Rollin' Into summer

There's only a few weeks of school left, and like any mother, I'm wondering what I'm going to do with my boys all summer. I need to try to keep them off the Wii and off the couch as much as possible, without driving myself insane. And since it's too hot here in Arizona for them to play outside, I'm compiling a list of inside activities. Toys are good. Toys are my friend. And we just found a new one. One that doesn't require batteries, doesn't make too much noise, and keeps my boys busy for an hour or two at a time.

The good folks at Mom Select sent us a pack of the brand new toy from Cepia, the makers of our furry little friends, the Zhu Zhu Pets. The new hot summer activity is DaGeDar. An entire world of small balls filled with ball bearings, each with their own persona, that compete in racing around tracks and other games. The line includes 240 DaGeDar balls, 3 track sets, and a few other accessories.

We had a party with a few friends, and all the boys enjoyed the toys. DaGeDar is marketed to age 4 and up, but my 3 year old loves to throw the balls around the track too. But I noticed the older kids, 6 and up, had much more patience and played longer with our set. Since we only have one track, it requires a little patience to wait your turn to race. The game also requires a little skill - you have to put a little force behind the ball or it won't make it through the loop the loop, but if you throw too hard your DaGeDar ball will jump the track.

DaGeDar supports creative play, encouraging "house rules." My boys made up a few games of their own, and we held a few competitions at our party and gave prizes to the winners. We had a contest for spinning the balls like a top, keeping them on the table. I am hoping to buy some of the DaGeDar spinners as soon as I can find them in stores. They should make our spinning game a little different, and keep it all on the table. Although I loved to see the kids' techniques for spinning.

Our track came in about about a dozen pieces, but snapped together easily, and the boys figured out how to do it themselves pretty quickly. I like that they are soft enough plastic that they don't break when the boys step on them or play rough, but sometimes they don't stay together as well as I would like. The carrying cases are a genius design, holding 3 DaGeDar balls securely, but ours are not holding up well. The loop that you can use to hook the carrier onto things has broken off from all of our cases. The printed on design is cool, but the logo sticker was wearing off in the first week. My kids still took them to school every chance they could the last couple weeks.

Cepia has also put together a cool website, with some great flash animation, where the kids can learn all about their DaGeDar balls. You enter the code on your ball & learn all about the character - it's history in the realm of 33 (the magic number), it's strengths, and it's tagline. The boys got a kick out of learning about each of their dudes. And the taglines were funny.

Here's some video we shot of our party. We didn't get all the good games, but you can see the DaGeDar in action. Then there is the new DaGeDar commercial. These toys are available at Toys 'R'Us in the Phoenix area now, and will be sold nationwide later this summer.

April Outfit of the Month

I explained the concept of the Outfit of the Month series already, but to sum up: each month I will feature an outfit that I wish I was wearing, either from a magazine or somewhere online. Then I will create a look with a similar feel, with pieces that would fit into the budget of a Well-Rounded Woman. 

April's outfit comes from Lucky magazine and I listed each piece, including price. They add up to a whopping $3,868. And I don't know about you, but that's about six or seven years worth of clothing for me.

Below are the pieces I found, at significant discounts. In fact, at a total of $226 for the entire outfit, that comes to less than 6% of the price of the Lucky outfit. And naturally I don't have $226 to spend each month, but I can usually pick up a piece or two. I already have the pin and I made the necklace recently, and I think I'd like to get a pair of light-weight jeans like this for the summer. I spent a lot of time learning how to make an image map, so please click on specific pieces for the links to where you can get them.

DIY Bead Necklace

As I searched for a suitable necklace for my April Outfit, I couldn't find anything that was what I wanted, but my mind kept going back to a post from the Martha Stewart craft blog. They highlighted a project of dyeing unfinished, wooden beads and stringing them together to make long necklaces. I love this picture:

I had wanted to try this project and this week seemed the perfect time, so I could add the necklace to my April Outfit. I ran to Joanne's to buy beads, dye, and cord to string the beads. The instructions were easy, and by the end of the day I was wearing my necklace. See full directions on the Martha Stewart site here.

Here are some shots of my process, along with details of what I did. I used the following beads:
14    1/2"
24    9/16"
14    5/8"
22    3/4"

You string them on floral wire first to get the length you want and them dye them on the wire. The beads cost me about $10 total and the Rit dye was $2.50. (A sweet woman offered me an extra coupon for 25% off my purchase, which I was glad for because none of my items were on sale.) The MS website recommends using leather cord, which you can dye to match the beads, but I am cheap and bought a waxed cotton cord. I'm sure that would have dyed well also, but I didn't bother. The total cost was around $13 without coupons or sales. (Love my sweet neice as a model!)

I used Rit dye in Teal and was happy with the color, although the tutorial used mostly teal, with a little taupe or grey mixed in. I can see that would give them a more muted look, but I skipped this too. I used my large, non-stick, dutch oven pot and was worried about ruining it, but it was no problem at all. The beads stay in the dye 5-10 minutes, depending on how dark you want them - just agitate throughout and check them often. Dry the beads on an old towel. They took much longer to dry than I thought, and the color lightened as they dried. It would have gone much faster outside. I was worried about the dye rubbing off on my clothing without some kind of rinse or finish. I wore my necklace the next day with an already stained shirt and didn't have any transfer of color. I've worn my beads several times since and I think they look great!

In the end, I couldn't dump out 8 cups of beautiful blue dye, so I ended up dipping a bunch of paper coffee filters. I've seen a lot of amazing crafts made from these and had previously grabbed some at the grocery store so I dyed a few dozen, let them dry upside down to keep their shape, and stashed them away for the next project.

New Series

Yes, I know - it's not like the one thing this blog is missing is a regular series. What it's missing is regular posting, period. But... just for fun, I'm starting a monthly series called Outfit of the Month.

I subscribe to way too many magazines and all of them have at least a fashion section, if not more. I often see things I like, mark them, and then let the stack of mags grow to 3 foot proportions. I've been working my way through that stack recently, tearing out and scanning things I feel like I need to save. It's usually just a product or two, but sometimes I see an entire look that grabs me and I show it to my husband and say, "That's what I wish I was wearing." Only I don't want to spend $3,829 on the outfit.
And voila!

A new series is born. I will post looks that I love, but show what I would substitue instead - pieces that would be in a real person's budget.  I will be posting the April Outfit of the Month this weekend, but just to get my three readers excited, here's the look I'll be going for.

Why Did I Only Take Two?

We went on family vacation this week. A vacation we've been planning for five months and that took us North to lovely, cool Pinetop. And on the 1st day of that vacation my four year old started throwing up. And he didn't stop. On the 3rd day my three year old started too. I sighed a lot, stayed in while my sweet husband took the well kids out, did a lot of laundry, watched a lot of basketball, and wondered why on earth I only took two books on vacation. Why, oh why?

We made it home mostly in one piece, and I realized I haven't done a book review here for a while, although you can follow all my book reviews on Goodreads. So I though I'd recap some worthwhile things I've read lately.


Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
If you love mystery, action, intrigue, and great characterization you will enjoy this book. The plot is unique and intricate - it jumps beween two characters, who eventually come together as we start to see the bigger picture. Many secrets hang on until the end... to be revealed in the next book, Sapphique, which was great too.


The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Another dystopian series - but I loved the characters, dialogue, emotion, and fast-action of this book. The 2nd book throws in some interesting plot twists, but is a little slower paced. I'll be checking out the 3rd soon.


My Life in France by Julia Child
I loved this partial biography and now I definitely want to see Paris, try much more French food, and get ahold of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This book is full of interesting stuff about France, Europe, history, politics, relationships, and food! The writing was 1st person, journal style, and was a hodge podge of stories and anecdotes. It wasn't formal or fussy, just like Julia!


Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
A thoroughly charming novelette about a young girl who was raised in an orphanage and is sent to college by a secret, wealthy benefactor. The entire book is in letter form, as Judy writes to her Daddy Long Legs and tells him all about her studies and college life. I enjoyed the historical aspects, the simple straightforward writing, the light-hearted comedy, and the happy ending.