Get Kitchen Help This Holiday From Sears #Holiday2012

For most of the year I'm annoyed with the small size of our house.  It always feels like we're all on top of each other without anywhere to escape to.  The one exception to that feeling has been when the holidays have rolled around.  You see with a teeny house, no one ever looks to us to host family holiday gatherings.  The idea of hosting a Christmas meal has always terrified me since I have zero cooking skills.  But as I get older, I am starting to enjoy having people over more and more.  Unfortunately, not only has my itty bitty house not grown but now as I make small attempts to learn to cook I am realizing that I have less than desirable tools to do the job.  My stove is fairly new and does the job.  But my refrigerator is years old and is regularly making noises that make me question whether it will still be working each day when I return home.  


If your kitchen appliances could use an upgrade too, Sears is ready to help you out this holiday season.  Now through January 5th you can get up to 30% off your favorite appliance brands online and in stores. Plus, you'll get an extra 5% off when you use your Sears Card.  What are you waiting for, go give your kitchen a little love this holiday season! You BOTH deserve it!








This is a sponsored post with brandfluential.com, I am a Sears blogger, though all opinions are my own.

Best Buy Holiday Gift Ideas for Him

 Do you have a hard to buy for guy on your Holiday Gift list?

What about picking a theme for their gifts?  I thought it'd be fun to put together an ultimate TV gift set.

A new HD TV

This LG 47LS4500 HDTV features a Triple XD Engine and 8 picture modes for clear, detailed images. The TruMotion 120Hz technology reduces blurring during fast-action scenes, so you can enjoy your favorite sporting events, video games and TV shows.

a great universal remote

The Logitech Harmony 650 makes entertainment simple again for you and everyone in your home. It replaces up to 5 other remotes, supports 5000+ brands, including devices you own today and add tomorrow. It is simple to setup online using your PC, with live customer support available. Bright color screen shows your favorite-channel icons plus commands for easy navigation. One-click activity buttons like "Watch a DVD" automatically switch the right devices to the right settings.

a blu ray player

Enjoy stunning visuals with this Philips BDP2900/F7 smart Wi-Fi ready Blu-ray player that delivers arresting images with 1080p resolution. DVD upscaling lets you enjoy standard DVDs in near high-definition.

and something totally ungirly to watch

You can also check out some deals going on now at Best Buy:

Buy any 3 tablet accessories and save (up to $75, save $10; up to $100 save $15; up to $150, save $30). No coupon is necessary for this offer.

10% off of  Headphones, Speakers and Health & Fitness Products through 12/29 with the coupon below.

You have even fewer excuses to shop early with BestBuy.com: 

• Best Buy is offering Free Shipping on all products on BestBuy.com through 12/27. Now through 1/2/13
• Shipping deadline for holiday arrivals in time for Christmas is 12/19.
•  Best Buy can accommodate orders purchased on BestBuy.com through store pick-up until 3PM on Christmas Eve- perfect for last-minute shoppers!
• Best Buy will price match products of both our in-store and online competitors throughout the season. The standard price match policy is valid on any gift purchased between 11/4-12/24 and runs through 1/24.  Online Price Match must be done at time of purchase. Check out bestbuy.com for more information.

 
I have been compensated for this post, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

$100 Amazon.com Gift Card #Giveaway

I don't know about you but an extra $100 would be nice anytime of year, but around the holidays it'd be extra nice!  Enter to win a $100 Gift Card from Amazon!!
This giveaway is open to US residents only. Ends December 20, 2012.
a Rafflecopter giveaway









This giveaway is brought to you by the Mid-Atlantic Door Group, Inc., an official distributor for the Overhead Door.

Crowdsourcing Your Party: How to Plan and Execute a Great Party on a Busy Schedule

Photo credit: danielito from morguefile.com

We are all busy. This can make party planning really difficult. Trying to figure out how to take care of all of the details and planning, while keeping up with things like work and taking care of your family, can be exhausting and complicated. Why not crowdsource some of that action to save yourself some time?

A Halloween party is a great idea (though, admittedly, since October is over, they are called “costume” parties). Having people dress up, providing plenty of candy and other goodies, some fun games like bobbing for apples (put gummy candies on strings instead of putting actual apples in water; it saves time and cleanup for you and for your guests) can be a really great time…if you have help getting things done.

The best part about costume parties is, of course, the costumes! Get creative and encourage your guests to do the same. This means really wracking your brain for good ideas. Try Renaissance costumes or a funny disco get-up. The important thing is that costume is festive in some way.

A great way to get your guests involved, save money and make sure that you have all of your bases covered is to have a candy “committee.”  You can use the Internet make sure that you get all of the major players: fun sized candy, “personalized” candy, bulk candy, etc—while also keeping track of who has already purchased what via the wish list feature.
You can also use a wish list to tell people what you will need in terms of supplies. If we’re keeping with the Halloween idea, why not hand out empty “goodie” bags for people to use to hold the pieces of candy they take from each pile or stash. They can trick or treat their way along the buffet line!

Obviously you are going to need some real foods as well so that the people who want something more “real” or who can’t eat candy won’t have to go hungry. You might also invite people to “potluck” the other foods you want to have on hand. Give everybody a theme and an approximate number of guests and then let them have fun being creative. If you want to make sure you don’t wind up with twenty platters of deviled eggs and one salad, keep track of who is bringing what in a Google Document.

This type of planning can work well with any party theme you like. A Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, 4th of July theme—all the planning can easily be crowdsourced to guests. There’s no shame in asking for help, especially if it means increasing the chances of ensuring that the party is amazing!


Content provided by Becky Wilcox

Help @HormelFoods Help End Hunger in Your Community #HormelFamily

I can't deny I get caught up in the commercialism of the holidays.  I have gone way overboard with my shopping for my kids this year.  I've been saving all year to get them the many things they want.  But I really try to help my kids remember how lucky they are.
Each year in preparation of the holidays (and also happens to be the same time as all three boys have birthdays) we go through the house and do some serious purging.  This is great for two reasons.  First, we have a small house and it becomes overrun with 'stuff' very easily.  So in order to be able to handle the new, we HAVE to get rid of some of the old.  And it's also a great way to remind the boys that they don't NEED all this stuff and that there are kids who don't have it.  
To be totally honest, we throw away MOST of what leaves the house.  This is simply because my kids are super hard on their stuff (ie, they take horrible care of anything that we don't monitor like a hawk such as video game units).  And there have been years that once we get rid of stuff that's broken or missing pieces or no long works we usually don't HAVE to get rid of a ton more.  We will usually eliminate things that have been outgrown and some stuffed animals.  But this years the boys are old enough that I pushed them harder to get rid of stuff to donate.  We ended up with two HUGE bags of toys that were in good condition to be donated.  Now granted, because they are used they aren't going directly to kids for Christmas.  We actually took it to the Salvation Army but the lesson was still the same for my kids because of how it was presented to them.  And through the sale of those items good will be done.

Unfortunately in our area there are many families that struggle to put food on the table.  What some kids want more than toys is to not go to bed hungry.  This is a heartbreaking thought but is hugely real and close to home for us.  For many of the kids who attend the school my boys do, the only meals they get on a consistent basis are at school.  

For this reason I'm thrilled to share  Hormel Foods’ “On Our Way to Ending Hunger” program? Through this program, Hormel Foods has commissioned surveys to uncover perceptions of hunger in America, hosted hunger summits that brought leaders from the public and private sectors together, and donated millions of dollars worth of product to local food banks and Feeding America. You can find out more on their corporate website.

I have to say we haven't done ENOUGH to help but you have a chance to make a difference in YOUR community.  Simply leave a comment below sharing how you give back and Hormel Foods will make a donation to a local food bank in the winner’s community, just in time for the holidays.

Disclosure: In the spirit of full-disclosure, I’ve partnered with Hormel Foods as part of the Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger Program. Throughout the year I’ll be receiving product, coupons, giveaways and promotions. However, no payment was given or expected for posting about the program, and as always, all opinions given here are fully my own

Tech Toys and Gotta-Have Gadgets from Verizon #VZWSM

Check out the plethora of fun "Tech Toys and Gotta-Have Gadgets" Verizon has compiled, that is sure to help you - and your readers - find a gift for even the toughest-to-buy-for people on your list. 

Here's one of the fun things I loved from their list! 

Crayola® ColorStudio™ HD

There are dozens of coloring and painting apps for iPad. But there's only one that's amazing enough to be called "Crayola".

Using the the ColorStudio HD app with iMarker creates the the most amazing coloring book ever, with all your favorite Crayola crayons, paints, pencils, markers and more in a convenient no-ink, no-mess, kid-safe package.

• Crayola's multi-activity drawing application for iPad, with iMarker, a custom-built intelligent digital stylus.
• iMarker looks and feels like a Crayola marker, but is safe to use with the Multi-Touch display of your iPad.
• iMarker works with the ColorStudio HD app as marker, pen, crayon and paintbrush, in one.
• Color and interact with animated coloring book pages combining custom-produced sound, touch interaction, and special effects.
• Design unlimited coloring pages using ColorStudio HD's library of backgrounds, music, sound effects and other elements, then print them out to color on paper with your own Crayola crayons and markers.
• Free content updates with new picture sets and animations.
Parents can share their children's work by printing (requires iOS 4.2), email, or Facebook.

 

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Wireless Midwest Savvy Moms program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.”

Are You Ready For The Holidays?

Photo credit: cohdra from morguefile.com

It's just barely officially fall but I've already got the bulk of my Christmas shopping done. The older boys are getting to the stage where they are asking for smaller but more expensive gifts...think iPods and Kindles.  Because of the budget I TRY to stick to that doesn't leave a ton left for them.  But I have to admit I love the process of Christmas morning.  Time spent unwrapping gift under the tree. So to just have one expensive "Santa" gift, when Santa doesn't even wrap....well that just plain sounds painful to me. 

So I started off helping my budget by purchasing the boys larger ticket items used.  Remember...Santa doesn't wrap.  All his gifts are opened, charged and ready to go.  So in a case of what they don't know, won't hurt them. I got used electronics that are reset and will be loaded with a few things they will love.  CHA-CHING...money saved!

From there I just need to find some smaller items that they will like and actually use that aren't just junk.  Despite swearing at least once a week that I'm going to get rid of every building set they own, I'm thinking of getting Lego City sets.  There are a ton and I can get the older boys a few smaller sets and get Bryan a few bigger ones (since he wants everything he sees but nothing super expensive yet) and they can all have something to unwrap and then DO on Christmas morning. So we don't feel like it's all over too quickly.

 How do you beat the budget blues and

Christmas morning let down??

Fun Deviled Egg Mishaps

Thankfully each year for Easter we are invited to someone's house for dinner because I am not a great cook and holiday meals are hugely overwhelming to me. 
This year was no different except we were given nothing specific to bring. So I decided we'd bring deviled eggs since we are never able to finish the quantity of eggs I boil every year for dying purposes. 

But I wanted to do something fun with them since it was the only task I had.

A friend had posted these pretty pastel deviled eggs on her blog and I planned to do that. Until I saw these adorable hacking chick eggs online on Saturday.  Thankfully I attempted a couple for practice right away.

I peeled the eggs, cut them to look like a cracked egg, which was fairly easy, just a little more time consuming then chopping them in half.  But the tricky part was getting the yolk out after cutting them like this.  With a hole smaller than the size of the yolk I broke up the yolk with the knife and tried to squeeze it out.  Each egg tore a little bit at least.  But I proceeded. I mixed up the yolks with mayo. mustard etc and put it into a decorating thingy I had from Pampered Chef.  I filled two eggs without a problem but on the third egg the tip must have clogged but I didn't realize it...I just tried harder...and blew the tip off...leaving and explosion on egg number three, my counter, stove etc...

I pulled the two out that weren't ruined and took a photo and called it a day...remember NOT to attempt these again.  Super cute but way over my skill and patience level.

While attempting to find the site that inspired this idea I found a few that showed them differently that would have made them easier (but was unable to find the original site). If you're feeling ambitious google 'hatching chick deviled eggs" for a variety of options, and hopefully you'll have better luck than I did!

Back to those cute pastel deviled eggs.  Sunday morning I attempt to look up the directions online and can't view the original post from FrostedFingers.com...so I Googled it.  The directions I found said 6-20 drops of food coloring and a large time range based on your desired results but that had used 7 minutes. So I went with 12 drops and planned for 7 minutes....but then I totally forgot about them.  Fifteen or so minutes later my eggs were pretty but WAY bright!!

This is what I was going for...

But they still tasted great and looked very festive.  And what the heck, there's always next year.  For directions to do it properly visit Frosted Fingers Easter Deviled Eggs here!

Tie Dyed Eggs

Thanks to pinterst and my overachieving friends, I felt compelled to try this super cool looking egg dying method this year.  So off to the Salvation Army store I went in search of cheap ties.  Much to my surprise, they were THAT cheap...most at $3.55 so I dug for the color of the day to get 50% off. I spent $15.00 on ties, about 5 times what I usually spend on dye kits.  But all in the name of something NEW.

The directions I read specifically said they needed to be wrapped really well but since I was letting the boys do them I figures rubber bands were our best bet. We didn't get them wrapped too well at all.  It let to a lot of swirling white spots, I just chalk that up to a cool effect.  If you want a fully colored egg be sure to wrap them well...like mummify them with string or ribbon or one blog even mentioned dental floss.

And remember these eggs aren't cooked before you are messing with them so there is a risk of casualty.  We had ONE hit the floor, Humpty Dumpty style. But for all my worrying about the boys...I was the one that dropped it!! 

So anyway, we cut the ties up, wrapped the eggs in the silk material first and then in the white inner material.  (Best I can tell after doing this is that the white materials only job is to hold in the color so the water itself doesn't turn colors and result in muddy colors.  Here's our eggs wrapped up and ready to boil.

The directions said bring to a boil and the reduce to simmer for 20-25.  I had many of mine end up not fully hard boiled so I'd recommend a high simmer for 25-27 minutes especially if you wrapped them really well.

Here are our results!

To see full instructions and my inspiration for this attempt visit FrostedFingers.com's post on Tie Dyed Eggs here.

Celebrate St Patty's Day with #HormelFamily

 Growing up my mom made St. Patrick's Day special in several ways.  Although she wasn't Irish my father is (and there for I am part Irish, obviously).  I never really appreciated the connection to my background when I was little, I just loved the fun St Paddy's day brought with its green milk and corned beef and red potatoes for dinner. (She made cabbage too but...I still pass on that to this day.)  However, no one in my family likes corned beef so I've never even attempted to make it. And green milk, well it was a big flop too.  We haven't really found our 'thing' for St Patrick's Day.  

But Hormel has some suggestions you might want to check out if you're like us and are still looking for a family tradition for this fun holiday.

A fun way to start off your St. Patrick’s Day is with a little bit of corned beef hash for breakfast. Try Hormel® Mary Kitchen® hash, which comes in corned beef, roast beef, and reduced fat corned beef hash varieties. Scramble a few eggs to mix in or wrap it all up in a breakfast burrito.
Another popular item on the St. Patty’s Day menu is a hearty stew. If you’re running short on time but still want to have a delicious, filling meal for your family or guests, try one of three Dinty Moore® Hearty Meals™ stews! There are three hearty meal varieties: chicken pot pie, noodles and beef, and noodles and chicken that will fill up all the hungry bellies you are celebrating with!
One fun way to spice up your St. Patty’s Day meal is to host a meal with a “green” theme. Did you know Hormel Foods acquired the company Wholly Guacamole®? Try celebrating St. Patty’s this year with a new kind of green! Wholly Guacamole® comes in a variety of different flavors and will give you a spicy way to get your green in for the holiday! Check out the different products and varieties here!

Photo credit: seemann from morguefile.com

What ways do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? 

 Disclosure: In the spirit of full-disclosure, I’ve partnered with Hormel Foods as part of the Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger Program. Throughout the year I’ll be receiving product, coupons, giveaways and promotions. However, no payment was given or expected for posting about the program, and as always, all opinions given here are fully my own