Thank you to everyone for your sweet birthday wishes- it made my day! We had a wonderful dinner with our family and I got some beautiful gifts that I am looking forward to taking a picture of and sharing with everyone. No one knows you better than your family and I got some really great stuff this year! They all picked gifts that went along with my retro-housewife theme. So chic!

Here are is my little notebook of ideas for the week- I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy putting them all together!

This granola recipe looks delicious and healthy too. I am going to have to add that to next month’s menu planner.

When Emily gets a little older, I would love to try this tea party activity for her birthday party.

This indoor ice fishing looks like a fun activity when the weather is too cold to play outside.

I love this idea for creating a list of free things I can do that will keep me out of the stores.

I am going to have to think of some thrifty ways to add more yellow into our house. The color just makes me happy and these photos offer great inspiration!!

This looked like a fun project to unload some buttons in my junk drawers.

I love this how-to guide on reading a sewing pattern. Great information for someone learning to sew!

Another great instruction tutorial on making your own reusable grocery bags.

I really love this idea for decorating jar lids and her pop of color on her cabinets has me thinking about maybe adding a touch of color to mine!

I adore this patchwork skirt. I can just picture myself in it!

As we continue to get rid of the ugly dated eighties look in our house, I am thinking staining the banisters might be another thing we could do.

I need zippered pillows for our playroom. The kids wipe their faces on them all of the time and it would be so nice to be able to wash these.

For the knitters- how cute are these color-coded knitting needles. Super smart!

i just love these candles in this picture. I am going to have to do this next year around the holidays. They look so elegant!

This is a great inspiration for creating and finishing some of my projects at our house for this year.

I am going to have to try this recipe for these tiny calzones. I bet the kids would gobble them up!

Here are some more creative ways to wrap gifts– I am all about those!

I adore this little felt book– that would make a beautiful birthday gift for one of my children!

I like these ideas for post-holiday recycling!

Here are a few of my favorite reads this week! Enjoy!

I love how this shelf unit was decorated with pretty paper.

This is such a cute gift idea for all of those birthday parties we go to.

I can’t wait until Danny Seo’s product line comes out at JC Penny. I love those reusable totes!

I want to go to England. Maybe for our anniversary if I can keep throwing money into our vacation funds.

Someone else painted their kitchen cabinets a pretty white. Now I need to think about painting my table white. Just worried about the abuse it would get from my children…oh, and all that work!

These chalkboard pictures are really inspiring me! I would love to add a chalkboard element in our house.

This is a great tutorial for making a birthday banner!

I wish I had a big porch so I could make a cute little snow porch like this!

Time to start thinking about Valentines. I really love this tutorial for folding a paper heart!

I just have to say that this crocheted food made me laugh out loud! Be sure to visit the link to the photos because all of her food is super cute!

Here are some more great blogging tips for all of you work-at-home mommas!

These pencil toppers are precious. What a great little project that one is! Here is another one she did and the wreath is super cute too.

I am going to be making some of this coffee cake bread.

I would have never thought to use picnic baskets for toy storage.

Thanks to Meredith for this find- A Year Off of shopping and a two month commitment from another blogger. I will be looking forward to reading these posts and getting inspired to cut the clutter and decrease the spending in our house!

These felt toy cats are super cute!

I love these reversible oilcloth placemats.

I would love some of these daisy-stitched handwarmers. They look so cozy!

I wash mostly in cold water so I was interested in reading this post (be sure to read the comments because the moms have some great stain removing techniques!)

This pasta dish looks delicious for a great mommy lunch during the day. A tad more yummy than a peanut butter sandwich!

Where was this post when I was a new mommy?

I would love to try making my own pepperoni. Has anyone else made this before?

How about some advice AGAINST changing your own oil? I thought this was very interesting!

Side Note: We are having internet problems and I am blogging today from a local supermarket. It appears that our phone line is down and they said it might be until Monday before it will be repaired. I apologize for any delays with the site or responses to your emails. I will get back to you all as soon as I get a working internet connection! Luckily, I did a lot of blogging earlier this week so I hope there will be plenty to read here in the meantime.

I am heading home now, but here are a few great entries of the week!

I love Design Mom’s excellent playroom makeover. This had some really great ideas for how decorate our future basement playroom.

I love this idea for keeping the kids entertained in the winter.

This entry has some great uses for all of those canning jars.

Can you believe this amazing honey baked ham? What a smart idea!

I love these ideas for losing baby weight and being frugal (kind of went along with my “Get Healthy” resolution that I shared)

Get your baby bargain forecast for the month of January.

I think I want to make all 96 of these Smitten Kitchen dishes. Yummy!

These are some cute ideas for making use of those old Christmas cards.

These fridge magnets are so cool!

There were so many excellent reads this week that I am so excited to share! I hope everyone enjoys all of this reading material with a big cup of cocoa in your hands!

I am so inspired to make S’mores and there were two excellent ideas this week! For visual learners, here is a marshmallow tutorial!

I adore these candy-cane place card holders and the powdered doughnut idea would make a great snack for a school party.

I love this idea for what to do with leftover scraps of holiday paper. Inventive and very green!

I love these holiday decorating ideas. And these snowflake decorating ideas are so great too!

I might need to make some of these winter spice scones this month.

Who could resist one of these Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning?

This Peppermint Bark and this Chocolate Cookie Bark recipe looks heavenly!

I really love this idea for a gingerbread mobile, but I think my kids would eat it. Crazy kids!

These holiday photos are most excellent!

We ate off of plates just like these growing up. Great memories and would make a wonderful gift, paired with the placemat purse!

These skate ornaments are so vintage and precious!

I can think of tons of people to give these free gift tags to. So awesome! These eco-friendly tags are also an excellent choice.

These homemade napkins would make a lovely holiday gift for a newlywed.

I love these cute ideas for holiday ornaments, and I just so happen to have the supplies!

These Christmas DIY projects look simple enough that even I could do them!

I really enjoyed this post on Wii buying tips for the frugal shoppers.

I have been working on an article for homemade stocking stuffers, but it looks like Wise Bread had the same idea…Hmm..back to the drawing board!

This Advent calendar is a true thing of beauty. I am tempted to make her bread recipe too!

I have a new use for recycling those wine bottles!

These chocolate drizzled peanut butter cookies look delicious. I might have to add these to my holiday trays one year!

I wish I had a mantle so I could decorate it like this. It is just so festive and clever!

I just wanted to thank you all for your value camera feedback and I am happy to report that I have finally made my exciting camera purchase. I actually went to several stores and test-drove each of the models and settled on the Canon PowerShot S5. It was on sale (through December 8th) for $319.99, plus free shipping through Office Depot. After doing some price research, I thought that was a phenomenal deal and after reading the reviews and trying it out, I think I made the best choice for our family’s needs. I am so excited to start using it! I am putting all of our Christmas money towards it (from all of our family) so we will have to cover about $150 of it ourselves, but the rest is through our generous grandparents! What a great Christmas gift that will be and I can’t wait to share the pictures with all of you!

Now that I am REALLY in the holiday spirit, here is some great holiday reading for all of you!

Create some new holiday traditions with an Advent Book Box (I could reserve the books at the library to save money)

These stacked Christmas trees would be so cute in some festive colors.

This oatmeal pie would be delicious to take to all of those holiday potlucks.

Become more creative with my gift-giving with these great free gifts you can give.

Here are some ideas for gifts that are under ten bucks.

Remember how I told you I wanted to make one of these? Well, Michelle beat me to it and made a super cool felt gingerbread house. I am drooling right now! I also like this other tutorial for more gingerbread house ideas.

These hooded towels would make great Christmas gifts.

This envelope accordion would make a great stocking stuffer or these patchwork pincushions would be so cute as small gifts.

I love these candy cane cookies. I might have to make these this year!

How about some homemade sugar cookies? Who could resist?

Here is a great list of holiday things you can make yourself.

I love these ideas for festive holiday decorating.

I might have to make some of these holiday beer rolls for one of our dinners.

I love this post on creating Christmas values & traditions.

I am loving these mod paper ornaments.

These fabric organizers would be a great gift for a crafter.

Make a baby food baby jar wreath.

I love this children’s art smock.

How cool is this fabric cubby house?

These apple turnovers look delicious!

A super cool wine cork mirror.

Getting the band-aids off will no longer be a painful process.

Another reason why I want to sew- rice heat therapy bags.

I adore these cd envelopes.

These Pinecone bird feeders are so neat!

I love these advent trees made from recycled paper.

A new solution to add to the mix for getting out grease stains.

Another use for recycled sweaters- isn’t this recycled sweater wreath beautiful?

I am going to have to make some turkey stroganoff after seeing these yummy pictures.

These wooden spinning tops would make a cool stocking stuffer.

I am going to have to watch these food & drink hacks.

I love these ideas for gift wrapping.

I might have to make this cute grandparent gift.

Reason 5,0002 for why I should sew.

Hmmm…what do you guys think about this holiday tipping guide? Am I just cheap or what?

You can see why this is my dream job after the kids go back to school.

This pumpkin tiramisu looks so delicious!

This list for gifts that are $5 or less really inspired me!

I am going to have to make some pumpkin pie play dough for the kids.

I love this custom corkboard.

These button monograms are beautiful.

I am going to make some of these cute Thanksgiving crafts with the kids.

This idea for oatmeal flavors is really smart!

This owl pennant would be wonderful for the holiday season.

I want to make these oatmeal, chocolate chip, & pecan cookies (hold the pecans please!) for the kids.

I love these pencil cups for making your craft room or office a little more fun.

These custom pocket crafts are such a cute idea.

This Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake looks delicious!

Sew Mama Sew is doing thirty days of sewing projects for the month of November- do not miss it! Note to self- splurge on a sewing class after the holidays.

Make a creative home bar.

This felt gingerbread house gave me an idea for something the kids and I could maybe make for the holiday season.

Use up your Halloween candy in your cookies.

Make Thanksgiving dinner in one hour flat.

These candy corn turkeys are too cute!

I want to make one of these dress-up suitcases for my daughter.

Throw an After-Thanksgiving potluck dinner.

Learn how to make a good homemade chicken stock.

I want this cupcake pan.

Make some gobble up granola snacks.

Check out these solutions for dealing with the rising bread costs.

Guess what? Even I could be a millionaire if I am smart!

Sew a purse organizer.

Organize your toy room with cute labels.

What to do about the rising cost of powdered milk?

These Oreo Truffles sound divine for the holiday season.

I like these tips for avoiding icy car windows.

Make the perfect cake.

Throw a princess party on a budget.

I can’t wait to see Meredith’s felt fruits and vegetables!

I am so excited to share that our new product review blog, The Motherloot, will be introduced to our MomAdvice.com website this Monday. I know I have been awfully quiet on here lately and I just want you to know why!

I also wanted to thank everyone for their visits to our site this month. We had a record high of almost 95K hits this month! Thank you to everyone who has shared about our site or who has come to visit us regularly. I couldn’t do it without you!

Here are some excellent reads for the week:

Make some cool luggage tags.

Look for the out-of-the-ordinary when shopping on eBay.

Get the gourmet kitchen look without the price tag.

Enjoy a yummy recipe for pumpkin pancakes.

Make an award-winning pumpkin pie this year.

Organize your medicine cabinet.

See how to save by adjusting your thermostat.

Add a punch of color to your punch bowl.

Get prepared for an emergency.

Make some pumpkin pie bars (Note: Can you tell I have pumpkin on the brain?)

Create your own cloth shopping bags.

Read all about price books and shopping discoveries.

Find a new use for your pumpkin.

Make a delicious apple pie.

Get some Martha Christmas inspiration.

Make a candy wreath out of all that leftover candy.

Get inspired by this mom’s ingenious toy kitchen.