Happy 4th of July! If I had a star shaped cookie cutter, I’d be making these tomorrow. Go to Inchmark to see lots more beautiful photos of these cupcakes as well as the amazing rocket ship 5th birthday party they were a part of. Brooke, who writes the blog, is a former Martha Stewart art director — so naturally, everything she does is amazing.

I’ve cut down on my paper towel usage quite a bit, thanks to my Trader Joe’s cloths and a new Twist bamboo cloth that I just started using yesterday. Now it’s time to think about moving my paper-saving ways out of the kitchen and over to the dining table.

These cloth napkins from Love For Earth look like something I’d like to try. I do own cloth napkins that we registered for when we got married. But I never use them because they are completely unabsorbent. In fact, I wonder… is there a fancy cloth napkin out there that can sop up anything? Because they always seem so thin and wimpy. These babies on the other hand, are made of diaper cloth and look beefy enough to handle a puddle of spilled milk. They’re described on the site as “workhorse daily napkins”. My kind of napkins.

I also love these snack sacks, again from Love For Earth…

When you read the description about how ORGANIC and CERTIFIED and NATURAL the cotton canvas is, I’m telling you, you’ll want to forget the snack and eat the bag. Plus they come with the cutest appliques – hearts, flowers, apples, and fish. Don’t they look like they could make a cute little girl’s “purse” too? The description says the drawstring closes tight to keep food super fresh, and they’re made to withstand lots and lots of trips through the washer.

$11.75 for set of 12 cloth napkins and $8.50 for snack sacks

My kids, like most, are prone to owies. (In the past two hours we’ve had one bee sting and one arm slammed in a door. ow.) We usually run for the frozen boo-boo fish or a bag of peas. Yes, they’re cold, but they’re not particularly soft or comforting.

I love these “owie-all-gone” bags made by a Phoenix mom and sold in the Etsy Shop Adam’s Blankie. They’re made with cotton fabric, rice and thread. Sounds pretty natural to me — especially compared to the orange mystery gel inside our boo-boo fish. Actually, they’re a lot like the bean bags made by Design Mom and the Scandinavian wheat hearts I wrote about a while back.

The bags come in lots of really great-looking designs, and you can pick and choose the two you want in your set. The small size should be kept in the freezer, and the larger size can also be heated for “warm therapy”. I could have used one of these on my daughter’s sudden and inexplicable sore neck a few weeks ago. Much better than trying to contort a big rigid heating pad into the right position.

I also want to mention that the mom who makes these great bags nearly lost her son Adam in a drowning incident last year. In her words, “to honor that experience of God’s grace and protection over our son and also promote safe practices with children around water our company contributes 5% of every sale to a water safety foundation and 5% of our salaries to a Christian church.”

Fun Finds For Mom readers can submit MBLOG6 in the notes to seller upon checkout, and 10% refund will be submitted through PayPal. This offer is good through Sunday, June 28.

$8.50 for two 4″x4″ bags or $12.50 for two 4″x7″ bags at Adam’s Blankie

Congratulations to our two winners who were randomly chosen with the help of randomizer.org.

The winner of one Envirosax bag from either the Oxford or Retro Graphics series is Michelle, who wrote “Love those prints. Thanks so much for the giveaway!!!”

The winner of the Duck Egg Greengrocer Envirosax is Taylor Horner, who wrote “that argyle pattern is the best, i’m loving it, i would totally wear it. please count me in!”

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to Envirosax for sponsoring the giveaway!

There are so many great ideas out there for displaying kids art — clotheslines, sticker “frames”, picking some choice pieces and framing them in supersize matted frames. Ultimately, we ended up taping them to the wall as they come in. When people come over, I’m not sure if they’re thinking “Ooh, clever way to showcase your kids’ paintings.” or “Oh my god what have you done!?” All I know is that the kids are really proud of their art wall, and when we still had spaces available, they would head to school eager to paint a piece to fill the spot. Now the art wall is moseying up to the overhanging beam as you can see. It will be interesting to see how far it creeps.

This contest is now closed.

To celebrate Father’s Day, Envirosax is giving away an Envirosax bag from their Oxford or Retro Graphics series to one lucky Fun Finds For Mom reader. I had a chance to test out the argyle Envirosax bag you see here, and let me tell you, it’s better looking in person than on the screen. At one point, I saw it out of the corner of my eye draped over a pair of jeans, and I wished I could wear the darn thing.

Yes, I’m a longtime Baggu fan, it’s true. But I recently added a Reisenthel to my stash, and now this Envirosax has joined the family. So I’m starting to open my mind to having a whole family of reusable bags — as long as they’re the kind that I can scrunch up into my purse so I always have them with me when I need them.

This weekend I went to three different grocery stores (don’t you hate that?) and used the three different bags. The Envirosax held the most, and it was the only one that has the little snap tabs attached to the bag so that you can roll it up and snap it into a palm-sized bundle to stuff in your bag. Both the Baggu and Reisenthel have separate pouches that usually get separated from the bag over time. I also like the design of the straps, which make it easy to sling the bag over your shoulder, even when it’s filled with groceries.

Envirosax is giving away one bag from the Oxford or Retro Graphics series because these are some of their more “manly” designs. I let my man use it this weekend when he took the kids to the library, and he looked pretty darn good hoisting his bag full of books.

If you live in Phoenix, you can find Envirosax at La Grande Orange, or you can order directly from the Envirosax website.

Update: The giveaway will now have two winners! One winner will receive their choice of an Envirosax bag from the Oxford or Retro Graphics collections. The other winner will receive a Duck Egg (really pretty light blue) bag from the Greengrocer collection.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post by midnight MST on Friday Saturday, June 20. Anonymous comments won’t count. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on June 23. If I don’t hear back from the winner, another winner will be chosen. One entry per person please. Thanks and good luck!

$8.50 at Envirosax.com

Look at this pretty little package that arrived in the mail last week from PishPosh Mommy. When I untied the brown satiny bow, there was a soft stylish PishPosh Carryall for me to review. I immediately filled up the pockets with all my “purse stuff” because the bag is essentially a purse organizer that lets you turn any purse into a diaper bag.

I hope I’m not jixing myself by saying that I am getting to the point in my life where I will no longer have to carry around a spare pull-up, but even if you’re not a diaper carrier, it is still so great for organizing all the other junk – I mean other momly essentials, you carry around. Here’s a peek at the stocked PishPosh (sunglasses, wipes, wallet and snacks tucked into the middle, tissues, sunscreen, scrunched up reusable bags, and keys in the outside pockets):

Once you have the carryall stuffed with all your supplies, you can pop it into your purse or bag and feel organized for once in your life – or maybe that’s a me thing.  If you switch purses frequently, like I seem to do regularly, it will help you avoid leaving something behind in the transfer.

I took all my pics with the carryall open, but here’s a photo from the PishPosh Mommy website to show you how neatly it cinches up:

I should mention that the PishPosh Carryall was designed by two moms who missed the days when they could grab a purse and go. Now you can buy one to get your stylish self organized.

Use the code FFFM10 for a 10% discount!

$45 at pishposhmommy.com

Hooray! Ikea has come out with a Duktig play kitchen. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s only available in Europe right now. I tried to ask “Anna”, their online service bot, when we’d be getting the play kitchen in the U.S. but she was kind of rude and gave me a dirty look:

I wasn’t trying to pick a fight. I was just giving her an honest answer when she asked if I was there to design my dream kitchen. I did follow up with an email to customer service, so when I hear back on when the play kitchen will be available in the U.S., I’ll let you know. I just got an email from Ikea Customer Care and they said it’s coming to U.S. stores in August.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on this super deluxe play kitchen designed and built by my ever so talented brother-in-law Chad for my cutie-pie niece Natalie. You can read all about it on my sister in-law Dana’s blog MommyBrain.

Duktig play kitchen costs £65 (about $106)

spotted on yokiddo.com

Update: I just realized I’ve been nominated for best local blog on this site. Another woo-hoo! If you’d like to vote, here’s the link: http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/phoenix-az-usa/best-phoenix-local-blog

THANKS!!!

So it looks like Nickelodeon launched a parent web site and is now promoting it. From my blog stats, I see people are going there…and clicking on the Local link up top, and then scrolling down and clicking on the “Blogs and Sites” link…and then seeing little old Fun Finds For Mom listed as the top of the list of seven Phoenix blogs. Can I say a little Woo Hoo!?!

I was surprised to see myself there to be honest, since I haven’t written too much about the local mom scene. Although now I’m considering throwing in more Phoenix content since I do have some loyal Arizona readers (hi mom and dad!) Seriously, I did get an email from a woman at Childsplay last month who found FFFM through this site, and she kindly invited our family to come see a play. Which we did, and it was really a wonderful day. More to come on this soon.

So now’s the time to get to the point. I wanted to let you know that the Nick site lets you rate this blog with one to five stars, or write a little “review” if you so desire. I know you’re busy folks, so I will totally understand if you don’t have time to do this. But if you find yourself with a minute, and think Fun Finds For Mom is worthy of a rating or review, I would be oh so appreciative if you’d give me a thumbs up…or some stars. Never mind. I’ve heard from multiple people that this is a big pain with links that don’t work, so don’t waste your precious time!!

Also, if you’re a Phoenix reader and you would like to see me writing about more local companies, places to go, things to do, etc. I’d appreciate it if you send me a note or leave a comment. Thanks so much everyone!

This came in the mail a few days ago. A candle glued to a card, with confetti inside a clear envelope. Normally I am not a fan of the confetti in the envelope, because it ends up all over the floor. But with a clear envelope, you know what you’re dealing with. Of course the one candle is great for a first birthday, but this idea could also work with lots of other things glued to the card to match your party theme – as long as they’re flat enough.

And if you haven’t been to the Phoenix Children’s Museum yet, you should really go. We’ve been many times (my parents gave us a membership last Mother’s Day) and the kids never get tired of it.