The best way to celebrate the end of 2008? With the return of Win-It Wednesday, of course!

I found these little favor boxes tucked away when doing a recent laundry room purge (okay, Mr. Plaid was doing the purge...).  Six of them are still boxed up, one stray is from another box that must be around here somewhere. 

There are no birthdays on the horizon for us, at least not ones where the guest list stalls at seven.  If you think you could use them, leave a comment on this post before next Wednesday.  One lucky winner will receive all seven.  If I find the other box, I'll pick two winners.

Enjoy what remains of this year, and stay tuned as we ring in 2009!

Regular programming will return, as I have a ton of great finished projects to share (I've been saving them up, since they were all Christmas gifts!) 

But I get positively giddy when I drive past a gas station these days.  Today, I found gas for $1.88 a gallon! My joy is indescribable.

A few years ago, I got all prophetic and declared we would never see gas fall below $2 again. But look at us now! I have to physically resist the urge to stop at every gas station. I keep wanting to just "top it off," in case prices sky rocket again tomorrow.

I know, I should be shrinking my carbon footprint and using less oil and all of that.  But I just can't imagine shuttling my two children on to a bus to drop the oldest off at school. For one, I imagine we'd accumulate far too many tardy slips.

We are those sort of people, the ones who use our vehicles as a second home/storage facility.  The other day we arrived at school in a panic.  For weeks, there'd been one purple tennis shoe riding around in the back seat, while the other was somewhere in the house.  Yesterday, my daughter grabbed the second tennis shoe from her room, believing its mate was still waiting in the car.  When we arrived at school with one shoe on, the other purple shoe was nowhere to be found. 

Seriously, I have no idea what one does when one shows up for school with only one shoe. On a rainy day, no less.

Fortunately, I found the shoe. It was in the front seat--under the umbrella, my winter coat, the baby's diaper bag and last week's mail.

Still, we were tardy.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I'm a huge fan of handmade gifts. In my world, it means a lot when someone sits down and takes the time to create something for me.

Imagine my excitement when I received this lovely birthday gift today from my friend N!  Wait 'til you see what's inside:

Isn't this the prettiest sewing kit you've ever seen? Where does one find such tiny scissors? And see that little measuring tape folded in there? 

It even has safety pins. I always need safety pins, and I never have them! There's also a page with assorted buttons.

Now I'm feeling quite behind on N's birthday gift. 

It's a good thing I've snapped out of my sewing slump.

Mr. Plaid got me a serger last week for my birthday! I'm crazy excited about it. I remember reading a couple of articles about all of the wonderful things one can do with a serger, but now that I have it, I'm absolutey stumped.  And I can't find the article, which I think was in an issue of Sew News...

Anyone have any idea where to start? I've got it all set up, just waiting to be used.  I practiced on some scraps, but I'm itching to do something productive.  I'm also waiting on The Complete Serger Handbook to arrive (Amazon prime...should be here any day now!)

But until then, I need projects, people! I'd love your recommendations.

I have a confession, I don't use one of those fancy "feeds" or "bloglines" or whatever.  Partly because I don't understand them, partly because, well, I just don't. 

Instead, I bookmark everything.  My favorites folder is on the brink of bringing down the whole computer. It's bad news, people.  Because I don't use a feed, my blog checking is kind of crazy and random.  There are the usuals that I check every.single.day. You see them over there on the sidebar? Yup, those.

Other days, I sit down at the computer, pull down my bookmarks and peruse my favorites. Random picking. I'll think, "Hey, Dabbler, haven't been there this week! Oh, Pure Joy! Wonder what those crazy Ex-Pats are up to..." And it goes on like that, sometimes for hours.

Then, when I go through the trouble to pull up someone's blog and find it hasn't been updated since I last visited, I get frustrated. Crazy frustrated. I seem to feel entitled to regular updates on people's lives. 

And now, here I am, one of those bloggers that drives me crazy.  Unpredictable, undisciplined, unfinished...

What I'm saying is this: Your frustration? I get it. 

(and I made granola again, but it wasn't as good this time)

The Christmas preparations start today! At a minimum, it's time to get some ideas flowing.

Definitely on my list this year is the Fabric Dollhouse, by Lil'D a UK Lass in US.  Her blog is fantastic, and it's a great place to learn all sorts of crafty things, as well as English (UK) expressions that are fun to work into every day conversation.  Cream crackered is right now my favorite.  

This gratitude wrap from Amanda (tutorial here) is also on my gift list. I'm thinking this would be a great gift for anyone who enjoys letter writing, including a younger child who is just learning the art of thank you notes.  It is a neat little wrap that holds letter-writing supplies, including stamps, in one little place. The idea is that you can keep it with you and write notes to loved ones as they come to mind. At least, that's what I'm thinking I would use it for. 

And these...I'm thinking a great gift for the grandparents! Who wouldn't want little hands memorialized on their walls? You could do a whole family of hands. This idea is from Just a Girl, a great blog that I discovered via Today's Creative Blog.

Sorry for the vanishing act. Serious back to school preparation is going on around here, including a last minute decision to change schools.  The new school begins next week (!!), which is two weeks earlier than our old school.  I'm having to cram three weeks of summer into one short week, which is proving to be exhausting.

Monday night was the Oldest Child's final karate class, in which she finally received her colored belt. She was thrilled. I managed to take two pictures before the camera battery died. It wasn't until an hour ago, when I decided to photograph the Criss Cross Coasters, that I realized I still hadn't charged the battery (um, missed photos of the final gymnastics class today, too).  Thus, no photos of the coasters just yet.  So, we'll delay Win-It Wednesday until Thursday, since you probably don't want to enter to win coasters sight unseen.

In other random news:

I've been eying the baked goods on Etsy for some time now.  This is a rather delicious looking Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie from The Wave Break. I'm a sucker for chocolate peanut butter anything. Like, Oberweis Ice Cream, or those brownies I made a little while back (see here).

This one has no peanut butter, but I also happen to love chocolate.  This Red Velvet Revolution cupcake from Bangerang Bake Shop actually comes in a jar.  The cupcake in a jar concept is one I've been wanting to try.

Aren't these cute?!  I made some back in December for my sister's baby shower, but didn't make enough to keep one for myself.  I'm thinking of ordering some from Etsy.  

But the thought of buying food from random home bakers on Etsy sort of freaks me out. Has anyone tried it? Good? Bad? Poisoned?