These cookie tins are super cute and really easy to make, plus a great way to showcase your Christmas baking! All you need is empty formula cans, spray paint, wrapping paper and tape.
Wash formula cans
Spray paint the lids whatever color you desire
Cut a long strip of wrapping paper to fit around the can and tape it on
Then fill with your favorite Christmas goodies and give to your friends!
I have mixed feelings about Scouting, but I kind of love it when I wake up to flags up and down my block. Today it’s for Veterans Day!
I think it is a little bit disingenuous when people say they support the troops but not the war. Unless you really do support the troops, by sending them letters or treats. Then you are off the hook. So here are some great ways to remember the troops over the holidays, via this cute blog with a touching post on what it means to be a military family. I know we are all grateful for what these families sacrifice so we can enjoy our way of life.
Any Solider. I really like this one because you can choose a specific soldier and send them what they request. Plus, they say that letters and e-mails are the best kind of support, and that makes me happy.
Troop Care Package. This woman in Pennsylvania accepts actual items in addition to money, which seems slightly more hands on than just writing a check or whipping out your credit card.
My husband’s kind of a tech geek, so we spend a fair amount of time on sites like Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and Engadget (He likes to browse communally. There’s a lot of “Honey, come look at this!”). One of his gadget sites sent me to a new (to me) site which will tranform your photo or graphic into 8 1/2″ x 11″ PDF pages for you to print and post. I tried it myself with my Facebook photo (see above) to be sure I wasn’t leading you astray. It was super simple, totally free, and I didn’t even have to give away my e-mail or firstborn child’s social security number. You just have to upload your picture and you even get to choose how big it is (how many sheets wide or tall).
I think this would be a great trick to fill a big empty wall in your house. Mount the printed pages on foam core for added stability. Or print your best friend’s face for a huge 40th birthday homage. Or a really rad bulletin board for the classroom or Primary room. The possibilities are endless.
I like the abstracted look, with space between each page, but you can also trim the unprintable area and mount it more seamlessly.
My favorite thing to see at Halloween is a homemade costume—not an elaborate getup produced by a seamstress mother who could have clothed all the extras in The Ten Commandments, but an outfit in which the child has obviously had some input. For example, when I was in fourth or fifth grade, I spent weeks helping color and cut out autumn leaves to be pinned on a skirt for my older sister’s self-conceived portrayal of Mother Nature. Some of my happiest Halloween memories are of foraging through the dress-up box looking for costume elements. The personal creativity of expression was part of the magic of the holiday for me.
Kristy
I love caramel apples this time of year, but I find a whole apple difficult to manage when eating. So my preferred method is to make a caramel dip that tastes much better than a store bought container and is really easy to make. Plus, it helps accomplish the delicate yet important balance of your apple to caramel ratio. Bonus! Simply mix 8 ozs of softened cream cheese with ¾ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup white sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Overachievers might like to add nuts or chopped heath bars, but I prefer the pure, unadulterated caramel taste! Either way, your taste buds will thank you.
Kacy
My best Halloween memory is when I went trick or treating with my friend Rachel. It would be our last year to trick or treat. I showed up at her house and she was wearing her mother’s red button down silk shirt (and by silk I mean polyester) and a pair of red pantyhose. She was creating two horns on the top of her head with her hair and a lot of hairspray. That was her costume–the devil. She didn’t wear any pants.
Lisa
Our Halloween season, because, yes, it’s a season, begins on the first day of October and reluctantly closes on November 1st. I have more Halloween decorations than Christmas decorations, which may suggest a strong pagan influence in my home, but we all know the Christians merged with pagan rituals in this great land of ours, and the result is a glop of carved produce and spooky art, ending in a sugar-induced coma. Good times. What says Halloween more than “All I got was a rock. . .”?
Maybe “Whose that coming down the street? Are they shovels, or are they feet?”
Watching Charlie Brown’s Halloween and Ichabod Crane are big traditions our kids look forward to most around Halloween. Almost more than Owen’s vomit dance. Almost.
*Editor’s Note: The Great Pumpkin is on ABC tonight. Check your local listings and set your Tivo/DVR.
You may soon be able to get a copy of your Patriarchal blessing online. Which is somewhat different from getting your patriarchal blessing online (that would have a distinctly drive-through-wedding-chapel flavor, I think). I love it when the LDS church is tech savvy.
The blogging community. You’re a blogger (you’re here, right?) so you know all about the Nielsen family and the accompanying fundraisers and I bet you keep up at c jane, too (because who doesn’t?). But. Just in case. Deseret Book is donating royalties raised from the sale of the book The Mother in Metomorrow only, October 18th, to the Stephanie and Christian Nielsen Recovery Fund: both at the Deseret Book at University Mall in Orem and ONLINE. Click, click… buy the book. You know you’ll love it.
Nice. Niceness all over the place. It’s stuff we all like.
Lisa says: This book would make a wonderful Christmas present, Birthday present, Mother's Day present. . . it would be great to have a few on hand, don't you think?
When I was little, I remember seeing a couple of volumes titled something like, “From the Best Books:” compilations of “worldly” books and essays that were circulated among members to read and learn from. I like this blog post, a round-up of all the books or other literary works mentioned and quoted at conference. Add them to your reading list! Most are part of the cannon, so to speak (The Miracle of Forgiveness), but what about The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer? Check it out.
I have to share this Stuff We Like update or I might explode. This week my husband and I were on the beaches of Mexico: warm and sunny, no kids. It was great. Did my pre-scheduled posts fool you? I did them last week before we left.
While we were in Ensenada, my husband LOST HIS WALLET. With more than $100 of cash and all those “joint-account” cards. It’s okay: we cancelled cards and salvaged the rest of the trip.
Then we got home and I reread the blog and this Stuff We Like, written Friday before the trip. BEFORE the wallet loss. I know, it’s spooky. I’m feeling like a gosh-darn clairvoyant. Not the kind that can prevent bad things from happening. The kind that can look back after bad events and say “I told you so.”
Kristy says: So. Classic. Welcome back - we missed you!
It’s a Remote Control Finder. You attach the caddie and then when you whistle it responds. I want this for Christmas. And I want to put it on my husband’s wallet. Because we have joint accounts and he tends to lose that darn wallet.
I know, I know: you already bought school supplies for the kiddies. But don’t YOU need some new pens and a pair of sharp scissors? I always think of that line from You’ve Got Mail: “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils…”
B: Smencils! If you loved scratch and sniff stickers, you need to get these pencils. With scents like Bubblegum, Cotton Candy, and Popcorn. They are at See Jane Work, another fabulous site for all things back-to-school.
C: The Moleskine weekly planner. I have spent years looking for this: the perfect weekly planner. Not too bulky, with a pocket in back for important slips of paper and a “moleskine” cover that feels great every time I reach for it in my purse.
D: A great pen. Is it time to buy yourself a fountain pen? Levenger has a great selection. Personally, I am partial to the Uniball, in black, sold by the dozen at most big office stores. It’s a preference I inherited from my Dad and only this style will do. Just like the Moleskine planner (or pebble ice), there is great satisfaction in finding and using the “perfect” thing.
E: Fall Leaf Wreath. It’s sold as a kit, with all the leaves pre-cut, so you can enjoy it and actually finish it! This would be adorable for Thanksgiving: have all your guests write something they are grateful for on a leaf and enjoy your new “Gratitude Wreath” indefinitely.
F: Smart Women Desk Kit. A journal, colored pencils, and a little stapler. I love the kitsch.
RSS Feed