Tennis Shoe Touch Up

I am going through my shoes to donate some gently used ones to Soles4Souls to give to earthquake victims in Haiti.  They are such a great organization and it will be such a blessing for the people of Haiti.

I have one pair that I only wore twice.  Unfortunately one of those times was in some orange-ish clay dirt mixture.  These shoes are white, but since they are leather I know a very easy way to clean them. 

    

Shaving cream.  That’s right.  Shaving cream.  Oh, and an old toothbrush.  Just use a small amount.  The shaving cream will go a long way.  Scrub the shaving cream with the toothbrush anywhere on the shoe.  Just wipe clean with a dry cloth.  The above picture shows one shoe cleaned with shaving cream.  Big difference, huh?  Now they are ready for their new owner. 

A very easy way to get your shoes clean without throwing them into the washer and worrying about if they will hold up.  Your insoles will stay intact and it only takes a few minutes.  Easy-Peasy!  Try it.

What is the worst thing you have stepped in?

This post has been linked with others at Your Life, Your Blog at Real Life.

Say WHAT?

“No, Honey.  I do not think it was your Super Poot that made Sissy fall down.”

Not that this needs much explaining, but here we go.  Charley is 17 months old and although she has been walking since 10 months, she has her mommy’s natural grace.  So that means she falls over for no reason and runs straight into things all of the time.  Usually because she is running so fast.

Charley came running by and fell just as Cole pooted.  So he assumed (like any 3 year old boy would) that she fell over because of his Super Poot!  In case you were wondering a Super Poot is Cole’s equivalent to Bolt’s Super Bark. 

Sweetie Sunglasses

Okay, these are not really sunglasses.  These are what we are going to give my son’s classmates as Valentine’s Day cards.  You know me, I am all for putting a creative twist on the same old thing.

       

What you will need is craft foam (in any color, but Valentine’s Day colors is what I am doing), scissors, pipe cleaners, hole punch (not required, but helpful), and maybe a heart shaped cookie cutter.  If you do not have a cookie cutter that is heart shaped, you can draw a heart, or print one up off of the internet.  Just make sure you put it up against your face and it is big enough to be used as glasses.  To save some sanity, make a stencil with regular paper before drawing and cutting your craft foam.

       

After you have traced and cut out the design on your craft foam, punch holes on each side of the heart.  Now take 2 different colored pipe cleaners and twist them together.

       

Bend the very tips back onto itself to remove the sharp point of the wire.  Now cut the pipe cleaner twist in half.  Curve the blunt tipped ends to look like glasses.  Now attach the pipe cleaner twist to the heart by going through the hole, bending back and twisting together.  Take a separate pipe cleaner and cut off a small piece to make the bridge and connect the hearts together.  Since we are making quite a few of these, the leftover will not go to waste.  :-)  Now you are done.

      

Take a business size envelope (size #10) and decorate it, maybe with yesterday’s craft project.  That is what the little man was doing while I was making this.  Seal the empty envelope and cut one end open.  Now slide your glasses in their case and give to your special Valentine.

      

These look cute and are fun for all ages!!  School aged children will be able to do this project.  Younger ones like my son will have to be occupied with decorating the cases while the glasses are being made.

This post is linked up at 4tunate for Easy Valentine's Day Crafts Link Up.  Head over there and see other easy ideas to do with your kids.

Laundry Lid Stamps

We used this fun way to make homemade stamps.  I used a laundry detergent lid and a sponge.  I cut the sponge in the shape of a heart, since we are using this stamp for Valentine’s Day cards.  I used puff paint to adhere the sponge to the lid, but you can use glue.

    

In the picture you will see other lids.  Those were complete failures for this project, but I will introduce that idea later for another project.

    

I put craft paint on a Styrofoam meat tray (cleaned of course) and let my son stamp away on some envelopes.  He had a huge blast.  It only took a few minutes before he realized his little fist fit inside the lid.  Then Cole suddenly became “Stamper Robot Guy”.  Those are his words, in case you didn’t know. 

It also only took him about 3 seconds to figure it would be fun to swirl the colors of paint together instead of stamping them separately.  But he was right, it looked cool.

    

This fun project can be used for any time of year, not just for holidays.  You can use any shape you would like.  It is just a ton of fun.  The large size lids are perfect for smaller hands.  Try it.

I used a laundry detergent lid for this craft, so tell me what is your favorite detergent?

Meat Tray Glider

This idea is from a real life friend Rhonda that did this a few years ago with her son.  She got the idea from Family Fun magazine, but I do not know which issue, sorry. 

You will need a styrofoam meat tray (washed thoroughly), a flexible straw, tape, and a rubber band.

     

First draw an airplane-ish shape onto your tray and cut out.  Between the wings and the tail, you will want to cut slanted lines, so you can bend the tail up on the sides.  Then bend your flexible straw so the end touches the back at the straw and tape together.  Now tape the straw to the bottom of the airplane, with the bended end at the nose of the plane.

      

To make the airplane fly, just put one end of the rubber band on the straw to catch the tip that has been taped back and the other end of the rubber band on your finger.  Pull back and shoot. 

This is a very fun and indoor friendly game.  The styrofoam can go flying with very little harm, of course it all depends on how you cut your airplane out.   This project is for a child that is school age.  We tried it out with my son (preschooler) and he could do it, but got frustrated easily.  I would recommend this for older ones.  It was a ton of fun.  I had a blast shooting it around.  :-)

What is longest flight you have been on?

Yoplait Smoothie Giveaway:CLOSED

How many people are sticking to their goal to eat healthier this year?  Wait don’t answer.  We will just pretend you all still are.  :-) 

Yoplait Smoothie is a great way to get your fruits and have a fun treat.  Yoplait Smoothie is full of antioxidant-rich fruits, my favorite flavor is the Triple Berry.  Every Yoplait Smoothie is a full serving of fruit.  Oh, and don’t forget about the real Yoplait yogurt pieces with live & active cultures. 

It sounds so good for you, doesn’t it?  Well, it tastes good, too.  Imagine that?!?  Another thing that won’t keep you from trying them, is that they are so easy to make, too.  Just add milk to a Yoplait freezer package, blend, and in less than two minutes you can enjoy a nutritious and delicious smoothie guilt free! At 110 calories per serving, Yoplait Frozen Smoothies make creating the at-home smoothie convenient, simple and worry free.

Yoplait and My Blog Spark would like to introduce you better to Yoplait’s Frozen Smoothie.  What better way than to giveaway a coupon for a FREE package of Yoplait’s Frozen Smoothie?  It gets even better!  Yoplait and My Blog Spark are going to give away the coupon for FREE Frozen Smoothie and a blender!  The blender is a really cool Hamilton Beach single serving blender.  It has a travel lid so you can blend and take.

No excuses now!  Enter below for your chance to win the prize pack.  This giveaway will close on Wednesday, January 27th at 10 pm CST.  One winner will be chosen by random.org and notified by email.  The winner will have 3 days to respond and claim their prize, or a new winner will be selected. 

Congratulations to Xavier!  Please check your email and follow guidelines to claim your prize.  :-)

In the meantime click on this link to print a $1.25 off coupon for Yoplait’s Frozen Smoothie.

CLICK HERE for $1.25 off coupon!!!

*The coupon included in the prize package for a free free Yoplait Frozen Smoothie is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Tennessee.

**Disclaimer: Yoplait provided me with the free product, information, and gift pack through MyBlogSpark.  This in no way compromised or altered my honest opinion of this product review. 

Say WHAT?

“We don’t try to lick off toenail polish.”

I don’t think this one needs any background.  It pretty much speaks for itself.

Chalk another one up to things I never thought would come out of my mouth.  What have you said lately?  Share it with us.  Don’t make me feel all alone. :-(

This post is part of Friday Follow Blog Hop hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families, and Midday Escapades.

 

****Also link up with Trendy Treehouse for Follow Me Friday.

Card Clip

Do you have a kid that loves to play card games?  Do you also have a slightly smaller child that has a very hard time holding the cards in their hands?  Use a bag clip!  You know, those cheap ones form the dollar store that keep your potato chip bag closed.

It works great for little hands to hold a lot of cards.  It also allows them to space the cards out and pull a card out without all of them falling out. 

We are using playing cards to learn and reinforce our numbers.  They work perfectly since they have the hearts (spades, diamonds, or clubs) lined out in the middle.  You can count out the objects and reinforce it with the number.  Also very good for introducing addition. 

A big thanks goes out to Maggie C. for sending this tip in!  She has 2 daughters that love to play card games. 

Mixed Up Mittens

We have been having trouble at preschool and at play dates with our gloves getting mixed up with others.  We bought ours at Walmart.  Well guess what?  So did over half of the town.  Do you know how many little boys have black knit gloves?  Let me tell you that it is a lot.

I found a way to set ours apart from the other and add an extra function.  I used some fabric puff paint and made designs on my sons gloves.  You can even write their name, if you want.  I just did simple squiggles and lines.  He picked out the colors (but was disappointed that I didn’t have green).

 

It is so easy.  Just lay the gloves flat, squeeze on the paint, and let dry.  You’re done.  I told you it was easy.  Now you can easily spot your custom gloves in a pile of others. 

Oh, and the extra function?  The puff paint give them a no-slip quality.  Now your child can grab things without slipping as easily.  Those knit gloves are pretty slick.  The no-slip worked so well on our socks, I was hoping the gloves would be the same.  It was.  Total success all the way around!  Try it.

This post was linked with others at Works for Me Wednesday on We are THAT Family.

Appearing “A”s

My son HATES flashcards.  I used them before to teach him his letters.  We had almost all of our letters learned, then we started being lax on it (because he hated it so much).  Now we only have a handful of letters learned.  So Mommy is retrying, but this time with a different approach.  A much more fun and creative approach.  We are doing appearing letters.  This example is of an “A”.

     

I drew an apple on a piece of white paper with a Sharpie.  Then I drew an “a” with white crayon in the middle of the apple.  I tried to get a shine off of the crayon in the picture, so you could see it. 

     

I gave my son a red paint marker and asked him to color the apple.  While he was coloring, I asked him what letter apple starts with?  He couldn’t tell me.  He started to fill in the apple and when the “a” appeared he recognized it!  I was so excited.  We have done this with “b” for ball and we will be doing it with “c” for cat.

It was fun and he learned without even knowing it.  :-)  Huge success!! 

Variation:  This would work great for older kids with math problems.  You can write out the math problem, then put the answer in white crayon.  Have your child put their answers down, then use a marker to reveal the correct answer.  They can see if the answers match up.  What a fun way to learn and reinforce math!

This post was linked with others for Friday Favorites at Daily Dwelling.

Skin MD Natural

If you read this blog a couple of months ago, then you know I was sent a bottle of Skin MD Natural to review.  I joked that I almost deleted the email without even considering it.  You all know that I am so glad I did not delete it.  I went ahead and tried it.  I fell in love with it and use it on myself and my children everyday.  I will continue to buy this product for a very long time!  I am not kidding and I am not getting paid for this.  I truly LOVE this product. 

Skin MD Naturals is having a giveaway on their site and I wanted to share it with you.  This is your chance to win some of their great lotion for free and give it a try.  The giveaway is for a Valentine’s Day basket.  The prize basket contains the following and is valued at $100.

- Bottle of Skin MD Natural shielding lotion

- Bottle of Skin MD Natural + SPF 15 shielding lotion

- One pound of See's dark assorted chocolates

- Pack of Starbucks VIA Ready brew coffee pouches

- Kiss Me coffee mug

- A Cuddly teddy bear

- Lollipop Bouquet

Go over to the Skin MD Natural’s page and enter for your chance to win and find out all of the rules for the giveaway.  I love this product and wanted to share this giveaway opportunity with you.  If you are unfamiliar with why I love this product, you can read about how Skin MD Natural helped my son’s eczema and prevented my daughter’s from becoming a problem here.

Support Katie at Frugal Femina

Guest Post by Katie Hostetter at Frugal Femina

If you follow me on Twitter, you know exactly what the word "mamavation" means, because I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing it since I applied on January 1st. I am fortunate to have some followers left! :-) Basically, it's a 7-week boot camp to help 2 moms get fit in 2010, and it's supported by Smooth Fitness, Earth Footwear, EA SPORTS Active, Gaiam, Bookie Boo, and MomTV. The team gives you a ton of support with a nutritional plan, a fitness program, and much more! You can watch my application video and read all about my lil' journey over at Frugal Femina. I am so blessed to have made it into the top 5 finalists. Now I need you to vote daily so I can make it into the final 2! I already shared my measurements with thousands of people, so you know I am committed! ;-) But seriously, this is all part of my quest to make 2010 one of the most positive years ever. I'm finishing up my last semester of nursing school, reading through the Bible in 90 days, taking care of Xon and Bradley {aka Hubs and Little Munchkin}, and trying to take care of myself, too! I'm not Superwoman, but I do want to focus on good things this year and surround myself with good friends and family. So I'm hopin' you'll cheer me on and head on over to Mamavation and vote. You can vote once a day from each IP address through the 21st. And I won't mind a bit if you happen to spread the word amongst your friends. :-) Maybe I can encourage you all along the way! Mamavation is a great network of support, and you can be involved whether you have 200 pounds to lose or 0. We all need to stay healthy and fit! Special thanks to Andrea at Mommy Snacks for being my Fit Friend and encouraging me throughout this campaign.

Say WHAT?

“No. We cannot make it so we can shove coins in the pig’s butt.”

Background:  You will have to look at yesterday’s post to see the piggy bank we made.  Cole suggested the we put the coin slit at the pig’s rear.  He thought it would be very funny to put money in through the pig’s butt.

Needless to say, the boy is not being left alone with coins for a LONG time.

Chalk another one up to things I never thought would come out of my mouth.  What have you said lately?  Share it with us.  Don’t make me feel all alone. :-(