8/52

"A portrait of my girls, once a week, every week, in 2015."

This week was all about puzzles (Puzzles in the morning and in the afternoon. Puzzles in the evening and underneath the moon). On this particular afternoon, both girls sat at the kitchen table and did their puzzles over and over; it quickly became a competition about who could do their puzzle faster and who had done it more times.

Joining in with Jodi for the 52 Week Project.

Lately...

I have been doing a little bit of journaling. I’ll write more on this soon, but suffice to say it is both therapeutic and fun.

This journal is from Gadanke.

I have conquered the clutter. I purge on a fairly consistent basis, but every once in a while a major sort through is needed, especially of the girls’ toys and my craft supplies. Having fewer things helps me to see what I have more clearly and leaves my mind more settled and open to new creative ideas. There are so many ideas bouncing around my head right now, just clamoring to get out. Having gotten rid of so much stuff, I feel like I need to question a little more closely the things that I do bring into the house from now on.....

I have been cooking. Working full time while taking care of the home is quite the task (I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that) so every once in a while I set aside a day to ‘get some cooking done’. I spent nearly seven hours (what!!???) in the kitchen on Monday and made soup, a casserole, baked a cake, and got a crock pot of oatmeal ready. Sitting down to work on my cozy stripe blanket in the evening was heavenly and well deserved.

What have you been up to lately?

7/52

"A portrait of my girls, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Bridget: a moment of quiet thoughtfulness after school, along with a steaming mug of hot chocolate, absolutely necessary after the frigid walk home.

Claire: a sweet smile as you read your Valentine from Oma and Opa.

I love how this project is encouraging me to keep my camera at the ready and take more pictures, and I am looking forward to the spring when my outdoor pictures include some color rather than simply the glaring white of the snow.

Joining in with Jodi for the 52 Week Project.

Another Proud Mommy Moment

I must show you these two sketches....courtesy of my eight year old daughter, Bridget.

Clearly my girl is watching me as I scrapbook. And while I have seen her create her own layouts, she has never taken on the role of sketch designer until now.

I just might take her up on her offer and design a page based on one of her sketches; she would be thrilled.  

Another proud Mommy moment as I watch the love of creating and making grow in my girl.

Back to School

Happy Monday!

I love that sketch challenges are revealed on Mondays over at The Memory Nest. It is so fun to start the week off with some scrapbooking inspiration, wouldn't you agree?

I love this latest sketch - very clean and simple (totally up my alley).

I used pictures of my girls from the first day of school to create this layout.

I always struggle with paper choice for 'back to school' layouts. The traditionally themed papers and embellishments are always the wrong colors, never coordinating with the mostly pink clothes that my girls wear. For this layout I used paper from the A Perfect Summer line by Echo Park. It seems odd to use summer paper for a back to school layout but whatever works best, right?

As usual, I used lots of layers.

The other ladies of the Design Team have created some absolutely stunning work based on this sketch and you can see that here.

Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day.

6/52

"A portrait of my girls, once a week, every week, in 2015."

An epic snowfall closed all the schools and nearly shut down the city. So we went sledding. The girls shouted and laughed as they flew down the hill on their sleds, a glorious sound of childhood. No one wanted to go home, especially Claire as it meant trudging through some very deep snow.

Joining in with Jodi for the 52 Week Project.

Cozy Stripe Blanket Update #1

It's Friday, thank goodness. Sometimes the end of the week can not come soon enough.

I wanted to pop in today and show you my progress on my Cozy Stripe Blanket. I first introduced this blanket here and have spent many wonderful hours since crocheting away.

Stripe after strip of beautiful color - the perfect remedy to the cold winter.

One of my favorite things about this blanket is the random order of the colors. I am always excited to see which color comes next, and though sometimes the next color seems an odd or unlikely choice to me, it all comes together rather beautifully with the just the right balance of neutrals mixed in with the brighter and bolder shades.

I did run into one small hiccup a few weeks ago when I noticed a mistake and had to rip out many rows (sad, I know, but it had to be done as the mistake was glaring at me each time I looked at my blanket). It was terrible; I was sweating and near tears, but knew I would not be happy if I did not fix my error. Thankfully all is well now and I am carefully checking each row as I go along to avoid another mistake.

This blanket is the perfect winter project and working on it makes me so happy.