Tammy Litke is a homeschooler to one girl aged 15. Blogging since 2008 she loves to watch movies, play video games, spend time in the kitchen, and go on Disney Cruises. Between recipes and reviews you'll find many helpful and some just plain funny posts on her blog. Welcome, pull up a chair and stay for a while!
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I have always had a liking for Sock Monkeys. They are just the cutest things.
In yesterday's post I told you abou tthe Disney Pillowcase Art kits from Janlynn. They also have super fun Peejay Sock Monkey kits to make your very own stuffed pet.
Activities, Art, Children, Crafts, Homeschool, Toys 
What child is not familiar with the popular Disney characters? Especially the younger ones, who adore having their special space decked out with their favorite movie pals.
When Amber was 5 she went through a Buzz Lightyear phase, and she wanted everything in her room to show that Buzz was "the" best thing in inner and outer space!
Which brings us back to the Disney characters and where your child lays their head. Janlynn has wonderfully fun (and practical) Pillowcase Art kits featuring your kids' favorite Disney movies and characters. Hannah Montana, Disney Princesses and Cars are just a few of the options available.
No not me, lol (at least not yet!) ~~ Out of Office is FedEx Office's blog! And it's chocked full of ideas for you to get for the 3 P's. That would be Projects, Parties and Presents!
If you're at a loss of where to start when it comes to a specific project you've decided to undertake, you may want to mosey over to the Out of Office blog because they'll help your planning with projects for:
Blog, Crafts, Home, Mom Central 
Oh my only 12 more days until Christmas!! I thought it would be fun to showcase some quick and easy gift ideas you can give to friends, neighbors, co-workers, and oh yes…even your family! You can enter to win eBooks from www.YouCanMakeThis.com and learn some fun new techniques, tips, and ideas not only for the people on your list, but also creative ways to decorate your home!
Crafts, Homeschool It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Jennifer Willingham of Simon and Schuster for sending me a review copy.***
Tammy Maltby is a writer, speaker, and media personality. For eight years, she was the co-host of the Emmy Award-winning television talk show, Aspiring Women. She serves on the board of the National Women’s Ministry Association, Christian Women in Media and Arts, and Women of Courage International. She and her family live in Colorado Springs, CO.
2009 Holiday Gift Guide, Baking, Books, Crafts, FIRST Wild Card, Home, Recipe 
What a perfect item for your tween's next sleepover! Girly-girls will want to check out Magnificent Manicure Kit by Elmer's. This isn't just any old manicure kit though, this will have them learning while they're getting there hands and feet all made up!
As a matter of fact Scientific Explorer partnered with UC Berkeley's Great Exploration in Math and Science (GEMS) program to create fun educational science kits like the Magnificent Manicure Kit.
Activities, Beauty, Children, Crafts, Photograph, Review, Toys I love fall! It is always fun to see harvest decorations up, walk across the fallen leaves and prepare for the holidays. This is the month where the pumpkins reign supreme! I bought myself some Pumpkin Spice creamer for my coffee, am looking forward to the first of many pumpkin desserts and am enjoying the beautiful orange hue that they bring to everything.
The prize is $50 worth of downloads and just some of the great items it includes are:
Fancy Filled Tutu Pattern Pumpkin Polly Patterns
Paper Piecing Project: Pumpkin Patch Pillow (as seen at the top of this post)
To enter the giveaway leave a comment letting me know what your favorite part of fall is.
For extra entries you can (please leave a new comment for each additional entry):
1. Follow Me on twitterand tweet this giveaway (this can be done daily!) Simply Tweet "You Can Make This Fall Giveaway ♥♥♥ @threedifferent $50 worth of downloads to create fun projects for your family http://bit.ly/3Tvx8"
2. Visit You Can Make This and comment with another product you would like to make.
3. Become a fan of Three Different Directions on Facebook
4. Subscribe to my feed via reader or email
5. Sign up for You Can Make This Newsletter
5. Follow my blog publicly
6. Add my button to your blog
7. Post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to it
This giveaway will end on October 15, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst and is opento anyone worldwide ages 13+. The winner will be chosen by random.org andwill be e-mailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to thee-mail or an alternate winner will be chosen. By entering this giveawayyou are stating that you have read my **About Reviews and my Privacy/Rules statements and agree to them.
I received a complimentary Fancy Filled Tutu Pattern for the hosting and promoting of this giveaway.
Activities, Crafts, Family, Website 
Look down the streets in your neighborhood on any given weekend this summer and you're likely to see a garage sale sign. The July issue of Molly's Money-Saving Digest, will help you make some frugal decisions at those sales (among other things).
Inside the July issue Molly has:
* An article about how sewing can save you money (and fulfill other needs you may be concerned about including growth and modesty), and many links to sewing tutorials are included in the digest.
* You can see what is typically on sale in July at stores. Something on the list is a purchase we were recently contemplating but thanks to Molly's Money-Saving Digest we know it is likely to go on sale in July, so we'll wait a few more weeks to purchase it!
* A yummy salad recipe perfect to make ahead for when guest are expected, a potluck or a barbecue.
* Aubrey Lively a talented and resourceful homeschooling Mom, shares two up-cycled sewing projects one using ties and the other a man's button down shirt!
* Back to those garage sales ☺ Jennifer Schmidt shows how you can get a fabulous designer outfit frugally and shares how to purchase an essential core wardrobe for pennies on the dollar.
* And of course who doesn't love tips from like minded readers. Those who want to use their money wisely just like you? The tips in the there are worth noting and like the reset of the digest may inspire you to think outside the box
Oh and there is more in the digest as well, that's just some of what you'll find!
The up-cycle tutorials were my favorite article in this digest. The dress fashioned out of a man's button down shirt would look great on any young girl, and can be purposed to whatever occasion you like. the pictures in the tutorial are so pretty and easy to follow.
I'm loving Molly's July Digest and for $4.95 she has a lovely price tag too.
Please Read **About Reviews at the bottom of the page.
You Can Make This, is a website that sells all sorts of cool patterns, written in such a way that you really can make any of them even if you aren't "crafty". I was able to receive their new Personalized Name Pillow pattern, and can honestly tell you it was fun and fairly easy to make.
First you receive the pattern by download so there is no waiting for it once you have purchased it. It's also handy that you only have to take one piece of paper to the store (the one with the material list), to get what you need.
I have to say that while I enjoy crafting projects mine usually flop because I just don't "get" instructions much of the time. You'll see that the patterns produced for You Can Make This are something like the Dummies books. Think of them as "crafting for dummies". While that is true, don't think that you won't get a quality looking product out of it, because you definitely will.
I admit to not following the instructions to a "t", just because I hand appliqued, rather than machine appliqued the letters on. I did this because I like to keep my hands busy while we watch TV in the evenings (so I don't eat lol!), but regardless the instructions for that part were just as clearly spelled out as the rest of the pattern. The pillow came out very presentable as you can see, which is a good thing since it is going to be a gift for my nephew!
As a "wanna be crafter", I can definitely recommend You Can Make This. As a mom and a homeschooler, I think there are many choices in their shop that you could use as part of a Home Economics course as well. I'm looking forward to making another pillow for my new nephew or niece when they arrive in the fall!
Please read **About Reviews at the bottom of the page.
You Can Make This is giving two of my readers the chance to win a copy of the Personalized Name Pillow Pattern.
To enter check out You Can Make This and comment with another item (besides the pillow) you would like to make.
Extra Entries
1. Tell me how many children you would make a pillow for if you won.
2. Follow me on twitter (http://twitter.com/threedifferent) and tweet about this giveaway, leave a link to your tweet. You can use this tweet if you like:
Blog Post and Giveaway - You Can Make This Personalized Name Pillow >> http://tiny.cc/pillow688 @threedifferent
3. Subscribe to my blog via e-mail or feed
4. Follow my blog
5. Kirtsy this post
6. & 7. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to my blog - leave the permalink in the comments.
This giveaway will end at 11:59 pm cst, May 27, 2009. Open to residents worldwide ages 13+.
Activities, Crafts, Hobbies, Home, Homeschool, Picture, Review, Website 
I love trying new things. If I can find something new that works for me, I like that. I don't do a ton of crafting and so I like to make sure that when I'm buying supplies for that purpose they work.
I'm not good at crafting from "scratch". I generally modify already made items, or use kits. The problem: the things I craft can be anything from felt to plastic and everything in between, so to find an adhesive that works on any and all of them is a tough job.
I just got to try UHU's Twist and Glue. Genius and I decided to "modify" one of our pencil boxes.
We cut some scrapbook paper to fit the shapes on the top and proceeded to glue them on the plastic lid. It worked great. The glue came out steady and I barely had to hold the two pieces together to make sure it adhered.
What I really like about this glue, is the whole "twist" application. When you open the cap, there is a precision tip. that was terrific to use on the tiny pieces in our project, so that we only got just a small bit of glue on them.
When you twist the top, you get a broad applicator, which again, suited well for this project since I was able to easily spread the glue across the larger pieces and it took no time at all to do that.
The glue is clear, and dries the same way. After checking it a few hours later, the paper was still bonded to the plastic.
While I haven't tried it on anything else yet, it can be used on cardboard, wood, felt, fabrics and cork as well. If it works as well on those as it did my pencil box project, I think I'm changing my crafting adhesive to UHU Twist and Glue. Even better, it is acid free, solvent free and non-toxic.
If you're crafting in the near future and need to get an adhesive, pick some up and see how it works out for you.
Activities, Blog, Crafts, Photograph, Review I 
all things Disney. Of course if you already read my blog, and subscribe or follow, you know that! Jamie's Precious Peas blog is having a "Disney Celebrations" theme, where she is featuring homemade sellers wonderful Disney creations.
Elizabeth's Attic has the most awesomest of Disney totes, and you can pick up Auto Trash bags at 4 Girls Designs in (my favorite) Tinkerbelle fabric!!
The Innovative Life has Disney Picture Frames. There are blankies and pillowcases at Auntie Mac's.
She has even more sites featured on her blog. Many of them even have giveaways!!!
So if you "heart" Disney like I do, you probably want to check out Jamie's blog!
As the year draws closer to an end, I have much to be thankful for - one of those things is having been picked to be on the TOSCrew. I have been able to see and use hands on so many products and services for the homeschool community that I otherwise would never have been introduced to.
One of the services I was able to access was Puppetools. This is a for fee website that offers a lot of help when it comes to making and using puppets. With a big resource center for educators, you can learn about construction and design of puppets to the science of puppet play and much in between.
Kids, love to learn using puppets, and you can see this by the videos and puppets that the site shows. With hundreds of pictures of puppets made by real kids, the imaginations can soar!
With 37 puppet patterns and a unique hinge design that can all be downloaded using Adobe to make your own puppets, this could have your children busy for hours, making and playing out many of things that they have been taught during their school day. Or you could use them as part of your curriculum, to spice up that math or social studies lesson!
Unfortunately, while we as a homeschool crew were able to review this, the site itself for the cost options is designed more for a larger group such as a co-op, church or a school to use. While the subscription to the site has a lot that goes with it, a year membership to access it is $99.00. However, up to 30 users can share that subscription so again, it may be worth it for a larger group to use it. They also offer a $20.00 trial subscription where you would have complete access to the website and everything on it for 60 days. There was some mention on our Crew front that Puppetools was going to offer a family/homeschool subscription rate for the same cost as the trial, but as of right now, it is not offered on the site. If you are interested in that you could use the contact us button on the left side of the screen on Puppetools homepage and inquire about that.
So if your children or students at your co-op perhaps like to make believe, act out stories from books, learn from shows like Sesame Street, or enjoy crafting this may be a website you'd like to try. At the very least go check it out and form your own opinion!
Activities, Crafts, Homeschool, The Old Schoolhouse, Website Momreviews.net has done it again -- that is provided us with a great giveaway for something a lot of us can use -- a Scrapbooking Kit! Three winners will get their choice of a kit from Modzy. I can testify to how cute these kits are, as I have picked up some of the stickers that the kits include at my local Hobby Lobby, and I love them! So if you're like me, and you catalog your memories by scrapbooking, head over to Momreviews.net, and try and get yourself, some new papers and stickers to add to your stash!
Contest, Crafts, Scrapbooking Have you ever tried to do crafts with your kids (or just for yourself for that matter), and it ended up a complete failure, because you ruined your table, couch, carpet (insert any other thing you've ruined there), and it just caused you so much grief, you said you'd never do it again? Ah ha, I knew I could not be the only one! Oops Mat is reaching out to you and telling you to try again. I know I know, you think it is an absurd idea. Let your crafting diva rest in peace. A blog that I regularly visit (that you can see on my sidebar at the bottom) A Wrestling Addicted Mommy has teemed up with Oops Mat and is having a giveaway. The Oops Mat uses are wide and varied, and the purposes for which you can use it are endless. So what are you waiting for, check out these generous folks' sites, and demand of yourself to get back up on that crafting horse, and let your children fingerpaint, shaving cream paint, whipping cream paint, playdoh (well you get the idea) for all their worth!