From Pillars of Pine: The End of an Era

Blog Post from Pillars of Pine: The End of an Era: Feeling a little saddened today. Over the past few days, I've been researching and comparing pricing with the overseas 'super-stores'. The issues we've had is to factor in the high cost of shipping from the US to our store, plus then the shipping to our customers, and of course, we also need to add on the dreaded GST. All this means we're completely at a loss - to list the same products on our site, at a competitive rate, means we'd need to sell products at a loss of around 30%.

When we first began Adnil Press 11 years ago, we were easily able to price our overseas products at the same or less than one could order it direct from overseas. But times have changed. And homeschooling has changed, too. It's just as easy now for a homeschool Mum to order from overseas as it is to order from a local supplier.

So, it's sell-out time! We're keeping a few items, as we have a printing contract with IEW, we're able now to focus on those products, as well as our own. We are also organising to become affiliates of the larger stores, so as each title sells out, we shall put up a link to these other sites, from where you can find the products needed for your homeschool.
And, as I stated, some items are here to stay. All products from 'The Institute of Excellence in Writing' will STAY. This includes associated products such as All About Spelling and Teaching the Classics. Of course, we'll also continue to stock our own resources (including 'Australia, the Wide Brown Land for Me!'), our other Australian resources, and there will no doubt be a few smaller suppliers as well - such as Times Tales, Life of Fred, etc.
For the rest, as of this moment, everything else is on 'sell-out' status. This includes God's Design, Story of the World, Memoria Press and even Apologia Science. We are very saddened to have to take these steps, but unfortunately, we are simply unable to compete in the pricing wars, and we understand the need to purchase products at the best pricing possible. We hope you will support us by using the affiliate links that will be appearing on our site as our stocks run out.
We thank you for your support, and hope that somehow, the reduction of our business and our stock will open doors elsewhere and in all, work towards the greater good.
God bless,
Linda.

Treasured Moments - 6

Do you find yourself falling into a pattern of daily grind, skipping the 'fun' activities because you don't have time or lack energy?Do creative arts, nature walks, drama, read aloud or spontaneous acts seem only a distant dream in your life?
Yet these Treasured Moments shared with loved ones uplift us, nurture our soul, remind us of the beauty and joy in our lives.
We want Treasured Moments for ourselves, for our children, for our families but how can we make it happen?
... Commitment ... Encouragement ... Support ... Ideas ... Plans.

I invite you to join us every Saturday and share your plans and ideas, your targets and goals and your stories ... your 'Treasured Moments'. In this way we may inspire one another, encourage ourselves and start achieving our dreams. Hosted by Erin at Seven Little Australians and Counting

My Treasured Moments this week are:

1.
Seeing Sir N jump into a pool for the first time at swimming lessons.  Watching his pleasure at receiving his good effort certificate after the school holiday programme at Paul Sadler Swimland.

2.
Catching up with Mrs T,  she is such a gentle godly women who inspires me and encourages me.  I felt so good after our time of fellowship.  I think I need to invest into more time with friends like this.

3.
Hearing that baby Maddie is getting well.  She has been in the NICU unit at the Royal Childrens since she was born seven weeks ago.

4.
Starting Healthy Lifestyle by Careforce LifeKeys this morning has been a real goal achieved for me.  I have come home refreshed and encouraged and ready to make some healthy lifestyle changes. 

5.
Time to confess.  I have not started  31 Days to Clean Challenge Having a Martha House the Mary Way by Sarah Mae.  I do intend to do this but life happened this week.....  and I decided I would rather do this excellently and gain the full benefit rather than half heartedly and only gain 10 % of the benefits.  I have however been looking over the pages and will be blogging about it over at GEMS 2 TOTS in a weeks time. 

To join in you are welcome to add your post on Seven Little Australians and Counting using the Mr. Linky form (please link to the individual post) and include a link back to Erins post. If you haven't a blog we would still love to hear your voice, just leave your stories in the comments.

Blessings

Friday's Art Adventure

Last Friday we went to Mrs W and did some art alongside her children. 

Completed picture

We used The Usborne ART Treasury for inspiration.  First we read about The Starry Night painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1889. Did you know he painted almost nine hundred paintings over a nine year period ? Next we read a short paragraph about van Gogh and then we followed a step by step to make our own painting. 

First we sketched on the canvas. 

We used acrylic paint and pva mixed for thicker paint.

We used plastic forks to make patterns in the paint.

It was quite difficult getting the children to paint thickly on the canvas as we have spent the last few weeks tutoring them to paint thinly for other projects. I had to assist Sir N in a few spots on his painting.

Blessings