Artsy Chaos

Welcome to the Trick or Treat Halloween Hop hosted by Tales From the Nursery , Formula Mom, and Mama on a Green Misson , where you will go trick-or-treating virtually at each blog for a chance to win some totally ghoul prizes. Will they have tricks or will they have treats ? You must click through the linky to find out! Here at Artsy Chaos we want to treat you to the chance to get a jump on your holiday cards with Shutterfly! We will have THREE winners who will each win  25 free 5×7 flat or folded cards!! (Retail value approximately $50 each!)  Check out these amazing designs for Halloween: To enter, simply use the form below. After entering here, be sure to hop on over to the next blog to see what you can enter to win there! The blogs participating are in the linky below the entry form. Good luck and have fun! <a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js">You need javascript enabled to see this givea...

Halloween signals that slow slide right into the holiday season.... soon it will be Thanksgiving and then yikes Christmas! There is certainly something to be said for getting ready early as it cuts out a good portion of stress. This is part of the reason that we love Shutterfly. You can get your holiday cards ready to go as early as now . Let me back up a little bit though. I have ordered personalized greeting cards from several different companies and Shutterfly remains a top favorite. They are big enough to have lots of designs and items to choose from yet they maintain a very friendly, helpful and just plain happy feeling. Shutterfly's service is speedy and well executed which appeals to my overly perfectionist side! Several months ago, we needed to get some cards for my daughter to use as thank-you's. We were able to personalize one of the cards on the site to fit exactly what we needed at an amazing price. Plus, Shutterfly often has fabulous promotions happening wh...

Do you ever get the feeling (or smelling, as it were) that maybe your home might have an odor? Certainly, there are odor hot spots that can make us cringe; the bathroom, the sink, the trash can. Can you relate? We certainly can and recently our big outdoor trash can had taken on a monstrous odor. So much so that everyone dreaded actually having to open the lid. Yes, it was that powerful. Luckily for us, Natural House had asked us if we'd like to try out their revolutionary new natural household cleaning products that clean the parts of your home you'd rather forget about. The Natural House probiotic cleaners are named Trashy, Sinky and Flushy. Clever names we thought. Heck ya, we'd love to I said! Clean that monster trash can odor? Bring it on! Could this possibly work? We set out on a month-long mission to find out. Trashy, Sinky and Flushy are non-toxic and safe for use in your home yet strong enough to use in a commercial setting. Here's some additional...

Today is the anniversary of Black Thursday. On October 24, 1929, the stock market plummeted and led to the Great Depression. Today we live in similar times... much to our dismay and sometimes horror. Our financial lives are in question, stress runs rampant and many of us just don't feel secure anymore. Where do you turn for comfort? Where do you find hope? Hopefully you have your own belief system to lean on along with supportive friends and family. Honestly, though, sometimes we falter in our own emotions and spirit and need a little guidance in a tough and changing world. I am a big believer in the power of motivation and affirmation. I've seen the vast capacity of the human psyche to overcome challenges through sheer brainpower. Negativity is poison. Positivity is the life blood of success. We're thrilled to introduce you to Trudy W. Evans C.H., who wants you to learn, grow and prosper. Yes, prosper!! Is that even possible, you ask? I mean, prospering today seem...

Halloween is almost here! Do you have your costume ready? Our family loves Halloween and we have always made a big deal about dressing up. This year is no exception, even though the only kids left at home are 15 and 16. Oliver has decided to be an Old West Gambler and Josie is going to be a female Musketeer. One of the hardest parts of putting together a costume is the accessories that go with the outfit. What Musketeer outfit is complete without the big feather plume and what kind of Old West Gambler doesn't have a cowboy hat? Luckily for us, we have options like Wholesale Costume Club to complete our costumes in style. Costume hats can be hard to find and it's even harder to find good quality ones at the right price. The selection and prices at WholesaleCostumeClub are hard to beat! We were sent a Buccaneer Tricorn Hat for adults to review and couldn't be happier with the quality of the hat. It is not flimsy or cheap looking and is sewn rather than glued toget...

Smiley Cookies. The name just makes you happy, right? Us too! I'm kind of a cookie gourmet, queen of the cookie eaters, if you will. Cookies are my weak spot. Well, that and cinnamon rolls but we'll save that for another day. OK, yes, chocolate cake as well but that's beside the point here. *deep breath* So, you might say I've seen a cookie or two in my day. I love the concept of Smiley Cookies with their cute little smiling faces just begging to brighten your day for a moment. I also love Halloween so you can imagine my delight to find Halloween Cookies with smiles in my mailbox! 12 little hand iced Jack O Lantern cookies were sent to us by Smiley Cookie to share about here on our blog. That's one dozen if you're counting. The packaging was amazing with a cute smiley face box holding our nicely wrapped and packaged cookies. Absolutely nothing was broken when they arrived. Not a single broken cookie! Which means that you could serve these cookies for ...

This post must be written lightening fast because I must leave soon to pick up my daughter from the high school's Sadie Hawkins dance and ferry her and her date to their next destination. How's that for a long, stressful run-on sentence full of far too many prepositional phrases. We had the distinct pain honor of hosting the dance dinner for 19 teenagers tonight. I don't know about you but I remember Sadie Hawkins as the dance where the guys always said no. Seriously, teenage boys can cut a teenage girl's confidence to shreds. Oh who am I kidding, grown men still do that. So we had dinner in the backyard complete with Halloween lights and a cauldron full of bubbling homemade root beer. My husband loves the homemade root beer and is always the dry ice master chef of the brew. At one point, he came in from outside all dejected because apparently the ladle had fallen into the cauldron and the kids had been trying to fish it out with their hands.... he didn't feel l...

Thursday proved to be a very busy day. I wore my taxi driver hat 8 times today. 8 times=8 trips to drop off/pick up and back home again. Seriously, when will these kids get their driver's licenses...? And the real crappy thing is, I don't even have a taxi driver hat. Do they sell taxi driver hats? Do they come in pink? Hmm.. On one of these trips it was just me and Oliver. Somehow we got talking about birthing babies. Ya, I know, weird. He said he didn't think anyone could really remember actually being born, like the actual birth. I said ya, I don't think so, and he made some strange "squirming and trying to be born" movement. My kids are unique . Then he asked me about his older brother's "autopsy". Say what? Autopsy? Ya Mom, you know when he wouldn't come out and they had to cut him out. Oh yes, C-Section, I said, not autopsy because that's what they do to dead people to find out how they died. And so he says don't judge me, I...

Welcome to the 2011 Fall Fashionista Giveaway Event! The 100+ bloggers participating in this event are so excited to bring you the chances to win thousands in drool-worthy fashion items! You can enter at each blog participating and enter for the grand prize of a Fendi Mini Beige Red Pochette Bag!! Here at Artsy Chaos you can enter to win over $60 worth of gorgeous fashion jewelry sponsored by DuelOnJewel.com and GoFavor.com. To find all about these great sponsors, please visit our review posts for Duel On Jewel and Go Favor . Please use the Rafflecopter form below to enter the giveaway here. You may do either mandatory entry to enter; you must complete both to unlock extra entries.  Make sure your java is up to date and be patient, the form may be slow to load. If you are unable to see either the entry form or the GFC widget to follow us, please refresh the page and that should do the trick! After you enter here, use the linky at the bottom of this post to hop to anothe...

So many things are just not like they used to be; sturdy, solid, simple and built to last. Everything these days seems so rushed, hurried and disposable, including so many of the products on the market. Honestly, we get real tired of rolling the dice every time we purchase a product. I bet you do too. Jacob Bromwell is out of the ordinary. Established in 1819 with an idea to create solid cooking and kitchen ware, Jacob Bromwell creates products the same way they did back then and they are expected to last for generations. I inherited one of Jacob Bromwell's fine flour sifters from my father's family's estate. It may have belonged to his great-aunt Josephine or possibly his grandmother but in any case, it made its way to me many years later. I used to just turn the handle to feel how smoothly it turned the little wires inside the sifter. It was mesmerizing. Unfortunately, the sifter suffered during one of our moves in my early 20's and couldn't be put back tog...

There are a lot of party games and printable games out there on the internet. A lot of party games that well, are pretty much all the same and not that clever or involved. I mean, don't get me wrong, if you have a crazy family like I do a lot of lame games can be fun. But I found something much different and WAY BETTER . Insert = PartyGamesPlus.com! Halloween is coming up and I have something perfect for your upcoming parties and get-togethers: Clues, Spells, and Curses Scavenger Hunt . Just the name is intriguing, right? I mean seriously, who doesn't want to cast a spell on smelly Uncle Charlie and Little Tommy's loud friend Helga! This downloadable game comes with everything, literally almost everything, you will need for an entire night of laughs and fun. The .PDF game is 25 pages long and you can use it over and over and over - it might even become a yearly tradition. The price may seem a little steep at $14.99 but remember that is on par or even less expensive than...

We wanted to share a quick discount available from Crazy Dog T-shirts for Halloween. Did you know that they also have Halloween costumes available at some great prices? Of course, if you did you're thinking 'duh' and if you didn't, well, now you do. Courtesy of Crazy Dog, you can use these codes:  TRICK for $5 off any costume order, OR TREAT for 10% off any costume order; whichever gives you the greater discount. Happy Halloween!! FTC Disclosure: We received no compensation for this post, monetary or otherwise but do have a relationship with CrazyDogTshirts.com.

We are pleased to introduce you to  Duel On Jewel , one of our fabulous sponsors for the Fall Fashionista Giveaway Event, October 14-19, 2011.  Over 130 blogs are participating, each with a prize minimum of $50 to give away.  Don't miss it! From the Duel On Jewel website, "jewelry is an accessory that helps to enhance your outfit and style". We couldn't agree more. Jewelry is like the icing on the cake, the part of an outfit that pulls it all together in your own unique way. I, myself, have more of a bold style in jewelry and I have a particular love of fashion jewelry. I like big pieces that you won't see anywhere else; Pieces that have a charm and style of their own. If you're unsure of what style of jewelry to wear or what to wear together, Duel On Jewel has a great jewelry tips section to give you direction in your jewelry style. We were able to review 3 lovely pieces from Duel On Jewel and we weren't disappointed. This 16" glass bead ...

Welcome to Thursday! ...which is almost Friday, but not quite. What better way to pass the day than to do a little hopping around and maybe finding some new favorite blogs to visit. Leave a comment and we'll be sure to follow you back. To find more blogs to visit, just click any of the hop buttons below! 

I remember when my kids were younger and always begging me to let them create a "My Space" profile. Honestly, I was horrified. With all due respect to My Space, it is not really appropriate for a 10 year old. I'm not an overly protective parent but having my children playing on what I feel is an adult place to hang out is just not my cup of tea. Boy, we used to have some tears over that one! I wish that FoozKids would have been around then. FoozKids is a kid-safe, parent approved place where kids can email family and friends, watch videos and even do some crafting all in a parent controlled and child appropriate environment. For a low one-time fee of $11.99 (hello, bargain!) for the basic application kids get access to web, video, games, crafts, virtual rooms, email and they get to create their own virtual look-a-like. What a great comfort to be able to let your children email when they want and to whom they want all because you have already approved who they can i...

You will not believe the amazing prizes that you can win in the upcoming Fall Fashionista Giveaway happening here at Artsy Chaos and on over 130 other participating blogs!  Here is a fun sneak peek of what is coming on October 14th... Open publication - Free publishing - More fashionista