My Review of the Hammaka hammock chair from CSN Stores

A while back I told you I was going to let you know how I liked CSN Stores, remember?  I was talking about  home improvement and renovating our garage and turning it into a living space?
Well, it turns out that our renovated garage is turning into Mongoosine's bedroom, and so it doesn't need any barstools, but it DOES need a chair.  Because she had enjoyed hanging out in the hammock Sky Chairs at the Renn Faire so very much, I decided to order her the hammock chair by Hammaka for Christmas this year, and she absolutely LOVES it.

It was a super good deal, only costing $50, as opposed to the $100 we had been looking at spending on the same type of chair when she fell in love with it at the Faire this summer.

And the Hammaka one had arm rests. Oooh, fancy shmancy.

Here's the review I left on the product's page, in case you're wondering.

Originally submitted at CSN Stores

Sweet Swingin'

By Slee from IL on 12/31/2010

5out of 5

This was the perfect Christmas gift for my tween.
She loves to lounge in it and read, or spin in circles.
I love that it was easy to assemble and is rated for up to 350 lbs, so I don't have to worry if she and a friend are being ridiculous and piling on, or if the baby wants to sit on my lap in it.
It was super easy to assemble and install (so long as you know where your beams are if you don't have a special contraption to hang it off of) and even with her jumping up and down over spouse's shoulder, it was less than a 10 minute assembly.

The only downside was that spouse thought it smelled a little weird coming out of the box, but since it has wood dowels, I think that smell he was referring to was "wood."

(legalese)

I bought this for Mongoosine's Christmas present using a gift certificate provided from CSN Stores a while back, and it was the perfect choice.

In other news, they shipped super quickly and everything arrived in great condition.
My only irritation was the box the item came in is the box in which it was shipped, meaning that had she beat me home, she would have seen the box and been able to tell, from the picture, what was in it.

My Review of Ride-Ons Tikes Patrol 30th Anniversary Edition

Do you remember forever ago when I was waxing nostalgic about the joy of sitting at a vanity and pretending to be a princess and going on about the importance of imaginative play?
Well, I promised a follow up review of CSN Stores and something imaginitive, and then I got indecisive. There was too much to pick from, but *finally* I settled on this fun police car for JabberWalky.  You can read what I said about it on their site below.

He freaking loves it.

Merriest Christmas present ever.

Originally submitted at CSN Stores

Now this kid-powered car has a whole new look.

Features:

• Tikes patrol 30th Anniversary edition
• Fabric ears for softie play
• New features include removable floor and a handle on back for parent-controlled push rides
• Designed with...

Ride-Ons Tikes Patrol 30th Anniversary Edition

Favorite Toy

By Slee from IL on 12/31/2010

4out of 5

My son sits in this car for meals now. He loves it. We have run into some trouble with getting him out of it when we have to go elsewhere, but for a 19 month old, it's heavenly.

I am not giving it five stars because the assembly is horrendous.

(legalese)

I ordered it partially with a gift certificate provided by CSN Stores for the purposes of a review.  It was definitely the best choice I could make for him, except, as mentioned in my review, that the assembly is horrendous.  

Spouse was so upset at one point in the assembly that the whole thing almost went straight to the garbage, but once he managed to fix the assembly error (and he's pretty dang handy, so I'm going to agree with all the other reviews and say that it's just a difficult assembly) then it went together correctly and works just peachy.

I was a little frustrated that like other large items, it arrived without any masking plain brown paper so that the contents were readily viewable, in color, on the box.  Franky, it's hard to hide a giant car box that shows up on your porch from a toddler when he's always where you are.

Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend this toy, and I was super pleased with how quickly it shipped and how easy it was to order.  All in all, a positive experience.

A Very Doctor Christmas Carol- Abagail's Song.

So, um, if you know where I can get sheet music for this.... I'd be much obliged.

And for those of you who want the lyrics, the lyrics to the whole thing, and not just this bit, are (the first two lines are cut from everything I can find on youtube, probably because the Doctor is talking over them.):

When you’re alone, silence is all you know.
When you’re alone, silence is all you know.

When you’re alone, silence is all you see,
When you’re alone, silent is all you’ll be.
Give me your heart, come to me.
When you are here, music is all around.
When you are near, music is all around.
Open your eyes, don’t make a sound.
Meet in the shadow, meet in the shadow.
Meet in the light of your bright shadow….

Doctor Who Christmas Carol - The 12 days of Christmas

This year Mongoosine parodied her favorite Christmas songs in honor of a very merry Who-mas.

The 12 Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me, a brand new TARDIS key.

On the second day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the third day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the fourth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the fifth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the sixth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS, four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the seventh day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the eighth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the ninth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the tenth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me ten cool fezzes, nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the eleventh day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me eleven time vortexes, ten cool fezzes, nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Doctor gave to me, twelve Bad Wolves, eleven time vortexes, ten cool fezzes, nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.



Copyright 2010 Slee & Mongoosine, all rights reserved.  Have fun singing it, but you know, don't be evil.

Dreaming of a Blue Christmas

TARDIS blue to be precise.

It started with the Ornie Swap.  My good friend @The_BMG from twitter sent some lovely TARDISy goodness our way, see the middle of the white tree?  Very TARDISy fun.  Well, we couldn't find the box with the ornaments, tree topper, and stockings, so Mongoosine got into her head that we should make a new tree topper, and while eyeing an empty Rice Krispy Treat box, we thought, hey, you know what we need for the top of our tree, right?

So, some paint, sparkly pigment, transfer paper, photo printing, Sharpies, scissors and a XYRON sticker maker later.... we had a TARDIS tree topper of which you should be deeply jealous.  Better yet, don't be jealous, make your own.

So it turns out, that what with this Dec 25th really being Who-mas, (Sing- "Come thou long awaited Doctor") last night my parents gave her her very own....

 Sonic Screwdriver.  I don't think I've ever seen her so happy.
Turns out, it came in handy the next morning when Santa put a Weeping Angel plush in her stocking.

 Came in very handy.

It was also very popular with the under 3' tall crowd.

All in all she got 1 sonic screwdriver, 2 Who themed t-shirts This one and This one, a BAD WOLF wash cloth, and a weeping angel doll.  Sadly, she wrote a song/parody, "I want a little adipose for Christmas," but I didn't manage to make her one. Maybe for next year.

Did you have a fantastic Who-mas?

Oh noes!

So it turns out I've been emailing some of my blog posts for the last couple weeks, okay, nearly all of them, and I just got them all returned undeliverable.
(yeah, I didn't have the presence of mind to check since I didn't expect a ton of replies) so um... yeah. they got eaten.
Now it's off to try to determine just why they got eaten.

Wordless Wednesday: My Piano!

Wordless Wednesday

Productivity Fail

I want to be productive. I want the house to be clean and to get my sewing accomplished, but I find it is very hard to get anything done while making sure the toddler isn't getting into anything he shouldn't.
So I did not get that blanket sewn. I did not get any more punks punked. I did not get the tree up. I did not get the stockings hung.
I did capture smiles in my memory, cuddle profusely, and have a silly face contest.
Maybe not what I set out to do, but I guess it's not too bad.
Did you get anything done today, and if so, what's your secret?

Sharp as Nails

Oh my goodness.
Some JabberWalky has some SHARP nails.

He's been on a napping strike. Lately he only wants to nap in his carseat or laying on the floor, with his hands tucked safely under himself.  Yes, the floor. The hardwood floor.  He's a weirdling.

I usually try to clip his fingernails when he's asleep so that he can't jerk his hands away making it take too long and risking cutting is sweet little bitty fingers.  With Mongoosine, I had to trim her nails in the car while someone else drove so that she'd be thoroughly lulled into that bizarre sleepy car trance.  With JabberWalky, calmly dozing does the trick.  That said, I realized today it had been weeks since his nails had been trimmed and he was packin' ten razor sharp little fingers, proportionately as long as what some women pay money to have glued onto their bodies.

So today I told him, "I'm sorry, but we have to clip your fingernails, or we're not going to be able to nursey anymore." (He has a habit of tweaking and pinching things, which, as physics and physiognomy would have it, hurts when the little digits involved are sporting half inch nails. You should see my chest... well, scratch that, oh wait he already did.  Let's just say that it's been thoroughly scratched.

I was surprised that after I explained that it had to be done, he just sat there and let me clip his fingernails. He didn't fuss, squirm, attempt to evade. The only issue we ran into was when he was trying to help me get his right thumbnail and was turning his hand into what would have been a better position, if the thumb had another joint.  I was very proud of my little boy, but it got me wondering- other than letting your kid's nails get so long that even they know they need trimmed, what do you do to make toddler manicure sessions tolerable for both of you?

MONDAY!

HELP!
It's Monday and I don't want it to be.

Quick question- how do you make a Monday feel less, well, like a Monday?

Child Abuse Awareness.

Instead of changing my facebook avatar to a picture of Rainbow Brite, I'm giving you this simple link to a government pamphlet outlining the signs of child abuse so you can recognize it when you see it, and intervene.

The signs of Child Abuse

*I don't necessarily agree that a non-vaccinated child is per-se being neglected, though I have known children who didn't get their vaccinations because they would have had to go to the doctor, and the doctor would have seen the bruises, so please don't argue about the inclusion of that point in said pamphlet.

Help Where It's Needed

My dear friend Joni Rae is a wonderful mom, friend, and blogger with a big heart.
When she was 17, and pregnant with her beautiful daughter Hannah, she lived in a shelter for single moms who had no where else to be.
I can relate to this, having been a 19 year old mom, I know that it's hard.  So when I read that Joni Rae puts together gift baskets for the young moms, not their babies, for Christmas, and was looking for people to help donate items for them, I knew that this was the sort of holiday generosity I wanted to get behind and support.
There are 8 young women in the teen mom shelter she gives to, and she's looking for little things that will make them feel cared for.
So, I'm asking you to help out, or do one better, and find out what you can do for the teen moms in your area, and then help out.

Pink Saturday: Holiday Recipe

In lieu of your regular Pink Saturday post, I'm linking you to my favorite pink seasonal dessert's recipe, and giving you a not-so-pink one, but yummy nonetheless. It's pretty quick and painless.

Pumpkin Cookies

1 tub or tube of premade sugar cookie dough*.
Pumpkin Butter

Roll dough into a log, refrigerate for at least three hours.  Slice dough into quarter inch disks, place on cookie sheet. Bake as per instructions. While still hot, spread a very thin layer of pumpkin butter on top.

Simplicity, but a little more fun than a plain old boring cookie straight from the oven and plain.

You CAN spread pumpkin butter on top before baking, which I prefer, but you have to transfer pumpkin butter to a separate dish before spreading so as to avoid raw cookie dough germs from contaminating the pumpkin butter.



* I like to get this from the refrigerated section in one of our local grocery store where they sell things they make in their bakery to be baked at home. You're more than welcome to make your own sugar cookie dough.

For more recipes, check out Beverly's Pink Saturday.

The yellow hat.

I apparently married the man in the yellow hat. So um, should we have named our little monkey "George?"

Back then

There was a time when buildings were treated a lot like monuments. They were intended to last and their details told people something about the builders.
I often wish such attention to detail were more common.

Wordless Wednesday: Superbaby Fixes the Chair

Wordless Wednesday