And why am I telling you this?  Well, FaveCrafts is hosting a giveaway of Aleene’s Decoupage.  One lucky winner will receive an assortment of Aleene’s Decoupage, in glossy, matte, and glitter by entering at FaveCrafts Sweepstakes page.

“Aleene’s Decoupage is an acid-free, all-in-one glue and finish that is perfect for your paper crafting projects. Use it with decorative papers, greeting cards, giftwrap, magazines, posters, paper towels and more!”

Fill out the online form and earn extra entries by blogging about the giveaway (like I’m doing!), Tweet it, share on Facebook, or add to your blogroll.   Contest ends September 18, and you can enter daily.

I’ve used decoupage for so many projects around my home.

Clockwise from left: wine bottle tiki torch, top of bar stool, picture of my nephews on canvas, butterfly footprint picture on canvas

Wouldn’t it be fun to win this decoupage assortment and experiment with all the cool ways to use it?  I have not tried the glitter version yet, but hopefully I can win the assortment, test it out and let you know how fabulous my creation turns out!

Enter Aleene’s Decoupage Product Assortment giveaway today and let me know if win!  You can also check their website for other Reviews & Giveaways.  There are two new reviews and giveaways every week.

Good luck!

Check with your local government regarding their recycling guidelines.

A’s teacher is very nice, her classroom  is nice and one of her best friends is in her class again this year, so all was good…then we walked home.

A – “mom, have you ever watched that show “What Not To Wear”?

Me – “yes” – I’m thinking this cannot go well.

A – “You should be on it.”

I stop walking, turn around and stare at her.  You know the scene where everything is so silent and the only sound you hear is crickets?  Yeah.

A – “well, I’m just saying that they will show you nice clothes and do your hair and your makeup.  And then they give you money to buy new clothes.”

Now, I will admit that my standard “look” is shorts, tshirt and a ponytail with no makeup.  Sometimes the shorts and tshirt even match.  In my defense, I have a closet full of beautiful clothes that I used to wear when I worked in the corporate world, but then I worked from home for about 6 years and didn’t need to wear them.  During those 6 years I may have gained a few extra pounds and most of the clothes in the closet no longer fit.   Besides, shorts and tshirts are so comfortable!

My closet – a disaster, I know. My fall project is to clean out this closet!

Nothing more was said until a couple of days later.  I was waiting for her to get dressed and it was taking FOREVER.  Finally she comes out of her room.

Me – “how can it take someone so long to get dressed?”

A – “well, you know I’m not like you, I don’t just throw on the first thing I grab out of my drawer.”

Ouch!  My daughter is getting to the age where appearances are a big deal.  You have to have the right clothes, shoes, and “makeup” (which at age 9 consists of lip gloss and some sparkly powder).    Now that I think about it, I guess that the little comments like “you are going to change clothes, right?” and “maybe you should put some makeup on” have been A’s way of telling me that “Mom, you embarrass me!”

So that I will not embarrass my daughter any longer, I have made some promises:

• I promise to spend a little more than 30 seconds getting dressed each day.
• I promise that if I do wear a tshirt and shorts they will match.
• I promise that when I leave the house I will at least put on some lip gloss and powder (matte, I’m too old for sparkles).
• I promise to one time this school year show up at school wearing a dress and high heels, makeup done, hair looking awesome.

I’m not giving up my ponytail, though.

Is there anything you do or wear that embarrass your kids?

Here are my 5 tips.  Then check out these 100 way to conserve water!

Enjoy the scrapbook from our trip!

L got to cross two things off his bucket list…climb a tree (of course, A had to show off her tree climbing abilities) and catch a fish:

Fishing with Grandpa

Next up was a trip to Whipp’s Ledges.  They stand up to 350 feet and were formed more than 250 million years ago — I just looked that up  – cool!:

Whipp’s Ledges

Kids day at the fair.  Rides and Fair Food!:

Fair Rides

Elephant Ears, French Fries and Fried Veggies – yum!

Free face painting at the fair, too.  We had bought face crayons the day before to do our faces…bet you can’t tell which was my attempt and which is the professionals…

Tiger and Batman

Butterfly and Cat

Tiger and Tiger

Okay, I won’t keep you in suspense…below is the professional’s face painting:

A and Cousin M2

We ate pounds of home made salsa at Brother J’s house:

Ready to chop!

And all the cousins, A, L, Cousin M1, Cousin B, Cousin G, Cousin M2 and Cousin M3 swam in the pool and did things that had me worry for L’s safety!

And this is Grandpa after the week was over and we were packed up to go back home:

It was a busy week but we had a blast!

The End!

How Did It Start?  I think it may have started one hot summer day when the kids asked if they could play Mario Kart on the Wii. I didn’t think much of it; it was so hot outside and they were stuck indoors. Then L started asking if he could play Angry Birds on my computer.  Sure, no problem, but you have to do your school work first (yes, we do a little school work during the summer – don’t want them to lose everything they learned as their brains turn to mush playing video games).

Next thing I know he is playing Mario Kart on A’s Nintendo DS.   When she takes that away he steals her Kindle Fire to play Angry Birds.  During our vacation all he wanted to do was sit around all day and play video games on the DS and Kindle (of course, we didn’t let him).

Once we are back home again, I banned all video games for a couple days.  The next morning he is quietly watching TV after he wakes up, or so I thought.  I peak into the play room and find him playing Angry Birds on the Kindle Fire.  So I take it away and repeat that there are to be no video games for a couple of days.  I confiscate the Kindle and the DS.

The next morning I peak in and he is watching Mickey Mouse.  Good.  No video games.  Or So I Thought!  Turns out he told his sister that he was playing Mario Kart on the Wii and when he heard me coming down the stairs he switched it back to cartoons!  Are you kidding me!?  How does he know to be so sneaky?  When I asked him about this he lied and said he didn’t, but eventually he came clean.

So, on to the naughty step for lying to Mom and I have confiscated the Wii remote.  He is banned from games for a week, and after a week he will play for one hour every other day.

Have your kids developed an addiction to video games?  

How do you monitor and control their play?

Scooby and Mayo were both older dogs when I adopted them, 8 and 5, respectively.