Today I’d like to share with you some random bits of inspiration, fun, ideas, stuff … as we head into the weekend. In no particular order.

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{ #1 – Winners }

We have our winners from yesterday’s giveaway! Ella Publishing will be giving Rebecca Cooper’s new eBook to:

1. Julie in Wellington, New Zealand

2. Mary Lou in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

Ladies, go ahead and email cooper.rr@gmail.com and she’ll hook you up – Congratulations!

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{ #2 – Go Notes }

Kiki Creates has the most adorable new thing – Go Notes. These are little business-card-sized cards with different prompts on it to fill in a little written love for someone special. I’ll be packing these in my kids’ lunches once in a while, for sure. Kiki just debuted her kid sets in time for the beginning of a new school year. They are a perfect little note to stick in a lunch box, a back pack or anywhere else! She sells them for $6 per set as a pdf digital download so you can print as many as you’d like, which also makes them super economical.

Kiki blogged about them here. Head over to her etsy shop if you want to get your hands on this ASAP, or just browse around to see her other cute stuff.

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{ #3 -Wall Art Inspiration }

Every Wednesday photographer Laura Winslow has a series on her blog called Wall Art Wednesdays. A lover of photography + home decor, this has naturally become one of my personal favorite columns on the web. Laura is great at finding wonderful inspiration in various styles, and she shares new ideas each and every Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Lyons. This is an example of what Laura features on Wall Art Wednesdays.

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{ #4 – Inspiration for Cultivating a Good Life }

It’s on my homepage: Cultivate a good life and record it. Most of you know I share a { POTD Idea } almost daily on facebook + twitter. This picture-of-the-day inspiration goes along with the “RECORD IT” part of my slogan. The purpose is to inspire you with ideas on what to photograph and document in your life. Most of the photos are submitted by readers like you. If you’re interested in submitting an idea or two that you think will be widely applicable to others, I invite you to email your { POTD Ideas } to submissions@beckyhiggins.com. I’m especially fond of strong photography skills (hint, hint photographers).  : )

The other part of my slogan is “CULTIVATE A GOOD LIFE” and lately, I have fallen into the habit of sharing nearly-daily inspiration for this as well. I hope that by sharing these little snippets, you are uplifted and encouraged and inspired. Sometimes I share thoughts that are just rock-solid in what I believe and what I try to live. Most of the time, I share thoughts that I need to be reminded of, just as much as the next person.

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{ #5 – An online scrapbooking project }

You are invited to a FREE festival packed full of big ideas at Big Picture Classes this month. There are 12 fun-filled days featuring 12 of their talented instructors. Each will be giving you a word of the day, along with a downloadable template so that you can create a mini layout about that day’s word and how you applied it in your life. Sounds like an inspiring project! It just started this week, so it’s not too late to check it out. Even though this has started you can still get all the content and participate in whatever projects you want.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to register. Remember: It is free and you will not see a charge in your account, but you do have to check out.

If Big Picture Classes is new to you, learn more and become a member for free here.

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{ #6 – Meal planning made simple }

I’ve mentioned e-Mealz a couple times before, but if you haven’t heard of it before, you should! We have personally been using this online meal planning service in our family for quite some time now, and we still love it. With summer coming to a close, school starting and a hundred to-do lists in every direction, you are likely looking for ways to simplify your life. When scrambling to fix dinner at the last minute, people often turn to unhealthy or expensive options. Been there, done that. More than I’d like to admit.

What I love about e-Mealz, is that they provide an everyday solution in the form of simple menu plans and grocery lists, which are published every week. This “mental maid” is an easy-to-use and concise tool for creating delicious, family-friendly dinners while sticking to a weekly budget. Right now your can enter the code SCHOOLTIME to get 10% off your E-Mealz subscription. It’s already cheap, so this is just a bonus!

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{ #7 – Blogger Cookbook }

Speaking of food … The gals over at How Does She? wanted to create a way to support the American Red Cross. They gathered favorite recipes from 50 hand-selected bloggers. I was happy to be invited and delighted to participate in sharing one of my favorite recipes. And I’ll just add … ooooh, the recipes in here look gooood. And, it’s for a terrific cause because 100% of the proceeds to help those in need with all the world disasters and calamities. Learn all about how you can get your hands on this here — it’s available as an eBook, as well as a printed + bound hard copy.

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{ #8 – Where Women Create }

Where Women Create is all about celebrating creative, entrepreneurial women. I love that. And I am honored that they have featured me in their brand-new issue, along with Heather Bailey, Stacy Julian, Susan Branch, Holly Becker, Melody Ross, Kim Stoegbauer, and more. Women that span across many markets, each with their own story and their own niche. And congratulations to Tim Holtz, who is featured in their new column: The Men Who Make It!

If you’d like to pick up a copy for yourself, go here for the short-cut to this latest issue.

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{ #9 – School Lunches }

Yes, there are supposed to be labels in those label holders. But Crew can’t resist sliding them out right now.

I know some of you must already do this, but for me — this is something new this school year in our home. To save time and stress in the mornings, I have everything pre-bagged and ready-to-grab for the kids’ lunches. The only thing I need to do is make their sandwich. They are otherwise 100% responsible for getting their lunch bags, choosing a variety of items from this drawer, and packing their lunch.

We got big containers of things like pretzels, Sun Chips, crackers, etc. and put it all in snack-sized baggies. Plastic spoons are in the drawer as well, next to the applesauce and mandarin oranges. We have a drawer in the refrigerator that has the same concept: Cheese cubes, grapes, and anything else that needs to be refrigerated. All ready-to-pack. There’s my back-to-school tip-of-the-week.  : )

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{ #10 – Enjoy your weekend }

From Live Good.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 19th, 2011 at 9:45 am and is filed under organization, photography, products, scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.