Coquette Bath & Home

Inspiration comes in a variety of ways. For Cari, the owner of Coquette Bath & Home™, inspiration came out of frustration. "I owned a gift store and was always looking for something wonderful and interesting to sell. I wanted to sell candles and such, but when I went to market, well...there really wasn't anything available for sale that resembled my vision." So, in true entrepreneurial spirit, she did it herself.

It took time and dedication. And yes, a lot of experimentation (read that as, lots of money spent). But in the end it was worth the work. "I wanted to offer the very best soap, candles, lotion bars, lip balm, etc that I possibly could. So I developed special scent blends--found nowhere else--as well as developed great recipes."  

With more than 350 different products (not including some limited edition summer soaps: Sorbet Soap and a new candle line expected by fall), Coquette Bath & Home™ has the quality products you've probably been looking for. And, to make it extra special, use code Sorbet11 to save 15% off your order. Hurry! Code expires 8/31/11 and cannot be used on already reduced merchandise and jar candles.

No products or compensation were provided for this guest post.

Saturday's Mail Joy

Well, it was an exciting mail day today! I received a sweepstakes win, a $10 book gift certificate from Nestle.

We're on the Fence!

 

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Thank you!

My To Do List

Today I will...

• Thank God for another day.
• Make sure my husband knows I love and appreciate him.
• Hug my three kids and tell them they are awesome.
• Make someone smile.
• Bless a stranger.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. And a big WELCOME to all my new readers this week!

Planet Weidknecht is on Facebook

I'm excited to announce we now have a Facebook Page!

"Like" us on Facebook by clicking the link below.

Beloved Books

I hope physical books are never replaced by electronic reading devices. Young children love to read books and so much incidental learning occurs as they flip through the pages. My daycare room has its own little library center, filled with books of all kinds, and it's one of the kids' favorite places. The child-sized couch is a cozy spot to curl up with a good story, as is the "green carpet" where we do our circle time activities.

It's so important to teach children how to care for books. Tearing of pages is never allowed and if a page comes out of a book, the children immediately come to me for a "book band-aid." Together we will place the place back in the book where it belongs and carefully use a book band-aid (a piece of tape) to secure it. Our most favorite books often have multiple band-aids.

We do lots of literacy activities throughout the day to help the children learn the letter recognition, letter sounds, sight words, blended sounds, and beginning reading. Early literacy is essential for success in school. We do activities using magnetic letters, letter cards, and lots of alphabet-themed toys and games. Online Classes provides great information for people who also love books, children, or both. For those of you who share a passion for reading, you would revel in the knowledge available to you with a college degree. This is also a great free resource for people who love children and are interested in learning about courses in education.

Most of all, we read, read, read. Every day, several times a day. I read aloud to them, they "read" to me and also to each other. It's a great activity to get them to actually sit down once in a while. I cannot imagine not having actual books for young children. Do you know there are still children who don't have any books at all? A single, daily click HERE helps provide free books for children in need. How amazing is that?

Sweepstakes Tip: Enter Regularly

Many sweepstakes offer a daily entry, so to increase your chances to win, it's a good idea to enter more than once. On daily entry sweeps, I try to enter at least 3 times per week. I do most of my dailies during the daycare kids' nap-time or in the evening while I watch television in my recliner (I appreciate my laptop's convenience factor). There are a couple of ways to keep track of those sweeps that have daily entry opportunities, from freeware to purchased software. Many sweepstakes directory websites actually offer this service of tracking dailies to members. Or you can keep track on a word document and just hit those links daily. Be sure to read the official rules to make sure you're eligible to enter.

Bloggerdise

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Have You Entered Yet?

Home Depot Gift Card

Crunchy N Yummy Snacks

Be a winner!

Gardening for Black Thumbs (like me)

I can pretty much kill anything I plant in a pot. Most of my ground plants make it though, because I let God be in charge of those. I have found that Canna plants are an excellent plant for those of us who have black thumbs when it comes to gardening.

They are a root plant and all I have to do is stick the root in the dirt. They grow tall and beautiful with minimal care requirements. In the fall, they die down and I clip the stalks off just above the ground, and leave them for the winter. In spring, I buy some new topsoil, dump it over them before they begin to grow and they sprout right back up year after year.

Giveaways? Post them here!

Click HERE to link up your giveaways!

Open until June 20.

Preschool: Waterpaints

I love waterpaints. It's fairly easy to teach children how to use waterpaints. With the younger ones, I will start them off by wrapping my hand around their hand, holding the paint brush, saying, "water, paint, paper" while dipping the brush in the water, then the paint, then to the paper. I will repeat this a few times, then let go, and continue saying the words aloud until they get the hang of it. Each child gets their own water, paint and paper, to keep confusion to a minimum. My daycare kids range in age from 2-5 years right now, and all of them participate together.

Preschool: Letter T Recognition

This activity is low mess and low stress. The printout comes from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I pre-cut shapes in bulk from construction paper, give the kids a glue stick and let them get to work. I don't instruct them to fill in the letter, but that's the direction they usually go. We're doing letter T this week, along with our Forest Animals theme. The kids remembered from books we read this week that Turtle, Toad and Toucan start with the T sound.

In Memory of Donny

On May 16, 2011, my cousin Donny lost his battle with cancer.

Donny was Down's Syndrome, but today and forever he is perfect in God's Kingdom.

Today he is dancing with Jesus and hugging my dad, Nana, and Grumps.

Winner Announcement

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Sunday Blog Hop 5/15

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Follow my blog.

Add your blog to the link list.

Visit others, follow their blog, comment.

Thank you for joining!

Giveaway - $25 Home Depot Gift Card

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

I love Home Depot. My husband loves it that I love Home Depot. We can both browse for hours in there. I have to say that the Pflugerville, Texas location has the BEST customer service of any Home Depot I've ever visited. Card purchased by me.

Father's Day is coming up on June 19. Give yourself a break and win this $25 Home Depot Gift Card.

Must be 18 years old and live in US or Canada only. Five ways to enter; please leave one comment for each way you enter.Giveaway ends on June 1, 2011, at midnight. One winner chosen by Random.org. Be sure to leave me your contact information. Five days to respond or new winner chosen. Good luck!

One entry for each action:

• Follow Planet Weidknecht via public GFC. (on sidebar)
• Follow Planet Weidknecht via email. (on sidebar)
• Follow Planet Weidknecht via RSS. (on sidebar)
• Vote for Planet Weidknecht at Picket Fence Blogs. (on sidebar)
• Like Planet Weidknecht on Facebook. (on footer)

Spring Giveaway Linkup

Got Giveaways?

Click HERE to add them to my linkup list!

Open until June 20th.

Giveaway - Crunchy N Yummy

This giveaway is now closed.

As a daycare provider for preschoolers, I’m always looking for healthy snacks that I can get the kids to actually eat. I have one child who will eat anything, but I have another child who hates pizza and ketchup. I have one little guy who eats almost nothing, and yet I have a girl who loves cauliflower and broccoli. You can see how challenging lunchtime can be for me! Around here, the rule for food is - you can eat it, or go hungry. I hate to throw away food though, so I try to serve things they will eat.

A big thank you to Crunchy N Yummy, who sent me a box of five of their freeze-dried fruit snacks to try! I got the daycare kids all excited, talking up the brand new, crunchy, yummy snacks, hoping they would be more receptive. 

I was pleasantly surprised that all seven kids tried all five flavors (strawberry, pineapple, mango, papaya, and banana). Each snack bag was one adult serving and I poured the entire contents of the strawberry bag onto a small paper plate. 

They clamored over each other to taste the snacks. We tried each bag, one flavor at a time, and I wrote down some of their comments for your enjoyment.

Strawberry - “I like this better than real strawberries!” (BTW, they ARE real strawberries.)

Pineapple - “This one is crunchy AND yummy!”

Mango - “Mangew is the bestest one.”

Papaya - “No, this one is for sure the best one.” “Uh-uh.” “Yuh-huh!” “Nuh-uh!”

Banana - “I love bananas. Miss Lisa, look I’m a monkey!”

These freeze-dried fruit snacks are a great choice for kids because they are 100% natural, with no salt, no sweeteners, no preservatives and no gluten. 

The snack bags are perfect for on the go, in the car, and daycare snack time. They would be perfect to toss into cereal or yogurt, and I liked them just as much as the kids did.

 

WANT TO TRY THEM?

Crunchy N Yummy is sponsoring a giveaway and will send one winner a box of all five snack bags. 

Entries accepted until midnight on June 1, 2011. Must be at least 18 years old and reside in US or Canada to win. Product will ship direct from company.

If you cannot wait until the end of the giveaway to try these, you can buy them HERE at Amazon.com.

I was not paid for this post. I was provided product at no charge. Opinions are ours.

Product Review: Listerine Zero

I was excited to get a full-size freebie in the mail on Friday! I apparently entered the Zero Stress Spa Day Sweepstakes and was sent a 500 ml bottle of Listerine Zero as a gift. Thank you McNeil PPC Inc!

The bottle says zero alcohol, less intense, so I was intrigued. Their mouthwash has always come across rather strong to me. The flavor I received was Clean Mint and I chugged a mouthful, swished it around, and spit (I am not a gargler). I was very happy to discover it didn't burn my mouth. After an hour of cleaning the teenage boys' nasty, grimy bathroom, I was sweaty and my hands were dried out, but my mouth was still minty clean and fresh. Well done Listerine!

I was not paid for this post. I received product at no charge. Opinions are mine.

Restaurant Review: Nuernberg Brauhaus

Restaurant Review: Nuernberg Brauhaus

1202 FM 685, Suite B5, Pflugerville, Texas, 78660

Phone 512-990-5544

Friday afternoon my romantic husband called and invited me out for dinner. We chose to go to a new place called Nuernberg Brauhaus because I had a $10 restaurant.com gift certificate. It’s a small German place with a big atmosphere. There was even dinner entertainment in the way of a gentleman in the corner singing some oldies. 

The menu was written in German and English and my husband and I giggled about the Weiner Schnitzel. We ordered drinks, a diet cola for me and a beer for him. We put in our order for dinner, the Cordon Bleu for me and the Jaeger (mushroom) Schnitzel for him. I showed our server the gift certificate and she stated they don’t take the certificates on Fridays. Excuse me?? There’s nothing on this paper that says that. Well, she said, it says so on the computer, then she walked away. I walked over to the register and told someone else I didn’t see anything on the certificate about Fridays and was told they would speak to the manager about it. Another server came over to my table and told me they couldn’t take the certificate. I told them, okay, I’m not eating here then, how much for the soda and beer? All of a sudden the attitude changed and I was assured they would take $10 off my bill. Okay, we’ll stay and eat then. By the way, I'm not shy.

Cordon Bleu with Sauerkraut

 

Jaeger Schnitzel with Potato Salad

So dinner arrives and it’s absolutely, positively fantastic. Both of us loved our dinner choices and my blood pressure went down considerably. They were very busy, even for a Friday, and when our server came to check on us, I told her I would like to pay for the entire meal with no discount. (See, it wasn’t that I had to have the discount. It was the principle that they need to take a certificate that has no exclusions printed on it.) She asked if we would be coming back and I assured her we would. I do recommend making a reservation on weekends, even though it’s a small family place. The service was a bit slow that night. They definitely need to hire a server or two, because the two they have were running all over, looking very exhausted. But the food was delicious and we'll definitely be back.
I was not paid for this post. Opinions are mine.