{Fresh Produce} Clothing Review

Fresh Produce is a mom-owned and run company that offers comfortable, easy-to-wear clothing and decorative scarves. The vibrant colors of the clothing are inspired by the coast, and the special dye process creates trademark colors unique to the garment. This means each item of clothing is one of a kind! One of my favorite things about the company is that the majority of the products are made in the U.S.A.

I received the Standing Ovation Cardigan in truffle and was a bit nervous about the length when I opened the package and held it up. But let me just say that I love the length! I can wrap myself up in the cardigan when it's chilly (almost like a blanket!) and tuck the sides in so it resembles a wrap around shirt. It's also large enough to wrap around both Baby Blue and me on cooler mornings when I have him in the baby carrier!

The cardigan is 100% linen jersey and super duper soft. Because it's been so hot I was worried I wouldn't get much use out of it, but it's so light weight that it's perfect for chilly mornings and evenings. It's also easy to pack in the diaper bag in case it's cool in a store or restaurant. I think I'll also take it along when we go to the pool to use as a cover-up after we swim.

The drape of the fabric makes is casual enough for jeans, but dressy enough for a dress or skirt. The solid color also looks great paired with a solid or patterned shirt underneath. I haven't tried it yet, but I also think belting the cardigan would create a completely different look!

Although the price range of Fresh Produce clothing is a bit higher than I usually spend on clothing for myself, the items are made of quality material and (I'll mention again) made in the U.S.A. The Standing Ovation Cardigan is priced at $74 US dollars and is versatile enough to be worn most, if not every day of the week! I love the tagline on the tag of the cardigan as well. One side read: "live life. enjoy color." And the other side says "smile, it's contagious."

Be sure to check the sizing chart before ordering. I ordered a M/L in the cardigan because I thought I'd need a bigger size since I'm tall, however, I think the S/M would have fit a bit closer to the body.

Fresh Produce carries items perfect for everyday, vacation clothing and resort wear. The women's cardigans are great for layering for any time of year, but I also love their line of dresses! The products are sold in many beach locations, but the company also ships within the U.S. and to 200 other countries.

***FTC Disclosure: I received this product free of charge from Fresh Produce Clothing in order to conduct an honest review. I was not compensated in any other manner to review this product. The thoughts and opinions in this post are my own and may differ from other users of this product. Photos and images in this post are owned by me or provided by Fresh Produce Clothing.


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{Weekly Kids' Co-Op} Link Up & DIY Light Table

In lieu of features and in honor of my 600th post!!!, this week I'm posting about our DIY light table. It's something we've been meaning to do for a LONG time and finally got around to it.

The Farmer and his helpers

Like others I've seen we started with Christmas lights, realized they had lead in them and went back to the drawing board.

We decided on touch lights and I bought a few, but we ended up using some we already had (that I didn't remember we had).

We used a blue tub and I really like the effect it has. It almost looks like pool water, which I think is pretty neat!

The Farmer lined the lid with foil and the top with wax paper to make it brighter, but we still think it needs a few more touch lights.

This project cost us $0 because we already had everything! Ok, except the $3 dollars I spent on cheap batteries at the $ Tree.

Once we had it, we had to wait until it was dark enough to use it because believe it our not every room in our house has a window (and we don't have walk-in closets...much to my dismay). We set it up in the basement since that gets dark fastest.

I found glow in the dark animals at $ Tree and Gammie has these super cool glass rocks at her house (in the craft closet unused) so I took them home when we there last.

After simply moving the animals and rocks around, we played a matching game. I played, too and even tried to trip her up by putting an animal on the wrong color, but she's too smart for that (and she switched it for me when she was checking my work).

She really liked putting the animals under the rocks and then started going to find more things to put on the light table. We are really excited to do this again!

More DIY Light Tables

Teach Preschool

2 Big, 2 Little

Raising Lifelong Learners

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Wordless Wednesday: First Strawberry

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{Sweet P's} Monster Birthday Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated Sweet P's 3rd birthday! How is she 3? I mean, seriously? I feel like she was born yesterday.

I wasn't sure what to do for her 3rd birthday and then I had a genius idea. Why not ask her? We were at Target and I was trying to explain what a "birthday theme" meant when she said, "How about monsters?" Monsters? Okay! So away we went with a girly monster theme.

Thanks to Auntie Rosita we had some awesome invites, favor tags, cupcake toppers, banner, birthday hat and monster mouths. Good thing we have her because monster stuff is hard to find! I finally found some monster stickers at Wal-Mart 2 nights before the party!

The party was a hit and Sweet P had an awesome time. Her main concern? Cupcakes! We kept telling her she had to wait until the guest arrived...her first statement when they got there? "It's time for cupcakes!" Forget presents. That girl was all about the sugar.

But enough chatter, here's what we did:
NOTE: You're about to witness just how much Auntie Rosita loves Sweet P.

Invites by Auntie Rosita:
Calling All Monsters!
It's a Monster Mash Birthday Bash!
Our little monster is turning 3!

Birthday Banner made and assembled by Auntie Rosita:

Sweet P's Party Hat by Auntie Rosita:

Party favors: Make a Monster kit with homemade playdough, googly eyes and pipe cleaners; monster stickers from Wal-Mart and monster mouths (courtesy of Auntie Rosita). Tags said "Eye hope you had fun!"

Cupcakes: Trader Joe's yellow cake mix and white frosting mix, toppers by Auntie Rosita

Food: fruit, peanut butter filled pretzels, veggie straws, crackers and hummus (from Trader Joe's)

Centerpieces: galvanized buckets from Target's 1Spot, shredded paper filling, monster mouths, googly eyes and puzzle pieces from a wooden monster puzzle (also from Target's 1Spot...not sure when).

Pin the Eye on the Monster: Auntie Rosita created the monster and we had it printed at Costco. Eyes were created using a Cricut and large circle punch.

Monster mouths: Love that we got a pic of all the kiddos and even the mamas joined the fun!

For your own custom birthday designs pop on over and visit RositaDesigns.
For more birthday ideas, check out last year's Owl Birthday Extravaganza.
Special thanks to Auntie Rosita for letting me use some of her post's pictures!

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Make A Monster Playdough Party Favors

Although these crayon rolls were my first choice in party favors for Sweet P's birthday party, the Make A Monster Playdough Favors were a big hit. If you read that post you'll remember that I asked Sweet P which she'd rather have and she said playdough so I figured she knew her guests better than me!

We had one friend send us a photo via phone of their monsters and another text about the fun her kids had with the playdough, so I'm glad we went that route! 

I set out to find a playdough recipe and found an awesome stove top version at The Mommies Made Me Do It. I made 4 batches/colors in less than an hour and it was super simple! Please visit The Mommies Made Me Do It for the recipe.

After searching high and low for Neon food coloring (it was like a week after Easter!), I finally found the LAST box at a Wal-Mart in Plano, TX. (All of our birthday preparations were done while visiting Gammie in Texas!)

I also searched EVERYWHERE for monster stickers! Apparently monsters are not hot right now. Again, Wal-Mart came to the rescue (2 nights before the party!). 

Auntie Rosita created and printed our favor tags "Eye hope you had fun!" to go with the monster theme. 

Here's what went in the favor bags:

• 3 colors of playdough (hot pink, turquoise, lime green)
• googly eyes (small and large)
• pipe cleaners in 3 colors
• monster stickers 

Some of Sweet P's creations from leftover favors

Read about the rest of Sweet P's Monster Party Here!

For more playdough party favor ideas visit Growing a Jeweled Rose for a Make Your Own Elmo favor and Come Together Kids for Magical Playdoh mix!

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Easy White Beans & Greens Recipe

Looking for an easy recipe for dinner tonight? Here it is! Quick, simple and healthy for the whole family.

NOTE: We don't use canned beans so dry beans do take preparation that will make cook time longer.

The Recipe: Easy White Beans & Greens

What you need:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 marinated or fresh red bell pepper, chopped
2-3 c fresh spinach, chopped
3 1/2 c of cooked white beans OR 2 15 oz. cans of white beans
1/2 vegetable bouillon cube
1 c of boiling water
1/2 c water
1/4 c Trader Joe's shaved Parmesan, Romano and Asiago cheese (or shredded parm)

Dissolve bouillon cube in 1 cup boiling water and set aside. Heat oil on medium heat in a large skillet. Add minced garlic, cook for 2 minutes, then add red bell pepper. Saute for 2 minutes. Pour in beans, spinach, vegetable bouillon and 1/2 c water. Bring water to a boil and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Serve in bowls and to with shaved Parmesan, Romano and Asiago cheese.

These beans are also great leftover in a burrito!


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Build-Your-Own Nest Activity

As I said in our Muffin Tin Monday post, last week we learned about letter N and talked a lot about nests. I was trying to think of a way to make a nest when I came up with the idea to create one out of things we found outside. I thought we might glue the pieces on a piece of paper, but then realized if it looked like a real nest it'd be a whole lot more fun!

I found a small box, told Sweet P what we were going to do with it and we set out to collect supplies in the backyard. Sweet P wasn't too interested in collecting items (she was too busy eating parsley and sage flowers from the garden) so I led her around the yard asking "Do you think we need this for our nest?" Some items made it into the nest while others were deemed unworthy for nest building. We ended up with a lot of grass, yellow flowers (from weeds), a few sticks and some leaves.

It was close to naptime when we finished collecting supplies so we put nest building off until she woke up. Sadly, the yellow flowers closed!

Sweet P lined the box with glue, but I realized we didn't really need glue since it was a box and the stuff would have sat neatly inside. Oh well. She loved squeezing the glue into the box and spreading it around with her finger.

After it was finished she asked me if we had any birds for it. We did, but they were in the Easter decorations so she waited patiently while I dug through our holiday stuff to find 2 tiny Easter eggs and 2 fluffy birds. I was excited (and so was she) to find that the birds fit perfectly into the eggs. I put them in before I came back to the table so she could "hatch" them.

Sweet P named them Anna and Chickadee and in true Sweet P fashion, they are both girls.

She also decided we needed to feed the birds and since we just so happened to be having spaghetti we had the perfect worms for them! She fed them and I threw out the spaghetti when she went to bed. In the morning, she asked me where the worms went and I said, "They ate them," but Sweet P's too smart for that. She was a little annoyed that I threw them away until I explained that spaghetti gets hard when you leave it out.

She loves to check on her little birds (and often asks to stall when I ask her to do something!). Have you ever made a nest? Please share yours in the comment section!

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{Weekly Kid's Co-op} Features & Link-Up

Welcome back to another awesome week of the Weekly Kid's Co-op! Missed last week? Check it out here (don't forget to check out my features!). It was full of awesome ideas for kiddos. Here are my 3 favorites from last week:

How super duper is this Goodnight Moon Tot Bag from Living Worlds Apart? What a fun way to talk about shapes and colors while patterning, developing fine motor skills and playing! This book is a fav at our house and I think Sweet P would love these activities!

I've been collecting things to use for an emotions unit for awhile and will be adding Tutus and Tea Parties' Emotions Unit to our list! Great ideas like painting emotions, paper plate emotions and fun songs to sing!

We're all about new ways to paint and create so I loved this Salt Painting post from Juggling with Kids. Check out her post for the fun her son had making these! 

Were you featured? Don't forget to grab a button!

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Monster Crayon Roll

These were the original plan for party favors for Sweet P's birthday party, but Gammie's sewing machine was not working to my liking and this one ended up taking longer than I wanted it to so I finished this one for Sweet P and decided on something else for the kiddos. Actually I asked Sweet P if she'd rather have the crayon roll or what I ended up giving as the party favor and she picked the latter so all was well.

What's it made out of? Felt, of course!

For the front, I used 1/2 of a rectangle sheet of felt (the ones you buy at Hobby Lobby or Joann's) and folded it. I used it as a template to cut the orange piece for the back.

The eye is simply white and black felt sewn onto the green felt by hand.

I've always wanted to make a crayon roll so I was pretty excited when this project was complete! I keep it in the diaper bag and she's always excited to see it come out at restaurants, dr. offices, etc.

Inspiration for this project came from this post at Hideous Dreadful Stinky.


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Muffin Tin Monday: N is for Nest

Last week we were doing letter N activities and since not a whole lot of exciting stuff starts with N, we talked a LOT about nests! So what did Sweet P have for lunch last week? A nest, of course!

We had lunch inside the cardboard house she got for her birthday (that's why it's in a cake pan).

Nest: whole wheat spaghetti with pesto
Eggs: tiny tomatoes
Top muffin cup: spinach and sage flowers from our garden!
Center muffin cup: cottage cheese
Bottom muffin cup: strawberries

Sweet P: "Did you make me a nest for lunch?!" 

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