Hellooooo!!

So I realize I've been missing in action for awhile. So much has been going on. My oldest daughter started Kindergarten in September and my youngest preschool so things have been a bit hectic trying to get into a routine but I think we are finally there!

I've also decided to close my business, The Emilee Grace Company. I know I've said it before but I mean it this time. lol For such a great site (in my opinion anyway) we hardly do any business. And by any I mean like 2 or 3 sales a year. :( So, I'm going to be closing the virtual doors soon. I'm trying to get rid of my inventory but even at like super super discounted prices, no one is buying. Ugh! So, check out emileegrace.com and if you see something you like, send me an email and make me an offer. :)

Lastly I've been super busy with my personal blog, The Princess Escapades and my very new craft blog, The Girl Creative. I'd LOVE to have some of my faithful readers and followers come follow me over at those blogs (hint hint) because at this time, posts here at Modern Mama's are going to be few and far between.

Thanks so much for keeping up with me and for stopping by. Hope to see you around. :)

Save BIG at Emilee Grace

My Winter Blues Cranky Post

I know I have been MIA for a few weeks and probably would have stayed that way for awhile longer but thankfully Kristina from Pulsipher Predilections popped by to check on me and snapped me out of my winter blues writers block. So, thank you, Kristina. :)

I know I usually write reviews and host giveaways but not today.Today is going to be more of a cranky vent. I'm tired of this cold weather. Old man winter has GOT to take a hike! I've been kind of blue lately. Not my usual spunky, writer of 25 random things about me lists on Facebook (notice I said lists, I've done 4 of them already and could probably keep going lol), happy-go-lucky self. Normally I'd just deal with my winter blues the way I'd deal with anything else: chocolate, cookies and ice cream. But since being on Weight Watchers for the last (almost) year, that solution is out the window. I have to admit, I miss pigging out. LOL Sounds horrible but for me eating junk was like a hobby. It was probably one of my most favorite things to do. Can I get an amen?

Then I've been busy working on my website: The Emilee Grace Company. Let me tell ya, being a business owner is hard work. Trying to get your site recognized on Google and get on the first page is harder. Thousands of dollars and innumerable amounts of hours later, we are hardly doing any business. We've spent money on website updates, SEO work, inventory, hosted giveaways, etc. To say it's been a rough go and a bit disheartening is an understatement. But, I keep going. I've invested way too much of............everything to quit now.

The past week has been the week of sickness in my house. It started with Gracie throwing up and not sleeping good for about 3 days. Then by mid-week, the mister got sick - poor guy. By Thursday it was my turn. Gracie seemed better only to throw up at dinner on Saturday (while we were eating out - that's always fun). The mister sick again Saturday night and Grace woke up with the WORLD'S WORST DIAPERS Sunday and today.

So............if anyone's been wondering where I've been, there you have it. We all need a vent from time to time so I hope you'll overlook this little post as a temporary lapse in judgment.(wink wink) In the meantime, if you are going through a rough time and would like to someone to sympathize with you, leave a comment telling me your woes. Got any advice for me, I'll take that too. :)

The Golden Rule of Blogging: Comment unto others as you would have them comment unto you.

BabyLegs Sale at Emilee Grace

A few months back I announced that we were shutting down The Emilee Grace Company. Well, this may not come as a surprise to anyone that knows me well because I'm forever changing my mind, but we have decided to remain OPEN! We are still in the process of adding some really fabulous products but in the meantime, most of your old favorites are still available.


Speaking of favorites, BabyLegs is one of my favorite products at Emilee Grace. It takes a LOT of self control not to buy out my own inventory and give them all to Emilee and Gracie. :) I just think they are so fashionable and they make a great accessory to many outfits. I may even start wearing them on my arms. :)


Since I love BabyLegs so much, and think everyone should have a pair, we are running a 30% OFF sale on a few adorable, albeit discontinued, patterns.

Click HERE to purchase.

Going out of Business SALE!

As I've mentioned before, I'm closing my business, The Emilee Grace Company. I have A LOT of inventory that I need to sell, so I'm offering HUGE discounts. Seriously, big. lol So, if you are interested, take a look at the website (by clicking the banner below) and then send me an email and we'll talk pricing. :)

HUGE Emilee Grace Summer Sale

The Emilee Grace Company is celebrating Gracie's 2nd Birthday with a HUGE Summer Sale. Click the picture to bring you to our website. Pass the info on. We don't want anyone to miss out. :)

The Little People In Your Life

Your children. Your nieces and nephews. Your neighbors. Your grandkids. Your students. You know, the little people in your life. You have them, I have them. We all have them. Don't you just love to spoil them? I know I do. I don't know how it happened but I must have gotten into the habit of picking up a toy or treat each time I go to the store for my 4 year old, Emilee, and now she expects it every time.

What if I told you that you could spoil them AND hit the jackpot yourself? Yup. It's true. From June 1 through July 15 The Emilee Grace Company is participating in a HUGE promotion sponsored by BabyLegs. Inside specially marked packages of BabyLegs, Golden Tickets have been placed. If you purchase a pair with a Golden Ticket, you win a fabulous prize. The GRAND prize is a trip to Seattle. How cool is that? I've never been on the West Coast, I wish I could win!

Just tonight I added a bunch of new BabyLegs to the Emilee Grace site. I'm pleased to say that some more "boy" prints have been added. See.

Some adorable "girl" prints have been added too. Try these on for size.







That was just a taste. I added a bunch of new patterns. Click HERE to check them all out.

When you go shopping at Emilee Grace, use coupon code: MODMAMA to receive 15% off your entire purchase.

Please feel free to pass this coupon code out to your friends. :)

Happy Shopping!

New Products for BOYS!

If you haven't stopped by Emilee Grace in a few days or even weeks then you will be happy to hear that we have added some new products...............for boys! I know, a lot of people come to this site and think "great site if you have a girl but I have a boy" and immediately leave. Well, we don't want that. So, in the past few weeks I've made some changes which allow products that are gender specific to be found easily. In the category column on the left of the homepage, you will see new categories titled "For Boys", "For Girls" and "For Mom". Here's to making everyone's life a bit easier!

Just this morning I've added some new and just adorable shoes for BOYS! Emilee Grace is now carrying Jack and Lily leather shoes and they are too cute. Here's just a little taste of what you'll find:

All shoes pictured on my site are in stock and available for shipping within 1-2 business days.

Since I want everyone to be able to enjoy this fabulous products, I'm offering a 15% discount to all of my readers. Please use code: MODMAMA upon checkout to take advantage of the savings.

Emilee Grace Has Gone Green! Introducing some new products

I'm excited to announce that we just got some fabulous Organic products in this week and I can't wait for you to see them. Added to our product line this week is burp cloths, washcloths, hooded towels and bibs - all ORGANIC!

Not only did we add a whole new line but we also added a new Diaper Bag. I've been on the look-out since day one for affordable diaper bags. I have to say, my journey has not been easy. It seems that all of the ones I have come across are around $100 or more. While I think they are great, not everyone has $100 to spend on a Diaper Bag. But, I have good news. I found one that I really like and it's called the Grande Diaper Bag and, are you ready for this? It's $36.95. Not only is it stylish and fashionable, it's also reversible. So if you are feeling a little sassy, use the printed side. If you are in more of a mellow kind of mood, use the solid brown side. Oh, and did I mention that this fabulous bag comes with a Changing Pad?

A fabulous bargain if I do say so myself. :)

I never realized....

...just how dependent I was on my laptop. A few weeks ago, my laptop decided not to start up. Oh, it turned on, but then just died. At first I was handling it okay. Maybe this was a sign from God that I needed to spend more time with my family and less time gallavanting online. That was a VERY strong possibility. Then it hit me. What if it crashed? What if all of my files were gone? I had pictures of my kids on there - hundreds of them - none of them backed up. All of my business files, gone. I took it to Circuit City so that they can back it up and then we can send it out for repair. Thank God we bought the warranty - the computer is less than a year and a half old. I get home and the conversation with my husband goes something like this:

me: "I almost cried at Circuit City when I thought about all the pictures I may have lost"

him: "Is that the only thing you are concerned about? The pictures?"

me: "Yes. I mean I'll be bummed if I lost all of my business documents but the pictures. You can't get them back."

him: "Oh, I have all of your pictures."

me:"What? Where?"

him: "On my mp3 player. I downloaded all of them by mistake."

me: "All of them? Are you sure? Even my photo editing projects?"

him: "Yup. They are right here."

And they were. All 499 pictures. God is good! I prayed on the way home from dropping the comp off, asking God to be gracious to me. I know it was not a big thing in the grand scheme of things but He heard me. And He cared about the "little"things. :)

Moving on......While my laptop was out for repair I was forced to use our spare computer. It's not horrible, just a bit slow. I can deal with this, I thought. Until I realized that I could not print anything out. I tried to install my new printer/fax onto my old computer and no such luck. I kept getting errors. Okay, I guess I can manage without my printer for a week or 2. Then I realized that I needed to ship out some products for giveaways I had participated in. The handy little click-n-ship feature I just found on usps.com was now not an option for me. The thought of dragging my girls to the post office with me just did not seem appealing. We can not go ANYWHERE without making some kind of scene. Ugh, just the thought of it made me anxious. Okay, I guess my winners can wait. I hate doing that to them but hopefully they'll forgive me this one time. Then, THEN, I realize that I am missing a very imporant piece of the puzzle for online shopping at my store, The Emilee Grace Company. Now, I'm getting a little antsy. I NEED my laptop because I NEED to be able to print to fix this little problem. I'm trying to think of ways to manage without my lappy and printer when ding dong, the door bell rings. Mr. Fedex is standing there with a box. I'm thinking it's some product (some nursing covers - keep an eye out on my site for those - they should be available in about a week - I know, a shameless plug for me) I just ordered for my business and I'm pretty excited. Then I look at the label and it's addressed to my husband. Hmmm, why is it going to him and not to our business. Then it hit me. OMG - our laptop! How excited was I?? I bust it out of the box and there it is. Shiny. Sparkling. Clean. I have to wonder if this is really my laptop? It looks brand new. All of my faded letters have been replaced. All of the loose compartments and openings are nice and tight. And what's even better is all of my files are here. Life is good!

Winners & An Announcement

Before I announce the winner of the Card Cubby and the BabyLegs I want to make an announcement. I read through everyone's reviews and first want to thank you for all of your warm wishes and kind words for our business, The Emilee Grace Company. A few of you had mentioned that you really liked the Diaper Bags but thought they were a bit pricey. Also, a number of you mentioned how much your liked the BabyLegs. I'll let you in on a little secret - I like them too. They are my favorite product. My 2 year old and 4 year old wear them and they love them. They see them in the laundry basket and it's the first thing they go for.

To celebrate our Grand Opening, we are offering a FREE pair of BabyLegs with the purchase of ANY Diaper Bag. It's only for a limited time, so if you have a baby shower to go to or if you've just had your 3rd baby and need some new "non-recycled", "non-hand-me-downs" for your precious little one, now is the time to shop. Oh, and did I mention we have free shipping on orders over $75 AND free gift wrapping every day? Yup, we do. :)

Okay, now that the business is out of the way, on to our lucky winners. :)

Thank you to everyone for participating in these giveaways. Don't forget that we will be having a few more during our March Madness Month of Giveaways. :)

The Emilee Grace Company - Grand Opening..... and a Giveaway!

Today is a very special day for me. Almost a year ago plans began to form for The Emilee Grace Company. After many hours of hard work and dedication, I'm happy to announce that The Emilee Grace Company is open for business! :) Today, we launch our site of trendy accessories for mom and baby.

As the mother of 2 I often found myself taking a backseat to fashion. My girls were dressed to the 9's and I was a bit frumpy and out of style. The thought occured to me that it didn't have to be that way. There are so many great items out there for us moms that we could still be stylish, have the most demanding job in the world but our self image and our fashion sense would not have to suffer. So, with that I started my search for trendy accessories for both myself and my kids and The Emilee Grace Company was born.

While our site features a number of products for babies, we are constantly growing and our product line will only increase as the year progresses. We have plans of adding new merchandise each month and our main goal is keeping everything affordable.

With that said, in honor of our Grand Opening, we are offering a giveaway. One lucky winner will receive 2 pairs of BabyLegs in the style of your choice. Once upon a time BabyLegs were known as leg warmers. But they have since evolved and now they are called BabyLegs.

The giveaway will run from Tuesday, March 18 through Saturday, March 22. A winner will be chosen at random and will be posted on Monday, March 24.

The Rules:

• Please visit The Emilee Grace Company and come back here and comment on what you liked best about the site.
• To receive an additional entry, refer one of our products to a friend by using our "Tell A Friend" feature on our website. Please let me know that you referred someone so that I can give you credit.
• If you don't have a blog, be sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you win. If there is no contact information, your entry will not count.

Thank you so much and good luck!

My Business Email Account Was Deleted by Yahoo!

Yesterday morning I went to go sign into the email account on Yahoo! that I use for The Emilee Grace Company. I type in all my information and nothing happens. I try again. Nothing. I check and recheck my username and password, making sure each letter and character is correct. Still nothing. Okay, that's weird. I click on the place to reset my password and it asks me for my login. So, I type that in only to be told that an account with that username does not exist. Hmmmm...........this can NOT be good as I have all sorts of important information on there.

I track down a phone number for Yahoo! customer service (which that in and of itself was an adventure and not readily available) and give them a call. I was told that my account has been close, deactivated, something like that, due to a violation of the Terms of Service. I was then told that the only thing I can do to "try" to rectify this is to send an email to them. They would not give me a person or department to talk to. Now you know and I know that everyone answers to someone. There has to be someone that will respond to my email, a live person. Why couldn't I talk to them? As if I was unhappy enough about this situation, my opinion of Yahoo! is definitely not the same. But, I digress. So I send an email, it comes back. I send it again. It comes back again. Apparently I left out "." somewhere. Sheesh!

While waiting for a response back from Yahoo! I begin to do some research. First off, I go and read Yahoo!'s Terms of Service - section 6. I read them and re-read them. I have done nothing wrong. It amazes me how I CONTINUOSLY receive emails telling me that I have "won the lottery", "someone in Nigeria has died and left me money", "I'm the winner of some phenominal contest" of which I've never entered, and all the wack-o's who send this garbage out continue to do so but I use my email address for strictly business, violating nothing, get deleted. I'm still peeved about it.

To make matters worse, after doing some research online about this, I've discovered that when this happens there is no retrieving any old account. Once it's gone, it's gone. Contacts, emails, everything. That is insane! How in the world can Yahoo! do this without some kind of waiting period if this is in fact true. It makes no sense to me.

So, while I wait for "someone" to respond to my email trying to resolve this matter, I figured I should warn people that this can happen so be very careful. Read the Terms of Service. Keep your contacts in some file offline. If it turns out that Yahoo! really has deleted ALL of my information in error, then I'm done with them. My homepage will go to google and I'll change my personal Yahoo! account as well.

I will keep you posted!

The Emilee Grace Company

This is Emilee & Grace. They are in the inspiration behind The Emilee Grace Company, which I am soooooooo excited to announce, will be up and running very soon. I can't wait. While our website is under construction, it's not too early to bookmark our page so that you can check back and watch for the Grand Opening! Our website is www.emileeandgrace.com. Hope to see you there. :)

Baby Bling

Diamonds are a girls best friend - and a baby's too! The Diamond Pacifier. Yup, you read the correctly. It's a 14K white European gold diamond pacifier that features over 278 pave cut white diamonds totaling 3 carats. The Diamond Pacifier is the exact replica of a real pacifier with a genuine silicone nipple and movable handle. Pacifiers can be customized with colored diamonds and engraved with baby's name, initials, birth date, or birth weight. Though actual use is not recommended, the Diamond pacifier makes a fabulous keepsake.