Shop Swap & Blog Partner #1 (w/ a giveaway)...

About a month ago I signed up for a Shop Swap & Blog Partner.  I had chosen to partner up with two shops.

The first of my partners I want to share with you is Melissa.  She is a super sweet Momma of two little cuties and runs a fun Etsy store Max and Ellie with her sister Emily.

We each sent each other little packages with items from our stores, I LOVE getting things in

the mail and this was no exception.  Before we get into our goodies here is the skinny on Melissa:

I taught high school science for 5 years before becoming a SAHM to my two little girls.

My oldest was born in Las Vegas, and just before her first birthday, we moved away from all

our friends and family!  My second was born here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  My husband and I are looking at purchasing a small farm.  We think that would be a kick in the pants and we really want our kids to grow up with an appreciation of nature.  

I love to cook, read, make things, and watch TV.

My sister Emily and I both joined Etsy a few years back and loved to look at all of the beautiful things people were creating.  We also thought to ourselves, "I should open a shop."  But neither of us was brave enough to mention it to anyone, let alone do anything about it.  It was not until the summer of 2008 when our brother gave each of us a cute baby bib from his friend Michelle's  shop, another SAHM, that we decided then we finally could do it.

After a few months of R&D Max and Ellie officially opened its cyber-doors and made its first sale that day!

Our goal at Max and Ellie is to have fun making lovely things for babies, toddlers, and mommies. Making money would be icing on the cake, we would thrilled if we broke even!

What a great story of putting yourself out there for success.  It is so easy for us Mommies to

put the dreams of kiddos ahead of our own.  Sometimes we need to make ourselves happy so we have happy children.  I think Melissa is a great example of this!

Now to the good stuff:

There was no rules on what we were to exchange, it was completely up to the partners.  So for me just to get one thing from Max and Ellie would be awesome.  So you can imagine how thrilled I was to open my package to find THREE!

You may have seen this little adorable apron in a previous post, it is just the perfect size for Buggie.  I love the elastic neck and velcro closure, makes it perfect for her to get on and off without any help.

HOW CUTE IS THIS ONESIES!  I love the color combo, perfect for those unknown babies like Jellybean. Great quality and detail, I can so picture this one on over the summer at the beach!

And how awesome is it that I got  something too!  This is perfect size, Itty Bitty Boo Boo Kit for my purse.  It came with bandaids and alcohol wipes.  Great idea since us Mommies know, boo boos happen at the most unlikely of times...

It was such a pleasure working with Melissa on this swap.  I hope you enjoyed reading about her and visiting her shop.  Melissa did want to share her favorite online shop for kids Let's Explore, I have not browse the whole thing yet, but I can not wait to get into so holiday shopping!

Now for a giveaway!  

Melissa is offering to one lucky winner a Itty Bitty Boo Boo Kit of their own, winners choice!

Here is how you can enter:

1. Become a follower of my blog and then visit Max and Ellie, come back and 

leave a comment on your favorite item.

2. Become a follower of Melissa's blog Max and Ellie.

3. Tweet, blog or FB about this giveaway.

4. Make a purchase from Max and Ellie (5 extra entries)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  Giveaway will be open until Nov 1 at midnight.  A winner will be chosen by random.org on Nov 2.

**CLOSED**