Giveaway Time: For Those Who Like To Cook (Or Want To Learn)

You know what’s funny about having too much stuff in your house? You sometimes forget that you have something, and then you end up with two of the same thing!

This happens to me a lot when I haven’t cleaned out my cupboards for a while. I’ll forget I have lots of, say, salad dressing, or a certain spice. So I buy it at the grocery store, only to end up with twice as much as I really need. I think this even happened at least 3 times with salsa, because earlier this fall we had 6 cans of salsa in the cupboard, since I kept buying it when it was on sale for buy one get one free. I’ve since been banned from buying salsa, and I think we’re finally down to only one jar.

Anyway, it happens.

And this week, because of our tendency to accumulate multiples of the same items, I’m going to turn it into a giveaway!

For a few years now I’ve had a great cookbook in my collection, The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, full of easy to follow recipes, in a durable spiral bound hardcover. You can read the reviews on Amazon, but I agree with them completely--it’s one of my top 3 favorite cookbooks I own.

Well, as you may know, my husband and I have been on a mission the past couple months to de-clutter our house, and have been actively getting rid of anything we don’t need. Recently we were cleaning out the closet in our 3rd bedroom, which was mostly full of my husband’s old boxes that he hasn’t opened in years. We’re talking ancient electronics, college textbooks, puzzle/mind teaser game things, about a billion random cables, and a copy of The America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook! Still in its shrink wrapping!

My husband claims to have no idea where it came from, and I am certain I didn’t buy it, but since we already own a well-loved copy in our kitchen, he gave it to me to pass along to one of my blog friends!

So here’s how you can get up to 4 entries to win a copy of this great cookbook:

1. Get 1 entry by following this blog and then posting a comment telling me how you're following it (through Blogger, subscribing through Google Reader, etc).
2. Get 1 entry by tweeting this: “I entered to win The America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook from The Handcrafted Life (http://bit.ly/HCLife)" and then coming back here and posting a separate comment with a link to your tweet (to find the link to your tweet, you can click the timestamp on the tweet, which will take you to just that particular tweet).
3. Get up to 2 entries by posting separate comments with your favorite recipes in it, and tell me why they’re your favorite. Max of 2 recipes can be submitted, with one recipe per comment (since I’m counting each comment as an entry). You can either write the recipe in the comment box, or just paste a link to it.
   

This contest will end at 11:59PM PST, Sunday, March 20th. I'll use random.org to choose the winner, and announce it on Monday, March 21st.

Good luck! I can’t wait to read everyone’s favorite recipes!

#OperationLayla: Together We Can Do Anything

I know it's early, but I wanted to get this out before I leave for the airport. I am truly touched and honored to be a part of my online community right now. Harnessing the power of Weddingbee, blogger and Twitter friends, in the past 2 days we have managed to raise over $4,000 for our dear friend Layla.

We live in an odd time, I guess. But I feel closer to many of my online friends than I do my 'real life' friends. Chatting online constantly, getting several-times-a-week updates and insights into their lives through their blogs--it really is an amazing way to connect with people. And I consider Layla to be one of my friends, who I am so happy to help. She has been through so much, and is being royally screwed over by her insurance company. Nobody should have to go through the pain and suffering she has over the past 6 months because of insurance red tape, but hopefully together we will find a way to still get her the surgery she needs.

Please, read her story below, go listen to her touching vlog, and help out if you can. We're going to be doing an online bake sale soon too, so be sure to check out this website for details. There's still a lot to do, to help out with her additional medical costs. Lets get Layla well, and help spread awareness about her situation! Together, I really think we can do anything!

Layla's Story:

One month after her 30th birthday, Layla was diagnosed with early stage cervical cancer (1A Adenocarcinoma). She was extraordinarily lucky that it was caught early, and had a simple surgery to remove the cancerous cells.

Layla on her wedding day

Three years later, Layla was in horrible pain that affected nearly every aspect of her life. Temporarily uninsured due to a job change, she paid out of pocket last October to go to the doctor and make sure the cancer had not returned. Thankfully, it had not. However, her doctor believes that she has pelvic adhesions and Endometriosis due to the previous surgery, but it can’t be diagnosed until an additional surgery (laparoscopy) is performed. The doctor also found out Layla has cervical stenosis, which basically means her cervix has completely shut down due to the scar tissue from the previous surgery. These issues make her miserable most of the time, making simple things like going to the bathroom and menstruation horribly painful, and sexual intercourse impossible. He stated that if she wanted to have children one day, even sperm could not pass through her cervix, and she would have to have intrauterine insemination.

The doctor wanted to schedule surgery as soon as the insurance at her new job went into effect. Her company fired her the day her insurance became valid, ten days before Christmas, plainly stating that it was because of her health issues.

Fortunately, she got on her husband’s insurance, which went into effect February 1st. As soon as she could, Layla scheduled surgery for March 22nd. Then her insurance company dropped a bomb: because she went to the doctor (even as a self-pay patient) within a three month period prior to her enrollment date, they were considering her health issues to be a pre-existing condition, and would not insure any doctor visits, medication, or surgery for 388 days.

When you are in near constant pain and can’t work, 388 days is a long time to wait. The sooner Layla can have this surgery, the sooner she can return to work (hopefully with a nicer company!) and start living her life again. Her doctor has been nice enough to work out a deal with her if she can pay as a cash patient: he decreased the amount of her surgery to $4,000, and the cost of the anesthesia to $500, with additional fees for biopsies of removed tissue to be determined.

The problem is, Layla is unemployed due to this, has used her savings to pay for living expenses and medical bills, and has been denied loans for the surgery because of her unemployment status. She does not have close family, so she can’t ask them for help. Surgery is scheduled for March 22nd, and Layla and her husband are still trying to secure a loan through several banks.

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Any amount that you can give to Operation Layla is absolutely enough – thank you for helping out! Donations are made through PayPal, so they are completely secure. All proceeds go straight to Layla for her medical bills, and will not be used for anything else.

Donate here

When I Own A House, I Want This To Be My Garage Door

I see a lot of interior design inspiration on blogs and in magazines. But for some reason, not a lot of garage door inspiration! I'm sure that's because garage doors are usually pretty boring.

But I'm in love with a particular wood garage door in my neighborhood, and I finally remembered to snap a photo of it.

It adds so much to the front of the house, and I'm especially smitten with the vines on the matching wood trellis above the door. If something like this will look good on a future house we own, I am totally going to steal the idea!

(To be less stalker-ish, I didn't photograph their whole house, just the garage, and I covered their address numbers.)

Have you ever stolen home inspiration from houses in your neighborhood?

P.S. Be sure to check back on Monday, I'm going to be doing another giveaway! All you cooks (or wanna be cooks) will definitely appreciate it.

I'm Pretty Sure I Must Buy This Dress

I know a lot of people are really, REALLY into Anthropologie.

But I must confess, while I like their clothes, I usually can't justify the prices when I can get a similar sweater or whatever from someplace cheaper like H&M, Victoria's Secret, or even Target (I'm more of a quantity over label girl when it comes to clothes. I've seen a lot of bloggers doing that thing where they only wear 30 items of clothing for 30 days--well for me, it would be a lot easier to go 30 days without wearing the same item of clothing more than once!).

I've only ever purchased one thing from Anthropologie, a sundress that I wore for our post-wedding luncheon. But I'm pretty sure I must buy this sundress that I just saw on their website. I don't think I can resist the purple and green!

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Where the heck was this dress last spring when I was looking for purple and green dresses for our various wedding events? It even matches my blog design! LOVE!

(Plus, I'm pretty sure the purchase is justifiable....I *NEED* a new sundress or two for our upcoming trip to Florida, right?)

Inspired Repourposing = New Purse!

A while ago, when I showed off my walk in closet bedroom makeover, Kristen, aka Mrs. Glasses suggested that I deserved a reward for all of my hard work.

Well, I made a promise to myself to not buy any more shoes for the entire first
quarter of the year. Nothing until early April. I think this might be the longest time period in the last 5 years without buying shoes! I know, I know, I have a problem—I’m dealing with it.

But! That doesn’t mean that I still don’t deserve a reward. After all, I’ve been being really good about keeping our house clean. So I set a limit of $100 or less, and just bought a new purse.

What, you don’t think I need another one?


No, really, I did! I swear! Look at the straps on my everyday purse, they’re about to break!


So here is my new bag, which I can’t wait to arrive in the mail (although I will be removing the "chocolate" tag from it). I got it from ebags.com, and I Googled for a 20% off coupon with free shipping.

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But ANYWAY. All of this doesn’t really have much to do with the point of this post, I just wanted to show off my new purse! :)

So while I was browsing ebags (and I’m one of those people who can browse online for hours and hours if I’m bored), I started noticing there were quite a few handbags with rosettes on them, including my new bag.

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It must be a trend.

Which got me thinking….I was already a fan of rosettes about 8 months ago….on my DIY wedding shoes!

(By Shoot Me Now Photography)

I’ve since removed the ankle cuffs from the shoes so I can wear them in everyday settings, since with the cuffs they were a bit over the top (although perfect and exactly what I wanted for my wedding day!).

So the rosette cuffs have just been sitting in a drawer, with no use for all of these months. Until I was inspired by ebags to attach them to the front of a little black evening bag!


And now I have a gorgeous rosette evening clutch to match my shoes!


Of course, I took the easy way out, and only attached the base of the flowers to the purse with safety pins. Not that pretty on the inside, but I wanted to leave myself open to the option of still using this as a plain black clutch if I need to.


I’m so happy I finally found a use for these ankle cuffs; repurposing feels great! Now I just need an excuse to dress up in a little black dress so I can wear my shoes with my new clutch!

Have you found ways to repurpose any of your wedding attire or decorations?