There’s a buzz of activity around the warehouse this week. We’ve been invited to attend the Maker Faire in San Mateo this weekend, and the preparations are pretty monumental for our little team. Aside from the six events that we already have this week, my crew and I are preparing over 500 craft bags to distribute at this weekend’s affair.

Talk about an assembly line! I feel like my warehouse has been turned into a paper bag version of Ford Motors!

What we are planning on presenting is six pre-bagged crafts. Folks will sign our e-mail list for a chance to spin the Wheel of Fortune and win a bag. Each bag will contain all the elements necessary to make a craft from our website, Sophie-World.com. Our hope is that people will take the bags home, open them up, go to the website, and get inspired to make the craft with their kids. Seems simple enough, but there are a lot of elements that go into each bag. It’s like making 500 goodie bags.

Everyone on the team has pitched in. Simone designed the bag labels and created QR codes for each item for easy access, Scott made a DVD that will play during the day, I printed everything up and put labels on bags, Freda designed the elements for each bag (some have over 10 individually-displayed items), and Walter and Steve have been stuffing, sorting, and stapling bags. Even Catharine got into the act making our “consolation” craft.

My mom is coming down on Friday to help Freda and Scott load in to the Faire, an expansive event that will include everything from amazing handmade robots to interactive crafting booths. It’s an awe-inspiring event for people of all ages, and we’re excited to be a part of it.

Since I’ve got six events already, Scott, Freda, and my mom will be primarily in charge of running the booth, but I’ll be able to attend from 3:00 till 8:00 on Saturday, and I can hardly wait. I’ve heard rumors about the really cool creations that people make. Freda has attended a few in the past and returned with tales of steampunk-inspired weaponry, machines that cut plastic into puzzle shapes, and huge installations that remind one of Burning Man (minus the desert dust).

If you’ve got the time, it’s well worth checking out. Come by and say “Hi!” Mention the blog, and we’ll even give you a free button with your craft!

I have to be completely honest: Mother’s Day sort of irritates me. I mean, it’s very nice for the nation to take a moment and recognize all that moms do, but it sort of tweaks me that people need reminders in the first place. For me, I’d rather be giving my love 365 days out of the year, than be “forced” to shower affections on just one particular day.

And truthfully, wouldn’t the moms out there be happier NOT to have to endure the inevitable “breakfast in bed” routine? Let’s face it, unless you’re Wolfgang Puck’s mom, you’re probably going to be subjected to a mish-mosh of hardly edible items served on a platter that tips and totters dangerously on your nice clean duvet. Then of course there will be the undeniable mess in the kitchen that you will inevitably be expected to clean with a smile of gratitude, while secretly popping Tums to avoid acid reflux.

Hey, I speak from experience. I remember very vividly as a child serving my mother breakfast in bed... it was a disaster!

My mother loved poached eggs. Every morning I would watch her take this miniature double boiler, fill it with water, place an egg in the little aluminum form that sat on top, pop on the tiny lid and wait for three minutes. It was the cutest thing ever. And although I watched my mother do this every morning, I had no concept of what she was actually doing. It looked easy enough though. And when I realized that Mother’s Day was synonymous with breakfast in bed (which is in itself is a kind of weird concept... Who eats in bed? Unless they’re sick...), I thought, “Oh, I know what to do!” Even as a child, I was never daunted by the details of not knowing how to do something.

As I think back on it now, I have no idea where my father was, or why he even let me near the stove, but let me tell you what transpired.

Being a child (I must have been 6 or 7) I had no real concept of measurements, or time. It was all sort of random to me. So when I added water to the pan I had no idea how much to use; I just put in a splash. When it came to adding the egg, well, how was I to know that you needed to melt a little butter in the well of the pan, or that eggshells aren’t normally part of the menu? Not only that, but I had turned my full attention to the toast, butter, and jam, which is how I think I cooked the egg for 10 minutes instead of 3. By the time I got back, the water had boiled away, the bottom of the pan was sort of bulging upward and inward, and the egg had taken on the consistency of a hockey puck. As I chiseled the egg out of the cup with a knife (again: where was my father?) leaving at least half of the egg behind, I hummed a happy little tune. I was making breakfast in bed for my mother -- wonderful me!

I must say that I did do the tray up nicely. My dad used to collect vintage Coca-Cola trays, and he graciously offered me one to use (of course, this memory leads me to believe that he must have been there supervising after all. Possibly his cooking skills were worse than mine? Or maybe he just found it funny!). I had the napkin folded, the fork and knife placed on either side of the smoking plate, the orange juice off to the right, and even had a little bud vase with a flower from our garden. I can say this for sure, I’ve always had an way with presentations!

I remember walking into the room singing, waking my half-asleep mom from what was possibly a lovely dream. I remember her beaming as she scootched herself up on her pillows, catching the tray with catlike reflexes before I completely lost control of my shaking limbs.

Years later we would laugh about how she choked that breakfast down; how I’d never even thought to add salt and pepper, and how basically what I served her would have caused a riot in San Quentin. She was such an amazing sport. Hugging me and lavishing me with praise, and gratitude. On “her” day, she was the one giving out the love...

Which brings me to my point once again. I love my mother. She is one of the most amazing, wonderful, generous, kind, and loving people I know. She has literally dedicated her life to the betterment of her children, her family, and her community without asking for anything in return. The thing is, I can never repay my mother for all that she has done for me, and the notion that honoring her on one day a year can do that is not enough. So for me, I choose to make a change. From now on, every day will be Mother’s Day... minus the breakfast in bed.

Sometimes I think that when God was handing out the high heel and false eyelash genes, I must have been bending over to tie my Converse hightops. I totally missed out! Anyone who knows me knows that it takes a wedding or a funeral to get me to bare my extremities or put on pantyhose. The exception is when I’m doing a princess party, and even then I only do so grudgingly (keeping my feelings hidden once I’m out from behind the scenes). I secretly curse Barbie, Snow White, Tink, and all the other lace-enhanced ladies. Even Princess Fiona from Shrek, who I consider my kind of princess, wears a dress. At least she’s also sans shoes, which I find appealing.

So I hope you can understand my complete and utter bafflement when the conversation at my warehouse took a distinctly feminine turn. The topic that has invaded our office like an insidious virus?: the new nail gel polishes that have become all the rage.

The buzz started last November when one of our employees, Brittany, was about to get married. I must have missed the watercooler huddle about her new set of nails due to an incredibly busy schedule, and my strict avoidance of any and all wedding discussions (for some reason, late in my life, I am surrounded by blushing brides!).

This week, my sister Freda (who actually enjoys being pampered, powdered, and fluffed when she’s not covered in seven layers of paint) came into the office all puffed up, displaying her very hip hands. She waved her blue-tipped fingers in my line of vision, completely distracting me from the party proposal I was writing. Evidently she had seen this newest craze on Pinterest (her newest obsession), and decided to give it a try. The flash of her fingers almost sent me into an epileptic seizure! When I say those puppies were glossy, I mean glossy. Like, take-out-an-airplane-with-the-reflection glossy. I-can-apply-my-makeup-by-looking-at-your-fingernails glossy. You-really-ought-to-have-a-license-to-flash-those-hands-around glossy.

It didn’t take long before the chatter began. At first it as just a low murmur from the next office as Simone and Freda exchanged gasps and giggles, but soon Catharine and even Walter and Steve were getting into the admiration act. The office sounded like it had been taken over by the parrots of Telegraph Hill.

Finally my curiosity got the better of me and I had to look into this latest craze. Ultimately, I needed to know if this was something we should offer at our parties, like hair feathers and tinsel. It turns out that the gel is applied like normal polish, but then you stick your hands under a UV light for 30 seconds, which literally sears the gel to your nail. A second coat of color and a coat of gloss are applied in the same manner. The result is pretty amazing, I must say. My sister uses her hands hard (to say the least!), and the fact that three days in she still had not had a single chip was a pretty good recommendation. I did some more research into the technique, and the only drawback I can see is that the gel seems really, really hard to remove, which makes sense, when you consider that you’ve literally fused your nail particles with the gel!

Now of course both Simone and Catharine are talking about getting it done. Which means I’d better get a bigger office to keep away from the chatter, or at least invest in a pair of good sunglasses -- you know, for the glare.

Once again, I must state emphatically: “I am not a girly-girl!” I’m not one of those gals who sat home waiting for Mr. Right to ask her to the senior prom. In fact, I was so fed up with school by the time my senior prom rolled around, I ditched. I’m one of those folks who gets sort of bored easily (uh oh, can we say ADD?) and so I tend to get antsy as things reach their end point. When something’s over, it’s over. Just put it out of its misery and move onto the next exciting adventure. I’m really not for dragging things out, if I can help it.

However, it’s prom season, as my good friend Miguel the DJ informs me every time I try to book him for another graduation party. For him, prom season starts in March! Ca-ray-zee. If I remember back to my school days (and I admit, this was some time ago), the prom was always the last big thing of the year, before finals and graduation. I have images of it happening in the late spring, like mid to end of May -- but then, my brain could be addled by time.

Which brings me to the point of this blog: creative prom attire!

This morning when I signed onto my AOL account I was immediately drawn to one of their front page news items. (Although I’m an avid Gmailer, I have an old account with AOL that I still check every morning. I can’t help but get sucked in by the “rag mag” quality that AOL’s front page has embraced for the past few years; it’s all gossip, all the time -- which I find fascinating!) The article was about a senior who had made her dress entirely out of cardboard.

Evidently this creative young lady has been making her prom dress since her sophomore year. Her first was a dress entirely made out of Doritos bags! I love her spunk. High school is such a hard age, where looking good and fitting in often take precedence over Calculus and Biology class. Finding a young gal who embraces her own fearless creativity as readily as she does is refreshing. What strikes me the most is how incredibly fashionable the dresses are. Her soda pop top dress from her junior year is actually quite stunning - and from a distance looks like haute couture (well, at least my version of haute couture, which is limited to old Madonna outfits and Oscar dresses).

My other favorite imaginative prom outlet is the “Stuck at the Prom” competition held by Duck Brand tape every year. If you haven’t ever checked out the site, it’s a must see. The clothes these kids design, in hopes of winning a college scholarship, are off the hook! There’s everything from ruffley gowns that look like they belong on the set of “Gone with the Wind,” to skin tight mini dresses that make you think twice about ditching your black leather. I believe this contest started in 2001, and from the looks of the amazing gallery, the kids just get more inspired every year. Still, it’s fun to look back to the dawn of the duct tape revolution, when the colors were limited to drab old silver, black, and red!

The thing about it is, it takes guts to wear something that’s a bit off, even more guts to wear something you’ve designed yourself, and even more guts still to wear something designed out of a household object. I suppose shows like Project Runway have helped to ease the stigma of the “homemade” dress a bit, but we still live in a society that is ruled by the labels we wear - and no matter how you slice it, a Dorito bag and a roll of duct tape are not Abercrombie and Fitch.

So I applaud you Marua Pozek, from Missouri, you and all the other talented, creative, and daring kids out there who are finding fun and interesting ways to attire themselves for the prom. May you dance the night away -- without any wardrobe malfunctions!

Recently, I had a kid request a “Love Our Mother Earth” party theme. I thought it was a totally fun idea, and with Earth Day just around the corner, I thought I’d share some of the ideas we came up with! My little client was way into recycling -- to the point where she knew the different kinds of plastics that could be recycled or not! Needless to say, I was impressed, and wanted to make sure I created a party that left as small a “footprint” as possible. My goal: no more garbage than could fit into a paper grocery bag.

We started with invitations that were printed on paper bags. They not only sported a little poem about saving the Earth, but also listed seven fun things to do with the bag, including wrapping the birthday girl’s present inside.

For decor, we lucked out because we had just done an eco-friendly Bar Mitzvah and had a ton of really cool moss products in a variety of shapes, including bowls, balls, and funky little bubble-shaped patties. At the food table, I chose to go with metal water bottles with the kids’ names on them instead of glasses or paper cups; the kids got to take the bottles home with them as part of their goodie. It also made for a terrific opening activity of decorating them with stickers and permanent markers. I also had three dispensers for drinks: water, milk, and lemonade.

My sister Freda also made an amazing manzanita branch “tree” to use as a centerpiece (although it ended up being so tall I had to place it on the ground). To add a bit of whimsy, Freda made little birds’ nests out of moss, and placed a Cadbury egg in each one for the kids to eat.

My favorite item was a handmade birthday banner that Freda fashioned from paper bags. I printed out backwards letters for her on full-sheet sticker labels. She cut those out and put them on the back of fun patterned scrapbook papers. Once cut out, she glued those to the paper bags and simply strung the bags by hole-punching the tops and stringing a silky ribbon through the holes. When all was said and done, nothing was thrown away, not even the scraps from the letters (we used those for another project)!

Once all the kids arrived, we played some funny recycle games.

We actually ended up playing with those long boxes that tin foil comes in because we had them on hand, but I would have normally used a water bottle. The object of the game is to pass the item from person to person without using your hands, but instead a series of other body parts. All you need is a recyclable item and a bunch of kids. Here’s how you play:

1. Split the group into teams of 5 or 6 and have them line up in their teams, one behind the other.
2. Hand the first person in line an item (bottle, tin foil box -- nothing sharp). They place the item under their chin, and then do not touch it with their hands.
3. On “Go!” the first person in line passes the item to the second person in line from chin to chin. No hands should be used if you can help it. The second person passes it to the third, and so on, until it reaches the last person.
4. When the last person receives the item, they run to the front of the line. Once there, they transfer the item to the next body part: between their elbows.
5. Play continues with players passing the item using the following body parts:

First - chin

Second - elbows

Third - wrists

Fourth - pinkies

Fifth - knees

Sixth - ankles

Seventh - feet

6. Once the first person in line makes it back to the front, that team is done, and they sit down. First entire team to sit down and put their hands in the air is declared the winner.

We also had a recycle relay race, which you can find here on our main website!

We then took a break to make “Grow Buddies.” And truth be told, the kids could have worked on them all day! It’s a pretty simple craft at its heart, but the great thing about it is that you can get as detailed and inventive as possible. To make your own Grow Buddy, you’ll need the following items:

1. Nylon stockings
2. Soil (I used sphagnum moss) or sawdust
3. Grass seed
4. Rubber bands
5. Soup can (or the like; just make sure there are no sharp edges!)
6. Decorating supplies (duct tape, googly eyes, felt, trims, buttons, jewels, bottle caps, pipe cleaners, you name it!)
7. Hot glue gun and sticks (always have adult supervision)
8. Scissors

1. Cut a piece of stocking about 8 inches up from the toe (make sure you have a toe at the end) or use one whole knee-high stocking.
2. Open the stocking up and pour about 2 tablespoons of seed into the toe.
3. Fill the stocking with soil to the size head you want (about the size of a good sized potato).
4. Tie off the end of the stocking as tight as you can.
5. Use rubber bands to make nose and ears.
6. Decorate your head with eyes, mouth, etc.
7. Decorate the tin can to look like a body; use pipe cleaners for arms and duct tape for clothing -- go to town and get super creative!
8. Dunk your Grow Buddy’s head in water and let it absorb a good amount.
9. Fill the decorated can with water and rest your head on top, with the bottom of the head touching the water.
10. Make sure to keep refilling your can with water over the coming days and weeks.
11. In about 1 to 2 weeks, you’ll start seeing grass hair growing at the top of your Grow Buddy’s head. Let it grow as long as you like. Give it haircuts or tie the grass in bows for that “Pebbles and Bam Bam” look.

By then, it was time to sing “Happy Birthday” -- but instead of a cake, my birthday gal opted for a sweet treat that celebrated land and sea. I made tiny glass flower pots with pudding “dirt,” and little glass bowls filled with blue Jell-O to represent the ocean. The recipe is really simple!

“Dirt” pudding

You’ll need chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, Oreo cookies, and gummy worms.

1. Follow the standard directions to make your pudding. At the end of the mixing time, add 1 cup of Cool Whip and mix thoroughly.
2. Spoon into cups and place in the fridge to set.
3. For the dirt, take a bag of Oreo cookies and place them in a food processor. Grind them up until they take on a dirt-like look (you can use vanilla cookies for a more sandy look).
4. Right before you are ready to serve the treat, place a couple spoonfuls of cookie “dirt” on top.
5. Insert a gummy worm so that he looks like he’s crawling out from the dirt.
6. Yum!

Edible ocean

You’ll need blue Jell-O, Cool Whip, and gummy fish, plus a sharp knife (adults only).

1. Prepare the Jell-O as directed, and pour into little cups or bowls.
2. Place in fridge and let set.
3. Right before you are ready to serve, add a thin spoonful of Cool Whip and spread across the top of the Jell-O.
4. Use the knife to make a small slit in the top of the Jell-O.
5. Insert a gummy fish into the Jell-O with the head facing up, so it looks like Flipper peeking out from the waves.
6. Double yum!

We also served meringue cookies as “clouds” to represent the sky, but we bought those from Trader Joe’s!

All in all, we were able to keep to our goal, and the only real garbage we made was from the Cadbury Egg wrappers and the packaging from the birthday presents. So in my mind, mission accomplished!

Happy Earth Day Birthday, everyone!

I’ll be the first to admit (and I’ve done so on this blog before!) that I am not a very good cook. I sometimes think I could give the folks on “Worst Chefs in America” a run for their money. But I should also say that this in no way stops me from trying...

Case in point: my Earth Day party.

Local TV series “Eye on the Bay” contacted us about filming one of our little parties for the show. After some discussion, my team thought that our Earth Day party would be a perfect fit. Soon we were planning some special touches to make the party even more memorable. Normally we don’t do food; I leave that to the experts. (And with good reason -- no one wants some poor child choking down a half-burnt grilled cheese sandwich, no matter what cute shape it’s been trimmed into!) But for some reason I got a flash of inspiration: instead of cake, let’s do three tiny treats representing earth, sea, and sky! Ahhh, brilliant me. I was feeling very puffed up, since I normally don’t even have any ideas for food beyond fun names for them. I’m just not a foodie!

So there I was, puffed up and full of my fabulous vision. For earth, I decided to do a chocolate pudding mixed with Cool Whip and topped with Oreo cookie crumbles, a gummy worm, and a lollipop flower. For sky, my husband Scott suggested fluffy “cloud” meringue cookies. (To his credit, Scott made a sample batch, but the yield was too small and the prep time was too long. Thankfully Trader Joe’s carries tubs of perfect little puffs, so we went with those.) And finally for sea we’d have blue Jell-O. I recalled an image I had seen years ago in a magazine: a fish bowl filled with light blue Jell-O and gummy fish. Perfect! The only issue was that I didn’t know how to make it... but how hard could mixing up some Jell-O and throwing in a gummy fish be?

What is it they say about pride goeth before the fall? Get ready to hear a very loud thump, y’all.

Somewhere in the recesses of my memory, I remembered that if you wanted to suspend something in Jell-O, and not have it sink to the bottom like a dead weight, you had to do the Jell-O in layers. I was planning on visiting my folks between my Friday and Sunday parties (the “Eye on the Bay” shoot was that Sunday), so I decided to make the Jell-O Thursday night. The first layer went off without a hitch. I had very cute bowl-shaped votive candle holders that were the perfect size for small, individual fish bowls. I filled them halfway Thursday night, and set them in the fridge to harden. The next morning I inserted one nice, plump gummy fish into each bowl, and added more Jell-O. All was good -- or so I thought.

The tragedy struck Saturday morning when I opened the fridge to grab milk for my morning tea. I found twelve bloated, white-rimmed, disintegrating fish staring back at me! It was like the biblical ten plagues -- you know the part where the river turns to blood and the fish all float to the surface, dead and disgusting? I had a mini fish apocalypse on my hands! This was not good -- I was leaving for my parents’ in an hour, and I had to do something fast. My first thought was that maybe I could get away with it, that maybe it was like that oxidation that happens with chocolate when it gets hot and then cold; it looks terrible, but still tastes good. I figured I’d better dump out one fish bowl and check it.

One flick of the spoon and I knew I was doomed. The toxic mess that spilled out onto my plate nearly caused me to gag up my morning tea. The fish was slimy and gross, and no kid in their right might would consume it.

Thankfully I had a few more boxes of Jell-O on hand, so I mixed up another batch to replace the putrefied ones. I figured that right before I served them at the party, I’d cut a slit in the top of the Jell-O and insert a gummy fish, maybe even having his head stick out, like Flipper used to do. The fish wouldn’t have time to go bad if the desserts were served immediately after their addition.

The funny thing was that two days before, my sister Freda posted a Facebook link to the exact photo of the Jell-O goldfish bowl that had inspired me in the first place. It was a Martha Stewart recipe, which should have been a red flag because nothing I’ve ever made of hers has been as simple as it seemed. At the time, I couldn’t figure out how to get to the recipe from the link, but after the carnage in my fridge I went back and searched for it. It was completely off the hook and used flat soda. And there, on the bottom, it instructed you to wait until you were going to serve the dish and insert the fish just before, and to make sure to serve it within six hours of doing so. So there it was! The smoking fish... or should that be “smoked fish?”

All in all, I’m pretty thankful for the way everything played out. If I hadn’t been going to my folks’, I wouldn’t have done the project early. If I hadn’t done the project early, I wouldn’t have had the time to rectify the situation. As it was, everything worked out just fine, as it always does. However, I will say that from now on, I’m definitely leaving the foodstuff to the experts!

Every February my husband and I escape to a little place in Mexico called Punta de Mita. It’s become a sort of refuge for us: a place where we can escape for a brief time, and even though we are still connected to our businesses through the internet, we actually take time away from work to enjoy friends, food, and the great outdoors.

This year we invited my husband’s oldest brother and sister in-law to join us in what we hoped would be an exciting change of pace for them. Things were definitely exciting, but I’m not sure we will ever have the pleasure of having my in-laws grace our Mexican home again, especially since our home became basically an infirmary for five full days.

As you may have already guessed, my entire family: Scott, my brother in-law Tom, and his wife Terry all came down with some incredibly virulent Mexican flu. A flu that I can only describe as terrifying!

It started the night after we’d had an amazing tour of the La Cruz farmer’s market, a place where local merchants converge to share food, music, festivities, and handmade goods. It’s an amazing market simply bursting with color, smells, and flavors. It makes one swoon.

The first hint that something was wrong started with Tom.

Poor Tom, he was such a trooper. At first he just chalked it up to too many tastes for an older guy’s system. He refused to be brought down, and (I’m embarrassed to admit it now) I didn’t even know he was sick that first day. He hid it really well! However, that evening everything came crashing down.

I was awoken in the middle of the night by what I thought was an earthquake. The bed my husband I were sharing was literally shaking. Poor Scott had chills, but not just any ordinary chills -- these were major tremors. Tremors that shook his entire body and everything within its wake (or should I say “quake?”). Thinking he just had a bug, I piled on every blanket I could find. But because we were in Mexico, our blankets were numbered. So I also gathered every towel, robe, and sweatshirt I could find, piling it upon him until he looked like a Goodwill clearance table.

The next morning, upon surveying the varying stages of decline within my family members, I consulted my dear friend Ana. Ana is this amazing woman who lives in Punta De Mita, and literally is the heart of the community. One look at Scott and she jumped into action, calling in the local town doctor.

I simply must describe the visage that walked through the door to attend to my nearly comatose husband. I can only describe him as “soap opera handsome.” 5 foot 10, dark wavy hair, muscular build under his white doctor’s coat. Just call him El Doctoro Dreamy! Seriously, he could give Patrick Dempsy a run for his pesos! He entered my home carrying what I can only describe as a tackle box filled with every imaginable hospital implement.

He took one look at Scott and shook his head. “This is a very sick man,” he said in perfect English. “We need to get him started on an I.V. right away.”

The first thing that popped into my head, of course, was a war-torn-looking ambulance and a trip to Puerto Vallarta. But the doctor just placed his toolbox on the bed and said, “I’ll be right back.”

The next scene was bizarre, and something you would never witness in the States, unless you were in some place like the backwoods of Appalachia or the barren tundra of Alaska. The elevator opened, and there’s the doctor with an I.V. stand. He swiftly wheeled the stand in place, and within 10 minutes had mixed up a bright yellow mixture of vitamins, Valium, and antibiotics. I can only assume that my Kaiser doctors back in the States would be pulling their hair out had they seen this. Although we were not in a “sterile” environment, the good doctor did wear gloves and a mask, and used only items that were vacuum packed and hermetically sealed.

With amazing skill and dexterity he inserted the I.V. and then set about checking in with the rest of my family. Two hours later he returned to take out the I.V. and check on the family again. This time he brought a bevy of medications, and meticulously went through each one’s administrations with me, until he was sure I got it. Over the next few days, he would return to check on my husband no less than four times. Have you ever heard of an American Doctor even making one house call, let alone six?!

Now, this is not intended to be a blog about the terrors of travel. It’s meant to be a story of how incredible the people of Mexico are, and how amazingly well they took care of my family when I was powerless to do so myself. Not only did the Doctoro take amazing care of us, but friends, family, and staff from local restaurants and hotels all came to our aid. People brought soup and plain tortillas, well wishes, and prayers... It was overwhelming.

When all was said and done, and my husband was up and around again, we paid a visit to the doctor at his farmacia so we could settle up the bill. (Did you notice he gave us care and treatment without charging us up front? I hope you’re taking notes, Kaiser.) When all was said and done, we paid about $300 US for everything: house calls, treatment, medicine, and true concern included.

Obviously, I’m not advocating getting sick when in a foreign country or out of one’s own element. In fact, I’d strongly suggest one try to stay as healthy as possible whenever one can! But, if you have to get sick away from home, Punta de Mita sure seems the place to do it. I can only hope that visitors to our country would be treated so well!

I am one of those bosses who is blessed with an amazing team of talented, hard-working, respectful, and dedicated employees who actually seem to like the work they do with me. Oh sure, every now and then they drive me crazy (as I’m sure I do them!), but my workforce is like a family in that way, with every member playing a significant role in the family tree. It’s a very special team, and I am grateful for all they bring to my company.

Case in point: the Molina girls.

Before I extol the virtues of these amazing sisters, let me give you some background.

Six years ago I was donating my time at Saint Anthony’s. Every year we help out with a Christmas party for the kids. I supply all the fun games and Saint Anthony’s supplies the labor, usually in the form of volunteers from Skyline College. That’s where I met Jennifer for the first time. A while later, I was doing a big luau party and we were short on staffing. I called my friend Doug at Saint Anthony’s, and asked if he had any recommendations from his fantastic volunteers list. He sent me Jen.

Jen, admiring Freda’s Baby Umi

Jen turned out to be awesome. She worked hard: climbing ladders, hauling boxes, setting up a fancy drinks bar... She was great. She took direction well and jumped right into the fray without holding back. She asked great questions and took initiative. We chatted about her being a sophomore and how people sometimes mistook her for Hillary Duff (who she did resemble at the time). I automatically moved her to the top of my first-call assistant list.

About a week later I was in Sunnyvale, doing a big craft table for a computer company’s picnic. Jen was on board, but she arrived late. I was concerned and worried, until about 10 minutes before the event when I looked up to see her smiling face. “Sorry! Traffic was horrible, and Sacred Heart Cathedral dismissed us late today,” she said. I looked at her sideways. “Sacred Heart?” I said, a bit mystified. “I thought you were a sophomore in college?” She started laughing. “No Sophie,” she said as she slipped into her red staff apron, “I’m a sophomore in high school.”

I nearly fell over.

Here was this amazingly poised, confident, mature, young woman. A young lady heads and tails above some of my assistants in their 20s and 30s even, and she barely had her driver’s license! I was floored.

Needless to say, Jen joined our ranks and became a recurring face on the Sophie’s Stress-Free Soirées team. She was quickly placed in rotation and garnered respect from every member of the team, even though she was less than half their age!

About two years into her employ, we once again found ourselves short handed for a large event, and Jen suggested her younger sister Annette. We were given the warning that Annette was a hard worker, but extremely shy. That didn’t really concern me at the time, because I really just needed a solid folks who could help set up a large party. And so, the second Molina came aboard. To say that she was yet another blessing from above is an understatement. She took to the job like a duck to water, and that “shy” personality that we had been warned about never actually showed her face. Within a month she was exchanging barbs with my husband Scott -- not an easy thing to do!

Annette also gets in on a little monkey business

Annette, or “Molinita,” as she is fondly called, is a powerhouse and can basically do anything. She’s saved me when I’ve had horrible technical failures on a job (as I recalled in a previous post), stayed up with me organizing a 16-foot truck at 1:00 a.m. in La Jolla, ran events for me when I was accidentally double-booked, and helped me carry over 20 boxes through a ¼ mile labyrinth... and that’s just the beginning.

The thing about J-Mo and Molinita is that they are more than just employees, they are family.
We’ve shared some amazing times together. There are laughs, like the time that Jen referred to herself as “small, but productive” There are tears, when their family was affected by the San Bruno gas explosion. There’s been pride, as they both excel and succeed in their own lives. And there are rivalries, too -- football season turns our sweet little J-Mo into a trash-talking Niners fan!

In some ways it’s gotta be tough to be a new employee. The bar has been set really high. Often Scott will be heard saying, “You know, the new gal (or guy) was good -- but she’s no Molina.”

Spring is (kinda) here (depending on what the weather's like where you live!), and you and your kids can help celebrate its return by making a flock of these adorable Paper Cup Lambs! These sheep are sooo cute you can't make just one! They're also a great craft for a range of ages, since the steps and the materials are easy for little ones to grasp. Take a look at my how-to video above, or if you want our text step-by-step, click here!

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Everyone in my office is completely hooked on the Hunger Games. Every single one of us has read the trilogy and is a huge fan. With the opening of the movie at hand, my brilliant sister (and artist in residence), decided to make her own Mockingjay pins out of duct tape. She gave me one as a present the other day, and I was so impressed by it that I needed to blog about it right away.

When I informed Freda that I wanted to write about it, she jumped right in and gave me the steps for making one so that I can pass on the technique to those of you who wish to make your own. One note though: this is not an easy craft! It definitely takes time and patience to make this pin. However, once the technique is learned, it can be used to make any variety of cool jewelry, not just this pin.

To make the pin you’ll need the following supplies:

1. Duct tape. Freda also used Mylar tape in her sample, but standard duct tape is fine. You will want black, and then at least 2 contrasting colors – maybe red and yellow. Freda used copper and gold Mylar tape but she doesn’t recommend it. Even though the effect is beautiful, the tape is extremely hard to work with and rips easily. However, they now make metallic silver and gold duct tape that gives you the same look.
2. Wax paper
3. Permanent markers with a good point
4. One large safety pin, or pin back (found in local craft stores)
5. Scissors
6. An image to trace (in this case, we used the Mockingjay image from the cover of the Hunger Games' first book)
7. Seed beads
8. An eye pin (used in making dangling earrings; can be found in craft stores) or thin wire (use needle nose pliers to form a little loop at the end to keep beads from slipping off)

Step 1: Place your waxed paper over the image on the cover of the book. Using your permanent marker, trace the outer perimeter of your artwork.

Step 2: Cover the backside of the traced image with black duct tape, make sure to extend past the lines a tiny bit.

Step 3: Cut along the lines. Make sure to leave a tab of wax paper, as removing the duct tape from the wax paper is tricky if you don’t have a tab.

Step 4: Remove the wax paper backing, trim the wax paper tab.

Step 5: Cover the sticky side of the duct tape with a layer of gold duct tape (sticky side to sticky side).

Step 6: Trim just inside the black duct tape pattern (cutting two sandwiched pieces of duct tape is easier than cutting sticky tape).

Step 7: Using a second piece of wax paper, trace the negative space (the black areas) around the bird on the cover art.

Step 8: Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each section -- remember to leave tabs for easy removal of the wax paper. Cut pieces one at a time (see next step); do not cut all the pieces out at once.

Step 9: Freda found it easier to cut the pieces one at a time and place them before cutting the next piece. It helped in making sure that she worked her way around the circle and had the correct piece for each section. It’s a bit like putting together a puzzle. (Remember, I told you this was a tricky project!)

Step 10: If you have really good fingers and lots of patience, you can add accent colors to the wings and body of the bird. Just repeat steps 7 through 8 for each new layer of color.

(Special note: when photographing this project, Freda realized she had not made accommodations for the wings and tail that extend past the main circle of the pin. She had to come back and place black duct tape on those overhanging pieces and then trim away the excess black tape. However, when you are doing your first tracing, if you trace around those areas to start with, that will not be an issue.)

Step 11: To make the arrow, use your 2-inch eye pin. Place seed beads on the eye pin, leaving a bit of metal pin sticking out the end.

Step 12: Wrap a square of duct tape around each end of the metal eye pin.

Step 13: Trim both ends to look like an arrow -- a point on the front and feathers at the end.

Step 14: Place a piece of black duct tape on the back of the pin so it over hangs where the arrow point and tail will land. Flip over, and place the arrow between the beak and tail, so the ends hang off the circle and connect with the duct tape. Press the ends to secure the arrow. (Personally I think a little hot glue applied to the middle of the arrow would work just as well -- but that’s just my outside opinion!) Trim excess black tape.

Step 15: Turn the pin over and secure a pin back or safety pin to the back of the pin with duct tape.

Step 16: You’re done! Enjoy your pin (you earned it).

As I said in the beginning, this is a seriously advanced pin. Freda says it took her over an hour to do, so be warned, this takes patience, time, and good scissor skills. However, the technique lends itself to lots of fun jewelry making options -- we'll be bringing you lots more duct tape jewelry in the coming weeks!

Happy Hunger Games, and may the crafting odds be ever in your favor!

Chances are, if you know my sister Freda, then you have either met, seen, or at least heard of Baby Umi. For those of you outside the loop, Umi is Freda’s baby monkey. Not a real monkey, mind you -- a toy monkey. A toy orangutan, to be exact.

Let me give you the backstory...

Freda has always loved monkeys and anything monkey-related. For example, she can break into the “Baby Monkey Riding Backwards on a Pig” song from YouTube without hesitation. She’s always prattled on about how she would love to have a “mon-kid” -- a monkey that one dresses up as a child and then feeds copious amounts of sugar, usually pushed around in a perambulator or other ambulatory device. It’s a little odd, I know, but that’s my sister’s sense of humor.

So this past November, when it was Freda’s birthday, my assistant Kelly and I decided to surprise her with a visit from one of the local entertainers who has a monkey named Hobo. Hobo is a little organ grinder’s monkey who Freda and I met four years ago at the Embarcadero Tree Lighting Event here in San Francisco. He was the cutest thing you ever did see, and he actually let Freda shake his tiny hand. Freda was literally vibrating after her encounter with the little fella, and would have stayed by his side all day if she had not been called away to her duty as a face painter.

Unfortunately, Kelly and my attempts were thwarted when we discovered some very sad news: Hobo had retired. Evidently he was living out his days in the trees at an animal refuge center in San Carlos. We were both very sad. The closest thing that any of our other vendors had to offer was a man in a moth-eaten monkey suit -- not quite the effect we were striving for. What to do? My sister’s birthday was rapidly approaching and we were monkeyless...

Desperately, I searched the web, and that’s where I discovered Umi.

Umi is actually one of at least a dozen infant apes that you can purchase from the high-end doll company, Ashton Drake. This leads me to believe that maybe my sister’s affections aren’t quite as quirky as I first believed them to be. I mean, seriously -- high-end monkey dolls dressed as babies? Who knew there was such a market?

After screening my options, I decided upon Umi as she was less vile than the other candidates, and had a cute little impish (or should I say “chimpish”?) quality to her that made her slightly less terrifying than the others. The only issue was that Umi wouldn’t arrive for another four weeks. I guess the dolls aren’t actually produced until someone orders one, which is probably smart... Who wants a warehouse full of preemie orangutans staring out from behind their boxes’ cellophane windows? I just get this weird image of “Planet of the Apes” meets “Chuckie”...

So our birthday plans were shelved and I focused my attention on Christmas. I have to admit, it was hard to keep the secret once Umi arrived in our office. Luckily the UPS delivery came on a day when Freda was at the dentist, so she missed the flurry of torn paper and cardboard, and the screams of delight/horror that filled the office. Kelly was immediately grossed out, and insisted that I removed the monkey from the office! I quickly spirited Umi away and wrapped her for her special reveal.

On Christmas, we saved Umi for the last present of the day, and it garnered exactly the response I expected. Let me preface this by first saying that my entire family is a bit twisted; the biggest sigh of joy ever released by my mother on a Christmas morning was the year my father gave her a beautifully mounted Africa stag beetle. You would have thought he’d wrapped up the Hope diamond...

Umi was immediately hugged, prodded, undressed, redressed, tossed into the air, and enlisted in a photoshoot within moments of her great reveal. She was given a place at the breakfast table, and immediately began pestering our father and the cat. It was as I had feared: my sister had infused her devilish personality into the little rubber-faced monkey. There was now a mischievous glint in those glass doll eyes...

Umi now goes everywhere with Freda. She comes to work (even though my warehouse doesn’t have an adequate childcare facility), she goes to the beach, she goes on bike rides, she goes shopping, she even goes on vacation with my sister and her very skeptical fiancé Coire. In fact, Umi is being featured in a portrait that my sister is having painted for her wedding, giving Frida Kahlo a serious run for her money.

The kicker came when my sister set up a Pinterest account, and set up a board dedicated to Umi. Within an hour Umi had been repinned 22 times. By the time Freda had turned in for the night, she had over 120. Umi was blowing up Pinterest! It leaves me with just one thought... maybe my sister is the sane one...

1. Makeup station: This is where outrageous eyeshadow, eyeliner, and even false eyelashes could be applied (just make sure you have someone who knows what they are doing run this station).
2. Hair station: Lay out an assortment of clips, scrunchies, hair ties, bows, and all number of hair accouterments. Add fun things like feathers, tin foil, beads, colorful mylar streamers… If you are so inclined, you could also throw in colored sprays, or hair-streaking paint. The object here would be the wilder the better!
3. Nail salon: Purchase some over-the-top colors like neon yellow, orange, hot pink, or turquoise, and go to town. Paint the nails with patterns if you're looking to get creative.
4. Stick-on jewels: These self-adhesive jewels can actually be found in most crafting stores (often in the scapbooking section) although there are also various websites that sell them. Check sites that sell bindis.

1. Bow and arrows: Set up targets and use either Nerf or suction cup bow and arrows.
2. Spears: Use pool noodles as spears and practice throwing at either target or through hula hoops hung from trees or clotheslines.
3. Quarter staff: Use pool noodles as quarter staffs. Have an adult play the part of the instructor and see if the tribute can get past the trainer. A quarter staff is held in the middle with both hands spread and used to block attacks on either side. If a tribute can make contact with any part of the adult’s body, that counts as a “blow” – three blows and the tribute may pass.
4. Aim: Knock down tin cans with either Nerf guns or slingshots or balls.
5. Sword fighting (using foam swords): As in the quarter staff challenge, have tributes try to land three blows on the trainer.
6. Nature detection: Set out leaves from different trees and see if the tributes can identify them.
7. Shelter: If you’ve got some tarps, rope, poles, see what sort of shelter can be created with the materials on hand.

Even "Umi Everdeen" is getting in on the Hunger Games action!

I sometimes think playing cards are like socks. You ever notice that no matter how well you monitor your laundry, you always seem to lose one? It seems to be like that with me and cards; whenever I actually have a moment to play a game, the deck seems to be mysteriously shy a card or two. That got me to thinking: playing cards are great for games of course, but they are also great launchpads for creative projects! I thought I’d share a few ideas that I’ve come up with, along with some links to the amazing things other people have done with cards as well.

Conversation Starters

Whenever we have an event with a group of older kids who may not know each other and will be sitting at tables for an extended period of time (like a Bar or Bat Mitzvah), we love conversation starters! Playing cards make the perfect base. All you do is print up a series of questions like...

• “If you could create a new candy bar, what would it be?”
• “Do you believe there is life on other planets?”
• “If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?”
• “What subject should they teach in school?”

Print them on sticker-backed labels (regular mailing labels are good, or if you get full sheet labels, you can cut them to 1.5 x 3 inches) and place those labels on the face side of the cards. If you wish, you can label the back of the cards with a sticker that says “Conversation Starters” or “Getting To Know You.” Place one card at each place setting or make a little box for the center of the table where everyone has easy access.

L-O-V-E!

52 ways...

Similarly, you can create a little “book” by placing a hole punch in the corner of each card. Use one of those loose-leaf rings you can buy at an office supply store (like these) or a brad to hold the cards together and create a little book. You can then print up everything from words of encouragement and love (like these “52 Reasons I Love You”), to ideas of things to do with the kids, to restaurant suggestions, to simple recipes... the themes are limited only by your imagination!

Mini Photo Frames

Cards make the perfect frame for those wallet-sized photos from school. Simply mount the photo on the face of a playing card with glue dots, double-sided tape, or a glue stick. To make a little frame stand, take a second card and fold it in half from top to bottom so that it makes a little tent. Attach the tented card to the back of the frame card with glue, and you’re ready to display your photo! This can also make a great table seating card (especially for a casino night!); just print out a label or write the person’s name in permanent marker.

Accordion-Style Wallet Photo Display

In the same vein, you can also create a sort of flip-out/flip-down photo montage. You can even make it so that it chronicles all of your child’s school years, or their ages. For example, for a baby, you can use an ace as a photo from their birth, numbers 2 through 10 as the corresponding months, the jack as the 11th month, queen as the 12th month, and king as their first birthday.

All you need for this is a straight run of one color or suit, clear tape, glue dots, and your photos. Lay the first two cards (ace and 2) side-by-side or end-to-end (depending on whether you want your accordion to fold out so that it can stand on a table, or down for a wall hanging). Place a two-inch strip of tape at the sides of the side-by-side cards, or on the top and bottom of the end-to-end cards so that the cards are connected. Flip the connected cards over and repeat the process on the backside. Keep flipping and attaching fronts, then backs, until you have the length of cards you want. Use glue dots to adhere the photos to the cards. You can now display your photos at home, or place them in your wallet. (Remember those old TV shows where the guy would reach into his wallet and pull out a photo, that would then drop open like a Jacob’s Ladder, revealing a looong chain of photos?)

Alice in Wonderland decor

Inspired by those little fellas who make up the Queen of Heart’s court, I came up with these funny little playing card people. All you need are some fun photos, cards, popsicle sticks, hot glue (adult supervision, please!), pipe cleaners, and beads (if you like). To make the body, take a popsicle stick, cut it in half, and hot glue it to the back of a card with about one inch sticking out beyond the top of the card. Hot glue one full-sized pipe cleaner (about 12 inches) across the back of the card near the center to make the arms. Bend the second pipe cleaner in half and hot glue that across the back of the card near the bottom to make the legs. Take a second playing card and glue it to the back of the first card so that it sandwiches all those body parts. Cut the heads of the photos out and glue them to the top of the popsicle stick. You can then embellish the hands and feet with beads if you like. Make little loops at the ends of the pipe cleaners for hands and feet, and glue the feet to an additional playing card so that your little person can stand on their own. These make really fun decorations, and also great table seating cards for a “mad hatter” tea party.

And finally, give the kids something to do on a rainy day...

Playing Card Scavenger Hunt

The full-out, detailed description of this activity can be found here on our main site. The basic premise is to hide playing cards throughout the house and have kids hunt for them. As they discover the cards, they need to make as many poker-based combinations as they can (e.g., pairs, runs, three of a kind, etc.). Points are awarded for each combination. Easier combos, like pairs, get one point, whereas harder combos, like a full house or flush, earn more, like 20 points. A single card may be used as many times as possible; for example, it can be used once in a pair, but also in a four-of-a-kind combo, once in a flush, etc. Keep track of the players’ points, and then at the end finish up with a search for all the remaining missing cards! Just remember, if you end up losing one or two, you’ve now got a bunch of activities you can do with the remaining ones!

Well, it’s starting. The annual ramp-up to the fundraising season. Just as the San Francisco skies are finally opening up and dousing us with much-needed rain, my little company has been deluged with requests for donations.

There’s no easy way around it: fundraising is a pain in the neck. First, the events themselves take so much time, preparation, and begging, borrowing, and calling-in of favors that they just aren’t fun to work on. Second, there’s a sort of irritation that accompanies most fundraising events because people feel tapped out. I have a bunch of clients with kids in more than one private school, and they are over it. I mean, when you are paying what amounts to the tuition for a small, midwestern university for a preschool, the notion of having to shell out yet another thousand dollars (or more!) at a fundraiser is a bit daunting.

And the hardest thing is that there are so many organizations that are trying to raise money; not just the schools, but also hospitals, theatre companies, social service agencies, the ballet, the symphony, the opera... The list goes on and on and on... It’s never-ending!

All that being said, I wanted to offer up three really fun fundraising ideas that I hope will add a bit of diversity and creativity to your next plea for money.

#1. Buy a card, any card

I actually just witnessed this one at an event last weekend, and I thought it was fabulous! What you do is set up a few fun, fabulous prizes, such as a fleet of wine (in this case, they got their patrons to each donate one bottle from their cellars; what I like about this is that it’s no skin off the patrons’ teeth, and you amass a great, eclectic mix of wines that make a great prize -- especially for most Californians!), or a collection of jewelry (again, this group collected pieces from their patrons), or sports tickets (lots of them donated from their season passes), and so on. The prizes are bundled together in a nice packaged presentation and placed on display. Here’s where the fundraising comes in...

Each package is represented by a deck of playing cards, and patrons can buy as many cards as they like for each package. In this case, the cards sold for $100 each. Patrons happily plunked down $100 for a 1-in-52 chance at a great prize. It was a quick way to raise $5,200 of pure profit -- $5,400 if you include the jokers! You will need two decks of cards per prize, one to sell, and one to use for the drawing. Those two need to be different from the cards for the other prizes, but cards come in so many styles and colors that this shouldn’t be a problem. You also need to keep track of which cards represent which prize. In this case the red playing cards were for the wine, blue was for the jewelry, and a pack of San Francisco Giants logo cards were for the sports tickets -- pretty easy to remember! So, if you’re following, at this event there were two packs of red, two packs of blue, and two packs of Giants.

Now, when it comes time to choose the winners, you can do it one of two ways:

1. The simple way: announce which prize is up, and dump your “drawing” pack of cards into a bowl, mix ‘em up, and select one. Whoever has the matching card wins the prize.

2. This requires a bit more time and preparation, but it’s so much fun! If you’re giving away more than one prize, you might only want to do this gimmick for the first one given away, so that it doesn’t become repetitive. You’ll also need to make sure you have a great MC to run this, because the banter and patter is important!

Choose your winning card out of a bowl the same way you did for the first method. (We’ll say we chose the 4 of spades.) Have everyone in the audience who bought a card stand up, and then begin eliminating groups of people with a witty little line for each. Here are some examples:

1. Those of you with a card with a heart... you left it in San Francisco... sit down!
2. Deuces may be wild for some, but not here… if you have a 2, sit down.
3. You may be the jack of all trades, but that gets you nothing here... if you have a Jack... sit down!
4. You may be the king of the castle, but here, that means nothing... sit down!
5. Nine is fine, but it won’t get you the wine, so sit down.
6. Eight is great, but tonight it’s a little too late... sit down.
7. Three’s definitely a crowd... please sit down.
8. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but not tonight, so sit down.
9. Five... you ain’t alive... sit down!
10. Tonight, top tens are only good for music charts... sit down.
11. Aces may hold the highest or lowest rank... tonight it’s the lowest... sit down!
12. Seven, make your way to heaven... sit down.
13. Six... hit the bricks! Sit down.
14. Queens, you may be the divas, but do it in a chair and sit down.
15. Clubs, you’ve been just that -- clubbed! Sit down.

And that leaves us with our winner, the four of spades!

At this point there should only be one person left standing, and that person is your winner!

#2. Explosive fundraising

We did this as a fundraiser for our local church and it was a blast... literally! Not only is it an energetic type of fundraiser, but it also offers up a bit of decor, since you will be using helium-filled balloons.

You will need to spend a little bit of money and time on this one, but the results are really, really engaging. You will need a prize table full of fun stuff (again, we had all of this donated by the congregants, so it didn’t cost a thing, and the items on display ranged from tasty fruit baskets, to gym memberships, to books on tape. It was like a yard sale, but with really fun stuff). You’ll also need balloons, helium, ribbon, pins (we used pretty hat pins), and printed paper slips.

Before the event begins, print up little notes that say the following:

• Pick a prize! (Note: you’ll want as many slips as you have prizes.)
• Win a free balloon
• Sorry - try again!

Roll or fold one note for each balloon. Stuff each balloon with one note. Fill the balloons with helium, and tie them off with ribbon as you would any normal balloon.

Now the fun begins! As guest arrive, have volunteers walking around with big bouquets of balloons. Immediately people will be drawn to the volunteers. We sold our balloons for $20 a piece or 6 for $100. The patrons were able to choose their own balloons from the mix and were then handed a pin. The sound of popping and the activity of people scrambling to find their exploded note was sheer joy. People had so much fun popping the balloons that they didn’t really even care what prize they won. When all was said and done, the cost was about $50 for the helium tank, the ribbon, and the balloons. That gave us about 175 balloons to sell, and if I remember correctly we earned about $3,000!

#3. Duct tape financing

Although this fundraising idea probably takes the most time and effort to set up, it’s a huge success with the kids. We used this idea for a Winter Carnival, and the school said it was one of the highlights of the day.

Basically this requires setting up a duct tape crafting center with tables, assorted rolls of tape, patterns, and embellishments. You will need monitors to help in the projects, but we found that our high school kids were perfect for this. Most of them had done it before, and once taught the basics they were able to run the booth easily. (If you need some help, check out our duct tape crafts in our craft library!)

We sold tickets to the booth for $50, which well covered the expenses of the materials (which can get costly). We probably spent about $500 in supplies, but ended up making $5,000 on the booth, so it was a winner in that respect! We didn’t limit our participants creativity; they made purses, iPad covers, wallets, roses, all manner of items, but you could designate just one item if you wanted to simplify the process for your own event.

Materials-wise you will need about 10 rolls of duct tape for every 30 kids participating. It’s up to you how many colors and designs you offer, but realize that you will want backups of all of your tapes (the best thing to do is purchase large amounts from a store where you can return any unopened product. That way you can have extra on hand, but not end up paying for unused materials). It’s great to have an assortment of colors as well as a collection of patterned accent tapes (flames, polka dots, etc.).

There are also extra supplies that help to make the station a success, such as sticky-backed velcro or magnets (for closing purses), ribbon (for making purse straps), key rings (for attaching the purse straps), and fun stickers, jewels, puff balls, etc. (for embellishing). You will need many pairs of scissors, and many hands on deck to teach kids how to make the crafts. It’s best to use a fabric tablecloth to cover your work space (don’t use paper or plastic as the tape will stick to it and become useless), and you’ll want to supply as many tables as your space allows.

All three of these fundraisers have worked really well for us in the past, and we highly recommend them. If you need any further specific explanations or a more step-by-step approach to setting any one of these activities up, leave a comment or email me! I’m happy to share more information.

After all, my fantasy is to bring the “fun” back to fundraising!

It's been really blustery outside here in San Francisco! Even though it's a little cold, it's perfect weather for kite flying! Check out this week's featured YouTube video, where I show you how to make Paper Bag Kites!

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If you live near the Bay Area and have a bit of free time, you really need to check out the Pez Museum in downtown Burlingame, California. (214 California Drive, Burlingame, CA, 94010; www.burlingamepezmuseum.com) It’s an amazingly quaint museum/shop where you can see every Pez dispenser ever created and also learn the history of our beloved, funny-faced candy dispensers. (Did you know that they started out as breath mints for smokers?)

Photo from The Burlingame Pez Museum

I was never much of a Pez fan myself (I never had the dexterity for loading the dang contraptions and usually ended up shooting myself in the eye), but I do love toys. And connected with the little Pez museum is an antique toy showroom. It’s there that I learned Mr. Potato Head’s dirty little secret. Did you know that Mr. Potato Head started out as a toy called “Make a Face” that was just a box of plastic facial features which you inserted into assorted vegetables? That’s right -- there used to be a whole race of veggie people out there! I’m sure there are reasons why Mrs. Onion Face, Mr. Cucumber Nose, and Ms. Carrot never made it to the Hollywood Walk of Fame like our beloved Mr. Potato Head, but clearly this concept of veggies-into-friends has been around for a long time!

As with all things that tickle my fancy, I stored this knowledge away for a later date. And now, dear friends, that day has come! St. Patrick’s Day seems like a perfect time to share this fun, potato-based craft that will keep kids and adults enthralled. The best part is that given the nature of a potato (their round-ish shapes, their easy-to-penetrate skin that holds items well, and how slowly they rot), they make awesome decorating bases.

To make your own spud buddy, you’ll need the following items:

• Potatoes (doesn’t matter what size or shape or brand, although I prefer baking potatoes)

Assorted decorative items (any/all will do):

• Toothpicks (take care with the pointy end when working with kids)
• Popsicle sticks
• Coffee stirrers
• Pipe cleaners
• Pins (take care when working with kids; I especially like the ones with balls on the ends)
• Tacky glue, glue dots, or hot glue (always use adult supervision with hot glue)
• Googly eyes
• Fabric, trim, lace, felt
• Yarn
• Other small vegetables, like radishes
• Beans (these make great eyes)
• Assorted pasta shapes
• Assorted “creativity fodder”: bottle caps (check for sharp edges!), lids, used CDs (these make great bases), golf tees, buttons, puff balls, jewels, sewing spools, duct tape, etc.

How to make your potato person

To start, you will want to clean your potato. You may just want to use a mushroom or wire brush to remove any dirt, or you may want to give them a thorough scrub in the sink. However, if you decide to wash your potatoes, give them at least 24 hours to dry out. Moisture is not a glue gun’s friend!

Once you’ve got your potato, you just begin adding features by either gluing, pinning, or just shoving thing in. Use the shape of your potato to dictate where the face and body will be. You may find that a particularly-well placed bump might become a very cute nose or ear; a certain twist to the shape might suggest a waist or definite head. As with any inanimate object, I find that adding the eyes is the key to giving something a personality and vitality. Once you’ve added the eyes, it’s easy sailing. There are so many things one can use for eyes: buttons, beans, stickers, paper -- each one will give you a different sort of quality, so have fun and play! Once you have the eyes, the rest of the face will fall in place.

Making your potato stand or sit is really easy. All you need is some sort of base; a milk container top, or bottle cap works well. Simply figure out the balance point of your potato (meaning how you want it to stand) and glue the cap onto the place where the potato meets the table. You could, if you are so inclined, simply cut off a section of the potato to create a flat bottom (of course, this would be an adult’s job; never let kids use knives unsupervised). You can create a standing potato by inserting popsicle sticks or golf tees into your potato to form a tripod of legs. It’s hard to make a bipedal potato, unless you glue the foot end to something large and sturdy (like a CD or cardboard base).

Embellishing your potato with hair and clothing is where you can get super creative. I find that pins work best for attaching fabric, lace, tulle, and the like. Lace makes a great tutu for an instant ballerina. Pipe cleaners are also a great way to attach items, especially hair -- wrap a length of yarn around the palm of your hand until you get the desired amount, slip the yarn off your hand, and cut down the center (you will now have a nice pile of similarly-sized pieces of yarn). Use a pipe cleaner to secure the yarn in the middle (simply make a 2-inch U-shape with the pipe cleaner, slip the piece of yarn into the bend of the pipe cleaner, then twist the ends of the pipe cleaner around each other locking in the yarn). Make a hole at the top of the head, insert the pipe cleaner, and voila -- instant hairdo!

Now, one thing I have discovered with my potato people is that hot glue is not the best glue for adhering item directly to the veggie. It’s great for embellishing the other items (clothing layers, feet to bases, etc.) but for gluing directly onto the potato itself, it’s not the best. I would suggest tacky glue or good glue dots for that.

I did this craft a while ago for a St. Patrick’s Day-themed party and it was such a huge hit. The kids had a blast, and created whole families that included pets (radishes are awesome for that) and even modes of transportation. I actually ran into one of the moms about two weeks later and she commented on how the potatoes were still holding up valiantly, and that the signs of decay had yet to set in. She told me that she and her daughter kept a vigil, and that they had made a pact that when the potato family started to smell it would be time to move the family to the compost bin. However, they decided that they would save the parts and create new friends. Gotta love that! Hand-me-down body parts!

Don't forget, if you want our full craft write-up, visit our main site at the link!

With St. Patrick's Day coming up on Saturday, you just knew that our craft this week had to be St. Paddy's themed, right? Right! We're getting some potatoes ready to party by turning them into fun, festive friends. You can learn to make our Potato People by watching our video (and subscribing to our channel on YouTube!), or by going to our step-by-step how-to on our main site by clicking here.

Here's just a small selection of the kinds of Potato People you can make…

Also the Staples Small Business Push Contest on Facebook is still going on. You have until Wednesday, March 14th to vote, and you can vote every day! Voting is easy, and you can go to our video page by clicking here. I made a little video of my empassioned plea for support…

So tell your friends, tell your family, tell random strangers on the street! We need your votes!

Let me be the first to say that I’m not someone who likes competitions, especially popularity ones where people have to get all their friends to vote for them. However, I’m putting aside my own personal, painful high school memories to ask -- no, plead -- no, BEG for your vote!

My little website, Sophie’s World, has been entered into Staples’ Small Business Push contest, and it could really help us out if we win! Voting for us is easy. You have to either already be a Facebook member, or join Facebook. Then, click this link. If you’re not logged in, you’ll be prompted to do so. Then you’ll be taken to the Small Business Push app; click “Go to app” to be taken straight to our video. Then click “Vote for Us!” That’s all there is to it! I know it’s a bit of time out of your day, but it could help Sophie’s World continue to bring you tons of crafts, games, and activities for some time to come -- and that would be sooo awesome.

Okay... Have you voted? Now I can tell you the story behind it all.

About a month ago, I got an email from Staples announcing that they were holding a contest where the Grand Prize was $50,000 in free advertising. All of us here at Sophie’s World got excited. A free ad -- of any kind or size! -- is worth competing for. We quickly formulated a funny little 15 second plug as per the contest’s rules. Our plan was to show how creative one could be with almost anything -- even office supplies. Freda and I brainstormed ideas, and she created the most amazing props out of office supplies. This included a birthday cake made from Post-It notes and highlighters, a hat made out of a file folder, and a happy birthday banner made out of various envelopes.

We came up with what we thought was a cute and clever little commercial. But then there was our first obstacle: we had to find a place to shoot it. Our offices are just too jammed with stuff, and we needed an empty space. Luckily, our next-door neighbor said we could shoot in his offices, which are in the process of being renovated. He agreed to give us a half an hour on a Friday morning. We were stoked.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. As it turns out, our neighbor’s contractors were actually installing cabinets on the morning we were supposed to shoot. When he saw our disappointment he begrudgingly agreed that we could have 15 minutes, and sent his team off on a coffee break. We raced in and started shooting, only to have a huge CRASH! ruin our first take. Evidently not everyone was on their coffee break. The rest of the shoot was a race against the clock. We raced through as quickly as we could, finally calling it a wrap when the cleaning team came through for the third time, and the foreman started holding an incredibly loud conversation just outside the door. I was a frazzled mess, but I prayed that the video would be good enough to at least get us into the competition.

My husband Scott edited the piece and Simone tried to submit it, but the system kept rejecting it. It kept saying the video was too long! Scott, who makes films for a living, was certain the piece was under 15 seconds (the allotted length of the video), but the Staples entry system just kept kicking it back. Finally, Scott took a machete to the video and shaved off a full second, and Staples finally accepted it. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief... until two days later, when we got an email saying that the video was rejected on content grounds. They said we hadn’t followed the guidelines, which were vague, and after viewing a few of the other participating videos we couldn’t determine what we had failed to do...

We had to go back to the drawing board, and re-shoot fast. Time was slipping away, and we only had five days left to enter. Luckily, we had a regular webisode shoot scheduled, so we decided to combine the two shoots and redo our commercial. We rewrote our script to follow each and every contest rule to a T, and I rehearsed and timed myself over and over and over until I could hit 14.03 seconds every time.

It was nerve wracking. Even when I was a young actress, 25 years ago, learning lines was always hard for me -- and here I was, having to spout an extreme amount of dialogue in an incredibly short amount of time. It probably took us 10 takes, but in the end we got something pretty good...

And now we just have to get everyone we’ve ever met to vote for us. I swear, I feel like I’m back in high school, running for student counsel!

If we could get this, it would be a huuuge boost for Sophie’s World, and give us what we need to keep going. It would mean the world to us. So please, tell all your Facebook friends! We’d really appreciate your support. I can’t promise we’ll be crowned the homecoming queen, but I can promise that we’ll make the best-looking tiara.

I love getting stuff delivered through the mail. Not only is it fun to open up whatever new game or toy or supply we’ve ordered, but there’s also the way these things are shipped. It’s amazing how there’s an entire industry based solely on shipping things safely! Everything from those air-filled plastic bags to vacuum-formed plastic and cardboard inserts to crumpled newspaper (especially the ones that come from other countries)... As a crafty person, I sometimes find the packaging more interesting than the actual product!

Take for example our office favorite: packing peanuts. These things have so many uses! Nowadays they come in they come in two versions, which we call toxic and non-toxic. The non-toxic ones are made out of a starchy material that melts when it comes into contact with water. I realize now that this kind might not be good if your package is left out overnight during a hurricane... but when it comes to crafting they are super-cool! I love using them with kids at “magic” and “wizard” parties. All you have to do is swipe one end of these babies over a slightly damp sponge, press it into its brother, and voila! Like magic, the two bind together. Not only is it a cool trick, but you can actually make things with them. My sister Freda is incredibly creative, and she’s made an entire dollhouse worth of furniture out of these little guys. The best thing about these peanuts is that they’re so easy to use. Even very small, young hands can make them stick together, and if those fingers then accidentally stray into a mouth, well, it’s not the end of the world. These things can be ingested almost without issue -- a serious step up from the paste my next door neighbor used to eat by the spoonful...

You can get our full how-to here.

The “toxic” ones, which I believe are made out of Styrofoam, also have amazing crafting potential. They’re great for stringing like necklace beads, pasting onto paper, drawing on, and making sculptures. They make great feet for a lil’ pipe cleaner person, and super cute farm animals. With just a few swipes of a Magic Marker, you’ve got a wiggle worm. Add a piece of clear monofilament (fishing line), and he can scoot across the table and tease your cat!

Make this cute skeleton yourself!

Bubble wrap is another great supply. We all know how fun popping the individual bubbles can be! In fact, we’ve played games with it where we place the large-sized bubble wrap on the ground between two players, one of whom is blindfolded, and have the other person try to sneak up on them without too many pops! You can also make really neat prints with it by painting a thin layer of acrylic paint onto the bubbles and then laying a sheet of paper over the painted bubbles. When you lightly rub the paper and then lift it off, you’ve got a really cool pattern transfer. Finally, you can cut off individual, large bubbles and turn them into cute space-helmeted heads or funny eyeballs -- just be careful when cutting them out to not nick the side of the bubble, or you’ll end up with a sadly deflated face!

The ultimate crafting tool -- cardboard boxes!

Then you have boxes. Sooooo many things can be done with boxes! You can cover them with paper or duct tape and turn them into magazine racks (those skinny boxes from Amazon.com book boxes work really well for this!). You just cut a triangular section from one side of the box, cover it with fun colored duct tape, and you’ve got a cute and functional magazine holder (cereal boxes also work really well for this). Boxes make great building blocks, dollhouses, and treasure boxes. You can cut them up and use them as a craft base for a mini-skateboard park, or an insert for a T-shirt as you decorate it... Depending on the size of the boxes, you could even make them into kid-sized playhouses. Cardboard is one of the ultimate crafting tools!

Our super-simple magazine holder from a cardboard box!

Last but not least there are the specialty packing materials. They’re the things made just to hold and protect a specific item, and there are so many different kinds! I can’t begin to describe all that I’ve seen. Clear plastic swoops and bowls, which can be turned into robots and mini-skateboard half-pipes... Molded paper mâché corner protectors that make awesome volcano bases... Cardboard shoe inserts that are a perfect duck beak... It makes me swoon! If I were ever invited to a plant where they design and manufacture these brilliant bits of packing material, I’d explode with excitement! They’d be picking pieces of me from the machinery for months...

So the next time you get a special delivery, open it with new eyes. You might just find that the packaging speaks to you and says, “Use me!”

If you've been shipping or receiving lots of packages, you might have piles of packing peanuts lying around your home or office. Well, if they're the new bio-degradable kind, those peanuts are good for more than just protecting your shipments. They can be used to create fun and funny sculptures! The starches in the peanuts, when wet, bind together. This allows you to stick them together to form chains of peanuts, sheets of peanuts, all sorts of shapes and sizes! In this week's featured video, we show you some of the possibilities for your Packing Peanut Art.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos like these, and friend us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and see what I'm pinning on Pinterest!

I have an issue to discuss that’s really causing me some serious grief. I’ve been searching in vain for almost a year now, and I’ve yet to find a good quality, absorbent, attractive, long-lasting bath towel.

I know, I know. You’re probably saying to yourself: Well this is silly! You just need to spend the money and get a good towel!

Not the case!

I have gone to the expensive home and bath shops. I have mail ordered from high-end companies. I have even gone to department stores like Nordstroms and Macy's. Noooo luck. The towels I have chosen, regardless of cost, end up doing the same things:

A. They pill and shed upon washing and drying, making the poor lint basket in my dryer look like a snowdrift in Tahoe.

B. They repel water instead of absorbing it, leaving the body wetter than when it actually stepped out of the shower. Seriously! I believe that jumping up and down on the bathmat for one minute might actually do more for me than drying off with one of these repellent towels. It’s almost as if there is a silicon coating on the material or something. It’s really bizarre.

C. They are so thin that although they absorb water well, they end up like those Sham-Wows you see at the car wash -- the ones that need to be wrung out continually.

D. They partially absorb the water from your body, but they have this almost anti-thermal quality, where they seem to extract your body heat and then freeze it, making the towel more and more frigid the longer you use it.

Now, you may wonder what exactly makes a good bath towel, and why for heaven's sake this has become such an issue. Well you see, about six years ago I furnished my home with some very nice, very absorbent towels. They came from Target, and they were wonderful. They were substantial in size, they absorbed every ounce of water on my sodden body, they dried quickly after being used, and they came in nice, solid colors that went well with my bathrooms.

Unfortunately, six years later, they are finally starting to give up the ghost. One by one, I am forced to place them into retirement (aka the cleaning bin), which means I need replacements -- and fast! I swear to you, I'm not exaggerating: I've been looking for over 18 months for good replacements, and I've yet to find them! I'm not sure if in the six years since I stocked my condo that the towel manufacturers all got together and decided to start a conspiracy to drive the American public crazy, or if it's just that the cotton manufacturers started changing their "formulas," but whatever it is… it's making me nuts!

I feel like I used to pick up just any old towel, and it would be a winner! Now it’s become a Sherlock-esque adventure to find one that will suffice.

I keep asking my friends, family, neighbors, postmen… But no one seems to have an answer for me. But when I do find the perfect towel, no matter what the cost, you can count on me proclaiming it to the world!… or at least pinning it on my Pinterest board.

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And since we're on the topic of towels, I have to show you a cute mini-craft I learned while on vacation! I'm sure you've seen nice hotels or cruise lines fold their towels into fun animals for their guests -- now you can make a swan of your own to welcome houseguests, or to just dress up your home!

I have the utmost respect for teachers. How they can take information and knowledge and impart it to another person leaves me in awe! I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to see when the “spark” of understanding hits a child, and it’s always one of the most wonderful sights to witness. You can see the light bulb practically turn on! That “Aha!” moment, when everything falls into place and makes sense. Sometimes it almost knocks you out with its force.

Case in point, the other day when I was playing a game with a bunch of six-year-olds. It was a dice game, and really pretty simple -- unless you don’t understand the notion of evens and odds. Then it gets tricky.

I realized that I was in trouble right away from the blank stares I received as I explained the game. I knew the kids would enjoy the game, but the question became how to explain what was an odd number, and what was an even number. The notion that 1, 3, and 5 were odd and 2, 4, and 6 were even, was confusing to the guests. I could see them shifting from foot to foot in anxiety. I sensed that I was about to lose them, but then I pulled out my dice and it hit me: odds have “belly buttons” (on dice), and evens do not!

I was able to explain this concept easily by using the dice itself as a prop.

“Look,” I said as I held the die to my stomach so that the number one side faced them. “The odd number is a belly button!” The dot that adorns the “one” side of the die did indeed look just like a giant belly button on my tummy. I saw the glimmer of recognition in the birthday girl’s eye. I pushed on.

Turning the die to first 3, then 5, I showed them how each of those sides also had a “belly button” dot smack dab in the center. To explain further, I rolled the die to the 2, the 4, and then the 6, explaining how the straight rows of dots lacked one in the center, in other words -- no belly button. I saw it click. They got it.

I quickly changed the game from “Odds and Evens” to “Belly Buttons and Straighties,” and it became a huge success. We’d roll the giant dice, and the kids would scream out “Belly button!” or “Straighties!” in glee as they hopped forward a step.

I must pause a moment to also applaud the learning abilities of children. Their minds are so flexible and absorbent! It’s unbelievable how much knowledge they can suck up from something as simple as a game.

If you want to try out “Belly Buttons” (as it’s now called) it’s quite simple to play. You will need a die -– we use a big giant foam one that we bought at Oriental Trading company, but you can use a little one if it’s all you have -- and a playing field.

1. Divide your group into 2 teams, the “belly buttons” and the “straighties.” Designate a starting line and have the teams line up, shoulder to shoulder, behind it. You may want to mark the teams with bandannas or hair scrunchies (we use these around the wrist to designate team members), just so you can keep track of each team’s progress.

2. Designate and mark the ending point. You may want to mark this with cones or boxes, or simply make the ending point a big tree or chair. The ending point should be at lease 10 to 15 feet away from the starting line.

3. Kids love to roll the dice, so make sure you let everyone have a turn. Don’t have the kids come to you to roll the die, just take the die to their place on the field so they don’t lose their spot.

4. Have the first child roll the die. If it’s an odd yell out “belly button!” Everyone on the belly button team then gets to take one leap/jump/hop/step forward. If it’s an even yell out “straighties!” and those on the even team move forward.

5. Keep playing until one whole team has made it over the finish line (this evens out those players that have larger strides and jumping abilities).

It’s a simple game, and once the idea settles, a simple concept. All I know is that once that connection was made, the kids had a great time.

So to you in the teaching profession: I salute you, because that one little experience has made me realize just how hard you work day in and day out to make the magic of learning special and real to our children. Thank you -– from the bottom of my belly button!