Favorite Things : The best lotion ever!

I have so many things that I use everyday that I LUHUV so much I want to share, from things in my home to my favorite products, pretty much anything.

And Today's lucky item is. . .

Burt Bees Milk and Honey Lotion.

I have tried so many lotions and I kinda like some and hate others. I never love any of them.

The ones I kinda like are usually full of extra "stuff" that I know isn't good for my skin.

I love all of the Burt Bee's products I've tried so I didn't hesitate to to try their lotions.

This bottle of goodness is 99% natural, smells yummy, and it works wonders on dry hands and elbows. No greasy,sticky mess. Just pure, natural, skin lovin' moisturizers.  

It smells so good on my boys too. And it quenches my 2-year-old's desert dry, exzema prone skin.

The price is about $8 for a 6 oz bottle. I don't like to pay a lot for lotions and this was near the top of my price range, but I promise you it is worth every one of those dollars!

Natural, non-greasy, good smelling, and it really works!

"Choo Choo" Birthday Boys comin' through!

Happy Monday!

Last week I got a fun picture from some of our happy customers in Wisconsin. They are so stinkin' cute I had to share the pic. I made their adorable little boy a "Choo Choo I'm 2" shirt for his birthday. And the best part is that it was his dad's birthday too! Woo! Double the presents and double the celebration!
(And what's even better? That sweet baby girl shares a birthday with her mom too! What great birthday gifts!)

I made his dad a matching "Choo Choo I'm 37!" tee to match.

Don't they look amazing!?

(and check out the TV ad it the backgroud. Great timing. ha ha!)

Happy birthday to both of you! Thanks for letting us be a part of the celebration!

If you have pictures of your little one in their Cantaloupe Corner t-shirt we would LOVE to see it! You can send us pictures through our Etsy shop HERE, or you can email them to me HERE.

Enjoy your Monday!

{ Counting my blessings }

Maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones, or the fact that I just pulled out all my teeny-tiny little newborn clothes out of the garage (oh my goodness! they are so cute!), but I am feeling overwhelmed with emotions today.

Above everything else in my life I am so incredibly thankful to be a mother.

My baby is 2 1/2 years old now and I am so amazed at how much change a little time can make. He is so smart, and curious, and mischievous. He jabbers all day long about important things like train cars and sippy cups.

I am so thankful for him.

My oldest is 4 1/2 and he is a know-it-all who always has to be right. It drives him crazy when I have to correct him. He also adores his little brother. He is kind, smart, and about 80% of the time he is really obedient. He cares so much about his friends and family, and he loves helping anyone he can.

I am so thankful for him.


In the past 4 1/2 years I have learned more about myself than at any other time in my life. Motherhood has taught me how little patience I have and how far I can go before I can feel my sanity slipping away. . . . .
or maybe it's already gone.

But far beyond that, Motherhood has taught me how strong I can be and how much love one person can feel.

With each day that passes I see my babies grow and learn and become independent. They are my best friends.

I am so thankful for them.


I am counting my blessings today because we get to welcome another sweet little one into our home in 2 months.  I am afraid, No, I am TERRIFIED of how hard it is going to be. But if I have learned one thing about being a mom it is that the benefits far outweigh all of the hard stuff.

I can't wait to hold him.

New stuff alert!

Introducing. . .
 our newest members of Cantaloupe Corner:

 2 new t-shirts that are personalized and unique!

Personalized Distressed Name Tee

Do to the overwhelming request for name-only custom t-shirts, you can now purchase them through our Etsy shop! This shirt has you child's name down the side in distressed lettering. These tees are different than any other personalized tees out there!

Distressed Number Tee

This tee will be a hit at your child's birthday party! You choose the number, color, and size. 

And there's more new fun stuff!

I just added more inked totes to our Etsy Shop. These will be the last ones available for a while. Each one is one-of-a-kind.

The prices on these bags are slashed right now so I can clear some space for our new baby to come! 

Inked Tote - Birds and Trees

Inked Tote - Shabby Chandelier Chic

Once these totes are gone, they are GONE.

Whitening without Bleach

I have a really hard time using chlorine bleach in my house.

It is amazing for killing all kinds of bacteria and viruses and it cleans like a champ but the label clearly states that it is corrosive and dangerous. Even the fumes can be harmful.


"If you’ve ever read the warning label on a bottle of Clorox, you know that chlorine—even when diluted—is hazardous: it may damage eyes and skin, and in high concentrations its’ vapors may aggravate heart and respiratory conditions. The EPA admits that chlorine causes eye, nose, and stomach problems. What you may not know is that chlorine has actually been used as a weapon of war: in WWI both sides employed chlorine gas to destroy soldiers’ respiratory organs and immobilize them with fits of coughing. More recently Iraqi insurgents have detonated chlorine tankers and used chlorine in car bombs." (source: http://hbmag.com/harmful-if-swallowed/)

When I was in college I spilled a whole bottle of bleach on my dorm room floor, and half of it soaked into my jeans. So I stuck my jeans in the shower and poured bleach over the rest of them. They looked really cool and vintage, but they only lasted about 2 weeks longer. The fabric had been corroded so much that soon my jeans sported holes in the knees, then the thighs. They were falling to pieces.
And FYI, The dorm floor had to be replaced, which I unhappily paid for.

When I started printing t-shirts I was using bleach to create my designs. After about 5-6 washes I noticed my shirts getting tiny holes where I had bleached them. The bleach was eating my beautiful shirts!
I scoured the internet trying to find out why this was happening. I had washed the shirts in hot water, which is supposed to neutralize the bleach. Obviously that was doing nothing.
And if it doesn't wash out in hot water that means it stays in our clothes and sits on our skin every time we wear those bleached clothes or sleep on those bleached sheets.

And have you ever poured bleach on wood? Artists and woodworkers use it to make the wood look old, like barn wood. It it ages wood that fast just think of what it is doing when it worn next to your skin all day long.



Bottom line, chlorine bleach is corrosive. It is hard on your clothes and it doesn't wash out in hot water. Why do we use it?


We like whiter whites!


There are other options out there:



WHITENING WITHOUT BLEACH

For your LAUNDRY:

1. Hydrogen Peroxide. It is a great whitener and it is also a fantastic disinfectant. It is inexpensive and available everywhere. Peroxide is especially effective on blood stains. 

2. Lemon juice and sunshine. Soak your whites in hot water with lemon slices or add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of lemon juice to your wash and hang them out to dry. Use the powers of nature to whiten!

3. White Vinegar. I use this stuff all over my house. Washing fruits and veggies, cleaning soap scum, and in the laundry. Vinegar has a strong smell but it actually makes a great laundry deodorizer! Seriously!! The acid levels of vinegar make it a great disinfecting deodorizer and it will loosen the oils and soap residue from your whites that make them look grey and grungy. Add 1/2 a cup to your regular wash. 

6. Baking soda. Add about 1/2 cup to your wash for impressive whitening and deodorizing POWER!

5. Laundry boosters. My favorite is Oxi-Clean. It gives your detergent some extra oomph to get them as clean as they can be.


There are still some instances where I have found that only bleach gets the job done, but it isn't good for our clothes or for us if we are being exposed to it constantly. If you want to live a healthy and clean life, save the bleach for emergencies.

POW! - Boxer Bot T-shirt (w/ Tutorial)

Rock 'em and Sock 'em!

This is the "Bad Guy Fighting Robot!" a.k.a. Boxer Bot

I make so many screen printed tees, it's fun to mix it up and make some extra special shirts for my own bad-guy fighting boys!

TUTORIAL:

Here's what you need;

T-shirt

Robot Pattern

knit fabric: Green, Red, Blue (I used old t-shirts, I have a lot of them lying around.)

Wonder Under

1/2 inch White grosgrain ribbon

Felt scraps : Orange, White, and Black

1. Print and Cut out your Boxer Bot pattern. It probably won't be on girly pink paper like mine.

2. Trace your Boxer Bot onto Wunder Under. Make sure you trace the gloves upside down.  You can see in the next pic that I forgot and I had to make a whole new pair of gloves.  :o(

3. Cut out your wonder under pieces and iron them onto the wrong side of your fabric.  If you are using knits, they should be the same on both sides. It makes life easy that way.

4. Cut 'em out.

5. Trace your "Pow!" and your Robot's eyes mouth and eyebrows on Felt and cut out.

7.Arrange Boxer Bot on the t-shirt. Cut arms and legs from grosgrain ribbon. Tuck the ribbon under the knit peices when you iron them on.

8. Once you are happy with your bot, iron him in place, tucking the ribbon under the appliques before you iron.

9. Sew down ribbon arms and legs. One line down the middle should hold it well.

10. Using a contrasting thread, sew around the outside of the star and robot appliques.  Make sure to stitch inside the gloves where the lines are drawn.

11. To hold the felt in place, use a glue stick. Apply it to the back of the felt words and stick them in place.

12. Do the same thing with the eyes and mouth. (Wait to glue the pupils and eyebrows until after the white parts are sewn.) Warning: This might make your glue hairy.

13. Stitch the felt into place. I stitched down the middle of the letters in the word POW! . . .

And stitch around the outsides of the eyes and mouth. Then add the pupils and eyebrows, stitch them down the middle with black thread.

14. Get out your embroidery thread and add some mean teeth.

And whatever else you want.

DONE!

POW!!!

Budgeting 101

I'm starting at the very beginning because I am a slacker when it comes to budgeting, but to get out of debt you HAVE to set up a working budget!!

1.  Get your spouse on board.
It may not be easy but if only one of you is following the budget you will get nowhere. . . fast.
My hubby took a little convicing. Life can sometimes seem happier if you hide your head in the sand.
 I promise you life is better when you can see where you are going.

2. Make a list of your expenses.
Mortgage, car payment, insurance, groceries, medical expeses, savings, donations. . .
Where does your money go?

3. Split your list into bills you pay each month and bills you pay periodically (every other month, once or twice a year). Figure out how much you pay per year and divide this # by 12.

4. Don't forget to add in other annual expeses such as Christmas, birthdays, car and home maintenance, etc. Make your best guess. Then add up these expeses and divide them by 12.

5.  Next, figure out how much money you make. What is your true monthly income. If your income isn't a steady salary, take a look back at your previous paychecks and make your best guess.

6. Stand back and take a look at where you stand. The optimal budget would be perfectly balanced. You would have $0 left over when all is said and done. This isn't easy to do.
If you are spending more than you make, take a hard look at your expenses and see where you can cut back. If you have extra money left over, apply that money to your debts!
If your debts are paid, apply that money to a savings account or investment. (yay!)

7. Now that you have your budget written out, stick to it!
If you are going to make a purchase, make sure it is in your budget. If it isn't, don't buy it, or find a way to move things around in your budget so that it fits.
-This has been the hardest part for us. We tend to be Saturday impulse shoppers. And we are magnets for clearance sections of our favorite stores.
One piece of advice that we are learning to follow: Just because it is on sale doesn't mean you should buy it! You may be saving 80% on that pretty new dish set, or new shoes but if you don't need dishes or shoes you aren't saving anything.

Sugar addiction.

Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, SUGAR!!!

There is SOOOO much sugar in our food it makes me cringe!

Read your labels. Corn Syrup, Sugar (a.k.a. Sucrose),  Fructose and Glucose are in practically everything.

It may be tasty, but it is no good for our waistlines, or any other parts.


I was surprised to find added sugar it in everyday items like:

Peanut Butter
Bread,
Canned corn,
Spaghetti sauce,
Dried cranberries,
Canned meats,
Condiments such as ketchup, relish, and BBQ sauce
Crackers
French fries and other fast foods


These are just a few of the items that the manufacturers sneak sugars into. No wonder society has an obesity problem!

And did you know that sugar can also be addictive?

Scientist have debated for years over whether of not sugar can really be an addictive substance but more and more evidence is showing that it is true.

Dr Charles Raison, A Mental Health Expert and psychiatrist said "Scientific studies suggest that eating activates the same brain areas that are the primary targets of drugs of abuse, and foods high in sugar, fat and certain carbohydrates are especially likely to stimulate our brain in ways that can become addictive."

Throughout history, sugar was a rare substance enjoyed by the rich. It was a painstaking process to make the sugar from either sugar cane or sugar beets, which made the resulting product very expensive.
Today, with our technology, sugar is easily made and easy to find. It's everywhere!

In fact, Soda, which is packed with corn syrup, is the #2 item purchased at grocery stores, second only to milk! And it is the single highest source of calories here in the USA! (I almost fainted when I read this.)  What are we doing to ourselves?


The more we eat the more we want. And binge sugar eating also has withdrawal symptoms,just like a drug.


Sugar as also been found to contribute to: tooth decay, gum disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, and some auto-immune diseases. And the most shocking : It is even linked to Chronic Depression.
And there is more. See Dr. Mercola's "76 Additional Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health" for a huge amount of health detriments caused by sugar.


If you have some extra time, this video is extremely informative and well worth watching. It's called Sugar: The Bitter Truth.



I have personally felt some of the effects of sugar addiction. It may not be as strong as a tobacco or heroine addiction but the more sugar I ate, the more I wanted. I would try to stop my binge sugar eating by throwing out all of the sweets in my house and staying away from them at the store, but I would find myself scouring the shelves of my pantry and fridge for anything sweet! I wouldn't rest until I found the frozen half bag of chocolate chips at the bottom of the deep freeze.

If you are feeling that "I need sweets" feeling, try reaching for natural sugars instead. Grab a banana, peach, or other type of sweet fruit. Stay away from anything with high fructose corn syrup or sugar.

The more sugar you eat the more you will want,  so slowly take the sugar our of your diet. Because the less you eat, the less you will crave. It may be very difficult to go cold turkey so make it a gradual and permanent change.

As with any addiction, a sugar addiction is difficult to overcome, but your body will thank you! You will feel better, live longer, and be stronger, emotionally and physically!

Bedroom Makeover - Painting Horizontal Stripes

We just switched our boys room with our guest room so our boys could have more space. Before we moved all of the furniture in we decided it was time to PAINT!

BEFORE:

We went a little crazy at the paint store and bought some exotic colors. Actually, my hubby had nothing to do with the color choices, he left me alone at the paint counter. . . All alone.

We walked out of the store with:

Lime Green, Overall Blue, and Cocoa Brown.

AFTER: 

We had planned on painting horizontal stripes in the boy's new room but neither of us had done it before. So we combined our knowledge and man power and attacked the walls at full force.  It took us ALL day, sun-up to sun-down, but we love it so much! And the boys think it's super cool.

Here's how we painted the horizontal stripes:

We started by marking the general area of the blue stripes and haphazardly painting 3 coats of blue.

Once the blue was dry we used 2 inch Scotch-Blue Painters Tape to mask off 2 straight lines around the room. It took me 3 tries to get the lines absolutely straight. My advice: don't use a laser level, measure down from the ceiling or up from the floor. Use a yardstick to mark straight lines with a pencil and then tape.

Next, we painted over the blue painters tape with one more coat of blue paint. This is to ensure that the tape seals to the wall and that any leaks underneath the tape will be blue, so they will match the stripe.

Once the blue was dry, we painted the top and bottom areas of the wall green. It took 2-3 coats of quality paint to get really good coverage.

Finally, we painted the chocolate brown stripe in the middle. Make sure you keep on eye on your tape lines so you don't paint into the green areas.

After about 20 minutes, you can GENTLY peel off the painter's tape. 

We made the mistake of putting the tape on before the blue paint was completely dry. When we started to peel up the tape, blue paint bits started to come up too. 

If you have some areas that need to be touched up, use a straight edge, like a putty knife and a small paintbrush to fix any spots that may have smudged, leaked, or peeled. 

Painting stripes takes much more time that painting one solid color but it is definitely worth the extra effort.

Happiness is. . . Passion

There are times when I want to stand on my soap box and scream at the top of my lungs to all of the people out there that are missing out on LIFE.

You know who I'm talking about:
The young guy that sits in his cubicle all day trying to make it to 5 'o clock just so he can race home and sit in front of the TV and watch his favorite reality or crime scene shows. Every day is the same thing. Work, TV, sleep, repeat. He never moves up in the company because he is comfortable with his life. Not happy, just comfortable.

Or maybe it's the girl who is waiting tables only because she doesn't feel like she is worth enough to get a better job. She would love to go back to school to be a nurse. She is a good people person afterall. But she has heard it is hard to get into the local nursing program. So she keeps going back to the same old smelly restaraunt job, day after day. Maybe she'll try school next year.

Or the old grey haired man that has been working at the same tedious, boring job for as long as he can remember. Not because he likes what he does, but because it is comfortable. Safe.  He hangs up pictures of Cancun and Fiji in his office but he knows he will never go. How could he miss that much work? Besides, he wouldn't really enjoy it anyways. right?



 I have close friends/family that live like this.  They watch the days tick by and hope that happiness will find them.


I'm sorry, but happiness doesn't just walk around knocking on people's doors. Happiness is a journey. An adventure!


On the other end of the spectrum there are the happiest people I know. They enjoy their jobs, even if they aren't making any money. They are thankful to be alive. They are full of PASSION!

Passion is a very personal feeling that comes when you find something that makes your life truly worth living. It can come from your children, your job, your hobby, a good cause, your business, or religion, or many other places. It is a feeling so strong you can't lock it up inside, you would EXPLODE.


Do you feel it?

What side of the spectrum are you on?


I have a dear friend that has just turned her life around just by throwing away the apathy and taking control of her happiness. She is a brilliant woman who I have always looked up to. An engineer making good money. But she felt stuck and depressed. So she made some goals to join a gym, lose weight, and she found more productive uses for her extra time and money! Talk about an amazing woman!! She is inspiring. She radiates happiness and it is contagious!

If you are feeling apathetic about life, find something to be passionate about.
Pick up a new hobby. Take a class. Go somewhere you have always wanted to go. Start up a new business. Make a new friend. HELP SOMEONE.


I am very blessed to be passionate about my job, motherhood, my beliefs, and my hobbies. In fact, I've been told I am overly-passionate sometimes. I get so caught up in hobbies, books, and other fantastically interesting things that I devote waaay too much time to them. (But it's totally worth it!)



I'll climb up on my soap box one more time and yell out, "WAKE UP! Don't spend another day wasting your life away! Life is so short and there is so much love and happiness out there to share! Find something that makes your life worth living!!!"

Ok, I'm done. I feel much better.

Thanks for listening.





I think I'll go read a book about gardening. I've always wanted to be a good gardener.