I love receiving a package in the mail. Even when I know what is inside, it is always exciting to open it up to reveal the treasures within. I recently returned from a business trip and to my delight, I had a few packages waiting for me. One of the boxes contained a stack of fabric I ordered from a recent Etsy.com discovery. The shop is called ShearBliss and the fabric choices she has available are unique and quite adorable! I love the whimsical patterns. I don’t know what I am going to make yet with my new pile of fabric but I do know that I am inspired by just looking at it sitting on my work table. Readers, any suggestions for some projects I could do with my new fabric?

Jo and I are always searching for new and creative rubber stamps so we were thrilled to find the blog of Nicole Holi, titled Hobo Soup. She shares her newest stamp designs, art work and more on her site as well as fun and interesting stories about her life.

Niko also has an Etsy shop where she sells her original illustrations, rubber stamps and other handmade items. We purchased her adorable gnome stamp and plan to nab her forest friends collection as well.

If you would like to submit a project for consideration as a Feature, just send us an e-mail at features@chicaandjo.com. Everyone who is featured will receive a banner image to display on his or her site, to tell the world that he or she was featured on ChicaAndJo.com!

This past weekend, I hosted a chili cook-off at my home. We had about thirty people in attendance with a good turn out of tasty chili. I am used to hosting a lot of parties at my house and have even hosted really large soirées of over 100 people. I’ve found that when you have that many people in your home, a basic bathroom hand towel just doesn’t cut it.

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Jo loves socks like nobody I’ve ever seen, so last year on her birthday I came up with a fun idea for a gift. I gave her a “Sock of the Month Club” which meant I would present her with a new pair of socks every month for a year.

Each pair of socks was in a theme that matched the month, and came with a cute little gift bag that I decorated with the same theme. The fun part for me was shopping for socks throughout the year, and keeping an eye out for special holiday-themed socks (like St. Patrick’s Day or Halloween) and purchasing them whenever I found one that I knew she would love. I also had a lot of fun decorating the little gift bags to match!

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My daughter attended the same pirate-themed birthday party as Chica recently. One of the gifts we bought the guest of honor was a tube full of plastic pirate figures. I went to wrap them in the pirate wrapping paper I had and noticed that the box I was about to use was too nice and cute to just wrap normally. The creative side of my brain started to kick in and before I knew it, I was gluing sand!

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My sister and I were recently reminiscing about our days as Girl Scouts and talking about how her daughter would be old enough for Brownies soon. As we remembered all of our favorite projects and activities we did in Scouts, I realized that we’ve got quite a few projects here at ChicaAndJo.com that would lend themselves well to Girl Scout or Brownie troops looking for fun activities.

So I’ve gathered a list of projects for troop leaders who might need some inspiration for their girls.

• Make your own firestarters for your campfire
• Stencil painting with freezer paper
• Cornstarch goo is fun for kids
• Homemade peanut butter dog biscuits
• Use watercolors to enhance your stamping
• Make finger paints out of Jell-O gelatin mixes
• Make your own bubble wands out of pipe cleaners
• Make your own play silks
• Recycle old, broken crayons into fun new shapes
• Colorful swirled cupcakes
• Make ribbon embellished hair elastic bows
• Make your own chocolate baskets

Do you have any other fun projects you remember from your scouting days? I’d love to hear about them.