Wired For Noise

Contest closed! 

Today is Leap Day, that extra day that comes only once every four years. What if you could take the entire day to do what ever you wanted? What if today was treated like an extra day where everyone could just kick back and enjoy? What would you do with an extra day all to yourself?

To celebrate leap year this year Aveeno commissioned a survey asking just this. The results were not that surprising for us moms. One half of the women they surveyed said they would take that extra day to get more sleep or pamper themselves. Moms were the ones most asking for this extra day of rest with 73% dreaming of a extra day of rest in the year. What else did Aveeno find in their survey? That 65% of American women are skimping out on caring for their skin, spending only 30 minutes or less each day doing so. And I’ll admit it, I’m one of those. I do a quick wash, maybe a little lotion if I’m feeling the need, and then I’m off chasing the boys and just too busy to worry about the rest.

What if you could pamper yourself every day while you sleep? Sure, it’s not an extra day to relax but it could be a start right? Introducing Aveeno’s new Positively Ageless Lifting & Firming products. Use their Lifting and Firming Night Cream to pamper your skin while you are still getting sleep. Anything that I can do while I am sleeping scores big points in my book. You just rub it in, go to bed, and let the cream do all the work. Perfect for exhausted moms like me.

Of course the collection includes more than just the night cream. There is also a Lifting and Firming Eye Cream, to help carry those dark bags under every moms’ eyes from lack of sleep and stress, and a Lifting and Firming Daily Moisturizer with SPF 30 to use during the day to keep your skin soft and protected from the sun. All three of these products are made with the natural benefits of wheat and shiitake mushrooms. They are hypoallergenic and gentle enough for sensitive skin.

Now, if you’ve made it this far I have a special treat for you. I’m not just talking up Aveeno’s Lifting and Firming product line because I’ve got skincare issues. Right now, I want to hear about your issues. What would you do with an extra day all to yourself? Would you spend the day pampering yourself or get some much needed rest? Leave me a comment and let me know how you would spend your extra day in the year. One lucky person will be chosen at random to win the complete Aveeno Lifting and Firming product line. One jar of the night cream, one jar of the eye cream, and one bottle of the daily moisturizer.

Here are the rules:

• Only comment per person will count
• Write about this contest on your blog for an additional entry.
• Contest open until March 4th, winner will be selected and announced on March 5th.
• Winner chosen at random.
• Prize will be mailed by an Aveeno affiliate, I have no control over how or when.

Tags: Aveeno, contest, skincare, beauty, beauty products

I saw this over at Queen of Spain and Sleeping Mommy, so I ran over to MOMocrats and joined in.

Since some people *cough Bill Cunningham cough* still like to snicker over people’s names the MOMocrats are hosting a “Just call Me Hussein” day.

Some bullies never grow up. While I like to think that most sooner or later become a part of the human race, there are always those who just become adults who still like to pick on the people who are different in some way to make themselves feel better. A favorite target is to pick on people for things they had no control over. Freckles, glasses, red hair, or a unique name. Try living in a tiny town in rural Oklahoma with a name like Summer.

Sure now it’s becoming fairly more common, but in the 80’s it was still very rare. Especially in a tiny town in the middle of no where. My class was the largest in the entire school at 34 students. There was already no way to hide in the background, but my name certainly made me stand out even more. The kids who felt the need to bully had no qualms honing in on my name as a teasing point.

Now it seems those same bullies are all grown up have a new name to pick on. Ohhhh, his middle name is Hussein. That must mean something, right? Sure, and I must be hot blooded because my name is Summer.

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare

Tags: ”just call me Hussein”, Barack Obama, MOMocrats, names, politics, bullies

I used to have an anonymous blog where I ranted about politics, the environment, women’s issues, and just about anything else that bugged me. I used a fake name, set up a separate email account, and let my opinions on the world all hang out.

A few other blogs that wrote about some of the things I ranted about began getting attacked by a group of hackers. They tried tearing the blogs down, sometimes succeeding. Then one woman had her personal information passed around various forums by the hackers, who took it so far as to call her place of work to harass her and even call her local police and make false complaints that she was abusing her son. All of it, of course, untraceable. During this time my own blog was getting noticed, getting quite a few hits, and even being asked by a few of the better known blogs to submit guest posts.

Then it was gone. I tried to get on one day and the blog was gone. I couldn’t even log in. Afraid that the hackers had turned towards me I backed off and called it a loss.

Unfortunately since I lost my public voice I’ve taken to ranting a lot more at home. And, frankly, Dearest is tired of hearing me get up in arms about every news report I come across. He takes a “ignore it and it will go away” approach, while I’m more of a “beat it over the head with a cast-iron skillet and it will go away” type of gal. I considered restarting the blog but I really don’t like keeping the two so separate. The reason I feel the way I do about so many issues is wrapped up in who I am and my life as it is. It’s hard to write passionately about issues without sharing why they affect me so.

So here’s my dilemma. If I set up a separate blog I can rant freely about things that bother me, but I’ll be separating who I am from how I feel. Or I could write more here about the things that I feel passionately about, but I’ll feel more reserved as I know that not every one will agree with me and I don’t like offending people. It’s a tough call for me, I don’t know if there even is a “right” choice here.

Tags: blogging, opinions, writing, online

I use the microwave probably a lot more than I should. It’s just easy, especially when on limited time. We make a big lunch so that Dearest can take the extra to work, and often additional left overs get stuck in the fridge to be eaten by me and the boys later. So when they’re hungry and grumpy I’ll just toss something in there, heat it up really quick, and we’re good to go.

Unfortunately that also means the inside of my microwave is kind of nasty. Or at least it can be if I don’t get to it right away. I used to try just scrubbing it but some things really get in there and don’t want to come off easily. Like that spaghetti sauce splattered across the side or the garlic butter on the top.Fortunately I found a little secret to loosen the junk off without scrubbing.

Fill a shallow cup with 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar and set it in the center of the microwave. Then I heat it on high for 2 minutes. When it’s done the food stuck to the inside is already loosened up quite a bit. Sprinkle a little baking soda over it and use the vinegar water to finish cleaning it up.

I use vinegar to clean just about everything in my kitchen. Mixed equally with water for an all purpose cleaner, a little added to rubbing alcohol for a glass cleaner, poured down the sink with baking soda for a drain cleaner, and lots of other places.

Check out the Works For Me Wednesday post this week for other good tips.

Tags: cleaning, housekeeping, vinegar, works for me Wednesday

I actually got a new necklace made and in the shop over the weekend. It’s apple inspired and very yummy. Apple of My Eye is what I’m calling it. Go check it out and tell me what you think. I promise I’ve got a real post to write later, but for now a nap with my boys is in order. I’ll miss those group snuggle fests when they’re older.

I was thinking of creating a unique logo for the jewelry shop. Something that sets it apart from this blog, just a bit, and that gives it more character. Plus I’ve been told repeatedly to get some cheap business cards to send with the pieces. So I stayed up far too late last night playing with creating a unique logo design that I could use.

I had a bit too much fun playing over at LogoYes.com, a fun little logo creator that I found. There is a free demo that I probably wore out my welcome on last night going through the options. You choose what style you want to go for, then an inductry, and then dig through pages of basic logos ready to be taken. But they have a lot of functions so that even if you use the same image as someone else it doesn’t have to look the same. You can play with the color, size, direction, position, pretty much every thing about it. You take their image and shape it like play dough to fit what you want from it.

There were quite a few images I could have used. Some fun jewels that would have fit, but i just didn’t think they captured my style. There were these really cool fountains and dancing people and moons that all looked awesome, but just not what I’m looking for. One thing that I loved about the free demo, you can just flip back to where you were and change your design without having to start all over again at the beginning. As many changes as I made again and again that came in very handy.

After too much playing with it I think I finally found something cute. I’m not rushing out to buy business cards right now, especially not high priced ones like these. Though, they saying is that you get what you pay for so if you’re looking for great quality this is probably the place you want to go rather than the free sites. Plus you buy the image files for your logo, something you don’t get with the free sites.

OK, I’ll quit babbling and show you my idea. Any comments? Suggestions? Have I lost my mind? Wait, don’t answer that last one.

Tags: logo, business card

That’s all it takes to sink into chaos around here.

I’ve spent the last 24 hours laying on the couch, moaning, and running to the bathroom every few minutes. Somewhere along that time monsters snuck into the house and took the place apart. At least that’s the theory I’ve got.

The kitchen is a mess. This alone totally boggles me as I’ve made every effort to stay out of there as much as I could. And yet some how still the trash is overflowing and the sink is full of dishes. The boys took advantage of my immobility to drag out every toy, book, shoe, hat, and piece of paper that they own across every inch of the living room and their bedroom. It looks like a tornado landed in here.

I’m feeling better now, but not enough to want to tackle this mess alone. Dearest doesn’t have to go in until 6 tomorrow evening, so I’m going to take advantage of those extra 3 hours and beg him to at least take the trash out. Maybe even do one sinkful of dishes. Or maybe I’ll just set off bombs in the kitchen. Get rid of the whole thing and start again from scratch. Sounds good to me.