Take your Blog to Book with BookWright by Blurb

**I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama!

Blog to book with Blurb's Bookwright!

I've been writing here at Spokesmama, formerly The Sprog for about seven years now. Though I've had the best intentions, I've been rather haphazard with printing photos & creating scrapbooks as the kids have grown from newborns to little people that they are now. I have put a lot of effort into this digital space, but sometimes I'd just like it to be more tangible.

So I was pretty excited to hear about one of Blurb's latest book creation tools. Blurb offers a new feature that helps bloggers to take content from their site & easily slot it into a template to create a real, actual book you can hold in your hands. This new feature accepts just about any blog building tool, including Blogger, Wordpress, & Squarespace, pulling text & images directly into the tool.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Seriously, though, it isn't. You have total control by converting blog pages into your own print-ready layouts with BookWright’s help. I'm really into the idea as a way to create that baby book I'd neglected, but this tool is a great opportunity to build your business brand or create profit opportunities from content you already have by making a digital or print book. Can't wait to try it--stay tuned for a review in future...

Learn more about BookWright right here.

**I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama! 

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Handmade Halloween: Black Widow Spider

I love making Halloween costumes when I can; I've been doing it for ages (see a list of costumes I've put together for myself in this post here). This year, the kids were inspired by a photo I showed them from Facebook of a baby dressed up as a spider. I was pretty excited, as this spider costume has been on my bucket list for a long time, since my sister did it when she was in elementary school.

Socks + googly eyes + felt + old pool noodle + hoodie + xacto knife + glue gun + needle & thread = black widow spider costume. #handmadehalloween #diy

A video posted by Lisa Corriveau (@spokesmama) on Oct 31, 2016 at 2:28pm PDT

After mulling it over for a bit, I picked up most of my supplies at our local dollar store. This is the materials to make TWO spider costumes:

• four pairs of black men's socks
• a bag of googly eyes
• a sheet of black glitter felt
• a sheet of red glitter felt

Other supplies that I had on hand were:

• black thread & needle
• hot glue gun & glue sticks
• embroidery floss
• scissors
• Xacto knife
• old pool noodle (a thick one)
• two black hoodies or jackets
• black pants, shoes, gloves

The process is pretty simple, not a lot of sewing skill required. It took me about two to three hours total. You could do it much faster if you used hot glue or fabric glue or even staples to stick things together, but I used Linny's regular jacket & hoodie, so I wanted this all to be easily removable tomorrow.

1. Cut out two segments of pool noodle that are the same length as the socks. Slice them into quarters lengthwise so you have eight long skinny pieces of pool noodle. If you can't find a thick pool noodle, you could use a regular one & cut it into halves or thirds.
2. If you want slightly thinner arms as I did, turn the socks inside out & sew a seam from the top of the heel all the way to the toe, about 2-3cm in from the edge. Turn right side out & stuff pool noodle sections into the socks.
3. Sew the open ends of the socks to the side seams of the hoodies/jackets. Sew the red hourglass shape to the front of the chest (or the back, if you're really going for biological accuracy). I stitched just one side on & then safety pinned the other side down since both jackets had a zipper down the front.
4. To make the fake arms move with the child's real ones, use the embroidery floss to sew through the pool noodles, leaving 5-10 cm between each noodle & knotting the thread on each arm, then attaching it to the underside of the wrist of their jacket.
5. Fold both felt sheets in half & cut two hourglass shapes from the two red pieces for the black widow marking; two semicircular pieces from the black for the head/mask. Cut a jagged edge along the flat side of the black semicircles to create fangs.
6. Hot glue the googly eyes to the black mask part, (I did six large ones, but you could do more, or different sizes too) then safety pin it to the top of the hood. Alternatively, you could cut eye holes in the mask before hot gluing the googly eyes, then attach elastic straps to the sides to create a half mask. 

Voila! Black widow spider costume, times two. This cost me less than $10 in supplies. It's going to be warm--Linny's costume is his winter coat, Bronte's is her brother's big hoodie which she'll wear over her winter coat--but light so they won't get tired. In theory, I could remove the seams out of the socks & Oliver could use them later. The pool noodle I used was an old one that had been degraded by sunlight & no longer floats properly. I will probably convert the masks with an elastic strap & put them into the "Tickle Trunk" for the kids to wear another time. 

Did you make Halloween costumes this year or in the past? Tell me about it!

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2016 Resolutions

It seems like forever that I've been making New Year's Resolutions. Some years I do better than others, but I keep on. Here are my ambitions for this coming year:

1. Keep eating healthier & probably lose a little more weight. I think the amount I've lost so far has made a big difference to the amount of pain I have from my osteoarthritis, but I don't want to go lower than a healthy weight. Once I'm at that point in a few months, I'll work on maintaining good eating habits & drop the food diary that I'm keeping at the moment. 
2. Meal planning follows logically from #1. I want to get back on the wagon with this one so that we can grocery shop more effectively, waste less food & eat better with less work.
3. Find a workable routine with my physio exercises for both my hip & my shoulder. I want to strengthen both to heal up the tendinopathy in my shoulder & further reduce pain in my hip. Hopefully I'll be able to shift from boring exercises by myself at home to more aquafit & try pilates classes.
4. Less screen time for me. I spend way too much time online when I could be doing things like #5, #6, & #7 on this list. I think I'll go back to using RescueTime to try to log & reduce wasted time on my various devices.
5. Work on more creative projects like sewing & visual art. Having the chance to follow my inspiration & drift from a simple cutting exercise for Linny into a collage, then a big multimedia decoupaged canvas recently was fabulous. I need to do more of that.
6. Read more. I'll aim for at least a book a month. That should be off to a great start when my copy of the Velocipede Races arrives in the next month.
7. Take more time for myself on a regular basis. I find I'm a much better parent/spouse/human after I get time off. I just can't function properly if I'm with my husband & children 24/7 with no time alone. 

Once I look at the whole list, it seems rather typical--lose weight, exercise, me time. But I guess that's why these things are so common as to be cliched resolutions--we all need to do them. 

Are you into resolutions? If so, what are some of yours for 2016? If not, do you have any tradition of setting intentions or a motto or a word to go by for the year?

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Book Review | Holiday Crafts: 50 Projects for Year-Round Family Fun

Reece's book would make a great Christmas gift!

When I was a kid, I loved do do creative projects. I'd colour or paint or make things for hours every week. As I got a little older, one of my favourite things was looking at craft books from the library to get ideas of more things I could make. I still get kind of excited about DIY books & was pretty eager to review this craft book for kids.

Holiday Crafts: 50 Projects for Year-Round Family Fun features five simple craft ideas for each big American holiday throughout the year. The crafts are fairly simple, using just eleven basic craft supplies, all of which can be purchased at dollar stores for very little money.

Last Chance to Register for Vancouver Mini Maker Faire Workshops

Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is only about a week away--it's June 6-7--& I can't wait to see everything. Last year, we walked around, looked at, made, poked, rode, tried all kinds of things there. This year I'm hoping to get to a presentation or two & maybe do a workshop with Linnaeus.

I'm particularly interested in seeing Matt Lowell talk about CycleHack (11am on Saturday June 6). Here's the blurb from the VMMF website:

As the Vancouver component of the 2015 CycleHack Global Event we are gathering together a diverse range of people with different skills, knowledge and experiences of transportation to look at cycling in our city in a new way. We are taking a bottom-up approach to innovation and helping individuals prototype their ideas, bringing them to life within 48 hours.

In this presentation, we will look at where the idea of CycleHack came from and how it has grown into a truly global movement with an ever-expanding network of CycleHackers around the world. Most importantly we will be giving details about how you can get involved with CycleHack Vancouver, so don’t miss out!

Matthew Lowell is the Co-founder and Director of Global Events & Networks at CycleHack. Originally from Scotland, Matt recently moved to Vancouver where he continues to support all global organisers of the annual CycleHack Event. He is a user-centred designer with a passion for using design as a tool for social change. He studied at Glasgow School of Art, and is interested in how design thinking can be used to give form to the experiences and interactions that make up the world around us. With a background in product and service design, he is also currently working with InWithForward, a design and social innovation agency.

The whole lineup of presentations can be found on the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire website here, 

If you're interested in more hands-on practical learning, there are also numerous workshops on topics like silicone mold making or growing plants in Lego (that one's suitable for kids as young as three!).

The workshops vary in cost between by donation to $45 fee to cover materials. They run for 30 minutes to two hours, depending on the topic. These workshops are not drop-in (though there are many other informal activities you can do at Maker Faire) so don't forget to register by June 1!

Check out the list of what workshops are available here on VMMF's workshops page. 

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7 Awesome Events in Vancouver in May & June

This summer is shaping up to be a really great one. There are tons of fun events happening right here in East Van. Here are a few of my favourites coming up in the next month:

Bike To Work Week May 25 (TODAY!) to 29
Commuter stations along your route with free snacks & drinks, prizes, all wrapped up with a barbeque at the end of the week.

Vancouver International Children's Festival May 25 (TODAY!) to 31
Amazing children's entertainers from all over the world converge on Granville Island for a week of magic.

Cargo Bike Championships May 29
Watch some of Vancouver's coolest bikes in a race like you've never seen before. It'll be my first ever bike race, but thankfully finesse matters more than speed!

Vancouver Family Biking Trout Lake Ride May 30 & Plateau Park Ride May 31
Fun, free, family-paced rides for bikers big & small.

Vancouver Mini Maker Faire June 6 & 7
Drones & quilts & Lego & weird contraptions & DIY & art & much more...

Vancouver Draw Down June 20
Free drawing workshops all over the city!

Car Free Day Vancouver June 21
Join thousands of Vancouver residents on Main Street, Commercial Drive, the West End & in Kitsilano for a celebration of what's possible with our public space when you take cars out of it.

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6 Reasons to Take Your Kids to Vancouver Mini Maker Faire

My four-year-old is a fountain of questions these days & he wants to know how everything works. I'm really looking forward to bringing him to the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire this year. It's a huge show & tell put together by people who love to learn how things work & have brought their projects to show off to curious people like my son.

VMMF is happening June 6 & 7 at the PNE Forum. It's Vancouver's biggest event showcasing DIY projects, from robots to quilts, to art bikes. Here's six reasons why you should bring your kids too:

Kids learn better through experiential learning & Maker Faires are designed just for that: to experiment, ask questions, & try out the interesting things that showcase the best of Vancouverites' ingenuity.

VMMF will have a Lego Lounge this year, which will give your little the chance to build to their hearts' content with everybody's favourite plastic bricks.

Get your daughter interested in STEM by meeting makers at VMMF who are more than willing to answer a million questions & show her how much fun science, technology & electronics can be.

Speaking of science, you should visit the Living Lab at VMMF, a research partnership between UBC and Science World. At this exhibit, researchers will showcase methods and studies of child development, providing a hands-on opportunity for children and their caregivers to learn more about social and cognitive development. Visitors can also learn about exciting new research happening in the Living Lab at Science World and our UBC-based Early Development Research Group.

What would a Maker Faire be without funny hats? Drop by Vancouver artist Sjors’ booth to make and decorate a paperbag hat! Tonnes of fun for young and old alike. Be creative, be bold, be colourful, be sparkly, be minimal – it’s all up to you! This is low-tech fun; no app required. Yeah for art! 

Kids age four & under are free. If your kids are older than that, you can get a family pass for just $41 if you buy in advance.

Tickets are available at the front gate June 6 & 7. Kids under five are free, then tickets range from $12-$17, a whole Family for $47. Save a few bucks by getting your tickets in advance on the VMMF website.

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