Welcome to another Sponsor Spotlight! The Green Nursery is graciously sponsoring a Ones and Twos Cloth Diaper for the Mother's Day Cloth Diaper Giveaway May 1st-May12th!


Scott and Abby are a husband and wife duo that own and run The Green Nursery in Bloomington, Indiana. The Green Nursery was started in 2006 after their son was born and has been growing ever since. At TGN you can find a huge variety of quality Cloth Diapers, Accessories, Baby Carriers, Toys & Dolls, Teething & Feeding products, as well as Bath and Body Care!

To introduce you to Abby and The Green Nursery, I decided to put together a small interview for your viewing pleasure!


You can learn more about Scott and Abby by visiting their profiles on The Green Nursery Blog!

Website: http://www.thegreennursery.com
Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenNursery
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/thegreennursery
Blog: http://blog.thegreennursery.com/ 

Welcome to another Freebie Friday brought to you by My Memories and ME!
PLEASE note that the kit will ONLY be available THIS week so, don't forget to download it today!

Now, you're probably wondering... "What on earth is this Freebie gonna get me?"
Well here is a look at a sample of the final product, a Flower Card, and below are 2 Tutorials on HOW TO make your freebies into a Flower Card!
Flower Card Tutorial
Using MyMemories Software to Customize your Flower Card
 1. Download template file and install it into your software
 2. Using MyMemories Suite, choose Create Album From Designer Template and find your project
 3. Now you can print and enjoy the provided template, or customize it with your own papers and embellishments.

TIP:
You can right-click on the white guide and lock it in place to keep it from moving while you are working. Make sure this is the top layer of your project before printing.

Instead of adding the paper as a background paper, you can add it as an embellishment so that you can move the paper around.  This is especially useful when using papers with stripes or circles, so you can decide which part of the paper you want to use.

Once it is added as an embellishment, you can now select the paper and move it into the position you want it. 

Just SAVE and PRINT on card stock!

Flower Card Tutorial
How to Assemble your Flower Card
1.  Print your file on card stock.
2.  Take your card template page and fold at all fold lines.  A bone folder helps make the creases nice and crisp to help your finished card to look nicer.
3.  There should be a total of 9 folds when you are done.
4.  Cut out your card.
5.  Turn your card over so that the printed side is down and pinch the sides of each petal together until all 6 petals are standing straight up.
6.  Gently push all the petals in one direction until they lay flat.
7.  You now have a flower card.
8.  Tie a ribbon (not included) or something equivalent around the card to hold it closed.
9.  Embellish as desired.  This card was embellished with a circle cut out from a piece of background paper.

What's My Memories Suite? Click here to read my review of the Digital Scrapbook Software. Don't have My Memories Suite? Go MyMemories.com to buy the software and start scrapping! USE CODE: STMMMS86739 at checkout to get $10.00 OFF the software!

Also, please note that the kit is saved in a format that isn't specific to My Memories Suite, so you can use them in other software as well!


Have a wonderful day dear followers and I hope you enjoy your Freebies!

I would like to introduce you all to Mother Earth Baby! Mother Earth Baby is Sponsoring a Blueberry Trainer for the Mother's Day Cloth Diaper Giveaway on Rural Mama's Sandbox starting May 1st! I am so pleased to be able to introduce my readers to a great business and a wonderful lady!

Lisa Emmons is the owner of Mother Earth Baby and a Cloth Diapering Mama as well! She owns two store in New York, one in North Syracuse, NY and the other in Oswego, NY. Mother Earth Baby was launched in 2008 and was "born" from her local family business Mother Earth Health Foods, which was opened in 1969 by her grandmother.

At Mother Earth Baby you can find a variety of Cloth Diapers, Diaper Covers, Swim Diapers, Training Pants, Wet Bags, Laundry Detergent, Cloth Wipes, Baby Carriers, Accessories, and so much more. They also have products from well know brands that we all love and trust!

To get to know Lisa a little better and help my readers understand the heart behind her business, I decided to do a brief interview with Lisa Emmons.

A Special Note from Lisa:

We have 4 children and all have been cloth diapered.  We have seen and experienced the evolution of cloth diapers over the years and using cloth is easier now than ever before.  I love what I do and love meeting all the wonderful people I come in contact with through the business.  Thank you for taking the time to learn more about me.  Lisa

I'd like to send out a special Thank You to Lisa Emmons and Mother Earth Baby for Sponsoring a Blueberry Trainer for the Mother's Day Cloth Diaper Giveaway and I encourage all my readers to check out her website and social media sites!

Connect with Mother Earth Baby Online!

The Key of Kileyna is a captivating tale of a young man named Jacob and his journey through a different world to recover a magical key that was stolen by the evil Lorkon. But the Lorkon are not the only evil beings Jacob has to worry about. Along the journey, Jacob is faced with many trials both physically and mentally. With the help of new friends and his own bravery and determination , Jacob is able to press on through each trial and reach the Lorkon castle.

The Key of Kileyna is Book One of the Kilenya Series, which is targeted towards young adults, but as a grown woman I thoroughly enjoyed the book and can not wait to read more of the series. Readers will be on the edge of their seat wondering how Jacob and his comrades are ever going to get out of the messes they find themselves in. The author, Andrea Pearson, does a wonderful job helping the reader jump into the new world with Jacob, by including wonderful details and descriptions of each character, place, and situation. The Key of Kileyna was a very easy read, contained no fowl language, and included age appropriate interactions among characters. I highly recommend this book for young people interested in action filled science fiction adventures!

After reading The Key of Kileyna, I had a couple questions for the author, Andrea Pearson. I put together a short interview to help my readers learn a little more about Andrea and her book. Check out what she had to say:


You can connect with Andrea Pearson and learn more about the Kileyna Series by visiting the following sites online:
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrea-Pearson/307996157738
Blog: http://andreapearsonbooks.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/andreapearson2
Andrea Pearson's Website: http://www.kilenyaseries.com

 Interested in reading The Key to Kilenya? You can purchase print version for $12.99 as well as the eBook version for $1.99, on Amazon!

Andrea Pearson would like to give 5 of my readers a FREE eBook of The Key of Kilenya, all you have to do is enter using the Rafflecopter form below!

Watching the Breed Pageant, she LOVED the Fresians!

Last weekend I took Big Sister to the Hoosier Horse Fair at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds. The Hoosier Horse Fair is an annual event in April and horse lovers around the state flock to the event. I remember when my Aunt and Grandma took me to the Hoosier Horse Fair when I was younger. The place used to be PACKED, not just with visitor but with horses, booth vendors, and demonstrations. The program alone was like a mini book at least 20+pages long.

I remember Stallion Row, having TONS of different breeds of horses! It was a dream come true to see all the different types of horses I'd always read about in my horse books. My favorites growing up were the Thoroughbred and Bashkir Curly Horse. I was somewhat disappointed when we arrived this year and Stallion Row only included about a third of the horses that it used to. Big Sister didn't seem to mind at the lack of variety, but I couldn't help be feel bummed.

Painted Saddle Horse at the Breed Pageant.

 Not only was the Stallion Row population lacking, the variety in vendors and the amount of vendors was limited as well. I remember going home with BAGS of swag, my FAVORITE booth to visit was the Thoroughbred Racing booth, they gave away tons of stuff, including Blood Horse Magazine, which became my most prized possession for YEARS growing up. The Quarter Horse booth always had awesome posters as well, with beautiful photos of every color of horse possible. I used to plaster my room with posters I'd acquired from the fair, it was awesome!

My tired Cowgirl!

There also used to be horse items for sale of every variety and I DREAMED of the day when I had my own horse I could buy things for at the Hoosier Horse Fair. This year my mission was to find a pretty detailed blue halter for Rusty. I was also disappointed by my selection. I found a nice blue halter, but nothing like I'd seen from my childhood.

The COOLEST demonstration ever at the Hoosier Horse Fair was the 6 Horse Draft Hitch Competition! It was the HIGHLIGHT of the whole event! The Draft horses were MASSIVE in size, almost unreal, and they would take 6 of these horses and hook them together under harnesses to pull a large stag coach. It was BEYOND awesome to see the raw horse power pulling the coaches. The horses were always perfectly well behaved and acted like true professionals. They would get a least 5 or 6 of the hitches to pull around the Pepsi Colosseum all at once. The thundering of the hooves and the jingling of the bells along their harnesses made a permanent impression in my memories. This year was the second year in a row that they did not hold this epic Competition. I am bummed that Big Sister missed out on seeing the giant horses, but I can only hope that they will be brought back again in the future years.

I don't know if it just me, being an adult now and seeing the reality of places instead of looking at the world through a child's eye, but the Hoosier Horse Fair just didn't have the WOW factor anymore. I know a lot people are blaming the deterioration of the event on the economy, maybe that's it, maybe it's not. My hopes is that the organization that runs the Hoosier Horse Fair works to improve the Fair next year. It sure would be nice to walk into the Fair and have the same WOW factor that had as a child.

Thanks for reading and have a WONDERFUL weekend dear followers!

Welcome to another FREEBIE Friday brought to you by My Memories and ME!


PLEASE note that the kit will ONLY be available THIS week so, don't forget to download it today!

What's My Memories Suite? Click here to read my review of the Digital Scrapbook Software. Don't have My Memories Suite? Go MyMemories.com to buy the software and start scrapping! USE CODE: STMMMS86739 at checkout to get $10.00 OFF the software!

Also, please note that the kit is saved in a format that isn't specific to My Memories Suite, so you can use them in other software as well!


Have a wonderful day dear followers and I hope you enjoy your Freebies!

Welcome to another FREEBIE Friday brought to you by My Memories and ME! I am really excited about this week's Freebie because they are so cute. I can't wait to make them myself!
PLEASE note that the kit will ONLY be available THIS week so, don't forget to download it today!

What's My Memories Suite? Click here to read my review of the Digital Scrapbook Software. Don't have My Memories Suite? Go MyMemories.com to buy the software and start scrapping! USE CODE: STMMMS86739 at checkout to get $10.00 OFF the software!

Also, please note that the kit is saved in a format that isn't specific to My Memories Suite, so you can use them in other software as well!


Have a wonderful day dear followers and I hope you enjoy your Freebies!

I'm not sure why, but after having my girls I've been increasingly aware of my age and appearance. I never really took good care of my skin and I'm starting to realize now that that was probably not the best idea ever. I had many reasons for not taking care of myself, the big one being that my skin, especially on my face is SUPER sensitive. If I get a sunburn, I can't even use the aloe gels because they burn. I've tried Vitamin E gel capsules, sometimes they work and sometimes not. I have DRY skin but if I use lotions I am all oily and gross, which leads to pimples.

All of the products I had tried in the past had one thing in common, they were main stream "popular" products that usually contained at least one ingredient that I couldn't pronounce. It was time I tried something new. I was searching online when I came across The Holistic Mama's Anti-Aging Facial Serum by Roxanne on Etsy. I decided I would give it a try and see how my skin reacted to this natural, chemical free product.

Here is a the product information as stated on The Holistic Mama's store on Etsy:

My challenge was to use the product for 30 days and photograph my results! So here you have it, my photos, minus make up, so be gentle dear followers!

Before Picture - Day 1

Right Side Close Up - Day 1

Chin Close Up - Day 1

After Photo - Day 30

Right Side Close Up - Day 30

Chin Close Up - Day 30

After 30 days of using The Holistic Mama's Anti-Aging Facial Serum I was impressed. My skin was soft and firm yet supple. The dryness seemed to decrease a lot and I didn't get super oily throughout the day like normal (if I tried to use lotions and what not). I liked to use it at night before bed because it seemed relaxing and the scent was calming. My skin did not burn at all when I used it, but instead made it feel refreshed.

The photos show a slight firming as well as my pores decreasing slightly, but what I enjoyed the most about the serum was not something that you can not see in the photos. I love how soft my skin is now, I don't remember the last time my face was this soft. It seems to retain the moisture and not get dry as easily as it used to, which I LOVE as well!

Overall, I was impressed with the Anti- Aging Facial Serum. I saw some great changes within a short period of time, I can't even imagine all the wonderful improvements that could take place with my skin long term!


I hope you all enjoyed my review and have a great night dear followers!

If you hang around Rural Mama's Sandbox much you've probably noticed I added a large button on the right sidebar. I will be participating in the Mother's Day Cloth Diaper Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Daily Mothering!

With "Easter" here, I am both pleased to be able to serve a Mighty God who gave his only Son for my sins and both saddened by the thought that so many don't know Him. I grew up with Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, but I was also aware of the real "Reason for the Season," thanks to my mother who took us to church and never gave me a reason to doubt that there was a God.

Today, I'm not sure how many generations younger than I actually know why we really celebrate these holidays. They are very much commercialized and parents don't seem to talk to their kids about God and Jesus as much as they used to. I don't know why, I'm guessing they don't know how, aren't sure about the facts themselves, or just really don't care. To me these holidays are serious and very precious. In our home we have decided not to invite Santa and the Easter Bunny in to share in our celebration. Some people think, "Oh your poor kids" or that we are "Taking away a part of childhood" but I don't think that is true. Many times kids put Jesus in the same category as Santa and the Easter Bunny and guess what happens when they finally find out that Santa and the Easter Bunny aren't real? They start to wonder what else you have made up and they start to doubt their belief in God and Jesus. The world tries to give people so many reasons to doubt, I don't want to hand out reasons for my girls to doubt the existence of God and Jesus. I want my girls to trust me to tell them the truth and to be honest with them. I know at times I will fail miserably because I am human, but I pray that the times I fail will not permanently damage them in the long run.

Welcome to another FREEBIE Friday brought to you by My Memories and ME! I was out of town due to a death in the family and I missed last Friday's Freebie, so this Friday you get a DOUBLE Freebie! Hope you all enjoy!


PLEASE note that these kits will ONLY be available THIS week so, don't forget to download it today!

What's My Memories Suite? Click here to read my review of the Digital Scrapbook Software. Don't have My Memories Suite? Go MyMemories.com to buy the software and start scrapping! USE CODE: STMMMS86739 at checkout to get $10.00 OFF the software!

Also, please note that these kits are saved in formats that aren't specific to My Memories Suite, so you can use them in other software as well!


Have a wonderful day dear followers and I hope you enjoy your Freebies!

Around this time of year Moms around the country are starting their "Spring Cleaning." Most of the time when I think of Spring Cleaning I think of heavy vacuuming/mopping, intense window cleaning, cleaning out closets and putting away winter clothes. One thing I hadn't thought of until recently was cleaning out our medicine cabinet.

Last night I opened out medicine cabinet and it was in total disarray. There were items everywhere and they were in no particular order or in any form of organization. I felt the need to fix it and decided to add it to my "To Do List" for Spring Cleaning. As I pulled bottles and boxes of medication out of the cabinet I couldn't help notice how many items were expired. About 2/3 of everything we had were expired and I hate to admit this but the oldest had expired in 2008. I threw away everything from prescriptions to over the counter medications like Caladryl.

I realized that we had most likely taken some of the expired medications in the past and decided to look up possible effects. I found an interesting article on Helium.com that described the dangers of taking expired medications, you can check it out here. I also found an interesting article on the Harvard website, that gave some interesting information as well, which can be found here.

Based on the information I read from the Helium.com article and the Harvard article, I've decided to keep the "Medicine Cabinet" on my PERMANENT Spring Cleaning "To Do List"! I know that most of the medications were probably still okay, especially the ones that just recently expired, but why risk my family's health if they weren't? Better to be safe than sorry!

What items are on your Spring Cleaning "To Do List"?