Got a budding fashion designer at home? Here's a great way to get your foot in the door (so to speak)! Little MissMatched just kicked off Season 2 of their Project Sock contest. Creative minds of all ages are invited to design a three-pack of fun, funky, colorful socks that don't match. You have until April 15th to enter your original designs; the top 24 will be displayed online until mid-May so fans can vote for their favorites.

One Fan Favorite design will become part of the Little MissMatched 2010 holiday collection, plus the winner gets $1,000 cash and ten packs of their winning socks. Five other designs chosen by a panel of judges will also be sold to the public; each of those designers will get $250 and 10 packs of their winning socks.

Winners of the first Project Sock competition include the fun knee-highs above and the pink-and-orange three pack here (both of those are still available to buy).

To enter the contest, print the template form to draw your designs (or plug it into your favorite design software). You'll find it at the Project Sock home page. Kids ages 18 and under need to have a parent sign their entry forms. Then mail in your entry by April 15th and cross your fingers (and toes!).



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Can you imagine not owning any socks? Neither could four-year-old Hannah (pictured here), who noticed a man without socks while she helped her family serve dinner at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving 2004. Concerned that the sockless man's feet would be too cold during the winter in their hometown of Toledo, she convinced her mom to take her to buy and distribute socks at local shelters the next day. Over the next two years, Hannah and her mom collected 10,000 socks to donate to shelters. This year, Hannah's Socks - a nonprofit organization - hopes to collect and distribute 150,000 socks. And you can help - whether you want to donate a few pairs, donate money or host a collection drive in your own community.

PBS fans, unite! PBS is having a customer appreciation sale this week, offering 20% off your entire purchase through March 15th. Here are a few of my favorite things available in the online shop:

• National Parks-themed games like UNO, Scrabble and puzzles.
• Growing Greener Schools DVD on how to create environmentally sustainable schools
• A huge selection of Elmo DVDs (my one year old is in love with the furry little guy) and old-school Sesame Street books and shows
• A full PBS Parents catalog of unique resources, including DVDs on dealing with divorce and motivating your kids.

To get the discount, click here: PBS Customer Appreciation Week - 20% Off Your Entire Order 3.15.2010 and input this code at check-out: PBS325.

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Of course, there are also plenty of "grown-up" products one sale at ShopPBS like DVDs and books. But you have to dig a little to find some really great gift items like this Philosophy recipe box. I love Philosophy's yummy-smellling lotions and other bath podcuts. This exlusive box includes three classic recipe-inspired items shampoo, shower gel and bubble baths in these scrumptious scents: fresh melon smoothie, orchard pear jump starter and raspberry sorbet. The recipe box also features three sweet recipes for well-balanced living! It's $18 before your 20% discount and part of the money goes to support PBS programming. Great deal!

Does your family need a green hour? Consider this from the National Wildlife Federation: "Today's kids spend far less time outside than their parents did. For many of them, tweets are not bird calls but 140-word sound bites. Wii, the electronic game, has replaced wheee!-- the squeal of delight." Sad but true. And it's not that those technological advances aren't cool and beneficial in some ways, but what a shame it is to allow them to completely overshadow all the adventures awaiting our kids right in our own backyards!

The National Wildlife Federation's Be Out There campaign is encouraging parents to establish a Green Hour at home: one hour a day for kids to turn off all the electronics and discover the joy of unstructured play in the great outdoors.

They offer a wonderful array of ideas for how to engage your kids, from "camping out" at home to a backyard scavenger hunt. The National Wildlife Federation also has an online store with products to help you explore nature with kids including an ant farm, adventure pack and gardening tools. As spring approaches and the world around us starts to green up again, it's the perfect time to assess how much time our kids are really spending outside and, if need be, schedule a Green Hour at home. I think it could do a world of a good.

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Children & Nature Network chairman Richard Louv says today's kids are suffering from "nature deficit disorder" and that it's truly having an effect on our kids' quality of life. Check out his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, and find more ideas and research at the Children & Nature Network web site.

Hello Dear Readers!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend, spending lots of quality time with your spirited kiddos and finding time for yourself, too. It's a constant juggling act, I know. And that's why I've decided to stop blogging at My Sweet Angel Pie on the weekends. My schedule has felt a bit hijacked lately, between my other blog, my radio show, my writing and the creative consulting work I do for companies. To make sure I also have plenty of time and energy for my family, I am determined to find ways to cut back a bit without out compromising the work I love to do. So, I've decided to write for My Sweet Angel Pie daily from Monday - Friday, but take weekends off. Enjoy your Sunday everyone and I'll see you back here on Monday!

♥ Liv

It's tough to find a paperbook book for less than four bucks these days. But a high-quality hardcover children's book? Next to impossible! That's why I'm pumped about Barnes & Noble's big book sale: they've got 100 children's titles available for just $3.99 through March 14th.

And these are not your bottom-of-the-barrel, nobody-wants-these books. They're past best-selling titles; in fact, many of them are already on my kids' book shelves. Among my faves available for cheap-cheap-cheap:

• Miss Bindergarten Has a Wild Day in Kindergarten by Joseph Slate: get it for your future kindergartener!
• Someday by Allison McGee: I love this sweet, charming book that tugs at every parent's heart strings!
• Frog and Toad Are Friends and Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel: classics that should be on every kid's book shelf
• The Madeline audio collection by Ludwig Bemelmens: Carol Channing narrates eight Madeline stories

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Don't fret - Barnes & Noble thought of you, too. You can also get 100 adult best-sellers for $3.99 right now including by popular authors like Robert P. Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark and Nicholas Sparks.

A calling card for kids? I know - sounds sort of ridiculous. But stick with me. I never would have thought these were useful until my sister-in-law started selling stationery a few years back when she had her first child. She had some printed with my niece's name on them and used them all the time!

• They're a time-saver and money-saver whenever your child goes to a birthday party. Buy a card at the store...or just attach one of these to the gift with a happy birthday message! You can also order them with a birthday message already printed.
• Stick them in luggage tags for backpacks, suitcases and lunch boxes.
• Use them as labels - just tape them on the front of notebooks, inside books, on CDs and games so your kids' stuff doesn't get lost so easily.
• They're great for quickly exchanging phone numbers and emails with a potential playmate you meet at a gathering or the playground.
• You can even use them as Valentines or to write brief notes to classmates on the last day of school.

These cute calling cards from Amy Adele are 20% off right now. There are tons of styles to choose from and you can dictate the information that gets included. When you add up how much spend on cards and labels each year, these start looking like a pretty great idea!

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If you feel like you need a calling card, RedStamp has some really cute and classy designs. This is the "super mom" card with the the title "social corresondent for (names of your kids). Funny! Click the card for more designs.