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 It a cereal sampler with milk, chocolate donuts, a pirouette cookie, and cinnamon toast (the "2").

What did you make for Muffin TIn Monday? Please please share it with us! To do so, just leave the URL to your blog post or photo that has been uploaded online to a photo sharing site like flickr.com

Happy Sunday, Readers! How was your Christmas? I hope it was a good one. Coach and I will be celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary tomorrow. Woo-hoo! We are relaxing this week at my parents place-truly a place of refuge, comfort and relaxing.

While we are here I still have one ear/eye on the blogosphere and wasnt to share a few links with you:

J is for Jesus Craft. Muffin TIn BOy brought it home from preschool last week. Never mind that the J is backwards. Hee hee!

The super quick tutorial: cut out J from red construction paper. Paint at will. make a little "baby jesus" from a circle and oval. Glue down gift bag filling and place baby Jesus in the "hay".

Pretty darn cute.

It may not look very "Christmas-y" to you, but there is significance to this Muffin Tin Meal.

• Hay From The Manger(Mac n' Cheese)
• Gifts (Cut Outs of Smoked Salami)
• Sweet Fruit (Cantelope/Honeydew)
• Sonshine Juice: (Sunny D)

a.k.a. The Sweet Gift of God's Son Jesus Muffin Tin :)

The kids loved it. I think if we served an entire meal of canteloupe and honeydew my kids would be happy. As it is, they gobbled this one up too. Although, there was too much mac n' cheese served - they didn't finish and they always finish their mac n' cheese.

If you are new to Muffin Tin Monday, then check out the FAQ and previous Muffin Tin Monday posts.

Did you serve a meal in a muffin tin this week? Was it Holiday themed? Won't you share it with us? Leave the URL to your blog post or photo.

I am in love with this(photo above) nest egg ornament from No Time For Flashcards. Maybe I have time to squeeze in more crafts before Christmas!

Have a wonderful Sunday, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for Muffin tin Monday!



James 1:19-20
19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

(Emphasis mine.)

James 3:1-12
1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.


3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt[a] water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water

James 3:17-18
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

I know, I know it is not the time of year for sunflowers...But, since I have been addicted to making paper flowers as of late and I have needed a little bit of craft therapy (more on that later), I thought you might enjoy how this came out. I made it for Muffin Tin Boy's preschool teacher who loves sunflowers.


Same technique as the paper pointsettias. I left out the hole punching and added a center to the flower and a longer stem.

I love it and I hope Muffin Tin Boy's teacher does too

Who needs The Sunday Paper right? Well, maybe for the coupons. However, if you are in need of a break from all the happenings in the local paper and want to browse some sweet links, then you've come to the right place.

This week's links are:

Confessions of A Homeschooler: Paper Snowflake Craft. I stumbled upon this one and I am so glad I did. While glitter is always messy, who can argue with the results? And who knew there was sparkly mod podge?

Craftzine: I tweeted about these security envelope resin pendants last week, but I just think they are worth a second mention. SO creative.

Outside The Box (above photo credit: Outsdie The Box): Make a Christmas Card Village using old/outdated Christmas Cards. Love, love, love love, love this idea. (Found via Dollar Store Crafts).

Inclement weather means more time spent inside. When you have maxed out all your creative ideas or need some quiet time, Preschool Playbook has put together a list of 15 Games Your Preschooler Can Play Online. Great list and check out the comments for even more ideas!

Chica and Jo: These ladies are churning out creative goodness! Check out their Felt Snowman Wall Hanging -The pirate is my favorite! So awesome!

That's right friends! I found these wooden magnetic letters and numbers at my local Dollar Tree. I have been rather obsessed as of late with all things dollar store and today's find did not disappoint. Hurry though, they won't be there for long!

With increase in crafty projects out there using the inside of security envelopes (I'll never look at junk mail the same way again), I knew that it was only a matter of time before I made something with the ever changing patterns found on the inside of so many bills and junk mail.

I am guest posting over at Dollar Store Crafts today with a Peppermint Park Recipe Using Ice Cube Molds! If you have never checked out Dollar Store Crafts, go noq! It is a gold mine of frugal creativity!

Yesterday I was feeling the itch to make something with my hands and I have also had poinsettias on the brain. Mostly with pronouncing it – Is it “point-set-uh” or “point-set-ee-uh”. A fun little side project was to research the history of the poinsettia flower as it applies to Christmas. So, I made these simple paper flowers. They are easy enough for older children to make (about 5 and up) and a great indoor craft project.

Things You’ll Need:

• red 12x9 construction paper,
• glue,
• scissors
• craft “popsicle sticks”
• hole punch (1/4 inch preferable)

Here’s how:
1. Cut your 12x9 piece of paper in half, making it 6x9. Keep cutting in half until you have a stack of 3x2 1/4 paper.
2. Fold Lengthwiwise as shown below. Using your scissors, cut the petal out. Want to cut more than one petal at a time? Simply fold a bunch of pieces of paper (3 max) together and cut!



3. Hole punch the bottom center of the petals.
4. place a small dot of glue/adhesive on one side of a petal (photo below is of a different petal variation). Connect it to the corner of another petal.



5. Repeat until six petals are connected. The center of the flower should remain open. They should look something like these.




Tips/Hints:

• The tighter the inner circle, the more it will bend out. 
• The wider the initial cut, the fatter the petal will be.
• I purchased the colored craft sticks at the Dollar Tree
• And because I had all the tools on hand, this fun project was free!

Wake Up! Wake Up! It's time for Muffin Tin Monday! And we are celebrating Christmas Morning this week with foods in a muffin tin that have to do with all things Christmas Morning!

You don't have to serve breakfast, but I thought that would be a guideline for those that want one. In fact, growing up, my mom often served things like M & M's, Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider and even Cold Pizza! Junk Food on Christmas morning was the best!

Tired of the gloom and doom from the newspaper? I am here, every week, to help. Fill your morning with links that are sure to inspire and put a little hop in your skip this morning.

Here they are in no particular order.

Ramblings of a Crazy Woman: Jenn is a preschool teacher and a mom who always has great ideas for crafting and learning with kids. Her Melted Peppermint Candy Ornament is so cute and looks like the perfect project to let kids help!

Last year, I made these easy Christmas photo ornaments. Unique and creative.

Super simple paper ornaments from Jessica Jones of How About Orange. These inspire me.

Well, that's funny. Those are all ornament links!

Lastly, my newest blog find is How Does She? Three women head up this blog that answers they question of "How does she do that?" With compelling categories like "Love Her Family?" "Spend Free Time?" "Celebrate Seasons?" One of my fave posts "10 Things to do with a block"

Happy Clicking!

Hey Friends! Had the chance to venture out today and thought I would share my adventure with you! If you subscribe by email, you'll need to access this Whrrl Story directly at my blog!

A few important things to note:

• I used comparable photo papers The HP Advanced 4x6 Photo Paper and the Kodak Premium 4x6 Photo Paper - both glossy 
• Kodak has contacted me personally (via twitter) about this, mentioning that their Ultra Premium Paper does not produce these results. That might be true, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of their low ink costs?
• The HP paper I used isn't even their best paper, which says something about the quality of it's paper.
• The results from this video are kind of hard to see because the youtube download is kind of grainy.
• The reliability of HP's products really make a difference here, in my opinion.
• I will ALWAYS be buying Advanced/Premium Photo Paper from now on.
• The right printer + the right ink + the photo paper makes all the difference.

I missed posting last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, so this week, I will present two posts on the HP Virtual Focus Group.

This week I want to showcase the scanning and copying  features of the HP C6380 and the Kodak ESP7. I have had the opportunity to use the scanner several times over the last 5 weeks. Our family mostly scans signed documents, old family photos and children's artwork.

Below is an adorable photo of my late mother when she was 2 years old. The first one is scanned using the HP c6380

The second photo was scanned using the Kodak ESP7


Clearly, there is a difference here folks. In the first photo, you can even see the tear marks as if it were the original. I chose this photo so you could see the clarity and detail each scanner does or does not pick up.

Later, when I copied my daughter's artwork, it was the Kodak that won out on clarity. The top right is the original. Below it, the HP copy and left of the original is the Kodak. The coloring is slightly off on the kodak, but the photo makes it difficult to see.


Also of note is the user interface for the scanning process....the Kodak does not allow for direct scanning to your computer. You must first scan it to a memory card and then download that to the computer. The HP scans directly to the computer. I found that to be a tedious step and if I had the choice, I would choose to scan via the HP.

**UPDATE** - I was contacted by Susan of Kodak (@KodakPrinters on Twitter) and she kindly talked to me about the Kodak, and I realized that the printer was offline when I tried to scan to the computer. Silly me, it was my fault. I should have investigated a little further.

I was able to later scan another photo directly to the computer and it was a very easy process....Thanks to Susan and Kodak for making the effort to reach out a fix this.