When I was visiting my aunt for the holidays a few weeks ago I noticed that she had redecorated her home and she had this really great velvet slipcover for this chair that she had made herself. I thought that it was so beautiful that I wanted to recreate one for an armchair in our living room. It also looked very wintery and thought it would be fun to try to make on my own.

I went online with my clear wireless internet to figure out some directions for how to make a slipcover for an arm chair. I took the measurements of the chair and then took all of that into account too. I also picked up enough fabric at the local fabric store to make the slipcover.

Well, I finished my velvet slipcover and it looks pretty good. I guess the fabric isn’t as forgiving as canvas or other fabric that’s typically used for slipcovers that you have to tuck in. But it’s really comfortable to sit in, which I guess is what counts the most.

The perfect solution- pizza. So tonight when we didn’t know what to have for dinner, we had some Freschetta pizza and we loved it! Hailey says, “Mmmmmmm!”

The pizza is super easy to make!  Depending on which one you get, it goes in the oven for around 20-30 minutes.  The dough is rolled and kneaded so that it rises like fresh dough would rise while it cooks in your oven.  The result is pizza that tastes like freshly made homemade pizza, not something from the freezer.

It’s the perfect solution to the never ending question of, “What’s for dinner?”

My husband and I have been bombarded with work lately. It seems like every day something new gets in the way of us having some alone time. So, I made it a point to plan a romantic weekend gateway for the two of us. We both love to ski and actually meet for the very first time while skiing in Aspen, Colorado. I booked two round trip tickets to Aspen and we were on our way in no time. Before leaving the house I made sure to set my home security alarm (more info), you can never be too sure!

Coming to Aspen each time is a new experience. My husband is a tad bit better at skiing then myself, so we separated for a little while during the day. He feels very comfortable on the big, scary slopes, where as I still stick to the easy ones. I have been skiing for years, but I still have a hard time stepping out of my comfort zone. I don’t worry too much about that though. I still have a lot of fun and always bring home amazing memories with me. There is nothing better then a romantic weekend with my husband spent skiing in Aspen.

That is what Medical Guardian is for.  It can provide you with some peace of mind about your loved one.  Your loved one wears a device that can go on their wrist, neck or belt.  There is a button that gets pushed when help is needed.  A signal gets sent out to their Emergency Monitoring Station over an existing phone line.  Then someone will communicate with your loved one and see if they are okay.  If emergency care is needed they will send call EMS to assist.

Your loved one one will not have to move into an assisted living center for you to know that he or she is safe and they can continue to feel independent. You won’t have to worry as much about your loved one and you can have some peace of mind knowing that they are being monitored 24 hours a day.

Times are tough though.  I know I still like to have name brand clothes but I don’t want to spend the money in the expensive stores to get those clothes.  So, in times like this, you’ve gotta pay attention to commercials and ads for the deals.

I’ve seen a few of these commercials lately and I’m sure you have too.  So, I know I’ll be checking out the local mall for some new clothes for this coming winter.  I can always find things for myself that I want.  Plus with Hailey’s birthday coming up and the fact that she grew a LOT since the last time she needed long sleeves and pants I need to get her new clothes too.

Do you remember taking field trips with your school when you were a child?  I remember going on several field trips and I remember that they were always a lot of fun.  At the time I probably didn’t realize it, but I was also learning a great deal from the field trips too.

Now that I have been a teacher I know that children really learn a lot from going on field trips- it’s not just for fun.  You can explain to children exactly how the post office works, or what goes on at an airport, etc- but when a child can experience it first hand it is a whole different experience.

Unfortunately with all of the budget cuts going on at schools, there are quite a few schools who have to cut back on or eliminated field trips all together. Lunchables Lunch Combinations understands the importance of field trips and is launching a program called Field Trips For All.  Anyone who is 6 years or older can nominate a classroom to go on an inspiring, educational field trip.  If you can think of a deserving classroom, be sure to nominate them and also spread the word.  I have thought of a deserving classroom, although since I like to keep the area that I live in private I can’t say exactly where it is.  But, they are very deserving- so be sure to nominate your choice!!

When you look back over your years of TV watching are there any advertisements that stand out in your memory? Something that you either remember because it was funny or made you cry or just had a cute little jingle?  As I think back over the years the one ad that I really remember from a long time ago was the Wendy’s ad where the little old lady says, “Where’s the beef?”

Dinty Moore commercials have certainly changed over the years. First, characters Jiggs and Maggie from “Bringing Up Father” were used in Dinty Moore advertisements.  Nowadays this have certainly changed as far as advertising goes.  But their product is still yummy!

One of our favorite hormel products is the chili.  We love to bake up some french fries, make some Hormel Chili and then put the chili on top of the fries and add some cheese to the top.  Yummy!!  How about you- what is your favorite way to eat Hormel Chili?  Share your favorite recipes.  If you need help coming up with something yummy you can always visit http://www.hormelrecipes.com.

I love how the ads change over the years but the company and the product are still great!!

It’s so hard to believe that 10 years ago at this time I was busy planning our wedding.  It seems like the last 10 years have flown by and I can’t figure out where all of the time went.  Since it’s been 1o years Rich and I have been trying to come up with something special to do to celebrate our 10th anniversary.  So far we haven’t come up with any ideas.

Today I was looking for ideas and I found some information about visiting St. Augustine.  I have never visited there but it looks like there are some great, romantic packages for really reasonable prices.  I really like the Ponte Verda Beach Resorts that start at $169 per night- it looks so nice and is right on the beach.  We would definitely have to spend some time relaxing on the beach, going golfing (Rich anyways), doing some shopping and of course eating some delicious food. I have never had a massage, so I think this would be on my list of things to do!

I’m having lots of fun thinking of places to go and things to do.  I can’t wait to celebrate 10 years!  Make sure you visit http://www.romanceliveshere.com/ to plan your own trip.

If you are married and have kids then you know that date nights are an exciting time!  When Rich and I have a date night planned I always look forward to it all week long.  We are fortunate that my parents live close by and will watch Hailey for us so we can go out.  Our dates nights usually consist of going out to eat and a movie or some shopping.  There just doesn’t usually seem to be much else to do -and I’m just excited to get to spend some time with Rich so it doesn’t really matter to me what we do.

Anyhoo- last night I saw the trailer for Date Night Movie with Steve Carell and Tina Fey.  It looked pretty funny to me. They are a typical suburban couple our for their weekly date night. They end up having a date like they never could have imagined with all sorts of crazy things taking place.  I love Steve Carell so I think we will probably end up going to seet his movie, hopefully on our next date!  I certainly hope our date doesn’t end up with us being involved in a shoot out or a car chase.  I’ll stick with just dinner and a movie!!

Check out the trailer and then go see Date Night Movie this weekend when it opens!!

Colorful robot characters on oversized flash cards are taking learning to read to a new level by helping emerging readers to comprehend nearly four dozen sounds created from the 26-letter English alphabet. The robots are called the Alphabotz, and when youngsters dive into the Superphonic Decoder Cards, they grasp the idea that letters equal sounds, sounds build words, and words tell amazing stories.

That’s the equation for making learning and reading fun, and the inventors behind the Alphabotz felt so compelled to bring their unique, and as it has turned out award-winning, concept to reality that they found a way to do it, despite the challenging economy for starting a new business. Designed for children ages 3+, these 46– 10″ x 4.5″ Alphabotz character cards are colorful, sturdy, and packaged in a sliding drawer box for easy storage.

The Alphabotz are the brainchild of Pat Vining, a mom of two and longtime elementary- and university-level educator. She perceived that a technically sound, multi-strategy approach to reading that was also fun and engaging for children was missing from the marketplace. So like many smart mom inventors, she decided to team up with former colleagues who had complementary skills to hers and a belief in her concept and started a business, Ideopolis LLC. Ideopolis is made up of Kelly Barton, partner for many years with Pat in a strategic design and communications firm, Kelly’s husband, Randy Barton, a chemical engineer with a lifelong entrepreneurial itch; and Nicole Sigsby, their marketing guru.

Let’s face it – phonics can be confusing and daunting to beginning readers. But not with the Alphabotz, whose visual clues, fun characters and stats show youngsters how to use decoding keys when coming across new word patterns. Each Superphonic Decoder Card contains a robot character who wears a letter or letter team on its chest and an icon on its head that serve as constant visual references to the sound the character represents. Each card also contains stats about the character that tell a story about its life and personality in order to make the sounds memorable and aid in development of letter recognition and phonemic awareness skills.

How would you like to win a set of Alphabotz for your child?  They are appropriate for children ages 3 and up.

Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

• Visit the Alphabotz site and look around.  Come back here and leave me a comment telling me something you learned while visiting their site.

Want some extra chances to win? Leave an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH thing you do- your comment will be your entry.

• Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then leave me a comment with the direct URL.
• Subscribe to my RSS feed and then leave me a comment letting me know you’re a subscriber.
• Tweet or Stumble this post and leave me a comment letting me know what you did.

This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses and will end on December14th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be chosen on December 15th 2009 via random.org and notified by email. Please read all of my giveaway rules here.