Giveaway Results: $50 Container Store Gift Card

June 21st, 2011

Sorry this giveaway is now closed! We would like to congratulate Janet (Comment #27) on winning this $50 gift card to the Container Store from ApartmentGuide.com to organize her space. Thanks for all of your entries and we hope to have many more giveaways in the future!

Summer is here and this is the season in my life where organization seems to fly out the

window and chaos ensues. I was excited when Apartment Guide contacted me to see if I would be interested in making over a corner in my home that could use a little TLC and good-old fashioned organization.

“Oh, I think I will do the office,” I told them.

“Wait. My craft supplies really could use a little organization.”

“Do you mind if I change my answer? My entryway.”

“Oh, and my pantry.”

They  have graciously offered to be open to any of these scenarios and are giving me a $150 American Express gift card to spruce up one spot in my home as part of a Smart Solutions: Control the Clutter Blogger Challenge. Of course, I have to share the organizational love too and I will be giving away a $50 Container Store gift card to get you started in controlling the clutter in your home.

Apartment Guide is committed to cutting the clutter and offers a lot of valuable information for others who might be looking to make the most of their space. They have compiled a ton of articles to help you organize and make the most of the space in your home. I love that many of the ideas are low or no-cost ideas to make the space you are in organized and manageable. You can check out their articles here.

Let’s take a peek at my summer hot spots of hideous clutter.

No one sees this travesty since the only people that enter the house through our garage is ourselves, but it provides hurdles getting into the kitchen in our house. I would love to find a solution to our shoe mess, get the plastic bag chaos controlled, and streamline activities that are happening in our home through this entryway.  This should be an inexpensive solution so I can spend the rest of my money on our pantry.

I love my bigger pantry, but items do have a tendency to get lost in there. I have found myself buying repeat items and would love to add a little organization to this space. I know that if  get this spot in our home in shape that it will save me a lot of time and money in the kitchen.

Next week I will be sharing with you what I did with my gift card, but in the meantime, you can get your entries in to organize your own space. Good luck, everyone!

To enter to win a $50 Container Store gift card from Apartment Guide.

Leave one comment for each item that you complete to enter:

  • First Entry: Tell me one spot you would like to organize in your house or a helpful tip on how I can revamp these two spots in my home that have worked for you.
  • Additional Entry: “Like” Apartment Guide on Facebook for helpful organizing tips for any room in your place.
  • Additional Entry: Follow Apartment Guide on Twitter for real-time tips and updates on making the most of your space.

One winner, chosen at random, will receive a $50 Container Store gift card that can be redeemed in the store or online. Please submit your entries by Tuesday (06/28) at 8PM EST.  Our winner will be drawn at random. Good luck, everyone!

Apartment Guide Disclosure: Apartment Guide is owned by Consumer Source, Inc. Apartment Guide partnered with bloggers such as me to participate in its “Smart Storage Solutions: Control the Clutter” Blogger Challenge.  As part of that program, I received compensation.  They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about the products used for the “Smart Storage Solutions: Control the Clutter” Blogger Challenge. Apartment Guide and Consumer Source believe that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Consumer Source’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.

MomAdvice Giveaway Guidelines: Want to know more about how things are handled here at MomAdvice? Be sure to read our Disclaimer which clearly states how things work and know that we will always offer only the best reviews and giveaways to our readers. In full disclosure, the email addresses that are collected for this giveaway will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner(s), and will never be sold or given to anyone. This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older. Entries that do not follow the above criterion will automatically be disqualified. This giveaway will close Tuesday, June 28th at 8PM (EST). I’ll announce the first name of the winner(s) that will be added to the top of next week’s post and contact the winner(s) by email. I will draw the names of the winner(s) by using the random number generator at Random.org from the eligible entries received. If a winner does not contact me within 72 hours by email, I will draw a new winner. The winner(s) will receive their prize from the PR agency/company  responsible for this giveaway.

An Apron Full of Giveaways: $50 Container Store Giveaway

June 21st, 2011

loverdoversclothing, $28.65

Welcome to our Apron Full of Giveaways! I hope everyone is having a great week this week! As we do each week,  here is our round-up of giveaways for our readers. We hope that this is beneficial to you and your family! Please let us know if you guys win anything- I love to hear the success stories!

Today we are kicking off a giveaway with Apartment Guide to help you tidy up a cluttered space in your home. Through this partnership, I am giving away a $50 gift card to the Container Store that you can use for online shopping or at your local Container Store. Follow the link below to enter this contest. NO ENTRIES HERE. ENTRIES HERE WILL NOT QUALIFY FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

Below are the contest links-if you are hosting a contest please link it up below. Sorry, we aren’t giving away the aprons just showcasing them! Please put your site name and then what type of contest you are hosting. For example, “MomAdvice (Kid’s Movies).”

Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck to each of you!

Grilled Shrimp With Garlic & Herbs

June 20th, 2011

The grill has been humming this season and I have been trying to make a habit of getting our marinade ingredients ready to go in the morning so we can relax by the pool until the evening hours.

The intention is always to relax by the pool each day, but so far it has turned into a swimming lesson mania of running back and forth to get the kids to swim lessons & other activities.

Then trying to keep a normal gym routine.

Then baths.

Then towel washing.

Then collapsing in the fetal position at the end of the day.

Let’s hope that next month offers a few slow days so I can do what my body is intended for…which is relaxing.

I am sharing this delicious grilled shrimp recipe because I absolutely loved it so much. The brown sugar and paprika add a hint of sweetness while the garlic offers some bolder flavors to this shrimp. The lemon juice pulls all of the flavors together and adds that certain freshness to an otherwise pantry-inspired dish.

I love this shrimp and it offers a great variation to my usual (and still absolute favorite) grilled shrimp recipe.  Serve this one on a bed of brown rice and with vegetable kabobs with all of your favorite veggies on them.  It is a light and delicious meal that your whole family will love.

Recipe:

Grilled Shrimp With Garlic & Herbs

Ingredients:

2 lbs extra large shrimp, peeled deveined

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon sliced fresh garlic

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon basil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions:

Mix all ingredient in a bag and marinate for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Prepare grill to high heat and grill for 5-6 minutes turning to char all sides.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Serving Size: Six Servings

Recipe Source: Food.com

Father’s Day Gift Basket: A Fun Movie Gift Basket

June 16th, 2011

It’s no secret that I love my dad like crazy! This week we got the opportunity to celebrate him at a dinner in honor of his 35 years of employment with Bayer. This picture of my sister & I with him is one of my favorites from that evening together.  Sadly,  for us, our brother hit the road to start a fresh new life in New Orleans so one piece of our puzzle was missing in this picture. We are missing him a lot already.

Regardless, this gave me an opportunity to give him his dad’s day gift a little early and shower him with love for all of his hard work our entire lives. I shared with you this week, a power-packed punch of a gift to give your favorite superhero dad. I hope that gave a few of you a fun idea for a quick gift to pull together. Now I wanted to showcase one other cute idea I have for a Father’s Day gift basket that I thought you guys might like.

For your basket, look for a popcorn bucket or tub that you can use to fill it with your movie supplies.  I found this tub at our local dollar store, but you can check near the popcorn aisle or over by the popcorn poppers for another fun tub that you can use for the base for your gift.

Next fill the bottom of your popcorn tub or bucket with a little shredded paper or tissue paper. Someone shipped something to me in a million pounds of this shredded paper so that is why I am such a fan of it for a free filler in our house. Whatever you might have in your wrapping supplies will work beautifully for this project.

Fill your popcorn tub with your dad’s favorite snacks. My dad loves black licorice and movie theater popcorn so we filled his up with those snacks to enjoy while he watches his favorite movies. I spent roughly $5 on snacks, but you can spend however much your own budget allows on the snack portion of this present!

Now comes the fun part. Grab your kids and take a few pictures of them pretending to watch a movie. Use your movie bucket for a prop and snap a few pictures that you can use for your gift.

Upload your photo to Picnik. Under the CREATE tab,  select EFFECTS, then select the BLACK & WHITE option to change your picture to a a black and white image. While still under the CREATE tab, select the option for TEXT. Once you are in text, put in your message for your dad. Make sure not to put your text all of the way to the edge of the photo because it may cut it off when you print it. It is better to get it a little further in to assure that you don’t waste ink, paper, or your time!

You can choose from a variety of fonts and colors. The font I choose for these images was Budmo Jiggler. I loved this font because it looked a little like a movie theater sign with one’s name in lights. Add a fun movie message, as we did here. You can do all of this with a free membership to Picnik.

Save your image once you have finished it. If you have a photo printer, you can print these out at home. I printed mine on 4×6 Kodak paper with my photo printer. Attach this image to the front of your movie tub.

To include in our movie tub, we added a gift card for two month’s of Netflix for only $15.98. With our five dollars in snacks, this gift is just a little  over twenty dollars, but is worth two month’s of fun! We tied the gift card with this photo that we also printed on 4×6 paper and finished it all with a little red ribbon.

This quick and easy gift is ready to go and can be pulled together in just a few minutes!  I hope this gift will offer a little more inspiration to your Father’s Day gift ideas and we wish all of our dads out there a very Happy Father’s Day from us!

We happen to have a pretty amazing dad in our midst that we are looking forward to showering with love this year! I feel so incredibly blessed that our children have such an awesome father and am a lucky girl myself!

Happy Father’s Day, Dads!

Amy’s Notebook 06.15.11

June 15th, 2011

This grilled pizza recipe looks like a fun summer dinner (@ The Farm Chicks)

I love these five ideas for organizing your kid’s toys (@ infarrantly creative)

These mason jar picnic meals are adorable (@ the decorated cookie)

My kids would adore these personalized place mats (@ Clover Lane)

I want to make a few pairs of these knot so hard flip flops (@ The Mother Huddle)

These embellished swim caps are absolutely adorable (@ fanciful no. 2)

Making cookie pizzas using spring form pans is a great idea! (@ Sugar Bee)

I need to hunt on Craigslist for a wine rack to hold my yarn (@ Prudent Baby)

This bow belt would be a fun addition to my summer dresses (@ Elegant Musings)

These mini cherry almond pies look so good (@ Centsational Girl)

I am so inspired by this porch redo (@ The Lettered Cottage)

Meg’s summer list of activities is always a form of inspiration for our family (@ whatever)

I can’t wait to make bubble wands out of pipe cleaners this summer (@ Ewehooo!)

I love this idea for turning a mantle into a bookcase (@ design sponge)

Making homemade lemonade would be a fun summer activity to do together (@ Random Thoughts of a Supermom)

100 days of summer: homemade ice cream fun & tortilla pizzas

June 14th, 2011

Our summer has technically just begun this week. Last week I got my last week of solo time with my little girl. It is hard to believe that she will be off to kindergarten next year. My heart aches a lot over that. She truly is my best little buddy and we lived it up this week with Chinese food (with chopsticks, of course), fancy haircuts, and lots of fun in the sun with our friends.  I am so excited to have both the kids home and as I shared last week, we will be documenting our summer through mobile uploading fun and sharing what projects we are working on.

We had a celebration dinner to celebrate the start of our summer together!  We love our pizza night and decided to try the tortilla pizzas featured on Living Locurto courtesy of Tidy Mom, for a fun dinner treat. These were so easy to pull together and I loved that everyone could have their own toppings on these. I have a different pizza in mind than the rest of the family and mine was oozing with fresh mozzarella, spinach, and mushrooms. These were crisp and delicious! Everyone really seemed to like them and it was a great way to keep the kitchen cool in the sweltering heat that we have been having here.

We made not one, but two different kinds of ice cream this week. I can’t say that purchasing an ice cream maker will be good for my figure, but the kids are loving it and I am loving experimenting with a new food.  We made a cake batter ice cream from Annie’s Eats that was the absolute favorite of everyone in our family. It really did taste just like cake batter. It was rich and way better than any vanilla ice cream.

We also tried a dreamy creamy strawberry ice cream that was also from Annie’s Eats. That tasted just like a piece of strawberry cheesecake. The sour cream added so much flavor and it was a great way to use some berries that I found on sale at the supermarket.

I think we have our summer off to a fantastic start. I am looking forward to sharing more on our summer adventures and am all stocked up on craft supplies for a few projects next week!

*************************

Stumped for ideas this summer? Have no fear! I have you covered this year with our 100 Days of Summer Pinterest Board.  There are 100 ideas for crafting, eating, and creating with your children of all ages.  We promise to keep it carefree on Tuesdays and share what we tackle through our mobile uploads and you can even follow our adventures in real time through Instagram or on Twitter (my name is momadvice).

Our family is on the move and we want you to be on the move too.

Do something cool together this week.

Your kids will love you for it.

What did you do this week from your summer list?

Father’s Day Gift Basket: A Power Pack for Your Super-Dad!

June 13th, 2011

Where would we be without wonderful fathers in our life?  Father’s Day gifts are always a challenge for me because I want something that shows our dads how special they are to us, but I can’t always think of the best way to show how much we love them.  This year I decided to make two gift baskets for our dads that are a breeze to pull together, are personalized to each of our dads, and happen to be awfully affordable.

This month’s DIY challenge for Walmart was to create a Father’s Day gift using items purchased from the store.  Head on over to your store to pick up the supplies for these fun gift baskets for your dads. I promise you that these gifts will be a big hit.

For our first Father’s Day gift, we have a sporty dad in our life. Ryan’s dad is passionate about biking and spends a lot of time clocking the miles on his bike. We thought we would make a power pack for our favorite superhero dad with snacks and drinks that he can take on the road with him.

Start with a basket or tub. I found this party tub over with the outdoor supplies for $4.57. This is a deep tub and  will be perfect for on the patio after dad is done using it for his gift.

On the bottom of the tub, put a layer of newspaper to fill out the tub. We don’t want to waste our budget on fillers for the basket and this is a great way to make the basket look fuller for less.

Now that we have filled out the bottom, you can add cute shredded paper, tissue paper, or anything else you might have in your wrapping supplies. Fill it out just enough that it looks full and hides the newspaper bottom.

Now it is time to fill it with power foods. I got Powerade and power protein bars for our dad. Feel free to add your own spin on the power foods. In my opinion, coffee and chocolate are power foods that would fit very nicely into this theme. Explore the grocery aisles for your own dad’s favorite power foods.

Next I had my kids pose for pictures in their superhero capes. Feel free to make your own spin on this though. You could also have your children do strong man poses or lift weights, put on a sweatband and leg warmers, whatever you think says power. Your dads will really get a kick out of this.

Upload your photo to Picnik. Under the CREATE tab,  select EFFECTS, then select the LOCOMO-ISH option to change your picture to a a brighter image. Use the scale to slide down the color on it so it looks bright and fun, but not flourescent. While still under the CREATE tab, select the option for TEXT. Once you are in text, put in your message for your dad. Make sure not to put your text all of the way to the edge of the photo because it may cut it off when you print it. It is better to get it a little further in to assure that you don’t waste ink, paper, or your time!

You can choose from a variety of fonts and colors. The font I choose for these images was Lexographer. You can do all of this with a free membership to Picnik.

Save your image once you have finished it. If you have a photo printer, you can print these out at home. I printed mine on 4×6 Kodak paper with my photo printer. If you don’t have a photo printer, Walmart offers one hour prints. The cards themselves are almost as awesome as what is inside your baskets.

Tape this image to the front of your party tub. I also stuck another picture on the other side of the tub of my daughter with her extremely scary power pose.

If you would like, you can include a small denominator gift card in your basket for some power tunes for the iPod or even a powerful book that dad could read.  I tied this with ribbon and attached it with this superhero card to let him know that this gift was for additional power.

This is a gift that I know your dad would love and the kids will have a blast creating it with you! I will be back tomorrow with one more quick gift basket idea and I hope that this will give a few of you a little last minute inspiration!

What gifts do you have up your sleeve for you dads this year? What gift has been the biggest hit? I would love to hear your ideas!

I am a part of the Walmart Moms program, and Walmart has provided me with compensation for these posts. My participation is voluntary and opinions are always my own.

Spinach & Tomato Orzo Pasta Salad

June 13th, 2011

There are few things that I love in the summertime more than pasta salad. I would forgo a burger any day of the week for a great bowl of pasta salad.  I prefer a pasta salad that can be served at any temperature when I have to bring a dish to a potluck or picnic dinner. I love when pasta salad can be enjoyed as a lunch on-the-go or lazily on my couch with a spoon and a little Food Network.

When I first began cooking, Rachael Ray was my cooking idol. I had no idea what I was doing in the kitchen, but her no-nonsense approach to cooking inspired me to try making something other than convenience food in my kitchen. This pasta salad was one that she featured and I remember thinking how exotic it was to use orzo pasta and lemon zest.

“Look at me, world. I am a chef now, zesting my lemons and using orzo pasta.”

Over the years, I have grown more confident in the kitchen and this salad was my first dish to play with ingredients and to challenge myself to not read the recipe and just taste and feel a dish. Each time I made it, I changed something in it. I wanted it to be a dish that was happily inspired by Rachael, but had become my very own.

If summer is in a bowl, then this is summer. The pasta tastes so fresh from the bursts of lemon flavor throughout and the cherry tomatoes, spinach, and basil add that punch of flavor that makes this dish taste just like everything in the summer should taste like…as though it was plucked from your garden itself.

Eat it as a meat-free dish or add roasted chicken to it using my easy tips for roasting chicken for your pasta dishes. I absolutely love it both ways and encourage you to experiment with this recipe to create your own spin on it.

After all, you are using orzo and lemon zest.

Which makes you a chef.

Of course.

Recipe:

Spinach & Tomato Orzo Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound spinach, washed, dried, stems removed
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
2 lemons, zested (reserve the lemons for juicing over the pasta)
1 pound orzo, cooked as instructed
1/2 pound roasted chicken (use your favorite preparation or use my easy preparation for chicken)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the bowl
24 basil leaves, torn or thinly sliced
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup reserved pasta water
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Pile spinach leaves in stacks 1 on top of the other. Thinly slice stacks of leaves to make spinach confetti. Pile shredded spinach into the bottom of a medium sized mixing bowl. Halve grape or cherry tomatoes with a paring knife and add them to the mixing bowl. Add the zest of 2 lemons to the bowl reserve the lemons for adding juice to the sauce later. Add hot cooked and drained orzo pasta to the mixing bowl and roasted chicken (if desired). The heat of the pasta will wilt the spinach and warm the tomatoes at the bottom of the bowl and get the juices flowing from veggies. The heat of the pasta will also release the flavor and oils in the lemon zest. Drizzle 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, add reserved pasta water, and the juice of two lemons over the pasta and toss to combine the veggies and orzo. Add basil and a generous amount of salt and pepper to taste. Toss the ingredients together to combine. Serve with grated parmesan cheese or leave plain if you are taking the salad on the go.

Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 27 mins

Serving Size: Six Servings

Recipe Source: Adapted from Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals

Amy’s Notebook 06.08.11

June 8th, 2011

This balloon banner would be a fun addition to any party (@ Design Mom)

I want to make a hot air balloon as a fun summer project (@ bloesem kids)

This summertime bucket list is a great idea for tackling your summer to-do list (@ tatertots & jello)

I like these two easy ways to tie a summer turban (@ say YES! to Hoboken)

This windproof picnic blanket hack is genius (@ infarrantly creative)

These grilled steak tacos would be a great weeknight supper (@ Confections of a Foodie Bride)

This tennis shoe makeover is adorable for the summer (@ sweet verbena)

This is a fun idea for repurposing an old umbrella (@ How Does She?)

I love this hair accessory made from a dollar store doily (@ Lil Blue Boo)

These rope bracelets would be a fun way to use up scrap fabric (@ Sew.Craft.Create)

I bet my kids would love this pita bread with peanut butter hummus (@ The Ungourmet)

These whole wheat garlic knots look like a fun bread accompaniment to our meals (@ Joy the Baker)

This coca cola citrus chicken looks like a fun new recipe to try on the grill (@ Coconut & Lime)

This grilled bruschetta would be a fun appetizer for an outdoor party (@ The Partyblueprints Blog)

100 Days of Summer: Inspiration for Your Summer Break

June 7th, 2011

There will be no cries of boredom in our house this summer because I am prepared this year. I have come up with 100 activities to do this summer and I am sharing my list of 100 activities to do with you through Pinterest. We have everything from hot air balloon making, to Netflix origami, to breakfast in bed, to making individual pizzas on the grill, to making the world’s largest bubbles, to creating your very own water park. The possibilities are endless and the majority of the activities cost next to nothing to create.

I am not a crafty parent. I can be crafty on my own, but not always the craftiest with my kids. I really, really try, but I find that crafting with my kids is a challenge. I want to overcome that challenge this summer and be the cool mom for once. Many times I find myself at my computer typing these ideas for others, but not trying any ideas myself.

This summer is going to be different.

Instead of just coming up with ideas for our readers, I am looking forward to actually tackling our summer list.  I still will be sharing a weekly recipe, our apron full of giveaways, and our notebook of inspiration. I won’t ever quit you, MomAdvice friends!

On Tuesdays though, I will be sharing what we are working on from our summer list through mobile pictures and quick notes on what fun activities we are doing at our house. I am hoping it will be an inspiration to you to get out and enjoy the summer with your children. I can’t say we will tackle a hundred activities, but I will be awfully proud if we do one cool activity a week. You can catch me on Instagram, fellow iPhone users, where I am documenting our summer with my new phone. My name is momadvice.

I hope you will enjoy our laid-back inspiration this summer!  I want to enjoy every moment I have with these two kids- my time with them feels fleeting and precious.

Next school year, I will have whole days to type away.

This summer, I am loving my mom job all day with them.

What are your favorite summer activities? How do you get inspired for summer fun? And, hey, what do you think of our summer list?