A Marvelous Mess #67 and Features!!!

Sorry for the late start on the party!! We just got back from a little mini vacation in Bar Harbor!! I'll be doing a post about our trip (and my recommendations) in a couple of days. For now, here's a fun picture to give you an idea:

Just gorgeous. And, the weather was incredible!!

We had another great party last week. A lot of fun summery ideas were linked up....make sure you visit other people in the party....you will find yourself inspired, I know it!!

Here are my fave's from last week:

6 Week Summer Reading Adventure from Inspired by Family Magazine. Such a wonderful way to get your kids more interested in reading....and summer is the perfect time to take the opportunity to read.

And, the post I'm going to feature on my sidebar for a week is....

DIY Lightbox from Snickety Things. What a great idea!! And, totally handy, especially if you're working towards selling products or just want to make your project photos a bit fancier!!

Thanks to all of you for linking up!! If I featured your project in this post, feel free to take this button and place it prominently!! :-)

<br /><center><a href="http://marvelouslymessy.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="A Marvelous Mess" src="http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad256/MarvelouslyMs/buttonbackground1-2.jpg" /></a></center>

A Marvelous Mess #65 and Features!!

I've been working on making our yard more playfriendly and inspiring. Just a playset doesn't work....a sandbox is great too....but I've been looking for ways to add in some natural play. For instance, we took down a maple last fall and had this big trunk left over. So, I used it to make a "stump garden":

I buried the pieces about 6 inches into the ground to make them more stable. Kiddos love hoping from one to the other. 

Then next thing I did was borrow some hardware from the playset that wasn't needed any more and attached it to a tree:

You see, we took off all the lower dried up branches on this fir tree and made a little cleared out spot for play. We used a cheap metal garden fence (found at the dollar store), added some chimes, and I few decorations, and on the front side of the tree we placed this rock climbing hardware so that kiddos could practice climbing and get some exercise. 

More additions to come!!

So, my fave's from last weeks party are:

Light Box Magic from True Aim

And, the post that I'm going to feature on my sidebar for a week is....

Pallet Art by Tara Being Tara.

 I love pallet art.

I love pallets!! There is so much you can make out of them!!

Thanks to all of you for linking up. For those of you I featured, please feel free to grab a button:

<br /><center><a href="http://marvelouslymessy.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="A Marvelous Mess" src="http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad256/MarvelouslyMs/buttonbackground1-2.jpg" /></a></center>
Now, on to the party!!

Add-A-Lock Review : Safe and Secure When You're Traveling

I went on vacation a couple of months ago and brought this handy little lock along with me to try it out. Because I have OCD and I am also on the overly cautious side anyway, I was really excited to use this product while traveling. I never feel very safe staying at a condo or hotel where we are not the only ones who have keys to our rooms. Add-a-lock is for just that....a feeling of extra security when you are feeling distrustful of a lock. It can be used on most doors that are hinged and swing inwards. Here is a video explaining it's uses:

I was SO very GLAD I brought this on vacation, because our bolt on our door actually broke and all we had for security was the lock on the knob itself. So, with a little tinkering, I put our Addalock onto the door and tested it's strength. It really did work well....and totally helped to diminish my stress over the bolt not working. 

I would totally recommend this as a gift for a recent high school graduate to take with them to college or a new apartment!! And, as you can see it worked out perfectly for me on vacation. Then only issue I had with it was that I was a little unsure of how to put it all together and luckily I had internet access....so, I just watched the video above and figured it out quickly. 

You can find Addalock online here:

Website

Facebook

I received product in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own and written in my own words.