Awesome Needle Craft Book for Kids

I have a collection of craft books in our home because my middle daughter loves to make a wide assortment of crafts.  But, I have never seen her as excited about any book in this collection as she is about the newest addition to that collection...

Stitch Camp: 18 Crafty Projects for Kids & Tweens by Nicole Blum and Catherine Newman

This book tackles the most popular fiber arts:  sewing, knitting, crochet, felting, embroidering, and weaving.  In the last few years, I have noticed how popular felting and weaving have become and they are new additions to the others which have long been popular hobbies.  It feels like all of these hobbies have been going through a revival and much of that is due to fun projects like these in this book!

In my middle daughter's words, "The directions are easy to follow.  The crafts are really cute and fun to make!  I can't wait to learn so much more from this book!"

When this book arrived at our home, I didn't even get to look at it for days on end.  My middle daughter absconded with it to her room and wouldn't let it go!  She started by making the bean bags and had already made ten of them within a few days.  She enjoyed them, and so did everyone she gave them to. 

Each section begins with directions about the craft and then follows with project directions.  After the project, more directions are included--followed by a project that needs those skills.  This pattern is repeated throughout the book, so that the child builds skills while doing projects along the way.  As a mom, I love that the materials for the projects aren't expensive.  I was impressed that there was even a note for left-handed crafters--suggesting that they look at the illustrations in the mirror and think about doing them backwards!  This was a thoughtful inclusion.  I think this Christmas I'm going to use several of these projects for my girls to make for others as gifts.  The Art Pillow is one that I know will be loved and easy to mail! 

A week after the book's arrival, a good friend of mine was visiting (who Sami wanted to share the book with) who gave this book a raving review as well.  She looked through it and was thoroughly impressed by the directions and crafts.  She wished for the book herself as an adult even though she already knows how to do each of the types of crafts included in this book. 

This book is one that I highly recommend if you have a child who loves to craft!  It's a treasure!

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Storey Books, but that these opinions are my own. 

Taking care of ourselves and the ones we love

We moved a little over a month ago and it feels like my children have had one injury after another!  First it was my son's broken toe the week before we moved.  That was followed by a jammed finger for my oldest daughter and then another jammed finger for my son.  Then, yesterday my oldest daughter and I lost control of Molly and she went after two dogs (who thankfully were behind a fence).  As we grabbed for the leash, Autumn's hands and mine got abrasions from the leash.  It was tough.  Autumn's hands got some bad scrapes.  They didn't bleed, but they were deep and they stung.  Mine stung too, but they weren't as bad. 

What surprises me is how quickly something can happen and how quickly someone can get hurt!  It's so hard when it's my kids.  I find that my big thing is to first calm them down.  Then, to figure out how to care for the injury. 

I used to keep a huge, heavy Mayo Clinic book on my shelf, but with this last move I took it to Goodwill so that it will find a new home.  But, a new small book has taken up residence in its place.  It's The Natural First Aid Handbook.  It tackles different topics, but ones that are more relevant to our lives.

The Natural First Aid Handbook was written by Brigette Mars who is an herbalist.  So, it is a first

aid book geared towards using more natural remedies. If you love essential oils, then this book would be right up your alley!  But, even if you're not (like me), it has a lot of helpful information.  For example, I liked the sections on Frostbite and Diarrhea.  She included several helpful pieces of information that I will definitely put to use!  Drawn illustrations are included when they are helpful to have. 

But, most of all, I love the size of this book.  In a world where everything seems to be getting bigger and bigger, this small book packs a huge punch.  I know that many people ask the question today, why do I need a book?  I can find everything I need online...  While it is true that we can find a lot of information online, that finding process takes time.  It's much faster and more efficient to have a compact reference book on the shelf that's easy to find when it's needed! 

Please note that I received a copy of this book from Storey books for review but that these opinions are my own. 

Moving and Adjusting

This past summer has been a crazy one for our family.  We put our house on the market and planned on moving when it sold.  In the midst of that, my husband got a new job.  Then, we got a contract.  But, just as we were moving things into storage... it fell through.  Then, we went on vacation and as we were coming back the contract went active and we had 2 1/2 weeks to move.

I came to remember the craziness, stress, and busyness of moving!  I also had forgotten how expensive it is to move!  What are the costs of moving?

It depends...

1.  Boxes and tape.

I was so blessed this time to have two friends who gave me a great amount of moving boxes that were in great shape!  For weeks, I made the rounds of local liquor stores to collect beer boxes--they're the perfect size for books so that they wouldn't be too heavy to move.  My family is full of readers, so we need lots of these boxes.  I packed at least 80 of these boxes for this move.

I bought 12 rolls of packing tape on Amazon.  It was the cheapest deal around--and it's cheaper than buying cheap duct tape.

I did also buy 1 roll of colored duct tape and put a small piece on each box that needed to go inside our home when we moved to separate them from the boxes that would be stored in the garage.


2.  Storage.

As we were getting ready to move the first time, we were going to get a pod... except that when we talked on the phone to the sales person, we realized we would have to get 3 or them.  3...  The glitch for us was that they were going to be placed on our parking pad which had wires over top of the pad and they weren't quite high enough for delivery of the pods.  They would also have to be delivered at different times, picked up and then another would be put in its place.

Complicated.

The cost of the pods was something we also hadn't realized.  It sounds inexpensive when you have 1 pod.  But, the pick up, storage, and delivery of the pods was going to cost us $1400 for 2 months.  That was with a 10% discount code that I found online.

I'm grateful we canceled the pods...
Because the contract fell through.

If we'd used pods, we would have been committed to the cost for a month.  There isn't any coming and going from that decision.

So, instead we decided to move things into self storage.  We chose a place nearby and began moving boxes.  Self Storage prorates the rent through the end of the month, but does not refund any unused portion of that month once it is paid for.  They will do automatic payments so that you don't miss a payment and lose your stuff!

When our contract fell through, we only lost $189 instead of $750 that would have been our POD investment.

In the end, when our house went under contract a month later, we opted to make choices about what to keep and get rid of.  What couldn't fit into our temporary home or garage are needed to find new homes--either with friends or through the Goodwill nearby via a donation.

3.  A Moving Truck.

When it came time for us to move, we rented a moving truck through Penske.  The choices we looked at were Uhaul and Penske.  They have different cost structures.  The cost breaks even at 100 miles.  More than 100 miles, Penske was the cheaper option.  But, if you can get the AAA discount with Penske, then Penske is cheaper after going only 52 miles.

4.  Movers (or Friends and Family)

I live with pain.  My husband and I knew we needed help.  One of my friends who moved earlier this summer hired movers to help them.  We have a church family that we sent an email out to--to ask for help.  Their help was such a blessing!  We had 15 people show up Saturday morning to help us move everything into the truck and had 8 people show up on the other end to help us take everything out.  We could never have done it without them!  Because of the help of our friends, we were able to return the truck in less than 24 hours!

5.  Food

This is one that I had forgotten about.  One of the biggest gifts we were given the day before we moved was a meal!  A friend brought us dinner-- a dinner that was enough for us to eat on Saturday after we had moved in.

I bought bagels, cream cheese, coffee, and orange juice for workers at the beginning.  On the other end, I bought subway sandwiches for lunch.

But, there's another extra cost for food--meals that we needed to eat out because our home took 5 days to unpack and for trips while we were looking for a new place to live and had to eat out.

6.  The in-between

I've discovered that everyone takes a different amount of time to unpack.  Some things go missing or can't be found for a little while.  The trick is figuring out what you need to replace in the meantime and what you need to make do without until you find it!


Moving is complicated and full of different costs a long the way... these are the ones that I've been learning about!