I love to hang my clothes outside to dry, but here in Central Ohio, that amounts to a couple short months of warm enough temperatures and sunshine to get that job done. That means the other eight and a half months I use my dryer. Which to me means lots of static electricity. My kids hate finding their socks pasted to the quilt Aunt Rosie crocheted a few years back!

So when I was asked to try out the new Bounce Dryer Bar, I quickly agreed. I don’t usually use dryer sheets for a couple of reasons. I forget to use them and I find those sheets stuck to the quilts just as often as I find the socks. I don’t particularly like the perfumey scent of most dryer sheets either! After receiving my Bounce Dryer Bar in the mail, I anxiously unwrapped it and headed to my dryer. It easily stuck to the side of the drum in my dryer and within seconds I was armed with a Bounce Dryer Bar that promised me fresh, soft, static controlled clothes.

Sure enough, my clothes were super soft and the static was under control. I chose the unscented Bounce Dryer Bar and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of the overwhelming scent of typical dryer sheets. My entire load smelled clean without a perfume scent.Which is just the way I like it! I absolutely love the convenience of the Bounce Dryer Bar. No more having to remember to throw a sheet in with each load. With no static electricity, I managed to fold an entire load with no lonely, unmatched socks left over. Now that’s a bonus!

Yet, the real bonus for my dog-loving family is that once our clothes went through a load with the Bounce Dryer Bar, it definitely lived up to its hair repellency claim! Normally we are a static magnet for our pets’ hair but not so after using the Bounce Dryer Bar! I love the convenience of the bar! Months of soft, static controlled clothes and bedding! And so simple too! Just stick it and forget it! Visit Bounce’s Facebook page for more information on the Bounce Dryer Bar!

Would you like to try one? You can win a Bounce Dry Bar and a $50 Visa gift card from Bounce and BlogHer right here. Leave me a comment, or answer this question to enter: Do you dry clothes outside when it’s warm? Why or why not?

Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here.

For more opportunities to win, visit the Bounce round-up page on BlogHer.com to read other bloggers’ reviews!

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Post tags: blog, blogger, BlogHer, Bounce, central Ohio, dryer sheets, giveaway, promotion, static electricity

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Today is Learn Nothing Day

It’s absurd isn’t it? The sheer idea that you could ever learn NOTHING? Especially in a whole 24 hours. I have barely even been up for an hour and I have learned about a Gum Wall in Seattle, How to Regrow Celery, I found this thought provoking and mostly funny!, Niagara Falls goes Rainbow for Marriage equality in NY and that is just while having my first cup of coffee with my best friends fb and twitter!

With more failure to come today– I plan on listening to THIS , re reading HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST and finishing up a book I am reading. I haven’t even considered all of the  unplanned learning that will inevitably happen while I go about my day.

We are all failures at learning nothing. It is a non discriminating holiday. Age, race, sex or location can not keep you from learning. And it’s a great thing to be a failure at!! Congratulations-you win!!

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Post tags: blog, blogs, holiday, Learning, school

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Color Project 1

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Post tags: Arlington, art, Artist, Artists, artists at work, blog, blogs, color, Concourse, concourse gallery, facebook, Gallery, group, LABORING, mother, opening, photo, photos, project, screening, show, upper arlington, woman, Women

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Here are two easy and cheap  homemade cleaners that contain no harmful chemicals and still smell good!

Homemade Soft Scrub

Mix together

1/4 cup borax

1 cup baking soda

1 T biodegradable liquid soap (I use citrus castille)

Add enough water to make a pasty consistency

add 10 drops essential oils ( I like the smell of lemon and orange for cleaning)

If the scrub gets dry add a few more drops of water.

Anti-Bacterial Spray

To 1 cup white vinegar add

3 cups water

10 drops grapefruit seed extract

10 drops tea tree oil

1 teaspoon castille soap

10 to 20 drops lemon, lavender and/or orange essential oils

I am hoping to find my blogging mojo again. We are still creating messes all over the place–I promise to share more soon!!

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Post tags: baking soda, blog, blogging, borax, castille, castille soap, Cleaners, cleaning, cleaning supplies, essential oils, grapefruit seed, grapefruit seed extract, harmful chemicals, Homemade, lavender, Lemon, liquid soap, ORANGE, scrub, Spray, Spring, spring cleaning, tea tree oil, white vinegar

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We used liquid water colors to paint our gift bags. I barely diluted the water colors keeping them as bright as possible. Open the bags up to keep the paint from bleeding through.

We let the colors run together on some and painted designs on others.

Take care not to tear them when they are wet. Once they dry they are ready to be filled with a gift or a lunch!

Look at the pretty bags at Artsyville! Actually look at all the pretty things there!!

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Post tags: art, Bags, blog, blogs, cake craft, color, colors, Columbus, craft, design, DIY, gift bags, liquid water, lunch, lunch bags, Paint, photo, photos, water colors

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This year we made xmas trees out of magazines. I found it very relaxing to sit and fold these!

I found this great idea at Just Like Martha

We also made beaded star ornaments.

The beaded star idea came from Mrs Picasso’s Art Room

We also made these beautiful novena candles inspired by Artsyville

I personally made 4 of these!  Who said crafting day was just for the kids?!

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Post tags: art, art room, blog, candle, candles, Christmas, craft, Crafting, friends, holiday, magazines, ornament, ornaments, PepperPaints, trees

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The Hoover at work!

Luckily there was still this pan full for the rest of us!

Overnight Coffee Cake

Beat the following until fluffy–

4 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups coconut oil, 2 t vanilla  (I used 1/2 coconut oil and 1/2 butter)

Mix with a whisk–

6 cups pastry flour, 8 t baking powder, 2 t salt  ( I also added cinnamon)

Add dry alternately with 2 cups of milk or buttermilk (I used plain yogurt)

Pour into 2 oiled 9x 13 pans  (I used 1 9x 13 and 1 deep dish pie pan)

Lay fruit on top ( I used a  frozen berry mixture)

Topping– 1 1/2 c sugar, 1 1/3 c flour, 2t cinnamon, cut in enough butter to make it crumbly)

Put in fridge overnight

Bake 350 for 40 minutes

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Post tags: Bake, baking, blog, c flour, Cake, cinnamon, coconut oil, coffee, coffee cake, deep dish, dish pie, double recipe, family, friends, Home, mixture, pastry flour, photo, photos, Pie, post, powder, recipe, Recipes, Thursday, yogurt

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I went through some of our photos and printed out a few in black and white and put out some tempra paint and different size brushes.

This was a really fun. The girls spent a long time painting their photos.

I put the extra black and white print outs on the art table with crayons and markers for later. Such a simple idea–I love it!!

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Post tags: art, art table, awesome idea, black, black and white, blog, blogs, brushes, Chica, idea, Medium, Paint, Painting, photo, photos, print, print outs, tempra, tempra paint

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I first saw this idea at Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning.  I LOVE this blog and get so many great ideas from them!!

First we drew a picture or design with a glue stick on some paper. Then we covered it with salt and shook off any excess.

Next we used eye droppers or pipettes to drip some color over the salt. We used liquid watercolors but I am sure food coloring would work too.

It was so exciting to see the salt absorb the colors.

We loved making these. A project I am sure we will be doing again really soon.

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Post tags: blog, color, colors, design, drip, eye droppers, food coloring, glue, glue stick, Irresistible, Learning, Medium, Paint, paper, photo, photos, picture, pipettes, Play, project, salt, watercolor, watercolors

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We cut out pictures from magazines …. but you could totally color your own.

Then I mixed 4 Tablespoons of hot water with 2 Tablespoons of gelatin. I used unflavored (knox)… big mistake! They tasted too horrible to lick! So use flavored gelatin!! Stir until blended.

We brushed the gelatin mixture onto the back of our pictures.

Then let them dry for about a half an hour or more. Then we licked the backs and almost puked so we brushed some water on the backs and stuck them down.

Viola! Homemade stickers!

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Post tags: blog, blogging, cleaning, gelatin mixture, Homemade, homemade stickers, knox, magazines, mixture, photo, photos, picture, pictures, stickers

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