Smile While You Shake It

“This post is part of a compensated campaign with Mom It Forward Blogger Network and Honey Bunches of Oats but all my opinions are my own."

How do you start your morning? Is breakfast essential or do you skip it?  What's your go-to breakfast food? Typically, when I have time, I'm an eggs kind of girl. They're easy, they're good for you, they are cheap, me and eggs are tight.  But when I don't have time for eggs I love a bowl of cereal.  Since Kendall was a tiny toddler she's been eating Honey Bunches of Oats like it's her job.

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting my first, live, in home blog event.  I had some of my favorite bloggers and my good ole IRL{in real life} friends come over for a Smile While You Shake It Party.

Honey Bunches of Oats, recently launched a new brand anthem "Smile While You Shake It," to celebrate what it means to start the day off with a smile. The fun and upbeat song, inspired by Samba beats, incorporates the cereal box and breakfast utensils as percussion instruments. It is catchy and fun for families to make it their own.

I was a little bit nervous to host such an event in my home.  Not only was this a big deal but also my two worlds, real-life and blogging, would be colliding for the first time!  Finally my IRL friends would see that my blogging friends weren't crazy, Internet stalkers and were actually all really cool girls.

I emailed all the girls beforehand letting them know we'd be filming some videos and get ready to Smile While You Shake It and I thought it was going to be really hard to get them to show their moves but everyone was more than willing to show us what they've got.  Even the guys got involved. Maybe it was because they wanted to win some of the swag, or even the grand prize, $500 gift card.

It was really quite fun, if I may say so myself.  I think everyone got very creative and the boys may or may not have suggested we do a "make it rain" style video and pour cereal all over each other.  I knew I'd be cleaning up cereal for days so I quickly vetoed that idea however I kinda wish someone would have done it.  My mother-in-law loves Honey Bunches of Oats so much that she was like a walking commercial throughout the entire party.  I love her.

You can Smile While You Shake It too!  Every week from now until June Honey Bunches of Oats will be giving away a $500 gift card from the pool of entrants!  It's only 15 seconds for the chance to win $500!  Seems like a no-brainer to me!  Let me know if you do it because I'd love to see your videos!  Here's mine with my little sidekick, Kendall.

Can you "Smile While You Shake It" as well as Shannon Dew? With a little help from Honey Bunches of Oats, we know you can http://t.co/kRl4PZjA4T

Check out Honey Bunches of Oats on the following outlets:

Honey Bunches of Oats Microsite - http://bit.ly/1hCKc1o
Honey Bunches of Oats on Facebook – http://bit.ly/1gP5asG
Hones Bunches of Oats on Twitter – http://bit.ly/HQQsCv

Holiday Fashion

“This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and People StyleWatch and InStyle magazines but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #PeopleInStyle http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO”

So the holidays are right around the corner and you know what that means? Holiday fashion! Is there a time of year where fashion is more fun? Sparkles, glitter, shine, glitz, glamour! It's pretty much the only time of year that it is completely acceptable to look like a walking, talking disco ball. I love it!

I've never worked anywhere that had a fancy Christmas party and these days my form of a holiday party consists of a cookie exchange with my closest girlfriends who have kids. It's very glamorous.

I picked up both issues of People StyleWatch and InStyle December/January issues at Target last week and I thought it'd be fun to get inspired by some of their looks and recreate some of the outfits out of my own closet. If you are familiar with my blog you might remember that I did a Challenge Your Closet series and so making the most out of what I already have is one of my favorite things to do.

My first look was a combination of two things I saw in People StyleWatch. I know every girl has a little black dress but I was also seeing lots of skirts. So I got out my little black skirt and thought I'd mix and match the two ideas.

I took my little black skirt, a grey, slouchy, hi-low, dolman sleeve sweater and my favorite red pumps {nothing says Christmas like red, patent heels} and a chunky necklace and I think I'm in love.

Now if only I could squeeze into this skirt again, I might even wear this look to preschool drop off. I love it that much.

My next look was inspired by a red dress. It just stood out to me and I knew I had a red dress in my closet so this outfit would be an easy one to make my own.

I've actually wore this outfit to our friend-holiday dinner in the past.  This dress is so comfy and being that we live in Ohio, I love that I can wear black tights with it and not freeze my butt off.

My third look is my most favorite.  I got the inspiration from the "vacation" section of People StyleWatch. Not that I'm going on vacation anywhere, anytime soon, but a girl can dream.

This is comfy, cozy and totally suits my mom lifestyle.  In fact I wore this to Thanksgiving at my in-laws. #teamleggingsaspants is a must for Thanksgiving or any holiday where there's lots of yummy food.  

If you want to check out these issues of InStyle and People StyleWatch, go to Target where they'll give you a $5 gift card for buying both! Score!  Perhaps you'll find your holiday look in one of them too, even if it's leggings and a chunky sweater ;-).

Keep Your House Party Ready

“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Cottonelle, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #CottonelleHoliday  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.”

I've got a question for you, what's more annoying than walking out in the rain just after you curled your hair?

Think about it...

Toilet paper.

Namely when you run out and you're seemingly the only person in the house who knows how to "refill" the roll. Case and point.

I mean even my three-year-old knows how {and likes to} refill the toilet paper roll {#startemyoung} but I swear if my husband even sees that roll getting low he'll pull out another from under the sink and just place it on the sink with a half full roll still on the thingymabobber. And don't get me started on the bathroom trash, if I didn't empty it, it'd look like this for days, weeks, months even.

I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to things like toilet paper and paper towels. As in, I like to have LOTS of them on hand, at all times. I mean those are not things you want to run out of. Am I right? I usually always buy the Cottonelle 12 pack and each bathroom gets 4 rolls. Another thing Kendall is very helpful with.


This is especially true during the holidays. You have people over for Thanksgiving, a cookie party, a white elephant gift exchange, an ugly sweater party, the list goes on. My point is you have a lot of people coming in and out of your house and a lot of people using your bathroom. The last thing you want to forget about is toilet paper.

I can remember one time we had a party and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, we didn't restock the toilet paper beforehand. We ran out and I thought, "oh no worries, I'll get some from the other bathroom" nope. It was out too. So I checked the third bathroom, empty! So...that's embarrassing. THANKFULLY we have a store close by and the house was full of toilet paper but geesh! That was stressful, especially with a house full of guests.

Target and Cottonelle make it easy for you during the holidays. Buy Cottonelle Triple Roll 12 pack or larger and get a FREE box of Kleenex* (RevTrax system will only let you click on this coupon twice  per IP address so do not click on it till you are ready to print please. )
COUPON: https://secureimg.revtrax.com/RevTrax/cpn?merchantId=11613065&affiliateId=12832277&programId=28498808

*While supplies last.