Car Care...even a Mom can do it!!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pep Boys for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am sure most of you didn't know this, but I used to work at an auto parts store in high school.  I didn't have a clue what anything was, I mostly just ran the register.  But I did learn a few things in the year or so that I worked there.  Some things have been useful to know, others not so much.

Well, now that I am a mom, a busy mom running around doing carpool and shuffling kids to sports and activities all day long, car care is something that is good to have under the belt.  Especially since most of the time I am running around without the hubby.

Well, did you know that October is Headlight Safety Month, the perfect time for drivers to address a key safety isse on America's roads that rarely comes to light: dim headlight bulbs and hazy lenses, which may lead to reduced visibility.  As Daylight Savings Time nears, and kids hit the streets for trick-or-treating, the importance of clear nighttime visibility increases.

I was recently turned on to a Headlight Restoration Kit from .  No tools are required and it comes at a fraction of the cost of professional cleanings!  It works easily on most plastic lenses, including taillights, trailers, snowmobiles, emergency vehicle light bars, plastic motorcycle lights and more.  This kit seems so easy to use, designed specifically as the perfect "tool" for moms to take care of their car and kids too.  Most of the time I am traveling by myself with a car full of kiddos and it will give me comfort to know I have a  on hand to help me see better in dark or rough weather.

Check out the difference from before the kit and after the kit...

Go check out your local Pep Boys storePep Boys stores and grab a headlight restoration kit to have on hand...I am thinking this will really come in handy this season!

Book Review & Giveaway

Read any good books lately??

In case you are in need of a new book to grab your attention, here is a book review for you...

Dr. Sydney McKnight, a young physician battling the deadliest influenza pandemic of all time, joins forces with Dr. Casper Jones, an odd new research virologist whose arrival coincides with the virus’s advent, and whose presence raises more questions than answers.
As scientists around the world search for an explanation for the virus’s high mortality rate, Sydney’s distrust of Casper grows, especially after she discovers him injecting an unidentified substance into her patient. Despite a heavy patient load, rebuttals from her boss, and an increasingly strained relationship with her boyfriend, Sydney is determined to learn the truth.
But what she finds will plunge her into danger and change her life forever…

Now for the giveaway...head on over to Char's blog Joy in the Moments and enter the giveaway for a chance to win one of 2 $10 gift cards!!

Nectresse Sweetener

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nectresse™ Sweetener for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
It is definitely no secret that I have a sweet tooth (I think pretty much all of us sisters have a sweet tooth!).  So when I heard about this all natural sweetener...it is the only 100% natural sweetener made from fruit - monk fruit extract, I knew I needed to try it out!  I have never been a fan of the other sweeteners out there.  But this was different.  Let me explain...
Peach season was here...I ordered a huge case of peaches.  A favorite treat of mine is cut up a few peaches and sprinkle with sugar and enjoy!  This time I tried NECTRESSE™Sweetener.

sweetener
I was nervous that I would taste an after taste or that I wouldn't enjoy my bowl of peaches like normal.  Not the case!!  I couldn't tell a difference...it tasted great!!  PLUS, I didn't need to use as much as I normally would with sugar.
I love the testimonial from NECTRESSE™Sweetener spokesperson Lisa Ling...due to a family history of diabetes she was always cautious about her sugar intake and relied on no calorie sweeteners to satisfy her sweet tooth - but she didn't like any as much as NECTRESSE™Sweetener!  Here is her video
The great thing is that you can receive a free sample to try it out yourself!! FREE sample of NECTRESSE™Sweetener

11 Years Ago Today...

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Green Hair

I don't know about you guys...but when we think about our summer childhood, the one thing we all remember is GREEN HAIR!!!

Being blondies + spending a lot of the summer in the pool = green hair

Now I have kids of my own and this summer was the first summer I remember looking at my daughters hair one day and thinking, hmmm her hair is looking a tad green!

What did I do???

I did what I remember doing to my own hair when I was younger...

LEMON JUICE!!

Before:

I gave her a regular bath...washing and conditioning like normal.

After I got her out of the tub, I brought her to the sink and just poured a little bit of lemon juice onto her ends (where the green is intensified).  Maybe 2 tbsp or so is all I used.  I rubbed my fingers through it and then rinsed it under the water so her hair wouldn't have an overwhelming lemon scent to it.  That was it!!

After:

Voila...easy solution for the green haired girls now that summer is coming to an end!!

Curtain Makeover

I recently painted my downstairs and was wanting to change out my curtains over my sliding glass door also.  But I didn't want the cost associated with it!

I saw this tutorial on Pinterest and knew that was exactly what I wanted!!

Luckily for me, my mother in law was going to be in town and she is the master sewer!

We went and bought some black fabric.

Cut it into 14" strips and the length of the curtains.

Ironed on some stitch witchery to hold it down...

We pinned them all in place first though to make sure the math worked out!  =)

Next we laid down some black grosgrain ribbon (about 1.5" ribbon) to cover the fabric lines.

We chose to sew the ribbon down for sturdier curtains...have I mentioned I have 5 rowdy kiddos!!  The original tutorial just used stitch witchery for the fabric AND the ribbon.  I like knowing mine is on there good and won't get ripped down by grimy fingers!

An important step...lay your curtains down next to each other and make sure the stripes line up!!  Do this while everything is just pinned down that way you can make any adjustments as needed...THEN iron and sew!

Then we hung the curtains, luckily everything lined up and looked awesome!!

Unfortunately I didn't take an official "before" picture so you will have to take notice of the original curtains in the background of the picture of my daughter making a mess.

My Well-Being

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of My Well-Being Powered by Humana for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We recently heard about this online program called My Well-Being.  I have been feeling the need to get more in shape and getting my family eating more nutritiously.  Well-being for me is more than just exercise...or nutrition.  It is also being in a good place with your loved ones, being on track with your finances, quality family time and an overall healthy lifestyle.

I started by going to health and wellness and signing up for FREE.  THey sent me a Dummies book to get me started. FREE Dummies book.

By browsing around their site, I found so many different tools and tips and ideas for achieving MY well-being.  

About MyWell-Being from mywell-being on Vimeo.

 My Well-Being Assessment...where they evaluate your well-being today, and you can get the tools you need to improve it - starting tomorrow.  Online games and My Well-Being polls...what a fun way to stretch those mental muscles and share your opinions with the online community.  Of course you know I would love the special offers and discounts, exclusively for members!

I am just beginning to grasp all the benefits from My Well-Being.  Sign up today as well and spend some time browsing around to see what YOU can gain from this!  How much closer are you to gaining your own personal well-being.  Let's do this together!  =)

Back to School GIVEAWAY!!

To celebrate back to school time, several other bloggers and us have teamed up to offer you this Back to School Cash Giveaway, and one reader will win a BIG prize: $160 in PayPal cash or Amazon gift card!

Brought to you by these wonderful bloggers who love their readers: Inspired By Family Magazine, Tutus and Tea Parties, Ducks in a Row, Narrow Paths to High Places, To the Moon and Back, Project Queen, Rae Gun Ramblings, Life with Lovebugs, 1929 Charmer, Blessed Beyond a Doubt, Love Play Learn, French Press, Smiling Like Sunshine, Cheap Crafty Momma, Covered in Grace,Lessons Learnt Journal, Teach Beside Me, Mrs. Hines Class, Junk in their Trunk, Playdough to Plato and Boy Mama Teacher Mama!

We are so excited to bless someone with this wonderful Cash Giveaway, we appreciate you and every second you spend here and every sweet note you have left us. Also, make sure you stop by Inspired by Family for the Back to School Series, featuring some of the lovely bloggers mentioned above that will be covering lots of great topics, recipes and crafts!

Are you ready to win? To submit your entry to win, use the rafflecopter form below. There are many blogs you can "like" or follow to gain entries, and you can take your time doing it. Have fun! Basically, this is the process but you can find the Official Rules here :

• All mandatory entries will be verified so make sure you do the mandatory entries first using Rafflecopter.
• It's open to everyone (not minors) and one winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive $160 in PayPal cash or Amazon giftcard.
• The winners name will be displayed on this post after the giveaway ends.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Giveaway!

This week Char's giving away a copy of her book, Eyes of Light, on author, Linda Clarke's site.  

Here's the link to the interview.

Linda Weaver Clarke: Author Interview with Charissa Stastny

Just leave a comment on that site, and you'll be entered to win.  Good luck!  

There's also another interview up today on Clean Romance Reviews (it has the word zombies in it).  

Hope you're having a great summer!

Back to School Shoe Shopping w/Famous Footwear

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Famous Footwear for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

This year I will have 3 kiddos in school.  2 boys and 1 girl.  Each with their own unique personality and style.  First item of business for us is shoes.  But I really don't feel like driving all over town to find shoes for them all.  Luckily for us, we have a Famous Footwear a few minutes away and it offers such a huge variety of styles.  From casual, athletic, dressy and girlie.  I usually shop there for myself already so I am familiar with the store and all they offer.

And anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to find a good deal.  That should be pretty easy to do at Famous Footwear with their back-to-school promotion going on now in-store between 8/2-8/18.  Just print off this coupon to receive 15% off + BOGO (But One, Get One Half Off).BOGO + 15% off Famous Footwear Coupon  This deal will definitely make my back-to-school shopping a TON easier on the budget!

Plus if you are already a member of their FREE Rewards Program (don't worry, you can sign up now to qualify for the extra perks, ie: earn $1 for every dollar spent, accumulate points to earn certificates up to $100 a year, and other special insides and perks) you will receive 20% off + the BOGO offer.  Wow...I am all about taking advantage of that because I will be needing a few pairs of shoes for these rambuctious kiddos!  I am thinking a pair of athletic shoes, casual shoes and then nicer dress shoes.  Yikes, that can add up when you multiply it by 3!!  Thank goodness for this great special they are running!

Does anyone have any back to school shoe shopping tips with youngsters??  How do you get the most bang for your buck?  How many pairs of shoes do you buy each kid?  How long do they usually last on average?  I would love to hear if you do!

Make-Up Challenge

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Revlon for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

Do you feel like your make-up routine is stuck in a rut? 

 

I know for me I don't deviate from my normal routine.  I stick with what I know.  And when it comes to RISKS with make-up...forget about it.  I am not one to make a bold statement when it comes to make-up. 

 

But this year I have been making some changes.  Maybe it has something to do with turning 30.  I felt it was time to really become the best me.  So I have been making small changes throughout the year trying to better myself in many different aspects of my life.

 

So when I heard about REVLONS EXPRESSION EXPERIMENT on facebook I knew it was something I wanted to try.  I of course didn't want to do this alone so I made Liesl do it with me. 

 

Revlon offers 4 different make-up challenges.  We decided that we might as well GO BIG OR GO HOME, so we decided to try all four challenges. 

 

The 4 Revlon challenges include:Revlon Expression Experiment

 

---Red Lipstick Challenge

 

---Perfect Canvas Challenge

 

---Bright Eyes Challenge

 

---Daring Nail Challenge

 

RED LIPSTICK CHALLENGE:lipstick

Now I think it is safe to say that most of us struggle with this challenge.  Being a blond has made me steer clear of red lipstick my whole life.  For some reason I just felt that only brunettes could pull off red lipstick.  And if I am being really honest with myself and you, I don't really wear lipstick period.  Occasionally I will put some on but it is a nice neutral color that looks like I am not wearing any (kind of defeats the purpose of lipstick right;)

 

Well Liesl and I just giggled when we put it on.  We used Revlons 740 Certainly Red.  It is definitely a shock when you first put it on.  But the longer we had it on, the more we grew to like it.  One thing I liked especially about it was it didn't get on our teeth like I expected.  In fact I never got red on my teeth. 

 

For some reason just wearing red lipstick made us feel sassier:)

 

PERFECT CANVAS CHALLENGE

 

We just loved the name of this challege.  Who doesn't want their face to be a perfect canvas?  We used Revlons Photoready Perfecting Primer on our face and Eye Primer+Brightner on our eyes.  Just like with painting, primer makes things look smoother and cleaner.  The same goes for make-up.  I don't wear foundation every day but I do wear it a few times a week.  But I can't believe what a difference the primer made to our faces.  Our skin actually looked 'perfect'.  In fact as we were taking pictures of ourselves we couldn't get over how great our skin looked.  In fact our skin looked like it had been photoshopped:)makeup primer

 

 

eye shadowBRIGHT EYES CHALLENGE

 

Growing up I always hated my brown eyes.  I was the only kid out of 9 who got those pesky brown eyes.  Most of my siblings got the beautiful blue eyes.  And I thought you could only be beautiful if you had blond hair and blue eyes.  Blond hair and brown eyes just wasn't as pretty to me.  Thankfully my mother kept reminding me that being a blond with brown eyes was unique.  Eventually I grew to love my brown eyes and I usually base all my makeup decisions off of those brown eyes.  So neutrals are my thing, especially when it comes to my eye shadow.  But going along with the challenge I decided to use Revlons 540 Inspired eye shadow while Liesl used 530 Seductive eye shadow.  The great thing about the eye shadows in the back where they show you where to put each color on your eyelid.  If your like me you never know where to put each color and I can never achieve that cute 'smokey eye' look.  But with the great chart we were both able to achieve the right look. 

 

DARING NAIL CHALLENGE

 

The last challenge was really fun for us.  I have noticed lots of fun colors on nails.  We both chose to use Revlons 180 INDIGO NIGHT.  The minute I put it on I fell in love.  It was the most beautiful blue I have ever seen.  And seeing it next to my turquoise shirt and Liesl's turquoise necklace made it even cuter.  Even my little 1 year old wanted in on the action and got her little toes painted too.  And we combined our nail polish with Revlons Longwear Nail Enamel base coat first and finished it off with the top coat finish.  Adding the base and top coat made the polish last so much longer.  I was worried that wearing dark polish would be a hassel to keep up but so far after 1 week it still looks great. nail polish

 

So if you are feeling like you are in a make up slump head over to Revlons facebook page and take their Challenge.  Or head over to Revlon.com for more about their fun challenge. 

 

Its time girls to be RISK TAKERS.  Be BOLD and make a STATEMENT.  We would love to see pictures from your challenges, especially the red lips:)

red lipstick

 

Packing For Kids

I just recently got back from a 10 day trip to visit family.

I had seen this idea on Pinterest and was so intrigued I tried it out for this vacation.

I wanted to fit all 3 of my girls clothes for the 10 day trip in 1 bag.

I chose each oufit and anything that went along with that day (ie: underwear, socks, accessories) and then put it in a gallon size ziploc bag.

Here is what they look like...

And 5 little girls clothes all packed up for a super fun trip to see their cousins!

This also made it so nice each day while we were gone.  We would wake up and I would grab a bag for each girl and get them dressed and there was no rummaging involved!!  =)

Bowls with Holes!

My daughter has been making these RECORD BOWLS lately.  They are super fun and easy to make.  I posted the How-To's on my other blog, so if you're interested in seeing some of the different designs and the simple steps to make these babies, check it out HERE!  

If you just want to peruse and be dazzled, stay where you are!  

Hold your breath.  

And watch the show.

Take your plain, boring, black records....

and color on them!  Wheeeee!

And then melt and mess around with your hands...

And WA-LAH!  Bowls with Holes.

Now isn't that special?

Drinking Cup Station

I saw this idea on Pinterest awhile ago and thought it was super clever.  

And thanks to my crafty and on top of it friend, I was actually able to make this fun project!

A drink holder for everyones water cups!!

This spot in my kitchen used to have a minimum of 10 cups on it at all times!

Funny thing is, there are only 5 children.  So why was there so many cups all the time?

That is because they would get a cup out, take a drink, walk away.  Then next time they came back, they couldn't remember which cup was theirs, so they would get a new cup and do the same thing.

No more people.

My friends and I got together and made it a craft night.  

Wood was 5 1/2" and then we cut it however long we needed, depending on how many cups you want it to hold.  I just made mine for my kids because I thought 7 would be too long!

The tiles are 4.25" x 4.25" and I mod podged scrapbook paper to mine.  Then added a vinyl letter initial for each kids spot.

My friend did the opposite and mod podged paper onto her board and left her tiles white.

We just used E-6000 to glue the tiles down, the wooden balls on and also to glue the handles on.

Then took them outside and sprayed a matte finishing spray over them all and let dry.

This has worked soooo good for far!  No random cups laying around.  Even the 3 year old puts hers as close to her spot as she can and then I move it up when I see it.  I didn't want it too close to the edge to get knocked over.  

Super fun and super easy project to do!!