Me Monday - A Mac Kid

Have you seen the Macaroni Kid Logo around blog land lately?  You may have at least noticed it at the end of my posts lately or to the right of my sidebar.  Well since today is Monday and that means it's all about me, I wanted to share something with you that I'm so excited about and kind of need your help with. 

I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about my desire to become a SAHM (Stay at home Mom) or WAHM (Work at home mom). My heart is to be close to my monkey and spend the days with her instead of at my desk and she in daycare. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, and love her school. I love what she’s learning and the friends she is making but I want to be a part of it with her. I think both SAHMs and moms that work outside of the home have a tough job, neither is easier or better, I just have been a working mom and now it’s time to work towards being an at home mom.

So to help me achieve this goal I of course started Texas Monkey Boutique which has been doing wonderfully but just at a place to allow me to do it full time and stay at home. To help me get their quicker I have decided to add another endeavor to my resume.

I am starting a new venture called Macaroni Kid. It is a free weekly e-newsletter and website that lists all the upcoming happenings and events for kids in and around North East Dallas. I launched my first newsletter two weeks ago and will continue to use Thursdays as the day when my newsletters will be emailed out.

As a new mom, I found it difficult to find out about so many of the great events that go on in my community without having to search all over and I think that my new newsletter will be a huge help! The newsletter is free and we have a privacy policy in place (we don’t sell or give away names or email addresses).

So this is where you come in for help. I’d love to add you as a subscriber to my little newsletter. The more people I get to subscribe for this free service, the better my chances are at gaining paying advertisers, free vacation offers for my subscribers, and more, thus allowing me to become a SAHM or WAHM if you will. I want to continue to help my family out financially and my goal and desire is for this adventure to allow that.
This week I'm running a giveaway, free movie passes to the movie of your choice just for getting the most subscribers.  Pretty easy and we all love the movies!

I realize that not everyone may live in the NE Dallas area but I know a lot of us travel to the Dallas area for mini vacations, shopping, eating, etc so this can help you as well. And if you live too far to visit then maybe this will be incentive to come see me. :)  If anything you will have access to ideas to look for in your own community as well as great parenting articles, tips, ideas, crafts, recipes, freebies, and fun giveaways.
At the very least you’ll be helping me out by being a subscriber.

And if you aren’t in the NE Dallas area but think this is something that your area would benefit from then talk to me about it and you can start your own little website and become a publishing mom like myself.


If you have a business and looking for some really cheap advertising rates and want to know exactly who your target audience is, then please talk to me about it. I am targeting parents with children ages newborns through high school and moms and dads who are the decision makers in their households, so if you advertise with me there’s no wasted time or money on readers who aren’t with children. Make sense?

If this is something you don’t mind helping me with, just put a yes in the comment section and I can add your email to my list. Or simply go to the Sign Up page and enter your info. Again, nothing will be shared with anyone or anything. And when it is emailed to you on Thursdays, all I ask is you click through it, maybe visit my site every once in a while.  And this week you'll automatically be entered into 2 giveaways.


Also I know you know many parents and I would love your help spreading the word to them! So feel free to forward this to every parent you know. J

I don’t want to take up any more of your time and I apologize in advance for the multiple blog posts, tweets, and facebook posts you are about to see from me but in order to get this off the ground and get me to be a SAHM I’ve got to get the word out. And remember it’s totally free.

Thank you for your help and also know that you can submit tips, recipes, and more and if I feature yours you will win a great prize! 
I really appreciate your help, I know we all get tired of the vote for me posts, and tag me, and follow me, and subscribe me, but in order for some of us to meet certain goals it takes the whole village to help us get there.  And I love my village of readers!  So if there's something that I can do to help you in something you are passionate about then please let me know so I can begin to repay the favor to you. 

Happy Monday Ya'll.

For You Friday - Raising Readers

Boy I'm so glad it's Friday, it's been a heck of a week and it was a short week because of the holiday but it was a LONG and STRESSFUL week.  Needless to say I have plenty of material for next week's Dear So and So.
Today's For You Friday is tips for raising readers.

Now if you're new here or stopping in from one of the awesome Friday Follow Blog Hops like New Friend Friday or Friday Follow or Blog Frog Hop or Social Parade then let me tell you Friday's here are fun.  It's all about you and what's more fun that you?  Well maybe some giveaways, tips, things I think you will enjoy, advice, and more.  I'd love to have you as a new follower but only if you are interested in crafts, DIY projects, humor, honesty, tutorials, and fun. 
The only thing I request is to let me know why you've decided to follow me, that lets me know you read my posts, looked around and made a decision, not just clicked follow to add numbers, it also encourages me to come visit your blog, follow back and come back often. 

I am wanting to develop friendships and more interested in relationships with my readers and not just numbers.  Deal?!  Good now on to For You Friday.  This post comes straight from my article that I publish with Macaroni Kid.  It's filled to the brim with awesome stuff so if you like this post, check out the rest of the articles and because I have no shame, I'd love to beg you to sign up for my weekly newsletter.  It's for moms and dads filled with activities and ideas to do together to build family bonding.  PLLLEEEASSE!  Just click HERE to read more articles and click HERE to sign up. Oh did I mention it's free? :)

In my newsletter you will  notice I included a summer reading program article to help you and your kids earn free items and encourage the use of the brain throughout the summer months.  So to add to that I thought some good tips on getting a child to read would be fitting and beneficial so that the excitement of reading throughout the summer will last for years to come.

From the time I was a child I've been told or heard that reading is so important and honestly I never second guess my mom on this. Now other stuff I did second guess but we'll leave that for a different article, called, teenagers be nice to your parents. :) Back to reading, I too tell my toddler this and I've never stopped to consider WHY is it so important. I'm not questioning it's importance, just curious as to the many benefits it has. Here are 5 reasons reading is so vital.

1. Books help children develop vital language skills.
2. Reading can open up new worlds and enrich children's lives.
3. Reading can enhance children's social skills.
4. Reading can improve hand-eye coordination.
5. Reading can provide children with plenty of good, clean fun!

So we all probably agree that reading is important, reading is vital, reading is even fun, but how can we motivate our children to want to do it? How can we raise readers?
I have many many parent friends and to me, you as a mom or dad are the best resource for finding out what works best. So that's just what I did, I polled parents and asked them what they did to help raise a reader. 

1. Visit your local library often. Get your children their own library cards. Try a story hour or other free event at the library.
2. Check out the local bookstore. A book or gift certificate always makes a terrific gift.
3. At the library, let your child choose some of the books.
4. Let your child see you reading, whether it's the newspaper, a magazine, or the latest bestseller.
5. Encourage older children to read to their younger brothers and sisters. Or have the whole family set aside some time to read together!
6. Show your child how people use reading all the time. Read aloud street and store signs, maps, billboards, menus, and labels on packages.
7. Create a library for your child of new or used books. Try looking for affordable books at yard sales, second hand book stores, and library book sales.
8. Set up an area in your home where a variety of reading materials are within easy reach. Encourage writing by including paper, crayons, pens and pencils.
9. Subscribe to a children's magazine. Read it with your child every month.
10. Carry books to read to your child wherever you go - at the doctor's office, in line at the store, or on a long car ride. (You can also listen to stories on tape.)
11. Encourage a love of words by playing rhyming and word games, singing silly songs, or writing poems and stories together.
12. Talk about daily activities or tell stories about your family or culture to help children develop their language skills.
13. As a baby start a nightly routine of bath, reading a book, then bed.

One of the ways listed above is to set up an area in your home where reading materials are within easy reach. This is one of the first things we did in our home when our baby was no more a baby. We built bookshelves ourselves since I wasn't interested in paying around $40 a shelf. Instead I paid $20 for materials and had a wonderful building session with my husband. You can read all about it HERE.  
Since then our child goes to it many times a day to pick out a book and sit and read. These tips really do work and I know together we can raise tremendous readers!

So what are your tips for raising a reader or to get your kids excited about reading?  I'd love to hear them.

Happy Friday Ya'll.

Thursday's Tutorial - Beach Chair Towel Cover

When I received an email from Lisa over at This Is Me asking me if I'd like to share her beach towel tutorial on Thursday's Tutorial here on my blog, I was giddy with glee and of course said yes.  I love showing my readers amazing ways to make their life easier and as the summer hits us with the big stick of heat I know we will all me making our way towards the water and this adorable beach towel with little surprises will make that trip so much better. 

Lisa Writes:

First off you should know I am a messy sewer. My grandmother is a professional seamstress and would shudder if she saw my sloppy seams etc. But since this was for my own use and just something I threw together in less than 30 minutes, I did not go to any great lengths to make it perfect.

Supplies Needed:
Beach Towel
Terry Cloth Material or a 2nd towel
Sewing machine
Items needed for the beach


First I started with one of the cute Target Dollar spot beach towels. The covers I had seen online used longer towels but I had these, they were cute and CHEAP so they were perfect for my needs. I had some cheap light pink terry cloth material on hand (I seem to have a hobby of collecting fabric!) but you could also use a 2nd towel for the back and pockets. If you were clever enough you could cut around and use all the seams the towel already has to prevent hemming or using the serger on the ends. A serger would have came in very handy for this product but I don't have one and did not want to drive 40 minutes to my grandmothers to use hers. I used a simple tight zig zag stitch on the raw edges of my pockets and back. You could fold it and hem it to make it look more professional.


I had not used my embroidery machine in almost a year so I needed to test it out, the back of the chair cover was the perfect way to do so. I embroidered an L on it just to make sure my machine was working. I cute the light pink terry cloth wider than my towel because A) it was a wider material and B) I wanted the cover to fit any beach chair and this was the easiest way to make sure it would work on wider chairs. Sew the back section onto the top part of the towel to make the part what will slide over the chair to keep the wind from blowing your towel away or slipping once you sit down.

Next I laid out all my "beach" items. A book, sunscreen, sunglasses, camera, cellphone etc. and cut the pocket sizes to make sure all my items would fit in the pockets. On the back part I made it longer so it could be folded down to "close" the pocket. You gotta love the Dollar Tree for Cheap Beach reads! Of course I will end up with more than this in the pockets but I used these items as a guideline when deciding on the sizes.
 
 

Sew the pockets up and then sew them onto the towel with a single straight stitch. TA DA... Your beach towel chair cover is ready for some fun the sun! These pictures aren't the greatest but they are the only ones I took before the rain moved in.

You can personalize them with coordinating colors, embroidered names/initials ( I did my initials on the top of the cover). Use a design stitch on the pockets, add velcro or buttons to keep your items secure in the pocket, sew in a built in cellphone pocket and so much more! You can make the back flap shorter, I was using a piece already cut and didn't know what to expect so I figured it was better to use too much than not enough. I have a few sections gathered at the seam to create a wider area to fit large wider chairs.


I am going to use another towel to make a large beach tote so my chair cover, beach towel and all other beach items will fit inside. I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial and are ready to make your own chair cover. Send me pictures! I would love to see your creations. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.


I love this and this is something even the newest of sewers could make.  We already had our girls beach trip but I know we will be making our way to the water many times this year to cool off.  This is Texas ya know.

Happy Thursday Ya'll.

Yay You Did It - Round 4 and Thank You

I have to admit that lately my inbox has been filled with many awards, personal emails of why you follow me or something that you thought I'd enjoy and I can't explain in words the way it makes me feel.  My purpose in blogging started out for family who didn't live close by to be able to keep up with us and I moved the family blog and kept this one as a way to meet and develop new friendships and that's exactly what has happened.  I could take the blog down a different path and try to make money or get stuff for free but that's now what I want.  I have other endeavors I'm trying to make money at. This blog, it's about me and you. 

Did you know that I don't even charge for my advertising slots?  Nope, if it's a blog or a company I truly believe in and think my readers will benefit from then I put it up there. So that's why there's only 2 up there.  I may add more down the road or change how I handle it but for now I have it set up like this. 

Did you know that when I do the giveaways that I do which are few and far between that it comes out of my own pocket?  I think of things I think my readers, my friends, might enjoy and go buy it to offer up.  No one pays me, it's my way of repaying you.

Sure I sometimes "envy" those big blogs that have thousands of followers or make money but when I get an email or a comment or a picture of something you've done because you were inspired by something I wrote then I'm instantly reminded that I'm here for you, I'm here to make friends, I'm here to inspire and be inspired and that envy is melted away. 

So thank you to each and everyone of you that listens, that reads, that comments, that emails, and that tries their hand at something I've made.  You make blogging worth more than any amount of money! 

Now on to Yay You Did It.  Don't you just love being enticed and teased with yummy goodness on a Wednesday morning!? How do you think I feel when my inbox gets filled with calorie goodness after calorie goodness? And you know I'm dieting so don't be surprised next week if Dear So and So really goes off on the diet. But we all love eye candy and at least it's calorie free until I run home and make myself one or two.

Kenzie from 9 O'clock Dance of Joy helped throw one of her girlfriends a bridal shower and when she saw my Decorate Cakes with No Stress Post, she of course did one for the bride.  I can't tell you how much I love the colors and the way this cake turned out.  It is stunning and looks like she picked it up from a bakery.  Just beautiful Kenzie.

Kenzie has got some great crafting posts, beautiful girls, and lots of fun over at her blog so please go tell her what a great job she did on the cake and see what else she has to offer her readers. 

Have you done something you saw here, maybe the key fob, tutu leggings, a cake, send those pictures in so I can showcase you. 

Again, thank you for being such awesome readers and for coming on this journey with me. 

Happy Wednesday Ya'll.

             

        

Dear So and So

Hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day holiday weekend.  I decided to go a bit internet free for the weekend so didn't post any or read much which was bitter sweet.  I missed seeing what all my bloggers were up to but I also enjoyed the down time.  Of course now I'm playing catch up but that's fun so I don't mind. 
It's Tuesday so it's time for Dear So and So, where we get to put it out there what we really wanted to say.  This has kind of become a little therapy session for me each week and I'm so enjoying it, I love reading yours and your comments make me laugh so I gather you are enjoying it too.  So here we go.

Be sure to link up with Supah for Post It Notes Tuesday

Happy Tuesday Ya'll.