It's been awhile I know. Turns out having a 2 1/2 year old is hectic. I've come out of hiding though and found this new auction site, Listia, where you exchange credits instead of money. Being that everything is free, it may not be the best auction site you'll ever go to, but it's worth checking out.

If you sign up using my link below, you'll get an extra 50 credits on top of the credits they already give you for joining. You don't even have to give your credit info to sign up.

Shoot the Baddies certainly spices up target practice a bit.

I mentioned before the site Skull-A-Day, well The Ghoulish Gallery (right) is along the same "ghoulish" lines. You can actually buy these monsterpieces if you dare!

Awful Library Books -Pretty self-explanatory, it's real books with awful (and usually funny) titles

My husband sent me this link from one of his favorite blogs, Super Punch for unique business cards. From there I found another bunch like the ID card to the left at Paper Crave.

Check out these 3D sidewalk paintings by chalk artist Julian Beever over on Mighty Optical Illusions. The whole sight is very cool.

Posts may be sparse this month due to the fact that I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. I had participated once a few years ago but didn't make the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. I doubt very seriously that this year will be any different, especially since I got started late. However, I obviously like writing and thought it might be fun to try.

I'm up to 2430 words, which is a little discouraging but, again, it's just for fun. If, by some small chance, I were to make the goal, one of their sponsors, CreateSpace, "is offering all NaNoWriMo 2009 winners a free proof copy of your manuscript in paperback book form. They'll even cover basic postage!". Something to think about if you had a book idea rattling around in your head. Sometimes competition can be a great motivator.

My son's b-day is coming up, so I have been on the lookout for some unique gifts and thought I'd share my finds:



Polliwalks- I love these!!! It's getting a little late in the year for them now; but next year, I'm getting some for sure.


Funky Moose (UK) sells these adorable " daysacks". They have a cow one and turtle one too, all so cute. They actually have a lot of cute things, but I'm not big on ordering toys on-line just because you can find cool toys everywhere. These bags are a different story. Thanks to Giver's log for the find. She has a whole article on neat backpacks.


Apparently, I like the bee theme because I am also drawn to Kidorable's bee umbrella. You've probably seen Kidorable rainwear and things around, but thought I should mention it for those who hadn't.

I am so excited! I just signed up at Dad Can Do, a very cool site dedicated to help dads connect with their children by offering tons of craft/project ideas that dads can do with their children.

More specifically, Chris Barnardo runs the site and, in his words:

Dadcando.com is intended to be a resource resource for all dads, but with a special emphasis on helping the single and or non-resident fathers who have contact with their children (non-resident fathers are those who are separated, divorced or widowed, who live apart from their partner and do not have their children to live with them).

Though I am a married mother, my father had children from a previous marriage that I know he wished he'd been closer to before he passed. So, I find this to be a site and a cause, if you will, that is well worth supporting.

Of course, that is not the only reason to love this site. From a crafter's point of view, the project ideas are awesome. I originally happened upon it while looking for ideas for my Harry Potter Party and was blown away by the originality. I, honestly, looked everywhere for ideas and found that the ideas here were on a whole other level. Here are a couple examples of what I'm talking about:

Lumos Wand

& Box

Of course, projects are not limited to Harry Potter theme, there's Prince Caspian's Sword from C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, a papier mâché robot head from the movie Robots, an alethiometer from Golden Compass. Then there's spaceships and rockets and all kinds of paper plane designs.

My newest project happens to be a dinosaur party for my son and there's some great dragon stuff that I think could easily be tweaked for dinosaurs. For example:




This is just a taste of what this site has to offer. Dad Can Do also has recipes and party planning tips. It really is a must see site. I promise you will end up bookmarking this one.

I don't usually post on jewelry because I don't wear alot of it, but I came across these things and even I like them.

I love the stuff at HeadlessTessDIY on etsy.





Devil and Mouse has some great macabre jewelry that is perfect for Halloween. Of course, I'd wear them anytime.

I recently read Complete Party Planner by Annabel Karmel and was happy to see she also has a web site with fun and nutritious recipes for kids.

I thought I'd include a couple of my favorites with Halloween in mind:

Eyeball Cupcakes- Of course there are so many things you can do with cupcakes but I found these to be great inspiration.

Brain Cakes -How fun are these? I love, love, love them!

This week's art round-up is from Rive Magazine, including altered art Collage work by Alexander Korzer-Robinson:


I have done something similar a long time ago so, of course, I'm drawn to it. Mine (below) is actually an altered cigar box with a paper bag book, complete with removable shaker brain and trap door.

















Chadwick Tyler's Photography:

I love old glamor and the fact that this series of photos is haunting only heightens the appeal for me.

Printed tights by Studio m + o:

I wouldn't have ever thought to try and purposely put veins on my legs before, but there's something wrong about it that I love.

Record Silhouettes by Carlos Aires:



I also had to include this stop animation video by Bang-yao Liu:



Typically, I don't like adding videos but I did stop and watch this and was glad I did. At first I thought "who has time to do this?". Then I thought "I do" and yet I don't use my time doing anything as creative.

This googly eye pic gets my vote for funniest because I often wonder why the world can't be just a little bit more fun, like something from the movie Toys. So, this is as close as I get:

While I've been aware of sites where you can read books for free on-line, I haven't paid too much attention to them. I'm big on libraries and the old fashion idea of reading...with an actual book in hand. Frankly, I stare at a computer screen too often to want to read anything of real substance this way. I do, however, read blogs and forums, anything that can be done relatively quickly.

So, that being said Google books does offer free books, more importantly to me, they have some craft books. These are great for referencing once you have to take the real thing back to the library.

Titles include, The Michaels Book of Arts & Crafts and The New Book of Image Transfer just to name a couple.

Here's their complete list of craft books. Of course they have all kinds of books of every subject as well.

I found a new site that I'm loving! I've actually blogged about Crafty Nest before, but I just can't get enough. Check out some sample posts and bookmark her for sure. She rocks!

Postcard “tapestry” tutorial. This could just as easily work for photos or any kind of memorabilia.

faux capiz shell lampshade tutorial

Handmade stencils tutorial

Hanging Jar Lights- Super easy, but with big effects. You could use a wide array of jars and some wire.

Pants hangers + drawer pull picture hangers. This would be nice because the pics could easily be switched out and with a rapidly growing baby boy, I am looking for something I can keep updated quickly.

Wooden tissue box cover "transformed from eyesore to mod"

I do a lot of posts on crafts, but I haven't focused too much on arts. However, I was looking over on Free People's blog and it might have persuaded me to do so. Here's just a taste of some of the things I, personally, found inspiring:

This is Kelburn Castle in Scotland, which in June 2007 was partially painted by the Sao Paolo Crew, who are Brazilian graffiti artists.

I love this because I am constantly saying to my husband that the world should be more fun. My favorite part is, by far, the girl's face at the top. Even if you don't like this type of art, you have to admire it's uniqueness.

I found this new site I love. It's called 43 Things and it's just a list of things you'd like to do. The site helps you mark progress and gives you a little taste of others with the same goals. I like this idea a lot, especially after reading The Amazing Race's host Phil Keoghan's book, "No Opportunity Wasted". In it, he talks about making such a list and I've been keeping a rough sketch ever since.

My first goal:

I’m wanting to get tattoos to represent the elements. So far I have a dragon breathing fire. I have a memorial tat in mind to represent earth. I’m not sure about water and air just yet though I do have ideas. I think I’ve found who I want to do the rest, but she has a long waiting list. So I guess the next step would be to get on the list.

Of course, that's just fresh on my mind, but I have much grander ones to come.

At The Wurst Gallery's website you can see examples of artwork found at thriftstores that has been re-worked into personal masterpieces. You just mouse over the originals to see the new artwork. It's really a neat idea because so much of the artwork at thriftstores may never be bought and displayed again otherwise.

I have actually done a version of this myself, though I didn't actually incorporate the original so much as I just used the framing to make gifts for people. I didn't think to do before pics...unfortunately. Here is the final products however:




I Shop Indie is exactly what you might think. It's cool stuff made by artists. I really like it, though I use it more for inspiration than anything, as I do with most sites. here's some examples of their products: