Hi ho, hi ho, we love to do our chores

I don't know about the rest of you, but I struggle to get my kids to do their chores willingly. I'm not sure that will ever happen, really. One friend has the kids chores tied into their allowance, another friend pays their kids marbles(worth 10 cents each) for doing different things, and some friends who use chore charts. We've been trying varying degrees of all these, but I think we finally found the right mix for us.
When I saw a cute chore chart on a friends blog, I knew I wanted add it to our chore mix too. Six months later, I finally got around to it. And here's what I ended up with:




These were actually rather inexpensive to make. I had the ribbon and paper on hand; the modpodg, flowers and metal brads were from a store closing it's doors; and the clipboards came in a pack of 6 from for a few dollars from Sam's. The velcro ended up being the most expensive part of the project.
You may notice some extra velcro on the blue board. Larissa was sitting with me while I was finishing up the boards. I didn't notice that she decided to help by adding extra velcro pieces on her board. Later, she tried to take them off and ripped the paper. Luckily, it's nothing a little modpodge can't fix.

September Card Club

The theme for this month was fall colors.
Here are the cards so far (looking forward to seeing what Barbie Jo and Kara create):


I'm a copy cat so, of course, I cased a design I found on Split Coast Stampers. I've been wanting to use that stamp since I bought it...glad I finally did it.

This is Jen's awesome owl card. She started out with something completely different in mind. I'm not sure what it was, but I'm happy with where her creativity took her.

Chere combined watercolors, vellum, and embossing to come up with this cute card. I like the shimmer.

Summer wanted to use her origami paper and even stamped an origami bird on her envelope. She didn't think it looked very autumny, but looking at it now, it seems kind of harvesty to me -- the orange from the scarecrows shirt the yellow of the fields... And I love that button.

Card Club

I have been bringing home some cute creations from card club lately and thought I'd share.

Summer made this really cute fancy fold card. I love it!

Chere made this sweet spinner card. As it spins across the opening, it reveals, "Happy Birthday". Once you start spinning, it's hard to stop.

Jen made this buckle card. Pull the striped paper "belt" out of the slot to open the card. Clever!

This was my card for the month. It's a spinner too. I might be making more of these for the Cards for Heros organization. They send homemade cards to deployed servicemen so they have something special to send home to their loved ones. I bet a little boy would love to get this from his father or mother.

Barbie Jo was out of town for our August meeting, but I'm sure I'll love her card too.

A Family Tradition

Decades ago, my mom began making flannel blankets to give as gifts. She would use a scallop stitch along the edge, cut it out by hand, and put a decorative stitch away from the edge to keep the fabric from slipping. It made a simple gift beautiful and special. Fast forward many years, and you will find that not only is my mom still making these blankets, but she has passed this tradition down to me and my sister. These have been the most used blankets with my children, and I have heard the same from recipients of the blankets. My three year old, in fact, still uses her blankets in the car or while watching t.v.


From time to time, we sell our blankets, and I am posting some here for you to view. They are approximately 42" square, have contrasting flannel prints front to back, with an outer scalloped edge that is cut by hand and an inner decorative stitch 10" from the border. The price is $25 plus shipping. I can use other prints and sizes to make lap blankets for adults or older children. If this is the case, contact me for information at lauramc777@yahoo.com. Please use the word "blankets" in the subject line.

The band of fabric where the label is, shows the fabric that is on the reverse side of the blanket.



Retro floral


For the Boys


Tree Frogs



Recently, I also experimented with tag blankets. These are approximately 17" square with 2 yards of ribbon each. Babies like to feel the textures of the ribbon and even chew on them. The front features a bright print, and the back a soft dot minky fabric. They are $12 each, plus shipping.






This one is an oops blanket. I accidentally cut it too small. It is approx. 12" square and will sell for $10.