First day of Joy School

The Buddy started joy school yesterday. He LOVED it! Couldn't stop talking about it all day. . . "We did singing" . . . "I liked the joy fish!" . . . "I know pokey bear." . . . "I didn't want to stop playing duck duck goose!"  It was so fun to hear him talk about it, especially since we did the first day at our house so I knew what he was talking about. He had a spill of words when his daddy came home and showed him his melted crayon art project. We had so many crayon "crumbs" left over that we did a bunch more after the other kids went home. I thought this one turned out so cool. Don't you think it looks like a bird?

They were really easy to do. We just shaved crayons with a paring knife and then folded a piece of printer paper in half and sprinkled the crayons inside, put a bunch of newsprint on top and melted it with the iron.Then open it up quickly before the crayon dries. It would be fun to do with fall colors in mind as fall decorations. Turn them into garland or place mats or whatever.

Also, quick reminder that Thursday night I will be announcing our giveaway winner! Last chance to enter!

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!!