Did you read my “Spot a Mom” Celebrates ALL Moms post? It was about 1-800-FLOWERS.COM’s new Spot a Mom campaign – the goal is to ensure that moms aren’t forgotten on Mother’s Day. You can see their “Mother’s Day 2009” commercial below:

Well, great news – 1-800-FLOWERS.COM is giving a $50 gift certificate (which will give you the option to pick out which bouquet you want!) to one lucky Mom in the City reader.

To enter, please tell me which 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Mother’s Day gift you would purchase in the “Comments” section below by Saturday, May 9th at noon.

(To see other contests & giveaways around the web, visit Contesting Monday or Contest Monday.)

Last week, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM hosted a “Spot a Mom” event at The Buckingham Hotel Penthouse in NYC. At the event, moms learned how to make unique floral arrangements for Mother’s Day by Julie Mulligan while enjoying some yummy treats. Julie is the floral lifestyle expert for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. Jim McCann, the founder and CEO of 1800 Flowers, was also in attendance.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the celebration, but Mom in the City reviewer Carla Chery did. Carla noted that the beautiful floral/gift displays fit a variety of moms. (She was excited that she was able to take one of the bouquets home!) The event was in celebration of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM’s new Spot a Mom movement. The goal of the campaign is to ensure that moms aren’t forgotten on Mother’s Day. Rather, they emphasize the importance of celebrating the uniqueness of each mom and showing appreciation to them.

All of this talk about flowers took me back down memory lane. I’m not a huge flower fan, but my favorites are pink roses. My wedding bouquet was a break-away bouquet of pink roses. Initially, there were three mini bouquets wrapped together – one for my mom, one for my future mother-in-law and one for me. I still remember frantically loosening the connecting ribbon right before I walked down the aisle. (The florist had wrapped them too tightly, not realizing that I was going to give each of them their bouquets as a part of the wedding ceremony!) Below is a scanned image of me getting ready to give my future mother-in-law her mini-bouquet…

Of the special 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Mother’s Day collections, I would pick the Pink & White Rose Bouquet. On the non-flower gift side, the “Mom`s Relaxing Bubble Bath” would also be nice. (Hint, hint Reggie!)

Lastly, as a FYI, if you become a 1-800-FLOWERS.com fan on Facebook (www.facebook.com/1800flowers), you will get a special 15% off code. Enjoy celebrating yourself (or your mom!) with something wonderful.

I was so bummed when I needed to miss a holiday cocktail party being hosted by Celebrations.com last week, because Michael was sick. (Oh well, I just would not have felt right partying the night away knowing that I had a sicky-poo son at home.)

So yesterday I was at home, because Michael’s germs had spread to Sean in a different manifestation. Sean couldn’t keep anything on his stomach, so he was vomiting all day. (Yes, I know – “gross”- speaking of which…why is it that both of my kids always run towards me – one of the most squeamish people – when they’re getting ready to throw up?!) Anyway, to my delight, Melissa (who works with Celebrations.com) filled me in on the event (yummy food, beautiful floral arrangements, etc., etc.) AND sent over a messenger with a gift bag. How sweet was that? It made my (sticky) day!

I’ve had a chance to check out the Celebrations.com site over the last few weeks. They really do have some great features including invitations and tools to manage your own party, expert articles with tips, advice for a variety of celebrations and much more. Initially, I was a little wary of the experts (Preston Bailey is one of their experts!), because many times “expert” advice can tend to be unrealistic/ unattainable for the day to day mom. To my pleasant surprise, the tips and advice are relatively easy to incorporate into an average (whatever that is!) person’s life in my opinion anyway. The holiday season is in full mode, so you can visit their site to find recipes, theme and decor ideas, party planning budgets and checklists for yourself and make your own conclusion.

To help you get in the “celebrating” mood, I wanted to share one of the items in my gift bag – a $50 Savings pass from 1-800-flowers.com . They have many gift items for under $30 on their site, so this can take care of one of your gift purchases OR you can just get a little something for yourself – you know you “deserve” it. (Celebrations is a member of the 1-800-Flowers.com family of brands.)

Mom in the City newsletter subscribers can enter to win the Savings pass by leaving your name in the “Comments” section below along with your favorite “Party Idea” from Celebrations.com or by sending an email to contests@mominthecity.com with “Celebrate” in the Subject line and the answer by December 15th (just in time for holiday gifting!).