baby blog: march of dimes

Showing posts with label march of dimes. Show all posts

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Design Girl: March of Dimes Sponsor #38

I couldn't think of a better blogger and friend to tell you about than my blog designer and friend... A friend who actually inspired this fundraiser idea because she's always doing her own for charity... My friend Danielle aka The Design Girl Studio.

Everyone is always asking me who designed my blog and I'm always happy to point you to her.

Danielle is a 20-something girl that majored in Sociology and fell in to graphic design.

"I have always loved art and design, so when I started a blog back in April 2007, I was determined to make it over on my own," she said on her "About page." "After 4 months of studying HTML and Photoshop, I started 'Blogs by Danielle.' I never imagined that I would be where I am today, but over 600 blogs later, here I am. It has been an incredible journey, and I am excited to see what lies ahead in the years to come."

In 2008, she took a graphic design course at a local art school and simultaneously spent four months in a graphic design internship. She learned so much about design, and was able to apply a great deal of what I learned to my little business.

With this expansion, I realized that I needed a name change, and in February 2009, I became "The Design Girl."

Her most recent expansion includes designing her own line of digital scrapbook kits.

"I have set up shop at Polka Dot Plum, and am enjoying every moment of it," she said. "This is something I have wanted to do for well over a year, so it is very exciting to see this dream come to life."

She also makes freebies for people to download.

Stationary

Invites

She pretty much does it all! On a more personal note, she has a heart for children and animals {she have a few cats and a dog -- all rescues}, and has been fortunate enough to be able to give back through raffles, giveaways, and donations. She lists the organizations that she gave to on her blog, and she's always open to suggestions for new organizations to work with.

"I love my job and all the wonderful people that I have met through the blogging community," she said. "I never get tired of receiving emails full of joy from clients who have just seen their blogs for the first time."

This generous designer and blogger has offered to donate her services to one of you! She's great to work with, fast, and a wonderful communicator! She's designed hundreds of fabulous blogs! She's donating one of her beautiful Premade Designs to one of my donors. EVERYONE who donates is entered to win this prize! You can choose which one you want, and customize parts of it. There's lots of cute templates to choose from.

If you donate just $1 to the charity I'll give you 1 free ticket to win this prize from The Design Girl Studio! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 1 ticket in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

This is just one of more than 40 prizes (worth over $1500) that's up for grabs in the drawing! See the full list here. 100% of the funds raised are going to March of Dimes, to help save babies!

Read how this got started here!
Check out all of the prizes here!
Have a giveaway? List it here! Offer extra entries to your peeps for donating!

L and S Designs Sponsor #37

They are a cute mother daughter team from out in the country who always need to be busy :)

They are introducing some new products this week and hope they'll be a hit. She's hoping to jump back in for the Christmas season. She makes all sorts of crafts, from rings, necklaces, and signs, to key chains, dog collars and chew toys!

She's offered to donate a Clipboard Magnet with a Matching Photo Frame to one of you donors! And get this... ALL OF YOU DONORS will be entered to win this!

If you donate just $1 to the charity I'll give you 1 free ticket to win this prize from L and S Designs! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 1 ticket in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

Meli Faif Life's Canvas Painting: Sponsor #36

Short story: I.. The self-proclaimed "Baby Makin' Machine," found making a baby isn't as easy as I had hoped. So to take my mind off baby makin' I'm spending a month raising money to help March of Dimes babies. Read the long story about how this fundraiser got started here!
Read my latest TTC update here.

Today is the last day of features and donations! Can you believe it's been a month already? I can't! I'm going to introduce you to my last two sponsors today. I hope if you haven't donated already you'll chip in even just $1 to help save a March of Dimes baby.

What first drew me to our first sponsor today... Melissa, wasn't her spunk or her cute writing style... Those were great too, but what REALLY caught my eye was her adorable daughter and her red curls. Sometimes look at pictures of my husband from when he was young and just stare as his red hair wondering if our kids will inherit any of that.

Melissa's little girl's hair was just as much of a shock to her as it would be to me, so she named one of her blogs after the phenomenon Black, White, and Red Curlz All Over. Melissa also blogs at Meli Faif Life.

Melissa is a full time professional business woman, a full time mommy and a full time wife, daughter, sister and friend! Wow!! I wonder if I'll be able to do it all!

"I adore all things related to babies, toddlers and children," she said. "From fashion to interior design to the latest trends and to, well, obviously, creating one of a kind designs for their walls!!!" Things like this:

She began painting in the Winter of 2005 when her little niece, Sweet P, inspired her to create a special one of a kind piece of wall decor for her bedroom. The rest, they say, is history. She has been painting and creating unique designs ever since!

Melissa will make a basic custom canvas name sign for one special donor! Theme or color choice can be selected by winner. Something like this:

If you donate just $20 to the charity I'll give you 20 tickets to win this prize from Meli Faif Life! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 20 tickets in our GIANT drawing! AND you get a GUARANTEED prize from ME! One of which can be two of these cute baby headbands and bows! Look I made these!!

(Or you can get a custom doggie bandanna instead) You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

This is just one of more than 40 prizes (worth over $1500) that's up for grabs in the drawing! See the full list here. 100% of the funds raised are going to March of Dimes, to help save babies!

Read how this got started here!
Check out all of the prizes here!
Enter my 2nd Cutest Baby Contest here!
Have a giveaway? List it here! Offer extra entries to your peeps for donating!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Elana Kahn Avon: March of Dimes Sponsor #34

We've already reached our goal but the sponsors keep rolling in! I've lost count of the total amount of sponsors but it's a sure bet almost everyone will win something! And sorting out these prizes is NOT going to be an easy task for me! haha. Wish me luck Monday!

The next sponsor I want to introduce you to is a wonderful woman i just became acquainted with myself a few nights ago after she made a very generous donation to the charity AFTER we met our goal! Her name is Elana and here is her story (her labor story will keep you on the edge of your seat!):

"I'm 26 and my hubby is 40. We met in November 2005, just 2 weeks after my father passed

away. We dated for just about 3 months before getting engaged, and we were engaged for 6 months before getting married in August 2006."

They immediately started trying to have a baby, but with no success. After a year of nothing, they decided to see a fertility specialist who couldn't find anything "really" wrong.

"Yeah there was a hormone imbalance, but even medication didn't 'fix the problem'. Who knew if that was even keeping me from getting pregnant anyway. We had all sorts of tests done (SA, HSG, SHG, hysteroscopy), and they all came back normal. We did 3 cycles of Clomid with nothing but BFNs. We did one IUI with injectible meds, got a BFP and then miscarried a week or so later. We then did 4 more IUI cycles (3 with meds, 1 natural) and got 4 BFNs. The doctor decided it was time we moved onto IVF. I was so nervous because it was our last chance. If this didn't work, nothing would. The doctor was hoIding back a bit on my meds in order to avoid OHSS, so I was a bit disappointed with the number of eggs retrieved--only 8. Of those 8, only 4 fertilized, and of those 4, only 2 continued to grow. They didn't want to risk waiting until a 5 day transfer, so they transferred both embryos on day 3. One of them was 10 cells, grade B and the other was 5 cells, grade C. It was basically like 'you have one awesome embryo with a great chance and one that's not such a good chance, so don't get your hopes up for twins.' Riiiiiight. Thank G-d I did get pregnant, and I had twins. :-) So much for embryo grading, eh?"

They had a few glitches during the pregnancy--placenta previa, and then a shortened & funneling cervix at 20 weeks, so doctors had to put in a cerclage and Elana went on modified bed rest.

"I was in and out of the hospital in February and March, but I held out to 35 weeks! At 35 weeks and 1 day, my son's placenta abrupted, and I needed an emergency C-Section to deliver them. I had wanted to go completely natural and deliver without drugs, but G-d had other plans! The twins were so oxygen deprived by the time they were delivered (from my blood loss and my son was nearly disconnected), that my son had an APGAR score of 1 and my daughter had a score of 3 at 1 minute....not good. They each needed some help getting started breathing--it took my daughter just over a minute to start crying, and my son was incubated and took 3 minutes to start breathing. Seriously, I'm glad they had put me under general anesthesia or I would've flipped the he** out with them not breathing. Anyway, thank G-d they were both ok. As for me, something happened to my uterine artery during surgery so not only had I lost blood from the placental abruption, but now I was bleeding from my uterine artery as well. Whooops! So I needed 4 units of blood and medications to keep my heart going...good thing the doctors know what they're doing. Also a good thing that this was around 7am when the doctors change shift...so I had two sets of everyone in the delivery room making sure we all stayed alive. "

Now, the twins are doing fantastically. They are normal, healthy 7-month-old babies. They roll over, they sit up, and they're starting to eat solid foods!

"They're the cutest and sweetest babies you'd ever meet and I feel darned lucky to be their mom. All of the waiting, the anguish of infertility, etc...it was all worth it!" She added. WOW!

Elana started selling Avon because her sister's mother-in-law used to sell Avon when she was growing up.

"After the twins were born, I decided I needed to figure out something to do from home, so I picked Avon. I love selling it because their products are excellent quality, and it really sells itself. Also, it's recession-proof because nearly all of the stuff is things people use on a daily basis and it's generally less expensive than what you'd find in a grocery or drug store. Also, you can buy from my online store or from me directly if you live near me...it's totally flexible! That's only a teensy part of what makes Avon so awesome. It would take me hours or days to mention everything."

You can learn more about Elana by visiting her blog Elana's Musings and by visiting her Avon Website.

This generous mother LOVES March of Dimes like we do, and not only made a wonderful contribution to the fundraiser herself... She is also donating a $25 gift certificate for her Avon products!

If you donate just $10 to the charity I'll give you 10 free tickets to win this prize from Elana to use towards her Avon Shop! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 10 tickets in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

This is just one of more than 40 prizes (worth over $1500) that's up for grabs in the drawing! See the full list here. 100% of the funds raised are going to March of Dimes, to help save babies!
Read how this got started here!
Check out all of the prizes here!
Have a giveaway? List it here! Offer extra entries to your peeps for donating!

Modern Blitz Designs: MoD Sponsor #33

I'm just going to jump right in and tell you that if you don't win, you really need to BUY from this shop? Why?... Well besides the fact that there are mega-cute things there for great prices... ALL proceeds from the sales from her shop will be used to pay for the adoption of their baby! If that doesn't pull at your heart strings I don't know what will!

"I am a crafty junkie!" Kelly said. "I love to learn new things and I tend to teach myself cause I can't wait to get going on something new. I enjoy creating home decor, Gifts for showers, and I love digital scrapbooking!"

She also makes other crafts like these cute diaper cakes!

She started crafting when she was young. She said her mom was always extremely creative and she remembers admiring that about her.

"I started digital scrapbooking after working at a company where I was in charge of ad design," she said. "I taught myself Adobe Illustrator and I love to make cards, stickers, blog buttons, anything! I have always been told I need to sell my creations but never have and finally when my husband and I decided to adopt, I chose to start."

Now she has an etsy shop called "Modern Blitz Designs" and her blog is her pride and joy and she swears she never leaves her computer (I know the feeling).

"Lucky for me," she said. "My chair is comfortable :)"

This wonderful woman, searching for her own baby is generously donating to this cause to help save other babies, and to help spoil yours (or your friend's!). There's something for TWO winners!

She is giving one winner a custom designed card. It can be anything from a baby announcement to a Christmas card. What ever you want.

ALSO... For the second winner... A cute tutu. Seriously... I'd wear one of these!

If you donate just $10 to the charity I'll give you 10 tickets to win both of these prizes from Modern Blitz Designs! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 10 tickets in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

Bear Basket From The Bear Bunch: Sponsor #32

Momma Bear is going to give one lucky donor a "Bear Basket" filled with bear themed items like honey scented lotion, teddy bear, bear crayons etc. But Momma Bear and the winner will work together to put the perfect basket together!

They are just your average bear family living out in the middle of nowhere in their little bear cave. They are raising two bear cubs under two. Mikey Bear is our hyper 22 month old that loves to smile. Melly Bear is our 4 month old pampered princess.

Mikey Bear is also celebrating his birthday next month and they are CELEBRATING! Check out Mikey Bear's Birthday Bash Giveaways. You can follow @BearBunch on Twitter for more info too!

Mommy Bear also has an Etsy Shop called Elizabear Crayon Designs. There she makes and sells colorful fun-shaped crayons that are fun or kids to play with.

She originally started making crayons for her little guy so he would have something fun and unique to play with.

"I had so much fun experimenting with crayon designs that I decided to share it with other children," she said. "Spending time with my son while he learned to color is precious memories that I hope I can pass on to other families. I can't wait until Melly Bear start learning to color!"

If you donate just $10 to the charity I'll give you 10 tickets to win this prize from The Bear Bunch! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 10 tickets in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

Friday, October 16, 2009

Baby Dickey: March of Dimes Sponsor #31

We reached our goal but we are still going through the 18th! More sponsors are being added to the list, and I'm featuring the rest of them through Sunday!

Emily, aka Baby Dickey aka MILF-to-be is one of my best bloggy friends! She's expecting her first baby right now, and she's in for a lot of excitement I'm sure! She chronicles her journey on her blog Baby Dicky. And I personally can't wait until the little guy gets here!

Emily is a sweetheart, and she not only helped me promote my fundraiser, and donated herself, she is even being a sponsor too!!

Emily is a recent graduate with my MS in animal physiology, searching the country for an animal behavior career while her husband searched for a civil engineering position. Then one Sunday morning in April (I dream of this day).... TWO LINES!

She woke her husband up from a dead sleep, speechless, shoving the TWO LINES in his face. He had no idea what they meant (men, ha!). Somehow, the words finally got out... And here they are today, due with a baby boy in December!

"We had been planning on having a baby," she said. "But not for awhile, so it was an unexpected (yet pleasant and a little bit scary) surprise. It's currently just the 2 of us with our two babies (very spoiled cats), Oscar and Aasa. We're back in our home town in IL, him still searching for a great career job and me just working until baby comes. I started the Baby Dickey blog to keep friends and family in the loop and I'm still amazed at how it has grown--I love the blogging/tweeting women I have 'met!'''

Recently, Emily and her husband and started talking about a new online project (website coming soon, be on the look out!) that includes making baby onesies out of adult-sized t-shirts.

"I have a stack of memorable shirts that I could never get rid of," she said. "But that I can't or don't wear anymore--how perfect (and cute) to turn them into clothes for our little boy?! An old concert tour shirt, college tees, catchy phrases... you just can't find those in baby-size!"

You can make your memorable T-Shirts into something for your little one by contacting erdickey@gmail.com.

She can make long-sleeve or short-sleeve onesies (an adult size M is needed at least for a long-sleeve) and the sizes are either 0-6 months or 6-12 months. They're the elastic bottom type so there isn't too much difference in size, just length and a little bit of width. You can send them your t-shirts to make into memorable onesies for their baby.... funny shirts, family reunion tees, high school or college tees, fav sports team, etc. The list is endless!

"The pictures here are a funny one from my husband ("trust me I'm a doctor"), one of my old high school homecoming shirts (the tye-dye one), a family reunion ("sweeney") tee and a shirt I received for doing the Relay For Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Just a small sample of what we can do! There's also a pic of the back of the high school homecoming shirt-- showing the design on the back of the shirt is used too. We can also make patterned fabric or plain colored onesies if someone would like to request one instead of mailing us their own shirt. I recently had someone send us a shirt to make into a onesie for her pregnant friend--it was an old shirt of her dad's who passed away last year-- very cool."

Be sure to check out her blog to learn more about this cute couple and their coming baby, and you can also Follow @BabyDickey on Twitter!

To help Future Mama raise money for the March of Dimes, she's donating one of these baby onesies! She's using a bought shirt to make yours (not of of theirs ;0p ).

If you donate just $5 to the charity I'll give you 5 tickets to win this prize from Baby Dickey! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 5 tickets in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

Belyitch: March of Dimes Sponsor #30

Ok, well things are a little different today! We reached our goal but we're still going! How did this get started? Read this.

I became acquainted with JJ though Twitter at first and I just love her! I think we'll be great friends! She told me she wanted to contribute to this fundraiser and offered to donate some great prizes!! But first, let me introduce you to the woman behind Bellyitch.

JJ is a work from home attorney who also has a boutique PR firm. She is a am mom to a 7 year old boy, 4 year old boy and a 21 year old who she calls the mischief-makers. No really... They even have their own blog: Mischief Makers, where mom chronicle all the mischiefmaking they do. Her husband is an attorney and was her college sweetheart.

"He keeps me laughing and is my best friend," she said.

JJ is the eldest of 4 siblings. She emigrated to the US when she was 4 and was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

"I spoke 4 languages when I came here," she said. "My parents wanted me to acculturate so they spoke only English and within six months, I lost all languages."

She's an avid adult class taker and has taken Adult Ballet, Gymnastics, Dance.

"Because my poor African immigrant parents weren't like the obsessive American ones and didn't sign me up for classes so I had to make it happen as an adult," she said. "Also, I went to Disney World on my honeymoon. Another childhood dream I had to make true when I got older."

She started off as a journalism major at the Univ of Maryland and even interned at US News & World Report, but as she put it, she "punked out" and went to law school. Now she practices broadcast law, telecom law and has tiny small business clients and some black owned radio stations.

"My most famous clients currently are the NAACP, Rainbow PUSH, & NOW," she added.

As far as her blog goes... She started it to chronicle her last pregnancy and first girl on a suggestion of a friend.

"While doing so, every once in a while, I'd post photos of pregnant celebrities, poems, funny stories and news tidbits I'd pick up here and there doing my own personal we search," she said. "The blog began to get hits and generate traffic after I posted my maternity pics and advice for maternity wear. It also got loads of hits following a now famous post listing the most expensive baby strollers back in 2007. This year, I updated that post and added the most expensive crib makers, childrens' clothing makers and diaper bags and since then have been generating additional hits from people googling those exact topics!"

Because of those hits and a combination of other factors, the blog is top searched and is an AllTop and PostRank top blog. She features weekly: Product Reviews, Celebrity Updates, A Bellyitch Bump (every Wednesday I feature a pregnant belly. It's sticky posted on the blog), Advice and a GG update (GG is her daughter).

All of the products pictured in this post are products Bellyitch has offered to give away to wonderful donors of this fundraiser! There will be 3 winners! One gets the "I'm the Daddy" mug, another gets the " Mommy Measure" to mark your belly growth each month (Seriously, I want one of those!) and another wins the feeder cover.

If you donate just $1 to the charity I'll give you 1 free ticket to win one of these prizes from Bellyitch! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 1 ticket in our GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Dittany Baby: March of Dimes Sponsor #29

I love Dittany Baby. I have their button flashing over on the side of my blog and I love perusing around their site when I'm dreaming about shopping for my future baby. I'm not SOLD on UT yet but I'm pretty sure I could be ok with having my little girl wear one of these cute things!!

It's a mom and dad run company with Shannon and her husband and their two best friends.

"My husband is in charge of the gaphic arts/design, Tressy runs the workroom/sewing production," Shannon said. "James runs the order processing and me... Well everything else LOL!"

Dittany Baby started in 2006 when Shannon's first born began to crawl. When he did he dragged one of his legs and got severe rug burn from his knees to his toes.

"I had to come up with a way to protect his leg so I went to the sewing machine and sewed a tube of fabric to cover his leg," she said. "From there 'skidpants' were born."

"Around the same time he had far outgrown his Baby Bjorn (I have big babies!!) and I wanted to walk around a historical market in Washington DC. I did some online research and found out about slings. That night I made one and took it to the market the next day. After 20 some blocks of walking in flip flops in downtown DC I was sold. There was no need to convince me further that slings were not AMAZING and a must have!!!"

As far as personally, Shannon is living her dream of being a mom. "Everything else is just a bonus." Her goal with Dittany Baby is to make luxury products at a price that everyone can afford!

"We are constantly looking for ways to bring the savings to moms," she said. "In April we dropped our prices 40-60% by revising our wholesale program because a mom shouldn’t have to pay $60.00 for a boutique quality sling!"

$50 gift card to Dittany Baby! There is sooo much stuff you can get there, leggings, tutus, wraps, slings! The list goes on!

If you donate just $20 to the charity I'll give you 20 tickets to win this prize from Dittany Baby! Not only are you helping a charity but you get 20 tickets in our GIANT drawing! AND you get a GUARANTEED prize from ME! One of which can be two of these cute baby hairbows! Look I made these!!