Treegold & Beegold

Squirrel Behavioral Incentive Chart

2013-04-15T07:30:00.000-04:00

I’m still around, and I think I’m starting to get a better handle on my new schedule and commitments. Last week Hubby was at WrestleMania 29 leaving me solo with the kids for 5 days. All the work I had done to getting settled, right out the window!

I have something new for everyone though!

It’s a Squirrel Themed Behavior Tree and Reward system.

We’re having a lot of different issues with Lil ‘R about his behavior and I wanted to start mirroring systems he will see when he enters Kindergarten. I also wanted a way to incorporate the behavior tree with some type of reward system so this was my creation.

The PDF files comes with the Behavior Tree already pieced out onto 9 pieces, 2 Squirrels, 2 Acorn Collection Charts and 24 Acorns.

Download the File for free from my TeacherspayTeachers Store.

Help your children keep track of their own behavior and reward them for following the household or classroom rules. Use the Squirrel files, write the child’s name on each and move the squirrel around to yellow as a warning and red to show that the child’s behavior needs improvement. Use this as a discussion point or place for other behavior tools you use.

If the child ends the day on the green add an acorn to the Acorn Collection Chart. Once the child fills the Acorn Collection Chart (10) have a great surprise waiting!

We’ve been doing this for a few days in our house now. Wee Rose doesn’t get the concept at much as Lil ‘R does. He completely understands what all the colors mean, she just keeps asking if her squirrel can be put on pink. As she gets older though I think she’ll better comprehend it.

What type of systems do you have in place in your house?

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Squirrel Behavior and Reward Chart by Treegold and Beegold is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.treegoldandbeegold.com/2013/04/squirrel-behavioral-incentive-chart.html.

Very Overwhelmed and Trying to Cope

2013-03-28T08:54:00.003-04:00

Today I'm going a bit more personal than I normally do. Call it the culture of how I was raised or just my shyness about sharing incredibly personal information, but normally I keep things to mysself. But as of recent I've been extremely overwhelmed with life. It's come from multiple aspects and all the while I'm trying to cope with those factors I've been fighting an internal struggle I let very few know.

I've suffered from depression to various degrees since I was a teen. At some points in my life it has been almost non existant while at others it has been crushing. The stress since losing my full time job in the fall of 2011 has been very difficult on me. As the primary breadwinner and financial support of our home I've fought with many emotions handling it. Now I'm working again and I'm working a lot but I'm still under employed. I may have 3 jobs but they don't financially equal up anywhere near my old full time job. We've had house issues, car issues, and family issues on top of that.

I finally broke down a little over a month ago and went to my doctor about it. He started me on some medication which has resulted in some adjustment difficulties. I had finally begun to adjust after 2 weeks when my refill we delayed because of my issurance for a week. Goind cold turkey off of that was not fun. I just got back on it a few nights ago so now I expect an new adjustment period. The worst side effect while adjusting is extreme tireness.

I'm sure you can image that in my case being extremely tired is probably the worst possible thing for me because my productivity has nose dived.

I don't know how much it's the medication, the stress finally catching up with me or the increased workload but doing anything beyond just enough to get by is tough. Care for my house is slipping, I struggle to make quality time with my kids, with hubby and I've been neglecting Treegold and Beegold.

I'm anxious for summer to be here. Come May I should be switching to only my online teaching job full time and no longer be substitute teaching. With the job being from home I can hopefully manage my job time with Treegold and Beegold activities. Until then things are going to be a bit tough.

So just hang in here with me. I have loads of ideas in the my head and I keep writing them down but it's just having a problem managing my time to get them done. Also I'm looking for people who would like to be active moderators on either the Facebook Pagan Parenting Group, Pagan Parenting Page or the counter parts on Google +.

Send me a message if you're interested.

I hope everyone had a great Equinox. I'm aiming to post up some pictures of my munchkins Egg Hunt this weekend.

Blessings,

Adventures with 1st Graders

2013-02-18T09:17:00.001-05:00

Mobile blogging today as I mismanaged my time this weekend.

I've been substitute teaching for over 5 months now. I will say it's been quite an adventure. In that time I've twice covered classes for multiple weeks were I was the teacher doing full lessons ever day. In one of those classes I was even in charge of lesson planning.

Last week I had a first though. I began substituting at a K-8 charter school. Wow are the little ones different than Middle or High Schoolers.

I get my first call the afternoon after I finish up my paperwork. A teacher needed to leave suddenly. She taught first grade. I think my eyes bugged out of my head.

I started my time with the students taking them to recess. They saw that play ground and went wild. I was in shock at first. I have small kids but having 15 or so was slightly over whelming.

What I really wasn't prepared for was the amount of referring I had to do. There were multiple cases of so and so pushed me. The craziest was a girl in years because one of the other girls was ignoring her and wouldn't talk to her. I had to just stand them in front of each other and force the start of a conversation. After that every thing seemed fine. I even had two clinic trips for minor boo boos.

I've covered elementary specials since that day. I've realized I'm not cut out for the little ones. 3rd grade and up maybe but a room of the littlest is more then I can mentally handle.

If I end up with a kindergarten class for a full day I let you all know how it goes.

Does anyone else have any experience with teaching groups of anal children? Any pointers?

Favorite Free Magical Fonts 1

2013-02-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Recently I’ve become quite the collector of fonts. I’m always searching out fonts to use in my graphics here on Treegold and Beegold, in the Educational Printables, and just for personal uses.

Today I’m going to share with you all my first collection of fonts I love. It consists of 10 Magical Fonts. The links are below the image and if you like this please Pin it to Pinterest or share it with your social networking groups.

Moonstar

Magic School

Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly

Paul’s Real Celtic Rune Font

Are any of you also Font Addicts? If so what is your favorite artistic font style? Do you love scripts or are you a sucker for handwritten styles? Let me know in the comments section.

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: magic,magick,fonts,magical fonts,magic fonts,free fonts,fun fonts,favorite fonts

Meet Floppy Snoopy

2013-02-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

It’s Monday again and time for my more personal weekly update. If you all haven’t noticed I’ve been keeping busy. Make Sure to vote on the poll at the end of this post please.

Last week I did my first Video Clip that I posted to my YouTube Channel that showed off a bit of a Friday’s Tutorial on creating a Secret Book for a Cell Phone, while I was working on it. I thought it’d be nice to start letting you all see me a bit, including my face. I know my fingers make it into a lot of photo shots but this is a bit more real. My adventures into using Instagram to do mini photo updates has been working really well. I thought that YouTube could be another nice quick addition to provide you all with interesting information.
If you’re active on either YouTube or Instagram subscribe or follow me and I’ll be sure to do likewise.

I Think A Few People are Finally Noticing Me

Other news I’ve passed 1000 Twitter followers. Now I’m honestly not sure how many of those followers are bots who want to sell me the newest diet fad and how many are real people. I still think it’s a bit of an accomplishment. My Facebook Fan Page isn’t doing too shabby either with over 800 fans now.

On the Job Front

I have part time teaching job lined up. It’s for a Virtual School so the job is entirely remote which is awesome and it’s under 20 hours a week of work. I don’t know when I’ll start because it will be based upon enrollment numbers but hopefully before April I’ll get the call to start training. No matter what this is good news because well we need more income around here.

On Lil’ R and School

I had a realization this weekend about Lil’ R and worries of his future schooling. I’ve been paying attention to Lil’ R pretty carefully and how he learns for a few months now. I’ve noticed he’s having a hard time remember letter sounds and phonics seems to make no sense to him at all. I think there is a good reason for this. I think Lil’ R is a Visual – Spatial learner. For these types of learners Auditory stuff just doesn’t click. I’m a strong Visual learner myself and I remember initially having difficulty with reading but once it clicked I ran with it.

I’ve realized we need to make sure Lil’ R has a basis for Reading before he enters Kindergarten in the fall or he may struggle badly. So now I’m doing a lot of research on methods to help him learn to read now but if anyone has any tips of what they've done please share.

Help Me Out with this Poll

A few weeks ago I posted on a Monday Update post a poll asking at what types of items I should think of doing next. Overwhelming the response was for more Geek Items. Now I need your help in exactly what type of Geek items I should do. Remember just because I decide to go one route first doesn’t mean I won’t be revisiting any of the other ideas in the future.

Geek Items it is so now What Type?

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Tutorial: Secret Book Mobile Phone Hiding Spot

2013-02-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Most of us live on our Mobile Phones now. I know I do, and I do a lot of work from mine while out and about. Sometimes we don’t want someone else to know we are using our mobile phone or even just reading something on it.

For me it was a few weeks back. I was substituting a class for multiple days and the students were taking their final exams. These were 2 hour exams where most students were taking the entire time available. That left a lot of down time for me in the room. I could just stare at the students as they worked but that gets very boring after awhile. I wanted to read my book but I read books on either my Nook at home or on my phone. I didn’t want the students to see me reading on my phone because I assumed they would think I was doing something different. That’s when I thought of adapting the awesome secret books I’ve seen around the web specifically for a mobile phone.
Read more »

Break? What’s a Break

2013-02-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

2 of my Tags for the Tags from the Heart Swap

Imbolc Blessings everyone! I hope you had a great day and if you didn’t catch it last week I posted up a new Pre-K Pack called Winter’s End.

After last weekend being fairly calm this weekend was a complete whirlwind of activity.

On Saturday I had an all day interview with a Virtual School where almost all teachers work from home. I’m applying for a part time position though they do have full time available. As of this moment I’m still unsure if I’ve gotten the job but I sure hope so.

Though the idea of working 2 jobs, while maintaining Treegold and Beegold sounds tough, I gotta do what I have to do to take care of my family.

I didn’t get home on Saturday until right before the kids bed time and I was just too tired after the munchkins were in bed so Sunday turned into a very busy day. I had a good amount of orders to do along with finishing some tags I created for the Inspiration Avenue Tags from the Heart Swap. It’s actually the first swap I’ve ever joined into and I hope to have them out tomorrow in the mail to go to their new homes.

I completely forgot it was Super Bowl Sunday and decided to hit up Walmart with Lil ‘R for a few necessities during naptime. Oh my Gods was that a bad idea. It was a mad house in there and I’m shocked we survived. Had many a near miss with our cart. Which pulled to the right very bad. I swear I got a good arm workout just getting around the store.

In other parent news Wee Rose used the potty for the first time on Sunday. Not sure how intense we are going to be on the Potty Training but it’s good to see her taking the first steps. I’ll love the day when there are no more diapers in this house.

At least this week ahead is a short week with only 4 days of school. Friday there is no school for students so that means no school for substitutes either. After having truly a 1 day weekend I’m in serious need of that 3 day one ahead.

Did anyone do anything special with the family for Imbolc? Any rituals or activities? I’d love to hear so please share in the comments!

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: Super Bowl Craziness,Walmart Craziness,Work from Home,Whirlwind Weekend,Pre-K Pack,Imbolc

Winter’s End Pre-K Educational Pack

2013-01-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

Our newest Pre-K Educational Pack is now available for download. I’ve named it Winter’s End as it celebrates the end of Winter when snow can still be found on the ground but new shoots are starting to peak through.

It has themes of animals coming out of hibernating (like the Groundhog) and the birth of new animals like Sheep. It also brings in imagery of Imbolc with both the birth of lambs but also milk and milk products.

All images are created by myself specifically for this Pre-K Pack.

It includes 25 Pages of Pre-K Skill Activities. Skills include:

counting
pre-writing
word tracing
size recognition
sequencing
pattern determination
simple math
which is different
cutting practice

Download Your PDF Copy of the Winter’s End Pre-K Pack Here

I hope you all enjoy!

Be sure to Like our Facebook Fan Page too for future updates on other packs and follow Treegold and Beegold via RSS, Google Friend Connect or Twitter.

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Quiet Weekend and Video Games

2013-01-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Orders were a bit slower come this weekend so it gave me a much needed break. I worked on a custom patch order but I still have a lot more to do with it. They take a lot of work. I also took some time to just play some video games, including the new SimCity Beta that was available this weekend only.

Hubby actually asked me to write a review on it for his blog, Geeky Goth Gamer Dad which was posted yesterday. I also played a bit of my SIMS Medieval game Hubby got me for Yule. It is rare that I get time for video games often. I even went to sleep early on Friday and Saturday nights. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for me to feel completely prepared for returning to school today.

I foresee a very long week ahead!

Upcoming: the next Pre-K Pack titled Winter’s End will be available on Wednesday.
Read more »

Crafty Bees: Tissue Paper Valentine Candles with Kids

2013-01-25T07:30:00.000-05:00

I’ve made a decision to bring Crafty Bees back to Treegold and Beegold. In my struggle to ensure I am generating the best content for this blog it’s tough when I felt I was dividing my attention elsewhere.

I was forgetting my primary focus!

Today I have a craft the kids and I made. We created tissue candles for Valentines Day. I thought about making them at first for Imbolc but I could only think of putting sheep on the candles and that just didn’t seem right.

Read more »

Free Printable Winter Subway Art

2013-01-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

It’s been awhile since I made a Free Printable and I really wanted to try my hand at Subway Art again. I've created this printable available Free to Download that is entirely themed for this time of year. It is full of associations to reflect the time when Winter is beginning to transition into Spring.

You can Download the PDF here

Let me know in the Comments:

What is your favorite thing about this time of the year when the weather is starting to change to Spring?

I hope you all enjoy it!

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: Winter,Spring,Printable,Subway Art,Winter Subway Art Printable,Winter transition to Spring

I’m Having a Love–Hate Relationship with Increased Success

2013-01-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

A Pile of Orders Ready to Head Out

I’ll be honest with you all. Treegold and Beegold is doing fairly well in the sales department through all it’s venues. I haven’t reached my ultimate goals yet but we’re definitely on our way.

This brings upon its own challenges. One of those challenges is how I’m having to spend more time fulfilling orders. More time spent on filling orders means I have less time to create new things.

Yes, yes pull out the World’s Small Violin and play me a tune.

A Portion of My Idea List for Future Products

No it isn’t a catastrophe, it’s actually something wonderful but I'm itching to make something new. I have a huge list of ideas for future items. This list isn’t even the entirety of it but it lets you all see some of where I want to go.

Maybe I should ask all of you what you think my next focus should be.

Please take a quick moment to answer the poll below and help me out on my next style of project.

What Direction Should I go in Next for New Items

Me and Why I Blog : Grow Your Blog Party

2013-01-19T00:14:00.002-05:00

A Goofy Tired Me

Today I've joined up with the very large Grow Your Blog Party so I want to go back an bit and not only introduce myself to the new visitors from the blog party but reintroduce m myself to my longtime followers.

Bienvenue!

I'm Velody and this is my site Treegold and Beegold. It's the hub of my online activity where you can find out about me and any links to follow me in other places

This is where I run my blog which focuses on crafts, parenting, and sharing information about my Etsy Shop. I write free craft tutorials, share free printables and I have just started creating free Educational Materials.

Quick Personal Introduction

There it is, me encapsulated as a list of labels. Of course everyone is so much more than their labels. How about it in short sentences now.

I’m a Geek married to a Video Game Blogger with 2 small children. Trained as an Environmental Engineer that is in the middle of a career change to become a Math or Science Teacher. While on the side Blogging and running a Handmade Business.

Why I Blog

The reasons I blog have changed through the years. It took 4 blogs before I found my niche. My first blogs were more personal and I initially had this struggle with sharing so intimately with an audience that had yet to become a community to me. I was sporadic in posting and often didn’t’ know what to write about.

I’m still have trepidations about sharing some personal information. IT is the internet! But I’ve found a groove with sharing my creations, interesting items online, tutorials, parenting and much more.
Over time I’ve begun to find a new community of bloggers too.

I hope those of you visiting will join via Google Friend Connect, Email Subscription, or through RSS. Leave me a comment to let me know and a link to your own blog. I’ll make sure to stop by and follow back.

It’s looking like there are a huge number to visit!

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Resin Pendant Tutorial Fail

2013-01-18T12:17:00.001-05:00

I had planned to have a tutorial up today about making a simple floating flame resin pendant. Not all things go as planned though and I had a definite fail. I bought the wrong kind of resin.

I needed transparent resin and I picked up resin that dries white. You can see both my end result and the supplies in the photos.

I'm going to reorder some soon and then we can try this again. If I can pull it of I think it'll be pretty nice looking.

I don't show them often but I actually have a lot of mess ups behind the scenes. I keep on trying and learning though.

Anyone else want to share their most recent craft mistake?

-Velody

Grow Your Blog Party this Saturday the 19th

2013-01-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

One of my goals this year is to really work on growing the blog and it’s followers. The Etsy Shop is doing pretty well all on it’s own and I’ve been giving it a lot of attention over the past 6 months or so. Now it’s time to really put some focus here on the blog and give it some love.

This Saturday I learned of an upcoming blog hop called Grow Your Blog. It’s being hosted by Vicki of 2 Bags Full.

There are a lot of people who have joined up for it, like I mean A Lot. Hopefully there will be some others similar to mine that resonate with what I write and they’ll begin to follow me here.

I’m going to do a return to basics post on Saturday talking about my original motivations for writing my blog and a reintroduction of myself. It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything like that so it’s about time.

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Goals for 2013: Personal, Blog and Business

2013-01-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

2013 will be a good year!

I have high hopes for it and I will ensure that it is good. I need to take this year by the horns and ensure it is better than 2012.

I’m not one for traditional resolutions but I do believe in having goals, and I want to make goals for the blog, the shop and myself personally.

Blog Goals

Put out at least 6 Pre-K Packs in 2013
Post to the blog at a minimum of 2 times a week
Open up the Blog for Guest Posting
Host 2 Blog Hops
Participate in at least 4 other Blog Hops
Have at least 2 tutorials every month
Put out the newsletter monthly

Shop Goals

Have up at least 4 new items every month
Add jewelry for children and adults by the end of the year
Increase the lines available for Geek and Boy items
Finally get the idea for Reborn Totem Plushies off the drawing board and into the shop.
Add more hats and layette items for babies

Personal Goals

Eat better and slowly loose weight
Get a permanent teaching position
Get better organized so I have more quality time with the family
Find ways to rediscover me in both a personal and spiritual way.

I look forward to sitting at the end of 2013 and having met all of these goals Plus some more. I really have tried to stay realistic.

What type of goals have you set for yourself, your blog or your business? What is it you want to reach for this year?

Here’s to making a great 2013!

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Pinteresting Winter Animals

2013-01-12T07:30:00.000-05:00

This weeks Pinterest Line Up is inspired by Winter Animals. I found a couple cute crafts that can be done with children or some with a bit of creativity upgraded to adult art. I couldn’t resist showing these bear bread teacups either! So cute!

	Bear Bread in Tea Cups from Kirbies Cravings
	Polar Animals Preschool Activities and Crafts at First School
	Crafting Winter Animals that “Shred” from Make and Takes
	Snowball Soap Surprise from Spoonful
	Felt Animal Art from Martha Stewart

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: animals,winter,bears,polar bears,seals,artic,antartic,preschool,crafts,winter children's crafts

5 Favorite Crafting Tools that Aren’t Craft Tools

2013-01-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

Cuticle Scissors: Find these in the beauty section of any Big Box store, Drug Store or Grocery store. These scissors are fairly cheap (around $5) and are great for cutting thread super close, cutting out stitches or cutting around appliques. Only downfall is I have yet to figure out how to sharpen them so after a year I may need to buy a second pair.
Hemostats: These little clamps are great for turning small sewing projects like plushies, poking out corners with their smooth ends, inserting stuffing into far off corners of a small project and generally holding anything small together you need held together while working. Know someone who works in a medical office? Then just ask and you can probably get a pair for nothing or just look online like Amazon.com and find them for a few dollars.
Binder Clips: Oh how I love you. Use binder clips to hold a project together while working, use them as a form of cable management, or make them a part of your organization. Sometimes these can be found in the scrapbooking section of a craft store but those are the fancy ones. Just go by the office supplies and get a variety of sizes. *For cable management you can pop off one of the silver side pieces by squeezing it inwards insert the cable and put the piece back. Clip the binder to where the cable should stay and voila! Never have a cable slip off the desk again.
Cereal Boxes: These are my favorite material for making small patterns out of. The cardboard is just thick enough to hold it’s shape well but thin enough for each storage. It holds up well over time and it’s free, I just have to wait around for the next box to be eaten.
Dental Picks: Another repurposed medical tool. I use these mostly when I’m working with items from my Silhouette Cameo. It’s great for picking out the undesired parts of a vinyl design but they work great with polymer clay projects too.

What tools do you love to use that aren’t traditional craft tools? Does a specialty tool exist that you can purchase to do the same thing exist or has no one else caught on to your great idea yet?

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: crafts,crafting,unusual crafting tools,repurposing tools,crazy things I use

We Love Cthulhu around here and New Tarot Bags

2013-01-09T07:30:00.000-05:00

We have some new items that were created around the holiday season I haven’t gotten to announce yet. I’ve added 2 new items themed after Cthulu and a few new Tarot bags!

New Cthulhu Products

I have a weakness for Chibi Cthulhu images. When I first discovered this embroidery at Urban Threads I new I had to adapt it to create a patch and here he is! This cute Cthulhu is about 3.8 inches x 3.8 inches in size and will be a great addition to a bag, jacket or other item you want to place him on.

*For more details please visit the Cthulhu Patch listing in our Etsy Shop.

Want a little Cthulhu Mascot that will sit on his own, well I used the same embroidery for the patch and have created a little plush guy with it instead.

Lil’ R has actually had a Cthulhu stuffed animal since he was just under a year old and now this little guy is one of my desk mascots. I’d love to see him in other peoples homes too.

*For more details please visit the Cthulhu Plush listing in the Etsy Shop.

*If you haven’t heard of Cthulhu before here is the Wikipedia entry on him for a basic overview.

New Tarot Bags

This new Triskele tarot bag features a triskele in 2 shades of green with a copper colored knotwork interwoven through it. It’s dimensions are the same of all our tarot bags and fit standard 3 x 5 decks along with ones slightly larger. *For more details please visit the Triskele Tarot Bag Listing in our Etsy store.
Our new Celtic Knotwork Moon Tarot bag is done entirely in silver colored thread and features the phrase “So Mote It Be”. By request I will also create it without the phrase if desired. Dimensions are the same as all our standard tarot bags. *For more details please visit the Celtic Knotwork Moon Tarot Bag listing in our Etsy store.
Our last new tarot bag is our first Steampunk design. It features a green baroque set of dragons upon an ornate gear system all done in complimentary shades of grays and light golds. This bag also has the same dimensions as our standard tarot bags. *For more details please visit the Dragon Steampunk Tarot Bag listing in our Etsy store.

I’m always trying to add more designs but I’d love to hear if there is anything in particular you’re hoping for. Please leave a comment with your requests and I’ll put them at the top of the list!

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: tarot bags,rune bags,steam punk,steampunk dragon,so mote it be,triskele,cthulhu,plush,cthulhu plush,cthulhu stuffed animal,cthulhu stuffie

Nature Nurtured Shop Spotlight and Giveaway

2013-01-07T07:30:00.000-05:00

I’m happy to say that Treegold and Beegold is the Spotlight Shop for the Great New Site Nature Nurtured. The site is aimed specifically at Pagan and Earth-Reverent Families. I had stumbled upon the site myself last month and had it marked on my to do list to contact Rachel the owner about submissions when she contacted me through Etsy! I was flattered and honored to be asked to do the spotlight. The interview was a great experience and I’m in awe of her writing. How well she took our basic Q&A session and made a wonderful narrative is beyond me. Make sure to check out the article she wrote but also the entire issue for January.

The even better thing though is she is sponsoring a giveaway of 2 items I created just for the giveaway. As of yet they are not available in the shop.

The contest is open until January 10th so make sure to hurry up get over there and enter.

It’s a fleece lap blanket that is Earth themed. Super cozy of anti-pill fleece with 4 different embroidered images in each corner. Along with it is a our Nightmare Protection Pillow but I redid the colors in greens to match the blanket.

If you don’t win the prize I will be offering them in the Etsy Shop after the giveaway is over.

Now that the holidays are over it’s time to get back to normal. In the works is another Pre-K pack themed about the Hibernating Animals that start waking up around Imbolc. And I’m debating some other changes in our line up here.

Overall though 2012 was good to Treegold and Beegold. 2013 is starting out looking like an even better year for us!

If you enjoyed this or think someone else would be interested please share the love and use the sharing links below this post.

Technorati Tags: Giveaway,Contest,Free stuff,Treegold and Beegold shop,Featured Shop,Nature Nurtured,Pagan Parenting,Pagan Parents,Pagan Family

Pinteresting Photography Tips and Tricks

2013-01-05T11:05:00.001-05:00

This weeks Pinterest Line Up is inspired by a new acquisition I acquired during the great Winter Sales. Our household decided to upgrade our camera from a point and shoot to a DSLR. We’ve been wanting to do this for awhile and I saw a great deal on a few models old Cannon T3 (yes there is the new great T4i out but I thought this was a great camera that would serve our purposes, last us quite awhile and was at an awesome price).

One of the best things is my sales from the Treegold and Beegold Etsy Shop and other selling venues we so good pre Yule it pretty much paid for the camera.

For those interested I’ve created a board just for Photography and it involves more than just DSLR tips, it also has information on post processing photos in photo editors and general tips on how to take better pictures and better lighting.

	I Have a DSLR Camera, Now What? from two twenty one
	Photography Tutorial: A Quick Guide to Understanding Your DSLR Camera by Kevin & Amanda
	How to Use Your New Camera like a Pro from I heart Faces
	Pointers for Point and Shoot Photography from Shrimp Salad Circus

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Technorati Tags: photography,pinterest,tips,tricks

Tutorial: Inlaid Image Bottle Cap Embellishments

2013-01-04T07:30:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago someone nabbed a few of my photos through a Google Image search and posted them to their Facebook Page without any reference to their source. I was thankfully alerted by Anastasia of Inspired by Life when she saw the photos and recognized them as my work. The photos came from one of my first posts I ever did here on Treegold and Beegold and unfortunately I hadn’t watermarked the images (I’ve seen gone back and done so).

If you were following on my Facebook Fan Page then you know all the details of what happened but in the end the Offending Page took down my photos after I private messaged them a link to the original blog post and claimed ownership of those photos. Honestly I’d rather they had kept the photos up and just given me some credit! Hey it’s publicity. I’m all for sharing just let people know where it came from. It bothered me that the owner of the page said the got the photos from a Google Image search and didn’t realize they were mine.

Lesson to everyone. In a Google Image search under the thumbnail is a link that says Source always follow that back to find the original page the image was listed on. Just because it’s on Google doesn’t make it fair game. Lesson to creators, Watermark Everything!

In the comments before the photos were removed included many from people asking how they were made. The Page owner didn’t have it correct so I thought I’d make a tutorial out of it.
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2012 In Review

2012-12-31T13:43:00.001-05:00

What a year this has been, it's definitely had it's ups and downs. Emotionally I'm a bit surprised I'm holding it all together.

Treegold and Beegold both the blog and shop continue to grow. Both blog views and sales in the Etsy Shop continue to go off, (here's crossing our fingers that the post Yule sales decrease isn't too much.) In many ways this is the outlet for my creativity this has given me is the best emotional therapy I could ever have. I've learned about blog design, promotion, blog organization and made some great new friends. I'm sure this will just continue into the next year.

It's things on the home front that have been difficult:

This entire year I have either been unemployed or under employed. I'm still trying to get a full time position as a teacher but the year is now half over.
Our roof needs to be replaced and is currently tarped. That won't hold out for much longer.
The transmission went out on our SUV so we're down to just one car and it's a small car.
Then there was all the issues with Lil R's schooling.

The good points are:

Everyone now has medical insurance so that isn't a worry and we have food assistance.
I'm hoping we have a large enough tax refund to take care of the roof.
And between selling off extra items like things the kids have out grown and Treegold and Beegold we can fix the car within a few months.

In the next week I'll make a post announcing some of our future plans around here. Right now I just wanted to do a reflection post as we sit at the end of 2012. I'll think about 2013 more tomorrow.

Happy New Year everyone!

Winter Pinterest Finds

2012-12-29T07:30:00.000-05:00

	How to Make Never Melting Snowballs at Save On Crafts
	Holiday Snowflake Tutorial using Coffee Filters by The Pink Couch
	New Years Coloring Pages from Kids Activity Blog
	Confetti Eggs at Martha Stewart

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Treegold & Beegold

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Bienvenue!

Quick Personal Introduction

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Tutorial: Inlaid Image Bottle Cap Embellishments

2012 In Review

It's things on the home front that have been difficult:

The good points are:

Top 5 Blog Posts of 2012

Winter Pinterest Finds