Sharing Saturday #37

Have you entered my current giveaway? You can win a copy of the fantastic book, Show Me a Story by Emily K. Neuburger. This is a must for anyone who wants to help develop their child's imagination and storytelling skills!

Don't forget to visit Dine Out for No Kid Hungry and check out the deals at your local restaurants to help end childhood hunger!!

Did you stop by and check out the great ideas shared last week? I did, and I must tell you I'm still in awe!! I have several features, but first want to apologize for the lateness of this post. I have my oldest and dearest friend visiting tonight and we went for a girls dinner out. (We have been friends since we were six-months-old!) Needless to say it is great to see her and we have been catching up a bit, especially since she arrived after Hazel was asleep so we could have some grown up time. Ok, on to this week's features.

I am finally starting to feel like fall so here are a few apple features!

1) From Reading Confetti: Paper Plate Apple Tree

2) From Repeat Crafter Me: Plastic Bottle Apples

3) From Annie One Can Cook!: Apple Pecan Pie Bars

4) From Tippytoe Crafts: Wormy Apples

Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? In honor of that here are a few sewing (and knitting) features as well as one of my favorites!

1) From Rae Gun Rambling: Princess Dress Bustle Skirt Tutorial

2) From About Blogging Time: The Elephant Softie

3) From Frontier Dreams: Kitten Mittens

4) From Earning My Cape: Tunisan Stitch Belt

5) From Wind of Imagination Is Here: A Paper Office

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month starting September 15th, I am sharing our homemade Hispanic Heritage Musical Instruments

 

Now for This Week's Party   

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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4. Optional: Like us on Facebook and Google+
Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Sharing Saturday 15-18

Have you entered my current giveaway? This is one you do not want to miss!!

Thank  you to everyone who shared last week!! I am blown away by the creativity and amazing posts shared. These features are just a sampling of the posts shared. I hope you will go and check them all out! This week our features consist of  May Features, Educational Features and Food and Play Dough Features. 

Kid's Bunny Diorama -- a Crafty Weekends Post & Link Party

This week our craft is actually one Hazel made. She made it at a workshop at Paper Source this week. I happened to be the teacher of the workshop though. She picked to make a bunny themed diorama. We used the small vanilla (white) shirt box for the diorama. For the person and her clothes came from the Paper Doll Kit.  The bunny ears and bunnies were cut on a Cameo Silhouette. The flowers and leaves were from punches.

Sharing Saturday 15-13

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many incredible ideas shared. I had a very hard time choosing features this week. There were just too many I wanted to feature! I decided on some favorites (including Women's History Month and spring posts), Easter Features and Painting Features (it seemed like many people had different ideas on painting this past week). These are just a sampling, so please go back and check out the other amazing ideas. I know I found many I want to try.

Sharing Saturday 14-51

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! While I was busy taking care of my sick little girl, many amazing ideas were shared as well as a few germs since now I have the illness. Our features are completely holiday related. With the start of Hanukkah this week there are a few Hanukkah Features and then lots of Christmas Features including a section on Christmas trees (crafts and crafts for the tree).

Hanukkah Features

1) From Living Montessori Now: Free Hanukkah Songs and Rhymes for Circle Time

2) From Royal Little Lambs: Celebrating Light

Virtual Book Club for Kids--This Plus That: Life's Little Equations

As you may remember I joined the following amazing blogs to host the Virtual Book Club for Kids where each month we host a blog hop where we share an activity to go with a book by the author of the month. This month's author is Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids -
 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo -  The Educators' Spin On It -  
Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - 
Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom -  Mommy and Me Book Club -  No Twiddle Twaddle - 
The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - 
Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas -  
Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - 
Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls -  
Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles -  
Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn

Last week I shared optical illusions introduced by Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This week we are going to talk about This Plus That: Life's Little Equations. We really enjoyed this book! It goes through with pictures of little equations like "yes + no = maybe" and even the colors like "blue + yellow = green."  For our activity we made up some equations. Some we spoke and I put pictures to later and some she helped me find things to represent them. Here are some family ones that I found pictures (or took pictures) to make them.

Then we did some more basic seasonal ideas.

And one of my favorites, using her story stones:

What equations can you come up with for your life?

And of course for those of you who have children who know or are learning addition you could easily use numbers in your equations! 

Now it is your turn to share!! If you have a new or old post about an activity to do with a Amy Krouse Rosenthal book, please share below and grab the button and code if you would like to help us advertise! Also please make sure you visit the other blogs that are hosting to see what they have created with the various Amy Krouse Rosenthal books! November's author is Tomie de Paola!

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Sharing Saturday 17-13

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts.

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party! It was full of such a variety of ideas including many great looks at books and how they are published!  Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Easter  and  Other Great Features.

Audio Books for Crafters & DIY Teacher Gifts -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered my current giveaway for a custom canvas print?

Disclosure: I was given audio versions of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

What do you do when you craft? Do you craft in silence? Or are you like me and watch television (or at least listen to television) while you craft? With the summer reruns season starting I am finding television pretty boring. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing came to my rescue. They have a page dedicated to crafters with recommendations as well as free knitting patterns!! On this page there are links to articles, free coloring pages and patterns as well as some book suggestions. There is even a place to say how long you want to craft for book recommendations. All of the books have sample clips so you can get a taste for the story and the telling of it. I was lucky enough to be sent four audio books to check out. I will admit since I have not been crafting very much lately that I have not listened to them yet.

Happy Family Times #27--Meeting Cinderella

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter my current giveaway!!

Have you done anything new with your family? Anything fun? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. Please share below!! Or look below for inspiration for some fun family activities (and read about mine and Kelly's as well).

This week we had a lot of relax and cuddle time since we have a sick little one. However before she got her cold (or at least before she showed signs of it) we went to our local McDonalds for dinner and to meet Cinderella. For some reason our local McDonalds has characters and different events all the time. The only reason we go to McDonalds is to see the characters. Usually if we go we just get french fries and drinks since that is about all I can usually get Hazel to eat. However since Cinderella was going to be there from 4-6, we had to eat there. We ordered a cheeseburger Happy Meal since Steve wanted a cheeseburger (and it got Hazel the small fries and apple slices plus the toy) and I got their premium chicken strips which we actually liked. Hazel and I split it and Steve helped out too. Plus Steve and I split some fries.

When we arrived Cinderella was painting the girls' nails. When it was Hazel's turn she got blue nails. (Have I mentioned how I really hate blue nail polish?) Next Cinderella put eye shadow on the girls, but I talked Hazel out of this. She was going to do blush as well, but for some reason did not. Next Cinderella blew up blue balloons for the kids and autographed them and drew different pictures on them. Hazel got a crown.

She also put pink metallic ribbons/streamers on the end of them. Cinderella then noticed that several kids were eating their dinners so she had the ones not eating dance to Bippity Boppity Boo. She passed out lyrics to the parents sitting near by to help sing.

Then she had the kids play keep the balloons in the air. If your balloon popped you were out, but she gave the ones whose popped stickers that said something about getting popped.

 Next Cinderella made them streamer wands to dance with. All she did was rip a piece of crepe paper streamer (blue or pink) and roll one end to be thin enough to stick in a straw. However the streamers kept falling out so one of the mothers went to her car and got some scotch tape and taped them in so we weren't all fixing them every two seconds.  (We are definitely going to use this idea for Hazel's birthday party since she wants a princess party.)

By this point it was getting close to six, and since that usually is around the time we start going to bed, we headed home. Hazel gave Cinderella a hug goodbye!

Now I have to say, Hazel and I went to see several of the princesses at McDonalds over the summer. It amazes me that almost all of them have been the same actress (she owns the business) and the kids who are almost always the same group don't seem to notice. Or maybe they just don't care. The princess always gives a gift to each child with a business card attached, so they get good advertising and McDonalds definitely gets more business. I guess it is a win-win for them. During the summer it was at lunch time so Hazel and I would walk over after having an early lunch at home. This time she was very excited that Mommy and Daddy were with her. I can only imagine what it will be like when we go to Disney. It amazes me how much she loves the princesses when the first time she saw anything Disney on television or (movie wise) was this past weekend. We let her watch Cinderella on tape. I figured it would not scare her and we gave in on the television when she was barely moving from the couch. Now we will have to break that again. Oh, well. She does know she is only getting to watch it because she is sick.


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Light Box Arts Creations -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Light Box Arts sent me a voucher to create this light box on their site in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Confession time, I am not a very good drawer.  When I try to draw or paint I am never happy with my work. However I am excellent at using computers to create fun artwork. I am also a great cutter and paster. So when Light Box Arts asked if I would like to try out their new Design Yours feature on their site, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Light Box Arts offers pre-designed light boxes as well. There are many different categories like Attitude, Vacation, Inspirational, Kids, and more. These are fun and beautiful, but I was excited to make something personal. I thought a personal light box would be perfect to celebrate our 11 year anniversary this summer. I got to work. I Googled for some ideas for anniversary quotes and found "Once upon a time I became yours and you became mine and we will stay together through both the tears and the laughter because that is what they call happily ever after." I loved it and wanted to add it to our wedding picture. 

Happy Family Times #10--Going to a birthday party

What have you been up to with your family this week? Did you do something new and exciting? Go on a trip? Or just dance in your living room?  Please share below! Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are loving hearing about everyone's wonderful family time! We hope this link party will help inspire more quality time with your loved ones!

Today we attended a first birthday party. The parents of the child are Hazel's godparents. Now, I think I mentioned Hazel's fear of men. The only men she is not afraid of are Daddy and Pop. Even men we see every week who talk to her, she will play shy around but talk about them as soon as we walk away and for the rest of the week. One man she is really frightened by (and I don't know why) is her godfather. She did not want to go to the party since I told her he was definitely going to be at it when she asked if he would be there. We bribed her into going by saying we would go get ice cream afterwards if she went and behaved. She decided she wanted to go to Friendly's instead of the farm that makes their own ice cream from the cows you can see there which is only a 5-10 minute drive from our friends' house. Oh, well. Note: I did not mention to my friends that I would be blogging about their party so I am blocking out their daughter's face in all the pictures since I do not have permission to post it.

Since their daughter was born Memorial Day weekend, they had a red, white and blue party. This is the party I made all the star crayons for. She wanted 100 and I made 94 from all the crayons she gave me. I think she is going to have a lot more than she needed, but oh, well. She took them and put them in plastic bags. Hazel had a good time. She was a bit cuddly, but then she went off to play with the kids. One of the girls there is one day older than Hazel so they play at all the parties there.

Hazel pushing the birthday girl with some help from her uncle

They provided bubble stuff for the kids to play with. It was a big hit. There were snacks to begin with and then your typical Memorial Day barbeque: hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, pasta salad, etc. Then of course there were gifts to open and cake and cookies and pastries. The birthday girl had a wonderful time with her piece of cake--it ended up on the ground before she was through, but she had fun. I love the fistful in the bottom picture.

Our gift's wrapping fit the theme

Hazel ate the frosting and Daddy got the chocolate cake.

The Cake

My Cuddly Girl

After the party we headed to Friendly's and got Hazel her ice cream cone. I got a watermelon sherbert cooler--a flashback to my childhood. I use to love those in the summer. They are no longer on the menu, but still make them for me at least at our local one.

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times

~ use our button so others can join the fun

Button Code:

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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Spring Cards with Origami -- Crafty Weekends Tutorial and Link Party

I have had an itch to do something creative on my own. Then I fell in love with a sample card at work which featured an origami dress made with a mint green flowered wrapping paper. I bought a sheet and got the instructions for the dress. I also have been wanting to make a bunny card with Easter approaching. Let's start with the origami dress. After finding a few tutorials because I found one step of the instructions confusing, I decided I liked this one the best. It made the confusing v-neckline the easiest.

Personalized Books for Boys, Girls, Teens and Adults -- Early Holiday Shopping!

 

Disclosure: In The Book sent me these three personalized books in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. 

This year everything seems weird. I know many products are delayed quite a bit lately if they are not American made. I always begin my holiday shopping early and have begun quite a bit of it. One of my favorite things to give kids is personalized books. Kids love seeing their names and photos in books. This year In The Book Published by Signature reached out to see if I would be interested in doing a review. I checked out their site and was very interested. They have something for everyone!! There are books for boys and girls of all ages. There are books for teens and sport lovers. There are even books for adults including newlyweds!! I love the personalized anniversary books. A friend gave me an anniversary book at my bridal shower. We love it. Having it personalized would be even more special!

Valentine's Day Crafts & More from Oriental Trading with Free Printable Valentine Cards -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day? We are, thanks to Oriental Trading. Now Hazel's school has a Father/Daughter Snow Ball the Saturday before Valentine's Day every year and this year I am co-chairing it. As a result I had even more Valentine's Day stuff to get than normal. I got the tablecloths we need for the Snow Ball.