After Valentine's Day Sales!

One of my favorite tips (that I'm sure you're sick of hearing...) is to go shopping the day after a holiday to stock up on everything from decorations to serving pieces to non-perishable foods.  I mean really, what could be better than a 50% off sale?!?

This year, I decided not to go too crazy on 2/15, but I just could not resist these fabulous Peeps!  I mean really, $0.74 for 6 Chocolate Mousse Marshmallow Bears - FABULOUS!  The best part is that these adorable teddy bears (which are good through Oct) don't scream Valentine's Day.  The key to making the most of a post-holiday sale is to selectively purchase items that will do double duty for multiple occasions, as everyday ware or next Tuesday's dinner (be sure to check expiration dates).

Sooooo, will these adorable marshmallow bears reappear as:

• Baby Shower S'mores Favors
• Edible Centerpiece for a Milk & Cookies Party
• Cupcake Toppers for a 1st Birthday Party
• Garnish for Easter Brunch Hot Coco
• Baby Shower Cake Decorations

Say tuned to find out!

Until next time,

Jennifer

AKA Chick #1

P.S. Years ago, I saved a ton of money on pink and white M&M's for our May wedding favors by stocking up on Valentine's M&M's the day after Valentine's Day! Genius :-)

My Favorite Cart Cover {Clueless Chick Giveaway}

WIN your own Green Sprouts Cart Cover!

When it comes to baby products, everyone likes to throw around the term “must-have”.  But honestly, as a mom how many items can you truly not live without?  As someone who is always striving to downsize my big bertha diaper bag, I can tell you that no matter how many times I purge my diaper bag, one of the few things that ALWAYS remains is my Green Sprouts Cart Cover.  In fact, I keep one in the diaper bag and another in my car.

Unlike other cart covers, this is truly compact, super easy to clean, and in all of our travels we have yet to find a shopping cart, high chair or baby swing that it does not fit over.  So why should you get one?  Have you seen people turn a restaurant high chair upside down to set their infant carrier in the bottom - do you really want your little one touching that?!?  (I will admit that becoming a mom did turn me into a bit of a germaphobe).

If you are going to go to the grocery store, Target, a restaurant or the local park with your little one, you need a Green Sprouts Cart Cover.  They are only $12 and can be found everywhere from Whole Foods to Babies'R'Us.  And take it from me, you need an extra one to leave in the car just in case.

You can also see the Green Sprouts Cart Cover in action on our Traveling with Baby segment on My Carolina Today.

-Jennifer

AKA Chick #1

For more great tips for leaving the house with your little one, pick up a copy of Baby Traveling Tips for The Clueless Chick

Enter to win your own 

Green Sprouts Cart Cover

! Contest ends 2/13/13

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received sample products for use on TV appearances from iPlay in exchange for my honest reviews. I received no monetary compensation for this review or opinions. In fact, I love their products so much that I asked if it was ok for me to publish a review :-)

Organizing Your Inspiration {Clueless Chick Style}

Every month I get a stack of magazines and catalogs in the mail and they either: 1. Go straight into the recycle bin or 2. Collect dust on your bookshelf.  I flip through these beautiful magazines, feeling so inspired (sometimes overwhelmed) by the creativity and style, then the phone rings, a baby cries – life happens and I put down the magazine, it makes its way onto a shelf never to be heard from again.

It’s such a shame… there are always so many great recipes, entertaining and decorating ideas, and endless craft and organization tips.  But what usually happens with all of this fabulous inspiration?  It sparks an idea, inspires me to create something fun and new but as soon as I close the magazine the idea begins to fade.  Then, when I actually find the time to work on my next great project I spend an hour searching for a single page on a shelf full of magazines because I can’t remember if it was the June 2012 or the March 2010 issue I was looking for.

To combat this conundrum I came up with this super simple way to organize your inspiration:

Organizing Your Inspiration {Clueless Chick Style}

1.  Find your favorite magazine or catalog 

2.  Tear out your favorite pages (the ones that inspire you to cook, clean or create!)

3.  Organize your pages by category

4.  Store your pages in an accordion folder, file folders, whatever you have handy 

(or one up the Clueless Chick and digitize them!) 

5.  Create!  Here I turned one of my favorite inspirations from the Sept/Oct 2010 issue 

of Semi-Homemade Magazine into one of my most popular favors! 

P.S.  Finding inspiration is the easy part, it's the execution that gets tricky.  So don’t forget to have fun with it!  Forget the pressure of being perfect and put your personal spin on it.

Organizing Your Inspiration {Clueless Chick Style}

1.  Find your favorite magazine or catalog

2.  Tear out your favorite pages (the ones that inspire you to cook, clean or create!)

3.  Organize your pages by category

4.  Store your pages in an accordion folder, file folders, whatever you have handy (or one up the Clueless Chick and digitize them!)

5.  Create!  Turn your favorite Valentine’s Day craft idea into gifts for your girlfriends.

6.  Pin the heck out of your awesome creation!

Now go get inspired!  Don't forget to share your amazing creations with us - your reorganized pantry, yummy cheese cake or homemade play doh! 

Until next time,

Jennifer

aka Chick #1

www.CluelessChick.com  

Doing it all…..{Clueless Chick Style}

www.CluelessChick.com

I can’t tell you how many times people say to me “I just don’t know how you do it all!”  Honestly, it happens at least once a day.  I’m really not trying to “do it all,” I’m just one of those chicks who likes doing 10 things at once.  The truth is that I don’t sleep much.  Between a husband and two little ones, a demanding career, and The Clueless Chick, there really aren’t enough hours in the day, so I’ve turned the night into working hours :-)

I jokingly tell people that The Clueless Chick is my 9pm to 2am job, but most weeks that is true.  But what can I say, this is my passion, and we always find time for what we are passionate about, and thanks to Starbucks and a super supportive husband I’m able to make it work.

How do I “do it all”?  Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize, which is even more important around the holidays with so many demands on our time and pressure to make everything perfect.  The most important thing to do is to determine what is most important to you – the way I see it is if you are just too busy playing with the little ones to ever get the ornaments hung on the Christmas tree, oh well :-)

So here’s one of the ways I make it all happen:

I LOVE cooking all day for Thanksgiving, roasting the turkey, pealing and mashing potatoes, but in order to get away with doing all of that work I had to make a deal with my husband.  He doesn’t like the idea of me “slaving over the stove” all day, and since he’s no cook, his solution is to order in so that we can kick back and watch football all day.  HA! That is sooooo not happening in my house…or so I thought.

Two years ago we made a deal – if I could cook all day for Thanksgiving, we would order a fully cooked Turkey dinner from Whole Foods for Christmas dinner.  O.M.G. this has been one of the best deals ever.  I still make our favorite side dishes: Pineapple Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Baked Brie, etc. but we’ll spend most of the day watching White Christmas, teaching the kids to play Go Fish and just enjoying spending time with family from out of town.  Not a bad deal for $120 ;-)  I don’t know about you, but I usually spend at least that much on groceries for the holidays + hours and hours and hours of prep time and cooking.

This morning I got up (after being up half the night with a toddler who has a fever of 102...), got ready, headed to my local Whole Foods to pick up dinner, and now I’m home, writing this blog and chillin’ like a villain with the fam.

My Christmas wish for you is that you will be able to find a little way that you can uncomplicate your life to save yourself time and stress so that you can enjoy yourself.  Worry less about making sure everything is perfect and more about spending time with your loved ones!

Happy Holidays from The Clueless Chick!

Until next time,

Jennifer

aka Chick #1

Stress-Free Party Planning {Clueless Chick Style}

 

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Earlier this month we were lucky enough to share some of our favorite Stress-Free Party Planning Tips with two of our favorite Raleigh, NC blogs:

Scintillating Simplicity

Sweeps

 

www.CluelessChick.com

These tips are perfect, for Holiday Parties, New Years Parties, or just about any party you’ve got on your calendar.  So check out our tips, and all of the other great info both sites have to offer!

Thanks Sintilating Simplicity and Sweeps for letting us share our tips with your followers!

Party Planning Tips for The Clueless Chick

www.CluelessChick.com

You've read all about our party planning tips in Party Planning Tips for The Clueless Chick, now you can see them LIVE on My Carolina Today!

One of our favorite tips is to create Stations at your party so that guests are not hunting for a fork for their pasta salad or a bottle opener when they grab a beer.  By placing everything your guests need in one spot, you can improve the flow of your party and save yourself a lot of running around and re-organizing.

Check out a Station in action:

 Lonerider Beer Station as seen on My Carolina Today

Lonerider Beer Station

(a must have for any party)

1.  Lonerider Beer

2.  Cooler with Ice

3.  Koozies

4.  Bottle Opener

5.  Container for bottle caps

6.  Recycling bin for empty bottles 

(there will be a LOT)

Photo by Sara Davis Photography

Even more great Party Setup tips:  The Four "S"s of Party Planning:

Halloween Treat Cups

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As a mom, I LOVE making favors for all of the little ones at Day Care, but I always struggle to find fun, sugar-free, peanut-free favors that the kids will actually enjoy.  For recent holidays, we done everything from making home-made play doh, to holiday rubber duckies and heart shaped chalk.  For this Halloween I decided to create more of a fun treat bag.

Challenge:  Pick up everything at Target in the only 30 min I had to spare last week.....oh the life of a busy woman :-)

Luckily I was able to find everything I needed (minus that bags which were in my craft stash) to make these adorable Halloween treats!

Halloween Treat Cups

• Orange Ice Cream Cup
• Cello Bag
• Mini Play doh cup
• Cookies 'n Scream Zbar
• Halloween Pretzels
• Pumpkin Tattoos
• Halloween Bubbles
• Pirate Eye Patch
• Happy Halloween Sticker

The mini Play doh cups made the perfect base for this treat cup, and the sticker was such an easy way to finish off the look!

Tips:  If you can't/don't want to print your own personalized stickers, just pick up some cute pumpkin or ghost stickers.  To save a couple of bucks, skip the ice cream cup and play doh.  If you have more time, decorate the ice cream cups to look like adorable little Jack-o-lanters!

Most importantly, have fun with it and stay within your budget.  I hope the kids at day care will be excited to see these tomorrow!

-Jennifer
AKA Chick #1

P.S.  Don't forget to hit the 50% off sales the day after Halloween to stock up on goodies and decorations for next year!  You may even find a great deal on Halloween theme foods like the pretzels we used here!