Bare Escentuals Giveaway Winner

The winner of the BareMinerals Flawless Definition Mascara ($18 value) is #20 justicecw. justicecw said she would love to try the bareMinerals SPF 30 Natural Sunscreen.

Congrats again to the winner! I will contact you by email. If you did not have your email posted please post it here so I can email you! Thanks to all those who participated and don't forget to enter in my contests/giveaways that are going on now! I will also be adding more posts and giveaways soon so stay tuned!

*All winners are chosen by my True Random Number Generator.

Magic Cabin Review and Giveaway

The innocence of a child is a beautiful thing. I love to watch my youngest daughter play. She loves to pretend. I would love to protect and preserve that innocence as long as possible. I think children these days are growing up too quickly. Their are too many toys and games out their that simply take away from good-old-fashioned make believe. I love Waldorf and Montessori approach to teaching and learning because it helps the child learn the world as they should learn it. I have always loved simple, natural things.

Magic Cabin started in 1989 as a small business by stay-at-home mom, Sara McDonald, selling beautiful handcrafted natural-fiber Waldorf-style dolls and kits to make the dolls yourself. Inspired by the enchanting cabin she lived in she named her new company Magic Cabin Dolls. Now Magic Cabin carries a number of different treasures for children. You can also still buy the Magic Cabin Dolls or the kits to make one yourself. I love their selection of toys because it instills open-ended, creative, imaginative play in children. Magic Cabin toys are kid powered and don't require batteries or electricity. In my opinion these are the best kind of toys. Magic Cabin is helping to preserve a child's innocence from becoming extinct. They have a number of products that they have selected from manufacturers that have the same standards and they also have some exclusive items to their shop. Their selections are both beautiful and enchanting, sturdy and safe, and best of all, FUN!

I received the Apple House Play Set and the Melissa & Doug Wooden Food Groups for free from Magic Cabin to test and review. I picked these items out from their online store. The Apple House Play Set a.k.a the Tree House Playset is just darling and my kids needed new set of play food because their cheap plastic set was suffering. I wanted some wooden play food and when I saw this set I thought it would be a great starter set.

The Apple House Play Set is a zip-up fabric apple tree house with fabric forest critters living inside. There are 6 total forest critters: a bunny, hedgehog, fox, moose, raccoon, and red squirrel. The tree house is two stories with a hole inside in which the animals can pop up and down through. It also has a little Velcro door in the bottom and two windows in the top on either side that opens and shuts for the woodland creatures to frolic in and out without unzipping the top. When unzipped the front top of the tree unfolds into a playmat that is whimsically embroidered with a outdoor woody scene. The smaller tree in the scene also has a pocket to put small treasures in if desired. The entire playset can be carried with the padded handle. I am in love with zip-up fabric houses and books like this one that can travel well because then the fun can be taken on long car/plane rides easily and the child will be entertained the whole way to the destination. Teela spent hours playing with this and is learning the names of the animals.

The Melissa & Doug Wooden Food Groups set has play food from all 4 food groups. I really like the set because there isn't any junk food in it and they are durable. As with all Melissa & Doug toys, I have confidence that they are safe and are quality made. This set of wooden play food is great for pretend play and comes with twenty wooden fruits, veggies, dairy, grains and meat. It also has four crates for sorting, stacking and storage. Teela was enjoying playing with them in her Playskool Fold 'n Roll Kitchen that we got second hand off Craigslist and I was trying to teach her which food goes into what food group. I love wooden toys! This wooden food set is great for having a well-balanced meal for your child's play kitchen. My only wish is that it had a green veggie and an apple in the set as well.

Magic Cabin has a Gift Certificate Sweepstakes where every month they give away a $100 gift certificate to their store. ENTER HERE. They also have a clearance sale where you can save up to 50% on select items HERE!

WIN SOMETHING HERE:
Lynn from Magic Cabin has generously offered a Apple House Play Set ($40 value) to give away to one of my readers!

Mandatory:
1. Go to the Magic Cabin website and tell me what other product not listed here you are interested in and why.

Additional entries:
1. Subscribe to my blog by email and let me know. (2 extra entries)

2. Become my fan on Facebook. (1 extra entry)

3. Blog about this giveaway on your blog and provide me with the link. Make sure you have the link to this post and Magic Cabin in your blog entry or it won't count. (2 extra entries)

4. Grab My Button (see sidebar to the left) AND/OR Put My Blog URL in Your Blogroll - Leave Your Link. (1 extra entry)

5. Technorati my blog and let me know your link. (1 extra entry)

6. List this giveaway on any giveaway listing website or blog and tell me where you listed it. (2 extra)

7. Follow me on twitter and retweet this: @finamoon WIN: Magic Cabin Apple House Play Set #giveaway http://bit.ly/c1oH7F
(Daily Extras are Available)

8. Fave me on Momfaves. (2 extra entries)

9. Comment on one of my other posts and tell me which one. (2 extra entries per post)

Make sure you leave me your email in all posts so that I can contact you. If you subscribed by email, blogged about this, listed it, commented on another post, or faved me on Momfaves leave 2 entries saying you did. This contest ends on Friday February 26, 2010 at midnight (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada). This Giveaway is open to U.S. Only!!

DISCLAIMER: I received products from Magic Cabin free of charge. All information about the products I received from testing the products and information from the Magic Cabin website. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Soft Star Shoes Review

Soft Star is a company that makes high quality leather and vegan shoes, sandals, slippers, boots, and soft soled moccasins for children and adults. Their slogan is Barefoot is Best - Soft Star for the Rest! Their "elves", workers, hand stitch the colorful and durable footwear. They are a family oriented company that loves children and even has a playroom for the children of the workers and customers who visit the workshop can play. They use only leathers which are processed formaldehyde free and meet the highest safety standards both for their customers, and for the environment. As little ones like to occasionally chew on the shoes, it is important to Soft Star that they are as chemical-free as possible. Soft Star shoes are handcrafted in Oregon, USA using local materials. They reuse, recycle and reduce whenever possible. Production scraps are sorted and reused or recycled into craft projects. Also 100% of their power usage comes from solar or wind energy. Seconds or gently worn shoes are donated to children in need. Soft Star also gives to Waldorf and Montessori schools through their back-to-school discounts and promotions. They also donate thousands of dollars worth of Soft Star products to Le Leche League chapters around the country every year.

This company is awesome! Their eco-friendly and family friendly atmosphere and practices gets a huge A+ from me! You can also design your own shoes if you really don't see any that you like in their online store. You can choose your own: color of the leather, style of shoe, motif, type of closure, width and size of footwear of your very own.

I found something I really liked though for my daughter, Teela, so designing a pair of her own shoes might be something I do later. I picked out some Laguna Sandals Playa in Pink in size 7 toddler for her and they are so adorable! The Soft Star company sent them to me for free to test and review. The sandals have soft rubber soles that will flex with her feet and are sturdy and slip resistant too. They have a color guide that matches their colors with crayon color names and this soft pink leather is the same color as the Mauvelous color crayon. I love the flower cutout and hot pink elastic closer on this sandal. The elastic ankle helps Teela be able to put the sandal on herself and pull them off as well. For safety the toe openings are smaller so that feet won't slip through the front of the shoe. My Teela loves them too! She wanted to wear them all day long and since all Soft Star shoes breathe well and are similar to just going barefoot, I let her :)

Fan them on Facebook.
Also, they are having an annual clearance sale:
35% off Feb 8 - Feb 14
50% off Feb 15 - 21 (Starting at NOON P.S.T. on the 15th)
70% off Feb 22 - 28 - FINAL week!

DISCLAIMER: Thanks to ChicExecs, a company which was created to promote small business campaigns, I was able to let you know about this product. I received a sample from Soft Star free of charge. All information about the products I received from the products, ChicExecs, and information from the Soft Star website. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Sprout and Laurie Berkner Partners with the Pajama Program

The Pajama Program is a fantastic non profit organization that provides new, warm pajamas and new books to children in need in the United States and around the world. Both Sprout and the Laurie Berkner Band, two things I love for my kids, have now partnered with the Pajama Program. I want to tell you about this wonderful program in hopes you will find a way you can help out too.

Sprout is participating by having The Great Sprout Tuck-In in which they are extending their "good night mission" with The Good Night Show and also encouraging families to give. I love The Goodnight Show because it helps my little ones wind down before bedtime. Sprout will collect donations to give to the Pajama Program and then they will be distributed to children in need. If you would like to donate you can go HERE. This is an awesome way to teach your little one about giving.

The Laurie Berkner Band is a great music for children band with lead singer Laurie Berkner (hence the name). Their songs are wonderful and upbeat and my children love them! They are one of my favorite kindie (Kids Indie) rock bands. They have written a new song called "Open Your Heart" for the Pajama Program's Valentine's campaign with the same name. You can download the song for free Here...just click the pink heart. They also had concerts where you could bring Pajama Program donations and wear your pajamas at. You can participate in the fun of the new song by sending a video of you, your kids or both dancing to it in your pajamas!! You can email your video to openyourheart@pajamaprogram.org. Please have them sent by 2-22-2010!

DISCLAIMER: I am a part of the Sprout Band of Bloggers and I learned about the program through them. I just blogged about it not because I was asked to, but because I think it's a great cause! The Laurie Berkner Band is not affiliated with Sprout, but I love their music and get their newsletter so, I decided to blog about them too since they are both partnering with the same program.