1 A few winners...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!*****No blog tip this week... come back next Sunday and I will make sure to have something for you!*****I never heard back from the original Makia Creations winner so have drawn a new one:

Congratulations to Jaime who said "I really like the Winter kit! That looks easy and cute!"Jaime - please respond to the email I sent you within two days so that I can let the Makia ladies know your info! And the winner of the $20 Gift Certificate from Along from the Ride: Designs is:

Loraleigh who said "I'm a new follower". Thanks to everyone who entered!  We have another great giveaway coming your way on Tuesday.  If you are a mama to any sweet little girls, make sure you come by to check it out!

6 Hide your pumpkins...

because tonight is Cabbage Night. (not sure who to credit... received via email).

5 Made with Love

I love my Facebook friends.  I think I say that a lot!  I sent out an SOS that I was looking for a unique, handmade recipe box but wasn't having a lot of luck on Etsy.  Ruth was kind enough to share this link with me.  I had already had thoughts of making my own and this just pushed me over!  I went to Creative Habitat, a local craft store, and found an unfinished wood recipe box on sale for $2.  Picked up some green paint, a few brushes and some more Mod Podge.  This is what I came up with:

I also made recipe cards and matching dividers (starters, mains, sweets, etc). But don't worry, I can't not share, so to download your own recipe cards, click HERE and HERE for the matching divider cards.

Why am I making all of these items?  They are a birthday gift for my good friend who is an amazing cook. Happy Crafting!  

1 FFF: Witchy Halloween Bag

Looking for a last minute Halloween craft?  How about trying this adorable Witch Trick or Treat Bag?  She Wears Flowers shares a great tutorial with us, so head on over to see what to do!

5 What are little boys made of? #31

Two reminders:
1) Don't miss out on your chance for a free canvas from Canvas People!  Just hit that button over there in my sponsors section ---->
2) Click HERE to enter the Along for the Ride: Designs Giveaway!

Grab the button!

Copy and paste into your blog.

<center><a href="http://733blog.blogspot.com"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yA_6K7ea4aE/S2MN8810hYI/AAAAAAAABXo/fW6dM7Ksyos/s320/WALBMO.jpg"/></a></center>

Here is last week's most popular link:

Inside BruCrew Life shared with us this delicious recipe for Apple Nachos!  Run, don't walk, to the store, grab the ingredients and make some of these for both the boys and girls in your life.  You know they'll love you for it!

Party Guidelines: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project and 2) Enter your blog name and in paranthesis add the name of your project so we can clearly see what it is 3) Don't forget, these should be BOY RELATED (Big Boy projects are accepted too)! AND PLEASE grab my button!

2 Sugar & Spice Party #30

Don't forget to enter the Along for the Ride: Designs Giveaway!

I am currently hard at work making my little sister's Mummy Halloween costume... I almost forgot to set-up the link party!  Maybe I should just hand over the Robota costume, because she is one hot Robot!  I know this because she was THE hit of the Halloween Party this past weekend... although for some odd reason all of the men just HAD to try her on?  Maybe not practical for moving, but super cool none-the-less!

Grab the button!

Copy and paste into your blog.

<center><a href="http://733blog.blogspot.com"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_yA_6K7ea4aE/S6130M3H_II/AAAAAAAABuI/Sl7dtOkX0C4/s320/SugarSpice.png""/></center></div>

I'm really digging last week's most popular post by Cat on a Limb.  She remade two tshirts into some very fabulous fashions!  Stop by and let her know what you think!

The party guidelines are: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project and 2) Enter your blog name and in paranthesis add the name of your project so we can clearly see what it is 3) Don't forget, these should be GIRL RELATED (can be for us grown up girls too)! AND PLEASE grab my button and add it to your post so that other crafty ladies can come join the fun.

61 Along for the Ride: Designs - A Giveaway

Don't forget to get your FREE 8x10 canvas from Canvas People.  Click HERE to get started.

We had a little photo shoot on Saturday, but even using my new Windows 7 Live to fix some funny faces I wasn't totally satisfied.  I am getting a Canon Rebel this week, so I think a new photo session will be scheduled! But soon I hope to have a canvas of my very own.

 

Laura from Along for the Ride: Designs contacted me with a wonderful offer for YOU! A $20 gift certificate to her Etsy Shop, Along for the Ride: Designs. What sort of things are available at Along for the Ride?  Lots of fun accessories! Like this coffee cozy: 

And these stacked flower hair pins:

Now only are these adorable items available for sale, but if you shop at Along for the Ride: Designs on Friday's you will get a free pair of rosette earrings!

How do you win?

Visit Along for the Ride: Designs and then come back here and tell me what your favorite item is.

For an extra entry:
Follow seven thirty three!

Giveaway ends on 10/29/10 at 11:59 PM EST.  I will draw a winner via random.org.

3 Meet ROBOTA!

This super high-tech chickie robot is the brain child of my cousin, Mel, and I.  She needed a quick costume for a Halloween party so called on me to help her create a "cool Robot".  Working for a tech firm has its advantages.  I went to one of my techs and asked him for some old computer parts and we were ready to go.

 

Mel came to my house with the box cut and spray painted and it was up to me to put the rest together. The bottom left corner is Robota's temperature guage.  Right now she is Super Hot, in the cool sense, but one more bar and she will be Explosive Hot... and that is NOT good - see the Warning above the temp?  No one is sure what will happen, but you don't want to be there if it does! 

 

(This is the real Mel. We have been friends since I was six months old and she came out of her mom's belly!)

The "rivets" were added with a paint marker and all the computer parts were hot glued on.  A blank CD was broken in half (not quite the way we expected it to... be careful if you try this!) and then inserted into slits to form the fun, irridescent ears.  The antenna is a spiral binding wire with two beautiful silver bows.  And the best part of the costume?  LED flashing lights above the main circuit board in the front and on the top of her head.  The lights were once snowflakes that stick to the window that we picked up at the Dollar Store.  We took off the snowflakes and suction cups and poked them through holes in the box. And I can't forget her charging source.  Robota needs to plug in to juice up, and here is how she does it:

Mel was going to get some heating duct work for her arms and legs, but she already has a bit of trouble seeing where she is going, so black shirt and pants will complete the outfit... and in this picture she is wearing my lovely gardening gloves, but will soon be picking up some pink dish gloves. We had a BLAST putting this costume together.  Super easy, cheap and fun.  Have you made a costume this year?  Share the link with me, I would love to stop by and check it out! Happy Halloween!



10 HOW TO: Work through Blogger Photo Insert Issues

It looks like there is a glitch with the new(ish) Blogger photo uploader.  I've been reading comments and posts all over the place about people not able to upload images to their post.  I've been running into the same issue, but have discovered there is a rhyme and rhythm. 

The first time I click the insert picture button and have the image upload window appear I can hit browse and upload an image.  If I try to do it a second time during the same post it will not let me.  I am not sure why this is or when Blogger will be fixing it, HOWEVER you can get around it.  It is annoying and cumbersome, but here you go: Your first option is:When you are ready to insert your photo, click on your Insert Image button, upload your photo and add it to your post.  Continue to type up your post.  If you were to try to upload another image you would not be able to.  You could get to the picture uploader but when you click browse nothing will happen.  If this happens to you, don't worry.  Just click SAVE NOW.  Go to Edit Posts.  Select your post draft.  Now you will be able to upload another photo.  Let's say you continue with your post and realize you need another image.  SHOOT!  Well guess what, you'll still not be able to upload a new one, so again, click on SAVE NOW, and do it all again. You do have a second option:Upload all of your images at once. Now I know sometimes we don't have all of our images set at the beginning of a post, so if you don't work this way, you may want to until this glitch is fixed! Basically what this means is when you first get into your post editor, click on your Insert Image button.  Click browse and select your image.  While that is uploading click browse again and select your second image, so on and so forth.  Once they are all uploaded you can insert all into your post, OR you can insert one.  Type your post until the point where you want to insert another image, click the Insert Image post and then choose From This Blog.  Find the image you want and click add selected. Happy Blogging!

6 A DAY AT THE SPA

Today is my oldest daughters 10th Birthday!
We had her party last Saturday, and boy, did we have a good time.

Let's go over the deets:

I designed these Spa Gift Certificate Invitation with Pouch Envelopes.
I laughed when the girls actually brought them with them!

I purchased make-up bags at the Dollar Store to use as gift bags.  Inside I put toe separators, towel turban, lipgloss, nail polish, body spray, and spa slippers.

This was one of the easiest themed cakes I've made!
I used two 9 inch round pans to bake the cakes.
The head is one of the cakes that I leveled off (using a handy-dandy cake leveler).  To make the towel I used the bottom of my cake pan to cut out a piece of the second cake so that the towel would fit perfectly on the head.  

Do a crumb coat (thin layer) of frosting and place in the fridge for a half hour.  Well you wait, separate your frosting into three parts.  Using food coloring turn one into a skin tone color, one green and another a color of your choosing for the towel.

Frost the outer edges of the head in the skin tone, and the inside circle green, then frost your towel and add some strokes to give the towel dimension.  I found wax lips (bonus of having a birthday nearHalloween) and just put them on the cake.  I made a little pile of frosting for the nose and the eyes are  cucumber slices.   Put these on right before serving the cake - leaving on for more than an hour or two will result in discoloration around the eyes from the cucumber juice soaking in.

The girls arrived at 11am but the spa didn't "open" until 12:15, so they had some freetime to play and get settled.  It was a great way to build the suspense as well!  The girls could not wait to get downstairs to see the "spa".

We ate a nice sit-down lunch at 11:30, ate cake and opened presents.  My two assistants (my amazing cousin and SIL) joined us at noon. After presents, each girl was given their spa package.  They put on their slippers and towel turbins and got into a single file line and we led them downstairs... here is what they saw:

We had shrieks of delight and "this is SOO cool" which really made my day.  They grabbed a magazine and settled onto the waiting area couch.  I had set out Green Mountain Day Spa water bottles and snacks.  My assistants and I selected our appointments and while we got to work the other girls had beads to make necklaces with and of course magazines and music.

I wanted an image of the girls with their face masks so we made sure the facials went right in a row.  The girls were giggling throughout the application because my SIL could not do it without an accent.  It was very entertaining.

The facial station was set-up with a large bowl of water and a towel for each girl.  The girls had a chair to sit in.  My SIL wet their faces and then put the mint julep mask on.  When it was time to remove the mask, they sat back in the chair and  my SIL wet their towel and removed the mask.  No fuss, no mess!

After their masks were applied they settled onto the couch with cucumbers on their eyes for five minutes.  After that they just hung out or did other treatments.  After all five girls had their masks on we took a brief moment for a photo shoot:

 

I was the manicurist and had out all the fun tools.  They got to soak their nails and I applied cuticle conditioner and they got hand massages.  They picked out the color of their choice off the color wall too.  I filed, buffed and painted their nails. 

My cousin was in charge of pedicures. The girls had a nice comfy chair and stool to sit in.  And us adults had to laugh because they totally DID NOT match their nails to their toes.
 

I also had a make-up station set-up where they could do each others faces.  I had eye shadow, blush and lip gloss available to them.  My SIL even let my daughter do her make-up (brave girl!).

I must say that the girls took the spa very seriously and we had a blast.  There was girl talk and singing karoke and lots of beautifying.  My daughter has such a sweet group of friends.  We learned about the boys in class and who was in and who was out in music (Miley is on the out because she has been pole-dancing during her shows) but both Demi and Selena are in.  We had five girls and I thought it was the perfect number.  But I am definitely glad I had my assistants or things would have been much more hectic!

Happy Relaxation!

0 MAKIA CREATIONS - WINNER!

I am happy to announce the winner of the Makia Creations Giveaway, picked via Random.org:

Congrats Kristen! You and you're crafty friends are going to have a fun night!

***********

2 MY Makia Creation!

The ladies over at Makia Creations sent me their Turkey/Snowman kit to try out and review, and I gotta tell you - I LOVE IT.  It is even cuter in person than it is in the pictures.

(see the second picture from the right?  That's me... in eighth grade!)

 It was super easy to do, but if you do need help, they offer great video tutorials! Such a great idea... I am all for a paperless tutorial. Have fun and save the environment, what's better than that?

This craft went together nicely and I think it takes the perfect amount of time for a craft group (under 2 hours).  As the mod podge/stain dries have some snacks and drinks and then get back to work.  And I love how it can be duel purpose if you buy either upgrade (turkey to snowman or snowman to turkey).  My only concern... I know the snowmans head will fall off in my house (after all I do have three little people running around).  I'm trying to figure out a way to use a wire or something to secure it a little bit more.

Don't forget that you can win three of your very own craft kits here at seven thirty three!  If you haven't entered the giveaway already you better hurry because it ends tonight at 11:59 PM EST.

(I received free product from Makia Creation in order to write this post.

The opinions in this post are mine, and mine alone.)