I do believe they made a world of difference.



Now what do I need for cloth diapers:

1. Pick your favorite Cloth Diaper ( Fuzzi Bunz, Bumgenuise, … )

2. A sprayer that will attach to your toilet so you can clean the diaper ( I know I know, but believe me it sounds worse than it is and with it being your little one it won’t bother you at all, it never did me, now if it was another kid maybe.. but not my own..this is a MUST have and a LIFE saver!!!!)

3. A bucket whit a lid where you can keep the dirty diapers till you wash them

4. A wet bag or a bag that is waterproof in case little one needs a diaper change while out so you can bring the diaper back home ( grocery bags work well, too..lol)



Where can I find Cloth Diapers or get info?

1. Diaper Swappers – Forum for anything you ever wanted to know about diapers

2. Cotton Babies

3. Google.com is a great option for cloth diaper search

4. Fuzzi Bunz

5. Diapers.com

I hope this post was a little informative about saving money with cloth, I did not try to sell any specific brand, I just used the brands in this post that I used, please keep in mind the diaper that worked for us may not work for you. Do you research before you invest in a set of diapers. Once you make the choice to go Cloth, I promise you will love every minute of it.. we sure did…. Enjoy your little ones …





************************************

Thanks Melanie for sharing your knowledge and insight with us!

If you are looking for other cloth diapers available... I know there are a lot on Etsy (since I am an etsian myself...I LOVE ETSY!) Some shops have some really adorable prints available:


...and much more!

Mingle Monday

Wow... last week went by so fast! Thanks to everyone who entered the Milk and Cookeez giveaway!
The winner is.... #37 (thanks to random.org)
Thirty-One Gifts by Lauren said...  "The Cupcake soap is super cute :)"
If you provided an email I will be contacting you shortly. You have 48 hrs to reply or a new winner will be chosen.

Now to the real reason everyone stopped by today :)

Let's Mingle!


mingle mondays button


Here's how to play:
1. Become a follower of KdBuggie Boutique through GFC. (Leave me a comment if you are new and would like to be followed back)
2. Visit and comment/follow our spotlight blog for this week (#2 on the linky).
3. Stop by as many blogs on the list as you like. Make sure to tell them you are stopping by from Mingle Monday.
4. Grab my Mingle Monday button (on my left sidebar) and add it to your blog somewhere. You will then be qualified to win the spotlight blog spot for next week.
5. HAVE FUN!
*Open to family friendly blogs/shops only!!! All others will be deleted!

If you are a homeschooling family, or are thinking about it, you should totally check out this cute blog. Cassandra posts about her daily homeschooling schedules, and shares lots of other fun things to do. She is a mommy to 3 and has lots of creative ideas. Make sure you stop by and check out her blog!!

Mingle Monday Time!

Happy Columbus Day everyone!!! I don't know if anyone really celebrates this holiday ... but we might have spaghetti or pizza for dinner in honor of Columbus! (since he was born in Italy)

My Milk and Cookeez giveaway is quickly drawing to an end. It has VERY LOW ENTRIES... so make sure you stop by and enter to win!

I would also like to introduce a new thing to everyone! I will be doing a feature each week (on Wednesday) of a fun blog or etsy shop. Each feature will receive their own post on my blog. If you are interested in being featured, please email me at kdbuggieboutique[at!]yahoo.com. If you would like me to do a review or giveaway for you, I will gladly put your button on my sidebar for 3 months for FREE! Let me know if you are interested!

Now, let's mingle!!




Grab the html for my button on my left sidebar! Add it to your blog (where I can find it) and you could become the spotlight blog for next week!

Spotlight Blog: Camo Style Love
Cammo Style Love
Rheanna is a SAHM among many other things. She has this really awesome blog as well as an etsy store where she sells some super fantastic knit caps and scarves as well as cute hair clips and baby sleep sacks! Make sure you stop by her blog and see what she is up to!

Ready to link your blog up? Here's what you do:
1. Become a follower of KdBuggie Boutique through GFC (on the right).
2. Visit and follow/comment on our spotlight blog this week. (The second blog on the linky)
3. Stop by as many other blogs on the list as you like. Make sure to tell them you are visiting from Mingle Monday!
4. HAVE FUN!

**This blog hop is open to family friendly blogs ONLY! All others will be deleted!

Having a Party?

Check out some of the new invites to my store. Invites are 5"x7" printed on pure white cardstock. Each comes with a white envelope [colored envelopes available for $2 extra].






Each invite can be customized for your event: Baby Shower, Baby Announcement, Birthday, Anniversary, Thank You's

Take a look at all of my new invite additions here.

Mingle Monday

Sorry for the late linky... I was at my parents house until late last night. We hadn't seen them in a while and thought it was time for a visit!

**Don't forget to enter my Milk and Cookeez giveaway while you are here. Take a look at some of their cute items and enter to win one of your own here. So far there are VERY LOW ENTRIES.


mingle mondays button
 
Here are the rules:
1. Please become a KdBuggie Boutique GFC follower. Leave me a comment if you are new to my blog hop!
2. Visit/follow/leave a comment on the spotlight blog - #2 on the linky list.
3. Visit as many of the blogs on the list as you like - make sure to tell them you are visiting from Mingle Monday.
4. Grab my button and place it somewhere on your blog that I can easily find it. You will be automatically entered to win the spotlight blog spot for next week!
5. HAVE FUN!
 
**This blog hop is open to FAMILY FRIENDLY BLOGS ONLY PLEASE! All others will be deleted!
 
Spotlight Blog: Sweep Tight
 

Sweep Tight

If you are looking for some great deals and freebies, then you definitley need to take a look at his website! Jen is an expert sweepstaker and shares some of her know-how with all of us on her adorable site!


Etsy Shop Spotlight

If you haven't stopped by this cute blog... you totally need to! Especially if you are an Etsian!!
The Etsy Shop Spotlight
Jaime hosts The Etsy Shop Spotlight blog and it is simply adorable. She participates weekly in Mingle Monday, and asked if I could mention her blog on mine!  Once I visited it, I knew I just HAD to dedicate a post to her!!

Part of what she does includes spotlighting Etsy shops and their owners.... for FREE! You just email her and she sets up a date to run your spotlight!! If you own an Etsy shop and you want to get your name and products out there, send her a quick email!

This is the current Etsy spotlight picture. It is a miniature garden scaled 1:12 for doll houses. No reason why your dollhouse can't decorate for Halloween!



In addition, she reviews products and hosts giveaways. I am sure she would love to review your products and host a giveaway for you! Great for sellers just getting started on Etsy...


She is currently doing a giveaway for this lovely product! Make sure you go enter!!


AND... as if that wasn't enough of a lure for you... she offers sponser advertising space on her blog! For a small fee you can have your ad placed on her blog... OR ... send her a product of yours equal to the cost of the advertising spot for your space! (the only blog I know of -so far - that offers that as a payment option!)

Make sure you stop by her blog and become a fan so you can see what neat, new things are being added to Etsy.