I am all about saving the environment for my kids. However, I just wasn’t ready to jump on the eco-friendly shopping bags just yet.  I didn’t understand how many plastic bags I would save or how many less trip to the car would be made to carry in the groceries.

Ityse has changed me.  It has changed my life.  How, do you ask?  I will never go grocery shopping without these ever again.  Not only are these bags ecofriendly, they are also stylish.  I love that the bag the holds the bags looks just as stylish as any purse out there.  It isn’t obvious that you are saving the enviroment, and well, I like that.  This cute pouch houses 4 mesh bags and 1 black bag.

Did you know that the average family of four goes through around 1,000 bags grocery shopping over the year?  Isn’t that crazy?  Many cities are now either banning plastic bags or charging a 20 cent per bag tax.  In you live in one of the taxing cities, Ityse can easily save you $50 per year.  Best of all, these are made in the US.  Now, what was my turning point?  Look at this:

Now, this was a huge trip, so this was only half of it.  However, as you can see from the first picture, all five bags are full.  I was floored to see how much food was in those bags.  That is over half of my kitchen table.  Plus, everybody at the grocery store wanted to know where I got these bags.  They all loved them.  The girl bagging my groceries was even impressed.  She loved how the bags contoured around what she was putting in them.

I am glad to say that I am now doing my part to save the environment thanks to Ityse.

We often travel to Wisconsin to visit my family. It is a 4 hour drive, so are always looking for ways to keep the kids busy and entertained.  Bill hates to stop, so it is a long four hours.  A great item to check out for car rides, bedtime, and really any time is the Giddio Audio Adventures.  We listened to the Billy Brown Goes Hiking CD on our drive home, and it was a life saver for us.  Will was super crabby, and the only thing that made him quit screaming was this CD.  It definitely holds your children’s attention.  It is geared towards kids aged 3 – 7 (though it worked on my 1 year old too!)  This is actually pretty cool.  Instead of a narrator reading a story, there is a full cast.  Everyone has their own voice.  I love that it makes my kids use their imagination.  I’m not the only one who likes this either — it has won several awards (Dr. Toy’s Best Products 2007, several iParenting media awards, and Creative Child magazine’s Seal of Excellence).  We ended up having to listen to it more than once, because they like it so much (run time is between 30 – 45 minutes depending on which CD you are listening to).

I love that you can even try this out.  If you go to their site, you can download Billy Brown And The Mystery Package for free!  You can also print off the CD covers and have your kids color them!  I highly recommend checking this out as a great alternative to TV!

Do you travel a lot? In this last year, I have started traveling quite a bit. I learned that my black luggage my hide dirt and wear and tear well. However, I have also learned that everyone has black luggage, and it all looks exactly the same when it is coming off the baggage claim thing at the airport. I always thought I was being tricky by tying a neon colored ribbon on my luggage. However, a lot of people are doing that now, so that has quit working. I hate to pass along this great idea, since then you all will buy them and ruin it for me. However, Luggage Charms are such a great idea that I have to pass it on. Luggage Charms are super easy to use. Just tie them (triple knot) to anything that you don’t want to lose when you are flying such as your baggage, stroller, car seats, etc. These charms come with brightly colored ribbons and tags. On the front of the tag, you are able to get whatever design you want. On the back of the tag, you are able write or affix a label with all of your identifying information in case your luggage ends up separated from you (I hate when my luggage ends up on a better trip than me). They won’t look like anything anyone else has on their bag, so you don’t have to worry about anyone accidentally grabbing you luggage. You also won’t be standing at the baggage area trying to figure out if that’s really your suitcase or not! Even if you aren’t sitting at the airport, you can also use these to show who’s suitcase belongs to who. Since the ones I have each have different ribbon colors, it was easy to know whose suitcase was whose suitcase on your visit to Green Bay this weekend.

If you do any traveling at all, I highly recommend these luggage charms. They are priced right, are fashionable, and they make your life that much easier.  Now, I know you want a set of your own (each set has 4 charms in it), so I have arranged to give away 5 SETS of these, and you’ll get to pick what initial you want on each charm!  How awesome is that?  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know which set of luggage charms you like the best.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Reviews" /></a>

This giveaway will end on December 2nd at 8:00 pm and is available to US & Canadian residents only. Good luck!

I recently came across another item that falls along the lines of “why didn’t I think of that?”. The mom who came up with the Parking Pal, in my opinion, is a genius.  The Parking Pal is a circular magnet with a child size hand print in the center.  When you put it on your car/van/vehicle, you child puts they hand on their, and it keeps them safe while you load or unload your vehicle.  Being that I don’t have a driveway and we park on the street a lot with the minivan, I love that this keeps Madison safe.  I’ll be honest, when we first used it, I was completely surprised by something.  Madison knew what I wanted her to do without telling her.  She knew that I wanted her to stand there with her hand on the magnet while I was loading the car.  I love that this is intuitive enough that she just knew what was expected.  This has also been a hit with other moms.  They all wanted to know where I got this from, and all thought it was a great idea.  Now, the Parking Pal does come in several designs to pick from — everything from soccer balls, to fish, to flowers.  There is definitely something for your kids that you can get on there.  The Parking Pal will run you about $7.99.  However, $8 is well worth insuring my daughter’s safety.

Need an awesome present for your pet this year?  Need a gift for a pet lover in your life?  If so, you definitely need to check out Big Paw Designs.  First, they have really cute collar charms and they are around $10.  They are made with in the US with lead free pewter.  They also have Rescue Mom and Rescue Dad car magnets.  These too are made in the US, are removable, and UV fade resistant. They even have pet stickers! One of my favorite things on this site has to be this:

Now, tell me that isn’t the cutest stocking you have every seen.  After checking out this site, I want to get a pet just so I can use a lot of the really nice, really cute stuff that I found.  There are a ton of designs to pick from, so there is definitely something for everyone.  Now, I know you are wanting something from here as much as I do, so I have been able to arrange that one of my readers will get a $15 gift certificate for Big Paw Designs!

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know what you would spend this gift certificate on over at Big Paw Designs.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

</p> <div><a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" alt="Lisa Reviews" border="0"></a></div> <p>

This giveaway will end on November 21st at 8:00 pm. Good luck!