If you live in the Northeast I’m sure you can totally relate to the need for rainy day activities. We’ve had rain pretty much every day for the past several days. Normally I wouldn’t mind but my kids are on Spring Break all this week and so far we haven’t been able to leave the house because there is no much we can do in the rain. The kids have “cabin fever” and are driving me NUTS! And it’s only Wednesday. They are off until next Tuesday when they go back to school.
I’m always on the look out for fun rainy day things to do with the kids. My son is usually content to play with his toys. My daughter on the other hand is easily bored. I think it’s a Gemini thing. LOL!
Recently my daughter has been making some really cool “fashions” out of paper using the Origami techniques. It’s amazing what you can make with a fold here and a fold there.
Klutz (www.Klutz.com) has a lot of great books which can keep your child busy for hours, which is ideal for a rainy day or a lazy summer afternoon. We actually own a few Klutz books. What I love about Klutz books is that they often contain almost all of the accessories you’ll need to create a fun craft project.
My daughter has been playing with the Klutz Fashion Origami book. The book not only contains cool colorful patterned papers, it also contains sequins, ribbon and glue. Everything you need to get started.
My daughter has made a “wardrobe” so far. Here are a few things that she has made.
She made a pair of shoes too but for some reason she couldn’t fold it right. She was disappointed too. She really wanted to make the shoes.
The “outfits” are not necessarily sized to be used with one another. For example the purse (tote bag?) is large compared to the jacket/coat that she made. I’m not sure if that was just how the instructions are or if she was suppose to cut the paper to size. In any event she had a blast creating her designer looks.
My daughter said she wanted to write this review, but now she’s signing a different tune. She’s almost 13. You know how teens can be.
As per my daughter (at least what I could get from her).
- Some of the directions were super easy where as others were hard to figure out. She said as far as instructions/directions go the book was “medium”. That is a quote from her. I’m sure she means they were in between hard and easy.
- She loved the papers and all the goodies that came with it. She loved decorating the fashions after she was done folding them.
- I asked if she thought it was “age appropriate” for a girl around her age and she said “Yes”. I also asked if she thought other girls around her age would enjoy the Klutz Origami Fashions book and she said “Yes”.
Personally I didn’t make the attempt to use the book. My stubby little fingers are not nimble enough.
I think it would be cute to make these designs and turn them into cards with 3-D designs. I’ll have to have my daughter try that out. She could attach the designs onto cardstock paper.
To learn more about the fabulous Klutz books visit www.Klutz.com. Klutz books are sold at many retail locations including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
*I received a sample copy of this book free to do this review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and that of my daughter.
This is the LAST time I’ll beg, plead, whine, cry… about the Dicks Sporting Goods contest. The top 10 people who have the most votes wins a spot on their review panel for three months. It sounds like it could be fun.
I was in the top five, then I was the top voter, and now I think I fell off the face of the Earth. I don’t even think I’m in the top 10. Maybe the top 100. Sigh…
Today (Wednesday) is the LAST day to vote. Please! Please! Please! (giving you the sad puppy dog eyes) could you vote for me? It’s really easy to do.
If you are on Twitter already all you need to do is follow Dicks Sporting Goods at www.Twitter.com/DicksSportcmo.
Next all you need to do is copy and past this tweet – EXCEPT – you have to give a reason why you are voting for me (why you think I would be a good choice for the panel). At this stage of the game you can even tell them because I BEGGED you to vote for me. LOL!
I am MORE then happy to repay your kindness. If you are in the contest too I’d be happy to vote for you. If you have something you’d like for me to tweet, or some “comment love”, I’m more then happy to return the favor.
The competition ends today so this is the last time I’ll mention it (unless I win of course).
This time of year is just can be very hectic. Some people might argue that the holiday season is the craziest, but I beg to differ. I think Spring and Summer are crazier times. There is so much to keep track of like sports, conferences, vacation planning, BBQ get togethers and more.
You should see my “Favorites” bookmarks on my computer. It’s like three miles long! I bookmark so many things and then when I need to find something it’s next to impossible to find it on my bookmark list unless I scan the list up and down several times, which is not only time consuming, but also bugs my eyes out! I do try and make up different folders on my favorites list but that doesn’t help that much either.
What if there was a way to organize everything you want to save in one spot that provides you with an easy way to find what you are looking for when you need it? A place where you can easily share the information with family and friends too?
Introducing Springpad (
http://www.springpadit.com/). Springpad is a free personal organizer and online notebook that helps you to save anything you want to remember online and on your phone. You can save notes, recipes, gift ideas, restaurants, articles and more in an online “notebook”. Did I mention that it’s FREE!
Springpad was super easy to set up. Coming from someone who is usually “technologically challenged”, I was able to easily set it up without a problem. Once you have it set up you can let the fun and organizing begin.
Use Springpad to set up reminders about appointments, parties, sporting events, meetings and more. Upcoming appointment? Keep forgetting to move your car for street cleaning? Need a wake-up call when tickets go on sale? Rest easy, springpad will email or text you a reminder. I love that feature! Especially when it comes to birthdays. I’m forever forgetting people’s birthdays. Not by choice mind you. I just have a horrible memory and I don’t look at the calendar like I’m SUPPOSE to.
One of my most favorite features about Springpad is that now when I am traveling the World Wide Web and I stumble across a great web site, recipe, craft project or what have you I can now save it to my Springpad instead of my favorites bookmark. The beauty of Springpad is that you can tag the sites so that you can easily find what you are looking for rather then scroll through dozens (if not hundreds!) of sites to find that one specific recipe or craft project you are looking for.
I love that you can add the tags. That is so helpful! I plan on using tags to keep track of present ideas for my family. Whenever I stumble across something that would make a great gift I’ll tag is (for example I can tag things with my husband’s name so I know they are gifts for him). That way when the holiday season rolls around I can look at the tag for each specific person in my family and pull up all the gift ideas I have collected all year long.
Springpad also allows you to share your information with family and friends. Say for example you have an amazing recipe for BBQ Chicken saved on your Springpad, but your Aunt Sandy wants a copy of it. All you have to do is give Aunt Sandy your Springpad link and she can go there to find it. If Aunt Sandy has a Springpad account she can click on the “Add” button and she can add it to her own Springpad account.
If you want to get an idea of what it looks like you can visit my Springpad page. Please note that I have only been using it for several days now so I don’t have a ton of stuff in there… yet!
Here is a brief video that explains some of the basic features. For those of you reading this via e-mail or RSS you’ll need to visit She Scribes to see the video.
See how quick and easy it is to set up and use? Trust me, if I can do it anyone can. Ha Ha! I wish I had a cell phone that used applications so I could set up Springpad to work with a phone. Sadly my phone is so old and basic that it offers nothing more then making phone calls and two-waying my husband.
To learn more about Springpad visit www.SpringPadIt.com. You can also become a fan of Springpad on Facebook (CLICK HERE).
Springpad would love to encourage people to try out their free service. Therefore they are giving away a $25.00 Amazon gift card to one lucky She Scribes reader. Thanks Springpad!
To enter you’ll need to sign up for Springpad (it’s FREE!). Use it to bookmark a few sites, products, recipes or what have you, so that you can see how simple and easy it is to use.
After you have set up your page and saved some information, come back here and comment on your Springpad URL and/or “name”. If you feel uncomfortable doing that you are welcome to e-mail me at SheScribes “at” Optonline “dot” net. Please include “Springpad” in the subject line so I can file the e-mails accordingly.
For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. Extra entries are optional. Please leave a separate comment for each that you have done.
- Susbscribe and/or Follow She Scribes so that you never miss out on great reviews and giveaways. I ♥ subscribers & followers! Both options are found abot 1/3 of the way down on the right side bar.
- Blog about Springpad and/or this giveaway. Please link back to BOTH She Scribes and Springpad. Please provide the URL of the post.
- Tweet about Springpad and/or this giveaway. Please include @She_Scribes in the tweet so I may see it too. Please limit yourself to three tweets per day. Thanks!
- Promote this post in other ways. For example Stumble Upon, Technorati and/or Digg (there are others). Please tell me what you did and if possible provide a URL.
This giveaway is open to US residents and will end on April 8, 2010 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be contacted by e-mail and will have three days to respond with a name and mailing address (no PO Box) or a new winner will be chosen.
Don’t forget to check out the other great giveaways currently available on the right side bar under “Win It”.
Consider becoming a fan of She Scribes on Facebook (CLICK HERE).Get up to the minute alerts to new giveaways, winners and more.
*This is a compensated post, however the opinions expressed are my own and not influenced by my compensation in any way.
