Glasses

My whole family wears glasses.  I started wearing them when I was 17 and couldn't see the chalkboard very well in my chemistry class at school.  I don't wear mine all of the time, but I'm finding that I have to wear them more and more these days.  Man, getting older is lame.  :)  I really like my latest pair, though.  They make me feel trendy.  :)

My husband wears contacts (I absolutely cannot handle contacts in my eyes.  It weirds me out.  Anyone else like that out there?).  My kiddos even started wearing them as little bitty babies.  See?

Over the years, I have bought a lot of pairs of glasses.  (Ever tried to keep one-year-olds in glasses?  Man, we were buying new pairs ALL the time when they were little.  Fortunately the older they get the less often they destroy them.  :)    I've tried to buy glasses cheaply--we're all looking to save some money, right?  I was recently introduced to GlassesUSA.com.  With all the pairs of glasses my family buys, I may just have to try them out.

This cute pair is quite similar to the eyeglasses I'm currently sporting, but for at least half the price I bought mine for!

 

They even have a fun Virtual Mirror where you can virtually try on various pairs of glasses to see how they look on you.  Here are a couple of the pairs that I tried on:

These are the ones in the above picture.

Or I could go a little more hipster with these.  Ha!

Try on your own online eyeglasses with their Virtual Mirror.  You can pick the pair you look best in or just have fun trying on hipster glasses like me. :)

Use the code Blog10 to take 10% off any order of prescription glasses.


Disclosure: I was compensated for this promotion.  All opinions are my own.

Squid

My son is super into squids right now. He wants to be a marine biologist, specifically studying the Giant Squid. He has decided upon his major, college choice, and future graduate work. This is awesome. Especially since he's 10. :) Granted, I picked my major when I was 12 (and got my degree in it) so it's entirely possible he'll see it through.

For now, he is constantly drawing squids, his pinewood derby car was a squid, and he and his best friend design submarines at recess everyday.  So, when I needed to come up with a birthday gift for him that could be made cheaply at home, I thought it'd be fantastic to make a stuffed squid for his bed. 

To say that he LOVES it would be an understatement. 

Personally, I'm rather proud of myself for thinking to use polka dot fabric for the suction cup sides of the arms and tentacles (he informs me that they're not all tentacles, only the long ones are). 

I didn't have a pattern, I just sketched out what I thought the squid should look like, added 1/2 inch seam allowances to my sketch, and cut it out.

 

It was a great scrap buster.  I used leftover polka dot fabric from this dress and gray fabric leftover from the Dumbledore costume from a couple Halloweens ago.  The eyes (one on each side) were made of felt I had in my stash. 

 

 

I sewed everything right sides together and stuffed it.  I basted it together as I assembled it, as working with all those arms was rather complicated--too complicated for pinning. 

 

 

I really love how it looks sitting on top of his green bedspread.  I'm proud of my little squid.  :)

 

We Matter

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a Mormon.  And this weekend, my church is holding our twice-a-year General Conference.  It's 4 general 2 hour sessions of talks from our leaders and our prophet.  I LOVE listening to the inspired words and feeling the holy Spirit.  If you'd like to watch it with me, you can watch or listen to it here.

My favorite quote so far comes from Sister Elaine S. Dalton, "Our part matters because WE matter."  So, of course I had to make a printable to pin to Pinterest.  :)  So, here it is: