Mama-press: June 2012

Lilla Rose Hair Clip Review

I was recently contacted by Jackie, a consultant with Lilla Rose. They are a company that creates "unique, functional, and well made hair jewelry." I received their flagship Flexi Hair Clip for review.

Honestly, I was a little skeptical at first. I typically wear my hair down, or in a ponytail when working out, gardening, cleaning, etc. I don't usually use any sort of hair decoration. Well, I received the medium Flexi Hair Clip, easily put it in my hair without any directions or tutorial, looked in the mirror, and I quite like it! Here's why:

It's simple to use. Simple saves time, so is a great benefit.
It's stylish. They come in multiple sizes, styles, and colors.
It fits. I chose the medium size for my length/thickness of hair. It holds in place well.
It adds a little something extra. Instead of dropping off my kids at school with the occasional hair clip thrown in my hair, I would totally use this. It gives the impression that I actually spent a little time getting ready at 8am, before coffee, just to drop off my son or daughter at school (you know what I mean, right?!).

The Flexi Hair Clip is great for casual wear or for a night out. I really think it's the perfect simple accessory for anyone's wardrobe. You can order online directly from Jackie by clicking here. Check out her website and let me know what you think by commenting below!

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Tips for International Travel with Kids

The following is a guest post by Carlina Yepinski, the primary researcher & writer for networkmonitoring.org. Her bio proceeds the article.

Traveling to the store with little ones in tow is hard enough. Traveling to another country? Seems impossible! Yet many parents around the world manage to do it everyday. These aren’t those superhuman, perfect parents who seem to be able to do it all. They are everyday folks who manage through proper planning (and a lot of patience).

If you thought that your dream vacation to France was out of the question at least until your kids turn 16 (and maybe not even then), consider these helpful tips for traveling internationally with kids. Wrangling excited toddlers and crying babies may not make for a dream vacation, but at least it will make for a memorable one.

Make Sure You are Travel Ready

You know that you need a passport to travel overseas, but you may think that your toddler or baby is exempt. However, all travelers must have a passport – even infants. You cannot use a birth certificate or other documentation when traveling with your children. They must have government-issued passports.

Passports for all members of your family must also be current, and must not expire for at least six months after the date of travel. If your passport expires a month after you’re set to return from that week in Italy, expect to be held up at the border – a nightmare situation that you don’t need when you have little ones in tow.

Finally, be sure to check the U.S. government’s travel recommendations for your destination. Some vaccines may be recommended depending on where you travel.

Create a “Travel Book”

When you are far from home, you don’t have immediate access to important phone numbers and other information. While this may have posed a minor inconvenience when you were a single traveler, it could pose a major problem and even a safety issue when you are traveling with children.

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Key to a Happy Life

The following is a guest post by Emily Montez, Founder of Mamafusion. Be sure to visit her site after reading....

The Key to A Happy Life is…
Laughter. And dancing. These are the things I have learned over the past few months. I
took a bit of a hiatus. I stepped back from everything in my life and got a really clear look at
it all. Including all of those elephants I have been pretending weren’t there. Let me tell ya,
not so fun. But having them all cleared out has made a huge difference in every aspect of
my life. I am happier, healthier. I feel better about my body and my relationships and well,
my life. Because I know that I am whole. Nothing is holding me back.
The point to all of this, life gets serious. Things can go downhill fast, they don’t always
go the way we want them to. But as Robert Frost said, “In three words I can sum up
everything I know about life: It Goes On.” Even when things get hard, the world keeps
spinning, new days continue rising. You can fight it or flow with it, it will happen either
way.

The only thing left to do is change our perspective...