There's a plant in there!

I guess that whole gardening glove thing isn’t just for looks?

The problem is that I really don’t like gloves. Even when it’s bitterly cold, I’d rather have frozen fingers than have to deal with weird feeling gloves. This is important so you’ll understand just how big of a deal it is for me to say I really dig Field & Lane’s Forester gloves. They smell good, too! Not that most people care what their gloves smell like…except for me.

I was able to get some seed starting pot thingies filled and ready to go without ending up with dirty, dirty hands. I was able to unscrew an extremely tight lid without gravely injuring myself and the gloves didn’t get even seem to mind. And while my gloves are a bit big–if you’re on the line when you measure, go for smaller–they still have a nice fit and a nifty “flex-line” across the back so they’re extra flexible and didn’t make my hands feel like they were in little hand straight-jackets.

AND, there’s the added benefit of Oliver thinking the gloves make perfect “gauntlets” for when he has to go take care of bad guys.

Ollie thinks the gloves are "gauntlets".

Since I love these gloves so much, and planting season is just around the corner, I have a pair of Forester and a pair Wave gloves for one lucky reader. This is for guys and gals but you should know that the Wave only comes in women’s sizes so, if you’re a dude who wins, I’m sure you have a lady friend who would love to have some new gloves.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

When my doctor told me to take 60mg of iron, I searched five different stores before I was finally able to find what I needed.

At each store, I asked either a store associate or someone behind the pharmacy counter for help. About half the time the person was able to at least find where the iron lived but there were times when my help looked even more lost than me.

If they can’t find the iron then how the heck am I supposed to find it?

Example from Walmart:

There's iron in there somewhere, right?

Once I started taking the iron, I figured I might as well start taking a standard multivitamin, too, but I haven’t been on a multivitamin since I was nursing Ollie and that was a cinch to buy since all I needed to find was the section for pregnant ladies and put out my hand until I hit a bottle. Sure, there were about a million different brands but I had a toddler and a newborn with me; I was already overwhelmed enough without paying attention to the vitamins.

I signed up for an account on Nutrition Possible–Centrum’s personalized assessment tool–and gave the thing a whirl. The whole thing took less than five minutes.

My results:

The coolest part of the tool was it listed the recommended supplements on the right side of the screen and then gave me a list of retailers. I click “buy” and was taken to my store’s website. Easiest vitamin buying trip ever! There’s also an offer for a $10 off ProNutrients coupon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’d like to share this giveaway widget on your site–because you think I’m super fabulous–here’s the link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/OGFiNWQ0N2QzNjdmN2UxNzc0OTUxMzFiN2I4YTQzOjE=/

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

When it comes to the holidays, deserts and drinks seem to be in abundance. Figuring out what to serve together isn’t rocket science and is a lot easier than you may think.

Think about the drink as an accessory to the desert—compliment the desert and not detract from it.

That being said, if you have a scrumptious cocktail you’ve been itching to show off then a simple desert is the way to go…maybe even a cheese. For me, just because it’s “dessert” doesn’t mean it has to be a super sweet finish to the meal. Then again, I am fonder of the savory side of things

Chocolate desserts of some breed are always a fan favorite during the holidays.

You can go a couple of different ways with this and it depends on the chocolate content of your desert, e.g., chocolate chip cookies, fudge and chocolate cake.

For something with a relatively low chocolate content like chocolate chip cookies, you have a broader range of stuff that will taste great. Think cream based cocktails that remind you of milk ala milk and cookies. White Russians are a great idea.

Image | leedav

Higher chocolate content deserts like brownies, fudge or a rich chocolate cake benefit from red wines, coffee based drinks and drinks with a citrus edge. Orange and chocolate love each other. Promise. Peppermint infused drinks also go well with just about all chocolate desserts

Pies such as apple pie, pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie go well with similarly spiced cocktails. Think of drinks that include hints of cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg. This gives you a wide range of drinks and can help you liven up old standbys.

Nut pies are inherently more “meaty” and can take a stronger pairing. High alcohol content cocktails work well with these types of pies as well as more savory deserts like Bacon Baklava—really a recipe. Salty deserts like salty caramel and dipped pretzels can also stand up to a dry martini or similarly strong drink.

An almost foolproof way of telling if things are going to play nice is to smell them together. I know that sounds weird but it works in not just food/drink pairings but also when you’re digging through your cupboard in a panic because you have to throw dinner together and you have to wing it.

Image | Tassike.ee - Marju Randmer

Since so much of our tasting comes from SMELLING, if things smell good together then there’s a good chance they’ll taste good together, as well.
In the end, try it and see if it works. Just make sure you try it before your big party.

Remember to check out Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

Thanks to L’Oreal for sponsoring my post about my favorite beauty looks, tips and tricks! Check out Makeup.com for beauty advice from the experts.

Moving is a great way to discover stuff you forgot you had. Clothes, money, socks…makeup. I’m not suggesting you should move just so you can find all the stuff you lost and obviously didn’t REALLY need since you didn’t even realize it was lost in the first place but the point is that I found some eyeshadow from high school.

How’s THAT for a transition?

Some eyeshadow that I wore as recently as two years ago…before it went into hiding.

I KNOW! YUCK!

But what you have to understand is it had three perfect colors for me: a dark brown, a pretty pink and a shimmery light pink color. On those days where I had no clue what I was going to do with my makeup–most days–I would pull out that eyeshadow jobber and put it on the exact same way I had since highschool. I’m pretty sure that’s the makeup equivalent to shopping in the Juniors section when you’re in your fifties. Or something.

So half of the time I used the old eyeshadow because I seem to lack any sort of makeup imagination and the other half of the time I used it because I didn’t want to look like a makeupless zombie–since only zombies with makeup are acceptable around here, thankyouverymuch–but I usually don’t have much time to put on makeup what with beating Cara off of my makeup and keeping Ollie from eating something that shouldn’t be eaten.

It should be pretty obvious by now that I needed not only something fast but also something that didn’t involve makeup from before the iPhone was released.

The answer? Gold eyeshadow. Gold eyeshadow is like a million miles away from brown eyeshadow. Who’s the chance taker? THIS girl.

No makeup. Don't laugh.

Despite the way it looks, this Sephora set is only like six months old. Promise.

See what I mean about Cara trying to jack my makeup?!

Concealer, I love you.

I'm not quite sure what's going on here...

Some concealer, some loose powder to set the concealer, gold eyeshadow that I put on pretty heavy and then blended from my lashline to the bottom of my eyebrows–which I didn’t take a picture of since I need to pluck said eyebrows–a couple of coats of black mascara and some lip gloss and I was done.

Time spent on makeup from start to finish? Ten minutes. End result? Not too shabby. Better than using highschool makeup? No question about it.

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. Click here to learn more about Makeup.com or become a Facebook fan by clicking here.

Shutterfly contacted me this year and asked me to host a giveaway where three of you get codes for 25 free holiday cards. Also, if you’re a blogger, you get an extra chance to win 25 free cards–if you don’t mind, will you put that you heard about the promotion from my site cause that would be swell. Since I worked with Shutterfly last year and had a good experience and really loved the cards I ended up picking, I said yes to the giveaway–and the cards I’m getting–and figure you guys wouldn’t mind some free stuff.

A lot has happened this past year from Tucker getting into the Army logistics intern program to me winning that trip to E3 and writing for Kmart Gamer’s site to Cara learning how to read and us buying our first house.

With all of that, I don’t want just some regular Christmas cards with maybe a group picture or something. I mean, we don’t do like a Christmas letter or anything but I almost feel like I should write it all down so we can send it to folks…I know you’re not supposed to brag but I kind of want to.

This is the one I’m going with:

Um…or this:

Or this:

And there’s this one:

OK. Now I’m a bit annoyed.

I looked through the cards last night and picked that first one. Then I started writing this and found those other ones and I can’t decide which means I’m going to have to ask Tucker and he’s going to pick the one he thinks I like the least which means I’m going to be forced to decide.

Maybe I’ll let the kids decide?

This giveaway runs from right now until Oct. 28th at 1700 CST at which point I’ll close comments here and draw three winners via Random.org. I’ll email the winners and they will have five regular days–not business days–to respond to my email so I can send them their code for 25 free cards. If I don’t get a response then I’ll draw again.

Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. Leave a comment with what card you would pick or just something as simple as “Enter me.”

One entry per person.

Feel free to share this on whatever site you share stuff, e.g., Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. But that’ll just be because you’re a nice person and want to other people to have a shot at some free, pretty cards.

AND, if you’re a blogger and want another chance at 25 free cards, you can register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q.

Good luck!

—–>

The contest has ended and comments are closed. Thanks to everyone who took the time enter. Stay tuned for more awesome giveaways!

Thank you to Cube Dog for sponsoring this review. For more information about Cube Dog please visit the Facebook page or download it on iTunes.

Tucker and I love to play video games–if you haven’t noticed–and we’ve passed the point where we can play whatever we want around Cara and Ollie. Either the game is too violent or it’s scary and we don’t want to have to worry about the kids having nightmares.

Also, the kids have taken a liking to playing games on our phones and some of the games are too advanced for them and honestly, neither Tucker or I relish the idea of just turning our phones over to a two year old and a four year old.

That’s where the Cube Dog comes in.

There’s nothing scary about this app. The dog is fully customizable–though you will run into a couple of things you can’t do with the free version. Cara particularly liked it when Tucker made the dog pink. Pet your dog’s belly, play fetch and watch as your dog falls asleep because you’ve ignored your poor, poor digital puppy.

Cube Dog is definitely worth a look if you have kids who refuse to leave you alone and you don’t want to be worried about them stumbling upon a character getting its head blown off.

I took some video of Tucker showing the kids the app but, for some reason, the audio only works at the first second of the video. Still, you get a decent look at what is contained within the app.

Cute and free. You can’t get much better than that.

This is the video from Cube Dog and luckily, for everyone, the sound works. It also shows a lot more of the functionality than I was able to show in the video above. Also, you might check out Cube Dog’s Facebook page since they’re running a contest from now until June 13th.

While Cube Dog provided me with the app to review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Cube Dog, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity.

OK. Maybe YOU’RE not dirty but your house is.

Disclosure: Heather's a friend of mine but if her book sucked, I wouldn't have offered to review it and I definitely wouldn't be giving two copies of the book to two of you.

Your clothes are getting ratty.

You don’t know the meaning of pinch or poach.

And you didn’t realize any of these horrors until you read Heather Solos’s book, Home-Ec 101: Skills for Everyday Living–titled after her wildly popular website.

Well now you think you shouldn’t read Heather’s book because you think it’s going to make you feel guilty but you’re wrong.

Wrong, I tell you!

Home-Ec 101 pushes all of your housekeeping shortcomings and failures in your face and then it picks you up, wipes the floor grit from your tear stained face and shows you how to fix it all.

The book is divided up into four different sections: Clean It, Wash It, Fix It, Cook It. In case you get lost in the sea of awesome, there’s a handy dandy Index

A sampling of useful things you should already know but either no one ever taught you or you’ve willfully forgotten:

• Can’t seem to get into the swing of things when it comes to a cleaning schedule?
  Page 24.
• How the heck do you care for a butcher’s block and/or wooden cutting board?
  Page 53.
• Want to get REALLY, REALLY grossed out about dust mites?
  Page 84.
• Treatments for common stains?
  Page 94.
• Washing instruction for different types of fabrics?
  Page 114.
• Life span of major appliances?
  Page 133.
• Need help unclogging lots of different pipes/drains?
  Page 148.
• Need easy starter tips for horrible/new cooks?
  Page 163.
• Don’t know how to read a recipe and/or have no clue what the heck a recipe is?
  Chapter Eighteen which starts on pg 182.
• Help with coordinating cooking times?
  Page 195.
• Need help preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse? [I kid you not.]
  Chapter Nineteen.
• Meal planning is Chapter Twenty.
• Substitutions is Chapter Twenty-One.

Enter to win @heathersolos's book Home-Ec 101 from @TheAmyTucker! Giveaway ends April 29th. http://tastelikecrazy.com/?p=8511

I must admit I’m not quite sure how to start out a post about me calling for a psychic reading because I got a DM on Twitter from Cecily. But I guess that pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

vistavision

I went digging through the Hollywood Psychics site and you’d think some of those folks would be more careful with their avatars. I’m being fair here cause what else do you have to go on when you’re looking at a psychic website other than their picture and their name? Some of the pictures are scary and some don’t have avatars at all and am I really going to trust my psychic reading to a default avatar? I think not.

I called up the number I had been given and Hollywood Psychics? Y’all need to slow that menu chick down cause she talked just about as fast as John Moschitta Jr..^[1] I had picked Alarah out of the group of folks and I hoped I didn’t fat finger her extension…actually, I just hoped I was in the right menu since I wasn’t even sure I had punched in the right number.

Maybe I shouldn’t have started out like I did but I told her at the very beginning that I had been given ten minutes to talk with her and then write a blog post about it. To her credit, she didn’t seem fazed. She did a “Slice of Life” reading–Tarot reading–but didn’t get all the way through it cause my ADD took over and I started asking her questions. During the course of the conversation, we went over astrology and talked about theology and all kinds of fun stuff I don’t usually get a chance to talk about.

And ya know, tt was just a fun way to spend some time and she was a good conversationalist and if I was given more credits, I’d call her back. But I put keystrokes to the default calculator on my laptop and at $2.29/minute, it’s far cheaper for me to just keep going to my counselor.

Then again, my counselor hasn’t told me I’ll definitely be going to E3 with Kmart.

1. ^[1] Dude of Micro Machines fame. ↩

Right at this moment, I’m watching Season 4, Ep. 3 of Wire in the Blood. If you haven’t watched it, I highly suggest it. Netflix has it streaming.

Eva Blue

I’m also taking a break from some geek work I’m doing so I’m in a bit of a rush to remind you of some stuff I think is pretty important.

• KmartGamer: Take Me To E3 with You!–You’ve probably already read this and you might have even commented. If you did comment, I appreciate it a whole lot. But here’s the deal, I don’t know if comments will sway the folks at Kmart to chose me as one of their three but I hope it will. So, if you feel like it, leave a comment. I’m not the begging type but I’ll get close. This contest ends on the 30th of March when all of the posts will be officially examined.
• BROKEN FOOT–Turns out I probably didn’t. But it still hurts like a bitch and I hobble around like a dork…or a crone.
• Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions Giveaway–Comments on this will end on the 18th and there will be two winners. Just give it a look. I think the CDs are cool and you just might as well.
• Frozen Raspberry Streusel Muffins–Try. These. But be warned you won’t be able to stop eating them. But it’s so worth it.

Music is an important part of my life; it always has been.

I attended my first concert when I was four. James Taylor. Apparently I forced Mom to spend the majority of the concert in the bathroom with me.^[1] Even though I don’t have a record player, I still can’t bring myself to get rid of my Thriller album. I was in choir and band.

I like music.

And while Tucker wasn’t a choir or band dork,^[2] music means just as much to him as it does me and we’re determined to pass that love onto Cara and Ollie. But some of the music we like doesn’t have what one would consider “kid friendly” lyrics. AC/DC, anyone?

When I got the pitch to review Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Weezer, Tucker and I combed over the site and kept laughing as we saw band after band we liked and then we’d listen to the lullaby version and giggle. Tucker admitted he was glad he hadn’t known about the site when the kids were babies since he would have spent way too much money on lullaby CDS.

Their newest CD is of Weezer and cracks me up big time cause it’s like they took a big ole lion and turned it into a house cat.

Here’s the original:

And here’s the lullaby version:

I love what they’ve done with the Weezer CD and while it’s not all “rocky” like the real Weezer, the kids think it’s cool and I like they’ve kept the essence of the songs but have pulled them down enough that you can listen to it while you’re trying to go to sleep. I guess that’s why they’re called lullabies, right?

I have two to giveaway. You get to chose.

To enter, comment on which album you’d chose from the list below. This is required and a comment without an album choice will be deleted. You can change your mind. Don’t freak out. Deep breaths.

• AC/DC
• Aerosmith
• The Beach Boys
• The Beatles
• More The Beatles
• Bjork
• Black Sabbath
• Bob Marley
• Bon Jovi
• Christmas Rock Classics
• Coldplay
• The Cure
• The Eagles
• Elvis Presley
• Green Day
• Guns N’ Roses
• Journey
• Kanye West
• Led Zepplin
• Metallic
• Nine Inch Nails
• Nirvana
• No Doubt
• Pearl Jam
• Pink Floyd
• The Pixies
• Queen
• Queens of the Stone Age
• Radiohead
• The Ramones
• The Rolling Stones
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Tool
• U2
• Weezer

For a second chance, share it on Facebook or Twitter and leave a direct link in a separate comment as proof.

Comments will stay open from now until 5pm Central on March 18th. Then I’ll use random number generator to pick two folks and I’ll email them so make sure the email you put in the comment form is correct.

*Updated to add the two winners: Nicole L. and Paul Fuertes. I’m emailing them right now. Congrats, y’all!*

1. ^[1] Sorry, Mom. ↩
2. ^[2] He did play trumpet for a bit but don’t tell anyone cause he would lose street cred. ↩