Great Gardening Tip

If you plan on working in the garden, getting nice and dirty...

scrape your fingernails on a bar of soap. This will help keep dirt from getting under your nails, because the soap build up is in the way! And it will wash right out when you wash your hands, 

so you wont be needing to pick dirt away!

 

That makes me excited to have a garden. I would like to have a balcony garden for my apartment this year but we'll see. I did go out and buy some flowers though! Some daffodils and some other cute little maroon & yellow flowers but the weather has been horrible here so not sure if they'll survive! :(

Here is a garden inspirational photo for me, I just love the color scheme!

(photo is not my own)

Washing with Tide Pods

I received a sample of Tide Pods Laundry soap last week and gave it a try today. I love how easy and convenient the lil pods are, especially when living in an apartment and the laundry area is down the stairs and a good walk away! I can just take the amount of pods I need (1 per load) and have them sit on top of the clothing in the hamper, while I'm pulling it; instead of carrying a bottle of liquid soap, or a container or two of the powdered soap. I always seem to spill the powdered soap lol so these help out a lot with that! ;) The pods are mess free and you just throw them into the drum of the washing machine, then add your clothes and turn on the wash. Super easy. Very convenient. And a nice smell. However, I find that when I use liquid Tide, my clothes have a stronger scent on them that lasts-which I love. But these pods don't really leave a strong scent at all, so that's the downfall in my opinion. 

But they're great, form-wise and they get the job done! :)

Homemade Hazelnut Italian Soda

   Italian Soda's are so easy to make and now that I have my own ingredients, I don't need to get them from the cafe anymore!

    You start by having your glass filled with ice.

 It can be cubed, crushed, whatever you like. Add in 1 Cup of plain Sparkling Water.  

 

   Next, pour in 2TBS of your choice of flavored syrup, I used Hazelnut, (one of my favorites!) Stir together your concoction and add the optional, but oh so good, pyramid of whip cream to the top...

 

Put a straw in and enjoy!

Figamajigs Review

Figamajigs are Fig pieces coated in dark chocolate, being low in fat, a good source of Fiber, and also high in anti-oxidants. They are very tasty, much similar to chocolate covered raisins. About the same texture. Great snack for on the go, or when you just need a piece of healthy chocolate to get you by :)

Worlds Easiest Chocolate Cake

Claimed to be the World's Easiest homemade chocolate cake. 

Recipe from Crazyhorseghost on HubPages.

1. 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour.

2. 1 Cup Granulated Sugar.

3. 3 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder.

4. 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda.

5. 1 Teaspoon Salt.

6. 3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil.

7. 1 Tablespoon White Vinegar.

8. 1 Teaspoon Vanilla.

9. 1 Cup Cold Water.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and then sift all your dry ingredients together and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add in all the rest of your ingredients and mix very well with a hand mixer. Be sure to get all the way to the bottom of the bowl and that you mix all of your ingredients together well.

Pour into a 13"X9" baking pan that you have sprayed with Pam Vegetable Cooking Spray. Cook in your preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I drizzled on some homemade cinnamon cream cheese frosting and powdered sugar sift. 

Moist, spongy, deliciousness!

Lemon Asparagus Frittata+Recipe

I came across a lime asparagus frittata at Lucullian Delights and wanted to give it a shot. But I didn't have any limes so I thought I could do it using a lemon. It looked great over at Lucullian's but I don't know what I was thinking because I hate eggs and that's the main food in this! lol.

The recipe calls for:

Asparagus
1-2 limes (or in my case a lemon)
2 eggs (I used 3)
3-4 tbsp grated Parmesan (I used mozzarella)
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

I sauteed the asparagus with the lemon juice and salt, and while that was cooking, I whisked together eggs and lemon pepper. When the Asparagus was softened, I then layered it in a glass dish and poured the egg mix atop it. Baked it in the oven at 347 degrees for about 15minutes.

It was an interesting combo. I hated the eggs but the lemony asparagus flavor was alright. I LOVE asparagus but I think I'll stick to sauteing it alone instead :)

Kids Ice Cream Maker Purchase/Review

We got a $10 Kohls Cash money that I let lil man pick out something for himself with. He picked an icecream maker that was on sale for $9.99, normally $40 somethin! So we got it home and tried it out... only to find it didn't really work like it should. The spinner took forever and the ice cream didn't freeze much. It made one big mess and only a tiny tiny amount of "ice cream" but it was still fun.

The ingredients said to mix milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, cream, and a flavor in containers & keep cool

Then you slowly pour the mix in and grind the machine..

See the mess it made?

Well after a LONG time, it made a little bit for lil man to enjoy..

And he really did enjoy...! WAY too many sprinkles lol.

St Patricks Day {2012}

This is a bit late of a post but I wanted to share my fast thinking St Patricks Day decor. Luckily I still had a lot of green stuff left over from my sons Ninja Turtle Party, back in June, so I used most of that.
I striped green streamers across the table, also hung some from the ceiling with shamrocks stuck to them. In the middle of the table is a planter my son painted for me. it was filled with chocolate gold pieces. Along with a quick rainbow I drew and some silly looking shamrocks I cut out.

My son wore an orange beard, I made from a doily and cotton balls, colored orange :) 

And I decorated our holiday tree.

I made my son a St. Patricks Day Sensory box activity to do, while I made dinner: 

Bratwurst Rubens..full of sauteed onions and sauerkraut!

I had some crafts planned like coloring a leprechaun picture, stringing Apple Jacks cereal for a necklace, and playing some games, but he didn't want to do any :/ Guess he's getting too old lol. 

Still a fun day though!

Our Snow Day 3-21-2012

I woke up at 6am to hearing sounds of kids laughing and yelling...and the smell of stinky breath in my face. :) My son had climbed in bed with me this morning because he was woken by the kids noises outside. I looked out the window and saw the neighborhood kids playing in...SNOW! There was so much snow out there this morning, and it continued to snow. So we got ready and went to play in it. :)

We built a snowman, had snowball fights, made snow angels...and lil man stubbed his nose on the slide. Yes stubbed lol. He was trying to walk up the slide but it was too slippery, he ended up falling on his face, smacking his nose on the cold hard plastic slide :( A few tears but he is ok now :) We came inside for some hot cocoa WITH candy cane (mine with caramel) and have been relaxing the rest of the day.

DIY Homemade Poptarts

    While browsing at the store, I saw Pie Crust and I had the idea to make homemade poptarts with it! Know I knew I most likely wasn't the first one to ever think of this, so I explored the internet to see if other people had tried this, and that's when I came across a post from The Family Kitchen on the poptart filling being chocolate chip cookie dough. 

 

Sounded amazing so we gave it a shot!

To start, make sure you have all the ingredients:

 

Pie Crust

Bisquick

Butter

Brown Sugar

Chocolate Chips

And any desired topping. 

(We used Frosting and Sprinkles.)

Mix ingredients together in a bowl:

2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of melted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons Bisquick
2 tablespoons chocolate chips

(you can duplicate or quadruple your recipe to make as many as you want! But this made approx 7 mini poptarts for us.)

Lay your pastry crust out and use a knife or cookie cutter to cut desired shapes.

Plop cookie dough mixture into the cut pastry dough then layer another pastry dough on top, Crimping All sides with Fork.

 

Place on greased cookie sheet and Bake in oven at 425 degrees for 10-12mins (differs per oven)

(For one 'poptart' we put half of a big swirl marshmallow inside with some chocolate chips. Came out delicious!)

Once baked, out of oven and cooled, frost and sprinkle...then ENJOY!

Freebie Weekend With My Mom

A couple weekends ago, me and my mom went shopping and had a day to ourselves. We went to The Children's Place Garden Party and got to eat cookies and drink lemonade, as well as take home stick on tattoos for the kids, and we received coupons also. I found an adorable pair of robot jammys there, for my son, and I got them half off so they came out to $5. 75! Then we went to the World Market store to explore and we got to taste some Irish relish, made with tomatoes, and also eat some white cheddar popcorn. Then we got to sample some coffee and tea; Texas Turtle coffee which was good and a creamy coconut tea which was very bland and had no taste of coconut. After that, they were doing wine tasting so I wanted to give it a shot. I've always wanted to attend a wine tasting so it was a fun experience. I tried 3 different kinds, and found out that I prefer sweeter wine then not. And the almond champagne was very good. My mom treated me to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Then we shopped around at some other stores and then to Big Lots. They were having some great deals! Big Lots always has great deals but these ones were roof blowing. They had a lot of food items discounted really low because they're expiration dates were nearing...I'm talking, items that were regularly $2-$5 only costing 10 cents to a dollar! I didn't splurge in the discounts because we really didn't need all the goodies but I did get a few things.

A box of Chips Ahoy Cookies, only 10 cents.

A package of Fudge Dipped Oreo's, only 25 cents.

Cheese Dipper Crackers, only 50 cents.

A Box of Poptarts, only 50 cents.

A white tank top for my son, 25 cents!

(ones below not pictured)

A Jones Rootbeer, 70 cents.

Fanta Soda, 25 cents.

Socks, 25 cents.

Cinnamon crackers, 10 cents.

I also used 2 of my SheSpeaks free coupons for Torani Syrup.

So a fun filled day and it only cost me less then $10!

Ecover Laundry Detergent Review

So I finally used my Ecover Laundry Detergent I got as a sample a while back...I have to say..I don't have much of a review for it. I used it to wash the bedding sheets and poured it in the wash as usual..It didn't have much of a smell and it didn't give the laundry any lingering clean scent afterward so I think I will still be sticking to laundry detergent that smells good and always leaves the laundry fresh!

Batman Costume Review!!

Wholesale Halloween Costumes have all kinds of costumes, including costumes for babies, to purchase. Great for Halloween, costume parties, or if you just have a kid that just likes to dress up for fun! Thanks to them and they're wonderful company, I got to choose a costume in exchange for my honest review and I chose Batman :) I chose Batman because my son of course, loves him, but he also had a Batman costume when he was younger and he outgrew it, making him sad, wishing for another one. So this was the perfect opportunity to receive the Batman costume to review! The costume came in "toddler size" which is 2T-4T and included the full batman suit, a yellow belt, and the awesome mask connecting cape. My son loved the "buffness" of Batman's chest muscles, making himself look buff and muscly-which is a big thing for him.

       He paired it with his black snow boots, 

     giving him the complete feel of Batman...

Running through the house! :)

                  And I just love his lil batman booty :)

The belt ties on easy, the costume has Velcro to close up the back, and the cap/mask pulls right over the face with eye holes. The costume is made of Polyester and can be hand washed and air dried. I would like to think it is a durable costume, but ours came with some parts not sewn well (as you can see in the photo below) and there were a lot of loose strings hanging, that I had to trim. But aside from that, it seems like a great costume any Batman loving boy would love!

 This post is made possible by Wholesale Costumes and the Costume Reviewers Admin 

for providing me the above costume in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Tig Tagz ID Bracelets for Kids

Tig Tagz! An ID bracelet for your kid to wear, for an extra mode of safety. If you're going out to a park, or maybe the mall, or really anywhere you chance your kids getting lost, a Tig Tag could be a great thing to have! The child wears the Tig Tag ID Bracelet, which bares your phone number, and then can have an adult call you if they're lost. You can also have any medical issues printed on the bracelet as well. Unlike stickers, or a paper in the child's pocket, TigTagz ID bracelets are tear-proof, sweat-proof, smear-proof, and water-resistant so it's great for rough playing kids!

Tig Tagz come in several different cute styles, made for boys and girls. You can find them at www.tigtagz.com

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

No Safety Cutter In My MailBox :(

Kinda sad,

I was approved to try out this amazing Slice-Safety Cutter, through Tomoson, but it never shipped. Contacted the company 3 times, and I just so happened to be one who's got lost in the mail-twice :( 

So I never got to try it out. It's been months but I'm still hoping it will somehow magically appear in my mailbox :) In the meantime, I decided to write a post on it anyway, to give them something to read.

The Slice-Safety Cutter has a microscopic ceramic blade
that won't cut your skin! Sounds like a great substitute for kids using scissors! Also great for scrap-booking, clipping recipes, coupons and news articles, removing shrink-wrap, opening CDs, DVDs, and plastic packaging,...so much more possibilities!
It also includes a built-in magnet and key-ring hole-great for
on the go! See why I was bummed I didn't get this in the mail?
Sadly, the promotion has ended so there's no trying again.

Anyway, if you've gotten to review this product, I hope you enjoyed it! 

Feel free to leave me a comment telling how it went :)

I never received the products mentioned above, using Tomoson.com. Sad day.

My Recyclebank Wins!!

I've written a few posts about Recyclebank...that I won an awesome package , cashed in points and have gotten 3 different magazine subscriptions for free, and also won a $15 gift card to Abe's Market.

With that gift card, I chose to get a "Coffee & Cream Bar Soap" from Enzoskin, which smells delicious and also, a Luxe Tote Reusable Shopper Bag-in yellow. I was a little hesitant on the Luxe bag when I got it, because it looks much better in the photo on their website, but I am very pleased with it after I have used it. It says to hold up to 45lbs and I believe it! I love how it starts off small and compact, so it was easy to hold in my purse for a time in need. Which came to the day I walked to the store to get groceries! I bought a little more then expected, so it was a lot to carry in just two hands. Thankfully I had the Luxe bag with me! I packed all the groceries into it and was able to carry it all on one shoulder. I love this bag and hope it holds up for several uses!!

 

 Recyclebank is a site I definitely recommend. 

An easy way to earn points to exchange for great products!

IAAWOG Bracelet Review

Curious what IAAWOG stands for?

"I AM A WOMAN OF GOD"

A wristband bracelet made of silicone, stating I'm a woman of God. A nice fit, pretty hot pink color.

These bracelets can be purchased at

 http://www.iamawomanofgod.com/wristbands 

in several different colors.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

PottyCover: A Disposable Toilet Seat Cover

A PottyCover is just like it sounds :) 

It is a disposable toilet seat cover for children to use in public places, 

to keep from getting the yucky germs that sit on the toilet.

The PottyCover is made with non-woven fabric that is coated with a layer of plastic 

to keep it waterproof and it covers all parts of the toilet, including the front bottom 

so little ones legs don't touch the toilet as well.

The PottyCover's come in a pack of 6 but each cover is separately wrapped, which makes it easy to have one or two kept in your purse or bag. These PottyCover's are very convenient and do not take up much space, making it a great idea for keeping clean in public restrooms. I think it's great that they are also waterproof, for times when the toilet seat has some drops of water left on it, 

and it keeps from catching toilet germs.

A pack of PottyCover sells for $5.99, available for purchase on Amazon, Ebay, all Buy Buy Baby stores around the country, also at select Bed Bath & Beyond stores. 

You can also visit their site at www.PottyCover.com

You have a chance to win your very own pack of these unique PottyCover's if you leave a comment telling me what you think of this product. Make sure to leave your email address, so I can notify you if you are a winner :)

And for a 2nd Entry: Follow me on Twitter :)

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.