Before my newborn arrived, I had to make a great many choices as an expectant mother about the future care of my child, as any new mother does. A mom-to-be must make decisions about how best to immunize her child, how to save money for his or her future, whether or not to take advantage of umbilical cord blood banking, and countless other important decisions. Baby Decor One important and probably the most fun task of becoming a mother-to-be for me was equipping and designing my baby’s nursery. In the abstract, designing a nursery seems to consist of little more than setting up a crib and a Continue reading...

Just in time for Mother’s Day, InkGarden.com is offering a free customizable grocery bag – the only cost to you is $4.99 for shipping.  To get the free bag, be sure to use the code FREEBAG when checking out. The website has several reusable totes that you can custom design by uploading your own photos and adding text of your own choosing. The bags are 100% recyclable and can decompose in a landfill, according to InkGarden.com. The bags are said to be able to hold up to 30 pounds of groceries each – which is great, because I’ve had my toes smashed in the past from large cans that that have Continue reading...

With all the rain that was in the forecast this week for my home’s Central New Jersey area, I decided to take advantage of the wet weather and get some planting done, so my newly planted greenery could soak up the moisture. First up was planting some impatiens in shades of pink and violet in the planting bed that sits before a row of skip laurel bushes at the back of my home’s backyard. I recently put up a fencescreenon the chain link fence that separates my yard from a playground, so now that my backyard’s view ends at a planting bed filled with the skip laurels, I wanted to add a splash Continue reading...

I live on a cul-de-sac where all 11 of the homes were built by the same builder. While our homes are great for the most part, our houses seem to share the same flaws, minor problems for which it can be quite difficult to find a handyman who's willing to do the small job. So, when recent winds took off a long piece of metal at the peaks of our home's roofs, none of us were sure how to get it fixed. Our homes all are two stories high and are quite tall at the roofs' peaks, so the fix, while minor, is a bit tricky. So, I recently called my handyman, and scheduled him to come out and fix my Continue reading...

My kids’ DVD collection of animated films is quite extensive, thanks to a doting dad who buys them many of the newest DVD the day it comes out. We have lots of the latest animated DVDs, like “Despicable Me” and “Tangled.” I have a small storage ottoman that once kept all our kid movies in one place, but now, sad, to say, those DVDs are bursting out of their storage container – now, it’s impossible to close the box in which the DVDs are stored, and many of the movies are often spilled out on the floor. So, I’ve purchased a big binder that comes with sleeves for holding the DVDs. It will Continue reading...

Earlier, I blogged about crafty wine glass charms that I created by picking up some cute dangling charms and some earring hoops/findings from my local craft store. The charms were simple to make and will be great to use at my next party! When I found some paper tags (the kind that are sometimes used as tags to identify house keys), I decided to make some more wine-glass charms, so I could have more charms for guests once I have another get-together. So, using the paper tags, I added some cute three-dimensional scrapbooking flowers I had on hand and some glitter glue. The tags are cute Continue reading...