DIY: 10 Minute Jewelry Boards
I love necklaces. Except when they're clumped and tangled, as most of my collection has been for some time now. I was planning on buying a cork board to make sense of the mess, and then this past weekend, as I stared disdainfully at furniture packaging that needed to be broken down for recycling, I had a light bulb moment: turn the large Styrofoam sheets into jewelry boards! It would save the effort of breaking down the material to fit into our recycling bin, and save me the cost of cork boards! Here's the how-to for this ridiculously easy and awesome project:
Today, Hillary of 
Today, 
Today, Jane (also of 
I'm a big fan of getting kids crafting; it doesn't need to be over the top and it absolutely shouldn't be stressful -- the point is to simply let your kid's creativity run loose with whatever you've got on hand...while also freeing you up for a stretch of quiet time. The holidays are a great time to inspire kids to create and give and today, as part of Asha and my 
Well, so. No school tomorrow. Last week was frightfully busy and my family is still recovering from the craziness of my fall travel, so this weekend I told myself, Don't work! Play with Jon and the girls! Work can wait until Monday! We enjoyed a lovely, lazy weekend and now here we are, with Monday (and possibly Tuesday) off. Part of me is a bit freaked out about all of the work I need to tend to, and part of me realizes I just need to embrace the adventure. So I thought I'd garner some inspiration from my own archives and also share them with you. Many of the ideas are fun to do with the kids while also being somewhat productive! Here's to hoping we've got power...and stay safe everyone!
Come this Saturday, three of my sisters will have married within seven months (!), and each celebration has served as a lovely way to reconnect with extended family. Which has prompted me to revisit my 
Today, 
Happy Monday everyone -- I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I also hope you are able to see this post, or, if you can't see it, that you will be able to see it soon. Last week I finished the server migration process and things have since remained a bit wonky for some folks (e.g., not being able to see the most recent posts, permalinks not working). However, thanks to the fantastic customer service of my site host, I think we have the last kinks ironed out -- thanks so much for your patience and to those who wrote in letting me know of tech trouble! Meanwhile, here are some handy/fun ideas to consider in this week's 
Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead -- if you observe Easter and/or Passover, I hope your reflections and celebrations are wonderful. I am off with Laurel today and she loves all things holiday projects so we have a 
Today, Hillary of 
Happy February! While I don't pay much attention to Valentine's Day from a commercial standpoint -- Jon and I don't exchange gifts -- the day does offer a fun inspiration point for crafts and food around our house. (Plus, I love the colors red and pink!) As I've mentioned before, I adore 
Hello everyone -- apologies for the radio silence! I considered posting from the road but decided to be present and immerse myself in 
Today, 
Hello friends! Per usual, the web was replete with interesting tips and inspiration this week. Here are some links that I thought you'd find interesting -- enjoy!
I recently wrote about getting back to basics with 
Hello everyone -- I hope you have fantastically relaxing plans for the Memorial Day long weekend! We're going to be staying local and keeping it low key since June will be a bit crazy, but at the very least, yummy food and fun and games with Laurel and Violet are on the docket. (Admittedly, hopefully we'll also chip away a bit at some household to do's.) Meanwhile, I thought I'd share 12 bits of web awesomeness to entertain you over the long weekend. Enjoy! 
Natalie Zee Drieu and I are virtual kindred spirits around all things stylish and crafty. In addition to sharing fabulous finds at her blogs 
Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be a bit quiet this week. It's my first school vacation with Laurel and Violet and I'm excited to spend some time relaxing with the girls. We're planning on seeing friends, climbing trees (I'm actually thinking about trying it), finding crazy ways to wrap presents, making the best lemon cake ever for my mother-in-law's birthday, and probably snuggling a lot while reading piles of books (Violet's proven an impressively captive audience so far). And if there's any time leftover, I hope to get a handle on some client work and do a little 
One thing that I quickly learned with Laurel is that her level of content is completely different depending on whether I'm doing something not-so-present such as, say, checking my e-mail vs. crafting alongside her. Of course, her favorite kind of time is when we're working on the same project (e.g., we're finishing a really crazy quilt right now -- Laurel has become impressively facile with my sewing machine!), but when she's working on something like latch hook or pot holders, I'm kind of left hanging. So I've been thinking of -- and getting excited about -- revisiting knitting.
If you didn't have a chance to watch 
I've always been a proponent of assessing and using what you've got instead of always buying new. And if you're looking for a little inspiration in this domain, tune in to 
Hands down, my best investment this year has been my 
Thanks to 
Wow, I truly cannot get over the awesomeness of 
My dad used to tell me that I should be a lawyer, diplomat, or talk show host since, well, I love to talk with people. And as it turns out, tomorrow I'll take a step closer to the talk show host thing. I'm thrilled to announce that starting tomorrow, I'll host a weekly live talk video show (like talk radio, but streaming live on the web...apparently you can also tune in via iPhone or iPad) called 
As I mentioned last week week, Laurel wanted a unicorn party for her sixth birthday. It suits me perfectly that she prefers small gatherings at home; we hosted a super fun unicorn party that was pretty low maintenance while still being utterly unicorn-tastic. Below is the how-to for pulling the party together. And thematically, you could swap elements to tailor the party to your child's interests (e.g., horses, dinosaurs, fairies, etc.). Enjoy!
Following a busy summer and lovely Labor Day weekend celebrating Laurel's birthday, it's been fun to get caught up on blog reading. Here are some links that caught my eye this week, and that I curated over at 
As a 
Next month will mark the second year of living in our not so new, new house, and we are just getting around to hanging things on the wall. Seriously. Part of the delay is attributable to uncertainty (and repeated testing) about where furniture should finally land, and part because some wall hangings required crafting. A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to assembling inspiration boards for my office and my workspace is now approaching a cosmic level of awesome. Read on for the how-to; these boards would be great in other areas of the home as well.
I've long been a proponent of 
Here are some lovely links that caught my eye this week around the web. Clearly I've got DIY projects (and travel) on my mind. I love this pretty 
Here's a roundup of inspiration as you plan for Easter and Passover. At Make & Takes, I love the 
If you’ve followed my February vacation week itinerary so far (and 
Though we’re very crafty at home, I love when Laurel comes home with new ideas from her art classes at school. And last week I was blown away by the awesomeness of this rosebud Valentine project. These Valentines are a tad time consuming if you make the hearts as big as Laurel did (about ¾ of a sheet of paper) so she’s just making a few for some special sweethearts. Alternatively, you could make them smaller (perhaps cutting 8.5 x 11” sheets of paper into four equal pieces and cutting hearts from those rectangles). The effect will still be spectacularly heartfelt. Here’s the how-to:
As a 
Marie LeBaron is a blog friend who I have yet to meet in real life, but we share a passion for crafting and food and I so admire all of the crafty awesomeness she shares on her site, 
Last month I guest posted about 
Per my role as a 
My friend Nooshi is truly impressive when it comes to hosting parties (whether they’re for grownups or kids) and her birthday parties for her son always are amazing. If you’re feeling up for a challenge, or simply want to glean a few of the basic ideas, check out the below write up of her son’s recent Outer Space Party. It is -- not surprisingly -- out of this world.
Today, 
I haven’t even begun to sort out Easter crafts or goodies for Laurel, but luckily some lovely other bloggers have done my homework for me. Here are some cool Easter/Passover/Spring craft and treat ideas that caught my eye around the web this week per Love These Links!, where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas. Enjoy!
My friend Nicola claims not to be terribly crafty, but she seems to have a knack for assembling super cute birthday parties. I’ve been meaning to post for some time about this teddy bear tea party she hosted when her daughter turned 4 years old. In a similar spirit to my 
Today, 
'Tis the season for craft love. Here are some crafty, Valentine inspired posts that caught my eye for my 3rd edition of Love These Links! (where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas). Enjoy! And if you have a fabulously crafty Valentine link to share, please feel free to comment in at the end of the post.
Pursuant to my recent 
Given my love of baking and crafting, I’ve always wanted to make a gingerbread house, and not surprisingly, Laurel is totally on board with this idea. In anticipation of today’s early school closing, I hunted for some leads so Laurel and I could enjoy some time plotting our gingerbread structures and making templates. Following are my three favorite how-to's, which have useful information for both novice and experienced bakers. I’ll also jot notes on our process in case we come up with any particularly brilliant or time saving ideas to share for future use. Happy building!
In chatting with other parents about how to handle post-Halloween candy distribution, my blog buddy Isabel Kallman over at 
Following my absurd foray into making Laurel’s 
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners:
Welcome to 
This past weekend we hosted Laurel’s 4th birthday party, and while it differed significantly from her previous parties in size (6 instead of 20 kids), it shared the same sense of themed imagination as in past years. Year 2 was an “everything yellow party” (all food and decorations were yellow), year 3 was a “rainbow color party” (
My friend Nooshi is amazing at identifying a cool party theme then really running with it. A couple of weekends ago she threw a marvelous Messy Party for her son’s third birthday and the party was unbelievably fun and beautifully creative. Here’s a run down of how she made it all happen:
I firmly believe that everyone’s got a little creativity at their core, and sometimes all that’s needed to unleash the creative beast is the right canvas. And for those who love hosting parties but need a little help figuring out how to personalize the details, there’s 
When we finally got around to transitioning Laurel out of her crib a few months ago, it was a joyful (for her) and emotional (for me) moment. Despite being decidedly short on leisure time, I decided to commemorate the occasion with a quilt, and found excellent inspiration in 
If you’re looking for a fun project to do with older kids, consider finger knitting. My ultra crafty sister-in-law (as in, she spins and dyes her own yarn) showed me this technique recently; the process is perfect for mamas and kids because it’s needle-free and fast, particularly if you use a bulky yarn (this 
