Via one blog to another and then on to Teresa’s blog

When my Mom came to visit she brought the kids quilts she made for them. I’m not sure when she started collecting the fabric for them but she collected various flower fabrics for Alice’s quilt and ocean fabrics for Jake’s. She got them done and quilted and they are now here and the kids have been using them every day.

Alice’s Flower Quilt

Jake’s Ocean Quilt

I kind of went crazy with the watermarks, but that’s okay! Aren’t they beautiful? My Mom is so talented!

Mom’s Radio Network is having a contest to share our favorite mom podcasts - here are two of mine. It was hard to pick just two as I listen to about half of the ones on the network!

WAHM Talk Radio

Kelly’s program is at the top of my listening list! She always has great interviews and information. She tells it like it is, doesn’t let anyone get away with scamming Mom’s and recently launched a daily Mom’s Morning Show along with another great online friend, Tishia Lee. WAHM Talk Radio has a panel of experts that are on the show as well as sometimes a “Coffee With Kelly” day. The coffee with Kelly is awesome, I enjoy those shows a lot and always want more.

Here is a photo of me with the show homepage that Alice took - I’m proud of her because she got it on the second try! And the only reason the first picture didn’t work was because she zoomed in on me.

Another favorite is Mom’s Money Show - official title being Mom’s Controlling Money vs. the Other Way Around. We’ve always gone back and forth with being able to have a good handle on our money. Last year I was very much into paying off our debt via a debt snowball and for some reason this year that took a back seat to everything else in life. I love this show because the Mom’s on it all have different experiences to share. We are working on a new financial plan and that will kick in the next time we get paid.

PS I swear I moved around between these pictures but look, the same pose! My best friend has always told me I always have the same smile, guess she was right!

I feel like I’m back at square one with homeschooling. Or maybe square four. Kindergarten was super easy for me - we just kept doing what we were doing and Alice still learned! I know, amazing right?

This year first grade started out great. We started early in anticipation of taking time off when the baby arrived, which was good because we’ve taken off about three weeks with all of the issues we had and his death. My Mom being the fabulous educator that she is talked to me about setting up a different way of homeschooling, we have structure and much as Alice loves worksheets, I didn’t feel she was getting as much as she could. I don’t view sitting at a desk and filling out forms as education - I could send her to public school for that! (Okay, that may be a bit harsh.)

So I’ve talked to my step dad (star curricula writer he is) and more to my Mom, in addition to doing a ton of searching online. I found a great site that had objectives and such listed, which I’m going to use as a guide for myself. I also am a fan of Kate over at I Think Therefore I Blog and she is a fellow homeschooler. She has been doing a weekly resource list with awesome websites and has many other observations about homeschooling on her blog. Yesterday I looked through her archives and opened every website she listed, closing ones that didn’t click with me practically instantly (just a few). I then saved them all and picked a couple to go back to today. I am going to take the weekend and look at all of them, along with the rest of my bookmarks. I plan on deleting and reorganizing - I still use my bookmarks and have a great system that works well. I’ll take the next few days, probably until Monday, to write up a months worth of what we are going to do. I have lesson plans but this is going to be different.

I’m scared and excited now. I know my Mom and Stepdad can help if (or when) I run into problems or questions so it isn’t that. I think it’s more the oh my gosh am I doing the right thing? Do I know what I am doing? I’m sure I am and this is just a moment I’m having.

I’ve had this picture forever and had to post about it. The stamps in the Stampin Up Holiday catalog are die cut - meaning they are cut already and you just pop them out of the surrounding rubber. Crazy stamping person that I am, I still have this extra rubber.

I don’t know why! I have no problem throwing away rubber when I have to cut the stamps apart! I think I got the stamps at the end of July and here it is the end of September and I know they are still on my stamping table.

Okay I’ll throw it away today. Especially since I never cut it up into anything! I’m sure I could take the corners and use them as little photo corners or something, but I know I never will.

Just one step toward realizing how easy it is to get rid of ’stuff’ - especially since this is trash!

Mom has only visited a couple of times but whenever she does I end up with projects to finish or start. Way back when I was pregnant with Alice I discovered ebay and their craft/sewing section. Before I realized what I was doing (hahaha) I bought a bunch of already cut material. All these years later, I’ve only ever used a few of them a few years ago for pillows for my Dad. This visit Mom encouraged me to get them out and make something with them and I found four packets of 2inch squares. They were a rainbow of colors and I thought a spiral pattern would look cool.

Here is the squares laid out and then one square already done. I have a large piece of white felt hung up on the wall to layout material - I’m not sure where I read about that tip but it is a great one. The only reason there are pins in the top left row is because I hadn’t ironed down the seams and the fan was on so it kept falling off, otherwise material stays on there so well.
Can you see the spiral? Start at the top left corner and then go! I have extra squares that I took out of the layout and will probably use them as a border of sorts. I’m not sure what I am going to make but I felt so good getting back into sewing. It didn’t take too long to make these two squares and I am hoping to get the other two done today. Mom is coming back next week and I am going to have her help me figure out border material and how to put it together. Since they are 2 inch squares the end result is 1 1/2 inches and then all together that is what, 7 1/2 inches square? That’s not too big. I probably won’t make a blanket but maybe a wall hanging for the craft room? I haven’t decided.
I have these same squares in 1 1/2 inch size but I’m really not sure what to do with them. Maybe I can use them as a border as well?

I’m still doing the card swap with a few girlfriends and these are the cards I picked to make back in August. I ended up not shipping anything because I was doing the September cards and figured I would send them together.

These cards are called trifold - and wow they were SO hard for me to get right! I need a new tool to score my paper with because I’ve realized the paper cutter I like to use and the one I used to use are slightly off from each other, so the old cutter and it’s scoring tool put off marks on the paper. Here are the cards almost put all together. I love the color combination.

And here are the cards all done!

These are a new stamp set called Merry & Bright in the Holiday Stampin’ Up catalog. These stamps are SO cute! I used the set again for my September cards. (so the stamps, cardstock, ink and ribbon are all copyright SU!)

I like the trifold, I should have taken a picture of how they open but you can kind of tell in the top picture. They are fun cards that’s for sure! Perfect size for a stocking stuffer. I think I’m going to make more for the kids in my life. I may go with a regular side open 3 X 3 card, and not the tri.

I made these a few weeks ago and they are still so great! It felt early for Holiday or Christmas cards when I got the idea but now that the weather is cooling off a bit and it’s almost October, it’s perfect timing. How about you, getting ready (or already a lot ready) for the upcoming holidays?