I have a sick obsession with organizing things.
You'd think that would make my house look ten times neater than what does, but alas, that is not the case - because I have another secret to share with you...
I'm also ever so slightly, just the teensy weensiest bit insane.
(Not to mention a tad obsessive.)
The combination is a potent one, especially during high-stress times in my life. Like say, when MY ELDEST CHILD STARTS KINDERGARTEN.
I have found that the best way for me to cope with the reality that my baby girl is actually going to be leaving me for an extended portion of the day is to obsessively and compulsively organize her off-to-school belongings. Obsessively (did I mention that already?). And repeatedly.
Therefore, over the past couple of weeks, I have categorized her individual uniform pieces (including hair ties, socks and shoes) by color (light blue, dark blue, and black), comfortability (jersey skorts are more comfortable than jumpers are more comfortable than zip-up pleated skirts), and by dressy factor (sneakers are more casual than mary janes, obviously). And also a hundred other categories that I make up just for fun because I DON'T WANT HER TO LEAVE ME.
But it doesn't matter how many different piles of clothes I make, because my big girl is still going to head off to school no matter what - and I know it's going to be a wonderful experience. But you know what would make it even more wonderful? If all of her belongings were labeled.
(Says the obsessively-organizing slightly too-attached mama.)
I know that you're that feeling me on this. Nothing says "best foot forward" better than neat piles of polo shirts and jumpers all labeled with your kiddies' name. And even if I can't be there every second of the day to make sure that Inara doesn't leave her book bag or lunchbox at school (where she will be going WITHOUT ME waaaaah!), at least her labels will help to ensure that her cute little belongings are not lost forever to the abyss otherwise known as the Lost-And-Found Bin dun dun duuuuun!
I recently purchased a set of Mabel's Labels for just this purpose. Let me tell you that I was like a kid in a candy store hopped up on sugar and Red Dye #40 when I decided to take the plunge with these adorable labels. Mabel's Label's have long been the favorite of web-smart Cool Moms everywhere, because they are infinitely customizable (Inara loved picking out her own), as well as being famously laundry, microwave and dishwasher safe. I personally love that they come in every possible size known to mankind, and since I'm in the secret-sharing mood I'll drop another one right here - I've been coveting them forever.
It's true! But I never had a really good reason to snag a pack of Mabel's Labels...until now. Funny story: I had to basically present a Ph.D. dissertation to El Cheapitan before he agreed to get on board with me buying them. He hemmed and hawed for TWO DAYS before yielding to my irrefutable evidence proving the necessity of Mabel's Label's in our life.
(In other words, what eventually swayed him was the fact that their best-selling Ultimate Back-to-School Combo™ was on crazy sale for a limited time only - so he had to act fast or lose out on saving mucho dinero. Mwah ha ha ha!)
It ended up being a very good thing that I bought them, in spite of El Cheapitan's protestations. Practically the first thing out of the teacher's mouth at Inara's kindergarten orientation was to "Please, please, please LABEL EVERYTHING. And not just with a marker, because that will fade over time."
Ha ha ha ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I looked over at Yousuf and mouthed TOLD YOU SO.
And he looked over at me and mouthed DID YOU PAY HER TO SAY THAT?
Dweeb.
But it made total sense - Inara and her little schoolmates will all be wearing unbearably adorable uniforms this year, so if I call the teacher up to say, "Inara left her lovely blue sweater at school yesterday, did you happen to see it at all?" She would probably throw her head back and laugh her face off at me UNLESS I ended that sentence with, "And it was LABELED! With her name! On a purple label with a cute little picture of books!!! YOU CAN NOT MISS IT."
And then it shall magically reappear and all will be right with the world.
But I also noticed something else at the orientation. When the teacher talked about the labels, she did it right after the school supply lists were handed out, and man were those lists LONG. I actually had no idea that schools were in need of so many essential items, but it makes sense given how badly our public schools are funded (/socialist rant).
Anyway. I noticed that some parents visibly cringed after they were told that they not only had to buy supplies but also purchase labels. Add the cost of uniforms to that already-long list, and all of a sudden it becomes a lot of money - even for a middle-income family (like us). What happens to those families with more than one child in school? Or families that are having a hard enough time making ends meet as it is?
So I got to thinking (which is dangerous, for one such as myself). What could I do about this? And that's when the seeds for this installment of the Do Something Good Giveaway were planted. I came home from the orientation and emailed the lovely ladies at Mabel's Label's right away with my plan - and guess what? They didn't laugh at me, because they are beautiful people who think altruism ROCKS (I swear that I'm going to put that on a t-shirt someday - ALTRUISM ROCKS).
In other words, you have to Do Something really kick-ass Good.
There is a handy dandy form below telling you about additional ways to enter, but what I would really love is to encourage you to think about a deserving person who would appreciate a set of Mabel's Labels, and who would not purchase them for themselves...for whatever reason. Especially during back-to-school time, there are so many families that may have a difficult time providing their children with much-needed supplies, and this giveaway will give us all a chance to make someone feel special, regardless of their circumstance.
To that end, the MANDATORY entry for this giveaway is one comment left below of a description (it doesn't have to include names or specifics) of someone deserving that you would choose to win a package of Mabel's Labels, other than yourself or your immediate family. I will leave the creativity up to you (you can be as anonymous as you want to be), the sky is the limit! So, if I were to enter my own giveaway (which I can't but which I wish I could, so I hope that one of my friends does for me!!) it would say something like,
The giveaway will run for a week - the comments will close on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 and I will randomly select a winner with the help of a dancing monkey and random.org that evening while dancing the cha-cha and holding pink fizzy (non-alcoholic) beverage in my right hand. It's a highly intricate process, so no pictures are allowed, lest they break my concentration.
The winner will be announced on this blog on Thursday, September 1st, and will be contacted by email. Also, the giveaway is open to residents of Canada and the U.S. (word up to my fellow Canadians!). I hope to have many, many entries for this giveaway - I'm sure that anyone reading this can think of someone that needs this fabulous prize.
If you're interested in purchasing Mabel's Labels for yourself - which you should totally do (because every obsessively-organizing slightly too-attached mama needs a set of these as THEIR BABIES LEAVE THEM), be sure to check out the Ultimate Back-to-School Combo on the Mabel's Labels website. They are only available until the end of September, so get 'em while you can! The company is also generously sponsoring a huge blog promotion for back-to-school season, and I know of many other blogs that are running their own giveaways concurrently with me. Check out Mabelhood on Facebook and Twitter to find giveaways and score some for yourself (but don't forget to enter this one first! It's important! DO IT NOW. Please and thank you and did you know that you look absolutely stunning today?).
And now for the Obligatory Disclaimer: I did not receive any Mabel's Labels products for testing, or for compensation of this post, nor did I receive any monetary compensation to write this post. All personal opinions and views stated above are my own because I think the labels are rad and because I really truly want you to Do Something Good. This post is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with Facebook, Twitter, or any other network, and is the sole property of Veni, Vidi, Blogi™
READY? SET? GIVEAWAY!
I looked over at Yousuf and mouthed TOLD YOU SO.
And he looked over at me and mouthed DID YOU PAY HER TO SAY THAT?
Dweeb.
But it made total sense - Inara and her little schoolmates will all be wearing unbearably adorable uniforms this year, so if I call the teacher up to say, "Inara left her lovely blue sweater at school yesterday, did you happen to see it at all?" She would probably throw her head back and laugh her face off at me UNLESS I ended that sentence with, "And it was LABELED! With her name! On a purple label with a cute little picture of books!!! YOU CAN NOT MISS IT."
And then it shall magically reappear and all will be right with the world.
But I also noticed something else at the orientation. When the teacher talked about the labels, she did it right after the school supply lists were handed out, and man were those lists LONG. I actually had no idea that schools were in need of so many essential items, but it makes sense given how badly our public schools are funded (/socialist rant).
Anyway. I noticed that some parents visibly cringed after they were told that they not only had to buy supplies but also purchase labels. Add the cost of uniforms to that already-long list, and all of a sudden it becomes a lot of money - even for a middle-income family (like us). What happens to those families with more than one child in school? Or families that are having a hard enough time making ends meet as it is?
So I got to thinking (which is dangerous, for one such as myself). What could I do about this? And that's when the seeds for this installment of the Do Something Good Giveaway were planted. I came home from the orientation and emailed the lovely ladies at Mabel's Label's right away with my plan - and guess what? They didn't laugh at me, because they are beautiful people who think altruism ROCKS (I swear that I'm going to put that on a t-shirt someday - ALTRUISM ROCKS).
So here's what we're going to do, kiddies. Mabel's Labels is going to give away, to one V2B Karmic Superstar, a highly sought-after Ultimate Back-to-School Combo™, which includes:
- 50 Tag Mates™
- 40 Skinny-Minis™
- 16 Shoe Labels
- 2 Teeny Tags™
In other words, you have to Do Something really kick-ass Good.
There is a handy dandy form below telling you about additional ways to enter, but what I would really love is to encourage you to think about a deserving person who would appreciate a set of Mabel's Labels, and who would not purchase them for themselves...for whatever reason. Especially during back-to-school time, there are so many families that may have a difficult time providing their children with much-needed supplies, and this giveaway will give us all a chance to make someone feel special, regardless of their circumstance.
To that end, the MANDATORY entry for this giveaway is one comment left below of a description (it doesn't have to include names or specifics) of someone deserving that you would choose to win a package of Mabel's Labels, other than yourself or your immediate family. I will leave the creativity up to you (you can be as anonymous as you want to be), the sky is the limit! So, if I were to enter my own giveaway (which I can't but which I wish I could, so I hope that one of my friends does for me!!) it would say something like,
"I would love to win the Ultimate Back-to-School Combo for a friend of mine who is going through a rough split with her partner. Her child is going to kindergarten this year and I know that she would like to make it a special year for her big kid!"Easy enough, right? (And remember, if you Tweet or Facebook about the giveaway, you will get an extra entry and I will LOVE YOU FOREVER TO INFINITY. Let's get MORE people to Do Something Good...so tell all your friends and family pretty please with a cherry on top!)
The giveaway will run for a week - the comments will close on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 and I will randomly select a winner with the help of a dancing monkey and random.org that evening while dancing the cha-cha and holding pink fizzy (non-alcoholic) beverage in my right hand. It's a highly intricate process, so no pictures are allowed, lest they break my concentration.
The winner will be announced on this blog on Thursday, September 1st, and will be contacted by email. Also, the giveaway is open to residents of Canada and the U.S. (word up to my fellow Canadians!). I hope to have many, many entries for this giveaway - I'm sure that anyone reading this can think of someone that needs this fabulous prize.
If you're interested in purchasing Mabel's Labels for yourself - which you should totally do (because every obsessively-organizing slightly too-attached mama needs a set of these as THEIR BABIES LEAVE THEM), be sure to check out the Ultimate Back-to-School Combo on the Mabel's Labels website. They are only available until the end of September, so get 'em while you can! The company is also generously sponsoring a huge blog promotion for back-to-school season, and I know of many other blogs that are running their own giveaways concurrently with me. Check out Mabelhood on Facebook and Twitter to find giveaways and score some for yourself (but don't forget to enter this one first! It's important! DO IT NOW. Please and thank you and did you know that you look absolutely stunning today?).
And now for the Obligatory Disclaimer: I did not receive any Mabel's Labels products for testing, or for compensation of this post, nor did I receive any monetary compensation to write this post. All personal opinions and views stated above are my own because I think the labels are rad and because I really truly want you to Do Something Good. This post is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with Facebook, Twitter, or any other network, and is the sole property of Veni, Vidi, Blogi™
READY? SET? GIVEAWAY!
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