CRASH!

Don't ya just hate that word? It almost always means something bad! That's why I never came back after the Homeschool Planner post, my computer crashed. Today I will have to try and pull as much stuff off of it as possible so that Ben can get it up and running again. ugh.

Thank you all so much for the great response to my Homeschool Planner! I was so nervous about it that I had that post written for over a week before I finally just let it out. I don't really know what I was so worried about now. I guess it was mostly that this was such a different type of project I didn't know how well it would be received. But you are all so sweet, I had so many good comments and emails! I really hope this will help other mamas with their homeschool adventures. It has really made my life so much easier to be organised AND made me feel like I am doing a better job of educating our children at home. When you can look back over the week all written down (in cute colors!) there is such a sense of accomplishment. It's also nice to think that one day I will have something tangible to give them with all of their journals, field trips, memories, and adventures in it. I will be sending out the tester planners tonight!

In the last post someone asked about this little flower in the picture above. The pattern for this happy little flower will be an add-on to the Miss Lily pattern coming this Spring. I just hot glued it to a skewer and keep it in a vase on the table. The pattern will include two different sized flowers, the size shown above and one smaller.

This is me spilling the beans…

Well this is a whole new game for me! I need testers of a different sort this time. I have been working on a Homeschool Planner. Surprised? Me too. It started out as an idea to get all of the forms I needed for recording our school work onto the computer to use with my Tablet PC, but it quickly grew so big that I decided to share it. This has been a crazy fun project to work on, and a good contrast to the usual writing and drafting projects that I am accustomed to.I wanted this planner to be user friendly for families of all ages and sizes, but not too fussy, AND fun and colorful. My weakness, of course, is that I have only younger children so there may be things missing that would be useful for older homeschooling families. So who's game? I need at least 10-15 families of all sizes, ages, and curriculum's.

The following is the little introduction and index:

Homeschool Planner Introduction

As home teachers there are a lot of things that we need to keep track of for our state/county homeschool standards. It is also necessary to keep records from past years. My desire is to make that task easier, more colorful, and more efficient for families of all sizes without a lot of fuss.

This planner will be available in several different color schemes including black and white, this way you can assign different colors to different children. And mamas are just happier filling out things that are pretty, just saying!

Another thing that makes this planner great for the homeschooling family is that it will be a file that is saved on your computer so you can use it year after year! This allows you to print off as many pages as you need for your family (like the weekly lesson plans, field trip log, the extra reading form, and journal pages). You can create your own planner using a three ring binder, or you may even choose to have it bound at a printing store. For those of you with a Tablet PC you will be able to import/print these files into Windows Journal, fill them out, and save them right on your computer (this is what I do). This also makes them easy to email to the school.

Index

Homeschool Planner…………………………………………………………Pages 4-5

One of these two pages will be the first page of your planner. Page 3 is for several children (more can be printed for larger families) and page 4 is for families with less than five homeschoolers.

Homeschool Group……………………………………………………………Page 6

How many times do you need to call the same mamas for homeschool activities, questions, or field trips? This form will make it easier to find every one's number and insure that no one gets left out when planning an outing.

Field Trips………………………………………………………………………Page 7

It may be an all day trip to the zoo with your homeschool group or a simple trip to the bank to open a new account, but it is nice to have a place to record these special days because they all count!

Extra Reading…………………………………………………………………. Page 8

This page can be big motivation to a child looking back at the end of the year. Record every extra book no matter the size!

Weekly Planner………………………………………………………………. Pages 9-12

Pages 8 and 9 are specifically for younger grades including Phonics and crafts in the lesson plans, and pages 10 and 11 are geared more towards older grades, including literature and vocabulary.

Homeschool Grades…………………………………………………………..Page 13

On this page you will have your child/children's grades for the year at a glance.

Curriculum Log………………………………………………………………….Page 14

Many families use several different curriculum's for each grade level. This log will help you keep track of what you are using for each child, and may come in handy at homeschool meetings and sales so that you will have a sort of inventory of what you already have.

Birthday List…………………………………………………………………….Page 15

In our homeschool group there are several children from large families so it is easy to get Birthdays mixed up. I like to have them all written down so that we can give the birthday boy/girl a call on their special day.

Loaned & Borrowed Log……………………………………………………….Page 16

Loaning out or borrowing educational books and videos is a very big part of the homeschooling group. Having a place to keep track of it all makes every one's life a lot easier when trying to track down a missing item.

School Holidays…………………………………………………………………Page 17

This page may be more popular with the children than the parents, but it's nice for Mom to have it at a glance.

Journal Sheet…………………………………………………………………….Page 18

It's good to remember that just being on a nature walk can provide many educational opportunities; this page will help you and your child record all those little learning adventures.

Team Information………………………………………………………………Page 19

If your child is involved in any team sport this is the place to keep it all together, numbers, schedules, and ceremonies, it's all here.

Spelling Tests…………………………………………………………………….Page 20

You may find it useful to keep track of spelling tests on this page.

Unschooling Log…………………………………………………………………Page 21

As I have said before, some of the most important learning experiences come from places other than school books. This log will give you and your children a place to write about their learning adventures. This is a whole new phase of my mama adventure! Where will it take me next?? Speak up and let me know what you think! And don't forget to let me know if you would like to test this for me (remember to leave a name and email).

And the winners are…….

Tricia : Winning the Miss Madeline- Big Girl

Vanessa: Winning the Miss Madeline- Big Girl

Jelaan: Winning Miss Madeline- Little Girl

Linda B: Winning Miss Molly – I need your email address ;)

Jjren: Winning Miss Madeline- Little Girl

Congratulations Weekend Giveaway Winners!

I had such a good time reading all of your funny jokes and stories!

Now about that pitiful note I left yesterday: The second night we were there, Saturday night, I got food poisoning and was sick sick sick! I mean sick! So I spent a lot of time in the hotel bathroom. Yuck. Luckily we did get to visit Biltmore on Sunday and it was beautiful! I didn't feel all that well but I still had fun. I always have a hard time getting back to normal after that kind of sickness, it takes me a few days to eat and get my strength back, but now I am fine and ready for work! I will be back soon with pictures of my bag (no sunshine today), and something else that I'm a little nervous about, so stay tuned!

Giveaway Weekend is Here!

The Winners have been announced HERE!

Tuesday Night - Edited to add: I have been sick.....Yeah, we will talk about that later. Comments are still open. I will announce the winners on Wednesday.

If you are reading this I am in the Great Smoky Mountains with my wonderful husband having the time of my life! I didn't want to leave you all behind with nothing fun to do around here, so I decided on a fun little giveaway. For every 10 comments I will give away 1 pattern from my shop. So if there are 50 comments I will giveaway 5 patterns, this way everyone has a good chance of winning if they enter. The more comments the more fun we will have! To enter all you have to do is make me smile or laugh. Yes! That's all! I had this idea of going on my trip and getting all of these funny happy emails from all of my favorite people when I check my iPhone. Then all of you could get a good laugh reading through the comments! It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a funny little something that your kid said, a corny Laffy Taffy joke (I love those), your favorite saying or joke, or something funny that happened to you.... doesn't matter!

Here is one of my favorite You Tube videos to get ya laughing! I will announce the winners here on Tuesday.... See you all soon!

{PS. Remember to leave an email address and the name of the pattern you want. And if you have some extra time to browse you can check out all of my Blog Followers at the end of my side bar! It's such a fun new feature!}

I'm leaving, on a jet plane....

La la la .....So maybe it's not a jet plane, maybe it's a Toyota Tacoma. But Mama is leaving with Daddy and I won't be back for a few days. Whoo hoo! So I should be packing but instead I'm working on this little quilted bag that will be just big enough to hold my phone and camera.

I have been saving this thrifted pillowcase for about five years trying to find the perfect project, and today I cut it. It has the best colors and design! kind-of reminds me of some of the new Japanese fabrics. This bag will be made almost completely from recycled materials, the lining was thrifted, and the zipper was cut from an old worn out pair of jeans. I still have some quilting left to do and then I will add some small credit card sized slots to the lining. The strap is going to be extra long so that I can wear it across my chest- there is nothing worse than trying to keep a bag on your shoulders when you are bundled up walking outside! This bag will be perfect for all of those long walks we plan on taking from shop to shop, and my crochet bag will be perfect for going out to eat and things like that.

I'm so excited that I'm not sure that I will sleep a wink tonight! I have a little surprise for you all too. There will be a special giveaway post up while I am gone (it will probably go up tomorrow morning) and I hope you will all participate! It's going to be lots of fun!

My Sweet Little Madeline

{Last night}

Maddie: "Mama! I'm not scared to go in the washroom! God is in there! Did you know that God is in the dark Mama?"

Mama: "Yes baby, I know."

But sometimes we forget don't we.....

Pajama Party:: Today:: My House

17 degrees outside :: Nice warm wood burning stove inside.

A big feather bed where the coffee table usually sits :: An entire season of Little House

14 of my favorite children :: 4 of my favorite ladies

Hot chocolate :: Coffee

Popcorn :: Pizza :: Cupcakes

Everybody in their PJ's :: Slippers too

Old quilts :: Plenty of wood inside to last the day

Now we are just waiting on everyone to show up. Wish you were all here! Have a cozy day!

SALE:: Today Only:: 40% OFF

EDITED TO ADD: It seems that some of you had trouble with the discount code, well we had some technical difficulties today. LOL! It was extremely irritating! But that is why I offered the discount to encourage people to use the new system so that we could iron out the kinks quickly and with happy customers :) Now that all of the kinks are ironed I am going to extend the sale until tomorrow, January 15th at 1PM, so that my peeps who had trouble will be able to take advantage of the sale. xoxox, Samantha

Last night, or should I say very early this morning I changed the shop up a bit. I gave each item it's own page and now there is room for the size charts (with fabric requirements). I am so glad to finally have this done! I really feel like this will be less confusing for everyone. So as an incentive to get everyone over there to check it out and give me a little feedback about what you would like to see I am offering 40% off (entire purchase) for today only, just type in "BLOGGYFRIENDS" (ALL CAPS) as the discount code. You are welcome to share the code with your friends if you like. Let me know what you think!

More Crocheting- Puppy Hat

My hook has been hot this Winter! Last night I made this little puppy hat for a very special little friend of ours. She's a bonafide puppy lover (I kill me!) so I think she will like having a puppy hat to keep her warm when she is out playing. Maybe she will like it so much that she won't mind it being over a week late for her Birthday!

I made the hat with cotton worsted weight Sugar and Cream yarn so that her mama could machine wash the hat (hopefully she will need to wash it often!), and the little brown ears, nose and eye is cotton sport weight because that's what I had in my stash. The Sugar and Cream yarn is perfect for projects like this because this yarn is very soft and can hold up to repeated washings, in fact most people use this yarn to make dishcloths. And did I mention that you can buy this yarn at most Walmart stores? Almost everyone has a Walmart. We have a new Target close to home too. I wonder when they will start carrying yarn?? They need more craft stuff don't they. All of the craft stores here are on the other side of town. OK enough rambling. Have a nice day friends!

Knitting and Crochet

Ever think you would see knitting here? I didn't! Well the other day I got this wild notion that I would teach myself to knit (like I don't have enough to do already), so I made some knitting needles out of some things I already had at home and watched you tube videos until I got the hang of it. I think I like it. I am very slow and my stitches are pretty uneven, but I can knit and purl now.

These knitting needles were super easy to make. I used a dowel rod that was a little smaller than a pencil. I chopped it in half (Using our little hatchet from the fireplace- What am I some kind of mountain woman? Shees!) then I sanded them down to a dull-ish point and use fine sand paper to get them really smooth all over so they wouldn't snag the yarn. I sharpened the other end with a pencil sharpener too and glued on these wooden beads that I had in my stash. Then I filled the other end of the bead with wood putty, when it was dry sanded it down smooth, and painted just the bead and putty with clear nail polish. Pretty easy huh? There were several videos on how to make these in various sizes all over the Internet, but I sort of used bits of each of them using what I had on hand.

The basket is one that my Granny gave me some time ago. I wanted to use it for crocheting where I could leave my yarn it it while I was working, but the yarn kept catching on the insides of the basket. So I just lined it with fabric and now it works perfectly, and it makes it very easy to take my projects from place to place too.

On to the bag....This was my between Christmas and New Years project. Ben and I will be leaving for a little childless vacation soon so I wanted a light bag to carry. The yarns are hemp (except for the green accent) that I got from a local shop. (I have only visited there three or four times but I found out this last trip that the owner sells her own PDF knitting patterns. )

I lined the bag with a funky little floral fabric, added a zipper, a pocket and a fabric flower. It didn't turn out quite the way I had it planned as far as the color goes, but I'm happy with it. I guess a little funky never hurt anybody!

More Christmas Crafting

I wanted to share lots more than this but the South is being slammed by storms this week, today we even had tornadoes because it has been so warm (like turn on the AC warm), so no pictures. Luckily, my sweet cousin Amy (you may remember her from HERE and HERE) sent me these of the apron I made for her. She is seriously like the best cook in the world! Remember my Kitchen Aid lust? Well it wasn't just for her mixer, I wish I could cook like her too!

I really like the way this chef's style apron came out, and of course it had to be pink to match her mixer! I intended on adding some pretty crocheted flowers with little felt leaves, but when I laid them out it just didn't jive. I ended up going through my vintage button stash and these three little beauties did the trick.

Ahhh..... now if only I could put on an apron and look that hot and cook that good....Life would be perfect. LOL! With my luck, if I could cook as good as Amy I would be as big as the side of the house from eating it all! Here's to hoping for the good cooking bug to bite and some sunshine soon so that I can take pictures of the rest of the holiday crafting and gifts.

Super slacker - in the house!

Yep. Super slacker here checking in. This is my first official day back on the job after the holiday, and let me tell ya it's slow-goin, so I'm just saying hi and I will be back tomorrow with lots of handmade goodness and the sweetest holiday stories. For the rest of the day there is lots of serious work to be done, I have about a million emails to answer, homeschooling to be done, a doctors appointment to go to, and lots of laundry calling my name....and maybe one more go-cart ride with Tim...who knows? We can't be all seriousness on our first day back! I miss you all and I can't wait to hear about all of your most special holiday moments! This was our Christmas picture this year. Can you believe how big Lily and Iris are? (Just in case you are new around here they are my sister Rae's twins, my sweet little nieces) They are both walking now and they are going to be big sisters in just a few more months! Yep. In June Rae will be having another baby. We are all very excited and it looks like 2009 is going to be a lot of fun!