parenting

Just in time for me, How Do You Do It?, a blog about parenting multiples, has the most in-depth tutorial for making your own baby food. Step by step and lots of pictures.

Also timely, Uber Parents shares guidelines for monitoring fever in children. I particularly liked the idea of taking their temp a few times for a baseline so that you know what really constitutes a fever in *your* kid.

crafting

KIWI magazine has a pattern for making a tote out of all of those Halloween candy and snack wrappers. Genius!

Green Phone Booth shares a quick pattern for door draft dodgers. Just fabric and some beans! I need to make a huge one of these for the french doors from our living room to our drafty sunroom. Kelly at Almost Frugal has an equally easy and useful pattern for reusable fabric gift bags. If you’re like me, you have a box (or a closet) of fabric you’re not in love with anymore. Move some of it along with practical projects like these and make room for some new things you really love!

Crafting a Green World has details on upcycled shrinky dinks (remember those?) from #6 plastics you might have laying around anyway.

eating

Don’t want to make a whole cake or heat your entire oven? This microwavable cake-in-a-mug is such a cute idea for an after-school treat with your little ones.

A Year of Crockpotting is an awesome resource, but now Stephanie has included information on just how frugal a choice it is and links to key recipes on making pantry staples. I will miss her when her experiment is done!

resources

Re-nest posts a request for wool sweaters with holes to be upcycled into rugs. I have a few to send to the artist, unfortunately. Does anyone have ideas for extending the life of my sweaters? I barely seem to make it through a season with some these days.

Baby Cheapsakte reviews several of the deal-a-day sites. Not bad to follow some of these if you are looking for specific types of items for holiday gifts.