Handmade, Eco-Friendly Toys

I stumbled across the most adorable, handmade wooden toys on Etsy and had to share them with you!

The husband and wife owners of Friendly Toys created their beautiful selection of environmentally-safe, handmade wooden toys when their daughter was born. They wanted eco-friendly toys that were attractive (even lovely enough for adults to display on a shelf) and fun enough for children to enjoy for generations.

I ordered my baby this wooden pull-toy dog and cannot wait to get it! He'll absolutely love toddling around the house with this little guy pulling along with him.

This precious walrus chew toy (like all of their toys) is made from birch wood, raw linseed oil, beeswax, "Old Fashioned Milk Paint," and linen rope. As a mommy, I like knowing exactly what is used on my baby's toys and that it's perfectly safe for going into his mouth (because everything does).

I almost got this fish puzzle-- how unique and cute is he?

Another of my favorites-- Elephant Puzzle

My four year old has enjoyed looking at all the neat toys in the Friendly Toys Etsy store and this tractor-trailer is his favorite! Any little boy would be ecstatic to find this under the tree.

I can speak from experience that Friendly Toys provides excellent customer service! I'm very particular about how the customer is treated because my husband and I have a small business and we aim to follow the Golden Rule. That's why I feel great recommending this company to you.

Now for the best part!

One of you will receive a 25% off coupon (for one item). 

Leave a comment telling me what you want Santa to bring from 

Friendly Toys. 

You must be a follower or subscriber to enter and don't forget to leave your email address too. 

I'll pick a winner on Thursday.

Note: After discovering this company, I was provided a free wooden toy in exchange for reviewing the shop.  All opinions are completely mine and 100% honest.

A Thanksgiving Ideas Collection

The big Turkey Day is coming up quickly! This is the first year in (forever) many years that I'm not hosting The Meal or really cooking much at all. We're going to my sister's and she's doing almost everything, bless her heart. Jeremy and I just have to show up with the kids and a pie-- we've been fist-pumping for days now!

What about you-- doing the cooking or showing up? They're both fun... one option just means a whole lot more work.

As long as I get to watch a parade, a dog show, eat at least two pieces of pie and veg out on the couch, my Thanksgiving will be complete... and talk about all the many blessings I have to be thankful for, of course.

Enjoy my little collection of projects I've gathered with a Thanksgiving feel. Isn't it the perfect holiday?

Autumn Burlap Tie Wreath

Reverse Applique Table Runner and Nature-Inspired Table Setting

Thankful Activity for the Thanksgiving Table

Funny Templates for Thanksgiving Shirts

Crustless Pumpkin Pie and Free Printable

Colorful {Blessed} Mantel

Chewy Molasses Cookies

Firecracker Bathroom Cabinet (Before and After)

Did you catch my bathroom makeover? It's kinda epic and it's right here.

I wanted to talk a little bit more about this Craigslist cabinet. 

It is solid wood and has lots of shelves (which I did not paint, by the way). The insides are just as we found them. What had to go was the shiny, shiny, could-see-yourself-in-the-reflection finish.

And the gold hardware and the broken railing on top.

Other than those things, what a find, huh!?

Craigslist + me = BFFEAA

This took several hours of late-night sanding (a lot of it by hand because I didn't want to buy a special tool for the grooves).

We removed the hardware and doors, then hit the hinges and pulls with my new favorite thing: spray paint for metal. I threw away the can, but it was Rustoleum in a hammered finish (bronze?).



I'm a believer. The metal really looks hammered.

Then, I painted it (with a brush)-- it took two coats-- with Firecracker by Valspar.

Committing to this hue really did take 45 minutes of standing in the paint aisle with two samples and deliberating over the pros and cons of subtle verses bold. I even handed the guy mixing the paint the other color then came back before he'd mixed it and switched at the last minute.

But you know what? It's only paint. If I had hated it, I could have painted it again. Not that I would have, but I COULD have.

Lucky for me, I really love it. It adds the warmth that the room needed.

And now I have plenty of storage for all of our towels and a laundry hamper on the bottom.

For the record, a month or so later, I'm still loving it.

Shared with: Tatertots and Jello

Molasses Cookies

My grandma made molasses cookies for me-- soft, not crunchy-- when I was a girl. They were my favorite and she knew it. I can smell her kitchen every time I bake a batch and I miss her.

Yesterday, my son helped me make them, pouring in each ingredient as I measured. I told him about his great-grandmother that he never knew. Her generous heart, serving attitude, and how she was the quintessential grandma like from story books and movies. When I stayed at her house, we would paint with her good watercolors and oil paints on real canvases. I now have her paintbrushes displayed in a vase in my home. Visiting Grandma meant I would get to eat supper in the living room on little trays with a flower in a bud vase and watch TV. She taught me how to play poker with matches as chips, and Chinese checkers, and tell me funny stories about growing up in rural New Mexico.

When my son and I put the first dozen in the oven, I opened up my old photo albums so he could see his Pop's mommy. But I couldn't find one. Not one. How have so many years passed since her death and I never realized I don't have a single photograph of my beloved grandmother? I think about her daily, wishing I could speak to her now, as a woman, a wife, a mother. If she could have only met my husband and my precious babies. I guess she's such a part of my life-- her wisdom, her example, her paintings and recipes-- that I haven't missed having a tangible photo. I see her every day.

And so we ate our cookies and laughed and I prayed that one day my boys will remember me like that.

Preheat oven to 375. Cream 3/4 c. shortening, 1 c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. molasses and 1 egg until fluffy. Sift together 2-1/4 c. flour, 2 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, 1 t. ground ginger, 1 t. ground cinnamon, 1/4 t. cloves. Stir into the molasses mixture. Form in small balls and roll in sugar. Place 2" apart on greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. 

Shared with: Tatertots and Jello

Advertising

Do you have an Etsy store or small business you'd like to promote for the holiday season?

My regular advertising options are here and I'm also offering an option just for the holidays*. All packages are very affordable (I am a small business owner, too, so I know how important it is to get  your name out there in a good, inexpensive way).

*For only $5 you can get a limited spot in my Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping event. Act quickly-- I only have a few spots left!

This blog has grown to over 1750 subscribers (who receive posts directly to their inbox) and over 950 followers. It gets 70,000-85,000 pageviews per month. I advertise on other websites throughout the month which keeps my blog traffic high and continually adds new readers. (REVISED 11/14/11)

I'd love to work with you! Email me at in_between_laundry@yahoo.com for great personal service :) and more information.

My Thanksgiving {Blessed} Mantel

Did you join in on the 20 Minute Challenge today and make your Countdown to Christmas binder? I did! If not, you can jump in at any time. Click here to learn more about it.

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I was inspired by the argyle ties my boys got for Thanksgiving. 

You can read more about them here.

The bright orange, greens, browns and yellows were just the ticket for a playful--with a touch of tradition-- Thanksgiving mantel with a focus on how blessed we feel.

My inspiration photo:

I even hung one of the ties right up on my green platter!

To achieve the argyle-look for my bunting, I cut diamonds out of felt in two different sizes and sewed them together. My four year old and our little neighbor girl got to help me cut the felt pieces-- it was fun!

The BLESSED banner was created from simple brown paper bags-- that's it! I just stamped my letters on the paper squares and glued them to a flat remnant of cording I had left over from my antique chair makeover this summer. 

It's casual and colorful and makes me happy. We are truly blessed indeed.

Shared with: Tatertots and Jello, I Heart Naptime, Somewhat Simple

Thanksgiving Ties

I hope your Halloween weekend was so happy and restful! Is it already Tuesday? Oh! I guess I weekended a little long. We spent the last few days with my sister and her family.

While we were there, she took down all the Halloween decorations and started assembling her Thanksgiving mantel. My own wheels are now turning about what I might do over our fireplace. 

When we got home, I pulled up these sweet pictures I took before our trip...

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with a color palette like this for my Thanksgiving home. 

Erica at B is for Boy made my two little men these adorable argyle adjustable strap ties and I think that the colors are absolutely wonderful! Bright orange, lime green, browns and blues. Not too serious, but still pays homage to the traditional.

I'm feeling so inspired! Didn't she do an amazing job? I told her that I needed a longer tie for my oldest and she whipped one up to my specifications with no trouble.

Erica sent the ties quickly and they came professionally packaged--great for gifting. She even included instructions for how to wash and fold them back together if your boys are prone to spills (what boys aren't?). 

You will find so many cute handmade ties in Erica's shop, B is for Boy. She also writes a great blog called B is for Boy where she documents the projects she takes on for her sons. 

As a mom of two boys myself, I love finding great shops like hers (it's not easy to find fun dress clothes for my guys) and am even happier when the service is excellent.

You'll love Erica-- go check her Etsy shop and blog out right away!

A Halloween Weekend

What a fun Halloween weekend we have had so far and it's not over yet. Having kids makes holidays like Halloween so much more awesome.

Yesterday, Jeremy and I took the boys to pass out little pumpkin magnets at the nursing home. Earlier in the week, I cut out a stack of pumpkins from orange paper and my oldest boy used a black marker to decorate them with jack-o-lantern faces. Then I laminated them and stuck a magnet to the back. It was a meaningful way to add a lesson on serving others to the regular candy-filled festivities, and I'm now on the hunt for more ways to add projects like that to our routine. My only regret is that I didn't get a single picture of him making the pumpkins or delivering them. Hate that.

After getting to visit with my sister and brother-in-law, my mom watched the baby while Jeremy and I took the big boy to our local Halloween festival. We played Plunko, ring toss, and a few other carnival games before heading home to fix a spooky supper for the grandparents. I loved every minute of yesterday! 

Somewhere in the middle of all of that my sister painted my nails with the cutest candy corns. I'm not usually very adventuresome with nails, but how fun is this? She did a great job.

And now that we're home from church and a delicious gumbo lunch at my mom and dad's, we're hopping in the car to visit my other sister and her family. We'll be spending the next few days with the cousins, trick-or-treating, and catching up. 

Sometimes I worry that these are the best days of our lives and they're slipping by so quickly.

So I'm holding on to every minute.

Boo-berry Ganache Pies

Do you ever find yourself going with a theme, but unintentionally? Like, at Christmas, ending up with a collection of snowmen when you thought you only had one or two?

No? Just me? Huh.

This year, my eye was drawn to ghosties. I can't explain this eye of mine.

The boys are dressing up as ghosts for Halloween, I made a Boo pillow, I went with a mostly black and white mantel and now these little babies...

I like to think that there isn't much in this world a little ganache can't mend. World leaders, listen up. If you would all sit down to a round table with a big bowl of ganache and a spoon for everyone... well, we can only imagine.

In the meantime, let's make some super-easy Halloween treats!

You'll need a package of phyllo shells, about 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup whipping cream (for ganache) + 1 cup for the ghosts, fresh raspberries, 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, and mini chocolate chips for the ghosts' eyes.

For the ganache, combine the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat for about a minute. Stir until glossy and smooth. Let it cool for about 15 minutes.

Fill each shell about halfway with the ganache.

Place a beautiful raspberry on top of each. You could stop here, sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and have a gorgeous (and fancy-looking) dessert.

But here in Erin's kitchen, we get our whipping cream on.

Pour the remaining cream and powdered sugar into a mixer and beat with the whisk attachment until stiff. 

Add the mini chocolate chips to finish up. So presh. Who wouldn't love these?! 

Marital disclaimer: Jeremy gets full cred for the great name. I'm not that witty.

Shared with: Tatertots and Jello