This one was actually a little late. My birthday was a little over a week ago. I got behind on posting with Nathan gone on a business trip and the girls passing around a stomach bug. Anyway, I had a big birthday this year. I turned 30 this year. Yikes. I was having a hard time with it. I felt like the jump from the 20s to 30s was a big jump. I am still coming to terms with it. But I had a great time with my family on my birthday. Here’s to a great time in my 30s!

» Tell me… How well did you take turning 30? Or if you’re not there yet, what are your feelings about turning 30?

I received this book, Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses: More Than 25 Easy, Pattern-Free Designs for Little Girls, from the publisher and had a fun time looking through it. I featured some of the pictures of the dresses that I liked from the book. The book is pretty simple. Take girls t-shirts or tank tops and turn them into dresses by sewing skirts to the bottom of the shirts. However, they have come up with some pretty interesting techniques. There were some dresses that weren’t my style, but there were also some really cute ones. It’s a good book to learn a few skirt techniques and repurpose some of your daughter’s shirts.

Congratulations to, Jennie, for winning the $50 gift card to OshKosh B’gosh. I will email you with details. Happy shopping!!

By the way, today is the last day to enter OshKosh’s contest of $5,000 gift card to their clothes and many other prizes. All you have to do is video your child/children saying “OshKosh B’gosh” six times and upload it to their Facebook page. You can do it with your smartphone within minutes. Go here for details. Easy peasy!

I found some gorgeous benches for the home for this month’s Houzz ideabook. Benches are great for so many things. You can put them in bedrooms, guest rooms, kitchen, entry ways or even the back porch. So versatile and great design for the rooms.

» Tell me… Do you have benches in your house? Where do you have your bench?

We have joined the Vitamix club. We’ve been looking into blenders and such as ours broke last year. Everyone kept talking about the Vitamix and I just couldn’t understand why anyone would pay $400 or more for a blender. Then we went to Costco. End of story.

But really. We happened to show up at Costco on a week night when the Vitamix demonstration was going on. I had seem them there before and just ignored them. This time, I did the same. However, Nathan and the girls stood in front of that demonstration for about an hour. They tried everything the guy made with the Vitamix – ice cream, smoothies, dips and even soups. The sales guy was very charismatic and my girls were the perfect audience to help him sell. I thought we should have gotten part of his commission because everything the girls tasted they raved, out loud, about how yummy it was. The guy sold eight Vitamixes in that hour. Two to people who already owned one and got one to upgrade.

Since we’ve had ours, I’ve used it quite a bit. Several times a week. I have been making smoothies and even soup for the family. The girls have no idea I put spinach, carrots and other vegetables in their smoothies. Ha! Ha! Mom wins.

» Tell me… Do you have a Vitamix? Have you heard of it? What do you like to use your Vitamix for?

I come to you with a giveaway today! Hooray! I have partnered with OshKosh B’gosh where they are sponsoring today’s giveaway. One winner will get a shopping spree of a $50 gift card to OshKosh B’gosh. For details of this giveaway on SMM, see paragraph in bold below. I love OshKosh clothes for my girls. They are durable and the colors do not fade like other children’s clothes I have purchased in the past. Not to mention super cute styles too. They are also having their summer sale right now with 50 percent off.

But even better, OshKosh B’gosh is having their own contest where they are giving away a $5,000 gift card and other prizes to several winners. The contest ends next Tuesday so you have to hurry and enter. To enter, all you have to do is record with your camera, camcorder or smartphone a short video (30 seconds or less) of your child saying “OshKosh B’gosh” six times. Then upload it directly here. Say it with a silly dance, say it slow or fast. You can get creative with it.

Once you have your video uploaded, you are entered to win one of these prizes…

• One Grand Prize Winner: $5,000 OKBG gift card
• Four Runner’s up: $500 OKBG gift cards (total $2,000)
• Fifty Random Winners: $50 OKBG gift cards (total $2,500)

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. The Say “Oshkosh B’Gosh!” Video Contest and Sweepstakesends 5/7/13. 18+, 50 U.S./D.C./P.R. only. Go to their Facebook page for official Rules and complete details.

Anyway, I’m giving away a $50 gift card on Simply Modern Mom to one of you! All you have to do is comment below with your favorite OshKosh B’gosh style or outfit. What would you buy if you won the gift card?

• If you want to get a second entry for the giveaway, share this giveaway via any of the social media or email to your friends.
• For a third entry, follow SMM on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and/or Instagram.

This giveaway ends on Sunday, May 5 at midnight. I will pick a winner next week. Good luck!

I’ve included a video of my little ballerina saying OshKosh B’gosh…

Disclaimer: OshKosh B’gosh partnered with bloggers such as me to help promote the Say “OshKosh B’gosh” Video Contest and Sweepstakes. As part of the program, I received product or gift cards. OshKosh B’gosh believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words, and therefore did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about the products I used. OshKosh B’gosh policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations. The winner of any prize in this program will be chosen in accordance with the program’s Official Rules and gift card fulfillment will be handled by a third party.

A couple of months ago, I made a shirt for a dear friend who had lost her husband last year. Unexpectedly, the shirt was a huge hit. People saw her shirt and asked me to make them one. I ended up making 11 shirts before I had to turn people away. I just didn’t have time and we were heading out of town for spring break. I used the freezer paper stencil method to make these shirts. But this time I discovered that my Silhouette machine could cut the freezer paper which saved me so much time from the Exacto knife!

» Tell me… Do you have a Silhouette or Cricut machine? What do you use your machine for – scrapbooking, cutting appliqué fabrics, cards?

Baby Eve has been a mommy’s girl since birth. She loves her dad, but definitely prefers mom over dad for anything. I could discipline her and Nathan would come to comfort her and she still wants me to hold her instead of Nathan. Well, last week, she gave her dad some snuggle time and he ate it up. It was a rare occasion. Part of it might have been she was sick. But Nathan didn’t care. He got to snuggle with that baby for almost an hour. I love sweet moments like this.

» Tell me… Do your children prefer one parent over another?

Well hello there! I’ve been M.I.A. for a while because we were actually traveling out West for spring break. Last year when Nathan and I found out Nathan’s grandma also has cancer (Nathan’s father has cancer) we decided we needed to make a family trip to spend some time with her. She is not doing any type of treatments for her cancer. The timing turned out well because Nathan’s parents decided to come along too. It was so nice to see grandma and Nathan’s parents. We ended up spending extra time with them because a stomach virus came through and knocked majority of us out. We were totally blindsided by this bug that ruined parts of our vacation. However, we made the best of the situation and still had fun.

The stomach flu hit Nathan first second day of vacation. The baby started with a fever then moved on to throwing up and ended with an ear infection. The stomach flu passed on to the other two girls and they both had a miserable time with it. As soon as we think someone was getting better, one of the kids would puke. It was ridiculous. It got to the point where Nathan and I would just stare at each other and laugh. If we didn’t, we would cry. Not what we had imagined for our vacation. We had plans that we had to cancel. We missed seeing some family and friends. But it all worked out in the end. It was still an unforgettable trip.

» Tell me… Have you ever gone on a vacation where you or everyone got sick? How did it all pan out in the end? How did you survive it?

I absolutely love being a mom of girls. Looove it. My oldest two are in dance. They do ballet, tap and jazz. They love dance. I am pretty good about putting their hair up in a bun now. I use Whirl A Style because it is so easy and the bun comes out perfect every time. My girls have hair like mine- heavy, thick and straight. So it’s much easier to do a bun this way. The bun look is coming back in fashion again. I am trying to grow my hair out to try to put it up in a bun. Perfect for the summer.

» Tell me… How do you do a bun on yourself or your daughter?

Winter is almost over. But these coat hangers can be awesome all year round. Check out my Houzz ideabook with 20 super cool coat racks for your home.

This was our house until this past Tuesday. Kaye came home with stuffy nose and a little bit of cough. By the time I realized it was an actual cold and not seasonal allergies or what not, she had already passed the germs onto her sisters. It went like dominos. One kid sick one day, then the next kid on the next day and so forth. I could feel myself starting to get the sickies too. I started loading up on Emergen-C twice a day and going to bed early. I was able to bypass the cold. Phew. I love Emergen-C. It has saved me so many times from getting sick or shortening the length of my illness. This cold lasted a little over a week for my girls. Once the fever was gone, they were stuck with this terrible dry cough where they would cough profusely every 10 minutes all day and night. And once that went, a few of us were struck with a stomach bug. Luckily that was only a 24-hour thing. We are all back to normal now, health-wise. I just need to get the house back in order.

» Tell me… What are your tips and tricks for staying healthy during cold and flu season? Do you take or do anything to boost your immune system when you feel like you are getting sick?

I usually use Swiffer Wipers to mop the floors. But every once in a while I get down on my hands and knees and mop it the same way Cinderella does. The floor is so much cleaner that way. I have been in a cleaning mood lately. I guess it’s that time of year for spring cleaning.

» Tell me… What are some of your house cleaning tips?

You are probably wondering what happened to me. Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve been busy with regular mommy things and then a few more other things. And this whole Daylight Savings is not helping at all. My girls are having a hard time going to bed  because it is still bright as day outside. I grew up in Hawaii where they didn’t have Daylight Savings Time. To this day, I still don’t quite get why we do it. Why can’t people just stay up an hour later rather than changing the time?

Anyway, to put it lightly, I have been swamped. In fact, I was driving home the other day and realized that I still haven’t taken the baby in for her 15 month wellness check with the pediatrician. Yeah, she will be 19 months in a week. Ooops. Called the pediatrician and they just happened to have a cancelation for today. Here are a few things I have been doing… Pictured above is my girls have been having super fun play dates with their friends. I love that my girls have such great friends.

Among other things, I have a few trips coming up this year. One coming up for spring break. So much work involved to prepare for these trips. I haven’t started on them yet. Been trying to extinguish other fires before this one.

My biggest project that will take me forever to finish is still switching my digital photo library from Aperture to Lightroom. I am slowly going one month at a time deleting pictures and adding keywords and captions to them. I am trying to be better about organizing my photos. I love how Lightroom makes organizing my photos so easy. But this is still going to take a loooooooong time because I have 43,000 pictures to go through. It also has hindered me from taking more photos because I don’t want to have to organize them and add them to the 43,000 I am already having to do. It has been liberating to delete a bunch of photos and lighten the amount of photos in my library.

And then I have been trying to hit the gym more consistently. I have lost most of the weight that was my goal. I am mostly concern about getting toned. Gym time is hard for me to factor into my day. I go mostly in the mornings and some late afternoons after Nathan is home from work. I want to live a more active life and be an example to my children on the importance of living an physically active life. It also helps to have gym buddies and amazing instructors and trainers.

I am also working with Nathan and a few other friends/family on a side project that has nothing to do with Simply Modern Mom, motherhood or crafting. But I am having meetings on the side for this project. Can’t say much about this one yet.

And then there was the time (recently) when we tried to keep fish. Again. This time the girls each got a goldfish at a carnival game back in February. The longest we were able to keep one alive was almost a week. By this time the words, “Your fish died,” doesn’t even phase them. Sad, I know.

» Tell me… What have you been up to lately? How do you find time or ways to organize your time to get things done? I need advice!

I have been telling my kids that they should be appreciative of the things they have, especially toys. I love letting my girls play with toys and use their imaginations to play. And they are very good at getting toys out and getting them all over the house. They are not, however, good at picking them up. It’s a sea of toys in my living room, playroom and even sometimes in the kitchen. It is also a struggle to get them to clean up. As they pick up toys, they feel the desire to play with it again. Well, earlier this week, they didn’t pick up their toys and during quite time I picked them up for them. Then I proceeded to put the toys that were all over the floor, including their favorite toys, in my closet without saying anything about it. Later that afternoon Nathan put all those confiscated toys in the attic.

That was Monday. It’s now Thursday and that haven’t asked about the missing toys. Including their favorite ones. I didn’t take away all their toys, therefore, they have been playing with the ones I had left. But this showed me they had too many toys to begin with. I don’t mind the playing with toys as much now because even if they make a mess, there aren’t as many toys to pick up. It’s more manageable for them to pick up and for me to handle the mess. Sigh of relief.

» Tell me… How do you manage all your children’s toys and prevent them from getting everywhere? Do you feel like your children have too many toys too?

I three cardboard letters from Joann when they had a sale a while ago. I wanted a collection of B’s on my mantle. B for Bird (our last name). A while ago I showed you how I covered one of the cardboard B using twine. Then I had saw somewhere that had similar lettering covered in a map.

So I ordered a vintage world map from Amazon for $5. The map is actually a vintage style map that was printed on glossy poster paper. That worked out great because I didn’t have to cover the B in Mod Podge to give is a shine. I like that it is a neutral color and gave the letter a textured look.

It was simple and easy to make. I was able to start and finish it in one afternoon. Although, this letter is quite big and if you go for something this big, you will want to get two maps to cover the entire letter front and back. Even in the closeup of the map, you can’t tell that it was printed on poster paper.

Supplies:

• vintage world map
• Mod Podge and brush
• letter to cover
• scissors

1. Cut the map into strips. Mine were about 2 x 5 inches.

2. Using Mod Podge and brush, glue the map pieces to the lettering.

3. To make it fit the letter’s curves better, cut darts on the part that will glue to the inside of the letter. That helps it to form to the letter and not make it bumpy. Overlap the map strips a bit to make sure it is all covered. And done!

» Tell me… Do you like vintage maps or any kinds of maps? Where do you keep them? I always love to decorate with them. 

I have been spending all my “free time” transferring my photo library from Apple’s Aperture to Adobe’s Lightroom. I am so happy with Lightroom and how it is helping me organize all my pictures. But the process of moving 43,000 pictures and going through each one to delete duplicates and ones that I don’t want anymore is quite tedious. Anyway, that also means all my craft time have been used for this transferring of photographs. But yesterday I got busy with a craft project that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Knocked it out of the way and will be posting about it next week! Hopefully that brought back my crafting/sewing spirit and get me going on a skirt for myself. I went shopping recently with a friend to a fabric store that sold all sorts of apparel fabric and I found some nice knit jerseys. I plan on making skirts with it. Maybe a skirt week coming up? That would be fun!

» Tell me… What is something that has been taking up a lot of your “free time” lately?

I currently don’t have any rugs in the house. I’ve been tempted to purchase one and my favorite kinds would be geometric ones. So here are some of my favorite geometric rugs in this month’s ideabook in Houzz. Check it out here.

This week was winter break for the kids. Yeah, that’s right. We get a week off from school for “winter break” and then another week off in April for spring break. It actually worked out nice since we have been having nice warm weather here where we could play outside with a few rainy days in between. We decided to stay put this winter break and catch up around the house. Had a few play dates with friends to keep the kids entertained. My girls are blessed to have such great friends. They get along so well when they are together and they are inclusive of the sisters. I know that won’t always be the case. But for now, I am enjoying it.

» Tell me… Do your children have good friends? Do your children have lots of play dates/get togethers with friends?

Happy Valentine’s Day! I know you are all celebrating Valentine’s Day today. I hope you are having a wonderful Valentine’s Day full of surprises. We are just chilling out for Valentine’s Day. I am volunteering at the school helping the kids with a Valentine’s craft and exchanging cards. But I did want to post a picture from our Chinese New Year celebration last Saturday. We took the girls to a Chinese New Year festival and they were able to give the dragon and lion their red envelopes for good luck. Then we will our tummies with delicious authentic Chinese food. Oh, it was good.

» Tell me… What are your plans for Valentine’s Day today?

I know. Valentine’s Day is this Thursday and I’m just now posting about it. I actually made these last week and wanted to post these early but life got in the way and we had a super busy weekend. Oh well. If you are still looking for Valentine’s idea, here is what I am doing for my girls this year. Nathan bought me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas and I’ve been playing around with it. I love how cool it is and all the things I can do with it.

So this year I decided to use my Silhouette and cut out some love bears. Then on the back of the bears I just wrote, “You are a BEARY good friend!” I had the girls write their friends’ names at the top and their names on the bottom. I filled little zip bags with gummy bears. Simple and easy to do. If you want to do something similar, you can grab an image of a bear or cut out your own bear pattern and do the same. Or there is also the Valentine’s I did last year with bubbles that is a free printable here – Bubbles Valentine’s Day Card Printable.

» Tell me… Are you all set for Valentine’s Day?

I am switching over from Apple’s Aperture over to the Adobe Lightroom. I am fed up with Aperture. I know it does a lot of the same thing as Lightroom, but Aperture has crashed on me so many times. And there are bugs within the program. It’s ridiculous. The problem is I have over 43,000 pictures. It’s going to be an extremely long process transferring over to Lightroom. But I am kind of excited to figure out a new workflow, edit and delete a lot of pictures (one thing Aperture wasn’t letting me do, a bug), and start fresh organizing my photos. Lightroom is pretty awesome so far. I am learning a lot about it and liking what I am learning. Wish me luck!

» Tell me… What software or programs do you use to organize your photos?

I have always wanted a drafting table. I think they are so cool and functional for my creativity. I found some really amazing drafting tables and featured them in my Houzz ideabook this month. Check it out!

• Motts Medleys Fruit Snacks. Using vegetable juice in fruit snacks. It’s a treat and healthy. 
• CapriSun Super V. My girls love CapriSuns and they are great for lunches and on the go. I found a whole case of this veggie and fruit drink at Costco for a really great price. 
• Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Veggie Pasta. My girls love mac and cheese but only the ones from the box. You can forget about homemade mac and cheese. They won’t touch it. So it’s nice that the pasta has veggies in it now. 
• Gerber Graduates Fruit & Veggie Melts. My girls still love these yogurt puffs even when they are older. I love that they get yogurt, fruit and vegetables all in one in this snack. 
• Sensible Portions Veggie Snack Chips. Even chips are getting healthier.

» Tell me… What are some healthier options you are finding in your grocery stores?

So yesterday was a bit crazy. The weather in Georgia was insane. Lots of thunder storms and even a few tornados came through. We were under severe thunder storm and tornado warning for the earlier part of the day. Kaye was at school. They school didn’t dismiss the kids or let them check out as long as there was a tornado warning. Kaye said the day was pretty boring because they spent part of the day sitting in the hallways with a book over their heads and missing out on the fun stuff at school. Luckily we were all safe and nothing but heavy rain came through. This Instagram picture was taken without any filters.

» Tell me… Is your family prepared in case of a weather emergency?