Tiffany Merritt - Stuff Parents Need

How to Strengthen Brittle Nails

July 5, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 29 Comments

I am sharing my personal experience with essential oils for brittle nails. This information is not offered as medical advice. Affiliate links may be included.

Does anyone else out there struggle with brittle nails? My fingernails actually seem ok, but my toenails seem especially fond of breaking or even cracking. Ouch!

And can I be honest with you? I just thought I had to live with that. I really didn’t know that anything could be done to strengthen your nails. But last week I was reading up on Young Living’s Frankincense and all of its uses, and I discovered that my friend Frank could provide quite a bit of support!

How to Strengthen Your Nails

To support healthy nails, you will want to create a special nail oil to apply up to 3 times a week on your nails. I prefer to use essential oils, but if that’s not your thing, I highly recommend Keratin 3 Day Growth. It’s #1 for nail strengthening and it’s under $5. Seriously.

Supplies needed

1oz glass bottle with glass eye dropper (essential oils will eat plastic, so glass is a must)
Stainless steel mini funnel
high quality olive oil (organic)
Young Living Frankincense oil
Step 1.Using the glass dropper that came with your glass bottle, remove Frankincense oil from your Young Living bottle (you can pop off the little plastic lid that only allows one drop at a time to come out relatively easily). Add 45 drops of Frankincense oil to your 1 oz glass bottle.

Step 2.

Using your steel funnel, fill the remainder of the bottle with olive oil. Be sure to leave enough room for your glass dropper to go back in.

Step 3.

Put the glass dropper back in the bottle and screw it tight. Gently swirl the mixture until well-combined.

Step 4.

Remove the glass dropper with the mixture inside, and apply one drop per nail, around the base of the nail. Rub it all around the base of the nail, and up the nail. Give it a few minutes to dry (this is a great thing to do right before watching one of your favorite shows on television!). Repeat up to 3 times total per week. Once you see improvement in your nail condition, you can drop down to once a week application for maintenance.

How Much Will This Cost?

A 1 oz bottle contains roughly 500 drops in it. The cost of Frankincense, per drop (assuming you get the discounted price) is .28. So in your 1 oz bottle, you will have $12.60 of Frank plus the cost of your olive oil to fill it (for simplicity’s sake, we’ll give it a value of $1). So for $13.60, you’ve got 500 drops of nail strengthener, and if you apply 1 drop to each nail (both hands and feet) 3 times a week, you have enough product to last you 8 weeks. I have only been using this formula for one week and I’m already going to drop down to applying it 2 times a week. I predict that 2 weeks from now I’ll be dropping down to using it 1 time each week, which means the mixture I have made will last much longer than 8 weeks! I think I’m going to be using this mixture for about 6 months before it is time to make more (especially since I’m focused on my toes and will only occasionally be applying this to my fingernails). That makes it a rather thrifty product, if you ask me, since the cost for a year’s worth of this tonic is less than it would cost to get a manicure.

Why Does It Have to Be Young Living Essential Oil?

I have written in several places about why I believe Young Living products to be second to none on the market. Frankincense is one of the oils, especially, that you can tell an IMMEDIATE difference in quality from any other brand just by smelling the product. And once you actually use the product and see the phenomenal results, you’ll understand even more clearly. Frankincense is a very expensive oil to produce, and the price tag can make it very tempting to go for a cheaper alternative. But I’m telling you right now, spending $12 on a bottle of cheap Frankincense, in the end, will just be a waste of $12. Please remember that terms like “pure” “therapeutic grade” and “undiluted” aren’t regulated by the FDA. Such things can be applied to labels and the container might only contain 5% of the essential oil you think you are buying, and the rest is chemical additives. Young Living is the only company with the Seed to Seal guarantee. They go through rigorous testing all along the way to make sure that the very best product is the end result. If the results don’t meet expectations, the product isn’t sold, simple as that.

The Best Way to Try The Real Deal

As I mentioned before, Frankincense is an expensive oil, coming in at just shy of $95 for a 15 ml bottle (that’s the retail price). If you have weak nails that could really use some help, one option is to just spring for the bottle as a retail customer. OR…spend a bit more and get the entire premium starter kit, which contains 11 of Young Living’s most popular (and useful) essential oils in 5 ml bottles, including Frankincense, which isn’t even the most expensive oil offered in the kit! 🙂 The starter kit is $150 and includes so many incredible oils, as well as a diffuser (I use mine every single day), some fun samples, and most importantly, the ability to order any oils you want in the future at a 24% discount. That would bring your next bottle of frankincense down to $72, which is a $23 savings! I’ve got step-by-step instructions for how to get your order placed if you are ready!

One More Way to Order

If you’d like to just try the Frankincense before jumping into trying all these other amazing oils, I do place a group order once a month, and if you live in the U.S., I can include you on my order. You’ll get to try the oil at the 24% discounted price that way. Contact me at stuffparentsneed@gmail.com if you want more information on how to be part of this monthly order (the next one processes on July 15th).

Need More Info?

Not sure about all this essential oil business? I feel you…I was a skeptic myself. Check out some of my other posts about my journey with essential oils to hear more about my experiences!

Starting My Oil Journey as a Skeptic

Best Carrier Oils for Different Skin Types

How I Support My Lungs and Sinuses Throughout the Seasons

DIY Shower Disks for Congestion

Essential Oils for Weight Loss

Use Lemon Essential Oil to Safely Remove Crayon Marks

How to Get Free Essential Oils Without Starting a Business (It’s EASY!!!)

How to Get Rid of Hiccups with Peppermint Oil

Fighting Germs with Essential Oils

How to Neutralize Bathroom Odors in a Flash

Shelf Liner Hack: How to Make Slip-Resistant, Washable Placemats!

July 1, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

This post brought to you by Duck Brand. All opinions are 100% mine.

Earlier this week I was cleaning the kitchen table after dinner. I had also cleaned it up that day after breakfast and after lunch. My family gets to eat most meals together, at our table. Yes we are lucky. Most definitely. We are also MESSY. After spraying down my kids’ eatig area it occurred to me to take a picture for you so you can see what I’m working with 3 times a day, every day.

Obviously I need to start using some placemats. I’ve actually tried placemats before. And guess what? They pretty much fly right off the table because they move so easily. FAIL. I needed something with staying power that would also rinse off really easy (the last thing I need is one more thing to hand wash 3 times a day!). And that’s when I turned to Duck Brand’s Shelf Liner.

That’s right, friends. I made placemats out of shelf liner! And it was the absolute perfect choice for several reasons, not the least of which is that it didn’t involve anything harder than drawing a straight line and using a pair of scissors. That’s my kind of craft! I also love that they come in a variety of colors and patterns, so you can keep your design as simple as you like, or customize it to your color scheme already in place.

I did do a little bit of research (which really just means Googling) to find out standard placemat dimensions. My key takeaway is to pay close attention to the space you have on your table and go from there. My girls sit super close to each other. Their chairs touch, as a matter of fact. So they actually have a pretty small area for their personal space. The smaller Duck® brand shelf liner in the picture above was12 inches wide, so I kept thing easy and went with that for my width. And for length, 16 inches was plenty. You may feel that you need a little bit more for your space, so just measure it out and see what you think!

Once you’ve determined how long you want the placemats, turn them over and grab some sort of a ruler. There are grooves on the back of the placemat, but I can tell you from experience that if you cut along those grooves, you will realized when you flip your placemat back over that they actually weren’t straight lines. So just trust me…get a ruler and make your own straight line!

Once your first placemat is finished, you can use it as the measuring guide for your other placemats. I made 4 to start with, and I’m actually going to go back and make 3 more. If I hadn’t screwed up the first placemat I could have made 8 placemats with one small roll, but I’ll settle for 7.

And I’m happy to report that I was able to wash these on the gentle cycle of my HE washing machine without incident. Maybe you are not as lazy as me and will hand wash yours. That is a great idea, and one that I aspire to, but for now, I’ll just throw it in the laundry pile, thankyouverymuch.

Duck® brand’s Shelf Liners are saving me time (and LOTS of all-purpose cleaner) every day. The girls love them and they stay in place nicely. If you have little ones at home, or even just messy eaters of any age, this is a great hack for making truly functional placemats.

Want more great shelf liner ideas? Check out and follow Duck® brand’s pages on Pinterest and Facebook. After checking those out, did you see any ideas you’d like to try with Duck® brand shelf liner?

Busy Next Week? Want to Help End Childhood Hunger? Let’s Do It!

June 30, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

Special thanks to The Motherhood for partnering with me to make this Feed the Children post possible. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own, as always.

When I was 21 years old and knew everything about how I wanted my future to look, I headed off to graduate school to become a lobbyist for social justice organization. I wanted to work really hard and do REALLY good work that would change lives for the better.

The story of why I don’t do that for a living is a long one (and it actually gets unpacked in an upcoming podcast, so stay tuned!) but suffice to say that I am THRILLED to be showcasing an organization that is working tirelessly to create a better world. Specifically, Feed the Children has a vision that we will live in a world where no child goes to bed hungry. This organization works in all 50 states, as well as in 18 countries to provide healthy food, safe water, education and job training to kids and their families.

Take a moment, if you will, to think about your children. Perhaps some of you have experienced first hand the anguish of not being able to provide basic needs, like adequate food. I do not personally know this pain, but I am in tears at there mere thought of it. And it is a stark reality for hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

Thank God for Feed the Children! What an important mission: to protect childhood by working to eradicate hunger as one of its thieves. Ending childhood hunger may sound completely overwhelming and not realistic, but nothing is impossible when people work together for a greater good.

Feed the Children has fiercely dedicated staff, generous donors and amazing ideals. But that is not enough to eliminate childhood hunger. Better partnerships are the missing link! Partnering with others can be a hugely effective force to help attack the root causes of poverty, and to get beyond providing food, which will nourish only for a day. Feed the Children wants to help empower families just like yours to work for lasting change by bringing together organizations, businesses, community groups and individuals to attack the problem from all angles. Feed the Children would love to work itself out of a job.

How Working Together Works

I want to share an example of how Feed the Children is partnering with other groups to make LASTING change. The Oklahoma Summer Food and Education program is a pilot program that has recently launched in Oklahoma City. Over 300,000 children participate in the free and reduced school lunch program, which is not in operation during summer months. That leaves all of these children without a stable source of nutrition. While there is a summer program by the USDA that helps fill that gap, very few agencies in Oklahoma are involved with it. Feed the Children saw this as an opportunity to step in and fill the gap between the resources and the needs. By forming a partnership with the USDA Food and Nutrition Services, more families will have longer term support, and private sources of funding can be directed to these children with need to help with educational resources, backpacks for the next school year, and supplies. Research will also be conducted to identify ways to better solve summer food insecurity in ways that will be more cost-effective and far-reaching. By partnering together with other organizations that are concerned about this issue, serious progress is going to be made in Oklahoma this summer, and thousands upon thousands of children will be getting the food and other relevant resources they would have otherwise gone without.

Let’s Chat More About Feed the Children (on Twitter!)

I want to unpack this issue more, and really investigate how individuals and families can be part of Feed the Children’s important work. Let’s meet up on Twitter for a chat about this very important issue! Will you join me there on Wednesday, July 9th? We’ll be tweeting from 1-2pm ET, and all you need to do is follow the hashtag #HelpKidsBeKids. See you then, friends!

Upgrade Your Breakfast: Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Bagel with Sweet Bacon Topping

June 30, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 2 Comments

This post brought to you by LIBBY’S Pumpkin. All opinions are 100% mine.

By now you have seen several examples on my blog of what #PumpkinCan do in your kitchen. It is an amazingly versatile super food that doesn’t need to be limited to a certain season of the year, nor does it need to be limited to desserts or sweet breads. I’ve shown you how to make curried pumpkin dip for a mid-afternoon snack, twice-baked potatoes with pumpkin for a sensational side dish at dinner, and I’ve showcased pumpkin energy squares, which are perfect for any time of day when you need a little boost.

And today I’ve got one seriously fancy way to dress up your bagel at breakfast. I surprised my family with this on a weekday morning and it put everyone in a great mood, because it felt like such a special treat (but it was SO easy to make! They don’t need to know that!).

Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Bagel with Sweet Bacon

Ingredients:

2 bagels, sliced into 4 halves
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/3 cup of LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin
1/3 cup goat cheese
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp powdered sugar (optional)

Begin the process by cooking your bacon. I personally cook bacon in the oven (line a baking sheet with raised edges with foil, placed no more than 8 sliced on each tray, and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes). The end result is glorious and I don’t have to stand over a stove having bacon grease leaping out of the pan onto me. Everybody wins!

While your bacon is cooking, put together the pumpkin spread for the bagel. Simply add the goat cheese, LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin and maple syrup in a bowl and mix until well-combined. I mixed it by hand, but you could also use a mixer to make faster work of it.

All that’s left to do is to toast your bagels, apply the pumpkin-cheese spread, and then sprinkle bacon on top. I personally thought adding a sprinkle of powdered sugar on as a finishing touch was awesome (it made the bacon taste sweet!) but that’s an optional step. Bon appetite!

Be sure to take a moment to follow LIBBY’S Pumpkin on Twitter and tweet your favorite #PumpkinCan fact for a chance to win weekly prizes!

Honest Company Bottom Wash Review: An Honest Assessment

June 29, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 7 Comments

Affiliate links included. My opinions are my own.

Over the past few weeks I have been trying out, here and there, a new product in the the Honest Company line: Honest Soothing Bottom Wash.

This product is meant to be a supplementary cleaning/refreshing aid during diaper changes. You can use it for any and every diaper change if you wish, but the impression that I get is that it is particularly recommended for the gross diaper changes. No need to elaborate on that point.

And so, I’ve done most of my testing on those exact type of diaper changes. And my thoughts on the product?

Meh.

It smells nice, and I suppose in the midst of a gross diaper change that has some sort of worth. But I didn’t think that it made gross diaper changes significantly easier/faster to clean up after. Honestly, if I’m going to add a step to a diaper change, it needs to really be worth it, and I failed to see how this was the case.

Now I will say that Layah seemed to think it was fun. It made her squeal and squirm, which is cute…unless you are in the middle of a gross diaper change, and then squirming is TERRIBLE.

Why Try It?

If you don’t feel like your wipes are getting the job done sufficiently, then this might be worth a try. But my honest opinion is that this is a product to skip. It retails for $9.95, so if you are going to try it, get it as part of your essentials bundle because the per item price for a bundle is $7.20.

New to Honest Company?

Despite my lackluster review of this particular product, there are MANY products that I have tried and loved (and yes, a handful of others that failed to impress me). Check out my growing list of Honest Company reviews, and also be sure to learn how to get Honest Company free trials so you can maximize how many things you can try for free before committing to a purchase!

How I Like My Tea: Cold, Sweet and Calorie-Free! (Tutorial and Giveaway!)

June 28, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 175 Comments

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Southern Breeze Sweet Tea. Affiliate links may be included at no cost to you.

Let me blow your minds and bless your little hearts, friends. If you love sweet tea, then I’m about to turn your world upside-down. If you don’t love sweet tea, you just haven’t had it the right way, sweeties. Trust.

I have been making pitchers of Southern Breeze sweet tea every few days for the past 2 weeks. I’m from the South (shout out, Alabama!) but my husband grew up in Washington state. He actually said, “ay” at the end of sentences occasionally when I first met him (evidently this is a Canadian thing. I had no idea of such across-the-border shenanigans when I was 18). He did not grow up drinking sweet tea (bless his heart, indeed) and as for me, I did not grow up with it in my own home, but always enjoyed having it when I visited family and friends or when we went out to eat. And as an adult, I just couldn’t really get over how much sugar is needed to make sweet tea taste right, so I chose to only let it be an occasional indulgence, and not a regular in my fridge.

But Southern Breeze has changed all of that! Check out my quick video that tells you what is so special about Southern Breeze, and how you can have cold, sweet tea in just a handful of minutes!

I just can’t get over how awesome it is that the (fabulous calorie-free Splenda) sweetener is already inside of the family-size tea bags. You get to skip an entire step in the tea making process!

I actually made another pitcher of this about 30 minutes ago, and rolled my hair while I waited for the water to get hot enough in the kettle. My hair hadn’t even had time to set before the tea was ice cold and ready to go! You can get your sweet tea fix faster than your big hair fix, and the zero calorie business means you can have just as much as your little heart desires! 😉 Even Tim is converted…he drinks it as much as I do!

So how do you get your hands on this AMAZING new product? It is currently being offered at Ingles, Wegman’s and Harris Teeter. If you are in the same boat as me, though, and don’t have any of those stores in your town, fear not! You can order it on Amazon!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Southern Breeze Sweet Tea.

Tom’s of Maine Rocks a Long Lasting Deodorant with Natural Ingredients

June 26, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Raise your hand if you DON’T wear anti-perspirant! Or maybe don’t raise your hand…depending on what you are using instead. I ditched odor-blocking products that were full of questionable chemicals a few years ago and made the switch over to deodorant, and more specifically, to products that had more natural ingredients.

I have tried MANY different brands, and in more cases than not, the products simply don’t last all day, and if I don’t do a re-application halfway through the day, I don’t exactly smell awesome by the time I’m climbing into bed for the night. And feeling a little bit stinky is not really on my list of things I want to do daily, or really ever. As a result, if I’m ever going to be away from home for the entire day, I will resort to the product I keep on hand for such emergencies: an anti-perspirant that has a whole lot of stuff in it that I don’t want to wear. But on occasion, I feel left with no other choice!

And that’s why I might have done a little dance in the personal care aisle of Whole Foods yesterday. There were fireworks going off in my heart, y’all.

Tom’s of Maine has a product called Long Lasting Deodorant. It’s got some serious odor fighting ingredients that can help folks like me make it through 24 hours without the need to reapply! All this from a brand that is PROUD of what they put into their products. Want to see what you’ll find in this deodorant (and why it’s there)? Check this out!

I’m so thrilled that Tom’s of Maine has found the perfect cocktail of natural ingredients that will get you through 24 hours without a hitch. I’m so thrilled, in fact, that I might have hopped on Polyvore after getting my new deodorant and planned an entire outfit inspired by the product.

#FreshNaturally Summer Look by stuffparentsneed featuring a royal blue top

I’m totally living in cuffed jeans this summer (if you haven’t tried the look yet, you’ll be surprised by how big of a difference showing just a bit of your leg can make in how warm you feel!). And I personally love cowl neck shirts (I think they are flattering to most body types). I love the sleeveless look here, and thanks to Tom’s of Maine, I’m feeling just fine about going sleeveless all day long. I’m ready to go run my errands, meet friends for coffee, or even do the highly glamorous stuff all adults know and love: household chores. Working up a sweat is NO PROBLEM now! Tom’s of Maine has it under control.

One other thing you may not know about me is that I’m a recovering perfume junkie. Before I had kids, I would spend a fair chunk of my disposable income on beautiful scents to wear. At the height of it all, I had 57 bottles of perfume (!!!). I’ve whittled my collection down to 13, and every scent I have smells AMAZING. I don’t like for my perfume to compete with other products, so I tend to avoid deodorants and lotions that contain perfumes. While Tom’s of Maine does offer some naturally scented deodorizing products, I opted for the unscented version so that my perfume can shine. Nobody puts my Petite Cherie in the corner, friends.

So now you know the look I’m rockin’ most days this summer, and the deodorant I’m absolutely loving. No more having to choose between natural ingredients and all-day protection! Have you been afraid to ditch your anti-perspirant due to a lack of truly reliable alternatives with natural ingredients? If so, I want to encourage you to give the Long Lasting Deodorant from Tom’s of Maine a try. I’m so glad I did! My “for emergencies only” anti-perspirant is now in the trash. 🙂

A Satisfying Drink Parents and Kids Can Agree On: Mott’s for Tots

June 25, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 2 Comments

Complimentary products and compensation were received as part of this partnership with Mott’s and TapInfluence. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I’m not trying to throw my parents under the bus, here, but I grew up drinking sweet drinks (like soda and sugary drink mixes) pretty much constantly. Milk was for cereal. Water was for the plants. Sugary drinks were for humans. My dentist tells me that my teeth are showing all the damage that was incurred while I was younger now, as I get cavities on the regular despite having improved my eating and drinking habits drastically. Such a bummer.

So I have been quite intentional about making sure that my kids have water and milk as their standard beverages of choice. Anything else is a rare treat. This drives my mother INSANE, as she thinks I’m depriving my kids by not letting them have a tall glass of fruit juice every day. She used to sneak apple juice to Darah when she was a toddler when I left the room. True story!

Revisiting the Fruit Juice Matter

But I haven’t been as strict on this issue since a while back when I first discovered Mott’s for Tots. This is a brand I am quite loyal to when it comes to picking up fruit juice, because it has 40% less sugar than 100% apple juice*, and it contains essential vitamins A, C and E.

I have enjoyed packing Mott’s for Tots juice boxes in Darah’s lunch this summer when she heads to her twice weekly program. She loves them and thinks they are a really fun treat.

I also let the girls have a small glass each of Mott’s for Tots juice during afternoon snack time. They make quick work of it!

Basically, the girls love to get to have juice at some point in the day, and I feel comfortable giving them an option that has a more reasonable amount of sugar for their small and growing bodies. I’m not alone in choosing Mott’s for Tots as it is also the preferred juice of pediatricians over regular juice.

What’s your stance on fruit juice for your kids? Did you know about Mott’s for Tots?

*Mott’s Fruit Punch Rush and Wild Grape Surge have 15g sugar and the market average of 100% fruit juices and blends have 25g sugar.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Motts for Tots via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.

My Favorite Picnic-Worthy Recipes from Around the Web

June 25, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Thanks to Foodie.com for partnering with me today to form this curated collection of AWESOME recipes! All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

Yesterday I spent 2 hours pouring over recipes online, looking for the PERFECT collection of ideas for a picnic, since July is almost here, and that is National Picnic Month! This research I did was borderline torture, as I wanted to eat most everything I saw, and I wanted it immediately (and not share, either!). All the more reason for me to plan a picnic in the next few weeks! I know what I’ll be making!

Come check out my ideas for the perfect picnic above. It’s got 15 ideas I think you will love! What would you add to the menu?

How to Strengthen Your Nails

How Much Will This Cost?

Why Does It Have to Be Young Living Essential Oil?

The Best Way to Try The Real Deal

One More Way to Order

Need More Info?