This may explain why it has been pretty quiet around here over the last few months. The little bean is doing well and expected on July 7. I'm also starting to feel like a regular human again, so hopefully things will pick up around here.


As for the New Year, have you picked your word yet? Mine is "mindfulness" this year. Ali Edwards is holding a new one little word class at Big Picture Classes, but I signed up last year and never actually did the monthly projects, so I saved them all and have ambitions to do them this time around. After having the kids pour through scrapbooks recently and then ask why there weren't any recent pages about them, I have vowed to try to keep a simple monthly schedule of three layouts this year. Mind you, these will be simple, but that's okay with me. I have plenty of other outlets for design, but I am mostly concerned about recording their stories. I so cherish the pages that I have, and wouldn't have remembered half of those moments if I hadn't recorded them.

The plan? I had a bunch of bags of leftover scrap kit pieces, which I sorted into 12 bags and divided by season. The plan is to use whatever is in there, along with white, black, or kraft cardstock, to create three layouts a month. One will be about Max, one about Madeline, and one will be a family page. Once the baby comes, it will either be one per kid or just an additional page. I'm thinking of printing a page of layout sketches and just choosing from them each month, or keeping the basic layout the same every month and just changing embellishments and patterened paper. We'll see which one is easiest - I'm all about easy right now!

Well, there, I've put it in print. I suppose now I'll have to actually follow through;)

I love to blog, I really do, but I do not love html, or anything on the computer that requires more than a drag and drop.  Eventually, I'll have a navigation bar at the top for tutorials, but until then, I thought I'd give a little round up of tutorials through the years. (Okay, I'm just lazy!)

 Junk mail art journal



The Fabric Tag Chart



The Car Seat Protector



The Paper Pendant



Word For The Year Mini-Book
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day 5

Tutorials For MDW Blog

Halloween Grunge Board Cards and Tags



Grunge Board Techniques



Thanksgiving Album 



Family Album

More are on the way! Hope you have a lovely Easter weekend!
Edit: Just added:

How I Applique
Kid's Birthday Cards 
Birthday Cards
Believe Card
Plastic Bag Card



Scrap Fabric Bag 

 Duvet Cover Refashion
Vacation Planner
Halloween Door Mat
Pant Cuffs

Ugly Scrapbook Paper Make-Over
Itch Tincture Recipe

Quick T-shirt Nightgown

Ruched Maternity Tops

Math Marble Game

Book Log

Museum Scavenger Hunt Book

Mystery Box  (reading comprehension)

Solar System in a Can

Winter Shirt to Tank Top

I've had these painted map pages laying around for quite awhile, possibly for a future class, but since MDW has closed, I thought I'd use them. The cover is a combination of tissue and map pages, the insides are gessoed map pages with machine stitching. Simple, but perfect for a mini album. I was inspired by a post on the Scrap For A Cure forum, where they asked you to list the five things you couldn't scrap without. I had cardstock, patterned paper, paint, ink, and sewing. Okay, I cheated here a little with the sticker on the inside page, but just a little:)

(well, I guess the scheduling didn't work on this one. I'm too lazy to re-do it, so we'll just leave it here until the next post...)

This little guy arrived a couple of weeks ago from Down Under. He is the fabulous creation from Blinking Flights that Madeline took from my hands the minute I opened the package. He, after having been in California for only a few minutes, was redubbed a "she" although the name has stayed the same. Gordon has visited the many wonders of our town, such as Target, the post office and the dentist. I'm sure he, no she's mighty impressed with California. Please visit Rebecca's fabulous blog, and her delightful Etsy shop (so sad to see the bugs going, sniff!) and wallow in her wonderful fabric creations!



Allison and I were able to steal away to our local LSS, Scrap Diva, to do a little scrappin' a few weeks ago. I had brought several kits, but I couldn't resist the lure of some new lines, especially the Penny Lane series from My Mind's Eye. I could have bought it all!

The Farmer's market opened on Saturday, and the kids and I headed down to scoop up some local produce. Not that I didn't support eating local before, but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has inspired me to make sure I'm buying as much local produce as possible. While we scored some fabulous food... Okay, I'll get my gripes out of the way first:
1. We live in an agricultural community, yet more than half of the booths are from out of town growers.
2. Only two booths had organic produce, and one was strawberries only (they were good, though!) and the other didn't have that much.
Yes, there are farm stands on the edges of town, and yes, I need to visit them, but I just wish they were at the market, too. You see, the library and city park are near the market, so the kids can play in the fountain, swing in the park, get new library books, and we can still go shopping.

Whew! Griping over! Of course, we found great food, and I learned that I need to bring more cash next week! Here's what I made for Saturday dinner:

Look at these amazing sugar snap peas! Grown right here in town, they are super crunchy and sweet. I served them as is for dinner, and the kids actually ate them! Yum!



The main dish - a baked asparagus pasta dish from Mollie Katzen (the recipe is not online, but she has featured asparagus recipes on her site, here). This one is just pasta, onions, asparagus, Parmesan and bread crumbs. It's super fast, and really tasty!

The finale? Organic strawberries!




And a few quick peeks of projects from the Scrap For A Cure May kit. You can snag one here.

This stack of fabric. I am only working with one piece at a time, as I sew up skirts and shorts, but I leave it all out on the table anyway, because it makes me happy to look at it.



This layout I made for the online scrap at SIStv for National Scrapbooking Day. I have fallen off the wagon with the daily drawing (trying to get back on!), so I look for ways to insert pen and ink into other projects. And headphones are cool.



Blanket forts. How many did you make when you were a kid? I remember spending hours in them, squirreling away dolls, snacks, my Fisher Price plastic "record" player underneath. And constantly fixing them when they fell down. Good fun.

What three things are making you happy right now?

Yah! It's May and the new, fabulous kit is ready at Scrap For A Cure! Here are a few designs I did with this month's kit:







These are just a few. Check out Scrap For A Cure to see my gallery, and the other inspiring designs from their design team. Remember, each purchase is for a good cause - this quarter it's Donate Life, a very worthy cause. I've been a registered donor since I was 18. So far, I've made 4 layouts, two cards (the pendant on the Mother's Day card is removable), and one wall hanging, and I still have tons left in the kit! If you are a card maker, or a scrapper who uses cardstock instead or patterned paper for the background, you'll get even more out of it! A great deal, for a great cause, from a great team. Check them out!

A side note - I'm joining in with simplemom.net (love that site) and the Spring Cleaning Party. Madeline's school is closed this week due to Swine flu, and Max has the regular old flu, so we'll see how far I get this week, but I'm determined!! Click the button on the side to check it out!

Edit: Here's my progress update for Day One - Clearing the Clutter:


after:




after:


I won't bore you with the rest - you get the idea;) Happy cleaning!