Blog Posts by Julie Zwillich
With spring planting season coming up, I wanted to get a head-start with a gardening project that I could do with the kids indoors or out, even if the garden wasn't ready yet. Gardening expert Shirley Bovshow was on hand to help us make a great self-watering planter out of an old soda bottle. You can check out some of Shirley's other ideas on her blog (edenmakersblog.com).
We used some pansies that we bought as transplants from a garden center, but you can plant seeds if you want - pansies, marigolds, maybe even some herbs or even some smaller vegetable plants! It's a great way for the kids to watch something grow and learn how to care for plants. They can even decorate the outside of the planters, too!
Valentine's Day is coming up, so I had gift-wrapping expert Wanda Wen show me a great craft for the kids to make as gifts: a paper flower. It's simpler than it looks.
Wanda's the author of "The Art of Gift Wrapping" and the owner of a paper store called Soolip in West Hollywood, CA. The flowers she helped me make are beautiful - they could work as an activity for either kids or moms! I'm thinking of using one as a gift-topper for a baby shower gift.
To make Wanda's flowers, you'll need square-cut paper, double-stick tape, some tissue paper and a twig or pipe cleaner for a stem. That's it! You can even get creative with the paper: brown paper bags can work great, and the kids can even decorate their own paper w/ paints -- potato printing, perhaps?
If you want to get more creative ideas from Wanda, you can check out her blog at http://soolip.blogspot.com
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Road trips can either be a fun family adventure or a long, rough ride with the kids. I prefer the first option, so I turned to Yahoo! Upgrade Your Life host Becky Worley for her combination of tech expertise and plain old mom ingenuity.
She showed me how to pack the car for success, plan the perfect route and then keep the kids happy on the road. From GPS tips and kid-friendly tech tools to fun products like the Trunki ride-on suitcase, Becky had us covered.
Guacamole with banana, great garlicky chicken wings, and homemade cheese puffs. Sounds great, right? It's coming up to the end of football season, and I may not be the biggest Superbowl fan, but I totally love a great Superbowl party....and great party food!
I was looking for things that would keep both the grownups and the kids at my party happy. Luckily, chef Ludo Lefebvre (www.ludolefebvre.com) was there to help me out. The Top Chef: Masters alum recently invited me into his home to show me how to make some great game day party food.
Ludo is the culinary genius behind Los Angeles' LudoBites pop-up restaurants (he just opened LudoBites 8) and was named to Time Magazine's list of "Chefs of the Future" in 2010. His picks for Superbowl or game day recipes are "foods you can eat in front of the TV", all with a French twist.
Check out the full recipes below and watch Ludo show me how to cook it all above:
GUACAMOLE WITH BANANA
Ingredients:
3 avocados
1 banana
2 limes
2 handfuls
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Smart tips for organizing and sharing your family photo library in the digital age.
