The Voice of Mom

When it comes to putting up artwork in the house, I vacillate between two things … I either fall in love with something right away and up it goes, or it seemingly takes me forever to decide what to put up. The latter has been the case with my daughter’s bedroom. The room is small, so I feel each piece needs to be more thoughtfully chosen. And she has such a big personality, all the more reason that the choices I make match who she is. So when the folks at Artful Names offered to send me a canvas to review, I was only too happy to oblige.

They have so many great designs, it took me awhile to choose one for Madeline. Beyond just artwork with names, you can get your family name, a monogram, something colorful, something more sedate. All personalized, just for you.

Although the art might seem a little bit pricey, the quality is top-notch. The canvas is UV protected, so you don’t have to worry about the colors fading or deteriorating over time. It’s yours to enjoy for the duration. The canvas is gallery-wrapped around a thick 1.75″ frame and arrives carefully packaged and ready to hang.

Whether it’s for a celebration or your little boy’s or girl’s room, there is a great selection of both modern and fanciful designs to choose from. The one pictured here is the one I chose for Madeline’s room, and one of their most popular designs.  They’ll even make one from your pets’ photo!

Ready to shop? They have generously offered our readers a discount code for 15% off your purchase. Enter voiceofmom15 upon check-out. Happy shopping!

Outback is offering a special “Red, White and Bloomin” menu in its restaurants and donating proceeds of items purchased from this menu to support the troops.  Customers can also donate directly to Operation Homefront by texting “HERO” to 50555.

Country music star Tim McGraw is helping to spread the news. A portion of the proceeds from a commemorative Tim McGraw T-shirt sold during his “Southern Voices” tour will be donated to support the cause. Be sure to check out the latest PSA on our YouTube channel to learn about how A-lister McGraw is getting involved.

Outback Steakhouse has a 20-year history of supporting America’s troops, and with a little help from country music star Tim McGraw and you at home, is now doing more than ever for the cause! Outback has made an unprecedented commitment of one million dollars, coordinated by nonprofit organization Operation Homefront, to provide emergency and emotional support for active troops, wounded warriors, veterans, and their families.

Want more details? Please click here for more information.

The Oscars are this Sunday. Will you be tuning in? I sure will be. The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will surely be a spectacular show — both before and after. Just think of the breadth of movies up for Best Picture: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air.

But me? I am most interested in seeing what everyone is wearing … Yes, that’s right: I love seeing the red carpet looks. So, what will be the top makeup trends this year? Celebrity makeup artist Christopher Drummond made these predictions: (more…)

A little while back, Ian’s sent me some samples of their Rodeo Mix 2 Go snacks to try out. The mix is 70 percent organic, according to Ian’s, and as with all their products, it is free from artificial flavors, colors and preservatives. Each box comes with six individual pouches of the snack mix. My kids could barely wait to give it a try.

So, what’s in Rodeo Mix 2 Go? The nut-free mix includes white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, pretzel bites and raisins. The pretzel bits are teeny tiny (great for little hands) and the chocolate chips and white chocolate chips deliver a nice bit of sweetness. If you eat it by the handful, it’s kind of like having a chocolate covered pretzel … with raisins.

What I loved about this mix was that it meet my son’s regulations for nut-free snacks while also delivering a good snack. The bright packaging, while that isn’t a reason for buying things, was really appealing to my kids too, so they were more than happy to try it and eat it again and again. The serving size is small, but so are the people eating it, so that works for me. (more…)

No matter how protected your computer is, there are always viruses out there trying to trick you into accepting them. I just had to fight one off this morning and it was pretty intense. I wanted to make you all aware, if you aren’t already, of one of the best FREE anti-virus/ anti-malware programs available today. It’s trusted by many companies and tech support individuals. If you are having issues, or think you may be infected, please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

Most of the new viruses appear as a pop-up that  make you think your computer is running a security check. DO NOT click to run these programs. Please just click the red ‘X’ to close them out. If you are unsure, close it out and go into your virus software manually. Some of them look almost identical to the actual programs meant to help your computers but instead are built to steal your information and wreak havoc on your system. (more…)

Do you ever walk by the cheese counter and wonder what the big deal is about all those fancy butter? I did. So, one day I stopped and bought one. Kate’s Butter runs about $2.99-$4.99 for a tub, depending on what store you shop in.

Kate’s Homemade Butter is manufactured in Maine and salted with sea salt. The family-owned business buys cream from local dairies and transforms it into butter milk and butter, all with short ingredient and totally recognizable ingredient lists (Yay!). The cool thing: this butter is actually homemade in a real-time, old-fashioned churn.

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A couple of times a week, when I’m packing my son’s lunchbox and snacks for school, I try to tuck in a little something. A joke. A little note. A small toy. Just something to perk up his lunchbox and put a smile on his face in the middle of the day. Something to let him know that I’m thinking of him. So when I heard about Lunchbox Love, I couldn’t wait to see their take on the little lunchbox notes.

They come 12 to a package, and are about the size of a business card, complete with their own little plastic case. The front of the cards say things like “You’re Awesome” or “You’re Always in My Heart,” and the backs of the cards have little bits of trivia, starting with “Did you know…?” I loved the addition of the trivia on the back. They’re fun little facts that are perfect for this age (my son is 7-1/2), easy to read, understand and share with his friends. Did you know that China has over 50,000 rivers? Even I learned something new.

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When it comes to clothing for little girls, you don’t have to look far to find cute.  Everything is cute.  And pink.  And purple.  The challenge is looking beyond that to find cute in the everyday.  Cute in the not pink.  So when I received an email from the folks at Simply Chickie, describing their line of 100% organic cotton clothing, I was all ears.  I went and took a look.  Cute.  Without being in your face cute.  My kind of cute.

They sent me their I Am the Frosting shirt for review, simply perfect for my young daughter, as we both share a love of cupcakes.  (You can read the story behind this particular tee right here).  The company was born from a mom’s desire to have organic clothing for her daughter, with artful designs.  Combining her art background, creativity and love for her daughter, a wonderful line of children’s clothing (baby through 6T) was born.

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I frequently browse the new books at my library.  I don’t always finish them after I get them home, but once in awhile I pick one that captures my interest enough to make the effort to finish it.  That is the case with Frank Bruni’s memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater.

When I picked up the book, it was because I had heard of the famous New York Times Food Critic and was interested to read more about his life.  What I didn’t expect was to learn that his love affair with food began early in life and led to a poor body image.  You don’t usually hear about men who grew up with a poor body image or the lengths they may go through to lose weight.  They really are not all that different from what young girls with body image issues have gone through.

Hitting on a book like this was like discovering something I never gave a second thought to, boys (or men) who battle their weight and the impact that it can have over their lives.  Frank Bruni is very honest throughout the book and shares the “tricks” he tried to lose weight (albeit unsuccessfully many times).  The mental battle he fought with himself is what kept me coming back for more.  I could relate to those feelings and it also has made me think about how I want my boys to feel about themselves as they grow into young men.

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I haven’t bought a new camera for several years. My old one was only 5 megapixel and 3x optical zoom. Compared to what’s available now, that’s terrible! I love taking pictures of my daughter and I kept getting frustrated with blurry pictures and lagging shutter speed. I kept missing those quick little moments that I wanted to capture. We’re going on vacation soon so I wanted to get a better quality camera. I settled on the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

This camera isn’t for tossing in your bag and running out the door. I strongly recommend you get fitted for a bag before you even walk out of the store with it. It is a little bigger than the normal digital cameras. The feature that I liked most about this is the 20x optical zoom. This model is 12.1 megapixel and can record HD videos. The shutter speed is pretty impressive too.

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