Author Archives: Swistle

Cheap Gifts for Kids, Part One: Toys Marketed to Girls

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Remember to keep checking Want Not: she combs through ZERLLIONS of Amazon toy listings every day and posts the really good ones. I’m only posting the stuff I get distracted by while I’m browsing around looking for things for my kids.

I have NO IDEA if most of these are any good, but they are marked way down. If you have any of these things and can comment on their suckitude/awesomeness, please do. I’m only looking at items that qualify for the free shipping, so if you get your total up to $25 and order before the 16th or 17th, they (1) ship free and (2) arrive before December 25th. But double-check, because if Amazon.com sells out of their free-shipping quantities of something but it’s available from a non-free-shipping source, the link will go to THAT.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Hannah Montana Deluxe TV game. The hell? But it’s $15 down from $50 (I doubt that $50, since other sellers have it for $40. But $15 down from $40 is still nice).

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Barbie used to look kind of bad to me, until I saw the more recent dolls. Now Barbie looks like a senator’s wife. Here’s a Barbie house playset for $14 down from $40. Cheap piece of crap? Quite possibly. But CHEAP is a GOOD word.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Jakks Pacific Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker, $13 down from $30. The problem with this kind of thing, of course, is that the replacement mixes will KILL you. I saw an Easy-Bake Oven mix for FIVE DOLLARS. Five dollars! For a tiny little mini-mix! But I remembered seeing make-your-own Easy-Bake recipes online so I looked to see if there was something similar for the cupcake maker, and found this post, where in the comment section she says you can use regular cake mix (at $1 for about 24 cupcakes, and I’ll bet you could freeze the batter in little portions for other days) and regular frosting.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

High School Musical sing-along microphone, $8 down from $25. Hey, whatever, it’s YOUR house it’s going to be living in. There’s also a matching dance mat at $15 down from $50 (or down from $25-30, according to the other sellers—I hate when Amazon inflates the original price), so the child can step on his/her idols’ faces while he/she sings.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

25th Anniversary Cabbage Patch Kid, $13 down from $30 (but I’ve seen them for less than $30 at Target, and you’d have a choice). Outfits are $5 down from $10 but it looks like it’s totally random what outfit you get. Wait, it’s been TWENTY-FIVE YEARS? Do you realize that your own Swistle was ALMOST TOO OLD for Cabbage Patch Kids, because she was in something like sixth grade when they came out? And NO, I do NOT want to hear that you were not yet BORN. SAVE IT.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

My advanced age may be why I have never heard of these “DVD game” things. Here’s a Disney Princess DVD Game for $9 down from $28. It looks like it’s….like a computer game? but really simplified? and you “play it” on the television so you don’t have to hog Mommy’s computer? There’s also a Disney Pictionary one for $10 down from $30, a Hannah Montana one for $8 down from $26 (poor reviews on that one), a Deluxe Disney Scene It one for $14 down from $40, and a High School Musical one for $9 down from $30.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

This is not such an amazing steal, but it’s what I would have wanted as a child so it grabbed my eye: the Melissa and Doug deluxe bead set (with alphabet letters) is $12 down from $15. There are several other sets in a similar price range: playful pals, happy hearts, gleeful garden.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Or, okay, here’s one of those things where you put a bunch of plastic thingies in a pattern and then weld them together: the Magic Beads Deluxe Playset is $9 down from $30.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Littlest Pet Shop pig toy, $7 down from $15. I don’t even know what this IS. But there’s also a big-eyed dog for the same price.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

This Dressy Daisy doll looks like a sweetie, and the description says she’s easy to dress. She’s $7 down from $15, and there’s an African-American version for $6, but if you want the little blonde she’ll cost you $8 (she does have dark eyes, which is a plus: I’m always looking for non-blue-eyed blonde dolls for my brown-eyed blonde daughter). I’d get at least two dolls, so they could be friends and share clothes, because the outfits are t’expensive.

Eat-It-For-A-Week Baked Oatmeal

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I woke up feeling sad and low today. I HATE feeling sad and low. Well, correction: there’s a kind of sad/low I find enjoyable: it’s more like…melancholy. That can be kind of pleasant. But the kind I’m feeling today is the non-pleasant kind. I had vivid, upsetting dreams last night, the kind where in the dream you test it to see if it’s a dream or not, and it isn’t. In one, Paul replaced all our beautiful relatively-new white bathroom fixtures with old scuffy dark-blue ones, without consulting me first, and he did it all sneaky-like in the middle of the night.

I’m treating the sadness/lowness in the usual ways (hot shower, using the special shampoos/moisturizers, turning on lots of lights), but also by having an extra-large bowl of baked oatmeal from a recipe my not-just-online friend Mairzy sent me. I find this recipe very bolstering. Here it is as Mairzy sent it to me, with Mairzy’s comments:

I feel obligated to explain that not only have I sincerely enjoyed oatmeal (with brown sugar and milk) since I was a child, but I first made this baked oatmeal one evening in the midst of a raging pregnancy hunger. I needed FOOD, and when this was finally done and I could eat it, I nearly composed an ecstatic poem on the spot. So you might not find it as absolutely soul-satisfying as I do, but maybe you’ll like it. It is, after all, still oatmeal.

I’ll send you the way I use the recipe, which I halved and then used fresh fruit instead of dried. So it’s all a bit approximate.

Slightly more than 3/4 Cup milk
1 Tbs butter
1/2 Cup regular oats
1/2 apple, peeled and cut into smallish pieces
1/2 banana, cut into pieces
5 or 6 pieces of canned pineapple chunks
2 Tbs brown sugar (I use the kind from the BOX)
1/4 tsp vanilla
Dash of salt (do NOT forget the salt — ugh if you do)

Bring milk and butter to boil. Stir in oats slowly. Stir in fruit, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Pour into lightly greased casserole dish (a small one). Bake, uncovered, at 350-degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle more brown sugar on the top, then bake about 5 more minutes until bubbly. Cool slightly. You can serve it with additional milk, says the recipe, but I just pour myself a tall glass of milk to drink.

The original recipe also calls for pecans or walnuts to be sprinkled on the top with the brown sugar. I didn’t have any on hand, but I’ll probably try it because it sounds good.

********

The first time I made this recipe, I thought would be my last. I thought there was NO WAY I was EVER going to go through this much fuss again: not only does the oatmeal have to be cooked in a saucepan AND baked in a casserole (vessels used for cooking oatmeal/milk are a bee to clean), but there’s all kinds of PREP work with the FRUIT, plus there’s FUSSING AROUND with tablespoons and sprinkling and using only part of a can.

But then there I was a week later going through it again, and with joy in my heart. Instead of feeling resentful of the recipe, I had the happy hummy feeling of something making a fussy recipe that’s totally worth the fuss—like a special holiday recipe. That’s because the second time I made it I knew something I didn’t know the first time around: you can put the leftovers in the fridge and scoop some into a bowl and microwave it in the morning, and it tastes BETTER than when it’s new. I double the batch and have breakfast for a week, and I don’t have to do the fussing-around in the morning when things are busy.

So. Here is how I do the recipe. I double it, which since Mairzy halved it means I’m making it at its original size (MATH MEDAL). I use 1-3/4 c. milk. I loosely fork-mash the banana instead of cutting it up. I don’t peel the apple, I leave the skin on. The first time, it was because I was looking for lazy ways out, but it was really good that way. Yay lazy!

Hey, do you already know how to section up a banana to avoid the slimy-cut-surface problem? You peel the banana, and then you shove your thumb rudely up one end. The banana splits into three long strips just like magic. Slightly FAULTY magic, since sometimes it splits better than others, but still pretty cool. Then you can break each strip into chunks, and the chunks are dry and starchy-looking the way a banana should be, instead of smooth and slimy. This doesn’t really matter for this recipe, since I fork-mash it, but it’s still a quick way to cut up a banana.

I didn’t have pineapple chunks so I used a few spoonfuls of crushed pineapple, and that was really good so I did that again the second time even though I could have bought chunks at the store by then. I used a heavy hand with the brown sugar “sprinkled” on top—I used at LEAST two tablespoons, and it could have been three or four. I like sugar.

The first time, I made it without nuts because I didn’t have any, but the second time I used pecans (Target had them on a good sale) and it was SO YUMMY I’m going to have to keep nuts on hand now. I used a heavy hand with those, too, putting down a nice single-nut layer over the whole dish.

After it cooks and cools, I put a piece of tin foil over it and put the whole deal in the fridge. Each morning, I scoop out a piece, put it in a bowl, and microwave it for 45 seconds. It smells SO GOOD. And the taste/texture is growing on me: at first I was like, “Well, it’s very good oatmeal, but it’s still oatmeal—albeit with a much lower goop-factor and a nice mix of yummy stuff in it,” but now I….well, I hesitate to put this in writing, but I look forward to it each morning. And I don’t like oatmeal.

The reason I doubled the recipe the first time was not only because I didn’t want to mess around with half-fruits, but also because I saw an opportunity to finally, FINALLY use the Le Creuset casserole dish I bought because I loved it so much and then have never used. It is gorgeous. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the color starts out orange at the bottom and gradually changes to yellow. SO PRETTY. It’s not marked with a size, but when it was empty I measured water into it, and it holds 6 cups of water up to the brimmy-brim. It held the doubled recipe with the perfect amount of room to spare.

Yoo Hoo, Etsy Peeps!

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Hey, if you have an Etsy shop, would you send me your URL? It doesn’t have to be Etsy, but it should be Etsy-like: a shop where you sell things you make yourself. I try to keep track of my Etsy peeps because I love Etsy so much, so if I don’t have you below, EMAIL ME (swistle at gmail dot com). Here are the ones I have so far, and I’ll keep updating this list here. (Also email me if I’ve got the name of your shop wrong.)

Amy Quarry
KaraRee
Elephant Ears
Minnie
Small Grapes
Haworth Handmade
A is for Beautiful
La La Lollipop
Mixtape
Crocheted by Katie
Gracie May
Tutus for Toddlers
Secret Snow Bird
Bunny Bear Patterns
CMF Photography
The Little Stinker Store
Miss Grace’s Disgraceful Shop
Gem From Jewels

Gift Ideas: Stockings

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I’m afraid my best idea for stocking stuffers is useless at this point. What I do is, all year long I keep my eye on the party favors and small toys at Target. When they go on 75% off, I buy some. By Christmas, I always have a nice assortment of the kind of junky crap the kids love (miniature Magic 8 balls! tiny dartboards! little plastic slinkys! kazoos!) and I haven’t spent much money. Might have been nice if I’d mentioned this a little earlier, hm? Well, you can do it for next year.

Here are the food things I bought this year for William (2nd grade) and Rob (4th grade):

1. A couple of those 25-cent single-serving bags of chips each.

2. A Tootsie Roll bank—99 cents each.

3. A Lifesavers “book” (looks like a book, but contains rolls of Lifesavers instead of words)—$2 each on sale.

4. Pez dispenser and an package of refill Pez—99 cents each dispenser and each pack.

Then I toss in a mixed handful of whatever candy we happen to have on hand, which I would not like to talk about because it’s embarrassing to list what we “happen to have on hand.” But SOME years this has involved things SUCH AS: mini Twix, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup miniatures, York peppermint patties, Christmas M&Ms, and Hershey Nuggets. I’ll give Edward and Elizabeth the easier, less messy candy, and also chips, and probably Pez, but not the Tootsie Rolls or Lifesavers.

Another good way to fill up the stockings is to buy things you have to buy ANYWAY, but get the more-fun version. For example, my kids like those fruit/candy-scented shampoos (Suave and L’Oreal both make them), and so I can put a bottle in each stocking and not really have to count that as falling under the stocking budget. Also, you can get Band-Aids in Spider Man and Hello Kitty and Cars and so forth: I saw them on sale at Target this week for something like $1.50. They’re pleasing in the stocking, but then they go in the supply cabinet.

Socks are good for this, too, but I get the fun kind (that they can still wear to school, so no jingle bells and fake fur), not the sixpack-of-plain-white kind. And craft supplies are great: I’d buy those for them anyway, but they seem more special in the stocking. New box of crayons, a bag of pipe cleaners, a packet of pom-poms and a packet of jingle bells. They’re kind of expensive, but I would have bought them anyway.

For the three little kids (ages 3 years and 18 months), I bought these three packs of “chunky books” (all images from Amazon.com):

Baby Animals, First Words, Colors
Puppies, Farm, Kittens
Animals, Dinosaurs, Trucks

It’s $2.75 for each 3-pack of small board books (they’re about 3 inches square), and they’re on that “4-for-3” deal so if you get a fourth one (for a niece or nephew or friend or for the donation box), it’s free. They’re a little babyish for the 3-year-olds, but they’ll provide (1) short-lived enjoyment; (2) stocking-filling; and (3) books for the 18-month-old’s stash. (Some of these packs have long waits now. If you want all nine, the 9-pack is still available.)

The Puppies and Kittens are my least favorite in the group: each page just gives the NAME of a puppy or kitten. Not a breed, but a name. Like: Mittens, Fluffy, Rex, Fido. It’s hard to see how that would teach a baby useful new words. Those two books will go in Elizabeth and Edward’s stockings instead.

For Elizabeth, I have a couple packets of barrettes purchased on clearances. I’ll leave them on their cards, not only because they take up more space in the stocking that way, but also because they’ll never come OFF the card: she loves them but won’t wear them.

Target’s dollar section is hit-and-miss. Some of the things I find seem GREAT: last year I got those glittery-balls-on-springs-on-a-headband thing for everyone, and they were sold in 2-packs for just $1.00. I’ve also found good metal brain-teaser puzzles there, and I got Edward and Elizabeth each a coloring book (Snoopy for Edward; Hello Kitty for Elizabeth).

Gift Ideas: DVD Box Sets

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More gift ideas? I’M still in the mood.

I think DVD box sets look like Big Gifts. When I see one, I think “$50-$75”—and that’s particularly nice if it cost more like $20-30. DVD box sets are also an excellent way to force other people to try shows you like: my brother and sister-in-law told me MANY TIMES that I had to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I didn’t think it was my kind of show even though kept saying, “You’d think it wouldn’t be your kind of show, and we thought the same thing, but we were wrong and so might you be!” Then they gave me season one on DVD and I felt like I had to watch it to be polite—and I LOVED it and ended up watching the ENTIRE SERIES.

Anyway. Box sets. Good plan, is what I’m saying. Especially TV series, in my opinion: a TV series is like a really long movie, so you have time to get attached and involved. Movies are like one-night stands.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Let’s start with that first season of Buffy. I never had the SLIGHTEST INTEREST in watching this show: I don’t like scary stuff, I wasn’t interested in vampires, the guy playing the love interest was not my type, and it looked like a tacky show for teenagers. Instead, this is one of those shows that is like MAGIC: the script, the characters, everything. Yes, it is kind of about stabbing vampires—but it’s not REALLY. The action is there to keep your adrenaline up for the romance and friendships and amusing wisecracks.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Firefly, the complete series, $31 down from $50. OMG WATCH IT WATCH IT WATCH IT WATCH IT. My sister-in-law practically forced me to watch it, and I was SO GLAD she did. She said it took her four or five episodes before she started to like it, but that once she fell in love, it was for keeps. It was the same for me: I started out thinking, “So this is like…a space western? With space whores?” and by the end I was telling everyone who would listen that NO, it wasn’t about the fringed leather, it was about the RELATIONSHIPS (with space whores.) SUCH a good show. WHY do they cancel all the GOOD TV SHOWS?

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Speaking of which, I want to talk to you about Wonderfalls. Why was I the ONLY ONE who watched this when it was on?? It is YOUR FAULT they canceled it!! If you didn’t watch it, I blame YOU, yes YOU PERSONALLY, that the entire series is one box set. There are so few shows where the wry, crabby Janeane Garofalo-type can say to the cute bartender, “Your ass is ringing” (it’s his cell phone in his back pocket) and then say, “Why do you even HAVE an ass if you’re not going to answer it?” Also: souvenir animals TALK TO HER. They tell her what to do. And she has to do it because they keep nagging her. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH IT, WHY OH WHY??

 

(image from Amazon.com)

And Sports Night! It was MY FAULT that it got canceled, because I never watched it while it was on. I thought it was about sports, but I don’t think I can be entirely blamed for that part of the situation. I watched it later, on DVD, and although I thought it was a pretty dumb show at first (trying too hard to be snappy and witty), soon I was laugh-sobbing my way through most of the episodes. Not one but TWO of my children are named after characters/actors on this show. I’ve talked about this before, and recently, so I won’t go on and on, but geez. This show. So good.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

I don’t know why this is marked down so much, but the first season of 30 Rock is $17.50 down from $50. Been trying to force someone to watch this? Now’s your chance.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

I know everyone’s watching the U.S. version now, but the original BBC version of The Office has spoiled me for it. I love Steve Carrell, but how can he be Ricky Gervais? And once you’ve gotten used to Tim and Dawn, how can you accept Jim and Pam? The scene where Tim finally tells Dawn how he feels had me SOBBING. Totally sobbing. So embarrassing.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Probably everyone who wants Friends on DVD already has it. But if you know someone who doesn’t, you can get season one and season two for $15.50 each—so you could get BOTH seasons for $31 (I did not win a math medal for nothing).

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Gilmore Girls. I loved it even though it sometimes drove me crazy. At 75% off, it’s practically free: each season is normally $50, but is on sale for $15. You can get just season one, or if you really want to get someone hooked, get them season two also.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Six Feet Under was a little too intense for me: I watched the entire series and LOVED it, but occasionally popped out the DVD and said, “That’s it. I’m not watching anymore. I can’t stand the tension!” But I always went back. One of the best series EVER. And the first season is $20 down from $60. Why are some of these SO CHEAP? And also, why are some of them SO EXPENSIVE to begin with?

Click Click!

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This is going to be a LITTLE CONFUSING, because I have TWO reasons to persuade you to click through to another site today, and the two reasons can be combined, but I have very different reasons for the two reasons, if you follow me, and it is a little tricky to organize my thoughts when I am trying to be persuasive. Did I ever tell you about the temp job I took in sales when I was about 20? HA HA HA HA HA. I could not manage to (1) give away (2) free things (3) to people who wanted them.

Okay, okay. So, okay. The first thing is that I have a post up today at Milk and Cookies, which is the column Linda and I co-write for a site called “Work It, Mom.” Occasionally I tell you to click through a particular Milk and Cookies post (like if there’s a giveaway I want to let you in on), but usually I don’t: I figure you’re either reading it or you’re not, and product-related blogs aren’t everyone’s jar of coins.

But today I want to PUSH you a little, because I wrote a post on a subject we’ve been discussing here, which is gift ideas. The concept, like this post, is a little split and confused, but the basic idea is that these are gifts that (1) look big, helping to camouflage any cutbacks you may have made this year, and (2) are useful gifts for recipients who are ALSO trying to make cutbacks this year. YOU save money and THEY save money!

The second thing is that this site I write for has revamped their whole site. They want people to come visit it, hoping that people will like it better now. And as an incentive, they are dangling a $25 Amazon.com gift card on a stick. What you have to do—and pay attention now, because it is just a teeny bit tricky—is: (1) go visit “Work It, Mom”; (2) come back here (HERE, not THERE) and leave a comment saying something you like about the site (hey, how about “I just LURVE that Milk and Cookies column! It is teh fab! And the authors are so charming and lovable and I just want to SMOOCH them!”). You have until Friday the 5th, and then I’ll draw a winner in the evening sometime, assuming I remember, and if not I’ll do it on the weekend. I hope. …Maybe I’ll just write myself a note right now while I’m thinking about it.

Even though “Work It, Mom” is my boss, they’re not making me post this, and in fact they made it very easy for me to say no if I wanted to, and also I’m not getting anything out of it if you DO click through, so I won’t be all sad if you don’t. I’m doing it because I follow a lot of blogs and I know a ton of you are fretting about how to afford the holidays, and this seemed like a nice way to add $25 to one of us.

So to sum up: I have written a gift-ideas post elsewhere that I think it is worth the pain of clicking the mouse button for. And if you WANT TO, you can get a little chore done while you’re there: find something nice to say about the site (the colors are pretty! the banner is cool! I like the font! I like your earrings!) and type it here in this comment section, and that’ll enter you in the contest to win the Amazon.com gift card.

My New Sister, Roomba

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My mom said I should do a post on larger gifts that people could go in on together. She came from a family with four siblings, and she says people from bigger families are often looking for ways to reduce the sheer number of packages under the tree. But it soon came out that this whole idea was just because she wanted to talk more about her Roomba.

My mom and dad got a Roomba a while back, and they love it. And I don’t mean “they love their vacuum cleaner,” I mean they sent me MORE THAN ONE digital picture, of the Roomba, POSING. Not to show me how it looked in action, but just to show how cute it was. Like it was a new pet or a new baby. And they refer to it as “she.” My mom told me that the other day when the Roomba “climbed back into her perch,” she (and that “she” refers TO THE ROOMBA, not to my mother, and so does the “her” of “her perch”) “made her sad sound, meaning she needed attention.” And, continued my mother, “I checked her brushes and I went ‘EEEEEE!’ She needed a good cleaning!”

Well, okay. I mean, is anyone else thinking these people are good candidates for a lap dog or something?

But then this morning I saw that Amazon.com has the Roomba for an additional $110 off (it was already $90 off, and anything that can be reduced $90 and then reduced another $110 and still just be “on sale,” you KNOW you’re not going to like the price of it) (it’s STILL $250), until 10:00 a.m. U.S. pacific time or until they run out of them, whichever comes first. So, fine. I will tell you about the Roomba, even though I have NO INCENTIVE to do so. The person asking me to talk up the Roomba is MY MOTHER, not a wealthy corporation slipping me a couple of crisp Roombas under the table.

I have seen the Roomba in action, and it’s like a large, serious, bustling ladybug. It radiates an attitude of “SOME of us have WORK to do, so if you wouldn’t mind LIFTING YOUR FEET for a second—unless that would be TOO MUCH TO ASK.”

Seeing the prep work my mom did before using it, I realized I would probably never buy one. You have to get all the clutter off the floor, and if you want it to vacuum under things like endtables (where it can’t fit), you have to get those off the floor too. Since to me the WORST part of vacuuming is the prep work, the Roomba seems like it’s just doing the fun part, like when a certain SPOUSE thinks he should get POINTS for putting IN a load of laundry, when he doesn’t do the folding or the putting away.

But for my mom, who is one of those automatic decluttering people who will put your book away on the bookshelf while you are in the bathroom, it’s great. Her house is always decluttered anyway, and she hates getting out the vacuum cleaner and hates using the vacuum cleaner, so for her it’s perfect: she sets up the Roomba and goes and does something else, and when she comes back to the room (this time the “she” is my mother), the room is freshly vacuumed and the Roomba is back in her (the Roomba’s) perch, recharging herself and sending out self-satisfied rays of “THERE. THAT’S better. *sniff*”

So. There. My mom likes her Roomba. And she recommends it as a gift that siblings could all chip in on to give to a parent.

Cards

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Hey, what do you do with holiday cards when you receive them? I put them up with poster putty around the wide doorway leading from our living room into our kitchen, so that I’ll see them a million times a day and can admire them from my favorite recliner. I look forward to the mail every day in December.