My new favorite item for Thirty-One Gifts will be available tomorrow, February 1, 2012!

The Casual Cargo Purse is a great item for moms and anyone who needs to carry a lot of stuff.  The purse is large…very large.

It has two pockets in the front with snap closures, and 4 inside pockets, plus a zipper pocket.  As you can see in the slideshow below, I can fit a lot in the purse including diapers.

The Casual Cargo Purse comes in 3 patterns:  Black Paisley Parade (shown), Black and Lotsa Dots (a khaki color with white dots and dark brown accents.)  If you would like to see the catalog, you can visit my Thirty-One Gifts website at http://www.mythirtyone.com/ivette.  

Let me know what you think of this new item!

Have you heard of Jamberry Nails yet?

If not, you’re in for a treat!

Jamberry Nails are a nail shield that allows you to have the cool nail styles you see in the magazines without spending hours at the salon or all the money!  These temporary shields come in lots of colors and patterns, easy to apply and allow you to match your nails with your mood.

Even though they are technically “temporary” they last up to two weeks – that’s longer than any regular manicure has lasted me!

Ready to see a video? The video below shows how the Jamberry Nail Shield’s are applied – yes you can do this at home!

So…what did you think?

Pretty cool, huh?

One of the best parts?  A sheet of shields is only $15 and that includes 2 -3 applications.  What a deal!  You can put these on your finger nails or your toe nails.  Your kids will love them too!

OK, so here’s the deal.  I want to help out my friend Jan Hatchett, Jamberry Nails Independent Consultant, launch her new Jamberry Nails direct sales business.  So I’m having an online party for her and I will sponsor a giveaway.

First things first, there’s currently two specials right now:  Buy 3 sheets get 1 sheet free (your choice of styles).  Just select all 4 styles you are interested in and the shopping cart will adjust your total.

The other special is spend $45 or more and get free shipping (which is normally $1.50 per sheet).  Both of these offers can be combined so you can get 4 sheets for $45 plus tax and free shipping.   Cool beans, right?

Here’s how to order:

1. Go to http://jans.jamberrynails.net
2. Click on “Buy Jamberry -Shop Now”
3. Pick out your styles – lots to choose from!  There’s even special ones for Valentine’s and Bridal Parties.
4. Add the styles you want to your cart – if you choose 3, then add the 4th one because that one is free.
5. When you’re ready to checkout, you’ll be taken to the shopping cart screen to review your order. Once you’ve checked everything is fine, you’re ready to complete your order.
6. VERY IMPORTANT: Right under the order subtotal, there’s a question that says, “Is this party associated with a party?”  MAKE SURE TO CLICK “YES”. 
7. Click “CHECKOUT”
8. Under the “PARTY” section, choose, “Ivette Muller’s Party” 
9. Fill out your address and payment information.
10. Click “PLACE ORDER”

You’re done!  (By the way, if you live outside of the United States and want to order, we can still help you.  Just place your order and fill out the contact form with your correct address and we’ll get that taken care of for you!)

Now, for the giveaway!

I’ll be sharing my hostess earnings with one lucky winner!  Here’s what you need to do for your chance to win  one sheet of Jamberry Nail Shiels (maximum value $15).

1. Leave a comment below and let me know what your favorite Jamberry Nail Shield is.  1 entry
2. Tweet about this post up to 3 times per day.  Post the URL of your tweet in the comments below.  1 entry per tweet
3. Refer your friends – send them to this post and have them post a comment saying you sent them! 2 entries per referral
4. Place an order – you can either get one of your items free or choose an additional one.  5 entries per order

Just had to share!

Thirty-One posted this commercial video with our new Cinch-It-Up Thermal Tote and it’s adorable!

Regular price is $20 but is on sale for $15 until January 31, 2012.  As always, every item in our catalog has 3 prices:

• Regular Price
• Half Price
• FREE!

Happy New Year!

Now, I realize I’m a day late than the rest of the world to wish everyone a Happy New Year…better late than never, right?

While I was out of town with family,  I had the good fortune to “relax” and read a lot while my kids were entertained by their aunts and cousins they don’t get to see very often.  I read a lot of good blog posts and really enjoyed seeing everyone’s goodbye’s to 2011 and hello’s to 2012.

But I also had a chance to get some perspective on everyone’s new year’s resolutions.  In no way am I judging people – I actually admire them putting their resolutions out into the world.  It helps give us accountability, you know.

However, when I saw Scott Stratten’s video, How to Set Business Resolutions, I really got a new zest for resolutions and how to set them. After watching the video (posted below), I really stopped to understand why my new year’s resolutions had failed so often.   It’s not that I didn’t try, but I got frustrated when the “result” wasn’t right on target.  The mistake I think I made was focusing on the actual result, rather than the actions to get the results.

If we set our new year’s resolutions to change our actions, and the actions create results, then we can really be proud of ourselves because we have changed a fundamental habit to make lasting change.  For example, one of my new year’s resolutions is always to lose weight – specifically 50 pounds.  Still hasn’t happened.

The reason it hasn’t happened is all me – I start off really well and then when I don’t lose the 4.2 pounds I need to lose in the first month I get frustrated, think I’m never going to reach my goal and quit.  Bad..I know.

However, if I made my new year’s resolution to exercise 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes in the first 3 months, then that’s a goal I can track, measure and stick to.  And best of all, I can reward myself for that goal!  Then, when the first three months are over, I can reassess that goal and say 4 times a week for 3o minutes for the next three months and so on.  The funny thing is, while I’m focusing on the exercising goal guess what happens?  The weight will more than likely come off.

By focusing on the action of getting to my ultimate goal, I can change life long habits, rather than just go for an arbitrary goal that I have no idea how to attain.

See what I mean?

I think this really goes along with setting manageable goals too.  There’s nothing wrong with setting huge goals for ourselves as long as we set little goals to help us get there.  Don’t you think?

So, what’s your new year’s goals for 2012?

Here’s Scott Stratten’s video in case you haven’t seen it:

Hands down, one of the best investments I’ve made is purchasing a NeatDesk desktop scanner and digital filing system!  This thing is so slick and easy to use, it literally takes the guess work out of filing receipts, important documents and notes.  This system has great software to go with it to, so that you can easily categorize your purchases.

This is really great for me with running my two businesses from home and keeping our household purchases separate.  I can’t tell you how many times this system has saved me when I needed to return something I purchased for the kids.  I could easily find the receipts quickly and took them to the store for returns and refunds.

The most incredible thing is the lack of clutter.  This was worth the investment in itself!

Organize your paper and simplify your life with the scanning and software solutions from Neat.

If you don’t have many receipts, you can use the personal/portable scanner.  But if you run one or more businesses from your home, I strongly suggest the desktop version.  You can even scan your kids artwork into this thing to save online!

If your New Year’s resolution includes getting more organized and reducing clutter, you NEED to get this!  Get the receipts out of your shoe box and make your taxes easier in 2013!

Buy from The Neat Company for the latest software version and a 30-day money back guarantee!

Yes, I know the holidays are over.

But if I don’t take the time to write this post now, I will forget by next year (like I did last year).

This was my second year of hosting a cookie exchange and I have learned a lot in 2 years.  You would think something like this would be fairly easy and fun endeavor.  It is, but it takes some work and preparation to ensure everything goes smoothly.

So here are my tips for hosting a successful cookie exchange.  But please, if you have other ideas or tips that have worked for you, please share!  I plan to make this an annual event so I should be doing pretty well by year 5!

1. Post directions when you publish the event.  (This will save you from answering a ton of emails on the same thing.)
2. Your instructions should include the following:

• Cut off date for RSVP’s – at least one week in advance of the event so that everyone knows how much they have to bake.  Also, the exchange date should be around Christmas Eve but not too early.  Some cookies and/or treats do not last too long depending on the ingredients and storage solution.  Ours was December 23 this year and it worked well, last year it was on December 22 and worked well too, but this year was closer to the actual holiday.
• Request for recipes by cut off date to avoid duplicates.  (At my first cookie exchange, 3 of us made the same thing).
• Requesting recipes also helps alert everyone in case of nut allergies.
• Ask people to post if they have pets in their home.  Some people are allergic to pets and food prepared in a home with pets can get complicated.  It’s best for people to know this upfront so that they know how to “handle” that item that is exchanged.
• Packaging requirements – I recommend everyone bring their dozen cookies individually portioned in bags, ziplocs or a Styrofoam plate with plastic wrap.  This makes things so much easier for pick up time!
• The number of dozen cookies to make – this sounds silly but you would not believe how many people were confused.  If you have a total of 7 RSVP’s (including yourself) you should make 6 dozen cookies to exchange and how ever many you want to keep for your family.  It got really confusing when people made 7 dozen (including for themselves) then got confused about why they still had their own cookies and they felt they missed out.

1. Set the time and date for the cookie exchange.  This is important so that everyone is there at the same time to make the exchange.  Open house formats to do not work for this type of event.  If some people cannot attend the actual exchange, have them drop off their cookies early and arrange for their pick up the next day.  As the hostess, you would ensure that their exchange would be complete that night and they are taken care of as if they had attended themselves.
2. Print all recipes and give to everyone the night of the exchange.  I think this is a nice touch if you can get all the recipes ahead of time.  Plus, it makes a great way to commemorate the event.  You can really jazz this up any way you want, even make nice borders and a cover for the mini recipe book.  This would be a great way to use up your left over scrapbook supplies too!
3. Have fun – in the rush of the holidays it’s easy to get consumed with the overwhelming to do list.  This is a great time to just get together with friends and have a good time.  The goodies are just an “extra” to getting together and having some fun! Remember, a cookie exchange doesn’t have to be just cookies – any handheld treat will do.  Here’s what I made this year and they were delicious if I may say so myself!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/apricot-oat-bars-recipe/index.html

Even though the holidays are over, there’s still time to win something for yourself!

LOL Shirts is giving away an XBOX 360 & Kinect!  I just registered to win because I love the “no remote” option with the Kinect for exercising.  Even though I finally got a Wii, I have to hold on to all the remotes and put on belts to exercise.  It gets pretty awkward.  Still better than nothing, but, ya know…

Anyway, all you have to do is enter at www.getsubmit.com/enter/sweepstakes_refer/212/5109.  By using this link we’ll both be entered to win, so if you win, I win too! Once you fill out the super quick entry form, you’ll get a special link to share with your friends for more chances to win.

Hurry though, contest ends soon.

Good luck!

Whew!

Couponing to save money takes a lot of time and effort.  Now I see why those Extreme Couponers spend so much time getting ready for a shopping trip.

For a simple trip to one grocery store it takes me an average of 5 hours to get ready.  This includes cutting the coupons, comparing them to the current ad and making a shopping list.  Plus, there’s a “difference” in when the ads are posted.  So I get the coupons on Sunday and I use last week’s ad that came out last Wednesday to get the deals.  This means I really only have 2 days to get the deals from last week, and then a new ad comes out Wednesday and the process starts all over.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth it to save some money.  But I have found that it really only pays for the stuff I already buy and not just “trying” something because I have a coupon.  Getting a coupon organizer has really made a huge difference in staying organized and using coupons quickly.  The binder can get big quickly though

Another “trick” I found is that it helps to have a group of friends that also coupon so you can share ideas, strategies, great deals and other coupons.  For example, my kids don’t eat baby food anymore, but I have couponing friends with babies.  So we “swap” coupons for something we’ll each use.  Same thing for pet coupons – we don’t have pets but I still cut them out to trade.

One service I’ve just tried with a group of friends is Coupon Clippers - this is a service where they clip and send you only the coupons you need.  This allows you to shop for the brands you already use and you can get multiple coupons of the same kind so you can “stock up”.  While most of us can’t handle stock piles of inventory, it would be nice to have 2 or 3 large packages of toilet paper or paper towels on hand.  :)

So, how is couponing going for you?  Is it easy as you thought it would be or more difficult?

Bad news during the holiday season just sucks.  

There, I said it.

On Wednesday, December 21, 2011 I got a ton of bad news.  All in one day.  To say that this tested my strength and spirit is an understatement.

On that one day, I found out that a high school classmate of mine lost her short fight with cancer, a friend of the family was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, and a friend I had lost touch with had actually passed away on 3/6/2010.

Whew…hard to get in the holiday spirit with so much bad news and grief.

First, my high school friend: We had only reconnected in the last year (some 20 years after graduating.)  All I can say is thank goodness for Facebook!  :)

Anyway, we had just reconnected and this past summer, they found skin cancer in her cheek, then that was cleared and November 12, they found a cancerous cell in her arm.  She turned 41 on December 12 and died December 21.  I had no idea the prognosis was that bad (I had never heard of anyone dying from skin cancer), otherwise I would have visited her in the hospital.  Nonetheless, she passed away after much suffering and a valiant fight.  She leaves behind a husband and 3 sons.  My heart is heavy.  I was unable to attend the services this week because I’ve been sick.

Our friend of the family had some “stomach” pains that got so bad she had to go to the hospital.  There, they did scans and immediately did surgery just to confirm the diagnosis.  Now, the true fight begins for her and her family.

And lastly, my friend who had passed away last year and I had no idea.  The only way I found out is that I got a Christmas card from her husband.  The card had a picture of him and the kids ONLY.  So I Googled her name and found her obituary.

I don’t deal with bad news “well” on a normal basis, but during the holidays just drained me.  It was very difficult to be happy with so much sorrow around me.

My only saving grace was my children, who in their wonderful innocence were excited about Santa.  Thank God for them, because otherwise I could have been consumed with sorrow.

My sorrow in no way compares to those whose family members are actually experiencing this difficult time.  However, it has done my soul good to find the blessings of the season, and remember my friends in better times.

Plus, it has made me VERY grateful for all the wonderful blessings in my life.