Project Spectrum is back!

This time there will be a few colors available for whatever project you will be planning for two months at a time. For February and March the colors are blue, white and gray. Here is the Flickr group and also the group Flickr discuss page.

I know I am going to make another pair of fingerless gloves for myself and probably a pair for my daughter. I also want to make a couple of blankets for nephews and so blue, white and gray will work perfect for those!

My friend Nicole was one of three people who put together a Kids Activity Calendar. Click here for a free lesson on the Letter “A”.

I am loving this! My son is three years old and earlier this month I started doing more with him with school activities. I think he was a little jealous of Alice “doing school” and so he basically insisted on starting preschool. He’s doing great for his age. He knows a good majority of the basics - colors, shapes, alphabet, counting - so I’m now starting to build on that. We worked with numbers today and he stops counting at 14. LOL And probably a third of the time he stops at “R” and says “now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you sing with me” and smiles.

If you want to buy the full kids calendar, click here. The website will tell you more but here is what is included:

* Introduction of a new letter each week
* Weekly coloring sheets and printable worksheets
* Fun weekly audio about the letter of the week
* Crafts, Activities And Snack Ideas
* Parent Guide

That was me that highlighted the crafts. What kid doesn’t love doing crafts? The calendar is at an ‘early bird’ price of $29.97, which comes down to $1.15 per letter. That is a lot of stuff for $1.15 per letter!

The kids are both up late tonight because Daddy is working until about 1AM. When that happens I don’t make them go to bed until 11. Geez we have a crazy schedule right? LOL But we have plans, we need to work on either the bookmarks we are making or our Valentine’s Day cards.

Technorati Tags: Kids Activity Calendar, kids calendar, crafts

Pun Completely Intended!!

Look at my fun, super cool, awesome, so shiny and pretty new sewing machine!!!

Way back in October my sewing machine died. I only found one repair shop in the area though I admit I only looked in the yellow pages. And it was farther into town then I typically go, so I’ve never made it there.

But Chris needed his uniforms fixed and I always sew the patches on. This saves a little bit of money but more importantly, I am MUCH faster then the tailor. Like I can get a uniform done in maybe a half hour, but the tailor always quotes at 10 days to 2 weeks. So we bought the Euro Pro Shark Intelli Sew (from Target! $50 off the regular price!) because it’s been so long, because he needed the uniforms, because I just needed a new one! The other night I got the machine out, read a few pages about the basics and within probably 10-15 minutes I was sewing.

I. Love. This. Machine. Sure I have some of that “this is my new toy and wow it’s so pretty and shiny” going on. And at first I was just floored at how cool it looked LOL and then all the hidden stuff. Case in point, the top:

Everything is hidden away! So the top of the machine is nice and smooth. The bobbin winder works well and the display has a picture of a bobbin being wound when it is working. LOL There is also a list of every stitch available and a graphic to show how to thread the machine.

There are like a million fee that this came with. Okay, not a million, maybe 12? 17? I don’t remember. I don’t even know what more then half of them are for! I only ever used the regular all-purpose foot (or maybe the walking one?) on my old machine. This compartment also has the tools that come with the machine - screwdriver, little brush, a few extra bobbins, etc.

Now this is cool. See that red? That’s a package of needles that I bought and they are in the secret compartment! Or at least I think it is a secret. LOL And over to the left, see that box? That is … I think it’s another foot of some kind. Anyway, it came stashed in that other compartment! How cool is that! And last but not least, see that indent that looks like a thumb? You can lift up the top compartment and there is another stash of stuff under that! It had another bobbin (three or four came with it) plus the thing that holds the thread (wow, don’t you love my technical wording?) in place on the top of the machine.

The led display is very cool. The light near the needle is very bright and florscent and reflective. Also the foot that it came with (all purpose? walking? Sheesh, I really should learn the terms!) isn’t exactly like the foot on my old machine so it took me a bit to get used to. I just mean - you know when you are sewing, and you can see down the foot to the needle, and that helps you keep everything lined up? This one has a that - but also has a small what looks like a ball of metal - it’s attached and supposed to be there, but I don’t know what else to compare it to - and that ball is what the needle is lined up with.

But the sewing - wow. Fast and easy. Maybe my old machine was just slowly breaking but this one was so great. And it has the fun feature of having a start/stop button! I used that for half of it and then the foot pedal for the other half of the sewing. You can set the speed so that was nice.

Ah, so cool! I really like this machine and can’t wait to figure out when I will start my block a day so I can use it more often.

I love coupons. I can’t wait for every Sunday so when the paper comes I get to look at Michael’s and AC Moore and see if there is something I have to have. And they always have that 40% off coupon. Of course, I usually buy stuff that is on sale so I have rarely actually used the coupon!

I get JoAnn’s coupons over email still - even though we don’t have a JoAnn’s here. I got one just this morning about the home sale they are having. What did I do, email the coupon to my Mom. LOL She is going to buy an Ott light - have you seen those? They look so awesome! They are bright and wonderful! And in some stores you can even just get Ott bulbs - I am so going to replace my sewing machine light. It is very floresent and almost reflective so I can’t see the sewing perfectly like I need to. It’s very annoying to look at in that way that almost hurts your eyes. I’m going to just use a coupon code and order one from Joanns Online. I haven’t found them in AC Moore here.

I usually have really good self control - I can take that coupon and just buy one thing and use that coupon on it. I really really want a crafting table - they sell modular kits to make a table, shelving, drawers, etc at AC Moore and at Target. My idea has been to use the 40% off coupons and just buy one section at a time. LOL I think it’s a great idea! Besides the only Target coupon I’ve ever found was for free shipping.

I’m mentioned it briefly but I haven’t been all that creative lately. As in for the past couple of months. I’m not sure what was going on, but I just couldn’t do it. My first tackle it Tuesday rocked - save for how long it took to finish up and then post pictures - and now my space is entirely cleaned up (save for some steam cleaning that needs to be done!) and organized. I feel so much better in here! And that inspired me to do a few things around the house in relation to this room.

Which in turn did a few things ~ for one, inspired me to be creative again. I’m merely looking at a stamp set and seeing the card in my mind. I’m seeing material and seeing what a blanket would look like. Of course, there is always the problem of so many ideas and projects - and just not enough time.

It also made me realize what I want to do to the house. Moving the dresser out of the bathroom downstairs really changed how the bathroom looks. We’ve lived here for a year and have yet to paint and I just recently hung pictures. I think I’m afraid to do too much to the house - we’ll just have to leave anyway.

But now I see what color I want the bathrooms to be, and that I could really use a crafting area (as in desk or table). Moving around so often really gets depressing. I start to think okay we could be here for just another year - is buying furniture that may or may not fit at a new place really worth it? We haven’t bought hardly any furniture since we’ve been here - this house is twice the size of our last. Our reasoning is if we can get back to our last house (and we really hope we can!!!), what would we do with all the “extra” furniture we’ve come to own?

Ah, I suppose I shouldn’t worry about when or if we will move again and just enjoy my space. And the creativity that seems to be bursting out.