Pebble Cactus Project

Image: Craftberry Bush

If you like to have plants around the house and have the world's worst green fingers, so much so that there's a good chance you could even kill a cactus, then this project is perfect for you.

Also, if there are kids in the house, this is a great idea too as it could be a nice little craft project for them as we enter a colder season and finding 'stuff to do', while it pours rain outside, is all part of a parents daily quest.

Wednesday Website # 001 - Colouring Pages

Image: Patent Pending Projects

I have been really bad about updating this blog of late, yet I find the time to update the Facebook page on a daily basis - so new rule - update weekly.

To start things off - On my Facebook page I highlight a website every Wednesday. Most of the time it's for useful stuff like where to find great ideas for Handmade Gifts or cool websites that allow you to create Photo Booth Style Pictures with your webcam. Sometimes, I'll point you in the direction of a great Read or some great Art.

Sometimes, I just need a little break from all of it.

Today's website (and one of my favourite types of website - the FREE PRINTABLES kind) comes Colouring Page, a fantastic resource for lots of free colouring pages of characters from your favourite family friendly Movies, TV shows and Books.
Here's their Facebook Page too.

With colouring pages for Beauty and The Beast, Toy Story and Frozen to Peppa Pig, Spongebob Squarepants and Winnie The Pooh. There's something here to keep the kids entertained on the rainiest of days.

And remember - if you can, try to reuse any discarded printed paper to print the colouring pages on.
Better to have the kids scribbling on that than brand new pages, that if we're being honest, probably won't end up on the fridge 'forever'.

.

DIY Dominoes Project

Image: Patent Pending Projects

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Of course we all know that Ferris Bueller quote but lets just take a look at the first part of the sentence.
Life moves pretty fast.

When I started this blog in 2011, I wrote 70 posts. In 2012, I wrote 54. Last year there was a meager 13 and so far, in 2014, if I manage to finish this one...it'll be a grand total of 3 and March is almost over.
Yes, life is moving pretty fast, with not much time for personal projects anymore like this blog - and even more so now, with a 3 and a half year old and a 10 week old puppy, who can be both found running around my ankles on a daily basis.

There's also that game we all have to play each day called 'Earning Money and Paying Bills'. A game we must unpack every morning, check that all the pieces are there, explain the rules to existing and new players before rolling the dice and either winning everything or losing it all. At the end of each day, we must pack every little card and token back into the box and put it away for the next morning when we get to play it all over again. Yipee!

Nuts & Bolts Chess Project

Image: Cub Scout Ideas

The other night I watched a fantastic documentary called Brooklyn Castle, which told the story of five members of a chess team from a below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school in Brooklyn, that has won more national championships than any other in the US.

                "The film follows the challenges these kids face in their personal lives as well as on the 
                chessboard, and is as much about the sting of their losses as it is about the anticipation 
                of their victories."

It was a compelling, engaging and moving documentary that put forth a powerful and positive message about how to succeed, no matter what your circumstances are.

Cable Storage Project

Image: Our Thrifty Ideas

People who set goals for the new year are no way happier than people who don't set goals for the new year. In fact, I'd go as far to say that they are probably less happier than the people who don't set any goals at all.

Lets look at it this way.

Most people who make new years resolutions are looking to either lose weight, exercise more, sort out their financial debt, have a more rewarding job, eat more healthy foods, smoke less cigarettes (or possibly quit), stop procrastinating, be more active, get things done, stress less about smaller things or simply...make more time for themselves to enjoy those smaller (and possibly do bigger) things.

At least 50% of us will fail and in a way, we set ourselves up to fail. The first time we break the resolution we feel weak and therefore feel like a failure. The trick is to fail but not give up entirely.