HELP!!! I never know when I get comments on my blog!

I stupidly switched to the G+ version of BLogger, when it was announced that Google Reader was going to be killed. I thought that was the next logical step in the process. Ever since, I do not receive my comments by my email. I've spent hours in the settings trying to set it up right. I hated Captcha and that is one benefit of changing from Blogger. However, most blogs I read, have not made the move, and still have the old Blogger Captcha comments. I'm frustrated because Real People are leaving nice comments, and I was feeling SO lonely, because I thought I have not received a comment in months. G+ will notify me at the bell at the top, when someone follows, but it doesn't notify me when people leave comments, although it's set up that way. i have G+ app on my iPhone. Besides +checking Blogger multiple times a day, there MUST be a better solution! +Allison Kennedy ?

Sweet Fabric/Sewing/Quilting Giveaways

This one is a bit late, but Heather Bailey (HELLOmynameisHeather) is having a month full of giveaways! It started on August 1st, but there is some time left to enter! She is having a big prize on the blog daily, and giving away a $15 GC to the heatherbaileystore.com everyday on Instagram (@heatherbailey) I actually won Day 21 on the instagram contest! Her store is so awesome, and she brings a little piece of heaven to my life!

The second awesome contest is a month full of giveaways by Alison Glass Designs blog. There are multiple awesome people hosting giveaways this month for her new awesome collection that has JUST hit stores. The first blog to host her giveaway was at Olivia Jane Handcrafted, and she is so cute! She made the sweetest skirt featuring Feathers from the Sun Print collection in Flame. I actually won this giveaway!! I was allowed to choose a color from Feathers. I chose teal, and was allowed to choose an embroidery pattern. I chose the Flowers because I could see myself actually using these on something. I don't know how to embroider, but it's literally NEXT on my Must Do List! I feel blessed to be so lucky! Besides the bunch of blogs featuring her new collections and giving away prizes, Alison is have a HUGE giveaway on her blog that will last all month. The grand prize is the total collection of all her fabrics! That's 74 fat quarters of beautiful colorful fabric!!  That's over 16 yards of fabric if my math is right. On October 15th she will pick the lucky winner. Check out her blog and the listings of some awesome bloggers that will be giving away some of her new collections!

Make sure you follow them on Instagram! @heatherbailey @alisonglass and ME: @Karries3
 I have been on IG a lot lately. I've added so many quilters/sewists to check out their work. I love it!

Also there a few more here:

Maureen's Weekly Friday Giveaway: http://www.maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-fabric-giveaway_23.html. A 40 Fat Quarter Bundle of Sunnyside by Kate Spain from the fat quarter shop. Ends Sunday.

Take 5 Mad Mod bundle and Take 5 book: http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/blogs/insideqn/2013/08/21/a-take-5-giveaway/. Ends Sunday midnight Mountain Time.

Quilt Trends. Books. http://www.quilttrendsmag.com/giveaways/index.shtml

Angela Walter interview at The Intrepid Thread: http://intrepidthread.blogspot.com/2013/08/friday-fun-day-interview-with-angela.html

AND more Alison Glass at The Fabric Worm http://fabricworm.blogspot.com/2013/08/announcing-fabricworm-giveaway-allison.html

Of course I found more giveaways checking my mail.

Fashionable Fabric giveaway at A Quilting Life: http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2013/08/fashionable-fabrics-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AQuiltingLife+%28A+Quilting+Life%29

Big fabric friday at sew Mama sew: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2013/08/free-fabric-friday-73/

Plus a Lily Ashbury giveawy: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2013/08/lily-ashbury-fabric-pattern-giveaway/

Still Without Laptop...

Does anyone else have trouble coming up with what to post on your blog? I'm a sloooww quilter, so what else do I want to post about during the week where I accomplish nothing? Most of the time, I have ideas, but I'm too busy or lazy to write up a post. I don't use my schedule button like I should, I know. I bet it's a God-send to millions of bloggers our there...

Of course the week without my personal laptop, is the week where I could have posted about a million (10) posts. It's how it goes, I guess.

Even though I'm a day late, there was an awesome link up at Ellison Lane Quilts, where everyone linked up their studio/sewing rooms! Some are SO great, with mountains of rainbow fabric calling my name! I'm so jealous. I've actually been meaning to post my sewing area for a few months, but I was so tired yesterday that I forgot to link up and win some awesome prizes. GRrr.

So that will be up on the blog one of these days.

I'm exactly half-way done piecing (sewing together the different fabrics to make a design) a quilt top from a fabric bundle that came with a pattern called "Flutter", that I bought over a year ago from a quilt shop about 30 miles away. It's a spin on the log cabin block. But I am SO OCD. I know that with quilting there are minimal rules...basically you need a 1/4" seam allowance, but there are no rules to creating a quilt. My fabric bundle came with 8 fabrics: 4 solids and 4 prints. I figured out what color/pattern was used in the pattern, and I followed the instructions EXACTLY. I have always been a green grass/blue sky kind of girl. I'm awesome at paint-by-numbers! When I see a pattern of a copy of something, I want to make it Exactly As. I'm so weird! I guess I'm scared of being creative. I really don't know what it is. I know what I like, and I know what I don't like, and i feel that not many things fall in the middle. Of course, this only is reflective of material things. I would like to think I'm a very open-minded person that tolerates almost everyone/everything. For example, I don't like red, orange or yellow very much. I'm a natural redhead, and I know these colors don't look good on me, at all. I tend to stick to blues and gray. I guess this could be a positive thing, because it gives me a chance to *really* grow in the future?

I'm making a surprise for my blog friend, Allison +Allison Kennedy  (Okay, Allison!). She has been kinda down lately, and when I saw the 2 surprise objects back-to-back, I had an awesome idea.  Unfortunately, my car is also being fixed at the SAME time as my laptop, and I have to get materials for my present tomorrow. I want to ship this out by Monday. She loves to show off her awesome fashionably finds from homemade artists and independent designers, and she looks so cute doing it! I think the accessory I'm making for her will be perfect for her. I hope she thinks so too!

September GOALS 
1. Finish up my Staple Dress #theStapleDress by April Rhodes;

*** if I run into trouble, I can join up at the next Southeast Michigan Crafty Meetup (SEMI) at Pink Castle Fabrics, on the 1st Thurs of the month. My teacher Karen (One Girl Circus) will be there to help any problems I have. Which in all honestly, I probably will. I think I should just go to meet new people. I'm at a weird stage in life where all my friends either live too far away, are partying, or starting families. I'm done with partying and my "family" will be all adults next year. Plus I love sewing, and everything seems so nice!

My Staple Dress, so far

1a. Make it to SEMI in September (see #1)

2. Finish Flutter AND quilt it!

3. Check out an Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild meeting; (either this Wednesday or Sept 25). I haven't even made an entire quilt yet, and I'm super nervous around new people-especially when I feel incompetent-so this one might wait a few months. This meets the last Wednesday of the month.

5. Sign up for the skirt class or Washi dress class (again at Pink Castle Fabrics) with Rae Hoekstra (Made by Rae)! She's the one who PUBLISHED this pattern. It's super popular! Plus she is super good friends with Karen, my teacher for #theStapleDress!!

Washi Dress. Made by Rae

6. Send out Allison's surprise
7.Try to blog at least twice a week

8. Look for a new NURSING job (this will take some time)

9. Get my hair chopped AND donate to somewhere

HAH! If it only looked like this, then I wouldn't have to do this one:
*I wish I had the original source to this pic*

9. Find something to do with #nordika. I wanted to do my version from Maureen Cracknell's zig-zag pattern she used to do her nordika quilt! A tutorial was supposed to be on Bernina's (i think) website, but so far I haven't seen it. There is another idea I have to make this, but I basically have to make a pattern with math. That is complicated! (i think)

Sweet, beautiful Norkida, Oh how I love thee!!
 By Jeni Baker (In Color Order)
designs for Art Gallery Fabrics
This is my first fabric obsession!

 ***10: Fix my blog buttons. Apparently the code is wrong, and goes to my Photobucket page. WTH. Sometimes these tedious blog things are a pain in the ass. This one I'm working on as soon as I hit Publish!

11. Figure out how to make a Watermark and use it.
12. Clean up my Pinterest page
13. Clean up my blog and make sure everything WORKS.

I really hope to accomplish all of these. Maybe the Modern Quilt Guild can wait awhile though.

The Staple Dress class I took was SO AWESOME. First, it was at my favorite fabric store. I got to take the first class they offered (I think). Learning new skills is so awesome. (sorry, awesome is my go-to exclamation)  I learned how to make a pattern, copy it, cut it out, and make a dress from the pieces.  It's very different from quilting, but at the same time, I'm pressing fabric and using my sewing machine, so some of the basic concepts are the same. I'm just adding to my knowledge base! I love it!

Now I can do basic adjustments to my clothes, such as fitting my measurements and hemming! And I'm talking basic. The Staple Dress pattern is so versatile. You can make a dress with or without pockets, with a straight or dropped hem. From there you can add a collar, change the neckline, or even make it into a tunic. You need to check out the hashtag link #TheStapleDress to Flickr that shows all the awesome dresses that people made!

My teacher was so inspiring! Karen is SO NICE. I was a nervous wreck with my rotary cutter, and I knew at some point there was going to be blood shed, and I was right. I'm just glad I got it out of the way. I was the one who gave Brenda (the owner) to get a first aid kit, haha. Brenda is awesome too. She was super funny when we were the only ones in the store. I can tell she has a really great sense of humor. What's really funny, is the day before my class I found her website from a blog hop that was featuring a kid pattern. I immediately book marked it "READ NOW" because I saw so much info that would be useful for sewing. I didn't realize it was her, until about a week later. If you ever have a chance to take a class from her, DO IT. She is so calm, positive, and caring. She nurtures you through the process. I'm a visual learner, and she adapted her skills to show me, then would watch me do it. I'm lucky because there was only another girl in the class, and I know when word gets out, that there will be a ton of UM girls coming to learn to sew. Karen was able to spend a lot of individual time with me. While we were all working, we would talk and get to know each other. Women that sew, are generally super nice, caring, funny people. So far, I haven't came into drama that I know probably exists, so it's shiny and new to me.  I hope it stays that way forever!

Today's News

So there is something wrong with my laptop.  it was shutting off by itself, so I did some sleuthing on Google, and it's probably some feature built-in that makes it shut off to prevent over-heating.  And I already knew I was having some heating problems with it. I used half a can of air on that bad boy the week before.  It helped for a quick minute. I even unscrewed the case to see if I could look at the fan to see if it worked.  Apparently, I have a model where the fan is built in the back? Anyway, it's behind a bunch of stuff.  On every website that I read, it said that I could only do this (remove the case and look at the junk in the fan) if I felt confident to do so. *I strongly recommend that you feel confident to do this*=was repeating on each and every page...and I was like, Why the hell not? I've removed dozens of staples from some skin graphs off of a junkie's leg before. I've digitally decompacted a few people in my lifetime.  I've even given birth via Caesar's way.  How could I be lacking confidence when all I was going to do was open my computer's shell and have a looksy around and attempt to evaluate my air-can skills?

After I started opening up the shell super carefully, and making an identical mini-diagram/schematic for the loose hardware, I started checking with a few more websites.  Um. It said not to touch any of the sensors or spray air too close/crooked because the liquid would damage the insides.  Damn. Why wasn't this talked about during the confidence warning?  Then I looked up my laptop's model and was very dismayed to see that my fan was hidden in the back, and not visible-just like my old Mercury Cougar's engine block-and that's the time where I started to lose confidence that was quickly being replaced with unsurety and major remorse. So I decided to Abort Mission!! and put my laptop back together so I could turn it on to see if it was worse off than before I started...

...and luckily it was not! That was a big fat sigh of relief because I can't afford a new laptop/computer/iPad right now.  Even though all 3 are on my Wanted List.

TOMORROW IS MY DRESS CLASS. I am so stoked for it!!! However, I have yet to buy then wash any fabric for it! And I have SO MUCH to do before I go tomorrow. I have to be up early for a 9:30 appt, then to JoAnns or Hobby Lobby to pick up some cheapo fabric, then go hang with my Uncle for a bit, then take Ash to her first consultation with a Physical Therapist (her hip hurts her constantly and she might have slight scoliosis! <sad>, then a 5 minute Ortho appt for Ash, then home to wash cheapo fabric, then the SOS to replace her learner's permit that we failed to find after the FIRST time we got it, then to Pink Castle Fabrics by 6!!! I am so excited!!! I also have to pack up my sewing equipment *and I totally just remembered that I forgot to make a cute sewing machine cover! d'oh*, verify receipts before my first appointment, and find some time to wash my cheapo fabric.  If I didn't have so much crap to do today, I would should have went today. BUT, with the world's greatest invention (yes, the internet) I can virtually shop at Joann's and Walmart to compare prices on some needles/notions and pick out some fabric at Joann's! I love the internet.

 I *really* wished that I knew that I was going to have an extra $80 this week last Saturday so I could get some pretty Nordika instead of some cheapo fabric.

Ok, so I wish I could have picked up some Nordika in time for this class. I still might try to sneak and get some tomorrow in between appointments.  That means another 20min trip (each way) to Ann Arbor and back, so it depends on this Chase check if I actually get to do that or not. Otherwise my first staple dress with be cute cheapo fabric, followed by dozens and dozens of glorious dresses made with Art Gallery fabric. I love dreaming about it!

Pink Castle Fabrics and My First Dress!

A few months ago, Pink Castle Fabrics expanded their online store into a REAL store!!! They opened their store in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is about a 20 minute drive for me from my home.  I was SO excited when I found out about it, because I have been visiting fabric stores in this area, and I haven't found one where I'm overwhelmed with happiness. Now I have a Local Shop where I can visit and check out the fabric in person. There is another big fabric store in Ann Arbor, but it was a giant batik store, and I was super disappointed when I found that out. Instead of bright solids, the fabric looks waterpainted. Not my look at all. I desperately wanted a store where I can learn how to quilt and sew and improve my skills.  You can only get so far by teaching yourself!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE their fabrics.  They have a huge shop of bolts, precuts, and what's really cool is they have Blogger's pick out bundles to sell.  I love going in and checking out all the new bundles that they have just put together!  What I love the most, are the boxes of stray fat quarters and fat eights that haven't made it into a bundle of their own. It's SO awesome to pick through the boxes and find some gems that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten my hands on! (And they are super cheap which is a bonus for me!)  Last week I was able to pick out a FQ (fat quarter) of a newly released line called Briar Rose (by Heather Ross) that everyone is going nuts for.  I only wanted a little piece of the collection to put in my stash and hoard away.  

This is my favorite print: 
Isn't the Mom Bee awesome?!

It is a really good line, but I have a hard enough time deciding what I'm going to do with the collections of fabric I have! My first quilt top I have made has similar colors to Briar Rose, and Nordika (Art Gallery Fabrics) (by Jeni Baker/In Color Order) came out at the same time and I would choose that fabric over ANY fabric every made. Art Gallery Fabrics makes the best fabric I've ever seen and touched. It's so soft!

I actually bought the whole Nordika FQ collection with the coordinating solids and 2 yard of my favorite print, in hopes that will be a dress or a skirt!

Tulip Vines in Licorice

 Isn't this the best?!! It will look great as a dress or skirt all year round in the the summer or winter depending on what I match with it!

Whimsicol Tide Panel

Whimsicol  Mist Panel

I LOVE these Whimsicol Panels!!!! When i learn how to make the Staple Dress, I am definitely going to try to make both of these in the pattern. I have so many plans for this dress!

So this is what I'm going to learn in ten days:

April Rhodes: The Staple Dress

It's going to be a really basic dress pattern so I will be able to learn how to fit a dress to my size, and make the proper adjustments, and I haven't been this excited in a long time!  Plus there are SO many different kind of wonderful dresses that have been popping up everywhere.  You must look at them!

HUGE Semi-Annual Sale by my FAVE Store

Get these goodies while you still can

A Very Disappointing Weekend after a Week of Hell

Last week was my Summer of Hell week.  Every summer, there is that one week that you feel like you are about to wilt, then swell up, then die from the heat. I am giving eternal praise for the guy that invented the Air Conditioner.  I grew up without AC in the house.  My parents had a window unit in their bedroom, and we would camp out in there at night when it was unbearable.  Besides being uncomfortable and sweaty, I feel just plain miserable in the humid heat.  I would rather live inside a snowman in my underwear for the entire winter than go one day without the AC in the high humid hell hot weather in the summer.

The Hell week began on the Friday before last, then lasted through the weekend-which was fine because we have air- building up steam and humidity and getting hotter and hotter, and then Mon-Thursday was the equivalent of 105F all week.  I was "working" at my Aunt's all week, just making sure my Uncle stays safe. He has no fat so he doesn't feel the heat like I do.  I get super bitchy when I'm hot and their house was not even COOL...in the room my Uncle stays in it was still 80-85 f'ing degrees.  I had to retreat to the middle of the house, so I could get relief and not die in a melted fat puddle on their couch. That's the only thing I hate about my "job" is when it gets unbearably hot.

So then comes Friday!  The day where we are supposed to get Relief!  The day I have been looking forward to for 3 entire days, that seemed to be farther away every time I saw the latest weather forecast.  On Friday, it was supposed to storm, then the temps would fall a few (more like 20) degrees (f).  Every night before I went to sleep, I would close my eyes and say...ugh....2 more days....

So Friday is here now, and I'm in a great mood at the end of the day.  The clouds are super dark, and there is that energy in the air that happens when a big fat storm is about to go off!  I come home from "work", get settled in, plug in my laptop and finish subscribing to a bunch of sewing blogs I found where women my age make awesome vintage clothes to put in their wardrobe.  So I'm excited to look through all the wondrous blogs and websites of the creations I found during the day.  I pop open a fresh Coke, and I'm getting down to business.  Dr. Phil comes on at 5, and distracts me while I'm checking tons of email.  So it starts to storm super bad, and I'm grinning like the Cheshire cat, because I'm finally going to start cooling off!!  The sky explodes and dumps tons of rainwater all at once.  There are a few loud close booms of thunder. The wind is blowing super hard and I'm doing this stupid lame version of the happy dance by moving my neck and shoulders like Walk like an Egyptian to no music, and to express to nobody else just exactly how excited I am about a thunderstorm.

Then the worst possible thing happened.  The power goes out, and does not flicker nor comes back on...until Saturday at 9 pm.  That means no internet, no TV, no lights, no sewing machine, and no phones.  Our landline was switched to Comcast and now we don't have a phone during a power outage.  Seriously, WTF.  And that storm that was supposed to drop the temperatures super low?  Hasn't really happened until Monday evening.  Saturday was a solid 85F starting at 10am and lasting all day long.  I got a lot of sleep this past weekend because there was literally almost nothing to do without sweating.

Did I mention that the air doesn't work in my car?  Well, it doesn't and my car smelled like burning plastic on the way home from work last week until I was able to park it in the garage.  Luckily my iphone was fully charged when the power went out, and (lucky again) I had already asked for a bunch of lives from people, so that kept me busy on Friday night.  Saturday morning, I got the idea to charge my phone in the car. I borrowed my Mom's charger because I couldn't charge it in her car unless it was running.  Wth....I love new technology, but let's not get rid of common sense.  Just because it's cool to push a button to start the car, then make a double click so the power runs without the engine on.  duh.

So since I have a car from the last millenium (ok, it's a '99) of course it will charge in my car without running the engine and causing the family to die in the garage from carbon monoxide poisoning.  So being nice, I charge my mother's phone first.  Then I charge mine up until 29%.  Then I run the battery dead.  *I'm still parked in the double car garage with a pool table between the cars and not possible to jump start from that position. So now I have no TV, no phones at all, no internet and no sewing machines, no Air or adequate lighting.  This makes me sad and frustrated and mad as hell, because I had big plans to be living it up in the AC all weekend after the Week of Hell.  I'm so disappointed that I start to read in bed, in a dark room to keep out the heat, with a flashlight, and I picked one of those old cheap novels that have tiny type print. Trying to read in the half-dark/too-bright LED crappy flashlight is starting to really strain my eyes.  And the air is still humid and I'm laying still so I don't expend any energy so I don't accidently burn a calorie and start to overheat. I end up falling asleep at 2 pm and stay like that for most of the day.

Then the power came on at 9pm on Saturday, and I was alone on the house, and I cranked the AC to super-freezing for a few hours, turned on Bio and watched Celebrity Ghost Stories, and it made the day a lot better. For some reason, not having power took a lot out of me and I fell back to sleep for the night around midnight.  LAME weekend. And then I received almost 385 emails that I had to wade through and read (some are still book marked) and it took until today to get through.

How was YOUR weekend?! I bet it was 300x better than mine!
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This is Jacqueline.  "She" is named after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  "She" has lived with us since last fall.  About a month ago, my daughter realized that she was really a HE.  So meet Jack!  He has gotten super big over the last few months.

hip hop 50's shop

I was asked to check out an online store and give my honest opinion on what I think.  The online store is called hip hop 50's shop, as this post is cleverly titled the same!  I have been in love with vintage dresses for almost 2 years, ever since I found another online store that sells vintage clothing.  I eventually want to learn how to sew all of my vintage dress clothing to wear! I was super excited to know that I would be checking out vintage dresses.

As soon as I arrive to the site, I am smitten with the pink rosy background!  This store is awesome.  It sells 50s poodle skirt costumes for kids AND adults that are actually cute with all the cute accessories like saddle shoes and cateye glasses!  Not the cheap-o ugly costume in a vinyl bag and smells like old band aids that you get at your local Halloween store outlet that is a party store the other eleven months of the year.

While the poodle skirts/costumes are cute, it's not exactly what I'm looking for.  I click on Vintage Dresses and immediately fall in love with my options!  What's really awesome, is that all the dresses are somewhat cheaper than the other vintage dresses I have found on the internet and Amazon.  If I were buying the dress today, I would get is the 50s Vintage Tea Dress Black with white polka dots!

Vintage Tea Party Dress black with white dots

I love this dress!  There is also a red version with black dots!  I prefer the black over the red because I could wear this ANYwhere.  It's perfect for work, to go shopping in, or even to wear on a date night out.  I love that it has a full skirt to twirl in.  The shop also sells crinoline petticoats to wear under the dress to get the bigger full skirt look that I love so much. I would have to get a black one to go under my dress!  I've been checking out petticoats for a loooong time, and have some of the cheaper prices I have seen around.

Black crinoline petticoat

 I like the style of dress because it accentuates the small of your waist then flares out, hiding my problem areas-stomach/hips/thighs.  I also love the V-neck  with the cap sleeves. (I feel like) I'm the only person in the world who doesn't wear tank tops or spaghetti straps because I'm really self conscious of my arms. I have gained weight in my 30s that I'm not comfortable with, so this dress would "hide" the areas that I have issues with. I can't stand being in clothes that aren't comfortable.

Overall, this store looks awesome. Not only do they sell 50s costumes and accessories, but they have a selection of super cute vintage dresses.  I have bookmarked this shop for the future so I can go back and get the dress and petticoat!  Who knows? Maybe I'll end up with some matching black cateye glasses and a cute teal chiffon scarf!

*All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review on this post.*

Time Away...

So lately I've spent some time thinking about my blog and what direction I want to take it in.  These are the things I do/I know.

1.  I *love* reading other people's blog.  Especially if they have to do about:

• Quilting 
• Fabric
• Sewing garments
• Fashion
• Super cute blog/design 
• finding new places for clothes (mainly dresses)
• I like reading about people who do these things on their blog
• finding blogs that pique my interest in anything. Random blogs  
• finding out how blogging works, how to increase readers; basically the logistics-not necessarily to implement them, just to find out how it works

2.  Most of the blogs I follow are women from age 20 and up.  They blog about one or more of the above criteria.

3.  I hate my blog design.  Especially since I eff'ed it up and erased the blue zig-zags (...ok...chevron) and getting pissed that I can't figure out how to put it back because it's a premade template.  I have actually won a few blog design make overs, but I seriously have SO many things I want, that I'm embarrassed to tell them, so I haven't used my prize..?yet. *EDIT: I just actually looked at the blog, and it's much worse.  The white background has turned into a repeating black image with words and a yellow frog.

4.  I fear I'm not interesting enough.  I'm in a weird funk in my life where I'm not working, but helping my aunt "watch" my uncle.  He's basically fine but gets weak when he goes outside for too long, and has a super low blood pressure.  This is the longest time that he has stayed well, and hasn't had a major setback.  I have a teenaged daughter, and she's definitely not doing cute things that make me laugh about.  She is actually an awesome kid, but I don't feel drawn to the Mommy BLogger Groups.  The people I hang out with are considered more like acquaintances than real friends.  I actually prefer to stay home and do my own thing, than hang out people that I don't really love to be with.  I don't have any RL friends that share my love of fabric and sewing-which I am working on to change.  The last guy I dated was over a year ago.  But this is a blessing because I haven't been alone for an entire year for over 10 years.  I'm not upset about that at all.  I don't have a lot of money right now.  I can't afford to buy new outfits to sport on my blog.  Besides, who would take the pictures?!  Because I don't have a lot of money to spend on extras, I don't have a ton of money to spend on designer fabric to make all the quilts and dresses that I really want to have.  *Note: I realize I can get a job, but family is really important to me, and my aunt has helped me out my whole life without asking anything in return, so I want her to feel comfortable leaving my uncle at home by himself, before I look for a job*  Basically I watch a ton of TV and am scouring the internet in obscene amount of hours per week.

So what does that mean for me?

I'm not sure.  I guess I'll just keep doing what I do, and be a hodgepodge sort of blog.  I love sharing my love of stuff with others, so that's what I'll keep doing. I know it's not about the numbers, and I don't care about those.  I would like to find some readers that like to read it and talk to me.  I'm the shy girl that is really quiet until you get to know me. I prefer quality over quantity any day.  But I also like some compared to none.

Little Critter Reading Adventure App Review

When I was asked to check out this app and give my opinion, I knew exactly who Little Critter was.  Just to make sure I wasn't imagining reading Little Critter books when I was really young, I googled to see how old Little Critter is, or to be more specific, how long he has been around.  Little Critter first appeared in 1975 which makes him 4 years older than me, so I definitely remember him!

The App is called "The Trip-Little Critter Reading Adventure" by Mercer Mayer.  It's available for iPhones, Android, Nook and Kindle and costs 99 cents.  This app is for preschool and early elementary kids, ages 3 to 7.  There are two ways to play this app.  The first is the Just Read function that reads the story aloud for your child, and the more exciting Reading Adventure, which also reads the story for your child, but is filled with lots of different and fun game interactions along the way.  The storyline is about what happens with Little Critter's family goes on a trip.

The Help Menu-it's not blurry on the actual game

The Reading Adventure starts by running through a quick tutorial of the functions you will use in the game.  It's very simple to learn, and access these functions by clicking the Menu button on the top left side of the screen.  Little Critter has a backpack where you will collect a few items that you will need along the trip.  He also has his map, where you are asked to choose the next destiny.  The last function is Flashcards, and this is one of the fun mini games in the game.  Along each point on the map, you can press on different objects and try to collect 26 cards based on each letter of the alphabet.  Sometimes you may find something for your backpack, and sometimes you might get a flashcard.  Besides picking up objects, the game is interactive by pressing on the different characters in every scene.  At first I was pressing everything just to make sure I didn't miss something.  About half-way through the game, I noticed anything you could interact with has a small (sometimes flashing) dot on the character or object that is interactive.  Plus there are 6 mini games that you play based on spelling, counting, and colors that you can collect a gem when completed, that will give you a fun surprise if you collect all 6!

One of the Mini Games

The Gem Game

Overall, I really enjoyed this app.  I completed all the mini games in just over an hour or so.  I can see this lasting much longer for a little one because of the mini games.  I would have loved this game as a kid, and it would have kept me busy for a long time.  For a smaller child that is just learning, an adult is probably needed to help assist with the game for a bit, especially with the mini games, which makes the Just Read function nice when Mom is busy.  The only tip I have is to be aware of the tiny blue dots.  I was just looking at the Help screenshot I provided above, and there are 3 different colored dots that mean different things.  The blue dot is for animation interaction, the orange dot is a flashcard card, and green dots are items for your backpack.  I honestly did not notice the difference last night, but I was playing in the dark. After a double check, the flashing dots ARE different colors.  As I said, I didn't notice the dots at first, so maybe if you have an older kid that doesn't read the Help menu (like my kid), it might be more challenging if you did not mention the dots!  I would definitely recommend this game for your little ones that love Little Critter.  It's fun, but educational at the same time, which is important when choosing good apps for your children.  At the end of the game, it will give you the option to purchase an additional gamepak.  You can read more about Little Critter and this app: here.

Does this happen to anyone else's family too?!

*I was asked to review this game for my honest opinion.  I was compensated for the game, but all opinions are my own.*