Awesome giveaway at Reluctant Entertainer

I've been wanting to read these books--I hope I win!

http://reluctantentertainer.com/2011/02/love-is-4-giveaway-items-that-will-refresh-your-soul/#comment-30060

Giveaway at Simply Tessa

A gorgeous, gorgeous dress from Shabby Apple

http://totallytessa.com/i-like-my-apples-shabby-2219/comment-page-3#comment-1552

Super Foods for Pregnancy Giveaway at Keeper of the Home

Here:

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/02/healthy-pregnancy-super-foods-ebook-want-to-win-a-copy.html/comment-page-2#comment-55230

It looks like a great resource.

Household Management Notebook: the e-version

Inspired by SimpleMom and FishMama (from Life As Mom) I have been trying to put together my household management notebook. I had many plans of what I wished my book to look like and what forms I would include... and the sun went down on every day without my even being able to begin work on it. That's when it hit me: it's hard for me to get started on a physical notebook, but I sure can work on an electronic one! I made documents of some of my favorite forms (like FishMama's priorities from her e-book, which I love, or simpleMom's daily docket) and added checklists to my phone's calendar where I could write my to-do's. I created a folder called "Organization" where I have apps to keep track of goals and lists, budget, pricebook, grocery lists... It's east, portable, and I always have it with me. Thanks, FishMama, for the inspiration!

Gifts for grandparents: Ornaments

I made these out of salt dough and I'm planning on giving them to my Dad. The recipe I used uses 10 tbsp. Of salt and 10 of flour as a base, with 1tsp. Of oil and about 6 oz. Of water. Keep adding equal parts salt and flour until you get the right consistency for rolling and cutting out the dough. I traced my child's hand on paper, then cut it with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or so. You can paint the dough afterwards, but I decided to leave it as is. I also tried to use food coloring on the dough before baking and that also worked well.



X-Posted at Get Your Craft On: http://todayscreativeblog.net/get-your-craft-on-34/

http://todayscreativeblog.net/get-your-craft-on-tuesday-22/get-your-craft-on-24-2/

Salt Dough Bookmark

We made these for favors, but you can make almost anything out of salt dough. I'm planning on making something to decorate my Christmas presents.

Fudge

I am awful at making fudge, but found this wonderful--may I add foolproof?--recipe at Cooking for Engineers (http://www.cookingforengineers.com/):

In a double boiler, melt 3 cups of chocolate chips (do measure, you need more than 1 small package. You also may combine the flavors of your choice), 4 tablespoons of butter, and one can of condensed milk. Let melt and combine until the texture is creamy and shiny. Pour onto greased Pyrex and chill in the refrigerator. Yum!

Inspired by Bakerella

We made holiday-inspired cake balls (using Bakerella's recipe: cake mix prepared according to box instructions, baked, cooled, crumbled, then mixed with cream cheese icing and rolled into balls) then turned them into these cute snowmen. It was fun to see them come to life.

Hooded Towel

Made this hooded towel for a friend's baby. I was inspired by this tutorial:

http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/hooded-baby-bath-towel-pattern.html

It may just be the fastest craft I've ever worked on. Next time I'll make the hood a bit smaller.

More baby gifts

I made this for a friend's little girl using heat transfer paper and some ribbon. I made the watercolor image (from one of my little girl's activity books--traced it with some changes, colored it with watercolors, then used a sharpie to trace the outline, wrote the phrase), scanned it, and printed it onto the transfer paper. After ironing it on (very carefully!), I just added the ribbon for the tutu and sewed in the bows for the slippers.

For the ribbon socks, I stitched the "top" of the ribbon with straight stitch on my sewing machine, then sort of pulled on the thread to give it that scrunched up look (is that even a word?). After it looked just like I wanted, I stitched the ribbon to the sock. Darling!

Packaging Ideas

I usually don't keep wrapping paper in stock at the house (It's always so appalling to see how expensive the pretty paper always is--might as well use those five bucks on the gift!) which means that when it's time to give a gift I'm always scrambling to figure out how to make it presentable. I don't always succeed, mind you, but I thought this came out pretty cute.

Paper pumpkins edit

The idea came from Michael's The Knack newsletter.

Paper pumpkins

Fall decor

This easy fall craft was made with cardstock and skewers. It lasted quite a bit despite all the yummy candy!

Latest creative project

It's a cell phone case. Very simple, indeed, as it is a simple drawstring bag, but quite useful.

Gardening Web site

As I am getting ready to move to a bigger space, my head is full of plans of all the many things I'll be able to do. Second only to having a craft room is the possibility of having a garden. I'm so excited! I found this lovely site:

www.yougrowgirl.com

Don't you feel inspired by the gorgeous pictures?

Bento!

Some day, I will be able to fix a nice bento (japanese lunch box); but, for now, I will content myself with browsing through this page. It's adorable, yummy, and fun!

http://lunchinabox.net/links/

Wordsmith

I am subscribed to this awesome newsletter:

A.Word.A.Day
www.wordsmith.org

Anu Garg delivers a daily doze of fun in the form of a word of the day and a quote of the day. I love this newsletter!

The Random Blog: First Post

I have created this blog to collect all those little, random, and unconnected things that always interest me and that are probably too diverse to be grouped in any one category other than: Random.

To begin, I thought I would post the url to this Web site I found in the Publix Family magazine: www.bornlearning.org It has ideas for turning everyday moments with your children into learning moments, based on a nationwide campaign to boost community engagement around young children and early learning.