Miscellany

A few things for today.

• This is the very last day to enter the giveaway for a free month of advertising in July! All you have to do is leave a comment. Go do it!
  
  
• Giveaway alert! Our Summer Fun Series is halfway over! At the end I'd love to do a giveaway of a box of fun stuff for kids. What do you think? If you are a blogger or business owner, would you like to sponsor a small item in the box? Email me for more info. zucchinisummer AT gmail DOT com
  
  
• I just ordered stickers from moo.
  They are going to look like this:

Well they will be smaller than that. But they are cute and I'm excited!

Happy Thursday!

*Starfish* It made a difference for that one.

Searching for Starfish print from ImaginArt

Have you heard the Starfish Legend?
It is so inspiring to me. Allow me to share from epistle.us

A vacationing businessman was walking along a beach when he saw a young boy.
Along the shore were many starfish that had been washed up by the tide and were sure to die before the tide returned.
The boy walked slowly along the shore and occasionally reached down and tossed the beached starfish back into the ocean.
The businessman, hoping to teach the boy a little lesson in common sense, walked up to the boy and said, "I have been watching what you are doing, son.
You have a good heart, and I know you mean well, but do you realize how many beaches there are around here and how many starfish are dying on every beach every day. Surely such an industrious and kind hearted boy such as yourself could find something better to do with your time.
Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?"
The boy looked up at the man, and then he looked down at a starfish by his feet. He picked up the starfish, and as he gently tossed it back into the ocean, he said, "It makes a difference to that one”.

This story reminds me that you don't have to save the entire world. So often I see a need and want to fix ALL of it. I want to provide EVERYONE in Joplin, MO with quilts for their beds. I want to give the battered women's shelter enough hygeine items for the entire year. But I can't. So too often I sit paralyzed and do nothing. A lot of good that does. The Starfish story reminds me to give what I can. A few deodorants to a group going to Joplin. Some pillows to the women's shelter. I can't save everyone. But I can make a difference in the lives of a few.

I challenge all of you, my dear readers, to find a way to make a difference in the life of ONE this week. Go ahead and give the $1 extra at the cash register to help the local hospital. Buy one book for the school library. Serve in Sunday School for one hour. Whatever it may be.

There are no gimmicks here. There is no giveaway with this. The only giveaway is you, giving of yourself. And making a difference in the life of one.

Turquoise decorative starfish from BeaufifulDetailsWed

Adorable amigurumi starfish from glycosidic

Starfish Mobile from KATuk

Starfish necklace from Don'tWorryBeHippie

Sharing the inspiration at these links:

Someday Crafts

Serenity Now

Accessorize --A treasury for Tuesday

It was time to make another treasury of great finds on etsy. This time I went the accessories route. Earrings and shoes! I paired each set of earrings with a set of shoes that would go nicely. Hope you enjoy the pretties!

Summer Fun Series--Week 4!

Welcome to Week 4 of the Summer Fun series! We are half-way through the series of 8 weeks! Thanks for joining in and a big thank you to those who have put a button on their blog or in their summer fun posts!

If you missed the first three weeks, you can catch up here: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3

Here are this week's activities:

Monday: Picnic Lunch

Pretty self-explanatory, eh? You can go in your backyard, on your living room floor, or to a park. Buy some fast food, or pack an actual basket with PBJ, pretzel

s, apples, and juice boxes.

Tuesday: Visit your grandma

You can visit your parents or your grandparents. My grandparents are all 70+ and love to get visitors. We don't do if often enough though! If you don't have your family nearby or available, visit someone else's grandparents! An older neighbor, a retirement home, etc.

Wednesday: Cooking with Kids

Try out a new recipe today. Who knows, maybe the formerly picky little people will decide they LIKE asparagus? Or perhaps you try a new kind of cookie. Involve the kids in measuring, mixing, and of course, clean up!

Thursday: Outdoor Olympics

Hold an Outdoor Olympics with your kids. You can create your own ideas according to your children's ages, but here are some ideas:

--20 foot dash

--relay race

--spin in a circle 4 times and then run to the end of the driveway and back

--who can carry a cotton ball on a spoon the furthest without dropping it

--how many times can you and your partner throw a wet sponge back and forth without dropping it? 20? 40? 100?!

--Simon Says

--3 legged races

--sack races (use pillowcases)

Friday: Lunch with the letter P

Brainstorm with your kids what you can have for lunch that starts with a P. Try to make the whole meal all "P" foods. (Hint, if you are stumped, here are what I've come up with: peas, pears, prunes, plums, peanut butter, pasta, pulled pork, penne pasta, pickles, pink grapefruit, pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, Pringles, pudding, popsicles, pork patty sandwiches)

Linking here:

Sponsor Love

This month's sponsor is Thrifty Mom Spot. See her little button in the sidebar? --> It is cute!

Heather's blog is full of thrifty fun, giveaways, reviews, and recipes. Her perfect pancake sounds like one to try!

Ingredients:

1 Cup All-Purpose Flour

2 Tablespoons Sugar

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 Egg, Beaten

1 Cup Milk

2 Tablespoons Oil

Directions:

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a wire whisk. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and set aside. In a seperate bowl, combine the beaten egg, milk and oil. Stir until moistened. Add wet ingredients to the dry. Mix together, adding extra flour if too soupy. Using a ladle or a cup with a spout pour batter onto a pre-heated (medium heat) skillet or griddle to desired sized. Cook each side about 2 minutes each until lightly browned. Serve with desired toppings.

So go check her out and show some love! You just might find a giveaway or recipe you can't live without!

Friday Favorites---Old Navy Style

Man am I on the hunt for cute boy clothes! Here are some things I like from Old Navy. Where have you found great kid clothes lately? Leave me links or ideas in the comments section!

Oxford Baby Shirt-$14.94

Loose Fit Jeans for baby-$16.94

Argyle Polo--$8.99

And a few fun finds for mom:

Women's Plus Jacket--$36.94

Handbag--$19.94

Linking at:
Serenity Now

A Little Knick Knack

Giveaway: 1 month free ad on my blog!

This giveaway is for a month-long sponsor spot on my page! The winner's button will be posted in the sidebar for all of July. The button can be to your blog, website, etsy store, etc.

PLUS, sponsors also receive a write-up about them in one of my blog posts, including photos if applicable, and links back to their blog/shop.

Wanna win? Of course you do! Here's how!

To enter:

*leave a comment telling me your favorite summer-time food

For additional entries:

*follow my blog! (1 extra entry)

*tweet about this giveaway and tag @zucchinisummer in the tweet,

leave a comment saying you did this (1 extra entry)

Total of 3 possible entries per person!

Entries close at 11:59pm (EST) on June 30th!

Fine print:

-Your ad and blog/website must be family friendly. (No nudie stuff!)

-Winner will be drawn using a random number generator and notified within 12 hours.

-Winner has 24 hours to send me their button or another winner will be chosen.

Linked at Dittle Dattle

Wordless Wednesday--Favorites Edition

Today's Wordless Wednesday welcomes in summer with some of my favorite picnic supplies from etsy. Enjoy!

Invitations from JeniOCreations

Picnic Quilt from SouthernCharmQuilts

Silverware wrap from TheStraightStitch

Squeal with excitement over this cuteness!

These are felt flashcards!

How adorable are they!?

The genius crafting sisters at Shwin & Shwin made them. And now I am completely needing to make a set for our youngest child. Maybe as a Christmas gift? I don't know but he needs this cuteness!

If you want to make some too, get the full instructions from Shwin and Shwin. It looks appropriate for my skill-level. (Read that as "This is so cute and easy that even a fool can't mess it up!")

Summer Fun Series--Week 3!

Welcome to week 3 of the Summer Fun series! I hope you are all having lots of fun with your kiddos so far!

If you missed the first two weeks, you can catch up here:Week 1

Week 2

<center> <a href="http://www.zucchinisummeretsy.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac304/journeythroughgrief/summerseriesbutton.jpg"/></a></center>

Here are this week's activities:

Monday-Shaving Cream Play!

I learned about this when working in a school. Clean off your kitchen table and squirt some shaving cream in front of each child. They can squeeze it and play to their hearts content!

It will be messy but it cleans up easily. Your wood table should be fine too, the cream has never stripped off my finish.

*Older kid variation.....practice spelling words by writing in the cream.

Tuesday-Dollar Store Field Trip

Visit your local shop where everything is a buck. Give each kid a dollar to spend and see who can find the funniest item or most useful, etc (decide on the theme before you go in)

Wednesday-Postcard Day

In week 1, we sent a postcard to a cousin or friend. This time have your child mail a postcard to a grandparent. If you have an itty-bitty, just do their handprint! Toddlers can scribble with crayons. Preschoolers can sign their name, and older kids can write a sentence or two about what they've been doing (shaving cream!)

Thursday-Pool Time!

Have you taken your kids to the pool yet this summer? Take the time to go today! Remember to load up on the sunscreen and plenty of fluids!

Friday-Click, Clack, Moo

Take a few minutes to read MY favorite children's book aloud to your kids! Have them say the "click," "clack," and "moo" parts with you. If you have access to a typewriter, dig it out and let the kids type their own letters! Sing Old MacDonald and be sure to include the ducks and cows!

Linking up the fun at these parties:

Thrifty Thursday The 36th Avenue

Feeling better about my house

I just stumbled on this post from Hooked on Houses from back in February. She talks about how our houses don't have to look like stores. With perfect vignettes everywhere.

It is really well written and I'm feeling much better about my own house now! Go check it out! And browse around while you're there, lots to see and read!

Wordless Wednesday--Breakfast with Ginger

Summer Fun Series-Week 2

Summer Fun! How was last week for you? Here are this week's list of fun activities to keep your kids busy!

<center><a href="http://www.zucchinisummeretsy.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac304/journeythroughgrief/summerseriesbutton.jpg"/></a></center>

(And if you'd like to grab the button above and put it on one of YOUR posts about summer fun for kids, I'd be honored!)

Monday--Lego ChallengeBreak out the Legos (or Duplos for smaller kids).

Give each participant 10 and challenge them to see what they can build in 2 minutes. Expand on the fun by then having them trade legos and build with the other person's set of 10. Finally, have all the kids work together to beat the timer...see how big of a tower they can build in 4 minutes!

Tuesday--Marble Painting

Line an old baking sheet or a disposable pie plate with the paper you want to paint on. Let your kids squirt a few colors in the middle or the edges. Then drop in a marble or

two and let your child roll them around to create a painting.

Wednesday--Vacation Bible School

Find a local Vacation Bible School and get your children signed up! Our church completed the "Inside Out and Upside Down on Main Street" curriculum for this year and the kids had so much fun!

Thursday--"Car Wash"

Get out the hose and a bucket of soapy water with sponges. Line up all the kids bikes, scooters, Power Wheels, etc and have them go through the car wash! One child can "drive" through, while another uses the sponge to clean their vehicle, and another child does the final rinse with the hose at the end of the line. Be sure they wear clothes that can get WET!

Aren't these kids cute? They aren't mine. Although mine are cute too. I googled to find a pic of a kids' car wash and this came up, along with this post about having one!

Friday--Reading and Geography

Read two or three books about a culture different than your own. Use a map to locate where the people in the story are from.

Strawberry Festival

Does your town have an annual Strawberry Festival? Ours does! It is the place to be! It sure seems like everyone in town shows up. In honor of the fun, here are some festive strawberry finds you might enjoy!

Cozy baby quilt!

Photo and item from SewnNatural.

How about having your own strawberry party!?

From: PartyPaperCreations

Every baby needs a strawberry hat to wear to the festival!

Adorable photo and item from TwoGirlsPatterns.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Summer!

A first for me!

Recently I found a locally owned quilt shop. Well okay it is really 45 minutes from my house. But that counts as "local" right?

Anyway, I bought something.

Image from clotide

My first every charm pack! This is Dilly Dally from Moda. Cute and fun! It is begging to be made into a quilt....that is after I finish the rag quilt...

image from amazon

What about you? Have you tried charm packs, jelly rolls, or layer cakes yet? Do you like the precuts?

New Summer Series!

Welcome to my new Summer Fun Series! Grab a button and post it on your blog sidebar, or in a blog post about summer fun ideas!

<center><a href="http://www.zucchinisummeretsy.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac304/journeythroughgrief/summerseriesbutton.jpg"/></a></center>

The Summer Fun Series will be 8 weeks long. Each Sunday night I will post, giving you 5 different activities to do with your children. One for each day of the week (minus weekends, obviously).

My goal for the activities is that they will be:

• --appropriate for a wide variety of age groups
• --entertaining
• --sometimes educational
• --largely inexpensive
• --require very little prep work
• --easily adapted to a DIFFERENT day of the week if need be for you.

Ready? Let's go!

Week 1

---------

Monday: Build a tent out of blankets in the living room and watch a movie or read books.

Tuesday: Have your child write and address a postcard to a cousin or friend. Hint...you can buy blank postcards, pre-stamped, at most post offices!

Wednesday: Slip and Slide in the yard! If you don't have a slip and slide, you can pu

rchase one for under $20 at most "mart" stores, OR just play in the sprinkler!

Thursday: Go for a walk and have each child find and keep a rock. Go home and let them pain their new "pet rocks!" Add googly eyes for extra fun if you have them. Kids can make accessories too....paper crowns, construction paper feet glued on the bottom, use a fabric scrap to make a skirt, etc.

pet rock image from cutable

Friday: Visit your local library and sign up for the Summer Reading Program if you haven't already.

Linked up at:
A Little Knick Knack

Serenity Now