Finally, a Good Free Knitting Pattern for a Turkey-Shaped Baby Hat!

Sara knitted a Thanksgiving turkey hat (complete with drumsticks) for her newborn boy who was in NICU. "I may have been slightly unhinged at that point," she says. But what did she do the next year? Knitted another one sized for a 1-year-old baby! You secretly want to knit a turkey hat, too, don't you?... [read more]

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Bad Advice for Frugal Halloween Treats

True, it can cost a lot to give candy to all the neighbourhood kids on Halloween night. But if money's tight, and you simply haven't got the budget to buy off the pranksters (some of whom really will splatter your home with rotten eggs -- or worse -- if you don't "shell out" ), there are a couple of things you can do to save money. First, here's what NOT to do...

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Baby Photo Album for Family Bonding

Baby's My First Photo Album of Family and Friends

We usually think of baby photograph albums as something like Granny’s “brag book,” stuffed with snaps of the adored new grandchild,  right?  Well, Baby’s My First Photo Album of Family and Friends is just a bit different – it is designed for Baby.

More than a place to stash family photos, this unique photo album is almost a “developmental toy” for your infant. Even more importantly, it could do wonders for Happy Family Togetherness for your growing toddler, when you get just a few years down the road.

What a clever idea, this little cloth-covered book! Especially with families all spread out over long distances, the way we so often are these days…

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Stainless Steel and Fridge Magnets: 7 Solutions

Whether it’s your family message center, an ever-changing scrapbook page, your photo gallery, or a do-it-yourself collage of spontaneous artwork, the front of the refrigerator is one of the most important pieces of real estate inside your home.

Oh, but those stainless steel appliances that look so elegant and modern? They’re a problem. Because it’s true — and the sales guys won’t think to warn you — your magnets won’t stick to most stainless steel refrigerators.


Photo: DairDair

Designers and decorators and magazine editors don’t quite get it. And I guess the appliance makers don’t either.

They may think we should revel in a pure clean uncluttered fridge front, but guess what?

We don’t.

We don’t want to live with a blank-faced fridge.

We love our fridge magnets — the holiday souvenir magnets and giftshop impulse-buy magnets, the tacky ad magnets from the pizza take-out, magnetic note pads, plastic alphabets, and strange glue-smeared scraps of felt on magnetic tape, made by loving preschool hands — all of them!

Our magnets help us to organize and celebrate our family’s daily lives. Right there at eye level — right in the heart of the house.

What the home appliance manufacturers need to do is sit down in my kitchen for a cup of coffee and look around. Maybe in your kitchen, too. Definitely in my friend Kathy’s kitchen…

Then maybe they’d begin to understand why North America resounds with the wail — “My fridge magnets won’t work on stainless steel!” And then maybe they’d get their act together to give us the one feature in a refrigerator that’s needed above all others: the ability to decorate the front of it with magnets.

Does it matter?

I say, yes.

So I’ve looked into this stainless-steel-fridge-magnet issue a bit, and here’s what I’ve turned up: 7 solutions!
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