Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Kraft Cooking School: A Great Resource for the Home Cook

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I hope everyone is having a really fun Halloween weekend with their families and friends!

Now that the fall holiday season is in full swing, I wanted to share a resource I learned about that I’m enjoying. Kraft has a “cooking school” online that has some quick and helpful videos with cooking tips and techniques, step by step recipes and more! I’ve been cooking for many years now, but I still have lots to learn in the kitchen (let’s just say I’ve never been up for any “cook of the year” awards!).

Anyway, if you need some holiday recipe ideas, want to learn a few tips and tricks, or just need a refresher in the basics (like how to boil an egg), check out the Kraft Cooking School!

Bring Clean Water to Others: Charity Water

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of  iNetVideo. All opinions are 100% mine.

Charity Water

I always love hearing about when businesses are putting some of their resources into making the world a better place. I don’t know about you, but knowing that a company really cares makes me want to shop with them!

I just learned that iNetVideo.com has launched a nonprofit called Charity Water to raise funds to build a freshwater well in a village that currently doesn’t have access to clean water. This is going to provide over 250 people with clean drinking water, and positively change their lives in ways we take for granted every day. Imagine if you had to travel long distances (usually by foot) to go get your daily supply of water, and you had to carry back everything you planned to use! It would take a great deal of time and energy. What if you couldn’t make the journey one day? You’d just have to go without or risk getting a disease from the unclean water that may be more readily available. Wow.

On any given day, roughly 4,500 people DIE from water-related diseases. Providing access to clean water truly saves lives. I applaud iNetVideo.com for their efforts to bring clean water to communities currently without it.

Charitywater_tank

So how can you help the Charity Water project? There are 3 ways:

1) spread the word of the iNetVideo charity water campaign via email, facebook or twitter

2) Look for the water drop and buy those items on iNetVideo.com and they will donate $1 to their water project for you

3) Donate directly to the project by visiting:

http://mycharitywater.org/iNetVideo-Charity-Water-2010

This is a non-profit, so all donations are tax-deductible!

I want to encourage you all to take a moment to give thanks for the clean water coming out of your faucets, and donate a few dollars to help make that happen for someone else.

Visit my sponsor: Charity Water: iNetVideo.com Gives Back!

Pillowcase Purse: Affordable, Green, Unique Gift Idea

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Are you currently trying to come up with ideas for gifts to give to others this holiday season? Have you been asked to give ideas for yourself and are drawing a blank? Well going green is HUGE for a second year in a row, so I would love to suggest that you think closely about gift ideas that support reducing, reusing and recyling in all its various forms. One way that has really caught on big is something called “up-cycling.” This is basically when you take an item and repurpose its parts to make something way cooler than what it originally was. Today I’m bringing you a very cool up-cycled product!

pillowcase purse from uniquerabbit Check out these pillowcase totes from Unique Rabbit! Kimberly, the owner of Unique Rabbit, has taken vintage pillowcases and turned them into fabulous bags that can serve a variety of purposes. These can hold your groceries, serve as a diaper bag, a toy holder, a library book holder (that’s what I use mine for every single week!) or any other number of purposes. And since it is made from vintage fabrics that are pretty much one-of-a-kind at this point, what you have will be totally unique. And isn’t it fun to have something that NOBODY else has? You know it is! The bag is also super soft, which simply makes it nice to carry! 🙂 Every time I take my bag out (which is every week!) someone comments on how very cool it is.

I can’t say enough about what a fantastic gift idea this is, especially if you are on a tight budget. Including shipping, this bag will set you back $10.50. That’s $10.50 for a handmade, one-of-a-kind, super cute, super green, super functional gift. Kimberly only has a few of these in stock, so jump on them now before they are gone!

Unique Rabbit is one of the very first stores that I ever featured on my blog. For that reason, and because Kimberly makes wonderful products, this is a store that I have so much love for in my heart! Please take a moment to look around her shop and see if anything catches your eye. Oh, and if you aren’t using paperless towels at this point in your kitchen, please do yourself a favor and purchase some right now. Her prices can’t be beat!

Win it!: Would you like to win an up-cycled tote? Of course you would! Here’s your chance! The contest will run until November 7th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is drawn Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me about a time you re-purposed something. Sewing doesn’t have to be involved! For example: I recently re-purposed a beautiful short stem vase that hadn’t been used in years into a pencil and pen holder on my desk!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Add Unique Rabbit to your Etsy favorites!
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Google Friend Connect (totally easy and no big deal to sign up if you haven’t before! Just check out my sidebar).

Be sure to check out the other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage. My giveaways typically have good odds!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Sears KitchenAid Sweepstakes: Don’t Miss This One!

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Are you a homeowner? Are your kitchen appliances looking a little (or a lot) outdated? I can see a lot of heads out there nodding up and down.

Do you have a spare $8,000 to do some sweet upgrades? No??? Are you sure???? Bummer…

But Sears does! And they want to rescue your kitchen from the wrong decade! Check out the !!! This sweepstakes is only going on until November 2nd, so take just 5 minutes right now and get your entry in! Someone is going to win big, and I think it should be YOU!

All you have to do is submit a photo of your kitchen and 1-2 sentences to Sears and share why your appliances need rescuing! This is SO worth doing, people!

What will you win?! Oh boy…how about a suite of appliances from KitchenAid (worth $7,000!), Service Live Credits toward remodeling (worth $1,000) and a phone consultation with Susan Serra, Sears’ kitchen design expert (worth $200). I told you it was worth entering!

Run to your kitchen right now and snap a photo (who cares if it is messy? All the better for the photo, I think!). Upload it, and start feeling excited about the possibility of winning! YOU WILL NOT WIN IF YOU DON’T ENTER! Just think of all the people out there right now who aren’t willing to take 5 minutes to do this. THEIR LOSS, YOUR GAIN! 🙂

And if you win, pretty please tell me so that I can be crazy jealous. Green is my color.

Disclosure: This is a compensated post through the Mom Bloggers Club program. All opinions about the awesomeness of this contest are strictly my own.


 

Pesticide-Free Feminine Care Products (Chances are that Yours Aren’t!)

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Last month I told you about how Seventh Generation has launched a fantastic site called Let’s Talk…Period that provides really helpful information about ovarian cancer (a must-read, ladies!). They are also donating $1 (up to $10,000!) for every person who signs up on their site to learn more potentially life-saving information. Everybody wins! If you didn’t get a chance to sign up in September, I want to encourage you once again to go check out Let’s Talk…Period.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to brag on Seventh Generation for their wonderful line of feminine hygiene products. Did you know that most tampons have been bleached with chlorine and have rayon in them, which is a common chemical found in pesticides? I don’t want to get too personal, but let’s all just think for a moment about whether or not we think having pesticides in or anywhere around our lady parts is a good or bad idea. Hmm….

seventh generation tampons Seventh Generation’s line of pantiliners, pads and tampons are all chlorine and rayon free! Woo hoo! I never really knew to be concerned about this issue, but I sure am glad to know about it now, and to make a change over to products that I can actually trust (is anyone else out there freaked out by all the products that actually have cancer-causing ingredients in them? It’s like I hear a new story every week!).

Thank you, Seventh Generation, for offering products that are truly safe for the environment and for our bodies. And thank you for dedicating some web space and some serious money to ovarian cancer education and research.

New to Seventh Generation? Register on their site and score some great coupons!

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Natural Mosquito Repellent: Cake Face Soap

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So Chattanooga, or at least my back yard in Chattanooga, seems to have a bit of a mosquito problem. Just now, here at the end of October, the mosquitoes seem to be finally leaving/dying/whatever it is that bugs do for the winter. Thank goodness! Darah and I like to sit on the back porch and wait for Tim to ride home on his bike, and EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. we do this, I get bit once if I’m lucky, but usually 3 or 4 times. I hate it!

I thought about breaking out the Off! with Deet, but that stuff is so toxic, and Darah is always sitting with me, so that’s just not an option. I want something that is not as bad for me as it is for the mosquitoes.

Natural Mosquito Repellent

natural mosquito repellent: cake face soap There’s a fabulous little shop on Etsy called Cake Face that offers a soap designed to keep you smelling fabulous AND keep those little buggers off of you. I am totally in love with this soap. It smells like citronella and sunshine. What a fabulous trick Mother Nature played by making something that smells so great to humans smell so repulsive to mosquitoes!

While mosquito season is probably over in your neck of the woods, too, I think this soap is a something you’ll definitely want to have on hand for when those blood suckers make their triumphant return. This is also a wonderful gift idea for anyone you know who seems to be a strong target for bugs (I’m extremely tasty to mosquitoes, and I envy those of you who aren’t!).

I think Cake Face is a very cool company because the owner, Kelsey, has a passion for offering natural skin care products. She has personally experienced the health benefits of using natural products, and she pours her love of all things natural into her work. I can tell that she does so, because the quality of her soap is truly outstanding.

natural mosquito repellent In addition to offering this delightful and useful soap, Cake Face also has a beautiful selection of other cold pressed soaps (that eucalyptus tea soap looks AWESOME!), bath fizzies and candles, and even a few soaps geared towards men (I LOVE the Optimus Prime soap…that was one of Tim’s favorite tv characters growing up!).

Buy it!: Looking for some budget-friendly but delightful holiday gift ideas? Shop Cake Face and you’ll definitely have some happy gift recipients!

Win it!: Cake Face would like to offer one lucky Stuff Parents Need Reader a bar of soap of your choice! Woo hoo! This will make an awesome holiday gift, or keep it and spoil yourself a little bit! 🙂 The contest will run until November 5th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell Kelsey a smell that you love, especially at bath time. For example: I LOVE this scent that Bath and Body works makes (or used to make, not sure if they still carry it) that is rice flower and shea. To. Die. For.

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Cake Face on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Google Friend Connect

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, located on the sidebar of my home page.

I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

$20 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway for all you Facebook Fans!

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Today I’m bringing you a fabulous $20 Amazon gift card, courtesy of the Double Duty Divas, a review group I am part of and love so much (if you are a review blogger, check them out!).

Previously we did a DDDivas “follow us on Twitter” campaign, which was SO much fun, and we’ve done a “Meet the Divas” opportunity where you could check us out and subscribe (there’s a wonderful list of Divas here if you missed it in June).

This giveaway is focused on getting to know the Divas on Facebook! If you aren’t on Facebook, give up the fight and GET ON! You are missing amazing discounts that businesses only offer to their fans, great giveaways and of course, all your old friends from high school! 🙂

Do you have to “like” ALL the DDDivas to enter? No! But that’s not a bad idea, either! To sign up for a chance to win on my site, here are the rules (and they do deviate a bit from the traditional SPN rules, so listen up). The contest will run until November 5th at 12:00 noon EST when the entries will be handed over to DDDivas. DDDivas will draw the winner from all qualified entries. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory entry: “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Additional entries.
1. “Like” Real Moms Real Views
2. “Like” Hot Mom Tips
3. “Like” Reviewer’s Retreat
4. “Like” Thanks, Mail Carrier
5. “Like” Review Retreat
6. “Like” The B Keeps Us Honest
7. “Like” The Mommy Diaries
8. “Like” Experimental Mommy
9. “Like” My Four Monkeys
10. “Like” Icefairiy’s Treasure Chest

Be sure to check out all my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my home page.

A $20 gift card to Amazon. There will be one winner for the entire promotional campaign, not one winner per blog. All entries will be pooled together and one winner will be selected.

Shoes for the Shoe Hating Baby!

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Ladies and gentlemen, Darah is FINALLY walking! She started a few weeks ago and hasn’t looked back! She still crawls around a bit here and there, but she’s getting better every day at walking. She is SO PROUD of herself, too, which just adds to the cuteness of the whole thing.

You may recall that Darah hates shoes. HATES them. I went at least 6 months without even attempting to put them on her, because I knew it was an exercise in futility. This is been a source of concern for me, because I know that she needs to wear some shoes to protect her feet as she starts walking everywhere. I’ve been hunting around for a quality shoe that Darah might actually wear for more than 45 seconds. I discovered pediped, a brand whose tag line is, “the next best thing to bare feet.” I thought that this had to be my best shot at getting her to wear shoes. And if they didn’t work, I’d just be thankful that we’d be saving thousands of dollars over the next 18 years since she wouldn’t need any shoes. 🙂

You guys, what I’m about to tell you is so unbelievable that I have been struggling to put it into words. But I’m just gonna report back to you the facts, which are as follows:

1. Darah wears these shoes. At first she wore them for an hour (which was completely unheard of). Now she wears them for 5 or 6 hours.

2. Darah still won’t wear ANY other pair of shoes that she owns.

3. She brings the shoes to me and asks to wear them. This is after she attempts to put them on herself.

I can hardly believe it myself. Is this shoe magic? What is the secret?! It turns out that pediped Originals line closely mimics barefoot walking. From their site, “When children learn to walk they tend to shuffle, so rubber soles or shoes with grip force children to change their natural stride and can actually make them trip. Originals have a durable, slip-resistant leather sole. They’re roomy so the foot can move and grip and they’re flexible so your child can actually feel the floor. The hand-stitched leather sole allows your child’s foot to breathe.”

I’ll tell you one thing: Darah is going to be getting pediped shoes from now on. They are definitely more expensive than the cute shoes I find on clearance at Target, but clearly a closet full of cute but cheap shoes that go unworn is a waste of money, and I’d rather put her in 1-2 pairs at each stage that she loves and that are good for her growing feet!

I also wanted to let you know that pediped has a great contest going on right now, and you should definitely enter! In celebration of the latest Tinker Bell movie, pediped is giving away a trip for 4 to London! Go to the pediped website and fill out the simple form, and you’ve got a chance to win!

Buy it!: pediped offers amazing shoe options for the pre-walker, early walker, toddler and full-on runner in your house! I am one thrifty mama but I’m telling you, these are worth every penny they cost. Check them out; you won’t be disappointed! I’m thinking about snagging the Annie shoes that are on sale! edit: I DID snag them! 🙂

Disclosure: I received a complimentary pair of shoes in exchange for my post. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

$12 to use at eShakti, FREE!

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A while back I wrote about eShakti, a very cool company that is working to make custom clothing surprisingly affordable. I just got an email from them offering me $12 to use at their store. No strings attached. Just free $12 credit! Woot!

Lucky me, right? Well lucky you, too! They sent me a code to pass along to all of you! Now run along and get yourself something extra special for work, an upcoming function, or for no reason at all other than the fact that you are worth it! 🙂

code: STNR1V This will take $12 off any purchase at eShakti!

If you buy something, I totally want to hear about what you get so that I can ooh and ahh. I love eShakti!