Write Some More!

 We're bloggers and we love to write, right? I'm always jotting something down or doodling a quick sketch with an idea. I love the written word, to create it and to read it! It's a passion I guess. I'm lucky in the sense that I have kids that enjoy this too, they even have journals!. It could be that I have set an example and they just want to be like Mom, but it could also be that I like to make writing utensils easily accessible to little hands! I always dress up our writing center AND change it out often, so it looks fresh and fun! You will be amazed at what some new pencil toppers can do, they make kids want to use them right away. Try a new sharpener, even my 3 year old dashes right in to sharpen and then use his 'pointy pencil'. A colorful cup of erasers encourages creativity and 'gasp' even mistakes! Let them know it's okay, just erase and it's brand new again! Different types of paper make it possible for the kids to do all kinds of different things! Postcards, Mini pads, list pads with lines and check boxes, restaurant CHECK booklets, post its plain, post its lined etc. Crayons are there, so that the kids can illustrate what they write!! Try it and you will see them flock!

I always am sure to keep the reading and writing shelf accessible too! This has letters in all shapes and forms (Coasters, rocks, tiles, dice, foam, wood, cardstock etc.) and mini chalkboards too! I will go into more detail on this shelf in a future post!! How do you get your little ones to write more?

Car Ride!

As I shared in my EASTER post, I like to have car kits for the kids, since we are in the vehicle a lot! Waiting in parking lots, driving out of town for the weekends and so on and so forth. Today, we are headed back from our long weekend getaway (left Thursday) up to Northern Wisconsin and several other stops along the way. I found all of these great books UNUSED at charity shops and garage sales and never paid more than .59 for them! The kids saw me putting them in a car basket and already can't wait to get their hands on them!

What do you have in the car for kids?

~Michelle!~

Virtual Vacation Update!

As you all know from my previous post, we are off on a trip around the World this Summer! Alright, it's a virtual vacation, but we are excited none-the-less! I have had 8 people message me and want to join us on our trip! How fun!! I've even sold 6 of the above kits to help others join our trip! I wanted to update everyone on what we have been getting ready, since take off is a little over a month away!!
Our Itinerary is ready and posted! The kids have been asking so many questions and keep looking through our 'suitcase' of stuff!!

 

I have also purchased this book as a guide to some of our stops! I have been on the internet and the library like crazy, readying myself for all that is to come. Every single time I stop in a charity shop, my eyes are open for maps or guidebooks that will help in some way or another!

The 2 Japan for Kids and Kids Trips in Tokyo books came from a charity shop for .59 each! The Geo Cards are awesome reference cards that I found at Barnes and Noble.

I found these fantastic post cards at Michaels for .98! I love that they are plain on 1 side and will allow the kids to design them from each Country we are in and then they can send them to family members! They are really excited about this part!!

At the moment, the plan is to post on Monday with:
1. Country we are landing in
2. Craft we will make that week
3. Sights we will see
4. Recipe of what we will cook
5. Other activities we will do while in that Country
6. Links to any print outs you may need (for example: Orient Express train ticket)
7. Photos from the previous week of things that we did and any other notes!

Please feel free to link up your blog if you are joining us!!

Virtual Vacation Post (Original Post)
Virtual Vacation Update 1 
Virtual Vacation Update 2
Virtual Vacation Update 3 (not yet posted)

~Michelle!~

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Hope you enjoy this wonderful day with your friends and loved ones! I will spending the morning with the Lord, giving my thanks for every single day! Then the rest of the day with my husband and beautiful children, traveling from one house to another and to another! Ughh, the fun of the Holiday season!

A really bad photo of our Happy Easter Wreath! It looks so cute and I just didn't have another minute to photograph it! We hung plastic and Foam eggs and used puffy paint!

Craft in a Minute! Lacing Food

 

Today's Craft in a Minute is so simple and so fun! I like to make special snacks for all of my kids and I always try to avoid just throwing some stuff in a bag. This week I wanted to try something different and went with our recent lacing fun we had last week. I purchased Twizzler Pull and Peels and separated them into individual strips. Then I used straws of different consistencies to make holes in fresh fruit and Voila! Perfection! For snacks at home, I use the longer Twizzler straws and the kids have so much fun, but for snack it was just the right size!!
Snack and Craft in a Minute!!!

~Michelle!~

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SIDE NOTE:
Undergrad Fab is having a SHOPBOP giveaway on her BLOG, head on over!!
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Linked up here:

Thrifty Teaching Aids!

We LOVE board games at my house, but if your kids are like mine, the small pieces tend to wander off and get lost in that big black hole of nowhere! I Love to swing by the Goodwill and pick up any games that have small pieces that we go through like crazy! It's a super inexpensive way to build up extra pieces! As far as the game boards and extra pieces, we use many in crafts and others we just recycle if the local daycare doesn't need them!

This post is about thrifty teaching aids though! My kids are all at different stages in learning, but I find that if I get creative, I can use 1 tool many different ways! This week I stopped at the Goodwill with a purpose! I needed some letter tiles and I couldn't use Scrabble ones, because I go though those like crazy in my shop! As I strolled the game aisle, I found exactly what I was looking for! I picked up 3 games for less than 5.00 total with tax and had exactly what I wanted! Boggle Junior, UpWords and Quip Qubes! These games are some of our favorites to play normally, so I was able to replenish the games we had and still have loads and loads leftover for

our learning games!
With the letter dice from the boggle game, I love to use these by tossing them in my purse with a notepad and pencil. They toss 1 of the die and then they figure out how many words they can come up with (My daughter writes them down and my son just says them). It's a fun game to play at a restaurant when meals get too long or when waiting in line for something etc. The UpWords we use to spell normal words and sentences and then try to change the words up just like the game goes, only using sentences! We use them all for other fun stuff too!!
I had purchased these yellow teaching tiles before (at the Goodwill of course!!) and even though I got them for only .99, they sell for so much more money than that, if i ever wanted to replenish them! I knew I had to get creative!
I found this freezer bin at the goodwill for .99 and it was perfect to hold all our letter tiles! It gives the kids easy access to them and allows me to keep an eye on them too! This is one of their favorite tools for spelling!
I used the cards from the Boggle Jr. Game and put them on a binder ring, so that my younger two can flip through and spell the words they see! Perfect way to get them spelling and playing with words!!
My favorite find was the Qube game! It had all these cubes in it and they all have words on each and every side!! These are AWESOME for sentence building and also just popping in between words we make with the tiles! I sometimes have my daughter grab 4 of them and toss them and see what kind of sentence she can come up with!

Keep your eyes open and get creative!!!

A Readers Challenge

Tomorrow we will be looking into Myspace and how to work that, so go ahead and sign up for an account if you have one! Add Me and you will have at least 1 friend for now! Today, I wanted to challenge all of us and at the same time test out a still fairly new site! This place is called OWN THE HOUR, I did post about my test with this site earlier and it was still a fairly brand new site and all did not go too well, but it's gaining steam and it's still being chatted about. Everyone has .50 in their paypal accounts right? If so, take the challenge with me! Open up the site and look how pretty it is! It reminds me of the treasury pages and the Etsy front page.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and then click on Own The Hour (Sign-Up).

Here is where we choose an hour. I'm hoping all my readers will join me in owning the 6:00 pm(remember this is for TOMORROW and the time is EASTERN) time slot. Let's fill it with MCW Blog readers! Please remember to post a link to the item your are advertising here in my comments, so I know who took me up on the challenge! Also keep us posted here on how you did! When you post here with your item link, let us know how many views you have on that item and then when you post back with results let us know if the item sold, and if not how many views you have on it now. It's super easy to buy an hour!
Your Etsy Item ID Can be found when you open up a listing on the right hand side it says LISTING #. Just copy and paste that into the box! So readers, let's get out there and OWN THE HOUR!

Cyber Monday SALE!

Time to get your shop on!!! Black Friday for the internet is HERE and it's known as CYBER MONDAY! This sale is for MONDAY DECEMBER 1st ONLY! 12am central time to 11pm central time. YOU MUST PAY by 11pm on DECEMBER 1st to qualify.

All sales are time stamped, so be sure to purchase early to qualify for this sale.
ALL purchases over 20.00 on MONDAY DECEMBER 1st will receive:

Gift Certificate for 20.00 off a future purchase. (Yup it's like getting the stuff FREE!).
Free Bow necklace (8.00 in my shop right now).
Free Pair of Pearl Drop Earrings (8.00 in soon to be Lollishops Shop)

Free lollipop Cell Charm! (6.00)

That's over 40.00 in goodies for FREE!
Be sure to use CODE: BFfree for your goodies!

Rules and Not so Fun Stuff:

*Only transactions from 12am-11:58pm on DECEMBER 1st 2008.
*ONE free gift pack per person/mailing address.
*MUST be paid for before 11:58pm on MINDAY DECEMBER 1st.
*MUST use code at check out, no convos or add ons later please.
*Free bow necklace and pearl drop earrings colors will vary based upon availability.

*Items from MichellesCharmWorld on ETSY Qualify.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Barbie Girl Pouch by NinisHandmades 12.50
Pretty Pink Beads from ProdigalProgeny 2.00

Super Kids Cape by MyBohoBabyStore 10.00

Gadget Travel Case by SmileRecipe 18.50

Get to know me! There are many people out there that don't disclose their favorites, don't want anyone to know what they like or why they like it. Not me, i'm an open book! I'm going to share with you what's on my ultimate Etsy Wishlist! I want to eventually buy each and every one of these! With the holidays coming up though it stinks that I have to buy presents for everyone else! haha! If any of you sellers featured here would love to trade, let me know! This post of Fridays Fabulous Favorites is short and sweet just so you can see the goodies!

Vintage Avon Bottle from RusticDivaDesigns 2.00

Sweet Treats Coin Purse by SWWM 10.00

Fuzzy Navel Relaxation Set by LushMommy 23.00

Polkadot Tote by SidQuilts 35.00

Blow Out Sale

Picnic Basket Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 12.00

I have some items ending soon in my shop and I will not be renewing them. It's your chance to get them at an awesome discount! They are all the ones pictured in this post. You can get them at 50% off the listed price just by going there from this post and entering the code: 50BLOG

Boombox Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 12.00

This offer is good ONLY on the 4 items pictured. A great discount for my blog readers!! You can get some of these funky necklace for only 6 DOLLARS EACH!! What a great bargain! Don't forget to check the coupon corner <-------over there somewhere to see what other great discounts I have going on too! This offer is only good until these items have sold! Get one, Get 2, get all 4 and I will even SHIP THEM FOR FREE!!!

Vintage 80s Love Charm Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 12.00

Great way to get a lot of Christmas shopping done too! Those pretty pink cameo earrings would only be 4.50!! How fabulous is that?! Don't forget the code when you check out or you won't get the discount. Just check out with the code: 50Blog and then wait for the revised invoice. This is a HOT HOT HOT sale, so payment must be received within 24 hours or I have relist the item. Now get shopping!!

Pretty Pink Cameo and Bow Earrings 9.00 by MichellesCharmWorld

Awesome New Goodies!

Do Not Bend usually means shove me into the smallest spaces you can find!

I love to read new blogs and come across interesting little windows into peoples lives! I rarely enter give-aways as my luck is awful and I love giving others a shot! Well there was one that I just had to enter because the items were so cute and guess what?! I won! Go figure! haha.

I won the giveaway on PinkAndPosh blog. It's such a bright blog, that I got hooked into reading alot there and when I came upon the contest, I entered! It was for a shop called Healthy Little Ones.

Before I entered the contest, I checked out the site and fell in love! So many things that I wished I had had when my littles were in carriers and strollers! She makes signs that say Don't Touch The Baby in the nicest ways!! I used to get so annoyed that people would touch my kids faces, hair, Legs and sometimes EVEN PICK THEM UP! Strangers!! It was just too crazy for words. I also wish I had put one of these signs on my belly while I was pregnant! haha! That would have certainly kept people at bay! They were always grabbing my belly!!



The package arrived so fast I was amazed at her prompt shipping! It was great to open up the treasure trove of prizes!! I wanted to keep them all and not give them to the kids! hahah!

Quality: Superior

Ease of Use: Perfect (kids are 2 and 3)

Packaging: Maybe a little carboard sleeve to put the goodies into once in the envelope to keep from getting to bent when the post man gets lazy and bends anyway! (not her fault my post lady is crazy though!)

Individual packaging: So cute and colorful!!

Overall: A++ communication was fabulous, shipping super fast and best of all the items are GREAT!

Everything is going to be perfect for our upcoming road trip! The kids will definately be entertained! I only regret not going ahead and buying an additional board for my son.

The Goodies:

Drama Queen Bag Tag

Dishwasher Clean/Dirty Tag

Reminder List

Alphabet Practice Sheet

She even threw in EXTRAS!?! and the best part? Everything came with it's own marker that needed one, so I didn't have to run out and get one to complete the sets! I'm in love! hurry up and check her out!

When Life Gets In the Way...

Mantle Clock Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 13.00

Where did the weekend go? It's what time already? What DAY is it? Do you find yourself asking these questions often? Sometimes I just want to run and scream and jump out the nearest window. (Hmm..seeing as how i'm on the 1st floor, nothing much will happen, but I would be very cold!) With 3 kids, sometimes life just gets in the way of your good intentions. These past 2 weeks have been crazy, I have not been able to keep up with MichellesCharmWorld like I should be and my new line for my Lollishops store is painfully lacking. We've spent the last 2 weekends in Downtown Chicago for entire days and while fun, I constantly had this nagging sensation that I had to get back to work. It's my busiest time with custom orders, wholesale orders and non-internet orders and yet there I am playing with boats in the water at the Childrens Museum and wondering just how the heart works at the Museum of Science and Industry. I don't feel guilty, since my children and family always come first, but I do feel a bit lost. I schedule my day as it is during the week and even stick to my 3 unhealthy hours of sleep a night, so work as much as I can when the house is silent. The only thing I can do is throw myself head first into mondays! For today, the dishes will wait and the errands will be run by my husband. This morning I will move a small table of work into the playroom and while the kids watch a movie I can get some work done. Not a great solution for every day, but it helps with mondays. Hopefully I will get some new supplies in today and that can help get my creative juices flowing right where they should be! I better run now, i've been invited to a dance party in the next room!

Boombox Adjustable Ring by MichellesCHarmWorld 8.00

Can Supplies Create Happiness?

I get into these ruts sometimes. Where nothing I do is ever good enough or I just don't feel like creating anything new for MichellesCharmWorld. Sometimes I just want to walk away from the love of my life! (Crafting, not my husband! heehee!!!) . Then a package of colorful goodies will come and all of a sudden i'm seeing fabulous things in my head, too many of them to keep track of, so I have to start RIGHT AWAY! The absolute worst is when we are on our way out the door and I open my package in the car! Argg...I can't write in my little notebook enough and I just want to go home and play!

Plastic is so colorful and vibrant it seems to bring me out of my winter blues in the drab and dreary grey that is the cold months in Illinois. It's so fun and cool to look and create with that it seems to perk me up when it's 100 degrees outside and all I want to do is jump in the pool and stay there forever. Plastic is truly my heaven, so yes I do think supplies creates happiness!

Yesterday was a good supply day, I got a swap package in the mail from Brazil and the goodies were amazing, as only another countries treasures can be! I then got some great little mini purses on sale AND 50% off the sale price, so it looks like I have found the packaging for myswag bag giveaways for the first 10 customers I have at lollishops!! I will be giving away one EXACT Lollishops giveaway bag next week some time, so keep checking on the blog!! I can't wait to start creating with the goodies!

If you ever get in a rut, or feel like sales are too slow to go on, go ahead and get yourself something new, ANYTHING! Even something on sale at a craft store and turn it into something FABULOUS! Or, you can come over to the crafters dark side, the world of PLASTIC! It always cheers you up!

Love To Shop Charm Bracelet by MichellesCharmWorld 15.00