Flip is fun and practical.

Having fun with my flip camera. A must have for Mom's, capture those quick to pass moments, and other staged moments with one hand! In this instance I was holding my 15 month old! Software allows for ease of sharing via multiple social networks! price is good.... Craig and his friends.

12 days of giveaways...

On the 12th day before Christmas my casual friend gave to me....
A Burger King Christmas card.

Visit the website and look at the cards and tell me here which one is your favorite,
I love this one from the commercial.



I am a fan of sarcasm, though i am not quick witted enough to dish it out!

Tonite (sunday) after midnight i'll pick a winner at random and either send you a card or send one in your name for you!

Merry Christmas.

12 days of Christmas.

Recently we all got in the car and headed to Bass Pro shops for their free Christmas picture with Santa and Holiday craft. It was a rainy Sunday and seemed like a great way to spend the day. I was wrong, actually it was a mistake. When we arrived at just after 1:30, all the cards called a bass pass they hand out for your place in line to have a few minutes and a picture taken with Santa were already handed out. They started handing them out at 10:00am, something not mentioned on the website. So the boys got to see Santa from a distance. And guess who actually took and hour break from 2:30 to 3:30? Really Santa, an hour? On a busy Sunday when you are allotted to be there from 12:00 to 5:00? I am just sayin'... While there we were handed the craft, I asked for three, no room to create at the store, we'll make it at home. Next, we headed over to the fish tank, the boys loved this. From the tank we could see the "big grey mountain" also known as the rock climbing wall. There were a few kids in line and we watched. My boys were not interested in trying. We headed over to the arcade, an old style shooting arcade, that costs $.0.50. We had no change and the change machine was broken or empty. We went over to a register and were told they can't open a register for change unless we buy something? The boys played the video game for awhile and looked at the toys available. Sean had his eye on a coon skin hat for $9.95. We were curious to see what else was at this mall so we ventured out. We visited the lego store, slot car racing, saw the carousel, and then tried to eat at Johnny Rockets... very unsuccessfully. Hungry and tired we left through the Bass Pro Shop where Sean did buy the coon skin cap, and then headed home. The morning after Craig wanted to go back to that cool store. Me not so much.

So why call this post the 12 days of Christmas. I do better at home, proof positive by this latest trip. So I have come up with about 12 different tasks/ crafts to look to entertain the kiddos as the anticipation grows. I will mark our calendar for events that we should not miss, like Santa at the clubhouse, and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas on TV. Then I will place on strips of paper other ideas and place them in a jar. I have pre-purchased all ingredients to accomplish such tasks. And as the big day approaches we can look to the jar for something to do for fun.
Some examples are: a gingerbread house, purchased from joanne's that we just need to assemble. Make these cardboard ornaments that look like
snowflakes from Family Fun Magazine.


Make these stars also from Family Fun,


for our tree that's lit up and placed on our front door step. Call Grammy and Grampy. Make Shrinky Dink ornaments, Make
dog biscuits for Blue and our neighbors' dogs too. Or these Tweet Treats for the birds.Make these pretzel rod snowmen from Family Fun as well. Make
Chex Mix for gifts for our teachers and coaches. Watch a Christmas movie. Make glitter snowflakes for our windows. There's so much to do. We'll keep those little hands occupied. And I am looking forward to the memories we'll be making. Leave me a comment about your favorite treat or craft to make each holiday.

Suzanne

Great gifts for before Christmas day!

and the winner is....

congrats Ike... look for a surprise in your mailbox shortly! Thanks to all for your comments. happy holidays!

As I was perusing websites for the next great holiday gift, I came across this shrinky dink holiday kit. What a great idea, a craft for us to do before the holiday as the buildup starts for the big day. Which then sparked my memory that it's time to order my legos advent calendars.

You see every year we get an advent calendar. And every year we exchange gifts with some old neighbors, still friends. So one year I ordered extra advent calendars and sent them early so they would have them before Christmas. I made sure to mark the box Please Do Open Before Christmas. Legos can be small for little kids and not so super for little girls,

so I found the littlest pet shop

and polly pocket advent calendars.

I see that they have My little Pony,

and Barbie calendars as well

Everyone loved their gift that year. I repeated for the next 2 years, until I came across the

Elf on a Shelf. Here's info on him here. We received him one year as a gift to enjoy early as well, you place the elf on a shelf somewhere in your home and he observes the children's and parent's behavior in the house each day and while we sleep reports back to Santa. Then next morning he appears in a different spot. The fun begins once you name him, read the companion book, and then trying to find him every morning. I must add that this tradition is a commitment as your elf needs to remember to report to Santa each evening, and finding new spots to appear can get challenging? My out of the area friends loved their elf on a shelf, my local friends already have one. I believe he's available at Hallmark now, so make sure he's still a novelty before you gift one. So this year I am back to the advent calendars, I even found that the legos from the years past are worth a substantial amount of money (unopened of course). As the boys get older one set will not do as they fight over whose turn it is, and some days are better surprises than others. So We really enjoy the playmobil sets.

We have, Christmas in the Park, and A Knight's Duel.
Compared to the legos, those pieces tend to last long as they don't have to be assembled.
I highly recommend amazon.com to order your calendars as they are very hard to find in stores, and amazon will mail them to the person you wish to receive them for you. I did see the legos advent calendar at Target with a $5.00 off coupon in their Christmas catalogue.



Some other ideas are Christmas cookies sets, you can buy sugar cookie mix, sprinkles and cookie cutters and send them as a kit. Or the gingerbread tree kit is worth the money.

Super easy to do and they come out pretty cute.
Have fun building up to the holiday. It's a memory maker for sure and adds to that reason for the season feeling.

Tell me some of your before Christmas, customs or traditions. I will pick a random winner Sunday November 15, 2009 at midnight and send you a shrinky dinks holiday tree for leaving a comment.

contest available to us residents only.

Suzanne

New design for bluedaisygraphics.com

I am very excited to launch my new look for my website. Please check it out here
http://www.bluedaisygraphics.com/

It's been a couple of years since I redesigned, so I wanted to use my blog as a platform to announce the new look. If you are visiting thanks to my email blast, Thank you, I have a freebie for your time.

I have been designing Holidays cards and was inspired to take the same drag and drop approach to my digital scrap booking kits. I will provide layouts, two 12 x 12 pages, where all the elements will be on a separate layer, and you can easily drag and drop your photos into the existing layout, customize as needed or, use the different elements from the kits as you see fit.

My kits will still be A thru Z themed, with the intent to post a new kit weekly, starting with A is for apples, B is for butterflies and C is for cupcakes. I will throw in freebies often to thank you all for visiting, and hopefully forwarding my info to your friends. This blog will have other giveaways than just scrap booking so look for that as well.

On my website, I have condensed the info and have a link to sign up for my email newsletter. I am using constant contact for my newsletters and email blasts. I also have a store on etsy.com where I list my digital designs for cards and my A to Z scrap booking kits. I am using carbonmade to display my portfolio, so visit that if you want to see examples.

If any of these vehicles interest you let me know and I will help customize them for you and your needs.

facebook and I have become quite friendly and I am dabbling in having a page there for Blue Daisy Graphics. A link is in the sidebar if you want to become a fan.

Here is the freebie I promised, from my A is for apples kit.



click on the image to take you to a link to download the compressed zip file.

to receive more updates signup for my email newsletter.


Thanks for supporting me.

Custom Digital Christmas Cards

I am creating many different styles of Christmas or Holiday Cards.



Pick your favorite and I will email you the file as a layered Photoshop file, you just drop in your photo and upload to your favorite Photo sharing/printing website. Some I can recommend are snapfish and shutterfly.



Another option is to pick your favorite design, then send me your photo/photos and sentiment and I will create a digital card that you can either fullfill yourself or I can get the cards printed for you.



I will do custom designs as well, and printing on cardstock is available. Check out my store on etsy, and email me with any questions.

Suzanne

Pouch vs. Can

So I just made lunch for the first time using the Starkist tuna pouches. It was very nice to not have to battle with the can opener. I did not have to squeeze out the oil/water the tuna was packed in. This tuna was ready to be mixed right from the pouch with a spoonful of mayo.
Long ago I went to a pampered chef party, and came home with the can opener that would not leave a jagged edge.



What a fantastic idea, until the first time you try and make tuna. The can opener does not leave you the top in the form you need it to drain out the water in the tuna can. So now I have two can openers, one for tuna, and one for everything else.



As you can start to tell, I am not a fan of can openers. I think they are pretty dirty. The memories of the electric can opener,



just crusted with food on a counter for who knows how long before someone cleans it. And it could be cat food, from before they introduced these pop tops.

I know folks don't always clean a can opener after each use, electric or old style hand held. So the cleanliness of the tuna pouch caught my eye. I was very happy, though someone does NOT agree with me. Someone does NOT want the tuna can to be replaced with the pouch.



My cat Daisy, she loves when I make tuna, and will come from under the bed covers at the very first scent of tuna. Today that happened, and well, no can to place on the floor with bits of tuna stuck to the sides for her to sample. The pouch just got tossed in the garbage, with all those tasty morsels still clinging to the inside of the pouch. One very disappointed kitty. Sorry Daisy, I am not going to get all full of tuna trying to open the pouch so that you can get to what's inside. Just like I'll never buy these cat food pouches, for that very same reason.

Pray sweet kitty, that the pouches continue to cost more per ounce than the cans do.

What do you think? can or pouch, and have you tried the flavors?

Suzanne

Little Tikes toys that last and last and last.....

I am a sucker for Little Tikes. I love their line of toys for outside play. We own the pool, which we bought for our dog Blue 11 years ago, and we own this playset the wave climber, that we got at a garage sale for $60.00,

the cozy coupe car we found at the bottom of someones' driveway with a "take me" sign on it,

the picnic table, we have had since Sean was little, and it was given to us by an old neighbor whose kids had outgrown it,

the turtle sandbox we got at a garage sale for $.50, the rocking horse,

and this push/ride on car were hand me downs as well,

and thanks to Grandma and Pa we have recently added the sand/water table. Which in our case is the moon sand table. All three boys have slept in the firetruck bed (actually a competing brand Step 2) which is about to go into storage until Scott moves out of the crib.

We have owned the tool table and some kitchens through the years, and have since passed them on. Currently I am on the hunt for a kichen for Scott.

I remember visiting a friends niece pre marriage, I had no kids of my own. This girl had the coolest dollhouse that was from Little Tikes and actually had scaled down versions of the larger Little Tikes toys. Now that I have kids of my own, they have stopped making that dollhouse. You can still find it and the toys on ebay, and at garage sales. Look at how cute these are, check some of these out. That's our picnic table, coupe car and I have seen that kitchen in many a playroom.

So I can't entertain my desire and easily acquire these toys, though they would be a great investment cause years down the road there will still be a market for the toys. Pending their condition you could turn around and sell them on ebay and probably get what you paid for them. I am just saying...

Lo and behold, I found in a magazine a review of this little diddy. The Little Tikes Turtle mealtime set.

The fork and spoon are a shovel and a rake.
I promptly checked the local retail stores, Target and Walmart, Babies R Us and Toys R Us, with no such luck I could not find it....Until I froogled (Google.com/shopping) and found it on amazon.com . To qualify for free shipping I ordered three, gave one to my neighbor for her first birthday, kept one for Scott and figured I'd give one away. Leave me a comment about your little tikes toys and I will pick a winner at random on Sept.19th at 12:00am.

eta remember to either come back and check to see if you won or leave an email addy that i can notify you at...

Thanks, Suzanne

and the winner is....

congratulations Sharon

email me your address and I'll send this off to you in the mail...

you'll have 5 days to do so or i'll pick another winner at random...

thank you everyone for your comments.

Our Summer Experiment- who's got the best shakes?

So we are having a contest this Summer to see who has the best milkshakes.



We started at Chick-fil-A cause I was given a gift card by Sean's teacher and well, being a damn yankee, I had never been to a Chick-fil-A before. We truly enjoyed their chicken sandwich and hand spun milk shakes, and the bar was set very high. They have two sizes, and top each creation with an ample dose of whipped cream and a cherry. Sean had vanilla, Jack and Craig each had chocolate and I had to have the cookies and cream...Yum...

So the contest came about as I was trying to replace our outside umbrella and well, boys do not like to be dragged from store to store to shop for umbrellas in this heat unless, you promise them a milkshake! So...off to Burger King we went because I had heard they had a nice size shake on the dollar menu...


The boys liked them well enough, though the vanilla did not taste much different from the chocolate, In fact after the indecision of my four year old, "I want chocolate, no wait I want vanilla, no wait I want chocolate"...well let's just say I handed him a shake and then he asked what flavor it was and I said, "what did you order" and he said, "chocolate", and it was vanilla but I let him believe it was chocolate crossing my fingers and saying a quick prayer under my breath, and fortunately he bought it.

So this one is funny, we stopped at McDonalds to celebrate Craig's success at his first round of swim lessons...and I asked the boys what flavor shake they wanted and they said to me that McDonalds does not have shakes. I was flabbergasted, those were THE shakes when I was a kid.

Shamrock shakes for Saint Patricks Day, delish! Replaced by the McFlurry. But I, up until now was able to convince my kids that they don't even sell shakes. OK I may regret this later, but we ordered them...They are not what I remembered, tasted very artificial. Sorry Ronald, but I do love your new Cafe' mochas!

So now to the place that compelled me to write this post. Another cleverly advertised fast food joint that I have never been to. Until today, Where they not only had shakes, but limeades and java frozen heaven. Yes, you know it well...Sonic

I am not sure if it's the novelty of the old fashioned drive up and order, which I enjoyed mostly cause I was not being barked at like drive thru window operators can be known to do? And we ordered a burger, popcorn chicken, an oreo blast, one vanilla and one chocolate shake and of course, since I have to participate, I ordered a java mocha, frozen. It was heaven! I will gain weight as the result of this experiment, but the kids are really enjoying the comparisons. Sean's even involved in the different costs vs. quality. Sean noticed that Sonic has Happy Hour from 2:00 to 4:00, all drinks (probably not shakes) half price.
Next stop is Steak n Shake....hand dipped, whipped cream and that cherry...

Leave me a comment telling me about where you get your favorite shake, and flavor. I'll randomly pick someone to get a $5.00 gift card to McDonald's. remember to include a way to reach you. Contest will end June 30th at midnight. We have our winner thanks for playing!

Misty...please email me your address and a I'll pop a gift card into the mail for you!

suzanne

Custom Twitter Pages.

Remember when domains came out and people were buying up domain names like crazy, with a "ya never know he could become famous and want his/her name as their home page."

Well Twitter is free, and you should sign up up even if you don't really intend to twitter just yet?

Grab your name in case sending tweets becomes the norm/neccessity like the cell phone.

to all you newbies out there,

here are a few commands to get you started

@username + message
directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their “replies” tab.Example: @ijustine I love that song too!

D username + message
sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.Example: d krissy want to pick a Jamba Juice for me while you’re there?

WHOIS username
retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.Example: whois jack

GET username
retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.Example: get goldman

NUDGE username
reminds a friend to update by asking what they’re doing on your behalf.Example: nudge biz

FAV username
marks a person’s last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you’re receiving it in real time)Example: fav al3x

STATS
this command returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and which words you’re tracking.

So go register at http://twitter.com/ and let's take it the next level and let me customize it,

like mine https://twitter.com/suedaisy just visit my etsy store.

twitter image from http://lordofdesign.com