Freebie Friday (Make that Saturday) and a GIVEAWAY!

This post is about celebrating the many wonderful things in life that don't require going out and spending money. 

Five Fun things to do for Free

1. Go Ice Skating
2. Learn to juggle (Aaron recently mastered juggling 3 balls!)
3. Play Hide-and-Seek in the house with the lights off (adults too!)
4. Make envelopes from old calendars 
5. Knit something from yarn you already have on hand. Be creative in combining yarns. I am almost done with a sweater for Megan that I made in this way.

                                                                       Learn for Free

• Khan Academy is a great resource for all sorts of online learning. Megan finds it super fun. I have used for all of my kids at various times.
• Hillsdale College has a free online course to learn about our Constitution. 
• Mara has really enjoyed using Duolingo to learn other languages. 

Read for Free (on your Kindle or possibly other devices)

• "A Tale of Two Cities"
• "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
• "The Secret of Kite Hill"

Listen for Free

This one is rather fun to watch as well as listen to:

Free Gifts to Give

A Hug

A Song (I know many who love to listen to music - especially at the nursing home)

Make a set of cards

A GIVEAWAY!!!

I have a DVD of "To Joey With Love" to give away!

You can read my review for it here.

To win, please leave a comment telling of one of your favorite things to do for free. Be sure to leave a way that I can contact you if you win.

This giveaway will go through January 21st. Then we will randomly choose a winner.

And the winner is RENEE!

The BEST FREE Gift!

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 6:23

Disclaimer: When I say free it doesn't mean that it didn't cost somebody something. Also I may list various activities that are free to me because I already own the equipment needed but if you don't than it wouldn't be free to you - just skip those. Some things that might be listed might not be truly free (like inviting your neighbor to join you for supper) but really aren't going to cost much more than you would already be paying.

An Amish Boy and a Mother's Prayer {Book Review and Giveaway}

Not long ago I had fun reading "An Amish Boy and a Mother's Prayer" by Glen S. Graber. I have long found the life of the Amish interesting. When we lived in Iowa I would purposely drive on roads where the Amish lived as I thought it was fun to see a glimpse of their way of life. I have read many books about the Amish as well and I have often wondered with many of the fiction books how accurate of description they really were. This book was neat because it was written from a Man's perspective and he is very factual and honest.

  Glen didn't actually live in an old order Amish family very long as they were kicked out because his Father had a tractor with rubber tires on it. Glen tells then of how they ended up going from church to church because they were told they didn't meet up with the standards that were required.

 This book can be a little disjointed in the telling of the story of  Glen's life but still quite interesting. We read about a large family that faced some major struggles- many financial trials, the sickness and death of their mother and lack of support from a church. Throughout the struggles we also read about a family that stuck together and who learned to work hard.

 It is the story primarily of Glen, a shy oldest child who went out of his comfort zone to find work and build a business that was able to care for his whole family.

 This book is very real and one that I think most anybody would enjoy.

I have an extra copy of this book to give away.

If you would like to try to win a copy of this book please leave a comment on this blog post before August 25th and at that point I will randomly choose a winner from those that commented. Please leave a way for me to contact you should you win.

Update: Congratulations to Elaine for winning this book!

Disclaimer: I did receive this book free for purposes of reviewing. The opinions expressed are my own.

Mother Should I Trust the Government {Book Review and Giveaway}

  This book, Mother Should I Trust the Government, was one I started my "relationship" with having not so good of opinion of. When I first heard about it I thought "That's a weird title" but thought that the content sounded of interest to me. Then I got the book and looked at the back cover and saw that the author had two people who had reviewed his book and one was his mother and the other was his daughter - both with very cheesy reviews. It made you wonder if he couldn't get anybody else to read it. And then I started reading the preface (which is what I normally do) and found it quite dry and really struggled to get through it. But.... After I got to the first chapter things started going much better!

   Mother Should I Trust the Government, The Making and Keeping of Our American Republic by Jake Jacobs PH. D. is about the forming of our country with it's Whig/republican ideals and then our challenges today with progressivism and then on to what we should be doing to protect our country and help in return to the godly principles that it was founded on.

   This book seems to be quite well researched, has a lot of interesting information and is one that I think I may use in the future to read aloud to my kids as a Government class. There are a lot of interesting facts about our founding fathers which is pretty fun. Throughout the book Jake suggests other books for further reading. It was fun to see that we already had several that he mentioned and I look forward to checking out more of them.

    This book reminds us over and over again that our country is supposed to be one that is run by the people. We the people simply need to remember to stand up, get involved and not just let whatever happens, happen. You have a say! Use that right. This is something I feel pretty passionate about and our family is actively involved in politics. I know that not every christian family can be actively involved the way we are but if more would be and if everybody would at least take the time to be informed and vote for christian principles our country would go in a much better direction.

  This book is available to buy on Amazon. I noticed that the Kindle Version is available free.

    

 I am excited to be able to offer a giveaway of this book! I have an extra copy to send to someone who comments on this post.

If You Would Like to Win.....

• Please leave a comment on this post. I would love to hear your thoughts on whether we should trust the Government or not.
• Be sure to leave some way for me to contact you should you win.

This giveaway will end on July 4th. At that point I will randomly pick a winner and contact them to get their address so I can send them the book.

Disclaimer: I received this book for purposes of reviewing. I received no other compensation. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Kelly Tough {Book Review and GIVEAWAY!}

I recently was sent the book "Kelly Tough, Live Courageously by Faith" by Erin Kelly with Jill Kelly  to read and review. Erin Kelly is the daughter of Pro Football Hall of Famer - Jim Kelly but beyond that she is someone who is seeking to know God and she shares some of her journey in this book.

  The book does mention football fairly frequently and that is something that I really have very little interest in but I still did find this book pretty interesting and inspiring because though the Kelly family loves football what the emphasis really is in this book is on Jesus and relying on Him - and that I do have a big interest in!

   Erin Kelly is a young woman who still has most of her life to go through and she writes from that perspective - it is pretty neat to read the words of a young person who is on fire for seeking God's will and who realizes that there are many situations she hasn't faced yet and doesn't know how life will go for her but she desires to live life God's way.

   This book talks a lot about Jim Kelly's struggles with cancer and how the family sought God's strength through that. They realized that the couldn't be "tough" on their own strength but needed God's help. She talks about very situations that she has faced where she has needed God's help and strength.

 Reading about Erin and her sister dealing with their dad's cancer brought back some memories or my teenage years when my Dad fought cancer. We were so blessed that he was able to go through Chemo and come out cancer free and has stayed that way. But as this book reminds us - no matter what the result would have been - even if my Dad would have died from cancer when I was a teen - God is still Good!

   This is an encouraging and easy to read book. Football loves would get an added bonus of  learning more about the lives of various football players.

GIVEAWAY- Update- The Winner is Cindy. Congratulations Cindy!
If you think this books sounds interesting and would like to read it - leave a comment below to try and win a copy. When you leave a comment please also leave a way for me to reach  you (an e-mail address is good) should you win.

 This giveaway will end June 19th at 10 pm.

 I would love to hear about a time when you really realized that only through God could something happen - when you just couldn't do it on your own strength anymore. 

Out of the Dust {A book Review}

A while back I was privileged to receive and read the book "Out of the Dust" by Avis Goodhart with Marti Pieper. It is the story of an "Unlikely Missionary" - Avis.

  The book was very interesting to read. It tells about Avis' growing up years and some of the hardships she went through. She had a Father who struggled with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from his time in the war and since he thought people were always watching them and about to get them they would move from place to place- sleeping in their car or wherever they could find a bed. As one who had a very stable childhood it is hard for me to imagine a life like that where there may not be food for the next meal or a bed for the night.

  The book also briefly touches on the sexual molestation that she had to face as a child from an uncle. That sort of thing is so hard for me to read - it just turns my stomach. I wish that no child (or anybody) ever would have to go through something like that. Avis tells of her early marriage and then also a divorce before long.

   A hard, hard life and we might wonder how God will use someone that has had to go through so much and just feels broken but what is super cool and awesome is that He can. He specializes in restoring lives and making lives brand-new.

   The book goes on to tell of Avis finding peace in God and then being able to reach out to others through teaching (special ed) and then of her desire to go to other countries to be a missionary and how God brought that about and how he was able to use her to do some pretty cool things where she went.

Our God is so good! He can work in truly amazing ways! It was very neat to read how Avis allowed God to work through her life. May you and I also be open to letting God work through us!

Visit the blog tour (click on banner above) and you can sign up to win a Starbucks giftcard.

Floral Hair Clip Giveaway!

 Good morning! It is giveaway day over at Sew Mama Sew and I thought it would be neat to join in the fun and offer something that I had made for somebody to win.

  Something we enjoy making a lot around here is fabric flower hair clips. It is a neat way to use up small pieces of cloth and they are pretty fast and easy to make and you can really enjoy being creative to make all sorts of different combinations. The other reason we like them is because my girls and I enjoy wearing pretty feminine things and a flower in your hair definitely shouts out "I am a girl!".

 The clip I am offering for someone to win is made from Navy Blue - some layers of a light fabric and others from chiffon, with "pearls" in the middle, grey feather accents and an alligator clip on the back. The flower measures about 3 1/2 inches across.

 I have found these alligator clips to work wonderfully for staying in your hair. I can clip a pretty good section of my wavy thick hair back with it as can my oldest. They also work well for my youngest who has thin, light hair. You can use them to just clip back a section or to accent a bun or any other sort of pulled back hairstyle. I find them very versatile and fun.

Would you like to win this clip?

Here is how you can try to do that:

• In the comment section answer the question: What color and style of hair do you have?
• Leave your e-mail address so that I can contact you should your name be drawn.
• If you would like a second entry you can become (or if you are already - that works too) a follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect (at the bottom of the blog) and leave a comment saying that you are a follower.

This giveaway is open to everybody (I will ship internationally). The giveaway will close at 7 pm (Central time) on Friday May 16th.

You can check out many more giveaways at Sew Mama Sew.

"Best Friends and Mean Girls" {Book review and Giveaway}

   I was recently asked to review a set of books to help we Mom's as we parent our daughters through their tween years. The author of the books is Dannah Gresh (with Suzy Weibel joining her on the "Girl's Guide"), and since I really truly enjoyed and appreciated Dannah's book on parenting tween (8-12 year olds) boys I was eager to read this book as well.

   This book is written differently than "6 ways to keep the "good" in your Boy", I believe that one is more like her "6 ways to keep the "Little" in your Girl" (which I haven't read), This book - "Talking with Your Daughter about Best Friends and Mean Girls" is more like a manual. It has plans for "8 Great Dates" that you are supposed to take with your daughter. It also has memory verses planned out, devotions to use and even scripted (on your part - not your daughter) discussions to have.

  The subject matter discussed is very good. Some of it I haven't dealt with either with my daughters nor did I deal with it growing up, I think the reason being because both I and my daughters are/were homeschooled and we have lived much more sheltered lives. That in my book is a plus of homeschooling! However there were many things that she talks about that is applicable to any girl. Throughout the book she encourages the memorizing of 1 Corinthians 13 and encourages actions to go along with those thoughts on love. 

   There were things that I really liked about this book and others that really weren't my style. I thought I would share a quick list of pros and cons in my opinion:

THINGS I LIKE:

• Emphasis on spending time with God. It made me realize my need to encourage my children in personal devotion time a little more.
• Encouraging scripture memorization and study. God's word is what we truly need to help us through life.
• Practical advice on modesty. I love her non-condemning but very strait forward modesty tests that she encourages girls to run their clothes through. She makes it fun and simple. I might prefer a little stricter standards in one area but mostly I thought they were very good.
• Encouraging close and good relationships with other girls.
• Encouraging girls to be a friend and choose friends that will help them stand up for what is right.
• Practical advice on boys (which she spells boyz -which for some reason irritates me)- encouraging girls to put off having boyfriends until they are a good deal older than being a tween. I thought her approach on this was good. It isn't quite the same as mine but very practical.
• Good thoughts on cell phones for kids.

THINGS THAT WEREN'T MY STYLE:

• Going on dates. I love spending time with my children and I love having one on one time too. However the whole date thing seems weird to me. I am not sure why, but it does. I guess I prefer our time one on one to be a little more spontaneous - a walk with Mara to see some new beauty in nature that God is displaying today or perhaps time spent with Megan while we work on a craft. So, dates aren't my thing - but perhaps they are yours.
• Scripted discussions. If you want for me to have a very stilted conversation just give me a script. I have tried using that sort of thing for teaching kid's classes at church and they just don't work for me. I prefer to talk naturally using my own words - and we do talk. We have talked about the majority of the topics in the book as they come up naturally in our discussions. That again is one of the benefits of homeschooling - we have so much more time for talking.
• Some weird spellings and other "cool" modes of speech. I guess I am old fashioned.

So, for me this wasn't a book that I was going to use as it was written to be used but I did still enjoy reading through it and think that I learned some stuff from it and was reminded of other things that I should think about while raising my daughters.

 The book "Talking with your daughters about Best Friends and Mean Girls" has some removable worksheets in the back to use on your dates and there is a book that is just for the girls to go with the one for moms. That book is called "A Girls Guide to Best Friends and Mean Girls".  It is a fun easy to read book that talks about being a friend, encourages time with Jesus, our best friend and the book is filled with games, fill in the blank and other fun things for girls. There is also a focus on looking to the scripture for answers.

So as I said before I think these are nice books with a good message and I think that many moms and daughters would gain a lot from going through them. The way it is done is not my style but I am different from any other mom I know (we all are unique) and I think this would be great for some moms.

GIVEAWAY

Does this sound like something that would be helpful to you and your daughter (or maybe you know somebody else that could use it)?  I have the opportunity to give away both of these books to some blog reader.

 If you would like to win please leave a comment including your e-mail address. In your comment I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject matter of these books.

 If you would like a second chance at winning then please become a follower of my blog or subscribe via e-mail and then leave another comment telling me that you do so.

 This giveaway will go through October 5th.

Disclaimer: I was given these books for purposes of reviewing. The thoughts written are my own.


 AND THE WINNER IS: Joanna. Congratulations!

Enjoying Our Tea

A Honeybee on Catnip

 I love growing herbs. They generally grow quite easily, they smell good, they look pretty and all the different flavors they can provide is so much fun!

  We do grow herbs for use in cooking but our main use of herbs around here is for tea. We drink tea for the pure pleasure of it and also for the health benefits. Most of us (Ken and Megan aren't really tea fans) crave a cup of tea when we aren't feeling to good.

Mara collecting herbs to dry

This week has unfortunately been one of sickness around here (though in the midst of that we took a trip anyway- maybe not so wise but it was fun) and the kids have developed some nasty coughs, tea has been the requested drink many, many times this week.

  To make our tea I simple bring a pot of water to a boil and then turn it off and drop in my fresh or dried herbs and let it steep for several minutes. Then we pour a cupful (There is a strainer in the spigot) which we then like to add milk and honey to. Yummy!

Peppermint is our favorite but we also use Catnip, Echinacea, Horsetail, Red Raspberry Leaf, Lemon Balm, Hyssop, Mullein and Borage (as well as a few others not so often).

   Do you like to drink herbal tea?

Would you like to win some of the herbs for tea that we have dried from our garden? I would love to share some with you.

  If you would like to win please leave a comment telling what type of tea you like and which of the ones highlighted above that you would like to try. (I can either send you a blend or some individual herbs). Please leave your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you should win.

  If you would like a second chance at winning then please become a GFC follower of my blog or subscribe via e-mail and leave me another comment letting me know that you do so.

  This giveaway will go through Oct. 1st at which time I will randomly select a winner.

And the winner is: Tiffany! Congratulations!

Don't miss the other giveaways that I have going on right now:

~ A Fabric Flower Barrette

~Handmade Soap

~"One Thousand Gifts" Book


 

Soapmaking! {Without expensive oils}

I have wanted to learn how to make soap for quite a number of years. There were actually quite a few reasons that I wanted to make my own soap. They were:

1. I always enjoy being able to make something instead of buying it if I can.
2. Whenever I have tried homemade soap it has been so much nicer than anything that I can buy at the store.
3. I prefer to use bar soap over liquid soap so that I can avoid the Sodium Laurel Sulfate.
4. If I did it the old fashioned way, I could use ingredients that were basically free and extra from meat processing. So I could save money with soap making too.

 In my quest to make soap however I started to feel a little discouraged with learning how to actually make old fashioned soap. Soap making is a popular hobby now but pretty much all the information I could find on it, whether on blogs or in books, was using expensive oils like coconut oil, cocoa butter, almond oil and so forth. Not that I have any problem with soap made out of those oils - I have tried some that others have made and I really, really like them. My problem was with the expense of it and also because one of the reasons I wanted to make soap was so that we could cross one more thing off the list of things that I needed to buy.

 

   I did however go over to a friends a couple of times while she was making soap (from purchased oils) and watched and helped her with that so I could get the general idea and then I found out another friend made soap and she made soap with things that I could easily get and which where basically free to me. Yea!!! She shared her recipe with me which I ended up tweaking slightly (after doing quite a bit of research) and so I will share that with you.

 

 Goat Milk, Peppermint and Oatmeal Soap

~12 oz. lye flakes/powder (I bought mine from Amazon - it was labeled as a drain opener)

~ 3 pints goats milk (most of this should be frozen in ice cube trays or something so it can be made into a frozen slush)

~5 1/2 pounds of Animal fat/tallow (I used beef and goat tallow) This should be clarified and lukewarm (around 100 degrees)

~ 4 heaping teaspoons borax (optional)

~ 2 cups oatmeal either whole or finely ground (optional)

~ 2 cups dried peppermint leaves (optional)

~ Peppermint oil (optional)

 

 

 1. Weigh and melt your fat. I used Ken's old postal scale. Someday I suppose it might make sense to buy a digital scale but right now I am trying to avoid buying anything. It worked!

 2. Put your goat's milk (frozen and unfrozen) together in a pan and try to make into a slush. I should have done this a little more before I added the lye. The purpose of having the milk really cold is because the lye will naturally heat up as soon as it hits liquid and it can heat up so fast that if your milk is all liquid it can cause it to burn and turn a funny orange color so I hear.

 3. Weigh your lye and carefully add it to the milk. Lye is a dangerous substance so I did choose to do all the working with lye outside (there are some fumes) and I wore long sleeves, pants, gloves and goggles just to be cautious. Lye can truly burn. I guess vinegar can neutralize the burn so just in case I also kept some vinegar handy.

 4. Stir the lye and the milk carefully together. It will heat up naturally.

5.  When the lye mixture is warm (feel the outside of the pan or use a thermometer that is just for this) and a similar temperature as the fat/oil then add the oil to the lye and milk. Stir while combining if possible.

 5. Add the borax.

 6. Stir, stir, stir (for probably 15-30 minutes) until your soap traces. Trace is when you soap thickens and I believe the saponification is happening at this time too. A bunch of chemical stuff that I don't truly understand. If you make gravy or pudding then I think the trace won't be that hard for you to figure out either.

7. At trace is when  you start adding additional ingredients like oatmeal (which is good for your skin), peppermint (I love the smell of it and thought it looked kind of cool - but it didn't add as much scent as I had hoped.), and any essential oil. With my batch I did add around 10 drops of peppermint oil along with the dried peppermint but it didn't nearly have the peppermint scent that I had hoped for. A soap making friend told me later that when you add essential oils you need to add tablespoonsful not just drops if you really want to smell it. I don't know if I will ever do that or not as essential oils are expensive. The soap does smell nice anyway- I think everything combined made a nice smell just not a strong peppermint one.

 8. The next step is putting the soap into "molds". In researching I found that many things could be used as molds - there is really no need (at least from a practical standpoint) of buying or making expensive molds. We used all sorts of plastic containers. When it was in something like the dish soap bottle above I did have to cut the whole bottle (making it useless for being a mold another time) in order to get the soap out but that didn't bother me as it was "trash" anyway.

9. Put all your molds in a rather insulated spot where they will stay warm and not harden to fast. I put all my molds in a cardboard box, wrapped in a towel out on our hot deck.

10. Check them every so often to see when you will need to cut them. My friend was able to wait until 48 hours later to cut them. We ended up cutting them only 8 or so hours later as they were already hard. There is a danger of them getting to hard and being very hard to cut. Because of our variety of "molds" we ended up with soap in all shapes and sizes. We even dedicated a few old candy molds to soap making so we ended up with some pretty little sunflower soaps too.  When cutting the soap I would advise wearing gloves. I didn't and it wasn't any big deal but the girls who were helping unmold the soap too found that their hands felt a little irritated. This batch made around 30 bars of regular size and 8 small bars.

11. Let the soap ripen for 3 weeks or more in a moderately cool, dry and airy place.

I have now been using our soap for around a week and I like it quite well. We are using it in the shower/bath and I have also started using it for my dish soap. I hadn't thought of doing that before until I was reading in Carla Emery's book (The Encyclopedia of Country Living) and she mentioned that she used bar soap for dishes and then I realized that my friend who makes soap only had that available for dishes (at least that I could see) at her house too. Lye soap is supposed to cut grease well.

I am rather excited to be able to make not only my own soap for cleaning us but also for cleaning our dishes. I can cross 2 items off of my buying list! At this point the only thing I bought for soap making is lye and then the oatmeal (but we already have that on hand for eating) but I have been reading up on making lye (from ashes) so that is something I plan on trying sometime.

 DISCLAIMER - this post contains information on how I made soap but I want to make sure you know that I am no authority on the subject. This was the first time I made it all by myself. Lye is a dangerous chemical and it does need to be treated with respect. If you want to make soap please do quite a bit of research and familiarize yourself with the process and the risks involved. If you make soap using these instructions you do it at your own risk.

SOAP GIVEAWAY!

Would you like to try some of our homemade back the basics soap? I have decided to host a giveaway of one bar of our soap.

   If you would like to win.....

1. Leave a relevant comment on this post telling me why you would like to win this giveaway or tell me some soap making tip or story. Please be sure to leave your e-mail so that I can contact you if you should win.

2. If you would like a second chance at winning then please become a follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect or subscribe by e-mail and then leave another comment telling me that you did that.

This giveaway will go through September 29th. I will e-mail the winner at that time to get their mailing information.

AND THE WINNER IS: KIMBERLY IN NC - if you haven't heard from me yet please e-mail me with your mailing information.

Thanks!

Don't miss my other giveaway going on right now: "One Thousand Gifts" book.

I am linking this to:



and the Chicken Chick's Blog Hop

 

Giving Thanks for God's Gifts {One Thousand Gifts review and giveaway too!}

"Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" Ephesians 5:20

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Is that your life, saying "Thank you"? Do you really give thinks for everything? Do you truly do it in every circumstance?

   I have long thought being thankful was a very important part of my life. I have for quite a lot of years kept a prayer journal and in that journal I start out my prayer time with praise of God followed directly by a list of things that I am thankful for. So yes I am thankful, but I still have a long ways to go to get to the point of naturally thanking God for everything and in every single circumstance. Well, the more I practice at it the better I will learn to be!

  Several years ago I heard about a blogger name Ann Voskamp and became acquainted with her blog: A Holy Experience.  I read her blog, enjoying her gorgeous pictures and words and her gift for making you think and her focus on Thankfulness and Joy. I enjoyed joining at times her blog party where you post a list of the things you are giving thanks for in an effort to count 1,000 gifts.

   I had heard of Ann's book "One Thousand Gifts ~ A dare to live fully right where you are" and have wanted to read it and so I was delighted when I was contacted recently wondering if I would like to review it (and host a giveaway of it!). I said "Yes, Yes, Yes!".

  The book did not disappoint me. Ann has a wonderful writing style and a wonderful message. She shares the story of a trouble childhood and struggles even in adulthood and the healing that comes when you learn to thank God even in the midst of troubles.

  She shares how gratitude can help us to have right priorities/focus in our life. She shares how important it is if we want true communion with God to give thanks for what He has given us. She writes about this in a way that I have not heard before but that makes perfect sense.

   She talks about the importance of trusting God (I mentioned how much the book encouraged me in this area here). When we are truly thankful for all that He has given and when we realize that all good gifts come from Him and that He knows our every need then we really don't need to worry any more.

  I really, really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading it all over again! I highly recommend it to you if you would like to live life more fully!

  Would you like to try winning this book?

I am blessed to be able to host a giveaway - If you wouldn't like to enter please:

1. Leave a comment telling my 3 things you are feeling thankful for today. Please leave your e-mail address in your comment so that I can contact you if you should win.

2. If you would like a second entry please become a follower of my blog via google friend connect or subscribe to get my blog posts delivered to your e-mail. Then leave me another comment telling me how you follow my blog.

This giveaway will go through September 29th. Stay tuned - I have other giveaways lined up for this week as well. It should be fun!!

  Disclaimer: I was given this book for purposes of reviewing but all thoughts are my own.

AND THE WINNER IS: THE TRIPLETTS

MyMemories Suite v4 {Review and Giveaway}

   Well, Hello again! It seems like forever since I last blogged. I know I had posts come up this week but I pre-wrote them and so I actually haven't written on here for over a week and that is a long time for me. Currently we have been doing so many other things ( a trip and then lots of at home fun activities) and I haven't even missed blogging but I am glad to be back and have a bunch of ideas for series to write this coming year. Sometimes a break is rather good for the brain I think!

 But anyway, Let's talk about a fun product and a giveaway of that product....

MyMemories Suite v4 is a scrapbooking software, but software that can do even more than create fun scrapbook pages. There are many ways you can use this fun software. The options for working with your photos (or you can even make lots of fun things without photos.

Here are some things I had fun creating recently using the MyMemories Suite v4:

A scrapbook page of our recent trip out to Reno, NV to attend Ken's Grandmother's memorial service. This page was used with a pre-made photo layout but I chose my own back ground paper and embellishments.

Above is another scrapbook page that I put together from our trip. This one was using a pre-made layout where I just added the photos and text.

Here is another scrapbook page that I made of some flowers that I recently put together for a wedding. For this page I designed completely myself and had fun find colors that I thought complemented the flowers and some embellishments to go with it.

  When I was having fun working on scrapbook pages Megan (age 6) was having fun watching me and thought that it looked like a lot of fun and wondered if she could do a page too. I did let her and that ended up being a very fun activity for her. She loved choosing colors, shapes and embellishments to work with. I did have to help her some but she was getting the hang of using it pretty well.

We both could stand some improvement in our digital scrapbooking skills but we had fun! :-)

Another way that I have found MyMemories Suite to be quite helpful is in making graphics for this blog. I did this one quickly the other night for a series that I am planning on starting in 2013. It isn't my greatest graphic ever (and I might make a different one) but the problem was with my skill and inspiration at the time not the software!

 

Most of my current blog series graphics were made using MyMemories Suite. This software could also be used to make blog headers too.

This software is also a great way to design your own cards, postcards and calendars. When I ordered photos this year to send out with our Christmas letter some of them (I ordered a few different ones) ended up coming back blurry so I didn't want to use them - consequintly I ran out before I had send to many of our local friends. I decided to make some simple postcards instead to send/give out locally. Our printer in only black and white but with the addition of a little red and green markers I think they look rather cute.

MyMemories is also very nice in that they have a lot of ideas in their gallery and blog and on Youtube. Here are a couple of their Youtube videos that help you to see ways you can use MyMemories Suite software.
 

 

 Something that I found really neat about whether you buy or win the MyMemories Suite v4 and that is that you also get a free 6" x 6" 20 page printed andbound soft-cover photobook.  

 The MyMemories Suite v4 generally costs $39.97 but if you use my coupon code:
STMMMS71963
you will get $10 off that price. Included in that price you also get the free photo book and $10 to use on buying digital scrapbook kits, papers and such (they do also have a lot availabe for free)

 If you would like to try to win a MyMemories Suite v4 Software please visit MyMemories.com

 This giveaway will go through December 29th.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this review our my own. I was not paid anything for this post but I was provided the software for purposes of reviewing.

Handmade Mittens Giveaway

 Good morning! How are you doing today?

I thought it would be fun to participate in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway day today. That just means that I am holding a giveaway on my blog of a handmade item and then I will link it up over at Sew Mama Sew along with a whole bunch of other giveaways that other bloggers are hosting.

 I have decided to give away a pair of handmade Mittens. The winner will get to choose from either a pair for a girl child (will probably best fit a 5-10 year old)

or a Boy child (again 5-10 year old). Both of these pairs of mittens are made with a wool outer layer and fleece lining.

 Or you may choose a pair of ladies mittens. These are made with wool outer and inner layers.

 So which mittens would you choose? Please leave a comment telling me something you enjoy doing in the snow (or wearing mittens) - also be sure to tell me which mittens you would want if you win and leave me an e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.

This giveaway will end on December 7th at 5 pm. Anyone may try to win.

If you are visiting my blog for the first time from Sew Mama Sew I would love it if you would take the time to look around. I am a christian homeschooling Mama who loves to makes things and be creative. This year I have been making a different kind of rag rug each month and right now I have a Handmade Christmas Series going on every Tuesday.

WE HAVE A WINNER! CONGRATULATIONS TO JULIE (COMMENT #18)