Friday Favorites

Here are  My First Five Friday Favorites!

1.

Freebies.

All these freebies came on the same day

I love getting freebies in the mail! Freestufftimes.com is a great collection of freebies and giveaways.

2.

I Close My Eyes

 This is a book app I bought for Chucky Sue on my phone- it is beautiful! The art work is fun and different than any other book app I've seen.

3.

Late Night Ice Cream

Jake surprised us last night and took us out on a late night family date for some cheap frozen yogurt at Sweet Frogz!

4.

Sesame Street Does Glee

I love when Sesame Street puts in some jokes that only the adults will get. Their High School Musical spoofs were just as funny!

5.

MomCentral.com

This is an awesome site. It is a group of mommy (and a few daddy) bloggers! Thanks to their blogger program I will be posting about the awesome Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop they sent me! They have a fun twitter chat on Tuesdays too.

The Original Dish Drying Mat

I haaaate doing dishes. I have ever since I was a kid. The scummy water, the gross half eaten food- icky sticky plates and bowls!? EW EW EW.

So since being married Jake has gratefully taken over that role. But I  still clean the kitchen and those plastic dish drainers can get just as nasty as the dirty dishes! Every one I've had develops this nasty slick film all over it. Water collects beneath it and gets moldy, icky and just plain gross.

So when Influenster sent me their Mom VoxBox full of products to test out, I was super crazy excited over The Original Dish Drying Mat included inside. I immediately threw out my plastic drainer and put this underneath. It fits my counter perfectly, even though our kitchen is cramped and tiny. It is a good couple of inches wider than the drying rack we use too, so we can place items around it for a even bigger dish "load". It holds enough water without bleeding through, so water doesn't EVER touch the counter! It also uses some freaky science magic to dry faster than any dish towel I used. If and when juice or food gets on it, it washes easily. I think you would have to work hard to get this mat to mold or get grody.

Also, it's crazy cheap- about $5 at Walmart, Target or Bed Bath and Beyond! I'm thinking of buying a few for a couple of baby showers coming up, these would be perfect under a bottle washing rack!

Come back later this week for more posts about all the other products from my VoxBox, Birchbox and samples from online!

My Favorite iPhone Apps

Because my mom just bought an iPhone here is a list of some of my favorite iApps, I'd have a better intro to this list but I'm still giggling over my mom buying an iPhone!

Instagram (Free)- they turn your cellphone photos into fairly interesting images, if not beautiful! You can also subscribe to your friends and see their photos.

The Monster at the End of this Book ($3.99)-  it's an electronic version of my FAVORITE book, so the high price was worth it. Chucky Sue loves the interactive illustrations, especially when she gets to knock down the brick wall. We also have the sequel with Elmo ($3.99 again).


FlipBoard (free)- This app puts all your "newsfeeds" into one location. I can read Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook, and different news sites all in one app. It works a lot better than the old RSS reader app I had (and paid $0.99 for!)

Lego Harry Potter ($4.99)- This app is expensive too, but it is a FULL video game and not easily completed. You definitely get your money's worth of entertainment. The controls are harder to master, but it's HARRY  POTTER guys. The levels aren't so long that you can't whip it out and finish one in a waiting room or in line at the bank.


Spendings (free)- A very simple budget app. You input how much money you have, wether it be your entire budget, your "fun money" or you just want to keep track of how much you're spending and where. Then, every time you spend money, open the app and add in the receipt. It's a very simplistic bank register that I use to help balance my account with my bank's app.

RunKeeper (free)- A handy little tool for exercise! You set up the app to track how far and fast you run/walk/bike/ride. It has coaching options, where a very nice computer voice will urge you to run faster or go for longer. You can share your results with Facebook too- it's great for running teams or exercise partners to keep tabs on each other.

 RedLaser (free)- A barcode scanner app, the first I believe. It's great to have when shopping, you can find a price if a label is missing, or see if you can get a product cheaper somewhere else. It also reads the QR codes on advertisements too.

There's a bunch more apps that I love: Plants vs Zombies, Jelly Defense, Words with Friends, Bananagrams, Scribblenauts, MadGab, the LDS Library, Nora's Bubbles and probably hundreds more!

How to get Bourdeaux Butt Paste Out of Hair and Clothes.

Let's just say I have some experience in this.

sigh.

For Clothes & Bedding:

First, carefully scrape all the excess paste off with a plastic spatula or credit card. Do not smear it around anymore than possible. This stuff is the stickiest, most waterproof substance known to man. I think you could waterproof shoes with it. Then pre-treat with your favorite laundry soap- apple cider vinegar and oxyclean are my go to treatments. Then launder as normal. The container does warn that it will stain, but  out of all that clothes and bedding pictured above it has only stained the white washcloth I used to wipe up the floor. All colored cloth hasn't been stained. Remember, it may take a few cycles of pre-treating and washing to get the greasy feeling out.

For Hair,

Cut it all off.

I'm almost serious. It took us three baths to just get the "grey" color out of Chucky Sue's hair. Here the rundown of products I've tried:

Baby Shampoo- as useless as water.

Normal Shampoo- Eh, it made it LOOK better, but not feel or actually cut the grease.

Apple Cider Vinegar- worked on the grease well, but it required a LOT of soaking and scrubbing that Chucky Sue did not appreciate, it also dried out her skin really bad.

Because the vinegar dries out her skin and stings her eyes, we're still slowing working on getting the grease out of her hair. Right now she looks like she hasn't bathed in months, but hopefully after a few more treatments her curly hair will return!

 I still recommend Butt Paste as my favorite diaper rash cream, it works great and it's fun to write it on a grocery list. Just double and triple check the lid before leaving it on your changing table with your kid.

Clairol Nice-n-Easy Foam Hair Dye Product Review

Photo from Google

I won a coupon from Clairol's facebook page for a free box of Clairol Nice-n-Easy Foam Hair Dye! I chose color 6G, a  light "golden" brown. I was a little disappointed with the lack of color options, there were only a few browns available at my local Target, lots of blondes, no black or reds at all. I'm not sure if that's just my store or the way the line is set up. Thankfully I just wanted a minor change/color boost.

Application was really easy, I preferred the "shampoo" method of the foam pump than the meticulous section by section of other hair dyes, but it is definitely NOT drip free as the packaging advertised, my drop cloth towel under me was very well splattered.

There was plenty of dye for my long thick hair, I was worried I would run out, but the foam made the little liquid stretch farther than I thought.

I did leave it on a little too long; 40 minutes instead of 25 ( Note to self: get clock in bathroom) but the color came out great, if just a shade darker than expected. The true test is that Michael likes the color :)

Pros:

Easy application, good color, (FREE)

Cons:

Not drip-free, lack of color choices, bad "fruity" smell