1 Wreath 3 Looks

I wanted to create something unique for Mother's day... one of our mother's is actually receiving this gift, but because I'm late shipping it out, I'm not going to tell you who! I wrapped a wreath in twine, and gave it three different 'accessories' that will enable the user to get three different looks. Of course, they can add some of their own fun items for even more looks!

The first look has three red daisies clustered together. Each daisy is attached with two pins, so you can easily remove them or move the flowers in different areas of the wreath.

Next, I made three fabric rosettes, out of fourth of july themed material. Each of these have a straight pin in the center to hold them on.

The final looks has 3 yo-yos. Two are a floral yellow, and one is a solid pink. I love the feminie touch it adds!

I hope that one of our mom's loves this wreath as much as I do! A great tip for giving this as well, would be to continue giving them 'accessories' throughout the year- birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's, etc.

Fessin' Up from Last Friday & Makin' a Goal...er... Tuesday!

So, obviously, i'm behind. But, can't we cut myself some slack? After all, I'm 37 weeks pregnant with a 3 year old and a husband living out of state!

Here's how I did with my goals last week:
~I was able to ship my 2nd order to Little Bow Peep's and Heather K.
~ I finished evaluating my target student last week, his IEP is filled out on my part, and i'm just waiting on his conference this week!
~ I'm not sure how many case conferences I was able to hold last week, but I know that I'm starting to wind down with my elementary age students. Now, my preschools are a different story!
~ I've been working on the 3rd wholesale order to Little Bow Peep's, but I'm definitely not finished with it!
~ Mother's day gifts are going in the mail today (yes, i'm late) My mom and in-laws know that I always ship late. Maybe next year i'll be on time? And, G had a blast making their cards and decorating them with stickers!
~ I didn't do so great with cooking last week, but my grandma did! It was nice that cooking was one less thing I had to worry about in the evenings!

So, on to goals this week:
~ Head to the post office to ship items today and ship all Bow of the Month Club items by Friday!
~ Start packing up my room at school
~ I'm having a garage sale on Saturday, so I need to pick up some posters for advertising and hang those.
~ Work on the 3rd wholesale order for Little Bow Peep's.

I'm going to try to not overwhelm myself with too many goals this week! I have officially 2 weeks left until my scheduled induction, and I don't want to put myself into labor early!

What are your plans for this week?

Swagbucks: Are you a swagnut?

Swagbucks is the reward community that works! I've been participating for over a year, but I think this is the first time I've blogged about it. I have a few friends that randomly ask me about it, so instead of typing out all of this information several times, i'm going to do it one time-here- and then refer them back to this post! It'll save my typing fingers! And, if you haven't heard of or joined swagbucks, then here's your chance!

You'll want to join, by clicking the image below, or by using this link.

Once you join, you'll want to download their toolbar. You'll use this for searches and to earn daily points.

There are several ways to earn points and I'm going to walk you through a few of them.
~ Once you've downloaded the toolbar, make sure you 'login' daily. Mine does it automatically, so every time I open my internet browser for the day, I automatically get 1 point.
~ Then, you'll want to perform your first search. You use the toolbar, just as you would use google. I earn the most points, when I enter a two word phrase and hit enter, then, I go back and add in a third word to this two word phrase. For example. I type in 'good morning' and hit enter. Then, I add the word 'swagbucks' and I typically earn points. If this doesn't work the second time, then keep trying until you earn points. However, after 5 or so 3 word searches, I typically give up for a while.
~ At the top of the toolbar there is an 'earn' button. You'll want to click on it and do the following things:
> Go to 'daily polls' and answer the poll question.
> Go to 'trusted surveys' and you'll earn 1 point just by clicking on it.
> Then go to 'NOSO' and click through all of the special offers by clicking 'skip'. Once you get to the end you'll want to enter the captcha code for 2 points.

These are my daily activities. I do this first thing when logging on to the computer. And, I earn at least 5 points each day.

Other ways to earn points are by watching SBTV. There's a link to that in your toolbar as well. Just turn off your volume, open it, and shrink it to where you see the t.v. channel options and the meter. Once you earn 10%, click on another 'channel', until you earn 20%, then go to another channel, and so on until you reach 100%. You get 3 points every time you reach 100%. You can do this several times a day.

You can also complete your profile in the trusted surveys section and earn points. Of course, if you qualify and have time to complete the surveys, you can earn points this way as well.

On the swagbucks home page, there's typically a video you can watch for 2 points.

Don't forget to 'like' swagbucks on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. You can earn points by participating in discussions. You can also check out their blog posts for points and check the swidget- I have one my blog.

Now, what can you use these points for: I use mine for Amazon.com gift cards. But, there are other gift cards and prizes as well!

So, what are you waiting for?! Start searching & earning!

Baking Cinnamon Rolls

I'm sure you remember the cinnamon rolls that I posted the other day.... well, I was bragging about how delicious they were that I forgot I had taken pictures of G helping great-grandma make them!

G has had tons of fun with her great-grandmother this week. And, she's still quick to remind me that great-grandma is HER grandma, and not mine.

She also told great-greandma that she had beautiful gray hair!

And, my grandma has informed me that I will have to retrain G after she leaves. Apparently, G gets a treat of chocolate for eating her meals!

And, we've yet to have G pick out her own 'switch' or stand in time-out this week. Although, believe me, we've had a few temper tantrums. I'm surprised & impressed at how my grandma has handled them.

G has also made sure every morning that I was off to work so she and great-grandma can spend the day together by themselves!

Be Jealous

Yum! This is why I love my grandma, well, one of the many reasons!

She and G decided to bake cookies yesterday, but she couldn't find my baking powder or baking soda, so she dug through my cabinets, found some yeast, and made dough that she later made into cinnamon rolls.

Absolutely delish!

I'm thinking with her cooking and baking my weigh in at the doctor next week won't be so great!

My New Obsession: Headbands

Headbands are my absolute new obsession. I know, you've been seeing a lot more of these than the hair bows lately, but I'm having so much fun making them! I had to order my third supply of the vintage flowers last week, and I've already used them, and need to order my fourth!

Gretchen wore a vintage flower headband for Easter rather than a hair bow. It was much easier that day to pull it on her head, rather than taking some time to fix her hair. Plus, it was nice to see her in something a little different.

I've also started sporting these myself. Great for a messy hair day, but when you still want a little style. I made a simple black one for myself, which blends in to my hair, but is still fashionable and easy.

The fabric wrapped headbands are also a new favorite, because these can match the applique' shirts, plus the fabric rosette is not something that is seen too often, and can be perfect from toddlers to tweens. I even had an adult order one of these for herself last week in a black and white color combo. Again, perfect for those messy hair days when you want some style.

Most people are obsessed with the crochet headbands and flowers. I made these for Little Bow Peep's, but I promise, M has a few of her own. I'm actually going to take some to the hospital with us for her newborn photo shoot ~ we're blessed to have a professional photographer at the hospital~ The headbands are great for babies with no hair, and if your flowers are made as clips or bows are made on clips, then you can make them interchangeable and not be stuck with a million different crochet headbands.

I'm also working on a new style of headband, and hope to debut' it in the next few days. I'm just falling in love with the ease of them, and the style that they can add to your hair. What's your favorite style of headband?

36 weeks

I'm officially 9 months pregnant! I thought this day would never arrive, and now i'm beginning to think that M will never arrive. I know she will, but i'm ready. I'm not ready because there's a lot to do, but i'm ready for her to be here, to hold her, and to introduce her to G. I'm ready for my husband to be here for the week that she's born and i'm ready to move.

I apologize that the picture is so small, but as I tried to make it bigger, I realized I was only making myself look bigger, and at this point, it is NOT a good idea to make the already large pregnant lady look like a massive giant pregnant lady.

I did go to the doctor on Monday, and for those of you who aren't totally grossed out by this, i'm 50% effaced and only a tiny bit dialated. But, that's better than where I was with G. The entire last month I was at a standstill of zero. But, to be honest, because of that, i'm not getting my hopes up that i'll progress much more with M.

Most of M's bones should be fully hardened at this point (maybe that's why I crave milk, chocolate milk, and ice cream?) with the exception of her skull. And, i'm going to assume not much else is going on with her, since all of my pregnancy updates talk about AFTER she arrives, which doesn't help my anticipation!

As far as how i'm feeling. Fine. Seriously, I feel better than I did with Gretchen; I know, I keep saying that. But, i'm not near as swollen. If you look carefully at that tiny picture though you can see my cankles- lovely. And, I feel like a hippo, but someone told me I was the cutest pregnant lady they'd ever seen this morning, which made my heart skip a beat. Seriously, I need to hear those things when you feel like a giant whale walking around outside of their fish tank.

I am having a few braxton hicks contractions, and dare I say, possibly some 'real' ones as well? Honestly, I never felt them with Gretchen, so I don't really know what i'm feeling. Rolling over is still a pain, and forget about me getting up if I sit on the floor..... definitely not graceful.

Countdown to the induction is 3 weeks from today!

Teaching Tots: Handwriting Without Tears

Fine Motor Skills have always been a strength of G's. She loves to work puzzles and is able to copy simple strokes. Because I work closely with a lot of occupational therapists, I get to learn about fine motor development and it's been an important component of our curriculum with G. From early on, she's been exposed to puzzles and crayons, although I admit that scissors are still something she doesn't get too much experience with.

Some of the first strokes a child should copy are a horizontal and vertical line, followed by a circle and a +. More difficult shapes such as a square might come next and diagonal lines are probably last.

I was discussing ways to increase her handwriting development with our occupational therapist, and she suggested the Handwriting Without Tears program. Another benefit of working closely with other developmental therapists, is getting these items at a reduced price or figuring out ways to make them for free. So, our access to this program was not purchased through their website, but rather utilizing sources from the OT.

One of the first steps in the program is to teach vocabulary. Here's where my speech therapy background comes in. Your child needs to learn the vocabulary of long, short, big curve, little curve, horizontal and vertical, up, down, across, and diagonal.

I first exposed G to this program by 'playing' with the blocks, which are just pieces of foam that you can cut yourself. I showed her how to lay a long block or a short block either going across the page or up and down (horizontal). She then had to imitate how I placed the block. Imitation is one of the first stages of learning, so start here.
One of our next steps was to start with letter formation. Had I read the program before hand, this is NOT where you want to start! But, G is already able to draw some shapes and form a few letters on her own, so I thought it would be okay. As you can see above we made the letter 'H'.

You'll want a solid piece of foam with a smiley face in the corner, to cue your child that you always start at the top left side of the page- where the smiley face is. We layed 1 long block going down (horizontal), and then the 2nd block, finally putting another long block across the two horizaontal lines.

We then backed up to shapes. 'o' is another letter that G can easily form, so I wanted to teach her the vocabulary of big and little curves.

Again, you'll want to start with doing a straight line down (horizontal), then teach your child how to do a straight line across (vertical), and finally teach your child how to make a '+'. We actually call this a 'down across'.

Next, we went on to a square, which is actually more of a rectangle. But, this is a shape that she cannot write when she's drawing, so this is where we will continue in the program. I taught her to make the square by placing a short line down, then another line across, a line that goes up, and then the last line to go across.

Toward the end, G decided she wanted to make a 'train track'. She did this by placing several 'down acrosses'. I tried to reinforce the vocabulary she learned, by telling her that she was using little lines and that they were horizontal and vertical.

You can find out more about the Handwriting Without Tears program from their website. I do want to offer a disclaimer, that I am not an expert in the program and that I have not ever been to a training. My knowledge is based on what I've read and the handouts that we received from the OT. I have many friends who use this program with their own preschooler and I've heard nothing but wonderful things about the program. In fact, several of the preschool curriculum's I've looked at for preschools when we move is whether or not they use this program.

We will continue to make simple shapes and simple letters. G needs to learn the square and be able to master it on her own before I feel comfortable moving on. We'll next move on to 'x' and to a triangle. And we'll start with letters that are important to her (they're in her name) or that are simple to make.

You can easily make these 'blocks' by purchasing the foam pieces, cutting long straight lines, short straight lines, large 'c' and small 'c' (or the curved lines). You'll also need 1 solid piece of foam with the smiley face in the top left corner.

If you've used this program, your child has, or you've read about it, I'd love to hear your experiences!

Weekend Wrap Up & Make a Goal Monday

This weekend was fabulous! With the royal wedding on Friday, and my mom bringing my grandma, and spending time with the girls- it just doesn't get much better!

Gretchen and I spent Friday evening catching up on the Royal Wedding and she fell asleep on the couch waiting for Gee and great-grandma to arrive.

On Saturday morning, I was finally able to sleep in! We enjoyed breakfast together and then got ready for our day. We headed to Indy to their fabulous TJ Maxx. My mom spoiled her granddaughter's with a new picture for G's room in our new house, and a lamp for M's room. She also spoiled me with a new pair of pj's for the hospital. We enjoyed a late lunch at Red Robin, and a treat of ice cream for dinner!

Sunday was nice as well, as I was again able to sleep in a bit! Sadly, my mom left today, but my grandmother is here to stay! She'll be keeping G over the next few weeks as I finish up work and she'll be here just in case M decides to come early!

We had our 3rd house showing, and even though they weren't interested in the property, I'm hopeful that things are starting to look up, and I know that God will sell our house in his time.

I'm not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I know that this will week be busy! So, here's my list of things to accomplish:

1. Ship orders for Little Bow Peep's and Heather K.
2. I have an elementary student I need to finish evaluating and I have to write goals for his IEP.
3. I need to hold at least 5 case conferences this week. I have around 20 to finish up in the next three weeks, and I'm so tired of them looming over me.
4. I also have a 3rd wholesale order for Little Bow Peep's that I'd like to work on... it's already started, but I'd love to get most of it done this week.
5. Mother's day is Sunday. We have 1 gift purchased, and I plan on G making cards for each of her grandmother's.
6. Since my grandma is here, I also need to do better about actually cooking real food for dinner and not leaving it up to her. I can most likely cross off the house cleaning, because I know she'll help take care of that during the day.

Believe me, I'm counting down the next few weeks. As I'm so ready for our life to be back to 'normal'. I hope y'all have a great week as well and can accomplish many of your own goals!

May Bow of Month Club

Are you a member of Honey Pie Accessories' Bow of the Month Club? If so, you'll be receiving these vintage flower headbands in the mail within the next few days! If not we are always accepting new members throughout the year!

Here's how you can join:

You will receive 1 bow per month (it could be a holiday theme, or a basic solid color bow). These bows will be a surprise bow (no custom orders allowed), and may vary from month to month. (layered, single, clips, sculptured clips, characters, etc.) All bows will come on an alligator clip, unless otherwise requested.

Payment should be made through paypal. Payments will be received up front, and your bow will arrive in the mail by the 15th of each month. Shipping is included in the prices listed below. I will not ship to any other address, only those that are noted in the paypal payments. I will be taking 2 months off this year, as our 2nd child is due- you will receive those 2 bows in May or in July. You will not receive a bow in June (that bow will be sent at an earlier/later date) and the month received will be due to my discression.

You can choose from any of the following plans:
3 months: $ 20.00
4 months: $ 24.00
5 months: $ 30.00
6 months: $ 36.00
1 year: $ 60.00

You can join or request more information by leaving me some comment love, emailing me at elainewelte(at)gmail(dot)com or by leaving a comment on my facebook page.