We All Scream for Ice Cream

We went to Bluebird Ice Cream this weekend - had yummy peanut butter and strawberry flavors. They were all out of chocolate pudding flavor which also sounded great. There seem to be all kinds of ice cream shops cropping up around Seattle, must be the new cupcake.

Old School
Molly Moon's
Parfait
Peaks
Poco Carretto

New easy cookies to try

Some new cookie dough I'd like to try soon. Like the new Five ice cream from Haagen Dazs. All natural all the time these days. Like the direction we're heading...

Fun Things this Summer

Free outdoor play for kids for the next few weekends at Volunteer Park.
http://www.octheater.com/show.asp?show=126

Indoor play area at local gym (5 and under)
http://seagym.com/indoor%20playground.html
*This gymnastics studio also planning to open a location in Ballard soon.

Hikes to Fire Lookouts
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/seasonal-hikes/summer-destinations/fire-lookout-hikes
*The first one at least looks manageable :)

Park in Ballard with fun play couch (phase 3 in the works still)
http://ballardcornerspark.org/ballardcornerspark/

Recycle Bottle Caps

Can be dropped off at Aveda stores now for recycling:
"The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter."

Also found that you can recycle plastic and metal lids larger than 3" in our curbside recycling bins.

Aveda information

Here's my first Animoto video...

Music Videos!

I heard about a cool site today where you can make your own videos. 30 second videos with about 15 pictures are free. You can add music and the effects they add are fun. Looks very professional.

Sign up for your own account and start making videos at Animoto. (This link uses referral code dqjbozny, this will get you $5 off if you decide to sign up for a pass to make longer videos later.)

Jackopierce

Got to see my old favorite band from college on Thursday night. Brought back a lot of memories and they were still good. Funny, they threw a guitar pick to audience and it landed in my drink. Also had them sign new album that I bought there. Fun time!

reusable sandwich/snack bags

There are some really cute ones available on Etsy - natural and fun fabrics. Think I might buy some, so I can see the details and velcro used, and then maybe make some more myself.

Baby Backpack

Went to REI last week and tried this cute backpack on Kaiden. He looked so cute running around with it on his back. And it has a chest strap, so he might actually keep it on.

Cupcakes

I don't know if our city can support 3 cupcake stores, but someone is giving it a try. "Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company" opened last week. I went by this morning to check it out. It was just before 9am and store was quiet, just one other customer. But the owner was nice and the cupcakes were good. Tried the tomato soup and black forest variety. Like the crispy tops of the cakes and light whipped frosting. Would go back, to try other flavors.

(Trophy is opening 2nd store at UVillage soon and Royale has 3 stores now.)

Chocolate & PB Streusel Cake

A very "friendly" cake
12 servings

2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13×9 x2 metal baking pan. Combine first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat on low speed until streusel is blended and crumbly. Transfer 1 cup lightly packed streusel to small bowl and reserve. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, baking powder and baking soda to remaining streusel in large bowl. Beat at low speed until evenly moist. Increase speed to medium and beat until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup chips. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle with reserved 1 cup streusel and remaining 1 cup chips.

Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack.

Yummy Pies

Here's a treat to share with my Dad. Homemade pies available in Seattle from High Five Pies. Available at Fuel Coffee shops locally. What is a Clove pie like?

Living in HD

Who wouldn't want to be chosen as a...

Living in HD family for the Panasonic LiHD Program - to each receive a 50 inch HDTV, a Blu-ray Disc Player, a digital camera, an HD camcorder, a sound system, a Wii, and a Toughbook Laptop to see what they would do with them and what entertaining, productive, and often unexpected experiences they would have.

Register at http://livinginhd.com

With a toddler and family spread across the country, this would be a awesome to capture and share moments.

Spring decor

Idea to do with tree branch - paint branch white and attach flowers/leaves. This way I could reuse as an egg tree for Easter and also not have to have in water. Probably have flowers I could use, maybe felt leaves...


Found on a blog at http://glitterandrhinestones.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-have-i-been.html

Adult Awards

Funny ribbons I found today. This one would be perfect for a friend of mine.


They are sold a couple places locally and online, but there is a "crafty" ribbon for those who would say they could have made it themselves, so I guess it is ok if I do that :)

Neat outdoor furniture

Styxx design of outdoor furniture along the lines of adirondack chairs. Rocker, bench, chair in line, look kind of craftsman style. Very cool.

Using those paper punches wisely

Good scrapbooking article about ways to use your paper punches. Some of my favorites:


Make strings of shapes by folding and punching.
Punch photos in alternate shape for "pop"
Layer paper and punch design in upper sheet. (Trick = stamp design on back to guide punch pattern) - use as a border or accent.
Layer flower punches for unique border.
Layer punches (also like year in review type layout here).
Punches to create background paper.

Cool packing envelopes

This is such a great idea to make your own envelopes for shipping. Love the sewing...

Fabric Buckets

Wish there was a tutorial for these cute fabric buckets. These would be really cute in Kaiden's room...

Babies R Us

Went to BrU this weekend, hadn't been there in a long time. Crazy how much more natural/organic is available there now, then just a year ago when we needed this stuff. Found that they had the "Nature Babycare" brand of diapers there now - spent awhile trying to track this down at Target previously. Found they had the HappyBaby smart puffs now - several requests to Whole Foods to carry. Both of these I considered buying online, but didn't want to pay shipping costs associated and neither of the companies websites indicated that BrU carried their product. Glad we get to try them, but irritating that companies made it so hard.

Garden art

Spotted this cool sculpture in the backyard of a house on our walk Sunday afternoon. Such a great design. They also had art flowers in their window box, which I thought would be a good idea for ours as well. Maybe mosaic flowers...

Clever treat

These are so bright and cheerful. Look like fun to make too.

Things I Love Today:

1. So cool. Where do you find these canvases?












2. I never stop being amazed at how creative people are...















3. Beautiful - this is dedication, must have taken a long time to craft.

cupcake papers

Saw these cupcake papers at Fred Meyer the other weekend. So cute, but $20 really?

Also that C&B has some cute papers as well, in red and blues for only $7. When I went to look at them again today, also remembered some yummy looking big sprinkles they had and saw this awesome freezer/cooler for ice creams pints. Pint o'ice cream on a picnic - does it get any better?!

Sent "Martha" an email today

Hi Martha
You know how you might have a friend that likes something and whenever you see anything related to that, you think of them. Well even though we've never met, that's how I am with you and faux bois.

You're probably already aware of this site that I discovered today, but just in case I wanted to share it with you. The site is - http://www.tapeswell.com. They have beautiful designs, including a "Faux Bois decorative packing tape". They also have some fun craft ideas on their site, which seem like they could be a good fit for the show, and I'm sure you're craft department could come up with even more.

Thanks,
Jen

PS - Since becoming a mother recently I haven't been able to watch your show much, so I was very glad to see you're on iTunes now, where I can catch parts at least. Hopefully you'll expand the offering there. I for one, would love a podcast specifically for craft segments that I could subscriber to, as I'm sure others would for each of the areas you cover on the show.

So cute...

This little doll is so adorable. I have a book now about fleece critters and this would make a super cute outfit design for a doll for Kaiden.


These folks make very cute animals that I've seen before, but just realized today that they have these other cute toys, backpacks, and clothes too.
http://www.blablakids.com/welcome

Make a Quilt

I'm looking for a way to make a fairly simple quilt with some duck-duck-goose fabric I got for baby's room. My first baby purchase when I found out I was pregnant and kind of inspired the bright colors & animals theme of the room. Though I haven't even used the fabric yet. (BTW, the baby is almost 14 months old as I write this.)

Here's an option, though I don't like the ties, the edges seem like a good choice.

Here's another from Martha, though I doubt my sewing machine has these cool stitches.

How old is Kaiden?

Happy Birthday

Make a Smilebox greeting