Vote for Us!!!!

Mommy Mogul has entered 2009 Mrs. Kringle's Cake 'n Crumbs Holiday cookie bake off .
We have entered a Pumpkin Cookie Recipe that is just delicious!

Please vote for us!! Just click the button above and leave a comment on our behalf and you could win prizes just for leaving a comment. Who couldn't use a free gift? We are under the name Rhonda Blair (founder and owner of Mommy Mogul)

Thanks for voting and good luck to you too!

Moms get homework too :-(

My eight year old son came home from school today to inform me that the teacher had given ME homework! Teachers usually use this phrase (about giving parents homework) to help the kids remember to tell them something important that they would like done. So of course, I assumed that I would have to fill out some kind of paperwork- no problem! I was quickly corrected, that I had a homework assignment. Not only did I have a homework assignment, but it was due the next day!


EXCUSE ME!!!!!!!


"O.k. ," I replied. "What is the assignment." He began to tell me that I had to bring a snack for the class. "Is that all?" I thought to myself, I will just go to Wal-mart or somewhere like that and pick something up from the bakery. My son broke my train of thought when he added, " it can't be bought. It has to be homemade."


EXCUSE ME!!!!!!!!


Does this teacher not know that I work a full-time job , own my own business, and have three other children besides the one she teaches? Does she not know that I already have a busy day of basketball practice, orders to fill, laundry to wash, meals to cook, and rooms to clean?


How does MOM get homework? I have enough homework- I'm always working when I'm home!!!!!


After I mentally blew a fuse, I began to try to figure out what to make. Since I am a Type A Personality Mom, I had to make it GOOD!!!


My son LOVES pumpkins and so I decided to make his favorite cookies! Pumpkin cookies!

It's a simple recipe, they always come out just right, and most importantly they are delicious!! Pumpkin Cookies it is!

If you want to the perfect cookie for Santa this Christmas, no matter what variation you decide to make (no raisins, frosting, no frosting, etc.) these cookies are soft and delicious! Now you can really say, " My dog ate my homework!"



Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin pie filling (half of can)
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins (you can use more or less or none at all)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.Mix shortening, sugar, pumpkin, and egg.
Blend well. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Put on ungreased
cookie sheet by the teaspoonful. Cook in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Frosting *optional*

3 Tablespoons Milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Melt brown sugar and milk in saucepan over medium heat.
When melted, take off of heat. Add powdered sugar and vanilla.
Mix well and spoon over cookies.

Featuring . . . Mommy Mogul!!!!!!

Mommy Mogul has been featured on The Creative Party Place! If you have not been to this website, you are missing out!! It has wonderful ideas for all of your party needs! I love to look at see what new ideas ordinary women like you and me have come up with! Whether it's a baby shower, party favors, or themed parties for girls or boys- you can find something to start your creative juices flowing!
We are very proud to say that Mommy Mogul has been featured on the website in a mini-feature! This is our first feature on the website and we are just thrilled!
We hope to be featured many times, but the first is always the sweetest!

Check out the site at http://www.creativepartyplace.com/

Helpful household hints

Last week I received three books that I bought to help my middle son on his fundraiser. I really just purchased them because I wanted to help him with his sales, but didn't want to buy anymore cookie dough! I was pleasantly surprised when the three books had a lot of things in them that I didn't know. Each book has over 100 helpful household hints. One book is dealing with baking soda, the other-vinegar, and the last one-salt.
Today, I am going to give some of the tips dealing with baking soda. Once you discover the versatility of baking soda, you'll do away with all those cleaners under your sink, and you'll never use oven spray again!

*Remove stains on laminated countertops with a baking soda paste (baking soda mixed with water). Apply, let dry, then rub off and rinse.

*Cover burned-on stains on cookie sheets with baking soda, then with hot water, and let soak for 10 minutes. Next scour with baking soda and scrubber.

*Remove black heel marks on linoleum or vinyl fllors with a damp sponge or scrubber dipped in baking soda.

*To clean teapots and stovetop percolators, fill with water, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of baking soda, and boil for 10 to 15 minutes. After cooling, scrub and rinse thoroughly.

*To prevent clogs, periodically pour 1/2 cup baking soda down your kitchen sink, followed by hot water. You can use the old box from your refrigerator when you replace it.

Here is a homemade recipe for carpet freshener

1 cup crushed, dried herbs (rosemary, southernwood, lavender, etc.)
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine ingredients, and sprinkle over carpet. Allow to sit for a few minutes, then vacuum.

Variation: Mix 1 small box of baking soda with your favorite potpourri oil, using just a few drops, and sprinkle on as a carpet freshener. Leave on carpet 10 to 20 minutes, then vacuum.

Use 1 cup baking soda, 1 cup cornstarch, and 15 drops essential oil fragrance. Leave on carpet 10 to 20 minutes, then vacuum. Store mixture in a glass jar or airtight container.

Homework for Mommy

Yesterday my eight year old son comes home and tells me that I was given a homework assignment from his teacher. I thought I was finished with school, how did I get a homework assignment? The assignment was to bring something to school for his class to eat, it could be anything. "Oh. No problem. I'll just go to Wal-Mart or some other grocery store bakery and pick something up." Then he informs me that it has to be homemade, it can not be bought. Can you imagine that? And it is due the next day! You have got to be kidding me!!! I have three other children that always seem to need something, a husband who also needs my help, a full time job, a business to run, and a basket full of laundry that needs to be washed! This is NOT what I signed up for when I became a Mother. But this is what being a Mother is all about. I decided that the perfect goodie for him to take to school was my famous Pumpkin Cookies. I got this recipe from a friend of mine named Maria. She is a co-worker who is a wonderful person as well as cook! These cookies turn out perfect everytime and they are very addictive when you eat them. I have made variations of the recipe (no raisins, no frosting, frosting no raisins, frosting and raisins, etc.) but no matter which variation you choose they are still delicious! This is the perfect time of year to make them, all though any time is perfect! So here's the recipe!! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin pie filling (half of can)
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins (you can use more or less or none at all)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.Mix shortening, sugar, pumpkin, and egg. Blend well. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Put on ungreased cookie sheet by the teaspoonful. Cook in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Frosting *optional*
3 Tablespoons Milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Melt brown sugar and milk in saucepan over medium heat. When melted, take off of heat. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix well and spoon over cookies. Enjoy!!!!!

Featured Party- Pamper Me Spa Party!

Here at Mommy Mogul, all of our parties are no fuss, no mess, and no planning on your end. We take care of all of the details so that you can enjoy your child's party. This month our featured party is the Pamper Me Spa Party!

This is actually the first party that we designed in our party line and it is fabulous of course (like all of our parties are)! The girls will enjoy making natural facial masks that they will put on their faces, cucumbers to put over their eyes while they lay on our spa mats, mini pedicures (with river rocks in the foot tubs), mini manicures, facial steam machines, pedi slippers, assorted nail polishes, themed party favor bags, magazines to read while they are pampered, and of course spa music to set the mood!
We have thought of everything! This party is great for tweens! It's great for Moms too!!!! Whatever the reason, try our Pamper Me Spa Party today! Not in the San Angelo area? No problem! We offer do-it-yourself party kits. Everything is in the kit you only need to add a few ingredients to pull off the best party ever. All of the party instructions are included in a party itinerary so there is no guess work on your part!


Order today at http://www.mommymogul.etsy.com/

Safari Party

We had a wonderful Safari Party for a little boy who just celebrated his 8th birthday! The party was complete with pith helmets and binoculars! They looked so adorable!!!!!! We had an animal hunt planned for the kids, a game called feed the monkey, and a day of water sliding!!!!

The inviations set the tone of the party! They had a jungle feel to them. We had custom water bottles made for the party and we had safari jeep food trays! These are wonderful themed food trays that hold everything, the drink cup and the food! We added Madagascar touches since this was his favorite movie!

Spy Party

Spy Party- A gathering of Secret Agents!

This party was a tremendous success! It was so much fun and the boys had a wonderful time! We started out with Top Secret invitations that gave all of the information that the "secret agent" would need for the party. Each guest was given a code name. The code names were actual animated superhero characters from various shows and movies. The "agent" received a profile that told the qualities that their particular superhero possessed, and a name badge. They wore their name badges to the party. We told them that they would need the name badge to get into the "Secret Agent Academy." We had duplicates of everyones badge, just in case someone forgot theirs, surprisingly no one forgot their badge!
We had stations set up as different forensic labs. At each lab they would learn a skill that they would use later in the party. They learned how to lift fingerprints first. They couldn't believe that they could actually lift their own fingerprint! During this demonstration we actually got a few fingerprints of the guests without their knowledge! We later planted their fingerprints at the crime scene. They learned about DNA evidence, where we had fake blood and DNA sample charts. They had to match DNA evidence. We planted DNA evidence at the crime scene. They learned about trace evidence, shoe print patterns. They had to match shoe print patterns to ones that were found. We planted shoe print evidence at the crime scene. And they learned about trace evidence. We actually used blacklight pens for this! Each agent got one of these cool blacklight pens in their favor bags. We secretly got several phone numbers of our guests and used a blacklight pen to write them on a piece of paper that we planted at the crime scene. We told them how important it was to have certain skills to be a successful secret agent, one of those skills was balance. We took them outside to a laser obstacle course each agent had to go through. They had to go over and under the "lasers" without touching them. We had bells attached to the red yarn "lasers". After they had acquired all of the skills they needed to be successful secret agents we told them about a crime. We said that several money bags were stolen from a local bank and they would be taken to the crime scene to try to find out who did it. The twist was -that the thief or thieves were actually some of them! The accusations began to fly!!!! We told them that since we didn't know who was guilty we would be taking everyone's mugshot! We used each child's mugshot picture on their individual thank you cards! The numbers on the sign they are holding are actually the boy's birthdate!
We then took the agents to the crime scene where we had hidden several pieces of evidence. They had to gather all of the evidence and take it back to the lab to investigate. They had to apply all of the information they learned earlier to uncover who our culprits were. Once the culprits were named at the end of the party, I gave each "agent" a favor bag which was made to look like a money bag (as a reward of course). This was one of the best parties I have given, and I have given quite a few! Everyone had a great time and didn't want to go home. Our tablescape for the party we used caution tape and mock security cameras that really blinked and moved around. The kids thought they were real! We also got the car food trays off of the internet, noone had ever seen these before. They hold the child's drink and food in one themed tray! We also had magnifying glasses for each place setting!

Princess Party Success!!!

Royal Princess Tea Party!

Happy Birthday CJ Harris! We had a wonderful Princess Tea Party!

We did our first Princess Tea Party on Saturday and we had a blast! This was the first birthday for CJ Harris! The girls looked adorable with their crowns and the boys were sword fighting with their swords and shields!

The cupcake tower was adorable with a Cinderella glass slipper on each cupcake. The top tier of the cupcake tower sat a lavender 6" cake with a pink jeweled cake topper for her majesty!

We had fun themed games! The favorite among the kids and the adults was guess the number of "peas" in the jar- from the story of the Princess and the pea! Everyone was surprised how many peas fit in that jar!!! All in all it was a pretty good day!

We can accommodate the boys at a Princess Party. What is a Princess without Prince Charming? We can supple shields and swords to all of the little boys at the party so they can protect the beautiful princesses!

And they lived happily ever after!

New Cupcake Tower Stands!

(Pictured above:Our butterfly cupcake toppers

for our Garden Fairy Party)

We are featuring our cupcake tower stands. Each stand is custom made for the parties that we do. All of our party packages come with a cupcake stand that coordinates perfectly with the theme of the party!

Pictured above: Safari Cupcake Tower

The cupcake stand pictured above is our Safari cupcake stand. It has been made for a party that we have coming up for a little boy that wanted a Madagascar inspired party! We are doing our Safari party package with some Madagascar accents which will include binoculars and pith helmets for each child! It is going to look fabulous when it's all done!

Fairy Garden Party

Our Fairy Garden Party was already magical and enchanted, but we have added something special to the cupcakes to make them look so beautiful and adorable all at the same time!

Our beautiful butterfly cupcake toppers make these cupcakes look great with our already beautiful looking fairy garden party accessories!

These cupcakes are going to look adorable on our custom cupcake tower that is especially made for the fairy garden party!

This would be pretty for a bridal shower or with all white butterflies and icing for a wedding reception! Oh the ideas!

Start Up Nation Contest!

Mommy Mogul has been entered into another contest at Start Up Nation! Please vote for us!

We have been entered in the most innovative home based business category!

click on the link to vote for us! Thanks for your votes. :-D



http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100/contestant/6746/index.php

Spy Party !

One of my son's is going to turn 12 this year and we have planned a spy party for him! This party is going to be fun!!!! I am a bit of a planner, so I come up with theme ideas months in advance and let them choose a theme or tell me what they would like to do. He has wanted a spy theme since last year! I have gotten a lot of caution tape for the party scene. I ordered these mock security cameras as centerpieces, they really light up and move like security cameras do! For the invitation, I made top secret folders that contained all of the top secret party information a profile of the guest with a secret code name and an id badge. We gave each guest a animated character code name, we tried to find characters that resembled them in some way! To add a little fun, I bought some of the gag peanut cans that have the snakes in them. I peeled off the labels (this made them look like film canisters for your camera) I had a message to get their instructions from the film canister! Once they open them the snake pops out!!!!

We start the party by learning to lift fingerprints, decode secret messages, and learning how to uncover clues. Each spy then has to go through an obstacle course which has things like tires to run through, agility training, balance and coordination drills. During the party, they will discover that the favor bags are missing and they will have to use all of the skills that they have learned to find them. When they finally find the favor bags, they will be in the middle of a maze of red yarn that we have strategically hung to look like lazers. They will have to crawl under, around , and through the "lazers" (which have little bells hanging from each string to detect if someone touches one or not) to retrieve the goody bags. When the crime has finally been solved, they will discover who really stole all of the goody bags! We have black light pens, sunglasses, id badges, fake moustaches, and all sorts of spy memoribilla for this party! We are ready for this party and can't wait!

I will post pictures when we get them. Check out the wonderful food trays that I will be getting for the party! Doesn't it look James Bond-ish? What a great party this will be!

Lavish Luau Party!!

We are coming up with a new themed party package. We are still brainstorming on the name, but it will be a hawaiin luau theme. So far, we like "Lavish Luau!" But we're still working on it :-D

The table looked beautiful! We have a white covering with a lime green overlay. We then used a rainbow of colors with the plates, kid lanterns, leis, and the beautiful parrot centerpiece. It looks great! We topped it all off by having the grass skirts hanging from a rack at the end of the table. We embellished the tops of the grass skirts with leis that we cut up and hot glued on the top. It gave the plain jane leis more of an upscale look! This party is going to be fun. Limbo contest, hula dancing, hula hoops, and more ! We have to come up with fun invitation ideas and wording and our cupcake design to take to the bakery for our cupcake towers! I thought the spa party was my favorite, but this one looks soooooooooo good! I'm not sure anymore, but I hope our clients love it as much as we do!

Royal Princess Tea Party Kit

Introducing our Royal Princess Tea Party Kit to go. A complete party kit for you to throw one of our signature Royal Princess Tea Parties. We have provided you with almost everything to be able to pull off the party of the year! What sets us apart from all the other party DIY kits, is that we give you the complete itinerary to throw the party. If you order one of their kits, you still have to come up with games and activities. So basically you are doing it yourself! Our kits are parties to go, because they come ready to go. We give you food suggestions, games to play, attire suggestions, etc. Not to mention, most of the props are included in your kit so that you don't have to go find and buy the materials. We even give you the invitations and the stamps. We have thought of everything.















Our Kit includes:

8 custom invitations & 8 stamps (why go to the Post Office when you don't have to?)

8 Princess crowns

8 Princess Sashes

1 Interactive Story with props-The princess and the pea

16 custom water bottle labels

8 Cloth Napkins(can be used again)

Cups, Plates, and Cutlery

Cinderella's Sweep Race Game- props included

Snow White's Poison Apple Game-props included

Princess Manners Activity

Table Cloth

Princess Craft Activity

8 plastic tea cups

Cupcake Holder(holds 12 cupcakes can be used again)

8 favor bags

**Party Plans- complete party itinerary, food suggestions, games, etc.

Party Kits by Mommy Mogul

Spa-tacular!!!

We are introducing our Party Kits! We were asked the question: How do you help not-so-crafty Moms throw a fabulous party? Our answer was the Party Kit to go! We give you all of the items you need to throw one of our signature parties. What sets us apart from all of the other party kits that you've seen out there is -we give you a complete party itinerary telling you exactly how to host your event. This way you don't have to try to come up with any games or food ideas or how the party should flow.

The first kit that we have unveiled is our Spa Kit! It is marvelous! Spend the day pampering your diva and her friends with this spa kit. We have provided almost everything you need for this party! All you need is the food! With a few items that you purchase and our kit, you will be the Mother of the neighborhood!

Our Spa Kit includes:

8 Custom invitations & Stamps

1 Table cloth to use for a 6 foot table (can be reused- not plastic)

Coordinating paper plates, cups, napkins, and cutlery

8 Pairs of pedi slippers

8 headbands to use for facials

1 relaxation cd

1 cupcake holder (holds 13 cupcakes- can be reused after the party is over)

12 custom water bottle labels

8 favor bags filled with spa essentials (emery boards, toe separators, etc.)

2 bottles of Mommy Mogul's signature lotion (to use at party- 4 oz. bottles)

8 hand towels

Variety of nail polish to use at party

**Spa Party itinerary- complete how to on salon set-up, food suggestions, setting the mood, spa attire, party tips for a budget mom or splurge tips for a not so money concious mom, and extra items that you will need to throw a fabulous party.

This party package is resonably priced at $250 and none of the headaches. Just picture yourself enjoying the party instead running around making sure everything is perfect- we have thought of everything so that you don't have to.

Check out our site at http://www.mommymogul.etsy.com/ to purchase.

Look for more of our Party Kits coming soon!!!!