DIY Personalized Valentine Chalkboards

This year I am on the hunt for fun and different ways to give gifts to my little ones. Along with the candy and treats, I wanted to give them something personal and useful. With both of the boys drawing and learning letters I thought these personalized Valentine chalkboards would be a great idea! Here are the step by step instructions:

Here are my supplies to get started: Clip boards bought at the dollar store, chalk board paint (I already has this from another project), tape, and a sponge brush.

I taped off the top to give the board a nice smooth edge.

I gave the board three coats each, and made sure to let them dry in between each one.

When they were dry I removed the tape to get them ready for the next step. Then to give them a "Valentine flare" I cut a sponge into a heart, grabbed red and purple paint and stamped each board with the same amount of hearts in each boys name.

The hearts at the top also helped to hide the tiny blemishes from where I pulled the tape :)

After they dried I took a white paint marker and wrote the letters of their names inside the hearts. To finish the look I put some chalk and a little eraser (sponge) inside a little bag covered with hearts,then tied it with red ribbon. I love how they came out and can't wait to give these to my boys on Valentines Day!

Tsukihoshi Kids Shoes Review and Giveaway

Finding the right shoes for kids can be rough. Things are too tight, too loose, too big, too small, it feels weird or they just agree with what you say then when you get home it turns out the shoes don't fit at all. But that's normal when it comes to kids and shoes. For them its harder to know if a shoe fits right so us as parents have to start out by giving them good choices when it comes to the brands we have them select from.

Plus they need to look cool not only to me but to my kid. My son at 3 is staring to get an opinion on what he wants in the way of shoe and clothing color, I think its so cute! I have done a lot of research on kids shoes for fit, durability, light weight and colors available. One shoe company that is at the top of my list is Tsukihoshi.

Tsukihoshi is a Japanese brand that has been around 1873. These shoes have proper arch support, flex at the toes of the foot allowing for running and jumping in comfort, barefoot like comfort (great for little developing feet)
light weight, easy on and off, and two great features that I LOVE an anti bacterial removable insoles and the best of all they are MACHINE WASHABLE!!! How awesome is that!!

I really do love these shoes and so does my son. He picked out the orange ones, he loves orange. Even my husband who is picky about style loves them. I was impressed by that! They are so easy to put on my son can do it himself. It has a Velcro top and fake laces. So they look cool and not like a typical no lace shoe.

My son was running so fast all over the mall yelling "Super Cool" and showing people his shoes I had to put him back into his stroller! He has a several other pairs of shoes but since he got these he insists on wearing his orange shoes. I love how great they fit his feet! They are a true to size fit and sizes range from Baby to Toddler to Youth.

I even saw that many celebrities kids are wearing Tsukihoshi too. Tori Spelling, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sandra Bullock, Adam Sandler, Julie Roberts, Jack Black, John Stewart and so many more celeb parents buy these shoes for their kids.  They come in several styles for boys and girls including a mary jane one that is so cute.

You can find Tsukihoshi (when you say it the T is silent) at Nordstrom, online and other high end kids shoes retailers. A great investment in the foot health of your little ones!

Here are some other fun styles I like:

For the Girls:

You can learn more about Tsukihoshi on their facebook and twitter pages.

GIVEAWAY
For our Valentine's Day event we are hosting a giveaway for one pair of shoes from Tsukihoshi for the little Valentine in your life. Winner's Choice of style.

Enter in the Rafflecopter form:

a Rafflecopter giveaway




 *Limited to US residents 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts Feb 6,  2013 and ends on Feb 15, 2013 at 12:01 am EST. Winner will be emailed and has 72 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. The opinions on this item are 100% mine and may vary from others. The sponsor is responsible for providing the prize. I was sent a product to review for this post.

A Preschool Activity

 

Getting anything done around the house is nearly impossible with my 2 1/2 year old always on my coat tails. I am always trying to think of ways to keep him busy even for just a little while so I can get a few things done without my little shadow. 

The other day while cleaning out some craft supplies I found two bags of brightly colored rice and some equally as bright buttons of all sizes. I thought it would be great to have him sift and sort is way through the buttons and rice. I mixed the bags of rice together added the buttons and set him free. He sorted them by color, shape and size and even taste tested it a bit :)  The buttons were a bit tricky to find in the colored rice so it kept him busy for a while. Not only did it give me a moment to myself but I loved that he was learning through play, my favorite way to teach!!  

I am always looking for ways to keep the kiddos entertained around here. Do you have any tips or tricks to keep your little ones occupied? I would love to hear them.

Love Your Feet: Shoes for Crews Review and Giveaway

Love style? Love your feet! The perfect gift for the working Mom in your life from Shoes for Crews. Having to be on your feet all day while working can be so rough. Having good but also cute shoes is a must. I work in an environment where comfort is key but you still need to have them be stylish. I have worked in the restaurant industry as a teenager and knew about Shoes for Crews but did not know they made cute shoes! 

I have wider feet than most regular shoes so sometimes finding cute shoes can be difficult. Looking online seems to be a great answer for me and my shoe needs. Shoes for Crews has developed a line of dress shoes called the Black Label line. They have shoes with heels, wedges and even in brown! There were many to select from and I finally decided on the Shoes for Crews Mary Jane style. 

I have been needing some basic black dress shoe mary janes for my wardrobe and I thought these would be great for comfort since they can be ordered in a wide width. I read a few reviews that said the shoes run a little big and wider than most shoes but I thought to be on the safe side I would get my size and in the wide. Now that I have worn them a few times to work I should have ordered the half size down and not in the wide. Maybe my feet aren't as wide as I thought :)

They are super comfy to work in. Padded on the inside and the strap was comfy. Being a little big on me they did get a little squished on the toe area when I would go up and down from being on my knees to then standing. They are very soft and maybe I need something with a tougher toe. I do see these being great for days we do inventory or stocking so I can be on my feet constantly with comfort. I even mentioned to my husband I could walk all over a theme park and look cute in these. They hold up to many hours of walking while still looking cute! I wore them with dress pants one day and the other with stockings and a skirt, looked super cute! I even wear them with jeans on my days off.

I saw a few other styles I liked as well.

When you order a pair I would recommend a half size down, unless you plan to wear thick comfy socks with them.

You can learn more about Shoes for Crews on Facebook and Twitter

GIVEAWAY
To celebrate the LOVE of your feet we are hosting a giveaway for a pair of shoes from Shoes for Crews (winners choice)

Enter in the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway



*Limited to US residents 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts Feb 5, 2013 and ends on Feb 12, 2013 at 12:01 am EST. Winner will be emailed and has 72 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. The opinions on this item are 100% mine and may vary from others. The sponsor is responsible for providing the prize. I was sent a product to review for this post.

Disney Diamond Edition Peter Pan on Blu-ray TODAY!

Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Disney’s Classic Adventure Peter Pan for the First Time on Disney Blu-ray™.  Available For Purchase TODAY February 5, 2013. New Digital Restoration and Unparalleled High Definition Picture and Sound!


I was thrilled when I heard Peter Pan was coming to Blu-ray! As a kid we loved this movie. I think I have seen it atleast 1000 times! But never with the crisp clarity of Blu-ray. My son loves Peter Pan too, we had it on DVD but its not the same as a Blu-ray. As kids we would watch this movie over and over. We would jump off the couch trying to think happy thoughts in hopes we would fly but knew without Tink's Pixie Dust it would more than likely not happen. I enjoy the ideal of Peter Pan that no one wants to grow up, its sweet since there is a little kid that feels that way in adults.

Peter Pan is available for purchase at major retail outlets including Walmart and Target.

Fun info below about if there really is a place located at the second star to the right and staight on till morning:

Since it first debuted in theaters in 1953, Walt Disney Studio’s animated classic Peter Pan has long captured the imaginations of children and adults around the world with its tale of an enchanted place where fairies, Lost Boys, mermaids and pirates live and adventures never cease. But what if somewhere beyond our world such a place actually exists? Peter Pan says it's "past the second star to the right and straight onto morning," but is Never Land real?

Before the advent of modern space science and technology, most Earth-dwellers assumed outer space was just a wasteland of stars. But astronomers are learning that the night sky isn’t just full of stars; it’s full of planets.

One team from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena recently made a new estimate of the numbers of planets in our galaxy and came up with a whopping 100 billion. The team made this exciting discovery using NASA's Kepler space telescope to look at class of red stars called “M dwarfs,” which are the most common stars found in the Milky Way. The study suggests, in fact, that for every star there is, on average, a corresponding planet. With an estimated 100 billions stars in the sky, that’s a whole lot of planets. Could Never Land lie around one of these stars?

Another study, led by researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., used Kepler data to estimate the number of Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. They found that an estimated 17 percent of stars have Earth-size planets in orbits closer than Mercury is to the sun. When they looked at orbits at about the distance of Earth, the number of stars with Earth-size planets is at least 70 percent.

Of course, not all planets in the galaxy are habitable. Just as some planets in our solar system fly too close or too far from the sun to be inhabited, only the planets orbiting at the right distance from their stars are considered “temperate,” meaning they’re the right temperature for liquid water, an essential element for sustaining human life and, of course, keeping mermaids and sea-faring pirates afloat.

The Kepler space telescope continues to hunt for those "just right" planets -- Earth-size worlds that orbit in the habitable zones of stars like our sun.

But until our planet’s top space scientists find a way for us to travel safely in search of a real life Never Land, Disney invites us to rediscover their wondrous animated version of it on February 5^th, when Peter Pan soars onto Diamond Edition Blu-ray™ and DVD.

*I was provided a copy of this movie for my review.