Earth Day Giveaway - Nomadic State of Mind Rope Sandals

Earth Day is April 22nd, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to offer you a chance to win one of my favorite products of my existence. . . a pair of your choice earth friendly rope sandals from Nomadic State of Mind. 

My husband spent years trying to convince me to try these sandals, telling me how comfortable they were and how I was missing out, I of course chose to turn up my nose and stick to my shoe-shoes because I had "high arches" and thinking that sandals made from rope would give me blisters, burns and be so uncomfortable and oh was I ever wrong!!! Spring of last year I gave in to his requests, mostly because I saw a cute pair of pink ones, but also because I was hugely pregnant and tired of having to bed over to tie my shoes.

These were the pair I received in the mail just a short week later.

Photo Copyright Nomadic State of Mind

I slipped them on my feet and instantly fell in love, they WERE comfortable, almost like wearing nothing on  your feet. And they were pretty, they look great with my jeans, and also my summer skirts (which I was living in last March due to my still growing belly)

My kids came running in to look and instantly got shoe envy, so we ordered the whole family a pair, including our unborn baby boy, they have adorable tan and light blue colored sandals for toddlers.

Photo Copyright Nomadic State of Mind

Their prices are great, the adult sandals run between $24 and $46 depending on what design you pick and if the shoes have a sole on them or not, and the child's shoes are $19. My husband owns two pair, one with a sole and one without, the rest of us own the shoes without soles, and Sam wears the ones without sole much more often. The main difference is water, if you wear them somewhere that is wet all the time, get a sole because if not the rope soak up the water and you get wet feet. If you live somewhere neutral like we do, there is no need for soles and I really enjoy the feeling the non sole shoes have on your feet. Super light weight, bendable and really, really soft.I have also been wearing my daily, with the exception of when it was too cold for my tootsies and they still have much life left in them.

Just make sure you don't wear them on slippery surfaces while they are still new'ish. I made the mistake of wearing them on our carpeted stairs once, and almost had a cartoon moment where the stairs turned into a slide.

Here are a few pictures of my family enjoying our sandals. :)

Playing at the park.

Hanging out in the back yard with the chickens.

Hiking at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

  I would recommend them for anyone, my knees and back don't hurt when I wear them, they were sooo comfortable pregnant and postpartum with my boy in his carrier, we wear them hiking and biking, while driving and even just lounging at a bbq. And shhhh, don't tell my mama, but she just may be getting a pair for her birthday!


Now it's your turn! :)

Photography Concentrate ~ Extremely Essential Camera Skills

Finally, I get a couple of minutes to sit down and write to you, I am so excited to tell you about this amazing Ebook that I found!

~ Extremely Essential Camera Skills ~

It is written / narrated by this pretty awesome couple Rob and Lauren Lim. Rob and Lauren are living a life I could only dream of, they travel the world taking pictures, sometimes for other people and sometimes for themselves, but how fun would that be?!

Envy aside, back to the book. Their description of it is this,

"A multimedia tutorial that teaches you to take control over your camera, and get creative and confident with your photography."

And they are absolutely right, the book itself has many things to offer the beginner or advanced photographer alike, and to take it one step further, there are 7 vlogs in it which they do a great job of explaining step by step, in common words, not scientific camera lingo, what they are having you do. There are a ton, of detailed pictures walking you through each step, showing visual learners like me, how to do it. Plus, it's FUN to read and it only takes a few hours, not days or weeks to get you shooting better pictures!

Now, I shoot with a Canon 5D and I know how to work my way around manual pretty well. However, there were little tips and tricks that I had overlooked and/or just not taken the time to do. After applying just a few of their techniques, my photographs already look ten times better, and I am much faster.  Who doesn't want to save years of schooling or months of reading books you can't understand that drown on and on?! I like instant gratification, and this book is as close as you can get to taking better pictures, NOW.

One thing that I do wish is that I could get a hardback copy of the book, I love to have pages to feel and flip through over and over again. While they don't offer a hard copy, you do get a FREE printable Field Guide that you can keep in your camera bag, or on your nightstand like mine is, or both!

To make it even better Lauren has generously offered up a free copy to one of my wonderful readers! I hope your as excited as I am about this, because the best part is you don't need to own a fancy camera to take great pictures, you can use this guide and take fantastic pictures with any camera, and you know you want to get some new pictures of your little ones, the pets, and that gorgeous sunrise!

So here ya go, enter away and make sure to leave an email so that I can get in contact with you when you win!! Ready. . . Set. . . GO!!  

My Eco Baby - Woolies

My husband and I made the decision to cloth diaper our son before he was even born, during the last few months of my pregnancy as well as the first few months of C's life, I spent a LOT of time on the internet researching different diapers, reading reviews and opinions in blogs and finally and slowly I have been building my stash. While doing this reading I read quite a few posts on cloth leaking, what causes it and the ways to fix it. You would think with all this reading I would be prepared for when one of the brands I bought started to leak. . .I wasn't, I'm still baffled by why it is happening, and only with the one brand. I tried stripping, hang drying, dryer drying, ect . . . then I discovered people were talking about wool, and I became curious. How could a wool diaper cover, or wool pants keep my baby dry, especially overnight, in a diaper that I know leaks. I knew that this was something I wanted to try, but most of the wool I found was so expensive.

While playing around on Etsy last week, I ran across Gabriela's site My Eco Baby, and right there in front of me was a wool diaper cover with an owl on the butt (and it was affordable)!! I couldn't have been more thrilled, however, it was a size too small. I contacted Gabriela to see about making a bigger size, and possibly doing longies. To my delight she got back with me right away to tell me that she could do it, but to apologize that it might be delayed because her power had been off for five days due to the storm. A few hours later she sent me this picture.

I couldn't believe it, they were done, and adorable!! She shipped them the next day, and I had them in my mailbox two days after that.

Being upcycled wool, I wasn't sure what to expect, but they were oh so soft and stitched well, they even smelled good! The owl lays on top of the pants, not cut out inside and they were in the exact colors that I had requested. I love that they are made up of 100% recycled lambswool sweater and are great for day wear or night wear. Plus they are just ADORABLE! Even if you don't use cloth diapers, these would work great over a pair of 'sposies!

The downside, they are not lanolized, but I found it was easy enough to do with this tutorial
that I found on Pinterest called How To Lanolize Wool. It was quick and easy, and used the same lanolin that I had here from nursing, after letting them dry for 48 hours in the Colorado sunshine they were ready to go.

As you can see, I ordered them a bit big, but the way C is growing I wanted him to be able to wear them for a while. How do they work on leaks? They keep him dry as can be!!!

Now for some fun!! My Eco Baby has offered to give away a wool soaker cover to one of you and entering is easy! Any cover on her site is up for grabs, and if it's not in your size, she will make your size for you.

How to Enter 

• Go to My Eco Baby's site and look at her fabulous products, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite is and what cover you would choose if you won.   (mandatory entry)

Additional ways to enter

• Follow my blog, Monday Morning Coffee
• Like Monday Morning Coffee on Facebook
• Like My Eco Baby on Facebook
• Follow @jenni_mmcoffee on Twitter
• Share the giveaway 

 You get one entry per task, you must leave a comment for each one below in order to be entered in the drawing.

Terms and Conditions

The odds of winning are based on number of entries. So the more entries you submit above, the greater chance you have to win!
Open worldwide. The winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email and will have 48 hours to reply back before a new winner is selected.
No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.
Giveaway ends November 25nd at 11:59PM MST.