Purely Products Healthy Night Light: MamaBzz Review

I wanted to show you a great little night light I recently received from Purely Products.  The light that this little guy emits is a soft blue glow from a single LED.  Not too bright, but bright enough.  We keep ours at the top of the stairs just outside the kids’ bedrooms, as it’s got auto on/off so I can be sure that it’ll always light their way as they pad down the hall to jump on us in the middle of the night.  We also like that it’s bright enough to walk by, but not so bright to keep people up.  And see that little black nubbin at the top?  It’s an ionizer!  I’ve noticed that the hallway now needs less dusting and doesn’t have that stale “no moving air” air.  Even when the light is off, the ionizer function is still working. 

Purely Products also sells lightbulbs and air purifiers, so be sure to check them out if you have need of these items.

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I received this opportunity as a result of my membership with MamaBzz. I received the product to review, but was not compensated in any other way. My opinions are always my own. For more information, read the Guide to MamaBzz Product Reviews and/or read my Disclosure Policy. Product info & stock images provided by PR or Co.

Merry Christmas

Is that BACON in your Christmas Tree?

Why, yes it is! 

I made the ornament in about an hour, with directions and pattern found HERE.  I had everything needed on hand from making felt GINGERBREAD MEN and FIGGY PUDDINGS. 

While I’m not a particularly big fan of pork products, I do appreciate a good piece of bacon every blue moon or so.  But one with a face?  Hanging in Brendan Fraiser?*  Never thought I’d say it, but I love it… it’s just so cute!

 

*what, you don’t name your Christmas trees? 

Tutorial: Snowball Cupcake Ornament

Let’s expand on my tutorial from yesterday just a bit.  LittleMiss loves all things cupcakes, and said she also wanted to hang cupcakes on the tree made from snowballs.  How she comes up with these things, I have no idea!  Anyway, on with the ornament. 

Supplies:

• Styrofoam balls (2 1/2”)
• white glue
• SnowFlakes (found at Michaels for about $3 a bag)
• chopsticks
• Christmas berries pick
• tin foil cupcake liners
• beads to simulate sprinkles
• ribbon
• Clear Coat
• Hot Glue

Please refer to yesterdays post for details on how to coat/cover/spray your snowballs.  The only difference is that you only need to cover the top portion of the ball, maybe just over a half. 





This shot just shows our balls drying.  I  am including it because SpacePirate took it and I think he’s got a great eye for such a little guy.  Good job, buddy! 






Once everything is dry, run a bead of hot glue along the inside edge of a cupcake liner.  Carefully press your liner around the uncovered part of your snowball.  I tried more white glue, but that didn’t work.  Hot glue is my duct tape!  Fixes everything!

Once everything is set, snip a berry from your pick, being sure to leave enough wire to stab into the snowball.  Use this wire to poke through the center of the ribbon you’ll use for your hanger.  Add a dab of hot glue to hold everything together.
(man I need my nails done!)  use the wire again to poke the cherry into the cupcake.  If you want to make sure it’ll really stay, run a dab of hotglue along the wire just before poking it in.
Add a few dabs of white glue here and there, and toss on a few beads to simulate sprinkles for extra cuteness!
VIOLA!  Snowball Cupcakes for your Christmas Tree!

Tutorial: Melt-Free Snowballs!

We got the BEST tree this year, but it is a bit more… umm... rotund than we usually get, so our usual ornaments didn’t fill it out as well as I like.  Then LittleMiss came in out of the blue and announced that she wanted to hang snowballs on our tree.  I can do that, little one… just you wait!

Supplies:

• Styrofoam balls (any size desired, these were 4”)
• white glue
• SnowFlakes (found at Michaels for about $3 a bag)
• chopsticks
• ribbon
• Clear Coat
• Hot Glue

Gently press a chopstick into each ball to serve as a handle.  Paint your ball with a good thick coat of the white glue.  The more the better as the glue soaks into the ball.  Because the ball is white, and the snow is what, if you miss a spot or two don’t worry.



 

Now for the messy/fun part!  Dip your ball into the snow flakes and coat everything.  Use your hands to press and smoosh the flakes into the glue.  This helps things adhere and means less flaking off later.

Once everything is well coated, allow to dry for an hour or two.  I found it worked well if you just stood the chopstick up in a hefty coffee mug. 


Once everything is dry, give a quick and thin spray of some clear coat.  This step isn’t completely necessary, but I did it to help prevent flake-off, my grudge against anything glittered.

Allow the snow balls to dry again, for at least an hour.  Do this in a well ventilated area, trust me.






Once dry again, pull your chopstick out.  Fill that hole with hot glue and use your chopstick to help you push the ends of a length of ribbon in to hang your snowball from.  Allow to set and hang on your try for a sparkly MeltFree Snowball for your Christmas tree.



Viola!  Sparkly MeltFree Snowballs for your Christmas Tree!

When Santa Gets Stuck in the Chimney

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Santa ever got stuck in your chimney?

LittleMiss would like to tell you.  Enjoy!

And now you know...

 

She asked me to record her.  Funny kid.  We were home sick today with the beginnings of our first bout with pink eye in BOTH eyes.  She’s no worse for the wear, being her silly bouncy self. 

Win some cold hard cash!

Could you use a little extra dough to help your grocery budget?  How about a great meal that will help you gather your family around the table at this hectic time of year?
Thanks to MyBlogSpark and the fabulous folks at Old El Paso, I am giving away an Old El Paso “Family Taco Night” prize pack which includes a packet of original Old El Paso Taco Seasoning, a Cactus Chip & Dip Serving dish, a set of 3 Fiesta Chili Pepper serving dishes and a $10 gift card to purchase your taco fixings.

CONTEST CLOSED!  Thank you!

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The fancy disclaimer stuff:  I was provided with this same gift pack before the giveaway by BlogSpark and OldElPaso.  This did not influence any of my honest opinions given, and all opinions are my own.  Thank you very much.

Am I nuts?

I have a bug in my ear that is telling me to make matching PJ bottoms for the whole family.  I could get the toddler ones done pretty quickly, I bet… but a men’s medium and a …erm… size to cover my rather ample butt?

Am I nuts to even try?

Spud & Chloe at the Farm

I get the distinct honor of getting to spill the blogging beans on a new book coming out!

The fabulous Susan B. Anderson, the most talented and kindest knitter out there, will have a new book coming out in March 2011.  News has officially been released of the book, so that means I get to spill the beans on what I’ve been working on!  Seriously, how Susie has time to come up with all these new patterns is beyond me, but I hope she never stops.  I just love her patterns, and her books are just so well written.  I have the IttyBitty series, and I use them all the time for gifts or just to look at when I am feeling yarny (that sounds a little dirty!).

Spud & Chloe at the Farm features a story for the kids AND patterns to knit to go with the story!  Great idea! Of course, you can knit Spud and Chloe.  There will also be a menagerie of other farm characters, as well as some great scenery items to knit and play with (think hay, fences etc).

Remember this post?  I am such a tease!  Well, I was asked to test knit a couple of the patterns from the book.  First to visit was Hen.

Knit in Spud-n-Chloe Sweater, she’s a fine feathered friend.  Here she is telling me a wonderful secret… (what’s the secret?  You’ll have to finish reading to see!) 

She was super easy to knit, and only took me a few hours from start to finish.  She’s just precious!

What’s this?  Do I see the softest, most awesomely nubbly wool coat?

WHY!  It’s SPUD!  He’s come to visit our flock!  Just look at this spunky little guy!  I had so much fun knitting him, and you won’t believe how easy his wool coat is.  He’s also knit in Spud-n-Chloe Sweater.  I had a very hard time putting this guy in the box and sending him back to my friends at Spud and Chloe/ Blue Sky Alpacas.  I miss him, but I am sure another will be made when the book comes out.

Just look at that handsome little booger. 

Later Hen came back over to meet Spud in our barnyard and share some wonderful news with us!  She’d have five chicks!

Sweet Hen is knit much like a tea cozy, so her chicks can safely nestle underneath.  Each chick comes out of it’s own shell, too!

I can’t wait to see the finished book, at this point all I’ve seen are these two written patterns. I’m excited to see how the story brings in the knitting and so forth.  It’s going to be so much fun!

What animals do you hope to see in the book?

Even Disney Makes a Mistake Sometimes #disneysmmoms

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen that I was beyond excited at the chance to join a group of women like myself who love all things Disney and being in the social media world.  The event in question was Disney Social Media Mom’s Celebration 2011.  This will be the second year the event is to be held, and the main difference between this year and last is that this year was open to everyone (more or less, it turns out).  Last year only a few hand selected people got to attend, and I was not chosen.  I figured I would not be chosen at the time because I was relatively new to the social media scene.  This year I really felt like I had a chance, even if the event was limited to a hand selected few.  I really did.
Then came the “Save the Date” email giving details on when/where registration would take place.  Sweet little SnowWhite and her little bluebird told me that the registration would come “in late November” and would be “first come, first served.”  You can bet that I jumped up and down and got excited!  No chance I’d be the one kid on the sidelines not picked for the kickball team.  Meeeesaka-Mooooseka-Mickeeeeeeeeeeey-Mouse!  
Soon there after, tweets from the official @DisneySMMoms event twitter started coming out giving hints and adding to the suspense.  This mouse knew how to work the social media world! Eventually an exact date and time was given:  Dec. 2nd at 2pm EST.  I set aside my afternoon, rented a few new Disney movies from the library for the kids and sat waiting to get in.  I was able to register (thanks to my husband and fiberoptic connections at work) at 35minutes after registration opened, while tons of other people were still not able to get in.  I got my confirmation email immediately that told me my credit card information was holding my spot in the registration process.  And then I waited, as the email stated that they had to verify each registrant.   I got my hopes up (something I know better than to do, but it happened).  I watched the #disneysmmoms feed as more people struggled to get registered for the next 2 hours or so.  I tried to help where I could, offering that I was able to get through myself at home after clearing my cache.
I assumed, rightly so, that each registration was checked to make sure a real person signed up, and not one who was just buying up registrations just for the chance at a Disney vacation at the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious price of $375 for a family of 4 (at the Grand Floridian with 7 park hopper passes and dinners included).

Christmas Community Episode!

One of the funny things about me and Xiris is that we are pop culture, trivia, and movie fact buffs.  We love it.  And what we love even more is when a TV show we enjoy throws in references, themes and tidbits from movies, or other TV shows.  Chuck, Psych, and our favorite “Community” all do this.  Sometimes only one of us will catch on to it and tease the other for not getting it.
"Community" is a smart comedy series about a band of misfits who attend Greendale Community College starring Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, John Oliver, Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown. 
NBC will be airing a special Christmas episode of "Community" featuring awesome stop-motion animation that will have everyone talking.  The episode airs this Thursday, Dec 9th @ 8pm EST/7pm CST on NBC.
I was given the opportunity to preview this episode, and let me tell you… IT IS AWESOME!  The writing is classic wit, irreverent, silly and fun.  All the things I love about this show.  Given that this was holiday episode, it had its moments of expected sappiness, but the show takes into account that the holidays are not perfect everyone.  The characters reminds us that if we focus on what is really important to us, the holidays can, in fact, be enjoyable.  And they do this all while making you laugh!  And to do it in classic holiday Claymation?  Even better! 
Check out this clip and then watch the episode tomorrow:


Thursday, Dec 9th @ 8pm EST/7pm CST on NBC

You can also watch past episodes online here!

Are you a fan of Community? I'd love to hear what you think of the show.
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Disclosure: I previewed this episode as part of a One2One Network campaign.  I have been entered into a drawing for a chance to win prizes in return for this post, however all feedback is my own honest opinion.

Michael Bublé in Concert

This weekend my darling Xiris took me to see Michael Bublé in concert at AllState Arena.  I had tried to get tickets to the show, but by the time I was able to get around to it they were sold out.  He surprised me for my birthday!  Great guy!  And thanks to SitterCity.com, we were able to enjoy it together – leaving the kids with a nice reliable girl that we all adore!

Michael opened the concert with the super dramatic “Cry Me a River” complete with pyrotechnics, and then went through his favorite songs such as Mack the Knife, Crazy Love, Georgia, Just Haven’t Met You Yet as well as Me and Mrs. Jones.  After a little lull in the excitement he got the crowd going again with his re-enactment of Ferris Bueller’s Chicago Parade “Twist and Shout” (the reason he wanted to be a singer, he said).  He posed for pictures with fans, pulled off a pretty good Michael Jackson cover, and was quite funny.  It really seemed like he truly enjoyed being up there, and that made a big impact for me.  He even gave Chicago’s faithful BlackHawks fan a little bit of a ribbing because his beloved Canucks shut out the Stanley Cup champs the night before.

My favorite part of all was the very end.  He led the crowd through “Let it Snow” and then he sang Leon Russell’s “A Song for You" to a 13,000 strong crowd with no microphone, just belting it out.  Amazing.

Our only complaint of the whole evening was the AWFUL parking at AllState Arena…  for some unknown reason parking was done in giant columns, 10 or more cars deep… no escape aisles, nothing.  So everyone had to wait for the people in front of them to get to their cars before you could love.  We had to wait for almost 35minutes for the bozos in the minivan and the BMWs to stagger out to their cars before we could leave.  So next time we’ll park nearby and cab it in!Thank goodness we know how to warm a car up pretty quickly!  *wink*

My sweet man decided to make faces in all of the shots I tried to take of us.  I love this one.  Pinpoints his personality perfectly!  Love you, babe!

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Just to note, Michael Buble has no idea who I am and does not know that I am writing a review on his concert.  I’d like him to know  who I was, but a girl can only dream!  :-)

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

Thanks for entering everyone!  The winner was #39 – swoodsonshoeclips.  I grabbed a screen capture of the random.org and the comment.  Check your email, swoodsonshoeclips!

And don’t worry, if you didn’t win – in the next week I will have lots more chances to win some great things, including a visa gift card!  WOOOOO!

In which all secrets are revealed!

Okay… recent secrets.  There are a few more under wraps as of yet, but they’ll be revealed soon (I think).
For now, here are two big reasons my blog has been yarny free for a while – I’ve been working on test knits and I am sworn to secrecy with the threat of only being able to use FunFur from now on if I let the cat out of the bag.  Not something I am willing to risk! 
 

Valentine Cardi
Designed by Laura Chau
Published in: Spud & Chloë Leaflet no. 9809
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/spud--chloe-leaflet-no-9809
Published: December 2010
Yarns: Spud & Chloë Fine
Gauge: In Lacy Rib, 20 sts and 32 rows = 4".
Needle Size: Size 5 (3.75 mm) 32" or longer circular needle
Yardage: 992 – 1,488
Sizes Available: XS (S, M, L, XL, 2X)
For more information: www.spudandchloe.com


Notes: Love the look of fingering weight sweaters but fear the time commitment? This pretty cardigan with its easy lace pattern uses as little as four hanks, so you’ll be done in no time!

I really loved knitting this one, and wish it had been in my size so I could wear it!  This was my first ever adult sized pattern, and my first time knitting lace, and it went really really well.  I can't say enough how much I loved this pattern!

Aren't those buttons just perfect, given the name of the sweater?  I loved them and  knew they had to go on this sweater.  I hope the fine ladies at BlueSkyAlpacas agree!  :-D

Bunny Hat & Blankie
Designed by Susan B. Anderson
Published in: Spud & Chloë Leaflet no. 9512
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/spud--chloe-leaflet-no-9512
Published: December 2010
Yarns: Spud & Chloë Outer
Gauge: Blanket: in single crochet, 6 sts = 4” using largest hook
Needle Size: Size N (9 or 10 mm) crochet hook, Size P (11.5 mm) crochet hook
Yardage: 480
Sizes Available: 6–12 months, 1–2 years
For more information: www.spudandchloe.com
Notes: This adorable crochet pattern includes instructions for the bunny hat – complete with pom-pom tail – and the matching blanket.

I didn't think to take a decent picture of this before sending it off.  This little set took me literally about 4 hours total.  The OUTER is so fun to work with.  So squooshy and lovely.  The blankie in the pattern shoot above is the one I worked up, even!  

If you follow me on Ravelry, I've updated my projects page with these great patterns as well!

Reason #9,999 why I love Poops

Poops is one of those women that I love dearly, that I have never met IRL.. but I have a list longer than my arm on why I love her so much... we “talk” daily and she often reassures me that I’m actually doing okay with the whole being a mom thing…

Here is the newest reason why I love Poops so much:

She made these FOR ME... just me.  See the FuzzySheep?  They are her Trinity Arm Warmers in the best blue ever.  She sure knows me!  She sells these beauties and just about the most ADORABLE baby booties I’ve ever seen over at her ETSY SHOP.  Please stop by, if only because of this:

From now until further notice, I am donating 50% of the price of each item I sell to the Portsmouth Firefighters Charitable Organization. Why? Because my friend Sarah is a firefighter and has dedicated her life to helping other people. She is currently not fighting fires; she is fighting cancer.

You can read Sarah's story here: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100410-NEWS-4100319

 

Seriously, this woman has some AMAZING TALENT!

Poops has a blog, that I check daily for new content.  You should too… she knits, she’s snarky, she’s fabulous.  POOPS AWAY!!!!

Sheep Buttons!

Look at these stinkin’ adorable buttons I found while cruising JoAnns the other day.  SHEEP!  The legs are loose, and dangle in a simply sweet way.  They come in a plethora of colors, even!

What’s that?  You see knitting?  Oh yeah…  erm… there might be hint as to what it is over at our dear friends Spud-n-Chloe today…