Back to Blogging Basics

I spent some time yesterday crafting a post about how toddlers are assholes. It was basically just me ranting about my tremendously crappy day that resulted in me crying while my son ran off to pee on the floor. (#momlife at its best 🙄)

But I didn’t post it because it wasn’t a full article type post with a point and perfectly prepared pics. Ha! Try saying that 5 times fast.

My original blog, the anonymous one about my IVF experience, really gave me an emotional outlet. I didn’t care about stats and likes, I just shared to get it all off my chest. But things changed when I decided to do a “real blog.”

My posts became more planned out. I started thinking of them more like magazine articles. And sometimes I’m doing paid posts and it starts to feel like a homework assignment!

It’s making it all more like work and less like the emotional and creative outlet that attracted me to blogging in the first place. So while I still plan to keep that part going, I’m also going to just pop in here with no big agenda, no sponsored links and just write about life and enjoy myself.

So the blog continues to evolve… even if it is something of a step back to a simpler time. A time before I knew what an Amazon affiliate was… lol

blog-humor

Good Morning! Just a little update

IMG_2233It’s Tuesday and I don’t have anything particular planned to post today. It was a busy weekend with two birthdays and family visiting so there was very little computer time. I even took the entire day offline Sunday and just worked in the yard. Not even one Facebook update about all the new things I planted. It felt good to just do things and not try and get a perfect photo and share and tag and hashtag.

There’s a lot of things I need to catch up on and do a blog post about – My son turned the big 3 on Saturday and I threw my first kid party. His birthday is almost the same as his dad’s, so they’ve been having combo parties until now. Birdy Boutique sent me several cute things for the party, including the awesome birthday crown I’m wearing in the photo. It reminded me of Max’s crown in Where the Wilds Things Are. Of course my son refused to wear that, or the bow ties, or super cool dinosaur capes they sent! So I’m still working on pics of all that.

My grandmother brought me a Copper Crisper air fryer thing and I gave it a try with sweet potatoes. I wasn’t blown away by the results, but I did take pics of it all, so plan on a riveting review coming soon.

House renovations are still in full swing. We are currently working on adding pavers and a fire pit to the big jungle area we have in front. There’s probably a blog post in there somewhere…

And we got a pile of great books from Good Night Books but seem to be stalled on the first one. I was really looking forward to trying to get a bedtime story reading thing going but Keelan just isn’t having it. I haven’t managed to get all the way through one of the books without him skipping to the end and throwing it. Starting to suspect this kid does not share his mom’s love of books. All I can do is keep trying right?

Well as usual, if it links to Amazon, it’s an affiliate link. I’m off now to go do a Skype interview for an infomercial casting for a new Ninja cooking system. I’ve actually done a lot of Skype casting interviews for reality type TV shows always wonder if I’m just wasting my time. This is my first commercial casing! But just like with reading books to my son, I figure if I just keep trying and not expect too much, maybe something will come out of it, lol.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Wish me luck on my interview 🙂

 

I Got a Felt Letter Board, Now What?

When I first saw bloggers posting about upping their Insta-game with a felt letter board, I didn’t really get it. And then when I saw it, I was like, well now I have to have it! It’s a framed felt board with little slots to stick in letters and numbers. The more I looked, the more I saw them being used and felt like I needed to give it a try.

funny letter board quote

I did some research and found a cute post on NestingWithGrace.com where they found a lot of good uses for their board (photo above) and another with good tips and tricks on keeping your letters straight and setting up your layout.

I got this 10×10 wooden framed letter board by Shiny Vita off Amazon and was ready to think of something brilliant to share with the world. (If you feel the burning need to get one too, go ahead and click my handy affiliate link there and use code “geekmamas” for 25% off.)

felt letter board 10x10

The board comes with little scissors and 680 letters, symbols and numbers attached to plastic grids. About half of them glow in the dark so you can marvel at your witty quotes even with the lights out. It also comes with a little bag to keep your letters in, however, I found the best way to organize everything is to get little plastic containers with dividers. I got a 3-pack of plastic containers which was enough to organize everything in its own individual space so it doesn’t take an hour to find the right letter or symbol.

But before I could get started, I had to get snipping. And snipping. And organizing…

Snipping letter board numbers

After I finally snipped them all off (ok most of them) I was ready to put something on it! But what?? Stuff I made up? Quotes from other places? My super witty insights into #momlife? I stared at that board for a long time and only managed to come up with this:

mom life felt letter board

So maybe I’m not ready to join the Instagram letter board brigade just yet…lol.

I have at least found some other creative uses besides quotes:

sagaform and tryazon party
Hashtags at sampling and promo parties
happy birthday nanny
Special message for Nanny on her birthday!

And next I’ll probably use it as a sign at my son’s birthday party. So it has come in handy, although I kind of find putting all those little pieces on the board extremely tedious and want to quit halfway through and find some better use of my time.

But then I think…how will my husband get through the night without gazing on my wisdom glowing in the darkness? And I just keep going…

Feel free to inspired me with your favorite felt letter board quotes and posts!

 

5 Tips on Doing a YouTube Unboxing Video with a Toddler

I was sent a new subscription box from NostalgicCandyClub.com and thought it would be fun to do a video review with my two-year-old. I went into things very optimistically because I figure all kids love candy, this should be easy! Big surprise- Nothing is ever easy!

So here’s a few tips I learned the hard way:

1) Give them a lift – Get them a booster seat, or a pillow, or anything that makes them a little taller. After getting all my camera angles perfect (or so I thought) I had the toddler sit down and just the top of his head was showing.

Unboxing video with toddler

2) Prepare and research first – Read over everything before you start, and practice what you want to say. That way you are familiar with the product and able to remember what you are saying when things start going weird. Nothing ever goes the way you think as soon as a toddler is involved.

nostalgic-candy-club
The info card I should have read and studied ahead of time!

3) Just expect nothing to go as expected. – They may suddenly decide to not participate, refuse to do anything they’re asked, or say something weird. Be ready to just roll with it.

4) Photograph everything ahead of time and repackage. – Once your toddler gets ahold of things, they never look the same. I was left with a pile of trash and candy at the end and did not get any photos. This is all that’s left:

candy-wrappers

5) Get rid of the toddler. – Ha! Just Kidding. Sort of. Basically, make sure you can do a good review solo and then engage your unpredictable sidekick with a few questions along the way.

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So here’s our attempt at unboxing video. Things did not really go the way I had planned. I was expecting “candy from the past 50 years” as mentioned on their website, but the stuff in the box was from about 100 years ago and I had no idea what most of it was. Also, 100 years ago they had very questionable taste in candy. If I had checked everything out ahead of time I’d have waited for my grandma to visit and done the unboxing with her!

 

5 Weird Things at Grandma’s House

We’re visiting my in-laws’s house this weekend (who are obviously grandparents) and I noticed some striking similarities between their household and my own grandparent’s house. I feel like these are things you run into at many grandparent’s houses. It’s like something that happens when you get older, you start to collect or display these odd items. Sort of like a teenager and their music/movie posters, these are items you display when you hit a certain age. I’m interested to know how many other people have run into these same things:

The Creepy Lifelike Doll

Creepy fool

Where did she come from? Why is she hanging out? She’s not there to play with, just to look at it. And we are lucky enough to have her propped up on the dresser of the guest bedroom, so she can watch over us while we sleep. This one is not actually as creepy as her predecessor. We have no idea where she went…

The Grandfather Clock

Grandfather clock

My great-grandma had one of these and it used to creep me out when I couldn’t sleep. Like it was mocking me with every hour. My in-laws have one that marks every 30 min. and goes off on the hour. Why is this even a thing? It’s really annoying at 2AM.

Something Asian

I’ve run into this at every grandparent’s place – the Asian collection. My own grandmother re-did her entire living room in what she calls her “Orientals.” And my in-laws have an Asian room as well. My great-grandmother just had a few select pieces. But it seems they’ve all been touched by the Asian persuasion at some point.

Random Wall Art

Raccoon painting

I’m not sure how long something hangs on the wall before you feel like it’s time to move on, but most of the artwork found  at grandma’s has been there for a loooooong time. I’m pretty sure this a 1960’s raccoon portrait. It makes me think of The Bloggess, lol.

The WTF Item

Troll
These are things given to them by friends who are being funny, that they keep and display. They serve no purpose, just take up space, and are just weird. I think this is a troll drinking beer. It has been here for the 18 years I’ve known my husband. Always in the guest room, just hanging out.

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There are many other fun things to find at grandma’s, but these are just a few that jumped out at me on our latest visit. I’d love to see pics of what everyone else finds!

As a side note – my in-laws are pretty awesome. So this is in no way making fun of them or their decorating skills. Just a little observation piece 😀