Marla, Manda, and Caitlin are here today from The Merrythought sharing their tutorial for the cutest cork drums. I love the simple and modern style of these toys. If you haven’t checked out The Merrythought yet, we highly recommend it. Their Merry DIY board of tutorials and Merry Parties board have inspiration written all over them. You can keep up to date on their site by liking their Facebook page and adding @Themerrythought to Instagram.
Check out the DIY Cork Drums tutorial after the jump…
Jacinda and I just got back from ALT Summit in Salt Lake City, where we had a blast hanging together and catching up with our blogger friends. I also had the pleasure of hosting two roundtables sharing everything I know about getting book deals (that’s me pictured above, mid-animated-speech). ALT Summit is the meca of clever & creative business cards; every year they grow more elaborate and more beautiful. After the conference when I had some time to kill on Saturday morning after Jacinda left, but before my flight, I went through my pile to follow up with some of the amazing bloggers I met. The cards were so fun and imaginative that I decided to snap a few pictures with my phone and do a little post for ya, thinking maybe you would find them inspiring. So may I present our favorite business cards from ALT Summit 2014…
This card from Chelsey at The Paper Mama made my day with it’s wood burnished gemstone pin. She had lots of fun shapes to choose from, and I snagged the last gem, score!
This adorable card from Jensie Jean at Take Two They’re Small gets the point across in the most delicious way.
I had such a wonderful time meeting Gina from Willowday at the roundtable I hosted on Friday morning (she flew in to Alt Summit in Salt Lake City all the way from Sweden!), then when I got back to my hotel room I had even more fun seeing that her business card was also a tutorial! So clever, and who doesn’t love a balloon?
Click through to check out more of our favorite business cards from ALT Summit SLC, and get inspired… (more…)
The polar vortex might not exactly be considered a ‘trend’ per se, but the beauty of arctic white sure is. I was first drawn to this vibrant white in Scandinavian home decor. I loved how much colors popped in a white room, and how beautiful and serene the spaces looked. Arctic white can be incorporated into the home and your style in a number of different ways (yup, even just a white tee).
One thing I especially love is that this trend can hold up all year long. In the winter a white space or outfit can remain simple with a touch of sparkle to mimic a winter wonderland. In the spring and summer you can incorporate bright and rich colors with it. In the fall have fun mixing up arctic white with bold patterns and prints.
See all our favorite picks for the arctic white trend after the jump…
Today Kayli, from HeyKayli, and I are going to show you how to embellish a sweater with studded shoulder pads. We can’t get enough of studs, as you may have been able to tell from our studded leather gloves tutorial. While you are having fun with studs, you might want to also try using iron-on studs to make our DIY Studded Heart Sweatshirt just in time for Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget to share the photos of your finished product with us on our Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest board.
Check out more episodes of The DIY Challenge at youtube.com/themomsview.
Gordon’s third birthday was a smashing success thanks to a friend of mine who came to our rescue. You may know her, her name is Jaime and she’s my own personal superhero. She gave my son Batman for his birthday. That’s right, Batman. I’ve promised I would never fall into the post-holiday rut of laming out on Gordon’s “January 7th” birthday but this year I found myself convinced that an easy cake with family and a few cool gifts was enough. I mean it IS enough, until you overhear a lisp-y almost three-year-old talking to your neighbor about his upcoming batman-themed birthday party. So after I lamented to Jaime that I had nothing planned, she said “I’ve got this,” hung up, and found Batman. Now let’s cut to the following Sunday when there was a knock at the door. Guess who it was?
Read on for the rest of Gordon’s Batman Party and the free printable masks and props to create your own Batman photo booth.
Ally from Nail in the Coffee is starting off our week with a new nail tutorial. This one is inspired by her January birthstone (Happy birthday, Ally!). I love this one because you can change up the colors to work for any birthstone. The deep red is also perfect for Valentine’s Day coming up. I’ll let Ally tell you more about it.
Check out the tutorial for these Garnet Gemstones Nails after the jump…
If you follow me on instagram or facebook, you know that part of my New Year/new me initiative is getting back to cooking healthy family meals again. With all the work that Jacinda and I have been doing on our book, I had been letting business take over and letting dinner time slide – we were starting to have one too many pizza nights, if you know what I mean. I think the reality is that you can head to the grocery store or farmers market and leave with a haul of amazing fresh veggies and the best of intentions to prepare delicious, nutritious meals every night – and then life gets in the way, and the veggies spoil, and you are out the cash and ashamed of yourself for letting perfectly good food go to waste. Am I making any sense? If you can relate, please leave me a comment to make me feel less alone.
But guess what? I found a solution to this particular problem! I call it the Pantry Salad. It’s true, you can make a veggie side dish that is delicious, nutritious, and (dare I say?) pretty, using mostly canned and pre-made foods. It all starts with beans – you can get canned beans of pretty much any variety, and work from there. The equation is canned beans + veggies (canned, packed in oil, or fresh), + spice (fresh or dried) + salad dressing. Marzetti® Simply Dressed® refrigerated salad dressings are made with a minimal number of simple ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil (source of Omega-3 ALA) and sea salt. Confused? Let me give you some examples…
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This post is sponsored by Kellogg’s. Thank you for inspiring us!
Chicken and waffles is one of those combos that sounds cray cray, until you try it and then you’re like, OH YES I GET IT NOW, GIVE ME MORE. Here in Los Angeles we love our Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, so this is one combo I’ve long felt deep affection for….and now Colleen loves it too.
So when Kellogg’s asked me to create a recipe based on one of their Team Kellogg’s athletes’ tips for a great start, I decided to choose Tip #7: perfectly paired snack recipes from ice dancing partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White. What could be more perfectly paired than delicious savory chicken and maple-syrup drizzled Eggo Minis waffles?
This is the easiest thing ever. I just used leftover chicken that I had pan-roasted the previous evening. I coated each piece in a bit of flour, then browned it in peanut oil on the stove. Place a piece of chicken on top of a toasted Eggo mini, drizzle with maple syrup, and garnish with a little something green (I went with a few slices of scallion on each). So easy, and these were so fun to eat with my family.
This post is sponsored by Kellogg’s. Thank you for inspiring me to make chicken and waffles for my kid. It was serious fun.
