Squidoo Hopping--Linking Zazzle

Good Thursday to all!  Today I want to talk about linking zazzle into our lenses.
If you were following my blog posts a few months ago, you would have seen where I asked how others were highlighting one of their zazzle products at a time.  Zazzle doesn't allow you to right click and save images.
I wanted to make a lens highlighting the postage I had created.  The answers that I got was to print screen, then edit that down to just the stamp.  That is what I did, then linked the photo to my product.

Thanks to Virginia's updating challenge, I learned that there is a link button under the product picture.  When you click that you set up the code and put that into the html box in the text module or guestbook module etc.  Is this new??  I'm thinking it has to be pretty new, or other webmasters would have told me to do this when I was asking way back when.

I have completely re-done my zazzle postage lens (which I will link up in the linky) as well as I am having a blast searching zazzle for products related to each lens and adding that to the guestbook.

I would have had no idea at all that doing so automatically puts in our associate code, so if someone sees that design and loves it----and clicks over from the image that we receive a referral fee---even if it's not our own product.

Quoting from Virginia's lens "Zazzle products - Don't put them in the Zazzle module, as that doesn't pay directly to the lensmaster. If you are a Zazzle affiliate, you can paste in their link and html into text modules. This is how I illustrate quite a few of my lenses. It benefits the Zazzle artist when something sells, and I get a referral fee (on Zazzle)."   If you haven't already, please check out Virginia's lens Easy Updates for Squidoo Lenses.   I now have a whole list of things I can do to update lenses!  Thanks so much to Virginia for putting this lens together. 

In other news from me----The 3 lenses that I did the update challenge with are all up in tier 3!  I've not done any more updating to them, but will.  I still have several things from her suggestions that can be done.
I've been updating lenses here and there.  As I update each one, I am getting that page into my alphabetized notebook.
I started building a new lens last night.  It got to be 1:30 in the morning and I still had several things to put in.  I did go ahead and publish it even though I know I shouldn't have unfinished.  I do hope to finish it today, although this is a busy day away from home for me (including my daughter being interviewed for the newspaper with the youth that went to England.)    Hey! speaking of England and zazzle, I have been working some on making some of her photos from England into products.  I have several more photos to get put into zazzle and then to make them into several different products.  But, using one of the codes here in my lens, I'm sharing one of the products I made:
 

Double Decker Bus Puzzle by marsha32
See other jigsaw puzzles

I could spend all day in nothing but squidoo with all the building and updating that I want to do! I do hope to see many of you link up this week :) Thanks so much for following along.

Homeschool Journal--More Pictures from England!

It still feels like a whirlwind since picking Jasmine up at the airport last Wednesday evening.  The public school here was still on spring break.  We didn't have any intention of getting back to book work anyway.  She was full of stories to tell us of her adventures and things she learned.  She still thinks of something each day  :)

I need to do some figuring in her time book.  How many hours per day of history do I want to count?  She tells me lots because they were go go go go from the time they got up in the morning until they went to bed at night.   I'm thinking 7 hours per day will be good.  I will also be adding PE time to the books for all the walking that they did.

Today I am sharing a few of the 139 photos she took with my camera while away.  I hope you enjoy them.

 

WIP Wednesday 3/28/12--Lots of Sewing!

I did lots of sewing this past week!  I finished up the last 2 walker bags for the community project with quilt guild.  I turned those in at guild Monday.  Our guild has made a total of about 60 bags and the cancer project is in awe.

I also finished up the scrappy quilt top for sewing club at church.  I plan to share a photo of it in the TGIFF post this week.  If you remember, my camera is with my daughter in England so I wasn't able to take any pictures this last week.  Actually, right now she is just under 3 hours from landing in the Houston airport, where they will catch another plane in to Wichita and be home---today!  I'm so anxious to get her home and hear all about the trip.  Only communication for 8 days has been status and pictures on the youth ministers facebook page.

My only picture this week is my progress in the Granny a Day 2012 challenge.  I am worked ahead....I can't help it!  I actually would like to finish the blanket now that I have a good start on it.  This picture is up to today, March 28, 2012---Day 88.

 If you want to see the scrappy quilt top complete, be on the look out for my Friday post.  Hopefully she's not lost my camera while she was away!  I hope she has tons of pictures from England on that memory card.

I am linking up with the following blogs:

Homeschool Journal--Pictures from England!!

I've not done my journal post the past couple of weeks.  Our lives have been a whirlwind!
Jasmine left for England March 20th, and comes home tomorrow evening.
I am sharing the photos today that the  youth minister has shared with us through facebook.  I can't wait for them to get back tomorrow so that I can see what photos she has taken and hear all about the trip!    




Here they are ready to leave for the trip:

Youth Minister, Andy, being silly.

   Big Ben?

 Lunch Time

 Canterbury Cathedral:

 Jack the Ripper Tour

 More lunchtime:

St Pauls Cathedral after Eucharist:

Goodby London--Hello Hogwarts

Hampton Court Palace:

Lambeth Palace:

Windsor Castle:

Lunch at McDonalds:

I am linking up with:

Squidoo Hopping---Mission Failure

Well, my mission was a failure.  If you remember last week, my mission was to really get to work on making the This Day in History lenses.
I got out a paper to start one---it sat on the couch next to me all week!

The thing about making lenses is that even if you know just what you want in the lens, even if you have the body of it cut and pasted, it still takes well over an hour to put a lens together.  At least it does for me.  I've been so busy that the extra hour hasn't fit in to my schedule.

Can someone come give me a kick start?

I did look at, and comment, on lots of lenses as usual.  It's pretty easy to get lost in squidoo if I am searching for something specific, or just viewing lenses to return comments, or viewing what is posted to the facebook groups.  Oh yes, and the lenses linked up in last week's hop.  A huge thank you to all of you who took the time to link up last week.  I hope to see more and more join in.  I didn't get to all of them yet, but I will!

I did edit my Learning About England lens.  It's the final update until Jasmine returns home from her trip with photos for me to add.  Her trip is March 20-28.

Homeschool Journal--Getting Ready for England

We had a good week all the way around again!  Some of the other neat things for this week was making Valentines with youth group at our church.
We did spend a lot of time "getting ready for the England trip"  We are still reading out loud the books we checked out from the public library on England.  Each week now when she attends the youth group meetings (with the group that is making the trip), they are learning about England too. 

I'm not sure why it wasn't mentioned to us earlier, but we found out last week that the other kids in the youth group had been earning for this trip for over 2 years and my daughter only joined their youth group 8 months ago.  Therefore she had a $830 credit towards the $2330 needed by each youth for the trip.  

Working with a lady at church--actually she is doing the majority of the work---we got to figuring out how to raise the other $1500 that my daughter needs to pay her way.  The youth group at our own church is giving her $750.  Our retired pastor now attends the church where she is going to this youth group.  He has an endowment fund in his wife's name.  He has graciously offered the $500 left in it for her to go.  (He was our pastor for 13 years, so all of Jasmine's life).  

They (some of the people at our church) asked Jasmine to make a poster with a thermometer to track money collected.  We printed out pictures of the places we know for sure they will visit in England and pasted those around on the board as well.  Here is the finished poster:

 Once we got to church this past Sunday the gal changed the $1500 at the top to the total amount needed and started the thermometer out with how much Jasmine had earned herself for the trip.  She gave a big announcement before the church service started, and stood at the back of the church after the service and collected any donations.  I'm not sure how much was collected but we are heading to Bible study in a few minutes so we will probably find out.  I think we pretty much got what was needed though!

There are some things she needed for the trip as well such as a travel wallet and a waterproof jacket.  The gal that is helping us make sure she gets the money needed has bought the travel wallet for her as her gift.  She also brought in a Cabela's catalog---her and another member are going to get her the waterproof jacket as well as water proof shoes as their gifts!

Yahoo!  My husband and I are sending her with $300 for her snacks and souvenirs money.  We are taking that out of our state income tax refund once it gets in.  We won't have our federal in before the trip.

The trip is March 20-28.

That is my report for this week---off I go now to check out what others are up to in their homeschool adventures  :)

Homeschool Journal--Week 27

Considering how extraordinarily busy I was last week away from home, I'm so pleased to look at my book and see just how much schoolwork was completed despite it!  (I keep a notebook and each week I am writing down just what she is doing, along with the amount of time spent on each, since time needs to be counted for high school credit.)

I knew how busy the week was going to be so I put extra assignments on her sheet in the assignment folder.  She did a great job getting them completed!

Tuesday the gals and I met for sewing club again at church.  Here's another picture as Jasmine gets to work on assignments while I work on quilts.

 We are still reading the books we checked out from the library on England.  Three books to complete, and we are reading in all 3 of them at once.  We met with her youth group last Wednesday to learn more about the trip.  I wish I had taken better notes on the places they know they are going to visit.  I'm hoping this week she will bring home a print out of the slide show presentation.  This will be a trip of a lifetime for her!


I've taken her to the doctor about her knee.  It's been hurting her for months now and I've let things get in the way of getting her to the dr.  We are waiting on test results now, so please keep her in your prayers.  I'm praying it's not anything serious.

What I am really thinking is-----I want days to stay home!!!  My quilt guild and the sewing club at church are usually only once a month.  I so enjoy going, but when it becomes weekly, the enjoyment goes somewhat away as I get stressed about other things that aren't getting done.
My day just goes so much smoother when we can get up at home, get started on school work, get the schooling done, and then move on.  

I'm looking forward to summer at this point already---are you?  In hopes of getting myself into a better routine---oh gosh, after almost 14 years of homeschooling why haven't I settled on a set routine??  Oh yeah, it's homeschool, it's not a requirement!   :)

Homeschool Journey--Learning Along

Jasmine and I had another good week of learning this past week. She completed all assignments I had ready for her for the week.
We read a lot more about England. This week we meet to learn a lot more about the trip. OMG! I am so nervous about her passport. Yesterday in the mail came a letter from the passport place stating that what was sent in was a copy of the divorce papers and they need the originals. The trip is March 20. I am mailing off the papers today with prayer (and a note inside, even though the outside of the return envelope they sent has a space to put in the departure date of her trip)

The gals and I are meeting at sewing club at church more often right now because we have a lot of quilts piling up to be finished. Here is a picture of Jasmine and her schoolwork while we are working:

We are meeting again today for the day, so next week's photo will be similar.
I'm going to look up a Bible study I had started with the girls a few years back and get it back out. It will be something that Jasmine, my husband, and I can work on on Wednesday's together. That is my husbands day off for one thing, and another is that he is really wanting to do Bible study.

Off and running I go!

Squidoo Hopping--Come on In and Link Up Your Lenses

Happy Hopping Thursday!

I did manage to get one lens built this past week.    Learning About England.  It's just a start on the lens as we read and learn in the books about England.  It will grow up until my daughters trip, and once she is home I will add photos to it from her trip.

Before making the lens I asked questions in the facebook group and learned new things.  Seems I am learning more and more thanks to being a part of the group.  I had no idea you could click on the pictures in wikipedia and see if they are in the public domain or if you need to give attribution!  I don't know if you can do that on other websites.

I believe I need to make myself a life schedule.  A little off the squidoo subject, but squidoo would be part of that schedule.  A set time each day that I spend specifically working in squidoo, along with set times that I work on other websites, work on my crafts, do schoolwork with my daughter, and do housework.   This wouldn't be an easy task with all the things I do outside the house, but at least the things that are regularly done outside the home could be worked around.

I hope to see many blog posts and lenses linked up below.  Seriously, keep me busy hopping from my blog!

Homeschool Journal--We Did It Again!

Yay!  We did it again--we had another good full week of getting schoolwork done.  I'm glad the holiday rush is over and things are seeming to get back to normal.

Sunday the 15th was youth Sunday at the church where Jasmine attends youth group.  She had parts of the service so we went to that church instead.  I wish I had gotten some pictures of her during the service but wasn't sure how that would go over.  It's what our pastor calls "high church".

It's really working out for me to make a list of assignments for her for the week.  Not only to use when we are out and about, but also at home when I am busy "at the moment" with things such as the final touches on making a quilt or well, typing up a blog post.

We are reading books about England as I stated last week.  I've started a squidoo lens--Learning About England--if you would like to take a look.  It's just the start as more learning and more books will be added as we go through the rest of the pile of books.

For math right now we are doing review on the dry erase board.  I am also reading (and discussing) out loud with her out of a Barnes & Noble Basics book called Saving Money.   She is working in the Saxon Algebra 1/2 text book on her own, asking questions if she's not understanding.

I apologize for not having any pictures this week.  I keep forgetting to snap any.  I know that pictures make the blog reading a lot more interesting.  Taking my camera today as I am having an extra sewing club day today and she will be working on her own for the day.