BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Just a small announcement to let you all know...

I am now an Usborne Book Lady! :)

I've created a Facebook group for it, but if you'd like to find out WHY I've joined Usborne and a little more about it, read on!!

I swore to myself I would never become a salesperson, especially with companies like Avon, Mary Kay, LuLaRoe, etc that require hosting parties and nagging your friends. BUT I attended an online Usborne party a friend hosted and fell IN LOVE.

Anyone that knows me knows I LOVE to read and I love books and am passionate about getting kids to read.

And the Usborne books are great! There are wipe-clean books for practicing writing and interactive books beyond the basic flap, tab, and popup books. There are board books and chapter books. There are encyclopedias, story collections, book series and more. There are books that are great for children with special needs, sensory processing disorder, autism etc. There are over 2,000 titles with new releases every season (and I am very excited about some of this fall's expected releases!)

Beyond that, what really helped convince me to sign onto the team was that there are NO quotas. I didn't want the pressure of having to meet corporate goals; I have a 3-year-old and an almost 3-month-old, am in my last semester of graduate school and will soon be a full-time Librarian! And you don't have to keep an inventory or make a large initial investment.

So by being part of Usborne, I get to not only grow my own kids' libraries, I can help grow others' as well. I can earn free books and anyone that hosts a party with me earns free books. Of course there are all sorts of bonuses and perks for selling over certain amounts, but that is not what I'm in this for.

I just want to have fun, make a little extra money, and introduce families and kids to some wonderful books and hopefully, create some life-long readers. :)

So, if you would like to see what it's all about, would like to check out the collection, host a party, or join the team, join my Facebook group! 

$10 DIY Magnetic Activity Calendar

I saw the cutest activity calendar on Pinterest and was inspired to create my own. I didn't do it exactly the same way, though.

My son is now 2 1/2 years old, and we love planning different things to do. He goes to daycare 5 days a week and a fun little gym on Saturdays. We always talk about what we're doing and what's coming up, but it's a hard concept for little ones to grasp! Visuals always help. And of course, toddlers love to help and do things themselves, so what's better than little magnets for all the different activities that they can help put onto a magnetic calendar?

I started with a 14"x14" dry erase board that I found for less than $7 at Walmart. It's similar to this one pictured here:

Then I used my Silhouette Cameo and some scrap vinyl to cut out letters for the days of the week, a thin stripe, and the words "This Week" and "Coming up..." I hate measuring (*gasp!*) so just eyeballed the placement of all my vinyl lettering, and placed my little stripe approximately halfway down the board. (If you don't have a vinyl cutter, you can get alphabet stickers or make magnets with your days of the week and phrases on them to match the icons!)

I thought it'd be nice to have activities for the current week and then for next week and the near future. I didn't want to limit ourselves to only showing activities for the next week, because sometimes we talk about events a few weeks in advance - like for holidays or birthdays. I like to get the excitement started early!

I drew various little icons and colored them, then cut them out and "laminated" them. Each icon is about 1/2" to 3/4" - I figured for a 14x14" board and 7 days of the week, I needed to allot slightly less than 2 inches per week, so there would be space between. I thought about putting grid lines down between each weekday but liked the openness of the board without.