Very Hungry Caterpillar (Birthday Invitations)

Today's letter for the A-Z Challenge is V.

Here are four of my favorite Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday theme invitation ideas!  This is a great theme for a first birthday or a baby shower!

1. Easy to DIY!

From this blog where the author has lots of other great ideas for planning a Very Hungry Caterpillar party!

2.  Mason Jar

I love how this one uses a hole punch to make little "chewed" spots on the leaf! From Pottery Barn Kids.

3. Fingerprint Caterpillars
This one uses the birthday child's fingerprints to create!  How special (and easy!)

From here

4.  Inch on over!


These can be purchased from The Opened Envelope

Unbelievably Funny

Hi. I'm still here. Plugging away at the Blogging A to Z challenge.

Today's letter is U and U is for Unbelievably Funny.

Who is so funny?

Honest Toddler, that's who!

If toddlers could tweet, this is what it would look like.

If anyone wants some shoes I kicked mine off. Good condition, barely worn.
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) April 23, 2014

Take a moment to thank your parents for creating enemies that live under the same roof. #SiblingDay
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) April 10, 2014

We're going to Target for paper towels. See you in three hundred dollars.
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) March 27, 2014

I understand people who are vegetarian except for fish because I'm paleo except for bread.
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) March 24, 2014

Babysitter is here. Asking me all kinds of personal questions. "What's your favorite color." "What games do you like" GET AWAY FROM ME
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) March 21, 2014

I love following Honest Toddler on twitter, and you will too!

Twitter Tips and Manners

You know what tweets I don't pay much attention to?  The ones that say "Here's my blog post, please read it! <link>"

Yawn.

Before I really understood twitter I was guilty of similar stupid tweets.  Sorry about that.

Then I started reading twitter tips and paying attention and finding awesome tweeters.  And I learned a thing or two.

1. Don't just tweet links. It's boring and no one is going to click anyway.  Give me a reason to click.  Like if you wrote a post about kitchen organization tweet something like "If you've ever lost your can opener, this kitchen organization post is for you <link>!"  That's much more interesting and I'm highly likely to click over to read.  And yes, we've lost our can opener before. It involved a frantic trip to the dollar store to get a junky new one so I could continue making dinner.  Good times.

2. Interact with people.  Twitter is very conversational.  See a post you like?  Write back and comment to the person.  Tweet about trending topics, tweet to your followers or people YOU follow.  Tweet at a celebrity if you want, sometimes they tweet back.  I keep begging Shonda Rhimes for Grey's Anatomy spoilers and she has yet to deliver.  I'm holding out hope though.  :)

3.  Follow back.  When someone follows me, I've started almost always following back.  It's a nice reciprocation and I find that I enjoy reading what they have to say.

4. Follow others.  I follow plenty of people who DON'T follow me. I follow because I'm interested in them.  Sometimes I tweet to them, sometimes I just read what they post.  Sometimes they end up following me back, sometimes they don't.  Find people with similar interests and follow them, you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of twitter!

5. Favorite or Retweet from others.  This is a nice way to be social.  I know that I am so appreciative when someone retweets one of my tweets or tweets out a link from my blog!  If you get retweeted be sure to thank them or favorite it.

I hope these little tips helped you out!  You can find me tweeting about all sorts of stuff HERE.

Six Movies I Haven't Seen

Some of these are classics, some are just pop-culture trendy, but nonetheless, I haven't seen any of them.  How many of the six have you seen?

 

1. Twilight.
Don't even try to convince me to see it.  

2. The Heat
This is at the top of my want-to-see list, just haven't gotten around to it yet!

3. The Book Thief
Did you read the book?  See the movie?  Is the book better?  I'm about half done with the book and want to finish it before getting the movie.

4. A Few Good Men
Seen bits and pieces but never the whole thing in one setting.

5. Love, Actually
Everyone seems to think this is a fantastic movie. Is it?  Should I try to rent it sometime?  Will it make me cry because I want to be prepared!

6. The Graduate
Wasn't this Dustin Hoffman's big break?  I love him but not sure I'm at all interested in seeing this particular movie.


 

Realizing I've done this whole thing wrong

You know I've been doing this A-Z April Blogging thing, right? Started with a topic based on the letter A, then B, and so forth.

I was sure that we were supposed to do one letter a day, taking weekends off.
And then as I was counting days and posts. . .
I've been doing it wrong.

 This is going to take me until May 6th to get through to the letter Z. Which is totally fine, I just wish I wasn't such a goofball to be realizing it NOW, over half way through.

 

Quilt Eye-Candy

Q is for Quilt!  Oh man there are such talented people out there in the world of quilting!  I'm plugging away at it, trying to finish 2 this year.  

Here are some of my favorite quilts from my Pinterest board (none of these are my personal creations.  Please don't mistake me for someone with actual talent).

This yellow and gray.  *swoon*

source

I have a thing for yellow:

source

This pink and tulip quilt is the sweetest thing:

source

Finally, this bright quilt made from scraps is a cheerful one!

source

If you are a quilt lover too, follow along on my Pinterest Board!

Follow TheBargainBabe's board quilts on Pinterest.

Pet Peeves

Slow traffic.  Pockets full of change.  Cluttered cabinets.  Visible nose-hairs.

We all have them.  Pet peeves that is.

None of the above are hugely bothersome to me.  But do you know what is?

Twisted socks.  You know the little seam around your toes?  If that thing gets twisted it will drive me batty!  Even worse is when you put on your shoe and the sock gets twisted INSIDE.  Then you have to take the whole shoe off and try again.

Other things that annoy:
Squeaky shopping cart wheel.  Like get it together Cart. I don't need to announce myself each time I try to turn down an aisle.

Unflushed public toilets.  I don't want to look at my own crap, much less YOURS.

Teenage talk.  "Presh" needs to go away.

Your turn. . .what are YOUR biggest pet peeves?

On the importance of reading aloud to children

Have you read Jim Trelease's "The Read Aloud Handbook"? 
Or Mem Fox's "Reading Magic"?
 
If your answer is no-- go get one and read it as soon as possible.  My small town library has a copy of both so there's a good chance that your library would have them as well.

These are both fabulous books that go in-depth about the value of reading aloud to children...of ALL ages.  

Reading aloud:

• is a bonding time
• is screen-free
• builds vocabulary
• enhances listening skill
• develops background knowledge for future learning
• breeds familiarity with written structure
• fosters imagination 
• gives parents and children a common interest, something to talk about
• lets kids hear what reading fluency sounds like (using character voices, pauses, etc)

Here are some of my favorite picture book read alouds:
  
   
    

  
    
  

And finally, a Pinnable image so you don't have to try to remember all of the titles!