WTF Wednesday: Damn You, School-Like Pizza!!

Starting this blog post today is difficult, because I'm not exactly sure how far to go back, or whether to start with the nostalgia or the present day info. So, I'll do what I'd do in conversation: Throw out random words and promise I'll connect them by the end of the post.

School Pizza
and
Weight Watchers

There you go. Now we can begin, because y'all trust that I will connect the dots (la la la la la...).

I've been on Weight Watchers for about 2 and a half months now. I started out really well, lost 12 pounds in the first 2 months or so, and then took a few weeks off from point-counting to enjoy wine, cookouts and nights out with a friend who moved back to the east coast.

Let me pause for a second (in case some Weight Watchers' rep finds my blog and want to try and take me down): you can totally enjoy wine, cookouts and nights out with a friend when you are on WW. I had just already met my goal weight that they set for me, so I decided to see what I could do without tracking food each day before I set a new goal weight for myself. The result? I gained 2 pounds back and maintained that weight just fine.

YES!! This stuff!!
Pic Courtesy

So with all of the chaos of my friend leaving behind us, I decided to get back on track with WW to try and meet the new goal I had set for myself (and lose those extra pounds I had gained).

Now I'm going to jump back and take you on a trip down memory lane...

Y'all remember school pizza, right? I'm talking about that rectangle mass of cheese and mystery meat that was available pretty much every day in high school, but only on certain days (usually Friday) in middle school.

That stuff was AMAZING!!!

And, that stuff is not available anywhere to the general public. Trust me, I've looked. A few years ago,

Holiday Shopping with Tatted Mom, 5 Deals in All!

If you are all about the Christmas deals like I am, then this year, you've come to the right place!

As y'all know, I wrote a little book this year. The reviews have been coming in on Amazon, Goodreads and on websites, and they have been amazing. "Tatted Mom's Guide to NOT Screwing Up Your Kids" is currently a 5 star rated book, and I couldn't be happier!

Unless, of course, I'm sharing my book with you at some hella good deals. That would make me even happier. So, head to my estore and enter in coupon code R4MPLQAU to get a whopping $2 off the cover price of my book, taking it from $11.99 down to just $9.99!! This deal is not valid on Amazon.

What's going on over at Amazon, however, is the Kindle deal I have right now. No coupon code necessary, just head to my book on Amazon and get the Kindle version for just $2.99. That's $9 off the paperback price and 1/2 off the normal Kindle price of $5.99. This is a great e-gift idea for that loved one miles away. You can send Kindle books as gifts, so treat yourself or someone you know while this deal lasts.

I'm like Santa this year y'all. I'm not even done with the deals yet!

Remember my post about how my family is going to shop local mom and pop stores and buy homemade this

Son of a... I'm Done For

Trying to get my Christmas shopping done, and Hubby tells me that The Ginger likes these new-ish things called Pop figures. I've seen them here and there, and The Ginger has a Nightwing one, so I decided to research online (though, per our agreement for Christmas this year, we will be buying them from local comic book stores).

These little suckers are ADORABLE!!

As I'm searching for DC Comic ones for The Ginger, damn if an Alice in Wonderland one doesn't pop up.

Then Walking Dead ones.

How effing cute?!?! Pic courtesy

Then Big Bang Theory ones.

Then Supernatural ones, which don't even come out until December.

Son of a bitch, I'm done for. I want these little bastards more than The Ginger does.

Game of Thrones.

Jay and Silent Bob.

The Goonies will be released in January.

YES, I WANT ALL THE THINGS NOW!!!

No, this is not a sponsored post in any way, shape or form. If someone from Funko wants to compensate

Bold Move for Christmas in the Tatted Mom Household

We've made a pretty bold decision in our house for Christmas this year.

We're nixing electronics, supporting local Mom and Pop stores, and buying handmade items from websites like Etsy. It's not a new concept, by any means, but it's new-to-us.

My kids have not taken the news very well.

This year, The Girl asked for a laptop or a new tablet. The Ginger had his sights set on a Nintendo 3DS. Hubby and I were leaning more toward a desktop computer as a joint gift for the kids. Then we started researching.

Laptops start at $150, but average $250 or more. Tablets start under $100, but we've done that before with The Girl. The thing broke in less than a year. Nintendo 3DS systems start at $150 and go up from there. And decent desktop computers start at $300. And what would I have if we headed in this direction??

Extremely plugged-in kids. Y'all know I can't stand that shit. I devoted an entire chapter in my book to how I hate plugged-in kids.

So Hubby and I discussed it, and we're boycotting electronics this year. We decided to go one step further by shopping at locally owned stores, and filling our online shopping carts with handmade items from people who are trying to make a living selling their creations.

Bold move, especially with older kids who will see their friends with the latest technological craze this holiday season, but it feels right.

So far, our online window shopping has proven to be quite successful. Y'all know I sell my creations on Etsy, so I'm a huge supporter of the site. What I seemed to have underestimated was the creative genius of

#RockTheLunchBox This School Year!

Y'all know I'm a tree-hugging hippy at heart. I buy organic food when I can, make things from scratch so I know what my family is eating, and try and make sure that my kids are eating healthy at every meal, which, at at ages 11 and 8, isn't easy some days.

So when Honest Kids, Stonyfield Farm, Annie's Homegrown and Organic Valley teamed together for the Rock the Lunchbox program, I was super-stoked to help them pass on the word. These brands were already some of my family's favorites, and putting together lunches for my kids using their products was not only fun, but I knew my kids would be eating healthy, as well.

With The Ginger's lunch, I chose a sandwich and apples with peanut butter, then added Bunny Grahams and Bunny Fruit Snacks from Annie's Homegrown, YoKids Squeezers organic yogurt, and Organic Valley single serving of milk. I loved the fact that I had every major food group covered, and how many organic products my son was eating. He loved "drowning" his bunnies in peanut butter, then saving them, just to plunge them into his mouth and wash it all down with milk he didn't have to stand in the lunch line to acquire. Boys...

Couponing, Tatted Mom Style

There seems to be an endless cycle repeating itself in my life every few months for the last year or so:

• Finances are great, so I relax on the couponing.
• Something pops up (whether it's an unexpected bill, Hubby's comic book ebay habit, or an event like vacation or back-to-school) to where I need to extreme coupon to have what we need
• I get addicted to getting things for free or nearly free until the next payday
• The next payday comes, money evens out, extreme couponing relaxes
• Wash, rinse, repeat cycle

The thing is, I have no idea why I stop couponing when money is fine in our house, because when I do the couponing thing, I even shock myself sometimes. 

$5.27 total for everything you see here

Take this recent trip for example. I had pieced together a deal on the pizza and ice cream that should have come out to $6 for those 4 items. I had free coupons for the yogurt, spinach and handsoap, but when you add on the milk, eggs and soda, my total should have been right around $11, with tax included. When the cashier announced my total of $5.27, I was shocked. As I stood there confused and handed the cashier exactly $5.27, she sensed my hesitation and began looking over the receipt herself, to see if there was an error somewhere. She accepted the money, handed me my receipt, and I told the kids to haul ass out of the store before they realized I had just (excuse the term, but it's what I use to describe my style of couponing) coupon raped them. Come to find out, I had a coupon on my grocery store card for $5 off of a $20 purchase that they accepted, taking my $11 estimate down to $5 and some change. 

You would think, with savings like that, and the rush you get walking out of a store having paid next to nothing for groceries, that I would do this all of the time. What if I told you that wasn't even the best deal I got last week?

• A loaf of bread, 4 pack of yogurt, large container of liquid coffee creamer, toothpaste and a bottle of shampoo (the $5 stuff) for $3.72 total.
• The kids and I took a trip to Target at 8:30 at night for 2 bottles of men's body wash, 2 women's

My Least Favorite Time of Year

The kids have just a little over a week and a half left of their summer vacation, so that means that we have approached...

School Clothes Shopping Time.

Someone make sure I have headache medicine, cheesecake with chocolate and raspberries, and a glass bottle of Moscato waiting on me, please.

The Ginger is easy. He hates clothes shopping, so he pulls random things off of the racks, hands them to me and says, "Can we go now?" Normally I start with him because he is so headache-free, so I figure I'll just get his shopping done and out of the way. I think I will try another strategy this year, so I end the shopping trip on a good note.

The Girl... where do I begin with The Girl? Do I start with the fact that the child is 5'2" already, skinny as a rail so she doesn't quite fit into children's sizes anymore, but trying to find a size 0 or 1 in appropriate juniors clothes is like trying to figure out what in the hell the words are to "Gangnam Style"- nearly impossible?

Or, do I start with how most clothes that actually fit her make her look 16- something I'm desperately trying to avoid, considering she's only 11?

Or, I could start with how the "style" nowadays is to wear clothes so tight that you can see parts of a human body that you don't even seen when you are making love to a person?

Or, how about how the 1980s are making a comeback, so all of the racks in the stores look like Debbie Gibson's and The Bangles' hand-me-downs?  I lived through legwarmers, neon colored skirts and shirts, high top sneakers with crazy shoe laces and the side ponytails. Whose idea was it to bring this sh*t back, and the better question is why? I can't think of one person who is proud of their childhood 80s pictures. I've never told my kids, "You should have seen how awesome I was in my jean jacket with 3 layers of shirts underneath, including a vest, my jean skirt, bright pink leggings with my blue leg warmers and my flats with the bows on them. It was amazing. Wait, let me get pictures." Never going to happen.

Or, maybe I should just focus on how the two of us just don't see eye-to-eye on clothing at all. I'm a jeans

Tea Time!

Y'all know I lived in England for 3 years, and terribly miss my time there. So, when the people of Davidson's Organic and Nature's Bakery contacted me about hosting a tea party, and having their tea and fig bars as the refreshments, I was happy to do so, as I hadn't truly had a tea event since my time in England! We even dressed up for the event (pictures below)!

We were sent a nice variety of fig bars from Nature's Bakery, and Davidson's Organics sent a box of the Rooibos Spiced Chai tea, which I was very excited to try. I love herbal teas, and the fact that Davidson's are organic, just made it even better!

The kids loved the fig bars from Nature's Bakery, and I was pleasantly shocked to find that they were full of

Custom Inklings of Life T-Shirt Giveaway from WhoopTee (Ends 6/14)

Is your life Colorful and Chaotic, just like mine is? Are you proud of it? Then this t-shirt is just for you!

My friends over at WhoopTee contacted me about wanting to give 3 of my readers a FREE shirt of my design. Seriously, how could I resist that? I get to be artsy and design a custom shirt and have my readers get free stuff... Yes, please!!

The design process at WhoopTee was super easy! They have more fonts and clipart than I've ever seen on other custom t-shirt design websites, and you aren't as restricted as other sites to placement of items as you are designing.

While I played around with a few designs I had in my head, the "Colorful and Chaotic Life" design I came up with was my favorite. I figured, if you are a reader of my blog, your life is probably just as colorful and chaotic as my life is. This shirt simply states, "My life is Colorful and Chaotic... and I love every second of it!" Soooo true!

You can head to WhoopTee, check them out, and create a design of your own. They are GREAT for family reunions, work T-shirts, special occasions like birthdays or ladies' weekends out, sports team shirts, or just to have a shirt that no one else has! You should also check out WhoopTee's facebook page, twitter account and what I found most fun, their YouTube account, called WhoopTee TV (makes me giggle).

So, now's your chance to try and win the Colorful and Chaotic Life t-shirt pictured here. This shirt is NOT currently for sale, so the 3 winners and myself are the only 4 people to have these! Pretty cool, huh? Just enter below, and 3 winners will be chosen at random to receive coupon codes for this FREE shirt (including free shipping, one shirt per winner), which will be sent directly from WhoopTee. Now's the perfect chance for you to show your love of your chaotic life and your support for Inklings! Giveaway starts on 6/7/13 and ends at 11:59pm on 6/14/13, and is open to the US only. Good luck to all who enter!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Put that Spice Back into Your Love Life!

Every now and then, a company contacts me about doing a review of their product, and I don't even hesitate to reply to their email with a YES! Spicy Subscriptions was one of those companies.

I've done subscription box reviews before, but this one is unlike any other. The subscription box premise is the same: Basically, you head over to Spicy Subscriptions and choose between their Premium Spice Box and their Deluxe Spice Box, and each month you automatically get mailed these goodies. You receive different products each month to try out, some sample sizes and some full sized products. So what makes this subscription box service different than any other I've reviewed?

They send you sex stuff in the mail. And because you have no idea what you are getting, it's like it's Sex-mas every single month.

That's right. I said Sex-mas. That's an all sex holiday. Fun sex. Fun sex with fun things that Spicy Subscriptions sends you. Every month.

They sent me one of their Deluxe Boxes to review, and it contained full sized bottles of Sensual

Easy, Cheap and Healthier Alternatives to Sodas for Your Kids (and Energy Drinks for You!)

With summer coming up, I can just hear my kids now... "Mom, can we just get some soda at the grocery store, PLEASE?" I'm not a big fan of soda. The sugar content is astronomical and the caffeine has my kids bouncing off the walls for hours.

So, imagine my surprise when I got this little tip on one of my shopping apps today. I'm seriously hoping I'm not the only one who smacked myself in the forehead and said, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Enter the players: Seltzer water and those little drink enhancers that are all the rage right now. My kids and I love those things, but we've always used them in regular water. Not anymore...

Don't smack yourself too hard. It hurts. I speak from experience.

In my opinion, there are so many amazing things about combining seltzer water with these drink enhancers:

1. It's cheap. A 2 liter bottle of seltzer water is $1 and each of those drink enhancers are $3 or below,

Uncommon Goods Review and $50 Gift Certificate Giveaway (Ends 4/19)

When I was emailed about reviewing a product from Uncommon Goods, I was pretty happy about it. I had here and picked something out that I was dying to try.
heard of the website before, so reviewing one of their products was something I had to do. I looked through their list of great Mother's Day gifts

I picked out the Salts of the World Test Tube Set because we've really gotten into healthy eating at my house, and I'm really enjoying cooking with fresh ingredients. It was filled with salts from places like the Island of Cyprus (black flake salt), Denmark (Viking Oak smoked salt) and Australia (Murray River Pink Flake salt). Displayed in a solid cedar rack, each tube is glass, keeping the salts fresh.

The salts and display also came with a card that let me know which salts matched with which types of meat,

Adorable Baby Shower Idea: A Personalized Baby Blanket for a Baby Boy

Everyone knows that the cuddling and snuggling during the fall and winter leads to the birth of summer babies, so I'm sure you can think of a person right now who is expecting a child in the next few months. Consider heading to BabyBlankets.com for a unique baby shower gift for them!

When I first came across their site, I was blown away at how absolutely adorable their items are. They don't just carry baby blankets, but hand knitted booties, hats, stuffed animal rattles (a favorite!), and baby essential items like burp cloths, diaper changing pads, and hooded towels.

One of my favorite products was their personalized baby blankets for boys. Pictured above are the Bearington Silky Soft Crib Blankets which look amazingly soft- so much that while the age range says 0-24 months, I might be buying one for myself (don't judge me). You can also get receiving blankets personalized,

Grand Opening of Inked Goddess Creations- My New Etsy Store!!

I've been talking about it for some time, and now it's here! The Grand Opening of my Etsy store, Inked Goddess Creations is today!! Y'all know I'm artsy and love to make things, so I decided I'd put my crafty side to use and share my handmade goodies with the world.

The major motivators for me putting my stuff out there for the world to see were the miniature clay figurines from the Cozy Coffee Cottage line.

I kid you not when I say that I dreamed about these little babies one night- clay figurines and name of the whole line- everything. Couldn't make that up if I tried. So, when I woke up, I jotted down notes and got to work. The first one I made was the "Leaning Tower":

These aren't dollhouse miniature sweet goodies- they are smaller than real donuts but bigger than dollhouse

Conscious Box Review and Giveaway!

Y'all know I'm a tree-hugging hippie at heart. When Conscious Box emailed me about reviewing their product, I was pretty excited. I had heard of Conscious Box before, so I was finally going to get to see what they were all about.

Conscious Box is a monthly subscription service that sends eco-friendly product samples directly to your door. The boxes contain different samples each month, but include things like environmentally friendly cleaning products, vitamins and supplements, all natural medicines, teas, food, beauty products and more!

When my Conscious Box arrived, I popped it open to find it jam packed with products. I was expecting a max of 10 items, but there were more than 15 in there. My Conscious Box included a wheat grass shot (which was surprisingly good, and gave me more energy than a cup of coffee), some vitamins for my kids and I, tea, granola bars, all-natural cough syrup, organic tea and much more. There was even granulated

Couponing at Target... Yeah, I Rock That

Y'all know I love deals, couponing and getting free ish. So when Sara over at Super Punk Rock Mom Blog told me she was starting a couponing series on her blog and wanted me to do a guest post about how I rock Target, I was super excited. The list of free and nearly free stuff I've gotten at Target is probably a mile long by now, and even today I'm heading in for my Target Shopping Day (all capitals, yes, and if you follow the Inklings facebook page, you'll know it's an exciting day for me). On today's list: Discounted cat litter, makeup and chocolate. Woo hoo!!

Instead of starting it here like I do with posts on other sites, she has an amazing intro, so I'm just going to direct y'all there. Be sure to hit that banner down below the link real quick before you head to Sara's site, please. It'll all open up in new windows, so your path to Sara's awesome blog isn't diverted. ;)

Guest Blogger: Morgan from Inklings Teaches How to Score Major Savings from Target


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NatureBox Review (and Deal!)

Y'all know I don't do reviews very much. When I do, it's because the product peaked my interest and is something I would want to be able to tell my readers about.

NatureBox hit the nail on the head.

When I was first emailed by a rep for NatureBox about reviewing their item, I immediately did my research. It's a monthly subscription snack food service. You pay a flat fee each month, they automatically mail you a box of goodies. These aren't processed, full of chemicals and crap, high sugar, low nutrient snacks, either. They are healthy- no high fructose corn syrup, no trans fat, no artificial colors, sweeteners or flavors. I'll bite, sure. The website said the snack foods "taste great", but you know me- I'm a skeptic. Most snack food that is healthy tastes like cardboard and isn't sweet at all. I'll have them send me a box so I can tell let people know what's really going on.

The coolest thing I found out on Naturebox's website: They donate one meal to Feeding America for every Naturebox sold. I'm getting healthy snacks for myself and my kids, AND helping to feed a hungry child in America. Amazing!

When the box arrived, I opened it to find 5 snack foods, individually bagged in a paper-like material. No full plastic bag, which sucks for the environment. Even the packages are environmentally-friendly. They are all resealable, meaning I could throw them into my purse for when I was on-the-go. Plus, they felt cool. Seriously. The package was soft to touch... not that I pet the packages... nope, not me...

The Girl and I dove in. Each month of NatureBox is different. Their 5 snacks each month are seasonal. For January, we were sent Wild Berry Bunch, Lone Star Snack Mix, Chocolate Ginger Bliss, Cranberry Almond Bites and Orange Crush Granola. I immediately flipped the packages around to the ingredients- no partially hydrogenated oils, no fake sugar, no fake anything. Even the chocolate chips in the Chocolate Ginger Bliss

Humble Chic Cyber Monday Sale

I was told about Humble Chic and fell in love with their clothing and handbags. Then I was told that on Monday, November 26th (Cyber Monday), Humble Chic was running 20% Off the Entire Site PLUS a FREE Humble Chic Signature Tote Bag with every purchase, I knew I had to pass it on to y'all. (Make sure to type in Promo Code: CYBER-CHIC when you check out!)



Their stuff is absolutely adorable...

Heart Patch Sweater, Courtesy of Humble Chic

And makes me giggle...

Jumbo Skull Tote, Courtesy of Humble Chic

So, considering the 20% off sale is for one day only, just go ahead and treat yourself to something cute, and when the husband gets home, tell him Thank You, that he bought you the most amazing sweater/handbag/necklace for Christmas, from Humble Chic!! Or, you can just tell him you bought it for yourself, but the first one makes husbands feel special (and there's less bitching)...


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Hubby's Approved Gifts for Men this Holiday Season

Man Philosophy #14: A Man's Heart

This year, Hubby and I rekindled our romance and ended our 3 year separation. He wanted to be more involved with my life as a writer and mom blogger, so I gave him his own section of my blog:

Man Philosophy.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting the amazing response to Hubby's Man Philosophy crap idea. I got email after email from women saying they laughed so hard, then showed it to their husbands, who all simply said, 'Yep, that's right.' One woman asked if she could get a T-shirt with one of the sayings on it... and the Man Philosophy product line began.

These shirts and PJ sets are Hubby approved for men to wear, and definitely make the most unique (and funny as hell) gift this holiday season.

Any of the links in this email will send you directly to Inklings' Merch Store, which is the ONLY place you can get the Man Philosophy line. If you see them anywhere else, they are non-thinking stealers who are infringing on copyrights. Let me know if you see any, please.

Some of the Man Philosophy words of wisdom include:

Man Philosophy #26: Nudey pictures show you care.

Man Philosphy #95: Letting you wear the headset while I play video games is considered 'quality time'.

TODAY ONLY- FREE SHIPPING at The Honest Company = FREE PRODUCTS!!

Today only, 11/23/12, The Honest Company is offering FREE SHIPPING on their orders. What that means for you all is that you can get their FREE TRIAL samples and not even pay shipping!!


I signed up for mine, but because I don't have a child in diapers, I opted to just get the Family Essentials Sample Kit for free. Here's a screen shot of my purchase today:

They will enroll you in their monthly automatic bundle delivery service, but just cancel that as soon as you get your free sample, and you'll be all good.

So head to The Honest Company now and get your free stuff, today! You can combine both the Essentials Sample Kit and the Diaper Bundle Sample for free!

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