OpinionMom

“The Mugwaz are here! The Mugwaz are here!” exclaimed Darling Daughter number two (DD2) as she tore open the box and lifted out the layers of pink and purple tissue paper.

Inside the box were the four Mugwaz fashion craft kits that Mugwaz president, Bree Altman, had asked us to review for OpinionMom readers: two Original Mugwaz D.I.Y. Flip Flop kits, a Mugwaz Beltz kit, and a Mugwaz Bagz kit. Each kit was neatly packaged and contained all the materials needed to make each craft as well as easy, step-by-step instructions. (We did have to use our own scissors and some plastic spoons.)

(One lucky reader will get a Mugwaz Bagz kit. Read to the bottom of the review for details on the give-away contest.)

Make Something Fun To Wear!

My two darling daughters tore into their responsibilities as reviewers, starting

with the flip flops. (My girls practically live in flip flops year-round, so this was a natural beginning for them.)

The flip flop kit contains lots of glitter and some sequins that can be used to decorate them. The flip flops themselves look sturdy with nice, thick soles.

My girls want crazy with the glitter. (You can see the results in the picture.) In less than an hour, each girl had a fancy new pair of flip flops.

An extra nice feature of the Mugwaz flip flop kit is that it comes packed in a plastic purse that can easily be reused as a makeup bag, or even a small purse.

Accessorize

Next the girls opened the Bagz kit. Both girls are sort of purse fanatics – constantly switching purses.

(For myself, I like to stay with the same purse.) The Mugwaz Bagz comes with a matching change purse (our sample was a snazzy pink) and a removable strap as well as the cloth flowers to decorate them.

Of all the crafts, I think this one was the easiest.

It took one of my daughters only about fifteen minutes to put the flowers together and attach them to the purse. If your child is younger, this might be a good starter craft for them to work on (with parental supervision, or course). (See photo.)

Finally, the girls worked on the Mugwaz Beltz kit. Although the concept is simple, the belt was a little bit hard to make. The girls wanted the sequence to stay the same throughout the belt and that took a bit of advance planning on their part.

Mother and Daughter Quality Time

While my girls were old enough to make these crafts by themselves, I stayed nearby talking to them. I think making these crafts with your daughter could be an excellent time to bond.

(Note: the box said for ages five and up, but I think that most five year-olds would need adult help with these projects.)

Have a Craft Party

A few years ago DD2 had a craft/sleepover birthday party. I didn’t know about Mugwaz, so I went ahead and made up my own crafts and bought materials from a local craft shop. The party was a huge hit, but I wish I’d known about Mugwaz craft kits for girls. A Mugwaz party pack would have saved me a lot of time and the finished crafts would have been more useful.

Conclusion

Mugwaz fashion craft kits are definitely something that I would recommend. As a parent I like the idea that it encourages girls to be creative. So many popular toys like video games are passive and don’t really encourage kids to think or use their own creativity. With Mugwaz, not only do they get a chance to be creative, but they get to create something useful as well.

With the holidays around the corner, Mugwaz just must be the perfect gift for that special girl on your list. In fact, my own girls (I almost typed girlz) are hoping that Mugwaz will develop more products for them to test.

Mugwaz Contest for OpinionMom Readers

Bree Altman, the Mugwaz president, has agreed to a give-away contest for OpinionMom readers located in the United States and Canada. One lucky reader will get a Mugwaz Bagz kit. (Kit is individual size, color to be selected by the company.)

To enter the contest, leave a comment on this post before midnight on October 31st, 2007, telling me what you think you would like about Mugwaz crafts. I’ll use a random number to choose one to receive the craft kit! Winners will be announced on November 2nd, 2007.

(By participating in this drawing, all participants agree that they are trying this product at their own risk without any warranties or guarantees about product performance from OpinionMom.)

(Disclosure: Product samples were provided by an agent for MugWaz.)

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

I thought I’d share one of the We Blog Cartoons today, since Dave has generously made them available for use on personal blogs. Here’s a cartoon that reminds me of my own desk:

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

The latest Festival of Frugality (96th edition) is up at at Fire Finance.

I haven’t had a chance to choose my favorite entries yet, but there are over  three dozen money-saving ideas entered in this carnival!

Whether you’re on a tight budget or just looking to get ahead financially, you’ll want to check this festival out.

Saving money doesn’t have to be hard or difficult. Even little actions can eventually result in big savings.

If you really want to save money, it’s important not to ignore the little things.

Here are five easy steps that you can take right now that can save you big money in the long run:

1. Borrow books, don’t buy. Many libraries carry popular titles shortly after they become available. You can save $20 a book, or more, by using your local library.
2. Use fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent light bulbs use less energy than conventional incandescent bulbs.
3. Brown bag it. Are you accustomed to eating lunch out? Try brown bagging it and save over $5.00 a day.
4. Fix the leaky faucet. That drip is more than annoying. It’s wasting water and driving up your water bill. Fix it and save!
5. Adjust your thermostat. Turn the thermostat up five degrees in the summer, down five degrees in the winter. You’ll use less energy and save dollars.

Bonus tip: Do it yourself. From lawncare to painting to cleaning the house, you can save big dollars by not hiring expensive professionals.

Look around. What little steps can you take today to begin saving money?

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Potatoes have always been one of my favorite budget stretchers. You can make so many recipes with them:

• Mashed potatoes
• French fried potatoes
• Baked potatoes
• Potato salad
• Potato soup

A five pound bag of potatoes doesn’t cost much either. If the grocery budget is tight, potatoes could be the answer.

Early in our marriage one of our favorite meals was potato soup that we made by boiling potatoes, mashing them, adding milk, and simmering the mixture. If we had it we’d also add bits of ham and onion. The final seasoning was a bit of pepper and a touch of garlic.

(Just writing about the soup is making me hungry …)

I think that potatoes sometimes get a bad rap healthwise because they are a starch. The truth is that a single potato only contains 100 calories and there is no fat or cholesterol in it (unless, of course, you add a fatty topping). A diet favorite of ours is a baked potato with salsa.

I found this neat potato website that has just about everything you could want to know about potatoes (including recipes): IdahoPotato.com.

How about you? Do you like potatoes? What’s your favorite potato recipe?

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Once again, I have a frugal tip from my mother.
When we were little, she separated our clothes into two categories: “good,” and “play clothes.”

The “good” clothes were for school, church, and other social occasions. They were always kept clean, pressed, and as close as possible to new condition. As soon as we came home, we were to change into our “play clothes.”

The “play clothes” were clothes that my mom didn’t care if we messed up. While they were cleaned regularly, they didn’t get repaired if they were damaged. Often, the “play clothes” were made from old “good” clothes – such as cutting old slacks into shorts.

The purpose of these designations, my mother explained to me, was to make the “good clothes” last as long as possible.

Now that I’m an adult, I see the wisdom of her system. In fact, to some extent, I still use her system today (not only for my kids, but also for myself). I do have two sets of clothes: one for doing chores and another for social occasions. The practice does indeed make the “good” clothes last longer.

At home I typically wear an old tee shirt and old jeans or sweat pants. I have an old pair of tennis shoes that already have grass stains all over them – so they can be used to mow the lawn, walk in the mud, paint, or do any other messy chore that I might have. When I go out I either wear dress slacks and a nice top OR a newer pair of jeans with a newer tee shirt and newer tennis shoes.

Because I’m in the habit of changing out of my nice clothes to do chores, I find that the nice clothes (which tend to be more expensive) last longer and I don’t have to buy dress clothes as often.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

Last week I blogged that I had two bottles of the new shielding lotion, Gloves In A Bottle, to give away to two lucky commentators.

The contest is now over. A total of eight folks left comments on the Gloves In A Bottle post. I used a random number generator to select the following lucky winners:

• lace
• CanCan

Each of you will be getting an email from me with instructions (or you can contact me a laura [dot] opinionmom [dot] com).

Congratulations to the lucky winners and thanks to everyone else who participated!!

(Disclosure: Product samples were provided by an agent for Gloves In A Bottle.)

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

My tip this week is a fun one for the younger kids at your house and it’s something I fondly remember doing with my own mother as a child.

There are many commercially sold modeling clay compound available on the market, but did you know that you can make your own modeling “dough” with ingredients found in your own kitchen?

It’s simple. It’s fun. Plus, I feel a lot better about a child sticking this type of clay, which is basically made with food ingredients, into their mouth. (Yes, I know that some of the commercial modeling clay preparations are non-toxic – but are the ingredients in them really good for your child?)

I wish that I still had the modeling dough recipe that my mother used. However, thanks to Google, I was able to find some very similar recipes online.  Here is a page at Playtime for Toddlers with multiple modeling dough recipes. Based on my memories, I think the one that my mother made for us as children is called “Salt Dough.”

There are a few tips that I have for using the dough:

1. Make sure that your children clean their hands before using the dough. This will help protect the dough from contamination.
2. Since the dough is made of food stuff, it can spoil if you’re not going to bake it or let it harden permanently. My mother always kept ours in the refrigerator between uses.
3. Discard old dough. Again, since the dough is made of food stuff it can go bad. After about three days in the refrigerator, my mother threw the stuff out and made a new batch.

Have fun!

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved