After the holidays, I always have a pile of beautiful Christmas cards. I hate to toss them, but just sticking them in a box doesn’t seem to make sense either. So here are a few ideas for reusing Christmas cards in a new and unique way.

Most of these projects are perfect for the kids to do during the time between Christmas and the start of school. My daughter helped me design her new Christmas place mat and older kids could easily complete any of the other projects.

Remember: These ideas can be used for any type of greeting card, not just Christmas!
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If you’ve ever wondered what to do with old jeans, you might like to read my post about turning them into a fun quilt. It’s a great eco-friendly project that results in an incredibly warm quilt that is also quite a conversation piece. I’m revisiting that project for you today, but with an extra touch — embroidery.

A few months ago, my four-year-old niece saw me while I was in bed sick with a cold, and covered up with my super-warm jean quilt. She was fascinated by it, especially when I explained that I had made it from old jeans. A week later, when she was feeling ill herself, she asked her Mommy if she had a “sick blanket made from old jeans”, which would surely make her feel better. She did not, of course, but when I heard the story I knew right away that I would be making her one soon.

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I would like to share some exciting news with you all — I am expecting my second child in July! So, if you see an increase in baby-related posts over the next six months, now you know why!

This Featured Friday was inspired by a hunt for a baby shower present for a friend though. She loves to eat out and travel so I was looking for something that could make dining out a little bit easier for the new mom. Then I stumbled upon the blog titled, Odannysgirl. The author has a patent pending on a travel bib that holds the utensils and baby wipes necessary to dine out or even just to stay in! It folds up easily to slip into your diaper bag or purse and she offers the bib in a variety of patterns and organic fabric. I ordered one with a gnome pattern and I love it. So much so, I thought of keeping it for myself!

Check out her Etsy shop and her regular store while you are there.

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!

Happy New Year everybody, and welcome to 2009! It doesn’t seem very long ago that we were all celebrating the turn of the century with the year 2000 (and wondering if all the computers of the world would fail), and here we are already at the last of the single-digit years. It’s amazing and awesome, and I’m glad to be able to share the new year with all my friends and family (Jo’s NYE party last night was a blast!).

Besides celebrating a new year, Jo and I are also happy to be celebrating our site’s first birthday! ChicaAndJo.com has been around for one year, and from our very first post to this one, we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. We’ve built up quite a collection of fun projects for you, and we’ve got many more to add in 2009, so stick around!

Now on to the news you’ve all been waiting for… the winner of our holiday giveaway! We had a total of 38 entries in the giveaway and have selected the winner at random:

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Chica and I are going to take a break from the blog for a couple weeks to spend some quality time with our families and friends over Christmas and New Year’s. So please take care of yourselves and enjoy the break as well. We’ll be back with new posts on January 1st.

While we’re gone, we’re hosting a giveaway to keep you entertained! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. We’ll choose one random winner who will receive a box full of fun goodies from us. We’ll include some of our products, some craft supplies, and a few things thrown in just for fun. The more entries we receive, the more goodies we’ll put in the box, so please tell all your friends!

Comments will be accepted through midnight on December 31st and the winner will be announced on Thursday, January 1st.

If you’re like many parents and think that your children spend too much time in front of the television, remember that you can do something about it! Whether it’s limiting TV time to a certain period a day or merely providing lots of fun alternatives, it’s possible to rely less on the TV and grow more as a family. One of the best examples I’ve seen of this is the Unplug Your Kids blog.

The author describes herself as a “Mom Unplugged” and raises her three kids in a no TV, no video game home. Her method for providing consistent inspiration for creative alternatives to TV is her weekly Unplugged Project, for which she proposes a new theme every week to inspire herself and other parents. For each theme presented, the author completes a project with her own children and then encourages her readers to do the same with theirs. You can even share your results with the Unplugged readers by providing a link to your project on your blog. It’s great fun to read about how differently other families have interpreted the same theme.

Some of my favorite themes and projects have been: White (salt crystal paint, pictured below), Ribbon (ribbon bookmarks), and Hot (edible sugar science).

So if you’re looking for some fun rainy day activities with your kids or just need a gentle push to get your creative juices going, check out this site. You’ll be glad you did.

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!