Are you familiar with the Children’s Miracle Network?  I’ll be honest.  I could tell you that they are a charity, that they had to do with kids, and that at certain times of year you can “buy” little paper balloons at Walmart to help contribute.  But honestly? I didn’t really know what they did until Walmart asked all of us Walmart Moms to help spread the word about their annual fundraising campaign.

So I did what any good blogger would do when they aren’t sure about something.  I googled it   And of course I came up with the CMN website where they succinctly described their mission:

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® raises funds for 170 children’s hospitals across North America, which, in turn, use the money where it’s needed the most. When a donation is given it stays in the community, ensuring that every dollar is helping local kids. Since 1983, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $4 billion, most of it $1 at a time. These donations have gone to support research and training, purchase equipment, and pay for uncompensated care, all in support of our mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible.

I also found out that the CMN was founded by Marie Osmond-which probably doesn’t mean anything to you younger readers, but to me Marie will always be remembered from my childhood as part of the brother sister TV duo-The Osmonds!

Every year Walmart supports the Children’s Miracle Network for the month of May-after all “May is for Miracles”-and this year they have extended their campaign through June 15th!  Participating is easy-You can make a $1 or $2 donation at the register of any Walmart and the money will automatically be earmarked for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in your community.

I have to admit-that is one of the things I really like about the Children’s Miracle Network–that they take such pride in keeping funds within the community where they are generated.  Of course if you don’t have a CMN children’s hospital in your local community, the money goes to the one closest geographically. (Wondering where your closest CMN children’s hospital is?  Use the CMN Hospital Search to see)

I think it is wonderful that the local hospitals are allowed to decide how that money is best spent. These donations have gone to support things like research and training, purchasing equipment, and paying for uncompensated care.

So please, the next time you are shopping at Walmart, consider spending that extra $1 or $2 dollars at the register to support this wonderful cause!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

Dogs add a lot to our lives, don’t they?  Sure, they can be work–but where else in this crazy world could you possibly get the kind of unconditional love and adoration that you get from a dog?

The Frugal Upstate dog, Summer, is your basic “Heinz 57″ all American mutt.  My husband visited the pound 3 years ago as part of his job and fell in love.  Next thing I knew we had an adorable little black puppy.  The kids thought she was fantastic and she became my little buddy.

She’s still more my dog than anyone elses-when I go away on trips she refuses to eat the first few days I’m gone in protest

So when Walmart, Pedigree and Pet Armor said they wanted to send me some products for Summer to try out I thought that was a great idea!  And let me tell you, as soon as the box arrived and I opened it she knew there was something inside for her.

We had to try out some of the wet food immediately.  Summer mostly has dry dog food, with the occasional table scraps thrown in as a treat.  When I set up the food for my photograph and made her sit & stay she was quivering with excitement. . . she could smell that yummy food that I had opened!

As soon as I gave her the “ok” command she DOVE into it.  The food was gone in seconds.  I’ll say that’s a resounding “yum” from Summer!!!

I know what I’ll be having the family feed Summer the next time I go on a trip to get her to eat!

The other item I was sent to try was the Pet Armor flea and tick treatment.

Now I don’t know about where you live, but here in Upstate NY we had an unusually warm winter.  While it was nice not to have to shovel the walk as much, or to have any power outages from blizzards, apparently the mild temperatures didn’t kill off as many of the ticks as usual.  They are predicting a really bad year for ticks.  Blech.  We live in deer country, and deer ticks are what transmit the really nasty Lyme disease.  So keeping the ticks away from the dog and out of our home is a necessity.

These treatments really should be done once a month, and with the other brands we’ve used it has cost  a pretty penny.  The Pet Armor brand has the same ingredients as the other brands you might be familiar with, and at about half the cost your wallet will thank you!  You get 3 doses per box, and as long as they are kept sealed they don’t expire.  Bonus!

 You can bet the Frugal Upstate household will continue to use this product after my samples are gone.  All the protection and half the cost are things this girl likes to hear!

And that’s not all, along with this campaign is a great way that you can help your local shelter without spending a dime:

 Help shelter pets in need by participating in the PetArmor® Protection Promise! Throughout May 2012, one flea and tick treatment will be donated to the ASPCA®, or to a shelter of your choice. (up to 20,000 doses).  It’s easy, just “Like” PetArmor on Facebook and select the participating shelter you want the treatment to go to!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

One of the least expensive fruits in your local supermarket, per pound, is usually the lowly banana.

Poor Banana!  Although grown in tropical regions they are so plentiful and so well known that we sort of take them for granted.  I guess it’s true-if something is inexpensive most people tend to think it is unexciting.

Bananas really are a great fruit!  They are tasty in their various stages (I like them pretty ripe myself) and although their life out on the counter isn’t too long, and you don’t want to stick one in  your BDU pants pocket and then forget about it when you are going through training (ask me how I know.  Ewww. Smooshed banana) you can always chuck the extras that are starting to be a bit OVER ripe into a container in the freezer.  (note-they will turn to mush when they defrost, but that’s fine for baking!)

Fresh bananas can be eaten plain, sliced into cold cereal or oatmeal, stuck on a stick and frozen as a treat, cooked into Banana Pancakes or baked into Banana Bread, Banana Squares and Banana Oatmeal Drop Cookies.

Here’s another great way to eat your bananas-dehydrated banana slices!  They are super easy to make if you have a solar or electric dehydrator.

1.  Slice bananas into 1/8″ slices.  On one website I saw it mentioned that 1/8″ is about the same width as two quarters stacked on top of each other.

2.  Lay them on the dehydrator sheet almost touching.  If you like you can spray them with a bit of lemon juice to keep them from darkening.  It’s mostly an aesthetic thing.  If I’m in the mood to do that I just put my lemon juice into a clean spraybottle that I ONLY use for lemon juice.  Spritz it on (over the sink please!) and go.

3.  Dehydrate at around 105 degrees (if you have a thermostat) for about 10-12 hours.  I like to flip mine over about half way through.  You sort of have to peel them up off the tray.  When they are done they will be smaller, thinner, darker but still bend, like I’m doing in the photo.  They are actually more like banana fruit leather bites.  They are NOT going to get hard and “snap” the way the banana chips at the store will.

4.  Store in a zippered baggie, plastic container or glass mason jar.  Enjoy as a very sweet and chewy snack.  If I was packaging them for longer term storage I’d either use a vacuum sealer or some oxygen absorbers–and I’d still be aware that they would probably all stick together in a lump

If you want to, you can reconstitute them into a banana mush by soaking them in just enough warm water to cover them.   Then you can use them in any baked good or just eat as banana mush   I know in my house they all get eaten as if they were banana candy by the kiddos-I never get the CHANCE to store them for longer time periods.

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

Congratulations to Colleen who won the Rubbermaid 2-in-1 Recycler!

And thanks again to Rubbermaid for hosting this giveaway!

I love gardening-you all probably know that by now!  I love to grow my own healthy, tasty food just steps from my back door, and I love that my kids are able to see how food grows and to make the connections between the environment, what we do and what we eat.  So you could say I was excited when Seeds of Change and Walmart offered to let me try the new Seeds of Change children’s Garden Starter Kits.  We chose the Kids Watermelon Stater Kit.

Of course, Seeds of Change offers all sorts of great heirloom and organic seeds-I especially like that they have so many uncommon varieties!  I frequently buy their seed packets.  These kits were something new though-they have everything your kids need to get the seeds started-you don’t have to buy a single other thing!

The watermelon kit came with two pots, a water tray to go underneath, the watermelon seeds, enough organic planting mix to fill the pots and an instruction sheet.
Since this was the Kids kit, I drafted Princess to help me out.  We got out a tray (to contain the mess) and sat down at the dining room table.  She started out by reading the very simple directions.

She cut open the planting mix and filled the two pots, which then were set into the little watering tray.

Following the directions, she added 1/4 cup of water to each pot.  Here’s a tip-use warm but not hot water-it will be absorbed more easily by the planting medium.  Or, if you’ve got time, open the top of the bag of planting medium, add the water in and then fold over the top and tape or clip it shut overnight.  That gives it time to absorb the moisture!

Next she used my sharpie to make 4 planting holes.  In gardening parlance the thing you use to make holes is a “dibbler“. . . so if you want to sound fancy you can call it that

She planted the seeds and then covered them with soil.  I filled out some plant markers with the item (watermelon) and the date.

We covered the entire thing in a plastic bag to keep the moisture in and put it downstairs in my seed starting rig to get going.  Most seeds like it a bit warm to germinate-and they actually don’t require light until they break through the soil-so you might consider putting your seed tray somewhere nice and warm to start with and then move them under lights in a cooler environment once they pop out!

They took a while-don’t get impatient, but the did pop up!  Woohoo, Princess has watermelon seedlings.

Now once the seedlings are up you have to consider how and when to plant them outside.  I know from experience that Watermelon cannot be planted outside until all danger of frost is past.

Trust me on this-watermelon+frost=disaster.

The planting instructions on the side of the box were very general-and they stated to give the plant 1foot of space.  I happen to know that watermelon is a vining plant and spreads-so that didn’t seem right to me. Perhaps it was a special cultivar with a bush habitat?  I had never heard of such a thing but it was possible.  I double checked the seed packet and it just said “watermelon”.

Never fear-see right at the bottom there where it says “need help”?  Well I called that number and got the voice-mail of the Growing Pro at Seeds of Change.  She called me back (and not because I was blogging about the kit-I made sure NOT to mention that in any way-I just wanted to be a regular customer) and we discussed the directions.

Turns out he seed included in the kit is their “Sugar Baby” cultivar.  It is indeed a normal vining watermelon and should have more along the lines of a 4 foot square section in the garden.  Turns out the directions are printed standard for all the kits. 

Now that my seedlings are up I’ll start hardening them off by bringing them outside for a few hours each day, starting in a more shady area and eventually working them up to spending the full day in the sun.  They are like babies at this point, you can’t just toss them out there!

Once we past our last frost date (that’s Memorial Day here folks-again, so jealous of you further south) I will take the seedlings outside on an overcast day or later in the afternoon when then sun isn’t so strong and I’ll dig a hole, toss in a trowel full of compost (melon & squash are particularly heavy feeders), place the seedling inside the hole, fill around it with dirt, pat it in firmly and then water the heck out of it to make sure the soil settles in all around the plant.  I’ll take the marker I used for the seedling and stick it into the dirt near the plant and we’ll be living large

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

Here’s another cool program from Walmart-the new “pay with cash” for online purchases!

Up until now if you wanted to buy something online but didn’t have or want to use a credit card you were pretty much out of luck.  Enter Walmart.com’s new “pay with cash” program.

You place your order online, are emailed a bar code, then you go to any cash register at your local Walmart within 48 hours.  There they will scan in your bar code, you pay in cash and the order is finalized.  Then it will ship either to home or for “site to store”.

Here’s a video where I walk you through the ordering process:

Walmart’s Pay with Cash

The pay with cash program is NOT available with the “Pick up Today” program.  In that case just go into the store and pick it up off the shelf yourself and pay at any register

This program is great for those customers who may not be eligible for a credit card due to their age or their credit history, or just anyone who chooses not to use a traditional bank.

Also, because there are many more items available on Walmart.com than are present in the stores cash customers now have access to a much wider range of products.  Cash customers now also have the ability to order gifts and have them shipped to someone else-an option that has never been available to cash customers before!

What do you think? Do you have use for the “pay with cash” program?

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

Have you ever watched “Dirty Jobs” with Mike Rowe?  Well the folks who bring you that show now have a line of cleaning products that are being sold at Walmart.  They sent me a bunch to try out.

I’ve got to say-I was especially impressed with the performance of the Heavy Duty Laundry Spot and Stain Remover!

Note: if you are reading this via email, then you need to click through to see the video: Review: Dirty Jobs Cleaners

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

I am fascinated by crafts that recycle something old into something new!

So today I’m going to share with you how to make rolled paper beads out of both scrapbook paper/cardstock and out of magazine pages!  These are fun and easy to make.  I also think that they are pretty and unusual.

I want to thank Walmart for giving me the opportunity to make these beads as part of the Mother’s Day craft challenge-I think that they make a lovely gift for any woman in your life~especially your mother!

Now let’s get started!  Your materials are simple and can be found either around the house or in the craft aisle at Walmart:

Paper (cardstock and/or magazine pages)
Mod Podge
Glue sticks (the kids ones are fine)
Scissors or a paper cutter

When you make rolled paper beans you start out with triangles that go the entire width of the paper alternating sides like this:

Sorry, I know it’s not the easiest to see!  The end result you want is a bunch of long thin triangles that are all the same side-and by alternating them you use up all the paper most efficiently.

Start out by, on the wrong side of the paper,  going all along one edge and marking a little dot or hashmark for the width of the beads-I used a half an inch:

Now flip the paper around to the other side.  If you mark the first mark at a half inch again you are going to wind up with strips where the top and the bottom are the same width-you don’t want that!  You want the very first hashmark on this side to fall in the middle of the two hashmarks on the other side. . . so start out by measuring that first mark at one quarter of an inch-then from THAT p0int you continue on with every half inch.

Now you take a long ruler and play connect the dots!

Then you simply cut along the lines with a paper cutter or scissors.

Cardstock is a bit thick, so to make rolling them easier it’s a good idea to “condition” them by running them along a pen or pencil to start them curving.

Now you find something to roll around.  Remember, the thickness of this item determines how big the hole in the center of your bead will be.  I used this cable needle from my knitting kit.  I’ve also used bamboo skewers.

You just wrap the wide end around and start rolling the bead up.  I like to use my nails to sort of push things around a bit if they don’t look centered enough.  When I’ve got about an inch or so left, I run a plain old gluestick over the paper and then continue to wrap.  Don’t worry, I’ve got a picture of that later.

This entire rolling process is a great thing to do sitting on the couch watching tv in the evening.  It’s pretty brainless once you get going!  Just use a tray (or a cookie sheet) as a crafting table on your lap and have a small bowl or something to toss the completed beads into as you go.

Now for the magazine pages we do the same process.  Magazine/catalog paper is much thinner than card stock-and I wanted my beads to be of roughly the same diameter, so I started out by gluing two catalog pages together, end to end.

Notice I chose pages that had mainly coral tones that would compliment my scrapbook paper!  Once the glue was dry I went through the same process of marking the edges and drawing the lines for the triangle.  Again-I did this on the WRONG side of the paper.  This is important because otherwise your pen marks will actually show on the bead-which can be a neat effect but not one I was looking for here.

The two magazine pages end to end were much longer than the nifty paper cutter I bought at Walmart, so I just used my scissors.

I went through the same process for rolling the beads-you have to be a bit more careful with magazine paper as it will tear if you pull too hard!

When I got near the end I would just lay the tip of the triangle on some scrap paper, then run the glue stick over the inside of it.  Finish rolling and the paper sticks making a bead.

Once all my beads were done it was time to help harden them and make them a bit water resistant (I would not assume in any way shape or form that these are waterproof!).

First I strung the beads on some fishing line and tied a knot. You don’t want to use anything absorbent like twine or yarn here-the glue will soak into both the paper and the twine and you’ll never get them off!  Trust me-fishing line or wire is the best.  If you really had to you could probably toss them in unstrung then somehow put each bead on a toothpick and stick it in some Styrofoam or something. . . but that sounds like such a pain.

Mix some Mod Podge 50/50 with water in a disposable container (this was cottage cheese) then dip the entire strand of beads in and completely submerge them.  I used a plastic spoon to ladle more over them.

Pull them out and hang them from something to drip and dry.  I used a cabinet knob.

After an hour or so move the beads around to make sure they aren’t stuck to each other or the fishing line.

When they are completely dry move them all around, break apart any that have stuck together and then repeat the dipping & drying process.  I like about 3 full coats on mine.  I did the same with the magazine beads as well!

When I was all done I simply strung the beads on some jewelery elastic-I tied a double knot and then used a drop of superglue to make sure the knot would stay.  When the superglue was dry I cut off the extra and then pulled the beads over to cover the knot.

For the earrings I just threaded the three beads over an eye-pin (you might have to use a small bead at the end to keep them from just sliding off the end). I created another loop at the top and attached them to the earring wire.  Easy Peasy.

There you have it, a unique, easy and artistic gift that is also extremely inexpensive!  And you still have time to make one yourself before Mother’s Day!

And as a side note-how do you guys like the way I format these tutorials? Are there too many pictures? Do explain things well enough for you to really feel like you know how to accomplish them? Would you like something like an actual materials list with prices from Walmart or are you happy just to know what I used? I’d love some feedback so I can continue to improve them!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

I really like olive oil~ it is useful in so many ways.  It can be used on it’s own to soften skin, it can be used in the creation of many salves, soaps and lotions, and it can even be used to make an emergency lamp!

And then of course you can always cook with it

I knew when Walmart asked me to write a post about olive oil that I’d have no problem coming up with an idea for the post.  I could make an olive oil lamp!  I could show folks how to make their own flavored Italian “dipping” oil!  I could list 37 things to do with olive oil!  I headed off to Walmart to buy some oil and decide which of my fabulous ideas to use.

That’s when it happened.  I stood there in front of row upon row of olive oil of every size, shape, type and grade and realized-I didn’t really know what I was looking at.  I had no idea what all the different terminology on the bottles actually MEANT.  So it hit me, I need to write a post on how to translate those olive oil labels into useful information.

As I’m sure you can guess, olive oil is made from olives.  Yeah-I know, shocking.  The production starts with the olives being ground into a paste.  The paste is then slowly mixed to allow the tiny oil droplets to form.  The oil is then either pressed out or flung out with a centrifuge.

The United States Department of Agriculture has 4 part grading of olive oil based on the flavor, odor and acidity.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is the highest quality and typically most expensive olive oil.  To be labeled as “Extra Virgin” internationally it must be made from the first pressing of fresh olives and the oil must be extracted using only mechanical means-so no chemicals or solvents are used.  The acidity of the oil must be f 0.8g per 100g.

EVOO is intended to have the flavor of olives-described in most of the sources I found as “fruity”.  EVOO is best used in places where the oil is used cold and you want the actual olive oil flavor to shine through-like in dipping oils, dressings, a light saute etc.

When EVOO is heated to 350 or higher the unrefined particles in the oil start to burn which will change the flavor.  The more pronounce olive flavor most likely would be unwelcome in baking or fried foods.

Note:  Virgin Olive Oil (which apparently my Walmart doesn’t even sell-I guess folks either want Extra Virgin or else plain old Olive Oil) is made the same way as EVOO, but the acidic content can be up to 1.5%.

First Cold Press / Cold Pressed

First Cold Press is another term you see on some EVO bottles.  This theoretically means that the oil has been pressed out at 89 degrees or less in the first pressing.  However the phrase is somewhat meaningless as in today’s day and age all EVOOs are created from a first processing without heat.

“This is a relic of the days when olive paste was actually pressed between mats to extract the oil (nowadays almost all extraction is done with a centrifuge),” write the UC’s Vossen and Devarenne.

“The second (hot) press was done to squeeze out more oil from the fermented waste pomace, producing a very low quality oil which was then refined or burned in lamps.”

First press may indicate that the oil was pressed rather than extracted by a centrifuge-however that term is not regulated by the USDA.

Pure Olive Oil

Pure Olive Oil takes the odorless and tasteless “refined olive oil” and adds a little EVOO  for flavor.  Pure Olive Oil is usually more economical than EVOO, and is good for general all purpose cooking.

The “Refined Olive Oil” used to make this usually starts out as a first press olive oil that does NOT meet the acidity standards to be considered EVOO (which is 0.8%).  This more highly acidic  oil is then refined until it is 0.3% via charcoal and other chemical and physical filters.  The use of solvents is still prohibited.

Extra Light Olive Oil

Extra Light refers to the olive oil’s flavor, not it’s calorie content.  Since it is still 100% olive oil it has the same number of calories as all the other forms of olive oil.

The phrase “Extra Light Olive Oil” is another term that is not regulated by the USDA.  The oil can either be made by heavily processing the oil using heat and multiple filters.  The other way is to combine other vegetable oils with virgin olive oil.

Extra Light Olive oil doesn’t have much flavor.  It has a higher smoke point– that means it can be used at a higher temperature without burning/smoking– which means it can be used for frying.

Low Acidity

Seeing a bottle labeled “Low Acidity” was a new one for me.  I had never really considered the acidity level of an oil.  According to USDA Standards EVOO has free fatty acid content of 0.8g per 100g.  Obviously the low acidity olive oil has taken that a step farther and reduced it down to 0.3%.

Organic Olive Oil

Organic olive oil must adhere to the USDA regulations for organic food production.

Country of Origin

The US Customs regulations on “Nation of Origin” state that if a non origin nation is shown on the label that then the country the product really originates in should be show on the same side of the label in equal sized letters.  However some brands still put “Imported from Italy” on the front than the country of origin on the back in smaller sized letters.  If it really matters to you that your oil specifically comes from Italy (the 2nd largest producer of olive oil-actually Spain is the largest ) then you may want to take a peek on the back to make sure.

There!  Did you get as much of an education on Olive Oil as I did?

Sources:Wikipedia: Olive Oil, University of California Cooperative Extension publication 27425, The Olive Oil Times: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, California Olive Ranch Blog: What does first cold press really mean?, Wisegeek: What is extra light olive oil?

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

The recycler looks like a basic black kitchen trash can-but it’s got a difference!  Not only are there two compartments-the bottom 8 gallon section tilts out as you can see in the photo above-but each section lifts out with handles for easy carrying!

The only thing I find a tiny bit inconvenient is that you have to lift the lid off and set it aside when you take the top portion out.  Otherwise I think the design of this unit is very slick!

Here is the full description of the 2-in-1 Recycler from Rubbermaid:

And now on to the fun part–the giveaway!  I am giving away a 2-in-1 Recycler from Rubbermaid valued at $39.99!!!

This giveaway runs from today-April 30th 2012 through midnight EST Friday May 4th 2012.

To enter, just leave a comment telling me why the Rubbermaid 2-in-1 Recycler will make recycling easier in your home.

Do you want some extra entries?  You can do each of the below once-remember, you have to come back here and leave a separate comment for each action to have it count.

Extra Entry One:  Subscribe to Frugal Upstate (or let me know if you already have)

Extra Entry Two:  Follow me, Jenn Fowler, on twitter

Extra Entry Three:  Tweet on facebook about this giveaway using the link: http://www.frugalupstate.com/?p=9686

Extra Entry Four: Visit the Rubbermaid “Adventures in Organization” blog, come back here and tell me the name of an article there that you found interesting.

Good luck!  You can also “like” the Rubbermaid Facebook page (keep your eye on them for other giveaways!) or follow them on Twitter.  And of course I’d always love you to join in the great conversations over on the Frugal Upstate Facebook Page as well!

*Open to US & CA residents only.

Disclosure: I received a free Rubbermaid 2-in-1 Recycler. No compensation was received. The opinions expressed are my own.