Good Deals: SnapFish Photo Book

I found a great deal for a photo book from Snapfish (HP) through SlickDeals. They're running a promotion until October 15th where you get $11.99 off your purchase when you use the code babybook at checkout. To commemorate our trip to the annual Honeybee Festival, I made a book for my nephew and it came out FREE with the coupon. I only had to pay $2.14 total which was for $1.99 shipping plus sales tax. Sweet!

To get this deal for yourself, create an account here. Then click here to select your style and options. There are all sorts of layouts, backgrounds, and text options. I opted for pictures on just one side of the page for the simple fact that I didn't have enough for all 20 pages.






I think it came out adorably and I love that I was able to narrate a little story for him to read. And more importantly, since it was only a couple of bucks, I feel fine about giving it to a 5 year old to play with. I just hope he likes it! :o)

Photo-centric: Daddy's Girl

My Life: Death of the Junk Room

I have this terribly bad habit of cleaning up unused items and clutter by hiding it. Closets, drawers, boxes... you name it, if I can stuff my junk in it, I will. So, today, I finally got around to reorganizing our guest bedroom/craft room/junk room. It's an absolute wreck... there is stuff in places that I can't even begin to figure out.

The closet is a nightmare! I'm embarrassed to admit this but I had so much stuff in it that I would actually have to LEAN on the door to close it all the way. The worst of it all is my clothing. I have issues with my weight so it's up and down like a roller coaster which means my wardrobe can easily span 6 dress sizes at any given moment. I vowed to get rid of almost everything I can't wear today so I pulled all of my old clothes out and sorted them into 4 groups: keep, crafts, skinny clothes, and Goodwill.

The keep pile was small... just a couple of things that I forgot I had. The crafts were a couple of items that I want to mod into something else and give a new life to. The skinny clothes are pretty self explanatory... things I just can't bare to part with or too nice to just get rid of. I limited it to one box I can put in the bottom of the closet. I have my fingers crossed that I'll get back into them one day... a girl can dream, can't she? *wink*



Now the Goodwill pile... what a beast that turned out to be! I brought a box of the best trash can liners ever upstairs with me to bag up the things I planned on getting rid of. I ended up using 14 of them. Seriously. Fourteen trash bags full of clothes. It was painful. It was heavy. It was quite liberating. The closest is finally free! Not to mention, I have about 150 coat hangers freed up now.



With Pete's help, I filled my car up with the bags and headed off to the Goodwill. The woman running the drop-off actually said "Oh my god!" when I opened my trunk and that was after we had already got the 4 bags out of the backseat. I asked her if people usually drop off a lot of stuff like this and she just shook her head. I apparently overwhelmed a donation center. What in the world?!

But long story short, I'm just glad to be rid of all the junk. I have big plans for my closet, i.e., a hidden crafting nook!

Etsy Find: Comic Inspired Fascinator

I love the variety of things I find on Etsy. I mean, where else could I possibly find a rhinestone covered comic inspired fascinator? Holy cuteness Batman! I'm getting ideas for a super-neat Halloween costume just looking at this!

Photo-centric: Daddy & Me in 93'

Food: Garlic and Herb Chicken Pasta

It's no secret that baked chicken is a staple at the Hollowell-Caprara household. We love the McCormick Grill Mates for their ease and bold flavors but sometimes I like to change things up a bit. In a moment of brilliance, I came up with a quick and easy take on the Garlic, Herb, and Wine Flavor. Looks yummy, right?



You will need:

1 lb. chicken breast, cleaned and cut into 1" cubes
2 packets of Garlic, Herb, and Wine McCormick Grill Mates
1 lb. pasta of your choice(I prefer spaghetti or angel hair)
White Vinegar
Olive Oil
water



Start boiling water for your pasta and heating up a medium size skillet to cook the chicken in. While your water is heating up, mix one Grill Mate packet per the package directions in a medium size bowl. Add the cubed chicken to the mix.



Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook per the package instructions. Add chicken to the pre-heated skillet and cook until there is no pink remaining, stirring frequently.



While everything is cooking, blend the second package of Grill Mate seasoning in a clean bowl/glass. Microwave for one minute. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Poor the seasoning mix over the pasta, toss in the chicken and stir it all together.



And viola! You're done! It takes me about 20 minutes total to whip up this recipe and it makes about 6 big plates of pasta. It also re-heats really well which is definitely a requirement at our house since there's only the two of us... we ALWAYS have a ton of left-overs. :o)

On the Web: Photofunia

I was browsing Facebook (aka. stalking my people) and I stumbled onto a local radio DJ that had posted some really cute pictures she had edited on Photofunia.com. This site is addictive fun, hence the name I suppose. Check it out and get creative!

Hocus pocus! I see a cute puppy in my future!

Photo-centric: The Nephew

My Art has Been Immortalized!

A while back, a friend on Etsy had asked me for my permission to get a tattoo of my drawing "Blue Bird of Happiness". I gave her my blessing of course because seriously, how cool is it to see your art permanently rendered on someone's body.



She emailed me today with a picture of the final product. How cute is this tattoo? I never would have imagined her getting it on her tootsie but I LOVE it! It came out great and she gets extra awesome-points for having a matching pedi!~

Skill Sets to Improve

Hair : Seriously, I suck at drawing realistic hair. Every once in a while, I'll get it right but for the most part, my hair comes out looking pretty goofy. I'll be hitting up some tutorials for sure.

Hands and Feet : This part of the anatomy alludes me. Fingers and toes are so hard for some reason. Again, more tutorials for me.

Shading : I'm getting better at it but I still lack a lot of skill in this area. I think mostly due to mental block. I know how it should look but translating that from my brain to my hand is hard at times. lol.

Painting: Painting, in general. I love to paint things but I never practice it enough because I hate the clean up. (I'm lazy, okay.) I would like to get some part of my craft room set up where I can come and go and paint as I please so I can start making pretty pictures instead of the "refrigerator fodder" I come up with now. I still say stick people count, damnit!!

Sewing... Almost.

I've never been very good at sewing. Really. I made a pillow and pair of pajama shorts in home ec about 15 years ago. The pillow was okay but the shorts were dreadful. My stitches were lose and the shorts were completely lopsided and that was before I even washed them. Sadly, they didn't make it out of that wash in one piece. I gave up the ol' needle and thread after that.

Fast forward to now and I've really been impressed by a lot of the sewing projects I've seen on the blogs. So much so, I was inspired to give sewing another try. I bought a cute little sewing machine at Big Lots today for $14. I figured if the thing sucked or if I didn't fair too well with the whole sewing thing, it was no big loss.

Well look what I made out of an old shirt and some felt! I have to admit I'm a bit proud of my little coaster. Call me lame but I like it, lopsided corners and all! lol

Etsy Find: Pup Cup

Anyone that has ever had a five minute conversation with me knows that I have a little dog named Bella that is the center of my world. I'm that annoying "mom" who talk incessantly about their kid and all their little accomplishments except my kid is a 16 and 1/2 pound Jack-Chi. I get a lot of eye rolls. With that being said, look at this cup!

Love You Pup Cup by TheLab
This is the cutest thing ever and although it's a lab on the front, my Bella looked very lab-like when she still had her puppy fat. She all legs these days; I think she gets that from her father because it certainly wasn't me! :oP

Obligatory Doggie Pic

Thrift Store Treasures: Vintage Books

One of my favorite things to pick up when I go thrifting at the local Goodwill store (besides super-cute vintage clothes of course) are vintage books. Today I picked up a book from the 1976 edition of Childcraft.



Do you remember the Childcraft books from when you were a kid? I think they came along with World Book Encyclopedias but I'm not sure. I just remember my parents getting both sets at the same time for me and my siblings. I have fond memories of toting around my Childcraft books, admiring the drawings and memorizing each of my favorite rhymes and stories, and reading them to my little brother.


On a side note, vintage books have so many uses besides the obvious good read or decorative focal point. I personally like to cut out words and images to incorporate them into my cards and scrap booking projects but there are many talented artists on Etsy doing so much more with them! If you visit the site, you can find items for sale ranging from art work directly on the pages to paper structures made from them. Here are a few of my favorite finds...

Original Art Printby DeadpanAlley
Paper Sculpture by Julie Kim

Paris Today by TerrorDome

On the Web: Background Pattern Designer

Have you ever had one of those situations where you need a background for your blog or social networking profile and couldn't find an image with the just the right color? Or are you OCD like me and if something is a shade off, it bugs you? Have no fear then... bgpatterns.com is here.

This online tool was made to create customized patterns for websites, desktops, or profiles like Twitter or MySpace. You can do all sorts of things with the color, design, texture, and size of your image. As an added bonus, you can test it right on the site and then download the image you made. Spiffy!