Tip Junkie's Favorite Project Show-and-Tell

This week's Talk to Me Tuesday from Tip Junkie is a project Show-and-Tell. Now, faithful freshly baked readers know I'm not a crafter so I wondered if there were anything of interest I could add to the Linky list...and then I remembered those dang cute shark cupcakes I made for George's birthday. Though no fabric, hot glue, ModgePodge or paint was used they were still a project in my book.


If you want to see all the great projects by Tip Junkie readers, head on over to her Talk to Me Tuesday post. My faves so far are Laurie's jewelry organizer and Lanie's Chalkboard Flower Pots. Now those I might be able to do someday, hot glue gun and all! --Emily

Giveaway: Fabulously gorgeous Lizzy Anne Pink-a-Boo quilt!

Elizabeth Cranmer, a super gorgeous, super talented woman, is giving away one of her original quilt designs! The Pink-a-Boo quilt is simply scrumptious:

I am so excited to introduce you to 'Pink-A-Boo' my latest quilt for Lizzy Anne quilt designs. This quilt may look familiar if you saw my last post. It too is done in the Darla line by Tanya Whelan for FreeSpirit. This is her yellow colour way, and I love it too! It's fresh and garden-ish and makes me think of lemons, which always make me happy! ...

This quilt measures 42 inches square, making it perfect for a sweet little baby, that special english rose in your life! It's all 100% cotton and has been washed already for that scoochie feel and ready to love!

The roses are a raised raw applique that is frayed to perfection! The button center is secure and cute as all get out!

I would really love to win this quilt so it doesn't make sense to spread word about the giveaway, but blogging about it does earn me a few extra entries so it's worth it! You can enter the giveaway for the Pink-a-Boo quilt here. Good luck! --Emily

O Easter tree, O Easter tree!

Service is always important and especially so in an economic time like ours. There is no better way to forget yourself, your worries and your pity party than by serving others. And in today's world of "entitled" children, there's no better time for teaching our families the importance of service. It is an easy and wonderful way to remind them what's really important is not what you have but what you can give.

I recently had the opportunity to attend one of Mom It Forward's service projects. On March 28, 2009 Mom It Forward joined with Make and Takes to host a family-friendly service project benefiting The Christmas Box House in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Christmas Box House provides "greatly enhanced services to abused and neglected children and reflects a statewide model for delivery of best practice assessment and treatment services to victims of child abuse."

Inside the home is a large Christmas tree, which groups and individuals newly decorate each month. We had the month of April so a group of moms and children arrived on Saturday morning ready to craft! Marie from Make and Takes came with an arsenal of craft supplies provided by Provo Craft. We created tissue-paper chicks, paper Easter eggs, wooden Easter ornaments, tissue-paper flowers, styrofoam bunnies and various springtime pipe-cleaner designs.

Once our crafters were done crafting we carried the decorations to the tree and all the children helped strategically place them on the branches. (Okay, not so strategically but the effect was no less stunning!) The tree went from forlorn to fantastic in record time and the effect was very refreshing. Our kids gave that tree the Easter-y pick-me-up it needed!

After all our hard work glueing, taping, twisting and coloring we enjoyed the most decadent, scrumptious mini cupcakes from Cupcake Chic. I think I sampled all four flavors; my favorite were the ones that tasted like orange rolls--to die for! (A big thank-you to Cupcake Chick for donating the goodies...they were a huge hit!)

We had a really enjoyable time getting together with old friends, making new ones and thinking about someone other than ourselves for once. We are already looking forward to the next Mom It Forward service project. Until then we'll enjoy watching the slideshow from this one! --Emily

Rookie Moms really is "more fun than wiping someone's tushy"

"This web site is inspired by our need to have at least one fun activity per day for our baby’s first year. Now we have over 1000!" If you're a new mom worried about coming up with fun things to do with your little one or ones, Rookie Moms is the perfect site. Heather and Whitney started the site to share their great activities with other moms--it's so nice when someone does the work for you, don't you think?

What I love about their ideas is they've been there, done that (or are doing it). They aren't just spouting the latest and greatest idea without having tried it first. Heather and Whitney are real moms with real ideas--things even you and I could pull off. If they're trying something new, they'll tell you about it. Take Heather's recent post "Shred away your own baby fat." In it she talks about her attempt to fight the remaining post-partum baby weight by joining the Shredheads. Curious? Read the post to find out just who the Shredheads are (and Heather's code name).

You can search their extensive list of ideas or browse activities by age (my favorite feature), type of activity and even metro area (sadly no Salt Lake City...yet). Plus the moms behind Rookie Moms have their own book, The Rookie Mom's Handbook: 250 Activities to Do With (and Without!) Your Baby. What can't these women do?

Even if you're not a "new" mom there are still plenty of ideas for you to do with kids of all ages. With spring break around the corner and summer vacation the corner after that, I have a feeling I'll be visiting Rookie Moms a heck of a lot more often! --Emily

Make and Takes: cute blog, cute crafts & great ideas!

It's wonderful web wednesday and I have a wonderful blog for you. Make and Takes, a blog with "ideas & crafty tidbits for home, family & fun," is full of so many fun ideas and crafts you'll have to schedule them on the calendar to make sure you do them all!

I was lucky enough to meet Marie, the woman behind the blog, at a focus group for Today's Mama back in January. She has just as much energy in person as her blog gives off virtually! Marie is a stay-at-home mom with a teaching degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education. She taught four years of kindergarten, and though she misses the classroom she now brings the fun and learning into her home. Her children serve has guinea pigs for a lot of her projects so you're sure to see them in many of her posts. Check out her picture--what a cute family!

I haven't been a Make and Takes subscriber for long but I am loving it so far. Take Marie's Scrabble tile pendant tutorial. I've always loved those tiles on Etsy and after reading her how-to I'm thinking even I, the non-crafty one, could make a few as gifts. I've also heard about turning your broken crayons into super cool "new" crayons. She has a post on that as well but now you can watch step-by-step how to make your own set of recycled chunky crayons. But it's not all paper and glue. Marie also features some great recipes on her blog, like this recent one for rosemary peasant bread.

I know, I know, you're thinking you already subscribe to a few too many blogs but do they tell you how to make semi-homemade donuts or the most darling and easy baby burp cloths? I didn't think so. If I'm recommending a crafty how-to site, you better believe it's a good one! --Emily

Photos from the Make and Takes website.