Pinterest Power GIVEAWAY

We all love Pinterest.
It's genius!

It's time saving (and time wasting?)
It's so pretty to look at.  And fun.  And it actually helps me formulate my design style on a house....and find a recipe for dinner.
Yada, Yada.  I use it for all the same greatness that you use it! 

AND, I'll never forget what a highlight it was to hear Ben Silberman (co-founder of Pinterest) speak at the Alt Design conference last year.  His backstory was motivating and inspiring and made me want to jump up and make stuff.

Well, recently I was asked to contribute to a new book all about Pinterest!

It's called: Pinterest Power.  And if you're a blogger or small business owner, the book helps you understand how to make Pinterest work for you.

From the blogger's perspective, I shared how Pinterest and blog posting works hand-in-hand.  Because I have to be honest, it really is thrilling to create a new project, throw it up on the blog, and moments later see it pinned to DIY boards on Pinterest. 

The book interviews many successful small businesses on Pinterest, the Pinterest team itself (cool!), and is filled with really interesting marketing ideas (read more about it on the Amazon listing)

Here's my little section (and a few other pages that follow....but you'll have to get the book to see!)

Or...you could win one today.
We're giving away THREE copies.  All you have to do is leave a comment.

GIVEAWAY RULES:
• Leave a comment, that’s it.
• Only one entry per person.
• Open to US and Canadian readers
• THREE winners will be picked via random.org
• Giveaway ends, Saturday 12/15/12 at 11pm (Central Time).
Winners will be announced next week.

because everything's better with dark and white chocolate

Pretty much, right?
Or with cheese.  Mmmm.  Melted Chocolate or melted cheese.
Yes.

 Sorry to torture you on a Tuesday morning. 

 But last week I whipped up some Gingerbread Softies and decided to amp it up a bit. 

I added dark chocolate nibs to the dough....not true "nibs" like the ones from Trader Joes....but just dark chocolate chips chopped into nibby pieces....so that all that chocolately goodness infused the cookie dough.

Then I rolled and sugar dusted and baked.
And when they were cooled, I continued the over-the-top baking and dunked them in more chocolate!

YUMM.
I know I say that a lot but seriously these were really hard to resist!....for everyone in my family and the youth girls at church who enjoyed a whole tray of them.

There's something special about that slight chocolate coating crunch on the outside and the nibby bits inside.  Heavenly!

There may only be one left for Santa.
(already sampled).

Ready to bake?  Here's the full recipe:

Chocolate Dipped Gingerbread Softies with Chocolate Nibs
These cookies flatten and crack as they cool. The secret in keeping them soft is to remove them from the oven as soon as they are set but before they start to brown.
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup shortening*
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups flour
4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
l/2 tsp. cloves
l/2 tsp. salt

**2-3 cups chopped dark chocolate chips
8-16 oz of dipping chocolate, such as Almond bark or chocolate chips

• Cream together the sugar and shortening. Add eggs and beat until thick. Add the molasses and stir until combined.

• Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Add to creamed mixture and stir just until blended.

• Chop dark chocolate chips with a knife and cutting board till they're broken into small bits (this can also be done with a food processor).  **chop approximately 2-3 cups, depending on preference.  Sometimes I only add chocolate chips to half of the recipe and bake the other half of the recipe as-is.
Mix in the chips with the rest of the dough.

• Shape into 1” balls and roll in granulated sugar. If the dough is very soft (hot day? warm kitchen?), wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes before rolling.  Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350º for 7 – 10 minutes or just until set but before they start to brown.

• When cookies have cooled, prepare the chocolate for dipping.  I've found that dipping discs or the dipping bars of chocolate work best for this (sometimes called "bark" and found at most grocery and craft stores).  If you prefer using chocolate chips since they actually taste better, I recommend adding a tsp of shortening to the chips as it melts so you can get the chocolate real thin and smooth.

• Melt the dipping chocolate in a soup-size bowl in the microwave at 20 second intervals, stirring after each time.  When the chocolate is melted and thin, dunk the cookies one-by-one into the chocolate about 3/4 of the way.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper till the chocolate has set.

Eat and enjoy!
(The cookies are also tasty from the fridge and freeze well for later use)

 * This is a very old recipe and, like many cookie recipes from the 1950’s, and uses vegetable shortening instead of butter. You can substitute 1 1/2 cups melted and cooled butter for the shortening but you will have to increase the flour to 4 1/2 cups and definitely chill the dough before using.

Sewing TUTORIAL: TakeAlong Games

My family was big on road trips and games growing up. But unless we were sitting at the table or on the floor, pieces were falling everywhere.  So why not make the games out of felt?!  Then you can take 'em along wherever you go!   

 Play on a pillow in the car, on mom's bed where it's comfy, or at the doctor's office.

Throw them in a little drawstring hobo sack and you've got a complete game bag (and simple handmade gift)

Today we'll make a game of Checkers but there are many games you can try:
• Go Fish
• Tic Tac Toe
• Chess
• Dominoes
• Memory

Let's get started.
Grab bright felt colors (found at most fabric shops, on the bolt for about $4-5/yard)

Start by cutting your checkerboard pieces.  You want the board to be two layers of felt so it's sturdy.  If you plan to place a different game on the opposite side (like Tic Tac Toe)...then the other game can be serves as your second layer.  But if you use a light color of felt--like I did with white--you may need two layers of white and then your other game on the back because the white is a bit see-thru.

Okay, CUT:
•  (2) checker boards 17 x 17 inches - White
•  (32) checker squares 2 x 2 inches - Blue
•  (4) binding pieces 17.5 x 14.25 inches - Yellow

• Place one white checker board square aside for later. 
• Start arranging squares on the other checker board piece.  Start on the diagonal and leave a 1/2 inch border on the four sides.
• Pin the squares in place.  Be as liberal or simple as you want with the pinning.  The squares stay in place fairly well because they're felt.
• Starting with the top right corner square, sew them all in place, around each side of each square.  I know that sounds tedious but it goes quickly if you work in lines. First sew the right sides of one row of squares, then sew the left sides of the same row, then move to the next row, then turn it and sew the other sides of the rows, etc.  Try your best to keep the squares touching but don't fret if they don't! Handmade gifts are cool for many reasons...and one is that they don't look perfect.  Gives them some charm.

• When the top checkerboard is done, lay it over the other large white square piece.  Pin them together and baste sew them about 1/4 inch from the edge all the way around.  Use a rotary cutter to trim any uneven edges.

At this point, you may choose to add a different game to the back.  I created a Tic Tac Toe game fairly easily.  Then just sew the entire board game to the back of the checker board, as we did above, and we'll bind it all together.

Each side will be bound separately. So...
• Grab one strip of binding and fold/sandwich it around one side of the board and pin it in place. Do the same for the opposite side.

• Sew the two bindings in place.  Just do a topstitch, about 1/8 inch from the binding edge.
• Trim any excess felt so the binding is flush with the board.
• Sandwich the other bindings around the other sides and sew them in place as well.
• When you get to the corners, sew a small line at the corner edge so there aren't any open spaces.

 • Trim any excess felt from the ends. 

And your board is done!
Now let's make some checkers.

• Find something round to trace your circles, like a thread spool that fits the size of the squares.
• You need 12 checkers for each player and each checker is double layered....so trace and cut 24 circles from two different felt colors (48 circles total).

Now let's add little charms to one side of each checker...so that when players reach the other side of the board, they can say "King me!" or "Queen me!"  I chose hearts and stars.  You can do whatever you like or even draw with a sharpie marker to make it fast/easy.

• Draw and cut small hearts and stars from felt.

• Sew each charm to one side of the checker pieces.  Then place another plain checker on the back and sew around the two circles.

 Colorful Checkers!

Finish up the project by making a large drawstring bag to hold the game board and a smaller bag for the checker pieces, using the Hobo Sack Tutorial.

Now you're ready to play anywhere, anytime!

Happy Checkering!
Check out other Simple Handmade Gifts HERE.

our family christmas cards, part 1

This year we're officially sending out Christmas cards, using minted.com.
So last Saturday we set out to take family pics.

I was going to set the camera on a tripod and hope for the best.  But then some friends asked if we wanted to photo swap....they'll take our pic, I'll take theirs.  Perfect.  And it totally fit with the vibe I wanted: casual, normal, just "us"

I pulled together some bright colors and was happy that everything came from our closets!  The only item I purchased was the yellow/gray cardigan for Owen (he grows faster than I can sew and shop).

We met our friends in the afternoon and quickly location scouted the area....with 8 kids, under the age of 8.  I love dads and babies.

 Then we pulled out the props, positioned bodies and repositioned,

And snap!  We got a photo! or two or ten.
Some with Owen squinting.

 And some with Clara grabbing.

 But eventually we landed on a winner.  Everyone is fairly normal.

Now time to pick out a card.
This is my first time using minted.com and I'm impressed with the holiday selection.  So many cute designs!  And I really love the options for the back of the card.  I know, it's just the back...but isn't it fun to flip it over for a little surprise?

I uploaded our photo and was able to browse all the cards with our photo inserted.  Super helpful.  And actually....it's something I should have thought of before taking our family photo so I could think out the photo framing a little better.

The shot we selected is horizontal and doesn't fit well in the vertical cards.  So I added a white box behind the photo and we're set.

Now I just need to pick a card!  How am I ever going to decide??  I leaning toward Merry Merry.
I'll let you know when the cards are done!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

And if you haven't joined already, I'm hosting #happyholigram on instagram (find me @danamadeit).  It's a little way for all of us to share our merry, festive, holiday photos with each other.  Just tag your photo with #happyholigram.  And every day or so I share a round up of my favorite photos in my feed!