Calling all San Fernando Valley & LA Moms! You won’t want to miss this Kids Clothing Swap happening at Lalaland Playground in Burbank on April 10th. It’s a great opportunity to get together with other moms to swap your baby, kids & maternity clothing.
There will be Easter treats for the kids & a FREE raffle with giveaways! They are giving away goodie bags to the first 25 people to purchase their ticket online.
Peace Love Swap is the only national organization that produces large scale, ongoing kids clothing swaps. After the swap, the organizers donate the leftovers to local charities & families in need.
See the invitation below for details.
For more information & to RSVP for the event, click on over to the Spring Maternity & Kids Clothing and Gear SwapFacebook event page.
So do a little Spring cleaning & clean out those closets! Hope to see you there!
The following post is sponsored by California Limited. All opinions are my own.
I’m a Cali girl, born & raised in the LA area. I love my home state, what with the great weather, tons of attractions & diverse cultures. Like the t-shirt says below, I truly believe that the West Coast is the best coast! Where else can you go from snowboarding in the mountains of Big Bear to playing volleyball on the beach in a matter of hours? Like Katy Perry said, “You could travel the world, but nothing comes close to the Golden Coast.” Amen sister!!
As a busy mom who does a lot of volunteer work at my daughter’s school, my wardrobe consists mainly of comfy, casual clothes. I love shirts that are soft & relaxed, that I can wear with my jeans to a PTA meeting, as well as with my yoga pants to grab coffee with a friend after a workout. So when I heard about California Limited, an Orange County based business that prints cool & hip California slogans onto premium fabrics, I jumped at the chance to try out their products!
California Limited designs & prints their shirts in Orange County. What started out in Costa Mesa as a Facebook fan page has now evolved into an online business that showcases apparel for men & women, as well as accessories.
I recently wore this California Limited baseball tee while running errands around town. It’s soft & lightweight, perfect for wearing with jeans or even leggings!
I liked the two shirts so much, that I’m thinking about going online & getting additional items. Perhaps I’ll get this blue Golden Wing shirt.
I think this Golden State of Mind t-shirt would be perfect for my hubby!
This California Girl necklace is really cute!
This clothing line is perfect for those who love the California lifestyle, whether you’re a California native like myself or you hope to visit the Golden State one day. For more information on California Limited, visit their website at: http://www.calimited.com/
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for California Limited. I received sample products to facilitate this review. All opinions are 100% my own.
Muppets Most Wanted came out over the weekend. Did you take your kids to see it?
A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity of a lifetime to meet the cast & producers of the film. You can read about my experience over on Surf and Sunshine, where I did a guest post. Here’s a photo of me in the press room waiting for the “big reveal” of the cast! I couldn’t wait to meet Kermit, Miss Piggy & Tina Fey!
I was also fortunate to see an early screening of the movie. It was cute & entertaining with a ton of celebrity cameos. If you’re a Muppets fan, you’re going to really enjoy it! You can read my full review here.
Happy Friday!! Whew, it’s been a busy week. Between my daughter’s jog-a-thon at school last Friday, to working a kids expo over the weekend with my UrbanSitter team, plus an Irish Dance recital thrown in the mix…I’m so glad the weekend is almost here.
Yesterday I met up with a friend in Pasadena to take a class at Studio Metamorphosis. Melissa is a fitness blogger, Registered Dietitian & all around cool chick. You may remember that I ran the Hard Rock Cafe 5k with her last year.
The soft opening for Studio Metamorphosis was this past Wednesday & to celebrate the occasion they were offering free classes for the week. Honestly when I stepped through those doors I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve done mat Pilates a few times, but doing Pilates on a Megaformer is a completely different animal!
The Megaformer has bars, pulleys & straps. When I first looked at it I thought, is this machine going to torture me, lol! The 45 minute class kicked my butt. We did a lot of planking type exercises & rollouts on the machine, plus leg exercises & armwork. Jennifer Yates (owner & instructor) went around the room checking everyone’s form & she made slight adjustments to my position & stance.
From a newbie experience, this is the type of class where one could easily be intimidated. I felt this way about TRX when I tried it for the first time. Half the battle for me is to understand how the equipment works & learning just to relax & go with the flow. I remember taking a Zumba class a couple of years ago. I have 2 left feet & about 20 minutes in I realized that this may not be the class for me. Despite that, I hung in there & basically pulled a “fake it til you make it” attitude to get me through the class.
They were still putting finishing touches in the various rooms so I didn’t take photos of the studio. The Pilates class at Studio Metamorphosis is one of those fitness classes where I have to take it a few times before I can really judge it. That’s what I did with TRX & now I love it, so who knows maybe that will happen with this one. Time (& another session) will tell…
After class I went with Melissa to Urth Caffe for some good coffee & conversation.
Speaking of Melissa, you’re going to want to check out her blog, The Valentine RD. Every Friday she features a different female blogger, which I was honored to be a part of last year. Her blog about fitness, 80’s pop culture & nutrition makes for a very interesting read.
So that was my day in the ‘Dena. Have a great weekend everyone!
Tell me: have you ever taken a class that you felt was out of your league? What did you do to stay focused & motivated? Sound off in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!
Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. I took a free class that was open to the community. All opinions are my own.
The Single Moms Club is a dramedy focusing on a group of single mothers, from different walks of life, who are brought together by an incident at their children’s school. It stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, Nia Long, Cocoa Brown, Zulay Henao & Amy Smart. For those of you who follow my blog, you’ll remember that I interviewed the actresses last week. I was also fortunate to attend an early screening of the film with my friend, who is a single mother of two kids.
Wendi McLendon-Covey plays a tightly wound executive who is lobbying for a much desired promotion at a publishing house, while at the same time raising her tween daughter as a single parent. Work life balance has no meaning for her. The film makes it a point to show her trying to juggle everything – work, motherhood & even her own love life (or lack thereof), but failing on all fronts.
Is it possible for women to have it all? When this question was posed to Wendi during last week’s interview, she had responded “You can have it all, but not all at the same time. If you had all of those things, could you service all of those things? I couldn’t! I’m just trying to get 6 hours of sleep in a night & say hello to my husband, Monday thru Friday. I really only see him on Saturdays & every other day of the week is preparing to go to work. So don’t feel bad if you don’t have it all cause nobody does & people who say they do are liars or in their 70′s.” Amen Wendi…preach!! 🙂
Nia Long’s character is a journalist who is just trying to keep her “ish” together, while raising her 12 year old son. Here’s a fun fact (which I didn’t know until after the movie was over): the son in the movie is Nia’s son in real life! There is one particular scene between mother & son that had me tearing up. I won’t give it away, but once you see the movie, you’ll know exactly which one I am referring to.
Much of the comic relief in the movie is provided by Cocoa Brown’s character Lytia. The scenes between Cocoa & Terry Crews (who is desperately trying to woo her) had the audience laughing throughout the movie. Here is a clip of one such scene:
Zulay Henao plays Esperanza, a divorced mom trying to raise her strong-willed daughter. Esperanza finds herself at odds constantly with her ex-husband, played by Eddie Cibrian. I couldn’t help but wonder during some of those scenes if it was art imitating life for Eddie, but I digress… 😉
Amy Smart’s character is a newly separated mom to three kids, struggling to find her way in this new chapter of her life. By leaning on the other women in the Single Moms Club, she learns to stand on her own feet.
I enjoyed the movie & found it entertaining. I think the film is something that all women (single, married, moms or otherwise) will find relatable & funny. The message of sisterhood rings so clear in the movie that after it was over, I couldn’t help but hum that Eurythmics song “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” on the drive home. No, that song isn’t in the movie, but it really should be!
Last week I attended a fun event at Blo Blow Dry Bar in Porter Ranch, where the guests were treated to a Jo Malone trunk show while sipping on drinks & light snacks. Representatives from Jo Malone were there to educate us on their fragrances.
When I had heard about this free community event, I immediately RSVP’d! You see I’ve been a big fan of Jo Malone for years. There’s a Nordstrom near my home & whenever I am in the store, I would stop at the Jo Malone counter & spritz a little grapefruit cologne on my wrists. I just love the clean, crisp smell of citrus.
Usually I don’t wear a lot of perfume, especially heavy ones because I developed a sensitivity in college where I would get headaches or start to sneeze whenever I used them. However I am able to wear scented lotions without any issues, depending on the fragrance. Fortunately for me, I don’t have that reaction with ANY of the Jo Malone products – yay!
What I learned at the Jo Malone trunk show is that you can layer different fragrances to create your own signature scent. I personally loved the grapefruit combined with orange blossom. The combination of these two colognes creates a light fragrance of citrus & floral scents.
Jo Malone has a nice collection of colognes, body washes, lotions, crèmes, bath oils and candles in various scents.
After consulting with the fragrance gurus & trying on several products, I decided to make my purchase. Angela from Bloomingdale’s Sherman Oaks was on hand to take orders & I even got a special parting gift!
Tell me: What scents do you look for in your perfume? Are you a citrus, fruity, spicy, musk or floral wearer?
Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. I received a gift with purchase while attending a free community event. All opinions are my own.
The Single Moms Club is a dramedy starring Wendi McLendon-Covey, Nia Long, Cocoa Brown, Zulay Henao & Amy Smart. I attended an early screening last week & found it to be entertaining, with many funny & heartfelt moments.
When five struggling single moms put aside their differences to form a support group, they find inspiration and laughter in their new sisterhood, and help each other overcome the obstacles that stand in their way.
I recently got to sit down with the cast of The Single Moms Club & chat about motherhood, the importance of having a good support network & what it’s like working on a Tyler Perry film.
QUESTION: How did you identify with the character of this film being that you are not a mom?
Amy Smart: All my friends & family have kids now, so I have been around it. Maybe that’s enough for my character because she’s around it [but] she’s just not as involved in her kids’ lives. What I like is that she’s been so checked out & she’s forced to have to check back in & really get to know her kids on a much more intimate level.
Zulay Henao: In talking about this, I realized what I really loved about my part, my role in the movie, is that I enjoyed being a mother. It was fun. I was raised by a single mother, my father was around but my parents were divorced when I was 14. I was able to kind of go back to that time in my life & to really absorb what that was like to me as a child, like taking the child’s perspective, but then also really understanding all of my mother’s sacrifices. So it was really therapeutic for me, to be honest with you, being on set.
QUESTION: What’s it like working with Tyler Perry?
Amy Smart: It was amazing. Like it was so much fun to go down because he shoots everything in Atlanta. So we all went down to Atlanta & it was such a bonding experience.
Cocoa Brown: I’ve worked with him for three years on [the television show] For Better or Worse. He allows me to “do me” in the sense that he trusts my funny. It’s always a good comfort zone for me that I can come on there & I can bring the realness to the character. I don’t feel like I have to stay married to the script.
Wendi McLendon-Covey: Working with Tyler is really fun because he is very collaborative & he encourages you to improvise. I personally like doing ensemble comedy. So it was fun to get to bond with these women & watch them be hilarious.
Several of the film’s funniest scenes came from Cocoa Brown who became a single mother while shooting this movie. When asked how this impacted the filming of her role, Cocoa said “I began to use it. Once I was able to say ok, you know what, I’m not going to try to hide it, I’m just gonna let this pain come out in whatever way it does. It became organic for me in the course of the filming. It was healing…it was very healing.”
The film highlights how important it is to have a support network. Although Amy Smart doesn’t have kids yet, she does have a wonderful group of friends, stating “I have some incredible girlfriends in my life that I love so much & I feel like the female bonding network for me is super strong.”
When asked about her support system, Cocoa responded “I have a great village of just incredible men & they’re of all races & colors & backgrounds. They loved me & my son enough to swoop down & kind of fill that void when me & my husband separated & [ultimately] divorced. He has all of these uncles & they surround us with so much love.”
QUESTION: Did you have any aha moments while filming?
Cocoa Brown: One of the biggest breakthroughs for me that I learned while filming is that it’s ok to let my pain out & do it through my work. As a standup comic, people are so used to me being “on” & being funny & I got to actually just let that mask off & just be real.
I really enjoyed meeting these actresses, who were so open & honest with their experiences. The interview ended with a group photo of the cast with all of the mom bloggers who attended this media event.
I’ll have my complete review of this movie on the blog by the end of the week, so stay tuned! I will say this though – whether or not you’re a mother (single or otherwise), you’re going to want to grab your BFF & watch this movie about sisterhood.
The Single Moms Club opens in theaters on March 14, 2014.
Visit the official website
Like The Single Moms Club Movie on Facebook
Follow @SingleMomsClub on Twitter #SingleMomsClub
Disclosure: I attended a press event for this film. Images used with permission from Lionsgate. All opinions are my own.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity through Surf and Sunshine to preview several scenes of Rio 2. It’s very entertaining & the music is GREAT! I can’t wait to take my daughter when it opens up next month. I was fortunate to be able to interview the director, Carlos Saldanha with several other mom bloggers. To read about my chat with the director, click over & read it here!
Real Mom of SFV 