Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Two {Write a List Post}

I'm still playing catch up on the challenge hosted by Mariana from Riding with No Hands.  On day two our homework consisted of writing a list post.  Oh yeah! I love making lists so I knew I could really get into this one. I probably make a new list every single day so bringing that over to my blog occasionally (maybe weekly) would be a lot of fun for me.  I really enjoyed this task and wrote about 14 Craft Sites for Inspiration for my Crafty Tuesday post.

The second step in our homework was to update our blogroll. I've read elsewhere (maybe ProBlogger?) that you want to keep people on your blog as long as possible so putting your blogroll on a separate page or at the bottom of your page is a good idea.  I'm not really great at html formating and I knew I wanted to break my link blogroll into categories, so I decided to move the whole thing to the bottom of my page. Take a scroll down there when you're done reading and look at all the great blogs I love to read and share with you.

If you have a blog and would like to be added to my blogroll (button or link), just let me know and I'd love to add you!

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Two {Write a List Post}

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Crafty Tuesday - 14 Craft Sites for Inspiration

Welcome to another edition of Crafty Tuesday.  This week you won't find me crafting but instead I'm going to share with you some of the best places I've found around the net for craft inspiration. Some of the sites are geared solely for children, some for grown-ups (we all still have fun being creative right?) and some have a mixture for both.  Let's get clicking!

Find Some Craft Inspiration and Get Crafty!

1. No Time For Flash Cards:  She has crafts and activities for kids of all ages that are not only fun but educational too.
2. The Crafty Crow:  A round-up of some great children's crafts from around the net.
3. Art Projects for Kids: Art lessons for kids of any age. If you have a child really into learning about art you won't want to skip this site.
4. Craft Jr:  Crafts, recipes and party ideas for kids through teens
5. One Crafty Place: This site is closed now but there is still a great archive of crafts and recipes to make for and with kids.
6. Little Birdie Secrets: Crafts for kids and grown-ups and some really great tutorials.
7. One Pretty Thing: I love this site! It's another round-up site of great crafts from around the net - just fantastic content. There is sure to be something there for everyone!
8. Homemade by Jill: She has such cute ideas. When I visit I have a huge desire to run out and buy a sewing machine and try everything she has posted. If you sew, this site is for you!
9. Knock Off Wood: Not really a crafting site, more of a DIY building site. She has a great tutorial to make a set of clip art rails for you to hang all the art work made by your lovies.
10. Cooking Up Crafty Fun: All sorts of fun crafts and fun recipes!
11. Make and Takes: An endless supply of creative ideas for you and your children.
12. Plumpudding: Crafts & recipes for kids and grown-ups too.
13. Skip to My Lou: One of the first crafting sites I ever followed - she has some really great ideas and some of the best teacher appreciation ideas I've ever seen!
14. DianeDenmark: Last but certainly not least - she's one of my fellow Crafty Tuesday friends. Diane shows you that you can even make a great craft in just 15 minutes!

I hope you enjoyed this list and maybe you've found a few new favorites to add to your reader. Do you have any favorite craft sites you visit for inspiration?

 Now that you've been inspired go get crafty!

Did you create a something for Crafty Tuesday? Link up here:

Crafty Tuesday - 14 Craft Sites for Inspiration

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Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day 1

 Day One - Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog

“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).” – Wikipedia

Since last Friday I've been reading a series of blog posts written by my friend Cathy from Let's Be Green Together.  She's been participating in a Blog 'Spring Cleaning' Challenge hosted by Mariana from Riding With No Hands. Every post that has been written so far, I've read and thought oh I should do that or oh that's a great idea! Finally yesterday I started asking a few questions and this morning I decided to take the plunge and join the challenge. What do I have to lose other than the opportunity to learn something and possibly make my blog better. I'd be foolish not to participate right?

This morning Cathy offered to be my sounding board and help me work through some things about my blog.  I've known before this challenge that I really needed a tag line for my blog. When I decided on the name of my blog I felt it was a good choice for me but making a tag line was very difficult to come up with after the fact. We bounced some ideas back and forth, she asked some questions and we she came up with the best tag line for my blog -

Somewhat Normal, Mostly Unusual, Always Authentic  

Don't you just love it? I do! I think it fits me and my blog perfectly.  Thank you again Cathy!

I took a break after that to think about my blog and do some reading over on the ProBlogger site. I've really been struggling with my blog lately. To me it felt like I had no direction over here and I didn't know what to write about or what was okay for me to write about.  After reading I made a few lists and while the things I write about aren't going to drastically change I realize now that my blog has always had a direction I just wasn't aware of it. Once that was out of the way Cathy and I again spent sometime chatting (her cheering me on and really pushing me to be bold) and I think with her help I was able to come up with a pretty good pitch.

Hi, I’m Krista! Your resident eco-chick, craft loving, organizational freak and a rock star in the kitchen! I'm also a fantastic mom - just ask my kids! I love learning and sharing new ideas for natural parenting and creative family fun on a budget. So come back often and see what I’ll be rambling about next!


Speaking of rambling, one blog just wasn’t enough. You can also see what I’m cooking and organizing next at:


Home Organization 365


To Cook or Not to Cook

So what are your thoughts? Tell me what you think. If you're reading this I want to hear from you!

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day 1

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Menu Plan Monday - March 7 - 12

It's going to be a busy week for me as I have Miss. bean's 10th birthday party to prepare for and next week is March break. I am going to try to get a lot accomplished this week so next week we can hopefully go do some fun things. Therefore this week is relying heavily on a cook once eat a few times menu. Hopefully the less I have to worry about cooking the more I can get things checked off on my list.

Hope you all have a fantastic week, it seems like spring is starting to settle in most places - enjoy it!


Toddler Menu {Monday - Friday}

Lunch: 

• Monday - Quesadilla
• Tuesday - Chicken nuggets and oven fries
• Wednesday - Pasta in tomato sauce
• Thursday - Healthy Baby's First Pizza
• Friday -  Small Monkey Platter

Snacks:

• Monkey Platter
• Orange wedge & Almond milk
• Yogurt and Graham crackers
• Banana bread and Almond Milk
• Bread sticks & Avocado Dip 

Regular Cooked Menu {Monday - Friday}

Please note - I use organic, local ingredients when possible. Also the recipes usually call for all- purpose flour. I usually use a mix of 1/2 whole wheat & 1/2 white or just all whole wheat. Remember a recipe is just something to go by, feel free to change them up for health/your family's tastes.

Breakfast:

• Monday - Oatmeal, juice or milk
• Tuesday - Waffles, juice or milk
• Wednesday - Homemade fruit bread, yogurt, juice or milk
• Thursday - Oatmeal, juice or milk
• Friday -  Scrambled egg sandwich, juice or milk

Lunch: 

• Monday - Tuna sandwich, crackers and cheese, Clementine, popcorn, juice & water
• Tuesday - Salad, strawberries, yogurt, juice & water
• Wednesday - Egg salad sandwich, apple slices, celery with cream cheese, juice & water
• Thursday - Salad, orange wedges, pretzels, fruit bread, juice & water
• Friday -  Bagel with cream cheese, yogurt, veggie sticks & pieces of fruit, juice & water

Supper:

• Sunday - Potato Sausage Skillet, Salad
• Monday - Baked Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli
• Tuesday -  Grilled Ham & Cheese (on homemade bread), Crudités
• Wednesday - Ham & Potato soup, Cornbread, Steamed Veggies
• Thursday - Crock pot French Dip on Homemade Baguettes, Coleslaw 
• Friday -  My daughter's 10th birthday - we're doing build your own pita pizzas, veggie & fruit trays, various snacks and ice cream cake (using regular Oreos and strawberry ice cream)

Need more menu planning ideas? Then head over to Laura's @ I'm an Organizing Junkie. Also if your interested in more vegetarian, flexitarian or whole foods menus please check out Jenna's Mindful Menus.

Menu Plan Monday - March 7 - 12

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