I found the letter Zzzzzzzz

I made some friend's children ispy bags to tide them over during a long plane ride.
Aren't familiar with what ispy bags are?
They are little pillows that contain rice, beads, or plastic pellets of some kind and approx 40 hidden items amongst the pellets. A small vinyl window revealing the items inside the bag makes it a little hand held scavenger hunt.

The pillows are triple stitched so that the contents don't break loose and ruin the fun.

Little T and his sister Stunning S found the bags before the trip, and apparently they are a hit.

Little T was captured just moments ago
That's the ispy bag tucked under his face.

I will be adding some of these to my etsy store and website in the near future. I can take custom orders as well if you have specific items in mind you would like in the bag.

Trying to get the hang of blogging and fatigue

So, obviously I am new to this blogging thing. I am trying to get the hang of it and be interesting all at the same time.
It's been a while since I posted though thanks to Lupus. I love the days where I forget I have it but hate the revenge my body gives me after.

I have a whole bunch of projects I want to post and when I sit down to edit the pictures I fall asleep. Not even a restful sleep, more of the hard, paralyzed from exhaustion kind.

I am also very frustrated with my health insurance. I had to switch to a different plan with the same company for 2009. My dr wanted to try a new medication that would help with my fatigue..I even met the criteria. Will they pay for it? Nope. After a long cry I started the appeals process. I have to admit, even after years of having Lupus I still think every new medication will cure me. Or at least I hope for a while. The idea that there is one out there that I can't get access to infuriates me. Especially knowing I pay nearly $700 per month for coverage.

As soon as I can get those pictures up I have new projects. I made an Ispy style book for my friend's son and would love to see how it inspires other crafters. I also have some more scavenger hunts to post for Easter and rainy day inspiration.
And of course more kid's outerwear!

The Great Alphabet Hunt

The great alphabet hunt


Needed: index cards and a pen

Write a letter of the alphabet on each card so you will have 26 cards, each with 1 letter.

With your child come up with an item in your house for each letter. If you can’t think of an item starting with that letter how about a color item the letter starts with. If you have multiple children use colored cards and assign each a color with different words or have them work as a team.

These were the items we came up with, just as an example. It required sounding out each letter with the 4 year old I played this with. He did come up with most of the words on his own by wandering around the house and sounding out each object he saw. After playing the game he marveled at some of the new words he learned (when he came to plates I pointed out they were also called dishes)

A apple
B Bananas
C cat
D Dishes
E entryway
F Flowers
G Green chair
H Hat (coat closet hook)
I Ice Cream
J Joker (from Batman, of course)
K We drew a picture of a kangaroo together and counted this as a freebee
L lamp
M Mat (welcome mat)
N Noodles
O Orange Juice
P Peanut butter
Q Quack (duck toy)
R Refrigerator
S Sponge
T telephone
U Underwear (underwear drawer, or trickier laundry room)
V videogames
W water
X (we found an item shaped like an x, train tracks)
Y yellow flowers on table
Z Zebra toy in toy box

I wrote each object as we came up with them on the back of the card. After we completed the alphabet he closed his eyes for the duration of a song playing (an egg timer could work too) while I went and distributed cards.


I put each card in easy eye access like sticking out from under the peanut butter jar. Laying on the dishes, etc.

This way kids don’t total the house while they run around looking for them. In the end it requires them to know the alphabet in order, recall the items they come up with, and know where they are situated in the house. An added bonus is the opportunity to increase their vocabulary by introducing new things that they see every day. If he couldn’t remember I gave hints like “it grows on a tree. You drink it every day for breakfast.” We also played “hot” and “cold” with this to prompt his memory.
In the end it was a blast running around the house to find all the cards, looking in the fridge and other fun places.

In a future post we use methods learned during this game to encourage kids to put away laundry and other age appropriate tasks around the house.