Please consider this my application and online resumé to be a part of your BlogHer 2010 Energizer Smart RechargHER team. Kailani, I’ve been following you on Twitter for several months. Krissy, I’ve been following you since at least before the team contest was announced, found you with the BlogHer hashtag some time ago. So you know I’m no Johnny come lately. I’m looking forward to meeting you both at BlogHer in a few weeks and would love to take it up a notch by joining you both on the Energizer team.

Here’s what I can offer you as a team member:

1. I’m creative. I think outside the box. I also have a sense of humor. Don’t believe me? Check this out:

2. I love the Energizer brand. I live in the St. Louis area, home to Energizer’s Global Headquarters. Energizer is not just a brand I like, but by supporting and promoting Energizer, it helps my friends and neighbors by boosting our local economy.

3. I’ve actually tried the Energizer Recharge Smart charger and love it. I like it enough to make a ridiculous video to demonstrate this affection. See point number one.

4. I’ve had my BlogHer ticket for months. I have zero sponsors. I’m just doing this thing the old fashioned way so far.As a newbie blogger, this thing makes me exactly zero dollars… and we all know domains and hosting aren’t free. I have a family of 6, so some help would be nice. Who doesn’t like help?

5. I might have some invitations to some private parties. You might have seen a clue or two in the video if you looked carefully. What does that mean? More mixing and mingling with different groups of bloggers, OFF the main BlogHer sanctioned areas. Some even before the conference officially starts. Wink, wink, say no more…

6. I’m a BlogHer virgin. I’d love to be a part of a team and have a reason to strike up conversations with people. Better yet, I’d like to have a reason to tweet out my location for people to find me and find swag. Otherwise I might end up a lonely wallflower… you wouldn’t want that would you?

7. My degree is in Communications, which means I have some skillz. Not just any skills, skills needed to be a good member of what is, for all practical purposes, a street team. Did I mention, I can rock a t-shirt while approaching strangers?

8. I’m willing to have lots of fun along the way, but I’m also willing to work. While I know it’s a contest, I also know you don’t want to be left holding the bag if a team member takes the money and runs. That’s not my style. That’s all I’ll say about that.

9. #ILoveHashtags

Last, but certainly not least:

10. I really, really would like to somehow redeem myself (and my blog) from what my lovely children did to me a few months ago, in such a lovely public manner:

With kids like that, I could use a RechargHER at BlogHer 2010. Thanks Krissy and Kailani for the fun contest and opportunity to join you on the Energizer BlogHer RechargHER team!

~Heather

P.S. If you’d like to play along, contest details are on Barefoot Mommies and at An Island Life.

My sons really say it all for me.

For details on how you can play along with the Energizer Kids Take Charge Campaign,

check out www.Energizer.com/Recharge.

We were so thrilled when we found Blue Bunny’s Rainbow Sherbet cups in Dierbergs‘ freezer section. The bold colors of the sherbert, especially the green and bright red, fit our Mario theme perfectly. The individually cups made it a win for me. As we brainstormed in the store, we decided to make each cup resemble a traditional birthday cupcake by using whipped cream to top the cups and brightly colored sprinkles from Dierbergs’ bakery to make it special.

A few days later I was in a craft store and walked down the Wilton aisle. I saw the star shaped candy molds and bright yellow candy melts. The stars looked just like the stars you can earn in the Mario Party games, or if you made different colors, like the stars you collect in Super Mario Galaxy. They were so quick and easy to make, the boys really loved that it was an edible topper on the cupcake.

If you choose to make your own candies for a party using the Wilton supplies, don’t forget to purchase the plastic bags designed for melting and squeezing the candy into the molds. They make the process more enjoyable as it’s easier to direct the melted candy and you can just toss the bag when you are finished instead of washing a bowl. Here’s a slightly better photo of the star, as it’s sliding down the whipped cream:

Don’t forget to make more stars than you need, the kids will ask for more of these tasty candies. Did you miss Monday’s post about the party hats? Stay tuned for the upcoming party activities post.

Last Thursday I spent most of the day in the emergency room due to chest pains. I think my body wants to make sure my 30th year goes out with a bang. After a series of not too invasive tests, the supposed diagnosis is esophageal spasms. I’ll save you the Google time, it’s like really killer heartburn that wreaks havoc on the esophagus. Trust me, it didn’t feel like heartburn, and it still isn’t very comfortable. But I have medication, the pain is definitely decreasing, and thank God I have tests confirming I have a healthy heart! Surprise, surprise, stress is the likely culprit. Take a couple of boys with school difficulties, a husband preparing to travel overseas for two and a half weeks and add that to the typical day to day for a family of six and you might be surprised these are my first chest pains.

As if that weren’t enough, yesterday half of my hand turned blue. Not Smurf blue, but “dusky” blue. The color your skin turns when there is not enough oxygen or circulation in a part of your body. We initially witnessed this dusky blue color during our twins’ time in the NICU, so as soon as I saw it, I knew it wasn’t good. I called the ER, discussed it with a nurse. After what seemed like forever, but was really about 45 minutes of intense prayer and rest, my hand returned to normal and I dodged another ER visit.

My health is just another addition to the pile of things trying to discourage me lately. I’m combating my own negative thoughts with the promises of God. It’s not easy, I’m not perfect at it, but I’m trying and getting better at it, bit by bit. I still haven’t thoroughly processed what all this medical stuff means, I’m still working the process with doctors, but I know that God is faithful. I’m encouraged by Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” If you have something you are struggling with, I’d like to encourage you to check out White Paper Bible. The papers are compilations of scriptures that anyone can create on any topic they like. Use the search feature to find something that fits what you are going through and find a scripture to use as a weapon against your own negative thoughts.

Hopefully, I’ll find some rest and my children will be fever free and on their way back to school soon so I can find more time to blog about all the craftiness I’ve been working on. Real life isn’t the most fun to read about, but it’s the most authentic. Truth is at the sight of the blue hand I thought, “Now how am I supposed to finish those crochet projects for Valentine’s Day?” LOL

Last weekend, my husband insisted on heading over to the craft store to pick up fabric markers to make himself a Team Conan shirt.

Our first issue was his work dress code. He didn’t want to make a shirt he couldn’t wear to work and t-shirts are not allowed. While chatting with family at lunch on Sunday, my sister-in-law said she had just the thing. A year or two ago, she had picked up a pair of pale yellow sweater vests from the men’s section at Wal-Mart for just $1 each. PERFECT! Not a t-shirt, so it would work for the dress code.

When we got to the store, they didn’t have the recommended brand of fabric markers, so we picked up a set of classic color Marvy Uchida Fabric Markers.

We started the process while the kids were eating dinner, making sure to wash our vests first. We ironed them too, to try to assist the transfer.

The knit of the sweaters did add a bit of difficulty to the whole process, but not too much. We did pull the fabric a bit while coloring with the markers to make sure we had good coverage. Following the package directions, we also did two ‘coats’ for bolder colors in some areas, allowing to try about 30 minutes between coats. One tip for using these fabric markers: we found as we colored, the markers began to loose a bit of their felt tip, which made for a messier line. We just used a pair of scissors to trim this off as we worked to keep our lines as clean as possible.

I grabbed this quick iPhone photo of him before he left for work on Tuesday. It really doesn’t do this sweater justice.

Sadly, it’s been foggy or rainy for days here and we haven’t seen the sun to get a good, natural-light photo of both of our sweaters together. Rest assured there are 2 sweater vests and there will be photographic evidence eventually, if the sun ever shows again in Missouri.

I just wanted to share a quick photo with you. I was so privileged during my high school years to participate in HTV Magazine. It made an enormous impact on who I am today. I know you’d find it hard to believe, but during these years I worked hard to remain behind the camera. My on-camera time was pretty limited compared to most of the other students. I was most at home behind the camera and at the editing stations.

We had a great time laughing, reminiscing and making jokes about our bad hair and fashion choices. Most importantly though, we celebrated the hard work of hundreds of students and a single teacher with an enormous vision. I’m still processing the weekend, what it means to me, and the lessons I’ve learned from those 2 short years of my life. More on that another day.

I’m off to cook up some chicken soup for my hubby that came home from work not feeling well…

Just click on the photo for the download!

Free for a limited time only.

Perfect for dishcloths, washcloths, hot pads, seam two together to make a travel pillow. You are only limited by your imagination. You can use the charts with duplicate stitch as indicated by the pattern, or for a more advanced technique, use the charts with an intarsia technique. It’s all up to you!

If you make some cloths, I’d love to see them. You can add them to my Facebook Fan Page or drop me a comment with a link to your photos.

]]> http://wistfulwrists.com/2009/10/free-monogrammed-knit-cloth-pattern/feed/ 0 http://wistfulwrists.com/2009/09/come-shopping-with-me/ http://wistfulwrists.com/2009/09/come-shopping-with-me/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:27:48 +0000 wistfulwrists http://wistfulwrists.com/?p=337 Late last week I took a shopping trip to check out supplies for our knitting project on Handmade Holidays at MomTV. My 3 year old, aka Princess Peach, makes her blog debut in this video. This girl really, really wants to learn to knit! Watch to find out what her favorite color is.

Note: Because this was recorded on Sept. 25th, sales and prices may have changed.