Greening Sam and Avery

Day 235: reuse it crafting- make a purse

But first what you have all been waiting for.....

The winner is -

 
 

Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams! THAT IS YOU!!  Congrats.

Now for the fine print - you have 48 hours to send me an email with your address so I can get the movies in the mail to you. If I don't here from by then I will pick another winner.

Thanks to all of you that commented and helped to spread the word.

Moving on to a fun tutorial!

Started with this pair of pants. The buttons have completely worn out and don't stay closed so they can't be re-sold or given away.

 
Then I cut the top off right above the legs.

 
I turned it inside-out and sewed the bottom shut. My sewing skills leave a little bit to be desired. But I don't have a working sewing machine and the lining on these pants was really hard to work with.

 

This is the bottom all sewn up and turned the right way.
 
Once it was all sewn up I cut an extra long strip off the legs to be the strap. I attached some cute ribbon to it and then attached the strap to the purse.

 
 
I added a little extra touch to it just for fun!

 
Avery modeling the new purse for dress ups!

 

A great fit for Avery and for Sam (she tried it out and played with it later on).
 
These pants were cargo style and had these super cute little pockets on the sides. I cut them off of the pants too and saved them. For now I told Sam that they could be little coin purses for her to put in the purse but I am thinking they could be fun to incorporate into some other crafting project as well!

 

SO fun to get to use a pair of pants that both girls wore for something they can have fun with now! May have to make a second one though as I am seeing fights in the future.

Got any old pants laying around? Make a purse!

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The Nitty Gritty!

A few more details about the purse. I didn't sew the ribbon or the strap onto the purse. I just used liquid stitch because the waist band was too thick for me to sew through and, well let's face it, I am lazy! But so far it is holding up great. The liquid stitch worked for the little metal scrap booking detail as well too.

My girls are very into dress ups right now and Avery is constantly carrying around a purse so I think this will be a big hit!

Explaining to Sam the process of making the purse, why I made it out of an old pair of pants and what would have happened to the pants if I didn't make the purse helps to turn this craft into a learning opportunity.  

 

 

 

Day 234: stranger in the woods - review and giveaway

The last Carl R. Sam and Jean Stoick book based movie review is coming at ya!

But first...

Check out the In the Woods blog they posted bits of my first review over there.

This may have been my favorite of the three movies.

The photography is just amazing!  And there are talking snow banks that are real snow banks that look like faces. Hard to explain but let me try. It is just when you look up at the clouds and you can see shapes in the clouds. The photographers found snowbanks or other snow masses that looked like faces and bodies of people. Then made those faces come to life with voices, conversation, music and jokes. I loved looking at the formations and trying to see what they saw. Sam may have been a bit young to see all the faces but I was fascinated. This book really came to life through this movie for me and was just incredible.

SO, now that you have heard all about this amazing movies that are based on three of our FAVORITE books you absolutely MUST enter to win them or head on over to their site to buy them!

Head here to enter to win!

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The Nitty Gritty!

This giveaway will be over tomorrow at NOON (central time) and a winner will be drawn in the afternoon by random.org.

BUT keep your eyes out next week for TWO MORE giveaways. I am honored to be in the process of reviewing two great books that I cannot wait to tell you more about. Both of which will be up for grabs.

First review and giveaway - "Nature Smart: A Family Guide to Nature" by Stan Tekiela and Karen Shanberg

Second review and giveaway - "Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids: A Guide to Getting Your Kids Active in the Great Outdoors" by Eugene Buchanan

So be sure to check back and enter those giveaways as well!!

Day 229: first snow in the woods

Avery, Sam and I enjoyed another one of the Carl R. Sams movies today, First Snow in the Woods. Sam likes reading the books first and then watching the movies.

So we read. Then we watched. This movie was quite different from the book, which was not the case with the first movie that we watched, Lost in the Woods. The first one had other features and certainly more involved than the book but it also had the whole book. The additional parts of the First Snow in the Woods movie are the parts that held Sam and Avery's attention the best. Dancing and singing scarecrows! Avery especially thought these were great. She was captivated.

One thing that I really wanted to emphasis about these movies is that I am not afraid to let Avery watch them. Unlike many typical children's movies that have a lot of colors, fast paced images and fantasy these movie have real life images, less movement and are slower paced. They are wonderful for keeping kids entertained but not forcing their little eyes and brains to work too hard trying to focus on too many things.

As always the images and stories are just incredible.

Want to see more from this amazing author? Check out their website, Stranger in the Woods and to see more of Carl Sams and Jean Stoick's AMAZING nature photography check them out here.

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The Nitty Gritty!

To see my first review and to enter the GIVEAWAY just click back over to the first post!

Current Giveaways

Be sure to check out the giveaway that we have going on right now!  LOW ENTRIES!

"Nature Smart: A Family Guide to Nature" book review and giveaway! Open until Saturday, March 5th at noon. Lots of ways to enter. CLOSED.

"Outdoor Parents Outdoor Kids: A Guide to Getting Your Kids Active in the Great Outdoors" by Eugene Buchanan book review and giveaway! Ends March 10th at noon.

Day 226: carl r. sams movies giveaway

You may know that we LOVE the Carl R. Sams books. I have blogged about them here and here. But we had never seen the movies. When a colleague of mine recommended the movies I knew I had to check them out.

I am SO excited to be doing a review and GIVEAWAY of all THREE of the Carl R. Sams movies!

Stranger in the Woods, First Snow in the Woods and Stranger in the Woods 

 

So we started this morning out with Lost in the Woods. The book, in case you haven't read it, is a photographic fantasy about a little fawn that is all alone in the woods waiting for his mom. The pictures are absolutely amazing and the story is adorable. The movie is equally as incredible!

There are songs, tons of video photage of wild animals, hilarious characters and great information about the woods and the animals that live there. The wildlife photage alone is to make this movie a win but then the songs, story and characters just make it even more endearing. Even I was cracking up from the jokes told by a hilarious racoon and some very silly frogs. The narrator of the story is a turtle and all of the animals have adorably funny voices.

One of my favorite parts of these movies is that the movement is slow or in real time and because of all the real life photage even Avery can watch these. She loved them. They are short too, just about 30 minutes each, so the shorter attention span of a two year old is still held for the whole thing. I love the idea of something both girls can watch and both equally love!

Sam and Avery were both captivated by this movie! And so was I.

We are headed on a little road trip today so no time to watch and review the other two (those will be coming later this week!) but the GIVEAWAY starts TODAY for all three movies. One lucky reader will win ALL THREE MOVIES!

And here are all the ways you can enter -

1. MANDATORY ENTRY - Leave a comment with your email telling me who you would like to watch these movies with. (1 entry)
2. Follow publicly through Google Friend Connect (2 entries).
3. Like Greening Sam and Avery on Facebook (2 entries).
4. Follow me on Twitter (2 entries).
5. Follow me on Networked Blogs, see sidebar (2 entries).
6. Blog about this giveaway (3 entries).
7. Tweet this giveaway, once a day (1 entry).
8. Share on Facebook, once a day (1 entry).
9. NEW ENTRY METHOD - Get a friend to submit a comment and mention YOUR name in their comment. (1 entry) Got this clever idea from this great giveaway!

Okay, I think that is enough!!  For ways to win that have multiple entries be sure to leave multiple comments. Random.org will pick a winner on February 21st. The winner will be emailed and given 48 hours to respond and claim their win before another winner is selected.

 

 

Green Book Giveaway!

A blogging friend of mine is having a giveaway of a book that I am super excited to read (hoping I win the giveaway so I don't have to buy it!! HA!).

You should go check out the book.

Welcome to my Wonderland

Day 164: just go outside

 
It doesn't have to be a big outing, some great activity or a long amount of time. Even a few minutes to just walk around your yard and can lead to some amazing memories and great learning opportinities for your little ones.

We bundled up this morning and went outside to play in the enormous amount of snow that we had gotten.  Sam tried on her new skiis that she got last year but was too little to use. She was really excited to try them out and actually moved pretty well in them but the snow was so fluffy and deep that it didn't last long. We think we might need to cut some trails with our skiis and then try again.

Sam has learned how to make snow angels at school and so we did that in the back yard as well.

But the big moment from our outdoor time (which lasted all of 30 minutes) was the red tailed hawk that soared right over us barely 50 feet above our heads! Sam and I just stood there watching it circle over us.  So, I can't attract a chickadee to save my life but red-tailed hawks are not a problem!

I am sure you are all on pins and needles waiting to hear who the baby legs giveaway winner is....

Thank you random.org! Comment number 22 - Kitie!!  You have 24 hours to email me your shipping address, child's gender and child's size so that Baby Legs can send you the grab bag of stuff.  Thanks so Baby Leg's and all the people that entered the giveaway!!

Lastly, I wanted to reveal a project that I have been working on for a few weeks.  It started because my sister say something like it at an online store and thought we could make it with my dad's help.  I LOVED the idea and ran with it.  Got some help at the beginning from my dad (the carpenter) but then did most of the actual construction on my own.  It isn't perfect and if you look closely you can see a lot of nails holding it together (not the way my dad would have done it) but I think it is awesome!

Introducing...Sam's doll house people TREE HOUSE!

Complete with tree cookie spiral staircase,

twig and twine ladder (sorry for the focus issue),  
 
and tree cookie/twine swing (the twine loops are what will hold the doll house person onto the little tree cookie).  Ignore all the extra twine, I just didn't realize I hadn't cut that off yet.

 
Funny part about this whole thing? Sam doesn't have a doll house or doll house people! HA! But now the people that I am hoping to still find for her have their very own tree house.  And the house will come for her birthday in March (maybe I can make that out of tree cookies too!). 

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The Nitty Gritty!

Again, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone that entered the Baby Legs contest; wish everyone could win something.   

No way I could give you step by step instructions on how to make this tree house but if you have questions about a specific piece of it just leave a comment and I will respond. Happy to share my secrets!

Now, I didn't want to share the actual tree house that started this whole thing because once you see that you will laugh at my creation but alas I have to give credit where credit is due so go here to check out the original!

Day 163: my blogging world

One more day to enter the Baby Legs giveaway!! 

Most bloggers have a blogging community.  I think if you are not a blogger it might be hard to understand this concept (please correct me if I am wrong).  A group of people, that most of the time have never met in person, but help each other, support each other and are always there no matter what, in a strange kind of way.

Today my blogging community seems to be as close to me as my real community.

I am getting great ideas from them. We have been working on these Christmas ornaments at our house.

 
 
 
The idea for these recycled ornaments (I am pretty sure it came from her, even though I can't find the original post!) came from Welcome to our Wonderland.  If you need a good book and an activity to go with it check her out!

Today I won a giveaway from Ordinary Life Magic! Some amazing wooden stilts for the girls that I am so excited to see under the Christmas tree. I love that bloggers help support small businesses like Etsy sites and help other bloggers by giving away the things that they review! So fun.

I also got a box in the mail today.  I participated in a season swap hosted by Mama Rae and was given the honor of receiving something handmade from Jules at A Little Crafty Nest. What did she send? Two of the most adorable little beeswax candles and an amazing snow fairy that she made!  I would show you a picture of the fairy but my camera in the dark won't do it justice (as you can tell by the pictures posted above!) so to see the adorable fairy we received click on her link and check out the one on her header! Sam fell in love instantly and so did I. So cute.  I am ashamed to say that the things we made for her are still in the box waiting to be mailed.  I didn't know that there were special forms and things for mailing to Canada so I have had to go to the post office twice neither time with the item correctly wrapped to be mailed to where I need it to go. Excuses, excuses...I am just late! But she will get our creations and will hopefully enjoy them.

Love my blogging community. I have so many more places I would love to share with you but its a Saturday night, the husband is getting frustrated that I am on here and I would like to relax a bit away from the computer!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Supplies for the ornaments include - old cd that is broken, paint, modge podge and Christmas glitter/confetti. The hand and foot prints of Avery did not turn out that well but that is just because I didn't know how to get her to lay her hand flat or keep her foot still.  Sam's turned out cute but then the idea of glitter and confettir struck and took the ornment from cute and interesting to gaudy and...well, you can see!

Day 160: their little baby legs are warm giveaway

Don't forget to join in the December Monthly Challenge by joining the conversation here or using the #greenholiday hashtage on Twitter or joining the conversation on Blog Frog here.

On to today's post!

We may not have the write gloves, scarves or socks for the girls yet BUT the one thing I have figured out is how to keep their little legs warm.  Yes, of course we have snow pants for both of them which does the trick for major snow play times but there is no way I can run errands with kids in snow pants.  So the everyday, underneath their normal clothes solution? BABY LEGS! I bought two pairs of these a while back because I had been told how great they were for helping to protect little crawlers legs (and they are!).  Then we did this hike and I had the idea to put both girls in baby legs to give them another layer under their jeans.  It worked! They were warm and didn't complain. I loved them so much I contacted them to see if I could do a review and giveaway for them and they said yes! So what are baby legs?

Kind of a cross between 80s style leg warmers, stockings and socks.  They are one size fits most (and they do fit both of my girls!) and come in a ton of styles and colors. You can find the two pictured here.

Why are they so great? Well, having one product that both girls can wear is pretty amazing. But also because they don't have a waist band there is no uncomfortable bunching around their tummies, no need to pull down one more thing to change a diaper or when Sam needs to go potty but their legs still stay super warm! 

Avery also wears them around the house during the day with just a onsie. She stays warm, knees protected but diaper changing so much easier.

The Baby Legs company has other products too.  Like great tights.

And adorable socks, that actually stay on!

Combine the socks with the leg warmers and I have one warm and happy baby!!

I would absolutely recommend this product to ANYONE!

And isn't that logo so cute? Purple dot leg warmers can be found here.

Baby Legs also offers an Organic line!!!  Wohoo! Love when companies make this an option.  I try my best to buy organic whenever it is available and love when companies go that extra mile to help out.

SO, the good news for all of you?  Baby Legs is giving all of you a 20% discount on your entire purchase for one month from today!!! Just use coupon code - SAMANDAVERY20. So awesome.

PLUS one lucky reader will get a grab bag of baby legs all their own! Grab bag includes 2 leg warmers, one pair of socks and one pair of tights (or two pairs of socks if its a boy). 

 How do you win? Follow the steps below and leave me a comment for EACH step that you complete! Giveaway runs from TODAY until Sunday, December 12th.

*Mandatory entries only apply if you have those accounts; please be honest!!

1. (mandatory - must complete this before you move on) Become a Fan of Baby Legs on Facebook.
2. (mandatory - must complete this before you move on) Follow @babylegs on Twitter.
3. Visit the Baby Legs website and tell me which product you LOVE!
4. Follow @alenlund on Twitter.
5. Tweet this giveaway with the link and @alenlund in the tweet.  Can be done each day of the giveaway. Be sure to leave a comment each time you do!
6. Like this giveaway on Facebook.  Simply push the LIKE button below. Be sure to leave a comment when you do.

Make sure you include your contact information in at least one of the comments so that I can find you!

Okay, I think thats enough!  Good luck!! And thanks to Baby Legs for this great giveaway!

 

Day 150: our sick journey and a winner

Headed back to our home today after a great visit with the family.  Our holiday was simple, relaxing and filled with little kid laughter which is awesome. But it was also filled with sickness.  My family is currently suffering with or being medicated for a cold, ear infection, pink eye and/or stomach flu!  The last one hit Sam last night and she continued to throw up this morning.  We debated whether or not to try the drive back to WI or to wait another day but we decided better to get us all home just in case the rest of us are going to come down with it. I am the one with pink eye (as was diagnosed by an urgent care doc on Thanksgiving morning) but since then the symptoms have completely disappeared and I am not sure that I actually have (or ever had!) pink eye.

So anyway, with that much sickness going on my plans to check out this place on our way home had to be cancelled. Oh well. 

We had some new books for Sam to enjoy on the trip home (thank you Grandma and Susan) and I will post write-ups for those on the Children's Book Page soon.  But for now I am exhausted and need to get some laundry done. 

I will leave you with the announcement of the winner from the Mama May I toy review and giveaway.

Drum roll please........

Comment Number 5! DAWN!!  Congrats. You have 24 hours to email me your mailing address in order to claim your prize or I will pick another winner. Thanks so much to everyone that entered.  Be on the look out for more reviews and giveaways to come!