Blogiversary and Giveaway!

One year ago today I published the very first post on this little blog…I can hardly believe it!

I’m so thankful for all of you who read and follow Diary of a MadMama.

Every time someone comments on, likes, refers, pins, and shares one of my posts; it completely makes my day.

I’m especially grateful for those who decide to feature my blog on their websites. For example, being invited to be one of the competitors on the first season of the Refashion Runway Competition was definitely a huge highlight of the first year…thanks Beth!

But most of all, It has been amazing to meet, connect and share encouragement with readers and fellow bloggers who, although I’ve not met them in person, feel like close friends.

To give you a recap of this past year, here are highlights from some of the most popular posts each month, followed by a celebratory giveaway:

JANUARY 2013:

How To Make an Infinity Scarf in Less Than 30 Minutes

No-Sew Yarn Infinity Scarf Tutorial

I got to spend a day creating with my awesome cousin this week.

Check out what she’s been busy making…

Holy scarves Batman!

Here are some closeups…

49-Cent Friday: Easy No-Sew T-Shirt Refashion

Hi there everyone!

I’ve been doing a lot of canning lately.

My cousin and I have canned zucchini relish, two different kinds of salsa (one being peach salsa), and then we took the peach pits and skins (that otherwise would’ve been thrown out), and used them to make peach jelly.

I’ve had so much fun that I decided to can the leftover half of watermelon that was being neglected in our fridge, by turning it into watermelon jelly. I couldn’t let the rinds go to waste, so I made some pickled watermelon rinds. Then I remembered the frozen peaches and strawberries that I had in my deep freezer so I canned some peach pie filling and strawberry freezer jam.

I just love seeing my pantry fill up with cans of yummy goodness!

My cousin and I are getting together next week to put some more stuff in cans. I’d like to make some spicy salsa next, and maybe some pasta sauce.

I know by now you’re probably thinking  “I thought this post was about refashioning, not canning”, and you’d be right about that.

It’s just that I’ve been so busy in the kitchen, I neglected to do my refashion for this week. 😦

I told my 14-year-old son how bummed I was that I might have to miss my Friday post for the first week since starting the series, and he sweetly offered to do it for me! Can you believe that?

He started out with this decent green t-shirt that I so kindly bought him for 49-cents (of course).

Boring!

There wasn’t really anything wrong with this shirt, and I thought that for 49-cents, it was a shirt that he needed to have, but once I got it home, apparently he thought otherwise.

49-Cent Friday: Scraptastic Braided Headband Refashion

Howdy Folks!

For this week’s refashion I thought about doing something patriotic! (And quick because I’m sure most of us would rather be at the beach, am I right?)

I wanted to use up some scraps along with some old duds that I already had. (I kinda feel like I’m cheating because only one of the items in this refashion cost 49-cents, the rest I already had, but oh well!)

So to start, I grabbed these shirts…

Pretty patriotic ‘eh?

Each of these had a problem of some sort…