Binkies and Briefcases

I can’t believe school starts this week!

Nick is going back into kindergarten (second time’s a charm?) and I only have one more year until this one leaves the nest.

How did it happen so fast?

I’m in no hurry to rush it, but Abby is just BEGGING to be able to go to kindergarten like her big brother. She will go to pre-school for a few hours three times a week, but she doesn’t think that is enough. 

Abby loves the idea of school. She likes to play school with her baby sister and her dolls and every day she asks me for scrap paper and a pencil so that she can practice her “spelling.” (which is just drawing letters randomly all over the place.) She has been leaving crayons and pencils and pens all over my desk and the kitchen table. The other day Penny got a hold of one of those rogue pencils and I before I grabbed it away I had visions of her tripping and putting it straight through her 19-month-old eye as she toddled around the house.

That’s why when Nicole of Ni-Chern Designs offered me a pouch to review the very first question I asked was

Would it work as a pencil case?

Nicole promised it would and she emailed us some pictures of fabric choices. I knew Abby would love her new pouch as soon as I read on the About section of Nicole’s Etsy shop that Ni-Chern literally means “little girl.” I let her pick and she chose a design with pink kitty cats, of course. My dear middle child is the girliest girl on the planet.

 The package came just a few days later.

 Abby was a little excited. Can you tell?

She literally said, “I love it.” and gave it a hug.

The fabric is super adorable and the zipper is strong and well-made. Although, I have to admit I was a little skeptical that the pouch was big enough to work as a pencil case. It was just so little and cute.

We put it to the test and I am happy to say that it does, in fact, hold several pencils, a small sharpener, safety scissors, a glue stick, a pink eraser, and crayons and still zips easily with room to spare.  It’s the Goldilocks of pencil cases, just right for Abby’s school supplies.

I also love how the bright interior makes it easy to find what you are looking for as you dig for just the right color crayon.

I took the picture below to give you a better idea of the scale of the pouch.

Of course, you don’t have to use it for a pencil case. There are a million and one uses for pouches like these. Make up brushes? Feminine hygiene products? Hair ties? This little pouch is just as versatile as it is adorable.

But since I have school on the brain this week, I kept looking at the other items in Nicole’s shop and thinking Back-to-School thoughts.

Like how these bright, fun key fobs would be great to send house keys along with your bus riders.

And I wish I had a lanyard this cute back in my classroom days to display my teacher’s badge.

And this craft apron would have been awesome to hold my dry erase markers, behavior bucks,  and other teaching supplies.

 And it’s still on my wishlist to hold nails and my Kreg jig during our upcoming house projects. 

Go ahead, click over and start drooling over the Ni-Chern Etsy shop for a while. I’ll wait. 

……..

Did you find something you liked? That was rhetorical. Of course you did.

Guess what?

Nicole has agreed to give one lucky reader a $15 credit to Ni-Chern Designs. Enter using the Rafflecopter below.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. 

 Happy back to school week from our family to yours!

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Ni-Chern designs provided me with a pouch to review for this post. All opinions are my own.

For several years when I was in college I lived with my grandmother. She was in her eighties by then and spent a lot of her time at home. She would sit in a chair by the window, walk around with a dust rag, never actually dusting anything, or just sit and tell me stories about years gone by.

She called those moments “putzing” and at the end of the day she would usually tisk tisk herself for not getting more accomplished. 

What Mommom did not realize is this: It is in the Land of Putzing that bonds are formed.  Unbreakable bonds between a granddaughter and her mommom. Between two tween girls laying on the floor reading teeny bopper magazines with bare feet swinging and bubble gum popping. Between a husband and a wife lazily snuggling on a couch. 

Even between grown women putzing around on the internet.

Over dinner a few weeks ago Yvonne from Stone Gable told me that she sees us as the Laura Ingalls Wilders of our time, documenting the every day through our blogs, preserving memories for future generations. I have never heard it described in a better way. We share our lives, our children, our homes and families through these blogs and in doing so we forge strong friendships.

Like many of my current friends, I met friend Courtney though blogging. Courtney has always had a gift for recognizing the beauty and the value behind moments that others may just see as “putzing around.”

She even named her blog Our Small Moments. She took beautiful pictures to record everyday interactions. Wrote about the small stuff because she knew it would add up to be big stuff.   

Tragically, Courtney was right.

When her husband, Scott, was diagnosed with cancer, Courtney fought even harder to capture every small moment that she could.  Her family fought for each small moment with Scott that they could get, but there would never be enough.

Scott died this week.

Courtney and her two beautiful children are left to pick up the pieces.

And as a community of her fellow bloggers, writers, wives, mothers, and friends, our hearts have ripped wide open.

As women tend to do, we started buzzing and organizing right away. Although we are scattered around the country and unable to be there in person to hold up our friend as she lowers her husband into the ground today, we will still be here for Courtney.

Putzing around on the internet.  

And if you are putzing here with us today, reading our blogs and Facebook feeds and wishing there was something you could do, please consider clicking over to the fundraising page that has been established in Scott’s honor. If you can donate $1 or several to show Courtney your love in a practical way,  please do. If not, please visit and leave her a virtual hug.

It is these small things that add up to be big ones.