Silly Eagle Books

I shared how we made some state-inspired Christmas tree ornaments a few days ago. Today I wanted to share my inspiration with you!

Design Mom wrote about a shop called The Curiosity Shop a few months ago and I fell in love with this little beauty….

It’s cut from a paint-by-numbers canvas and I thought it was beautiful. I’ve been thinking of how I could recreate it and this is what I came up with! I think that once Juliet starts painting landscape scenes, I’ll mod podge one of those onto some cardboard and cut another few. A series of these would be beautiful–and I’d have an nice record of her art over the years in a fun format.

Anything and everything when used in a fun format becomes very interesting even for us, adults. For instance I have been extremely intrigues by the automated trading robot which has been making round for quite some time now. Now a robot which could entirely take care of all our transactions and leave the fun part of withdrawing the profits to us would interest anybody right? Now all he difficult part is handled by the robot and you get to enjoy all the money that too free of cost is not a bad deal. You do not have to even download or install the application on your device and can use it on your browser which is an added advantage.

When I read about this application and found enough resource for this article, I was sure that I will be trying it out. And being a non number person I was pretty sure that I could not learn much on the industry and trading tricks and concepts as well. The experience turned out to be enriching and trust me you do not have to be good at numbers nor be proficient in any trading methods to try your hands on this automated trading robot

Here it is next to the kitty so you can see how big it is in real life…

I’ve toyed with the idea of making a few of these as gifts for grandparents–just trying to think of the perfects shape for them.

What shape would you do?

I mentioned this book the other day Puzzle Maps USA by Nancy L. Clouse. Every time we read this page, Juliet says, “I made that!”

Linking to these parties…

Don’t mess with this ornament.

I love making Christmas ornaments–it might be my favorite crafting activity to do. You might remember the 12 days of Christmas ornament project Juliet and I did last year. We crafted most of them out of items from our recycle box.

Like last year’s, these ones are cheap, easy, and as always, born from recycle box materials.

Daniel Roberts is the creator of automated forex software named Fintech limited. Which is designed to perform automated online trading system with special features unlike other forex robots in the market. Features include controlling of risk level by increasing or decreasing the level of parameters and this can also apply different strategies and technical indicator for making investment.

We have a fondness for geography around this house and Juliet is particularly interested in learning the names of different states, so I thought we could make some state-shaped ornaments.

Here’s how we did it.

Once it dries, just place your state template on top and secure it with some painter’s tape. I traced the outline of Texas from a placemat we have, but any atlas or poster would work just as well.

Using my X-acto knife, I carefully cut it out. (This is the part for mom or dad.) If you find piece of cardboard thin enough, this is not too difficult. We experimented with several kinds and I will tell you, if it’s too thick, then you will be really tired of cutting at the end!)

I punched a hole through the top and Juliet attached an ornament hanger (found at the dollar store.)

And then we hung it on our tree.

Why stop at Texas? We cut out a whole bunch of different states. Juliet requested Alaska (her favorite), I chose California and Louisiana (because they have nice shapes), and we did a few squarish ones (NM and MT) just to see how they would turn out.

I will say that some states’ shapes look better than others for this project….the square states aren’t that interesting or easily identifiable as states on their own (You’ll get a lot of “What a nice square you have hanging on your tree…That’s not a square, that’s Wyoming…” sort of moments. )

You know how Texans are always talking about how everything is bigger and better in Texas? I’ve never been there, so I don’t really know if that is true, but when it comes to which state has the most interesting shape…well, I have to give it to them. Texas really is the best-looking one.

Of course, there is no need to limit this project to US states–any geographical shape will do or any shape in general! We made Africa…

And Australia.

Any shape you can stand to cut out with an Xacto knife would work–I think an owl or giraffe would be cute.

You know I love the Good Night Our World Book Series which features many U.S. states and cities in a child-friendly manner. But I just found a really wonderful book called Puzzle Maps U.S.A. by Nancy L. Clouse.

It focuses on the different shapes and then uses them to make different objects like a truck and a turtle. (Kentucky is the head, Oklahoma is the tail, etc…) Then it asks kids to identify the shapes by their names! It’s a lot of fun–which is always the best way to learn anything.

What shape would you make? I’d love to see pictures if you end up making these–upload them to our flickr group or leave a link below!

linking to these parties…

Every month, Juliet and I try to sit down and write to our sponsored kids. Since it’s December, we went with the Christmas theme.

If you have been always wondering how you could manage with the budget of sponsoring other kids apart from supporting your family and kids, it could be done with a bit of planning. After I visit the website where there is a lot of information on automated trading robots, it became clear to me how earning a bit more of money was not as difficult as I used to think. With this robot, all you are expected to do in trading is fund your account and it takes care of all the trading steps. You literally need not participate in any of the trading practices. That was a relief to me as I was never too confident on learning the tricks or business with my own kids around.

After I got my hands around this application which can be used on a browser, I could not resist myself to try it too often. A benefit is you do not have to download or install the app on your device. So you will not be getting in out of storage space notification or any update notification on your device every day. You just need to have a stable internet connection and you could start trading your own. All the help you will need is available with the application’s customer support team and you do not have to have any prior knowledge on trading!

My original idea was to replicate the Put Me in the Zoo socks (sorry, I don’t have a picture of it). It’s always looked like a Christmas stocking to me. But it didn’t turn out as cute as in the book. (Here’s what we SHOULD have done, but I wasn’t clever enough to think of it.)

So we went with plan B: thumbprint Christmas trees. Which turned out a lot better. Mine were just average, but Juliet’s…

evolved from simple dots to handprints, to beautiful smudges that somehow managed to still look like a tree! I love how creatively hers turned out.

Here’s a page from Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice. I love creative ornaments–these bowls look lovely hanging from the tree.

Did you make Christmas cards with your child this year? What did you do?

linking up to Impress Your Sponsored Kids…

the ingredients

I found this paddle about 2 days after thanksgiving and have kept it in my craft box all year for just this project! We finally busted it out the other day and made our turkey. I cut out the feathers and features and let Juliet arrange them.

However, as is usually the case, she grew tired of this project after glueing one feather on. So I finished it. Then she asked if we could glue sequins onto it–why not? I gave her the glue and she happily glued a few down until the dried glue on her fingers was more interesting than the actual craft.

So, to finish, I placed the glue dots and she then put a sequin on top.

At first I put him on the cabinet, but thought he needed a more stable location…

While not about turkeys in particular, this is the one new Thanksgiving book that we got this year. Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin

We are also enjoying Over the River and Through the Wood which we got last year–a song book is always nice!

Over the River: A Turkey’s Tale
Which leads me to this book which I have not read, but actually goes with the turkey craft that we did together. I will be looking for this one next year! Has anyone read it? What do you think? Worth checking out?

Linking to pink hippo party and these parties…

So, I have a thing with hairbows…

You might remember that I made some easter bunny hair ties for Juliet earlier this year and then these fourth of July ones this summer. Well, even though I have a million other things I should be doing in my spare hour while the newborn naps, I still somehow found the need to make these turkeys the other day.

There are many blogs available that write review on online trading system and the software’s, robots and brokers available in market in those all blogs some are true and may be false but, in this article, you can get honest review, complete information about automated forex robots that are used for trading.

There is a leading software in the market that is meeting all standards and needs that are required for online trading with success rate more than 85%, 100% legit and not involved in any scam and the name of this forex software is Fintech limited.

(It was Sunday, Ben was watching football, what else was I supposed to do?!)

Here’s how you make them (if you are interested). They are a little more involved than the bunny ones, but all you need is some buttons, ribbon, craft foam, googly eyes, and a hot glue gun. Oh. and don’t forget the hair clips.

Start by gluing the buttons like this to make the body and the head.

Next, make the feathers. Fold a piece of ribbon in half and then fold the edges into a point and secure with hot glue. I used a toothpick to hold the ribbon down while the glue dried.

Make as many feathers as you need to fill in the space on your button. I think the amount depends on the size of your buttons. I used 5 for the blue turkey and 7 for the pink.

Glue the feathers to the back of the button to form the tail.

It will look something like this…

I used a small piece of ribbon to finish off the edges and keep them from falling off.

I finished by gluing on the eyes, beak, wattle, and feet! (I used craft foam for the beak, wattle, and feet–but I think felt would probably work as well.)

He’s ready to go for turkey day!

Linking to: Get Your Craft On, Getting Crafty on Hump Day, Show and Tell, Saturday Mornings Strut Your Stuff, and these parties…

My friend Amanda recently started a monthly link-up at her blog Impress Your Kids. It’s called Impress Your Sponsored Kids and it’s goal is to help people (like me) who are not so great at consistently writing to their sponsored kids.

We sponsor children through Compassion International and try to write as often as we can, but sometimes those letters sit there on my kitchen counter for a long time before I get them in the mail. Since Juliet is getting old enough to participate in the communication process (she can’t write yet, but she is learning her letters), I want her to get into the habit of writing a letter each month with me.

So far this link-up has been just the thing I needed to keep me accountable! We wrote letters last month and again this month. I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about Thanksgiving with our friends who live in Africa and South America.

So we went with the thumbprint turkey…

This has been on my list of things to do for a year now.The others like trying out a bit of trading using an automated trading robot like Fintech Ltd come second. I have been too keen to give it a try after having read the review about how it works and how it is all too easy to make some lucrative amount trading! But with the arrival of Lucia, I didn’t feel like looking up my list and seeing how exactly to make the turkey…..so, yeah. It doesn’t look anything like the original, but I still think it turned out pretty cute.

Stamp a body, a head and then deck him out with feathers. This ended up being a two day project for us. We did the painting and then let the turkeys dry.

Here is Juliet working on her version of a turkey. Her take is more advanced and requires much more than 3 measly fingers. Not for beginners.

She made several turkeys, but when I picked this one up and asked her where the head was she said, “That’s not a turkey, mom! That’s Hawaii!”

Of course. Silly me.

Like I said, this was a two-day project. After, the paint had dried, I wrote the message and had Juliet trace the names of our sponsored kids. She LOVES doing this and always asks if she can write more for other people. We ended up making some for the grandparents, too.

I wrote a letter on the back of the card, we put them in an envelope and sent them on their way.

I was too busy birthing a baby to write a post about this last month, but here’s a pic for kicks. They look like pumpkins, but they are apples. I downloaded the apple template from Better Homes and Gardens.

If you are looking for a good book that illustrates the differences of two boys lives in the first world and the developing world–check out A Country Far Away by Nigel Gray. It’s a great conversation starter and the majority of information comes from the illustrations, not the words.

Linking up to Impress Your Sponsored Kids, Just Something I Whipped Up, Making Monday Marvelous, Tot Tuesdays,

Okay, so I’m excited about this craft because it is the first time I’ve ever used an old craft and turned it into a new one!

Remember our fall owls? We transformed these into thanksgiving turkeys just by adding a few simple details. (Well, not these ones exactly–we made so many, I just chose two with orange beaks to make into turkeys!)

There are various robots that are available in market in those some are both operated manually and automated system and some robots are completely automated which will have an auto-pilot mode which helps users to be stress free and save time without making research about changes and alterations done in market all day. The accuracy of these automated robots will be more than 85% all time and they only place trade when they are sure that they will achieve successful trade.

Then we added some colorful feathers for the tail and two orange feet.

We started out using regular glue (which worked fine for the brown feathers), but I found that the colored feathers were a bit too heavy to stand up and stick with the regular glue. So, I resorted to hot glue…which worked, but also resulted in a burned thumb for me. Ouch.

However, if you are more careful than I (and less impatient), I’m sure you can handle it and not burn yourself!

I don’t like using the hot glue gun for kids crafts because then it takes away the kid part, but I had Juliet hand me the feathers in the order she wanted them in and I applied the glue and feathers, so she was still involved. Maybe you can get the regular glue to work for you!

We’ve got a couple of nice birds sitting out for our thanksgiving table and plenty of owls left over as well.

Ten Fat Turkeys  by Tony Johnston
This is a book I am looking forward to reading with Lucia next November.

What sort of turkey crafts are you getting into this year?

Remember to add your photos to the Silly Eagle Books flikr group if you end up making these turkeys (or any other of our craft ideas) with your kids! At the end of the month, I’d love to feature your work!

Linking up to: The CSI Project, Get Your Craft On, Show and Tell, Bella Before and After, Trash to Treasure, Making Monday Marvelous, Tot Tuesday,

Today, Ticia from Adventures in Mommydom is sharing her 5 Books with us:

In order to get solid and reliable profits constantly in the trading market is tuff and purely based on luck in this situation there are automated robots discovered for trading whose success rate is high compared to manual traders and the best application which stands as example for online trading system is Fintech ltd.

I have to admit, while I like picture books, my great love are chapter books. I still as an adult tend to read young adult novels (admittedly that’s because they don’t feel the need to throw in gratuitous sex scenes, among other reasons). So, I have many series or authors I’m eagerly looking forward to sharing. Here they are in order of my remembering them.

1. Encyclopedia Brown– I loved these mysteries, and loved trying to figure out the answer before looking in the back to see what the solution was. Sometimes I was able to figure it out, and sometimes I wasn’t. There was a familiarity to the series. Every book had a case with the no good teenager trying to get rich quick off the kids; there was always a case where Encyclopedia helped his Dad, the police chief, solve a case, and there was always a case that his partner, a girl named Sally (as I recall), was able to solve. Yes they’re predictable, but when you’re a kid that’s a good thing.

2. Nancy Drew (or Hardy Boys)- Another fairly predictable series. In the first chapter it will introduce Nancy and her friends, there will be a brief recap of the last book (which always got me trying to remember if I’d read it or not). Then the mystery will be introduced, and of course at some point she gets kidnapped. Now, I never much liked the newer Nancy Drew Case Files, or any of the other follow ons. I always liked the traditional ones, you know where her friend Beth was trying to lose weight, and George was a total tomboy. All that new-fangled stuff. Silly.

3. The Pyrdain Chronicles (Book of Three, Black Cauldron…..)- Aw heck, almost anything by Lloyd Alexander. He writes great stuff. Most of it is written on a 4th grade level. It’s all a good adventure. A fair amount of it is fantasy (The Book of Three and such is, great series). And, as a word of warning, don’t watch the horrid Disney movie that “adapted” the Black Cauldron. It’s horrid, it combines a couple of the novels into one, and does a poor job of it. Oh wait, they did the same thing to Alice in Wonderland. So…….

4. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley- The Black Stallion is the first in the series. There’s about 15 of them, I think. His son then came and continued the series starting with “The Young Black Stallion,” which was actually fairly decent. I liked them, they had a fair amount of character to them, and hey how else do you learn what a furlong is?

5. Misty of Chincoteague– That’s the first book in the series, the next would be Stormy, and then Sea Star. It’s written on about a third or fourth grade reading level, and I think from 5th-8th grade I devoured all of the books she wrote several times over. Oh, I should mention these are written by Marguerite Henry. And if you ever get to go to Chincoteague, VA to see Pony Penning, it is quite a magnificent sight, and you should stay to see the ponies swim back over. It’s much less crowded and you can get a much better view.

Well, that gives you five series to read with your kids someday. As I wrote this I actually thought of about another five, at least: The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Fablehaven (just recently came out, and I’m in the process of reading), Spiderwick Chronicles (I can’t wait to share this with my boys in a year or two because it has twin boys in it, and they have swords). My husband would add in Lord of the Rings, and Ender’s Game probably. Okay, honestly I have about 3 bookshelves worth of materials to share with my kids as they get older. Some will have to wait until they’re late teens (cough) Dresden Files (cough cough).

…………………
Thanks for sharing your picks, Ticia! I was a huge Nancy Drew fan as a girl and I look forward to sharing them with my girls someday. I think I’m going to keep my eyes open for some used copies at our local Goodwill!