Last night was the school's annual Cuddle Up and Read night, and our family has come to really enjoy this tradition. The kids get dressed up in their PJs ... we take blankets and pillows and cuddle up on the library floor and read any and every book we can get our hands on, while munching on homemade cookies.
Here are the books we read:
Milo's Hat Trick, by Jon Agee
Clifford's First Autumn, by Norman Birdwell
Baby Bear's Books, by Jane Yolen
Double Trouble in Walla Walla, by A. Clements
Do You Want to Be my Firend?, by Eric Carle
Arthur's Chicken Pox, by M. Brown
Beach is to Fun, by P Brisson
Armadillo Rodeo, by Jan Brett
All of you up to your eyeballs in Primary, and/or who's children love Follow the Prophet as much as ours do, I thought might find this little project of my sisters interesting, I know I did:
Impart Art - Women's History Month
Two years ago I purchase a pair of heels ... a pair of real heels, not "I"m the mother of young children" heels, but stilettos, real heels, something I hadn't owned in years. They are my Alyson-Shannon shoes and I love them.
One of the first couple times I wore them to church, a friend who, hadn't known me long, complemented me on the shoes and then said with a smile & slight chuckle in her voice ... "Kathleen, I didn't know you had it in you."
Ahh yes, underneath my sad tired wardrobe that hasn't changed in years, and the six year old shoes I'm STILL wearing day in and out, there is a little fashionista who, if she had the time and money, would show herself.
So in an effort to invite a little bit of style back into my wardrobe, I purchased these two pieces - note they aren't from any grand mecca of fashion, and Miranda Priestly would no doubt purse her lips at this, but I'm hoping my younger much more fashionable sisters will approve none-the-less:
The shoes - Target - $22.99. Black open-toed, sling-backs with bows ... paid full price, something I don't think I've ever done for myself ...
The skirt - Wal-mart - $16.97. Black-n-white print, black ribbon waistband, and wide black trimmed hem.
Friday, 2 February 2007
def.:a disposition to tolerate or accept people or situations
This was January's character word and earlier in the week Mrs. C told me Emily would be given the star character award in Friday's all school assembly. I wanted this to be a surprise for her, so I didn't tell her why we were going to attend the assembly - we just went. I asked GR if he might possibly be able to get off work early, so he could attend as well, and he was able to pull it off!
We got there just as students were starting to gather in the gym, and took a spot on the floor along the outer edge of the gym and waited. While we waited, Emily turned to me and said in a really excited tone, "I hope Becca get's another award!" - ahhhhh! Could she be any sweeter!? - if she only knew I thought!
Her face totally lit up when Mr. F called her name ... this time around they started with the 6th graders and worked their way down the line, so we'd listened to a lot of names ... and it never stopped beaming.
This is what her teacher said about why Emily was awarded the Acceptance Award:
"She is kind and caring to all her classmates and often tries to get others to accept people as they are."
Wednesday 28 February 2007
At PT conferences last week Mrs. C was so complementary of Emily. Her progress reports blow me away, not to mention her ability to read and spell! She is a real example for other children in her class - and there are some kids who are really, really struggling to get some of the basic concepts this year.
Mrs. C was asking me about how Emmy liked class and if she seemed comfortable with the kids she sits around. Em sits next to a little girl who's had a pretty rough life for a five/six year old. Lately she's been obsessed with everyone at her table and in the classroom knowing that her father is in jail - for a solid week that is all she would talk about constantly! It was driving Mrs. C, and all the kids, crazy!
Anyway, Mrs. C was worried Emily might be concerned about another students father being in jail ... she hadn't mentioned it in any of our many conversations about school and her classmates. This week I've been asking more probing questions in an effort to get her to open up and tell me more. Still no mention of this little girls dad or her concerns about it. When she talks about T, the impression I get, is that Emily puts absolutely no stock in what this child says. Emily likes her, considers her a friend, accepts her, but seems to instinctively know it's not worth her time to internalize anything she says ... so wise!
If only more adults could learn to do this ...
*Warning ... this is so much more than you will ever want to know about this topic... but for the sake of family record keeping, I'm telling it. I promise more interesting things about the kids will follow after I get Sam to preschool.*
Wednesday & Thursday, February 21-22
Six weeks or so ago the girls school sent home a flier about at PTA fund raiser that would be held during parent teacher conferences, called a Shoppers Fair. Home based businesses could rent a table for $25 and sell their products. It took GR and I a long time to decide whether or not we could pull this off - but we did and all in all we were pretty successful.
Truthfully, we were both confident and ready to promote his photography. His pictures are excellent, and his prices - affordable, and he gave out 25+ price sheets - and given the traffic at the shoppers fair, that's pretty amazing!
For at least the last three years I've wanted to sell my baby blanket bundles - my standard baby gift that I've been giving new babies for the last nine years. I wish I could say how many babies have gotten my blankets, but I've honestly lost count, the number of blankets I've made must be to 100 by now. (Kristy, I still need to send you directions on how I do these, I haven't forgotten!)
The baby boom is slowing (I only have six friends this year who are pregnant, instead of the 10+) while my stash of blanket fabric isn't getting smaller. I needed to clean house and let others enjoy these cute blankets.
So many things have kept me from doing it ... one of the main ones was finding an avenue to sell them. I wanted a way to sell them online - craft fairs/booths I've never felt would be worth my time - and having watched similar blankets on ebay I knew that wasn't the avenue for me.
This past summer my friend Heather started a shop on a website called ETSY.com - heatherhalesDESIGNS - selling super chic clothes and accessories for babies and toddlers along with unique housewares and other one-of-a-kind designs. And over the last 8 months, she's really well promoting and moving her inventory. Ever since Heather set up shop, I've known that if I ever decided to sell my blankets (and at the time I NEVER thought I would take this step) this was a perfect place to set up shop.
I started preparing to sell my stuff back in January, I knew that if I was going to do this I would do it all the way or not at all. That's just the kind of gal I am. I can't do a sloppy job of something like this to save my life. All the details had to be put together or I wasn't going to put myself out there. I needed a real name (Barb suggested, Tiny Stitches), a logo (created it in Publisher of all places), product tags, shopping bags (packaging), a functioning way to sell online (etsy.com) AND I needed inventory.
Given the demographics at the school, I decided to broaden my focus from just baby blankets to things older kids would also enjoy. So I went with three baby girl blanket bundles, two boy blanket bundles, two nuzzies, and an assortment of themed standard size pillowcases. I sold three pillowcases, one nuzzie, and two baby girl blanket bundles. And I'm hoping to sell an additional 2-3 bundles to women who requested specific bundles. We'll see, my shop has been live with true products since Wednesday night and people are taking a look which is fun to see. I'm hoping with some additional promotion on Mormonchic.com I can start moving my inventory.
www.tinystitches.etsy.com
