My Child's Bookshelf is happy to present a guest post by Bianca Chesimard, author of The Style Clarity Workbook. I had the opportunity to read her book and it gave me insight into defining my style. I feel better about trying to pick pieces that go with what my style is. Enjoy! Angie Malek

Thank you so much for having me on My Child’s Bookshelf today! My guest post is regarding the “mom myth” about losing your personal style after having kids.

Breaking the Mom Myth

Everyone knows the “mom myth” – when you undergo the joy of adding children to your family, you lose your style. Suddenly, you find yourself in baggy, jelly-stained sweats with no more interesting in the seasons “new blue”. Well, I know that’s just not true!

While certain things do often change about our wardrobes, fabric choices and skirt length for example, our actual desire and joy for clothing doesn’t go away. We just tend to lose the time we used to spend on it. We need easy choices that are grab and go, and pieces that look amazing after some mild abuse. Finding this balance is part of what the Style Clarity Workbook is all about.

When you have a clear and defined style, and all the pieces in your closet work together to create your image, it’s really easy to dress every day. All your items coordinate and work together to define your look. No matter what you grab, you have a put together, stylish look that you feel great in. The Style Clarity Workbook walks you through each step of this process, and we talk to other people in many different circumstances along the way.

 For example, my friend Kendra:

I call my style Cool Rocker Mama. I’ve got three kids under the age of five, so the majority of the day I’m much more concerned with what everyone else in the house is wearing than whether or not I look stylish. However, when I do make it out to playtime in the park, the other moms find my endless parade of ‘90s indie band tees and my leather boots pretty fascinating.
-Kendra, 34

By defining her look, and then choosing pieces around it that also are kid-friendly, she is able to keep that inner rock glam look she loves, while being practical about day to day life. It’s all about developing a plan, it’s easy and fun to do! Come join us on the Style Clarity journey, and define your style!

Bianca Chesimard is the author of The Style Clarity Workbook, and the creator of the Style Clarity website and blog. She spent several years in the data analysis field, which, combined with a love for fashion and style, led her to develop the Style Clarity method and write the workbook. She is a wife and mother, and enjoys a stylish life in Virginia.

The Money Saving Mom's Budget Giveaway!

As promised, here is your chance to win a copy of Crystal Paine's "The Money $aving Mom's Budget"!

Entry into our giveaway is simple; post a comment here, on facebook or email and tell us why you want a copy of this book. We strongly believe in the message that Crystal is spreading and we want to know that the person who receives this book is going to read it, use it, and change their life because of it. That may sound a little over the top, but read this amazing review from Jessica at This Blessed Life and you'll see what we mean.

You have until 11:59 pm eastern on Tuesday January 17, 2012 to enter. After that we will select 3 to 5 entrants' comments that we like the best and the winner will be randomly selected from those.

Good Luck!

Happy New Year!

With the new year fast approaching we are preparing for some MAJOR changes at My Child's Bookshelf. Over the next couple of weeks our website is getting completely redesigned with added features like "Ratings & Reviews" and others that we will tell you more about as they are made active. We are excited about the changes, as they are a culmination of all the feedback we received from you throughout the year. We hope you like what we have in store because everything we do is with you, our customer and friend, in mind.

Thank you for making our first year in business so successful.

Have a Safe and Happy New Year and we will see you in 2012!

~Duane & Angie

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone is having a great Thanksgiving celebrating with family and friends. We also hope that great deals are being found for those of you that are out shopping or shopping online! We have lots of new books that are being added daily. We are really excited about our American Girl series! We are expecting an order that will contain all of the American Girl series books. We have also created a clearance section! We have some more great changes in the works for the new year! We will keep everyone updated as things progress. Duane and Angie

200+ Friends Celebration--Day 5

Well, it's been a fun week-long celebration that wraps up tonight with one more chance to win in our $5.00-A-Day Store Credit Giveaway!
A quick Recap of our winners:
Monday-Lee Haijun
Tuesday-Ashley Bera
Wednesday-Sandy Delong
Thursday-Heather Person

As part of the celebration, we have also discounted a couple of categories. Our new Berenstain Bears category and our popular Magic Tree House category are both 10% Off.

Our Customer Loyalty Program always gives registered customers 5% back in Store Credit, but if you order this week and mention you have joined us on Facebook, you get 10% back!

Finally, you can get 25% Off of any book in our store when you use promo code: FB200.

Like our celebration, all of these offers end tonight, don't miss out!

We have had the opportunity to fill many orders this week. Some for our new friends and some for our returning friends, and we want to thank all of you for allowing us to serve you.

This whole week has been a lot of fun! We will have to celebrate again at 500! :D

~Duane Malek

200+ Friends Celebration--Day 2

     It was a busy day between facebook updates, customer's special requests, login problems and missing money on orders... All the twists and turns of small business, and We Love It!
     We gave away another $5.00 in Store Credit to one our most active facebook friends, Congratulations, Ashley Bera! All you have to do to enter is Register at www.MyChildsBookshelf.com and "Like" our entry status that we post for that day on facebook.
     As part of the celebration, we are doubling our Customer Loyalty Program to 10% back in Store Credit.  Just register on our website, order through Friday Oct. 28, 2011 and mention on your invoice at checkout that you follow us on facebook and we will double your reward to 10%!
     Last night we asked on facebook, what is you're child's favorite book or series. One of our friends said Berenstain Bears, so we created a new category in the store and we are going to discount the entire category later today!
     Again, Congratulations to Ahsley Bera!

~Duane Malek

200+ Friends Celebration---Day 1!

     We are excited have surpassed 200 friends on Facebook! Today is the first day of our celebration and we are going to start off with $5.00 in store credit giveaway! Then, we will giveaway another $5.00 each day through Friday Oct. 28, 2011. To be eligible all you have to do is comment on this post about how much you love My Child's Bookshelf, or anything else on your mind, we just need to know you would like to enter. Also, you have to be registered on our store website, so we can credit your account when you win!
      One winner will be randomly selected each night at 10:00 pm eastern. When you win we will email you and edit this post to add your name at the end.
      Oh! One other thing. All week long, if you are a registered customer and place an order, just add a note on your invoice that says you follow us on Facebook and you will receive 10% back in store credit instead of the usual 5%. Also, you will be entered to win a $10.00 store credit gift card to be given away on Sunday Oct. 30, 2011.
     Thanks for celebrating with us! Good Luck!

The winner of our first $5.00 giveaway: Lee Haijun. Congratulations!

American Girl Books!

We have been unpacking and listing American Girl books for the last week! Our most popular books seem to be the Molly collection but I am drawn to the Kaya collection of books. Kaya is a Native American girl. Even though I have two boys I find myself wanting to read about Kaya and her adventures. I love historical fiction, especially fiction about Native American tribes. I find their culture fascinating. Have any of you and your girls read the American Girl books? What are your favorites?

Inventory Updates

I have been busily working on inventory all weekend. Lots of new books are being ordered including American Girl, Step Into Reading, A to Z Mysteries, and many more. We should have lots of inventory updates in the weeks to come. We love to hear from our customers so if you are looking for something in particular please let us know.

Garrett's new favorite books are The Monster At The End of This Book and Another Monster At The End Of This Book. They are really cute Sesame Street books that my friend told me about. Garrett loves them!

We don't mail envelopes

     We do some things differently at our bookstore:

1. We list ATOS book levels and AR point values on all qualified books.
2. We sometimes give away store credit as a little "Thank You" to our customers.
3. We Don't Mail Envelopes. 

     When you buy a book from My Child's Bookshelf it will ALWAYS be shipped in a box. Period. No exceptions. 

     Why does it matter what our books are shipped in? Because we care about our customers and our books.  Boxes are more expensive than envelopes and weigh more, so they cost a little more to ship, but it's worth it. We have received books from places such as eBay, Random House and others that arrived in envelopes and were damaged. The problem is NOT the source, it's the shipping process. We hand our package (your order) to a person that puts it in a bin. Then it gets sorted, loaded, unloaded, sorted, loaded, unloaded... over and over again until it arrives to you. Envelopes, and their contents, don't stand much of a chance of arriving without damage. We have received so many damaged books in envelopes that we cringe when a book is delivered in one. We decided from day one not to use envelopes at our store, and experience has proven that to be a wise decision. We wrap every book in paper, place it in a box and cushion it with paper or bubble wrap. This is no guarantee that your order won't get damaged, but it greatly increases the odds. We have shipped hundreds of books and can proudly say, we have never had a damage complaint, Not One. So, whether you order 1 book or 10, your order will arrive wrapped and in a box.

     What does all this mean as far as shipping charges? Our customers have several shipping options, but most often they choose USPS Media Mail. This is how our shipping charges are calculated: 

Media Mail costs $2.41 for up to 1 pound and an additional $0.41 for every additional pound. The total weight of your order is calculated at checkout and assigned a price based on that formula. We add $1.50 in handling charges to that to cover the price of the box, packing materials, shipping labels, etc. $1.50 doesn't really cover all of our expenses, but we are committed to keeping the cost to our customers as low as possible without jeopardizing the quality of our product or service.

     Hopefully this all helps you understand why, when you put a $3.00 book in your cart, it costs $3.91 for shipping. We know it doesn't make it any easier to swallow at the time of checkout and you may even choose not to complete your purchase. But please, rest assured, we do everything we can to keep our prices low and, more importantly, our customers happy.

 ~Duane Malek