All 3 of my children have been collecting Box Tops for Education for the last 6 years or so. I remember when my middle son, now 14, but when he was in 2nd grade was in tears because I had thrown away a granola bar box that had a Box Tops for Education on it! He was so upset, and I had to go dig through the trash to get it…. ewwww!   — Awww, what we do for our kids!

For those of you who don’t know what Box Tops for Education are:

“Box Tops for Education has helped America’s schools earn over $475 million since 1996. You can earn cash for your child’s school by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of participating products. Box Tops also offers easy ways to earn even more cash for your school online.” – Box Tops 4 Education

 

The importance of giving back to schools:

The great part about the Box Tops for Education program is that your direct participation earns your child’s exact school money for education. You will enter your child’s school information and all your rewards will go to their school. Awesome, yes?

So I was excited to pair up with Jingit, a program that pays you to shop for your favorite brands and your child’s school get’s rewarded too! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Jingit:

“With Jingit, you can earn real cash, instantly for watching ads online; or checking in and shopping for select products at your favorite stores; even for giving your feedback to leading brands by taking brief surveys. In return, those brands get your attention!”

 

Google+ Album – See how to use Jingit!

What a win-win for all. So I loaded the Jingit app on my iPhone, shopped at Walmart and bought General Mills foods that my kids already love. Take a look at my Google+ Album here.  See my trip, what I picked up, and how easy it was for my daughter’s school to earn Box Tops, and me, money.

It was an enjoyable time being able to get rewarded for items I would have purchased anyway! My son inhales the Totino’s Pizza’s (hey he’s a teenage boy) – and my daughter loves the Gogurt and granola bars. General Mills cereals such as Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are favs at my house too!

Want to learn how you can get started – here you go:

Here are the steps for you to start earning!

1.) Sign up here: —> Jingit Signup

2.) Download the Jingit app for your iPhone or Android: –> Jingit download app

3.) Start shopping! Go to Walmart. Check in with the app and scan the barcodes on any 4 participating General Mills’ back-to-school basics products that are listed on the screen once you get to the store.  Then “cha-ching!” – you’ll earn a little real cash, in real time. And 4 Bonus Box Tops will automatically be donated to your selected school.

4.) Visit Walmart.com to engage with General Mills products, and look for banner ads with a Jingit curl from these same brands. Some locations may not feature the same ads. Once you get home, make sure to “check in” at home, by scanning your products again to earn more money, and to have the Box Tops for Education donated to your child’s school.

Lastly, log in to your Jingit dashboard and see how much money you made. You can also watch videos, learn more about other products you can earn with and share with your friends on Facebook , Twitter and Pinterest. I was excited that I made $6.00!

Thanks Jingit, Walmart, and General Mills. My daughter was excited to donate her Box Tops to school the next day.

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Jingit #CBias #SocialFabric”. All experiences and opinions are my own.

For more back to school tips on Stagetecture, click here.

We were both excited to hear that we would pair up with Cookie’s Kids Department Store to show Stagetecture reader’s their great selection and my daughter Avrielle, was doubly excited because she got to have a say in choosing what she wanted! CookiesKids.com has been outfitting kids for last 40 years and this year they are celebrating with tremendous back to school fashions, sales, and online deals that are too good to pass up. Have any of you shopped at Cookies Kids.com before? I’d love to hear your experience too – leave comments at the end of the post!

My daughter actually thought we were going to get cookies with this opportunity! I explained to her that we weren’t going to be eating, but getting cool back to school fashions, and she was like, “Cool!”  I decided to tell her how #CookiesKids got their name and how they started:

In 1972, a young man named Cookie and his brother Marvin went into business together. They rented a 1600 square foot store in Jamaica, Queens, fixed it up, bought inventory and Summer and Fall, and opened a day after Thanksgiving with a full stock of holiday toys. The toys were a success and they put the extra money toward buying children’s clothing for the next season. When that did well, they bought more clothing. The business was on it’s way.

As the brothers Cookie, Marvin and Sonny, who had come in as a third partner in the business, began to open new stores in new locations, inventory expanded. Besides the latest fashions, our customers wanted shoes, toys, backpacks and accessories and we were prepared to deliver.

By the late 1990’s there were six superstores throughout the NYC area, and though they previously had different names, by that time they were all named Cookie’s Kids. Also in the late ’90s came an important addition to Cookie’s Kids’ inventory: school uniforms. It was the steady success in uniform sales that paved the way for founding CookiesKids.com in 2007, which originally sold uniforms and soon after the entire Cookie’s Kids Inventory.

Avrielle and I headed over to the girls fashion area on Cookie’s Kids.com to get started.

Back to school Google+ Album

To see Avrielle and I’s full online Cookie’s Kids adventure, I invite you to see my Google+ album where you will see pictures of her in all of the great outfits and see what I liked about the shopping experience. From how I decided what school clothes she needed before we went online to the final pictures in her “photo shoot”.

Back to School Shopping for Avrielle on Cookies Kids.com

Since my daughter was born in 2005 it is time consuming to go to a physical store. So for the last 6 years, I shop for EVERYTHING for my kids online. From textbooks to toys for birthday’s and Christmas to back to school shopping. As Avrielle got older I started realizing part of the fun of shopping for kids is being able to choose what they want to wear. When Avrielle went to the Cookies Kids.com we were excited about all of the name brands they offered, at a very affordable prices.

I had to tell Avrielle that we had a $30 shopping spree budget, so she wasn’t going to be able to buy everything on the site! I was excited to see a clearance area and so both Avrielle and myself were thrilled to find both of these Hello Kitty outfits.

The Hello Kitty “Bubble Kitty” 2 piece orange sweatshirt was my favorite. While the Hello Kitty “Heart Bubble” 2 piece black shirt and leggings were Avrielle’s favs!

I told Avrielle we need to find an outfit for fall too. Sure it’s 90 degrees here now, but once November – here in Jacksonville, Florida it gets chilly. So we decided on a long sleeved shirt – the Pretty Peace long sleeved shirt and some Stretch skinny jeans.

The best part of this whole experience was for $30 I bought 3 entire outfits and some Hello Kitty “Je t’aime” 2-Pack Crew Socks! Hey, you can never have enough socks right? I did like how you can search the site by brand, color, size. Wouldn’t it be great if you could shop by season? Like summer, winter, spring, fall? I didn’t see this option on the site, but may be a good suggestion.

To see how I put all of the fashions together, take a look at my Polyvore board. From her fun outfits, to back to school inspiration – this was a nice way to compile them all in one area.

Polyvore inspiration board – Cookie’s Kids back to school fashion

What a great experience we had shopping for back to school fashions on Cookies Kids.com. I also started following them on Facebook and Twitter. I absolutely loved their post yesterday:

“Blast from the past – Did you have a Trapper Keeper? What’s the must-have back to school item that your kids won’t be caught dead without?”

Oh how I do remember Trapper Keepers! My daughter now loves the rolling backpacks… wish we had those 20 years ago! I included the Hello Kitty backpack in my Polyvore board. While we didn’t get it this time.. we will be sure to come back for it!

Please note:

“I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric® Community.  This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. and CookiesKids.com #CBias #SocialFabric. All the content and opinions are strictly my own.. and my daughter’s.

For more kids ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

I was excited to pair up with PPG Pittsburgh paints to showcase some of their beautiful colors and also highlight their newly designed website. PPG Pittsburgh Paints also gave homeowners a chance to create a new color paint name for one of their 150 new colors in the ‘I Named a Paint Color’ contest in July! You probably remember Stagetecture has featured PPG Pittsburgh Paints in highlighting color trends for 2011 and the launch of the Voice of Color mobile app.

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Here’s more about PPG Pittsburgh Paints ideas behind their contest and revamping their website:

Adding color to my own home

I was doubly excited when PPG Pittsburgh Paints gave me a chance to try out any of their products and I chose to paint my foyer and middle son’s room with these gorgeous colors.

My foyer had a sage green color before, but the paint was blotchy and I was concerned another color may create a blotchy effect.

I chose this beautiful Dill color. I realized the other green was looking too washed out. I think it definitely adding the punch of color I needed for our 1987 home. Here’s the Dill 310-5 paint I chose for the foyer.

 AFTER

What I like about the PPG Pittsburgh paints is that they go on evenly and didn’t require a lot of coats, primers, etc… Look how evenly it covered.

Once I was done with the foyer it was time to move on to my son’s room…. which has been a lavender purple for the last two years. My son for some reason thinks the look of no furniture in his room is great  ( he says it makes it look larger!) … no comment, no one wants to argue with a 14 year-old!

When talking with my son, I asked him what colors he wanted. After he chose orange to represent the orange and blue from the University of Florida’s Gators or Celtic green from the Boston Celtics kelly green – we had to come to a compromise. So I told him why don’t we find a blue that is more grown up and not baby blue? So he decided on Kaleidoscope 449-4. Which I think was a great choice!

Once the paint dried my son was so excited about his new blue room!

Thank you PPG Pittsburgh Paints for this opportunity to transform two rooms of my home. It just goes to show you how you can transform your interiors with beautiful color and spend little to achieve gorgeous results!

For more color ideas in your interiors on Stagetecture, click here.

Note: Product samples were given to me for this product to review PPG Pittsburgh Paints. All the reviews and comments are my own.

In April of this year when I attended the Sandra Lee event in NYC to introduce her great line of kitchen houseware products I found many awesome products on our visit. The other bloggers and myself went to a New Jersey Sears to see all of Sandra’s products but we also had cooking demonstratons by other housewares representatives and Hamilton Beach was my favorite.

Hamilton Beach has always been a main staple in my home from when I was in college and getting my first can opener, blender and other small home appliances, they have always had good quality products that are affordable. I was most impressed with Hamilton Beach’s answer to a great cup of coffee for the morning person and for those who may snooze in later but still want coffee waiting on them!

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The Scoop 2-Way Brewer was sent to me last week from Hamilton Beach and my family loved it. While I’m not a huge coffee drinker, my oldest college-bound son is and my mother is a coffee coniseur for sure! She especially loved the mini basket brewing area for the single cup coffee side.

It was a treat to be able to use a well thought out product that has a programmable timer and great tasting coffee at the same time. I encourage you to give it a try! Here’s a link to the .pdffor all the specifics on HB_TheScoop 2-Way Brewer49980

Here are the Good Thinking® Features:

Two Ways to Brew

Perfect for both personal use and for entertaining this unique coffeemaker brews either a single cup or a full pot. When you need a single cup on the go, choose the one cup option. Brew right into the included travel mug or into your own mug. For the days you want to enjoy cup after cup of coffee, choose the 12 cup full pot option. Now you can brew into a traditional carafe or into a single cup, the choice is yours.

Scoop and Brew 

It’s that simple with the unique scoop that measures and filters your favorite ground coffee.

Coffee Variety

Like the convenience of pods? No worries, you can use your favorite brand of pod coffee and brew either one or two pods for a personal cup experience. And with the brew
strength selector you can choose regular or bold brew settings for both sides of the coffee maker.

Brew in Advance

Whichever way you decide to brew, this fully programmable coffee maker lets you program the brew time up to 24 hours in advance. It also has a two hour auto shutoff.

Thanks Hamilton Beach, what a great way to satisfy everyone in the home.. no matter when you wake up!

For more kitchen ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

Note: A promotional product was given to me for a product review.

When thinking of remodeling your bathroom or updating your old fixtures for new ones, do you know what steps to take to hep you decide on style, finish, and type of fixture perfect for your family and their needs?

Pfister faucets has a wonderful guide to help you!  Whether you are looking for a complete revamp or if you just want to see the collections that they offer. What I like is that they give you a drop down menu of options that makes the process easy and fun to look through the choices!

Once you have selected from each category, Pfister faucets will give you options to choose from in style and their wide array of collections.

Once selected you can zoom in on the features, choose a finish, plus find out where to purchase the Pfister fixture in your area!

I chose the Pasadena Tub and Shower hand held model to replace an existing shower handle style. We love the spray options and the polished chrome finish fit our bathroom perfectly.

It’s always great when you can go to one place to help you choose plumbing fixtures. Visit Pfister faucets here for more details on choosing bathroom fixtures.

Thank you to all of my Stagetecture fans who entered the ‘Fixture Forward’ sweepstakes in October!

Note: A promotional faucet was given for product review.

For more kitchen & bath ideas on Stagetecture, click here.