I have to admit, I’m totally guilty of going overboard when it comes to holiday themed clothing. When I was teaching, I had an excuse to buy those goofy holiday themed sweaters for myself…said I was dressing up to make the kids smile. Really, I just love the holidays! Now that I’m staying home, I dress the girls up for the holidays. Let’s face it…kids can wear that stuff and still look adorable. Not so much for me… Here are some of my faves:

The Gap has quite a few different looks. Here are a couple…

The Children’s Place has a few cute options too.

Target doesn’t disappoint with a variety of adorable choices.

Last up is Gymboree. The outfits at Gymboree are by far my favorites, but are also quite pricey. Each outfit is around 80 bucks. Maybe there will be some left on the sale racks after Valentine’s Day and I can score some cute looks for less for next year…just buy a size up from this year and we should be good to go.

A few more ideas for Valentine’s Day.

If you have a toddler, check out this Valentine’s set from Fisher Price’s Little People. It’s $15 and includes 3 figures, a table and chairs, flower stand fence with removable flowers, a mailbox (it really opens!) and some pretend valentines to put inside. The set also includes 6 Valentine cards.

Next up, a gift for the ladies. Check out the Key to My Heart key chain. You choose how many dangles you’d like, what words you’d like on each dangle (maybe your kids’ names?), a Swarovski crystal for each dangle, as well as a charm for each dangle. You can select little picture frames as your charms for an extra charge. There are tons of combinations available (math has never been my strong point!). It comes in a pretty heart-shaped box, ideal for gift giving. The two dangle key chain is $56.

Finally, what would Valentine’s Day be without candy? Head over to Hershey’s. They have a variety of personalized gift options available. My favorite was the Sealed with a Kiss Tower. It comes with Reese’s hearts, kisses, miniatures, and a personalized chocolate card. Yum! And if you’re tired of Conversation Hearts, check out Jelly Belly’s new Conversation Beans. Jelly Belly’s sour flavors come with romantic sayings printed on them…how sweet!

I can’t say enough great things about Carole Peterson’s music. I originally found out about her from a friend who lent me a CD. After listening to it, I immediately went to the website and ordered a copy of Sticky Bubblegum. Unfortunately, I then lent my copy to a different friend and never have gotten it back. Grandma saved the day by sending us Tiny Tunes and Highly Usable Music, All Year Long. And Vivian received Stinky Cake for her birthday this year. So now we just need to replace our copy of Sticky Bubblegum to have the complete Carole Peterson set.

So, what’s the big deal, you may be asking….kids’ music is kids’ music. So wrong! This is fun music that TEACHES! The songs are kind of old school in that they are just her and some simple accompaniment and sometimes you can hear kids singing along with her. It’s kind of like having a really fabulous preschool teacher right in the room with your child. As she sings, your child will learn to follow directions, develop his or her gross motor skills, play with phonics, and just have a good old fashioned good time. If you click on the link to one of the CD’s, you’ll be able to hear samples of the songs. I guarantee you’ll be hooked. She’s just great. So pick some up for yourself, or give a few as a gift. That just gave me an idea…I think I’ll pick up a few copies to have on hand as birthday gifts. Also, if you have a child in preschool- first grade, any of these CD’s would make a great teacher gift. Happy listening!

Today I’ll be writing about some items that I’ve found that have made my life easier or simpler in some way.

SAVE SOME SPACE!

My mom bought me this set of collapsible measuring cups…I love, love, love them! They fold down completely flat, thus taking up far less space than your average measuring cups. Yes, it’s the simpler things in life that make me happy. I plan to get the colanders next. What will I do with all that extra cabinet space?

SAVE ON STYLE

I got a set of Temp-tations ceramic ovenware for Christmas and I can’t wait to use it. I really don’t need to save it for a special occasion…it’s affordable ovenware designed to go from oven, to the table, to the freezer. It’s even microwave and dishwasher safe! It looks like a million bucks and most pieces come with their own rattan trivet and iron serving basket. This set has 16 total pieces and is less than $45.

SAVE YOUR NECK

I don’t own this yet, but saw it today on QVC (do we notice a trend here?). It’s a mirror that opens out from both sides so that you can see all the way around your head without holding up an extra mirror. It means you can see what you’re doing back there while drying or styling your hair. Hubby can see his neck and shave it easily. It also has two lights and a 5X magnifying mirror. It attaches easily to most surfaces with suction cups or mounting tape (included). It folds fairly flat when not in use. It’s $31.10.

SAVE YOUR SANITY

The Magellan RoadMate has to be one of the nicest presents my husband has ever bought me. We recently moved to a new city, and this little baby has really helped me find my way around. In addition to your run-of-the-mill directions, it also provides points of interest. For example, while on the road, I could search for the nearest restaurants. I could even type in the name of a restaurant and it would tell me where the next closest one was and how to get there. Best of all, it recognized the traffic jam we were in on I-95 and offered us a detour. Although I doubt we saved any time, we felt better because we were actually driving instead of sitting on the highway. I’d say I use my RoadMate at least 2-3 times a week. I love it! If you belong to Costco, check their site for prices. They currently have a special on these.

SAVE YOUR SOLES

I have had problems with dry feet ever since my first pregnancy. Something about the whole baby process has taken its toll on my tootsies. I tried many creams and lotions and was disappointed in them all. Until I found Kerasal. It rocks! My feet are back to their old pre-baby condition (if not their pre-baby size….sigh…). I love this stuff and I think you will too.

Hey all! Gotta keep this short…I have a new show to watch. Please, oh please, let it live up to my freakishly high expectations…

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few of my very favorite Valentine’s related books.

If you’re looking for books for the 3 and under set, try one of these board books. The first is written by Kevin Henkes, one of my all time faves. It features Lily as she hunts for the perfect hiding place for her Valentine chocolate. The other is by Sandra Boynton, another favorite author. Both of my daughters ask to have this one read to them over and over again.

If you’re hoping for books for ages 4-8, here are a couple of fun reads. In Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink, the main character writes not-so-nice Valentines for a couple of his classmates and then deals with the consequences. And you really can’t go wrong with any of the Junie B. Jones books. Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentime is a great read.

I’m off to watch TV and veg out.  Happy reading everyone!

I love Family Fun Magazine and have subscribed forever. Their website has tons and tons of ideas for Valentine’s Day. Here are some of my favorites.

This Candy Airplane is sooo cute. I am thinking about making them to hand out to my daughter’s class for Valentine’s Day. Check the site for directions. Materials needed include a rubber band, smarties, life savers, stick of cinnamon gum, and some heart stickers.

These also look really cute, fast, and easy. You just need a small bag of candy, toy shovel, twist tie, ribbon, and pain pen. Check out the directions at the Family Fun site.

Finally, I saw this method for making heart-shaped cupcakes without having to buy a special pan. You simply take a regular cupcake pan and add a marble or ball of aluminum foil outside the liner to make the heart’s notch.

When I was in elementary school (sooo long ago…), I always made my Valentine’s Day cards. It wasn’t that my school required it…I was just very into arts and crafts and really enjoyed hand making each of my Valentine’s for my friends. My mom and I would head out to the local craft supply store and come home with construction paper, doilies, stickers, and whatever else we could find. I would also page through magazines looking for words or pictures to add to my valentines. Now many companies have taken the legwork out of making your own valentines by combining a variety of materials into kits. Check these out:

Hearth Song’s Valentine Kit is 19.95. It comes with 30 sheets of construction paper, 36 doilies, tissue paper, stickers, glitter, glue, and a few other items. All of it comes in a storage box with patterns and tips.

Chinaberry has a kit for 15.95. It has enough materials to make 30 small valentines. It comes with a variety of papers, doilies, beads, ribbon, and vellum.

Oriental Trading also has a Super Mega Valentine Kit. It truly is huge and will probably be enough to make valentines for the next few years. It’s 24.95 and comes with 100 doilies, 500 foam heart shaped beads, various foam hearts, alphabet stickers, envelopes, and papier mache boxes.

Happy crafting everyone!

As you will soon learn, my mind works in strange ways. The past couple days, I have been reminiscing about the 80’s. Not sure why…Maybe it was the fact that I bought my brother this Pinky and the Brain set for Christmas.

Technically, Pinky and the Brain aired in the mid-90’s. But buying him that box set started me thinking about other 80’s cartoons. That, in turn, led me to this site:

They have listings for tons of TV shows you’ve probably totally forgotten. Many of the listings even include a clip of the theme song. Aahhh, Shirt Tales, how I’ve missed you.

So then I started remembering middle school and how my math teacher insisted that we learn to add and subtract using binary because it would be so necessary in the future. Fast forward to 2007: never used it once. Ever. But I do remember learning to write a basic program in 6th grade, and I found this totally funny t-shirt:

So, at this point, I start thinking, hey, what are some other 80’s things I can write about so that people can do a theme gift, or have other 80’s gift giving options? Here are two more items for your perusal:

First up, an Atari 2600 Plug and Play Keychain.

You have three choices…each is a keychain and is actually playable. Games include your choice of Asteroids and Millipede, Centipede and Yar’s Revenge, or Pong, Breakout and Warlords. They’re 9.99-14.99 depending onwhich you select.

Next up is Rubik’s Cube in two versions. Original and over the top. The cube is currently enjoying a renaissance, but I remember when they were “totally awesome” the first time around. Anyway, if you want to kick it old school, try this one from ThinkGeek.

Finally, if you want a totally sleek and modern take on the Rubik’s cube (and have an extra $155 burning a hole in your pocket), check out this baby:

It’s made of solid chrome and has inlaid leather tiles. I guess those tiles won’t peel off like the old ones did…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this stroll down memory lane and peek into the inner workings of my mind. If you aren’t scared off, I’ll see you back here tomorrow. Who knows what I’ll find to write about…

I seem to find my best ideas when I’m not really looking for them. Like a few days ago I was searching for something on Amazon and I stumbled upon this cool Lullaby series, Rockabye Baby! They take favorite songs by artists like Tool, Coldplay, Nirvana, or Metallica, and play them baby lullaby style. I wasn’t sure whether it was really cool, or maybe just a kind of bastardization of what used to be cool music, so I asked my musically-hip brother (a Full Sail graduate, thank-you-very-much). He’s still in his 20’s and doesn’t have kids yet, but he thought they were pretty neat. Anyway, that got me thinking about a theme gift using one or more of these CD’s.

How about a CD (or two or three) and a cool night light? Rosenberry Rooms has one of the most exhaustive collections of cool night lights I’ve seen.

Throw in a SwaddleMe baby swaddler, and you’ve got a great sleep-themed gift. The SwaddleMe takes some of the difficulty out of swaddling a baby. It has velcro patches which allow you to swaddle baby without the tricky tucking.

Have a restful New Year, everyone!