Drawstring bags

Drawstring tutorial Lined drawstring bag

Lindsey Adelman's light

Some links for when we make our light:
The actual instructions. 
Places where you can see the light in action:
Remodelista
Apartement Therapy
Mobile and clamp lamp

Listening:
This American Life on Fiascos.  The Peter Pan segment is the best.
Music: We Are Young and Somebody that I Used to Know

Reading:
Matilda by Roald Dahl.  We'll have to watch the movie.
Sixty Eight Rooms in preperation for visiting the Art Institute of Chicago.

Cooking:
Pad Thai Frittata
Pan Fried Chicken Thighs with rutabaga fries
Rainbow Chopped salad

Playing:
Remote control helicopter
Lord of the Ring Lego

Minimalism Summed Up

http://mnmlist.com/scattered/

Christmas Ideas

Great list of advent activities from Elsie Marley
Wonderful list of handmade gifts from DesignSponge

For grandparents:
Jar of love
Fire starters

Quilts from Men's Shirts

I have been collecting shirts from all the men in the family (great-grandpas, grandpas, papa, and son) to make a quilt.

These are such an inspiration:

Brooke's quilt for her boy

My Spinning Wheels quilt and notice that binding!

I plan on starting to cut this week and slowly work on it.

Homemade Valentines ideas

10 Crafts- I still need to make my kids bean bags--maybe now is a good time!
More crafts - including salt dough hearts and more crafts --I think that we will do the hearts crayons because we have lots of crayons and a silicone heart mold from IKEA.
Make "Reasons why I love you" books
Handmade plantable paper then cut in the shape of hearts

I know there are tons more great ideas out there but it is time for action or it won't happen around here.

Granola recipes

Amazing granola recipe from the Cheese Board collective--Killer Granola
Stephmodo's granola recipe
Katie Did's granola
Orangette's recipe and David Leibowitz's take on it (both are a riff on Nigela's recipe from Feast)
Dinner: A Love Story's recipe

Coming up are granola bars and if we ever had any left, killer granola cookies from the Cheese Board Collective Cookbook

Girl Room Inspiration

Fairy room

Fairy room how to

picture from here

Kitchen re-do inspiration and a science link

Long, narrow and dark to light and clean.
The blog it came from with lots of other great ideas.
Great science site for kids, including comparing your appendages to animal appendages.

Great ideas for a New Year

Read this about being a mindful eater.
Make this trail mix with the kids.
Make this salted caramel sauce for gifts.
Find room for this lovely watercolor bear.
We know what to make grandpa for his birthday for those cold nights at the cottage.
What friends, teachers and neighbors are getting this year for Christmas (one has to plan ahead) and this birds wil be happy.

Simplifying and Organizing--my goals for the new year

Organizations 3 most important questions (and some great free PDF's).
Great TED talk on Minimalism.
15 ways to impress others (it's not consumerism that is impressive).
Four secrets to creativity for kids

Sewing

I will finally be making this awesome quilt by this amazing blogger.

Making

These gifts bags for drawing supplies (just in time for Three Kings Day)
Stamps (thanks to Santa and Gennine's art blog)
Marshmallows (finally! This has been on my to do list for some time and since a little buddy is coming over tomorrow, we will have help to eat them!)

Homemade gifts for the coming year

My goal next year is to reduce waste and one of the ways is going to be homemade gifts. So this is what we will be working on during the year:
homemade vanilla extract (we will do this in May, so that it is ready in time for Christmas)
solid perfume
peppermint lip balm
caramel and fudge sauces

Of course to reduce waste and simplifying I will be reading this blog.

Found this great new blog. It goes well with my goal for next year, which is to pare down.

Also I am reading Unbroken and it is phenomenal.

cake for S

summer is a long way off but this will be the one!

soon

make these cinnamon rolls
create some wrapping paper with potato prints
make some tees while we have the potatoes out
put together tote for teacher's present

Chronicle Books Giveaway

Chronicle Books has a haul-idays giveaway! I am posting a list of books that total $500 and Chronicle books is choosing one blogger and one commenter of said blog to win that list of books. It doesn't get more exciting than books and the holidays!

For home:
Tartine bread- an excellent companion to the Tartine cookbook.
I Love Macarons
Small Object label and stickers
Moleskine Paris
Moleskine notebook- for keeping track of all the books I want to read.

For sancho and panza, the children:
Worst Case Scenario: Gross Survival Edition
Taro Gomi: Play All Day- actually, we all want this one.
Mini lunch notes- we sporadically put notes in lunches and feel guilty that they are few and far between.
Magiacal Menagarie
Pom Pom pals- to keep the managerie company
Fairy Parties-because panza is all over fairy life like nobodies business
Every Day's a Holiday
Shadow
City Walks with Kids: New York

Nature and science stuff I love:
The Story of Snow- I love this book and there is certainly lots of snow around here!
Bee-I love bees and am so sad that people confuse them with wasps. They get a bad rap.
Apples I Have Eaten- we live in apple country, so what could be more perfect than this!
Tulip-beautiful!

Crafty stuff:
Guerrilla Art Kit- we all want to be heard and we all have those subversive thoughts that we want to share with the world (secretly).
Silhouette Art
Paper + Craft
Whip Up mini quilts
Lotta's Printing Studio- love her stuff!
Handmade Wedding

Lots to do!

Sibling gifts to make (to match the yoda slippers)
Make a gingerbread house
Kids photos/ornaments as gift tags for family
Candy cane icicles as presents for others
Some cookies I have read rave reviews about for me!
Pepermint bark in fun shapes
If there is any time left over: to deck the halls with bunting