Win It! Paint by Sticker: Travel

Disclosure: I received samples to facilitate this review and giveaway; all opinions expressed are my own. 

I love all things vintage and crafty so when I was approached by Workman Publishing to give their new Paint by Sticker series a try I was intrigued. At first glance, it brought to mind the coloring craze that started a few years ago which I tried and grew bored as my mind wandered. When the Travel and Kids editions arrived I decided to let Nia give it a try first. In the past while our color by number projects have gone unfinished I was thrilled to see Nia's enthusiasm when I introduced her to Paint by Sticker. 

Welch's Fruit Snacks Christmas Challenge

Disclosure: I was provided with samples to facilitate this post; all opinions expressed are my own. 

One of the Christmas traditions I was finally excited to be a part of now that we're in our first home is putting stockings up for each of us on our fireplace mantle. I have fond memories of this as a kid and would get excited to for the surprises my parents would put in them, mostly beauty products! When I asked my Facebook friends about their stocking memories as I sought to create ours, many responded with treats such as candy and fruit. 

My Best DIY Advent Calendar Yet

We still have quite a bit of boxes over here since we moved in September and in a flash of panic yesterday it dawned on me that I need to dig through them to find the Advent calendar I made for Nia last year inspired by This Little Street's feature I saw on The Holiday Collective's Instagram account. I remembered I posted this teaser and realized I never shared the tutorial so here we go!

Easy Valentine's Day Crafts with Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit

Disclosure: I received a Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit to facilitate this review; all opinions expressed are my own.

With all the snow that's been dumping on us lately I nearly forgot that Valentine's Day is approaching! When Epson sent over their LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit for me to review I decided to have a crafting afternoon with Nia and we created a couple simple projects:

We've been enjoying Nia's nightly devotional her grandparents gave her for Christmas, and she's very committed to remembering to read it so we created a bookmark for it!

We also made Valentine's Day card collages for each other. I had so many Valentine's Day supplies leftover from Alt Summit 2014 and this was the perfect opportunity to use them! Nia enjoyed selecting which elements to add to the card:

The Epson Printable Ribbon Kit is available on Epson.com and comes with two 1/2" wide ribbon cartridges with refills available at OfficeMax (in store and online), Amazon.com and Staples.com and can also handle sticky labels, iron-on labels and glow-in-the dark labels as well. The complete kit retails for $69.99 and just the printer for $39.99. 

Here are my favorite features:  

• Endless design options: 14 font types, 10 font styles and 300+ symbols, 75+ frames
• Can print up to two lines of text
• Accommodates 1/4" and 1/2" wide tape
• Built-in memory stores up to 30 label designs

Want to see the Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit in action? Check out my quick video:

A couple other fun Valentine's Day projects I had in mind:

• Date night out is often hard for parents of young kids, so how about a Valentine's Day Chinese take-out dinner in with homemade fortune cookies or a countdown to Valentine's Day using fortune cookies like this pin? You can put fun messages inside!

• Nia's PK4 teacher sent home a print-out of her classmate's faces to attach to each Valentine which I think is an awesome idea! While she doesn't know how to read yet this made it very easy to cut and paste the pictures onto our tried and true GoGo squeeZ Valentine's Day covers (hooray for a no-candy Valentine!), but perhaps next year we can print out the names on ribbon and wrap them around the tops of the GoGo squeeZ!

Do you have a go-to Valentine's Day craft you enjoy doing with your family?
 

The Best-Smelling Time of Year #FebrezeHoliday

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Febreze; all opinions expressed are my own. 

I have to be honest: November's hit me like a mack truck, and I find it unreal to be able to say that Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and Christmas is next month. We're hosting our largest Thanksgiving yet and one of my favorite things about the holidays are the amazing smells. Febreze's Limited Edition Home for the Holidays Collection captures this with scents like Frosted Pine, Apple Tart, Toasted Almond, Vanilla Latte and Sugared Cranberry. 

When our scentspiration box arrived Nia had a hard time waiting to open it - it was her first inkling that the holidays are around the corner! We went through the included activity cards together, and Nia decided to create Clothespin Reindeer. I remember making one of these when I was a preschooler (my mom saved it!) and Nia upon seeing reindeer hoof prints on the rooftop of the scentspiration box deemed our craft appropriate.

I picked up some simple crafts supplies, and Nia helped me put our reindeer together in a few easy steps:

If you want to recreate these you can add pipe cleaners for antlers, paint them and even add mini-jingle bells! We have a few supplies left over, and I'd like to paint a the reindeer brown like the craft instruction card and add some ribbon to hang them. It'd be the perfect gift for Nia to give her relatives!

When doing these types of holiday crafts Febreze makes it very easy to get into the spirit with their festive, yet pleasant scents. We won't be getting our tree until after Thanksgiving, but we've jump started the scent of Christmas with Febreze's NOTICEables Frosted Pine scent. I'm sensitive to scents that are overwhelming, and I like how subtle Febreze's scents are. They're not overly sweet or cloying. The Apple Tart scent makes me want to start baking, and the Toasted Almond makes me feel cozy, especially in our New England climate (can you believe it snowed here yesterday?).

If you want to get into the holiday spirit with Febreze you can find their Home for the Holidays scents exclusively at Walmart, and be sure to follow Febreze on Facebook and Twitter for the latest product news. 

Which holiday crafts are you making this season? Do you have a signature holiday scent - are you more into sweet scents or spicy scents?

Revisiting Pins & Needles (and a Quick 3-Step Placemat Tutorial!)

 

Before our recent move I went on a whirlwind tour saying goodbye to a few of my favorite small businesses. One of those is the UES shop Pins & Needles (you can read my original posts here and here). I was excited to see mention of their expansion in their newsletter and wanted to check it out for myself. The owner Rachel started off with one side of the floor that her shop occupies and now has doubled the space.

The original space

The addition; I love the inspirational words on the wall!

Rachel always has such fun prints in her shop and helped me pick out a couple for a placemat project for the kids and "kickee" pants for Grayson. While my mom was here she helped me with the placemat which was super easy, and I'm sharing the tutorial with you today:

Materials:

• Favorite fabric (sized to pre-cut felt backing)
• Felt backing (the piece was pre-cut in a placemat friendly size)
• Double binding in a complimentary color
• Fusing tape

Directions:

Step 1: Iron fabric and felt, match up and trim if needed

Step 2: Measure and cut binding for all 4 sides, pressing to make tight edges

Step 3: Measure fusing tape to match binding, laying in each piece and ironing all the way around, tucking in edges and pressing with more pieces of fusing web as needed all the way around

That's it!

Especially with the holidays approaching you can make these more formal depending on the fabric and trim you choose plus they'd make a great favor for your guests to take-home!

Which holiday projects have you started? Be sure to follow Pins & Needles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for project  inspiration!
 

Getting Ready for Fall with Febreze Home Harvest Collection

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Febreze; all opinions expressed are my own.

One of the things I'm most excited about with our upcoming move to New Hampshire is experiencing a traditional New England fall with my family. Just the term "leaf peeping" makes me smile like Nia up above and the thought of looking out of my windows and seeing gorgeous leaves instead of buildings and concrete is already calming my nerves!

While we await our move I've already started getting our home ready for fall with the Febreze Home Harvest Collection. With delicious smelling scents like Chai, Toasted Almond and Sugar you can completely immerse yourself in fall by using Febreze spray, in-car vent clips as well as NOTICEables which plug into your outlets. My family's Febreze roots go back to when Mr. Lovebird and I were dating in college. Let's just say some of his uses for Febreze were a bit unconventional (I'm thankful we have our own washing machine now O_o), but especially now with kids it's a great way to give our clothing a refresh and with an infant I like how the scents aren't too overpowering. 

When we received our Febreze Home Harvest scentspiration box Nia thought it was another doll house, which it quickly became once we were finished, but I took her through it and let her scratch and sniff the scents. She deemed Sandalwood her favorite, and I supervised her as she plugged it into our entryway outlet. Nia was a bit impatient for the scent to spread so to pass the time I told her we could pick out one of the many activities that came along with our scentspiration box. She decided on the spiced orange.

We stepped out to buy our supplies, and when we came back she exclaimed, "Mama, I SMELL it!" What's so great about NOTICEables is that there's a dual chamber so if you're in a different scent mood you can simply slide the switch over to experience the second scent. I agree Sandalwood smells fantastic and about 30 minutes after arriving home from work Mr. Lovebird searching around asked, "What is that? I don't see the baby or anything!" - as if the baby smells of sandalwood! He was so confused that it made me laugh! I asked him if he liked it, and he said he did but it bothered him that he couldn't figure out where it was coming from O_o

Back to our project . . .

We gathered our supplies, and I explained to Nia that she could make a pattern with the toothpick then push the cloves in. She was aiming for a face, but got carried away with the toothpick so it's a bit abstract!

Besides the spiced orange activity there were also recipes like oven-baked s'mores, an obsession I had in my early 20s, as well as home decor crafts such as light bulb pears - simply wrapping a light bulb with twine and inserting a twig for the stem. Even better is that the crafts incorporate the Febreze scents. So instead of just spraying them in the air (something I'm cautious about with Grayson!) you can infuse the crafts with Febreze making fantastic smelling centerpieces. I never considered that before!

To learn more about getting your home ready for fall with the Febreze Home Harvest Collection be sure to follow Febreze on Facebook and Twitter.

Have you started getting your home ready for fall? Do you make special crafts or use scents to get in the fall mood?
 

Win $1000 in Scotch Duct Tape's #TapeOn Back-to-School Contest

Disclosure: I received products to facilitate this post; all opinions expressed are my own.

Although I'm 12 years out of college I still feel angst seeing back-to-school commercials and feel for Nia and her sentiment about not quite being ready to return. Granted she's only entering PK4, but when I recently mentioned going shopping for back-to-school clothes she responded as angrily as I did in high school - she's a threenager indeed!

To make this back-to-school season more appealing Scotch has an exciting craft contest for teens running on their Facebook page until August 18. They're encouraging contestants to create fun back to school projects with their decorative Duct Tape. Teen vlogger, Sarai Jones, will be judging the contest and has a created a fun video with locker decorations for inspiration:

The contest will include prizes for the top four winners with first place receiving $1000, second place receiving $500 and third and fourth place receiving $250. 


Nia's not into notebooks and binders quite yet, but we put our own spin on a back-to-school project by decorating Gray's baby tub - it can technically fit Nia too and since she takes nightly baths during school I deemed it appropriate (we're on an every-other-night schedule for the summer!). Here's our project:

Nia was especially excited for the Batman tape (remember, she's a princess-superhero kinda girl):

However she got carried away with using the Duct Tape to decorate her brother - Mr. Lovebird and I got a good laugh when we looked over and saw this:

What were your favorite school supplies growing up? I LOVED my Lisa Frank binder!

 

Just in Time for Summer Break: A Make Amazing $5K Contest & Interview with Lifestyle Expert Brit Morin!

I can be a crafty girl when I put my mind to it and attending Alt Summit in January really put me back in the crafty spirit. Meeting lifestyle expert Brit Morin while there was a highlight especially as she gave such incredible insight to the business side of her brand. 

When I learned she was partnering with Scotch for another outstanding crafting contest as well as sharing ideas for summer crafting with kids I was excited for the opportunity to interview her. 

You can check it out here:

Having won a Scotch contest in the past and attended one of their big events I can attest to what a fun brand they are and how easy it is to get kids of all ages involved in crafting especially with their washi tape (Nia and I are obsessed!).

To inspire your crafting sessions this summer Brit Morin's teamed up with Scotch for the Make Amazing contest offering 3 winners cash prizes of $5,000! Amazing, right?! You can submit your inspired creations featuring Scotch Blue via Instagram using the hashtag #makeamazing. Contest ends 8/3/2014 and full rules are here.

Are your kids crafting this summer? What are some of their favorite items to craft with? (Nia's in a crayon/paper doll phase lately!)

Getting Creative on the Go With Crayola Doodle Magic Lap Desk

Disclosure: I received a Crayola Doodle Magic Lap Desk to facilitate this review; all opinions expressed are my own. 

 
My Lil Lovebird is quite the artist and while I tried to persuade her starting around 2 years old to join me in crafting now at almost 4 years old I find she does her best work when I just leave her alone and let her create.

While at Toy Fair this past winter and most recently at TTPM's Spring Showcase I was excited to preview Crayola's latest products including expansion of their Doodle Magic line. With the ability to keep the color on the special paper only, it really puts me at ease knowing scribbles won't end up all over the floors, especially because Nia prefers to stretch out on the floor instead of sitting at her art table to color. 

Nia was thrilled when we received Crayola's Doodle Magic Lap Desk and was mesmerized by how easy it was to erase her projects and recreate over and over again:

The lap desk comes with 4 markers, a wand which contains a special eraser fluid and a cloth to dry it off. I appreciated how there's storage space on the back of the lap desk for the markers and wand eraser, however there's no place to store the cloth. We just try our best to keep tabs on it!

Check out this quick commercial to see Doodle Magic in action: 

 

While we don't have a car, there are times when we still use a car share program to get around, and the lap desk is really helpful (especially on one-hour long drives to the midwife!), as well as just for quiet time at home. As we're preparing to head to the hospital for Baby Agbai 2.0's birth the lap desk will definitely be coming with us to help keep Nia occupied!

You can purchase the Crayola Doodle Magic Lap Desk (MFRP $24.99) directly from Crayola here (and save 15% when you share via social media!).
 

Nope! No Baby Shower for Baby #2, but I Am Doing This

Today I'm officially a week away from my due date and about halfway through this pregnancy I started getting asked about whether or not we're having a baby shower. We were generously blessed with three showers with Nia and with many of the items being gender neutral we were able to carry them over to Baby Agbai 2.0.

Throwback to our informal 2010 BBQ baby shower

Instead, I'd like to do a sip 'n' see - a Southern tradition that has been gaining widespread popularity since it happens once the baby arrives and is less intense than a traditional shower. I think of it as an open house for baby! 

I've been slowly gathering recipes and ideas for ours and recently came across Emily Henderson's circus-themed sip 'n' see for her son Charlie.

{Image Credit: Emily Henderson}

Emily partnered with Cricut, who was at Alt SLC in January, to craft special touches for the sip 'n' see - this video sums up all the fun moments:

I really like this idea because it gives people a chance to meet the baby once he arrives and it doesn't hold an obligation to give gifts. The New York Times ran an article about subsequent baby showers taking the form of "sprinkles" instead and briefly mentioned sip 'n' sees. Moms' founder Melissa Gerstein, who didn't have a shower for her 2nd child, is quoted in the article as saying: 

“I was disappointed,” she said. “I think every birth should be celebrated. You wouldn’t give your first child a bar or bat mitzvah and not your second or third, so why is a shower any different?”

I think there's definitely a fine line in gift-grabbiness of having subsequent showers. While I agree each baby should be celebrated, it doesn't necessarily have to happen in a materialistic way.

Did you have a baby shower for baby #2 or beyond? What are your thoughts on sip 'n' sees?

Next up: What I'm packing in my hospital bag this time around . . .

Lil Lovebird's Gingerbread House Playdate

About a month before Christmas I started getting notices about gingerbread house classes around the NYC metro-area, and they were pretty pricey! I just couldn't fathom spending $40-75 for a one-hour class for a 3 year old especially as I have fond memories of making a gingerbread house as a child, and I'm pretty sure it didn't set my parents back nearly that much.

I debated giving in and taking a class with a friend whose daughter is also at Nia's preschool but started asking a few other moms about their experiences making gingerbread houses and decided to make one with a kit instead. I went to 4 different stores before finally getting a tip from a fellow mom about going to Rite Aid. Who knew?! I don't even think I've ever stepped foot in a Rite Aid before, but I went in and found loads of train gingerbread kits but didn't see the gingerbread house kits - at least not at first. I was about to give up when I decided to dig behind the trains and lo and behold found just 2 gingerbread house kits left. One for Nia and one for her friend!

When I got up to the register the clerk saw them and mentioned they were on sale and signed me up so I could get the club card. The kits rang up to only $6.50 each - 50% off!

Our friends came over after school, and we had a leisurely play date (there's no way we could have done this in just one hour especially with 3 year olds!):

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? Did you your kids end up eating most of the candy before it could get on the house like Nia did?



P.S. Just for fun check out this NPR post about how to make an indestructible gingerbread house according to an engineer!