Guest Post - Say Hello to Christy from 'Mother of the Year!'

I would like to introduce the FIRST EVER guest blogger to appear on New English Mum in America! If you get a chance, you must visit her over at Mother of the Year

I love reading her blog and her hilarious take on motherhood! I hope you will too!

Here is a little bit about her:

'Hi! My name is Christy and I'm really funny. At least that's what my Gram tells me. She shows my blog to all her Bingo ladies. Besides being hilarious (obviously), I am the mother of two beautiful girls. They are actually the most beautiful girls in the world. I'm sure you thought your daughters were, but I'm sorry to say they were just runner-ups. Anyway, this blog is centered around me and the mistakes I make as a mother. Believe me when I say, I am never going to win Mother of the Year. Also sometimes referred to MOTY. Hope you enjoy as much as Grandma does!'

Thanks Christy for taking over the reins today!


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My name is Christy. I am the mother of two beautiful girls and the host of this guest blog. I am constantly striving to win the title of Mother of the Year, but I just keeping falling short. Right off the bat, I lose points due to my vehicle. Everyone knows that all perfect mothers drive a mini-van. I refuse to drive a mini-van, practical or not. If it comes down to mini-van or no more kids, I’m going to ask to see what’s behind door #3. I definitely want to try for a son someday so maybe I’ll have to trade one of my daughters to ensure that everyone fits comfortably in my small car. Maybe I could just trade in my husband? Then again, I do need him to help make child #3 sooo I dunno.… I’ll work out the details later. I do know that I refuse to drive a mini-van, thus lowering my chances of winning Mother of the Year. Also, I did just mention something about trading in one of my kids. That probably wasn’t very Mother of the Year-ish either. Let’s not tell the Mother of the Year Committee about that.

Then there’s the matter of the PTA. I refuse to join. All Mother of the Years belong to the PTA. I stereotype PTA members. I have never actually met a PTA mom, but I’m assuming they are all Stepford Wife-ish. I can’t handle that nonsense. I’m more like the mom on Malcolm in the Middle. I watched that show long before I officially became a mom and I’m wondering if maybe she was a bad influence on me? She had a household of boys that obviously made her go nuts. I have only girls. I suppose I have no excuse. Then again, too much estrogen is never a good thing either.

So we have my refusal to drive a mini-van and my avoidance of the PTA. Besides that there are the small matters of forgetting my first daughter in the car when she was days old, dropping my second daughter, dumping an entire bottle on my first daughter, etc. You get the idea…

My chances of winning MOTY get slimmer and slimmer with each new day of my motherhood. One would think that I would get better at this mother business with time and experience. It appears that I am doing quite the opposite. I never really liked following the crowd anyway. Maybe this is the one time when that is a good idea. Either way, if you ever need to feel better about your parenting, I welcome you to come read my blog @ http://notgonnawin.blogspot.com/. I guarantee that you will realize you are not the awful parent you think you are….but I definitely am. Only moms featured on People of Walmart look worse than I do.

How to clean your red microfiber couch!

We recently bought a red, second hand, microfiber couch... It's in great condition but it was a bit on the dirty side. Over the past couple of months, due to having a 2 year old, is has got much worse!!

I wasn't too sure how to clean it, so I did a bit of research and came across this awesome blog post over at Chris & Robin's Nest. She has a beige/tan colored couch though and after reading the reviews, I noticed that a lot of people were not overly happy with the results on their 'red' couches, so I thought I would just go ahead and give it a try and see what happened!

I am amazed! Just look at the pictures below! It looks so much better!!

BEFORE! See all the dirt in the seams?

AFTER!!

The secret ingredient is rubbing alcohol!!!

You will need:

• An empty spray bottle

• A bottle of regular old rubbing alcohol

• A scrub sponge (preferably white, I used a green one and it was fine but I wouldn't recommend doing this on a white or cream couch without testing it first! You wouldn't want the color to transfer!)

• A soft brush (I used one that I would clean dishes with)

 Fill up the spray bottle with the rubbing alcohol and saturate the area you want to clean. Scrub it with the scrub sponge (Don't be gentle!!) you will notice that it actually starts to look worse. DON'T WORRY! It will look lot's better when it dries!!

Leave it to dry completely

Once dry, using circular motions, rub the soft brush all over

DONE!

Let me know how it works out for you!!

*Disclaimer: I cannot be held responsible if this does not work for you! Please, before you do this, test it out in an inconspicuous spot to make sure that it works for your couch!!

Scott's Liquid Gold, 'Dust 'n Go' Review and a Giveaway!

 
I recently had the chance to work with a company who's products I absolutely love! Their name is 'Scott's Liquid Gold', they are an all American, family owned company, who have been in business for 60 years! They started bottling their most famous product (Wood Cleaner and Preservative) in 1951 in the family garage and sold it out the back of a station wagon! Nowadays, they have a manufacturing facility which is located in Denver, Colorado.

I was sent a product to try out that I have never used before. The product is called 'Dust 'n Go' for wood and more!

Each container contains 20 pre-moistened wipes and are perfect for dusting touch ups on almost every surface in your home including, wood, plastic, leather and vinyl.

• Removes dust, dirt fingerprints and smudges
• Moisturizes, protects and enhances all types of surfaces
• Does not contain wax
• Does not leave an oily or dulling residue

 The one thing I love most about Scott's Liquid Gold Products is the awesome almond scent! I have used their wood preservative before and it smells absolutely amazing. These wipes smell exactly the same. I used them on my base boards that run down my stairs and for a good few days I could smell the almonds! It's so good, that I almost want to eat it. I don't recommend that though!

I also used it on my quite disgusting dining room table. My Son had spilled all kinds of sticky messes on it and it cleaned it pretty well with not all that much effort either! (And of course left it smelling awesome!)

Table Before

Table After

You really should visit their website and check out their other products! There are a few more that I really want to try out, my next buy is going to be their floor cleaner!

You can find them on Facebook and Twitter too!

You can also Enter the Scott’s Liquid Gold “Spring Clean-Up” Sweepstakes and you could win a $500 Wal-Mart Gift Card!!! Visit Scott’s Liquid Gold on Facebook at  http://on.fb.me/15w2b0Q to enter. Entries must be received before 11:59 pm MST on March 31, 2013! Everyone that enters will receive a coupon too!

The folks over at Scott's Liquid Gold have given me the opportunity to host a giveaway for you guys! They are kindly giving away a Spring Cleaning Survival Kit which includes four full size products! Scott’s Liquid Gold Wood Cleaner and Preservative, Clean Screen, Dust’n Go, and Wood Wash Concentrate!

  

Huge thanks to my co-hosts: A Momless Mom, Simply at Home Mom and Mommy Trying to Survive Monday

 Please enter below on the Giveaway widget. Open to residents of the US only.  You must be over the age of 18. The giveaway will run for one week beginning, March 11th at 8pm. The winner will be selected at random on March, 18th and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. New English Mum in America is not responsible for prize shipment.  Please read the full terms and conditions located at the bottom of the entry form.

Entry-Form

Disclaimer - I received the above product for free. I was under NO obligation to provide a good review. All opinions are mine and mine alone.

This giveaway is in NO way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Information collected is NOT collected by Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. In signing up for this promotion, participants release and indemnify Facebook and all other social networks from all liability.
 

Baked Rice Pudding Recipe

I adore Rice Pudding. I made some a few days ago and my house smelled absolutely amazing! My Mum used to make this all the time when I was growing up; I can't get it quite like hers though... I wish I could because I have never tasted another quite like it!

I think it's down to the cream... In England there are lot's of different thicknesses of cream available to buy. You can buy Single Cream, Double Cream, Whipping Cream (Heavy Cream) or my personal favorite, Clotted Cream (yum!). She pours double cream all over the rice pudding for the last 15 minutes of cooking and it goes so thick and gooey and creamy. (I'm salivating just thinking about it...)

The one I make is still very good! I also add cinnamon and nutmeg to mine, which my Mum doesn't do. It just gives it that added flair AND makes the house smell good!

Here is my recipe. It only makes enough for 4, but you can certainly double it up and have leftovers, it's actually even better the next day I think! I just add a little milk to it and stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes :)

Liebster Blog Award!

I have just been given the Liebster Blog Award by Chelsea over at Married Filing Jointly! Thank you so much! This has actually made me really happy! It proves that people are in fact reading what I write and that it is definitely worth all of my hard work! Yay!!

The Liebster Blog Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers, who have less than 200 followers (or have been blogging for less than 6 months). It is to show newer bloggers that they are appreciated, and to help spread the word about new blogs. It was created to promote appreciation and recognition among the blog world. Liebster translates to “dearest” (or favorite/best) in German. It is also known as the Love Blog Award.

Here are the guidelines for the award!

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself. 
2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you. 
3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate. 
4. Choose 11 new blogs you love and link them in your post.  
5. Please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you!

My 11 Random Things:

1. I eat weird things. Cheese puff and cream cheese sandwiches? Yum!

2. My second toe is longer than my big toe. I am unsure whether this is weird or not. I've been told that this means I am clever! Or may be able to learn to play the piano with my toes? lol

3. I can turn my eyelids inside out. I'm sure that's not a good thing to be able to do though. I'm not quite sure when I learned I could do this, or why I even tried...

4. I am a little OCD. If I am stressed, I pull my eyebrows out - Never said that in public before... It's quite a problem and I only just learned recently that there is a name for this. Apparently, I am not the only one that does it, I have fellow weirdo's! If I

Review & Giveaway! Premama Prenatal Vitamin Drink

I recently had the opportunity to review Premama, Prenatal Vitamin Drink Mix. I wish this had have been available when I was pregnant...

When I was pregnant with little man, I had the worst morning sickness ever. It wasn't actually just morning sickness either, it was morning, noon and night sickness. Everyone promised me that it would go away after my first trimester... It didn't. I would wake up in the morning, lay in bed and feel absolutely fine. I would get out of bed and within minutes, I would be running through the house like a crazy woman trying to make it to the bathroom in time. FOR 9 MONTHS. Every little thing would set me off.

Enter to win a Kindle Fire!!

Welcome to the Four Littles Media Kindle Fire Giveaway!

Hosted by: My Four Littles and Four Littles Media