Birthstone and Flower mandalas- a second option for October

I've had mixed feelings about October's Calendula and Opals mandala since drawing it, but at the time I was facing a deadline and pretty entranced with square mandalas.
Then Spoonflower announced a contest for floral themed WALLPAPER. Imagine that. Wallpaper that you can color. If you're a fan of The Birthstone and Flower series of Mandalas you can get it as wallpaper after I order the proofs. Or if you don't want to wait that long, you can vote for it in the contest and if I get in the top 10 Spoonflower will print it before I finish filling out my next sampler of fabrics to order. Voting will be open on April 24th. The design I submitted has all the flower/stone/month names in the corner, double checked for accuracy and consistent layout, it does not have my URL on it. This is the mockup from the Spoonflower site for how it would look as wallpaper. It's laid out in 4 rows and 3 columns. 
VOTING OPEN NOW!

So I redrew the October mandala to fit better with the rest of them. Click on the image for a larger version and print it to color.

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Coffee? No problem with this stain fighter!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Biz Stain & Odor Eliminator. All opinions are 100% mine.
Stains happen. In my family the most common stain is coffee spills. We brew it strong and dark, and tend to get cups too full. I also like to borrow my husband's white teeshirts during the summer while I'm working in my yard. He can tell which ones, because a lot of the time they will have coffee stains on them.
So that was the big test for Biz Liquid Stain Fighter. Those coffee stains are harder to get out than the dirt, oil and various other stains that happen in our lives. Biz contains more stain fighting ingredients than other brands, combining the enzymes to break down protein stains like milk, detergents for dirt and normal soiling, peroxide that can tackle things tomato based stains and whiteners to brighten colors and whiten whites. Biz can be used directly on tough stains as a pretreater, and used in a normal load of laundry with your detergent as a booster that will get laundry cleaner and smelling good.

Coffee with cream is a milk and coffee stain, and needs enzymes and peroxide. I consider "mostly gone" a victory with coffee stains, so delibrately staining a shirt was an act of faith.
Pretreating is easy. Just rinse the stain with warm water, and work in Biz straight from the bottle. Rub it well.

It has a nice scent, but I still wasn't sure if it would get out the coffee. I also used it as a booster in all my loads of laundry.
Washed as normal, and check it out!

I was in shock. Washing it with hot water after pre-treating, I would have been certain I pulled out the wrong shirt, except there was only one white teeshirt in that load.
Need to know where to buy Biz? You can also save $1 on Biz.

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Stars Mandala to color

This mandala came to me just as I was going to sleep a couple nights ago, then I completely forgot it until yesterday. I hope you enjoy it!

Click on the images below for larger versions of the mandala to print and color.

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Book Review- The Official DC Super Hero Cookbook

BAM! POW! CRASH!

Matthew Mead is a designer, crafter and theme cookbook writer with a great eye. You expect a book from him to be attractive with good photos and ideas, and this is a great example.

Done being all grown up now. It's DC SUPER HEROES! It's old school. None of this New 52 stuff, none of the angst of the 90s, it's Dick Grayson's Robin in green shorts with elf boots, it's the heroes you remember from Super Friends on Saturday mornings if your my age. It's retro and it's awesome.  Of course, I'm biased. I grew up on DC comics.

So what does my daughter say about the look? She's Batman the Animated Series, she's Nightwing and all about the modern comics.  She likes it, she grabbed this as soon as it arrived and gave it her seal of approval.

See? Right there. Her seal of approval.

So it looks great. The bright colors and layout are fantastic and I'm totally digging the retro thing. The whole book is in full color with tons of super hero goodness. So now about the recipes.

I have a fairly good collection of children's cookbooks, and what I look for is easy to prepare food, healthy choices, good safety tips, foods that will appeal to kids, and something that will teach them how to follow recipes and learn new skills. 

This is well done in that respect too, the recipes are rated by difficulty level, and that's explained in the introduction. So a from scratch pudding is rated 3 stars because it involves more skill. The pudding is Plastic Man's Pudding and one of my daughter's favorite recipes in the book because it's white chocolate and vanilla decorated to suit Plastic Man. The Kapow Punch is 1 star because it's very simple to make, but the glasses are cleverly masked to look like the Boy Wonder and the Caped Crusader. 

Healthy entrees include things like Seven Seas Saute which is a mix that grown ups will enjoy too, and features a nice amount of vegetables. The bright Plastic Man fettuccine has peppers for color and a fun, play with your food texture.

There are a lot of recipes for drinks and desserts, but also enough meal recipes to balance it out.

Where this book absolutely shines is in the decorating ideas. In the back of the book are card stock figures and stencils to use to decorate the food, and a lot of recipes that use food- like the Superman burger on the cover, or things like duct tape to create a super hero theme.

The heroes include all the classics, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and the Flash and some that you need to be more serious fan to know like Plasticman, Atom and Firestorm.

Do I recommend this? Absolutely. It's one of the best themed cookbooks I've ever seen, even when I put aside my total comic book love and consider the recipes. 

Full disclosure- I got a copy of this cookbook to review at no cost. This review reflects my honest opinion of the book.

Fuller disclosure- My family is full of comic book fans with a strong preference for DC. We can spend hours talking your ear off about the personalities of the different Robins, or why Aquaman is actually awesome, and you never want to get us started on Batman because we can talk about him forever. I have Wonder Woman sneakers and my husband has a huge collection of super hero comic shirts. 

Want this book right now? You can get it from Amazon using my affiliate link and help support this site.

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