Charish's Hope

I started an organization last year called Charish's Hope after my sister, Charish, passed away. I wanted to focus my (and my sweet kids') focus on something positive to help heal our hearts. It was a huge success last year. We raised a ton of money and donated it at the San Diego Heart Walk in Balboa Park. The walk is coming up again next Saturday so we're holding a fundraiser at Golden Spoon in Poway. If you live close and want to join us we'd LOVE to have you! Here's the info:

We'll be focused on raising money for Charish as well as my cute mom who just passed away a few months ago from the same heart condition that took my sister. Looking forward to a fun night!

Also, if you'd like to walk with our team and/or donate to our team for the walk please visit my Charish's Hope page. Thanks SO much!!

Here is the info for the walk coming up for anyone interested in joining our team!

General Event Information
Date:               Saturday, September 15, 2012
Location:         Balboa Park/ War Memorial Building (Corner of Park Blvd. & Zoo Drive)
Time:              Opening Ceremonies begin at 6:50 AM; Walk begins at 7:10 AM; Closing ceremonies begin at 9:00 AM
The Route:      1 Mile Survivor Route and a 5K (3.1 Mile) Route through Balboa Park

Parking & Shuttle Information
Free parking is available at President's Way Parking Lot (See directions attached). Complimentary shuttle service to and from the park will be available approximately every 15 minutes starting at 5:15 am. Individuals that have raised at least $1,000 will receive a VIP parking pass to park in the Zoo Parking Lot.

Our School Room

With less than a week before school starts I'm trying to get everything ready . . . the curriculum, the schedule, the school room . . . the teacher chocolate stash . . . 

I was on my way to Ikea to look for some sort of table that would work well for homeschooling, when my husband texted me this link from The Pioneer Woman . . . perfect! (No, my husband doesn't read The Pioneer Woman's blog . . . not that he would be any less manly if he did. ;) He found this when he googled "homeschool desk" . . . Pinterest also had a bunch of great ideas if you are looking.)

I was able to pick the four "bases" that I wanted. I got two with drawers like you can see, and two with more of a storage feel with one shelf inside of a cupboard. I ended up getting the longest table tops (I got two to make it wider like she did) since we will eventually . . . if I survive this . . . have four kids needing to sit at it. Her review of this table has totally convinced me that it will hold up well. And like her I plan on getting a piece of glass to cover the top so that I won't have to worry about paint or markers or anything else damaging the table top. I also decided to go with dining room chairs instead of office chairs. I want to eliminate rolling around the room or spinning . . . and these chairs looked a little nicer. I have yet to find cushions that I like that aren't going to break the bank. Still on the lookout.

The whole room isn't done yet, but we have everything put together and ready to go when school starts next week. I have a couple of projects I want to do to decorate . . . a sign made out of an old pallet, something like these, with a quote something like this, and some pictures to make it feel more comfy. Until then, this will be great.

Free Geography Printables

I've been looking forward to helping my girls better learn geography. I definitely want them to know the United States & Capitals (as well as special things about each one), and of course as we're studying history (they're both learning about ancient civilization this year) and current events we'll master those places as well. I was NOT a good student when it came to geography. At all. I am certainly not the person to come to if you need to know where anything is. Pitiful really, so I'm really excited to learn alongside them as they learn. 

I have been searching the internet and found a couple of websites that offer free map printables if you're interested:

Super Teacher Worksheets was the best one I could find for printable maps, games, etc. (and not only do they have geography but they have a lot of other subjects as well.) They have some free printables but to fully enjoy their website they charge $20. I'm seriously considering it.

EL Civics for ESL Students has a bunch of worksheets free to print as well. All are free as far as I can tell on this website.

**I'll add to the list as I find more! 

I'm Overwhelmed. Help!!

Wow . . . I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. School starts in a week. Yep . . . seven. short. days . . . eeek! When we decided to homeschool and got everyone registered it was forEVER away. Back then I thought, "I've got this! Bring it!!" Right now . . . panic has found it's way to my gut. This morning I decided to kick it out; the panic feeling I mean. So . . . 

{{deep breath}} here we go.

Okay, so I have yet to solidify my "plan" which is where my panic is coming from. I have the curriculum planned (ish). I have the text books and consumable workbooks etc. that I feel will work for us, but as far as a schedule goes . . . nothing. I have the "must-be-totally-planned-out" personality. I really wanted to be totally organized and planned out before school started so that I wouldn't feel overwhelmed when the time came. But I'm new to this and not quite sure how things should be. In my head it would be fanTAStic to have the entire year, down on paper, in pen. But what also sounds great is being able to repeat a week of math, or any other subject, if they didn't understand something . . . which then tosses out my plan of writing everything out. (By the way, I know that is completely unrealistic.)

So what do YOU do?? How far in advance do you plan things out? Do you look at each week as it comes, or more of a semester plan in pencil so you can modify?

Any advice would be GREAT! I have been doing a lot of research and finding some great tools online which have taken so. much. weight off my shoulders which has been wonderful! What ways to you find work best for your lesson planning? What websites do you find useful that you use often? Do you often find yourself curled in a ball in the corner singing Twinkle Twinkle? 

Okay, sort of kidding. Thanks in advance for your advice!! 

<3

To My Crafty Chic Followers . . .

     It really has been way. too. long since I’ve sat down to do something on my blog. I feel like I give you excuse, after excuse, after excuse as to why I go M.I.A for so long. I tend to have SO much fun creating things and sharing what I’ve designed or copied from someone else, and then I let life take over. It was a really good hobby for me to stay sane, and blogging motivated me to actually spend time doing what I love. Creating!

     So, the reason for the blog change: I felt the need for a change. Plain and simple. I have had an absurdly awful six months. I feel like one negative thing after another has been happening non-stop . . . the most recent (if you don’t count my daughters broken arm) was the sudden death of my mom on February 28. Total. shocker. I have been sitting here thinking about all of the things she kept telling me; “You have GOT to get back on that cute blog of yours!” and “You really should open an Etsy shop.” While I don’t feel like I have the umph to open and maintain an Etsy shop, I do think I can handle getting back on my blog. I have spend hours and hours thinking about all of the things that need change in my life. I am in the “change” zone which is why I’m starting fresh with a new blog. Although not totally fresh since I’m going to transfer my Crafty Chic posts onto this one.

     The reason for the name change: I have recently decided to start homeschooling my two oldest kids (my two youngest aren’t school aged yet). The reason for homeschooling I’ve explained in the "Why I Homeschool" tab up top, as I felt like that deserved a really good explanation (if you know me you’ll know that this doesn’t really fit my “I LOVE the break that sending my kids to school gives me” personality). I have been searching the internet and finding great ideas, so I wanted to do my little part and also blog about the journey that we’ll be taking starting in the fall. I’ve had a hard time finding a lot about curriculum choices people have made, not saying I haven’t found anything, but it hasn’t been easy for me (I’m basically clueless when it comes to homeschooling!) so I will do my best to fully explain my likes and dislikes (if there are any) with the curriculums I have chosen. So the name, Crafty Chic, doesn’t feel right anymore. Not to mention everyone always says “Crafty Chick” instead of [sh-eek] haha. Nurturing Wildflowers makes more sense for my new venture. Nurturing is obvious, and Wildflowers . . . I like to call my kids Wildflowers; not because I think they're wild but because, first, I LOVE wildflowers, and second, because wildflowers can be clustered together and be totally different and beautiful in their own special ways. They’re also found all over the place. They have no boundaries . . . I plan on exploring and taking these unique beauties of mine outside of the house as often as possible! I will NOT bore these kids silly. Bored kids = crazy kids. Crazy kids = impatient, not so nice mom.

    So thank you for following me over and joining me on this new journey of mine. So much about “me” feels different after losing my mom, but instead of whining about it, I think I’ll better myself from the many lessons she has taught me about mothering, and sewing/quilting and in the process sharing what I do with anyone who will listen.

Lyric

{Christmas} Tablecloth

I know that I am the. worst. blogger on the planet. I truly do love to do it, but to be honest "crafting" just does NOT fit in my life lately. I hate that it doesn't! I really am going to try to squeeze it back in, but let's be honest; I've said that a gazillion times. I really do need this as an outlet though. I sometimes feel so overwhelmed by the daily grind that this would be a fabulous "escape" at times.

Anyway, this isn't extremely detailed, but I have a few people asking me about this tradition of ours. I started it back in 2008 and I'm SO glad I did! I love love LOVE looking back to previous years. It's our Christmas Tablecloth. We put it on our table starting on Thanksgiving night when we put up our Christmas decorations. Part of our night is signing the tablecloth as a family, then as the days go by and people come over to visit they also sign it. Then, when things are taken down after Christmas I'll work on stitching over the names for the next couple of weeks . . . tuck it away for next year and start all over again. I don't let people eat on it, when we eat we take it off, or if one person is eating they'll just push it out of the way while they eat.

We love it, and I love to think that someday it will be an even greater family treasure.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Reward System

I have a . . . let's just say . . . challenging 3 year old. She's my third daughter and for some odd reason she came totally different than the other two. Why they all have to come different is a mystery to me {kidding}, but nonetheless, I had to figure out yet another discipline/reward system for her. Let me tell you right off, for her personality, this system has been AWESOME.

I hunted and hunted for some way that she could earn something {like the sticker on a chart type of system} where she could really see her accomplishments. For a long time we did a "token" system where when they did something good, nice, helpful . . . they got to put a token {a.k.a. poker chip} into a pail that they had decorated. This system did NOT work for her. I think because she could see her tokens unless I took her pail down and showed her. I knew I needed something that she could "show off" and the sticker thing bugged me because they weren't easily taken away. SO . . . I found these . . .

. . . at Target and thought PERFECT!! I knew I'd need to figure out how to put them on the wall but I figured that wouldn't be too big of a problem. Luckily when I got them home I noticed they had a certain piece {see top picture} that actually hung perfectly on a nail. WIN.

SO, here's the system: We were in the car and decided to call them something . . . the girls . . . after about 50 different names, decided to call them "gems"

When I notice them being good, doing something nice, doing things right when I ask them to without an eye roll . . . yes, that's a challenge for these girls of mine . . . I'll let them pick out a gem and hang it on their chain.

I have the right to take them away for back talking, being mean to their sister, not doing what they know is expected of them, etc. BUT once they get to 10 gems they get . . . 

 . . . one "spark" . . . yes they named these too. They decided that they can be sparks so that when they get a lot they'll be "sparkles" . . . GIRLS! haha

I bought a bag of the thicker craft sticks, pulled out the paint and we all decorated them, glued a sparkle on them and stuck them in a jar for them to pick them out when they "cash in" their 10 gems.

 Once they get "sparks" I can't take them away. They can save them for bigger prizes or spend them when they get them. I have a chart with things like:

2 sparkles: picnic at the park

4 sparkles: frozen yogurt

5 sparkles: Sea World for the afternoon {we have passes FYI . . . I don't fork out that kind of dough!}

So far it's working like a "gem". We went on vacation for a week and a half and didn't use them and let me tell you, this girl did a 180 and was back to her . . . ways . . . in a matter of a couple of days. 

THE Best Chocolate Chip Cookies . . . by FAR!

My daughter went on a field trip to the USS Midway and brought me home this chocolate chip cookie recipe. My husband made them today and they are THE best cookies we've ever made. SOO good!! Enjoy.

1 lb butter, cream well {that isn't a typo . . . one pound!}

2 cups granulated sugar and 2 cups brown sugar: add both to butter and cream together

2 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla: add both to the mixture

2 tsp. baking soda, 1.5 tsp. salt, 4 cups and 8 Tbsp flour: combine these and then add to the mixture

1 bag chocolate chips {large}: stir into batter. 

{we didn't have a whole bag so we used about 1/4 bag of milk chocolate chips and 1/4 bag of white chocolate chips. In our opinion they turned out perfect!}

Spoon onto sheet and bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

More Fabric {Flowers}

 Day one of our paper chain activities was to make fabric flowers. My girls have been asking me to teach them for a while now, so it was fun to teach them how to do it. I recently posted a different kind of fabric flower {here} if you're interested. This isn't the best tutorial. I was trying to focus more on helping them figure it out than taking step by step pictures, but I did take a few and I'll try to explain it the best I can!

We cut 2 inch strips of fabric, folded it in half long ways, and stitched {using a long stitch. I used the longest stitch that my machine goes to. That way it's easier to bunch up the fabric} along the raw edge side leaving long "tails" of thread on either end. 

Taking one of the two threads on one end hold it tight while bunching up the fabric. Be really careful not to break the thread . . . if you do you'll have to re-stitch it and start again.

 My 9 year old wanted to make her friend a "bright pink" flower clip. She told my daughter that she's the nicest friend she's ever had today . . . made her day! I guess this is her "thank you." I didn't take pictures of the process, but once the fabric strip is bunched all the way, I started at one end and wound it around itself, hot gluing all along the way {wrap, hot glue, wrap, hot glue . . .}. Once we got it wrapped all the way around she cut out a felt circle and a clip and hot glued it to the underside. 

 Didn't it turn out super cute!?

 My 7 year old decided to also give something to her friend. She wanted to glue a flower onto a green pipe cleaner, but I ran out, so she decided it might be a cute idea to use a pencil for the stem. We just hot glued one end of the flower to the eraser side of the pencil, then wrapped around just like the first one {wrap, hot glue, wrap . . . you get the picture}

 After the whole thing was wrapped around the end of the pencil she cut a felt circle with a slit in it . . . 

 then I hot glued it to the bottom to hide all of the loose edges.

 My goofy daughter smelling her hot glue smelling flower. Fun little project . . . although I wouldn't let them hot glue. I've been burned one too many times and didn't want to deal with little burned fingers and tears. 

Paper {Chain}

It's ALMOST the end of the school year . . . about this time every year my girls get really REALLY unmotivated to wake up and be happy that it's a school day. Last night while discussing ways that we can enjoy the next couple of weeks my 4th grader came up with choosing a fun activity for every day until the end of the school year. In that idea I decided to help them make a paper chain where they could write different activities of their choice on each link.

They made a list of WAY too many things . . . so after some long discussion we got their list down to 17 things . . . one link for every day (even weekends) until the end of the school year. I went through my junk . . . er . . . I mean drawers of scrapbook paper {That's right . . . I went through "the scrapbooking" phase} and cut 1 1/2" strips.

We numbered all of the strips according to the dates we have left, and after looking at the calendar to make sure we didn't over schedule any of our days they wrote out their chosen activities on the strips.

{Notice the 6. Go to Golden Spoon strip? That's because I'm holding a fundraising event that night for an organization I started after my sister passed away called Charish's Hope. If you live close to Poway California and want to come support us and the American Heart Association come! June 6th from 6-10pm. I'll be there!}

Then after making sure we put them in the right order we taped the links together to make our chain.

The next couple of weeks are going to be action-packed . . . they're SO excited! Okay, I am too . . . especially for that "make brownies or cookies" day . . . bring ON the chocolate! ;)

Subway {Art} Tutorial

I've seen subway art a lot lately, and certainly wouldn't claim this as an original idea . . . just another tutorial!

They have these pieces of wood at Michael's in all different shapes and sizes. Be creative!

First off {I didn't take pictures . . . sorry!} paint your piece of wood in the color you ultimately want your letters/shapes to be. Let dry COMPLETELY so that when you stick on your letters it wont pull off the paint. I would be safe and allow to dry over night {or all day if you paint it in the morning!}

There are different ways you can apply the wording. My cute niece let me design what I wanted on her computer and she printed it all out on vinyl on her Cricut. I've seen other ways using the sticky backed contact paper. You can just print your design {which, by the way can be designed on a bunch of different computer programs like Photoshop or even Microsoft Word}. You can't print right on the contact paper but you can print it out on regular paper the size you want, spray the back with spray adhesive and stick it onto the non-sticky side of the contact paper. You'll just need to use a razor blade and carefully cut out each letter.

After sticking all of your words/shapes onto your painted sign, {and making sure every letter is pressed down completely} paint over the entire board with the "background" color. I used kind of cheap paint, so it took a few coats to get completely black.

This is the part that took a lot of patience for me! I wanted to see how it turned out . . . but WAIT!! If you don't wait until it's completely dry it will peel off funny and mess it up. Just. Wait!

When you're completely confident that the paint is all the way DRY!! carefully peel off all of the letters.

You can stop here or you can take it a step further by sanding down the edges to make it look a little more worn/old.

I like to do my projects as cheap as possible, so a lot of times I'll just use some of what I already have to save a buck. {That's right, I'm cheap!} I save everything that looks useful {and no I'm not a hoarder}. A baby blanket I got was wrapped in this white ribbon, and look! I was able to use it! Go me! Only thing is, I wish it were more of a cream color . . . someday I'll go buy one . . . maybe.

I used just a regular stapler to attach the ribbon to the back. I just used one piece of ribbon and looped it for a hanger. Make sure if you do it this way, to leave quite a bit of ribbon on the back and staple 6 or 7 times {or more if you think it's not sturdy enough}.

If you want to make a bow at the top just tie it right onto the loop.

And just hang it on a nail. The great thing about just tying a bow right onto the ribbon is if it looks crooked on the wall it's easily centered.

Fabric {Flower} Tutorial

I've been meaning to make a few more flower clips for my girls out of the extra t-shirt material I have left from my sisters shirts. I made a memory quilt for her little girl {HERE} right after she passed away and couldn't get rid of the rest of it. My girls love their "Charish flowers" so I wanted to make some more. I thought I'd share how I do it.

T-shirt material is great fabric to use because it doesn't fray. I love it, but it also works well with other fabrics also. Not to mention fraying is sometimes really cute!

I'm going to apologize right now for two things . . . my lame, half polished nails, and my not so perfect pictures. My good camera is dead and the baby is being good. Didn't want to waste the opportunity to get it done so I used my junk camera. :-/

Cut out a few circles. For this one I used 6. They don't have to be perfect. I used a soda can as a template. Dr. Pepper is never far from me . . . so that was the most convenient thing. Maybe I have a problem?? ha

Cut a small circle out of felt to glue the pieces to.

Oh this picture is awful! So sorry. Fold the circle in half, and then in half-ish again. It ends quartered, but it's good to not make it perfectly quartered. I like to do it off center.

Put a dab of hot glue on the tips and glue them down onto the felt piece.

I know . . . really?! These pictures . . . sigh. I'm just trying to show them glued onto the felt circle.

Put some hot glue on top of the four already glued down . . . just in the center . . .

. . . then for your last two circles try to fold them an extra time . . . more like in half, and then thirds . . . just to give some extra swirls. Glue them down on top . . .

. . . then while the glue is still soft pinch the whole flower so that it sticks up instead of lays flat. {Does that even make sense?? My tired, new baby brain is fried.}

Once your flower is glued together, cut another felt circle . . . a little bigger than the first one so that it covers it completely. Clip your hair clip directly onto the felt circle before gluing it down. The felt in between the clip will help keep the flower from slipping in your little girls hair.

Cover the felt circle with hot glue and then center it on the back of the flower.

We love them. They're very easy and if you're not into sewing this is a great little project for you! Happy spring!!