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Lately I'm seeing links to Bloglovin everywhere so I thought I had better get on board! If you're using Bloglovin to keep up with your favourite blogs then click here to add Sugar and Shimmer.

Friday Odds & Ends

Can you believe it's the last day of September? Where has the time gone? Just popping by quickly today with a few small updates. First, I'm super excited that I'll be guest posting over at Clean & Scentsible as part of Jenn's Ghostly Gathering! I'll be sharing a quick and easy Halloween décor tutorial on October 6 - be sure to stop by and check it out.

In other good news, I was thrilled to find out yesterday that I won a $100 gift certificate to inVU Drapery Co courtesy of Staci Edwards' blog Inspired by Life. We need a window treatment for the baby's room so this couldn't have come along at a better time. I'm so excited to shop - thanks again, Staci!

Rosh Hashanah ends today and we will be celebrating with a special dinner. I'll be back next week with a recipe and review for Apple and Honey Bundt Cake. Apples and honey are symbolic of a sweet new year - not to mention that's a delicious combination!

  

This weekend we'll be visiting our favourite gourd and pumpkin stand so I can create another version of last year's fall planter. It'll be time for Halloween decorations before you know it so I want to make sure my fall stuff gets a chance to stand alone first.

We'll also be going to the Toronto Zoo this weekend - weather permitting! I really want to see the African Penguins. They are endangered and a new species at the zoo this year. The zoo had a clever ad campaign running this summer and it clearly worked on me.

The last of my updates is that I am 20 weeks pregnant today! I have my next ultrasound this coming Wednesday and hopefully baby will cooperate and we will find out the gender. You'll be seeing an influx of baby projects after that!

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Blog Guidebook

If you're looking to drive some additional traffic to your own awesome blog then look no further than the Blog Guidebook. It's a huge directory of blogs that you can link up to for free and attract readers that might not have found you otherwise. In addition to being a directory they've got how tos and other resources for bloggers. Defintely worth a visit!

And while the guidebook might appeal most to my fellow bloggers, rest assured that readers of blogs should be interested in visiting the Blog Guidebook too because they've got thousands of lovely blogs broken down into pretty much every category you can imagine. Like crafting? They've got blogs for that. Want to read about Going Green? No problem, they've got blogs for that. Photography, travel, adoption, allergies (yes, allergies!) - they've got blogs to meet your every reading need.

And the best part is that now they've got Sugar and Shimmer too :)

Hanging Crayon Hearts & Design Changes!

Yesterday I posted about DIY Crayon Hearts but didn't show you pictures of my finished product. I had really hoped for a sunny day so that you could see how pretty they are with the light shining through but the weather has not cooperated so you'll have to take my word for it. Or make your own and hang them in the sunny windows at your house - just click back to yesterday's post for the how to.

The other thing I'm excited about today is the semi-redesign of the blog! You may have noticed my brand new header. The font is from Fonts For Peas and the graphic is from Shabby Blogs. 

I also repurposed a section of the header to create my very own button! I'm no graphic designer but I'm so happy with the way it turned out. Feel free to grab it - the code is in the sidebar. I'm using the same Fonts for Peas font for my dates and post titles too.

If you have a blog of your own and you've been wanting to make some changes but don't want to spend the money on a custom design then I hope you'll be inspired - I have very little design and html knowledge but I was able to make these changes all on my own using free resources found through Google searches. Next up will be sidebar titles and a new background so stay tuned!

Happy New Year...

...and welcome back to Sugar and Shimmer! I've missed my little blog on my week off but while I've been away I've been coming up with some big plans for 2011. Tonight I want to share some of them with you so you know what you can look forward to for the coming year :)

The first feature I'm starting for 2011 is called By the Batch. Every Monday I'll be bringing you a new recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share.

I am in love with this book! I already have (and also love) Martha Stewart's Cupcakes so I was confident that Cookies would be great as well.  It has 175 different recipes organized by texture (i.e. Light & Delicate or Soft & Chewy) and the picture Table of Contents is the greatest idea for a recipe book I've seen in a long time. I've already selected my first recipe and I can't wait to post about it on Monday in my first installment of By the Batch.

Wednesday's posts will be Party Perfect. Each week I'll bring you an idea, project or inspiration that you can use for your next event. This will include themes, invitations, recipes, decor and more of the DIY projects I completed for my own wedding last June. I'll be doing my best to keep these posts timely so watch for Valentine's Day ideas to start appearing in the next couple of weeks!

My final feature for 2011 will be my In Stitches posts (cheesy title, I know,  but I couldn't resist). Every Friday I'll be posting about a needle craft (i.e.sewing or knitting). You might remember last year that I posted that I was going to learn to sew. Well that was a total bust as my online lessons proved too difficult for me right out of the gate! This month I'll be on the lookout for lessons that I can attend locally. In the meantime, I'm also going to learn to knit. I have made scarves in the past but I don't think I even remember how to cast on stitches anymore so I bought the book The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting.

The book starts off really simple (I'm talking the difference between straight and circular needles simple) and then leads you through more than 30 projects from simple dish clothes all the way to hooded sweaters. I don't think I'll manage a project a week but I will share my progress with you as I go. If you're interested in learning to knit, you might want to consider picking up the book yourself (only about $15 from Amazon) and we can learn together! I'm really looking forward to making this pretty envelope bag.

The other change to my schedule is that I'll now be posting from Monday to Friday and taking the weekends off. I'm creative but a new project 7 days a week was getting to be a bit much even for me! Obviously I'm scheduling a few days of the week but Tuesdays and Thursdays will still be grab bag style days where I'll post anything else I'm working on or being inspired by. I hope you'll like the new schedule and that you'll find something here for you!

The last thing that I wanted to point out to you is the handy little Amazon widget I've added to the right hand side of the blog. See it over there? I've added links to all of the books I've mentioned on Sugar and Shimmer as well as a few of the products I've blogged about. Clicking on any of the titles will take you directly to Amazon in case you'd like to purchase something I've written about.

And I think that covers it all! I'm really excited about the coming months and I hope that you'll keep coming back to Sugar and Shimmer as we make our way through 2011 :)

Christmas Giveaway Winner & 12 Days of Holidays

Just a few quick updates to share tonight. First, I wanted to thank everyone who entered to win my Christmas magnets. I love how they turned out and I'm so excited to give this set of 5 away.

I used random.org to select the winning comment and the magnets go to Comment #5 posted by Suzanne!

Congratulations, Suzanne! I hope the magnets add some cute to your fridge for the holiday season :)

The other thing I wanted to share with you tonight is a feature going on over at What's Up Whimsy called 12 Days of Holidays: A Blogger Wishlist. Every day for the first twelve days of December, Shannon is giving readers a peek at what's on the wishlists of a bunch of awesome bloggers. And in today's post she was kind enough to feature an item from my list! Be sure to click over and check it out. It's bound to make your own wishlist grow!

Ribbon Christmas Tree

Have you been to the Michaels website lately? If you haven't then maybe it's time for a visit! They've got a ton of holiday projects ideas for every decorating style and skill level. It's also the place I found the idea for this adorable Ribbon Tree.

I think it's so cute and it was a lot of fun to make. All you need is a Styrofoam cone, some pins and three different ribbons cut into 4 inch lengths. Altogether, the supplies for one 11 inch tall tree cost me approximately $20.

Starting at the bottom of the cone, create loops with your ribbon and pin them to the cone. Go all the way around the width of the cone with one ribbon colour and then move up and start pinning loops of your next ribbon.

Keep pinning loops and moving up the cone, alternating ribbons with each row until you get to the top. There were no instructions for what to do with the top of the cone so I just crossed over two loops and then pinned them in the centre to make a sort of bow.

And that's it, a completed Ribbon Tree! Try it yourself. Or better yet, buy one from me because I'm taking orders for custom trees. For $30 you can choose your colours and I'll make you your very own ribbon tree. A perfect addition to your holiday decor or a pretty gift for someone else. If you're interested, send me an email at sarahsimon(at)hotmail(dot)ca with the subject "Ribbon Tree". Make sure to note that it's .ca and not .com! Can't wait to hear from you :)

Bulk Barn Love & A New Design!

Notice anything different? I've redesigned the blog! My original template was pretty but I just never felt like it was completely me. Today I had the down time necessary to play with a bunch of different colours and backgrounds until I settled on what you see here. I am in love. What do you think?

Speaking of love, I made a trip to Bulk Barn tonight and was reminded all over again how much I love that store! For those outside of Canada, Bulk Barn is an incredible bulk food store that carries an impressive number of products. If they sell it in bulk then chances are you can buy it at Bulk Barn; I'm talking everything from chocolate to vitamins to dog food. Additionally, they also have a great selection of baking and candy making products at a much lower price than you'll find them anywhere else. If you've never been then take a minute to browse through their product listing and you'll be looking for the one closest to you!

I stopped at Bulk Barn tonight on my way home from work to get supplies for a couple of ideas I've got brewing. First, I bought what I need to have another go at my cake pops. I got orange melting wafers ($4 for way more than I'll likely need) and black sprinkles ($0.46) to make them Halloween themed. Then I bought the sticks I had forgotten the first time around  ($2.69 for 50) as well as a Styrofoam dummy cake ($2.89) to stick them in so they dry without any flat sides. Thanks for the tip, Michelle!

Next I bought purple melting wafers (again $4 for more than I will probably need) and a candy cup mold ($3.29) so I can to make some of Bakerella's Cupcake Bites. Go check them out on her site, they are adorable!

Last but not least, I bought a giant bag of candy corn ($5.85). I didn't really have an idea in mind for what I'd do with it, besides feed it to my husband, but he says I've bought way more than he can possibly eat so now I'm brainstorming projects for them.

At the end of it all, I spent $20 and walked out with a bag full of great stuff. It's too late to get into the kitchen tonight but I can't wait to start tomorrow!

A New Way to Connect

Hello all, just a very quick update to let you know that Sugar & Shimmer now has a Facebook page. If you're a Facebook junkie like I am then come visit the page (Sugar & Shimmer) and be sure to "Like" it to get my new entries posted right to your news feed!