Amazon Programs You Might Not Know About

I have ordered from Amazon and have been part of their affiliate program for many years, but for some reason I have not been aware of the programs that I am about to share with you until today.  I have just been too busy to notice, or living under a rock.  Since I don't live under a rock, I will go with the former. :) 

Since I was not aware of these special programs for Prime members, many of you might not know about them either.  With everything going on with Covid right now, people are ordering online more than ever.  Now might be the perfect time to see if one of these programs might be a good fit for you.  I do need to disclose that these are affiliate links.

Prime Wardrobe

If  you are a Prime member and part of Prime Wardrobe,  you can try before you buy.  You can have up to 8 items delivered where you can try them on at home.  You only pay for the items you decide to keep.   There are several categories that you can select items from; women's, men's, kids, baby, shoes and accessories. 

Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe

Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe is a new styling service for Prime members. A personal shopper will give inspiration and personalized recommendations based on the customers preferences. After finding out the customers style, fit and budget they will curate pieces that they feel would be a good match. (similar to Stitch Fit etc..) If you are interested in trying this sign up using the link on your mobile phone and to visit the mobile experience. 

Prime Discounted Monthly Offering 

You can try Prime Discounted Monthly Offering if you are part if qualifying assistance programs.  You can enjoy all the benefits of being a Prime member for only $5.99 a month through the end of 2021. This is almost 50% off the monthly rate.   For those hit hard by Covid this year, this may be worth looking into. 

Create a Wedding Registry 

Are you getting married soon?  Since we are not able to have large get togethers and celebrations quite yet, creating an Amazon wedding registry might be a good way to go for friends and family to send you a gift for your special day. 

Create a Baby Registry 

If you are having a baby, creating an Amazon baby registry  for faraway family and friend may be a good option 

Amazon Student 

If you are a college student you can qualify for the Prime student 6 month trial..  You would receive special benefits, exclusive deals and promotions in addition to unlimited free 2 day shipping 

Easter Basket Ideas Dollar Tree Style

I don't know about you, but I used to struggle coming up with ideas on what to put in my kids' Easter baskets. This year, that is not the case.  While my kids are mostly grown, I still love to give them gifts.  My youngest has very eclectic tastes, but this year I found so many things I knew she would enjoy getting as a gift.  Since she is older, I decided to use one of their baskets that come in pastel colors instead of a traditional Easter basket.  She will be able to use this basket all year, for many different reasons. 

*This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking my links

My daughter does not read my blog, so I am able to share what I am giving her without ruining the surprise. She loves animals, and there are so many things that are animal themed.  

• You Are Pawsome tote bag (the perfect size for pet supplies) 
• animal socks w/ ears (she loves fun socks, the sillier the better) 
• cat with glitter glasses pom pom pen 
• 3D wooden cat with light
• paw print pet bowl mat
• silly frog figurines        

I could not fit everything in one picture, so here is the rest. (sorry it is at a weird angle) She is also getting..

• a hanging shelf to put her goodies on 
• a multi color phone holder 
• 2 different hair masks 
• 2 different colors of LA Colors blush/glow sticks 
• 2 different colors of LA Colors Nail Diva nail tips
• a neon green mini squish pillow 
• chocolate bunnies and candy (not pictured) 

Today we went to visit a Dollar Tree in a neighboring town, and she picked out a few things that are not going to be in her basket, but definitely could be included. 

• unicorn make up brush 
• set of 3 different earrings 
• a glass bead bracelet 
• a 2021 date book 
• a spaced themed cosmetic (or pencil) bag 
• exfoliating glove 
• tri color baseball cap 

If you would like even more ideas here are so more items that we loved  

movie themed playing cards 

pack of 600 Lisa Frank stickers 

movie themed glitter pens 

There were more to choose from, but I picked Descendants, WW84, and Trolls World Tour for the colors of the pens

unicorn and rainbow LED lights 

One of my favorite finds 

1 lb bags of Sour Bears and Worms 

Trolli All Star Mix and Evil Twins 

If you need more ideas, be sure to check out Dollar Tree online. Did you know you can order from the website and get free shipping to your local store?  

A few weeks ago, I was searching everywhere for these adorable 13 inch Easter Bunnies.  I found out that were available online, and your could order in batches of four.  A few days after I ordered I received a notification that they had arrived, and all I had to bring was the confirmation email they sent me.  It was super simple, no mark up or shipping cost, and I had my bunnies for only $4.24    Last week I did find some bunnies in only one of my local stores, but I think that was only because I was there on the day they had arrived. (they sold out in stores FAST!)    Buying items online are great when you need a bigger quantity, or something that is hard to find. (think birthday parties, class parties, and those ever popular gnomes)   Sometimes you need to buy a case, but there are many items you can buy in small batches as well.  I had such a good experience doing an online order, I will definitely go it again.  

I hope I was able to give you some ideas and inspiration.  What is your favorite Easter Dollar Tree find? 

Dare to Share #461

It is Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

I made it to Spring Break..woohoo! While I am not going anywhere on vacation, I think everyone, teachers and students were ready for a week off. I plan on catching up on things that I normally do not have to do after school.   Are you going anywhere for Spring Break this year?  

 I also have a few fun things to share with you.   This week I have been tweeking some things on the blog that I have not updated in awhile.  I also added a small edition that I am very excited about. You may notice a couple new ads, and an update to a page at the top of the blog.  Starting this week, I am a new Dollar Tree affiliate. I truly LOVE the Dollar Tree, and often share my fun finds and crafts here and on my Instagram.  How often do you get the opportunity to promote your favorite store that you are constantly talking about already.  :) Dollar Tree truly is my happy place, and I am there a few times a week because they get so many new things in each time I visit. 

Another fun thing in the works will start the week after Easter.  This past week a teacher friend of mine recommended a home delivery meal service that I had not heard of before.  I have not used a meal delivery service before, because they seemed too expensive for the amount of food my kids eat. Well my kids are grown up now, and I talked it over with my daughter. We both agreed it would be a nice time to try one.  The price is very affordable, and the meals look interesting. So, starting the week after Easter I will be sharing my experience and meals with Every Plate. We will be trying meals three days a week at first.   Have you tried one of the meal delivery services before?  If you have, which one did you try?  

 Now that I am not subbing on Virtual Wednesdays anymore, I had time to share a blog post this week.  If you like to color Easter eggs, I shared some egg coloring ideas that we have used to make some unusual colored eggs.  Check them out if you want to try something new. 

Well it looks like it is time to get this part started.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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Fun Easter Egg Coloring Ideas

Over the years, my creative daughter has come up with some really easy beautiful Easter egg designs using things we have had around the house.  Here are a few of our favorite designs.  

If you try this technique you might get dye on your hands, so plastic gloves are suggested.  She held the egg halfway in the dye for a few seconds.  Then she turned the egg just a bit and dipped it back in the dye. She repeated the technique on the other side by turning it just a bit the other way. Dipping the egg this way, caused a layering effect with the color. 

We used paper reinforcement circle stickers to make some pretty designs.  

This egg was the result of putting the stickers really close together. 

This egg had the stickers with more space between them. 

Using a hole punch tool on label stickers, she was able to make polka dots.  She placed the dots on the egg where she wanted them before dipping it in the dye. 

Do you have rubber bands around the house? Then you have all you need to make these cool designs.  For the first design, we wrapped a thicker rubber band around the middle of the egg

When the egg was unwrapped after the dye had dried, there were white stripes around the middle. 

This has always been one of my favorite eggs that I have made. I used multiple thin rubber bands and wrapped them lengthwise around the egg.  I waited until the dye dried before removing the rubber bands. I reminds me of a tiny pink watermelon. 

This egg was made with a combination of a thicker and thinner rubber band. 

This marble looking egg was made with scotch tape. She randomly placed the tape all over the egg in a messy fashion.  Some of it was crinkled. It looked like a mess.  After the dye dried, she removed the tape, and what was left was this really cool effect. 

She spent a little more time placing the tape on this egg. She cut the tape into small pieces that resembled pieces of grass. 

Tie dye kits are available now, but these tie dye eggs were made by two of my kids using different techniques without a kit. My daughter made the egg on the left, and my son the one on the right. My daughter likes to make a mess, and just dipped her finger in different colors of dye and painted the egg in random places with her finger. My son didn't want to get dye all over himself. He dipped different parts of the egg in the color and quickly wiped off the excess dye.  Which type of eye dyer are you?  Messy or neat? 

This year we will probably only color a dozen eggs.  Everyone is too old for the Easter Bunny to come over and hide eggs, so there is not reason to make a lot.  I did find a golden egg kit at the Dollar Tree this year that I am excited to try.  I will let you know how it turns out.  

What are your favorite egg coloring techniques? 

Dare to Share #460

It is Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Well my long term sub position is "technically" done today.  The reason why I say technically is even though the woman I am subbing for is coming back, there are plans for me to help out as she reacclimates back to school.  It will be good for both of us, because I am not quite ready to say goodbye to these kids just yet. Just a week after she comes back, we have Spring Break so hopefully it won't be too hard of transition.  This week at school was probably my busiest yet. We had state wide testing, a math test, and a progress benchmark test.  We also had a few more students come back to school, and join the caseload since it was the start of a new trimester.  With my crazy schedule this week, I just did not have enough time to do a blog post.   

Is anyone watching March Madness?  I have to admit, I am not a huge basketball fan, but I did have a team in the tournament.  Notice I say did. Ohio State is already out, so I'm not sure who I want to root for.  Is your team still in it? Which team are your hoping to win.  

Well it is about that time, so let's get this party started! 

Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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Dare to Share #459

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share!

Do you remember how last week I mentioned how busy March is for a teacher? Well this week was no exception. It was the last week of the trimester, which means I spent a lot of time helping the kids finish up on their assignments.  We also had state testing on one of the days.  We are actually off today for a three day weekend, to give the teachers time to work on  their grades. On top of all that, I also had my 2nd Covid shot yesterday. I decided to get the vaccine since I am in close contact with several kids a day, and as a building sub in multiple classrooms a week. (when I am not doing my long term position, which is ending soon) I have almost had to quarantine four times already this school year, but thankfully each time I was determined to be out of the close contact zone, or spent less than 15 minutes with the positive person.  Many of the my coworkers got vaccinated recently as well. I am grateful that I had the day off today to rest. When I had my first shot, I had just a sore arm for about a day and a half. This time I had a little bit more of a reaction. A sore arm, a headache, and tiredness.  I also had a low grade fever for about 3 hours. I just did not feel great.   I do feel pretty glad though that my reaction was relatively mild, and 30 hours out I pretty much am beginning to feel back to normal.  Now we have a few more weeks of school, and then we are off again for Spring Break.  We have had record high temps this past week, so the kids are already starting to have spring fever. We have 1/3 of the school year left of this crazy year.  

I did not have a chance to do a post this week, but hopefully I will be able to this weekend.  

Well it looks like it is time so let's get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Dare to Share #458

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Happy March! March is one of those months that always seems to have a lot going on. In this one month we have one sometimes two holidays.  We change from winter to spring (YEA!) which means, at least where I live, that the weather is going to be all over the place. We could have snow, or we could have 70 degrees.  At school, March is one of the busiest months of the year.  We have the end of the trimester, state testing, and Spring Break. We definitely look forward to having a week off after the craziness of the first few weeks.   My question to you this week is how busy is March for you? Do you go somewhere for Spring Break or just stay home?  

This week I only had the chance to share one post because of my busy days at school. With Easter just a few weeks away, I shared my Easter Bunny Nutter Butter Cookies. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw my amazing find at the thrift store, and my experience ordering from the Dollar Tree online for the first time. If you don't follow me there yet, I share a lot of fun shopping finds, crafts and recipes.   I would love to see you there. 

Well it looks like it is time to get the party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Easter Bunny Nutter Butter Cookies

Easter is only a month away so I am going to re-share an oldie but a goodie.  Back in 2012, I first shared how to make these fun Easter cookies. You can see the original post here.

I had bought the Nutter Butter cookies on sale, and when I saw I had a few other supplies (flat marshmallows, white Wilton candies and heart sprinkles, I decided to surprise my kids with the bunny cookies. 

Hmm, my photos in 2012 were not the greatest.  I remember using a small digital camera. It was night, and without a lot of light in my kitchen, which is why these pictures are on the dark side.  While the photos are not high quality, you can see how I put together the ears.  I had experimented with a couple of different cookie cutters, and settled on this mini oval/egg shape for the ears. Once I cut out the shape, I pinched  together the marshmallow to make the ears a bit thinner. 

I melted the Wilton candy melts in the microwave, and covered each of the cookies in the chocolate. 

I placed the cookies on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. I then attached the marshmallow ears, and heart nose before the candy melt hardened. Using a small squeeze bottle, I drew on the eyes and mouth. I had used a pink food marker for the inside of the ears. 

The peanut butter in the Nutter Butters, and the white chocolate covering on the bunny was a delicious combination.  I know my kids loved it, and these bunnies disappeared quickly. 

I may have to make some again soon.