InnoTab 3S Blogger Giveaway Opportunity!

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InnoTab 3S Giveaway
This giveaway is hosted by Empowered Mommy and Joys Of Life
FREE blogger opportunity with paid options. OPEN to US/CAN.
Prize: Vtech InnoTab Event Dates: October 15 - November 15 Sign-ups: October 12
Get 1 Free link (Facebook or Twitter) with announcement post. ($5 waiver fee without announcement post) Additional links for $3 each Co-host for $20- Get up-to 3 free additional links and a back-link to your blog on the final giveaway post. Host pages/Comment pages $10 each
The blog who refers the most bloggers will get free co-host spot. (If you paid for co-host and wins referral prize, your payment will be refunded)
Questions? Email me: admin@empoweredmommy.com

Blogger Giveaway Opportunity!

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Halloween Giveaway
This giveaway is hosted by Empowered Mommy and Joys Of Life
FREE blogger opportunity with paid options. OPEN WW.
Prize: $200 Amazon Gift Card Event Dates: October 1 - October 30 Sign-ups: September 28
Get 1 Free link (Facebook or Twitter) with announcement post. ($5 waiver fee without announcement post) Additional links for $3 each Co-host for $20- Get up-to 3 free additional links and a back-link to your blog on the final giveaway post. Host pages/Comment pages $10 each
The blog who refers the most bloggers will get free co-host spot. (If you paid for co-host and wins referral prize, your payment will be refunded)
Questions? Email me: admin@empoweredmommy.com

Diamond Candles {Review + Giveaway!!!!!}

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I am so excited to bring you this review today!
I was offered the chance to get a free Diamond Candle- and to give one of my lucky readers a Diamond Candle too!!!   In every delicious smelling candle, there is a ring worth $10, $100, $1000 or $5000!  It contains instructions right on the jar of how to get to your ring. I wanted to enjoy the candle, rather than try to cheat my way down to the ring, so I let my candle burn naturally and at times that I would normally use it.  I also never poured wax out or dug in the wax.




Day 1: Opened the box.  As soon as I took the lid off the candle, I could smell it.   I picked the Black Raspberry Vanilla and it's heavenly!  It is also about 98 degrees here today and the candle had a little melt to it because it sat in my mailbox all day while I was at work.  It didn't affect the wick or anything, so I'm sure it will be fine.  I can see where the ring is, and it's just over an inch down in the candle.  I think it's nice that it is on the edge where you can see it- I think otherwise you would want to dig in it every chance you got to find out where it was.  I burned the candle for about an hour.



Day 2: Woke up and just had to light it.  My kids first comment was "What's that yummy smell?"  Burned it today for 5 Hours.

Day three: Still enjoying the great smell, burned today for a total of seven hours.

Day four: Burned candle today for two hours and finally discovered the foil package. Extinguished candle and immediately opened ring package, and found this beautiful ring!



I did not end up with a ring worth value, however it's a pretty piece of costume jewelry that I will probably wear to social functions to match outfits that I already own. The real joy out of this was the candle, everyone in my house thought that the candle smelled wonderful and visitors notice the smell right away. It has burned for quite a long time and there still a lot of candles to go, I am looking forward to continuing to enjoy the smell.  If you'd like to see more of their selection, check out their Facebook page!



Overall, it had a great burn time, and a great smell continually.
Time it took to burn down to the ring: 15 hours
Total time burning: 30 hours and counting

So now to the giveaway portion of this blog post, I have been looking forward to this for a couple weeks now. All of my readers have a chance to win one of these wonderful Diamond Candles yourselves! Simply enter via the raffle copter below!  Giveaway ends on September 19th, so enter today!!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: 10 Cute and Handy Ribbon Uses

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I am obsessed with ribbon. The following are my favorite ways to use ribbon because it makes everyday life just a little bit more adorable. Most of these simple ideas can be made with stuff just lying around the house. You can browse bulk ribbon by going here, and start coordinating which colors and patterns you want to use in certain ways.

1. Double knot a ribbon and tie it in a bow around your boring Samsonite luggage. This adds a cute personal touch, and will prevent that awkward and confused moment when you grab a stranger’s luggage. You can use a single ribbon, or go crazy with it, fitting as many as possible onto the handle.

2. Wrap a piece of ribbon around your ponytail and tie a perfect bow. This is classically beautiful, and makes almost any hairstyle look instantly polished. If I realize that my outfit is too dark and drab, a pretty red ribbon in the hair adds life to an otherwise gothic look.

3. Make a photo collage for a loved one, and frame it with the perfect ribbon. I made a black and white mix of photos and glued a bright red ribbon around the edges of a thrift store frame. This turned out to be part of a perfect one year, dating anniversary gift I gave my boyfriend at the time. This idea also happens to be really cheap, so it is great for anybody on a budget.

4. Tie a ribbon around a dress to change the look of your curves. I love this one. Tie the bow and slide it around to the back. This will make your waist look smaller and break up a pattern to add contrast.

5. String up a necklace. If you are like me and have a ton of random pendants lying in a jewelry box that sadly never see the light of day, you can easily repurpose them with ribbon. Get a thin ribbon around ¼ inch wide that matches your outfit and whatever bead you have lying around, and string the necklace however you want. You can also add a clasp to make a more permanent necklace (alternatively you would tie a bow behind your neck). I recommend these jewelry pliers, get the tiny baby ones from Wubbers (cute!), for opening and closing the small jump rings.


6. Tie about five inches of ribbon around a paperclip to make a non-slip book mark. I tend to do most of my reading right at bedtime, and I like that this bookmark allows me to place it directly to the right of the line I start dozing off while reading.


7. Use a real ribbon while gift wrapping. This doubles a gift’s cuteness factor. Even if you are giving the gift to a particularly masculine boyfriend, a bright green or blue ribbon is still appropriate and handy.

8. Tie a ribbon around a canning jar. Canning jars make great containers for dry recipe gifts, lights and even jams or jellies! Whatever you put in the jar, adding a touch of color and decorations will set it off.

9. Use it as a key ring and never chip a nail on those hazardous metal circles again. Make sure to double knot the ribbon so you can rest assured that no keys will go missing.

10. Tie different colors around the stems of wine glasses. Besides adding a cute splash of color to tonight’s glass of wine, it also will help guests at a dinner party keep track of their beverage.


Angela Johnson is a freelance writer for HairBow Center. She loves crafting, sewing and DIY projects of all kinds. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her family and two dogs.

Guest Post: Arts and Crafts with Belarusian Children

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Arts and Crafts with Belarusian Children

This article was written by Ella Rose West, author of the Selfish Mum parenting blog – Ella posts about all things travel, family and home related, and believes passionately in mums living life to the full!


So my best friend did a crazy thing recently and volunteered to let 2 little girls from a village in Belarus stay with her for 4 weeks. Why? I asked her. Why not? she replied. And that’s why I love her.

Let me explain about the girls. They’re from a village in Belarus that is still suffering from the explosion and subsequent radiation leak at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The radiations is still present in the air they breathe back home, in their water supply, and the ground they grow food in, so the villagers are generally very ill, and also very poor. There are charities in many Western countries that bring children across for a month to provide them with better nutrition that helps boost their immune systems and can add years on to their lives. It’s definitely worth checking out in Google!

Babysitting the Kids
She’d asked me in advance whether I’d be her “official” babysitter for the girls, meaning, could she get me CBR checked by the charity so she could dump them on me at a moment’s notice. Great friend – or glutton for punishment – I said yes.
And so that is how I ended up looking after two little girls who barely spoke any English for an evening. Thank God for Google Translate – we coped.



Our Paintings
Ok, so it wasn’t a moment’s notice, she had a work friend’s leaving meal (or something like that) planned in advance, so I knew this day was coming. She’d told me they love to do arts and crafts activities, and so I bought materials, and we made beautiful pictures of the local skyline to take home as souvenirs of their time in the UK.



How to Create the Painting
1. Start by using red paint and lots of water. Do side to side strokes from the top of the page to about two-thirds of the way down. Make sure the paint is a brighter, darker red at the top and becomes paler as you move down the page.
2. Use blue paint and do the exact same thing but from the bottom of your page working upwards to where the red paint ends.
3. Find something circular to draw around to mark the sun, and use a pencil to mark the outline. Colour in using yellow paint.
4. Add some yellow strokes into the red sky and blue sea, brighter nearer to the sun and fading out further away.
5. Add a couple of easy black birds in the sky using black paint.
6. On black paper, draw some of your area’s local landmarks. Cut the silhouettes out and stick them onto the painting.
Voila!


Tiny Ponyo Amigurumi {Crochet Pattern}

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I gave my daughter Ponyo in her little green bucket. :)

My daughters love Ponyo.  My little one especially.  Given the opportunity, some days she will want to watch it on repeat.  I actually don't really mind.  It's a stunningly beautiful movie and well worth having as part of a kids collection.  For Christmas, I like to make gifts that are really personal for people.  I like my receiver to know that they got a gift that was from my heart to theirs.  This last year, I made my little lulu her very own tiny ponyo doll.  I wanted her to be able to hold Ponyo in her hand the way Soskei held Ponyo in his.  So here it is, my tiny ponyo pattern!

Tiny Ponyo Crochet Pattern


Materials Needed:
Size E Hook
Red Heart Worsted Weight Yarn in Orange, Red, White, Black and Creme.  (Smallish amounts)
Embroidery needle

Special Instructions: Place marker at beginning of every row, do not join.

Head:
R1:  In creme, ch2, 6 sc in 1st ch (6 st)
R2: 2 sc in each st around (12 st)
R3: *1 sc, 2 sc* in each st around (18 st)
R4:  1 sc in each st around (18 st)
R5: *1 sc in each of next 4 st, sc2tog* around (15 st)
R6:  1 sc in each st around (15 st)
R7: *1 sc in each of next 4 st, 2 sc in next st* around (18 st)
R8: 1 sc in each of next 4 st, 2 sc in next st, 1 sc in next, 2 sc in next, sc in next, 2 sc in next, sc in next, 2 sc in next, 1 sc in next 4 st (19 st)
R9:  1 sc in each of next st around (19 st)
R10:  1 sc in each of next st around (19 st)
R11:  1 sc in next 4 st, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 st (15 st)
R12: *sc, sc2tog* around, FO, leaving long tail for weaving.

Body:
R1: In red, ch 2, 6 sc in 1st ch (6 st)
R2: 2 sc in each st around (12 st)
R3: *1 sc, 2 sc* around (18 st)
R4: *1 sc, 1 sc, 2 sc* around (24 st)
R5-R9: 1 sc in each st around (24 st)
R10: *1 sc, 1 sc, sc2tog* around (18 st)
R11-R12: 1 sc in each st around (18 st)
R13: *2 sc in next, 2 sc in next, sc2tog* around (30 st)
R14: *sc, 2 sc, sc, sc2tog* around, ending at second sc repeat.
R15: *1 sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next * around, sc in last st, FO, leaving long tail for weaving.

Bottom:
R1: In white, ch 2, 6 sc in 1st ch (6 st)
R2: 2 sc in each st around (12 st)
R3: *1 sc, 2 sc* around (18 st)
R4: *1 sc, 1 sc, 2 sc* around, FO leaving long tail for weaving. (24 st)

Tummy:
R1: In white, ch 2, 6 sc in 1st ch (6 st)
R2: 2 sc in each st around (12 st)
R3: *1 sc, 2 sc* around, FO, leaving long tail for weaving. (18 st)

Eyes (make 2)
R1: With white, ch 2, 6 sc in 1st ch, FO, leaving long tail for weaving (6 st)

Arms (make 2)
R1: With red, ch 2, 4 sc in 1st ch (4 st)
R2: 2 sc in each st around (8 st)
R3-4: 1 sc in each st around (8 st)
FO, leaving long tail for weaving.

Assembly:

Embroider pupils onto eyes.

Attach Arms to body.

Stuff body, attach white bottom piece to body.

Attach eyes to head.

Embroider smile onto face.

Stuff head, attach to body.

Add hair with short pieces using a latch hook method.

Love your little Ponyo!!!!


How to Feng Shui Your Home {Infographic}

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 Many people find that their home can quickly become disorganized, no longer making it a place of calm and serenity. The clutter begins to affects every room in a home, and sometimes it seems like there is no solution to make it better. With all the toys of your children laying around, and that mess from dinner, and the clothes that didn't get put away last night, your house looks like a war-zone, rather than somewhere to come and find peace.
 If you're looking to increase the feelings of love, wealth and prosperity, and creativity in your home, take a look at this infographic from Soothing Walls. From room to room, in a step-by-step manner, they take you through your home with the goal of feng shui in every area. The tips that are provided are simple enough as not to overwhelm, but detailed enough so that you truly increase the positive feelings throughout your home. Get started redesigning today!

Scouting Sunday #16: Moustache Crafts

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Here's a Quick Scouting!  Mustaches have been a huge trend lately, which, quite frankly, I can't explain.  However, they are quirky and amusing and I thought I would bring you all some fun mustache crafts for you to try on your own!


silly mustache straw craft
Make your own silly mustache straws!!

mustache cup cozy crochet craft
Crochet your own Mustache cup cozy!

knit mustache cowl cozy diy
Knit your own Mustache Cowl
mustache diy
Make your own mustache!
print and cut mustache craft
Simply print and cut your own disguise!