Happy Holiday week! We are preparing for our trip to Colorado and have been told that we can expect snow on Christmas Eve when we arrive. 

My friend Katie hosted a fun girls cookie party this weekend.  You have never seen more cookies in your life! I left with 4 bags I was able to give to neighbors and they were thrilled.  Jeremy wasn’t complaining either!

I wish I had seen these cute mug gingerbread houses earlier because I would have made them for the cookie party.  The houses are from Not Martha and absolutely adorable.  Click here for the full set of instructions.

(photo courtesy of Not Martha)

Not Martha has made a gingerbread partridge in a pear tree.

Check out the full madness/genius here.

I put a question mark as it’s not a decoration per se…but it’s the cutest darned thing.  From not martha (love her stuff!).

It’s a tiny gingerbread house to perch on the side of a cup of hot chocolate…or maybe a nice ginger tea?

If you’re more Martha than Not-Martha, I bet they’d make cute placeholders with names iced on them.  Or a collection of them on a mantel, all lined up for a decoration…or on a tree as ornaments.

I’m obviously still in a cranky mood because I haven’t yet got to the point where I’m inspired by all the creativity I’m seeing–I’m still in humbled, wow “why can’t I do anything that fab” mode.  Time to find some creativity of my own…

This is so cute! Tutorial available over on Not Martha.

Via Craft

This woman just summed up my entire diet.

She does exactly what I do. Megan honey, you are starting to freak me out.

Also, Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a GREAT show!

I love Halloween, probably slightly more than I love Christmas. I was going to put together a bunch of links to cool Halloween items but the amazing Not Martha took care of it for me. Go check out her picks as guest curator for Etsy. Here are some of the things from my Wish List:

Spider Tattoos $5

Monster Cereal Bowl $27.50

Octopus Tentacle Earrings $65.00

Don’t you just love that title? I think most woman ages 18-78 can identify with it. Not Martha is one of the many (many) blogs that I subscribe to and read on a very regular and hearty basis.

The thing that I like most about this site is the many useful and interesting links that Megan posts quite often. Take today for instance. She posted several links to other sites about food, ranging from bacon cinnamon rolls to Swiss chard. Really, it’s that diverse.

And she doesn’t just post links to other sites. She mixes it up with great how-to articles, recipes, and all sorts of stuff that you will file away for that day (you know, that day) when you plan to get around to it. Which, consequently, will just make you feel guilty when that day never comes, but still, she’s got some fun stuff.

So, go check Not Martha out and spend the next 13 hours linking from site to site .

Quick, name a few of your favorite things.

Flair and fridges, right? I knew it.

Let me introduce you to flair for your fridge – cute, cheap and easy-to-make fridge magnets that will spice up your fridge and give you somewhere to hang those great pictures from rush and sports!

I originally got this idea by Stumbling on to NotMartha.org, where I found on her How to Make Stuff page the link to “My Very Own Marble Magnets.”

The idea behind these is really simple – buy a bag of those decorative marbles (with one flat side) that people put in fishbowls and vases, a tube of craft glue (pick your favorite brand), a few sheets of white cardstock, a pack of 1/2″ extra strong magnets, and a few of your favorite magazines. I’ve found that a 1/2″ or 3/4″ hole punch helps immensely with the tedious aspect of the process, but cutting them out with your old Fiskars isn’t too bad.

I cut out a few of the circles out of magazines and measured them against the flat side of the marble, cutting them to make sure there wouldn’t be any edges sticking out. Then I glued them to a small square of cardstock and cut that out according to the size of the circle. I then put glue on the marble and stuck the paper to it – after about half an hour, you can stick or glue the magnet on to the cardstock side (depends on if your magnets are self-adhesive or not).

Turn it over, and voila! Your image is magnified and you have a new magnet for your fridge!

I found all of these materials at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s, and got the magazines from Wal-Mart. I like Michael’s better for this project simply because they have more options for what you’re looking for here than did Hobby Lobby.

Here are a few of the ones I’ve done lately. Click to zoom, and then again if you want them bigger. Excuse the blur and bad lighting – I took these pictures on my poorly-lit coffee table. Sorry!

All of these and more will be available at the OC Craft Fair on Saturday, October 25th, if you’re interested in buying some pre-made ones.

If you have any questions or would like to talk to me about a custom order, please email me at bailey dot thomas at oc dot edu.

XOXO

PS Another site that helped me was this MormonChic site, which is updated a little more often than NotMartha.

Why do we focus on food during Ramadhaan? I don’t know either, but we do it. And I especially love to eat sweets during Ramadhaan.

Anyway, here is a little cutie of a recipe! It’s Pie-in-a-Jar! I think it would be wonderful to serve this and eat this! And I love the website that has this recipe.

NotMartha.Org – Pie in a Jar

Another Pie in a Jar Recipe

Must Read Tips for the Recipe

I am in no way, shape, or form a “green” person. I gave up my car awhile ago, but it’s only because I have a Metra within walking distance.

I stumbled onto the Make Your Own Deodorant post via Not Martha (see my blogroll to the right for her.) And from there, I stumbled onto a post about Going Shampoo Free. I have decided to try it.

Go ahead and click on the link, I will wait. It’s important to read it all through so you know what is going on.

Ok, all done? Good. Now, you’re probably wondering what on God’s Green Earth made me decide to try this.

Well, the government took my stimulus check.

You read that right. They had no right to take it, and I have no idea what to do to get it back. It’s the US Government, and therefore, I probably will never get it back.

One day, a decade from now, my mom will call me because she spotted my name on one of those Found Money sites. Maybe then I will get it back. Until then…

Now, you’re probably wondering what the Government taking my money has to do with with me not shampooing.

When I found out I would not be getting new bookcases and new cotton sheets (digress: isn’t it sad that was what I was spending my money on? So sad.) I went a little crazy. I even considered writing to Kanye West, saying: Dear Kanye, he doesn’t care about ANYONE. Love, Enna. (Look at me! I can make a pop culture joke 5 years too late!)

Like I said, I went a little crazy. I also went a little anti-capitalist. For the next thirty days, I am going to try to not buy anything.

No. Really.

Now, obviously, I cannot just suddenly decide to not buy anything and therefore not buy food, pay my mortgage (though I doubt anyone at IndyMac would notice, seeing as they are a bit busy ruining America…) or not pay my car note. More like I am not going to eat out, buy new shoes, or buy anything I can make myself.

I have enough cereal stocked up that a family of five could eat for one month. I am not kidding. Both Eric and I throw away cereal like it is going out of style. All because I 1) Buy too much, 2) It gets old, we assume it is no good, and finally 3) we are wasteful gluttons and then we throw it away and buy more sugary cereal.

Now, fair warning, I may fail at this. But for certain, one thing I am ABSOLUTELY doing? I am not washing my hair or eating out. I cannot guarantee after a hard, hot day on the metra and L Tran I am not going to come home and say “OH YEAH NOW I GET TO MAKE MY OWN SOAP OUT OF FAT FROM THE FRYERS AT WORK.” I am not brainwashed. I am not an Osmond.

Also, at the urging of Pantry, I have decided to make my comics into something that I can sell to someone. Instead of making T-Shirts, I will be making Bags that people can reuse at the grocery store. Since, apparently, I have a LOT of vegetable/fruit comics. (Has anyone else noticed that?)

I will be editing them to say things like “Eat me!” and “Udder Squeezins’” (for my one milk comic). They will be going up on Etsy hopefully by the end of next month.

I will be borrowing my friend Vicky’s sewing machine (Cool with you Vicky?) and making the bags myself, thus cutting out the middle man and I can PASS THE SAVINGS ON TO YOU! I will be putting the images up here as soon as they are done. I am hoping to keep the price around $5 each, and have flat rate shipping of $2. That way they are at least affordable. Maybe $8 each total?

So, right now, I am waiting for my hair to dry, so I can give you all the recap of my No Shampoo Experiment.

That is all for now folks, excuse me while I go pick some cotton. Perhaps in 2 months I will have my new sheets after all.

Another magnificent looking item sold at Generate- the J-Me Shoe Rack. I love the simplicity of this shoe rack design… yet another ‘why didn’t I think of that’ item. The shoe rack retails for an extremely steep price of USD99. An obscene price to pay for a U-shaped piece of metal strip to hold your sneakers, don’t you think? And yet, deep inside you feel that you simply must have one.

Well, I found two sources that provide a D.I.Y guide to creating variations of the J-Me shoe rack. Megan from Not Martha- a blog site that posts info on how to make things, provides steps to creating a shoe rack with two strips of wood and some L-brackets. These items can be easily acquired from your local hardware store.

Click here for Not Martha’s floating shoe rack instructions

The alternate J-Me shoe rack variation was found at one of my favourite sites- Instructables.com. This version uses wire shelving instead of wood planks to make the shoe rack frame. I’m not sure where you can get wire shelving locally, cut to size, but I’d probably just go buy me a cheap dishdrainer from the Pasar Malam as raw material for the shoe rack.

Click here for Instructable’s floating shoe rack instructions

For looks and level of effort, Not Martha’s version wins hands down. However, this version seems to only be able to hold sneakers. Most of us own slippers here and Not Martha’s version does not cater for this particular type of footwear (unless you broaden the base but then it’ll lose it’s designer appeal).

The floating shoe rack made from wire shelving is the more practical version as it can cater for most types of footwear (maybe not high heels), including your slippers. It’s just not as aesthetically pleasing as Not Martha’s shoe rack. You decide which one you want to make, unless you’ve decided to splurge USD99 at the Generate store for the actual J-Me shoe rack.

Notes from the Lab at Velocity by Megan from Not Martha.

Interior design is a hobby of mine, and I am addicted to interior design blogs. The list of design blogs I read fluctuates constantly, but a few staples include: Apartment Therapy, Decor8, Design*Sponge, and Shelteriffic. So back in March when Grace from Design*Sponge hosted a Biz Ladies meetup in Seattle I went, eager to meet the woman behind the incredible blog and to get to know other women who were running small businesses like my own. At the meetup, one of the things I heard over and over again was how important it was for designers to have great photographs of their work. So I offered to give a small workshop for designers, despite the fact that I’d never taught anything in my life! But Grace posted about the workshop, a ton of people responded, and in April I held a small class on the basics of photography and setting up a mini photo studio in your home.

The workshop ended up being really fun, and I loved meeting the designers and sharing some of my photography knowledge. I plan on having more workshops in the future, both on product photography and for people who are transitioning from a point and shoot to a dSLR, so email me if you’re interested in attending one.

So this is all a roundabout way of talking about an event I went to last night, the Lab at Velocity, where I ran into four of my photo workshop attendees! Jerylin ( a neurobiologist/knitting crafter), Megan (one of the speakers at the event, and a long time favorite blogger of mine), Maria (paper designer extraordinaire) and Fern (maker of cool felt items…I still wish I’d taken a photo of her awesome purple felt bag). I also ran into a recent bride of mine, Danielle, who is a design writer for Apartment Therapy. I photographed her wedding weekend before last and am dying to share photos from it on the blog; they should be up at the end of next week.

I really enjoyed the Lab event. It was more of a round table discussion than a presentation. The speakers were Paola from MirrorMirror, Elaine from Decorno, Mary from Shelterrific, and Megan from notmartha, with John from Velocity acting as host/moderator. Each had a slightly different take on what makes a great blog, and I liked seeing how each one was able to give some insight into how she approached her blog, depending on her own personality, voice, and temperament. They are all much more devoted bloggers than I am–nearly all of them post daily, which I find completely impressive.

It was also fun to poke around in the Velocity store (note all the Heath Pottery behind John in the photo above) and look at all the cool stuff there. I can’t wait for the next Lab…

This Not Martha site actually looks pretty cool. If I ever get around to cooking again I’ll check it out.