My family is part of a homeschool co-op this year for the first time. We meet once a week, and I teach three art classes while my kids are in their own classes taught by other moms. It has been great to get to know other homeschooling families in the area, and my kids seem [...]

This year I have chosen the word childlike as my personal focus. I was thinking the other day about how I want to really listen to the words of my kids this year. I want to listen so hard that I can feel the excitement in the stories they are relating to me. I want [...]

One of the presents I created for Christmas this year was coffee cozies. These were given along with Starbucks cards to my sister and brother-in-law. I used Erica's Brush Set: Redefine Alpha Biggie and simply printed out the words HIS and HERS on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper. I cut out the letters [...]

Lately my son has been using the word "super-ness." I have heard it used to describe his daddy, Jesus and Superman. He's quite enamored with SuperMan, so much so that he wore a SuperMan outfit for Halloween this year. When he took a look at himself in the mirror, he said, "I'm Super-ness." And well, [...]

As a photographer, I have to tell you, I am often jealous of family photos. It is so rare that my entire family is together in a photo. And if it does happen, chances are it's happened with our camera sitting on a tripod as me or my husband dash to try and get As [...]

With both of my kids' grandmas having their birthday in August, I needed to come up with a creative gift idea. A friend of mine gave me some old AOL tins that she didn't have a purpose for, and so I used that as a springboard. Since my kids enjoy drawing so much I thought [...]

My husband recently spent some of HIS birthday money on ME. I am still so blown away by this act of kindness. What did he get me? A little piece of technology – an iPhone. And you can bet, I feel totally spoiled. One of my favorite things so far about my phone is the [...]

I'm fortunate to have people in my life who love things like pens and paper as much as I do. Lately I've been exploring making mini-notebooks as gifts. I first started with plain cardstock covers, but once I got the hang of the actual book-binding, I branched out to customizing the covers a bit more. [...]

I've been thinking a lot lately about meal planning, wanting to simplify that process in my home, so when meal time rolls around, I'm prepared. I haven't been happy with my attempts at this in the past, it seems like my meals don't seem to fit with what leftover ingredients I have in the refrigerator [...]

I have always loved Syndee's Hoot And Annie Collection Mini, but it wasn't until I took on a little sewing project that I really got to see her cute illustrations come alive. I printed out one owl and cut it into pieces to use as a pattern for soft plushies. Then, I used the pattern [...]