Here at Peekaboo Picks we celebrate moms every day because we believe being a mom rocks and so do all of you fabulous mamas!  So this year to celebrate our "big day", I wanted to share with you one of my very favorite designers, Erin Condren.  Erin designs some of the most fun and hip paper products I’ve ever laid eyes on.  She even created some special designs just for Mom’s Day!

I simply adore every item from Erin Condren.  From the fantastic Stationary to the chic Call Me Cards, the gorgeous Gift Wrap, the bright and cheery Growth Chart, and the amazing Announcements… I could go crazy shopping on her site!

So today, in honor of Mother’s Day, I’m so excited to be giving away a personalized set of stationary to one lucky reader!

To enter, click over to ErinCondren.com and check out all the fabulous items!  Then, leave us a comment telling us which stationary design you would choose for your personalized set.

You have until midnight PST Saturday May 10th to enter.  Winner will be announced on Mother’s Day!

Good luck, Happy Mom’s Day, and thank you Erin Condren!

"A woman will experience more changes while she is pregnant than a man will in his entire lifetime."  This was one of the profound messages communicated to me by holistic lifestyle expert Anna Getty at her inaugural launch for Pregnancy Awareness Month last week in Los Angeles.  In honor of moms and moms-to-be who have surmounted the marathon that is pregnancy, I’d like to shower you with some eco-friendly tips that will help you plan your next baby shower. 

If you’re an eco-mom like I am, you’ll love the idea of an eco-friendly baby shower.  Share your passion and commitment to providing a safe and healthy environment for your new baby with cool, tranquil shades of green. 

R.S.V.P.!  The most eco-friendly solution for reducing your carbon footprint is to go with an online invitation service.  If you find this option too casual or impersonal, explore recycled paper options including those made of sustainable materials such as bamboo, linen, and cotton.  Green Field Paper Company offers handmade, recycled, and tree-free paper options.  Worried that your friends and family will toss that lovely invite?  Check out the "Oh Baby" grow-a-note cards that your guests can actually plant!  Don’t worry, the card recycles naturally into the soil as the seedlings grow. 

Kate’s Paperie is a renowned resource for exotic papers.  Check out the "Le Belly" invites printed on 100% pure cotton rag paper.  Tres chic! 

Don’t forget to include your green-themed message on your invite to give your guests the 411.  Stumped?  Check out phrasing suggestions here. 

Location Location Location!  Set the mood and ambiance of your event with an earthy venue. Your local beach, park, garden, or aquarium are sustainable locations for your celebrated event. 

Culinary Delights!  If possible, opt for local, organic food options. Don’t forget about my tips on buying organic products.  Eat Well Guide is another resource for fresh, sustainable food in the US and Canada.   This menu from the March issue of Parents Magazine is good enough to convert even your most skeptical guest!  Test out your culinary skills with tips and recipes from Organic Authority. 

Local organic catering companies are another option that will save you time and energy.  Just google "organic catering."  You can always check out the vast array of natural and organic foods prepared fresh at Whole Foods Market. 

Earth-friendly Embellishments!  Get botanical and decorate with locally purveyed flowers and plants (they make great favors).  Get creative and utilize glass, water, rocks, and bamboo for centerpieces.  If you’re not the Martha Stewart type, check out the fab floral bouquets at Organic Bouquet, Organic Style, and Diamond Organics. 

Go Paperless!  From classy china to elegant linens, you’ll find that going paperless will give your event that added glam.  Alternative:  Biodegradable utensils, plates derived from sugarcane, and 100% recycled napkins available at Notyak. 

Gift-wrap alternatives:  Baskets and storage containers can be reused in the nursery by the new mom-to-be.  Organic cotton baby blankets and towels can be dressed up with these double-faced satin ribbons by Of the Earth.  Still not convinced?  Check out more green gift wrapping options here and here.  My favorite?  Everwrap, re-usable giftwrap made of natural, hand- dyed fabrics and inspired by the Japanese art of furoshiki. 

Green Gifts Galore!  No shower is complete without them.  Fortunately, numerous conventional retailers like Target and Babies R Us are now offering organic, all-natural baby products.  Consider registering for specific items at these locations in addition to organic, all-natural baby boutiques.  My favs?  Better for Babies, Our Green House, Mommas Baby, and Harvest Moon Boutique. 

For more eco-inspired baby shower ideas, visit Wee Generation,  Healthy Child, Healthy World and Tiny Footprints Baby Shower Kit

For a behind-the-scenes peek at Cheryl Crow’s baby shower, check out pics here and here. 

Sarah Picot is a professional dancer and Pilates instructor who runs a Pilates studio out of her home in Arlington, Virginia. She has created an award-winning Pilates series that is geared especially toward pregnant and post-partum women, and her new book, Pregnancy and Pilates, is a pregnancy journal and a workout system in one! I was thrilled to have a chance to interview Sarah, and she was gracious enough to offer an awesome giveaway! (Read on for giveaway details.) For more information about Sarah Picot, visit her websites (www.picotpilates.com and www.pilatesforyou.com) or her blog (www.anythingpilates.blogspot.com).

INTERVIEW:

Q: For those who may not know much about Pilates, could you give a brief explanation about what Pilates are all about?

A: Pilates is an exercise method that focuses on intense core strength and spinal mobility. It improves posture and flexibility so you feel better and of course look better. You end up with long, lean muscles and a fabulously flat stomach. There is a reason that movie stars swear by it.

Q: What is it about Pilates that makes it such a great workout for new and expectant moms?

A: Pilates can be great for the pregnant woman who wants a low impact workout that will help her strengthen her pelvic floor while giving her the back strength to support her growing belly. The Pilates "Breathing technique" is wonderful for women to use, particularly as their bellies rise higher in their ribcage.

Training the pelvic floor muscles all through pregnancy will aid her when it comes time to push during delivery. My doctor was amazed at how quickly I found the right muscles to use when I went into labor with my first son - even with the muscle-numbing affects of an epidural. That said, my Prenatal Pilates workout is carefully modified for each trimester.

Strict Pilates focuses too much on intense abdominal work and back lying. Neither of which is good to do after the first trimester. I consulted doctors to come up with safe and effective modifications that would give a pregnant woman all the benefits without contributing to a separation of the rectus abdominus muscle or sacrificing blood flow to the baby by lying on your back too long.

The amazing stomach-flattening benefits make Pilates the obvious choice for postnatal women. Not only can she improve posture (which can get worse with pregnancy, breastfeeding and carrying a newborn), she can work on toning the muscles that affect bladder control.

My Postnatal Pilates DVD is fun because I incorporate the baby into the workout. She bonds with mom and works on developmental stages such as tracking while mom gets her body back!

Q: Could you suggest (and explain) a particularly helpful and easy exercise that my readers can try today?

A: For the pregnant woman try Squat with Curls:

This exercise targets EVERYWHERE!

Holding 1-3 lb weights or soup cans in each hand, stand with your back against a wall and your feet about 6-8 inches from the wall and hip-width apart. Make sure you are on a non-slip surface. Activate your abdominals by pulling your belly button backward toward your baby and try to increase the space between your hips and lower ribs as you bend your knees and slide your back down the wall. Stop when your legs and knees form a 90 degree angle (your knees should be not be past your toes, if they are stand up and walk your feet a bit further from the wall). Keep your back in contact with the wall as you do 8 slow bicep curls - bend your elbows and then lengthen your arms. Exhale as your arms bend, inhale as they lengthen. After the last curl, slide back up the wall. Rest and repeat 2 times. You can vary the arm workout each time. Try starting with your hands by your shoulders and pressing them up toward the ceiling or keeping your arms long and slightly bent as you raise them sideways to shoulder height 8 times. Not only is this a terrific leg, buttock and arm exercise, if you kegal and concentrate on keeping your back against the wall and your torso long, it becomes a wonderful abdominal exercise.

For the postpartum mom try the Hundred:

This exercise increases circulation and blood flow for healing and targets the abdominals

You can do this signature Pilates exercises with your 2-6 month old baby.

WITH BABY: Lie on your back with your legs bent and together and feet flat on the floor. Lean your baby back against your closed legs or lay her on your stomach. **Make sure you have 1 hand on your baby at all times**

Keep your left hand on your baby, reach your right arm along side your body and about 1 inch off the floor. Curl your head and shoulders off the floor. While pumping your right arm slightly up and down (with resistence ), inhale through your nose for 5 counts and exhale out your mouth for 5 counts. This is 1 set. Do 5 sets. Stay curled off the floor as you bring your right hand to your baby and then extend your left arm next to your body. Repeat 5 times using the left arm. Focus on keeping your belly pulled in. The weight of your baby will help remind you! If she is young and lying on your stomach she will love listening to your heartbeat. If she is sitting up and older she will enjoy looking at her favorite face - yours!

*You can always do this without your baby by using both arms at the same time.

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your Pilates expertise with the readers of Peekaboo Picks, and for your gracious gift of your Pilates DVD and Pregnancy and Pilates workbook!

You can win Pregnancy and Pilates: A Workbook for Before, During and After Pregnancy, and your choice of Sarah’s Prenatal Pilates or Post-Natal Pilates DVDs!

To enter, check out PilatesForYou.com, and leave a comment stating whether you’d rather have the Prenatal or Post-Natal DVD.

You have until Midnight PST Tuesday, May 13 to enter. The winner will be announced in next week’s Losing It! column on May 14.

Mother’s Day approacheth!   I hope all you fabulous mothers out there get everything you want, need and deserve this Mother’s Day.  My main goal today is to inspire you to create something special for the fabulous mothers in your life.  I’m talking about your mom, your mother-in-law, your grandmother or your terrific best friend who is the super mom of all super moms.   I want to challenge you to put a little creativity into celebrating these women.

Try making a handmade card.  Don’t be daunted by the thought of designing one all on your own.  There are beautiful kits available everywhere that take all the guesswork out of the process or you can search online for inspiring ideas.  If you have some creative confidence,  you could whip up your own masterpiece with  your own craft stash.  I made these cards with items I already had on hand.  A heartfelt, personal note inside means so much more than a store-bought cheesy poem.  However, your OWN cheesy poem would be priceless.

Want to try your hand at a handmade gift?  I made these little brag books for my mother and mother-in-law.  They are simple chipboard pages that I cut to size and bound with some metal rings.  I embellished the front with scraps of patterned paper and other goodies.  The inside pages are simple digital templates by Jessica Sprague that I downloaded from the Creating Keepsakes website.  If you are proficient in Photoshop, this project will literally take minutes.  If not, you could easily scrap your own interior pages as well.  Each of my pages is dedicated to one grandchild and includes an initial and a small picture.  My book includes all the grandchildren, not just my own kids.  I left the back page blank (plain chipboard) so that more pages can easily be added as more grandchildren come along.

I’m such a fan of that little personal touch.  I love making cards and gifts and the handmade ones are my favorite to receive as well.  It always touches me that someone put that much thought and effort into creating it.  I hope you all have a fantastic Mother’s Day and happy crafting!

Also, don’t forget to enter our scrapbook layout contest for the chance to win a fun prize!  See my previous post for more details.

In honor of National Scrapbook Day on Saturday, May 3rd I am super thrilled to offer an exciting contest…I want to see your scrapbook pages!  Email us photos or scans of your favorite scrapbook layouts (one or two page spreads) and the winner will receive an autographed copy of the fabulous Ali Edward’s new book, Life Artist, Scrapbooking Life’s Journey.  Did I mention it is autographed?  I am so excited to see your creativity!  The contest will be open for one week starting right now.  Start emailing your entries to peekaboophotocontest [at]gmail.com and put Scrapbook in the subject line.  And I know you will have a hard time choosing your best work to submit, so each entrant may enter up to three layouts.  Please have all entries sent in by next Friday night, May 9th at midnight.  Happy Scrapbook Day!