day two: sprocket pillows

my finished version of the sprocket pillow

day two and its sprocket pillows from the cluck cluck sew that i repinned from the pinterest gallery onto my general crafts board.  these just looked so cute and my daughter (pollyanna) surely needed a pretty throw pillow for her bedroom ;)

lucky for me when i purchased pollyanna's bed linen a couple of years ago, the linen came in coordinated cloth bags and this is the material i used, along with some white quilting material i had purchased years ago for the future when i become a quilter ... do you follow!  yip the quest to become a quilt still burns brightly it just hasn't happened yet!

awesome pattern from allison harris at cluck cluck sew

the pattern is free from cluck cluck sew and so with great gusto i stepped forth into pillow making with my stanley knife (unfortunately i don't yet have the quintessential quilting tool, the rotary cutter), my mum's sewing maching (yip that babies got to be 30 plus years old), and my material, plus two 10c buttons.  this project did not break the bank!  as i was using only the best tools, i decided to make the large version!  lucky for me allison harris at cluck cluck sew, provides the most awesome and straight forward instructions and i even managed to get the front looking pretty darn good ... even if i do say so!

the front of the pillow complete!

outcome: awesome and pollyanna loves it.  huge thanks goes to allison harris from cluck cluck sew for her free and very easy to understand sprocket pillow pattern.  it was a joy to make and i am not the most confident or skilled sewer by any stretch of the imagination :)

thank you cluck cluck sew for your sprocket pillow post

day one: peanut butter brownies

my version of the peanut butter brownies

ok day one was this yummy peanut butter brownies from the blog sweet as sugar cookies and repinned from the gallery onto my recipe must dos board on pinterest.  the picture looked so yummy and brownies and peanut butter are two of my families favourite foods! given i will need loads of their support over the coming 365 days, i figured it was a good idea to get them on board now with some yummy food.

you can see by my brands no expense was spared ... not!

the recipe is super simple, it called for a brownie box mix but i used the usborne apple tree farm childrens cookbook brownie recipe instead.  its a super simple recipe with no expensive or out of the ordinary ingredients so it fitted the bill nicely today! the peanut addition you blob on top only requires eggs, sugar, flour, and of course peanut butter mixed together with a spoon ...

outcome:  these were super duper easy and REALLY yummy, i would happily give them as a food gift and at the same time they are a great recipe if the kids want to bake in the kitchen ... totally making these again :)

thank you sweet as sugar cookies for your peanut brownie recipe post

a new beginning to my good old blog

my first post with my blog reborn as my personal venture into pinterest 365 (p365).  this blog will document my quest to attempt one of the beautiful recipes, crafts, or diy projects found on pinterest each day for 365 days.

it was a cold winters day, a friday when it occurred to me i needed to make the most of all the amazing talent and creativity available on my new addiction, pinterest .... a challenge is what i needed to get motivated and turn the beautiful eye candy i was pinning into reality .. and that is where my personal quest has come from.  so on friday, june 10 i embarked on my year long journey.

three days in and all is going well :) however i also realised i needed a way of documenting my journey so as not to lose the motivation and that is where this blog comes in. this blog will be my diary of the journey and also provide me the accountability i will no doubt need during the year to keep going.  if you are going to, or have started a similar journey i would love to have your company and we can cheer each other on.  if you are here because you support me as a pinterest addict and want to see my attempt to create other peoples beautiful projects, thank you ...

so let the year long journey begin :)

FIRST WEEK BACK HAS BEEN GREAT

Our first week back at school has been great, totally happy with all the new resources I ordered ... maybe all the research and indecision about the best resource combination is paying off now!  At the time, I wondered how on earth I was going to make the right choices as educating your children seems to have so many options and which ones are the best when each one claims to be the best is distressing for someone who and actually has to make that choice and actually cares it works!  Anyway all the effort appears not to be in vain as the kids are totally loving the options I have taken in each subject area.  It will take time to get the sentence attitude right again ... only one sentence to answer a question is generally not enough Ben ... and so the struggle to get this boy and this girl writing again begins!  Its something that I look forward to, just like last years challenges were hard but joyful in solving so will this years as well because you know you are doing it for the good of your children's development.

One of the most fabulous things we have instigated this year is the "Six Kinds of the Best" achievements program purchased from Curriculum Concepts ... it has had an awesome effect this week, the kids have really strived to be their best as the rewards for doing it are instant plus have the added bonus of counting towards BIG rewards they both want!  Can't speak highly enough of the impact this is having on their attitude to their learning, themselves, helping, the environment, and their community .. just awesome. 

So I welcome the year full of hope and being well organised for the exciting year ahead.  Wishing all of you who home educate a wonderful, rewarding year with your children.

WE START SCHOOL TOMORROW AND I CAN'T WAIT!

So excited we start schooling again tomorrow and now that the classroom is completely set up and ready to go the nerves are waning and I can't wait to get stuck in.  We waited until the kids went to sleep and then set up the classroom so it will be a big surprise when they get up tomorrow morning.  We have added a couple of new things to the classroom and heaps of new ideas, tricks, treats, and programmes to this year's timetable ... the classroom looks awesome and its ready and waiting for two little willing learners!

LET"S ADD SOME COLOUR

MME Damask Papers

I have decided this year to really simplify my approach.  In the past three years, I have made a determined use of my scrap pieces to complete each page of my DD, but this year I have decided to use only the red colour wave of patterned paper from MME damask range.  Love the feeling of warmth and Christmas I get when I look at these papers!  It just makes me want to bake Christmas mince pies!  The red will go really well with the time of year in NZ as well, given we celebrate Christmas during our summer season.  So the papers are gathered, tomorrow it will all be about the collection of embellishments, totally my favourite part!  Who doesn't love a bit of bling in their lives, even us linear gals like a bit of sparkle!  So the white is starting to look a little more festive with a shot of Christmas red ... totally loving reading and ogling everyones blogs listed on Ali's blog :)

FOUNDATION PAGES FOR DECEMBER DAILY

As I mentioned in my initial December Daily post, my pages are very white and very different from previous years! I have printed off my 26 days of December (I include Boxing Day for mine as we have family traditions we always participate in on that day as well!) ready to set off once again on this journey.  I will be posting each day where I am at with my December Daily, today was about the printing off of white foundation pages on white linen cardstock.  This year, my DD is an 8" x 8" album with clear acrylic covers.  I have used a Jolee's on the cover as I like the instant dimension you get from her embellishments (slightly lazy and unaltered but satisfying to have it underway and manageable!). 



Foundation pages ... very white!

This year I have also done something really different for me and that is printed all the numbers on each foundation page.  Depending on the photos for each day, I plan to embellish the actual "number boxes" and I love that each day this year has a dedicated box for journalling.  I am hoping this will make each day a little easier in terms of limiting the choices I have to make each day and making the process a little faster.  Even though I have done the foundation pages each year, some nights in December I have spent an hour trying to work out how to lay the journalling and photos together!  I'm a linear kinda gal and I am hoping this will narrow my nightly decision making process to only 1/2 an hour!  So loving seeing everybody else's, they are so cool.  If you come by my blog leave a comment and a link to your album so I can follow your progress each day as well.  Isn't Ali Edwards awesome for inspiration and sharing!