OK…this how to is too snappy. I have been wrestling with this since I made the girl’s pants patterns this spring.

From Burda-Style This tutorial walks you step by step how to make your own pattern PDF’s. Love this!!

Our family is scattered all over the place. We have family in Tokyo, Chicago, L.A., Florida, Dallas, New York, not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanted a way for the girls to remember every one, so we made a family themed memory game.

It’s easy to build, plus the game helps build logical and spatial skills.

Materials:

• 12 pairs of small photos
• 3 sheets of matching scrapbook paper
• clear contact paper
• glue stick
• Corner rounder paper punch

Directions:

1. Gather your photos. The easiest way I found was to upload the photos to a photo service like Flickr.com, then order wallet prints. This gives you 4 x prints of each photo.
2. Cut out two of each photo.

   

3. Glue the pairs of photos to the back of the scrapbook paper.

   

4. Cut the photos out of the paper along the edge.
5. Use a paper punch to round all the corners.

   

6. Cut two pieces of contact paper large enough to hold about 4 - 6 cards. Remove the back cover and lay the contact paper on your surface sticky side up. Place the cards photo side down on the paper leaving at least a half inch in between the cards.
7. Remove the backing off the second piece of contact paper and place it sticky side down over the cards on the first sheet. Make sure all the edges of the cards are covered.
8. Use a spoon to burnish the cards, especially the edges.
9. Use a pair of scissors to trim the contact paper about 1/8th an inch from the edge of each card.

So as some of you may know Lucasfilms and the Post Office are teaming up and putting R2-D2 mailboxes at various locations.

The Star Wars site has a PDF you can print out to make your own.

You know you want one.

I am very tempted to make one for my desk at school. It would be perfect for the kids to put late passes in.

I am and always will be a nerd. Majored in math. I enjoy doing taxes. I teach computer science. It’s not my fault, I was born this way.

So I thought I’d share my two favorite new websites:

• www.stikkit.com -this site lets you create “sticky” notes. It can create categories, contacts and to do lists. Fun! Plus I can access my to do list at any computer. I am so into categorizing the endless stream of things I gotta do.

This is my stickkit to remember my next cool site:

• The Pocket Mod - This site lets you create a small fold-able book to fit in your pocket. It has fun templates, like graph paper and SuDokus. You print it out, two folds, one snip, viola! Handy tiny organizer.

The girls love the storyboard pages…they draw a picture then write a story.

I have a thing for corny historical plates. The top is Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln Douglas debates. This one hangs in the girl’s bathroom which is pink, green and black.

This is the home of Martha Washington, mother of George. It’s hard to see in the photo, but around the edges are scenes of her garden and her drawing room.

I have visions of eventually having a whole set of president plates…the ones with all the presidents heads, like George through Eisenhower, or Nixon. Hilarious!

So happy birthdays Abe and George!

And if you are interested, here’s a sheet on George Washington I made for big-sis. Print out and enjoy.

OK, I realize I am trying to force spring to happen. Daffodils and now this.

I am used to being very organized. The difference now that I am back to work after staying home with the girls is that I am no longer willing to bring home hours of work each night to finish.

So I decided to list every current project, personal or work:

I eventually ran out of post it notes

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I got this idea from skimming “Getting things Done” by David Allen. Apparently he’s a guru of such things. I didn’t even know such things had gurus. What can I say, I broke up two girl fights in the past week, I don’t get out much.

Then I grouped everything into three piles…must do, maybe and manana (later). The idea is you develop a system to track all ongoing projects so that you do not have to actively think about it. You create routines to check your system, and have a less cluttered brain.

My poor brain needs all the dusting it can get. I have to teach recursive algorithms next week…enough said.

I needed to focus on. In the middle of the pictures is the calendar I use to organize house and kid stuff. (click here to see it better). I might eventually try to rework it along the lines oprojects.Anyone

Anyone else have any ideas? I can’t be the only one a bit overwhelmed with the to do list…

As I mentioned earlier, the tooth fairy has visited recently. She and big sis have had quite the correspondence. We’ve gotten three from the tooth fairy, and big-sis has been writing back and leaving notes in her tooth pillow.

Big sis has had loose teeth since late October, so this has been a long process. She was getting nervous about wiggling the tooth. That’s when the first letter arrived in the mail:

That did it, and she began really wiggling the tooth. She swallowed the first tooth, and there was a lot of talk that day of digging it out (if you follow my meaning). Fortunately, the tooth fairy left a letter saying she got the tooth (she is magic after all) but would prefer it if she could just pick it up next time. So, the next tooth was pulled at school during lunch. That letter is somewhere in the clutter of the girl’s room. Here’s the letter for the pulled tooth:

This has been a lot of fun. It is great to hear about every one’s traditions. I have a friend who’s contract with the tooth fairy stipulates only foreign currency. That way her son doesn’t compare amounts at school. Our contact calls for gold dollars, so she’s gotten the Sacagawea coins.

Keep your kids’ books organized.

Both our girl’s are bookworms, so I made these bookplates to help keep the kid’s library tidy. There are six different dog designs. Simply print out the PDF and cut them out. If you like color with colored pencils, then use a glue stick to attach to the inside front cover.

Hope you enjoy!