What We've Been Doing Lately: The Spring Edition

What have we been doing lately? A little of that, a little of this. But you know what we haven't been doing? Enjoying the weather. This has been one coooold spring.


Going to the eye doctor. From an injury gotten while blowing up a balloon. Heard (barely audible) while the pediatric eye doctor was examining Kay, "I hate balloons. I really, really hate them." Me too, doc. Me too.

Making stupid images on SnapChat. Oh to have the time management skills of a tween.

Baking Princess Leia cookies. Obviously. Because it was May 4th.

Spring cleaning. Did I enjoy finding this random pack of cards with my beloved home state of Virginia on them? Yes, yes I did. Did I keep them, since there were only 43 of them? No, no I did not.

Downsizing. This is Sharpie the pig's house. In the recent clean-up mentioned above Sharpie the pig got to stay. His home, however, was recycled.

All of this activity took place under the ever vigilant eye of the resident policeman.

I've never felt more safe. Except for when balloons are around.

Happy Spring!

Boy with sweatshirt in spring

How fun is it to wear a sweatshirt on your head?
Very fun.

How fun is it to wear your sister's sweatshirt on your head?
Very, very fun.

Happy Spring!

Wordless Wednesday: Some Bunnies Ready for Easter!

My kids' collection of stuffed animal bunny rabbits. Who actually, now that I think about it, are more likely getting ready for Passover.

Whatever you celebrate, Happy Spring!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for an Awesome Prize Pack of Duck Tape! Low Entries!

Fun Ideas For Duck Tape Easter Craft Projects and an AWESOME DUCK TAPE GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

The giveaway is now closed.

Congrats to the winner @Angiewith3!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

As many of you know, we are just a teeny bit obsessed with Duck Tape at our house.

So you can imagine my tween daughters delight when this box showed-up outside our front door yesterday.

And we opened it to reveal this:

It's new duct tape spring colors from Duck Brand, and they are spring-irific! Spring-tacular! Spring-tastic!

We used our pretty new Duck Tape to decorate some plastic Easter eggs in need of a little pizazz. We easily transformed these:

to these by covering them with fun patterns of duct tape:

I liked how they turned out so much, I even got down a bowl from my wedding china with its basket weave pattern so we could display our mother-daughter Duck Tape handiwork on the kitchen table.

Inspired to do some crafting with Duck Brand duct tape? Here are a few more Easter projects using Duck Tape:

- Duck Tape Easter Basket (great directions for the basket and how to make grass, too)
- Duck Tape Hair Bows and Duck Tape Hairbands -(very easy to follow how-to videos)
- Duck Tape Easter Bonnet (requires fabric and more effort than I'm gonna guess most of us are capable of, but still very cool)

And for tons more ideas, visit my Duck Tape Awesomeness board on Pinterest.
And I almost forgot! The generous folks at Duck Tape are letting me give away an Awesome Duck Tape Prize Pack to a lucky winner!
To enter:
Just leave a comment here with your email (or make sure your comment links to where I can find it) and tell me your favorite Duck Tape color or your favorite Duck Tape craft project.

For extra entries leave a comment for each of the below letting me know you already/do now:

• Follow this blog publicly via Google Friend Connect (it's on the left side of this page)
• Follow @Anna_Sandler on Twitter
• Follow @TheDuckBrand on Twitter
• Like RandomHandprints on Facebook
• Like Duck Tape on Facebook

If it's easier, you can also tweet or leave a message on the Facebook page that you follow/like and you don't need to also leave another comment below.

If you do ALL FIVE of the additional entries above, you can just leave one comment along the lines of "home run!" "the whole enchilada!" or even a reference to a trifecta or hat trick will work fine.
~ Good luck! Enter Now! Entries close on Monday, April 9 at 9am EST ~
Giveaway small print: Contest open to U.S. residents age 18 and over. Contest ends at 9:00am EST, Monday, April 9, 2012. Winners will be randomly selected via Random.org and announced here as well as emailed or messaged on Twitter with the good news. Entrants must provide contact information in their comment. If winner does not respond within forty-eight hours, a new winner will be selected. Prize supplied and fulfilled by Duck Tape. Colors of winning products will vary. I was not compensated for this post or for promoting this contest. I received a similar prize pack to review.

For more information and full giveaway rules, please contact anna@randomhandprints.com.
Good Luck!

GIVEWAY HAS ENDED - THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Glad I Saw it: The Crocheted Daffodil

Happy Spring!

I am fortunate enough to live in a town that often gets to enjoy the efforts of the local yarnstorming enthusiasts.

The Rebel Yarns will be yarnstorming a park in town on June 3, and I'll be looking forward to seeing their creations and sharing those photos. In the meantime, you can see some more awesome examples on my Yarnbombing Pinterest Board.

{As always, my Glad I Saw It inspired by the original Glad I Saw It.}

(Almost) Worldess Wednesday: Ziggy the Puddle Jumper

My son Ziggy, like many (most?) toddlers is puddle obsessed. Lucky for him we have a perma-puddle in our back yard where there is a nice little mud pit despite my arduous efforts to eradicate it with grass.

When Ziggy sees the giant puddle at his sisters' school he goes completely and utterly bonkers.

At least someone is enjoying all this rain.

And for once, I decided to be a good sport, and jumped on it along with him.

I have no idea what the other moms thought about this, but my kid found it hilarious and I guess that's all that matters anyway.

And you? Do you puddle jump or puddle avoid?

Three Great Passover Desserts

Passover will be here on Monday. Which means, I'll be cooking between now and then (even on Shabbos, but shhh about that).

I always make the matzoh ball soup ahead of time, as well as a side dish or two. I also make sure my Passover plates and Seder plate are ready to go. And my tablecloth. Where did my "fancy" one go?

This year for Passover I'm also going to make some desserts ahead of time. Passover desserts used to be the brunt of holiday jokes, but today there are so many yummy options.

In researching Passover for an article on Momtrends, I read about a tradition dating back to the '80s (1980s that is) to add an orange to the Seder Plate to represent groups often left out of mainstream Judaism.

I'm not sure if the purists I celebrate Passover with would be ok with adding an orange to the traditional Seder Plate, so I thought instead I'll sneak it in with an orange-themed dessert. I'm planning to make the Food Networks Chocolate Orange Mousse from the Barefoot Contessa as well as this Passover Orange Sponge Cake:

From DianasDesserts.com

And last, there is always the traditional macaroon for dessert. No recipe is better then Mark Bittman's Ultimate Minimalist Macaroon. Using just five ingredients, these were a treat to make with my daughters using my Mom's secret-stolen recipe:

 

Happy Passover! Do you have a favorite holiday recipe? Please leave a link and share in the comments below!

More Companies Mother Earth Won't Be Liking on Facebook

Earth Day is April 22 and it seems just about every company has seized upon this day for what it really is - a super-awesome marketing opportunity. They seemed to have made a slight change from EarthDay.org's slogan "a billion acts of green" and made it a billion acts of greed.

I've already posted about the atrocities committed in the name of Earth Day by Oriental Trading Company and Gymboree, but a quick look around on the Internet showed me many, many companies doing things market-y but not particularly love-thy-earth-y.

Just a few of the many examples:

• Target is holding a Refresh Your Nest contest (part of their entire Earth Month!). And while the premise is that the Grand Prize Makeover will make your home more "sustainable" it's also worth up to $50,000 so I'm guessing it's going to include a lot of new items, which aren't exactly earth-friendly.
• FAO Schwartz is selling a line of Greenzys stuffed animals, such as Peat the Penguin. 



Photo from FAOSchwartz.com

I am less convinced of the toy company's commitment to the environment and more convinced of their commitment to sell more stuffed animals. This is after all the same store that is selling a collection of Christian Laboutin Shoes for your Barbie. For $74.99.


Photo from FAOSchwartz.com

• And Disney. Thank you, Disney for never letting me down when it comes to exploiting a marketing opportunity whether it is Earth Day or a new Mom in the hospital.  It was hard to choose from the character laden totes, tees, mugs and water bottles. Thank goodness there is a photo of them all together in (that's right!) the online Earth Day Store - with the tag line I helped the Planet today. Really? Does buying more stuff you don't really need help the planet just because it's under the guise of reusable?

Photo from DisneyStore.com

Sadly, the list goes on and on. If you want to read more, The New York Times had a good article last year: Earth Day is Now Big Business and I love Inhabit's Top Five Dumbest Greenwashed Earth Day Gimmicks - which includes junk food marketed as "eco-food."

This is my last post complaining about dumb marketing for Earth Day. I'm moving on to dumb marketing for Mother's Day.

Fun Crafts For Passover - Seder Plates, Handprint Matzoh Covers and a Frog with Handprint Feet!

Passover is one of my favorite holidays, but it also one of the most labor-intensive. It involves burning (at least symbolically) all the chometz in the house, preparing the Seder plate, and cooking a festive meal which is made more challenging since you cannot use any leavening at all. Oh, and you have to keep the no-eating-leavening going for eight days. These eight days, for me, will seem like about eight-hundred days, because my charming daughters are home from the school for the whole entire week.

But enough about that, and on to what Google Analytics tells me you really care about... handprint crafts and art projects for Passover!

Creative Jewish Mom has too many amazing ideas. I visit her blog for inspiration to be crafty with my kids - but I will admit our projects do not end up looking quite as good as hers do.

I am in love with the Ten Plagues Placards for Passover Seder, because the recitation of the ten plagues is a cherished tradition at our annual Seder, and I know this will help get the kids more involved. Best of all, the frog's legs are made with handprints!

Photo from CreativeJewishMom.com

Education.com has directions to Make a "Handy" Matzoh Cover, and it really is a wonderful addition to have as many parts of the Seder meal include items made by the kids who will be there. We have a nice collection of matzoh covers, as well as Cups for Elizah and Seder Plates, all hand-made and all the more precious because they are.

Photo from Education.com

And last, Sucre, spice & everything nice has perhaps the best Passover Kitsch seder plate I've ever seen:

Photo from Sucre and Spice

Look closely, it's all made from candy and was used not on Passover, but on... April Fool's Day.

Chag Sameach Pesach! Next Year in Jerusalem!

Mother Earth to Oriental Trading: Don't Try to Friend Me on Facebook

EarthDay.org

I just got the most recent Oriental Trading catalogue - an affront to the earth itself - and found myself at first amused, and then utterly incensed on behalf of our Earth Mother that they are trying to sell item after item of disposable plastic (and paper) junk in honor of... EARTH DAY.

I have just one, simple question to ask Oriental Trading: Are you fucking kidding? Does Mother Earth want you to make more trash or less trash to honor her? Why would you celebrate earth day with plastic erasers, stickers and disposable banners printed with Earth Day 2011 that will clearly only be able to be used once? And more importantly, what marketing genius thought, hey maybe we can get all those save-the-earth idiots to buy paper plates if we just print Earth Day on them?

Among the worst Earth Day offerings from Oriental "not friends of the earth" Trading:

• Earth Day Latex Balloons, 'cause you don't need to be a junior ecologist to know balloons are totally awesome for the environment:

• Recycle Rubber Duckies, which I'm guessing can't even be recycled:

And last, but not least, the plastic, won't-last-five-minutes, Earth Springs:, because nothing says Earth Day like adding more useless crap to the landfill:

All this leaves me with the question... what on earth are we doing? Please tell me you know an organization celebrating Earth Day (April 22) the right way, and leave a shout out to them in the comments.


This post is recycled from Earth Day 2010 and updated to include the latest Earth Day product line extensions from OTC.

No trees were harmed in the writing of this blog post.

This Supermoon sounds super cool!

Photo from GearLog.com

I just did my usual neurotic morning check of what the day holds for us weather-wise (high in the 50s here in Jersey, yay!) and decided to take a minute to read about this Supermoon I keep reading people tweet about endlessly. I thought it was going to seem like a nothing occasion, but to be honest, I'm impressed.

This Supermoon sounds super cool!

Intrigued? Here's the story at Weather.com -  Don't be Afraid of the Extreme SuperMoon!

And if you take a photo of the Super Moon please leave a link in the comments below, I would love to see it!

Handprint Crafts for March - St. Patricks Day, Purim & the Spring Solstice

I really, really hope to love the month of March this year. After the winter we had in New Jersey, I'm more than ready for spring.

If you want to commemorate March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb, here's a cute handprint craft for making the animals from Little Fun; Little Learning:



Photo from Little Fun; Little Learning

March also brings St Patrick's Day on Thursday the 17th, that glorious day when everyone can be a little bit Irish (which I get to be all year-round thanks to my grandma from County Cork) There are no shortage of ideas for Handprint Shamrocks and Handprint Leprechauns online but my favorites are from By Stephanie Lynn who has fun projects including rice art and finger painting. She also has directions for great crafts exploring how to make different shades of green.

And of course, you can never go wrong with a handprint rainbow and the proverbial pot of gold.

Photo from KinderTeacher.com

Two Ways of Looking at an Ant

I.
Mom, Magpie asks, can you open the front door for me. It is literally freezing cold out. Sure, uh why? Magpie says: I just gotta let this little guy go, that's all, and she shows me an ant crawling up her arm.

II.
Mom!!!! Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alarmed, I run up the stairs to Kay's room.
What's up little bear?
There is an ANT!!!!!!!!!! On my bed!!!!!!!! Get it! Get it!
I get it with a tissue, and it is gone.
All gone, little pie.
Mom, there was an ant! An ANT!!! On my bed!! Are you SURE it's gone?