100 Follower Christmas Giveaway!!

***THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER!***
***Thanks so much to all of you who entered. The lucky winners are Bronwen and Deborah!***

I can't quite believe that this little blog of mine has 100 followers!! And just today it hit 20,000 page views!!

I remember when I started it I was getting about 20 or 30 page views a day (and most were probably from my mum!) and I watched the follower numbers creep painfully slowly from 2 to 3 to 4. And now there are 100 of you!! And lots more following through Facebook. :) Well you're in great company because each and every one of you is awesome. I really do love the comments you leave and I love visiting your blogs and seeing what's happening in your lives and getting some inspiration!

I started this blog while I was recovering from a serious illness. I knew I'd have up to 6 months off work to recover but wondered how I would keep myself sane in that period. Well thanks to this little blog I've been busy baking, sewing, crafting, blogging, learning, selling products on TPT and am now feeling recovered enough to be starting a new job in January! :)

So as a way of saying thanks to all of you (and "Happy Christmas"!) I'm running a little giveaway! As you all live in different parts of the world it was hard to think of a suitable prize. But some generous friends over at TPT have donated loads of amazing teaching resources that can be sent directly to your inbox anywhere in the world! :) And I'll be giving away 8 products from my TPT store! And I'm also giving away two sock monkeys that I made so that all those of you who aren't teachers will feel appreciated too. I'm not sure if they'll make it to you before Christmas but they'll get there eventually, wherever in the world you may be! :)

So, enough talking - here's the giveaway! I've divided in into two bundles. They are divided by age group but feel free to enter them both if you like! The winner of Giveaway #1 will win any 4 products from my TPT store, a cute little sock monkey and a bundle of 20 teaching resources suitable for Pre K to 2nd Grade. And the winner of Giveaway #2 will win any 4 products from my TPT store, a cute little sock monkey and a bundle of 13 teaching resources suitable for 3rd to 6th Grade. Feel free to pin, share, invite your friends and spread the word! :) 

Here's are all of the amazing teaching resources that have been donated.

100 Follower Giveaway #1 (Pre K - 2nd Grade)

100 Follower Giveaway #1 (Pre K - 2nd Grade)

100 Follower Giveaway #2 (3rd - 6th Grade)

100 Follower Giveaway #2 (3rd - 6th Grade)

I was blown away my the generosity of the contributors to this giveaway so please take the time to check out their Blogs, TPT stores, Facebook pages and Pinterest accounts. You'll get extra entries to the giveaway and you can do this once every day! And you might find an awesome new source of inspiration! :)

And once again, thanks for reading!

Things I've Learnt:

- There are some very generous, lovely people over at TPT! :)

- If you want to make your links clickable in a giveaway just put < before it and > after it! (Fingers crossed this works!)

- You have to pay to host linky parties!! I have a new found appreciation for all the wonderful bloggers who run linky parties each week. Inlinkz give you one free though. :)

Linked up to: Oh So Savvy Mom

Friday Freebie #5 - Classroom Posters

** Check out my 100 Follower Giveaway ** 

I know, I know it's Saturday, my bad! But I've still got a freebie for you! :) This poor little blog is feeling a bit neglected lately but Christmas is taking over a little here! I promise I will have some more crafty and sewing posts soon but a lot of my current projects are presents for people so you'll have to wait until after Christmas  to see them! And I'm working on something special for all you lovely people who read my blog! :)

My CVC Word Jigsaw center is by far my most popular product in my store so I thought a follow up pack would be a good idea. So I made a Jigsaw Sentences pack!

This is great for building reading skills and for teaching the basics of sentence structure. There are 9 sentences, each made of 6 words on jigsaw pieces. Each sentence is a different color so the child just has to focus on reading each word and putting it in the correct order. There's also 3 sheets of extra words so they can mix and match and create their own sentences!

And it comes with worksheets to reinforce what they have learnt. There are pages to practice writing the sentences, illustrating them and fill in the blanks worksheets. Each comes in color and b&w so you can print and laminate and use with a whiteboard marker in a literacy center or photocopy them to use for whole class work. There is also an answer sheet so you can quickly assess their progress or allow them to self assess and check their work. Click here if you'd like to find out more.

Now on to this week's freebie! I created a few posters with cute reminders for your classroom. I had the "listen has the same letters as silent" one up for free already so I just added in 3 new ones! :)

"Wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it. Right is right even if nobody is doing it."

"It's okay to not know but it's not okay to not try!"

"Hands at your side. All Eyes Forward. Lips Zipped. Low Speed."

Click here to download your set for free! :)

Want some more freebies? Click here to see the past 4 Friday Freebies.

Oh and I'm getting very near to 100 followers on this little blog!! So watch this space for a special celebration giveaway in the next few days!! :)

Things I've Learned:

- Spammers seem to love my blog! Getting lots of random comments that link to equally random sites. I really don't want to turn on any verification tools but does anyone have any tips on cutting down on spam??

- I've found this little tip a while ago but keep forgetting to share in case you don't know it. You can check what's been pinned from your blog by typing in "http://pinterest.com/source/YOUR WEBSITE/". So for mine it's "http://pinterest.com/source/beinginspired-blog.blogspot.ie/". It's kinda fun to see what's being pinned!

- Oh and don't forget to check the other versions of your site (.com, .ie, .co.uk, .com.au etc.).

Linked up to: Teaching Blog Addict, No Time for Flashcards, 3 Boys and a Dog, Classroom Freebies

Fabric Tangrams

I know I promised this post on making fabric tangrams on Saturday but I ran into a little problem! I had it all set to go and was just uploading the photos when Blogger informed me that I'd run out of photo space!!! It seems that my plan of lazily uploading giant pictures without re-sizing them had finally caught up on me. Newbie bloggers take note - re-size!!

But after a bit of searching I've discovered a few work arounds. Firstly I connected my blog email address to the blog and set it as a contributor which means if I log in through it I can still upload photos. Basically that email address has its own photo storage allowance. But it's a bit of a pain so the other thing I discovered is that as long as you keep your pictures smaller than 1026 pixels you can upload to your hearts content. So for now I'm okay again! And I suppose I'll start re-sizing some old pictures and replacing them and stop uploading giant pictures! Well after today. :)

Now back to the task at hand. On Friday I gave you my Friday Freebie - a tangram booklet and template. I'm a huge fan of tangrams but I started thinking how I could make them even more fun. The answer - make them out of fabric instead of card! :) I originally saw this pin of a "tangram-esque fabric puzzle" on pinterest from Beauty All Around. It's amazing, she made 42 little coloured fabric squares! There's no way I'd have the patience for that but I figured I could give a normal 7 piece tangram set a go.

Click here to download the templates I used. I made mine yellow on one side and red on the other but you could do them all  in different colours or just use one. I cut out the bigger template and traced around each piece twice, once on red fabric and once on yellow. I used the smaller template to cut out the wadding to stuff them.

Then pin the pieces right sides together and sew around the sides. Make sure to leave a gap so you can turn and stuff them. The trickiest part for me was sewing the corners on the triangular ones. 

Then turn the pieces the right way out and stuff them with your little pieces of wadding. Use a ladder stitch to neatly sew up the gaps and then you're all done!

                                         

                           

Then have some fun and see what pictures you can make! There's loads of ideas for puzzles on the internet but start with trying to recreate the square. :)

And of course do download my little booklet. It has 12 shadow puzzles in it with the solutions at the end. And it's free! I made a little bag to keep the pieces in and the booklet fits in perfectly too if you print multiple pages on one piece of paper.

I found this cute book that would go well with the tangrams too. It's kinda a take on the three little pigs with some tangram puzzles thrown in. :)

                                                                 

Things I've learnt:
- This really should be a thing I have not learnt, I still left too tiny a gap and had zero fun turning and stuffing some of my tangrams. Will I ever learn?
- But I did learn lots about re-sizing pictures and avoiding paying Google any money. ha ha Love you really Google.
- And I learnt that fabric tangrams are so much more fun to play with than card ones. I made these as a gift but might have to keep them and make another set!

Linked to: Sew Can Do, Sewing Barefoot, Be Colourful, Making the World Cuter, Creative Itch, Sugar Bee Crafts, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Homework, The DIY Dreamer, DIY Crafty Projects, Hey Mommy Chocolate Milk, Earning my Cape, Lil Luna, Sugar and Dots, Semi Homemade Mom, Michelle's Tasty Creations, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Create Craft Love, Diana Rambles, Its a HodgePodge Life, Cheerios and Lattes

Liebster Award and a Giveaway!

 I've been nominated not once but twice for the Liebster Award! :) Thanks T'onna @ Navy Wifey Peters and Shannon @ Sewing Barefoot. The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated  and to help spread the word about new blogs. 

The rules:

- You must post 11 random things about yourself.

- Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

- Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

- Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.

- No tag back (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you)!

11 Things About Me:

1. I've been purposefully being vague and not giving away too much about myself here but I guess it might be time to divulge a little more! :) So number 1 - my name is Karen.

2. I live in Ireland. Which is lovely most of the time but way too cold and wet at others! 

3. I originally started this blog to keep myself amused as I recovered from an illness. It definitely served that purpose and I'm pretty sure it's here to stay!

4. I am a primary school teacher and love my job. Although in magic land I'd be paid 3 times as much and people would actually appreciate what I do... :)

5. I keep telling myself I'm going to learn how to crochet but somehow manage to find a million other things that need to be done first. 

6. I am a world champion procrastinator. (See number 5.)

7. I am addicted to crisps (chips for you Americans) and would happily give up chocolate forever just so long as I could keep eating my crisps. mmmm

8. I used to live in Bangkok, Thailand and might hopefully be moving back there soon!

9. I am a terrible singer. Like hands over your ears, panes of glass breaking, I'd rather scrape my nails down a blackboard terrible. ha ha. Thankfully little kids don't mind too much and nobody else has to hear me sing!

10. I still haven't learnt how to drive. Another thing sitting pretty on my to do list.

11. I spent a month volunteering in an orphanage in Thailand and googled to see if any of the adoptive parents had blogs so I could follow along and see how the kids were doing. Thus began my adventures in blogging!

11 Questions asked by T'onna @ Navy Wifey Peters and Shannon @ Sewing Barefoot

What is your favorite craft project you've created? Hmm that's a tough one. Probably my little hedgehog pin cushion. He looks cute (so much so that I included him in my header) and unlike most of the things I make I actually use him every day. :)

What's your favorite book? I love to read. But I tend to be a bit feast or famine about it! Haven't been reading too much lately as all my free time is going into this blog and my TPT store. But my all time favourite book is "We Need to Talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. Or any of her books really.

Do you have any children?  If so, how many and what are their names & ages? Nope no kids!

What's your favorite season and why? I love Christmas but hate the cold and dark so I'm gonna go with summer. I'm all about the sunshine and beach time!

What are a few blogs that you read on a daily/weekly basis? Way too many! The 11 blogs I've nominated of course. And I'll give you a few others across the spectrum:
- Thai Adoption Blogs (lots of Thai Adoption blogs)
- Creating my Way to Success, The DIY Dreamer, Earning My Cape (3 awesome crafty blogs)
- Living Montessori Now, 4th Grade Frolics, Classroom Freebies (full of great teaching ideas)
- Our Sonny Life (if you're going to read any read this one)

What is your favorite TV show? I love "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory". I'd love to lock Sheldon and Barney in a room together and watch them drive each other crazy! ha ha

What project(s) are you currently working on? Too many! I have a tangram project that I should get finished and up on the blog in the next few days. And I'm making a princess superhero cape, a house warming gift and a few new TPT packs too.  What is your favorite pin on Pinterest? Too many! My sewing inspiration board is probably my favorite board so I'm just picking something from it that I'd love to make but seeing as I have a very long surname I probably won't! - Pencil Banner
Are you a dog or cat person? Cat. Definitely cat. :) I like dogs, and will probably own one someday but they are a lot of work and too jumpy and dirty for my liking! Cats on the other hand are always clean and are independent enough to be able to cope on their own when I go away for the weekend. And you may have to work a bit more for their affection but that just makes you appreciate it more! 
Where do you buy most of your clothes? I'm a huge fan of H&M, Penneys, Forever 21 and Zara. Basically the only shops I can afford to buy stuff in at the moment!
How long have you been blogging? I started this blog last January, just to see how to do it. I put up a picture of a bag I'd made and then forgot all about it. Then this summer I found myself with too much time on my hands so I decided to turn it into a real blog! :)
Questions I'm Asking My Nominees:

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. I'm giving you a thousand euro - what are you going to do with it?

3. Do you like to travel? What's your dream holiday destination?
4. What achievement are you most proud of? Permission to brag!
5. If time wasn't an issue what new activity would you take up?
6. What's your favourite Christmas tradition?
7. Any blog recommendations?
8.What's your favourite pin on Pinterest?
9. A few easy ones to end with - chocolate or crisps/chips?
10. Cats or dogs?
11. Real books or ebooks?

Blogs I'm Nominating:
- Ana Love Craft
- The Purple Pumpkin Blog
- Learning with Mrs. Leeby
- Sew-Licious Home Decor
- Sunny Stitching
- Fall Fever
- One Less Headache
- Making Boys Men
- Fifth in the Middle
- Kinder Love
- Ever Never Again

Don't forget to comment on here and leave me a link when you've answered!! :) It is a little time consuming but it's nice to get to know a bit more about the people behind the blogs!

I participated in my first giveaway this week! It's being hosted by Leah over at Learning for Keeps to celebrate her reaching a milestone 200 followers!! She has 4 different prizes to be won, each containing about 10 teaching resources made by teachers. There's some great stuff for all you teachers, homeschoolers and moms out there! :)

My CVC Word Jigsaw Center is included in pack number 4 so be sure to enter that one!! :) And if you're already following me then you don't even need to do anything new, just head on over and enter.

Or click here to buy one for only $3! :) It contains the letters of the alphabet on jigsaw pieces and a bunch of work mats to practice making CVC words on. 

I promise to do my very own giveaway when I reach 100 followers so if you're not following already be sure to join up! :) And don't worry, there will be more recipes and crafts coming in the next few days too! 

Things I've Learnt:

- The power of social networking and collaboration.

- I seem to follow a lot of big blogs! In deciding on who to nominate I visited lots of my favourite blogs only to realise just how huge some of them are!! Kinda made me realise I need to spend more time visiting smaller blogs. We need some attention too! :)

Day 10 - Blogging tricks!

After being away all weekend my poor little blog (and all attempts at creativity) have been pretty much abandoned so I have no new creation to blog about tonight. However, I refuse to be beaten or considered a challenge cheater. It's called "Being Inspired" right? So today's post is about some blogging tricks that are inspiring me! (And a weekend of eating, drinking and catching up with friends is pretty inspiring too.)

I've been learning on the job a lot here and my latest discovery is tabs! You may have noticed a new little one explaining my 30 day challenge? Well I'm planning on adding a few more to make this blog a bit easier to navigate.

I've also been playing around with templates and backgrounds. So if you notice the blog going a bit schizophrenic over the next few days that's just me trying out a few new looks! I'm loving this site: The Cutest Blog on the Block.

Oh and I've realised how to put in hyperlinks instead of just copying and pasting the link... pretty easy one but I just hadn't tried it out before!

I've also discovered how to create picture links - as in my new "recipes" and "sewing projects" tabs. :) Very easy to do too, I found a good explanation here.

You may have noticed my new favicon? The little light bulb? Well hopefully that's gonna be incorporated into a new logo I'm working on. Watch this space...

One of the funnest (it's a word...) things I've been doing is playing around a bit more with the html code. At this stage that just means I'm copying and pasting things other people have blogged about but I'm learning lots! Like how to add a cool signature to the end of my posts using My Live Signature. :)


And I've wasted spent lots of time exploring sites like Spice Up Your Blog and finding lots more things I can't wait to try out!! :)

Things I've learnt:
- Ummm... all of the above?! Did you even read this post? :)