Loom Magic! Book Review and Giveaway (open to US and Canada)

The latest craze for kids of all ages this year seems to be the rubberband looms.
Who knew there were so many things to make with them besides bracelets?  Or, that there are so many different bracelets that you can make?

The craze in our family started when my 6 yr old granddaughter, Willo, got an early Christmas present of one of the loom kits.
From there my daughter (her mother) was off buying more looms and more rubber bands.

All 5 of the kids, and my daughter went on a bracelet making tangent.  They made bracelets for everyone for Christmas.  (Yes, even my 12 yr old grandson had a blast making these)

I even gave my 17 yr old a loom kit for Christmas too.

When I gave my copy of Loom Magic to my oldest daughter, she was excited too to find out all the different things you can make.

There are 25 projects in Loom Magic!   The projects take anywhere from 1 to 4 looms to complete. 
She had already bought extras, so she was all set.

Below is a picture of the Octo Bracelet that she made from the book.  She is wearing it and she took the photo.

Here are a couple other projects that I scanned from the book to share with you:

Information about the book sent to me by the publisher:
Loom Magic! 25 Awesome Never-Before-Seen Designs for an Amazing Rainbow of Projects.
Published by Sky Pony Press
Available in both hardcover and e-book.

About the authors:
John McCann likes listening to music and practicing his photography and he can solve a Rubik's cube in 3 days flat.  He has a BS in biomedical engineering from the University of Hartford and is currently pursuing his Master's.

Becky Thomas enjoys crocheting, cross-stitch, and playing video games.  She lives with her husband Patrick and their cats, Leo and Leia.


One lucky Marsha's Spot reader will win their own copy of Loom Magic!  Enter using the rafflecopter form below.


Disclosure:  I was sent 2 copies of Loom Magic! by Sky Pony Press.  One for myself and for the purpose of this review.  One to be given as a prize to one of my readers. I was also sent an PR sheet with info to share.  I was not compensated in any other way and any opinions are my own.  I am responsible for mailing out the book to the winner. Post does include my affiliate link.




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Frugal Friday with Marsha --Lean Body Fat Wallet Chapter 10 Part 2

Excerpt from:

Lean Body Fat Wallet

Discover the Powerful Connection to Help You

Lose Weight, Dump Debt, and Save Money

By Danna Demetre and Ellie Kay

(Thomas Nelson – Dec. 10, 2013)

Part 1: Frugal Friday With Marsha--Lean Body Fat Wallet Chapter 10 Raising Fit and Frugal Kids Part 1

Pages 177-180

WEALTH

My (Ellie’s) kids are my calling cards—proof that it is possible to pass on healthy fiscal habits to our children. I am leery of financial experts who hand out parenting advice when they don’t have kids or are not married. Wouldn’t you rather get your advice from someone who has “been there, done that”? I would. That’s why I look at the bottom line of those who are giving advice—how are their kids doing? Granted, not all kids take their parents’ training to heart. As adults, they are free to make their own decisions, and we love them whether those decisions are good or bad. When it comes to money matters, we have always told our kids, “Our love for you is unconditional, but our money is conditional.”

This means that if we said, “You shouldn’t go to that college because it’s twenty thousand dollars per semester and you’ll owe too much in student loan debt” and then they did it anyway, we refused to cosign on the student loan. We continued to love that child as much as any of the others, but our money (or signature) was based on the premise that they make a good choice. We are not required to fund our kids’ bad financial choices.

I have seven children, and two of them are by marriage. I call them my “children in love” because when I married my gorgeous guy, he already had two gorgeous girls. Consequently, I wasn’t able to be the sole influence in their lives when it came to money matters. However, when it comes to the five kids who called me “Mom” 24/7, I have to accept responsibility for training them to become financially fit. Those kids are my calling cards because they are all set to graduate from college with no student loan debt, consumer debt, or car debt. They weren’t perfect in their choices, and I wasn’t a perfect parent. But overall, things fell in our favor because even if we failed in one area, we got back up and tried to do it right the next time. We learned that if we sowed enough good information into them, then there could be a healthy harvest out. Thankfully, it’s worked out that way in our young adult children.

Five Skills for Fiscal Success

I believe that children can grow up to be financially literate if parents model good habits as well as take time to teach and train them in the skills needed to realize fiscal success. The following five skills can be added at age-appropriate times in a child’s life and modified with higher expectations and more complete training as they master the basics.

SKILL #1: THE ALLOWANCE LESSON

Some parents believe it’s easier to give their kids money than it is to hassle with an allowance. I can see their point—administrating an allowance is hard work at times. But if we use an allowance as a teaching tool, then our kids can learn basic money management skills such as:

Budgets. Money has limits, and everyone needs to budget.

Discernment. There’s nothing like having a child spend his own money to learn how to spend wisely.

Saving. Kids will want to spend less and save for items they desire.

Giving. Kids quickly learn how wonderful it feels to share with someone else.

Values. Kids tend to take better care of items they buy themselves.

Delayed Gratification. It takes a long time to save money and a little time to spend it.

The administration of an allowance is determined by the parent’s guidance and the family budget. Here are some quick-start suggestions as you make allowance decisions:

Amount. This depends on the child’s age and the family budget. For example, when our kids were young, we had a lot of kids but not a lot of money. Consequently, we paid fifty cents per age year per pay period to be paid every other week (you could make it every week if you desired). For example, a six-year-old would get three dollars every other week or three dollars every week, depending on the family’s ability to pay. Our five children received allowance every other week because of our family size.

 

Consistency. Pay the same amount on the same day of the week or month. Just as you count on your paycheck, your children are counting on their allowances.

(pg. 180) Responsibility. Establish each child’s responsibilities. If they don’t fulfill them, pay someone else to do the work. For example, I once paid our daughter Bethany fifty cents from our son Daniel’s allowance to make his bed when he kept leaving the house without making it. He faced the penalty of losing part of his allowance and had the double whammy of watching his sister get his money. He never “forgot” again! This ties responsibility and allowance together.

SKILL #2: THE SAVING LESSON

Some kids are born savers (yours truly) and some are born spenders (my husband). No matter whether you are inclined to spend or save, parents can teach kids the secret of saving, which is a financial discipline that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

Long-Term Savings Account Goals. Establish an account where money will not be removed to cover short-term goals. This may be an account for a car, mission trip, college, or other big item.

Family 401(k). Offer to match a quarter on the dollar for long-term savings.

Looney Tunes Accounts. Many banks have fun kid accounts for younger children that can be opened with as little as five dollars and offer freebies as incentives to save.

Short-Term Goals. Saving for a bike, doll, or video game also teaches delayed gratification.

Matching Funds. Consider matching funds for the short-term goals if it will take more than a year for your child to save for the desired item.

 

 

Stay tuned for part 3 including skills 3-5 next Friday!

 

Disclosure:  These book excerpts were sent to me to share with my audience by Nelson books.  I was not compensated for sharing these other that receiving a copy of the book for review.  Posts do contain my affiliate links.

Squidoo Hopping 1/16/14

How was your payday this month?
I believe I was paid the most I have ever made.  Nothing to brag about as it was just $15.07 including what went to charity, but more than I expected.

I'm confused as I should have all of my lenses set to pay out 10% to specific charities.  My payday page states that $4.27 of my payment was from "I want cash" lenses. 
Looks like I need to go through all 140+ of my lenses and find out which one, or ones, aren't giving to a charity.

It could be one or two of my newest lenses.  Or, could it be that maybe one of the many charities I have chosen to give to is no longer on the squidoo list?
I'm making that my mission between now and next Thursday, so I will let you know then.

I didn't build or update any lenses over this past week.
I pretty pick at random what 2 lenses I decide to share in the weekly linky's but  usually pick from lenses towards the bottom of my ranking list.

I want to remind my reader's that Winona over at Nonersays is also doing a weekly squidoo linky on Sunday's.  Here is the link to her latest post.  I hope you will hop along with her as well.  There are still 2 days left to add to her linky this week.

Squidoo Sunday - 1/12

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday 1/15/14

I have several projects going all at once, which is nothing unusual. What is unusual is that I have actually been working on all of them.

I joined the Goodnight Irene sew along with Terry's Treasures.  You can find the button on the right side bar and click to find out more.
I love that she is going slow with it.  Just 5 blocks each month for 5 month.  The 6th month is the border blocks and the 7th month is putting it together.
I only have 2 blocks done, but since I have all month, I'm not behind!

Yesterday was the monthly sewing club at church.  I am still working on this quilt that I am doing in quilt as you go.
I brought it home again, and again do hope to at least get the 3rd row put on of 7 before next month's meeting.

I am working on a total of 96 log cabin blocks.  I have found a pattern for a quilt with these scrappy log cabins.  I then have enough left over for 2 wall hangings.
Since taking this picture Monday night I have squared up the other 92 half square triangles for my middles and have one strip sewn onto some of those.

Last Wednesday in my needlers group I worked on my applique bunnies.  Today is Needlers group at the quilt shop.  I will be doing more work on the bunnies.  I have 3 more to embroider, but I think that today I will cut out my centers and backs.   I'm also going to put it together in the quilt as you go way.   I didn't take a picture last week since it's about the same as previous pictures.  I will probably take a picture after I work on them today.

I keep finding myself moving my sewing machine, cutting mat and ironing board into the kitchen or living room.  What I really need to do is get my craft room cleaned up so that I can work in there again.
I didn't get anymore organizing done as far as putting projects in bags, but I have had that on my mind.

This week I am linking up with:
 

 

Silly on Sunday 1/12/14

Again I will be linking up with Susan for her Silly on Sundays.  Click the picture above to be taken to this weeks blog post and linky.

I only kept 2 grandkids overnight last night.  Willo is 6 years old and Jacob is 4 years old.
I got out my camera this morning and asked them to make funny faces just for this post!

Here is what they came up with---

I also don't want to forget to mention our dog, Malakai and Willo is holding one of the smaller kittens that we still need to find a home for.


Happy Silly Sunday!