New Year's Ideas -- Book Reviews & More

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

New Year's always gets me thinking. I have found memories of sleepovers with a friend and each of my sisters' had a friend. I think this was the only time I had a friend sleepover when my sisters did, so there were some fun games we all played together as well as a ginger ale toasts at midnight.  I think about my "resolutions" from the past year and what I want to do for the next year. So today I am sharing with you four books that are bring these thoughts to my mind. Let's start with Girls' Night In by Gemma Barder and illustrated by Katy Jackson.

A Greyhound A Groundhog -- Book Review

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. This page contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Today I am sharing with you a beautiful book for a young child A Greyhound, A Groundhog written by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Chris Appelhans has simple text that dances through the pages with beautiful watercolor pictures. 

Merry Christmas!! Crafty Weekends contines this week...

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all celebrating!! We will be enjoying time with our family, so there will not be a new Crafty Weekends this week. However last week's party continues!! There are plenty of great holiday ideas shared already!! I hope you will share your latest creations with us!!

Sharing Saturday 16-51

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop(I'm hosting it over at Multicultural Kid Blogs). We also are hosting a Virtual Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World. Stop by to share your cultural treats and learn about various holiday traditions & recipes!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at last week's party! With the start of December we have a large number of Christmas posts being shared. Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Christmas and Others.

The Grommet -- Product & Company Review

Disclosure: I was given a coupon to purchase a product for this review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

 Recently I became an affiliate with The Grommet. Now I will admit I had not heard of them when I was first approached, but after checking them out, I was excited to be able to promote them a bit. The Grommet: Discover What's Next is a company that launch undiscovered products. The products have a purpose and are invented by people with a story. To check out the company, they provided me with a $10 coupon code to order my choice of product. After looking several times I finally decided to get the Frego: Food Storage Container - 4 Cup. I ordered the one in blue. I decided on the four cup because I figured it could hold smaller or larger lunches.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures & Fairy Tale Baking!

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Now I have been planning on reviewing these two amazing books from Crocodile Books USA. I had planned to write this review on Monday, but this week has gotten away from me, so here I am writing it on Wednesday. I am planning however on bringing back Fairy Tales in Different Cultures back in the new year, so stay tuned!! Our first book for today is The Crystal Mountain retold and illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. 

A Doggone Christmas -- a New Christmas Movie Review

Disclosure: I was sent this product to review free of charge by Vision Films, Inc. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

So many new movies come out each Christmas and some are worth seeing, but many are not. Today I am going to share one that we love. In fact Hazel wanted to watch it again right after watching it, but waited a couple of days and brought it to my mother-in-law's house today and my mother-in-law kept telling her to be quiet because she wanted to watch the movie. She loved it!! The movie is A Doggone Christmas starring Just Jesse the Jack. 

Felting with Crafty Felt Products -- A Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this product to review free of charge. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Recently I heard from My Crafty Felt to see if I would review her wool roving or needle felt kits here and I agreed. She recently opened her Esty store and is selling a very high quality wool. She is in Europe but ships worldwide. I know here in the United States I often have trouble finding good needle felting supplies so I am very excited about this. After looking at her selection I asked to be sent the Nudes with one change. Instead of the Black Coffee I wanted Soft Blanket because I knew I wanted to try to replicate an ornament I saw at Target. I wanted the Nudes because I am always looking for good skin tones to make people and currently Hazel wants fairies!! We are getting ready for her fun fairy tea party for her birthday party. So my first crafts were fairies.

Sharing Saturday 16-50

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts this week and I'm hosting). We also are hosting a Virtual Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World. Stop by to share your cultural treats and learn about various holiday traditions & recipes!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at last week's party! With the start of December we have a large number of Christmas posts being shared. Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Holiday and Non-Holiday Features.

English Tea Party -- Tea Time Around the World

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Now that we are almost half way through December I am going to take the time to share the tea party we had in November. In November we looked at England. To do this we read some books, watched some DVDs from the library and also have some fun books to share with you. Some are for the little ones and some are for the older ones. We will start with learning a bit about England. It is a country in the United Kingdom. It's capital is London. Now I always have had a fondness to England since my maiden name is a town there. However I do not know a whole lot about the history of England besides little bits here and there. To learn a bit more we started with The Tudors: Kings, Queens, Scribes and Ferrets! by Marcia Williams.

Red Death Tour -- Book Review & More!

Disclosure: Jeff Altabef & Novel Publicity sent me a copy of this book free of charge in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

I am very excited to bring you a review of Jeff Altabef's latest novel!! Now you may remember The Chosen Series ( Wind Catcher, Brink of Dawn & Second Chances and now Scorched Souls) that I have reviewed written by Jeff and his daughter Erynn Altabef. Red Death is the first installment of a new series Jeff is writing in the young adult/adult dystopia science fiction genre. And the blog tour started yesterday and includes a giveaway (scroll down for giveaway).

Krazy for Christmas -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this product to review free of charge. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Now we all know that Krazy Glue works great at fixing broken things. In fact it is Steve's go to glue for fixing all the broken toys and things in our house. And I used it to fix Hazel's clay ornament that she made in her arts and crafts class at school the other week. The trunk of her Christmas tree fell off and her Christmas tree was her favorite ornament she made.

Sharing Saturday 16-49

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts this week). We also are hosting a Virtual Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World. Stop by to share your cultural treats and learn about various holiday traditions & recipes!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at last week's party! With the start of December we have a large number of Christmas posts being shared. Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Christmas Books, Christmas Crafts & Activities, and Non-Christmas Features.

MindWare Gifts -- Perfect Gifts to Get Them Thinking!!

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from MindWare. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

I have been sharing some of our favorite places to get gifts and tonight I am sharing a new one. MindWare has many educational and fun gifts. They are connected now with Oriental Trading. You can get your party supplies and gifts in one stop!! The first thing I knew I wanted to check out was Qwirkle. I had heard of it but never played. 

Trivia and Design & Doodle -- Product Reviews

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

 I have been off finishing my quilt for the boy at the homeless shelter for Hazel's class donation. It was due at school today, and I'm happy to say I finished!!

Christmas in Nigeria -- Jollof Rice

Today we get to share our post for Christmas in Different Lands. Before we do, however, I want to share a quote from Hazel: "Next year you should pick four countries and cook something from each one for each week of Advent to post on your blog."

We decided to explore Nigeria because Hazel wanted to learn more about it. One of her best friends' family is from Nigeria, so I asked her mother for information. So much of this information is straight from someone who grew up there and still has family there.

Crafty Weekends Link Party & Christmas Crafts

This week has been busy with various things, but I am not ready to write a craft review for you. I will share a couple of crafts we have been working on though. Every Christmas Hazel's school has each class adopt a child in a battered women's shelter. The list for the four-year-old boy her class has this year included wanting a quilt, so I decided to make a quick one. I bought a set of flannel squares at Joann's and cut some more from other flannel I bought and had. I quickly stitched them together using my serger. 

Sharing Saturday 16-48

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts this week). We also are hosting a Virtual Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World. Stop by to share your cultural treats and learn about various holiday traditions & recipes!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our two week party! I hope all that celebrated had a lovely Thanksgiving!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Craft Features and Lessons & Parenting Features.

Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World -- a Multicultural Link Party

Christmas time always brings cookie swaps and I thought it would be fun to have a virtual one around the world. Cookies have many different names around the world like biscuits in England and Australia and galletas in Spain.  The idea of Christmas cookies probably started in the Middle Ages. The use of spices started in Europe during the Middle Ages. Cookies have probably evolved quite a bit since then, but think of some of the heavier spiced cookies like gingerbread that we associate with Christmas. (Sources: What's Cooking America and History Channel) To make this swap happen I asked my fellow Kid Blogger Network and Multicultural Kid Blogs members to join me. A few signed up and I am hoping you will join us as well!! Then I googled our favorite kind of Christmas cookies--thumbprints and discovered they are from Sweden!!