Another Summertime idea to do with the kids when they say, “I bored!”

Homemade Play Clay

We didn’t have much money growing up, but one of my fondest memories was making play clay with my mom.

4 cups flour
3 drops of food coloring
1/4 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbs. Oil
1 Tsp. Cream of Tarter

Mix together flour and salt. Add all the wet ingredients and mix with your hands.
Store the mix in an air tight container.
This dough can be made into displayable sculptures by baking it on a cookie sheet at 250 degrees until hard.
Alina

Recently I tried the newest products from Dr. Shoal’s, the For Her line.

The first product that I was really excited to try was the Sole Expressions Insole 3-Pack. These insoles are made specifically for women’s dressier shoes like heels and sandles. They come in three pretty, satin shades of brown, toupe, and leopard print. I liked how they looked nice in my shoes (I hate covering up the nice print inside my shoes with ugly liners!), but I was disappointed in the fit. Most liners you can cut to fit your shoes size. These are not made to cut and are tiny. I felt like my feet were hanging off of the insoles. Otherwise, they were very comfotable.

The next product I tried was the Foot Softening Balm. This product was not as thick as I was expecting. It seemed more like a lotion to me. It fine for regular feet, but I would’t use it on the extra dry.

In my next blog I’ll review some of the other products from this line.

Alina

Note: I saw the Heel Smoother (see post below) for less than $17 dollars at Wal-Mart. It seems the price has dropped in the past month.

Here is a Summertime idea to do with your kids one afternoon.

Make a Picture Book!

A homemade book made by a child and Mommy can be a treasured keepsake, and it is really easy. I made one for my daughter when she was two and she carried it everywhere with her. She still loves to thumb through it years latter. It took me only about an hour to make while watching my evening sitcoms.
What makes this project simple is that you use a plastic picture album, the kind you get when having your film developed, as the foundation for the book. Cut pieces of colored paper to fit into the sleeves of the album and paste pictures of family on each piece of paper. Underneath the picture use one word to describe it, for example, if the picture is of the child¿s father put the word ‘Daddy’ in bold letters underneath it. You can use pictures of grandparents, aunts, uncles, pets, your house, siblings and parents. Another idea for pictures is to cut pictures out of magazines. This can include flowers, trucks, candy, books and babies.
Once you have the pages finished slip the pages into the plastic sleeves and seal the top of the sleeve with a sticker or scotch tape so that your little one won¿t be able to get them back out.
For older children, you may want to write down a memory from when you were a child on each page or a silly story and have the child illustrate.

Have fun with it!

Alina

Well, the search for the perfect foot product has finally come my way. looks like a power sander, and that’s exactly what it does to your feet. It looked like it was erasing the calluses from my feet.

At first I was timid because the little gadget looked like it could really hurt. I mean it’s a little battery powered thing with a sanding thingy on the end that spins. Eek!

Even so, I took a deep breath and let it fly. Wow, wow, wow! After about ten minuets my feet were perfectly smooth like I had just gotten a pedicure.

It also has an attachment that does your cuticles.

My only reserve is that if you hold the Heel Smoother in one place for more than a few seconds it burns. I recommend not doing that.

If used properly, though, the Heel Smoother felt like a nice foot massage.

I ended the home pedi with the Artemis Woman Topaz Foot Butter. It is not something to use before bed because the smell is so invigorating. I made the mistake and wasn’t able to sleep for hours!

The Artemis Woman Heel Smoother can be found at most department stores, including Wal-Mart, for $29.99. Think of all the money you’ll save on pedicures.

You can also get the Smoother and lots of other cool products at http://artemiswoman.com/Heel_Smoother_Pro.html

For Defrazzled Mom.com’s first reviews, I thought that feet would be the perfect topic. Mom’s feet take a beating every day, and now that it is time for sandal season our feet need to look sexy!
Farm Fresh Foot Scrub comes in a pretty jar with a Chinese-style spoon to dip out the milky scrub. I tried the Early Apple,(it also comes in Sweet Cream and Whipped Honey) scent, which was very light and airy. Farm Fresh Foot Scrubs are one of Oprah’s favorite things in March 2007’s issue of O, “Here’s a trio of foot scrubs that smell so good, I’m ready to serve them over berries!” I agree! I have to say, it really does smell like apples a few months before being ripe. It brings back nice childhood memories of eating those tiny, green apples and puckering instantly.
The scrub is very fine, so it didn’t irritate the tops of my feet or my hands. I wouldn’t recommend going overboard and inching up your legs, though. Oww!
I have to admit, my feet are horrible, with lots of calluses. Farm Fresh worked great on the rough skin, but just didn’t get my bigger problem areas. (Sometimes I think nothing will except a hardcore pedicure! LOL)
My hands and the rest of my feet are silky smooth, though. I recommend this product to women who are trying to keep a pedicure fresh looking at home or for ones that don’t have yucky feet like mine.

Farm Fresh Foot Scrubs sell for $21 per 10.5 oz. jar. You can find it at www.summersoles.com .

Alina