Can I just say

Oh my goodness.  Can I just say, I have found a great pencil sharpener!  I have been through more pencils sharpeners than I care to admit.  When I first started teaching I was advised to spend money on a good pencil sharpener.  "Kids go through them," they told me.  I picked out the most expensive one from the teacher supply catalog that my school provided me with.  It was lovely, but come Christmas, I needed a new one. Guess we burnt out the motor.  Since then, I have tried handheld cranks, fancy electric ones, inexpensive electric and frankly at home, I end up resorting to the tiny handheld one that came with a box of pencils once.  Last week I sharpened 2 dozen pencils for Bee with the little handheld and got a blister. 

With all of those pencil sharpeners, I struggled with burnt out motors and jammed blades. Sometimes the sharpeners would eat the pencil or worse yet leave it looking sharp and then when you use it, the lead just falls out.  You know what I'm talking about.  Sometimes they are loud and messy. Not a nice situation.

I digress.  Struggle no more, here is the answer.  I got hooked up with Classroom Friendly Supplies and was able to test out this lovely green model.  Lucky day for me!  This is a terrific find!  Both kids will be giving their teachers one for Christmas and My brother and sister will end up getting gifted with one for their classrooms too.  Look at all that Christmas shopping done!  

The Classroom Friendly pencil sharpener is quick, easy to use, quiet, and does a dependable job sharpening.  It leaves the pencil sharp and study and ready for writing.   The price is so decent, especially is you're ordering more than one.   The company is owned by a primary grade teacher who was also fed up with junk sharpeners and It comes in green, red, and blue (today all the red ones are sold out).

This lovely green one is going to school with me. I'm sure I'll post an update in a few months, but I have high hopes for this little guy's durability.  We've probably sharpened 100 pencils around the house (we clearly have a pencil hoarding issue) without one eaten up dud pencil.  

I even took it in to show my director at school and she seemed interested in getting one for each classroom.  While I had it there, I showed a few mom friends on the playground and we decided to place a order all together to take advantage of the discount price on 'bulk' orders.  It was so funny how excited all these grown ladies got about seeing a good pencil sharpener.  They too have wasted money on junky sharpeners in the past.

I would have to say that it's cleaner than most sharpeners, but there still is a little mess to it when dumping the shavings.   The drawer gets emptied easily from the front and easily goes back in.  I don't think there is a way to you get a pencil sharpener to be 100% clean in this aspect.

The pencil hole is one size, fitting the standard pencil.  My poor fat pencils will have to fine another sharpener.

This is not a paid advertisement, although I did receive a free pencil sharpener to test out.  All comments and thoughts about this awesome device are all mine.

the lunch bag

I saw a pattern for a lunch bag about a year ago at pink penguin.  I've been thinking about it for all this time and finally found it again and decided to make it.  (The free pattern and tutorial are here.)

I even had some of the same fabric as she did, so it just seemed to be fate.  The outside squares with the food choices and calorie count on them is a vintage handkerchief.  A sherry has 150 calories.  Pink Penguin had some reproduction fabric that was the same, but mine is old.  I can't remember if it's from my great grandma's collection or if I picked it up at a yard sale.  I can't believe I can't remember.   Regardless, I loved it and it has been hanging on my sewing room walls for three years waiting for the right project. The green checkered fabric and red with white dots are left over from Bee's birthday aprons.  The navy with lunch food on it is leftover from when I was making bunches of the sandwich wraps.

I think last year, this lunch bag intimidated me.  It's a medium difficulty project at least.  After these other recent medium-at-least projects, the bucket hats and the tatanne bag, I felt a little more confident about making it.

It's essentially a fabric basket/bucket with interfacing and insul-bright to help keep in the cold.  Then, a drawstring topper is added.  It's smaller than I thought, but it turns out it's plenty big for lunch food.  It isn't big enough for lunch a water, but that's not a big deal.

It was one of those projects that left me feeling really happy afterwards.  That probably has something to do with the other sewing projects I've been doing lately which involve a hundred yards of denim and leaves me feeling not so happy.  That's for another day.

writers

Take this whole picture in for a moment.  Lou is wearing a headlamp because it was too dark to see to do his writing.  I turned off the lights because it was time for bed.  He wouldn't let that stop him.  He's writing a book about a boy who wants to catch a butterfly.  Also- take note of this unique three finger hold pencil grip.  He's a weirdo.

Bee is writing about a family of rats.  Because?  Well, she can draw a really good rat.  

All summer I tried to get them to work on stories without luck.  My sister had given us some extra blank books from her classroom clean out.  I thought I'd let them work on a finished piece in the books, but we never made it that far.  They found the book and just started writing.  If you don't have a sister with extra books, I know you can get them at the teacher store for a few bucks each.  Hopefully your sister has some.

marble mazes for little hands

These marble mazes are super easy to make up and can be tweaked for different levels of maze navigators.  I'm sure I saw them somewhere, but I can't even say if it was in a catalog or online.  Wherever I saw it, I didn't make it up.

These four are pretty simple, I'm taking them into preschool.  

Bee and Lou are avid maze solvers.  They've always loved mazes and been surprisingly good at them. This maze gets sewn with a marble in between two layers of felt.  I used a piece of chalk to plan out the maze and then just sewed the paths.

They came together super quick.  I think each one probably took 10 minutes and that was with some planning time.  I sewed the two pieces of felt together first, with the marble inside the new pocket.  Then I drew on a maze leaving a good wide path for the marble.  Then I sewed the lines to create the walls and dead ends, etc.

I went back and added different colored thread a the start and finish of the maze to make those points.

oh yeah, those cream cheese things

Back in July when I shared Bee's birthday party, I mentioned these super delicious, super rich treats we served and said I'd share the recipe later in the week.  Well, I never did.  So, here it is.  We're talking about those pink and white squares.

Cream Cheese Party Melts (based on one I saw in Parents magazine Feb. 2011)

4 oz cream cheese -room temp

1 T butter  -room temp

1 T light corn syrup

1/4 t strawberry extract (the original recipe calls for mint)

Food coloring- your choice of color

3 C powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese,  butter, syrup, and extract together.  Beat in powdered sugar.  When it forms up into a dough ball, turn it out onto your work surface.  Add additional powdered sugar if necessary.  Divide dough into three pieces.  Leave one section plain white.  Dye the other two different grades of your color.  Roll the three pieces out and twist them together.  Cut the twisted rope into pieces and form into circles or squares.  These are rich, keep them small.  Lay them out on pieces of parchment paper and refrigerate.  Serve chilled. 

I also said that I'd share that punch recipe.  I'll have to share that later in the week.  Or in 2 months.

Happy first day of school

The kids were back to school this week.  It's nice to be back on our school schedule.  Plus, the errands get run much more quickly without them.

Bee is in second grade 

and Lou is in half day kindergarten.  

The kids got their schultuetes.  Long story short, but they mostly got coupons for things we can go do. (The longer part of that is that we are trying to bring less 'stuff' into the house.  Less kid trinkets and 'junk' toys.  I did a big clean out and went through the entire house pretty ruthlessly and weeded things out.  It felt good!)

They each have a list to help guide them through getting ready in the morning.  I don't prefer to have a checklist telling me what to do, but they really like it. 

Bee's schedule is pretty much the same as last year. 

They each took their teacher an apple.  Lou has two teachers this year.  He refused to pose for a picture with them. 

 But, here Bee is with her teacher on the first day. 

 Lou has done really well this week.  We were nervous, since preschool drop off did not go well the last several months of school.  We spent the summer visiting a therapist who has been helping him with separation and other anxieties.  We are off to a good start, although he asks when Saturday is when I wake him up each day.  He would like to sleep in. 

sewing things for a baby

I saw this sun ray baby toy in Parents magazine.  I look through magazines furiously when we take Lou to the therapist.  I only get to go in at the beginning and the end of his appointment.  The rest of the time, he is one on one with the therapist and I sit outside the door and look through magazines like it's my job. Parents was doing a review of the 'top' blogs and Made By Joel was rated as the best craft blog.  Featured was this little baby toy.  I loved it. 

I made it up for a friend's new little guy.  I had a dress started, but turned out to be a boy. 

I also made up this baby snuggler for her.  The free pattern is available here at Probably Actually.  We tried Bee's baby doll out in it before we delivered it.

Now she wants a doll sized version.  I went back to Probably Actually when I linked up just a moment ago and saw her little girl had asked for a doll sized one too.  Guess I know what I'll be sewing next.

All these baby things and no baby fever at our house!  Guess I'm over it all... Except when we delivered the gifts (and this little darling wooden teddy bear toy from plan toys) I got to hold the little baby for some time.  He was all newborn sweet and tiny and folded up in your arms.  ummmm.  Too sweet, but I bet he cries at night.  Cries a lot... yep.

new preschool table activities

Here are a few new preschool table activities that I have been working on.  I saw the balancing the marble on the golf tee at Pink and Green Mama.  She used floral foam instead of wood, but my preschoolers tear that up.  Man, do they make a mess of it.  I thought of some leftover wood slices from Lou's camp out party.  He helped me drill some holes in a slice. 

Then, while we were drilling in the slices, we grabbed another one and a bigger drill bit and made up a crayon holder. 

When I saw this cool ice cube tray at Target, I knew I wanted it for preschool.  I had picked up the little erasers in the same dollar section a month before.  I thought they'd be perfect.  The tweezers are from Lakeshore Learning.

I'll be able to use these parts and pieces for other activities too.  I love when that works out.

This one may be my favorite, but I'll have to wait until Easter.  When I saw this pattern for a vintage roll holder, I knew I wanted to make it up as an egg holder for an activity.  It makes up so easily.  The free pattern in available here at Ginger Cake.  Looking back at her tutorials to link up, I realized that's the same blog where I found the tutorial for the scrappy pumpkins I made almost 2 years ago.

I'm going to keep thinking about other uses for it, because I love it.  I don't think I'd put rolls it in, but something else for sure.

Look at this great scooper I found at the Target dollar section this week.  It was a long handled back scratcher.  I scored it with a knife, snapped it on the edge of the countertop and then melted the sharp edge with a lighter.  Luckily it all went well.  Isn't it cute?  I will think of many uses for it too!