coupon code

as a special offer for the readers of from the pumpkin patch i would love to offer you all a coupon code for 15% off any purchase of $50.00 or more at pretty little pumpkins.

check out the new items and the new markdowns, including up to 75% off in the clearance area!!!

and don't forget to use code "vine15" to save

how simply sweet is this little fashion accessory?!?!? pretty little pumpkins is so excited to debut the new line from leila and ben!!! check out the funky ties for boys...fresh dresses for girls and for baby HOT HOT HOT little cow print sleep sacks (complete with little pink zipper to resemble the little cow belly!!!)

hot new accessories coming soon...

check out these hot little fashion accessories for your sweet little pumpkins!!!

within the next week prettylittlepumpkins childrens clothing boutique will be offering these adorable little belts from gigi belts for both boys and girls!!!

...and i always wondered why the heck baby pants have belt loops...yea, know i know ;)

sisters

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day,
drinking iced tea and visiting with her Mother. As
they talked about life, about marriage, about the
responsibilities of life and the obligations of
adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her
glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance
upon her daughter

'Don't forget your Sisters,' she advised, swirling
the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll
be more important as you get older. No matter how
much you love your husband, no matter how much you
love the children you may have, you are still going
to need Sisters. Remember to go places with them now
and then; do things with them.'

'Remember that 'Sisters' means ALL the women...
your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other
women relatives too. 'You'll need other women. Women
always do.'

What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman
thought. Haven't I just gotten married?
Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a
married woman, for goodness sake! A grownup! Surely
my husband and the family we may start will be all I
need to make my life worthwhile!'

But she listened to her Mother. She kept contact
with her Sisters and made more women friends each
year. As the years tumbled by, one after another,
she gradually came to understand that her Mom really
knew what she was talking about. As time and nature
work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman,
Sisters are the mainstays of her life.

After more than 50 years of living in this world,
here is what I've learned:

THIS SAYS IT ALL:

Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.
Jobs come and go.
Love waxes and wanes.
Men don't do what they're supposed to do.
Hearts break.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Careers end.
BUT.........

Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how
many miles are
between you. A girl friend is never farther away
than needing her can reach.

When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you
have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life
will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on,
praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on
your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the
valley's end.

Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk
beside you...Or come in and carry you out.

Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters,
daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, Mothers,
Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended
family, all bless our life!

The world wouldn't be the same without women, and
neither would I. When we began this adventure called
womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or
sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we
would need each other.

Every day, we need each other still. Pass this on
to all the women who help make your life meaningful.
I just did. Short and very sweet:

There are more than twenty angels in this world.
Ten are peacefully sleeping on clouds. Nine are
playing. And one is reading her email at this
moment.

Send this message to ten of your friends including
me. If you get 5 replies, someone you love will
surprise you.

Happy days!

Don't break this; it's working

forward...

i get so many forwards from people and alot of them go right into the trash...but there are so many that are to good not to share. i NEVER forward anything, i always cut and paste, but i generally get 2 forwards from at least 5 people a day on my email (somedays more, rarely less) and i know everyone else has the same problem, so from now on i will not pass on anything unless it is very important...i will post it here.

check back often, i get such warm, sweet items that will make you tear, and others will make you laugh...lets start

This is worthwhile reading...Hope you enjoy it!!!

I think all of us have gone through this many times. It also gives new meaning to the phrase...Wait until you're a parent!!

WORRY ...Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, "It's their life," and feel nothing?

When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my daughter's head. I asked, "When do You stop worrying?" The nurse said,"When they get out of the accident stage." My Dad just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them." My dad just smiled faintly and said nothing.
When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. Don't worry, in a few years, you can stop worrying, They'll be adults." My dad just smiled faintly And said nothing.

By the time I was 50, I was sick & tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle....There was nothing I could do about it. I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments. My Dad just smiled faintly and said nothing.

My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my dad's warm smile and his occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home. Are You depressed about something?"

Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for 3 days, and no one answered I was worried."

I smiled a warm smile. The torch has been passed.

PASS IT ON TO OTHER WONDERFUL PARENTS(And also to your children. That's the fun part)

diaper duty update

NEVER, EVER once in my life did i imagine i would be so excited about something so YUCKY as cloth diapers!!! but i have to tell you, i did SO much research about switching from disposables to cloth diapers, not only do you have to make that switch but you really have to know what TYPE of clothies you are going with, and i am sorry but this is a GIANT commitment!!! like i said i did SO much research on diapers then i searched for prices...i literally spent 8 hours one day making a decision, but i finally did it!!!

we ended up spending around $250.00 for 12 diaper cover (6 in each size...oh yes we have 2 in diapers!!!) 24 microfiber inserts, 2 (to try out) hemp inserts and the plastic liners came with the diapers. alot to drop at once but the way we go through diapers, that is a 4 month supply of disposables.

for the covers we went with the awesome, hybrid, gDiapers...they come with plastic liners that snap in and out and have inserts you buy that are flusable/disposable/or even COMPOSTABLE!!! the inserts are supposed to degrade anywhere from 50 to 150 DAYS...ALOT less time than the 500 YEARS the average disposable takes...but i wanted to use cloth inserts so we opted for some microfiber ones. i figure we can use the disposable liners at night because the girls usually mess their diapers first thing in the morning and use the washable ones during the day, so far it is going quite swimmingly, we still have messes at various times throughout the day but they are very managable.

for the cloth microfiber liners i went to a specialized diaper boutique wildflower diapers, they have so many choices it will make your head hurt, but the owner is so great so acutally has a ton of info posted right on her site to help new clothies figure out what they are doing. we also bought some hemp ones, i am very impressed with the fact that hemp does not require pesticides, is more absorbent than cotton, is not bleached, and tends to last longer than cotton so i am interested to see how it actually performs. i will let you know.

i did check out the aio (all in one) diapers and though they seem so much more convienent than covers, liners and inserts, i really wonder how clean that diaper is truly getting, it holds messes in and pulls them away from the baby but how does it know it's in the washer and supposed to release the messes?? (just a thought)

anyway...thats whats new on the cloth diaper front...even daddy is on board so things are quite well.

oh, my big tip is buy all of the recommended diapers when you first start using them, we tried cloth with our older daughter and because i had only bought 2 covers and a pack of the pre-folds we could not keep up with the demand and ended up going back to disposables, it is so much easier if you have plenty of clean liners and covers at the ready for you.

wa ter u doing

I recently saw my favorite weather guy, Sam Champion, on Good Morning America do a story on bottled water and I found it very interesting. We all know plastics take forever to breakdown, if they ever do and I am sure you can only imagine the number of plastic water bottles that go into the landfills each day, but what i really found fascinating was that fact that most people drink bottled water because we believe it's "safer." I knew many vitamins and minerals were removed in the distilling, purifying, etc process but did you know that the FDA oversees the production of bottled water, NOT the EPA as they do for public tap water? The EPA has much stricter standrards for public water safety than the FDA has for bottled and the FDA does not even oversee much production unless it crosses state lines, which many do not.

I decided for my family we are going to reuse bottles with our own tap water and check out these CUTE finds!!!

These little guys will make the PERFECT party favor for my sons birthday, the boys being so active with sports, climbing trees and general boys things i know their mamas will appreciate it

If you would like to read more on this topic check out this great site:

http://www.fastcompany.com/

To find these awesome earth/kid friendly product check out:

nalgene

diaper duty

One of my main green journeys is to find earth and baby friendly diapers. I have been on the hunt since my son, Quentin, was born almost 10 years ago. I know cloth is "supposed" to be the best, but honestly, I do not have the time, or patience for that matter, to clean up the messes and deal with washing poopie diapers. I tried with Quentin then when I had Veronica almost four years ago I tried again because it seemed no matter what I did she went from perfect to bleeding in one diaper change, her skin is so extremely sensitive even the cloth diapers irritated her. It wasn’t the cloth or the cotton, but the way both diapers are processed.

Through the magic that is the internet I found unbleached, organic diapers of all sorts. Cloth diapers are great if you have the patience, as I said I do not , but I am still being earth friendly by using a brand called seventh generation, the company’s mission is great, they consider how everything they manufacture will affect the next seven generations and they recognize that we all use some disposable products, but their main goal is to manufacture disposables that are used in the manner that is safest for consumers and the environment.

“Most diapers and wipes are made with absorbent materials that have been whitened with chlorine. But these whiter materials come with unpleasant consequences. Bleaching withchlorinecreates dangerous toxins such as dioxin, furans and other organochlorines. Once loose in the environment, these chemicals accumulate in both people and animals. Hundreds of studies have shown a direct link between dioxin exposure and cancer, birth defects and environmental and reproductive disorders.” seventh generation.com

There are many, many green brands, check some out at diapers.com :

NATURE BABYCARE - Eco-Friendly Baby Diapers

Tender Care Diapers

Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Diapers

And just one of the many cloth options available are:

Bum Genius

And now we are testing out gDiapers, from the outset these diapers look fabulous!!! They have a cloth cover to keep messes in, a snap in cloth liner that is unbleached and a flushable, or get this, COMPOSTABLE liner. I can not wait to see how this goes, but with 2 still in diapers and one in pull ups at night I need something easier on me and safer for them and the environment. I will keep ya posted!

Have a FABULOUS week…Oh and don’t forget the wipes, nearly all organic brands have their own line of organic wipes as well

With 18-23 billion diapers heading for landfill each year, it makes diapers the 3rd largest single consumer item in our waste system – following newspapers and beverage containers¹. Not a small accomplishment for a product used by about 5% of the population. ¹ US EPA Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States, 2003

lets chat energy savings

A major coffee chain has recalled children’s cups due to a risk of injury, another major toy manufacturer has recalled countless toys due to risk of lead exposure. If you are like me you have the cpsc on your favorites and check it daily.

Why do we do so much to concern ourselves with recalls but we still use toxic cleaners in our homes? Making our families safer includes making our environment safer. I am doing our part at our home and would love to help all of my posh friends by sharing the research I find. Once a week I will highlight a product that will help you and your family do what you can to make your fabulous little corners of the world healthier for yourself, your babies and the planet!!!

Enjoy my little “green” journey, and remember one tiny change will help everyone.
So here’s a “bright idea” HA! lets chat cfl’s or compact fluorescent light bulbs.

According to the energystar website:

“If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.”

Cfls have come SO far from those horrid, tacky fixtures from high school, some are now even made to look identical to the incandescent light bulb version and I even recently learned cfls come in all different colors, wattages and shapes…you can even find them to work with a dimmer switch or a 3-way fixture… so look out dining room chandelier…you are going green soon too ;)
How great is that? They can be used in almost any room, the only recommendation offered is to use the bulb in fixtures that will be lit for at least 15minutes

I originally checked into how “great” these bulbs were because I am quite the skeptic, especially when it comes to bringing it into my home around my children!!! The only real drawback I found is that they do contain mercury. Which means you have to dispose of them properly and by going onto www.energystar.gov they make it easy to find out how. Also, if perchance they should break (personally I think they are more durable then a regular bulb) there is a special clean up recommended by the epa. Back to my point, I weigh the benefits to the risks greatly, having 4 precious pumpkins in my care, so i have begun switching our bulbs to the hot new styles of cfls!!!

Again for more detailed info check out
www.energystar.gov

Remember to REALLY be green, wait for the old bulbs to die before you replace them!!!