Tuesday, October 07, 2014

And the winner is...

I'm a day late (sorry!) but our Frozen giveaway has ended. 

The winner is......

Wendy! 

Wendy has been notified and chose her prize. Thanks to all that entered! 

Don't forget that Elsa and Anna can both still be made to order for a price of $8 each, or both for $15. 


We'll be having another giveaway sometime closer to Christmas. Stay tuned to find out details about this one. It will be our biggest and best yet! 

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

A Look Inside Our Space: Bead Storage

Bead storage is something that took a lot of time to figure out, and we're still working on perfecting it. Our current bead storage was bought in the hardware section at Canadian Tire. It fits an entire bag of a color, and has enough bins for more than all the colors we have. 

We don't currently have any pearl, glow-in-the-dark, striped or glitter beads. If we did, there wouldn't be enough room. But it holds all your regular colors. 

We labeled the colors with removable stickers found at the local dollar store. The kind of thing yo would use to price things at a yard sale. 


The rest of our bags, we keep in two spots. We keep one of each color (more of black and white though) hanging on a peg board that I got years ago at Michael's as scrapbooking storage. I have one more board, but can't find the pegs in store anymore. 

The extras we keep in a mini cube storage shelf that we keep on our desk. We got the shelf and the mini baskets at Target. We also keep other random beading odds and ends in there as well. Including the animal/fish peg boards that we rarely use. 

The rest of our storage, at the moment, is just a mess on an old bookshelf. 

The worst part, is that all of this resides in our little dining room in our tiny apartment. We are lacking in space, but we make it work. 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Do you like surprises in the mail?

I once wrote before about the fantastic thing that is Loot Crate. Loot Crate is a subscription service that sends out a monthly "goody" box of gamer/nerd toys and gadgets. It's about $30 plus taxes with shipping included. It's amazing. Eric has received a couple of great shirts, a shot glass, deck of cards, a Batman wallet, a South Park (Stan) speaker (my favorite). 

[ via ]

Now, someone just brought to my attention Nerd Block. 

It's a few different types of subscription boxes - some of which directed as kids. Even a box with items like Hello Kitty and My Little Pony geared towards girls ages 6-11. 

[ Not from actual site. Found here ]


I didn't sign up today, but I'm not going to lie - I wanted to. 

Have you ever signed up for a snail mail goody box subscription? 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Giveaway: Anna OR Elsa from Frozen

I'm pretty excited to announce not only a new project, but a giveaway as well!

Everyone seems to love the movie "Frozen" lately, and our household is no except. We even had a Frozen-themed birthday party over the weekend. It should come as no surprise that we also made bead sprites of Anna and Elsa (and also Olaf awhile back!) 

Elsa and Anna were a ton of fun to make, and the kids love playing with them. Each girl measures approximately 7.5 inches tall. 


We're giving away your choice of either Anna or Elsa. The winner will also get first dibs to purchase the other. They would make great stocking stuffers!

They are also available for purchase, although we would need to have them pre-ordered very soon to ensure that we can have them made in time for Christmas if it would be for a gift.

Winner must be able to pick up their prize in Charlottetown, PE.

You don't need to do all entries to win, but you need to do at least one. The more you do, the better your chances of winning.

Contest runs from now until midnight October 3rd, 2014. We will announce the winner Monday, October 6th.

Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Favorite Apple Apps: Toddler Edition

Sometimes I find it a little hard to find really good apps. I end up downloading some (for me or my daughter) and half the time we end up having to delete it for being to annoying, not working properly or because we just don't really use it. So I'm going to try to regularly recommend some of my favorites. 

I have an iPhone, so most apps will be for iPhone, but I'll do what I can to find info for other devices as well. 

All my apps for today are from the same developer: Originator Kids

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Endless Alphabet is by far my favorite app for my almost 3-year old daughter. Basically it's a puzzle-like game, but so much more. It gives you a word, says the word for you. Monsters run across the screen and send the letters flying. You put them back where they go, like a puzzle. The game pronounces the letter the whole time you're moving it, then says the letter once it is put in place. When you finish the puzzle, it says the word, defines the word, then there's a little skit acting out the word. 

It's pretty much amazing. That's probably why it's $6.99 on Apple devices. Less for Android. People complain that there aren't many words. You can buy more on iPhone (not familiar with other devices) but my daughter was fine with what they have. I believe it taught her a lot about identifying letters. She even started using a few of the words in her own speech. 



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Endless Numbers is like Endless Alphabet, except with numbers. The pronunciation is the same, the puzzle aspect, the stories. Except with numbers. This app is FREE to start out. It doesn't have many levels, but free is free. You have the option to buy more, but we never did. 



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Endless Reader is cool, but my least favorite of the three. In this one, it's a mini story. You're moving words into the right spaces instead of individual letters. These ones don't go into their spaces as easily, I find. My daughter got frustrated with this one. It's FREE as well, but again, not many levels but more you can purchase. 

The best part about all of these, is that my daughter isn't constantly getting annoyed by ads in her way. 

What are your favorite toddler-friendly apps?