It finally became winter here, which means it's raining a lot, so this week I've been spending lots of time online looking for fun rainy day activities {and lots of time at the dollar store and Ichiban Kan getting inexpensive supplies!}
Here are a few ideas:
This pinterest board actually has a ton of ideas, and
this blog post by the same person is full of preschool-appropriate projects. Here are a few I liked, click the source links to get the how-to.
Hope those links gave you some activity ideas for your next rainy day! Browse around Pinterest to find lots more.
My printer/fax/scanner broke recently, and I'm trying to decide what to replace it with. The
Flip-Pal mobile scanner
is tempting me - if anyone reading has used it, can you tell me what you think of it? I love the idea of being able to scan things using a smaller, more portable device, especially now that I've been doing some digital designing - I think it would work much better than a desktop scanner on things like old books. {Yes, that's an affiliate link, but no, I don't actually know if it's a good product or not - I just think it sounds pretty awesome.} On a side note, does anyone know of a super-compact printer that is inexpensive and works well? We live in a tiny house so smaller is always better, and we don't print at home very much so I don't want to spend a lot...
For all you craft nerds {and yes, I include myself in that group!}, I saw some stuff about the CHA show. Here are some
trend predictions, and a
list of product sneak peeks with links to see them all.
This is just funny, a
spoofy but smart blog post about the wikipedia protest last week.
My kids' current favorite bedtime book is
Voyage to the Bunny Planet
by Rosemary Wells. She is also the author of the Max and Ruby books that my brother and I had when we were little {and my kids enjoy those ones too}. The bunny planet book is better for bedtime though, it's a sweet sing-songy book with kind of a dreamy illustration style, so it's more relaxing. The Max and Ruby books are funny, so they are better for daytime storytime.
And my favorite book to read when I feel like a failure as a mom is
Go the F**k to Sleep
by Adam Mansbach. A word of warning: if you have kids who can read, don't leave this book lying around. The f word is on just about every page. Even some adults will be offended by the language. But if, like me, you've spent many, many evenings trying to get babies or young children to go to sleep, and you've experienced trying to be soothing while wanting to rip your hair out....you'll probably relate. There's a video on youtube somewhere that has Morgan Freeman reading it out loud, again, beware if you are around children or at the office because of all the cursing!
I got my February Digi Files goodies this week - 7 full kits with lots of fun stuff to play with, and some fonts, which was exciting for me since I've been checking out that designer's fonts in her shop. So now I can sample a few and see if I like them. Most of the designers this month are new to me, which is part of why I enjoy the digi files so much - I get to try out a bunch of styles and build my digital stash without spending too much. This banner takes you to the site, if you want to learn more or sign up {no pressure!}:
This blog is just so pretty, I had to share. She sells her digi designs, very tempting... 
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I like that my December pictures are a mix of holiday-themed stuff and random things we did that had nothing to do with the holidays. The app I'm using is Project 365 Pro. It was 99 cents, and I got some itunes gift cards for Christmas so it was free in a way ;)
If you aren't trying to lose weight and get healthy this year, I bet this 
. It looks like these ones also have a cork thing for storage, but see the thin piece of metal that goes around the inside of the bottle? I saw wine being poured with a very similar {if not identical} thing inserted in it, and not a single drop spilled. I plan to get several of these to give to friends. I am from wine country, after all.
Next up, so much holiday crafting inspiration you won't have time to actually craft if you read it all. Seriously. I have so many articles bookmarked to read later because I can't keep up on all the awesomeness.
