Basket making? State #5 has it

I finally finished writing state #5 (yay me and I'm sure Vivian is happy about it). So it's off to my editor friend before I can send to Vivian for the 4RV editors to work on. I have to sort of print out a version to decide which clues to use as discussion questions in the back of the book and which to use for the study guide. I was marking which would make quick discussion questions and forgot about the basket making clue. So I decided to use that as an extra activity in the study guide. I have had fun making my two different sized baskets thanks to a pattern from MakingFriends. The pattern is actually for a Girl Scout Thinking Day swap. I've enlarged the basic pattern to use with a large foam circle that I had purchased from Walmart. The circles came like 40 in a pack and were all colors. All I have left are a couple of pink ones and one orange one. So I took the smaller pattern and cut a small circle from the orange large circle to make the original sized basket.

The directions call for raffia which I don't have any on hand, so I found some ribbon (like the ribbon that is not cloth) and tried it first on the larger basket but it wasn't working too well. So I picked up a yellow plastic grocery bag and cut a couple of strips off the sides where the handles were and used that for my weaving material. Turned out pretty good on both the small and large one.

If you want to know how to make baskets, you'll have to wait until the fall of this year to get State #5 and the accompanying study guide. Pictures below.






From this large circle (as you can see that is on a standard piece of paper, so the circle is pretty large).












To this. (Notice the first top view is not as neat as the second top view because I decided the first time doing this was sloppy. I undid the basket and decded to start twisting the strips of plastic bag to make it tighter so it was a bit easier to work around. It took me the original two strips and two more to do the final version. The strips were cut from the sides where the handles are and cutting open the handle once the strips were cut, so I actually had a pretty long strip and as I ended with one strip, I tied another to it and trimmed the ends so it doesn't look too bad. This is a good recycled project. I'm also going to pick up some raffia from Dollar Tree and/or Walmart (because I know they have it in different colors and then I'll pick up some foam packs with multicolors and perhaps make the baskets in varying colors. I think the raffia should work like the bags did in that I can make it tight and there will be more layers of weaving. When I accomplish this, I'll post the finished projects.)












From the large circle and the small basket pattern, I cut the circle and this is what we ended up with.










Comparison views of the baskets side by side (as best as I could put them and take the picture since I seem to move slightly and cause blurry pictures).




Hope you all enjoy the baskets and come back in the summer when state #5 will be released.


I'm also hoping that now that the book is finished I'll have a cover soon, and that #6 will not take me as long to write as this one did and I'll get it submitted and ready to go with a cover for that one. When I have covers for the next two books, I get a new bookmark with #4, 5 and 6 on it. Looking forward to sharing new covers with you all too.

Want to know me a little better?

Stop by Stephen Tremp's blog for some interesting reading and a glimpse into my life. E ;)

Teaching the story - my first time to really teach (POV)

A couple of weeks ago, I had to miss class due to being out running errands or somethig. Mr. Hughes started the mini lesson from Carol Baldwin's "Teaching the Story" workbook we are using on POV. When I caught up with him that evening, he said he felt that the kids weren't understanding POV. So I told him I would check some things out over the weekend and come up with something to help guide the students with POV. It is difficult to do a mini lesson in such a short amount of time. I found two websites with some excellent definitions of POV for the students - Learner Org and Blue Gill. On the Learner Org site, there was a story called "A Jury of her Peers" to use when discussing POV. I had the class read about three pages of the story. I read the whole thing but didn't really feel that the POV was clear enough for them to grasp.

So I found this onlne version of The Three Little Pigs and read to the class. Then we talked about POV and did some fun rewriting of the story. So we took the writing time in class and rewrote the story from the wolf's POV in first person. The kids had a ball doing this. We shared a few beginnings and then Wednesday, shared a few more. The kids were supposed to finish their stories and post on the wikispaces pages we have for the class, but I've not checked them yet. Just haven't really had much time.

I will try to do better and update how the use of the book is going in conjunction with the writing time in class, so Ms. Carol will know where we are in the book. LOL. I think the book will work well, once Mr. Hughes gets the kinks worked out and can settle down into a routine. I know in the fall, we will probably go full force, since we will have most of the lessons down to where he needs to be teaching them, what's working and what isn't. I wouldn't mind doing a few more lessons for the class - that was fun for me. So maybe in the fall, I will get to do some. See you all in the postings.

What's at the end of the rainbow?

Usually a pot of gold, but in an illustrator friend's of mine drawing, the pot contains something even more valuable. If you would like to get your coloring pages for free, just pop on over to Elizabeth Dulemba's blog and sign up for her Coloring Pages Tuesdays. You can then color and send your scanned copies back to her so she can post them.

Here is the page from this past Tuesday, my colored version of it - lol - E :)




The caption at the bottom says "Find the treasure in a good book !!" So I like to be a kid every once in a while; nothing wrong with that. Enjoy

We've been reviewed!

This blog has been reviewed by the "Kindle Blog Report" blog. Click the title of this posting and head over to see what is said about the blog. The comments for the website have been heeded and Aidana has been working on the website to get it more friendly and has peppered the cover pics throughout the website. If you feel like taking a gander at the website, head over here and leave a comment if you feel moved to do so. I'm working on adding a guest book so comments will be seen, whereas the contact page will be for just contacting me in private. Mrs. E and the JGDS

Can you use it in a sentence, please?

The 9th Annual Starburst Spelling Bee sponsored by the Friends of the Library will be held this weekend. It will be in the same format as the National Spelling Bee in that we can ask to use words in a sentence, the origin of the word, and a definition - lol.

The Foothills Writers Guild members were invited to participate in the Anderson County Library's 9th Annual Starbust Spelling Bee. A few of us responded and will be at the M&M's table (all things to do with the candies since the sponsor of the table loves M&Ms).

You are invited to come support the local library raise funds for the Starburst Storytellers festival, which over 2800 students in Anderson County benefitted from. This is sponsored by the Friends of the Library in cooperation with Anderson University.

WHAT: 9th Annual Starburst Spelling Bee
WHEN: Saturday, March 6, 2010
TIME: 6 p.m.
WHERE: Anderson County Library, main branch, 300 N. McDuffie Street, Anderson, SC
COST: $20 per person (gets you heavy hors d'oeuvres and desserts; helps support the Starburst Storytellers' Festival)

Come support your local authors, Ms. Elysabeth and others, and other friends of the library. See you there - Mrs. E :)

Buttons, buttons - who wants a button?

I found a place to order buttons very inexpensively, Busy Beaver Buttons, from a Sisters in Crime associate who had shared her buttons. So I ordered some. I'm happy with the round ones but not the square ones (partly my fault and partly the company's, so most of those will be going back). So here I am going to do something special for my readers and fans.

For every order of State of Wilderness or State of Quarries from my website, I'll send you a button for free. Your choice of the heart or logo button, so please indicate which you would like with your order. This offer is good while supplies last (about 25 of the logo buttons and about 50 of the heart buttons).