The Sewing Mom

Amazing! For 52 weeks, that’s a full year, Fun, Crafts and Recipes has been hosting my favorite meme, Four Foods on Friday. I love this meme for several reasons, but, besides the fact that it’s all about food, when it’s time for this meme, I know it’s time for the weekend to begin!

This has indeed been a stressful week, 3 softball games, a band competition, a visit to the vet for our puppy, and a parent meeting on sexual abstinence which led to a one on one conversation with my 12 year old daughter this morning on that very subject. That last event makes me want something strong in my coffee, but, no worries, I’ll just take cream this morning!

Anyway, back on topic, here are this weeks questions and my answers:

#1. Name something you use cream cheese in/on. Well, I do put it on bagels, but I can’t remember the last time I had a bagel. I also use it in tuna casserole, it gives it a nice tang and takes away the fishy taste.

#2. Do you use yogurt in any recipes? I can’t think of anything I use yogurt in except parfaits and smoothies. Seems like there should be a cake or something that uses yogurt. Maybe another participant will have that!

#3. Macaroni salad. What do you like/put in yours? My macaroni salad is similar to my potato salad. I use elbow noodles (of course), mayonnaise, mustard, celery salt and pepper. I like a little pickle relish in the mix too.

#4. Share a recipe that you use sour cream in. Now, I know I’ve got a cake recipe that uses sour cream and it’s delicious! Darned if I can find it though. If I do, I’ll be sure to post it.

Do you, or did you, read to your young children? Do you know that my daughter is 12 and she still enjoys it when we read to her once in a while! It not only helped with her reading skills, but it really created a strong bond between us, something we share, a love of reading.

Check out this recent press release on Little Reader Home Basic, a flash card based learning program.

October 23, 2008 – BrillKids Inc. announces the launch of Little Reader HOME BASIC, a downloadable software tool for parents and educators who wish to teach children to read in an easy, fun and efficient way. Suitable for children aged four months and up, Little Reader enables users to easily create flash cards, using the computer as a powerful platform with which to educate very young children. Incorporating methods developed over several decades by experts in the early learning field in their product’s functionality and design, BrillKids’ Little Reader is able to take advantage of the right-brain learning capabilities of children during the critical early years.

Following the success of their online community, BrillKids provides an answer to the needs of parents worldwide for a more convenient program with which to teach their young ones. Even with the burgeoning children’s product market filled with available educational videos, laminated flash cards, and pre-made slideshow presentations, none come close to providing complete customizable solutions for parents who want to teach their children in a more personalized way. “Little Reader is a groundbreaking program from BrillKids,” said KL Wong, CEO of BrillKids Inc. “Not only is it our very first software product to be made commercially available, it is also the project closest to my heart, having created it specifically for parents like me who could not find convenient ways with which I could create and personalize my little daughter’s flash card lessons. To know that Little Reader can put smiles on children’s faces when they see their parents’ pictures on the screen while being taught their first words about family is simply amazing.”

Helping Parents Teach Their Children to Read
Many parents have already witnessed the benefits of using the Little Reader program during the span of its three-month beta testing period. “I have thoroughly enjoyed using Little Reader – I thought I knew a lot about teaching reading to people of all ages – and particularly since I was a follower of Glenn Doman methods 40ish years ago,” said Amanda, a parent from Brazil. “That said – I have found Little Reader totally inspiring – it is very addictive, and it encourages the user to not only make use of the material provided in the program – but to create their own.”

“My kids really love Little Reader,” adds Paola from California. “This software gives my children lessons they can relate to – their own body/family/toys/pets. And the fact that people from all over the world using any language – even dialects – can come together, share concerns and experiences, give one another support, and contribute to the whole is absolutely amazing. I can honestly say that I don’t know of any other software that is as versatile, meaningful and enjoyable as Little Reader.”

Making it Easy for the Busy Parent
BrillKids also offers hundreds of free additional learning library files which Little Reader users can simply download through their online community – a balm for parents who do not have the time to create their own content.

“In my very busy schedule as a working mother, I found Little Reader to be perfect teaching tool,” says Jane from South Carolina. “This program saves me so much time in preparing my teaching materials because it’s just so easy to use, turning ‘lesson time’ into ‘bonding time’ for my little Alyssa. The free additional library files are also fantastic – it’s so convenient to just download what I want, when I want them.”

Created by Parents for Parents
An overwhelming number of requests from parents worldwide spurred the creation of Little Reader, and BrillKids made it a point to take the development of this software closer to the hearts of those who inspired it to fruition through its customer-oriented forefront throughout the three-month beta testing period. The company took all suggestions and comments from an international pool of beta testers and integrated functions to satisfy what real parents need from an educational software program for young children.

Little Reader’s release brings the company closer to their aims of enhancing the quality of life for parents and parents-to-be, helping them give their child the gift of early literacy.

About BrillKids Inc
Founded in 2008, BrillKids Inc. is a privately held company and is part of the Kreative Land Group, which has its head office in Hong Kong. BrillKids Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and markets software solutions and services that make early childhood education as effortless and as fun-filled as possible. Information on BrillKids Inc. and its products and services is available at http://www.brillkids.com/little-reader/.

This tote bag is available for $40. I will provide a discount to anyone who has donated $10 or more to any of the legitimate Breast Cancer funds or, if you have or plan to walk in any of the Breast Cancer fund raising walks such as the 3 Day walk. If you qualify for the discount, the bag is $25.

I decided to design and craft another fun  quilted tote bag in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I love all of the ladies on this fabric! They appear again on the inside of the bag as pockets. The bag measures approx. 12″ wide at the bottom and is approx. 15″ high. There are 5 interior pockets and it has a magnetic snap closure. The bag has been machine quilted and is made of 100% cotton, quilt quality fabric. The tote bag as well as the handles have batting for added support and softness. This bag is machine washable.

If you’re here to drop EC, please click through to my guest blog’s site as well! 

I don’t normally do this, in fact, I’ve never done this, but I know that advertising prices have been quite high at EC lately and I always like those blogs who have paid EC to advertise on my site to get their “money’s” worth.  Unfortunately, today, I am not advertising very heavily and so won’t be getting many click throughs myself, which in turn means, the widget on my site probably won’t be getting many either.

Either way, thanks for stopping by!

Weekends are supposed to be a time for relaxing, spending time together, and just enjoying each others company, right?  So, why do I feel like our weekends are becoming all about chaos and trying to get things done on the fly?

We started yesterday morning with a softball game, then breakfast at a local diner, all before 10 a.m.  Once we got home, I got my stuff organized and I headed out one direction to run errands and my husband headed out the other.  My bright spot was getting to go the quilt shop to buy some fabric.  Unfortunately, with my recent job loss and the holidays looming around the corner, I didn’t have the heart to spend my money on fabric that I didn’t have a specific project for, so, I bought the one yard I needed to finish a tote bag and headed back out.

Next stop was the grocery store, a task I loath.  We were out of just about everything, so I knew this would be a cart filler of a shopping trip.  I also decided it’s time for some extreme value shopping and I left things on the shelf that I normally would’ve bought because they weren’t on sale or I didn’t have coupons.  I managed to get everything we needed (I forgot to get the sour cream), and, after all my coupons, I was very pleased to have purchased an entire shopping cart worth of groceries for only $156.  There were only 3lbs. of hamburger in that purchase, I tend to buy our meet at a different store, so I still need to go do that.

After coming home, I spent quite a bit of time trying to drop EC.  I was never able to get the inbox to load, so I had to drop through a variety of means, most of which took much more time.  I even tried going through Favorites on the EC toolbar, but that didn’t work out either.  Not sure what’s going on at EC, but I hope they’re able to get it resolved.

I managed to stitch two of my appliques on my 12 Days of Christmas blocks before I was just overcome with the feeling of being tired.  I received a book in the mail that I need to read and review, so I went back to attempting to drop EC’s while reading.  Eventually, my daughter wanted to play Wii, so that’s what we did.

I finally finished dropping my 300 EC’s, and that was the last straw, I went to bed.  I’m hoping today will be an improvement.  I realize I got a lot done yesterday, I just have so much more to do.  I have sold one tote bag and need to make another so that I can deliver both to their new owner.  First though, I have to cut all the strips of fabric.  So, that will be my first task of today, cutting.  Hopefully my daughter won’t mind if I don’t attend her 3 hour softball practice this afternoon so I can keep working.

So, for me, Sunday is a day of catch up, not so much a day of rest.  However, if I make headway, I do feel better about myself and isn’t that what Sunday should be about, sort of?