Color Outside the Lines: 31 Days of Creative Thinking

Every day in March, I’ll be posting a different “challenge.” These challenges are designed to spark or stretch your creativity in a variety of areas. One day you’ll be writing, one day creating something out of assigned materials. Another day you’ll be taking pictures, and on yet another you’ll be looking at artwork online. There will be one challenge posted every morning in March, followed by my results from that assignment. I’ll have a Flickr group set up for you to upload photos of your own results, or you can link to your blog.

Some days I’ll also be posting additional information. These won’t be actual challenges, but resources and ideas for growing your creativity, discussion topics, or fun tutorials.

And there will be giveaways.

I’ve got several sponsors lined up already for some fun giveaways that tie in with the event. These will be held right here, but some of them may involve clues from our Facebook or Twitter pages, or be shared there first. At the end of the event there will be a Grand Prize Drawing for a whole bundle of goodies! You’ll receive entries for every activity you participate in, so the more you join in on the fun, the more chances you’ll have of winning the Grand Prize. Some activities, like participating in discussions, will only have points available for a limited time. Others will have points available until the giveaway closes. (I’ll post a list of all the activities and the points they’re worth at the end of the event, but you may want to keep track along the way.)

I’ve been planning this event for several months now and I’m really excited about it! I’m looking forward to sharing these challenges with y’all, seeing what you come up with from the assignments, and learning from each other.

Let’s get you started right away on earning points for that Grand Prize!

5 points: Share this event online – on your Facebook page, your blog, etc. Be sure to leave me a link so I can come visit you!

2 points (exp 2/5 at noon): Add a comment below. Will you be participating? Will you have your kids join in? Do you have any questions? Any relevant comment works.

Meanwhile we’re working on building up our savings, talking about college and retirement funds, and trying to find good deals on the things we’ll need for the baby.

So much talk about money has been making my head spin! I wish there was some sort of MoneySupermarket where we could just go in and pull things off the shelf, comparing the little unit price stickers underneath each option as we went along.

“Let’s get this car – it’s got 5-star safety ratings, great gas mileage, and it’s on sale for a great price. It even comes in blue.”

“The college savings aisle is next. Oh look, the interest rate on this one is a lot better than the others. And I have a coupon!”

“Hmmmm. Which retirement plan? They come in bags, boxes, and bottles. Do you want fresh or frozen? Let’s just keep saving for awhile and maybe they’ll go on sale.”

“Oh, could you grab a savings account from the vending machine? Thanks, dear!”

“Looks like we’re ready to check out now. Don’t forget to give the cashier the reusable bags – we’ll get a credit!”

Yeah, it’s not that easy, but it’s fun to think about.

But, a new year brings a fresh start; I’ve dropped all the other weekly themes and will be picking up Thrift Store Thursday again. To get things started, I thought I’d link up two of my favorite finds that I shared last year – this pair of adorable vintage tap shoes, and these gorgeous lace pillowcases.

Next week I’ll start posting new finds again. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your recent thrifting adventures! Leave a note, or a link to your own blog post, in the comments.

• The event will last the entire month of March.
• It will include writing . . .
• And photography.
• It might involve sprinkles.
• There will be fun challenges . . .
• And lots of giveaways.
• I’m really excited about it!
• So you should be, too.

Curious yet?

Nothing, however, was going to stop me from making cookies. So I went on a search for brown sugar-less cookies and found these. They looked sooo tasty, and I had all the ingredients on-hand. Or so I thought.

Apparently we used the last of the baking soda (along with the last of the vinegar), while unclogging sinks recently. Which meant I didn’t have the proper leavening.

Not one to give up easily, especially when I already have half the ingredients mixed together, I decided to try a substitution. I know, I know, there isn’t a substitute for baking soda. But I went ahead and added more baking powder and figured it was worth a try. If it didn’t work, the worst that would happen would be flat cookies.

But it wasn’t a failure! The baking powder worked! Actually, when Michael came home, after he came back from Cloud 9 when he tasted the first one, he asked how I made the cookies so fluffy. Success!

I made the cookies 4 different ways – with m&m’s, with white chocolate chips, with miniature chocolate chips, and plain. The ones with white chocolate chips look the prettiest, but our favorite is the miniature chocolate chip version. I also want to try them with chopped bits of Andes mints. Mmmmm. That sounds delicious.

The original recipe can be found here, but I made a couple of very small tweaks to my batter and cooking time to come up with this:

Double Chocolate Cookies

• 1 C. soft butter (not melted)
• 1 1/2 C. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• 2 C. flour
• 2/3 C. cocoa
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• mix-ins, as desired

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Beat together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla till creamy.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Gradually stir into the butter mixture.

Mix in the chocolate chips, candies, nuts, etc.

Shape into 1″ balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a minute after removing them from the oven, then let them finish cooling on a wire rack.

I want to share that fun with you, so one reader is going to win part of my craft stash – supplies for making at least half a dozen cards – and my copy of the February 2012 Family Fun magazine, which is full of more great Valentine’s Day ideas.

So what’s included?

• 6 pink gift tags
• Red, black, pink, and patterned tissue paper
• Miniature clothespins
• 12 white cupcake liners
• 6 white envelopes
• 3 pages of sheet music with various love songs
• 6 small pieces of patterned paper
• 6 bookmark-sized pieces of scrapbook paper
• Red and pink heart confetti
• Ribbon, lace, and twine
• Hershey’s Kisses (A Valentine’s package HAS to have chocolate!)
• Anything else I may find to include between now and February 1
• February 2012 Family Fun magazine

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Seeing our little one has taken away the feelings of surrealism, those moments when I’ve wondered, “Have I just been dreaming and I’m going to wake up soon and realize I’m not actually pregnant?” It’s made it more real for Michael as well . . . last night he began really talking to the baby (which, of course, sent tears spilling down my cheeks). And being able to refer to our little one by name, rather than as “he or she,” or even as “the baby,” is also amazing.

Here are the very first pictures of our beautifully knit together little boy.

• Letterpress Monogram Stationery from Dahlia Press Shop
• Blotting Paper Booklet from Wiccked
• Envelope Seals from AngelaYoung1
• Custom Turned Fountain Pens by Esscott1
• Personalized Note Cards by Sweetgrassprints
• Kraft Envelopes from StraightHome
• Custom Address Stamp by Foryoo
• Wax Seal Set from KatrinaAlana

Okay, so you don’t actually USE the cards to write your letter, but you use the different suits as writing prompts. Kaitlyn from isavirtue explains how in this blog post on how to write a letter. It’s really a neat method, especially if you’re new to letter writing, or suffering from writer’s block.