Crib Bedding Steal!

I don't need any crib bedding, but if you or someone you know does, check out this amazing deal on a 4-piece set. Avon has a pink set and a yellow set from Tiny Tillia on clearance for only $35! I love versatile dot and stripe pieces like the crib sheet and skirt in this set.

You can buy this from my wonderful Avon lady through this link: http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?code&level1_id=300&level2_id=555&pdept_id=557&pf_id=43917&level=3  At this price, there's no telling how long it will last!

Hello out there!

Hi! It's been a long time, but I'm determined to get back on the blogging wagon. There are so many things that have happened lately where I've been googling to find others' experiences, and I want to get back to my original goal of writing blog posts that I would have appreciated finding when I was looking for information on something, plus some cute and fun stuff too.

Violet just turned five, and Gator will be three soon. My babies are getting further and further from the "baby" stage every day.

I've been crocheting a lot lately and finding it a great source of stress relief. Stress was high recently as I prepared to have surgery and get everything in order before I was taken out of commission, including throwing a birthday party at our house days before surgery. I scoured the 'net for information on recovery from a septoplasty and I'll add some of my own to that. I'm finally starting to feel more normal. Nose surgery is not easy when you have kids that keep bringing colds home! I love them, but they are little germ incubators.

Woot-Off!!

I love Woot. I really do. Regular woot, kids.woot, and more. Kids.Woot keeps posting these great deals on Melissa & Doug items, and I love their stuff.

If you've never done a woot-off before, items are listed until they are gone and a new one goes up. If you take too long, it's gone.

Oh, and hello, blog world. I've neglected this so and I'd love to get back to sharing deals, crafty stuff, and more.

USB Pet Rock

This made me smile...as does much of ThinkGeek's stuff.




My poor blog. I'll try not to neglect it so much.

Today only: Butterfly Habitat deal!

If you read my Very Hungry Caterpillar post and wished you had the opportunity to order the butterfly habitat for cheap, hurry on over to Kids.Woot and order one, two, or better yet, three! You can order up to three per account and the shipping/handling is $5 no matter how many you order. The kits are just $6.99 from Woot until they sell out or the day ends, whichever comes first.

There is a $5 s/h fee for the caterpillars when you order them, but you'd have that whether you ordered this kit for $6.99 from Woot or $19.99 elsewhere. If you check out Insect Lore's site, you'll see that it's less expensive to order extra full kits from Woot than order additional sets of butterfly larvae.

I did contact Insect Lore to ask if the habitat was appropriate for preying mantises, and they said it was. We might order a mantis egg sack and watch an army of little green predators emerge!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I recently picked up a copy of  The Very Hungry Caterpillar at Kohls as part of their Kohls Cares for Kids $5 book program. Would you believe I had never read this to my children? They are loving it and so am I. There are lessons about nature and healthy eating and it's a great opportunity to have the children count along with me and identify colors.

I can't wait to see their faces when we watch our own caterpillars become butterflies. We recently received an Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden and need to wait for Ohio to finally warm up to order our caterpillars! I'm looking forward to reusing the butterfly habitat for other insects that we temporarily study before releasing back into the wild.

I ordered my Butterfly Garden through kids.woot, but linked to the same product (for more money) on Amazon since Woot is a deal a day site...one that I dearly love and have ordered far too many things from. I check it regularly for goodies :)

Must...get...crafty!

Various plagues have beset our home and it seems like someone has been sick, to some degree, for almost two months. It's made our schedule extra hectic and meant we had to miss out on some fun with other kids. The only upside to the sickness is that I'm finally updating this blog again, as I snuggle in bed with a sleeping boy who has a horrible cough. I'd rather update my blog and catch up on my blog reading than risk waking him up to get some other things done. I'm debating trying to get up and grab a crochet hook or knitting needles and yarn. 

 

It's still cold in Ohio so maybe I should finish off some of the partially-made hats I've crocheted. Many are variations on the Inner Hooker owl hat pictured at left. It took several attempts to follow the directions well enough to not make the hats come out huge, and they are still pretty roomy. The one at left was a gift, made in Ohio State colors, and after my second attempt was too large I decided it'd just be a baby gift he could wear next winter. 

My crochet stash includes several completed and partially-completed hat bases, eyes that need sewn on, and a few beaks. I've found that the eyes and beak are tedious at times but perfect for the rare times when I sit down to watch TV and don't have something else to work on. I usually do much better with repeating rows of double crochet. Not quite as relaxing as knitting a fairly basic hat pattern, but close. 

There are many sewing projects waiting for me to sit down at my machine, including some simple character pillows for my children. Gator is getting this Buzz Lightyear and Violet has a similar Cinderella waiting for her. I picked them up at Joann Fabrics when they were half price and really thought I'd have them done before Valentine's Day. Then her birthday. Now it's almost April. The few times when I think I would have time to sit and sew or craft, there are so many more pressing things to work on. Cleaning the house for Violet's birthday party. Compiling receipts and expenses for our taxes. Cleaning the house again because it doesn't take long to get it trashed. Organizing. Decluttering. And so on. The goal is to have a play space adjacent to the room where my sewing machine and photo editing/designing desktop mac are, so I can work while the kids play. I think it's time to put other things on the backburner so that playspace is completed and I can work or play while the kids play.

I keep discovering crafty blogs with tutorials for cool projects like this roll-up car caddy. What a wonderful way to tame clutter and package things up for a trip out. I have some ideas to use this for other favorite toys that are small. It will be a perfect use for some of the fabric I kept from worn out clothing that seemed to have good potential for future sewing projects. How wonderful it would be to combine the goals of recycling, creating, and organizing!