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SoDu DIY - charger station

7/17/2017

Yes you too can make this above! We all have an area in our home that is a mess of electrical plugs, cords, cables, random portable chargers (most dead), tablets, phones, and more. It's messy looking and half the time you have to unplug one device just to find a cord for another. I was getting sick of it and found a cool solution, then altered it to make it even simpler. Here's what you need (and if you want to support my blog, you can buy the few needed items through the amazon ads you see that'll take you right there):

First I got a box from Michaels (but of course any craft store or my amazon link below would have these, and amazon would have the biggest variety) - it's meant to hold photos and doesn't have the dimensions printed on it, but for your info it's 11.3 length x 7.25 width x 4.25 depth, so make sure that fits in the area you want. You could use a different type or size of box but this one is what I'd recommend because this one fits a 4 outlet power strip and the other cables, any smaller wouldn't fit and the cardboard type sides it has are easy to cut through. There are lots of designs to choose from, classy to retro, cartoony to flowery. These are around $5-7 each, so stock up if you want to have other boxes to match this one on a shelf. (Now you can also save a normal shoebox and then use spray adhesive and hot glue to glue down fabric to match your home, or cloth that you have leftover from recovering chairs but that's a lot more work.)

Also grab some of these eyelets. You don't need grommets (even though that's what the package says above), just eyelets (half of a grommet) will do. I would get 1/2 inch size so you can be sure the cable will fit through, and white looks nice but they typically come in gold or silver as well. I've also seen them in bronze on Amazon which has all kinds of colors.
If you don't have super glue at home, pick some up too to hold the eyelet in place. (Although I didn't use super glue, they stay in place pretty well.)

Last is Washi tape. You can find lots of varieties so I'd pick one that most closely matches your box colors, because this will help hide your cuts for your extension cord.

All in all (if you already have your extension cord and power strip, if not pick them up, and I'm assuming you have your iphone/device plugs and cables) you've probably spent $15, and you'll have washi tape and eyelets left over if you wanted to make a second box for another room in your house or as a gift. This charger station works better than solutions I've seen for sale for much more so to me it's worth it. Now you're ready!

First put your power strip in your box and position your box on your shelf or counter the way you want it. This is important because it will impact where you cut the larger whole for your extension cord. You can see I needed to have mine on the back right. Due to the shape of the female end of the cord that needs to pass through I had to cut a square hole. I did this with one blade on a sharp pair of scissors but a box cutter would work. This looks pretty messy, but we'll fix that next.

You can see above that I applied washi tape to pull in the ragged edges and then made a border with it. This is at the back of the box and facing the wall so it's not as important as the cable exits on the other side.

I flipped the box to the other side, measured it level in a line, spaced them out accordingly and marked with an x.

Next I took my scissor blade and punches holes through the x's one by one. As you can see I drank some wine while doing it so it's not hard (but still be safe while cutting)! Once you punch the hole, turn your scissors around in a circle like below to make a rounder hole, big enough to fit the eyelet in.

If you left it like this it would look terrible obviously so just pick up your eyelet and push it in gently one by one. Look how pretty it is now!

It was easy to insert them and none of the pierced cardboard shows through on this side. If you think it's a little loose for your taste you can put a small ribbon of glue behind the eyelet to secure it but I didn't.

Next I arranged all my cords, the extension cord going out one side, attached to the power strip and used smaller plugs for my cables to make sure they all fit. I put the white iphone cables on the first two spots and the mini usb's with black cords on the right to make it more aesthetically pleasing. I also put a strip of washi tape on the back of my cord to keep it from pulling through.

Wow! In less than 20 minutes I completed a really nice looking cable hideaway / storage box that looks a lot better than what I had before. Plus this keeps me from snagging a cable to take with me in my purse and then not having one at home. Let me know in the comments if you have and suggestions and have fun crafting!
If you like this DIY post, please consider clicking on my amazon associate links throughout the post or the ad on the right to purchase your supplies, which will support my writing and SoDu Parents Posse. Thanks!

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Durham's Best Hidden Treasures, Take 2

6/7/2017

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Back in May of 2013, I was asked to write a piece for IndyWeek on the best hidden treasures in Durham for parents and kiddos. It was a particularly hard time in my life but I was determined to make the article happen. Why? My daughter was in the hardest part of her "failure to thrive" era, and this deadline came as she was getting surgery for her gastronomy tube so she could get nutrition. I created SoDu Parents Posse just 1 year earlier, and members numbered around 600. (For perspective, in May of 2017 we were over 6,000.) Life for me was in upheaval. But I needed something to concentrate on, and I couldn't fix my daughter's inability to eat but I could write.

Old Durham Bulls Stadium, Wikipedia

So I put together a list of what I thought were places that people might not think of immediately when they take their kids somewhere. By this point I had been a "Stay At Home" mom for a year. Ha - "stay at home". The term itself is outdated. As is "homemaker". Can we come up with a new term for us moms "who don't work full time outside the home" already? Well speaking of outdated, my article is just that. Things change. But in Durham, things change even faster.

My grandparents lived in SoDu back in the 80's when I was growing up, in a little brick rancher off Garrett, which thirty years later I would drive past four times a day on my way to my kids preschool and back home. Durham wasn't doing so great back then. During all our visits, the only part of downtown I remember going to was Morgan Imports. In fact, we would go every Christmas Eve and I would gaze at all the trees all fully decorated. I hazily remember drinking sparkling apple cider as the adults sipped champagne and I felt that all those twinkling lights and the mysterious stairs up to the second floor (that we couldn't go to) meant that this was the secret entrance to the North Pole. For a girl growing up in Tennessee, North Carolina felt north enough for it to make sense.

Northgate Mall was the place to visit, where my grandpa always treated me to Orange Julius. The rest of Durham seemed to be a lot of empty storefronts to me, but I definitely remember loving Another Thyme in my new days as a cliche vegetarian teenager. Then there's the time I went to a Bulls game with a guy I was crushing on. By then my family had moved to NC, but we lived in a small town in the mountains, so Durham seemed big league, even though the team wasn't. The game was in the old stadium that still holds a special place in my heart, with it's turret entrance, a field open to the sky with but a few bleachers and a wide lawn past the bases. My crush caught a home run from just underneath the "Hit A Bull" sign, and I snapped a photo of him with the 35mm camera I borrowed from my high school. Being the high school newspaper editor had its perks. I certainly never imagined I'd one day live here, but if nothing else, life is serendipitous.

I went to North Carolina School of the Arts, our state's public arts conservatory, for senior year of high school and two years of college. Ah, the big city of Winston-Salem - the place so grateful to Reynolds cigarettes that we named ourselves after them: smooth smoking Winstons and Old Salem of course, where I worked as a tavern wench in full costume. But the college I grew up loving, the reason my parents moved back to NC from TN, that Old Well, she was calling me. September 11th happened and like many of us, I reevaluated things. My boyfriend and I moved to Chapel Hill for me to complete my degree at UNC Chapel Hill. Right after graduation day, he proposed and we started looking for places to get hitched. Nothing felt right. Why not look in Durham, we thought. A year later, I ended up walking down the aisle at Duke Gardens on a hot day in June. We learned our first dance at 9th Street Dance and killed it on the floor at our Durham Arts Council reception, where a movie about us that my husband made played in their theater for our guests. The after party consisted of us bar hopping from Jo and Jo's to Devine's that humid night, amid construction and somewhat dangerous streets, and as we laughed ourselves silly singing karaoke I couldn't help but also fall in love with the town I just tied the knot in.

Parkwood, ducks and all farmland, circa 1960, courtesy of Parkwood Neighborhood Association

We bought a house in South Durham in 2007 right before the housing market crashed, and boy, do I love our neighborhood, Parkwood. Smack dab in between my alma mater and the capitol, with a fantastic old school pool, great neighbors, and trails for miles to walk with the inevitable kiddos. It's a neighborhood that according to the News & Observer in 1963 was the nation's introduction to a modern subdivision, having been created for workers at the new RTP. The article's author gushed, "Parkwood is unique for North Carolina – for the region, and to an extent the nation." Parkwood, they noted, is notable for it's cluster planning technique with cul-de-sacs and "Few houses are without a green area in the rear or elsewhere, assuring residents of plenty of park and recreation space." What's true then is true now. It's a lovely place, and people take a lot of pride in living here, before SoDu boomed and Southpoint was built.

As we embraced suburbia, we had our own kiddos and no sooner did I have my 2nd child than I found myself without a job after the preschool I worked at closed suddenly. I was a - wait, there's that unremarkable and totally inaccurate phrase again - "stay at home" mom, something I had not planned on being. I had a 9 month old and 3 year old and was totally and utterly alone. My husband worked in Cary, and I didn't know what to do to fill my days. I met a couple friends at parks and started to private message them on Facebook. It seemed to work at first but then I realized it would be easier if I just created a group. Now SoDu - there is a phrase I *do* like. I am not the creator of it, people had said it before me I later found out, but when I created it among my group of friends I was inspired by how hip New York's Soho sounded, and also realized that using the correct pronounciation of Durham meant that the word would sound too close to soda, so "doo" it was. I also wanted dads to be a part instead of having a mom only space. I had met some cool dads at parks too, and just like us moms, they were trying to figure out how to raise kids, manage a house, and still feel like a person outside of parenting without a job to define you. Lastly, I just liked the alliteration of "posse". That's it. That's how it started, with maybe 10 people. They know who they are. It went from there, all the way up to where I started this, my article in the IndyWeek. Now SoDu as a phrase has become widely popularized, which still gives me a kick, and we're known triangle-wide now, thanks to a recent win. More on that in a minute.

Durm Tobacco Shirt, Runawayclothes.com

By the time I wrote my article, Durham had definitely changed since my grandparents lived here, and was unrecognizable to my wedding guests. My granddad would be proud and puzzled by the resurgence of the tobacco leaf logo in hip clothing by Runaway, as he worked for Lucky Strike in its heyday, witnessed Big Tobacco's decline, and yet lived long enough to hear me talk about how Mad Men made it cool again. In 2013, restaurants were popping up everywhere, breweries too. Festivals and live music were aplenty, with tons of activities for kiddos. That definitely helped me find my footing as a mom, but it wasn't easy. My son had just been diagnosed with a deadly allergy to tree nuts after an anaphylactic reaction, and my daughter refused to eat and lost a lot of weight, hence the g-tube. Still we made it out of the house every day, to try and keep the kids happy and my mind busy. And I chatted on SoDu, asking for advice, giving advice, laughing with others, and planning playdates and moms nights out. It was my safe place, where I could go to be surrounded by my community, and I found out happily that others felt the same way.

When I wrote the article four years ago, so much was new to Durham, like the SoDu Farmer's Market and the revamped Old North Durham park, with it's super cool rope structures. Many of my favorites I wrote about are still around and yet since, much has changed. Stay and Play Snack Cafe closed down because at the time there wasn't enough downtown business to sustain it. Northgate doesn't have the same attractions it once did, and the Marry Durham movement of 2011 has (like many marriages) settled down, with nary a facebook update since 2015.

As far as what's new for families? Well, after having been proudly profiled in Durham Magazine's Annual Women's issue, I'm happy to say I'll be writing for them in coming months, and taking the questions of Bull City parents for our new Q&A column. SoDu will continue with our blood drives, parent education on school choices, and community outreach with local charities like No Kid Hungry to make a difference in this city we know and love.

So many good things are ahead, and I'm very excited to share them with you. Because you - the reader, the posse member, the blog sponsor, YOU are the reason we were just voted BEST LOCAL FACEBOOK PAGE in IndyWeek's Best of the Triangle 2017. WE couldn't be the posse without YOU. What's the best hidden treasure of Durham? The smile as a parent connects with another for the first time, online or on the playground, and that's what I'm proud to help make happen.

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Shine Bronze Bar

3/20/2017

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So I had a destination beach wedding to go to and had everything ready but I looked... pale, and tired. I'm a redhead so tanning is out of the question. Then I got a PM from Amanda Fitzgerald, a SoDu mom with a new business Shine Bronze Bar - which specializes in mobile spray tans! The angels were smiling on me for my rare weekend away! Amanda and her friend Britney Grayson created Shine Bronze Bar (that's them, manning the cool spray gun) to bring the spray tan experience to people instead of us trying to fit it in along with all the other trillions of things on our to-do lists. Such a great idea. And it was totally as simple as it sounds, actually even more so!

Beforehand Amanda told me the preparations to make, like exfoliating and not having lotions, etc. on for the appointment. Then Shine Bronze Bar arrived at my house with everything she needed in two hands: a fan, and all her equipment folded up in her other one. In just moments, she had her pop up spray tent in my living room - yep, it's just like that black tent below (if only my house looked like that). We discussed what depth I wanted for my "tan", and she gave me choices on what to do for my tan line - bikini or au natural! I stepped in, and like a total pro, she sprayed me all over, and we were done before I knew it. They spray includes this super neat bronzer, which is part of their special formula and gives you a preview of the glow you'll get once it develops, which is in 6-8 hours. By the time I got to Miami, I was looking rested and my skin was flawless (without any of the harmful effects of the sun)!

What sets Shine Bronze Bar apart? They use only a top quality spray to keep you looking fresh and youthful. Amanda says that their "Infinity Sun formula uses a special blend of antioxidants and exotic botanicals to keep your skin glowing and moisturized. Infinity Sun is popular with many celebrities and has been mentioned in noteworthy magazines Glamour and Vogue." Ooh la la!

Can I also say that I think this would make an amazing moms-night-in idea, or for all the gals before a wedding? They offer awesome group discounts so you can have Amanda or Britney come over, and you can get Shine Bronze Bar spray tans in addition to movie night and brownies, or go out for mani-pedis afterwards. It was really such a special treat and so convenient, but without the extravagant price tag you'd expect for celebrity to-your-door treatment.

They specialize in customizing your spray tan to get the look you are desire. You can go with a subtle glow, a flawless deep bronze, or anything in between. I love the color their cute client chose on the left. Spray tans have come a long way from when I last had one done for my wedding. They were all a bit orange back then a decade ago, remember? Not now! People won't know it's a spray tan at all, because the application is done so smoothly by their trained professionals. No streaks, speckles, or smudges with Shine Bronze Bar. It's also perfect for vacations because as they tell me, the tan "generally lasts between 7-10 days depending on the pH balance of your skin, your skin cell cycle, and how often you are showering and moisturizing." Mine lasted my whole trip, even with showering and swimming in the ocean and pool. Impressive!

But don't just take my word for it, fellow SoDu mom Stacie Striplin Boyer (on the left) loved her tan. Doesn't it look great? Here's some raves from other happy Shine Bronze Bar customers:

"This was my first experience with a spray tan. Amanda made me feel completely comfortable with the experience, and I've been glowing for days since! Thank you from a first-time bronzer!"
- Leah M.

"I recently had my first spray tan done by Amanda and it was awesome! I am fair skinned and was a little concerned that the spray tan would not look natural, but it truly did. It's so great to have an option for a healthy alternative that doesn't age my skin. Amanda was so professional and made sure I was comfortable the whole time. I would absolutely recommend them...will definitely be going back! Thanks ladies!!"
- Jennifer B.

It's Spring,
and that means we're all coming out of hiding.

Now is the time to let your beautiful skin shine by taking advantage of their awesome special for SoDu parents only...

$10 off any Shine Bronze Bar treatment!

Contact them now,
on their website, instagram, or facebook.
You'll be glowing in no time!

But wait... that's not all! One lucky SoDu mom can win a free mobile spray tan experience from Shine Bronze Bar! Use the comments to nominate a special local mom in your life who is always giving to others, so busy that she's putting herself last. We'll draw randomly from the nominations and help the winner get some much needed self care so she can glow! Just comment below for her chance to win!

FCC Disclosure for bloggers: In exchange for a blog post here, I received a complimentary spray tan in order for me to experience their services and review them firsthand. However, the opinions contained here are my own.

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Grow It Yourself

3/6/2017

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I am all thumbs and none of them are green, but I've always wanted a garden. The idea of walking out in your own yard and grabbing homegrown tomatoes sounds amazing. The only thing stopping me was time and well... knowledge. I can kill a plant just by looking at it! So for years I've just gazed longingly at other people's gardens, too scared to try it myself for fear of wasting time and money when I failed. But I recently found out about Grow It Yourself, which is designed for people just like me! Owner Noam Oshry has been gardening his whole life and realized that he could use his skills and passion for gardening to help others learn. Grow It Yourself is like your own personal gardening support system, helping anyone grow any garden they wish in a easy way and without any prior knowledge. It's such a great concept, and really needed for gardening-challenged people like me.

Here's how it works: Grow It Yourself first finds out exactly what you're looking for and provides a quote. Then they come right to your yard and build a raised bed in the size you want, where you want it. They provide the wood frame, special fabric to prevent weeds, healthy soil mixed with organic compost and any plants that you've custom ordered.

But they don't just leave you to fend for yourself, Noam helps guide you along the way as you watch your garden grow before your eyes. His goal is to give you the confidence and know-how so that you can indeed "grow it yourself". They've set you up to succeed by not only offering personalized care as your garden grows but also by building their raised beds from high quality long lasting materials, made to last for years with little maintenance.

There are so many reasons to take up gardening, especially with the support of a professional where you have a much better rate of success. Noam finds it really rewarding to help people as they responsibility source their own food, learning an essential, life giving skill. It's also very therapeutic to work in the dirt and use your hands to grow what you eat, getting time away from smart phones and being out in the fresh air. This is such a great investment for families especially since quality time is hard to come by. Instead of spending money at the mall, you can get outside with the kids, learning as a family how to water, plant, and harvest. It makes that moment when you sit down to dinner incredibly special when you've tended to that vegetable from beginning to end, and creates a sense of gratitude around family mealtime. I mean... can't your just imagine your kids faces when they pull out their first full grown carrot and help you cook it up? The pride that comes from doing something yourself is like no other. “You will be amazed by how much fun gardening can be, and the pride you take in sharing healthy food nurtured by your own efforts” is a phrase that Noam says gets him out of bed everyday.

Just listen to this mom and client on why gardening with Grow It Yourself has been great for her family:

"I was so excited to have my home garden put in. It's very important to my family to grow what we eat and enjoy watching nature provide for us. I couldn't have asked for a nicer guy to do the work and share his wonderful gifts of helping families find that gardening can be easy. I recommend everyone get a grow it yourself garden. Next one will be the herb garden!"

What if you already have a garden but you'd like to take the next step and don't know how? Grow It Yourself also offers rain barrels, wood stands, composters, and small raised beds for edible herbs and medicinal plants. We all know a long hot summer is coming, and that rain barrel will come in handy!

Here's the best news of all - Grow It Yourself is happy to offer a 10% discount on all the products/services they offer just for SoDu Parents! So go get excited about your new garden by checking out some of the gardens Owen has made on the Grow It Yourself facebook page here.

There is nothing stopping you from having your own garden, thanks to Grow It Yourself. They give you everything you need to do it on your own, from start to finish. So why not get a quote today at growityourself2015.com? You've got nothing to lose and a ton of delicious veggies to gain!

FCC Disclosure for bloggers: I received payment in exchange for this blog post. The post is written by me, and contains my own opinions.

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The Kindness Calendar

2/21/2017

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Has a simple act of kindness impacted you? A chance encounter in a grocery store helped Oriana Galardi-Este transform her personal pain into the joy that comes from helping another person. That eureka moment led her to create The Kindness Calendar. What is The Kindness Calendar? Oriana explains that "we are what we repeatedly do" and her creation offers people a concrete, simple way to make kindness a habit and therefore a part of everyday life.

I love the picture she paints about an average persons day (sounds familiar to me):
"Imagine this: you wake up in the morning, get dressed, make coffee... but instead of leaving the house feeling frazzled with your long to-do list running through your head, you walk over to your Kindness Calendar hanging in the kitchen and pick your kindness mission for the day. In one fell swoop you feel re-centered, filled with purpose and intent, and excited at the prospect of helping another AND getting an endorphin release. This is the power of the Kindness Calendar, which gives you a new Act of Kindness to commit daily. "

Better yet, what if your child or spouse joins you daily to pick the kindness mission? Picture how at the end of the day you can discuss how you each met your goal and spread kindness during your day. It's such a simple, yet beautiful way to make your family, and our world, more joyful and giving.

What exactly is The Kindness Calendar? It's a beautifully handcrafted wall-hanging calendar made of fabric and wood, that features 30 mini burlap envelopes each made to house laminated act of kindness cards. It looks at home in any home, as it's own work of art. The calendar is made by hand in the USA, is of exceptional quality and built to last with a lifetime guarantee. The calendars can easily be folded up and stored when not in use. (In fact, Oriana encourages Kindness Calendar owners to only have it out when it is consciously being used so as to not become desensitized to it. What a novel concept but so true!) It can be used anytime of year by any group of people, from families to co-workers, as kindness has no season and used as often as desired, as the variety of cards are limitless.

You might be wondering - what's on the cards? How does it actually work? I love that Oriana realized that the calendar works best when tailored to the needs of the user, so she has created a multitude of Kindness packs to suit each type of calendar owner. There are packs aimed at kids 3-5, 6-11, or 12-17, as well as packs for couples, packs to increase self-love or bravery, and packs specifically designed for employees and employers to build working relationships based on respect and integrity. And once you've committed the 30 acts in 30 days, you'll most likely be feeling so good you'll be hungry for more and want to keep up the positive habit. Oriana has thought ahead and gives you myriad of choices: "you can buy another Kindness Pack for a brand new set of acts; you can re-use your current Kindness Pack; you can invest in different packs and then mix and match. For example you could mix the Adult pack with the Bravery pack to allow yourself to focus on serving others AND simultaneously increasing your courage. Another example would be to mix the Couple pack with the Self-Love pack to allow you and your love to grow in intimacy while simultaneously increasing your respective self-love. Get creative and have fun!"

Here's Oriana explaining The Kindness Calendar - you can't help but feel happier having watched her!

Want to get a Kindness Calendar in your life, at home, in your classroom, or at your workplace? Well that's why I'm writing today. Oriana needs your help. Her mission is driven by the desire to see kindness spread, and she's asking for your kindness in getting this project off the ground over at IndieGoGo. They can't start production unless the project is funded - and there are mere days left until the deadline. More details about how crowdfunding works can be found here on The Kindness Calendar project page, including information on what rewards you can get for various pledge levels, like soft tees, the gorgeous Kindness manifesto artwork, and extra Kindness card packs. Oriana puts it so well when she notes, "I think it's safe to say that most of us are feeling incredibly disillusioned by the current state of the world, and feel powerless to help. So my main incentive in getting the Kindness Calendar out into the world is to empower people to affect change by equipping them with a truly potent yet affordable and simple tool."

She needs you to help make this lovely, mindset changing dream a reality.
Won't you say yes to kindness today?

FCC Disclosure for bloggers: I received payment in exchange for this blog post. The post is written by me, and contains my own opinions.

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SoDu DIY - charger station

Durham's Best Hidden Treasures, Take 2

Shine Bronze Bar

Grow It Yourself

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