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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Recent Projects

I just thought I’d post a few photos of what I’ve been up to lately on the crafty side of life.

There’s the sand-toy project that is meeting with mediocre success. I thought painting with acrylics and putting on 2 layers of acrylic sealer would keep the paint on but both the paint AND the sealer are peeling off as you can see by the lack of "red fish lips”. The next tries will involve lightly sanding the bucket, applying a plastic primer (once I get some) and THEN painting and sealing the whole mess. I really liked what I had but it can be recreated (though have it peel apart does make me a bit more bitter about spilling the open bottle of red paint on my khaki capris and beige carpet… the carpet survived, the capris not so much even with ammonia, salt and detergent and then an EXTENSIVE oxi bath.  Bummer.)


Next, I’m essentially plastic-canvasing 30 Marylands for a Grange association near my parents. From what I understand, they’re going to be used as Christmas ornaments. These still need to be outlined, stitched with “MD”, and trimmed.  They wouldn’t be such a bloody pain but I ended up getting 14ct plastic “linen” with little round holes rather than the square ones on normal plastic canvas (I didn't realize that 14ct canvas was difficult to find in stores). Trying to get a needle with 6 strands of embroidery floss through the little holes gets tedious. Oh well. The work can easily be done in front of the TV or in the car so they’ll make for a bit of extra spending $ at CKC in July. I’m certainly not getting $ worth the time going into them but stitchery projects never do.


No pictures for this yet but I’m also working on a stack of cards of varying themes (sympathy to kid’s bday to Christmas) for a friend of mine. I give her a stack every year for HER birthday because she’s one of the few people I know who TRULY appreciates them. She frequently tells me through the year how much she liked sending a card to an uncle or someone who just lost someone or whatever and I appreciate that SHE

Of course, there’s also the invites/thank you’s I need to do for the Boy’s bday parties (yep, we’re having 2- one for his day playgroup friends and their moms, one for his weekly evening playgroup friends, their parents, appreciates them.
and our family. It’s maybe not the direction I wanted to go in but it’s SO much saner than the alternative!)

And then there’s the eternal pile of jewelry projects… fixing a friend’s broken necklaces, trying some new interchangeable beaded watch bands. glass marble necklaces, scrabble tile necklaces, Shrinky Dink anythings, a Stampin’ Up Simply Adorned piece I’d like to do for myself… and the list goes on.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Why I'm addicted to giveaways

I'd love to get off of the computer more but I've found that I have a wee bit of an addiction to entering giveaways. It's probably because I've won so much fantabulous stuff since July '09 when I discovered the joys of blogs and blog giveaways. I really don't enter every giveaway by any stretch- only those that I really know I'd use the prizes from but that still covers a lot of ground. I'm not going to mention everything I've won (there's been about 80 or so to date) but some of the highlights have been:


From MommyPR: I LOVE these ladies and their site!!!
  • Bonz Band: I wanted this for me as much as for my 2yr old! I've collected Bonz and other Zolo "blocks" for years now.
  • Leapfrog Tag, Jr. I was on the verge of buying one so the win was awesome!
  • A slew of Sleeping Bear Press books (K is for Kabuki, G is for Garden State, A New Jersey Alphabet, The Listeners, The Gift of the Inuksuk, and one of 2 St. Patrick's Day- related books)
  • A Cafe Press Christmas ornament that I customized with my son's 2009 Santa picture
  • Pressman Toys' Silly Socks game
  • Rosebud Night Cream
  • A sampler pack of Fields Organics cleaners
  • Tropical Traditions non-chlorine bleach (we're just trying this since we've finished the latest tub of Oxi)
  • Several kids' CDs (Joannie Leeds, Roger Day, Ranky Tanky, Princess Katie & Racer Steve)
  • A Suite Ta Bu soap that looks like a popsicle
  • A kid's Power Cape (can't WAIT to see the boy in this one!)

From Sweet Greens:
  • A huge pack of Yogachips
  • 3pcs from Andrew's Reclaimed Wood etsy shop (bee house, soap dish and a planter)
  • A SODA STREAM (all caps because this is VERY cool and I LOVE it!)

From Babes & Kids:
  • A GC towards Campus Quilts. We still put some $ into this one but we got back something VERY nice that my husband loves and the boy can't live without!)

From The Most Travelled Mom:
  • A tiffin container that my husband thinks is just the coolest lunchbox he's seen
  • A pair of Dockers

From Living Smart Girl:
  • Yoga2Go.

From A Bittersweet Existence
  • Snack Taxis. I'd been trying to win these for months so I was really psyched to finally win some!
  • Space Bags (the nice, big cubes!)
  • A really nice delta kite from Into the Wind (we took it out for an inaugural flight Saturday)

Other great things:
  • Chubby Cheeks Thinks: Today I just found out that I won her "Dr. Hess Udder Ointment" giveaway which equals 4 tubes of awesome flavored lip balms, a "baby butt cream" and an ointment for soothing sore, dry skin... YEA!
  • Holley's Hobbies: $25 for a Stampin' Up purchase
  • Vanilla Joy: A Word World DVD
  • Today's Giveaway: $25 GC for Goblin Kids
  • Get Together Ideas: Personalized frog hooded towel
  • Positively Perfect Party: Custom cupcake wrappers and picks

The biggest win was by far the biggest surprise. 8 blogs/bloggers (ExperimentalMommy.com, akblessingsabound.com, momstart.com, whatmommiesneed.com, shoppingmama.com, 3garnetsn2sapphires, astheygrowup.com, lifestarringellieandeve.com) got together to do a Back2School giveaway in the late summer/early fall. There were 2 giveaway "sets" a day for 2 weeks and I not only won a daily prize but I won the Grand Prize in the end which included a $400 GC for KidsCoats.com. I was thrilled because I received notice I'd won the Monday after I'd been laid off! Some of the other great stuff in the prize was a pair of See Kai Run shoes, a child-sized rolling suitcase (Stephen Joseph), a huge set of Carolina Pads, 2 Envirosax bags, a Happy Green Bee hoodie, a set of ruffle pants from Doodle & Goo, a very cool collapsible market tote from Suzi Homemaker, and more.

And the list goes on.  Winning these things has been great because most items are useful and some have been great samples to essentially test-drive an item.  For instance, I'd seen the SodaStream on TV and thought it looked interesting but I wasn't going to spend $100 on a soda machine I knew nothing about.  After using it for a while (and there is a nice cold glass of very low-cal root beer sitting by me now), we just got one for my parents.  And THAT is why I'm a bit addicted.  I have found the addiction is thankfully wearing off somewhat (it can be a bit time-consuming) but I definitely still keep my eyes open for giveaways and sites that look interesting.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Robotz Play

I really should be off to nappy-land but I'm enjoying the sound of the rain too much right now to cash it in so thought I'd post some samples I made today.  I recently got the Robotz Cricut cartridge for L's bday party invites/thank you's/etc. etc. and wanted to try some of it out.  I haven't gotten to the 3D ones yet but I did sample 5 of my favs today in 3" and 4" sizes.

I didn't realize how many small pieces there would be to put together on these, it's a bit of a nightmare actually, but I really do like the end results.  No idea yet what the cards or color schemes will look like but at least I know what I'm getting into with these little critters! 

Anywho.  Guess I really should call it a night.  Have a good one all!