For Japan With Love

 Tomorrow, AFOMFT will be participating in the FOR JAPAN WITH LOVE BLOGGERS DAY OF SILENCE to acknowledge and help raise funds and awareness for the devastation going on in Japan.  You will not see a post here tomorrow; instead, I hope that you'll take the few minutes you usually spend here to stop by the For Japan With Love site and contribute if you are able to do so.

All of the donations made on the For Japan With Love site will go to ShelterBox, which provides emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies for families around the world who are affected by disasters at the time when they need it the most. Each large, green ShelterBox is tailored to the situation at hand but typically contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children’s activity pack and other vital items. 

In less than a week, this effort has raised more than $15,000 and every little bit helps so we're hoping this will encourage you to open your wallet - every AFOMFT reader who makes a donation will be eligible for 5 additional entries into all giveaways through March 31st.  That means if you donate to the Red Cross and to For Japan With Love, you'll earn 10 extra entries.  So please, visit For Japan With Love and do some good.  Hopefully you'll win something fabulous in the process!

A Little Update

{image via Front Porch Handmade}

I've been MIA from the blog for the past two weeks and I apologize.  Real life took over and I had to take a little break to keep everything afloat.  I'm sorry I left everyone hanging.

I had a wonderful giveaway scheduled to post today but after waking up to the news of the devastation in Japan, I decided to switch gears a bit.  Tragedies like this are horrific and it's hard to find anything positive in the images and stories you see in newspapers, on TV and online.  But then I hear about how people pull together to help and my faith in humanity is renewed.  So I'm hoping that the community of people who read AFOMFT can do a little bit too.

{image via Dazey Chic}

Starting Monday, I have seventeen amazing giveaways scheduled, and one will run each day until the end of March.  To earn five additional entries into any of the giveaways you want, all you need to do is to text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to help with relief efforts (the donation will be billed to your cell phone bill).

Easy right?  Just donate $10 using the method I described above and you can add five additional entries into every one of the giveaways starting Monday.  And that's not all.  Since I've been so busy and haven't drawn the winners of the last few giveaways on AFOMFT, you can also add the five entries to those as well (enter to win a $50 gift card to iTunes, a $50 gift card to Old Navy or a $50 gift card to Ann Taylor Loft HERE, the Timmy Time DVD HERE, three Nickelodeon DVDs HERE, the Who Said Coo? book HERE) before I draw the winners Sunday night.  When all is said and done, that $10 donation will basically give you 95 more chances to win one of 23 prizes.  Not too shabby!

Since there's no way for me to verify that the donations were actually made, this whole thing will be via the honor system.  Please be honest - abusing this opportunity would be really crappy and I'm sure you won't want the kind of karma lying about donating will get you.

Again, I'm sorry about the lack of blog posts over the last two weeks but I promise come Monday, I'll be back with a vengeance!  In the meantime, get to texting....

Some February 14th Flair!

It's day 3 of the Valentine's Countdown I'm hosting over at Nickelodeon's Parents Connect and today I'm sharing easy DIY accessories, including simple projects from Parents, Katie Did, Craft Stylish, Martha Stewart, Grosgrain Fabulous, One Charming Party and The Project Corner you can make to give your kiddos a little February 14th flair.  Here are two more I love.....

See this adorable charm bracelet? 

Can you believe it was made from these?

Yup - stickers!  Get the full how to at - where else? - Martha Stewart.

Or you can create some fun felt heart hair clips with the tutorial at The Purl Bee.

For more cupid-inspired accessories that will make your kids swoon, head on over and check out my post over at the Valentine's Countdown at Parents Connect, and while you're there, enter to win some fabulous prizes!

Images: Martha Stewart & The Purl Bee

Picture Perfect For February 14th!

The Valentine's Countdown that I'm hosting over at Nickelodeon's Parents Connect continues today with lots of fun ideas for staging your own Valentine's Day photo op.  Whether you want pictures for cards or to put in the family album, you won't want to miss these great ideas from Anders Ruff, Paper & Cake, J. Crew, Martha Stewart, 24*7*365 and I Heart Faces!  And just to show you the possibilities, here are a few more options I know you'll love.

Draw some signs for your kids to hold like Kellie from This Blessed Nest.

Who cares if everyone's looking at the camera or smiling?  The silly shots are just as sweet!

Make your own heart-shaped chalkboard to write a sweet nothing on, like this one from Martha Stewart.

If you have older kids, take a cue from J. Crew's Crewcuts' catalog and try laying them on the floor with candy or cupcakes forming fun shapes around them.

Or copy this fun idea from Color Me Katie.  Take a shot of your child blowing a kiss.

And then draw in some hearts.

You can write a love note on each one or attach them together to make a kiss flipbook.

If you like what you see here, make sure to check out my post with more fantastic photo op suggestions over at the Valentine's Countdown at Parents Connect and while you're there, enter to win some fabulous prizes! 

Images: This Blessed Nest, Martha Stewart, Ohdeedoh & Color Me Katie

Guess Where I'll Be Tomorrow?

I am so so excited to finally announce that starting tomorrow, I'm "hosting" the Valentine's Countdown on Nickelodeon's Parent's Connect!  For ten days, I'll be sharing super sweet ideas you can use to celebrate Cupid.  From treats like cookies and cupcakes to photo op and party inspiration, you're sure to find something fabulous for February 14th.  And that's not all - Parents Connect will also be giving away prizes every.single.day!  How cool is that?

So if you're not already registered at Parents Connect, head on over and create a profile now so you can get in on all of the action tomorrow morning when I'll be showing off eight great ways you can throw Valentine's Day bash. Trust me, you won't want to miss it!  See you there.

RECAP: Dreaming Into Doing with Martha

It's been exactly a week since Martha Stewart's Dreamers Into Doers conference ended and I'm still thinking about it - the things I learned, the people I met and how much I'm looking forward to the next one!

So what was the event and how did I get there?  Let's start at the very beginning.

Dreamers Into Doers is an online community on Martha Stewart's website that celebrates women who are trying to turn their dreams into careers, and connects them so they can network with and motivate each other.  Last fall, they announced a two-day conference that would be held at the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Headquarters here in New York City.  I registered, along with hundreds of others, but with only 80 available spots, I ended up on the wait list.  Months passed and I still didn't hear anything so I figured it wouldn't work out.  But as the date approached, I started seeing more of my "blog buddies" Tweeting and posting about their plans and I e-mailed Caitlin, who coordinated the event, to let her know if any spots opened up that I was still interested and sure enough, less than 12 hours before I had to be there, I got an e-mail with an itinerary.  See - persistence does pay off!

I showed up bright and early Tuesday morning to The Martha Stewart show studio to attend a taping of her show, which was a blast.  Then we were off to MLSO!

I was so excited to finally connect with Maureen and Adria from Anders Ruff, who you may remember designed the amazing printables for Gabrielle and Alaina's birthday party.  I talk to these lovely ladies all the time so it felt like I already knew them, but actually meeting was wonderful! 

And here we are with Lindi, from Love the Day, who I immediately clicked with.  She's so talented and sweet!

There were so many other fantastic ladies I connected with during the conference - some that I've met before and others that I just "knew" from online.  It was so great to see Stacy from Scrumptious Swirls and Tanya from Save the Date for Cupcakes again - we all met at Martha's Bloggers Night Out last summer - and I loved getting to know so many of the "party girls" I follow online - Courtney from Pizzazzerie, Charynn from Two Sugar Babies, Andrea from Dolce Drive, Nancy from AtoZebra Celebrations, Kelly from The Party Dress and Team TomKat Studio - as well as the uber-talented Vana from Le Papier Studio.   In my excitement about actually attending the conference, I totally forgot my camera so I didn't get photos with everyone but here I am with two more fabulous new friends, Rebeca from Fresh Chick Design Studio and Kim from The Celebration Shoppe.  Aren't they adorable?

It probably looks like all we did was meet and greet but there were plenty of presentations and discussions too.  We covered topics ranging from marketing and PR to using social media, and Martha herself moderated a panel on starting a charitable foundation with Susan L. Solomon, the co-founder of The New York Stem Cell Foundation.

One of the most interesting aspects of the event for me was meeting members Martha Stewart Living team and getting to hear more about what they do.  Hannah Milman, the senior vice president and executive editorial director of Martha Stewart Holiday and Crafts - a.k.a. crafter extraordinaire - and one of the most genuinely sweet women I've ever met, mingled with us at lunch and showed off some of her crafting techniques.  Sara Carey, one of Martha's senior food editors, demonstrated how to make crepes and spoke about what goes into creating and shooting recipes for the magazines.  And at my favorite presentation, Terri Trespicio, senior features editor at Whole Living, talked to us about life balance (here we are afterward).

I'm not a new age-y kind of girl by any means, but she totally got me thinking about ways to re-energize and prioritize.  If you ever have a chance to see her speak, make sure you're there!  In the meantime, you can check out some of Terri's blog posts here at WholeLiving.com.

There were lots of other great women I got to meet over the two days and while I can't list them all here, I'll be posting about them on Facebook, Twitter and hopefully working with a lot of them in the future.  A huge thank you to everyone at MSLO who made this event possible, and especially to Caitlin for getting me in at the very last minute.  The Dreams Into Doers conference was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful I got to be a part of it!

Images: AFOMFT, Anders Ruff, Pizzazzerie & Love the Day

This Week I'm Dreaming Into Doing!

I spent yesterday at the Martha Stewart Dreamers Into Doers conference which was amazing.  I learned so much and met so many fantastic people.  I'm heading back to day and will post a full recap when it's over, but in the meantime, here's a peek at just one of the wonderful sessions - featuring none other than Martha herself!

More to come!

Image: AFOMFT

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!


Card Design: Mink Cards
Photography: Silveira's Touch
Dresses: Faith Works 4 U

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving 

from our family 

to yours!

CRAFTASTIC: Get Your Glitter On!

With the big day less than 24 hours away, I have one last Halloween-themed craft project to share with you.  And this one is a doozy!

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you!  That is one sparkly pumpkin.  Don't you love it?  Lucky for all of us, Kristy from Posh Pixels Design Studio has the full how to for how to glam up your gourds.  I think that I'm going to glitter some up for the holidays.  Wouldn't they make fabulous centerpieces?

Speaking of the holidays, starting Monday, AFOMFT's HOLIDAY HAPPENING will be kicking off!

It's a whole month filled with great gift ideas, creative crafts and party planning tips for the perfect holiday celebration.  We've had such an overwhelming response from people wanting to participate that we'll be posting several different features each day so if you have a product you think AFOMFT readers would appreciate or would like to do a guest post on crafting, cooking or party planning, e-mail me at afomft@gmail.com.  After all, this time of year, the more the merrier!  Oh, and did I mention we'll be holding at least one giveaway a day?  That's right - you don't want to miss it!

Images: Posh Pixels Design Studio

Can You Spare a Click?

Or two actually.

I'm so honored that AFOMFT is a finalist in the WHO'S WHO FOR 2010 Blog Awards!

AFOMFT is nominated for BEST BABY/KID/FAMILY BLOG along with four other fabulous sites.  If you love AFOMFT, I would really appreciate it if you would click THIS LINK to vote.  There's a list of all of the blogs nominated in five categories that you should totally check out too.  I'm sure you'll find some new favorites.  And guess what?  Everyone who votes is eligible to win prizes too!  Just enter your Twitter ID before you submit your ballot and you'll be entered to win.  If you don't have a Twitter account, just type n/a into that box and your votes will still count.  And that's not all - if AFOMFT wins our category or BLOGGER OF THE YEAR, we'll be giving away our prizes to one of you!

And one more huge favor.  The voting at Top Baby Blogs has reset and we'd love to get AFOMFT into the Top 10 again!  And if we do, we'll have a great giveaway worth more than $200.  To vote, just click the banner below and then the "Cast Your Vote" graphic and you're done.

You can vote for both the WHO'S WHO Blog Awards and Top Baby Blogs once per day per IP address so if you have multiple computers or can vote from your phone, you can tally more than one vote per day.

I know all of this must seem silly but being in the top 10 on Top Baby Blogs and winning Blog Awards helps me draw bigger companies to AFOMFT which means better discounts and giveaways for all of you.  Thanks so much for your continued support!

It's a Party with Martha!

This where I was at 8:30 this morning.  In my pajamas.

Why, you ask?  I was invited to the taping for The Martha Stewart Show's slumber party episode and everybody there - including Martha herself - had to be dressed for the occasion.  Believe me when I tell you I had quite the debate over which PJ's of mine were worthy of today's excursion.  I finally settled on a pink flannel pair with donuts all over them.  Who doesn't love donuts, right?  Here I am with "Martha" before the show.

I've been to quite a few talk show tapings and honestly, the Martha Stewart Show set is the biggest and nicest one I've seen.  We were allowed to take pictures before the show started so here are a few peeks.  This is the view from my seat of the kitchen area and the beds set up for the slumber party:

A witch flying through the studio:

They have a water tower, which is very NYC.

The crafting area was all decked out for Halloween (I know - it's far away, but I told you the set was big!):

And I love these cream pumpkins and gourds lining the staircase.

Here are some of the cutie pies who got to take off school to be part of the party.  They were all adorable!

 
And this is me pre-show.  Yup, that would be in the front row! 

Remember when I said everyone had to be dressed in their sleepover finest?  When Martha came out, she was wearing some fabulous silk animal print pajamas and I adore the fact that she paired them with Manolo Blahnik slingbacks.  No slippers for this fashionista!

And then it was show time.  The episode revolved around a slumber party that Darcy Miller, the editorial director of Martha Stewart Weddings, had thrown for her daughter's fifth birthday party.  I've been a huge fan of Darcy's for years.  I love her sense of style and even modeled the invitations for our wedding on the ones from hers, so it was no surprise that I was totally impressed and inspired by the attention to detail she put into the slumber party she planned for Ella.  

Darcy set the tone for the celebration by making the cutest invitations - little illustrated pictures of Emma that she tucked into vertical envelopes to look like sleeping bags.  The night of the sleepover, the 20 guests got to participate in activities galore.  There were personalized pillowcases and flashlights to decorate, goodnight journals and bookmarks to create, Mad Libs to write and giant books to read.  I think my favorite activity was the "Pin the Bear on the Ella" game, where the girls were blindfolded (with sleep masks, natch!) and had to tape a paper bear onto a blown up illustration of Ella.  Here's a look at what the poster looked like:

You can download this image to use at your own slumber party and get all of the details for the crafts and activities at MarthaStewart.com. 

Darcy talked about how all of the food at the party was cut into moon, star and teddy bear shapes to tie in with the invitations and graphics, and one of my favorite moments of the show was when Martha oohed and ahhed over a bowl of Teddy Grahams.  Apparently, she'd never seen them before.  It's nice to know that I have something in my pantry that can impress Martha should she ever stop by!

After Darcy's segment, Bobbi Brown came out to talk about beauty tips for teenagers and Dylan Lauren from Dylan's Candy Bar, one of my favorite places in NYC, created Candy Wrapper & Bubblegum Houses with Martha.  (How cute are her candy PJ's, by the way?)

The houses were super cute and a great craft project for kids.  Dylan has a new book out, which we all got a copy of, called "Unwrap Your Sweet Life" and it's filled with terrific ideas for how to decorate and celebrate lots of different holidays and occasions with candy.  And the tips aren't just for kiddie parties - the Halloween section has the recipes for Black Widow and Vampire Cosmo drinks, which look like must tries for any grown up fright night festivities!

If you read AFOMFT regularly, you know it's GET YOUR GHOUL ON! MONTH and you're probably wondering what slumber parties have to do with Halloween.  Well, not to fear!  Martha shared a frighteningly fun craft that fits the bill - a Glittered "Candy" Garland.

Can you believe that's made from Styrofoam?  It's so simple to make - just coat some Styrofoam with white glue and then sprinkle on glitter!  Okay, there are a few more steps than that (one of which involves cupcake liners - I know you're intrigued now!), but you get the gist.  Get the full how to HERE.

I promise to have better shots of all of the crafts tomorrow but in the meantime, if you missed The Martha Stewart Show this morning, the slumber party episode re-airs tonight at 8:00 EST/PST on the Hallmark Channel and can be found online at MarthaStewart.com.  Be sure to look for the chick in front row sporting pink donut PJ's!

Images: AFOMFT & Martha Stewart

Help Wanted!

So you may have noticed that there are days here and there where I haven't been able to post.  Trying to manage my full-time "real" job and family, which includes twin two-year-olds, isn't always easy.  Combine that with trying to build and improve on AFOMFT and, well, some days I just need an extra set of hands!  So I've decided it's time to add someone to the team and I thought what better place to look than to my favorite people - all of you who read the blog!

Here's what I'm looking for in a Virtual Associate:

• Someone who's available between 5-7 hours per week to help with administrative and creative tasks (facilitating giveaways, updating contact lists and databases, helping to track down new and interesting products and ideas to feature, posting links on the FB fan page, etc.)
• Someone who has kids or is expecting (bonus points if you have boys since I'm often asked to review products for little guys and don't have any of my own)
• Someone who's organized and a self-starter.
• Someone who's interested in blogging but doesn't have a blog that currently covers the same topics as AFOMFT (reviews, features and giveaways on products for babies and kids).  Having a personal blog is not a problem.
• Someone who may be interested in contributing posts to AFOMFT - this is a plus but isn't required.
• Someone who has a general understanding of Blogger.

This isn't a paid position but there will be perks for the person chosen which I will disclose in more detail to the candidates I interview.  If you're interested in applying, simply fill out the form below and your responses will be entered into a private spreadsheet.  Looking forward to introducing our newest team member very soon!

Martha, Martha, Martha!

I had such a blast at the Martha Stewart Bloggers' Night Out last night!  The weather kept us off the roof deck but the views from the event space were still spectacular.

Walking through the MSLO offices, we got to peek into the test kitchens and rooms where all of the magic happens before arriving into a wonderland of all things Martha.  There was an amazing display of wedding loveliness that made me want to get married all over again.  Is having a vow renewal for a sixth anniversary too much?

And of course there were sweet treats to die for.

How fun is this Oreo cake?

The Crafts Department had so many fun toys for us to play with.

And I was so excited to meet Hannah Carpenter Milman (the goddess of crafts) who taught me how to use some of the new Martha Stewart punches.

She also showed off the Halloween line of beverage labels, which are perfect for any spooky soiree.

I met so many fantastic bloggers while I was there and really enjoyed chatting with some of the Martha peeps, like Alexis Stewart (so tall!) and Darcy Miller (so sweet!).  I even caught a glimpse of Martha herself.

We were all sent home with bags filled with goodies from Martha Stewart and Kraft.    

Those Martha paper punches are going to come in very handy as I start working on Gabrielle & Alaina's party!

I realized as I put this post together that I ended up taking more pictures of stuff then people (and excuse the iPhone photo quality!).  I know I posed for a bunch of pictures with my fellow bloggers so if you have any, please send them my way.  And a big thanks to MSLO for including me in this fun event!