A couple weeks ago, my husband and I traveled to Hawaii to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. It was the first time we left our kids for an extended period of time and we had so much fun spending time together!
We hiked, and explored and snorkeled, swam with a sea turtle, ate all sorts of yummy food, and visited so many other wonderful sites! We enjoyed a luau as well, of course!
We made so many wonderful memories on our trip. Lucky for me, I was given the opportunity to review a travel journal from a great shop called Gadanke. So I was able to bring this great journal along on our trip!
Handmade journaling products at Gadanke are filled with creative writing
prompts and tidbits to make you think (and laugh!). These baby books,
prayer journals, travel books, and diaries make your writing process
more meaningful and fun! Plus they're totally eco-savvy with 100%
recycled papers.
It was so great to be able to record some thought and memories of our anniversary trip so that I can look back and remember them!
You have to visit Gadanke and check out all the wonderful journals they have available. It is such a great and easy way to record memories where much of the work is already done for you! Right now you can get a special discount of 10% off an order for the next 5 days. Just use the code BIRDIE10. Also, be sure to visit the Gadanke Facebook Page. They run a monthly special that you get access to if you are a fan! Enjoy...here's to making and preserving memories!
It's one of the best days of the year (for my kids) today--St. Patrick's day! They can't get enough of the leprechaun that visits each March 17th. All his silly tricks never seem to get old! Green milk, green toilet water, chairs on the table, cupboards and drawers open wide. . . And they are so determined to catch him that I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with our own little prisoner pet leprechaun this year.
I didn't do a lot of decorating this year (this new baby thing has still got me a little out of whack schedule-wise), so I'm so happy that my friend Lori offered us her St. Patrick's day subway art printable for free! Isn't it cute? I love the little kiss mark over the "i". This is such an easy way to decorate for your St. Paddy's party! Throw it in a frame like I did with her Christmas and Valentine's printables and you've got a great centerpiece starter. But it's only free this week--after that you can find it in her shop. Enjoy! And let me know if any of your leprechaun traps work this year! ;)
Have you heard of sneakpeeq? Sneakpeeq
is the largest and fastest growing social shopping company on Facebook. They have distinctive home, food, and fashion products at up to 70% off!
When it comes to the Little Birdie Secrets/sneakpeeq giveaway, everybody wins! sneakpeeq
is giving away 20% off your next purchase just for entering, plus a chance at the Grand Prize:
one winner will receive a $30 gift card to use on your favorite food, style and home products.
One runner-up prize winner will receive a $10 gift card—that goes a long way in sneakpeeq’s
amazingly low-priced boutiques!
Come see all the things you love but haven’t discovered. sneakpeeq only has new products
that you have never seen before!
Enter the giveaway by clicking on THIS link and joining sneakpeeq! Leaving a comment will NOT enter you into the giveaway. You must go to this link to join and be entered to win! All winners will be announced on our blog on March 30th, 2012!
This week I celebrated another birthday (the big 3-5, not sure how I got there). Since I'm officially O-L-D, have to work a little harder to keep my figure. Ugh. So unfair. I recently started working out with a trainer and I've been trying to eat better so all that money doesn't go to waste. Enter the low-fat, low-calorie birthday cake. My mother-in-law and I created this when she came to visit this month, and man is it delish! And so easy you won't believe it.
Pin It
This recipe was inspired by the 2-ingredient lemon squares recipe found here that my mother-in-law first found via Pinterest. However, we couldn't find regular lemon pie filling the recipe called for, so we bought lemon creme filling and used that instead. The result wasn't anything like lemon bars, but it was delicious! The creme filling makes a lighter, fluffier cake instead of a dense bar. I little denser and more moist than straight angel food cake, but still pretty light. Add a few strawberries and some fat-free whipping cream and you have a low-fat, low-calorie, lemon-icious spring dessert! If you cut it into 12 servings, it works out to be only 240 calories and less than 1 gram of fat per serving! That's with the strawberries and whipped cream! Next time I think I'll try raspberries for a Raspberry Lemonade Shortcake. . .
Strawberry Lemonade Shortcake
Ingredients:
*1 can Wilderness or Comstock brand Lemon Creme pie filling
*1 box Angel Food Cake mix (Betty Crocker and Pillsbury both make one)
*Fresh strawberries (or frozen berries thawed would work in a pinch)
*Fat-free whipped cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix and pie filling together until well blended. Poor into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Cut cake into 12 squares. Top each piece with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Only 240 calories and less than 1 gram of fat per serving! Happy birthday to me!
Doesn't it looks scrumptious? Thanks to my mother-in-law Jody for the amazing food "styling!"
Is anyone out there looking for some fun new crafts to try? Well, we have a great giveaway for you today. We are giving away 5 crafty books. Yep. 5. Pretty awesome, right? So listen up if you want to be the winner of all 5 of these fabulous books!
The first book we are giving away is Zodiac Felties. This is a craft book for creating felties representing each of the twelve zodiac signs plus four planetary figures: Mars, Venus, the sun and the moon. These would be so fun to make!
The second book is Noah's Knits. This is the story of Noah's Ark with patterns for 16 knitted projects. This would be great to use with your kids for a fun activity and learning.
The third book is Knits for Nerds. This book has 30 projects inspired by popular shows and books in science fiction, comic books, and fantasy. Wouldn't some husbands love to see you make these crafts?
The fourth book is Puppet Play. It has 20 puppet projects made with recycled mittens, towels, socks and more! This is so fun for the kids and is also a great way to use up those old items that are hanging out around the house.
We know you will have so much fun with these books and your kids would love to join in on the crafting! To enter to win these 5 crafty books, leave a comment telling us which book you would be most excited about winning.
For a second entry, you can go vote for us on the list of Top 25 Creative Moms-2012. You'll have to scroll down to find us in the list. It's the last day to vote, so you better hurry on over there! Especially since we can only count this entry today because then voting will be over.
For a third entry, post about this giveaway on Facebook. Good Luck! This giveaway will end Saturday, March 17th at 11:59pm PT.
Do you believe in luck? I know some people don't like the term, they would prefer to call it fate, the power of the Universe, or God. Everyone has a different view. I do feel lucky when I have those near misses or barely wins in my life. Running down the stairs and catching myself before I fall. Lucky me. Catching someone you need on the phone right before they leave. Lucky. Winning a giveaway. Lucky!
There are not too many times in my life that I actually feel very lucky. It usually seems like I am on the opposite end of luck. I always ask my mom, who are those lucky people who get their mail delivered earlier than everyone else? Mine comes at 4:00 or later on most days. When you have a delivery guy coming to your home and he says you need to be home between 12 and 5, who is the lucky person who actually gets the guy to show up at noon? It seems I am always waiting til 5:05 before he arrives. Who are those lucky people who win the Publisher's Clearinghouse? Not me. Ok, well I admit...I have never entered. Usually I am not on the lucky side of things.
Last year, however I did get to feel that lucky feeling when I was with a group of friends and won a large giveaway at an event we attended. It felt great! I couldn't believe I had actually won something and that luck had been on my side for once.
So, if you are feeling you might have some luck on your side (you know, St. Patrick's day is almost here!) then head on over to the International Delight Facebook page and enter the International Delight Luck of the Irish Contest, for a chance to win a trip for two to Ireland! And while you're at it, check out International Delight on Pinterest too!
Now, tell me about the last time good luck was on your side?
For your chance to win a Keurig coffee maker and a one year's supply of International Delight creamer, complete these two steps:
1.Share the International Delight's Luck of the Irish Facebook Contest with your friends below
2.Tell us that you’ve invited your friends to enter the Luck of the Irish Facebook Contest AND tell about a time when good luck was on your side
Today we are featuring another lovely tutorial from my sweet friend, Erin. Visit her at Lovesome!
Okay, this tutorial sounds a lot fancier than it is. This is the easiest little
project and takes just minutes, but in the end you have a unique and fun
statement necklace. Does it get better than that?
I've seen a lot of necklaces made with these wooden beads floating
around Pinterest and stores, but I thought it would be fun to do a
little somethin'-somethin' to spruce those beads up a bit. Is anyone else obsessed with the 'dipped' phenomenon going on right now? I thought it would be cool to dip the beads in metallic gold paint (or
any paint, really. I'm just obsessed with gold). Well...minus the
dipping part. I decided to opt out of the dripping mess and long drying
time dipping would bring and instead went for a "fake dip."
all you need are these easy supplies:
+wooden craft beads (found at any craft store)
+some type of string/cord/leather to string the beads on (i used waxed-leather cord)
+paint
+paintbrush (unless you want to dip. if you do you are braver than me, so send me a link, i would love the see the results!)
+skewer
+painters/masking tape
+two objects of the same height to set the skewer on (i used little
bowls, but cups or really anything will work. this is to keep the beads
elevated to help with painting and drying.)
Here's a close up of the paint i used. i love how metallic and sparkly
it is. i think a bright color or anything that contrasts would look
great too: bright blue, white, red, coral, black....it's endless!
The first step is to tape around the beads. This does not have to be
perfect, the less perfect it is, the more interesting and "dipped" it
will look (or at least that's what i told myself :). After the beads are taped, string them on the skewer.
Then whip out the paint and paint those little babies. This is when the
skewer really comes in handy. I just had to hold the paintbrush and spin
the bead and bam! The painting took about a minute. For reals.
Then just let the beads dry on the skewer, string on your desired
string, and viola, you have yourself a one-of-a-kind "dipped" necklace.
I bought tiny gold beads to put in between each wooden bead but they
were too small, they went inside the holes of the wooden beads. fail.
but it could be another fun way to mix it up, just do your hole vs.
bead-size homework first :).
Thanks for entering the fabulous LeadingLadies giveaway. The giveaway has ended and we are excited to announce the winner! The lucky lady who is the winner of a $35 gift certificate to the LeadingLadies shop is...
Missy Shay
who said,
"I like the Asian dangles and the delicat pink flowers, sorry couldn't pick just one! LOL"
Congrats! We have passed your email address onto the sponsor, so she should be contacting you.
My friend, Charity brought some cookies over to me a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't believe how beautiful they were! She did royal icing and then brushed a beautiful design onto them. Take a look...
I oohed and aahed over her artistic talent, to which she told me she had none. Right, uh-uh. But she told me she followed a technique from a video and I was very intrigued! I have yet to try it myself because I really do think she has ample artistic talent to support her efforts, but I was excited that I might be able to do it!
Here are the videos she followed. She kind of did a combination of the two techniques and boy did they turn out beautiful!
This second video comes from Ali Bee's Bake Shop. Be sure to visit her blog!
These are great cookies to make for a party or for upcoming Spring or even Easter! You can choose any array of beautiful pastel frosting colors and hand them out to neighbors and friends. They will be super impressed with your artistic skills.
Another festive cookie you can make is these cookies with colored M&Ms. My friend Barbara gave me this recipe at Christmas when she brought them with the Christmas colored M&Ms for a holiday cookie exchange.
I recently made them with the Valentine colored M&Ms for a Valentines playgroup I hosted at my house. I just saw that the stores are now carrying the Easter (or Spring) colored M&Ms, so you can make these with those ones as well. Any color works and they are delicious!
Holiday Double Chocolate Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 oz. package M&Ms (both milk and dark chocolate are delicious!)
Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla together until well blended. Add eggs, beating well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in about 1 cup of M&Ms., reserving the rest. Drop by spoonful onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Press reserved M&Ms onto the tops of dough balls. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees until just set (Do not overbake!). Cool and enjoy!
We're sharing the LOVE for Valentine's day with two featured postings today! We'll show you how to make these faux metal letters over at Make and Takes--perfect for any home decor, not to mention cheap and quick to make! Pin It
And my crocheted heart pattern is part of the most darling crocheted amigarumi bunny pattern on All About Ami. Isn't that the cutest bunny you've ever seen? It's sweet for Valentine's, but it would also be fun to make for Easter! Love it! Pin It
Remember my amazing friend Kerri, the Mom-of-the-Year candidate? She passed on some fabulous ideas for kids Valentines and Valentine party games, snacks, and crafts for me to share with you. I'm sorry I couldn't get them posted sooner--baby and I are sicky and getting less done than usual after literally being up all night. Even without that, why is it so hard to sit down at the computer for 5 minutes with a newborn? Anyway, if you can't use these this year, for sure Pin It for next Valentine's day! Pin It Kids Valentine Party Games
Valentine Math Bean Bag Toss
This is a jazzed up version of the bean bag toss. Each child tosses the bags into the mouth and must do the addition and subtraction (with help from and adult if needed), depending on where their bags land: 5
points if they make it in the mouth, 10 points if they hit the teeth, and
minus 5 if they miss.
Photos:
1. Simple sewn candy hearts for the bean bag math toss.
2. Mouth with moving teeth to toss the candy hearts in.
Spin the Bottle
3. Each child spins the bottle and then does the
activity it lands on. You can make up anything or do the ones I thought
up:
*Stuff 4 marshmallows in your mouth and say “Happy Valentine’s Day” 3 times!
*Turn to your neighbor and say “ I love you, but I just can’t smile” without smiling!
*Balance an M&M on your nose for 5 seconds…good luck and don’t sneeze!
*Make your funniest face to the person across from you. *Try and move a valentines candy from your chin to your
mouth…then eat it!
Hot/Cold Packs Craft
4. For the Craft we are going to make little reusable HOT/COLD packs.
They
are all pre-sewn we'll fill them with a funnel and then they will get
to try their hand at sewing (it's only about an inch).
Then we'll put them in a little bag with this note attached:
LeadingLadies is a family business, operated by a mother and two daughters who have a passion for jewelry making. It is such a great shop and they have some beautiful jewelry pieces. LeadingLadies use only the finest quality materials, including gemstones, pearls, Swarovski crystals, and lampwork glass.
I am currently drooling over a few (ok, many) of their lovely pieces. Like these beauties...
And this bracelet...
And these (oh jade, how I love you)...
Alright, I know you want some of this beautiful jewelry for yourself. So, LeadingLadies is giving away a $35 gift certificate to the shop for one of our readers! All you need to do to enter is visit LeadingLadies and find your favorite item (good luck finding just one!) and then come back and leave us a comment with what item it is! This giveaway will end on Friday, February 17, 2012 PT.
Also, LeadingLadies is offering our readers 20% off their purchase during this giveaway. Use code BUBBLEGUM.
One of my favorite photography blogs gave me a brilliant idea for this week's family home evening activity (we set aside one night a week for a family activity and lesson). Rebecca Cooper of Simple As That made a darling Valentine's tree with simple paper hearts, and tied it into a wonderful video message entitled "What Matters Most." (If you don't know Rebecca, check out her blog. You are going to love her!)
We watched this short message and then wrote messages of love to each other on the back of simple paper hearts (that I had prepared earlier--believe me, we would not have made it through the activity if I had my kids make them). My boys absolutely loved writing these little notes, and even more, they loved reading the ones written to them! It was so sweet, and the little Valentine's tree on the mantel reminds us each day about all the love feel for each other in our family, and how important it is to share that love with each other daily. I love this new Valentine's tradition! We really needed it in our family (there was way too much fighting over the Wii going on this week). Maybe it's just what your family needs, too!
Here's what you need to do this project:
*Paper hearts, decorated or not, it's up to you
*Hole punch
*String or yarn
*Dry branches from the yard
*Vase or jar filled with marbles or rocks
*Pens or pencils
I made my own heart template, traced it onto various patterned papers, and cut them out. Then I totally copied Rebecca's hearts and included a little banner for the name of the person and glued it on front. I finished them off with a button or mini staple for a little interest. Simple and easy, but cute!
Next, punch a hole in the heart and tie a 6" piece of baker's twine, string, or yarn through it for a hanger.
Have each family member write at least one message to every other family member, telling them what they love about them or something sweet.
Fill a jar or vase with floral marbles (I found these red ones at Walmart for around $3) or rocks. Place dry branches in the vase or jar and arrange. I felt extra lucky that we've had such a mild winter so I could easily find dry branches. Hang your hearts on the tree and put it somewhere everyone can see!
I didn't have a chance to finish all my ideas for the mantel, but here's something I carried over from my Christmas mantel that only took about 3 mintues. Remember how it looked with the ornament in the center? I simply replaced the ornament with a glittered Styrofoam heart and some Eiffel tower ribbon to match my Valentine's theme. I just tied the ribbon on the frame and used a pin to attach the heart. Easy peasy!
This Valentine Round-Up has been amazing. We have gathered up a bunch of fantastic bloggers to share their favorite "Quick & Easy" ideas for this special holiday. There are so many ideas that I want to re-create for myself! The best part is that these can all be done in about 30 minutes or less. This works out well for all procrastinators out there! :) Our spouses will never know that we completed our Valentines, a day or two before.... You will definitely want to surprise your spouse with a personalized present. It will mean a lot to them, and there is something here for everyone to try.
#1) Shower Love Notes{HowDoesShe} - Getting a little dirty, while getting clean... A fun love note tradition. A fabulous *gift* that only costs $5! :) #2)Tied To You{The Dating Divas} - A fun way to prepare the house before your sweetheart gets home! All you need is string and the free printable! #3)Love Notes & Balloons{Somewhat Simple} - Surprise your sweetheart with a dozen balloons over his bed, each containing a reason you love him. #4) Valentine Prints{Sweet Rose Studio} - For some easy peasy Valentine decor that couldn't be any quicker, simply print one {or all!} of these prints out and put it in an 8x10 frame. Done in no time flat! #5)Now That I've Kissed The Ground...{The Dating Divas} -A SUPER fast & clever V-Day idea. Items needed: Hershey's Hugs & Kisses, rose petals, & the super cute FREE printable included in this post. "Now that I've kissed the ground you walk on...." #6) i {heart} u Blocks{iCandy Handmade} -Stencil these 4x4x4x blocks for a quick and easy stack-able home decor. #7) You Make My Heart Bounce{The Crafting Chicks} - A fun and easy Valentine for the boys (or girls) to share with their friends! Free Printable! #8) Easy Love Notes{Little Birdie Secrets} - Quick and easy love notes to give as Valentines (or to show your love any time of year!). #9)Basket of Snacks with Printable Poem{My Insanity} -This candy gram style gift snack basket is easy to replicate since its contents come from the grocery store (or dollar store) and the Printable Poem is provided! #10)DIY Valentine Candy Labels{Lil' Luna} -Doll up your Valentine candy with these quick, easy and cute V-Day Labels. #11) Candy Heart Bracelets{Brown Paper Packages} -A fun activity and a yummy treat all-in-one--your girls will love these darling bracelets! #12)Stitched Heart Bookmarks{Thirty Handmade Days} -Heart stitched bookmarks with cute printable card. For both your spouse and your kids.
Good luck on creating your own quick and easy ideas. Make sure to use the printables that are already available for you through the various links....to make YOUR Valentine's Day prep work THAT much faster!
We offer several advertising and sponsorship options for businesses and blogs big and small. For more information about options and rates, please e-mail us at littlebirdiesecrets@gmail.com
