Mother’s Day

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Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and it is definitely a time to treat mom, grandma, or another special woman in your life. Our new home’s yard has been teeming with all sorts of flowers and plants since it started to get warmer, and every time something new pops up in the garden, I call or text my mom to see what it is. She and my nana, who is with me in spirit, taught me so much about gardening growing up, yet I still have SO much to learn. Still, I marvel at the colorful life popping up all over, and it makes me feel closer all the time to two women who I love more than anything.

When Uncommon Goods reached out to me to see if I was interested in sampling one of their products in the lead up to Mother’s Day, it was hard to decide what to choose. From wining and dining to gardening, they have so many incredible, unique, and quality items. Since I am currently obsessed with readying our garden for Summer, I chose a beautiful blown glass Solar Light Garden Stake.

solar glass globe

The light is so beautiful. both by ay and by night. It appears to be a delicate, blown glass globe but in actuality is very sturdy and is standing up to the elements. By day, the sun glimmers off of the fun colors, and by night, it’s a little fairy lantern lighting the side of our garden bed. Assembly was super easy; it came in just a few pieces that popped together.

Items like this globe and the may other gift ideas that Uncommon Goods has to offer are perfect for a Mother’s Day gift or for a housewarming, shower, or other occasion. To check out the full line of beautiful gift ideas available at Uncommon Goods, please visit their website.

Uncommon Goods isn’t just for Mother’s Day; they have plenty of gifts for other occasoins:

http://www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/by-recipient/gifts-for-women

http://www.uncommongoods.com/for-her/gifts-for-her/gifts-for-mom

Uncommon Goods is a company that’s easy to love. I seriously covet much of their website, and their representative was a delight to work with. Here’s a bit more about Uncommon Goods.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, UncommonGoods is a privately-owned retailer that endeavors to feature unique designs and handcrafted gifts created in harmony with the environment and without harm to animals or people. We run all our operations out of the historic Brooklyn Army Terminal, including our warehouse where the lowest-paid seasonal worker starts at 50% above the minimum wage. We make it our mission to support and provide a platform for artists and designers; in fact, half of what we sell is made by hand. Most of the products we carry are created right here in the USA, and about one-third of our entire collection incorporates recycled and/or upcycled materials. At the core of our company is a great respect for the integrity of the creative individual and the belief that it is our responsibility to use our business to impact the world in a positive way.

Highlights:

• B Corp: B Corporations use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. We are proud to be a founding B Corp since the B seal means that we meet a rigorous standard on a wide range of issues, including wage levels, environmental impact, and giving back to our community.

• Studio Tours: An exclusive look inside the workspaces and minds of our uncommon artists and designers. Find the faces and inspiration behind some of our customer’s favorite products. You can even take a step inside our own creative studio!

• Design Challenges: Get your work out there and join our community by participating in our product design and art challenges.

• How to Make It Events: Our panel series connects local artists and designers and empowers creative professionals to improve and develop their businesses. Past topics have included Scaling up your creative business, Implementing green practices in your designs, and Collaborating, networking, and the influence of your social network.

• Voting Tool: Get a first look at our newest arrivals and help our buyers decide which products will become the next UncommonGoods!

• Uncommon Knowledge: Is your DNA unique? Where does the growler get its strange name? Did Washington chop down a cherry tree? Find the answers plus dozens of other surprising stories and curious facts on our blog!

• Better to Give: As an independently-owned business, we have the freedom to support causes we believe in and to impact

the world in a positive way. With every purchase you make, we’re proud to donate $1 to the non-profit of your choice. Since we started the Better to Give program 12 years ago, we’ve donated over $700,000 to charities around the world!

Our Non-profits:

• RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN carries out programs to prevent sexual violence,  help survivors, and ensure that rapists are brought to justice.

• American Forests protects and restores forests worldwide, helping to preserve the health of our planet for the benefit

of its inhabitants.

• Women for Women International provides women survivors of war with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-su ciency.

• City Harvest strives to end hunger in communities throughout New York City through food rescue, distribution, and education.

 

I received this product from Uncommon Goods for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Tags: gardening, gardens, gifts, home and garden, lifestyle, Mother's Day, product review

I am subscribed to a lot of charity email lists and like a bunch of favorite charities on Facebook, so throughout my week, lots of great events, fundraisers, and other initiatives cross through my inbox.

Sometimes, I scan and delete, and other times, something catches my eye, and I need to find out more. There were three occasions this past week that really stood out to me as simple opportunities to help, and I thought I would share.

 

The Women’s Lunch Place Mother’s Day cards – Mother’s Day is this weekend, and The Women’s Lunch Place in Boston is selling cards to raise money for the many services they provide, including daily meals to homeless women in Boston. I have volunteered at The Women’s Lunch Place in the past, and I love that they do not just give meals, but they provide community,  a sense of dignity, job skills, and other things that human beings all crave and things that many don’t have access to.

The Women's Lunch Place

(Source)

If you’re interested in buying cards, please see the below information from The Women’s Lunch Place.

· Click here to order online and select Mother’s Day Card as your ‘donation reason’ ·You can always call us! (617) 449-7185                                                                                           · Visit our kiosk at Shops at Prudential Center: Thurs, 5/3 – Sat, 5/5  Thurs, 5/10  – Sat, 5/12. 10 AM-6 PM weekdays & 10 AM-5 PM on Saturdays (Located in the Belvidere Arcade, adjacent to Dunkin Donuts and the Post office)                                                         · Visit Tasti-D-Lite located at 205 Newbury Street! Receive a coupon for $5 off any “tasti” cake or pie with your purchase of a                                                                                     · On Friday, May 11, WLP volunteers will be selling cards at Starbucks on 165 Newbury Street.  Find us on the patio!

 

 

Gremlin’s Wish

Gremlin is a therapy dog and a pit bull. Her life before being rescued was not a good one; she was rescued from a dog fighting ring and at the time had broken legs that had grown back so badly they had to be re-broken. She also had other very visible signs of cruelty. Now? She spends her time reading with school children and brightening the days of cancer patients.

Gremlin

(Source)

From Gremlin’s Facebook page: Gremlin’s Wish is that all animals and children are given an equal opportunity to succeed. In order for us to make that happen we are trying to build Gremlin’s Wish Therapy Center. This center will be a one of a kind facility in which it will be open to the community to come spend time with our registered therapy dogs in a multitude of different programs. We all know that not all kids are given the same chances, not all schools offer the programs that are needed to help them succeed.

In the same effort to help the animals, we will be taking dogs from the local high kill shelters and work with them to be able to go back into the community as a registered therapy dog. We will be a completely volunteer run center so there will be no cost to the families that will come and use our programs.

Gremlin’s dad Chris has also suggested that the therapy dogs will be used to work with other people who need it such as soldiers with PTSD. He is doing amazing work, 100% volunteer, saving dogs, training them, and bringing them to schools, hospitals, and other places where a furry, gentle friend does a world of good. His Facebook updates alternately make me laugh and cry.

If you’re interested in finding out more or supporting Gremlin’s Wish, check out Rowdy to the Rescue.

 

Where Hash Rules

The author of Where Hash Rules, The Story of Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe is donating a dollar from every e-book sold to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004). In 2000, 4-year-old Alex announced that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer. Since Alex held that first stand, the Foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement, complete with thousands of supporters across the country carrying on her legacy of hope.

Where Hash Rules can be found on iTunes and Amazon among other places, and is $9.99.

If you have any great charity events or initiatives you’d like to share, please feel free to post them here!

Tags: charity, Mother's Day

This giveaway has ended. Thank you, Kerrygold for hosting!

And a giveaway! Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Thanks to those of you who submitted posts for Healthy Recipe Week. If you would like to submit a recipe to be posted, please send me the recipe text in an email with a photo attachment, and I will let you know what day your recipe will be posted.

How glorious was the weather yesterday?! I went for a run which was my first good run in forever, and I almost cried because the weather felt so nice. I spent the whole run thinking and looking back, it was a rough winter in many ways! I am ready to look ahead!

We didn’t do much for Easter, but I did bake a special dessert, butter cookies from a recipe from the Kerrygold USA website.

Kerrygold butter

The recipe was, of course, rich in Kerrygold butter. I was out of salted, so I used a mix of salted and unsalted.

Kerrygold butter

The recipe called for mixing the butter and sugar with a mixer. Since I don’t have one, we used every other tool in the kitchen to mash the butter and sugar together until fluffy. We are fancy bakers in my house, let me tell you!

butter cookie dough

Eventually, the dough came together into a nice, non-sticky ball which I refrigerated overnight to allow it to firm up enough to cut.

butter cookie dough

Once ready to bake, I rolled the dough into a somewhat even log and cut the cookies out.

butter cookie dough

18 minutes later in a 325 oven, and my not-so-round cookies were done. We’ll call them Easter egg shaped, shall we?

butter cookies

To make the sandwiches, I softened some raspberry sorbet from Trader Joe’s and stuffed it in between two buttery cookies.

raspberry sorbet

Isn’t it pretty? The crunchy, buttery cookies were a tiny bit too sweet for me, making just a small sandwich the perfect dessert. I love cookie sandwiches for the contrast between cool and warm, crunchy and creamy, and I loved that the color of the sorbet was so spring-like!

ice cream sandwich

ice cream sandwich

I am thinking that these will be a great dessert for Mother’s Day, which is just a couple of weeks away! Kerrygold has all sorts of great recipes on their website, and I am teaming up with Kerrygold to help you make one or more of their recipes for Mother’s Day or another spring occasion!

They are generously giving one reader a hamper containing a month of butter and cheese. I have made several Kerrygold converts, including my mom and sister, over the past few months, and once you try their butter and cheese, I think you will be in love too!

To enter:

1) Go to Kerrygold’s recipes, and let me know what recipe looks best to you in a comment.

2) Tweet “I want to win a month of @kerrygoldusa butter + cheese” with a link back to this post and follow @kerrygoldusa if you aren’t already. You’ll want to, they do lots of tweeting about butter and cheese! 🙂

3) If you have a blog, let your readers know with a link back to this post in your next post.

I will choose a winner on Friday morning, so please check back. Good luck!

Tags: baking, cookies, dessert, Food, giveaway, Kerrygold, Mother's Day, sorbet

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