We love when readers send us cool stuff out of the blue! Abby Stavig got in touch with us this week to share the fab cake she made for her daughter’s birthday. Abby says:

My daughter recently turned two and we had her birthday at Chuck E Cheese so I thought a pizza cake would fit the theme nicely! I had decided I was going to try to make her cake myself this year as a challenge, so I set out to find inspiration. Your site and many others all had great examples of DIY cakes, and I wanted to share my success with you.

I purchased a 16″ round cake pan from Michael’s Crafts and asked my local pizza joint to donate a box and they were happy to oblige. It was SUPER easy to make, and I think it turned out great! Hope you enjoy taking a look!

Abby, we did! Happy birthday to your little one and congrats on a great-looking cake. Readers, you can get Abby’s how-to after the jump, and see more photos right here. Happy Friday! (more…)

When I was a kid, the snap-on hairpiece was the hottest commodity in our LEGO tub. My sister, brother, and I would fight over the premium parts (wheels, windows, flower pots) but I always went for the hairpiece, hands down.

Much development has been afoot since then. Today, a mere 811 pieces stand between this old-school builder and her very own replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and LEGO kits encompass everything from Atlantis to Star Wars. And now they’re conquering new territory in my favorite dimension: board games, which we previewed at the recent International Toy Fair. On March 1, LEGO will launch the first five of 10 games with buildable boards (even dice) and changeable rules so no game is ever the same.

Each product has a different theme and plot behind the play. In Minotaurus, mythology buffs attempt to get heroes to the temple at the center of the labyrinth while avoiding the Minotaur and moving walls to keep other heroes at bay.

Pictionary lovers might enjoy Creationary, which challenges players to build items in four different categories while teammates try to guess the object.

And Harry Potter fans will also be pleased to race around the changing landscape of Hogwarts, collecting homework before their fellow wizards in a game that launches with the second wave, available August 1.

Visit LEGO to learn more about the first five games! Hairpiece not included. — Sarah C.

How committed are you to living green? Would you consider a 100 percent recyclable nursery, with everything made from cardboard? That may take a little getting used to. It also may not be quite as thrifty as you’re expecting — that cardboard cot above? $300. Check out the entire slideshow at LilSugar.

Today is the kickoff of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. If you haven’t participated yet, it’s pretty painless. Download the checklist, then simply watch and count the birds you see for a 15-minute span on at least one of the four days of the count, February 12-15. Last year, more than 94,000 people turned in checklists, giving researchers a better idea of the health of bird populations. (Happy to know I am not alone in my bird love geekdom.) If you’re not sure of the identity of a bird, there are two iPhone/iTouch apps for birding and just enough time left to run to your bookstore and pick up a Peterson’s. Of course, the great thing about the GBBC is that you really don’t need anything other than time and a good view. The GBBC site has a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds page. — Sarah L.

Related:
Woodpeckers knocking on your house? There’s hope

My goal was to spend less than $100 redoing our daughter’s room for her birthday. Since we weren’t replacing the bedding (Grandma made her a beautiful quilt with scraps from her mother-in-law’s quilt bag), the bed, or my college dresser, it seemed more than doable. In the end, I spent closer to $150:

- $80 for three gallons of Tinker Bell and Cabbage Green paint
- $45 for two Daisy drapery panels
- $2.39 for lime green grosgrain ribbon to make new ties for the panel
- $15.72 to redo a rescued chair

My daughter’s favorite part? It’s a tie between the quilt rack from her baby room that I repurposed as a curtain rod/shelf to hold my old Breyer horses, and the “Cinderella” storybook art by Fern Bisel Peat. Although the illustrations deserve to be in better frames, right now I’m sticking to my (revised) budget and using what I have. — Sarah L.

See more photos on Shelterrific’s Facebook page!

Related:
Easy DIY canopy bed
Memory pillow from your child’s sleeper
Big-girl bedroom, tiny budget
Cheap house makeover: the dining room

There are a few necessities I carry around with me during Chicago winters: tissues, an extra pair of gloves, and a deck of playing cards. Go ahead, check any of my purses. The playing cards really are for practical reasons — you never know when you’ll be delayed thanks to an incoming winter storm or a fun, on-the-town sort of night dissolves into a “Let’s just stay in, my eyeballs will freeze if I leave the apartment” sort of night. A good game of cards can pass those blustery hours. My new favorite deck of cards is a souvenir from the wildly successful Tim Burton exhibition currently at MoMA. Each card features a different Burton creature, part adorable and part terrifying. They’re an inexpensive treat at only $5 ($4.50 for members). — Katie D.

When it comes to chocolate, I’m an equal opportunity consumer. I’ll eat it, love it, and justify eating more, every time. But when I find something really special, I have to share it. This week, that something is the community-minded chocolate ganache from John & Kira’s Chocolates. The Philadelphia-based company specializes in artisan chocolate handmade with ingredients sourced from local and family farms. Their signature ganache squares come in unique flavors including bergamot, star anise, lavender honey, and lemongrass. However, my current fave is Garden Mint, with mint they receive through Project Mintpatch, an urban gardening initiative they launched to help children learn more about local farming and business. Items from their Ladybugs & Bee collection might make a cute, alternative Valentine’s Day gift, and I know a few people here at Shelterrific who might fancy a drunken chocolate fig or four. Visit John & Kira’s to order, or follow their community efforts through their blog. — Sarah C.

“The eggs had been cooked in a factory in Minnesota,” Ed Bruske writes, “then shipped frozen in six-pound plastic bags to the District of Columbia. Getting them to the breakfast line where they could be served to the approximately 150 students who participate in the school’s breakfast program was a simple matter of dumping the frozen eggs out of their bags and into stainless pans, then heating them in the kitchen’s commercial steamer.” The excerpt is from grist.org, the second installment in a six-part feature on D.C. school lunches and what “fresh cooked” really means. Bruske describes food that is often pre-cooked and shipped from far away. (Another interesting article from a few years back, this one on attempted reform of school lunches in Berkeley, is available at The New Yorker, but a subscription is required.) Do your kids eat school food? What is it like? — Mary T.

This past Halloween, like every year, my daughters picked out all the Almond Joys and Mounds from their candy score and gladly handed them over to me. So when my mother-in-law invited them to help her make cookies from an old, kid-friendly recipe — one that calls for both coconut and nuts — I figured they’d have fun but turn up their little noses at first taste. I couldn’t have been more wrong! We’ve already made these at home, and my youngest is begging for more. Seems like an old favorite is destined to become our new favorite. — Sarah L.

Sprinkle Cookie Bars

1 stick margarine (this was written “Oleo” in my mother-in-law’s recipe; told you it was old)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
13 1/2 oz. coconut flakes
6 oz. chocolate chips
6 oz. butterscotch chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt margarine in 9″x13″ pan. (I just put the margarine and pan in the oven while it preheats to melt it.) Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the melted margazine, followed by remaining ingredients, sprinkled in layers. Drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool, then cut into 1.5” squares. (It’s like six layers of sugar on top of margarine. Trust me, a small square is plenty. And if not, there’s always seconds.) Store in tightly covered container.

When I was a child, I took an origami class and emerged from it with nothing but paper cuts. I thought my paper crafting days were over until I spotted these bright cardboard critters sitting pretty at a local letterpress shop. Created by artist Junzo Terada, Magical Menagerie, $24.95 from Chronicle Books, is book of 20 punch-out animal sculptures that are constructed by simply fitting the matching slotted pieces together — no scissors, glue, or ornate folding required. The colorful creatures look great on display, and make for a fun activity or unconventional card. — Sarah C.