September 2010
  

Sharing Time

If you're reading this in a Blog Reader, pop on over to the blog to see the links that are being shared for Sharing Time this week, or come on over & share your own :)

Blogging Vacation

I'm taking a bit of a blogging Vacation until the end of this month. I'll be back to blogging the first week of October, but until then I'll still be hosting Sharing Time, so you'll still be able to find some great posts around the blog world to keep you going until my return ;) And there will be a giveaway when I get back, too! :)

Winner of Easy Lunchbox System

Congratulations to the winner of the Easy Lunchbox System, commenter #30!



Thanks to everyone who entered, and if you didn't win, no worries- there's another Back to School Review & Giveaway coming up! :)

Sharing Time

If you're reading this in a Blog Reader, pop on over to the blog to see the links that are being shared for Sharing Time this week, or come on over & share your own :)

Burp Cloths



I sewed these burp cloths for a friend's baby shower a couple of months ago. I did a little better this time around than my first try, I think ;)



If you want some links with instructions on how to make your own, click here. They're not complicated to make, they're good sewing practice, and if you can find some cute fabric, they make adorable shower gifts (IMHO ;)

Photography Tip (Where's Your Light?)

Here's a quick little photography tip for those of you who are point-and-shooters.

Know where your light is! This is important for photographers of all stages, but if you just want a simple way to become more aware, just pay attention to where the window light is coming into the room you're in.

Talia demonstrated this for you, with two pictures of me in the kitchen in about the same spot- in the one on the left, the window is behind me, and in the one on the right, the window is infront of me.


She was using our Point & Shoot camera for both photos, on automatic. Big diffence between how well lit the two shots are, and it wasn't hard for us to move a little!

If you aren't already aware of where the light is, try to be & watch for the difference!

Back to School Lunch Boxes (Review & Giveaway)

Okay so it's Back To School Time!!!!!!!!!!! (why so many exclamation marks, Heather?) Because this is Talia's FIRST TIME GOING TO SCHOOL!!! Due to this fact, I am a nervous, excited, worried, hopeful Momma! Give me some time... I'm hoping to adjust.

One of the things I'm doing to prepare myself for this new chapter of motherhood is to come up with some sort of plan of action for school lunches. Thankfully Junior Kindergarten is only an every-other-day kind of a deal, so I get to work my way into making lunches.

My main concern with lunch planning is that I want Talia to eat healthy food, and to enjoy the food. It would also be cool if I could have fun packing the lunch... maybe even with her help sometimes.

I found two great Lunch Ideas Galleries- one from Easy Lunchboxes and this gallery on facebook, from Weelicious (it's great!)

When I first heard about the Easy Lunch Boxes system, I was impressed with the idea & excited to try it out. So, this week the package arrived & we are the new, proud owners of an Easy Lunchbox System! And I really do love it!


Granted school hasn't started (when this post goes up, it'll be Talia's FIRST DAY!), so we haven't used it for school yet, but I know it's going to be great! Here's why I love this system:

- The boxes are reusable & stackable for storage
- The lids to the boxes cover all of the compartments (so there's no leakage!)
- The boxes are sturdy & easy to open
- The boxes fit perfectly into the Easy Lunch Boxes lunchbag
- The boxes are microwave & freezer safe
- The bags have room for 2 boxes if you want, with room for an extra snack or drink
- The price is right!

Now, how are you doing with your plan for Back to School Lunch Boxes ?
Want a chance to win your own set just like this?

How to Enter:

Leave a comment for each entry!!

Mandatory Entry:

Visit EasyLunchBoxes.com, learn something about the product, and come back here to leave me a comment, telling me what you learned!

Extra Entries: (these are here to give regular readers an extra chance at winning- you don't have to be a follower if you don't want to be!)

Leave an extra comment if you're a Follower of my blog (scroll to the bottom of the blog to find the widget & click on the Follow Button); or subscribe to my RSS Feed

Leave a comment, telling me why you want to win!

Leave another comment if you "Like" Raising Memories on Facebook (this will give you updates about giveaways as well as specials with Heritage Makers)

Leave an extra comment if you Follow Raising Memories on Twitter (this will let you know when I've posted a new blog entry- that's all I use it for)

Post about the giveaway on twitter, your blog, or facebook, with a link back to the blog. (You can get 2 entries for this one, so post two comments to let me know you did it! :)

Giveaway Details: This giveaway closes on Tuesday, September 21st. The contest is open to the U.S. and Canada. A winner will be chosen randomly from all of the comments. Winner will be contacted by email (please include your email in your comment if I can't find it through your profile). If you do not respond within 48 hours after I email you, a new winner will be chosen. The winner will be announced on the blog on Wednesday, September 22nd. This was not a paid post- thank you to Easy Lunchboxes who supplied the product for review.

Facebook Freedom

Balance is something that seems to have been on my mind for years now! I suppose it will always be something that I'll be striving for, and working towards. Balance seems to be an elusive state that is always changing, but always worth working toward.

Last week, in an effort to help myself to limit time spent online (specifically, on facebook), I deleted almost all of my facebook friends. I just felt like Facebook was something I could do without, but not quite. So, I kept my facebook groups that help me to keep up with playgroup & book club events. I kept my family members that I keep in touch with through facebook over long distances, and I kept a small few friends who I don't communicate with much in other ways. I also kept my photography & Heritage Makers/Raising Memories Facebook Pages.

It has been rather freeing! I have missed some things about it (especially the convenience of sending someone a quick message through FB), but I can tell that it has made a good difference in the way that I spend time online, so I'm happy! (If I decide to quickly "check" FB, it really is quick! I don't get distracted by a list of updates. If you were a friend on facebook & have noticed my disappearance, this is why! Please don't feel offended- you're still my friend! ;)

Has anyone else made a drastic change to your Facebook situation in order to cut back on time spent online? Or thought about it? Have you made other changes? Let me know in the comments- I'm always interested to hear what others have done- you inspire me!

Sharing Time

If you're reading this in a Blog Reader, pop on over to the blog to see the links that are being shared for Sharing Time this week, or come on over & share your own :)

Secret to Soft & Chewy Rice Krispie Squares

We learned two secrets to soft & chewy Rice Krispie Squares & we wanted to share them with you incase you didn't know!

1. don't overcook marshmallows (stop cooking when they look like this picture)

This photo taken from eHow.


2. don't pack them into the pan

You'll be giving the final product a thumbs up :)


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Blossoming Cherry Tree

I love the Frugal Family Fun Blog. We got the idea for making a blossoming cherry tree with tissue paper from it.

I remember doing something like this in my childhood :) We used a pencil end & cut squares of tissue paper which we wrapped around the end of a pencil, then dipped in glue & stuck to the paper. On Frugal Family Fun, they just scrunched up tissue paper (probably would've been less frustrating for Talia to do it that way).



We also painted our scene whereas on FFB they used paper- I was going to use paper, but Talia wanted to paint, so we went with it.

We went to the window to take a look at the trees and see how there's only a bit of green grass and a lot of blue sky behind most of the trees, and then we painted our picture like that.


It was fun! :)

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Sharing Time

Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway for a $55 Shopping Spree at CSN Stores!


[My apologies for having posted the Link Up this week & having the wrong date on it! It's working now, so if you're checking back again, you can go ahead & add a link! And if you're looking for more ideas, feel free to browse through past entries here, or check out the other Sharing Time Link-Ups :)]

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