My Dream Digital Life + a $25 Home Depot Giveaway

Thanks to AT&T for sponsoring this event and giveaway. As always, all opinions are my own.

I consider myself a pretty lucky lady. Not only do I get to attend all of my children's events and do most of my work from home, but I also get the opportunity to go to special media events where I can learn about the latest and greatest things. 

I don't write about all of the events I attend, but wanted to share with you one that I attended a couple of weeks ago and became instantly intrigued by. It was an open house for a product called Digital Life from AT&T. AT&T Digital Life allows you the freedom and convenience to monitor your home while on the go, and if you know me and the kids' schedules, you know how often we are always running around. 

10 Ways to Keep the Kids Entertained When the Power Goes Out (with Duracell)

“This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.”

This last week we had a couple of blustery days around here. Nothing major besides rain and a slight warm breeze in the dark sky, but none-the-less whenever that weather happens around here this time of year one thing comes to my mind - thunderstorms. I actually enjoy thunderstorms (so long as nothing gets permanently damaged!) but I know that occasionally when we have a thunderstorm the power goes out, and I'm left trying to keep the kids occupied in the dark. So, I made a kit that include lots of things, including Duracell Batteries.

It's stored on a shelve in the garage so it's easy to get to, and it's filled with everything we need for a night at home without power. Sometimes storms can be a pretty scary thing for little ones, so keeping them feeling safe as well as distracted are my number one priority. In our kit I've got a number of things, but most importantly using Duracell to keep all of the lanterns, flashlights, and electronics going! They can be easily found at Walmart as they have an in aisle display as well as several others throughout the store on the end of aisles.

Some other things that I've packed in our power outage bag include: 

• Candles and a lighter
• Hand sanitizer
• A couple treats and snacks
• A special game
• Deck of cards
• Markers / Pencils
• Notepads
• Glow sticks
• Back up cell phone boost charger

In addition to our kit I've made a list of ideas to help keep the kids for when we do happen to have a power outage:

1. Break out a board game: We love a classic card game and Yahtzee is always on our go-to list, but there's also some newer fun games like Bop-It, Catch Phrase, and Simon Says that creates a bunch of fun with the help of a couple Duracell Batteries

2. Read a special story together: Gather around in a circle with flashlights and read a funny story together. The kids will love it, and it will help distract them from the weather. 

3. Have a Glow Dance Party: Break out the glow sticks that you should have in your emergency pack, adorn the kids with them and them turn up the battery-operated radio and have a dance party! If you're really into it they can even have a dance contest.

4. Play Shadow Puppets: Now is the perfect time to let the kids play pretend with their own shadow puppets! Break out a couple of flashlights and shine them against the wall and let their imaginations run wild.

5. Set up Camp: Create a fort in the living room! Either pop up a tent or create your own by hanging up blankets and setting out sleeping bags. Have them grab all of their stuffed animals and have lots of fun. 

6. Have a Drawing Contest: With the lights out! Turn off all of the flashlights and then give an idea of something for everyone to draw, then try to draw it in the dark! It's pretty funny to see how everyone's turns out.

7. Make a Taste Testing Game: Ever been to a baby shower and they played that game where brave souls had to taste the baby food and guess what flavor it was? Well this is way better. Just scrounge up items from your cupboards and then challenge your kids to guess what they are. Have them each taste them and make guesses before shining the flashlight on what they've just ate. You can play nice here or tease the older ones a bit more depending on what's in your pantry. 

8. Roast Some Marshmallows: Over a candle. You haven't tried it before? Break out your unscented emergency candles and put a marshmallow on a fork or chopstick and then melt away! Who says you have to do it over a camp fire?

9. Take Silly Pictures: Break out the camera and have the kids dress up in funny outfits and take photos with the "spotlights" of the lantern and flashlights. Later print them out and give them a picture to keep of the memorable evening. 

10. Talk: Sounds silly, but how often now days to we get the opportunity to just talk? To not be distracted by a million different things and going in a hundred directions with multiple events? Sit down, snuggle up, and just ask your kids questions. Chances are it will open up the conversations for them to ask you questions that they've been wanting to know. 

It's also a great idea to have an emergency supply bag just in case the electricity doesn't come back on in a few hours or if there's a bigger natural disaster. I'm still working on these, but ideally it would be great to have a backpack for each member of the family with things like water, food, a blanket, batteries, flashlight, a lighter, extra clothes, rain gear, sunblock, first aid kit, a radio, and a multipurpose tool. Chances are you'll never need it, but it's just one of those things that it's always good to be prepared.

What kinds of things do you do with your kids when there's a power outage? I'd love to hear more ideas! Thanks #CollectiveBias for letting me share how we #PrepWithPower.

~Melissa

How I Built a Raised Garden With a Little Help From Tom's of Maine ;)

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

If you follow me on Instagram you would know that last week my friend came over and we were working on a ‘top secret’ project that I wasn't going to share until I was finished. Well, it’s done. With the help of cool drinks and anti-perspirant (!) I got all of the hard work done and I can officially check one thing off of my summer DIY bucket list!

I created a raised garden in my side yard – and it wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it would be. First I hooked up our trailer and headed into town to get supplies. I decided that I wanted to make the garden 5’x12’ and 16” deep. We had to figure out how much soil I would need too, and luckily most of the time if you ask people they will help you figure all of that technical stuff out (since math and me aren't real good buddies). Anyways, turns out 2 yards of soil worked out perfectly. It didn't sound like much – until it filled the whole back of the trailer! The kids loved watching them dump it in.

We then purchased 8 2x4x12’s and 8 2x4x8’s and the guys at the store were kind enough to cut the 8 footers down to 5 feet for us, which saved us a bunch of time. We already had the screws to assemble the frame, but I did buy some chicken wire to keep all of the random bunnies we seem to have away.

By the time we fed all 5 of our kids and got home it was of course the hottest part of the day! We drank some cool drinks and I was so glad I had my Tom's of Maine Naturally Dry Deodorant on because or else I would have really smelled like a you-know-what. I love using Tom's products because they have no artificial ingredients, colors, or preservatives.

The first thing we did was make sure the area was level enough (Note: I’m not a professional or perfectionist here) and then we assembled each 5x12 square one at a time, and then positioned them where they would stay. We stacked them as we built them until all four were on top of each other. We then took the 3’ scraps we had left from the pieces that had been cut down and screwed each one of them in a corner to connect them all together, along with one on each side in the centers to secure it.

When everything looked right we filled the bottom of the garden with newspaper a couple of inches deep. I read somewhere that it helps to keep the weeds away.Then, shoveling. We live on a hill, so my driveway is an in incline, but I was so proud of myself for backing the trailer up to within an inch of the garden on the first try. (Not shown in photo) I think I may have did a little fist pump in the air. J I spent hours shoveling all of that soil in, and worked until 10:45 that night with the street lights as my guide, you know, just to keep my neighbors wondering.

After day one I came in, cleaned up and sat down exhausted. I don’t normally watch too much television, but I do surf the internet probably more than I should, and I remembered I had an Amazon gift card burning a hole in my online pocket, so I did a little late night shopping and stocked up on Tom’s Deodorant – since I have that long DIY list that’s going to be forcing me to work in the heat a lot.

The next morning I finished shoveling dirt, then painted the walls white to match our house trim, and the kids helped me plant our plants. I then put the chicken wire around it and voila! We have a nice sized area to grow our own veggies! I’d like to trim the 2x4’s down to the level of the chicken wire soon, as well as fill in the side with gravel. I had also ended up moving two wine barrel halves (remember our wine barrel summer salad garden?) to below the raised bed, which required me shoveling all of the dirt out to move them and then filling them back in.

I was definitely sore after day two, but it was totally worth it! It’s such a good feeling to tackle and finish a project.

Thanks #CollectiveBias and Tom's of Maine (#NaturallyFresh) for helping me make this garden possible! 

~Melissa

My Summer DIY Bucket List

Lately I've felt like I could totally transform into a hermit and I'd be completely cool hiding out in my own house. I'm sure that I'd get tired of it after a week or two, but the thought of it's been pretty appealing! I think it's just because I've felt like I've been on the go more this past year than ever before.

It's been officially summer for four days now and I know that last year I was very much into creating a summer bucket list of things that I wanted to do with the kids. While I still love the idea of doing that again, I think this summer I'd like to shift my focus from going and doing so many activities to more DIY activities around the house. After 7 summers here it's time to start sprucing up.

My husband works pretty long hours most of the time, and having had babies and toddlers since we've moved in here, there's a lot of things that haven't gotten finished (or started!) at our house. With Anika turning 11 this summer, Emma 6 1/2 and Noah being 4 years old now, I feel that I can actually accomplish some of these things with both of my hands while having the kids here. People take things for granted like mowing the lawn, or even weeding - because it's so hard to do when you have a baby teething or needing fed! I think the kids are finally at ages where I can work on something for more than 2 minutes at a time while they play together.

So, this summer bucket is still coming (if you need ideas for yours here's 31 summer activities), but here's a glimpse at my to-do list. I know that it won't get all done in the next 11 short weeks, but that's okay as long as I keep plugging away at it.

• Buy and install a new screen door
• Build a raised garden (hint - this one will be on the blog soon!)
• Stain the fence and decks
• Tile the bathrooms and repaint the walls
• Clean the bedroom carpets
• Repaint the house
• Fix our garage door - so it will actually work!
• Clean the garage and organize it
• Finish building the play structure for the kids
• SOMEDAY lay hardwood flooring down
• Create a chalkboard wall that I can hang on our fence for the kids
• Mulch the yard

Do you have a summer DIY list started? What's your number one project to get done before school starts back up?

~Melissa

Easy Kitchen Update: How to Paint Cabinet Knobs

 I am now in countdown mode for the last day of school and summer to officially begin! Noah’s preschool graduation (his participation) was so cute last night (I’ll share pictures soon!) and then the girls will officially be on break June 11^th!

The past week I've been making a list of all of the little DIY projects that I want to get finished up this summer – and let me tell you, the list of getting pretty long. I may just have to share it with you one of these days. A lot of the projects are outdoor stuff, but I have lots of inside updating I’d like to do as well.

I've noticed that many of the indoor updates that I want to finish are pretty time consuming (like flooring, room painting, etc.) except one: updating the kitchen cabinet knobs. We have a small house, but are lucky to have an open kitchen with many cabinets and drawers – 32 to be exact. We also live in a 1990’s home that has yet to be updated, and I was painfully reminded that every time I looked at my brassy gold kitchen knobs. I have nothing against the color gold, in fact I like it, but this yellow-y shiny golden hue is just hideous in my opinion.

I hadn't bought any new ones because I’m still sitting out on a limb trying to figure out what I want to do with the kitchen. I pretty much would like to change everything someday – the counter tops, re-stain the cabinets, paint, etc. I like the red kitchen idea, but I also know that it makes the kitchen pretty dark and gloomy in the winter, so I've been mulling over painting it a light color, and also don’t care for the oak stain on the cabinets either, so I think that would have to change after I painted. Anyways, I didn't want to shell out $3-$10 per kitchen knob until I knew what I was going to do, but in the meantime these knobs had to change. I decided to paint them a different shade that blended in better for now, so I bought a can of  Rust-Oleum ® Universal® Spray Paint and went to work.

It was so easy to do – the hardest part was just waiting for them to dry!

How to Paint Kitchen Knobs

1.    Remove all of the knobs from the cabinets and clean + dry them.

2.    Next, using course sandpaper, rough the surface of the knobs up (this will help the new paint stay longer)

3.    Go outdoors or in a ventilated area and place all of the knobs in an upright position on scrap cardboard and paint them using the Rust-Oleum ® Universal® Spray Paint  (be sure to follow the directions located on the side of the can.)

4.    Let them dry to touch (approx. 1hr) then turn the knobs over and paint the opposite side.

5.    Let them dry overnight and then place them back on the cupboards!

Rust-Oleum ® Universal® Spray Paints offer a variety of on-trend colors and unique finishes, and boast the first-of-its-kind 360 degree any-angle delivery system that allows DIYers to tackle those hard to reach areas, even upside down.

~Melissa

“Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Rust-Oleum® via Glam Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Rust-Oleum®.”