Thrift Shop Find: Fisher Price Animal 2x2 Game

Another great find at the local Thrift Shop.

I just saw the blue Fisher Price case and knew that something great was in it because it was the same case that Barnyard Bingo is in.

So when I got home and opened it up, I was thrilled to find what was inside.  A Matching / Animals / Memory / Tic Tac Toe game!  Perfect for our family.

So the game comes with 24 "coins", each of which are half of a whole.  They match up by animal (turtle, zebra, bumble bee), and then they fit together to make a whole coin.  At that point, you can also look at the shape on the coin that matches to the slot on the top of the ark.  It then drops into the ark like Connect 4.

This is such a great game for any child, but especially for a Special Needs kid.
Fine Motor:  not only does it take good coordination to put them into the ark, but matching them up is tricky too, and then keeping them together while putting them in is yet another level of skill.
Memory:  you can flip them all face down and play it like a memory game.
Matching:  we put three in a row (eventually four, then five, and so on) and have the boys match the one we hand them to the choices in the row.  We could also turn the choices over so they can start to learn to remember where the match is or isn't.
Colors/Shapes:  once the animals are matched, you need to talk about colors and shapes to get them into the ark.
Manding:  so easy to have a child mand for the coins simply by "coin" (or use the sign for it), by animal name (or sound!), or by shape name or color.
OT: make it a sensory activity!  Put the ark on one side of the room and hide the coins in the rice table on the other side of the room.  Dig for a coin, run it across the room and put it in the ark.  Or roll across the room.  Or pull yourself across on a scooter board.  Or put them in a bag and have the child reach in and pull them out one at a time.  Or put them in a baby wipes box and have the child reach in through the slot in the top to pull them out (Huggies wipes have a great rubbery slot that little hands reach into nicely and easily but also provide good resistance.)

So, while I hate it when other people post about great thrift shop finds that I will never have a hope in finding, I've discovered that you just never know what you might find, if you just open your eyes a little bit.

Language - Valentine's Day Cards

Ok, so I know that I keep tagging these as 3-Part Cards, and technically they are not.  I am working on making them 3-Part cards, but life keeps getting in the way.  I promise to get to it soon.

So Dew1's VB team was looking for some new vocabulary to work on, and with Valentine's Day coming up next month we decided that would be a good theme.

I came up with a few words - there really aren't too many for Valentine's Day - and here they are.

(ok, when I get the chance to make the cards, I'll take a picture of them and insert it here.  If I wait, I may never get the post up!)

I choose Cupid, Bow and Arrow, Chocolates, Valentine (card), and Heart.

The file is available for download here.

Valentine's Day Language Cards

Family Time - Game Night with Candy Land Castle Game

I'm really trying to get into having a regular Family Game Night.  I think it is important for all kids, but especially for Dew1 and Dew2 to learn everything that is involved with games.  Taking turns, having someone win (and technically, someone lose), following rules, taking care of toys ... all rules that our boys need to be reminded of often.  No pieces in mouths (a big one in our family!)

So this game was on Dew2's Christmas List, and was a gift from Uncle G.  Admittedly, I thought that it was going to be a challenge and learning activity for Dew2, but it turns out that he's already mastered matching shapes and colours.  So now it's an actual game!

I'm sure there are rules to follow (in fact, I know there are as they are printed on the back of the gingerbread play shapes), but here's how we played.  Each person got a Gingerbread board that has four shapes on it - two on the hands and two on the feet.  Each board has a different combination.  The plastic castle shape holds and dispenses the shapes.  They are put in the top of the castle, and when the plastic candy cane is pulled down, a coloured shape pops out the bottom.  We played that each person got a shape, and if it didn't match their gingerbread board, then it was put back into the castle.  Regardless of a match or not, each person got one shape per turn.

We played tonight for the first time, and had good success!  Everyone took turns nicely - Dew1 even repeated "My Turn" or "Dew2's turn", and no one lost their temper.  Each person worked the castle on their own turn, and everyone was fine about that.  We even got to play an entire game!  The boys didn't quite get it at first, so DaddyDew and I helped things along, like asking if they had a match, or deciding that they didn't and moving along to the next person.  But if they did have a match, we let them make it on their own.  And the amusing thing is that Dew2 won!  We celebrated the win together, and then cleaned up.  There was a bit of upset at the clean up, but everything went so well we just sang the clean up song to distract them.

A successful family event!  Yea!  We might be making progress yet.

Thrift Shop Find: Dot the Dog

Well, I'll start with Dot the Dog - A Matching & Memory Game.  Not my first find, but today's find and sitting right here beside me, so why not start there.

I found out about Dot the Dog when I was researching Tic-Tac-Tony (another post for another day.)  I believe it was Playskool's answer to Fisher Prices' popular puppy.  Both are wonderful for autistic kids for various reasons.

Dot the Dog was made in 1995, and I was lucky to find her on my Thrift Store shelf today.  Not only was she marked at 3.50, but she was tagged in green, which was half price this week!  A real bargain at 1.75!  I've seen her on ebay for upwards of $15-$20, but who knows what she really goes for.

And back in 1995, Playskool was doing it's "Ages & Stages" thing, which, as I read through the instructions (yes!  it had the original instructions in the package!), really helped me out a lot.

Dot is designed with a series of dots on her body.  When you pull down on her tail (Wag her tail), the pattern of dots (and fleas) changes.  On the back of her body hangs a series of cards (ingenious storage spot) which depict each possible pattern of dots and fleas.  Each pattern has a name, which is hidden behind the plastic dog tag hanging around Dot's neck.

So Stage 1 of play is simply to match the fleas.  You turn all of the cards face down, wag her tail, and have your Little One turn over a card.  If the flea size and colour matches, they get to keep the card and try again.  If not, it's the next person's turn, until all the cards are exhausted.

Stage 2 of play is to match the colour (and eventually the words) on the dog tags around Dot's neck.  It's similar in play to Stage 1 in that the cards are put face down and the tail is wagged, but this time you are looking to match the color of the tag.  Cards are turned over until a match is made, and then the tail is wagged to change it up and the play continues.  This is also memory oriented as you'll want to try to remember where the red tag card is for when it comes up, for example.

Stage 3 involves matching the dot and flea patterns.  The cards are all placed face up on the table, the dog tag is closed, and the tail is wagged.  Each player takes a turn, examining all of the cards to find the one that matches the dot and flea pattern.  When a match is made, the dog tag is opened to check if the player is correct (this is, of course, self corrected privately until it's confirmed to be right so the other players don't get a peek ... in case they were wrong the answer isn't blabbed to everyone.)  As this gets easier, you can alter it so that every player is racing to find the right card.

So for Dew1 especially, this game has a lot of great aspects.  As far as OT goes, the wagging of the tail is great fine motor skills.  Matching and memory work is what this game is all about.  It will work in with his ABLLS work nicely, as well as just working on his observation skills.  Not to mention manding.  But ultimately, games are great for learning about turn taking, following rules, behaviours regarding sitting at a table for a period of time, and winning and losing.  Plus, both Dews love to match and love dogs, so this is right up their alley.

So keep an eye out for Dot the Dog by Playskool.  It's a keeper!

(and yes, I stole the pictures from Ebay.  I'm feeling a bit rushed today.)

Our Story: The Local Thrift Shop

I just recently discovered my local thrift shop.  I can't believe it took me over 2 years to venture in to it (I spent at least a year telling myself and DaddyDew "I really want to go in and check that place out - I hear good things about it" every time we drove by.)  But I'm really grateful that I did go in finally.  It's addictive.  You just want to stalk the toy aisles constantly, and inevitably, like today, you'll see someone in line ahead of you with something that you wish you'd seen first, regardless of how excited you are about your find.

It's run by the Mennonites.  It supports all sorts of wonderful causes.  The toys are carefully examined and inspected - the boxes are taped shut to indicate (and ensure) that all pieces are inside.  Anything electronic has an "It Works!" sticker on it.  Everything is clean. 

And every time I have gone in, I have found a great find.  Something perfect for the Dews developmentally speaking.  And while I want to share them with you so you can keep your eyes out for otherwise innocent appearing items in your thrift shop, I apologize for sharing something that is not readily available.  I hate it when other blogs to that to me, but at the same time, it has opened my eyes to things I wouldn't have looked at otherwise.

Patience

Please be patient with me these days.

I started this blog for several reasons and with several intentions.

Main Reason:  to give back a little to the blogging community that has inspired me so very much, and enriched my children's lives in ways I never dreamed of.

Main Intention:  to blog on a daily basis about two special needs kids, our activities in many different areas of life, our progress, and as a result to create a resource of entries for other families to use.

However, as life often does, a huge curveball has been thrown to me and my time is not as available as it was a short while ago.  I am doing my best to keep all of the balls in my life in the air, but occasionally, one hits the ground for a bit.

So, if this blog is the ball that hits the ground occasionally, please bear with me.  Please don't give up on me.  I'll be back sooner rather than later (as opposed to my personal blog which I have visited later rather than sooner ...)

I put two new posts in today, so please check out about the Star Box, and Star Matching.

Thank you.

Tot School: Felt Star Matching

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I found my Star Box the other day.

And put it to good use.

We have a felt board mounted to our wall.  When I find the post that inspired it, I'll post about it.  Until then, please be satisfied with the statement that I have a felt board on our wall.

So I pulled out my Star Box, and opened it for Dew2.  We played with them for a while, checking them all out.  I have a weird assortment of colours now, because many were destroyed or taken home during my programs, and I'd have to hastily make more with whatever colours of felt we had on hand at the time.

We went to the felt board, and I put one of each colour up to the board, labeling the colour as I went. He tried to repeat me as much as he could.


Then we pulled out more stars, and I gave them to him to match.  He did really well!  I was very impressed with how well he matched his colours.

And it was a bit of a challenge for him to work standing up, and to get them to stick, which was also perfect.  When I can fit a bit of OT in, it's a good day :-)

So we matched stars.  And now it's a favourite activity.

The Star Box

I was cleaning up my work stuff the other day (in my real life, I'm a Children's Librarian) and I found my "Star Box".  It's an ornament box from Bloomingdale's (I used to live a few blocks from Bloomies in Manhattan and bought a lot of ornaments from there ... and for every ornament I bought, I got an ornament box because they are cute and cool and great for storage.)

At my old library, we were lucky enough to have an Ellison Machine.  I wish I'd had the foresight to make better use of it ... it would have been a great way to make the sandpaper letters that I keep meaning to make ... but I digress ... I used the star die for the Ellison Machine to make a boat load of felt stars.  So much faster and easier than with scissors, but you could do that, too.

So at the end of my toddler programs, I'd pull out the Stars.  Every child would come up and get 1 star for themselves and 1 for their Big Person (my way of addressing Mommies, Daddies, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Babysitters and Nannies in one sweeping statement.)  They would return and sit down, and we'd talk about the stars.  Count the points.  Look at the colour.  I'd run through the colour and have each child hold them up if they had that colour.  We'd see if they were soft (they're felt, so of course they're soft.)  We'd also see if they'd stick to our shirts - sometimes they would and sometimes they wouldn't ... it all depended on what they were wearing. 

We'd say the Star Rhyme ... "star light, star bright, first star I see tonight ..." and I would often hold up the Richard Scarry Nursery Rhyme Book page (a childhood favourite of mine!) for everyone to see while we said the rhyme.

The we'd sing "Twinkle Twinkle", and sometimes run into "The ABC Song" and "Baa Baa" as they all have the same tune.  Sometimes I'd have some props for the ABC song, sometimes not.  I did have a stuffed sheep (a Serta Counting Sheep, actually.  a treasured gift from a now passed dear friend) and I'd pull it out for Baa Baa.

And then we'd say good bye to the stars and the kids would come up and put them back in the box for me.

And that was my Star Box. 

And why am I writing about my Star Box?  Well, because when I found it this week, I put it to good use in another way.

But that's another post.

Bargains: Free Christmas Music Downloads on Amazon.com

Every day, Amazon is releasing a new free Christmas download.  Check HERE every day!

Tot School / Sensory Activity: Alphabet Rice Table Hunt

On a whim yesterday, I came up with this great idea that not only occupied both Dews for a good 10 minutes solid (!) but was such a good mix of things: sensory input, OT involving big muscles and work, alphabet identification, OT work using the magnet board standing up, and team work.  You can bet we'll be doing this again.

Materials:

1.  Alphabet Letters - from the Dollar Spot at Target, currently one of our Activity Packs.

2.  The Sensory Table - currently filled with Rice.  From Lakeshore Learning.

3.  The Magnet Board - a DIY from a blog suggestion.  I can't find the link now, but will post it as soon as I do.

4.  The Alphabet Strip - I made it from a word document - it matched a foam magnetic letter set that a friend passed down to us, and Dew1 loves to match the letters.  I should say Loved because many of them have, sadly, been chewed to a lettery death.

The Game:

1. Hide the letters in the Rice table.

2. Encourage the Dews to dig and hunt for the letters.
3. When they find one, they have to say which letter it is, and then run it across the room to the Magnet Board and match it on the Alphabet Strip. 

At this point, I asked Dew1 what sound the letter makes, because he knows them.  Dew2 doesn't know the name of his letters yet, so I told him which letter he had found, but he's getting really good at matching them so we cheered him on big time for that.

4.  Continue until all letters have been found.

This activity is excellent as an OT Sensory activity because they really have to dig for them, and then run across the room.  Then add the letter recognition, and letter sounds!

Next time, maybe I'll make them drag themselves on the scooter board!  I also intent to share this with Dew1's OT because he really liked it and it might be a good one for them to do together.  He enjoys his letters and he needs to do some good OT activities at the beginning of his session to chill him out.

Pretend Play: Freecycle Score! A Kitchen!

So, a few weeks ago I was casually scanning through our local Freecycle Digest email.  And I saw a post for a Wooden Play Kitchen.

Wait ... What?  Let me re-read that.
I can't deal with the volume of emails Freecycle generates so I get the digest, which sometimes means you miss out on stuff because of the delay. (in fact, it might have been a day later even when I read it.)  So I fired off an email to the poster.

Well, of course the response was that someone else had already emailed about it, but had failed to show once already.  One more no show and it was mine!

The next morning, bright and early was an email telling me that the kitchen was all for me!  I jumped into the car and off I went.

I wanted to get a kitchen for Dew1 last Christmas - his speech therapist suggested it as a language and pretend play developer - and we actually got a Little Tikes one in November from Toys R Us on one of their weekend doorbuster sales.  But three days before Christmas when I went to put it together, I discovered that there was no way it was going to assemble.  I was really annoyed with both it and myself for not believing the mixed reviews.  So it was boxed back up and returned to TRU.  And we never did find another one.  I think that we wanted to get something Super Cool like the 50's Diner from Step2, but knew in our hearts that it wasn't in the budget nor do we realistically have the space.

So this Freecycle Kitchen was perfect!  In our budget as well as nice and compact in size (and not Pink!).  She had mentioned that it was originally from Target, and that door fell off regularly, so that wasn't a surprise.  The post had said wooden, but in reality it's a laminate.  I had visions of refinishing it, but that's not going to happen.

So my plan is to clean it up (it was sitting on her front porch for 4 days waiting for a pick up), touch up the red wood parts that need a bit of paint, and possibly replace both front doors with a curtain - probably in black broadcloth as I have an armload of it in my fabric stash.  My Dad (PapaDew) is going to make us a faucet for the sink - I didn't really realize it was missing until I noticed the hole in the counter.  I'm going to get some baskets from the Dollar Store to store the play food we have.  The clock hands are broken, so I have to decide how to fix that - new hands?  a whole new clock mounted on top of the old one?  And I'm going to make a bunch more felt food for them so they can do a little more pretend play than what they can do now.

And once it's dressed up, it will be their Christmas Present!  Yeah, maybe sounds like I'm being cheap, but it's new to them, and in a way will be handmade by PapaDew and I.  And there is something fun about the story behind this.  One of my fondest Christmas memories is the year I got my new purple bike.  My parents will deny it to this day, but I knew it was my sister's blue bike spray painted purple for me.  But I loved it just the same - and what kid doesn't want to find a bike under the tree!  It took up the whole living room!

So this is my Freecycle find!  I'm so very excited.

(And if you haven't checked out Freecycle before, check it out now!  there are some very generous people out there sharing neat stuff - all in the name of keeping it out of the garbage.  And when I get around to cleaning out my clutter, I plan to Freecycle some stuff too, to pay forward the generosity others have paid to me.)

Ooh!  As I'm writing this, I look over and the Dews are playing with their play food right now!  Dew2 seems to be making a stew and Dew1 is making ice cream sundaes.  They are going to Love their kitchen!

I'll be sure to write about my progress, as well as 'after' pictures when it's done.  I'm so excited!

Language - Thanksgiving / Fall Cards

Ok, so I lied.
As I was cutting out the Christmas / Winter cards, something just felt wrong.  It's a sunny, warm day, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and I'm going to start teaching Dew1 about snowflakes and candy canes?  It's just not right.

So I did make a Thanksgiving / Fall card set.  They came from the same place as the Christmas / Winter ones ... Montessori For Everyone's Free Download page.

However, when Dew1's Verbal Behavioural Consultant was going over the cards, we realized that there were several that were missing that would be good ones for him to learn.

So I hopped onto Google Images and did some quick searching, into Microsoft Word, and as fast as you can say cut and paste, I made up some cards to add to the deck.  There was only one to add to the Thanksgiving cards, so it ended up in the middle of it.



You can download it here:
Christmas _ Thanksgiving Extras

Language - Christmas / Winter Cards

It's that time already.

Well, not quite.  But between my Canadian stubbornness to deal with the fact that Thanksgiving wasn't a month and a half ago, and my procrastinative skills, I just haven't wrapped my head around Thanksgiving yet, and it's a week away already.  So I figured I'd get a jumpstart on Christmas.

I have spent a lot of time googling Christmas 3 Part Cards, and I'm just not finding what I'd like to find.

But this is what I did find.

A great set of Christmas/Winter Matching Cards at Montessori For Everyone, in their Free Downloads Section (even better!).  They are not 3 Part in that they don't have words labelling the cards, but that's ok for now.  I like the fact that they are photographs, multi-cultural, and nice, large, clear images.  They are meant to be used as cards as well as a matching game, so once he's set with what they are, we'll start matching.

I also found a set of Christmas flash cards over at Free ESL Flash Cards.  I think that once Dew1 masters the Montessori set, we'll move on to these ones.  The images are iconographic, and when it comes to the ABLLS that he is doing, I know they prefer photographs to images.  But that doesn't mean that I don't want him to be exposed to both.

I know that some people don't love cards, but Dew1 really responds well to them and enjoys them, and I figure that it can't hurt to expand his vocabulary any way we can :-)

So, I guess ... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here...


Update:

Well, Dew1's Verbal Behaviour Consultant looked through them and we decided that there were several cards missing (and 1 missing in Thanksgiving) so I did some quick Google Images searching and came up with the following file.

 

Christmas _ Thanksgiving Extras

Activity Bags - Travel Coloring Book

So starting tomorrow, Dew2 and I have 30 minutes to kill every Monday morning while Dew1 has his speech therapy at a local school.  Eek!  Time to make more Activity Bags!

The other day while I was browsing through a store, I found a great little travel coloring book kit - it was a small, thick pad preprinted with a character (the one I saw happened to be Dora) and with it was a pack of crayons.  $8!  Um, not in our budget right now.  But I knew I could figure it out.

After a little research, I figured out how to use Adobe Acrobat to print Multiple Pages per Sheet.  Perfect!

So I went on a hunt, and found lots and lots of coloring pages for things I wanted.  I then printed them to a PDF using Bullzip PDF Printer.  Then, in a Very old but Full Version of Adobe Acrobat 5 that I bought a hundred years ago, I consolidated all of the PDFs into one large document.  At this point, I pulled up the Print Menu and selected the Multiple Pages per Sheet option - I selected 4.  And off we went.  If you don't own or have access to a version of Acrobat that will allow you to do this, you can print them individually - it just takes up more paper.  Or, there are various Free PDF creators online that may let you merge different files into one.

How To Print Multiple Pages per Sheet in Acrobat:
1. Select File, Print
2. Under Page Scaling, select Multiple Pages Per Sheet
3. Choose how many pages per sheet you'd like to print.
4. Click Print.

It's that easy.  And I printed on the back of some old scrap paper, so I was somewhat Green about it all, too.

And here's what happened next.

My printouts.  I selected 4 pages per sheet.

 Using my favourite Fiskars paper cutter, I chopped them up into their small wonderfulness.

Stacked in their themes.  There is Dora, Spongebob, Blue's Clues, Little Einsteins, and a whole set of Shapes.

I cut a piece of cardboard out of a shipping box that was headed to the recycle bin.  I also selected a fun blue binder clip from a pack I picked up on clearance at Staples over the summer.

The Completed Activity Bag!
Clipped together, the pictures and cardboard make a mini-clipboard.  Add a small pack of crayons, and toss it all in a pencil pouch (yeah, hard to see it on the black table ... sorry ...)

And you have a Travel Coloring Book Activity Bag all set to go.  I can't wait to try this out tomorrow.

Activity Bags

I was first introduced to Activity Bags through This Post at Chasing Cheerios.  Instantly, I was hooked.  As time evolved, they decided to use pencil pouches instead of ziploc bags - and while I liked this idea, I quickly realized that fabric and zipper pencil pouches are just not in our budget.  During the summer Back To School sales at Target, I found vinyl zip pencil pouches on sale for 50c a piece.  Hmm...  I'm sure they won't be as durable as the fabric zipper style, and hopefully in time we can move over to those.  But for now, this is working for us.

So far, they have traveled to Canada with us on vacation, to numerous doctor appointments, and on day trips to see family. 

As time goes on, I'll be sharing them.  I love to see what others make for Activity Bags so it's only fair to share ours, too.

Quiet Book - Shape Puzzle Page

My first page!  You'd think I'd have chosen an easier one, but the inspiration to it looked easy ... and then I started to modify it a little and then trouble began.

I used a Discovery Toys Progressive Puzzle as the pattern.  Traced it onto the white felt, then cut it apart.  My first mistake.  Were I to do it again, or help anyone else do it, I'd do this.

1. Trace the puzzle onto the felt.

2. With the felt still in a square, sew the velcro onto the white pieces.

3.  Arrange and sew the shapes onto the white felt.  Be sure to watch how they overlap the piece lines so there are not any little pieces hanging around or left behind.  Each shape will require two separate sewing lines - around one half and then on the inside of the jigsaw shape, and then around the other side and on the inside of the jigsaw shape.  When sewing the shapes on, be sure to follow the jigsaw lines on the pieces. 

4.  Take your scissors and carefully cut along the jigsaw lines.  you will cut through the shapes, but because of your careful sewing, the pieces will separate perfectly.

I, on the other hand, cut the pieces apart, then had to fit them together and pin the pieces on.  And then I cut again.  Doh.  Then I had to sew the open jigsaw parts together (I should have done it by hand at this point) and everything was sliding around and it got very messy.

The bottom.  I traced the paper shape patterns onto the background, and stitched around it with black thread.  Also, sewed on the velcro after matching it up to the pieces.

All in all, I'm very happy with it.  Doing it a second time would be so much easier ... but isn't it always?

Quiet Book - Simplicity Patterns

So I found these two patterns in the Simplicity Pattern Book.  I bought them both one day when JoAnn's had a 10/$10 sale on them.

Neither have left their envelopes.  I meant to make the Christmas one for Dew2 for his first Christmas, and then didn't.  Financially, the fabric was just a little too much at the time.  But hopefully for this year?  The more I look at it, the more I realize that the fabric doesn't have to be that fancy - all on felt would be just fine.  Next time felt goes on 20/$1 I'm all over it.

And the regular one - even though I no longer plan to make the book this particular way, I plan to make these pages using the patterns.

Simplicity #3709 - Baby's First Book

Simplicity #2726 - Holiday Soft Book

Quiet Book - The Project Begins

I'm not sure how it started.  I believe it was when we decided to drive to Canada to visit my parents.  I knew that it was a 9 hour drive, but at the time we didn't realize that we'd drive it overnight, so all I could think of was ways to keep the Dews occupied. (of course, once we decided to drive overnight so they could sleep, my time constraint to get it done was gone ... so the project has lingered ...)

I had already fallen in love with the idea of Activity Bags (oh I'll post more about them as time goes on.)  But I was fascinated with the idea of a Quiet Book.  I think that I wish I'd had one when I was little.


About a year ago, I googled it and all I really found was the link to the Simplicity Pattern (which I picked up one time when JoAnn's had a 10/$10 sale.  I also got a Christmas Quiet Book pattern that day.)  Both patterns remain unopened.


So then I googled it again a few months ago.  Wow!  What a difference!  Links galore!  I was so happy to see such a wealth of information.  But, of course, with such information comes decisions.


Do I make one that is stitched together and done?  Do I make one in a 3-ring binder?  Do I just make loose pages and put them into a folio of some sort?  Do I put grommets in the edges and use binder rings?  Everyone has a different approach, and I love them all.


So I just decided to start sewing and see what happens.

My Decisions:

1.  Page Size:  I decided to use 12x12 (before sewing.)
2.  Page Fabric:  I decided to use muslin, but then scored a huge hit on Freecycle - a woman had purchased the contents of a fabric store and was giving away everything she didn't want!  I am not kidding when I tell you that I could have filled my car.  I had to be careful b/c we don't have tons of room, and a lot of it was knits, but i did find a good amount of medium weight fabric that will work well for the backgrounds on these pages.
3.  Binding:  I decided to go with the buttonhole on the edge / bound with binder rings.  I will make cover pages at some point.  I have yet to actually buttonhole and bind any, but then again, I've only made about 4 pages.


I will try to include patterns when I can.  I have found myself to be frustrated by blogs that I am inspired by but don't have patterns, so I've tried to stop myself and scan when I can.


My pages are few and not bound, and, in fact, my book is well in it's infancy.  I've been distracted by one of thousands of other projects.  By the time I finish this, my grandchildren may be the ones playing with it.


I will do another post with links to my inspiration blog pages.

Coupons - Nabisco Coupon Book Find!

Coupon Book Find - Nabisco Keep the Jingle in your Holidays Party Planner booklet with $40 in savings

I found it at ACME (Albertsons) in a display with Ritz Crackers - Snowflake Style.

Inside are the following coupons:

$5 off Clue Secret and Spies game (1.31.10)
$5 off The Game of Things (1.31.10)

All other coupons expire 1.15.10
$1.50 off any 1 starbucks coffee 12 oz bags
55c off any 1 nilla wafers, any variety, 11-12 oz
$1 off any 2 maxwell house 10.5 oz or larger
$1 off any 2 general foods international packages
$1 off any 2 toasted chips varieties (pictured wheat thins and ritz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 honey maid grahams 10 oz - 14.4 oz
$1 off any 2 ritz crackers (13 oz-16 oz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 triscuit crackers prodcut (8 oz - 9.5 oz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 wheat things crackers (7.5 oz - 10 oz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 planters nuts 9.25 oz - 21.25 oz
$1 off any 2  of the following:
- Nabisco stoned wheat thins
- sociables
- better cheddars
- chicken in a biskit
- easy cheese

TWO different $10 Mail In Rebates:

Save $10 when you buy 10 participating Nabisco crackers, easy cheese, planters nuts receipts dated 10/1/09 - 11/30/09.
Save $10 when you buy 10 participating Nabisco crackers, easy cheese, planters nuts receipts dated 12/1/09 - 1/31/10.

Giveaway - Katie's Nesting Spot / Green Toys Inc

Katie's Nesting Spot, along with Green Toys, is giving away a Green Toys Dish Set.  Seeing as how I just scored a Play Kitchen for the Dews for Christmas (more about that later), this would make a great addition to that.

Upon checking out their site, I discovered that Green Toys has a bunch of really nice play kitchen accessories, and next to the Dish Set, we really liked the Chef's Set.