ABC Flashcards Giveaway!!

I must be on an ABC kick what with getting the little buddy ready for preschool! Yep, we're just doing a little joy school, so it will be fun to be one of his teachers. We're both pretty excited about that. So I hung up these ABC flashcards to take pictures of them, but they were so fun up on the wall that we've decided to make them a permanent fixture.

So maybe it's mean trickery that these aren't a freebie . . . but I do have them up in my etsy shop! I know my blogs probably mostly just good for freebies, but occasionally I spend a whole lot of time working on something and I feel like it's worth a little more than just free :) Sometimes it's a hard call whether to give something away or sale it. Don't hate me.

Anyway, onto the giveaway. I will be giving away TWO pdf Printable ABC Polka Dot flashcard sets away. These cool ABC's are each different, yet only use red, yellow and blue. The different sized polka dots make the red and yellow, or red and blue, or yellow and blue turn into secondary colors (same idea behind pointilism). Simple and fun fun fun.

Here are the rules:

1. Comment and tell me your favorite letter of the alphabet
2. Get a second "entry" by following me, or telling me you already do.
3. Giveaway will be announced next Thursday, September 1st.

Enjoy!

super guy to the rescue!

The little buddy put in his first request: mom, make me a cape! Way back when my friend Andrea had made some reversible capes and I found that she'd used this tutorial from georgia leah, previously puking pastilles. It is a pretty general tutorial, but pretty great too. It worked perfectly. I used an old green shirt of the hunny's, and a dollar store baby red blanket and some felt I had lying around. I just drew the "long neck" (above) and the "C" by hand.  He patiently waited and didn't take it off for two days once I finished it!

He's still wearing it almost every day (and choking his friends ripping it off their necks . . . ) what can I say? He loves it.
Now he thinks he needs to be a superhero for Halloween. I'm still trying to convince him it would be fun to be Sully (the buddy), Mike (the hunny), Mike's Girlfriend (me), and Boo (the sweetie) from Monsters Inc. for Halloween. I don't think I'm going to win. Have you started thinking about your costumes yet?

Freebie Friday: ABC Squares

Some fun and versatile ABC "squares" for the freebie this friday! (click on the words to go to the download)

Just in time for school, eh? Two pages with a couple double letters- the most common ones.  Here are some fun thoughts on using them:

modge podge on wooden blocks
memory, matching or go fish game
tile them in a large frame

mount them on a chipboard or laminate them
make them into magnets
use them as cupcake toppers
Put them on buckets/ boxes or jars and fill them with things that start with that letter
use them as labels to spell out names, etc . . . 

enjoy!

Parties & Quilts

The little sweetie had a very sweet birthday this last week. I've been a bit busy getting things ready and holding a teething sweetie too. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. Here's a little peek:

I used Dana of Made's shirt dress tutorial as a template for this little birthday dress, but used a pillow case instead of a shirt, and then embroidered the word "one" on the front, and colored it in with colored pencils to make it "pop" a little better.

A butter cream cake with fondant roses . . .

cupcakes with some fun toppers. . .

I cut a little frame out of wrapping paper to make pictures in her high chair a little bit more fun. . .

And I finally finished that quilt that I started before she was born! I'm so excited I actually got it done! Wahoo!  I switched out the backing from the yellow and orange to a pink rose vintage sheet. And then quilted roses in all the white squares. We hadn't picked a name yet when I was working on the top, but I thought the pink roses were more appropriate after naming her :) Anyway, a fun first birthday gift for me, maybe not so much for her ;) The stroller from Grandpa and Grandma was her favorite (and the buddies too:)

Did I use enough emoticons?

ABC Posters Discount & Old Files

Okay,


So here's the deal. I've been getting lots of emails with people wanting my old files-most of which aren't linked up anymore. Here's why: All my old files I hosted through google groups. They've discontinued that service, and so none of the links work. I'm slowly working to re-upload them to scribd and relink them all. Hopefully I will get them done soon. So far I've uploaded all my striped birthday freebies, the dinosaur shapes, and my menu planner. So if you've been wanting a file that isn't working, you can either wait until I can get it uploaded to scribd, or you can email me and I will email you the file! Happy printing!

On to more exciting news:

My latest project, one that I'm very excited about,  my ABC posters that I've added to my shop. I'm still in the designing (aka drawing them free hand on the computer) works, but have finished A-G. Aren't they fun? I'm excited to put some of them up in my own kids rooms. I can see them in a nursery or playroom too! What about to spell out a word? fun fun. Over the next few weeks I will be adding the rest of the alphabet. I'm considering also adding a printed version, comment if you would be interested in that option. It would probably be a little cheaper.

The idea stemmed from wanting to make a funner flashcard set, but there are so many flashcard sets out there, including my own! But OH how I love letters, type and design-the three mixed together just make me want to jump up and down. So, I keep coming back to it. Anyway, in honor of this latest project there will be a 20% off discount code for the next two weeks at my shop. Just type in  ABC0811  in the coupon code box at check out! Happy shopping!

Freebie Friday: Enjoy a Poster!

Do you need a little reminder to stop and smell the roses? I do! I'm finally coming back with a freebie that is really for me: a reminder to enjoy today and stop worrying so much about getting things done. There will always be things to do, but their won't always be two sweet kids who think I'm the best. Some day they will grow up and realize I'm crazy. Gotta enjoy it now!

Get the poster in RED, YELLOW, OR BLUE (ish green).





enjoy!!

Old Stuff

Surprise! I do exist! Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to blogging. The actually moving part was crazy, but unpacking wasn't nearly as bad as I was dreading it to be (last time we moved I felt so overwhelmed I got a dizzy migraine and laid on the couch while my hunny unpacked most of the important stuff. . . I still feel guilty about it). But this time was much much better. Partly because we have a bigger house so we could move the boxes to more rooms. A small pile of boxes in each room is much more doable eh? Anyway, I'm sure you wanted to hear all about that. The real reason I haven't been blogging is that I haven't been doing anything crafty to blog about. Between summer and living close to family again, I really haven't had any time.

BUT, even if when not crafting I'm always up for some old stuff. I've always liked old stuff, but two weeks ago I went to a Relief Society Meeting, our churches women's group, and they were talking about family history and knowing who your ancestors were as people. I've heard it before but it really inspired me to get to know my ancestors as individuals with lives and feelings. One of  the girls talked about how she owns the dining room set that her great grandmother scrimped and saved for over a year to get. I thought it was so cool that it had been handed down to her! SO cool. But alas, I come from a long line of big families and I doubt I'll get anything like that.

 

So fast forward to this weekend we went out to visit my husbands parents and his grandmother. We were sitting there in the assisted living home talking to her and she mentioned this large painting on the wall that a local had painted of the family farm with her husband on his horse. She mentioned she was going to give the painting back to the lady who had painted it because none of her children wanted it (including my husband's mother). I just about jumped out of my seat shouting I wanted it!! Not really, but I was probably a little too eager. I probably came off greedy. Either way she seemed delighted that someone wanted it and I do!

Second cool old thing. I convinced the hunny to stop at the small town thrift store while we were out visiting his grandmother. We were behind schedule and it was exceedingly generous of him to drive around town with the two kids sleeping in the back seat while I ran in to peruse the goods. Not too many, but I did run in to a great stack of old patterns. I don't even usually look for patterns but they practically jumped out at me! So I bought them, and little framed mirror, a ceramic owl (I plan to spray paint black for Halloween) and a vintage sheet. But really I was excited about the patterns. How fun are these?