Stocking stuffers for readers & writers

This post contains Amazon Associate links. It doesn't cost you anything to click on or shop through the links, but it does give me a small amount toward running the blog.

Last year, Doug got me some funny little stocking stuffers that I just loved. See those tattoos and bandaids below? They're awesome. I mean, who wouldn't love a little Edgar Allan Poe on their arm? He'd found some funny stocking stuffers for everyone since the family was all together, but these were, in my completely biased opinion, the best ones.

And so, I thought I should really share them so you can make the readers and writers in your life laugh when they open their stockings this year. There are so many fun little things you could get for that particular group, from paper and pens to page markers, sweet treats for an afternoon of reading and, especially, coffee.

So, here's a fun, and fairly funny, list of stocking stuffers you still have time to get for the writers and readers in your life. Enjoy!

Personalized notepads from Tulaloo
You can never have too many notepads around when inspiration strikes, when you need to make note of some books, or you want to save a quote.

Edgar Allan Poe bandaids
Adults should get fun character bandaids, too!




Handmade ballpoint pen from Wortheffort
These gorgeous pens are great for jotting down a quick note, making notations in a favorite book, or sending off a quick note to a friend.

Jane Austen tattoos
Temporary tattoos are just fun. And these are particularly cute!




Waterproof notepad
You never know when inspiration will strike! I know I do a lot of good thinking in the shower. And then promptly forget it all once I'm dried off.




Hemingway quote keychain from Fragile Elite Design
I love the little ballpoint nib charm on this key chain. And the writers in your life will appreciate the quote!

Funny page flags
Leave notes for yourself with style. Or at least humor!


And, of course, there's always tea or coffee. You need a warm drink to curl up with that book in winter!

What great things have you found for the readers and writers in your life this year?

Austin Christmas Bucket List

Christmas is coming! I can't wait. I've been itching to go out and look at lights and decorations since Halloween. I have a pretty hard and fast "no Christmas until I see Santa at the end of the Macy's parade" rule. Wanna know a secret? I get teary every time I see Santa at the end of that parade. Every year. I just get so excited for the holidays and it's such a happy thing. So, the parade ends, we turn on the Christmas music and Thanksgiving dinner happens.

Christmas is Doug's favorite holiday. It's quickly becoming one of Phee's as well, though, as she once said, all the holidays are her favorite, "Valentine's Day, Christmas, fall..." Last year, Phee really got into everything, helping us decorate, singing so many songs, baking cookies. We traveled last year, so we didn't get to do everything that I wanted to do in town. Plus, with Phee's birthday at the beginning of the month, we lose a bit of time to birthday activities.

This year, I'm ready to go. I've got a big list of Christmas activities that I want to tackle in and around town. There are so many awesome things going on in December in Austin. Pack up the family, grab your friends, and go out and have some awesome holiday fun!

Driskill Hotel gingerbread display
Trail of Lights
Hot chocolate & lights at Mozart's
Austin steam train North Pole Flyer
Ballet Austin Nutcracker
Make gingerbread houses at the Thinkery
Snow at the Hill Country Galleria
Ice skating at Whole Foods
Round Rock Rock'N Lights
Luminations at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Paramount holiday film series

And my personal favorite: A drive around the neighborhood with hot chocolate and Christmas music to see people's lights.

Click on the picture to enlarge it and save it, or click here for a printable PDF.

What's your favorite Austin holiday event? What awesome Austin thing have I missed?

Thanksgiving crafts for kids (with printable)

There are lots of great projects out there to get the kids involved in Thanksgiving preparation. Try one of these projects with your kids and then stand back and enjoy the pride on their faces as they see their handiwork laid out on the Thanksgiving table.

Placemats
Use cardboard cut to the size you want, card stock, or construction paper. Draw a Thanksgiving picture, use Thanksgiving stickers or stamps, or make a Thanksgiving collage from magazine cutouts. After the placemats are finished, you can laminate them or use clear contact paper to preserve them for future holidays.

Place Cards
Have kids draw turkeys, pilgrim hats, cornucopias, corn, pies or whatever autumn and Thanksgiving pieces they love. Print out the name of each person coming to dinner. Cut out those names and affix them to the drawings. Cut the drawings out and glue to small blocks of wood. Or, even easier, just tape the place cards to the kids’ building blocks. Each person can take their place card home as a memento of the holiday and the blocks go back in the toy box!

Napkin Rings
Download this file or grab the photo below and print it on white or ivory card stock and let your kids color their hearts out. It's a little more work on your end to cut each napkin ring out, but they really are pretty darn cute. And the kids will love showing off their work to everyone at the table!

Centerpiece
There are so many options for centerpieces. Using candles? Let your kids use fall colored ribbons to wrap the bottom halves. Using gourds? Let the kids arrange them in a basket or bowl with some pretty fall leaves and pine cones. Or, get a pretty basket, cut out leaf shapes from construction paper and let the kids decorate them with things they’re thankful for.

How do you get your kids involved in Thanksgiving preparation? I love to hear about the ways people get their kids involved in holidays and create new traditions.


Linked up at Memories by the Mile, Home of Malones, Juggling Act Mama.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

 Phee was quite excited to wear her costume today.

She is Peg, from the PBS show Peg + Cat.

For trick-or-treating tonight, I'll be dressed up as Cat.

We highly recommend checking out the show- it's so funny!

Have a fantastic Halloween!

DIY Snoopy costume

I love to make Phee's Halloween costumes. She's had some good ones, but this Snoopy was her favorite I think. If it had fit her, she would have happily worn it again the next year. She even asked about it this year!

I never did write it up the year she wore it, so I thought I'd share it now. It really is easy and it's something that you can take apart and use after Halloween, too. I love the costumes she picks that use regular clothes.

For Snoopy, we used a white zippered beach coverup. Until the week of Halloween, I really have no idea what the Texas weather is going to be like. I decided to go with short sleeves and then we added a white tshirt underneath when it turned out to be a cool night. If you're in cold weather, you could use a white sweatshirt as your base.

To make your DIY Snoopy you need:

• white pants or leggings
• white hooded beach coverup or hooded sweatshirt (depends on your weather!)
• white longsleeve shirt (depending on your weather)
• black and white felt
• black and white thread
• black face paint

Cut out a couple large black spots and two large black ears. Using big stitches, lightly sew the spots onto the coverup/sweatshirt and the ears onto the hood. If you use the big stitches, it's easy to pull them out after the fact and use the base piece later.

Cut out and sew together a small white tail. I stuffed it with a little bit of extra white felt before sewing it to the back of the coverup. Don't skip the tail- it's really cute!

Add white leggings/pants and white tennis shoes. Use black face paint to color your little one's nose black.

We had to use a couple white barrettes to keep the hood up on Phee's head. I made the ears a little bit too big for the hood, but it was awfully cute.

There you have it. It's really easy to put together, even last minute, and it's cute.

What great DIY costumes have you made?

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Looking for more costume ideas? I've got you covered!

Favorite Halloween shows & movies

This post contains Amazon Associate links. It doesn't cost you a thing to click or shop through the links, but it does give me a small compensation which I use to help run this blog. Thanks!

We love to have family movie night. We take turns picking movies, though Phee usually has a lot of say in the choice. Phee helps make popcorn in the air popper. We get drinks and napkins and comfy clothes and spread out on the couch. Generally we stop halfway through for a quick bathroom break and so that we can get sweet treats. What's a movie night without chocolate?!

Last week, on a particularly sleepy evening (I miss weekend naps!), Phee and I decided to have a quiet night with a picnic dinner and a movie. We discovered our new favorite thing to watch on Netflix, a new Curious George Halloween movie. It was so much fun! We've watched in a couple more times since then, too.

Phee has lots of favorites for this time of year so I thought I'd put together a little list of Halloween episodes of fun shows along with movies. So much Halloween stuff is too spooky for little ones, or just too cheesy for parent's to sit through. This list is a great compromise for everyone- Halloween themed, but still fun to watch.

Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest (streaming on Netflix and Amazon, or check PBS listings)
It's George's first Halloween in the country and he has a festival, costume contest, and local legend to deal with.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (streaming on Amazon)
A classic! You can't ever go wrong with Snoopy's antics.

Clifford's Puppy Days: The Scary Puppy / Things That Go Bump (streaming on Netflix)
I think Clifford is cute, but this is perhaps a bit for the youngest kids.

Jake & the Never Land Pirates (streaming on Netflix and Amazon)
Both season 1 and 2 on Netflix have Halloween themed episodes, Night of the Golden Pirate Pumpkin / Trick or Treasure! and Tricks, Treats and Treasure! / Season of the Sea Witch. We've been watching these on Netflix since the beginning of October!

Peg + Cat (streaming on Netflix)
We love Peg! In fact, Phee is actually going to be Peg for Halloween and I'm going to be Cat. Definitely check out this show- catchy songs, funny jokes, and math. You can't go wrong! The Halloween episode is The Parade Problem / The Halloween Problem. 

Super Why! (streaming on Netflix and Amazon)
The Halloween episode, The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Halloween, is about Pig being afraid to go trick-or-treating with is friends.  

Certainly not an exhaustive list, but it's our list of favorites. These are great shows that Phee loves to watch. She enjoys watching things for the season and I love knowing that she's going to have Halloween fun without anything being too scary. 

Want to find out what Halloween movies, shows, and specials are on TV this week? Check the TV Guide listings and search for Halloween- there are so many different themed shows!

What are your kids' favorite Halloween shows and movies? What about you? 


Linked up at Jenny Marie, My Turn for Us, Denise Designed, Made In a Day, Sowdering About.

Beat the morning grumpies

I can't decide if Phee and I are really very much alike, or not alike at all. I know we're good at pushing each others buttons. We get easily exasperated with each other on a regular basis. Part of it is just her age I think. And I know a lot of it is her free spirit and imagination. Throw in my desire to keep a schedule or do things in a certain order and it all clashes sometimes.

It all seems to come to a head in the morning more than any other time. Which isn't surprising at all. She wants to play, or read books, or watch a show and we've got to get out the door for school and work. That's a timeline I can't really play with, especially on mornings she ends up sleeping in a bit.

One particularly bad morning, I'd finally had it. While brushing her hair and not facing each other, Phee and I talked about our bad mornings. We brainstormed some ways we could stop being grumpy and try to start over and have a better morning together.

This is our short and simple list of fun ways to beat the morning grumpies and start our day on a silly note. It works to keep us aware of how we're interacting with each other. It also means we're not leaving the house irritated so our ride to school is much more enjoyable.

Funny voices: Phee's flair for the dramatic makes this an easy choice. If I use a funny voice and make her laugh, she almost always dissolves in a fit of giggles after she's tried out a couple of voices herself. You know what's better than a kid laughing hysterically? Nothing.

Jokes: Last year while Doug was out of town, I taught Phee all about knock knock jokes. I don't know that he was thrilled to come home to a house of jokes, but it's hilarious when Phee tells a joke really well, or gets a new one I've found. Once we've told a couple jokes, she's so busy trying to think of new ones that the bad mood just dissipates.

Dance party: The easy ideas aren't working, huh? Pick an upbeat song and have a dance party. Get moving, sing at the top of your lungs, and just be all around silly. It's hard not to laugh and have fun after a dance party. We love the Sesame Street station on Pandora.

5 minute break to reset: When our other tricks don't work or we're really upset with each other, Phee and I find it best to just start over. One of us leaves the room for a few minutes, we do something else, and then we come back and try again. Usually, we talk about whatever happened to get us to this point in the morning and we both feel better and ready to move on.

We've found that this list almost always works when we remember to use it. There are days here and there where we're just in a funk and nothing works. A lack of sleep usually precedes those mornings! How do you and your kiddos get over the morning grumpies and get your routine back on track?

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Run, Fun

It's been a whirlwind around here lately. Phee had camp last week and her school was closed part of the week to prepare for the new year. We're still adjusting to a completely new schedule for our family. Early mornings are a part of that schedule and this weekend it finally seemed to be a little bit better.

Saturday I hit a huge milestone in the Couch to 5K program: Week 5, Day 3 which is 20 minutes straight running. I meant to do it Friday, but pushed it off 'til Saturday and was glad I did. I got up early and did the whole 20 minutes with no problems. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I was quite pleased with my results. I'm extremely proud of myself.

This coming Saturday, I'm doing my first 5K. It's one of the fun ones, Run or Dye, and I'm quite looking forward to it. I've decided that I'm going to start out doing Week 6, Day 3 which is a warmup and then 22 minutes of straight jogging. I don't expect that to be the 2 1/4 miles that the app thinks it will be, but it will get me part of the way. After that, I think I'll go back to one of the easier walk/jog combinations to finish out the race.

I'd do more walking, but in the interest of brevity, I need to run more and get it over with. Saturday we're headed to the lake with some friends and I want to get there as soon as we can for lots of fun, swimming, grilling, and games.

Our friends found a huge lake house with lots of space and easy access to parks and the lake. We've joked about putting all three kids in one bedroom so that the four adults can all have their own beds. Ahhh, sleep. This house looks amazing, though, and I can't wait to get there and relax for a couple days. We've pretty much never done anything for Memorial Day or Labor Day because of schedules and now we have the opportunity and Doug and I are looking forward to it.

Do you have any fun plans for the last hurrah of summer this weekend? And do you have any 5K tips for me? I've never done a race before, not even walking, and, while I'm excited about it, I'm also a bit nervous.

Summer's End Sounds

I can't believe it's the last week of the summer already. The weeks seem to fly by faster and faster.

Phee's in acting camp this week and very excited to be doing a small performance of Annie on Friday. She only has two afternoons left in her current classroom and then the school closes for three days. Next Monday, she'll be in the last preschool class. It all happens so quickly!

Anyway, I'll be driving her back and forth to her morning camp which will have me in the car more than usual. I usually listen to the radio, but that's been getting old lately. At work, I listen to Xbox music or Pandora. I can't stand to have a quiet office all day. I don't know how my coworkers do it.

So, here is a last week of summer playlist to make the most of the last bit of freedom and fun before school starts, traffic gets worse, and everyone has somewhere to be.

Summer's End Sounds
(click the link if you have a Microsoft account and want to listen on Xbox music)

This Time Tomorrow The Kinks
Out of My League Fitz and the Tantrums
We the Common Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa Vampire Weekend
Ways to Go Grouplove
Sleepyhead Passion Pit
Cannonball The Breeders
Gold Soundz Pavement
Me + Yr Daughter Brite Futures
Over & Over Smallpools

What are you listening to while you're closing out the summer? I'd love to hear your favorites right now!

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Austin. Music. Live.

I've been going to a lot of concerts this year. In the past, I didn't go to much of anything, even though there are so many shows that come through Austin. Doug and I don't really like the same music. I mean, we like a lot of the same stuff, but when it comes to bands you want to go see live, we don't have a lot of overlap. So, I just didn't go.

Last year I got a pass to the ACL festival and went by myself. I had a friend that was going and we met up a few times, but I mostly spent the weekend wandering back and forth, hearing whatever bands I wanted to hear, having a blast.

And so this year, I started going to see bands I wanted to see. If you recall, back in April, I went to something like four shows in a month. Completely unheard of for me.

I wasn't always by myself, but when I was, it really wasn't a big deal. I don't know why I was so uncomfortable doing that before. In a crowd of people who are all together to see the same band and hear the same music, you're never really alone. There's such a great group experience in live music. Everyone has their own take on it, their own memories to recall and to make, but you've all just shared an evening, singing along, hearing your favorites, making friends.

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down taping for Austin City Limits

 Last night, I got to go to a taping for Austin City Limits. Talk about amazing. You walk in and there is that iconic backdrop of the Austin skyline. I've seen this show on PBS for years. I don't remember really watching a lot of full episodes, but I've caught bits and pieces for years. I have a VHS tape kicking around somewhere with Tom Waits episode on it from a re-airing. Phee and I rocked out to the Flogging Molly episode a couple years ago, well past her bedtime.

My favorite part of live music is the goosebumps. When you hear your favorite song, when you get that perfect mix of crowd, music, lights... those goosebumps are amazing. I love to be swept up in the moment. I come out of every show wanting to go to more.

Luckily, in Austin, there's never a shortage of bands to see. I've already got a handful of tickets for shows in the fall. I can't wait to get in the middle of the crowd again and feel the music.

Do you go to a lot of concerts? What's the best concert you've ever been to? 

ACL Fest 2013

Old Crow Medicine Show at Nutty Brown Cafe

Sarah McLachlan at Moody Theater

The Slakers at Flamingo Cantina

Vampire Weekend at Stubbs

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Strike!

We went bowling a couple weeks ago. It was Phee's first time and she absolutely loved it. Her enthusiasm and joy makes everything so much more fun. We had a great time, a million laughs, and through the first 5 or 6 frames, she was beating me. It would have been nice if we could have all used the bumpers! In the end, I was victorious. It was my birthday after all.

Linked up at A Star in My Own Universe.

34 looks good!

Happy birthday to me! 34 is looking pretty good, I think. I'm at one of those points in life where I feel like I fit my age. I'm comfortable and happy and excited for more.

I have such a great little family that is spoiling me this week. Phee and I are having a pizza and movie night tonight. We're going to watch princess movies that she hasn't seen yet and she can't wait. We've narrowed it down to The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. I've already warned her that I'll be singing all the songs no matter which one we choose.

Before movies, I get to have popsicles with Phee's class for their splash day. It's the second year in a row that her summer splash days fall on the same day of the week as my birthday. So, today it's bomb pops for everyone! She really wants me to come splash with them, but I don't think I need to sit at my desk soaking wet for the rest of the day.

I get to go out to lunch with my coworker Pam and our newly retired coworker Jean. Lucky her... she's been sleeping in every day for two weeks now and I'm quite jealous. It will be nice to catch up with her and see how she's settling in to her slower paced days.

Tomorrow, Doug has someplace fun picked out for a lunch surprise. I'm quite looking forward to that! After our regular relaxing Friday afternoon, we're picking Phee up early to go bowling. She's never been and I think it'll be a riot. And then, mmmm, then I get to have a lovely seafood dinner. Lobster rolls, I'm coming for you!

Saturday night, I'm going to see Sarah McLachlan in concert. You know that band you discovered in high school that was the first band you completely loved and you listened to over and over? That's Sarah. I first heard her in an episode of Due South. I carefully scanned the credits and found her name and bought Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. I think I wore two cassette tapes down before I got a CD. To say that I'm excited for Saturday night would be a gross understatement.

Clearly, I like to celebrate my birthday! I love getting to share my fun with my family and friends. 34 is looking like it's going to be another crazy year, but it's looking good, too. There are lots of things I want to do and Doug and I are always dreaming up new plans. I never know what's actually going to stick or what we'll actually find ourselves doing, but that's part of the fun. And it's always fun!

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Welcome SITS day visitors! So glad you've dropped by. 

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Restaurant Roundup

We're big fans of local and organic and love all the great farmers markets that are available around Austin. Buying Texas is a part of that so when my good friend Shelley invited me to attend the kickoff of Go Texan Restaurant Roundup week, I jumped at the chance. Go Texan is great program that promotes food and products from Texas. I love finding the little symbol on things I buy at the grocery store and knowing I'm helping local companies and farms.

Now, the Restaurant Roundup is a very neat celebration of the state. Participating restaurants have special dishes and drinks and make donations to food banks across Texas during the week. It's win-win if you ask me: delicious Texas food and support for thousands of people across the state.

The kickoff was at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. I love that museum and its awesome mosaic entryway floor. I feel compelled to take a picture of the giant star out front every time I visit. I've always wanted to go to an event there, so now I can cross that off my list!

There were a number of local restaurants and wineries sharing sips and bites as a preview of their menus this week for the Restaurant Roundup. Honestly, everything was just delicious. Some were favorites, of course, because how can you not thoroughly enjoy lobster rolls or pie?!

I'm a sucker for lobster and always will be. Absolutely delicious! And the homemade chips were light, crispy, and amazing.

I'm not generally a fan of pecan pie, but this is by far the best one I've ever had. I could have eaten many more!

The great thing? Restaurant Roundup isn't just in Austin, it's all over the state. So, if you plan on going out this week, I highly suggest checking out a participating restaurant because your taste buds will be pleasantly surprised!

What's your favorite Texas dish?

Perfectly cooked pork in this little slider. The sauce was so flavorful.

Great pasta dish! The zucchini mousse had an interesting texture, but the flavor was good.

How can you not love beer fried anything? Perfectly crisp and lovely with the sauce and slaw.

Tasty little bites. The goat cheese on the left was wonderful and the quail on the right was delicate and delicious.

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Birthday surprise!

 

This past weekend, I got an early birthday surprise. I knew Doug was planning something, but he hadn't given me a lot of info and I had no idea what to think. I had a bunch of guesses, but never did I guess that he'd get my best friend from Boston down here.

Colleen lived across the hall from me freshman year of college. She had a class with Doug that first semester, too, and we were all, with our friend Danielle, pretty much together all the time freshman year.

She transferred after that first year, though, and while I saw her when I was in NH to see Doug and while we were living in NH, I never saw her for very long. So, this long weekend was so much fun!

We ate way too much, played a bunch of games, went to a concert, hit Barton Springs and generally had a fantastic weekend. Happy early birthday to me indeed!


Linked up at A Star in My Own Universe, Random Mommy, Coffee Jitters, Feed Me Dearly, Mary Denman.

Fun & useful birthday party favors

This post contains Amazon Associate links.

We had Phee's birthday party a couple weeks ago. Don't worry, that whole post will be coming soon. It was a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work, too. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't come up with these crazy elaborate ideas. What can I say? I like a good party!

One thing I always struggle with is party favors. I don't like all the little 25 cent plastic junk. And I don't like bags full of candy either. Neither is particularly useful and honestly, we still have candy from Easter sitting on our counter.

In the past I've come up with ways to coordinate the favor to the party. The year that Phee had a Frosty the Snowman party (she's really a December baby, but we celebrated her half birthday with better weather this year) she made snowman sugar cookies and decorated them with fun snowflake sprinkles for her friends.

As she gets older, though, it's harder to come up with things that are inexpensive, fun, and not likely to lay around under beds and couches forever.

Here's what I've come up with and I hope that this list gives you some great ideas when it's time for your next party!

Fun & useful party favors

• Stickers (separate the pages of bulk sticker books)
• Decorative pens & pencils (bulk packs)
• Gel/glittery pens (bulk packs)
• Crayons/markers (shop the back to school sales)
• Craft stamps (check craft store clearance)
• Small coloring/activity books
• Books (match to theme of party, or check the dollar spot at Target)
• Mini puzzles (check the dollar spot at Target)
• Bubbles (check the wedding aisle at the craft store for a bulk pack)
• Sidewalk chalk
• Individual goldfish cracker/cookie/other snack packs
• Homemade cookies (decorated to theme)
• Individual craft projects (check the craft store for little projects, or multi-packs of themed projects) 
• Fun socks (match to theme of party, or check the dollar spot at Target)
• Homemade CD of favorite songs
• Sunglasses
• Mini Lego sets 
• Matchbox cars (separate a multi pack)

If you're looking for more party ideas, I have a whole Pinterest board! What have you found to be the best party favors? What do your kids prefer?

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Linked up at Just Us Four, P is for Preschooler, The Grant Life.