Stuff Parents Need

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

Hand Painted Wooden Letters

· by · 185 Comments

There are SO MANY adorable ways to embellish a child’s room. I spent hours upon hours making plans for Darah’s nursery. I think that process is so much fun, especially for the first one! I can’t imagine that I’ll have the kind of time I had this time to plan the next nursery in a few years.


I have so much gratitude in my heart for all of the crafty/creative/artistic folks out there who produce such beautiful products. I don’t possess any of these gifts. No, really. I’m the polar opposite of crafty when it comes to my skill level with scissors, glue guns, sewing machines, or drawing pads. Thank goodness that there are people who can help a girl like me out when she wants to do something cool or cute in her home!

I want to introduce you to one such company that helps bring magic and fun into a child’s room. Artiwood Letters is an Australian-based company that makes hand painted wooden letters with the coolest characters on them! I recently won a giveaway hosted by The Candid Reviewer, and was able to get DARAH in the precious fairy letters! I absolutely love them. I can’t decide where I want to put them at the moment. I’m thinking about putting them on her door so that they can be seen everytime we go in her room!Artiwood Letters are handpainted with lead-free paints, which makes them totally child-friendly. Each letter has a self-adhesive patch on the back, which makes it easy to stick them to most any surface. I think they offer a great way to give a personalized gift to a child. What is more fun than having your name on your wall, and using letters that are decorated using animals, fairies, dolphins, dinosaurs or koalas! They are also affordable, at $3.95/letter plus $9.50 for shipping worldwide.

Win it!: Artiwood Letters wants to give you the chance to add something wonderful and handmade to your child’s room decor. One of you will win up to 8 letters in your choice of design! The contest will run until July 12th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents worldwide!

Mandatory entry: Tell me the animal used in the alphabet design on the letter that begins your first name (for example: my name is Tiffany, so my entry would be tiger).

Additional entries:
1. Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by email, RSS or Google Friend Connect (only one extra entry, even if you subscribe multiple ways).
2. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
3. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter
4. Follow Artiwood Letters on Twitter
4. If you have a blog, add my button to your site and send me the url so that I can see it

Be sure to check out my other reviews and giveaways (listed under “current giveaways” on the sidebar of my main page)

Is Your Child The Cutest Kid?

· by · 3 Comments

Naturally, I think I have an adorable child…every mom thinks that, right?! I have had people suggest to me that Darah get professional head shots so that she can be in a Baby Gap ad, be the next Gerber baby, or perhaps grace the cover of Parents magazine. I appreciate all the kind words, and sometimes I do wonder if maybe, just maybe, I could get her a few gigs and help fill up that (currently empty) college savings fund for her. But then I think about stage moms and I get grossed out and let the idea go.

But now I’m hearing about this website called The Cute Kid. They have a Cute Kid of the Year Photo Contest. Here’s how it works:

  • You submit a photo of your baby (no charge)
  • By signing up (for free) and submitting a photo, you get a free 8×10 canvas photo. Sweet!
  • A panel of judges (industry professionals) will judge photos. Those that are submitted free of charge don’t have a guarantee of being seen by talent scouts (though they might).
  • For a fee of $19.95, you can enter the contest. There are monthly prizes totaling over $5,000 and a grand prize each year of $25,000. Hello college fund! It is also worth noting that folks who enter the contest get a free subscription to Parents magazine and a free 11 x 14 canvas. I’m thinking that’s a pretty great deal. You get great stuff, and who knows? Your kid might actually be the cutest, in which case you will make some serious cash! 🙂

What I like about this competition is that it doesn’t require you to go anywhere and have your child actively compete against other children or have to “be on” for the judges. You just submit a photo of your beautiful child (and we all have beautiful children), enjoy your magazine and your canvas photo, and anything else is a bonus.

What do you think? Want to give it a try with me?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. The opinions are expressly my own. Yay cute kids and free stuff!

How to Baby Proof with Style

· by · 100 Comments

In the first year of life with a baby, it feels as though you get an entirely new child about every 3 months, at least in terms of all the things that they are able to do! There have been several “game changers” in the last 11 months for Darah, but none of them have been more radical than when she started crawling. We thought that she had us on our toes before, but we had no idea how life was about to change! We had to figure out how to baby proof, and fast.

Once Darah finally got the hang of crawling, she started zooming all over the house. I imagine that she’s checking out all the places that she’s had her eyes on for months. It must be so amazing to FINALLY be able to get to whatever it is you want to see/touch/taste/slobber on.

We had done some baby proofing here and there over the past few months, but only once Darah started crawling did we realize the full extent of our baby-proofing needs. Suddenly, the house has become one huge danger zone, with sharp corners, wobbly objects and off-limits substances EVERYWHERE. It is unbelievable.

how to baby-proof with style

We inherited some baby-proofing products from relatives, but we also needed to get some ourselves. First, let me just say that getting “the good stuff” in the world of baby-proofing isn’t cheap. But you don’t want to go too cheap on the very items that are supposed to keep your baby safe, right? Second, everything related to baby-proofing is U-G-L-Y. It’s all white and plastic. This works for our white buffet table in the dining room, but that’s it. All the other baby-proofing items look awful.

how to baby proof with rhoost edge Fortunately, a company called Rhoost is working on this problem! I had the opportunity to try out the edge, which is a screw and adhesive free way to round out those sharp corner (and believe me, you have no idea how many sharp corners are in your house until you have a little one toddling around!). We find this product to be effective without looking terrible. In fact, we don’t really notice it too much, at all, which is ideal. I really like the fact that it is easy (for adults) to take on and off…this makes it easy to take with you when you are traveling to places that might not be baby-proofed!

how to baby proof with rhoost sling Rhoost also makes a really cool product called the sling, which keeps those cabinet doors shut tight. It comes in black or brown, which will compliment most cabinet colors. Great idea, Rhoost! I definitely want to get a set for our kitchen cabinets.

Buy It!: The Edge retails for $14.99 for a set of 4, and the Sling retails for $9.99 for a set of 4. The prices are fair and the way they look is oh-so-nice. They can be purchased on Amazon.

Win It!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to get a 4 pack of the Sling! All right! The contest will run until July 11th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be drawn using Random.org. The winner will be emailed (be sure to have your email address in your profile or leave it in the comment) and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is drawn. Limit one entrant per household, please. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me one item that needs to be baby-proofed in your home.

Additional entries:
1. Subscribe to my blog via email, RSS or Google friend connect (only one extra entry, even if you subscribe multiple ways).
2. Subscribe to the Rhoost blog
3. Follow me on Twitter
4. Follow Rhoost on Twitter
5. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
6. If you have a blog, add my button to your blog roll, and send me a link so that I can see it.

Be sure to check out my other current giveaways (listed on the sidebar of my homepage).

Disclosure: I received a product sample in order to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post may contain affiliate links at no cost to you. 

Wet Bags: A Cloth Diapering Necessity (GIVEAWAY!!!)

· by · 203 Comments

In our cloth diapering journey, we have discovered that you really need something called a wet bag. A wet bag is like a laundry bag for your cloth diapers. It has a waterproof inner-lining and it zips up to keep those unfortunate odors at bay until it is time to do laundry. Wet bags come in a variety of sizes, from small ones designed to hold 1-2 diapers (great for taking with you when you run errands around town) to a bag that will hold 5-6 diapers, all the way up to large bags that will hold up to 2 days worth of cloth diapers.

wet bag for cloth diapers with dragons on it When I was looking at wet bag options, I knew I wanted to go big first. I got connected with Michelle, the owner of a terrific WAHM (work at home mom) company called Sewing Mom Just Accessories, Etc. (SMJAE). She had some fun prints available on her site, and one, in particular, really caught my eye. Check out this fabulous print with dragons on it! SOOOO cute! Michelle had a small bag advertised with this pattern, but I contacted her to see if she could make a large. She had enough fabric, so we were in business! This goes to show that with Michelle, if you have a special request, just get in touch with her and she’ll let you know if she can do it!

Michelle made the bag in just a few days, and then sent it my way. When it arrived, I was pleased to discover that the fabric had been pre-washed to prevent shrinkage. The bag looked absolutely fantastic. The seams all look tight and professionally done, and the zipper is secure. I have already washed the bag 5 times, and it has held up beautifully. I’ve also loaded it up with diapers, and it has held up against the weight of them just fine.

Right now I am sending this wet bag with Darah to daycare and emptying it out each evening. I will eventually be getting a medium wet bag for daycare, and I’ll be keeping the “dragon bag” (as I call it) at home to hold all the dirty diapers that come back home over a 2 day period (including the diapers we’ll be using on her at home). I think that you can get by with just one wet bag if your child goes to daycare, but it is easier if you have 2 (or even 3…with one for your daytime errands).

We’ve been cloth diapering for a while now, and haven’t had a wet bag. Trust me, it is a big improvement to the entire system to get one! We were just putting the dirty diapers on top of our washing machine in the laundry room, and that definitely made it a stinky place. Keeping your diapers in a wet bag helps reduce the “ick” factor that keeps many people from trying cloth. And I found that the wet bag does a good job of containing the overall odor. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, folks. Dirty diapers smell bad. Just sayin’.

If you are looking for a wet bag, I know from first-hand experience that Michelle offers quality products with cute designs at reasonable prices. Support a WAHM and make a purchase from her. Her small wet bags start at $9.99, and you can email her for prices for larger bags. I am currently obsessing over this wet bag…the print has robots at camp on it. I don’t even have the words to describe how cute this is, folks!

Win It!: Michelle is ready to help one lucky Stuff Parents Need reader get their cloth diapering adventure (or any other adventure with kids!) in check with a small custom wet bag in your choice of prints! The contest will run until July 10th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be selected. Open to residents of the United States. Only one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me the fabric you will select if you win, and choose wisely, as the winner will get what they choose for this entry!(you can scroll over each fabric to see its number, and you can just write that down as the choice).

Additional entries:

1. Subscribe to my blog via email, RSS or Google Friend Connect (one extra entry total, even if you subscribe multiple ways)

2. Tell me one other item SMJAE offers that you also like

3. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

4. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

5. If you are a blogger, put my new button on my site and leave me a link so I can see it

6. Tweet about this giveaway (you may tweet once/day, and your entry must include a link to your tweet)

Be sure to check out my other current reviews and giveaways (listed on the sidebar of my home page).

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post. I paid for this wet bag, but I did receive a discount. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

How Do I Find a Babysitter?

· by · Leave a Comment

Have you heard about Sittercity? I’m mulling over joining, and I’m curious to hear if anyone who reads this blogs has tried it yet.
Don’t know what it is? Sittercity is America’s largest and most trusted site for matching parents with local babysitters and nannies as well as pet sitters, senior care providers and tutors. Basically, people with sitting experience of various types create profiles where they list their age, experience level, education, expected pay for service, references, a photo and some information about themselves. They also note if a sitter has completed a background check!

You can go to the website and type in your zip code to see who in your area is registered. Being able to contact the people of interest to you does require that you become a member. Membership is $99 annually. You can also pay by the month, but there’s a $35 sign up fee if you go that route, so the annual membership is the deal.

I’m really tempted to give this a try because you can try it out for FREE for 7 days. I think that’s awesome! You never know…you might just find your perfect babysitter during your free trial week! 🙂

Please let me know if you decide to give it a try! I think I might take the leap. Now I just have to think about where Tim and I would go on a date if we hired a sitter!

Also be sure to check out their pay calculator. This is helpful for me, because I REALLY wish I could find an amazing babysitter who liked to be paid with chocolate chip cookies and hugs! Turns out, they need $10/hour MINIMUM in Memphis. Drats.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Emeals Meal Planning Service Review

· by · 73 Comments

I’ve talked before on this blog about what a challenge it is to cook at home every day. We are on a fairly tight budget, so eating out often isn’t really an option. But that doesn’t mean that we magically have time to plan our meals out every week and prepare them nightly while also trying to feed Darah and start her nighttime routine. Even though I try to make a menu for the week, I often will leave a crucial ingredient off of the grocery list, which throws everything into a downward spiral and Tim heads out the door to pick up takeout or we just turn to our boxes of cereal. I’ve also run into the problem of planning a pretty decent menu, and getting to the store only to realize that some of my key ingredients are either unavailable or ridiculously expensive (our Kroger is seriously lacking in the produce and cheese departments, as well as the specialty meats).

I wanted to tell you about a really cool online meal planning service that helps remedy every problem but the actual food preparation (sorry, the computer can’t do the cooking for you!). emeals is a menu planning service that plans a week’s worth of dinners for your family. And get this; the meals are based off of what is on sale at your local grocery store, which will save you a nice little bundle each week! Woo hoo!

Just log into emeals, print your recipes and your shopping list. You don’t have to do any planning at all! It even tells you what the price of the items you are buying should be. I really love that feature. I know that if you can plan a menu based on what is on sale at the store that week, you are money ahead. But I have NO TIME to sit down with the flyer and come up with a list of dishes that use all the bargains! emeals does that for you. Brilliant.


I had the opportunity to try out E-Mealz for a month. I loved it, though I would like to see some of the meal options be just a bit healthier. You can check out a sample menu here to get a sense for if E-Mealz offers the types of food your family likes to eat. They actually offer some low-fat menus, so those may have been a better fit for us. I would also suggest that E-Mealz send email reminders to subscribers when the new grocery list is available. With all the chaos in my home, I forgot to check in with E-Mealz twice during the month, which bummed me out. Other than that, though, I think this is an amazing service and I would highly recommend it for folks who need to save money by eating at home, but who are also short on time.

Buy It!: E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families costs as little as $1.25/week. Imagine how much time and money you will save…$1.25/week is a total steal. Also, if you use the code SAVEMONEY at checkout, you can save an additional 10% off your first purchase of a meal plan!

Win It!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a three month subscription to emeals. Get ready to get some of your time back! Woo hoo! The contest will run until July 7th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me which emeals plan you would select if you win!

Additional Entries:
1. Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by email, RSS or Google Friend Connect (one entry, total, even if you subscribe multiple ways)
2. Follow E-Mealz on Twitter
3. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter
4. “Like” E-Mealz on Facebook
5. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
6. Tweet about this giveaway (only one extra entry for this)
7. If you are a blogger, add my button to your blog and leave me a url so I can find it!

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

Disclosure: I received a complimentary subscription in order to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.



How to Clean Those Hard-To-Clean Surfaces with Ultraviolet Light

· by · 332 Comments

I can hardly be called a germ-a-phobe. If you have ever been to my home, you will see that I’m not afraid of the occasional (ok, frequent) dust bunny, or of a kitchen sink that isn’t sparkling. Our time is limited, and I know when Darah gets older I will only wish I had played with her more, NOT mopped the floors more often. Different strokes for different folks, but around here we are pretty laid back about housekeeping.

With that said, however, I am concerned about how to keep germs at bay, especially with a baby in the house. Pre-baby, if I wanted to disinfect something, I would simply break out the heavy-duty chemicals and go to town. That just won’t do, anymore, because now I realize how harmful those chemicals are to inhale and especially to ingest (remember, babies lick/chew on EVERYTHING). Furthermore, we now have items in our home that are just difficult to clean, either because of their shape, size or material. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t getting dirty. So what’s the solution?

Cleaning with Ultraviolet Light

Check out my video below where I show you!

The Verilux Clean Wave Sanitizing Wand is an amazing product, and it is such a nice addition to our cleaning routine. In the same way that we are relaxed about our housekeeping, in general, we are relaxed about using the ultraviolet light wand. But we will generally pick one room to attack each week, and it feels great knowing that we eliminated some seriously gross stuff that was hanging out, waiting for the opportunity to potentially make us sick!
I have also taken the wand to Darah’s daycare, which of course is a den of gross since the babies take turns drooling on all the toys and each other. I’m going to make a habit of dropping it off in her classroom at least once each month so that the ladies there can disinfect the room throughout the day. I think all the parents will be grateful for any efforts we can make to eliminate germs in that room.

Buy It!: If you are looking for a way to disinfect your home without chemicals, or to clean surfaces that are otherwise hard to clean, the Verilux Clean Wave Sanitizing Wand is a terrific choice. Plus, you totally feel like a Jedi when you use it! That really does make cleaning fun! It’s on sale right now for $69.95, so don’t miss out on a great buy!

Edit: This giveaway is CLOSED.

Win It!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader needs to put the germs in your house on notice, because you are going to win a Verilux Clean Wave Sanitizing Wand of your very own! The contest will run until July 4th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be drawn using Random.org. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me the item/surface in your house that you would clean first with the Verilux Clean Wave Sanitizing Wand!
Additional Entries:
1. Follow Verilux on Twitter
2. “Like” Verilux on Facebook
3. Sign up for email updates from Verilux (bottom left corner of this page)
4. Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by RSS, email or Google Friend Connect (only 1 entry, total, even if you subscribe multiple ways)
5. If you are a blogger, add my button to your blog (must be the new button, and not the old pink one). Include a link so that I can see it.
6. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter
7. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to check out all the other current giveaways (look on the sidebar of my main page for a full list).

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

Gift Idea for the Eighth Anniversary

· by · 174 Comments

In May, Tim and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. You probably know that each year of an anniversary has a “traditional” gift associated with it (paper, wood, silver, gold, etc.). Well, the eighth anniversary traditional gift is bronze. That’s a tricky one, folks! When I was thinking of gift ideas for Tim, I immediately gave up on getting him the traditional gift. Tim, on the other hand, did not.

eighth anniversary gift idea: bronze necklace The morning of our anniversary he brought me to the computer and showed me this multi-stranded bib necklace at A Common Thread (he had already purchased it, but it was not here yet). When I saw it, I thought it looked bold, and not really like something I would typically wear. I was curious about why he picked it out for me. It turns out, he’d put a great deal of thought into this purchase. This necklace has some bronze in it, and he said he wanted to get me bronze for a few reasons. First, bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Combining two metals together reminded him of how we have grown together as a couple over the last few years. Also, he pointed out that bronze, itself, is not a very strong metal. However, as it interacts with the elements in the air, a patina forms over it, which turns it into a very strong metal. This is also similar to what can happen in a marriage. On your own you may struggle, but with your partner, and over time, you develop an unbreakable strength.

Isn’t he amazing?

I wear my necklace with a great deal of pride, because it is an outward symbol of the strength and beauty of my marriage. This piece of jewelry is a treasure to me, and a work of art. What an amazing eighth anniversary gift!

Now I have the opportunity to not only introduce you to this wonderful company, but also to the woman behind it! Meet Stefanie, the crafter who creates all the pieces featured on A Common Thread. She is a one woman business, and makes everything by hand herself in her Brooklyn studio. She makes beautiful, bold jewelry and weaves together new pieces with vintage materials to make something unique, classic, and fashion-forward.

Edit: This giveaway is CLOSED

Win It!: I told Stefanie about my blog and my wonderful readers, and she offered to do a giveaway just for you! One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will receive her choice of either the Vintage Gold Ball Locket or the Vintage Gold Heart Necklace, both of which are absolutely perfect for new moms! The contest will run until July 5th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory Entry: 1. Tell me if you prefer the locket or the heart necklace (winner will get what s/he chooses for this entry) and 2. Tell me one other piece you love in Stefanie’s shop.

Additional Entries:
1. Join Stefanie’s mailing list to learn about upcoming sales in her shop
2. “Like” A Common Thread on Facebook
3. Add A Common Thread to your Etsy Favorites
4. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter
5. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
6. Subscribe/follow Stuff Parents Need via email, RSS, or Google Friend Connect (only one entry, even if you subscribe multiple ways)

Be sure to check out my other giveaways (listed on the sidebar of my homepage)!