Joe’s Crab Shack is having a special deal where if you donate $5 to Share Our Strength you’ll get a free appetizer and if you donate $10 you’ll get a free Crab Bucket. You can read details here:
I was actually a little surprised to see there was a Joe’s Crab Shack within 10 miles of me. Looks like they’re in about 80% of the country now.
One nice thing about this deal is that you make the donation to Share Our Strength yourself–which means that you can take the deduction yourself in addition to the coupon. Your donation goes a long way: a $5 donation can feed hungry childred up to 50 meals, while a $10 donation can feel hungry children up to 100 meals.
But hurry, this deal lasts from now until September 30 only (although you’ll be able to use the coupon through December 31, 2013).
It’s that time of year again: Macy’s is having their annual “Shop for a Cause” event on Saturday, August 24!
I’m always a little confused at this promotion, because I get all kinds of notices from all kinds of charities that they’re part of this event. But after a little digging I understood.
Here’s how it works: for the last few weeks, Macy’s has been distributing savings passes to eligible charities that request them, which they can in turn sell for $5. The charity gets to keep the $5, and the customer gets to enjoy 25% off on Saturday when they bring their savings pass into their local Macy’s. Over 8,000 charities participated in this event last year, and this year it looks like a ton of charities are participating again, including a charity near and dear to my heart: the Alliance for Lupus Research, as well as organizations as diverse as animal shelters, arts organizations, and home-schoolers.
Every year this is a wildly successful program. Since 2006, they’ve raised over $42 million for charities.
If you didn’t get a chance to purchase a ticket from a charity, don’t worry, it looks like Macy’s is still going to let you enjoy the discount anyway, at least online.
I believe you’ll be given the option of adding a saving pass to your basket for $5 that will go to support the March of Dimes, which will entitle you to the 25% discount (seems to apply to all regular, sale, and clearance merchandise, although bigger ticket items like furniture and electronics will only get 10%). So as long as you’re ordering something around $20 or more, you’ll be saving well over $5, making money and helping a great cause.
Kudos to Macy’s for doing this every year. Granted, they get a lot of valuable PR and foot traffic out of it, but on the other hand I think they’re doing a great thing by helping to bring awareness to and support all kinds of charities nationwide.
The Artist’s Way was a book published in 1992 by Julia Cameron. It became a runaway best-seller, selling over four million copies.
The Artist’s Way is basically a twelve-week program that aimed to help artists, both professional artists and hobbyists, to remove blocks that were preventing them from producing their art, whether it be writer’s block, a lack of confidence, a lack of inspiration, or other common emotions that artists face like fear, low self-worth, and lack of confidence.
One of the things that made the book so popular was how simple and practical it was. She provided practical exercises such as “Morning Pages” (basically keeping a daily journal on any subject), and “Artist’s Dates” (consciously blocking out time to do nothing but observe and experience what’s around them). While these sound simplistic, it’s amazing how the simplest things can sometimes help remove the toughest blocks. And as someone who does believe in God, I really appreciate how she doesn’t shy away from encouraging us to tap into Him as the ultimate creative force–and she does it without being preachy nor even espousing any particular religion.
Cameron mentions in her book that over the years, parents have approached her asking if she could write a book to help children discover their creativity. She’s finally done that with The Artist’s Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children. Perhaps inspired by the birth of her granddaughter (fittingly, the forward of the book is written by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, her daughter), this book is a great book for parents and soon-to-be-parents on how to help encourage creativity in kids from birth to twelve years ago.
I admit, I was a little skeptical when I heard this was a book on how to “encourage creativity in kids”–after all, kids should be the ones instructing us adults on how to remember what it was like when we were young and had boundless creativity and imagination. But in many ways, this book is needed more than ever. We seem to live in a world where art and creativity are increasingly marginalized. It’s not an uncommon site to see kids with their faces planted into tablets and smartphones and portable video game consoles instead of out there using their imaginations. And even old fashioned “analog” toys have become so intricate and so detailed that very little is left to kids’ imaginations anymore. And worse, society itself doesn’t seem to foster creativity as it used to. Arts program in school seem to always be the first things cut when budgets get tight, sometimes in underprivileged schools where the ability to dream and pull oneself out of hopelessness is needed more than ever. And even in more affluent places, kids grow up with the same unfortunate conditioning that adults are: that it’s more important to make money and to always be busy doing the next thing rather than take time to develop the inner creativity that’s within all of us.
Each chapter of the book is dedicated to cultivating an aspect of life that’s needed for creativity to flourish, from safety, to curiosity, to focus, to humility. Each chapter is filled with personal anecdotes from Cameron’s own life and her own experience as a parent, as well as quotes and advice from other leading authors. I think as with the original Artist’s Way, how you approach the book will greatly affect how much you get out of it. I don’t think the book is meant to be read as a “parenting guide” that you follow like a literal 12-step program that’s supposed to teach you everything that’s right and wrong to do with your kids. Rather, I see it more as written as “advice from a friend”, where you can read over what parts are useful to you and your kids.
The book is extremely practical. One part of the book addresses the age-old statement that all kids eventually blurt to their parent, “I’m bored”, and gives practice advice on how to deal with it. In the chapter about limits, it talks about another universal problem: clutter. The chapter on self-expression talks about the importance of letting our kids explore their own creative directions, and how to watch ourselves that we don’t inject too much of ourselves and our own interests. These are just three random parts of the book that I flipped to, but the rest of the book is filled with extremely useful things that, even if they don’t necessarily present a complete solution, they remind us to think about these things and how addressing them can open the way for our children, and us, to be more creative.
As with the original Artist’s Way, this book contains a lot of exercises that parents can do, and in some cases that parents can do together with their kids. The chapter on “Cultivating Conscious Inflow”, which on the surface sounds kind of new-agey, actually provides very down-to-earth advice on encouraging things like music, reading, and storytelling with our kids. The activity at the end of the chapter suggests that you tell a story to your child about any subject, and then immediately have them tell you a story back and really listen to what she’s saying. The chapter on “Cultivating Limits” introduces us to an activity called “The Seventy-Two Pickup”, where whenever a mess got out of hand, Cameron’s mother would make a game out of clean-up, counting out seventy-two seconds for her kids to put away as many toys as they could in that time.
From my early reading of the book, I predict this book is going to be another runaway best seller for Cameron. I agree with the author’s contention that every child is creative and every parent is creative. This book won’t necessarily make your child the next Rembrandt or Beethoven, but using the practical advice and tools inside, I think most parents who use it will be surprised at how much creativity is locked inside both themselves and their kids, waiting to come out.
The book is set to be released on August 15. For every copy that’s sold before August 15, the publisher Tarcher/Penguin will donate $1 to the LilySarahGraceFund, an amazing charity out of Stamford, Connecticut that helps bring art to underprivileged and underfunded schools throughout the United States, and to the International Child Art Foundation, which has a goal of reducing suffering and violence for kids internationally through the arts.
You can pre-order your copy on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble. To make your order count, e-mail your receipt or an image to your receipt to AWforParents@gmail.com
In a previous post, I’ve already shared with you how my sister’s puppy Clancy loves to destroy dog toys. Now I love Clancy, but it seems that there’s not a toy in the world he won’t eventually destroy.
Enter PrideBites. This is a good new dog toy that is eco-friendly, high quality, durable, and vet approved. They squeak, but unlike other squeaky toys they’re not flimsy but made of durable “Durabite fleece”. And they’re machine washable (don’t you wish all do toys were? Say goodbye to slimy hands!)
It’s a fantastic toy for playing fetch, tug of war, or romping in the water. PrideBites was kind enough to send me one, and so I thought I’d put the toy to the test on a recent trip to the Catskills with Clancy.
Holding the toy in my hand (this is “Stripes the Tiger”), it definitely feels solidly built. The tiger design is beautifully stitched and consists of thread, polyester fleece, and cloth that’s sewn solidly to prevent tears. This is all on top of a plush pillow made of soft foam with reinforced stitching to keep the toy intact as possible. There are squeakers on both ends of the toy, which are sure to rouse your dog’s hunting instincts. They also float, which makes this the perfect toy for the pool or playing fetch.
They do make a point to emphasize that this isn’t a chew toy, and that you should “not leave the product unattended with animals that eat toys”.
When we got to our small rental house in the Catskills, the first thing I did was take out the toy. Clancy has a sixth sense about when any toy or treat is intended for him, so his tail started wagging right away.
The first thing I did was play a couple rounds of fetch with him. I really, really loved how I could chuck Stripes the Tiger a long way like a frisbee. It was light, but solid enough that I could throw it a really long way. And I’m guessing that another PrideBites creation, Larry the Mailman is even more aerodynamic, just like in real life.
He instinctively knew to chase after it, and after catching it, his prey instincts kicked in and he tried to shake the life out of poor Stripes the Tiger. As you can see, we’re still working on minor details like “bring it back” or “drop it”, but right away we knew he loved this toy–it fit into his mouth comfortably, the soft fabric covering was pleasant enough for his mouth, and it could squeak.
Clancy is a big-time “puller”, so when I play tug-of-war with him he usually wins. The PrideBite does withstand 55 pounds of pressure and you can get a really good grip on it, so it’s a perfect toy for tug of war. Here’s him in battle with my sister (who happens to be “pack leader”). Notice how Stripes the Tiger is hanging together!
Now Clancy is just a puppy, not even a year old yet. And he’s never been in the water. So we thought we’d take him to a local swimming hole to see if he could swim.
My sister and I stood knee-deep in the water, and Clancy kept looking at us with a “what, are you guys crazy?” look. But eventually he made his way to us in the water. We kept throwing Stripes the Tiger back and forth hoping he’d swim after it, but he just kept staring at us. A few times Stripes got away from us, but happily he’d just float away due to his innards being made of sturdy foam (I’d be the one doing the fetching).
Finally, after throwing Stripes in the water for the umpteeth time, Clancy seemed to let out a sigh and then started doggy paddling in a big circle around us. Both of us were so excited to see him take his first swim, but he sort of just gave us a, “There, are you happy? Can we go home now?” look.
Overall, I was really, really impressed by the PrideBites toy and the company. The company was founded by four young guys in LA who had a passion for dogs and wanted to create a truly durable dog toy. This is the kind of entrepreneur I love to highlight most on this blog.
For every toy sold, PrideBites donates $1 to animal shelters and other organizations that helps dogs in need. This includes the SPCALA, GiveBones, K-9 Angels, and RAIN.
They come in all kinds of designs, including Larry the mailman. You can also customize them with your own photo, or if you prefer, the picture of someone in your life that you wouldn’t mind siccing the dog on. Just submit three good-quality photos and the PrideBites artists will actually create a custom PrideBite for you.
I should say that as PrideBites warned, the toys is not completely indestructible (we didn’t heed their warnings and left the toy unattended with Clancy, who did eventually figure out a way to disembowel poor Stripes after a few weeks). But as long as you keep it to its intended uses (fetch, tug-of-war, swimming, etc.) it should last you for years and years and keep it like new by machine washing it. And to PrideBites’ credit, it took him a lot longer to figure it out than most toys (he’s a very smart and stubborn puppy :P)
If there’s a dog or dog lover in your life whom you don’t want to give yet another generic, mass-produced toy that every dog already has, check them out on their site or on Amazon.
This impromptu musical interlude was brought to you in honor of National Lollipop Day, which is coming up on July 20, 2013.
I scoured the Internets looking for the history of National Lollipop Day, but didn’t find a thing. The National Confectioner’s Association (the industry trade group for sweets) says this is not uncommon; usually these holidays get started when an individual store or a candy maker run a promotion, and over the years it sticks (no pun intended). If you’re looking for excuses to eat all kinds of sweets, check out their calendar. You’ve got National Milk Chocolate Day a week later and National Toasted Marshmellow Day in a month (in the middle, not surprisingly, is National S’mores Day).
While candy makers all over are of course cashing in on National Lollipop Day (you can get a free lollipop at See’s Candy all day on 7/20), there’s one charity that you should really check out: The Lollipop Theater Network.
There have been a lot of great movies out this summer; in the past two weeks alone I’ve seen Despicable Me 2, Star Trek, The Great Gatsby, and Monsters University, Man of Steel, and Iron Man 3 are still on the list.
We take a lot for granted, and one of the things we take for granted is being able to just pop into a movie theater on a Friday night and enjoy a movie with popcorn and soda. But think about kids who have serious or terminal illnesses and are stuck in a hospital bed for weeks or months. Sadly, while the rest of us are enjoying brand new, first-run movies, they’re not. While it seems like a little thing, it’s just another thing that can make these kids feel isolated and separated from their friends and the world.
The Lollipop Theater Network is a non-profit group started in New York City in 2001. In the pediatric ward of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, a volunteer named Janis Fischer was able to hold a special movie night for the kids with a special screening copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The experience was immensely impactful; the kids at the screening were filled with joy and excitement and talked about it for days.
Janis, children’s book author Joshua Gaspero were able to get in touch with filmmaker Evelyn Iucolano, and the three of them founded this charity. Fast forward 12 years, and the charity has held special screenings for over 275 films for thousands of sick children across the country. It’s not just an empty phrase that laughter is the best medicine: by providing these kids with such joy and excitement, it can provide them and their families with a little brightness in an otherwise bleak time.
The program has expanded to include other programs, such as arts and crafts events and music programs that continue to brighten children’s lives. It has also attracted celebrities who attend screenings and help support the programs, such as the incomparable Anne Hathaway (also a board member), Julius the Sock Monkey, and the Amazing Spider Man.
How can you support this great charity? See those awesome lollipops at the top of this post? You can buy It’s Sugar, and proceeds will go to the Lollipop Theater Network. Or, there are other ways to get involved directly.
I admit, I still feel a lot of angst when I finish off a Duracell or Energizer battery and throw it in the trash. Even though, supposedly, it’s not as bad to throw them in the trash nowadays as it was before because there are fewer toxic chemicals that can poison wildlife or waterways, it just seems like a colossal waste that I’m throwing away a big honking piece of metal that’ll fill up landfills, may make an unpleasant meal for some bird or critter out there, and take years to decompose, if ever.
While I love about PerfPower Go Green Batteries is that they’ve really gone out of their way to make a battery that’s truly good for the environment.
First of all, the batteries are themselves made from recycled paper, plastic, and steel cans. There aren’t harmful chemicals like cadmium, lead, and mercury inside. Even the packaging is printed with eco-friendly soy ink. They’ve been tested and they’re comparable to “major brands”, which I assume refer to our favorite copper-top and bunny-friendly battery brands.
What’s very cool is that they have a recycling program, where you can enter the code on the back of your battery package onto their Web site. When you reach a certain a mount of points, you can print out a USPS prepaid shipping label to ship all your GoGreen batteries back in a small flat rate box (the postage alone is worth over $5.00).
Finally, if all this weren’t good enough for the planet, PerfPower will donate a portion to AutismSpeaks, bringing a whole new meaning to the word empowerment.
So the next time you reach for a copper or silver battery, consider going green!
LivingSocial is back with a great deal that’ll help the USO, and I’ll give you a little secret on how to make the deal even sweeter.
Go to LivingSocial and click “Deals”. You’ll see the deals for your local area. On the top of the page, you’ll see a menu that says “all deals”, “restaurants”, “things to do”, and so on. Click on the last entry that says “online”.
Scroll down until you see the image below and then click on it:
The deal is that if you pay $25, LivingSocial will pay $50 to send five Fourth of July Care Packs and other services to our servicemen and women around the world. You’ll receive a one-of-a-kind T-Shirt with a design voted on and selected by the troops.
Here’s how to sweeten the deal even more: use promo code “FREEDOM” until July 5, 2013, and LivingSocial will take an additional $10 off the price! So you’ll pay $15 to send $50 of care packages to the troops, and you’ll get a limited edition T-Shirt to boot!
The Urgency Network is a new idea in charity fundraising and awareness-raising that’s built for the Social Media generation. It sort of takes the idea of an old fashioned raffle and brings it into the 21st Century.
Here’s how it works. There’ll be a bunch of “Grand Prizes” you can win. These prizes won’t just be your standard run-of-the-mill charity prizes, but will be, in their own words “Larger than life” experiences. As of the launch date today, the prices consist of the following:
A personal meeting with Sir Paul McCartney. You can win roundtrip airfare for two to San Francisco, VIP passes to the 2013 Outside Lands Festival, 4 nights accommodations, attending Paul McCartney’s soundcheck, dinner backstage, and a signed copy of “Wings Over America”.
A personal meeting with Sir Richard Branson. You can win roundtrip airfare for two to New York, 2 nights accommodations, and and meet and greet with Sir Richard Branson and many of the leaders in the environmental industry.
A personal meeting with Sir Linkin Park. Okay, Linkin Park has not got their knighthood (yet), but you can win a trip to Tokyo and rock out at the 2013 Summer Sonic Festival to Metallica, Nas, M.I.A., Fall Out Boy, Alt-J, Linkin Park, and more.
The raffles support all kinds of campaigns, from Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic to Carbon War Room’s Ten Island Renewable Challenge to Power the World’s efforts to get safe, clean energy to the world’s poor. As time goes by, we’ll no doubt be seeing many more charities and grand prizes (including, it appears from the video below, a trip to space courtesy of the aforementioned Sir Richard Branson).
Additionally, The Urgency Network will provide top-performing campaigns an opportunity to win a portion of The Jackpot, which is fueled by foundations and corporate sponsors. The first Jackpot up for grabs will be a $1 million dollar media grant provided by PVBLIC Foundation who harnesses the power of unused media space to help nonprofits amplify their message.
So how can you enter the contest? Well, each time you “take action”, you’ll get another entry into the raffle. “Action” can take many forms, from donating money to signing a petition to watching a video to “liking” the charity on Facebook or following it on Twitter, to telling a friend about it. The more actions you take, the more entries you’ll get.
You can also buy merchandise on the site, which will also get you entries. As of this writing, the merchandise ranges from a $25 water bottle to a $15,000 drum set owned by Linkin Park’s own Rob Bourdon. There are also cool little prizes scattered about; for $100, you can have Linkin Park mention you in a Tweet!
Here’s more information about it:
The ingenious part about this idea is that it taps into our constantly plugged-in culture. Instead of Tweeting about what you had for breakfast today, how about a Tweet that helps a great cause, and may get you the experience of a lifetime?
Back in 2007, one of the most popular posts on this blog was our introduction to FEED USA, where Lauren Bush helped introduce a simple reusable cloth shopping bag made of burlap, the same kind of material the UN used to deliver food to children around the world. Nowadays, you see reusable shopping bags all over, especially as different cities start to ban the use of plastic shopping bags. What I love about the FEED bag is that it was an idea ahead of its time–I’ve read stories of how a lot of plastic shopping bags today actually make shoppers sick, as people don’t tend to wash them and they grow all kinds of bacteria. The FEED bag, on the other hand, was always strong, stylish, and washable.
A lot has happened in 6 years. FEED USA is working with Target to introduce more than 50 stylish products, all with the FEED logo. The collection will be available starting Sunday, June 30 at Target stores and at this link:
There will be over 50 unique products, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, hats, pillows, baby clothes, aprons, kitchenware, bike helmets, water bottles, iPhone covers, notepads, and a lot more. And of course, they still have the FEED bag, now in great, updated styles:
My personal favorites? These FEED USA cookie cutters, complete in their own little FEED bag:
And this folding bike!
10% of original retail price, excluding tax, of store sales from June 30 to October 12 and Target.com sales from June 30 to November 16 will be donated to FEED’s and Target’s partner Feeding America®. The monetary equivalent of the meals listed on the product will be donated. $1 is equal to 8 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local food banks.
It’s exciting to see FEED USA and Feeding America partnering with Target to help children in need here in the United States. Unlike other branded items, these are actually stylish and will sure to be a conversation starter, where you can spread the word and increase awareness of the problem of child hunger in America.
From June 25 to June 27, 2013, you can get 35% off an apron at FlirtyAprons.com by using promo code ADLER. If, like me, you tend to make a mess while cooking, grilling, or doing work around the house, these aprons are among the most stylish you’ll see anywhere. There’s everything from a “little black dress” (complete with string of pearls) to a chic pink outfit that looks more like a fashionable thing to wear around town than something to be worn in the kitchen.
Why promo code ADLER? Because it’s in honor of Adler, a 7 year-old who was diagnosed with Stage 3 Kidney Cancer back in March. Sadly, his family had no insurance and at times haven’t even been able to take him to the hospital, much less give him the chemotherapy and treatment he needs.
was a book published in 1992 by Julia Cameron. It became a runaway best-seller, selling over four million copies.
or 
is even more aerodynamic, just like in real life.
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