I was super excited to get these goodies from the offices of Martha Stewart Living via Craft Critique. If you’re getting ready for the holidays and looking for ways to wrap or package your baked goods, please take a look at my review on Craft Critique! Leave a comment at their site and you just might win your own set of treat bags and boxes!
Ten days until Thanksgiving, and amazingly, my family will be eating our traditional Turkey dinner at my brother’s new home. In the meantime, I’ve been working on some gifts inspired by these selvage edge pincushions. We’re also preparing for our annual cookie exchange which is happening in less than a month!
On more exciting levels, I have two links to share. The first is Craft Critique… it’s Martha Stewart Week. Find out about the new products and follow the executive staff this week during their crafting adventure in the Carribean with the Martha Stewart Craft Department! Win your own Martha Stewart Scoring Board by checking it out today…
Picture courtesy of craftcritique.com
My second link I’d like to share is Story Time for Me, a very unique literary website with interactive picture books for toddlers and elementary school-age children. We’re big readers here at home so I was excited to have an opportunity to review two books, and I decided to try it out with my four-year old.
Picture Courtesy of storytimeforme.com
The site is easy to navigate and also includes an instructional video. While exploring the available book series, I appreciated that they included appropriate age levels, running time of stories and a chance to preview the books. However, when selecting one of my free stories, I accidentally chose one thinking I might be able to “remove” it from my cart. No such luck. The story itself was good (“Ben Celebrates Chinese New Year”) but my four-year old didn’t like it as much as “Ben’s New Friend”. For him, there was actually a “laugh out loud” moment during the story. I did like that the stories had good lessons, and while the stories are read out loud, the words are highlighted (an option you can turn on and off).
For my virtual neighbors, readers, followers, and friends… I’m excited that Story Time for Me is offering a product giveaway of two complimentary multimedia storybooks for kids ages 1-8. If you’re interested, check out the Story Time for Me site and leave a comment here sharing your thoughts (I’d appreciate it if you followed along via Google or Blog Frog). Most importantly, be sure to include your info so I can send you the code you need for your two free storybooks. This offer has no expiration date at this time.
There is also a Teachers Grant Program in which the company is providing every teacher nationwide two children’s books for each of their students.
Thanks everyone, looking forward to hearing about your experience and have a great week!
Remember the Calphalon & Williams-Sonoma party I hosted earlier this year? There’s more…
Calphalon & Williams-Sonoma are proud to present the Easy & Elegant Brunch Video Contest!
There are 4 days left of this contest!
Submit a video answering these three questions:
1. Why do you need Calphalon Unison cookware for the Holidays?
2. Why are you excited to meet and cook brunch with Chef Michael Symon?
3. What will you buy on your Williams-Sonoma shopping spree?
You could win a trip to meet, dine, and cook with Chef Michael Symon!
PLUS! The first 150 approved videos will all win a FREE 8†Calphalon Unison Omelette Pan! (a $100 value!)
Important Dates:
November 14th:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Entry Period Closed
November 18th:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 3 Finalists Announced
November 19th – 28th:                                 Public Vote
November 30th:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Winner Announced
For more information, or to enter, please visit http://www.facebook.com/Calphalon.
All official rules and requirements are available at the contest entry page.
One Grand Prize will be awarded:
I love these artists, bloggers and their creations… they just make me drool. Check them out if you dare.
Image from http://donnadowney.typepad.com/
Of course, this is just a handful of things to check out. I’m completely backlogged with articles to read and projects to finish.
Other random Friday thoughts…
My in-laws received some delicious mid-autumn festival mooncakes from friends and shared them with us. If you aren’t familiar, these are delicious little Chinese pastries (you could even say, filled cookies) filled with red bean, lotus paste or maybe a hard-boiled duck egg. Ours are fruit-filled which bodes well for the kids.
The imprint on the cake is my favorite thing… I wonder if I can find some “stamps” from a Chinese bakery? Wouldn’t those be fun in a craft room display? And the box that the cakes came in, it’s so cute with a magnetic closure. We’re keeping that for something – maybe my craft supplies. Just when you thought there wasn’t anymore, you get plastic knife and tiny little forks that say, “OK”. You know, because waiting to eat the cakes until you get home from the bakery just won’t cut it.
I spent lots of time preparing for last week and weekend… not only was it Halloween, but our little man turned 4.
And, as usual, the Halloween crafts didn’t get done, but I did get goody bags finished the night before the school party.
I always intended on posting a tutorial for a last-minute batcave made from store-bought wall decorations, dollar store garbage bags and duct tape… but unfortunately it was far too last-minute. I was busy writing a food article for Halloween.
On Halloween, Abby played her last soccer game (the team’s record 6-1-1)…
… then we headed out for some trick-or-treating with friends.
Like I said, a really good weekend. I hope all of you out there had one too.
