DIY: An inexpensive and simple yet thoughtful gift

One of my favorite things to share with people is the written word. Most importantly, words with meaning. Whether its a poem, song or phrase that means the most, Wordle.net allows you to creatively make those words into art.

Last Valentines Day, I made a Wordle using a poem from B and I's favorite book, "A Severe Mercy", framed it, and gave it to him. It really is a wonderful way to share words with those you love! You simply copy and paste the poem, lyrics, etc into the text box and hit "Go!". From there it will jumble up your words making the words that occur the most, the largest. You can hit "Randomize" to make it jumble them up into a new pattern and then use then use the toolbar at the top of the box to edit your Wordle.

Here are a couple tips for using Wordle:

1. Because it makes the most common word the largest, edit your text by copying the words you want to emphasize most over and over again until they are the most used word in your text box.

2. If there are any words you don't want emphasized, either delete them or make sure they are only used once.

3. You can click on specific words to delete them once your Wordle has been created.

3. Because you can't save your new creation in Wordle, always print to a PDF. This way, you can save them as you make them!

To make the world above I used the lyrics of "Welcome Christmas" from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas!

Happy DIY-ing:)

The greatest gift exchange ever: As Seen On TV

This year the Fernandez clan met up for our annual Christmas celebration. There are a few traditions that have evolved over the years like never being able to celebrate on the actual holiday, boat-loads of sushi, and even more cocktails now that the majority of us are all over the legal age. This Christmas we started what could be one of the best yet....instead of a typical gift exchange we started the first ever "Fernandez As Seen On TV gift swap". And trust me, it was amazing as it sounds.

Now this might sound weird, but shopping for As Seen on TV (ASOTV) gifts was more fun than you can imagine. What should I give? What is the craziest, weirdest thing I can find without offending someone? The Egg Genie? The Mighty Mend it? Perhaps, a Windshield Wonder? As a whole, the entire clan made some great choices.

I was hoping for a Magic Bullet Sytem, the food processor type thing that I have literally put on my Christmas list for the last, oh, 4 years however that was above the price limit. Instead, I received Smooth Away and Shoe Under. Ben was pumped about the Shoe Under now that we can have some real closet space and would not let me trade it in for another gift. Here are some of the great ASOTV's that were swapped around our family.

Because in a world of super-sized food, a regular sized cupcake just doesn't cut it.

This was my contribution to the exchange. Let me tell you, after a few cocktails it is really fun to walk around and see just what you can pick up. It also has a articulated arm for sneaking around corners to steal your favorite relative's Christmas cookies right off their plate.

Who WOULDN'T want this? Right? Right.

Ah, yes. Ben's contribution. How someone can beat up another person and then name and sell something called the "Slap-Chop" is really ironic. Especially when you read the tagline.... "Making America Skinner, One Slap At A Time". Sick and wrong.

And last but not least, the dog snuggie that my dad bought specifically for my cousin's dog, Mr. Butters, even though it was supposed to be a random exchange. I have never seen a dog love a piece of fleece more than Butters who coincidently looks exactly like the dog pictured above, but even cuter if that is even possible.

So there you have it. An epic As Seen on TV success. Not only did we all walk away with weirdly practical gifts- we had a wonderful time together as we opened each ASOTV wonder and marveled at its many expected and alcohol-induced uses.