the child wrangler & $100 giveaway from Dreyer's Outshine

I'm thinking I should change my job title from stay at home mom to "child wrangler." As you may have noticed, my husband and I have five children, and they're great, fantastic kids. I'm incredibly grateful I get to be home with them full time, but . . . they do occasionally wear me out. Case in point: one day a few weeks ago I was grocery shopping with the two little kids. Grocery shopping with two little ones is certainly easier than grocery shopping with three little ones, which is what I used to do, but still, it can be tough. Especially when enforcing the "you may not run away from me in the store" rule results in making your nearly five your old ride in the cart instead of walking beside you. Which in turn results in him crying, which later escalates into him shouting that he hates you while you're trying to check out (and don't ask me why I insisted on finishing my shopping instead of just leaving the store. I guess I'm as stubborn as he is.) ***Keep reading for a chance to win $100!***

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pretty print blouse & puff pocket shorts {a refashioned wardrobe}

This is the last outfit in my little girl's refashioned wardrobe, and it's definitely my favorite. Her top is made from a blouse I bought for myself at the thrift store - I absolutely loved the print and the fact that it was so light and flowy. But I got home and realized a large portion of the neckline had frayed away from the seam and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. And so it went into the pile to refashion, along with a tan twill skirt that fit fine a few summers ago but is (alas) too tight now. (Keep reading for more photos and tutorial)

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winner! Creating Keepsakes Magazine subscription

We have a winner for the year's subscription to Creating Keepsakes Magazine. It's Nancy, who said "Love your magazine....would love to win a subscription!"

Nancy, please use to contact button in the upper right to send me your full name and address and let me know whether you'd like a digital subscription or a paper+digital subscription. Contact me by Wed May 8th to claim your prize - congrats!

disneyland tips&tricks: Disneyland on a budget

Yesterday I shared tips for beating the crowds at Disney, and today I'm sharing budget tips for your Disney trip. The main cost of your trip will be Disney tickets, and there aren't many ways to save on those since Disney controls the prices pretty closely. Tickets purchased in advance will be cheaper than at the gate, and a few sites offer $5 or so off each ticket, but for the most part what Disney charges is what you'll pay (unless you're a CA resident and can snag a Costco deal). BTW, people used to buy 5-day hopper passes, use a few days, and then sell the tickets with the remaining days on them for cheap on ebay. This won't work anymore, as Disney now photographs you the first time you use your hopper pass. (Keep reading for money saving tips.)

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disneyland tips&tricks: beat the crowds

So we just got back from a week at Disneyland. It was great, and I'm exhausted. Actually, we've been back for almost four whole days now. The laundry is all done, but the house isn't quite clean. I got it nearly clean, but then it got messy again...you know how it goes. Anyway, we had a great time. We've been to Disneyland a total of four times now, so I'm starting to feel like a pro. In case any of you have Disney trips on the horizon I've put together a couple of posts with tips and tricks for making the best of your vacation. Today's post gives my top tips for beating the crowds and having a good experience at the parks (including how you can ride Radiator Springs Racers without standing in line for 3 hours). Friday's post will give you my top tips for visiting Disney on a budget, so check back. (There's also a slew of Disney posts from last year - find them here, here, here, and here.) Keep reading for tips on how to beat the crowds at Disneyland.

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summer shortie and simple shrug {refashioned wardrobe}

I just have two more outfits to show you in my daughter's refasioned wardrobe, and this summer shortie is one of them. This outfit started with a gray blouse that I really loved because of the cute pleat details down the front, but that was just too short for me. It would have been simplest to turn the blouse into a dress for my little girl, but she has lots of dresses so I wanted something a little more practical for spring/summer playtime. (Keep reading for tutorial and more photos.)

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DIY herringbone tray

Hi all! I know it's Friday, which means you may have been expecting the last installment of 8 steps to better photos on AUTO, but I've been anxious to share this tutorial here, so better photos will be back next week and today you get a long overdue craft/decor post instead. (This post was originally shared at eighteen25.)

I present to you the DIY herringbone tray, intended for use as home decor or a cool photography background for small items. I love photography and I've created a couple of inexpensive DIY background boards so I can take great photos of my kids in my house, but I've been wanting a smaller, more interesting background board to help showcase some of the items I make and share here on the blog. So I created a bright turqoise tray with a herringbone design that works both as decor and as a photography background. I've been meaning to make a table runner since we revamped our kitchen but haven't gotten around to it, so the tray is currently adding a little pizazz to the center of my dining room table.

(Photo frame from a favorite book, Orange Dream Smoothie, baby dress from a women's shirt below) 

I LOVE how this tray looks, whether it's on my table, propped up against the wall above my piano (my faux mantle :) or in photographs. The materials are easy to get ahold of and inexpensive, and anyone can make this as long as you're willing to put in a little time. I've also made a much larger and simpler version that I'll share at the end of the post that took less than an hour start to finish. (Click through for instructions.)

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giveaway: 1 year subscription to Creating Keepsakes Magazine & some big news!

I spent half of last week at the yearly Editorial Board meetings at Creating Keepsakes Magazine, and l had a blast. We started the meetings by discussing results from the recent reader survey and in depth feedback from a focus group. Our goal was to figure out what our readers really want from the magazine, and then to give it to them. Of course different readers want different things, so there's a lot of variety and balance involved. We moved on to discussing trends in the industry and brainstorming ideas for future issues and bookazines (large special issues on sale at the newstand). AND we chatted about some big news you may or may not have heard already.

(Click through to hear the news AND to enter to win a full year's subscription to Creating Keepsakes Magazine.)

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