WFMW: Shop Local!

This year, I'm shopping locally for Christmas. Things that either I buy materials locally to make a project with or buy the gift already completed.

Thankfully, I have two places for GREAT gifts that are local.

The first is Oakridge Soap Company. They offer handmade soaps, bath salts and lotions. They also have a "miracle salve" that is wonderful! The scent is just amazing! TJ had eczema that no prescription could make any better, but this miracle salve did the trick. It's worked really well on owies around here, too. I have several scents of the soap bars and they're all wonderful, also. I was looking at the Blackberry Sage today and thinking that I need to go get some of that, also! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the lotion bars (Madagascar vanilla, please!). I have one (or maybe even 2) in my purse right now! I have one of the soap socks that they sell, too and they are wonderful! I have my shampoo bar in it and I love it (don't worry, Oakridge is working on a formula for a shampoo bar, so be patient, it's coming!!) Check them out online or come visit me and we'll take a little drive over there!

The other local place that I've tried is called Annie's Garden. They sell dip mixes and they are WONDERFUL! They were at a craft sale at The Grain Bin (another local business with AWESOME homemade breads and rolls, but no website, yet) and we sampled dips to our hearts content! I bought a few packs to tuck in some stockings or maybe I'll have to keep them. You just add the mix to one or two other ingredients like mayo/sour cream or cream cheese and you're good to go! They also sell some nifty looking pots.

And I'm sure I don't need to tell you all the benefits of buying locally and supporting our local businesses. So, if you're in the market for really nice, affordable, handmade gifts check them out and then check out Rocks In My Dryer for other helpful hints!

(Then, check out my post It's Over for a chance to win a TOH Cookbook!)

WFMW: Works For Me!

Last week, I told you about a shampoo bar that I love. I got that from a link on WFMW.

This week, I'm telling you about creating your own blog headers....a tip I got from WFMW.

Ladies (and gents), WFMW REALLY! works for me!

Queen Bee offered up a tip a few weeks ago about using scrapblog.com to create blog headers. I loved the idea of making my own blog header, but I didn't have Photoshop or another similar program so I thought that I couldn't do it. I was bummed, but I found a neat graphic that I used (remember the river rocks?) and I liked that so I was good. But, upon inspection of this scrapblog site, I was hooked! It's a digital scrapbook website, so you can do that but you can also use it to create blog headers. If you're using blogger, you can use the full size, but if you are on another blog site, you may have to trim them down to an allowable size, but whatever program you use to view/edit your photos (even the free program that comes with your digital camera) works to crop it. I've already made 2 for me, one for my mom, one for my sister-in-law Stephanie, and one for my friend Christy. Stephanie used it to make one for her hubby's business website, too. IT'S SO EASY! So, pop over to scrapblog and see what you can create and then get over to Rocks In My Dryer for more WFMW hints and tips, maybe you'll come up with something fabulous!

WFMW: A BAR of shampoo?

"What? A BAR of shampoo? You're kidding me, right?"

That's what I thought when I saw a WFMW link from Where the Kudzu Grows. How could a bar of shampoo possibly work well? So, I tried it out. I bought it mid-July and that ONE bar lasted until early September! I had a travel box for it so that it wasn't sitting under the running water of the shower and near the end I happened to get a Soap Sock for it, so it worked AWESOME. I used every single sliver of the thing! It was SO AWESOME.

So, go visit Cheri at Sweet Hollow Farm and find out just how wonderful her shampoo bar really is! I just ordered another one today! While you're there, take a look around and see what else she makes, there are lots of great sounding soaps and salves! And then check out Shannon and the crew at Rocks In My Dryer for other WFMW hints and tips!

WFMW: Spark People

Here I am again. This week, I'm going to share with you the "secret" to my weight loss success..... Spark People! Now, I'm not one to go to meetings or weigh in in front of other people. I'm not one to not eat something because it's not on the authorized foods list....I want to eat what I want to eat, when I want to and not worry about having to have enough points to eat it. I can't. I'm a BUSY BUSY mom of FOUR boys, I just plain don't have the time to worry about that. I need something easy. I made a conscious decision to lose weight around the end of April or beginning of May. I checked out massive amounts of books from the library and figured that if I was going to be successful, I needed to have a starting point. So, before I did ANYTHING else, I wrote down EXACTLY every single little (or not so little) thing that went into my mouth....for a week. WOW WAS THAT SCARY! I calculated the calories and it wasn't pretty. So, I made the decision that I was only going to cut back on my portions because I don't want to be deprived and I have 5 boys (4 little ones and hubby) to cook for and I wasn't making me a special meal. I knew that if I only ate my 3 squares with the smaller portions, I was going to be starving and that wasn't a good thing. So, I heard about eating 6 small meals (3 mini meals and 3 snacks) everyday and IT WORKED! So, by now I'm tired of trying to calculate calories, fiber and protein in everything that I'm eating. I logged into Spark People and there is a nutrition tracker where you can enter the food that you are eating and it calculates it for you! It shows you the range of calories, fat, fiber and protein that you should try to hit for your weight. Cool, right?! There are so many other features that you really must check out. There's oodles of good for you recipes and articles to read, videos to watch, workouts to do, quizzes to take. They will give you menus if you want, they'll plan your workouts, it's so awesome. It's like your own personal trainer without the trip to the gym or forking out the cash. So, try it....It Works For Me!

Check out Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for other fabulous WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY ideas!

WFMW: No more "I'm BORED!"

Years ago, when my oldest were little (like 1 & 2) I found an idea and ran with it, knowing that the day would come that I would need it. They didn't yet know the words, "I'm BORED!" but I knew that the day would come and I'd need to be prepared. I created the "I can't think of anything to do" book. The idea is simple, banish the word BORED from their vocabulary. (Actually, that was easier than I thought it would be!), then replace it with "I can't think of anything to do." I hand them the book and they find something that we can both agree on and VOILA! We're good to go.

Here's how I did it: I picked up a cheap photo album, with the full pages so that I could slide ideas in them that weren't full page ideas. Then I got the plastic page protectors and put a bunch of them in there. They work great for 8 1/2 x 11 pages. Then, I went online and found great ideas to add to it. At first, I printed a bunch from Mommysavers.com. (If you haven't been there and you have babies to toddlers, it's a GREAT resource! There are some ideas for older kids, but it's mostly for the littler ones.) There was a list on there "200 things to do on summer vacation" or something like that and I printed it. It was simple things like:

• mow the lawn
• bake something
• fold laundry
• hold a tea party
• play flashlight tag

There were more involved ideas on it, too like:

• teach yourself to play harmonica, guitar or recorder
• make picture frames from twigs and cardboard
• sew buttons on old shirts in cool designs

So, you can see there was some major variety. The list is still available if you follow this link to Mommysavers.

I also found some worksheet printables and put copies of them in there. When they started bringing ideas home from school I added them to the book. The most recent entry is how to make Flubber with borax, water and glue. Really cool stuff!

So, the "I can't think of anything to do" book WORKS FOR ME!

WFMW: Backwards!

Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer has this thing she hosts on Wednesday's called Works For Me Wednesday. It's a great time to post little tips and hints of things that WORK FOR ME (get it? LOL!) Anyway, today is backwards. How fitting that my first WFMW is backwards....everything I do is backwards! So, today we ask a question and beg for suggestions. So, I have two questions....

First: How do you get the creamy filling from a chocolate covered cherry off my keyboard? TJ dripped it in there and the F and G stick together. It's been driving me crazy for weeks. I think I heard that I can put my keyboard in the dishwasher (for real!), but I'd have to wait for it to be completely dry to use it again and I just CAN'T be offline that long. Fire away......

Last: I have a shower with some nasty mildew stains that I can not scrub out. I've tried all kinds of cleansers: Kaboom, Soft Scrub spray, comet, straight bleach, NOTHING is working.

Ok, so (for now) that's all I have. PLEASE let me know if you have any suggestions!! Thanks!