Kiwi Crates

As a full-time-work-outside-the-home mom, I always feel as if I have to make those precious moments with my son count. I commute to work so I typically get home around 5pm.  Dinner is at 6:30pm and bedtime is between 7:30-8:00pm. That doesn't leave a lot of time for quality moments.  I love to spend that time together doing crafts or activities or reading books. On days when I am particularly tired, it's hard to come up with things to do.  That is why I love Kiwi Crates. I just started subscribing to this service before Christmas.  Each month, a box is delivered to our door that has a particular theme and two activities.   Our last two crates focused on Space and the Ocean.    Noodlebug and I absolutely LOVED the Space activity where you make your own rockets and launch them off a straw. We had contest to see who could launch their rockets farthest down the hall.

Here is a sample activity from the Color crate:

The activities can focus on art, creative play or science activities.  The best part is that the crate contains just about everything you could possibly need for each activity down to the colored pencils and scissors. So, no running around trying to gather materials! I can just open the box and we can get to work!

At $19.95 a month, it may seem like quite an expense but I have to tell you the activities are truly quality experiences and having all the materials at your fingertips saves time and money. No going out and buying a giant bag of pipe cleaners when you only need two for the activity.   What really sold me was the fact they won a MAKER FAIRE Educator's Award.  I haven't been disappointed so far!

Can't wait to see what this month's box will bring!

Read more about Kiwi Crates and see sample boxes here.

(The opinions in this review are all my own. 
 If you sign up using my link, I will get a $10 credit
so Noodlebug and I can enjoy more quality time together with Kiwi Crates!)

Peculiar Valentines

For fans of the book MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN there is a special Valentine's treat!

If you are a little late with your valentines, go here to find some really fun and quirky valentines based on photographs from the book.  You can send them electronically or print them out.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Valentine's Eve

For some time now, I have wanted to do a Valentine's version of an advent calendar and also a little Valentine's mailbox that would have little treats for Noodlebug in the two weeks leading up to Valentine's Day.

It still hasn't happened.

Maybe next year.

I did manage to make homemade cards for my husband and my mother. Noodle has a special Hallmark Toy Story card with 3D glasses waiting for him. I also managed to put together two little flipbooks for my two best local friends filled with all the things I love about them. And I made six handmade Valentines to donate to our local Meals on Wheels program to be delivered to local seniors on Valentine's Day.  Wish I could have done more.  I also had Noodlebug help me finish his TOAD-ally awesome Valentines for tomorrow.

Didn't get the house decorated.  Didn't get my Valentine's crafting goals done. But I hope the things I did get done will show my loved ones will know how much I love them.

Create Club Recap

One of the things I love about getting together with the girls for a crafty afternoon is the fact that no matter what project we are working on everyone comes up with something different!

Since this was our first meeting, I made little notebooks for everyone and included a Mary Engelbreit pen:

sideways photo!!!

We made journals from old books that I fished out the recycle bin at work.  

Carmen's book

Kim's book

Danielle's Book

Tina's Book

I hope we can all get together soon for another project!

Make a Muppet Face (tutorial)

This isn't really a formal tutorial.  It's more of an easy play idea I wanted to pass on.

I took my 3.5 yr old to see THE MUPPETS when it came out and he really enjoyed it. (although probably not as much as I did)  He is already a big Sesame Street fan.  I have always loved the Muppets because they are all shapes and sizes.  There isn't really ethnicity about them. They are all different shapes and sizes and colors. It's wonderful!  I love their diversity. 


I thought it would be a fun activity for my son to mix and match his own Muppet faces.  I cut up a cardboard box and covered some square pieces with black felt using a glue gun. I then cut out 4-5 typical Muppet face shapes and glued them onto the boards.  I then covered one large piece of cardboard with black felt that would be the holder for all of the features.  Finally, I cut out an array of Muppet features.  Eyes. Noses.  Hair.  Eyebrows. Glasses. Anything I could think of.  I ended up drawing the mouths onto the faces.  I may make some interchangeable mouths in the future.

Here are some sample faces he came up with:

I based this one on Bert but he has endless options:

I have been pleasantly surprised at how occupied this activity keeps my son.  He really enjoys making the faces although he seems really concerned about making them look exactly like his Sesame Street friends.  The best part is that you can make this using materials you most likely already have on hand.  The possibilities are endless!

Team Ashley Auction

I have mentioned Lil Blue Boo many times on my blog.  I absolutely love Ashley. She makes me laugh every single time I read her blog.  Ashley is fighting a very difficult and invasive kind of cancer right now. The amazing thing about her is that she maintains her sense of humor and hope and works very hard to help the people around her. Every time I get a case of the "woe is mes," I head over to Ashley's blog to remind myself how good I have it and how blessed I am. If I had an ounce of Ashley's hope, joy and sense of humor, I would be a very lucky woman indeed.

Some of Ashley's friends will be putting on an auction to help raise money to cover Ashey's medical bills.  In spite of the profound and difficult treatments she is going through, Ashley has fought to keep her online store open not only to earn money but also to keep her employees employed in jobs they so greatly need. A little extra money would take some of the pressure off so she can focus on healing.

I have gotten so much out of Ashley's story, creative inspiration and daily dose of humor that I want to give back.

Read more about her story and the auction here.  I'll be there.  How about you?

GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away a new edition of the KAMA SUTRA (just in time for Valentine's Day!) on my book blog.  If you thought this was a dirty book filled with erotica....think again.  The KAMA SUTRA is an often humorous historical work that looks at right and proper conduct in love and relationships.

Find information on the giveaway here.

(This book is text only.)

Create Club

(I chose the chicks because Petaluma is known for its chickens)

Some of my friends are naturally crafty. My friend Monique does everything from mixed media to knitting. My friend Danielle is a wonderful quilter.  My friend Kim is also a very talented multi-crafter. 

Some of my friends come VERY reluctantly to the worktable.

I believe that everyone needs time to do something creative.  It can be extremely freeing and relaxing. 

So, I decided to reinstitute our crafty get-togethers here in Petaluma. 

Our first meeting of the newly minted CREATE CLUB will happen this weekend.  I work in a library and we often have to discard and recycle books that are too beat up or out of date. I have been fishing some of the older hardcover ones out of the bin in order to repurpose them as journals.  So, this weekend we will be pulling apart old dusty books in order to turn them into new lovely journals.  The perfect craft to kick off the new year, don't you think?

Check back here for photos after the weekend!

Poster Girl

 

It's coming back!!!  Don't you want to come to Sonoma County this Fall and get your craft on?

Registration opens soon!   Go here for details.

Life Chronicles and a Secret

I have been addicted to journal-making lately.  In Jeanne Oliver's course that I have been taking, the first week focused on making journals from everything from vintage books to catalogs.  I haven't made any yet but I am going to. 

In the Brave Girls Club classes, you always make some type of book or journal. I have about four now in various states of completion.

I have a weekly Life Journal we are working on in Stephanie Ackerman's class where we get weekly prompts to work on.

THE HAPPINESS PROJECT encouraged me to write something down every day. I think I often feel I have to write down grandiose thoughts on each day and this prevents me from doing anything at all. I grabbed an inexpensive journal at Michael's recently and have made it a point to jot down a few sentences every day. I don't beat myself up if I miss a day or two. I try to pick out a few interesting things about the day or somethign funny Noodlebug said or did.

Journals everywhere!!!
I think this new obsession is growing out of my new biggest fear.



(deep breath)



Every since Noodlebug was born three and a half years ago, I have developed a fear of dying.  I need to be clear right now. I am not afraid of death in and of itself.  First of all, I am a Christian. (a Lutheran if that matters)  We are promised eternal life in Christ.  And I'm betting all my chips on that being true.  I hope and pray to be reunited someday with loved ones that have gone before me.   And even if I am wrong, I don't remember my life before I was born so I don't think there is much to fear about passing to the other side.

What I am afraid of is leaving behind my loved ones.  I am most afraid of something happening to me before Noodlebug is grown. I want my child to grow up with a mother.  There are things that only I can give him.

Lately, inspiring women with cancer have been crossing my path.  Especially Ashley of Lil Blue Boo who makes me laugh every single day when I read her blog and reminds me (again!!!) not to take anything in my life for granted. And to "choose joy" every single day.   I also watched this video today which got me thinking about a lot of things in my spiritual life. God is definitely trying to get my attention.

I think part of my fascination with journals lately has been a deep-seated need to chronicle who I am.  You never know when your time is up. It could be tomorrow. It could be 20 years from now.  I would like to leave these journals for my loved ones so that they have a record of who I was and what I believed. 

Hopefully, they won't need them for about fifty years or so. But they will be there.  Just in case.