The Gravy Train

giveaway: alphabet placemat

The alphabet animals placemat from Modern Twist

How fun is this alphabet placemat from Modern Twist?  If you'll recall, a few months ago I gave away a set of placemats that could double as kid-friendly placemats.  

As it turns out, Modern Twist also designs placemats specifically with kids in mind, including designs from one of my favorite modern design companies, Dwell Studios.  These design-friendly placemats are made out of food-grade silicone, and Modern Twist even makes markers that your little ones can use to color in their placemats to their heart's content while you rush around to get food on the table.

The Gravy Baby loves the alphabet animals placemat we now have at his place at the table.  Every morning we play a little game out of pointing to the animals he knows and loves (elephants and pigs, mostly, but I think the latter is because we're huge pork eaters...oops).   Best of all, the placemat provides a slip-proof area for me to put his plate, which reduces the likelihood of unintentional spills.  Note that I said "unintentional."  We've had a rash of intentional food-flinging when the Gravy Baby's dinner not up to his high standards.  Case in point: a few weeks ago we took to using our cappucino maker to froth the Gravy Baby's milk.  Let me tell you for you gourmand parents out there -- if you start down this path, you have to commit to it.  Lord help the parents who, like us, dared to give their child a cold cup of refrigerated milk one chilly November morning.  

(I am still cleaning milk up off the ceiling from that harrowing incident.)

Anyway, so that you may share in my continuing love of all things Modern Twist, you can have your very own alphabet placemat in my giveaway today!  Details, after the jump.

truckin' through dinner

An average dinner for the Gravy Baby, consisting of broccoli, turkey meatballs with gnocchi, watermelon, plums and mandarin oranges

UPDATE: Tara C. is the winner of this week's Din Din Stainless Steel Platter giveaway!  Congrats, Tara!

I've spouted quite a bit these days about my love of organization, and that's due in no small part to the demands that a busy working schedule and a very active toddler place on making it through the day.   The hubby and I are still trying to figure out how to balance everything, and we're realizing that staying on top of things takes more planning than ever.

As a result, I've fallen in love with all sorts of products that take out guesswork so that I can spend more time hugging on the Gravy Baby (one day, ten or eleven years from now, he will tell me that he's embarrassed by my hugging and wipe away a kiss, and you will probably hear the sound of my heart shattering from hundreds of miles away, such is the level of how much I relish being able to cuddle my little one right now). One of my top favorites right now is the Din Din Smart Stainless Divided Platter by Innobaby.  

The folks at Innobaby were kind enough to send me one to test out, and when it first arrived, the hubby made some joke about finding a matching tin cup that the Gravy Baby could bang against the rails of his crib when prison livin' gets too tough.  After he saw how quickly and easily I could arrange all of the Gravy Baby's food on a single plate, though, he was hooked.  For those of you who might be scratching your heads a bit because your little ones either aren't eating table food yet or because you don't have kids, let me clue you in on one thing: toddlers are messy folks.  I have found the remains of day-old Cheerios and crusty bites of grilled salmon in places around our house where no food has ever been consumed.  To avoid catastrophic messes that take us hours to clean, we dole out the Gravy Baby's dinner to him, bit by bit, spread out over multiple plates.  Think of it as the culinary equivalent of a multiple-course omakase tasting menu, except that I'm not making any foams or gelees.  

Innobaby's stainless steel bentos are double-walled for keeping food warm

Anyway, we've marveled at the end of every day at how full our dishwasher is, and that's due in part to the fact that the Gravy Baby smears everything all over himself and his immediate environs, and using multiple plates is far easier than having to scrub smeared, dried food off of a 4-foot area.   With this smart, cute divided platter, we're now able to serve the Gravy Baby at once, and I don't have to sit at the dinner table with a cutting board instead of my own plate, doling out bits and pieces at a time.

If there's anything leftover, we're also using BPA-free stainless bento boxes, like the one pictured above, for storage.  I've become hypersenstive to this whole BPA thing ever since this story came out.  Yes, I am a neurotic mom.  Isn't that my main job these days?

For more products by Innobaby, click here.  You can also like Innobaby on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Update: The folks at Innobaby have graciously decided to give a Din Din Platter to one lucky Gravy Train Blog reader!  Details on how to enter, after the jump.

giveway: roomorama peer-to-peer rentals

A Roomorama rental property in Los Angeles

Have I ever told you about my trip to Italy back in 2008?  The hubby and I, along with a few friends, spent a couple of weeks traveling there for our friends' wedding.  For months before we left, we meticulously planned our trip, debating where we'd find the best arancini; whether we'd have time on in transit from Naples to Rome to stop for one last neopolitan pizza; how much Roman coffee we could cram into our suitcases without raising eyebrows at airport security; and whether having five gelatos a day would officially send one's blood sugar into dangerously stratospheric levels.

Roomorama in Bali, Indonesia

Because we all had buckets of patience, and seemingly, time to discuss such weighty food matters, it surprised me a little when none of us seemed to have the same amount of devotion when it came to figuring out where we'd sleep off the food coma each night.  We ended up piecing together a variety of accommodations ranging from B&Bs to vacation apartment rentals, and things worked out fine.  Still, I remember thinking it would've been nice to have a centralized way for us to find short-term rental accommodations, since we vastly preferred them to hotels. There's just something about staying at someone's little vacation cottage or apartment just makes the whole experience that much more local seeming.  For the four of us, the shared common spaces of a rental apartment also made group dinners and card games easier.

Enter Roomorama.  

Roomorama is one of those brilliant, simple ideas -- so simple, in fact, that it surprised me that there aren't more sites like this one out there.  It's a platform website that matches private owners with short-term rentals directly to travelers, with a clean, simple interface that showcases photos, prices and availability dates.  Transactions are handled directly through Roomarama's secure website, and there's an in-house customer service team available around the clock should you encounter any unfortunate travel disasters that require sorting out.  They even have a snazzy video.  Although I haven't had a chance to use the site yet, the hubby and I are planning a big international trip next year, and we can't wait to shop for our vacation stay.

Even better -- the folks at Roomorama couldn't be nicer, and they've offered one lucky Gravyhead a $50 credit towards a rental of his or her choice!  Details on how to enter the giveaway, after the jump.

giveaway: modern twist placemats

 

Modern Twist placemat in "Kyoto"

I'm so excited about this week's giveaway that I can hardly stand it.  One of my new favorites in art, design and the modern tabletop, Modern Twist makes beautiful placemats out of food-grade silicone.  

I tried out a sample of these babies for a test run recently, and let me tell you, they're just plain awesome.  The placemats added subtle, beautiful detail to my table, and even though I usually like it when my friends and family "ooh" and "ahh" over my food and my food alone, I was equally pleased they were gushing about these placemats before the grub even arrived.  Secondly, they're so easy to clean -- just a quick wipe down, and you're good to go.  As an added bonus for you moms out there, the placemats stay in place when you wet the back of it before placing it on the table, providing a slip-free, clean surface for little eaters.  I found them an easy way to accommodate the Gravy Baby's usual handsy, "no plate 'til Brooklyn" style of eating.

Modern Twist has been gracious enough to share their beautiful, functional product with you Gravyheads today by offering up four placemats (a total value $72) in their amethyst Kyoto pattern (pictured above).  It's currently sold out on their website, which makes these placemats all the more rare and special and amazing and -- oh my Gravy -- you must have them, right?

Rules on how to enter, after the jump.

 

giveaway: california innovations robot lunchbox

Free robot lunch box!  What, what?

Update: this giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to Melanie, the winner of the robot lunch box!

You didn't think I'd let another week pass without giving you something free, did you?  This week's giveaway is for a super sweet robot lunchbox by California Innovations.  With the Gravy Baby about to start school (okay, so it's preschool ... or pre-preschool), I'm looking into all sorts of gear to make sure he's fully equipped to take on some early academic achievement (yes, I am becoming a Tiger Mom).  

Besides the kicky robot design, which should appeal to both the young and the young at heart, I found this lunchbox to be much roomier than some of the other lunch boxes out there.  I also liked the coordinating plastic container for carrying snacks. 

Although I'd keep this lunch box for myself, I promised California Innovations that I'd share the wealth with one lucky Gravy Train reader.  Alternatively, you can enter California Innovations' sweepstakes for $25,000 (which I suppose is just slightly better than my lunch box giveaway, but who's counting, really).   Details, after the jump. 

 

giveaway: free copy of expat women

The editors of Expat Women, a blog network I belong to, contacted me recently and asked me to take a look at their new book, Expat Women: Confessions.  I can't tell you how useful this book would have been to me had it been published two years ago, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is living overseas or thinking about making the big move.

The book tackles all the big issues that come up over the course of deciding a big move, such as what the "trailing" spouse will do to occupy themselves while living away from friends and family.  As you devoted Gravy-ites know, I became a self-titled International Lady of Leisure, but it still wasn't easy to quell my anxieties that came with leaving behind my career, friends and family.  Moving overseas also means having frank, and sometimes difficult, conversations with your partner (if you're moving overseas with one) about how you'll divide your responsibilities, your time, and your money.  

It's also hard not to find a move overseas overwhelming, and with that there are a lot of emotions that can range from elation to depression.  At some point during my two years overseas I experienced everything in that range, and this book addresses those emotions and how to deal with them.  The whole time I read Expat Women: Confessions, I kept thinking how much in common women living overseas have with each other -- and I didn't even fully appreciate that until I realized that this book addresses a lot of the logistics and emotions I experienced in living overseas.

You, too, can share in my happy claps over the publication of Expat Women: Confessions, because today I'm giving away a FREE copy to a lucky reader!  After the jump, read on for how to enter.