Crafting with the Kids- DIY Picture Frame Gifts!

Yesterday was Mother's Day and before the big day I was trying to figure out what to get for my mother and mother-in-law. They are very special mother's in my own life as well as my son's life. They always love great handmade gifts from the boys so I decided we'd make them something. 

So while browsing the new Micheal's in town I came across some adorable wooden picture frames for only one dollar each! I decided that would be the gift! So I picked up the wooden frames, some acrylic paint, and a container of cool foam letter stickers. For three frames, the paint, paint brushes, and the stickers, it only cost me about $10. 

All I did was laid out some newspaper on the table, squeezed out some paint, and let Noah go to town! He loved painting the frames. He was very careful about getting it just right and making it look very pretty!

After we let the paint dry overnight we picked out the stickers we wanted and just pressed them firmly onto the frame! We decided to say "We Love Mimi". It was a cool way to work on letter recognition too! I dumped a bunch of the stickers out on the counter and had Noah pick out the letter I said I needed. It was a lot of fun! I then put one of their newest photos in the frame and it was finished! 

The frame looked so great, and Mimi was very pleased with it! My sister saw it and said she wanted us to make her one! It's such an easy project but makes such a great, thoughtful gift!

Something Special For Mom Giveaway Hop! #specialmom

The month of May is a special time to celebrate Mothers.  Being a mom is the best job in the world and also one of the hardest jobs! Every mom deserves something special every now and then!Whether you are a mom yourself or you're doing something special for your own mom, the Something Special for Mom Giveaway Event is for YOU! A great group of bloggers have come together to show you special items you might like to receive or give as gifts this month. You'll be able to enter to win these great products from May 10th-26th thanks to the Blogging Mamas Network!

Be sure to hop around to all of the participating bloggers, in the linky below this giveaway, as they have some great prizes to share with you! Make sure you also enter the Grand Prize - a $250 Gift Card to Mía Mariú! One lucky Mama is going to look so pretty with all that eco-friendly makeup!

Here at The Not-So-Secret Confessions of a Second Time Mom, I am self sponsoring a $25 gift certificate to my etsy shop Two Brothers Blankets! 

At Two Brothers Blankets I specialize in custom crochet creations for every member of the family, including mom! I make hats, blankets, scarves, and much more! Whether you win this for yourself, your mother, or a new mom to be, I can create something she will love and treasure! 

Giveaway is open to US residents only. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Only one entrant per household allowed. The winner will be chosen at random and emailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter the giveaway!

Five Things to Look for When Purchasing a New Car Seat

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I was compensated for writing this blog post, however the opinions expressed below are 100% my own.

Purchasing a new car seat for your baby or child is a big deal. You want something that will keep your most precious cargo safe, most importantly, but you also want them to be comfortable and the seat to be practical for your vehicle. So what features do you need to look for when purchasing a car seat? What's a must, and what's not so important when it comes to safety, as well as comfort features? Below is a  list I've compiled for exactly what you want to look for and check when you are purchasing a new car seat. 

Height/Weight Limits -  I think this is one of the most important things to look for when purchasing a car seat. As a big advocate for extended rear facing I feel it is very important to get a seat that will make it possible to rear face your child comfortably for as long as possible. If you are looking for an infant seat, you'll see that some have a weight limit of only 22 pounds while others have a limit of up to 35 pounds, like The First Years Via 35 Infant Seat. Depending on whether or not you want to move your child up to a convertible car seat sooner rather than later will depend on if you want to look in to an infant seat with a larger weight limit. 

For a convertible carseat the weight and height limits are very important because you can rear face and forward face with these seats. So if you are looking for a good carseat to practice extended rear facing you want something with a larger rear facing limit. The Diono Radian R120 rear faces all the way to 45 pounds! It forward faces in a five point harness from 20-80 pounds and up to 57 inches. Considering my four year old isn't even 45 pounds yet and could still be rear-facing in this carseat, I'd say this is a great carseat to practice extended rear facing in! 

Versatility- I think this is another very important thing to look at when purchasing a carseat. If the carseat you purchase isn't versatile to fit your needs it's not going to be a good fit for your family. First, you definitely want a carseat that fits well in your car. If you have a small car you aren't going to want to purchase a huge car seat that won't fit in the car. Or if you have more than one child in carseats you want to make sure they will both safely fit in the back seat of your car. 

You will also want to see how easy it is to install and uninstall. I didn't think we'd be switching my son's carseats between my car and my husbands car as much as we do, but we do it pretty often. The fact that they are so easy to install and uninstall is a big perk. 

You'll also want to check into things like what materials the carseat is made of. Will the seat be easy to clean? Will the cover come off easily to clean it? How do you clean it? The Britax Marathon 70 G3 Convertible Carseat has a cover that is easy enough to remove for washing without having to uninstall the carseat. 

Safety Ratings- Of course, you want your child to be safe in the car seat you choose for them. So it's important to be sure that it truly is safe. Do some research online and find out how the car seat you are interested in measures up to other carseats as far as safety goes. Check out the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for ratings, recommendations, and recalls of carseats. Make sure you are putting your child in a safe seat, because unfortunately you never know what could happen once you get out on the road. 

Safety Features- As well as safety ratings, safety features are also nice to check out too. Features such as side impact protection are good to look at. The Maxi Cosi Pria 70 Convertible carseat has side impact protection and the FlexTech system to provide multi-directional crash energy management. 

Extra Features- Even though things like cup holders or head rests may not seem important, they are a good thing to consider. My oldest son's car seat has a cup holder, but my youngest son's does not. I really wish my youngest had a cup holder for his because that is so much easier to deal with on car rides. While they may not be as important and weight limits or safety features, the extra features of a seat are definitely something to be checked out. 

At Pish Posh Baby you can choose from a huge variety of infant, convertible, and booster carseats! They carry all of the carseats I mentioned above and many more! Pish Posh baby gives you the answer to all of the questions you have when looking for all the things above and you can even talk to someone via email or phone to answer any other questions you have. Finding the right carseat for your baby is so important and Pish Posh Baby wants to help you find the perfect one for you and your baby!

I Just Signed Up for the Flats and Handwashing Challenge!

In the 3+ years that I have been cloth diapering I have never used flats! I bought some teeny tiny newborn prefolds to try when I was pregnant with Isaac but had pockets and aios to use so I never gave them a shot. I've just always been very comfortable with my stash of mostly pocket diapers and haven't had any real interest in trying flats.  Until I heard about the Flats and Handwashing Challenge! 

The Flats and Handwashing Challenge was started by Kim over at Dirty Diaper Laundry. This is the third year of this challenge but I only just heard about it last year. I found it very interesting. You can only use flats for diapers and you have to hand wash all the diapers! The point of the challenge is to raise awareness of the many families around the world who struggle to provide diapers for their babies. But this challenge shows that it is very possible to use just a few flats and a simple bucket to cloth diaper your baby. 

The challenge starts May 20 and lasts through the 26! Seven whole days of hand washing diapers! It's going to be tough! But I am excited to do it. I think it will be a great learning experience! I'll be blogging about it all the way through! I am purchasing some flats today and I also plan to make some flats out of t-shirts like Kim shows in this tutorial. My husband is going to make me a camp style washing machine with a big 5 gallon paint bucket and I'm going to give it a go! 

I'm very excited to do this challenge! I hope it raises great awareness, even within myself, about the struggles people face every day just to diaper their kids. I hope it shows people who are skeptical about cloth that it is very possible even on the smallest of budgets! If you are interested in taking the Flats and Handwashing Challenge, visit Dirty Diaper Laundry for all the details!

Do you or have you used flats before? Have you ever hand washed your diapers? I'd love to hear your stories or any tips you might have! 

Easy and Delicious Baked Apple Glazed Pork Chops!

I made these delicious pork chops last night and thought I would share my recipe! There are a lot of similar recipes out there but most of them you have to cook the pork chops on the stove top. With two little ones running around getting in to everything, I don't always have the time to keep them out of trouble and keep the pork chops from burning! So I tweaked some of the recipes I've used and made them so I can just throw the chops in the oven! 

What You'll Need

• 4 pork chops (about 3/4" thick)
• vegetable oil
• 2-3 apples of your choice
• 2 Tblsp Brown Sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter 

What to Do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a little bit of vegetable oil in a skillet and sear both sides of each pork chop, place in a baking pan, and set aside. Peel and core your apples and chop them into small cubes. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, salt and pepper, and cinnamon. Add apples and spice mixture to heated pan along with the butter. Heat and stir until apples are just tender. Pour over pork chops. At this point, I made another batch of spices and heated them with some more butter to make a little bit more sauce, and poured it over the chops. Place in oven uncovered for about 30 minutes or until pork chops are cooked through. 

The smell is fantastic while these are cooking and I always think to myself I need to make more pork chops next time because my family always wants seconds! I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine does! 

Five Fun Date Night Ideas When You're On A Tight Budget!

After having kids, sometimes it's not as easy to keep the spark as strong in your relationship with your significant other. It's important to take time to spend with your partner when you get the chance. My husband and I try to have a date night at least once a month. But it's not always easy when we don't have the extra money in our budget to pay for a sitter or to go out and spend a lot on dinner and a movie. It seems like everything is so expensive these days that it's hard to find things that are cheap, or better yet, FREE, to do with your special someone! 

Here's a few ideas for fun, but cheap or free date nights! 

1. Have a "Day Date"! Take a stroll in the park! If you're close enough, drive down to the beach together! Make a picnic lunch and have a picnic in the grass! Just enjoy the day together!

2. Date Night In! After you put the kids to bed for the night cook your own dinner together, pour a glass of wine, put in a good movie, and snuggle on the couch together! You don't have to even leave the house to have a great date night! 

3. Game Night! Call up some other couples and have a game night one evening! It's great to have adult interaction with other friends and catch up! 

4. Make Something Together! It doesn't matter if you are baking together or working on one of your "honey do" projects together for the house! Spending time together accomplishing something is great! I love to do little house projects with my hubby! It gets us talking and we get silly and then when we are finished it feels great to have accomplished something together! 

5. Check Daily Deal Websites! Websites such as Groupon have all kinds of deals for all kinds of different things to do! From food, to activities, to massages, to getaways you can usually find something fun to do at a really great discounted price! 



So there you have it! A few fun ideas for your next date night! Spending time with your significant other is so important! Life gets busy and sometimes we tend to put that relationship on the back burner. Try to make your relationship a priority and get out there and have some fun with that special someone! 

Cloth For A Cause Grow Your Stash Giveaway and Fundraiser! {US and Canada}

I absolutely love helping out a great cause! I also have a great passion for cloth diapers! So I was super excited to team up with a group of other like-minded bloggers to bring you this great giveaway and fundraiser! 

Parents decide to use cloth diapers for a multitude of reasons. Some choose cloth diapers because it is kinder to the environment. Others choose cloth diapers because of the long term cost savings. Some families, though, are truly struggling: they are part of the one in three families in the United States and Canada who have to choose between buying disposable diapers and buying food or paying rent. Regardless of why these families choose cloth, the start up costs can often be intimidating. For that 33%, the start up costs can be crippling and seemingly insurmountable. That's where Cloth for a Cause, Cloth Diaper Addicts, Viva Veltoro, and Leettle Baby... and the Build Your Stash Bash comes into play.

Cloth for a Cause is a brand new Canadian charity. We've been operating since 2011 with a simple mission: to help those 33% get their babies in diapers. In the year and a half that we've been open, Cloth for a Cause has expanded from one little chapter here in Prince George to fourteen stretching across Canada. We've helped nearly 150 families get their babies in cloth. Last month, Cloth for a Cause became a legal charity. Not only does that mean that our ability to help struggling families has grown, it also means that our need for assistance has grown! You can help by donating to Cloth for a Cause through our PayPal account or by sending a cloth diaper donation to one of our chapters. (If you live in Canada and are making a donation of $20 or greater, we can issue a tax receipt!) If you're near one of our local chapters, you can donate material goods and cash directly to the chapter. If you're not and you'd like to donate some diapers, our Nova Scotia chapter has a large need for services!

Now for the Grow Your Stash part of the Grow Your Stash Bash!

Several wonderful companies have teamed up to put together to help us put together two awesome packages to Grow Your Stash!

Package #1 is open to Canada and the US: One Best Bottom Shell and two medium inserts from Nicki's Diapers
One Glow Bug Spectrum Package (six diapers, eight inserts, and a wetbag)
One newborn diaper by Diapers by Chris
One pocket diaper and insert from Hunny Bunny Baby Wear
One fabulous bag of Rockin Green detergent!
One AppleCheeks swim diaper!


Package #2 is open to Canada only:
A Thirsties Package (Thirstiest Prefold, a Thirsties Stay Dry insert, a Thirsties Duo Cover, and a Snappi pack) and a Rockin Green sample pack, all nicely bundled in a Cozy Bums shopping bag.
A fifty dollar gift certificate to Lagoon Baby
One Glow Bug Spectrum Package (six diapers, eight inserts, and a wetbag)
One pocket diaper and insert from Hunny Bunny Baby Wear
One fabulous bag of Rockin Green detergent!
One AppleCheeks swim diaper!
One diaper and wetbag from EcoWays!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure: The Not-So-Secret Confessions is not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill their giveaway.