If you don’t already know about the Britax brand of carseats and strollers, I can say that all of us Mums and Dad will tell you that these are unequivocally the best carseats on the market. Their safety record is unmatched, and Britax is constantly upgrading and improving their brand. We were graciously sent the [...]
I’ve had a pain in the neck since Roo was born five years ago. No, I’m not talking about my beloved daughter, although she certainly has her trying moments. I’m talking about the residual loss of sleep I’ve had since first getting pregnant and being forced to change my sleep habits. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been a back sleeper. Flat on my back, covers tucked tightly around my neck (to ward off vampires, duh!), motionless in deep, replenishing sleep. Of course, pregnant ladies aren’t supposed to lay flat on their backs so early on in my pregnancy I made the switch to side sleeping. I assumed I would just switch back once the baby was born but it just hasn’t happened. Not after Roo was born, not after Jasper was born. For some reason, I am still sleeping on my side and fitfully so. Now that both kids are sleeping through the night, I blame my pillows. I can’t seem to find the proper ones. I like firm pillows but not too hard. Soft but not mushy. Plus I tend to flip them all around since I have the world’s sweatiest head (aside from my kids, of course) so it has to stand up to a beating. I usually use two and swap them back and forth all night, bunching them and fluffing them to try and get comfortable. To no avail.
Thankfully, Tempur-Pedic offered to send me a couple of their fabulous pillows to test out. All of their pillows feature their proprietary Tempur material, a pressure-relieving foam that absorbs and distributes your body weight for maximum comfort and support. It conforms to your shape but immediately regains its original shape, eliminating pressure points. The invention of Tempur was inspired by the study of G-forces on astronauts and Tempur-Pedic is the only brand of mattresses and pillows recognized by NASA and certified by the Space Foundation. Literally, it is the science of sleep!
The NeckPillow is a sculpted pillow recommended for those who need a therapeutic sleep posture. Its dual-lobe shape ergonomically supports your head, shoulders and neck to align your posture and help you get a more restful sleep. It is a bit funky looking but it does a great job of cradling your head and neck as you lay on your back, ensuring proper posture and comfort. It really helps me to remember to sleep on my back. I even bought a travel-sized one for Jasper to use since he is a fitful sleeper and it has seemed to help. (There is a similar style meant for side sleepers, too: the SidePillow would have been a lifesaver during pregnancy!)
The ComfortPillow is a more traditional-looking pillow but still very supportive thanks to the Tempur material.
I love that it looks and feels like a standard firm pillow but it gives a little, thanks to its plush zip cover. My husband tried to steal it from me immediately! I didn’t let him.
I am sleeping much better these days and would love to try sleeping on a Tempur-Pedic mattress one of these days. If I win the lottery, I would even consider getting them for the kids’ beds. They’re that comfortable. And everyone is happier with a good night’s sleep.
Do you remember when you were in High School and all of the rebel-teens who were too suburban to be actual misfits dyed their hair with Kool-Aid?
Well, I have a five year old who thinks punk-rockers are the hippest people in the world. Any time we are out and see crazy hair, tattoos and facial piercings, she nearly falls over with admiration. Recently she began begging me to dye her hair pink. Now, I’ve always said that I would give my children the freedom to become the people they will be, allow them to express themselves using fashion without interruption… no matter what my personal feelings are on their choices. That said, when I imagined myself as this embracing, awesome, i-love-you-you-love-me-we-all-hug mama, I was picturing my children at around 13 or 14 years old. I was certainly not imagining myself walking my kindergartners to her first day of school with a purple Mohawk, winged heart tattoo and spiked dog collar around her neck.
That’s when a friend suggested Kool-Aid.
Because my daughter has very light hair, I was able to mix one packet of cherry Kool-Aid with half a cup of vinegar and apply it to her hair. If your child has dark hair, this will not work. Unfortunately, that’s when bleach needs to become involved and I don’t know about you… but if I don’t let my kids eat rice that’s been bleached, I’m certainly not going to pour it all over their heads (my head, now that’s a different story.) I applied the color by dipping her hair into a bowl of the Kool-Aid mixture and soaking it for about two minutes. Then, I applied it to her roots with a paint brush. I didn’t rinse it out, but rather blow-dried her hair with the vinegar/Kool-Aid still wet.
We decided to do just one streak, which was a happy, fun compromise. The color was more orange than pink, but she was thrilled with the result. I wash her hair just about every day and the color lasted for about three weeks.
LeapFrog has made us one of their Ambassadors of Summer Reading. Tag has graciously donated their fabulous reading systems to several different blogs to give out locally. From LeapFrog:
“This program will give you the technology and content (Tag and Tag Junior readers, plus books for each platform) for creating fun Summer Reading Programs for your local libraries and daycares, or for those families whose homes seem to be the ones where kids often gather. We would like to help you help your community, by supplying Summer Reading Kits for you to donate.”
·Local Family and Daycare Reading Kit-1 Tag + 2 books; 1 Tag Junior + 2 books
We’ll be posting more about this as we get the Tags out to our local libraries and home day cares. If you don’t know the power of a Tag, please watch the video of my son above. He got this Animal Alphabet book 4 days ago…it’s impressive.
I talked about our great day at a Gustafer Yellowgold instore at my personal blog, My Two Sons. I’ve been trying to post over there every day, and I actually have been.
For many families, summer food is synonymous with barbecued meat, corn on the cob and pasta and potato salads. After moving to the city and losing our grill privileges permanently, I’ve turned to sea food to spice up our summer fare. Recently, I made shrimp and sea scallop scampi for a small dinner party we had. It was so easy and such a huge hit that I thought I needed to share it with you guys!
Ingredients:
2 lbs sea scallops
2 lbs deveined and cleaned shrimp
1 freshly squeezed lemon
1 tsp lemon zest
juice from half of an orange
1/2 cup white wine
3 sticks of salted butter
1 medium sized tomato cleaned and chopped
6 whole garlic cloves
2 garlic cloves minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 a sliced lemon for garnish
a few fresh basil leaves for garnish
Your favorite pasta!
How to do it:
After you’ve made it through the peeling, deveining and rinsing of two pounds of shrimp (IF you are WOMAN enough to make it through this challenge, mwah ha ha ha ha ha) the rest is a piece of cake!
Mix your shrimp and scallops together in a large mixing bowl with the lemon juice, lemon zest, orange juice, minced garlic, salt, pepper. Let them chill and marinate for about an hour.
Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the wine, tomato and garlic cloves. Allow them to saute for about three minutes. Add the seafood mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, uncovered until the shrimp are pink and the scallops are solid white in color.
Outside of making the following statements, “this camera is pretty. It takes nice pictures. It can really capture a sun beam…” I am unable to unify my thoughts about something that uses buttons and batteries to turn on enough to write a product review.
I have called on my husband to write about the Panasonic DMC-FZ28.
Here’s what he has to say about his father’s day gift this year.
For father’s day I was given the gift of a new digital camera, specifically the Panasonic DMC-FZ28. I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but I do take pride in the fact that I can take interesting and good looking pictures with even a dinky pocket camera. The DMC-FZ28 takes things to a whole different level for my amateur photographer leanings. One of the most important components in a camera is the lens, and this one doesn’t disappoint. A wide angle Leica lens with 18x zoom makes taking good pictures easy. The 10 megapixel CCM sensor takes in light beautifully. While this isn’t a full-on DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex), it’s about as good as it gets before you jump into the prosumer camera range. The camera provides a wide range of options for adjusting aperture, ISO, f-stop, zoom, and focus. There are several modes in which you can set one of these controls as manual and allow the camera’s intelligent image processing software to adjust the rest of these settings after analyzing the image previewed through the lens. As an added bonus, this camera also shoots video. It can do up to 1280×720 resolution at 30 fps (frames per second), taking excellent video for a digital camera. The microphone can be a little weak, due to it’s placement, but the video is crisp and clear, and most impressive for this type of camera. I was a little disappointed to see some graininess in the video that I shot outdoors on an overcast day, but it may be attributed to the lack of sunlight hitting the objects and people i was shooting.
Overall the build quality is very high, and this unit feels good in your hands. There is no creaking or play in any of the components, and it is a joy to carry around in the hand. When it comes time to shoot, the rubberized grip on the right side provides a comfortable feel.
The battery lasts for a very long time considering it’s size, and the layout of the buttons for selecting manual settings such as exposure makes it very simple to adjust in time to take that perfect shot. In addition, the speed with which the camera writes data to the SD card and is ready for another picture can only be described as incredibly snappy. I would say it takes less than half a second to be ready to take another shot, meaning you can rip off a bunch of shots and later edit out the ones that don’t make the cut. I have yet to fully explore everything this camera can do, but I know it is something I will cherish for years to come as I continue to learn about all the different ways to adjust the settings in order to really make the best of every situation.
Here are a few pictures taken from with the Panasonic DMC-FZ28.
Denim My fashion nemesis has come out of the post-pardum darkness and into the light. Ladies, I present IndiDenim. Shop. Build. Create. Design. And just LOVE them!
Even after losing those 20, 30, 40 or 50 pounds of baby weight it’s rare for a woman to retain her pre-baby body. It can take a lifetime for so many people to become comfortable in their bodies. After having a baby, it’s like starting over again because our clothes simply do not feel the way they once did. Jeans are particularly tricky in this respect, and yet they are a staple of a comfortable wardrobe.
IndiDenim is a company that creates a custom jean tailored to suit your body. I had the opportunity to ask IndiDenim’s Abigail Holtz a few questions in order to help me understand the process and the purpose of this product. She’s such a fun person! During the conversation, the best point that Abigail made was in saying, “And since jeans cover most of our butts on a daily basis, shouldn’t we all have jeans that fit our body and our style?” Yes! I think that we can all agree that we should each own a pair of jeans that reflect our personal style and feel great as well.
First, as you probably are, I’ve been really curious about the process of creating my own custom jean. Abigail tells me:
Designing your own custom jean at indi is a simple and fun process.
First, the customer selects the cut of their jean: slim fit, relaxed fit, trouser or plus fit for women; classic fit, relaxed fit, or low rise modern fit for men. Next, the customer designs their jean, choosing leg style, rise, fabric, pockets, finishing options (such as sanding, distressing, and other types of destruction) and additional details, such as personal initials on the back pocket. The final step is a brief fit profile, requiring a few measurements and relying mostly on visual body shape questions that are easy for the consumer to answer.
With this information, we use our fit technology to create a unique pattern for the customer. The final customized pattern is sent to a highly specialized manufacturing facility, where it is cut, sewn, tested for quality, and shipped direct to consumers in approximately four weeks.
Further, I asked Abigail where the concept of customer designed jeans originated:
We are living in an increasingly customized world. Today you can customize everything from your Dell to your Nikes to your Facebook account, so it only makes sense that consumers should be able to customize their own clothing. We chose to start with personalization of jeans because they are the most fundamental part of our wardrobe. Jeans can be worn by all types of people, at all ages, and at all sorts of occasions.
Because this company seems so hip, I was wondering if I was a likely customer. After all, I’m a stay at home mom who often finds herself rolling in the mini-van parade.
With custom jeans, every consumer can design their own jeans to represent their own personal style. Most people, irrespective of their background, are fascinated by this idea. We are proud to have devoted customers of all ages, races, genders, and body shapes/sizes!
As a mom of a three year old and a five year old, it’s comforting to know that I can create a fun, fashionable jean without the fear of exposing half of my butt every time I sit down. But how much do these jeans cost?
Jeans start at $145. Additional treatments cost between 5 and 10 dollars. We offer free shipping and easy returns and exchanges.
Wow! For the average person in this economy $145 is a lot of money to pay for anything. With so many different styles of jeans that we can buy off of the rack for half of the price, what sets this jean apart?
Everything. We offer a totally personalized product—personalized style, personalized fit, and personalized service. Buying off-the-rack, consumers are forced to settle for clothes that aren’t perfect. Furthermore, mass produced clothing restricts consumers from expressing their individuality. Our custom jeans change all of that! Each jean is one-of-a-kind, exactly what the customer specifies, and made to fit their unique body.
The NeckPillow is a sculpted pillow recommended for those who need a therapeutic sleep posture. Its dual-lobe shape ergonomically supports your head, shoulders and neck to align your posture and help you get a more restful sleep. It is a bit funky looking but it does a great job of cradling your head and neck as you lay on your back, ensuring proper posture and comfort. It really helps me to remember to sleep on my back. I even bought a travel-sized one for Jasper to use since he is a fitful sleeper and it has seemed to help. (There is a similar style meant for side sleepers, too: the SidePillow would have been a lifesaver during pregnancy!)
The ComfortPillow is a more traditional-looking pillow but still very supportive thanks to the Tempur material.
Naomi
Do you remember when you were in High School and all of the rebel-teens who were too suburban to be actual misfits dyed their hair with 
Because my daughter has very light hair, I was able to mix one packet of cherry Kool-Aid with half a cup of vinegar and apply it to her hair. If your child has dark hair, this will not work. Unfortunately, that’s when bleach needs to become involved and I don’t know about you… but if I don’t let my kids eat rice that’s been bleached, I’m certainly not going to pour it all over their heads (my head, now that’s a different story.) I applied the color by dipping her hair into a bowl of the Kool-Aid mixture and soaking it for about two minutes. Then, I applied it to her roots with a paint brush. I didn’t rinse it out, but rather blow-dried her hair with the vinegar/Kool-Aid still wet.
For many families, summer food is synonymous with barbecued meat, corn on the cob and pasta and potato salads. After moving to the city and losing our grill privileges permanently, I’ve turned to sea food to spice up our summer fare. Recently, I made shrimp and sea scallop scampi for a small dinner party we had. It was so easy and such a huge hit that I thought I needed to share it with you guys!
Outside of making the following statements, “this camera is pretty. It takes nice pictures. It can really capture a sun beam…” I am unable to unify my thoughts about something that uses buttons and batteries to turn on enough to write a product review.
Denim 
