Crinkle Quilt for baby V.

I made this quilt for a special new baby girl who lives in Colorado. I knew right away when I saw the Crinkle quilt pattern that I wanted to give it a try. It creates a very fun texture, and I loved playing with the Simply Style fabrics by V and Co. from Home Ec Workshop. I would say that it comes together very quickly for a baby quilt (even though it took me months from start to finish, ha ha!).

One detail I added was a little embroidered message on the quilt back. I plan to do this on all the quilts I make from now on. It is an easy, but special detail that marks the time and occasion for the quilt.

I hope I get to meet little V. in person sometime soon, but in the meantime, I'm happy to have added a little coziness to her nursery.

First day of school and first try at canning

We are lucky to have two plum trees in our yard, and this year they have been producing prolifically. I decided that it was time to order some jars and a starter tool kit. I also ordered this book which has instructions and lots of great recipes.

This attempt (#2) at plum preserves turned out pretty well. My first attempt was awfully thick, I think I overcooked it. Then I tried a watermelon-jalepeno jam with no luck - I think I cooked it too long at too low of a temperature. Then, I tried another batch of plum jam with orange zest, but it didn't set-up. Bummer. Looks like I have lots to learn, but I am determined. I want to have another way to make use of the bountiful fruit we have in our yard.

My plum preserves were ready just in time for a first day of school gift for Lachlan's kindergarten teacher. I used a 2" circle punch and alphabet stamps to label the top, then added a tag with letter stickers and a written message on the back.

Then I put the gift and a packed lunch in his new backpack and sent him off to Kindergarten! Big day for all of us! I think this photo accurately captures the excitement and nervousness that he and I were feeling.

L's second year at preschool, Vol. 2

I took advantage of Preucil's photo Shutterfly Share Site + a 40% off photo books promotion, and made a book about Lachlan's year at preschool. This design matches the 8 1/2"x11" book I made last year, so now we have a fun set!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Hello, Story - first 3 pages

I decided to sign up for Ali Edward's Hello Story class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, because I basically love every single thing she makes, and I've been looking to be re-inspired to make paper scrapbook pages.

week 1: Timeline - SO much inspiration in Ali's content - I decided to make a photo timeline from when Bill and I started dating until current day. It was so fun to look through those old photos!

week 2: fill-in-the-blank - I had been planning to interview L about some of his "favorites" at age 5, so this seemed like the perfect format.

week 3: direction - Again, a perfect theme for my week - I had just finished my third week of the couch to 5K running program, and I wanted to document my motivations and the fun feet photos.

Well, it's week 6 now, so I'm feeling a little behind on creating layouts, but I'm still absolutely inspired by Ali's class!

Back, and ready for more blogging!

As mentioned in previous posts, I was feeling like doing Project Life replaced my need to blog, because that's where I was putting my energy for recording our family's story. Now that I have gotten into the Project Life groove, and spend less time pulling it together each week, I feel like I have a pocket of time where I can go back to blogging.

But why? I have no intention of having a huge "following", or to make my blog a money-maker, but I just miss having a place to record my creative endeavors. That's where the name of my blog originated, and that's what I'll be going back to now. My creations. That might include posts about scrapbooking, sewing, quilting, diy, cooking experiments, or who knows what else! So, if you're still reading my blog and will continue, thanks! I plan to be here more often - and I have quite a few things that I've made in my bloggy absence that I'll be sharing soon.

Back to Scrapping...

I've been plugging away at making a layout a day for the LOAD513 challenge. It's been fun digging into my scrap stash again and getting some photos and memories scrapped.

For example, these photos from Thor and Caeli's wedding - what a beautiful day! Also, this page is playing along with this week's challenge at Scrap Your Story. Check it out!

Excited about...

Popping in to share a few things I am excited about right now -

• Our Lachlan turned 5 yesterday! Wow, it seems like an important birthday milestone, right? I know it's going to be an awesome year for him. He loved spending the weekend celebrating with his friends and family and was excited to practice riding his new big guy bike!

• If you follow me on Instagram, you saw my (many) progress pics of making a quilt for Kenley's bed. I had purchased a pattern and fabric months ago, but suddenly got the urge to make it happen a few weeks ago. I love love how it turned out.

• Speaking of that urge to create, I think it has something to do with spring arriving (finally!). Our days are warming up, the daffodils and rhododendrons are blooming in our yard, and it feels like time for some spring cleaning (& purging) and planting!

• My latest project was an Instagram photo frame to hang above our computer desk. I've seen similar displays around the web, and knew it would be easy to recreate. I bought my 24" x 36" frame at Hobby Lobby and stretched wires across the back of the frame and secured them with nails. I also bought mini clothespins at HL and spray painted them white to pull everything together. The 4"x4" photos were printed by Persnickety Prints (love their quality and customer service!).

• My dad shared an app called Paprika with me this weekend. We've both been looking for the perfect app for sharing and cataloging recipes - he assures me this is it! So I'm looking forward to testing it out... so far I love the way it looks and the ability to import recipes smoothly from lots of websites.

• Speaking of new favorite apps - if you have a little person, check out "Petting Zoo" by Christoph Niemann. It is an interactive animation with a collection of hand-drawn animals. Take a look, I think you will love it.

• I won a giveaway! Oh, so excited to spend my gift certificate on some beautiful blocks! If you haven't seen Design Mom's blog, I think it is a must read. The kids and I all love their web series "Olive Us".

• This week I'm trying to clean up my disaster of scrapbooking supplies to get ready for "Layout a Day" in May. I've never been part of this group before and looking forward to the challenge of fitting a little scrapbooking into each day. I'm hoping it will help to make me a more efficient scrapbooker and get some stories down that I've been wanting to record.

Phew! :)