Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

Thanksgiving is just a few short weeks away. We’ll sit down to a wonderful dinner with family and friends. We’ll enjoy spending time with each other and over eating to say the least. Once the meal is done and the dishes are put away, it will be time to prepare for Black Friday shopping.

If you’re like me, Black Friday is a tradition and it’s one we’ve enjoyed doing for the past few years. It, however, takes a lot of time to prepare. If you’re not prepared you won’t know which store to go to first and what you’ll be purchasing. I’ve been unprepared and needless to say I didn’t get what I wanted and often times ended up spending a lot more than what I wanted to just to get what my loved ones wanted for Christmas.

Here are a few tips to help you prepare for a successful shopping trip on Black Friday.

1. Create a Budget

The first thing you need to do is decide how much money you’ll have to spend on Christmas. This amount will include any decorations you need to buy, the gifts, and anything else related to Christmas such as pictures, cards, and food.

2. Create a List

Once you have your budget in place, you need to create a list of all the people you’ll be buying for and how much money you’ll be spending on them. Make sure you don’t forget anyone because all that will do is cause you to spend more money than you were expecting. (more…)

Halloween is fast approaching and for most kids the wait is terrible. They get so excited about the costume, going out to trick or treat, and eating all the wonderful candy. While putting on the costume several times a day helps a little, depending on how far ahead of time you have it that may not work for long.

WAHM-Articles created an activity guide to help your children get through the wait. Click here for access to this free activity guide. You’ll be able to print it out for your children and they’ll have pictures to color, a word scramble, and a word search to do that will keep them occupied for a while.

Enjoy!!

Kids love making craft projects out of foamies. You can find them for almost any holiday or occasion. Watch for them on sale after holidays, one container can last you for several years! Joann’s and Walmart usually have good selections of them.

We had fun making crafts with our Easter foamies last year, and there were still enough left over to play with this year. I got out some Easter pictures from last year I hadn’t scrapbooked yet, and came up with a couple of cute layouts using the Easter foamies.

For these scrapbook layouts, you will need a container of foamies that includes alphabet letters. The Easter set I found had a bunch of pastel letters to spell out the word “Easter”, so that worked out perfectly.

Supplies:

Easter foamies
Eight family Easter photos
12×12 sheet of pastel, solid-colored scrapbook paper
2 12×12 sheets of coordinating spring or Easter patterned scrapbook paper
Scrap of white scrapbook paper
Paper cutter
Glue stick
Coordinating pastel brads (optional)

I created two different layouts for these sets of pictures. The background papers are the same color but a little bit different pattern, and then I used one sheet of solid-colored paper for matting for both layouts.

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Spring has sprung and the weather is changing to the better. I don’t know about other locations, but we’re having pretty typical weather here. Snow that sticks to the cars and grassy areas, but melts when it hits the streets. It’s gone by noon and beautiful after that. Temps range between 50 and 60 degrees right now and most days, it’s perfect!

When Spring hits, that means Easter is on the way and that’s exactly what Sunday is this week. My boys love Easter because of the special treats the Easter bunny leaves. Even though they’re 17 and 14 they still enjoy walking the house looking for the candy the Easter bunny dropped along the way.

This week’s article give you three treats you can make for the kids or to bring to your Easter dinner. You’ll find these treats are easy enough that your small children will enjoy helping you make them. Click here to read this fun article.

I hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday. I hope you’re able to take time off to be with your family and you enjoy each other’s company.

Valentine’s Day is a fun holiday for kids. They love to make arts and crafts projects, and there are all sorts of great crafts to choose from for Valentine’s Day.

This valentine mouse project is for preschoolers or young elementary aged children. It is a great opportunity for them to practice their shapes and using scissors.

Supplies Needed:

Grey, black, white, and pink construction paper
Scissors
Elmer’s glue*
Pencil
Small pink pom pom

* Note: You can also use a glue stick for this project, although you might need Elmer’s glue to get the pom pom to stick.

For the mouse’s face, you need to draw one large heart for the head, and two small hearts for the ears. Trace them on to the grey construction paper and let your child cut them out.

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I love baking for the holidays. There are always so many new recipes to try. One of my favorite holiday treats is homemade fudge (without nuts, of course). If your family loves fudge as much as mine does, make them the kind you know they like, and then have them try one of these recipes too. You might find a new family favorite! Our family indulges in a little Peanut Butter Fudge every holiday season.

Candy Store Fudge

1/2 lb. butter, softened
18 oz. chocolate chips
8 oz. mini-marshmallows
3 tsp. vanilla
2 c. chopped nuts
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 can evaporated milk

Place the following ingredients in a large bowl: butter, chocolate chips, marshmallows, vanilla, and nuts and set aside. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly the sugar and evaporated milk and stir for exactly 6 minutes. (Start timing at the rolling boil stage). Mixture scorches easily. Pour this mixture over the ingredients in the bowl and mix with electric mixer until well blended, pour into buttered 9×13-inch pan. Refrigerate for 12 hours.

Peanut Butter Fudge

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These cinnamon stick ornaments are really easy to make and they smell fantastic hanging on your holiday tree. You can purchase cinnamon sticks at your local grocery store or craft supply store.

If children are helping you to make these ornaments, I recommend using all-purpose craft glue and not hot glue. You can make several of these ornaments up in only one afternoon.

Supplies Needed

1 Bag of Cinnamon Sticks (measuring 3″ in length)
Hot Glue or All-Purpose Craft Glue
1 Spool of Gold Metallic Ribbon
Faux Mini Pinecone and Berry Floral Picks
Scissors

Tips: I find that hot glue and a glue gun work best for this project but you can certainly use all-purpose quick-drying craft glue. If your cinnamon sticks are longer than 3″ in length, you can easily cut them down to size using scissors or wire cutters.

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Are you stressed from all the hustle and bustle of the holidays?

Tired from all the shopping and the crowds…and you have guests arriving at your house for Christmas Eve?

Don’t panic! There is an easy, economical, yet festive solution. Instead of a full meal with all the fixings, why not have some simple holiday appetizers with some punch and wine?

Think about this…most people are busy visiting relatives and friends at several places and probably would be more inclined to really appreciate something light. I remember when I was younger and we had three places to go, and we were stuffed. Appetizers would have been perfect…but, we sat down to a full course meal at each house. With appetizers, you could still set an exquisite dinning area and make it special and meaningful.

Let’s look at some appetizer ideas…

Holiday Barbeque Meatballs

Ingredients

2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons garlic salt
3-4 cups barbeque sauce
1/2 cup grape jelly
1/2 cup brown sugar

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This is an article written by Sophia McIntyre’s daughter, “CeeCee”. She’s only allowed to wear mascara right now because I think she’s still a bit young. She loves products from the Bath and Body Works and The Body Shop and of course she loves nail polish and wearing her hair curly, wavy, straight or up into a high bun. Girls..they are so much work. LOL

With the holiday season approaching, it’s just about time to be prepared for a wish list from your teenage daughter. Even if your daughter asks for specific items, it’s always good to have an idea of what she would like.

The holidays are a great opportunity to splurge on more gifts that are expensive especially when you have a teenage girl. Not every teenager is the same so it’s important to know what she likes and what she would appreciate most.

Focusing more on the girlier teenagers, makeup, hair, and body products may be number one on their list. This obviously depends on what you find age-appropriate, but the following suggestions will last a long time and they come in large quantities so you don’t have a bunch of loose products to wrap.

The Color Daze Blockbuster Limited Edition Palette by Sephora Collection

This $60 makeup palette “is a compact and expandable palette that features 148 gorgeous formulas, finishes, and textures for big-screen beauty” as quoted on their website www.Sephora.com. The palette includes 64 waterproof eyeshadows, 12 longwear cream eyeliners, 6 eye top coats, 6 lip top coats, 48 lip glosses, 3 blushes, 6 multi-purpose cream for eyes, cheeks, and lips, 3 multi-purpose luminizers, 3 makeup brushes, and a mirror. The palette is for older teen girls who enjoy a vast selection of colours. This is a perfect holiday gift since you’ll be able to combine all your daughter’s makeup essentials into one palette.

Bath and Body Works or The Body Shop Gift Sets

Finding your daughter’s favourite scent is easy at Bath and Body Works or The Body Shop. BBW’s sets contain a loofah, lotion, shower gel, fragrance mist, triple moisture cream, and come in a little gift box or bag. TBS’s sets include a loofah, shower gel, body butter, lip butter, and come in a box or bag as well. Products vary depending on the scent, and the prices vary depending on the contents. For a more whimsical scent, try Bath and Body Works. For a more ‘straight-forward’ scent, try The Body Shop as they have Strawberry, Sweet Lemon, Mango, etc.

A perfect tool for the holidays is the Infiniti by Conair U Curl Curling Wand. Inspired by Taylor Swift’s tight and bouncy curls, the Infiniti by Conair is a $40 curling wand available at your local drugstore. Simply wrap thin strands of hair around the wand to create a fun and bouncy curl. For looser waves, take wider sections of hair. This product comes with a glove so your can maneuver the wand. This has been the only curling tool I’ve used that started off with Taylor Swift-like curls and turned into the thicker, tubular curls that one may try to achieve with a regular curling iron. You can sleep on the curls and it barely damages them, and hair spray is not needed.

Makeup and body product stocking stuffers can be anything from their favourite foundation, a travel bottle of hair spray, a few nail polishes, or a new perfume.

If you have a lot of women in the family, purchasing a nail polish variety set could be a quick and simple stocking stuffer. Buying a nail polish set is an easy way to give a little something more on Christmas morning, and it’s always fun to pick out who gets what colour. Essie has come out with their holiday’s 2012 collection, which is always a little more festive. Sephora carries various nail polish collection sets, but keep in mind that you don’t always have to shop top end. You can buy equally good quality products at the drugstore.

Bath and Body Works and The Body Shop sell ‘minis’ in case you’re not sure if your daughter will like the product, or if you’re just looking for something extra in her stocking.

While shopping this season, prices can be a struggle so remember that there are similar products out there. The Remington Curling Wand for $20 (available at a drugstore) is comparable to the more expensive $40 Infiniti by Conair. There are tons of makeup palettes also, ones you can even purchase at Claire’s. You can always settle on just a few body products instead of a set. Minis are also a fantastic way to test out the scent, and you’ll save your money by doing so.

Hopefully these suggestions help you alter your daughter’s wish list and give you a better idea of how to bring a bunch of little ideas into a few long-lasting gifts.

“CeeCee” has a passion for writing, singing, and acting. As an avid reader, she likes the Twilight series books and movies, YA dystopian novels, and Taylor Lautner. As a self-taught acoustic guitar player, she enjoys writing her own music in addition to singing and playing covers from her favourite song artists.

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter, and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource focusing on work at home jobs, home businesses, ghostwriting services, money making opportunities, and more.