Today, I celebrated with 400 other people as we observed the grand opening of the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. It was amazing to see the energy, enthusiasm and excitement about building our business community through an "incubator" style approach. Having resources that help business owners is one of the ingredients that will aid in the success of the entrepreneurs. With folks like TechColumbus' Rick Coplin and Small Business Development Centers' Mike Bowers businesses have greater opportunity for success.

Some photos of the event and ribbon cutting can be found here. Photos

Another great review of the blog can be found in Rick Coplin's blog.

For the owner that works from their home, they can also enjoy jellies at the DEC. Once a month free co-working is available in a common space, along with free wi-fi and food. We currently have about 40 people scheduled to attend the first jelly. Will you be one of them?

Saving energy

We recently got our gas bill. Wow. It was the highest bill ever. I decided I had to do something about it. Even though I have this problem with always being cold, even in summer, I knew I had to lower the thermostat again. After thinking through how many times the kids run around the house in shorts and tank tops in the dead of winter, I decided to take her down by 4 more degrees. Now, our house temperature is regularly running at 63 degrees and oddly, the kids are still running around in shorts and tank tops while I am wearing two fleeces and a long-sleeved shirt, hiding under a blanket. I'm anxious to see how much money we'll save. The only difference this month is the kids sometimes notice that it is colder and they sometimes mention it, but they still dress like natives of indigenous islands.

This slight change in the internal climate at our house makes me think of the sleeping habits of a dear friend who lives in Connecticut. His family sleeps, not kidding you, with the windows open in the dead of winter. My kids and I went to visit them one time years ago. It was the most miserable experience of my lifetime. It was like camping in the cold. While I will never understand their odd sleeping habits, many people probably scratch their head knowing that I sleep with a fan on. Even, with the white noise of the fan on high, I can differentiate all of the house noises, for instance, when my husband opens the door to let the dog out at 6 a.m. or when one of the kids is in the kitchen locating a bowl in the cabinet, or the swing of the pantry door opening for an early morning snack. I hear it all. I probably should learn to sleep without the fan, because ultimately that would save the planet and my electric bill too, but I just don't think I would be bearable after a restless night without my white noise. In the meantime, I will look for other ways to make sacrifices to be energy efficient and save money.

What are some of the ways that you have saved energy for your family? Please feel free to leave a comment.

testing out ping.fm for igoogle.

Ring Your New Year in Healthy Style

It's a new year. What are you doing to keep your body in great shape? Here are some tips:

Walk up and down stairs for two minutes, whenever you can. If you work in an office, take a break and take the stairs!

Use online magazines to get exercise tips (see some below).

Look up your food choices before you go out to a restaurant. It's amazing how just a few well-planned choices will save you many calories. http://www.dietfacts.com/fastfood.asp

Walk your dog andextra walk each day. You will both benefit.

On long office conference calls? Stand behind your chair or desk and do some squats, or just stand up. You will burn many more calories this way.

Keep Cliff bars in your car. They don't melt like other bars and are a great snack to beat the craving.

Websites to check out:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/
http://www.prevention.com/cda/homepage.do
http://www.health.com/health/
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/

Fondue or FunDo

Sometimes the best traditions start when you just try something new. And, we love to try new and interesting things at our house. Years ago, I started a "party" tradition with the kids of having FunDo night, our version of fondue. Fondue provides an evening of fun, yum and lots of friends.

Years ago, we started out using the ceramic fondue pots with little burners or candles underneath. Our FunDo has gotten more sophisticated, though, so we invested in electric pots to keep things warm, and giving us more time to spend with guests. Typically, we do a three course fondue event including several cheese sauces, a stock broth for meats and seafood, and two different types of chocolate for dessert.

Preparation takes a little time, but it's worth it! We start the day before and cut up all the vegetables that we will dip and store them in the fridge. Our choices include things like carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, red potatoes, mushrooms, and especially apples (but cut those up the day of). We also do some dessert prep by finding things we would love with chocolate and getting them ready. Some of our yummy choices include marshmallows, pineapple, strawberries, bananas (cut the same day), rice krispie treats, chocolate brownies, cookies, wafers, anything that would taste good in chocolate.

The day of the event, I prepare a big crock pot of stock broth. I've tried many different types, but tend to like a beef based broth with a bit of soy, garlic, onions, green onion and lots and lots of seasonings. Using the crock pot when you are serving many folks allows the broth to be hot, tasty and ready to refill an empty pot at a moment's notice.

Cut up your meat and put it on big platters. Great choices include a nice steak, chicken breast, shrimp (pre-cooked is better with kids), scallops, fish, and lobster. Often, I will season part of the beef and part of the chicken with rubs to pre-flavor them for more variety.

Once the food is ready, you need to focus on making the cheese fondue. I have made them from scratch, before, but typically like to start with what I call a starter fondue cheese, a swiss variety, and create my own from there. You can buy packets of fondue starter cheese at most grocery stores. Typically, they can be found with the gourmet chese and it may require you asking someone to find the small boxes. Prepare your cheeses ahead of time (shredding them) so you can make the fondue quickly. I try various ingredients in my sauces from wine, beer, nutmeg, finely chopped pecans, garlic and many different spices. Try a spicy variety by adding crushed red pepper, cumin, tarragon, a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce and some garlic. Complete the sauce by adding some pepper jack cheese. Or how about making a sweeter variety using a reisling wine, nutmeg, tarragon, and mozarella?

Fondue night is a great way to have a long engaging evening of fun, conversation and interaction with your family and any guests. When done well, it easily can last two to three hours depending on the number of receipes you use and the number of courses. Our girls love it and often beg for a FunDo party. And, if you don't really want to make it yourself, just check out a restaurant like the Melting Pot where you can enjoy the pleasure without all the work.

For fondue help check out these sites:

Recipegal.com

Wikipedia

Recipe Goldmine

Find electric fondue pots at Target where we got ours.

Nested Christmas Presents Bring Oodles of Joy

This year, I made a fun little "nested" Christmas present for each of my kids. The concept is to wrap things in progressively bigger boxes. The presents can get progressively bigger too if you like. I put a card on the outside with a gift card for i-tunes or the Gamestop and inside a variety of gifts. One layer included a bunch of personally selected trinkets for each kid, such as small necklaces, stickers, hairbands. Another layer included McDonald's gift certificates. Inside that layer was another box holding movie cards and movie candy. Yet another box has cash inside. So, if you are thinking about something interesting this year for Christmas, try nesting interesting gifts together.

Meaningful Gift Giving

Hello fellow readers.

My name is Amjed Qamar and I am the author of the new book, Beneath My Mother's Feet, which was published this summer by Simon & Schuster. You may have heard of it, as Sandy has been a huge fan and supporter.

Sandy added me as an author to post on My Fabulous Home. On occassion, the urge to write beyond literary fiction becomes overwhelming so I am pleased to have this forum to share and explore. So thank you Sandy, and onward!

I found a fabulous mix of gift giving ideas from a quirky place I wanted to share. It is an intriguing selection of ideas which might be useful right about now.

The list is called Christmas Spirit 2.2, Ungrinchy Ideas for 2008. There are over sixty ideas in five different categories including Crafts, Entertaining, Cards, Gifts & Shopping, and Meaningful Ideas. I wanted to share this because it is so comprehensive, easy on the budget, and meaningful. Not to mention that the blogger himself is rather creative with an edge.

I urge you to take a look. I found several ideas here that even the kids might enjoy sharing with teachers and friends, especially as we all try to stretch that dollar.

Enjoy!

Roses that will "leave" you smiling

Believe it or not, to coin a Ripley's Phrase, these roses are really leaves. I realize you may not have too many leaves lying around your yard now that November has passed, but file this away as an interesting craft to try yourself or with kids. Check out the web link for step-by-step instructions to turn your leaves into something more than compost!

http://haha.nu/creative/how-to-make-roses-from-maple-leaves/

Artsy Fruit & Veggie Displays

Thinking about trying something fun with your table next time you have guests? Checkout this great website on carving fruits and vegetables. Make a lovely display for your friends to marvel over. http://www.mosspink.com/veggies.html

Sewing Matters

My daughter’s friend asked to borrow my Kenmore sewing machine today for a sewing class at CCAD. Shannon is exploring the skills associated with becoming a clothing designer to decide what she wants to do when she grows up. My sewing machine is 23 years old. I bought it when I was a senior in high school from Sears, even before I bought my first car. That gives you some idea of how significant that purchase was at that point in my life.

When I was in middle and high school, I took 6 years of home economics where sewing was taught. While, home economics is not a requirement at my kids’ school in suburban Columbus, I grew up in a rural farming community in Ohio, where it was viewed as a necessity. Little known fact and a bit funny to tell people today, is that I was the president of Future Homemakers of America and member for 4 years. I also was the Future Farmers of America’s “Queen” at my school. So, you can imagine that I was involved in the things that seemed to matter to my community, where the focus was on being handy.

With today’s heavy spotlight on technology and social media, I wonder how many kids today learn some of the basic skills of life, like sewing and gardening. I feel that these skills have been invaluable to me during my lifetime as a creative type and eventually owning an interior decorating business. I’ve sewn everything from my own clothes, to Halloween costumes for my kids and even window treatments for my home. I don’t consider myself an excellent sewer or even someone who does it often. I’m more of a convenience sewer for when I can’t find what I want.

My twelve year-old daughter, Madison, recently asked out of the blue if I could teach her to make a dress. We have finished the preliminary steps of buying, reading directions, preparing fabric and cutting out pieces. We are now ready to start the sewing. I’m delighted that she is exploring this as a sideline craft to her hobby of incessant reading. I value raising independent, well-rounded kids who are not afraid to take a risk and try something, regardless for potential to fail.

So, with all this being said, when you are thinking about what activity to engage in with a child, consider doing projects that create a basic life-skill for the benefits of handiness, hobby and learning to take a risk.

Some interesting sites on sewing:

Sears Sewing Machines

Teaching Children to Sew

Free Sewing Patterns

Butterick Patterns

McCalls Patterns

Simplicity Patterns

Threads Magazine

Turkey Traditions

Soon, I will be sharing my thankfulness with family members like many of you. This year we will have members from both my husband’s and my family gathering at the table. We usually have 20 or more people, bringing the noise and activity level up.

I love Thanksgiving and the joy of being together with family. I love it more than Christmas. For me, Thanksgiving maintains a preciousness free from much of the commercialism, expectations for gifting and harried schedules that black Friday brings upon on.

For years, I have been the “noodle maker” in the family, creating egg noodles from scratch and making a crock pot overflowing of a chicken dumpling noodle recipe. It is a 3 day process to make and hang the noodles up to dry. Various family members call weeks in advance to ask if I will be making the noodles in line with tradition. Their mouths start watering the moment they think about the dish. The family doesn’t know it, but one year I cheated. I bought cans of chicken and noodles because I did not want to let them down and I did not have time to make them. I seasoned up the canned goods with flour, more chicken and lots of spices. My family never knew. My kids and I smirked and holding back laughter every time someone commented on how good they were.

Every year we have had a gravy issue for as long as I can remember. Apparently none of my siblings or spouses learned how to effectively make good gravy. One year someone put powdered sugar in the gravy amidst the madness of too many cooks in the kitchen. Another year, the gravy was so lumpy we could do nothing but make fun of it. And then there was the year we got the gravy "just" right and my nephew dumped it all over the carpet while carrying to the table. Last year we just bought the gravy in a jar. Ahh, some things create a different kind of tradition to look forward to.

In preparation for the big day, the girls and I gather in the kitchen and whip up a bakery’s worth of products to serve for dessert. We make cherry and pumpkin pies, brownie and cake recipes and add in a few specialties like pumpkin rolls. We always have a table or two dedicated to desserts. We usually eat the desserts in “phase 2” of our turkey feast after we've made room for more.

Some families take naps, watch a movie or watch a game after their turkey meal. My siblings are pretty active adults and we often will head down to the basketball court near our home and engage aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews in a rowdy game. Or if the weather does not cooperate, we engage in lively board games full of lots of smack talk. This year, I am predicting a rock band tournament in the basement lounge. I can hear the squeals of “Roxanne” now.

My family is also goofy and growing up with five siblings, we learned to entertain ourselves with very little. So lots of silly play happens when we get together at Thanksgiving. Last year we made up a song and sang it rappin’ battle style to my mother. It was our very own version of “I’m getting nuttin’ for Christmas” full of lots of funny statements about our behavior as children. Verses included lines like, "I pushed Brian down the stairs, accidently cut his hair, dressed him up to be a girl, broke his collarbone with a twirl...Oh, I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas...." Of course all these things were mostly accidents! It was pure comedy as each kid one-upped the other.

Whatever your Thanksgiving traditions and plans hold, I hope that you will infuse the joy of thankfulness into everything you do.

Peace out,

Sandy

Got Time?

Today I used up one hour changing all the clocks in my entire house for daylight savings time. If I did the same in the spring, then perhaps I spent more time changing clocks then saving time.