penny carnival

And the winner is ...

... K.D., of CraftyNHMom! K.D. you won this fabulous Sewing Calendar from Accord Publishing.

I was going to shoot a video of the girls pulling one of your names out of a hat with a drumroll and all, but, yeah, that didn't happen. On the bright side, they got fed and bathed today and they didn't get into a brawl over who got to draw the name. 

K.D., please e-mail me at megan(dot)cooley@comcast(dot)net with your mailing address so I can send you the calendar. In exchange, you must send me this adorable child. (Just kidding.)

Thanks again to everyone who played along in the Back-to-School Sew Along. It absolutely warms my heart to have you all out there, living creatively with me. And, look! Magpie suddenly is IN LOVE with the apple dress I made her. She's refusing to tie the straps into a bow in the back, but that's OK. 

Hope everyone is well.

P.S. I'm probably preaching to the choir, but to the other people out there: it's not OK to copy a blogger's tutorials and post them on your site as if they are your own. Pasting someone else's words and photos or even rewriting it yourself with a few tweaks is unethical and makes you look ridiculous. If you like my tutorials (awesome! thank you! I'm truly flattered) you can use one of my photos with a link back to my instructions. 

This is three times now with the book sling. I'm getting grumpy about it. Grrr ... (that's grumpy mama bear sound.)

Real Simple fun

Just a quick hello to those of you finding Penny Carnival from the little mention in the Real Simple: Family issue.

I picked up a copy today--it looks like a beautiful issue. But is that any surprise? Real Simple makes bottles of window cleaner look lovely.

Anyhow, I'm humbled to be a teeny-tiny part of it.

So what did Real Simple feature? They mentioned the "story starters" activity I do with my kids and listed a handful of my examples. If you're looking for the whole list (it's a free printable PDF), please check out my original post about it. 

Thanks again for dropping by!

P.S. The Back-to-School Sew Along is plugging along. The deadline is Sept. 12, so if you haven't started stitching yet, hop to it! Remember, you can upload your photos to the Back-to-School Sew Along Flickr group, the Penny Carnival Facebook wall or just e-mail them to me ([email protected]). 

One random entrant will win this Sewing Calendar from Accord Publishing:

 

A Back-to-School Sew Along

Eek! It's August 11. I'd better post the details of that Back-to-School Sew Along, eh?

I'm not one for strict rules and a million guidelines, so let's keep this simple.

1. To participate, you will need to sew something school-related for a child, teen or young adult in your life. You could sew just about anything. Clothes for a kindergartner. A headband for a 'tween. A backpack for a grade schooler. A luggage tag for a student heading overseas to study abroad. A laundry bag for a college student. Whatever!

2. The deadline is Monday, Sept. 13, 2010. I figure by that time, everyone will be back to school.

3. Once you've created something and photographed it, join the Penny Carnival Back-to-School Sew Along Flickr pool and upload your pictures. If you don't use Flickr, post them on the Penny Carnival Facebook wall. If you don't use Facebook, just send me an e-mail with photos attached and I'll post it for you. ([email protected])

4. When you submit your pictures, please tell us a bit about your creation(s). What fabric did you use? What pattern, if any? Why did you decide to make what you made?

5. During the week of Sept. 13, 2010, I will randomly choose one participant to receive a copy of Accord Publishing's 2011 Sewing Calendar, which has more than 100 sewing tutorials (including a few of mine) printed on easy-to-read fold-out cards.

Any questions? What am I forgetting? 

I'm trying to turn that button on the right into a "grab my button" type of thing, but I still really suck at this web design stuff. Feel free to copy it and post it on your blog with a link to the Back-to-School Sew Along page.

 

(Public domain image courtesy of the Library of Congress)

 

Reminder: Here are some images of kids' clothes and accessories I posted a few weeks ago to inspire us. Coming next ... links to sewing patterns with potential.

I'm Miss June! (plus a giveaway announcement)

And Miss July and Miss August, too!

Look what was on my front stoop today (besides the poop-green moss that I'm just noticing now). The 2011 Sewing Calendar from Accord Publishing. It contains 100+ detailed instructions for sewing tutorials from (mostly) bloggers around the web. Including, well, me!

Here I am with the book sling in late June (oh, yes. a perfect project for late June):

  

And here's my T-shirt tote bag in July (because in July the pits of your shirts get all yellow and sweaty so you might as well cut them off and make a bag... or something like that) ...

By August, you simply must sew your family some reusable sandwich bags (this is actually on my current to-do list) ...

And to keep your head and neck cool during all that hard work, how about making yourself a headband?

That's my head! In a calendar!

The editor (Megan Smith) contacted me last year about this and I was honored to be part of it. I just flipped through it quickly today, but it looks like there are some great projects in there. Each tutorial covers three calendar days. The sheets open up for full, detailed instructions.

Here are a couple other projects included:

Sweet little love letters from LucyKateCrafts ...

 

A darling Christmas garland from sadieandlance.blogspot.com ...

 

And these oh-so-cute bunny bowling pins from The Long Thread ...

 

The good people at Accord Publishing sent me two copies of the calendar, so why don't we make this the prize for one random participant in the Back-to-School Sew Along? Sound good? 

Full details on the sew along coming soon. And remember--you don't have to sew a whole dress or a boy's shirt and necktie to be part of it. Even barrettes, sandwich bags and other small projects will do.

Is anyone else in the calendar? I haven't looked closely yet.

Haiti on my mind, a book sling on the auction block

The sun is setting on another day in Haiti, and I can't get my mind off the people who are suffering there. At this moment. Now. Children, moms, dads trapped under pieces of concrete that won't budge. Families sleeping outside because they're afraid the earth will move again. Orphans--Oh, God the orphans--with less than before. I want to scoop them up, hold them tight and bring them home with me.

There are many reputable charities that can help, but a friend in the know advised giving to Doctors Without Borders, so we've done that. 

But I need to do one little thing more.

One of the pieces of motherhood I treasure most is reading books to my children at nap time and bedtime. J and I have tried taking turns, but the girls won't have it. Mommy reads the books. Really, I'm more than happy to oblige. (Except when Bo chooses the old Curious George stories. Good golly, those drag on.)

At this young age, I think it's as much about the book as it is about the cuddle time. My heart breaks knowing there are scores of kids out there who miss out on this--for various reasons.

The needs in Haiti go beyond books right now, but if you love story time with your kids as much as I do, I think there's a way we can help a bit more. Together.

Up for grabs is one of my custom book slings:

 

 You can read more about how it's constructed here.

The highest bidder gets to choose the fabric. It will come with the brackets and dowels.

Send me an e-mail with the amount you're willing to pay for it ([email protected]). FYI: I normally sell them on Etsy for $52. 

The bidding closes Wednesday at noon Pacific Time. I'll post updates here between now and then, letting folks know where the bidding stands (without naming who has made bids) in case anyone wants to go higher.

We'll do the transaction over PayPal, and then I'll donate the money in the winner's name to either Doctors Without Borders or the charity of your choice that's helping in Haiti. 

This is legal, right? It's all I can think to do. I look at my family and see how blessed we are and think about how in a blink it can all disappear. 

And the winner is ...

Congratulations Angie! You won the giveaway from Kids Craft Weekly for the Christmas Card idea PDF.

This was Angie's comment about Christmas crafts (Don't we all love to torture our spouses like this? Arr harr harr  (that's an evil laugh)):

Each year when we decorate our christmas tree I make my husband look at EVERY SINGLE ONE of the bazillion ornaments that I made growing up, while telling him the story about it. Its his worst nightmare, but one of my favorite traditions! Now that we have kids, they have to suffer through it as well. I would love to make more, and have my kids do the same things to their future spouses!

Thanks so much for everyone's entries and a huge thanks to Amber for seeing my original post and offering up her extremely clever PDF. 

Coming soon ... so much! Thanksgiving costumes (yes, Thanksgiving costumes), Thanksgiving aprons, 12 Days of Christmas Crafting (via my Dwell Well blog), more kids' party stuff. Fasten your seat belts. Or fasten mine, at least. 

Kids Craft Weekly giveaway!

Good news, guys! Amber from Kids Craft Weekly saw my blog post yesterday about her Christmas card swap and Christmas craft PDFs and wants to give away one of her PDFs to a Penny Carnival reader. 

Leave a comment below that's somehow related to Christmas crafts. You could briefly describe one of your favorite Christmas crafts, tell me about an ornament you made as a kid, link to a project you've done as an adult or link to a project you'd like to make one day (or have someone else make for you). Whatever.

Leave your comment by this Friday at noon, Pacific time, and a randomly selected commentator (commenter? person? bumble bee?) will win the 20-page Kids Craft Weekly Christmas Cards PDF.

Thanks, Amber!

Update: I didn't mean to exclude folks who celebrate other holidays. By all means, leave comments about Hanukkah crafts, winter solstice ... everything. Even though Amber's e-booklet is about making Christmas cards, there are ideas in there that you could apply to any holiday. 

And the winner is ...

Jenna Z!!

Thanks so much for entering the giveaway for the hanging book display (a.k.a. Book Sling) everyone. I was blown away by all the entries. Take a look:

As you can see, I printed out all the responses, cut them up, and then put them in my Dutch oven. I scrambled them around and pulled out Jenna's response to the question "What was your favorite book as a child or your favorite book to read to your children now?"

What's funny is that Jenna's entry inspired me to check out "Little House in the Big Woods" at the library the other day. I know my kids are too young to sit through me reading it aloud, so I checked it out on audio and have been playing it for them while we craft and cook for the last couple of days. Bo kind of half listens and chimes in every once in a while with a question about what's being said, and tonight she asked me to play "the book about the girl."

I loved reading all the responses and I plan to write a post that lists all the favorite books with links to Amazon one day soon. So many of the books were my favorites too, and then there were several that I'd never heard of before that I can't wait to track down.

So, Jenna, let's talk fabric. I'll be sure to post a photo of the book sling I make her once I get it done.

Remember, if you want to make your own book sling, follow the directions here. And if you want to buy one from me, go here.

Thanks again, everyone. It warmed my heart to read all the excitement for the giveaway and to learn a bit more about who all is out there, dropping by the carnival. 

JUST HAD TO ADD: Apparently today was Jenna's birthday. A Friday the 13th and everything. Ooooooh. Freaky Friday.