Make and Takes » Reviews

Brushing Up On Your Art and Design Skills

Marie — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:41:17 +0000

You may not need skills for learning nunchucks, bow hunting, or computer hacking like Napoleon Dynamite, but you may need these art and design skills taught at The Art Weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 5-7th.

The Art Weekend is a weekend set out to help you learn and grow in what you already love to do. It’s brought to you by the talented hosts, Nicole from A Little Sussy and Alma and Mike from Loveland Misc. If you’ve been wanting to learn how to take better photos, photoshop your photos, or illustrate your own photos, then you’ll want to make sure you’re there. There’s also classes on flower arranging, starting an etsy shop, book binding, paper cutting (or the correct and fancy name Scherenschnitte), and many more. Each class is ala carte, so you can just take one or two, whatever fits your time frame and needs.

Click here to learn more and click here to sign up. Make sure you don’t miss out on this chance to learn some great skills from the best.

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Giveaway: Dillon Rogers Jewelry

Marie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:16:12 +0000

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered. The winner of the Dillon Rogers giveaway is #63 Nicole. Congrats, I’ll email you the winner’s information. Have fun shopping!

I’m so excited that Dillon Rogers is here today with a really fabulous giveaway. They specialize in personalized jewelry, of the beautiful kind. Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find.

Dillon Rogers is here to giveaway a $125 gift certificate to their shop, yes I said $125. You can get something fun for yourself or even get some Holiday shopping done early. I know a few Grandmas who would love a beautiful charm of their grandchildren!

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Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win a $125 Gift Certificate to Dillon Rogers, leave a comment on this post by Monday October 26th @ midnight. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Tuesday morning October 27th. Good Luck!

Extra Entries – enter a new comment for each extra entry telling what you did:
- Become a facebook fan of Make and Takes
- Tweet this giveaway and follow @makeandtakes
- Join the Make and Takes Flickr Group
- Subscribe to Make and Takes RSS feed

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Embrace Your Inner Trailerpark

Marie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:47:37 +0000

Michelle Lamar, a dear friend and fabulously funny blogger, sent me her book to review, The White Trash Mom Handbook: Embrace Your Inner Trailerpark, Forget Perfection, Resist Assimilation into the PTA, Stay Sane, and Keep Your Sense of Humor. I mean, it says it all in that title.

Michelle is not really “trashy”. In fact, she’s as nice as pie and wicked smaht! But she was tired of living up to someone else’s standards of a “perfect mom” set by the community, especially in her child’s school! I’ve felt it, maybe you have too. So in this handbook, Michelle is dispelling these myth of perfection, in a humorous and real way.

Here’s a few topics of discussion from the handbook. See if this sounds like you:

Faking it for the bake sale
Your kids will be in therapy, deal with it
You and the local pizza guy exchange Christmas cards each year
Your kids think cheese comes from a can
Your child has been the last one picked up from school (me, but only once, it was a sad day!)

Thanks to Michelle, we can feel better about being who we are, a mom who is doing her best, and not conform to a standard set by those who think they are the authority. Check out White Trash Mom’s Handbook and feel better about being you.

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Piddix Clip Art for Crafts

Marie — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:38:24 +0000

I’m excited to share with you one of Make and Takes sponsors, Piddix. This fun etsy shop sells clip art images with many designs to buy, perfect for your crafting needs.

Whether you’re making a scrabble tile pendant, bottle cap art, or glass marbles, these images are the perfect size and shape. They offer sheets and CDs of images, and even postcard size designs. With one of a kind original designs, these images are ready to print out and add to your craft. They’re “high quality, royalty free images”!

Many of Piddix’s designs are given a vintage feel to make your crafts look timeless. I love these vintage Santas above, and those classic Wizard of Oz images bring back childhood memories.

So head on over to Piddix’s etsy shop and see what other fabulous designs they have to offer for your crafting needs!

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Talking to Your Kids About Abuse

Marie — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:08:09 +0000

I was recently sent a children’s book to review entitled, My Body Belongs to Me by Jill Starishevsky. It’s a heavy topic, but I think this book helps give parents a platform to start a discussion about the important issue of abuse.

The author is Jill Starishevsky, a New York City child abuse and sex crimes prosecutor. She has seen many cases where the children never told anyone what happened and suffered in silence. So she decided that there needed to be a better way to introduce this into families, helping parents and children form communication of trust. This is where her book comes in. It’s designed to start a conversation with your children about abuse, in an inviting way.

I was able to read this to my 6 and 4 year old children and talk about what “my body belongs to me” means. I told them that no matter what, they could tell me anything they wanted and they would never get in trouble. And I made sure to tell them that if someone does something to them they aren’t comfortable with, to say so, tell me, their teacher, their grandparents, anyone they’d feel comfortable telling.

I even took this book around to parents in my neighborhood to see what they thought about it. Every single one of them said they’d read it to their children. One mother said that this type of abuse was in her family and that she has already been talking with her daughter about it. She said that this book would be a great way to show kids that it is okay to tell someone.

What do you think? Is this something you’d read to your kids? Are your kids ready to talk about abuse? Are YOU ready to talk about abuse?

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Getting Fit With the Right Running Shoes

Marie — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:34:16 +0000

I’m a runner. Or at least I have been in the past and want to start up again. But I’m in desperate need of a good pair of running shoes. I’ve been running on the same pair for almost 3 years. So gratefully, Get Fit in Utah invited me to come in and check out their shop, finding the right pair of running shoes for me.

As I run (okay… walk/jog), do aerobics, and hope to run a race or two next year, I need to find the best style of shoe for me. Brian, the owner of Get Fit, answered all my questions. We started out with a Thermal Foot Scan. This helps to see what the bottom of the foot is like: is it arched, flat, neutral. Turns out I have pretty neutral feet, but I learned that no two people are the same. There’s all kinds feet and all kinds of shoes to support those feet. They did a fantastic job making sure I left with the perfect shoes for me.

“Get Fit Athletic Wear specializes in the latest running, cross training and trail shoes from the industry leaders. Our state of the art store is equipped with technology that allows the fitness specialists to analyze your specific arch type, gait, and movements when you walk or run. Based on the analysis, the specialist will offer you a variety of shoes to fit your personal characteristics and taste in design. You will have a chance to try out your choice of shoe on an in-store treadmill before you make your purchase. We won’t let you invest in a pair of shoes unless they are “fit” for you in the best sense of the word.”

I tried on about 8 pairs of shoes. Even the same brands had different types of shoes. I thought I’d leave there with Nike or Asics, but I left with a shoe that I’d never heard of before called Saucony. Turns out they’ve been around for years and are regarded as a fabulous running shoe. I love them. They fit my workout style perfectly. I even got to test my stride in these new shoes with their “treadmill cam”. I walked the treadmill and could see what my feet were doing on the TV in front of me, making sure they had enough support.

Here are my new babies! My old shoes were sad sad sad! I didn’t really know how bad I needed new shoes. So thanks to Brian at Get Fit for making sure I had the right pair for me. Hood to Coast 2010, here I come!

Are you in need of a new pair of athletic shoes? You can follow Get Fit on twitter, check out Get Fit’s blog, or join their facebook fan page to get the latest news, sales, and updates.

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Creating a Blog Audience by the Crafty Pod

Marie — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:37:58 +0000

Diane from the Crafty Pod, shares all sorts of great crafts, tutorials and podcasts. She’s just come out with an ebook called Creating a Blogging Audience: An Unconventional Marketing Guide. There’s helpful information for marketing yourself, gaining a loyal audience, and how getting your readers to come back. It’s a good read for all types of blogs, but it’s great for a blogger sharing crafty information. Head on over to the Crafty Pod and pick up a copy today.

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Become a Startup Princess at Touchpoint

Marie — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:01:42 +0000

I’ve talked about Startup Princess before, but I’m excited to share what they’re up to now. As some of you may know, Startup Princess was founded by Kelly, a woman and mother inspired to help other women entrepreneurs fulfill their business dreams. It can be a tough world out there for someone forming a startup business, and Kelly has put together a website that provides support and guidance from experts (fairy godmothers), mini classes, and conferences.

Their annual day conference Touchpoint, is coming up in just 3 weeks in Salt Lake City, UT and let me just tell you the fabulous women entrepreneurs in the line up!! Are you ready…

Heather Bailey – Yes THE Heather Bailey, the designer and creator of her own line of fabric, paper crafts, and sewing patterns. I can’t tell you how many fabulous sewing projects I’ve seen using her lovely designs. She’s coming to share the goods on how keep creativity alive in business and life.
Janice Croze – the twin mastermind behind 5 Minutes for Mom. Janice and her sister Susan, have formed a fabulous online community for women and mothers. She’ll be sharing information on how to build relationships and partnerships, something we all need to help our companies grow.
Amy Rees Anderson – Founder and CEO of Medi-connect Global. Amy grew this amazing company to what it is today. She’ll be sharing ways to help strategize your business!

And that’s only to name a few. It’s going to be quite a day filled with great information and networking! I’ll be going to support my local art boutique, and to showcase a new M&T adventure I’ve got in the works (more details to come soon!) There’s even a boutique showcase at the end of the conference where you can sign up to sell and show off your own goods.

The best part: here’s a super special coupon code!!! If you sign up with this special Make and Takes code, just for you, you’ll get $10 off the price. You’ll only pay $89 to get in to the Touchpoint conference and hear from amazing and inspiring women.

CODE: makeandtakes

If you’re coming, let me know! I’d love to meet you and find out more about what your startup business is all about (don’t we all have some sort of idea rolling around in our heads?!)

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Holding on to Summer as Long as I Can!

Marie — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:06:59 +0000

With school making it’s way to our house next week, here’s a few things helping us hold on to Summer just a little bit longer!

Pura Vida – This site lives and breathes Summer. I’m loving these egg carton sea creatures and this cantelope ice cream dessert looks delicious!
My Happy Life is whipping up some yummy smoothie pops.
No Biggie has a fun twist on serving watermelon, squeeze on some lime!
Old Red Barn Co. – I love that this family is such an outdoorsy type family. These magic potions look all too fun to create.
French Knots shares her family field trip to a free local water park. I love that these fun parks are popping up all over. There’s a few in Utah scattered around. We’ll be hitting up this Highland water park this week!

What Summer fun are you having before school begins? Or has class already stared for your kids?

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Giveaway: Storytelling with Cherish Bound

Marie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:16:59 +0000

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered. The 3 winners for the Back to School Giveaway from Cherish Bound are: #4 Lindsey, #65 Renee, and #16 Katy. Have fun with storytelling!

I had the opportunity to go to a mini storytelling festival sponsored by Cherish Bound a few weeks back. They’re getting us ready for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival held yearly in Orem, Utah, coming up in the next few weeks. This Storytelling Festival is a 20 year tradition in which famous and fabulous storytellers come from all over the world to tell their tales. If you’re going to be in the Utah valley Sept 3-5, stop by to hear a tale or two!

To help celebrate the upcoming Festival, Cherish Bound wants us all to get in on the storytelling fun by giving away some storybooks to you. Their company specializes in helping you create a family storybook that will be cherished for years. You choose your style and create your story. You can use your own words or those from your kids, then add in pictures to complete the tale. Now you’ve got your own ‘cherished bound’ book!

The storybook I chose to make is a Family ABC Book. What I did for my story is I took pictures from our family photos and corresponded it with a letter from the alphabet: B is for Ball, C is for Cookies, Q is for Quilt, S is for Sledding. Now my kids can look at this book and see themselves in the pictures, reading it any time they want, seeing their story in the alphabet!

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Today, Cherish Bound is giving away 3 gift certificate packages for you to make your own story. There’s a $100, $75, and $50 gift certificate prize for 3 winners. I’ll randomly pick the first, second, and third places winners when it’s time to pick. And they’re also giving away a coupon for everyone else to enjoy and join in the storytelling fun. Send an email to cb{at} cherishbound.com and mention “Make and Takes” blog and they’ll give you a free activation code, wahoo!

Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win one of three Cherish Bound Gift Certificates, leave a comment on this post by Monday August 17th @ midnight. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Tuesday morning August 18th. Good luck and have fun telling stories.

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