10 Day WE CAN DO THIS Countdown to 2011 - #1 Be Brave

"I am not afraid ... I was born to do this. " - Joan of Arc

After 9/11 we packed an emergency suitcase in the trunk of every car and had a plan that in the event of a national emergency all family members would drive west and meet up somewhere beyond Hershey, PA.

We had no specific destination, but thought when we reached an area where people were familiar with Skoal tobacco, GEDs and fishing with dynamite we would be safe.

We kind of pictured ourselves becoming the kind of survivalists we knew from the Discovery Channel, Eddie Bauer ads and Stephen King books; creating a new world order in some rarely visited national park - living on dandelions and mole crickets.

After a while some of these fears subsided a bit, but it did leave me with the certainty that being BRAVE is an extremely important attribute.

Fear keeps us from making decisions and creating change and if we wait for the fear to go away, we may always be left waiting.

So in 2011, I resolve to be BRAVE.

(note- this does not include my completely appropriate fear of stink bugs, closed shower curtains and cats that don't blink)

*fearless card by happytimesco

One Gift Into Two - doing more with less through charitable donations for the holidays

If you are still looking for a last minute gift- charitable donations in someone's name are an amazing way to turn 1 gift into 2!

For as little as $5.00 you can give a gift that helps a child grow out of gangs in Honduras.

For $12.00 you can provide 20 pounds of multi-purpose soap through oxfam.

$20.00 provides art and music supplies and instructions to an impoverished child through worldvision.

$25.00 lets you sponsor a No Mo Chemo party at St. Jude's!

$50.00 gets you 50 trees planted in Brazil's Atlantic Forest through the Nature Conservancy.

200 dictionaries for students in Africa can be donated for $75.00 through Books for Africa.

$100.00 gets a family's new home a kitchen sink through Habitat for Humanity.

Justgive gives you the opportunity to make your donation locally.

Charitychoice allows the recipient to choose the charity.

Lots of great charitable ideas instead of buying Uncle Elmer another tie for his tie drawer this year!

A Holiday Stack of Goodies!

1. giant gumball machine
2. etch a sketch ipad case
3. handmade leather football
4. native shoes
5. spool scarf
6. mumford & sons cd
7. best made first aid kit
8. fuji 3d camera
9. land carpet
10. photo day planner
11. balloon dog toy

An amazing holiday stack of goodies from my favorite wedding photog and stacker of all things stackable Kella MacPhee

Upcycled Gift Tutorial Week # 5 - Repurposed Rubber Stamp Jewelry

If you are a crafty mama, you have probably rubber stamped a scrapbook page or two or rubber stamped something or other and now have a bunch of stamps gathering dust in a drawer somewhere.

(or maybe things in drawers don't actually gather dust, but you get the idea)

I recently made this little bat necklace for a vampire freak - although I do know that today's vampires do not actually turn into bats (the vampire freak loved it anyway) and that the bat thing is just an old vampire myth that real vampires, like my girl Sookie (and yes, again I realize that Sookie is not really a vampire ... yet) are busy dispelling.

Anyhoo, this is a very quick and easy jewelry gift idea for those rubber stamps that you would like to use in a new way!

This would also make a great keychain with a keychain ring in place of the neck chain!

You will need:

1. an old rubber stamp
2. permanent markers (easiest) or paint, chalk, sealer
3. washers and eyehooks
4. drill for starter holes
5. some sort of chain, cording or ribbon, some beads and baubles



1. you can either permanent marker the stamp 'picture' or paint or chalk it (if painting or chalking you will need to seal it with a clear sealer) - you may also decide the back of the stamp is where the really amazing picture is and use it backwards
2. drill a starter hole
3. screw in your eyehook and washer
4. add beads and baubles
5. add chain or cording