school of rock-a-bye babies: album review and giveaway

We love music!  All kinds of music.  If you happen to be walking by our house (or visiting) you will hear all sort of music booming from our speakers.  From lullabies to rock en Español, from kids music to the classics like Mozart, from romantic boleros to 80's rock (hubby's favorite) ...cumbias...oldies...world music...you name it!  We love it all!  I guess you can say we have a very eclectic taste. 

So when I was contacted by fellow Californian Jen Haydn-Jones, Head of US operations for School of Rock-a-bye Babies, to see if I wanted to review one of her sister's albums I jumped right in!

photo credit: Marie-Anne Ventoura for school of rock-a-bye babies.

I'm glad I did.  Elizabeth Haydn-Jones' music is wonderful, perfect for little ones to follow and dance to.  Her voice is soothing yet uplifting. 

I love that she writes and composes all her songs!  She has a  much varied musical background and can play many instruments.  In fact, this particular album the kids and I reviewed, focuses on rhythm, melody and harmony as she introduces new instruments, like the violin, a guiro, the clarinet and many more.

This album is a perfect addition to our very eclectic collection, and although I know my kids are getting a bit old for some of these songs, they still enjoy them.  I have to admit though, I wish I would have known of Elizabeth and her music a lot sooner because her album would have gotten played even more than it has been.  It would also have been a perfect addition to the Music With Mommy class I use to teach (for the mom's club I am part of) when my little ones where wee little.  Needless to say, I totally recommend this album if you do teach such classes.   But if you don't and you live in London, UK or in California and would love to attend to music school for babies, toddlers and/or preschoolers, well you are in luck because they offer classes! Check out their website for more info.  You can also follow them on Facebook.

photo credit: Marie-Anne Ventoura for School of Rock-a-bye Babies.

I am currently interpreting for a local school program for children with speech delays and plan to recommend this album as well.  It is perfect to use during music time, because not only is it fun to listen and dance to, but it also has many repetition of word use, sounds, and movements. 

Here is a little glimpse of the first song in the School of Rock-a-bye Babies Volume 1 album:

School of Rock-a-bye Babies Promo from Selina Jones on Vimeo.

Nice right? 

Now for that giveaway:

Elizabeth is graciously giving away two albums of School of Rock-a-bye Babies Volume 1 to two lucky readers.  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me why you would like to win one of her albums.  That's it!  I will select the winners using random.org.  Please only leave one comment.  If you make a mistake erase the first comment and re-post.  Giveaway is open until Friday Feb. 3rd midnight.  I will announce the winner on Monday February 6th.  
  
Note:  The three year celebration giveaway is also still  open for a chance to win one of my romantic handmade upcycled linen brooches!

Good luck! 

**Disclosure:  I will always only review things that I and my family will enjoy.  I was sent three albums, one for review and two to giveaway.  I received no compensation for this review.  All thoughts are my own.**

celebrating three years: flower brooch mini-tutorial and giveaway

 Now that was a long title!

Yes, you read right, it has been three years since this baby of mine (sort-of-say) was created.  Three wonderful years of sharing bits of our lives, of sharing tutorials and recipes,  and sharing lots and lots of photos!  Like my babies I have seen it grown, slowly at times, but grown non the less.  Through this blog I have met other wonderful bloggers, some in person others through the never ending cyber world.  Through this blog I have kept a record of sorts of our lives.  And through this blog I have managed to keep myself going and inspired.  I love this little blog of mine, but what I love the most is those of you that continue to come back week after week to see what I've been up to.  Thank you, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

To celebrate my THIRD BLOGGIVERSARY  I have some lovely giveaways lined up for you throughout the next few days.  Starting today! But before we continue on with the giveaway, how about a mini-tutorial, shall  we?  

Upcycle Flower Brooch Mini-Tutorial:

To begin, you will need to find some pieces of linen.  Look for some old linen bags, skirts, pants, sacks.  Anything that you can find that you no longer need or use would work perfect (and it'll make you feel good to create something new out of something old. Yey.) 

I happened to have these bags sitting in a drawer waiting for that perfect project.  One of them held a beautiful handmade gift brought to me by a friend from Peru, the other some lovely wood toys for the kids fairy tree house. 

Other materials you will need are thread, needle, die cut machine (if you have one) or a handmade stencil (if you don't), button, and brooch pin.

Once you've gathered all your materials follow the first steps from the simple embellishments tutorial, come back after you've sewn the flower together.  (Click button bellow.)

Once you've gathered your flower and added the button, begin to fray the edges:

Finally, sew the brooch pin on to the back of the flower. 

 Done!  Finito!  Listo!

Now you have a beautiful vintage-look-like-up-cycle-linen brooch! (Phew!  What a mouthful.)

(you can also leave the edges untouched)

Wear it on your scarf...

Wear it on your hat...

Wear it where ever you like!

Now for that giveaway:

One lucky reader will win one of these linen brooches.  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you enjoy the most from this blog.  That's it.  I will select the winner using random.org.  Please only leave one comment.  If you make a mistake erase the first comment and re-post.  Giveaway is open until January 31st midnight.  I will announce the winner on Monday February 6th.  Good luck! 

a creative weekend

This weekend was spent creating and organizing.  That and keeping up with all the wonderful (NOT!) regular chores of the home.

And really  with the weather we've been having who wants to be outdoors.  Keeping ourselves cozy is our number one priority.  Hot cocoa, hot tea, hot coffee.  Soup, stew...you name it!  Brrr.

I like it when we, when I, create! 

 The kids painted, built new models, and learned new crafts. 

I made myself this lovely so-easy-to-make scarf!   It really is a lot prettier than it seem on these photos.  (A tutorial in the near future?  Maybe.  I'll just need to pick up more of that fancy yarn.)

This weekend I also realized that this month is my bloggiversary!  Three years to be exact.  Wow!  And to celebrate I'll have some goodies lined up here and there for you from now until the end of the month.

For now, time to head to bed and get myself ready for work tomorrow.

Wishing you a great, fun, and cozy week!

simple embellishments that make a difference: a tutorial

I've noticed that as my spunky nena grows, I like less and less the clothing choices to buy out there, unless I spend a good fortune!  And since I'm as thrifty as one can be, well, I refuse to spend such amounts on a piece of clothing she (and her big brother) will out grow in a blink of an eye. 

What to do?  Make her some cute outfits without spending to much.  A perfect example is this plain t-shirt I picked up at Target on sale and then I added a beautiful embellishment made with scraps of fabric to spruce it up.  Now doesn't it just look pretty? 

During clearance sales I'll stock up on t's of different sizes for both of my kids (and for gifts) to use the following year.  I'll then add a little extra to make them look special, expensive even.  Ha.  I've even used white undershirts to decorate/embellish. Remember this tie t-shirt?  

Now for that tutorial:

To begin you will need:

When you choose your fabric pick fabrics that coordinate, but aren't too matchy matchy, that way you can see the contrast between each layer of the flower.  Or if you aren't looking for too much contrast you can stick to just one pattern.  Either way it will look beautiful. 

Don't get scared if you don't have an die cut machine, you can very well make a very similar flower simply by hand cutting it, that is what I would do (and still do for certain projects) before I got my machine.  In fact, I think many times the hand cut imperfections make it that much more special.

To begin:

Then layer them and sew them together by hand.

Once you've sewn all the layers together and added the button, your flower is ready to get attached to the plain t-shirt.

Spread out your t-shirt and play around until you find the right spot for your flower (that kind of sounds kinky.  Ahem.) Once you've found the perfect spot sew the flower onto the t-shirt.

When you sew the flower, to keep the bottom layer from rolling once you wash it (and to make it a bit stronger) sew about three x's around the inner part of the flower.  Like this:

You are done!  Totally easy don't you think?

I love simple projects!

 I also love how the flower starts to fray and curl a bit after every wash. 

Have a wonderful week creating! (And organizing!)