Delving into Bullet Journaling with Paper Mate and Sharpie -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these pens 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.

Have you discovered bullet journaling yet? My first introduction to it was someone coming into work and asking for a bullet journal. Now Paper Source sells many journals, but we did not have the official bullet journal nor had I even heard of it. I did some research on-line. For those who are like me and don't know, Bullet Journal or BuJo, was created by Ryder Carroll. He is a digital product designer in Brooklyn, New York. Through trial and error he came up with a system that worked for him. People say a bullet journal is like a planner, an organizer and a diary all in one. It is hard to understand this until you try it. (Source) The instructions for bullet journal says you can use any notebook, but they do sell an official BuJo Notebook. I decided to just us a journal I had at home. Mine has lines unlike the ones on bullet journal site which has a dot grid. From what I can tell bullet journaling is about finding a system that works for you. It is meant to be a quick way to organize yourself and be flexible to help each person. When I searched Pinterest I found ones that are used by students, teachers, and even for planning weddings. You can check out my Journals Board to see what I found. 

The Rabbit Who Wants To Go To Harvard -- A Parody on Our Society

Disclosure: I was sent 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.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

According to Merriam-Webster a parody is defined as a piece of writing, music, etc. that imitates the style of someone or something in an amusing way. (Source) Today's book is a parody and to me it is a reminder of how awful our push for success for our kids can be. The book is The Rabbit Who Wants To Go To Harvard by Diana Holquist and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. Now it is a picture book, but it is not a book for children at least young ones. Hazel wanted me to read it to her and we did not get far with it. She was confused and did not like it.

March Happenings & Announcements

March is coming in a like a lion in New England with yet another snow storm predicted today/tonight and another storm later this week. We may actually beat the record in Boston for the snowiest season ever (I think we need 5.5 inches now to do it). I know I cannot wait for spring!! Seeing this artwork in a yard we drove by really cheered me up. Hazel now wants to paint on our snow.

April Happenings

For April Fools Day, Hazel's school had mismatch day. The principal sent out notices to the families that it would be a day where kids required to wear uniforms, wouldn't need to and all the kids so try to dress mismatched. Hazel loved the idea. To complete the look she wore different shoes as well.

April brings Easter!! We will be focusing on Easter and spring crafts as well as doing some posts on Easter around the world and multicultural Easter books. Yesterday we shared our first Easter Around the World post with the sawdust carpets of Guatemala. We also have done an Easter craft round-up here. 

You may remember a few weeks ago we shared some spring crafts from Oriental Trading. One of the crafts was Sparkly Easter Eggs. I finished making all but one of the eggs. I decided to only make one of each how the craft was meant to be done and got creative on the rest. Hazel will be making the last one and I'm leaving it up to her how she wants to do it. I made hearts, crosses, horizontal stripes, spots, and spirals. Then I hung them all in the plant/tree we have in our entry.

Tomorrow is Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness. I have a good friend whose oldest son recently was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. She happens to be an occupational therapist whose past job (before becoming a stay-at-home mom) was working in an elementary school with autistic (and other disabled) children. She has been asked to start a blog of her own by Autism Speaks. She is in the process of doing it, but first she is going to be my one and only guest poster to help all of us become more aware of autism. I usually do not allow anyone else to guest post here, but I think her insight and information will be invaluable to us all and I trust her completely to post responsibly, so join us tomorrow for lighting it up blue!!

We also have our regular monthly events like Virtual Book Club for Kids and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

April's author for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Denise Fleming! Denise Fleming does the art and words for her books with some help from her artist husband. In her own words: 

"My books do not have many words, but I start with hundreds of words—writing and rewriting until I have just the right words to tell the story.(I love strong words, action words, words that convey movement and sound. And I love rhyme.)" Denise Fleming (Source)

 So much of her work is the art in the books. They are fun and beautiful!! Have you enjoyed any of her books yet? I hope you will join us April 14th to see what we do with her books!

For Around the World in 12 Dishes we will be exploring Portugal! I hope you join us April 21st to see what exciting foods everyone makes from Portugal and learn a bit about this wonderful country. I will be writing an introduction to the country for the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog.

That gives you an idea of what we have coming up this month!! I hope you will join us!!

March Happenings

This month promises to be a good one. However the beginning is a bit crazy. A good friend has her young son (less than one) in the hospital, and I have been helping with her older son's care, so if I miss a few days this week you will know why. This month will be filled with fun activities, crafts and reviews plus a giveaway!! I know I am excited for spring and cannot wait for it to get here. We will continue our Hawaii escape posts until then. I am also looking forward to Easter and the preparation of it with Lent. We will also continue our Friday Fruit Explorations and Hazel has been asking to do some under the sea discoveries, so expect to see some of that as well. It is so fun to have her at an age where she is asking questions about things and we can do some research together on them.

Now for our monthly clubs and posts. This month  for Virtual Book Club for Kids, the author is Marcus Pfister. Do you know his books? They are amazing. The first book I was introduced to of his is The Rainbow Fish. My sister had given it to us as a hand-me-down. She had bought it for my nephew when he thought he should be given things by strangers because of his cute looks. It is the perfect book to deal with that issue. So many of Marcus Pfister's books help teach life lessons. A little about Marcus Pfister: he was born in Bern, Switzerland and still lives there. He became a graphic artist. In 1986 his first book, The Sleepy Owl, was published. Then in 1992 when The Rainbow Fish burst into the international book scene, he stopped his work as a graphic artist and focused solely on his book authoring career. (Source)

Hazel and I have been enjoying so many of his books and we are having a hard time choosing which one to pick for the club post. It will be one on this collage though.

Update: Here are our posts: Ava's Poppy and Hopper Hunts for Spring and an older one on Rainbow Fish.

March begins a new season for Around the World in 12 Dishes. It is hard to believe we have been through a year of it already. We had so much fun joining in this journey, that we have signed up for another year. Here is this year's schedule:

Our first stop is Iceland! This summer my sister happened to take a trip to Iceland, so I have a few of her beautiful photos to share!!

I also wrote an introduction to the country for the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog, so I will not be sharing as much of the country's background here and will just provide a link for you to the introduction. That will give me more space for our crafts and such. Here is the cover for this season's passport pages. You can begin your exploration of Iceland with the placemat and passport pages. Join us the week of March 17th to see our Icelandic adventures!

So stay tuned this month for St. Patrick's Day crafts, Lent crafts, spring crafts as well as our fruit explorations, under the sea crafts and explorations, Iceland, Marcus Pfister, and a few reviews including some on The Octonauts. I hope you will join us!!

November Events

Source

It is hard to believe it is already November!! We have so many exciting things planned for the month. My mind however seems to already be on Christmas, so expect some Christmas ideas in November as well as a couple of Christmas product reviews and at least one giveaway. But do not worry we will also have plenty on Thanksgiving!! November is National Native American Month. We will be focuses on Native American fairy tales as well as other Native American crafts. My love for the various Native American cultures will shine through out November.

This month we are exploring Thailand with Around the World in 12 Dishes. We will start our exploration on Monday with a Thai Cinderella! Our recipe post for Around the World in 12 Dishes will be shared on November 19th! However the placemat and passport pages for Thailand are available (Thanks to Valerie over at Glittering Muffins!)

The author this month for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Karma Wilson! She is best known for her Bear books, but we are loving the Mortimer ones as well. She seems to have something for everyone--holidays, lessons, young and older. Have you discovered her yet?

We will be sharing our book and activities on November 11th. I hope you will join us for these great posts and more!

August Schedule

Now August is always a special month for me. I mean it has my birthday (and yes I have been known to celebrate all month long) and my anniversary.  Here at Crafty Moms Share we have some exciting things happening in August as well. But first did you know August is:

• Admit You Are Happy Month
• Family Fun Month
• Romance Awareness Month
• National Catfish Month
• Peach Month
• National Picnic Month? (Source)

Then there are the special days in August like:

• 1st is National Raspberry Ice Cream Pie Day (hmmm....need to find a recipe I think)
• 2nd is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (hmmm...noticing the theme of ice cream)
• 3rd is National Watermelon Day (we will celebrate this one, but not on the 3rd since it is a Sharing Saturday)
• 4th is International Friendship Day
• 6th is Wiggle Your Toes Day (I think they need to add in the sand to this one)
• 7th is National Lighthouse Day (mentioning this one for Steve)
• 8th is Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day 
• 10th is National S'Mores Day (Campfire anyone?)
• 14th is National Creamsicle Day
• 15th is Relaxation Day (Spa visit?)
• 22nd is Be an Angel Day
• 26th is Women's Equality Day
• 27th is Global Forgiveness Day (Does this mean there will be world peace that day?)
• 30th is Toasted Marshmallow Day (Source)

Now really, where do they come up with these? 

Ok, now onto what we are doing this month. We have our normal monthly things like the Virtual Book Club for Kids. This month's author is Donald Crews. 

Now I really had not read any of his books before, but they are growing on me. He definitely has his own style and you will know when you are reading one of his books. They are often simple and of few words and about action. If you have a child who is into transportation (planes, trains, trucks, etc.) than this is an author for you. he also has some books for older children. I hope you will join us on the 19th to check out what we do with his books.

Then of course we have Around the World in 12 Dishes. This month we are "traveling" to Egpyt.

Pictures from http://commons.wikimedia.org/

With our journey through food we will be including some stories, music and crafts as well. I hope you will join us on the 20th to see what Egyptian food we have been cooking. Also there will be an Egyptian fairy tale. Since we have already discussed the Egyptian Cinderella, we will expand to another story!

Then of course we will see where Flat Stanley is visiting. If you would like to host Flat Stanley one of these upcoming months, check out the information here. It is easy and fun!!

Plus with that wonderful list of special August holidays we will focus a bit on watermelon and we will continue our fun with Flamingo Fridays, Fairy Tales in Different Cultures and Sharing Saturday! Plus with schools beginning for so many this month (ours doesn't start until September here) I am thinking I may do a bit of a math focus for all of you. It is always good for me to keep my mind thinking mathematically. So those are some of the great things I have planned for Crafty Moms Share this month. I hope you will join us all month long!