Project Nursery

April 16, 2012 by 2 Comments

I don’t know if there’s something in the water, the spring air or what, but it seems like there are pregnant women popping up everywhere I go.  I swear, that was just me.  I was the pregnant lady.  My, how much has changed in a year!  Well, a friend is in the final stages of prepping her nursery for the arrival of their first – a little girl.  I’ve watched her choose each and every detail and it brought back so many memories from designing my son’s perfect room.  While obsessing over the perfect paint color, fabric selections and decor, I relied heavily on one amazing website — Project Nursery.  For those of you who just have a passion for interior design and children, Project Nursery is your mecca.  It is the cream of the crop for inspirational websites because not only does it include nurseries, it has ideas for toddlers, playrooms, bathrooms and so much more.  In case Pinterest wasn’t enough, you now have another time-sucking website to spend hours on.  I can’t pass up this opportunity to show you a few pictures of our completed nursery.  I want to bottle up the feeling I get from that room and carry it with me forever.

Our Nursery Storyboard

Yes, there was still plastic on the glider at that time. Ha!

We've since hung shelves above the glider to hold frames, books and the video monitor camera.

Don't mind that clutter all over the dresser. It was a work in progress.

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How to Garden with Kids

April 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

With spring in full force, I went searching the internet for articles on gardening.  Those who know me know I have a black thumb.  I kill anything and everything green.  I can’t even keep a cactus alive, it’s ridiculous.  To challenge myself I thought I’d attempt to create an herb garden.  It will give me a little bit of motivation to keep the things growing because I can reward myself by using the fruits of my labor in my everyday cooking.  In my search, I found an amazing blog filled with children’s activities, this post dedicated to gardening with kids.  I must admit, this makes gardening seem fun and easy!  If you haven’t discovered Quirky Momma Kids Activities Blog yet, let me welcome you to your new obsession.  Her stuff is truly amazing and you will get so many great tips and ideas.

How to Garden with Kids: 18 Tips from It’s Playtime!!!

I love the sense of awe that gardening with my kids gives them.  They just love watching new life spring from a seed (and let’s be honest, they also LOVE to get muddy).  This is our favorite time of year.  It must be many of yours too as we had a bunch of gardening activities linked up last week (and over the year) to our weekly Kid’s Meme, It’s Playtime.  Thanks to all who contributed!
how to garden with kids

Create a compost bin with We made That.  She taught her kids how to be responsible with their waste.

You can recycle DIY watering cans, just like Childhood List.

Share garden fruit together – I love the Garden that At Home with Ali showcased

Have fun creating gardening labels – these are adorable labels created by Dilly Dally Art.

Enjoy a post-gardening snack of garden cupcakes, along with Anna of The Imagination Tree.

Grow edible art and create an egg carton cress caterpillar – inspired by Science Sparks.

how to garden with kids

Looking for something simple and easy to grow?  Try peas.  Thanks Educators Spin on it!

Use toilet paper tubes to create planters, from Kitchen Counter Chronicles.

Use an Egg carton as DIY seed pods to start your plants.  Perfect size for a window sill.

Experiment with sunlight and watch the plants follow the sun as you rotate them – thanks Mama Smiles.

Want to recycle those Easter Eggs?  Use the shells as a nutrient-rich seed starter.  Great tips from Babylandia (be sure to translate the page).

Love this Kids garden table – give your children space to create and observe with At Home with Ali.

Gardening dreams

What a great way to start seeds.  Housing a Forest had a great idea to a plant their seeds in a sponge.  It contains the sprouts, is soil/mess free and it is able to be planted as a unit.  Brilliant.

Have limit space?  Looking for a contained garden?  Why don’t you make a herb garden inside mason jars?  That is what Weeping Cherries did with her kids.

Another great  Eco-friendly gardening pod to start your plants are the rinds from fruit.  My Romana Apartment used grapefruit peels as plant containers.

Toad Haven had fun learning about plant growth and Eco-systems by creating terrariums from water bottles.

We are looking forward to starting our spring garden – TipNut has a great list of things that you can both grow start indoors to give your garden a headstart or to have a smaller garden indoors.

The kids will love to watch their plants grow in sock heads – Happy Whimsical Hearts had a blast making these faces.

Looking for more reading??  Here is a tutorial on how to create a mini-greenhouse out of a CD case… and a good garden has lots of worms!  NurtureStore shares how she created a wormery with her daughter.

Filed Under: health & fitness, home, Things to do with Kids, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Spring (Cleaning) is in the Air!

March 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

For those of you who are subscribed to our newsletter you are already aware of the March Challenge we presented to you!  For those of you that aren’t read below for our first Ties & Tutus Challenge.  Every month we will be challenging you in a different aspect of your life, this month, organization! DUN DUN DUNN.

March Challenge -

Each month we hope to have a new and exciting challenge for you, your family and your friends.  These are going to (hopefully) be fun and exciting ways to get you out of your comfort zone, things to get you trying something new and sometimes things that help and support others in the community.  So this month it’s all about you…getting organized!  We all have (at least I hope we do) that one junk drawer/closet/room/garage and just looking at it gives you that “I should probably take care of that feeling…”  Well this is the month to take that feeling and run with it!  A couple of week’s ago we had a post on Ties & Tutus about organizing the tupperware cabinet.  The feelings of elation I got from that 1×1 foot of space being organized; I can hardly imagine the sheer joy that will come from taking care of the office closet!   So for this month: Organize Your Space!  You have a months time and what is even more exciting, you could even win a prize!  Take a picture of your “junk space” for your before shot and get to work. When your organization is complete take an after shot and mail it in.  All entries will be posted on our Facebook page where our fans will vote on the most improved organization space.    Even though you may win an extrinsic award, do it for the intrinsic value, because an organized space is a happy place!  (I just made that up!) Send your before and after pics in to marisa@tiesandtutus.com by Friday, March 30th to enter.

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Happy Leap Year!

February 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Happy Leap Day to you all out there!  Here are a few Leap Year facts to freshen your memory:

Our solar year is 365.24219 days. Since our calendar does not deal in partial days, every four years, we add an additional day to February. Therefore, our calendar year is either 365 days in nonleap years or 366 days in leap years. A leap year every four years gives us 365.25 days, sending our seasons off course and eventually in the wrong months. To change .25 days to .24219, we skip a few Leap Days every one hundred years or so.

This day only comes around once every four years so I figured it’s a cause for celebration.  Here are a few activities to do with the kiddos today:

1.  Make an origami frog that will “leap” around our house.

Click here to download the printable PDF.

2.  Send your friends Leap Year ecards by clicking here.

3.  Make a paper bag frog puppet.

4.  Make Leap Year cupcakes.

5. Print off this Leap Year dot-to-dot by clicking here.

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Johnson & Johnson Recalls Infants’ Tylenol

February 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Infants' Tylenol

Johnson & Johnson Recalls Infants’ Tylenol

Johnson & Johnson announced a recall today of all Infants’ Tylenol because of problems with the dosing system on the bottle.

The company launched the recall because some parents or caregivers had complained that when they inserted the dosing syringe into the top of the bottle, this pushed the protective cover, known as a flow restrictor, into the bottle.

This voluntary recall is a “precautionary” step; Johnson & Johnson said there are no reports of anyone being harmed as a result of the bottle problem, the Huffington Post reports.

As long as the flow restrictor remains intact, parents can continue to use the medication, Johnson & Johnson said. But they advise parents not to use the medicine if the flow restrictor is pushed into the bottle. In that case, customers can request a refund by contacting the company at www.tylenol.com, or calling 1-800-222-6036.

The recall applies only to Infants’ Tylenol, and not to Children’s Tylenol.

via Johnson & Johnson Recalls Infants’ Tylenol | Parents News Now, by Holly Lebowitz Rossi.

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The Art of Regifting

February 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’m so excited because this topic was recommended by one of our loyal followers.  We love to hear from you, so if you ever have an idea, thought or comment, be sure to let us know!  Alright, now let’s get back to the topic at hand…regifting.

Let’s be honest here, I’m sure the vast majority of you readers out there have regifted something in the past.  Yes, I’m talking about you.  Am I right?  Are you embarrassed now?  I’ll go ahead and admit it, I’ve done it a time or two.  It’s not because I’m cheap, lazy or because I’m in a jam.  I’ve purposely, knowingly regifted a thing here or there.  Reality is sometimes you’re given things that just aren’t “you” or that don’t serve a purpose for your way of living.  It’s not because there’s anything wrong with a gift, sometimes it just seems better suited for someone else.  You know what I’m getting at, right?  As the regifter, that’s what we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better.

Now, let’s flip the switch here and talk about being on the receiving end of a regifted item.  Sure, sometimes we have no clue we’ve been the “victim” of a regift because it really is something we’d want, use, like and for that regifting is a great thing.  But, and there is a big but, sometimes it’s blately obvious what is happening.  My favorite regifting story is a wedding gift we received in the mail.  It was an item from our registry, but inside the little Crate & Barrel box was a card…written to the person we received the gift from.  That one made me laugh.  It was something we really wanted and for that I say, ‘Yahtzee!’  We were all winners.

Have you heard any funny regifting stories?  What do you think of regifting?  Is it socially acceptable?  Something to be ashamed of?  Let’s hear it!  Leave us a comment, we know this is a hot topic.

Until then, Ties & Tutus will try and CYA in the regifting department.  Here are some regifting etiquette tips to remember:

  • Remove the evidence – make sure all gift receipts, cards and previous wrapping have been removed from the packaging.
  • Make sure the item is in like-new condition and in its original packaging.
  • Only give the gift to a recipient in a different social circle than the person from whom the gift was originally received.
  • Make sure the item is a good fit for the recipient.
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Need a Little Valentine’s Day Love?

February 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If that special someone still needs a little hint at what you’d like for Valentine’s Day – it’s tomorrow in case they haven’t noticed – send them an email nudging them to head over to erincondren.com to purchase an ‘e’ gift card for a whopping 20% off.  I guess those procrastinators win after all, huh?  If you’re not feeling the love from someone else, give yourself a little V-Day present and purchase any denomination with the discount and get yourself something fancy. Hurry because the offer is good for one day only! Here are all of the details:

 

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Free Printable Meal Planner

January 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

Do you meal plan?  It really takes about 5 minutes to do and saves me a boatload of headache during the week.  Now that I’m a mom, I no longer just run to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for tonight’s dinner.  No, grocery shopping has now turned into an ordeal and I despise every second of it.  If I’m going to make the trip, it better be worth my while.  Meal planning definitely helps me stay organized and get everything I need for the week’s meals in one trip.  I’ve seen other meal planners that have a ton of details including planning for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Like most of you moms out there, I don’t have time to plan for breakfast or lunch.  Heck, I’m lucky if I scarf down a piece of toast in the morning.  I wanted something simple and something I would actually use, so here it is:

I’ve printed a number of these and stacked them in the pantry.  Each week I pull out a fresh one and slap it on my refrigerator.  No more coming home from a busy day and asking, “What’s for dinner?”

Another idea I love is to print this version and place it in a 8×10 frame.  With a dry erase marker, it instantly becomes a reusable menu board.  Prop it up on your counter or hang it on a wall.  Voila!

Click on the link below for your free printable menu:

Menu with List

Simple Menu

Filed Under: home, organization, Printables, Uncategorized, What's Cooking? Tagged With: , , , , , ,

KidZui – The Internet for Kids

January 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

We live in a day in age where we depend on technology for daily tasks.  Our kids will never know how to find a book using a card catalog or research information for a book report using an encyclopedia.  It’s just part of the evolution of society, I guess.  Our kids are growing up using iPads, the internet, smart phones and MP3 players.  As a parent, most of us struggle with this because, let’s be honest, there is a lot of “stuff” out there that our children should not be exposed to.  I came across one of my favorite websites, KidZui.com by accident one day.  It’s a place where “kids can only access websites, games, pictures, and videos that have been approved by KidZui’s editorial staff, parents, and teachers.”  It is a completely free web browser designed just for our kids.  Try it out and let us know what you think!

 

Filed Under: family, fun finds, home, Websites Tagged With: , , ,

Free Kindle Download

January 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Yep, amazon.com is at it again.  Today’s free download is Naturally Skinny: 100 Organic Recipes Under 350 Calories.

This book is filled with all sorts of yummy recipes for the health-conscious cook.  I’ve already found a few I’m going to try with less than 350 calories each.  Can you say New Year’s resolution?

Click here to get your copy on a kindle, smartphone or even your computer.

Courtesy of Alicia’s Deals in AZ

Filed Under: Deals, health & fitness, home, recipe Tagged With: , , , , ,
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