The Fickle Hobbyist

Archive for the ‘recommendations’ Category

So I’ve finally had a minute to post about our Playstation Move party from House Party. What gracious hosts, they are, seriously!

I actually had to merge two of my Move parties, because of a scheduling conflict with the first one. We received tons of goodies from both Playstation and House Party including the Move Camera and 2 Controllers. (It did not come with this game, although I am SO anxious to get that one!) We also received two AWESOME games: Start the Party, which is a jam packed, super fast fun game for the whole family. The girls have REALLY enjoyed playing it. Here’s a clip of Jocelyn playing the “Swat the Bug” portion of the game against her sister and her friends at our party.

What I love about this game is that it’s customizable. The avatars on the game use a snapshot of your face, and your voice. When it’s your turn to come up and play, it plays your recorded voice. There’s even a fun round, called the Joker Round, where the loser gets to doodle on his opponent’s face, or record a new name for another player. The kids loved that they got to goof on their friends.

The other game we received was EyePet, which is an interactive little pet for everyone to play with. I didn’t get a video of the kids playing with this one, but here’s one from Sony itself.

The girls ADORE this one. Our pet that we are currently learning with is called Mocha Chip. She’s a girl with zebra stripes and a fairy costume. We’ve just started going through the pet training, but the girls can’t wait to unlock all the cool outfits and toys for their pet to play with!

The girls invited a couple of their friends over to share in the Move experience with them. We ordered pizzas and played Start the Party together. They enjoyed coloring in their EyePet activity books and trying on the Move bracelets and various pins.

We finished out the evening watching a Blue Ray on the PS3 and having one of the girls stay over.

I have to say, I’m not a huge gamer, but I was really excited to get this party from House Party.  I love that the game gets the kids up off the couch, and is fully interactive and gets them moving.  It’s engaging enough that adults still enjoy playing with the kids, so it’s really something that your whole family can do together.  Plus, the PS3, just does SO much!  It’s not just a game system which is what I loved so much about it.  I can’t wait to stream my Netflix on it.  (Just waiting for the disc!)  You DID you know you can also store photos, music, and other things on it too, right?  And you also knew that it was a Blue Ray player too, right?  I mean, you get SO much for your money with this console.  We couldn’t be more pleased.

As always, thank you SO much, House Party and Playstation 3!!!  We really really enjoyed this party!  We can’t wait to share the experience of the Move with even more friends.

-Autumn

Have you you ever heard of House Party?  If you haven’t, you have got to get on it RIGHT NOW and sign up!  The premise of House Party is that companies partner with them, and you, as a host, get to try new products, view tv shows, or experience something that that company has to offer.  All they ask is that you share it with your friends by holding…a house party.  Cool right?  Becoming a host is not guaranteed.  You’ll have to fill out an application and then if you are selected you’ve got to invite your guests, add some media to your party page, and post on the blog before you are confirmed.

I’ve done a bunch of parties with them; some of my favorites being the Barbie party (with two new dolls, a complete decoration pack, collector box, poster, etc), the Hershey’s Bliss (I got like 12 bags of chocolate!!!  We made fondue.), and my friend had an awesome one for Fisher Price where she got a bunch of toys for her son and she invited all his friends to come over and play.  What’s great is that, not only do they send a bunch of cool stuff for the host, but they also always send goodie bags for the guests!

I recently signed up for the Ball Taste of Summer House Party and was SO STOKED when I was actually selected to host.  Obviously I’ve just begun my canning adventures, so a party for preserving noobs was right up my alley.  I also thought it would be super fun to invite my friends over to try something that I’m not sure many of them have tried.  I loved making jam so much that I can’t wait to share the experience.

I was beyond excited when my box arrived yesterday.  It was HUGE!  I couldn’t imagine what they had packed inside.  Look at what I was greeted with!

Not only did they send me a 21 qt. water bath, but they also sent a 4-piece utensil set, 1 Canning Discovery Kit, 20 different pectin packs, 2 Ball Blue Books (I always mis-read that…..) Guide to Preserving, a bunch of coupons for jars and more pectin, and of course the reusable grocery bags to be used for the goodie bags for my guests.  !!!!

There’s a big flip chart that guides you through the canning process to use at your party too which I thought was cool.

I thought it was cool they sent along a bunch of recipes to share with the guests too!  We’ll be making salsa at the party, but I think I’m going to try my hand at a few of the recipes to share at the party as well.

The book is a fabulous resource!  I have only just begun reading it, but I’ve already learned a lot in just the first few pages.  I will be keeping one and giving one away as a door prize.

What about you?  Are you a House Party member?  What’s the best party you’ve been chosen to host.  (If you were one of the Margaritaville hosts….I am jealous!)

-Autumn

*Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!  HERE*

I have to admit it.  I’ve become totally obsessed with decor, craft, design blogs.  I’ve spent so much time in the last two weeks browsing some amazing blogs like Living With Lindsay, Beneath My Heart, EAB Designs, and so much more. You guys, there are so many amazingly talented bloggers out there! My “Want to Make” folder in my favorites is becoming SO huge. lol

Not only am I addicted to those above blogs (and, oh, like 100 more!) but another one of my faves is Knock-Off Wood. If you are a DIYer, you might just fall in love. So far, my list of things I want to make include the Brady Entryway Locker, Book Shelves, Montgomery Headboard, Kids’ Benches, Stratton King Size Bed, Kids’ Storage Table, Recycling Center (REALLY want to make this one soon!), and the largest of all the projectsThe Logan Media Unit (except not just the base, I want to make the entire thing. She has the rest of the plans on the blog, check them out!)

I’ve always had a very simple style when it comes to decorating our house.  I’ve always considered my taste along the lines of contemporary/modern.  HOWEVER, now that I’ve been browsing these blogs, I’ve found that I actually really like shabby chic, a pinch of French country, and well, everything I’ve always steered away from.  The good thing is, since we’ve kept everything pretty simple thus far, it’s going to be easy to add some finishing touches to the rooms we’ve already begun to decorate. 

I’m SO excited to get some more projects underway and to be able to share them with you!  On a sort of related note, I have to say that I’m super glad that I started this blog because I feel like it’s making me accountable for all the projects I want to make.  I know readers will want to come here and actually read something of substance, so I’m going to have to actually FINISH the projects that I start so that I have something to post.  haha  This will be good for me.  Maybe instead of the fickle hobbyist, I should have been the ADD hobbyist because I will literally start projects all over the place but abandon them before I finish. 

Since I didn’t do any projects last night but I still want something to show you, I’m going to post this super cute hairstyle that I did on the girls.  I found it HERE on She Does Hair.  I thought it was super cute especially with Valentine’s day coming up.  The girls loved it too!  Joss said she got a lot of compliments on it the day she wore it to school.

Keep in mind this was at the end of the day, so Joci’s is starting to fall out a bit.  But I found it to be super simple.  I’ll try to briefly explain how I did it in case you want to try it on your little girl! 

1. Start with a ponytail.  You can get uber creative with this, or just do a small ponytail at the crown of the head like we did.  (we were running short on time because the girls had dentist appointments or else I would have done a few more hearts)
2. Remember the topsy turvy ponytail thing from the 80s and 90s?  You’re basically going to do that just without the tool.  What I do is stick my finger UNDER the already fastened pony tail to split it in half so you have a hole now with your finger in it.
3. Now you want to pass the ponytail through the hole from the bottom.  Push the elastic through the hole and pull the hair out after it.
4. Now you’ve got hair sticking up in a reverse topsy turvy ponytail.  Leave that hair on top of the head and secure another section of hair below the topsy turvy ponytail.
5. Divide the hair into two strands.  What I did, and you don’t HAVE to do this part, but I thought it helped to shape the hearts best, is to twist the two sections.  The strand on the right, I twisted clockwise, and the strand on the left, I twisted counterclockwise, so as to form the arches of the heart.
6. Get your heart into the shape you like and secure the ends to the already secured ponytail below. 

Easy as pie!  If you do it, you’ll have to send it to the blog where I found it!  I know she’d love to see it.  If you’ve got little girls, check out some of the other ideas she has posted.  Some are super cute.

-Autumn