I am so excited to introduce you to another mom-owned business, and bring you an awesome giveaway! Bonnie is a talented fellow homeschooling mom who owns Inspired Occasions. She makes beautiful cakes, cookies, and other custom treats here in the valley.

My business started in 2003 when my oldest daughter was about to turn one. I had been searching for something I could do from home and thought about event planning. I took a cake decorating class at Michael’s just to see what they do and fell in love. I have been baking since I was about 8 but never thought of decorating. I went home from that first class knowing that is what I was meant to do. I made my daughters 1st birthday cake that year and never looked back. I found that at that time I did have to use a kitchen for my baking so I found one and my business took off. Now I have three children and I homeschool them. Being a self-employed cake artist allows me to be flexible with my schedule so that I can be home with my kids. I love what I do and being able to create so many pretty and great tasting sweets!

These are a just a couple of Bonnie’s recent cakes. Be sure to visit her website, and Facebook page to see more!

For today’s giveaway, Bonnie is actually giving away two different items (which means two different winners!).

1. For local readers only – If you’re local (anywhere in the Phoenix valley) enter to win one dozen cupcakes, flavor of your choice. In addition to all the flavors listed on the website, you can also choose from newly introduced flavors of Vegan Red Velvet, Margarita, Key Lime, and S’more. The winner can also request to have their cupcakes decorated in the theme of their choosing.  Bonnie’s even willing to work with the winner in case of dietary restrictions, etc, so you cannot go wrong!

and

2. To another reader: one dozen custom, edible, cupcake toppers… also in a design of your choosing. These are perfect for a child’s birthday party , and can be made to match whatever theme you’d like.   These adorable puppy toppers are just an example of what she can do:

Want to win?!  Here’s what you need to know:

1.  Comment on this post with which giveaway you’d like to enter:  1, 2, or both.  *Note* if you’re local, you’re welcome to enter both giveaways, but you can only win one.

For more entries:

2.  Share the link to this giveaway on Facebook 

3.  Share the link on Twitter

4.  “Like” Inspired Occasions on Facebook.

A total of four chances to win.  Make sure to come back to comment and let me know which ones you’ve done.  Winners will be drawn and announced next Monday, May 22nd. 

Big thanks to Bonnie, and good luck! 🙂

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I love doing giveaways so much that I actually get butterflies in my stomach when I draw the winner (even though it can’t be me. :)) So believe me when I say that I’m always very excited to announce who has won!

And the winner of Tara’s beautiful birthstone necklace is:

Edna · I’m in …beautiful!

Congratulations Edna!! Send me a message with your mailing address, as well as what month stone/s you would like.  I can’t wait for you to see it in person!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and of course a huge thank you to Tara. 

I have been planning on doing this giveaway for a little while now, and decided I’d bring it out today, just in time for Mother’s Day! Tara is another friend and fellow May 2004 mom, who has recently begun making and selling custom jewelry.

As a full time working Mom I found myself needing an outlet for myself, a way to calm myself and just be me. About a year ago I went to a jewelry workshop and found that exact thing. I have never considered myself creative, and still don’t, but this tapped in to my creative side that I never knew was there. I enjoy doing the birthstone necklaces/bracelets because there is nothing more important to me than family and any way I can show them off I will! My pieces are not perfect but they are unique to you and your family.

Today Tara is offering one simple birthstone necklace ($15+ value)to one reader. The birthstone pendants hang from a 24 inch, sterling silver chain. You choose the stones… whether it’s for yourself in honor of your own kids, or a gift for another mother or grandmother in your life.

In addition to the birthstone necklaces, Tara also makes an assortment of necklaces, bracelets, and other custom pieces. Be sure to visit her blog and her Etsy Store to see more of her work.

Want to win a necklace? Here’s what you need to know:

1) Comment on this post for one entry

2) Share the link on Facebook, and come back again to let me know you’ve done it to be entered twice.

3) You have until Thursday at midnight to enter. Winner will be randomly chosen and posted this Friday, April 22nd.

Thanks Tara, and Good Luck!

Thanks to all who entered and shared the link, and of course a huge thank you to Jill!

The winner (drawn randomly by randomizer.org) is:

Claudia ·
Planning to redo a bedroom for my two girls to share – a sisters painting would be such a fun, surprise addition!

Congratulations Claudia!  I am so excited for you, and I hope that you’ll come back and share with us a picture of what she’s created for you. 🙂   I will put Jill in contact with you soon so you can start planning.

Thanks to all for making this another fun giveaway.  And if you’re a mom (or dad) who has your own product/business, and would be interested in doing a giveaway, contact me, and let’s talk!

I’m very excited to bring you another awesome giveaway! Jill is a fellow May 2004 mom (her little girl is the same age as my Everett), and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her through our online playgroup. She’s a wonderful artist who’s been in business for nearly seven years. She started off by painting murals for her own daughter, which grew into painting for family and friends. She started getting more and more requests for her work, and now sells her paintings and murals internationally.

I started working from home when my daughter was born because I couldn’t bear the thought of missing all those important stages. Now 6 years later I’m able to still be home with her and continue to paint. I’ve painted lots of different themes, lots of custom work, and I LOVE seeing client’s faces when they see what I’ve been able to create specially for them.

Jill is offering to give away one custom painted 11 x 14in canvas ($65 value!) to one lucky reader. Your design can be chosen from something she’s already done, or can be completely custom, as per the winner’s choice.  Awesome, right? She can create something to match your child’s room, or give you a unique, one-of-a-kind gift for a new mom and baby. Below are just a few examples of some of her recent works.  Please check out her website, and visit her Facebook page for more.

Thinking about what you’d like to see hanging in your own house?  Then you’ve gotta enter to win!  Here’s what you need to know:

1) Comment on this post to enter once.

2) Share this giveaway on FB or Twitter, come back and comment again, and you’re entered twice.

3) Want a third chance to win?  Go to Facebook and “like” Jill’s page, and come back to let me know you’ve done that too.  (If you already like it, that counts too!)

4) I’ll keep this open for entries for one week, and will announce the winner – chosen randomly – by the end of the day on Monday, March 28th.

Thanks so much to Jill for such a cool giveaway, and good luck!

Thanks so much to everyone who visited, entered, and shared the link! And a huge, huge thank you to Mandy, for sharing your story and being such an inspiration.

Congratulations Linda!! I can’t wait for you to taste this chocolate (and I’m only a little bit jealous :)) Send me an email with your mailing information, as well as what flavor you would like, so I can get it to Mandy. 

Thanks everyone!  And sit tight for another giveaway soon.

I am really excited about this giveaway for a couple of reasons. First, the Jones family is a fellow Christian unschooling family, and they are a family that I really respect and admire. Second (and perhaps even more importantly) their chocolate is CRAZY delicious! It is raw, organic, and vegan, and it’s made with just a few ingredients.  If you’re a lover of good quality chocolate, you need to try it.

Mandy took some time out of her day to answer some questions, and it’s my pleasure to introduce her and her family (and her chocolate ;))

Tell me what unschooling looks like in your family, and how it has changed over the past several months.

For our family, unschooling used to mean a lot of field trips, spending time with a ton of friends, going to our fun co-op, hosting a monthly show and tell at the local library, playing baseball in the spring and in the fall, and then squeezing in some lazy time whenever we had the chance. Since my oldest child, Hunter, was diagnosed with leukemia, all of that has come to a screeching halt. Now we are home most of the time (with an exception of Tuesday and Friday mornings when we take a trip to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for Hunter’s check ups. Over the past few months, our “unschooling” has depended upon what phase we were in with our treatment. When Hunter was in the hospital, I had him occasionally working on his Math U See Primer and keeping up with an occasional episode of Headsprout. Otherwise he spent his time resting, watching television, playing video games, building Legos and listening to his dad read aloud to him the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. My daughter got to hear me read a lot of great picture books but that was about all I could handle during those times. She and I watched a lot of television and simply tried to stay distracted until the boys came home.


Now that Hunter is home, we have settled in to more of a productive routine. We plan our days around the toddler’s naps. When he lays down with daddy, we know that means reading time. We look forward to this time each day. We read so many different things and we are trying to remember to pray aloud before we start reading every day. We also keep up with Headsprout and Math U See, going at whatever pace the children prefer. Some weeks they want to do those things, some weeks not so much. We watch a lot of television. We get out the art supplies. We cook and bake a lot. And we are making plans for out of doors activities that we’ll be able to safely do once the weather becomes warmer… like geocaching, hiking, camping, and watching dad play baseball for our church on Monday nights. It’s been an adjustment trying to get used to staying at home so much but to be honest, I actually prefer this part of our new lifestyle. And I will carry what I’ve learned about staying home and not being overly committed into our life after leukemia.

What role does your faith play in your homeschooling, and in dealing with Hunter’s illness?

This question might better read “What role does leukemia play in your faith?”
I feel like watching Hunter’s illness and all of the miracles that have happened along this journey have strengthened my faith in so many ways. I’ve never had the opportunity to watch God take care of me and my family quite like this before. It’s like everything we have needed has just been handed to us from all directions. It’s blown my mind. I am so thankful for the amazing way that people have stepped up to provide for our every need. This experience has helped me believe in the power of prayer and the goodness in people. I’d never had to depend upon prayers and people like this before.


As for the role that faith plays in my homeschooling… I unschool because I believe in living life authentically and trying to avoid being motivated by fear. Thanks to faith, I don’t worry about tomorrow. I know that it will take care of itself. So I don’t worry about my children… I believe that whatever they need to know and experience, God will lay before them. I just need to step back and not get in their way. After all, He knows best. I realize that this is a pretty radical concept but when I take a look around at the world we are living in, I figure the results of my choices couldn’t be any worse than what would happen to my children if I followed a more “traditional” method of parenting… and it might just work.


How do you decompress and take time for yourself in the midst of everything that is going on?

Barely! I strongly depend upon about twenty minutes of quiet time when I lay down in my bed at night next to the crib and wait for the toddler to drift off to sleep. During those moments, I pray, breathe, and soak up the quiet. I try to squeeze in exercise occasionally. I like to play Just Dance, Just Dance 2, and the Michael Jackson Experience on the Wii. I also consider cleaning and cooking to be very relaxing so I spend a lot of my mornings bustling about my kitchen doing laundry, cleaning floors… I stay connected to the outside world via Facebook and my blog. I hope that in the near future, I can start enjoying a little more down time because I do feel pretty overwhelmed and exhausted these days.

Tell me a little bit about your chocolate business. Do your kids help out (or will they when they are older)?

Basically, my husband makes it, packages it, sells it, etc. I just eat it and promote it online. My kids do not help out because legally he is the only person allowed in the kitchen while making Ridiculous Chocolate. I’m sure if we find commercial kitchen space and as the business grows, however, the children will help. I look forward to those days. I have a vision for our chocolate and I have every reason to believe we will get there… it just might take a while. Hopefully the next time we catch some speed, we’ll be able to keep that going and no other crazy huge life event will slow us down. We are at an exciting point in growing the business… discussing possible partnerships, experimenting with new packaging, playing around with new flavors. It’s a fun time to be starting a new, successful business. With the economy so sketchy and the job market being so tough, it’s the perfect time to move forward towards self-employment. What do we have to lose, right?

Thanks Mandy!  You can read more about Mandy and her family over at her blog, a bona fide life.  You can also like her Ridiculous Chocolate page on Facebook, and show your support for Hunter by liking his Help Hunter Jones Blast Leukemia page. 

And without further ado,  the giveaway…

I am giving away one pound of Ridiculous Chocolate (40 pieces), a $20 value, to one lucky reader.  The original flavor is delicious all on its own, but the winner may choose their own flavor (awesome, right?!)  In addition to original, they offer:

Thanks Alice, and to all who read and participated in my first giveaway.  🙂  It was a lot of fun.  I have another really cool one coming soon, so if you didn’t win this one, come try again! 

I used a site called randomizer.org to give me the random winner, and without further adieu, the winner of Alice’s flower accessory is:

RoddickFamily

Congratulations!  Send me your mailing info so we can get it sent out!

And stay tuned for my next one.

For my first giveaway, I have an adorable offering from my friend – and fellow unschooler – Alice, who runs Alice’s Handmade Crafts.

My business started mostly as an excuse to make things for little girls. I have 3 boys, and it wasn’t long before I ran out of nieces and friends with girls to give away tutus and crocheted flower hats to. So I started an etsy shop almost a year ago, and really love having it. I’ve always felt a need to create things, and this is the perfect outlet for me. My biggest seller is definitely the hat with flowers on top, with tutus as a close second. My newest item is the flower accessory and I’m hoping they’ll be popular as well. But my favorite projects, and the ones I’m most proud of, are my embroidered products. They are my most intricate items, and the ones I feel like I can really put myself into through design and color. They are also the only things I make specifically for adults, which may be part of the reason I love to make them. You may notice there’s nothing of that description for sale in my shop right now…because they are also the most time-consuming! Between unschooling my 3 boys (6, 4, and 1) and expecting twin girls this spring, there’s not a lot of free time around here. But I do take custom orders for all of my products, including embroidery, so be sure to check out my “Sold Items” section to get an idea of what I’ve embroidered in the past. Become a fan of my Facebook page; my shop’s one year anniversary is next month and I’ll be putting a coupon code on my Facebook page to celebrate!

Today’s giveaway item is one of Alice’s new, hand-crocheted flowers, in ivory. It’s value is $8, and it is perfect for tying on a baby girl’s head for a newborn photoshoot, tying around a ponytail on an older child, tying on a wrist like a bracelet, decorating a purse or a package… anything you’d like to decorate!

Want to win it?  Just comment on this post… any old comment will do.  (If you’ve come from Facebook, make sure you comment here, not on Facebook)  If you’d like to enter twice, just post the link to this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter, then come back and comment again to tell me you’ve done it.  🙂   I’ll keep this open for one week, and announce the winner (chosen randomly) on Monday, February 21.

Check out Alice’s Etsy Store to see some of her other popular items, like her best-selling hats:

Thank you to Alice and Alice’s Handmade Crafts.  And good luck!

Forty three days into my blog-a-day challenge to myself, and a funny thing has happened. Blogging has become less about pontificating for the sake of pontificating (though I do love my pontificating) and more about interacting. I’ve realized the past several weeks how much I truly love the give and take, and the feedback, and the sharing that a blog allows. I don’t think I’ve really appreciated that aspect of it until very recently. Starting the Facebook page has surely helped in that regard, as have those of you who’ve passed my link onto others.

And as I’ve spent more time on my own blog, I’ve also been spending time perusing others… seeing what I like, seeing what I don’t like, seeing what works, and seeing what doesn’t.

My own personal favorite blogs are the blogs that make visiting fun, whether it’s just through a light writing style, a sense of humor, or lots of pictures.

Oh yeah, and the giveaways.

Giveaways are an awesome way to interact, and a chance to learn about great products and small mom-owned businesses that you might not otherwise have heard of.  And they’re FUN!  So, doing a giveaway seemed like the next logical step in creating this little corner of the blogosphere.   I had to do a giveaway.   I’m going to do a giveaway of my own making at some point (homemade vegan lip balm anyone??)  but thanks to two beautiful volunteers, I get to start with something even better.

My very first giveaway will be tomorrow, in honor of my I-don’t-celebrate-Valentine’s-Day celebration, and I have another in the works for next week.  I am so excited! 

If you’re a mom who has a unique product or business, and would like to donate something for a giveaway and get some more exposure for your site, drop me a message.  And make sure you come back tomorrow for giveaway number one!