Happy New Year! I love this time of year for looking back at what’s passed and looking forward to what’s to come.

As I did last year, I’m kicking the year off with a look back at the year that has passed on Wendolonia. Here are the 10 most popular posts of 2011:

10. Chocolate No-Bake Cookies — A recipe for a gooey, chocolatey recipe my family has been making for years.

9. Behind the Scenes of a Bento Photo — This post gives a quick overview of how I set up my bento photos in the mornings but the tips I share can be used for most still photographs.

8. Bento Box Basics: Tools and Accessories — A basic overview of the tools and accessories I use to put together bento boxes for my family.

7. The Week in Bentos: August 23-26, 2011 — Back to School! — This was the only week in bentos post to make the list this year, probably because of that Angry Bird Babybel cheese!

6. Adventures in School Lunch — This post chronicles my experience eating school lunch with my first grader. It was shockingly different from the school lunches I ate as a kid and generated a lot of discussion on the post itself and on Facebook.

5. Summer Fun List — Our big list of fun activities to do over the summer. We crossed a ton off the list but didn’t get to all of them. I’m hoping to make up a fresh list for the rest of winter in the next few weeks.

4. Bento Box Basics: All About Boxes — A thorough overview of the various kinds of bento boxes available. If you’re looking to get started making bentos, this is where I suggest you start.

3. Summer Fun (for Mom): Homemade Smash Book — My homemade version of the super popular Smash Folio. I filled it with my favorite papers from my stash and bound it at home.

2. Star Wars Birthday Party — A summary of the activities, crafts and food that were part of Wyatt’s seventh birthday party.

And finally, the #1 most popular post on Wendolonia last year was…

Microwaved Ivory Soap! And when I say it was popular, I’m not kidding. People went crazy for this activity and visited this page more than any other page on my site (including the home page) by far last year. Had I known then what I know now, I would have scrubbed my microwave until it was sparkling clean before taking these photos!

A few of my personal favorite posts that didn’t make the top ten were:

• Portrait of the Artist with Pneumonia — I challenged myself to take one self-portrait for a week and then immediately contracted pneumonia. I was surprised that I loved the results.
• My Strawberry Shortcake Collection — When we moved I dug my childhood collection of Strawberry Shortcake dolls out of the basement and photographed them. I also posted photos of the playsets
• Goodbye, Foxy Fox — My goodbye letter to my faithful (and horrible) VW Fox.
• My 40th Year Project — The kick-off post for the big autobiographical scrapbook project I’m doing throughout the year leading up to my 40th birthday.
• Bento Tip: Just Do ONE Thing — My favorite piece of lunch-packing advice I’ve shared this year!

I have been thrilled to see the Wendolonia community grow much larger over the past 12 months and I want take a minute to thank each and every one of you for reading and commenting here on the blog and for chatting over on the Wendolonia Facebook page. You are awesome and I like having you around. Thanks for hanging out with me!

What have you enjoyed seeing on Wendolonia this year? What would you like to see in the coming months?

Have you ever stopped to think about how awesome blogs can be?

How many times have you read a blog post and come away inspired, amused, or better informed? Have you ever cooked a delicious recipe you found on a blog? Tried a fun activity with your family? Have you ever read something that made you feel connected to the writer and a little less alone?

I read blogs almost every day and I can say, without any doubt, that my world is better and richer for it. If you’re here reading this on my blog, I bet it’s a safe bet that you read and enjoy blogs too. But how often do we take the time to thank bloggers for all the work they do for us? Tuesday was Pay a Blogger Day, an event that started by a company called Flattr. Flattr provides a service that helps you to make small monetary donations to bloggers whose sites you enjoy. Though I don’t use Flattr myself, I’m behind this idea 100%. Because I maintain my own blog, I have a pretty realistic idea about how much time and energy goes into a typical blog post. Sure, it’s often fun work, but it still takes a lot of time to sit down and write a post, think a project through and sometimes photograph it too.

When I start thinking about what I get from blogs — almost always for free — I want very much to give a little bit back to the people who inspire me. Most often, I do this by beginning my Amazon shopping using the affiliate links on the blogs I love. It doesn’t matter what items the blog links to — anything I buy on Amazon using an affiliate link goes toward the blogger’s account. This puts a little money in their pockets for very little effort on my part. I also shop the bloggers’ stores if they have them. Sometimes, I send them a note to let them know how much I appreciate their blogs. And at the very least, I try to leave comments on the posts I most enjoy.

And today I’m going to write just a bit about my very favorite blogs so I can spread the love a little farther and  you can check them out if you want too!

Rookie Moms

Rookie Moms was one of the first blogs I read regularly. Whitney and Heather live in my area and their children are close in age to mine so their blog about activities to do with babies in tow was a good fit with my life when Wyatt was little. As the years have gone by, Rookie Moms has expanded to include activities for older children so I still read it daily. And as an extra bonus, Whitney and Heather have become my good friends in real life. If you’re looking for a place to start on Rookie Moms, check out my all time most favorite post: Write a “did do” list.

The Bloggess

Whenever I’m sitting at my computer laughing hysterically my husband knows I’m looking at one of three sites: Damn You Autocorrect, Cake Wrecks  or The Bloggess. If you’ve never heard of The Bloggess, she writes long, rambling, insanely funny posts about her adventures. (And I mean all that in the best possible way!) If you need a place to start on her blog, her current feud with Stephen Colbert is pretty good, but my very favorite is the time she brought her husband a giant metal chicken for their 15th anniversary.

Another Lunch

Another Lunch is one of the few bento blogs I read regularly. Melissa’s lunches are adorable, but they’re not so complex that I’d never bother to attempt them. She puts in just enough more effort to give me something to aspire to when I’m making my own kids’ lunches. And again, I think of her as a real life friend (even though we’ve never met!). You can dive into this blog anywhere and get some great inspiration, but one of my favorite posts is this one featuring a circus-themed muffin tin lunch. So cute!

Ali Edwards

I’ve been blogging on and off for many years, but Ali Edwards’ blog is the one that inspired me to take the leap into blogging about myself and my family regularly. Ali has inspired me to focus less on the big events in my family’s lives (though those are important) and more on the day to day stuff that adds up to the big picture of who we are and what our lives are like. Her primary focus is on scrapbooking and memory keeping, but I think there is a lot on her blog for people who are just looking to be mindful about the ups and downs in a typical day.

The Happiest Mom

Meagan Francis, aka The Happiest Mom writes about being…well…happy as a mom. She addresses a lot of the issues with parenting that make me feel guilty, martyred, or angry and she has an incredible ability to write about them in a way that turns my thinking around. I think her blog name is a bit of a misnomer because she doesn’t pretend to be perfect,  but rather she aspires to be more satisfied in a role that feels like it should bring only joy but often sucks. And best of all, she never inspires any guilt.  Meagan has collected some of her best articles here: How to be a happier mom.

elsie marley

Oh elsie marley! How you inspire me! Run by a woman named Meg (not Elsie), this blog is pure eye candy. And project candy. And sewing candy. And baking candy. I get so excited when I see one of Meg’s posts pop up in my Google reader because I always know it’s going to be good. Her beautiful projects are the perfect mix of modern and classic and they make me want to immediately drop what I’m doing and make something cool. I also love that Meg is funny and that she shares what was frustrating or went wrong with her projects. Her post today is a list of advent activities that I’ll be printing out to have on hand in case I need to swap out one of the things I’ve come up with. She is probably best known for running the Kids Clothes Week Challenge a few times per year.

So tell me: Which blogs are your favorites? How do you support your favorite bloggers?

I have a ton of things I’ve been wanting to talk about lately, but I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding the time to sit down and write. I have a few minutes right now, so I thought I’d talk about a few of the little things that have been sticking in my brain the past two weeks.

Today is Augie’s third birthday! It’s not exactly a ground-breaking sentiment, but I swear it seems like he was just born yesterday. He is such a happy, funny, stubborn, independent boy and I’m so glad he’s a part of our family. We’re keeping things low-key this year with a family party and some treats at preschool but I did get up a little early to hang some streamers in the kitchen.

I love seeing all the school supplies and back to school stuff in the stores and it got me thinking about the things I used to take to school. I specifically am remembering octagonal shaped crayons and Trapper Keeper folders. I even went so far as to look up a vintage Trapper Keeper Commercial on YouTube. My favorite part is how they stress that the binder closes with that hot new invention, velcro. Ooooooh!

I know I’ve talked about Pinterest before, but my obsession with it has only grown in the last few months. Here are some of the things I’ve found on there that I want to try myself:

• Homemade Lego table from an IKEA Lack table.
• Pumpkin Spice Syrup for homemade pumpkin spice lattes
• Notebook paper t-shirt tutorial – I want to make myself one of these!
• I love this Perry the Platypus sandwich that Susan Yuen made as part of her recent Phineus and Ferb series of bentos. I can’t wait to try it myself!

I wrote an article about making lunches more fun for Williams-Sonoma a few weeks ago. Not a lot of new techniques there, but I made a special rainbow bento box for it that might just be my new favorite lunch of all time.

Today is the last day to enter to win a $500 shopping spree on the Horizon Back to School Community. All you have to do is comment on my post about saving money on lunches to be entered to win. While you’re there, you should check out some of the other conversations. People are sharing lots of good tips!

What have you been up to lately? Are you a Pinterest addict too?

Disclosure: I am compensated for my time as a community leader for the Horizon Back-to-School Community. All views and opinions are my own.

• Have you seen the trailer for Sarah Vowell’s new book Unfamiliar Fishes? Go! Right now! Check it out! Even if you’re not a big Vowell fan (like me!) it’s worth watching to see the fantastic foodscapes created by one of my all time favorite bento artists, Sakurako Kitsa.

• Hey Jen Renee! is auctioning off an incredibly beautiful hand-knit scarf/wrap with all proceeds going to Japan relief.

• What I Made — I just discovered this blog filled with cool DIY projects (via Craftypod). Scott Bedford features excellent craft projects but his blog — filled with hand drawn illustrations — is a delight in and of itself.

• Have you heard of Pinterest? It’s my new social media addiction. I was storing my visual inspiration on Tumblr, but I’ve abandoned that site in favor of my new prettier trophy wife, Pinterest. The interface is much more intuitive to me and I find that I’m better able to organize my links and images into categories. I’ve also found that the community there is a bit of a better fit for me. Here are my pins (link/image combos). Pinterest is in beta right now and you need an invitation to join. I have a few invites at my disposal, so if you need an invitation send me your email and I’ll send one your way. You can also request an invite on the homepage of the site.

• I’m newly addicted to the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast! This show is produced by the How Stuff Works people and focuses on female-centric topics. I’ve been working my way through the archives for the past few weeks and this show has risen to my #2 most favorite podcast spot (after The Paperclipping Roundtable which is probably only of interest to scrapbook geeks like myself). Some of the most interesting shows I’ve listened to so far have been on topics as diverse as nuns, lady pirates, sexy Halloween costumes and female superheroes.

• I’ve been working my way through The Essential New York Times Cookbook, reading it more like I would a novel than a cookbook. Amanda Hesser has collected 100+ years of recipes from the New York Times to create a history of American food trends. Nearly all of the 1400 recipes in the book are introduced with a paragraph or two about its place in history and this creates a fascinating read. I’ve yet to make anything from it yet, but I’ll be sure to report back when I do!

• My friend Whitney recently introduced me to the blog Mommy Coddle and I can’t stop reading it. Molly lives on a farm in Maryland and blogs about her day to day life. Her life is very different from mine, but I also feel like I can relate to her experiences. It doesn’t hurt that she’s a fantastic writer.

• Like practically everyone else with a smart phone, I’m completely hooked on Plants vs. Zombies. That is all.

• The Bento4Japan fundraiser is still going strong! In addition to the bento starter set I put together, there are lots of other great items up for auction with all benefits going to Japan earthquake/tsunami relief. Some other people have also recently listed starter sets that are a great deal.

I just wanted to take a quick second to point you to a few of the articles I’ve written for Parentella lately:

Lunch Box Notes
Lunch box notes to download and print. There is one blank set and one set with corny jokes on them. (Certified as hi-larious by the six-year-old who lives in my house!)

Snack Ideas – Part 1
The first of a two part series listing out some easy, kid-friendly snack ideas. Part 2 will be going up later this week, I think.

Lunch Box Safety Tips
Basic rules for keeping your child’s lunch safe and free of food-borne illnesses!

A few weeks ago I started writing for the blog at Parentella. Parentella is a site that connects parents and educators and their blog is chock full of interesting articles about schools and education. I’m mostly writing  about packing school lunches (surprise) but you’ll also be seeing more general articles from me about kid-friendly foods and maybe even an occasional craft project.

This week’s article about Spooky Halloween Lunch Box Ideas went up this morning and I’m particularly excited to share it with you because I had so much fun putting it together. So far I’ve also written a series of articles on bento box basics and shared an easy school night dinner of bbq chicken, mashed yams and peas.

So come check me out on Parentella and let me know what you think!

It’s back to school week here on Wendolonia! I’m going to be bringing you a new article focused on lunch-packing every day this week.

Today’s topic: Kid-centric Food Blogs!

Photo courtesy of Another Lunch

Another Lunch

Melissa from Another Lunch is one of my favorite bloggy buddies and her site always offers up something fun and inspirational. She puts together themed bentos and muffin tin lunches for her kiddos that are super-creative, but simple to execute (once she’s passed on her clever ideas).

Cooking with My Kid

Cooking with My Kid is one of those wonderful 365 projects — a mom cooks a new dish with her young son every day for a year. The dishes are usually pretty simple but they’re chosen to introduce her boy to new flavors and ingredients. She helpfully lists out which steps her son helped with for each recipe. The site is new to me, but I can’t wait to try some of them out with my kids.

Nurture Baby

Though Augie is well out of the baby food stage, I still check in with Nurture Baby from time to time for ideas for toddler-friendly dishes. I particularly liked the Bebe Bolognese — as did my boy — and I loved having small portions in the freezer to pop into his lunch box on day care days.

Meal Makeover Moms

I discovered the Meal Makeover Moms via their weekly podcast, but their website is a source of great family-friendly recipes too. The difference between these woman and many other food bloggers though is that they test the heck out of their original recipes before they release them out into the wild. As a result, every recipe of theirs that I’ve tried has been top-notch — and my kids have eaten (almost) all of them too!

Gourmet Mom on the Go

The Gourmet Mom on the Go isn’t a bento site per se, but it offers up some insanely cute serving ideas. A sandwich shaped like a lion with a grated carrot mane? How freaking cute is that? The recipe archive on this site is enormous, so no matter where your tastes lie, you’re bound to find something your family will enjoy.

Hungry for some more inspiration? Check out my list of favorite bento blogs!

What are your favorite blogs with ideas for feeding the kiddos?

More from this series:

• Monday: Lunch Box Ideas (with a free downloadable list for your fridge!)
• Tuesday: Lunch Packing Gear
• Wednesday: Sandwich Adventures
• Thurdsay: Kid-centric Food Blogs
  

I think I’m probably late to the party on this one, but have you all heard of One Pretty Thing? Rachel Klein runs this amazingly comprehensive site where she posts multiple round-ups of links to craft projects and tutorials she finds on the internet. I first heard of the site earlier this week when Rachel was interviewed on the CraftyPod podcast (which I also discovered earlier this week).

Rachel posts a daily round-up of between 8-16 general links to craft projects every day and she also posts one or more themed round-ups per day. Some of the incredible round-ups she’s posted in just the few days I’ve been subscribed include:

• Felt Food Round-up — This one rocked my world. I’ve been wanting to make some felt food for Augie for Christmas but I had no idea so many free tutorials existed. I can’t wait to dive into this list!
• Birthday Party Round-up — I was thrilled to see that Rachel included my Robot Party on this list, but humbled by the beautiful parties I was surrounded by. Do not miss the Construction Site party if you have a little boy who likes heavy equipment.
• Edible Gifts Round-up — These ideas and recipes also have my head spinning with ideas.

In fact, Rachel’s whole site has me so inspired and ready to create that I don’t know quite where to start! I have been working my way through some of her older posts but I have to go slowly because, honestly, my brain can’t soak in so many ideas at once. Please go check  out One Pretty Thing if you haven’t already seen it!

Some of my other favorite crafty blogs:

• Craft Zine — Another site that showcases the best of the crafty web.
• Sew Mama, Sew — They’re in the midst of a holiday gift idea series that’s pretty great. Last month the theme was using your scraps, which was also inspiring.
• Made in Brooklyn — This one is different from some of the other blogs I’ve highlighted here. Robyn is a one-woman show who shows daily photos of her baking, sewing and paper craft projects while blogging about family life.
• The Crafty Crow — Daily round-ups of kids crafts.

What are your favorite crafty blogs? Please enable me!

1. StoryCorps — Have you heard StoryCorps? They play it on Morning Edition on Friday mornings. I found the podcast on iTunes a few weeks ago and I’ve been running through the episodes at an amazing rate. It just features people’s stories. The stories of their lives. Big stories, little stories, funny stories, touching stories. I laugh or, more frequently, tear up every time I listen to one. It’s like an oral scrapbook of the American experience. Except great and not as pretentious as that description sounds.
2. Maclaren Quest Stroller — I wrote a little about this stroller back when we first got it a few months ago. Now that I’ve been using it for awhile, I can tell you that it is the best stroller ever! It was pricey, but when you consider how many strollers we bought when Wyatt was a baby — three — I think that the cost of this one stroller is about the same as what we spent on all of those. I like that it is slim and light, that I can easily maneuver it one-handed and that it doesn’t look all cheesy. I wish I could load it up a bit more without it getting tippy, but I can live with that.
3. Camera Strap Cover at Design*Sponge — I made one of these for our camera the other day. Not only is is fashionable, but now I don’t have to put up with that weird rubbery side of the strap touching my neck.
4. Stone Loops of Jurassica — I’m totally addicted to this game. I play it on my iPhone while Augie nurses.
5. Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper — I love the bright, summery colors of this paper. Perfect for photos of my cutie little California boys. Actually, I’m loving all the Cosmo Cricket papers right now. Must resist….
6. Red toenails — Every summer, I paint my toenails red. I finally got to it this week and it gives me so much pleasure to look down and see my toes painted.
7. Charlie and Lola — I’m suddenly totally enamored of this kids’ show. We’ve checked out some of the books from the library before and they’re great, but I think the show is even better! That’s not something I say very often, either. The voices are perfect and the cool collage-y animation is wonderful to watch. If you have kids, you should go get a DVD to watch, right now!
8. The Freakin Never Ending To Do List — You have one too, right? Right? Download this free printable and like me, you can laugh every time you pull it out.
9. Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes — I’ve made three of the cupcakes in here so far. The red velvet recipe was fantastic. The others I’ve made are the brown sugar poundcake with brown butter icing and the triple citrus. Those were good too, but not good enough for me to make either of them again. I think the next kind I’m going to try are the one bowl chocolate cupcakes. I’ve heard lots of good things about those.

And finally, this is going out to all the mothers out there. I hope your kids treat you right!

Here are some of the things I’m into right now:

Manic Mommies — This is practically the only podcast I listen to. It took me a little while to get into it but now I’m totally hooked. I haven’t spent much time on their website, but I’m going to be checking it out over the next few days.

Bejeweled for the iPhone — I don’t think I can link directly to the iPhone app, but I’ve been crazy addicted to this game over the last few weeks. A good time killer when I’ve been nursing for hours.

Cathy Zielske’s Design Your Life class at Big Picture Scrapbooking — I’m taking this online class right now and I’m loving it.

This cute bon-bon garland — I so want to make one of these for our Christmas tree or to hang as a garland on the mantle. Can you tell I’m into garlands these days?

Pumpkin Muffins — I made my own pumpkin puree a few weeks ago and I’ve been using this recipe to make pumpkin muffins. Yum!

Michelle Obama — Oh, how I love Michelle Obama! She is my new celebrity crush. This is a First Lady I not only like, but one I can really relate to. Just a few years older than me, she is promising to make helping working moms a top priority. She also is a snappy dresser.