A Proffittable Life

Birthdays

2012-02-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

So today's my birthday. I didn't plan on posting anything since the entire household has come down with strep throat and/or scarlet fever and things have been a bit hectic to say the least. That and I don't want to seem like I'm begging for sympathy or just wanting people to say "Happy Birthday." But my husband, who is in Italy for work, was sweet and left me two birthday cards. One was signed by the kids and one was signed by him. The one signed by him read, "You're an awesome mommy and pretty good wife." Am I reading that correctly or am I reading into things? Pretty good? Isn't that like getting a C in a class? You're pretty good, but you're not great. You're not terrible either, just pretty good. I can't say why, but this is just breaking my heart today. Maybe it's everything else compounded on the issue, but the "pretty" is like the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back. Or it was the dam holding back the tears. I'm not really good at analogies right now. This is what dictionary.com had to say about the definition of pretty:

pretty: [prit-ee] -ti·er, -ti·est, noun, plural -ties, adverb, verb, -tied, -ty·ing.

adjective: fairly or moderately: Her work was pretty good.

Is that the way you would read that? Or am I reading into things? I know I'm not the best wife in the world. I wish I was, but I know I'm not. But isn't it pretty crappy to be reminded of how utterly lacking you are in that department on your thirtieth birthday? Someone please tell me I'm crazy and reading into things.

Valentine's Freebie - Printable

2012-02-05T06:03:00.000-08:00

With the passing of the Christmas and New Years holidays, there's not much to look forward to here except for Valentine's Day. It's not a major holiday, of course, but I have fun letting the kids color and create Valentines for their little friends (and their family). I created these valentines for them last year:

They had a lot of fun coloring them and I love the vintage or cheesy sayings.

Here's the already colored version:

Now I'm sharing them with you! You can download the already colored in sheet by

CLICKING THIS LINK.

You can download the coloring sheet version (black and white) by

CLICKING THIS LINK.

I hope to have a newer Valentine's printable soon so stay tuned!

New Designs in Store

2012-01-09T02:14:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted here. Oops! Things always seem so hectic and then I'm not even sure where all the time goes. At any rate, I've posted some new designs in store. I'm really excited about them.

Have a little one who loves all things that go? I know I have two like that. By plane, train or automobile, however you go, invite your guests in style!

Cookie Monster! How cute is this invitation? I think it'd be really great to actually cut out the top left corner of the invitation, just like he had taken a bite out of it.

Wild thing in your house with a party coming up? Invite your guests with this rockstar inspired design.

I love this western and rustic invitation. Great for a cowboy or cowgirl.

Have a zoo of a party with this safari animals invitation. Design features giraffe, jaguar, monkey, zebra and lion.

I finally got around to designing an owl invitation. I know the owl theme is really popular so I'm a bit behind the times with just now listing it, but oh well. Better late than never, right?

Also, I just have to say, the first five designs have photos of my boys. Aren't they gorgeous? Yeah, I'm that mom. The one who's always bragging about how beautiful--inside and out--her children are.

Christmas Market

2012-01-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

I know this post is a little late in coming, but I figured better late than never. The weekend before Christmas (which somehow seems sooo long ago already) we went to a Christmas market in Rudesheim. Germany and most of Europe is known for their Christmas markets, but this was a really fun one. We met up with some friends of ours and we braved the cold (seriously Mother Nature, quit making it so darn cold without the white stuff to make it worthwhile!).

To get there, we had to take a ferry across the river (the Rhein I believe). If that had been all that we did the entire day the boys would still have been thrilled. You would have thought the ten minute ferry ride was the BEST. THING. EVAR! Okay, so I was a little excited about it too.

The city didn't disappoint us either. I suspect that at any time of the year the city's wonderful to behold but it was even neater with the entire center being closed to traffic and filled with fragrant and colorful market stalls.

We managed to eat our weight I think that day. We had french fries, hot dogs (wursts), hot cocoa, kartoffeln soup (potato soup) in a bread bowl, and chocolate covered strawberries on a stick. And that's only what I remember. There may have been more, but I won't admit to it now.

Honestly it's days like these that make me absolutely fall in love with Europe all over again, even if sometimes I'm homesick and lonely. There's nothing like this back in the States.

DIY Snowglobe Ornaments

2011-12-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

This Christmas the boys and I have had several crafty fun times. One of my favorite times was creating these snowglobe ornaments. They're really easy to make and are really inexpensive. They're made from juice can lids (the frozen from concentrate cans in the freezer section), scrapbook paper, plastic soda bottles, and some crafty embellishments.

Here's What You'll Need: knife, empty coke plastic bottle, juice can lid, drill, ribbon, glitter and glue or nail polish, scrapbook paper, scissors, 2" circular punch (optional), embellishments for inside your snowglobe (I used mini bottle brush trees and ceramic figurines, plus fake snow).

Here's What You'll Do:

Step 1: Gather the aforementioned supplies.

Step 2: Cut down your empty coke plastic bottles. You'll want to make it as even as possible. I used a serrated kitchen knife and it worked really well. You can recycle the bottom part of the bottle but keep the top along with the cap.

Step 3: With a power drill, drill a small hole into the top of the lid. Go all the way through the plastic and be sure your hole is large enough for your ribbon or string to go through.

Step 4 & 5: Use glue to coat the entire top and sides of the bottle's cap, then use glitter to coat the surface. An easier alternative is to use a bottle of nail polish. I had several that had glittery shimmerly colors, but then I embellished it by adding extra glitter (the nailpolish acts as your glue). It's really easy since the nailpolish already comes with a mini brush!

Step 6: String the ribbon or twine through the hole you drilled in the top of the bottle cap. I added a bit of hot glue to the cap to make sure the string would stay in place. You want this ribbon to be your ornament loop so make sure you have enough of a loop to be able to hang it on your tree.

Step 7: Punch or cut out a circle for each side of your metal juice can lid.

Step 8: Glue the scrapbook or patterned paper circle onto each side of your metal juice can lid.

Step 9: Glue the snowglobe embellishments onto the top of your juice can lid.

Step 10: Using fake snow, glitter, or anything else you'd like, place some into the top of your bottle cap. Then carefully (or else you'll have a mess) turn the bottle top over and place it on top of the juice can lid. Hot glue around the edges, adhering the bottle onto the juice can lid. Try to be neat about it, but you'll be covering the edge in ribbon anyway so make sure you have a good bond.

Step 11: Wrap (while hotgluing) the bottom and/or the top around your bottle cap with some pretty ribbon. Embellish it however you'd like. It really helps to do the bottom with a ribbon edge since it hides any sloppy hotgluing work!

Step 12: Hang it on your tree and enjoy!

Santa's Belt Gift Jar

2011-12-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

Want to create a really cute and inexpensive holiday gift? I made these little beauties for my sons' caregivers at daycare. They're made from empty Starbucks mocha glasses (cleaned and sanitized of course). I washed them in hot water to remove the label and the gunk that adhered it. Then I filled them with holiday chocolates (mini Hershey's bars).

To create the Santa Bottle, you'll need scissors, paper, a printer, a glue stick, clear tape, aluminum foil, thin cardboard (like a cereal box), ribbon, and construction paper (red, white and black).

Step 1: Trim out a strip of red construction paper. You'll want it to be about 2.25" wide by 8.5" long. Wrap this around your empty bottle and adhere with a strip of clear tape at the back (have the back of your bottle be the side where they've printed the use by date).

Step 2: Trim out a piece of white construction paper, approximately .5" wide by 2.25" tall. Using the glue stick, adhere it on top of the red band (vertically oriented).

Step 3: Trim out a strip of black construction paper, .5" wide by 8.5" long. Wrap this around the bottle, adhering it with a glue stick.

Step 4: Cut out a small, square piece of thin cardboard. I used an empty cereal box that I cut up. My square was about 2 inches square. Cut out a smaller square inside the cardboard square. My smaller square is about .75" square. Then I wrapped the entire thing with aluminum foil, just like a Christmas present. I used a sharp exacto blade to trim out the inside to create that hole in the middle of the buckle.

Step 5: I printed out the "Ho Ho Ho" label that i created in photoshop and glued it onto the top of the lid with a gluestick. You can download the free printable HERE.

After that, I just tied a bit of red ribbon around the neck of the bottle and filled the bottles with the chocolates. Super easy and super cute!

Teacher or Caregiver Gifts

2011-12-13T23:49:00.000-08:00

So I've been MIA. Suffice it to say that some things got crossed off my to-do list. December is always a hectic month, but I have missed posting. Hopefully now that things have calmed down a bit, I can post more. Yay! At any rate, here's one thing that I've been up to lately:

Caregiver gifts for my boys' counsellors at their daycare. One of his teachers is moving back to the states at the end of this week so I had to get them finished. I think that they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. They're made from the drink carrier thing (cardboard) that comes with the starbucks mochas that you can buy in any grocery store. I wrapped the box with some cute wrapping paper that I had on hand, stuffed it full of goodies (more on that later) and wrapped the whole thing in clear cellophane tied with some twine and a gift tag. Drake and Lincoln loved giving them to their teachers and I think the teachers loved receiving them.

Some of the goodies inside the basket include a snowman Hershey's bar, a giftcard, chocolates, and an empty mocha jar filled with popcorn kernels.

I also included a packet of popcorn seasoning. Mmm ranch popcorn...

I turned one of the empty Starbucks mocha bottles into a Santa jar and filled them with Hershey's holiday chocolates. They turned out too cute! Tutorial coming soon.

Another overall view of my fun caregiver baskets. I'm so glad that the teachers enjoyed them. I wanted them to know that I appreciate what they do day in, day out for my kiddoes.

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

Want to see what a Christmas tree decorated by one toddler and one preschooler looks like? Of course you do!

That's right. Four ornaments on the same single branch and my "love" ornament backwards to where it looks like it reads, "eval." It was decorated with love by four little hands and it's absolutely perfect.

Snowmen Hershey Bars

2011-11-29T00:20:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of creating a gift basket of sorts to give to all of Drake and Lincoln's preschool caregivers (I'll post it later once I have all the parts assembled). Anyway, one part of it is a Hershey's chocolate bar wrapped up like a snowman, which of course ~~I totally stole from~~ was inspired by a pin on pinterest.

Too cute, right? It's not exactly like the pin but I like my take on it. I think it would have looked even cuter if I had some black round brads for the mouth and eye dots, but alas the craft supplies in Germany are sorely lacking.

To create this incredibly simple snowman wrapped Hershey's bar, you'll need sheets of white paper (I used cheap printer paper), a pipe cleaner, clear tape, orange construction paper, glue, a black pen, three scrapbook brads and of course a Hershey's chocolate bar.

What You'll Do:
Cut a sheet of standard US paper into half, while holding it landscape orientation, cut top to bottom. Each sheet of paper will make two snowmen. Place your Hershey's bar on top of the piece of paper to get an idea of where the middle is. Once you have the middle, punch three brads into the paper right in the middle for the buttons. Then draw in two eyes up top and five dots for the mouth. You could conversely use small black round brads, but I had none. Cut a triangle from orange construction paper for the nose, and glue it onto the face. Lastly, wrap a pipecleaner "scarf" around the chocolate bar, meeting up the ends in the front just off-center. Let each end hang down to be the ends of the scarf and trim as necessary. That's it! Very easy and very cute.

Weekend Wanderings - Town Fair

2011-11-28T01:01:00.000-08:00

This past weekend our little city had a Christmas market. I love European Christmas markets and since this one was within walking distance, we of course had to go. This year it was about a third the size of the one last year so I'm not sure what was going on, but we still had lots of fun.

This is the far end of the fair, as you're walking along the main road.

The town square with its Christmas tree

A typical booth. There were several food vendors, along with clothing and home decor booths but the selection was much more slim compared to last year unfortunately. I also just randomly snapped photos because I felt like a creeper taking photos of people's merchandise.

A small four man band played holiday classics. They also played some oompah type music that Germany and Bavaria are famous for. No, I'm not sure it's called oompah music, but that's what I'm going with since that's what it sounds like they were playing.

Drake's favorite part of any fair: the rides!

He even got to go twice, this time Link's in the back of the fire engine, crying. He was tired, poor little fella. The weird part about this fire truck is that it's supposedly American (see the words in English) and also the Texas license plate?

Certainly doesn't look like a Texas license plate to me, but you have to give it to the Germans; atleast they tried to make it look Texan with the cowboy.

Yummy and adorable Santa Claus gingerbread cookies.

We also tried to get a decent photo of the family in front of a Christmas tree in the town hall. Unfortunately this is the best that we came up with. Yeah, it was that bad. One tired toddler, two balloons that kept getting in the way, and a headstrong preschooler does not make a great photo opportunity. And I'm also wearing my son's hat rather than carrying it along since he decided not to wear it. Oh well. Atleast we had a great time, even if we don't have photos of us enjoying it together. Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

You Capture - Blue

2011-11-25T03:23:00.000-08:00

This week's You Capture theme hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry is Blue. With two little boys in this house, you'd think I'd have an overkill of blue. But alas, the photo that I settled on has very little blue in it at all. It's mainly orange in fact. But the fact that it's next to the blue and they're complementary colors I think makes it pop more. It's the last hurrah of fall around here. I took this almost a week ago and already the leaves (and the color) are gone. It's starting to look a lot like winter over here.

Gone are the days of the baseball diamond (until next spring of course). Now it's all about football, hot cocoa, and snow sledding. Well, we're still waiting on that first snow but I suspect it'll be any day now.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I have way too many blessings in my life to give voice to, but I am thankful every day for my life.

Happy Birthday Drake!

2011-11-23T03:28:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe that four years ago my oldest son made me a Mommy. I feel so blessed to have him in my life and it's amazing just the depths of love that I have for him. He's been here just four short years, but it seems like I've known him my entire life. He makes me want to be a better person, one that is deserving of such a sweet little boy. On this his fourth birthday, we celebrated.

Can you guess where we went?

Bowling!

Anxiously watching the ball go down the lane (be it ever so slowly).

I'm so disappointed I wasn't on him for this shot. Still really cute of the moment when he knocked all the pins down.

Link's turn!

Eagerly awating the results.

Woohoo! I hit them!

Way too cute. Love this expression on his face after he knocked the pins down.

Today, Drake is FOUR!

Mommy helps Link and Drake bowl.

Cupcakes!

Blow out the candles...

Relight the candles, and this time sing Happy Birthday, and THEN blow out the candles.

Every present was, "WOW!"

From his Uncle back stateside. He loves building.

Link doing what he loves: shovelling food into his cute face.

We had a wonderful day and I'm so thankful that I got to spend it with my two boys and my sweet husband. Happy birthday, sweet baby Drake!

Easy Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

2011-11-21T00:55:00.000-08:00

So I found this recipe online, yes at Pinterest again (it's not like I'm addicted or anything...). You can find the original recipe and post here at Handle the Heat. Their photo of the cupcakes looks so much better than mine as well. Here's their photo:

Here's mine:

Okay, so mine isn't nearly as pretty, but trust me, they were tasty. I took some in to my coworkers and I was told that they were pretty bad@$$. And they're incredibly easy to make, the only hard part is that you have to refrigerate them for awhile.

What You'll Need:

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies (read: Oreos), 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped

2 pounds cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature and slightly beaten

1 cup sour cream

Pinch of salt

What You'll Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Line your muffin tin with regular paper liners (the foil doesn't peel as easily away, learned this one the hard way). Place one whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. Beat cream cheese until it's smooth with an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar and beat until combined. Add in vanilla and beat again.

3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Beat in sour cream and salt. Then add the chopped cookies in and stir by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly amongst your lined cups, filling almost to the top. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time, until the filling is set (about 22 minutes). Transfer to wire racks to cool and refrigerate atleast 4 hours (up to overnight). Remove them from the tins just before serving so they hold their shapes.

Voila. Easy peasy and very delicious!

Santa Free Printable Advent Countdown

2011-11-14T01:27:00.000-08:00

Inspired by yet another pin on Pinterest, I've created a free printable. This time it's a Santa Beard Advent Countdown. It prints on two sheets of paper (make sure you set your printer to borderless printing) and I recommend printing on heavy cardstock or heavy resume paper (it'll hold up better than your regular printer paper). Link to free download below.

The poem explains it all:

"Santa's beard is very bare. On his chin there is no hair. So each day add one puff so white, and when they're all on, He'll come that night!"

Every day during the month of December, have your little helper glue with tacky glue (or you can use scotch tape balled over) a cotton puff onto the beard area. Once you get to 25 Santa will be on his way! I'm keeping mine on my fridge this year where my little guy can reach it. I'm going to store the cotton balls in a ziplock baggie next to the fridge as well so he knows how far he has to go until Christmas.

Due to convenience's sake, I've created the printable to print on two standard sheets of US paper (8.5 x 11) since I know most people don't have 8.5x22 paper sitting around. You can turn the sheets over and attach them together with a simple band of clear scotch tape along the seam. The file saves as a pdf file, and you can download adobe reader for free from http://www.adobe.com/.

DOWNLOAD SANTA'S BEARD COUNTDOWN HERE

You can see my original inspiration HERE at Oopsey Daisy..

Linking up at: Tatertots and Jello, One Artsy Mama

You Capture - Fall

2011-11-11T03:54:00.000-08:00

This week's You Capture over at I Should Be Folding Laundry is fall. Fall is my absolutely favorite time of the year. Fall to me means the smell of wood burning, beautiful fall foliage, hot cocoa and warm snuggles. I love fall. Here's some of my favorite fall shots from this past week. The fall here in Germany was absolutely stunning and it was such a joy capturing it. Hope you enjoy it too!

Digital Silhouettes

2011-11-07T02:16:00.000-08:00

Recently, okay maybe not recently, a dear friend of mine sent me a care package in the mail. It was absolutely wonderful and thoughtful and amazing. It absolutely made my ~~day~~ week. I wanted to reciprocate the favor, but while I'm crafty at times, I know she has me beat in that department. I wanted to do something I knew she didn't already have or didn't have the time for. So I created some silhouettes of her children for her. These make lovely gifts. Here's how I did it.

Step 1: Find a photo of each subject, preferable a side view or profile view of that person. Enlarge that photo file to fit the size of your template (I'm going to frame mine in 5x7 frames so I wanted to make sure they fit and filled the 5x7 frame). You can size them in anything from photoshop (expensive program) to free programs like picasa, picnik, or GIMP.

Step 2: Once you have each subject scaled to the size you need it, you can go ahead and either remove the background to make it easier on your printer ink or leave it as-is (definitely the easier option). Print each photo on regular printer paper (you want it to be thin and easy to cut through).

Step 3: Find a bit of black poster paper or cardstock and place it underneath your photograph(s). Using a sharp knife, like an exacto blade, slowly and carefully cut through both your photo and the black paper beneath it. Voila!

Step 4: For an added personalized touch, create a 5x7 print with the child's or person's name in a fancy script along the bottom of the print. Adhere the silhouette to the 5x7 print. I used scrapbook squares to attach mine and they worked really well, plus they're acid free. Frame and you have a great and personal gift that any mother would love.

You Capture - Halloween

2011-11-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

This week's You Capture challenge is Halloween. I only took about two hundred photos on the day we went trick or treating so this was an easy challenge for me. Here are a few of my favorites:

Linking up to You Capture at I Should be Folding Laundry

Easy Crockpot Chicken Recipe

2011-11-01T01:27:00.000-07:00

With my new job which keeps me away from home until well past 6pm, I'm thankful for my new crockpot. It means I can have dinner on the table as soon as I hit the door, and that's a good thing with two toddlers who are often starving and impatient. Here's my latest foray into my crockpottery:

Easy Crockpot Chicken:

What You'll Need:

1 to 2 lbs. chicken breast or tenderloins (I used frozen)

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1 teaspoon Italian seasonings (basil, oregano and garlic powder)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
4 medium potatoes, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

What You'll Do:
Mix salad dressing, seasonings, and cheese together in measuring cup or bowl. Pour half of the mixture into the bottom of your crockpot. Then add your chicken into the bottom, and top with the remaining half of the mixture. Throw in the assorted vegetables around the chicken. Set the crockpot on low setting, and let cook for 6-8 hours, until chicken is cooked and potatoes are tender.

This serves well on a bed of rice or with rice as a side dish. Enjoy!

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T02:54:00.000-07:00

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. It's so much fun to dress up and in this case, watch my children enjoy the season. This year is probably the last where we can tell Drake how to dress. He's definitely got his own opinions about what he likes and dislikes, but we did manage to convince him to go as Luigi from the Mario brothers this time. Link went as Mario and together they were too cute! They had a blast trunk or treating.

Hope your Halloween was just as enjoyable!

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 14

2011-10-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is sunsets. Unfortunately, sunsets around here are often lackluster. I didn't manage to snap the one decent sunset this week due to the fact that my camera wasn't in the car with me, so I'm re-using an old one that I snapped a couple of months back. It really was stunning, so posting it twice is hopefully okay. Enjoy!

Soccer, toddler style

2011-10-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

We enrolled Drake into a pre-soccer training camp thing on base. It lasted for eight weeks and they were learning the basics of soccer. They had their last practice this past Monday. I honestly couldn't tell you any single thing specifically about soccer other than you're supposed to use your feet and not your hands. But I'm proud to say that my boy thoroughly enjoyed it and that makes it so worthwhile to me. He wasn't just learning the basics of soccer. He was learning how to listen to other adults, how to make friends, how to be patient, and how to be a good sport. These are lessons that I cherish.

At the end of their last practice they had a fun ceremony where the kids all received a participation trophy (usually I'm against these as it teaches kids that it's okay to be mediocre or that you get rewards in life just for participating, but they're three so I think it's fine for this age) and a certificate. All the kids got different "awards" like bravest defender, best listener, etc. Drake got the Hustle Award for always being first in line and the first to volunteer. I definitely think it fits him.

Besides, I have video of him playing goalie and randomly running off from his goalpost whenever the opposite team came at him so best defender or even adequate goalie were out for him.

Dinosaur Park!

2011-10-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a friend of mine and I took the boys to the local dinosaur park. They have huge statues of dinosaurs as well as a park, soccer field, and a playground all inside the compound. It's really a lot of fun for the boys. Every time we go they have a blast. This past weekend they had displays of pumpkins in the theme of fairy tales. The boys were unimpressed with the pumpkins, and more interested in the slides and the playground. Oh well. It was nice to get out and do something "fallish" with the boys.

This is the cheesy smile you get when you have to bribe your child to sit for photos. Ugh. lol.

"How big is it, Drake?" "BIIIIGGG!"

My friend holding Drake up so he can see the pumpkin displays.

Beautiful fall foliage

Rawr!!!

No photos, please.

He was entirely uncooperative the entire time and I have maybe 2 photos of him from the entire outing. boo.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 13

2011-10-20T01:16:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is silhouette. This should be easy since I have two cute little guys that I love to photograph, but again, life happened. I've been so busy that I've barely managed to pick up my camera, except for the times when I'm teaching photography to the kids at my workplace. That's really sad because my kiddoes are at such a fun stage that I don't want to miss capturing the memories we're making. So I'm resolving to be better about that. Anyway, here's two shots which maybe, kinda, hopefully count as silhouettes:

First bike ride! Check out the cool shadow.

These black birds were so dark that it's almost like they're a silhouette, right?

check out some fun silhouettes (and most likely better) over at A Step in the Journey

Road Monogram for the Playroom

2011-10-14T02:46:00.000-07:00

Inspiration from Pinterest strikes again! I found myself this morning with about 3 hours of spare time. My options to fill that time were: a) nap, b) be crafty, or c) clean the house. Option A was awfully tempting but alas today for some reason I'm wide awake. So I opted for Option B since it sounds like so much more fun than Option C. I re-created this fun road monogram that I found on pinterest:

My monograms aren't as exact as the original pin, but I wanted them to be more child-like. I used black construction paper, cut out the letters I needed (D for Drake, L for Lincoln and then P for Proffitt), glued them onto a white piece of paper, then with chalk added my lanes. I used hot-glue to glue my cars onto my streets. I also made these smaller (the D and L are 8x10 size) so I used the party supply cars (you know, the ones that come as favors). They were also cheaper than purchasing hot wheels. Voila! Super cute artwork for the playroom on the dime.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 12

2011-10-13T03:44:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge over at A Step in the Journey is bokeh. One of my favoritest things to capture! I love setting up my camera to blur my background and sometimes even adding in more bokeh on my processed images. Unfortunately, I just have not had much time to get anything done. I would feel like such a slacker, except for I'm incredibly busy with other things, just non-bloggy things. Here's my single lonely capture of bokeh for this week.

Check out more bokeh in all its glory over at A Step in the Journey

New Christmas Designs!

2011-10-11T03:02:00.000-07:00

So things have been crazy hectic around here. I'm still trying to catch up. I keep adding things to my to-do list without ever crossing any off. It's kinda getting pathetic. I might just have to put things on there that are easy, like "kiss the kids." Then I can feel all accomplished for the day!

At any rate, I've been listing some new holiday Christmas card designs in my store. I'm really excited about them and I have a few more in mind that I need to work on, but that's only when I find the time. All available at my store HERE.

There's either a white or a black border aroudn these images that won't be printed on your card if you choose one of my designs. It's just the easiest way to format them and make them square for etsy's photo restrictions. All designs are completely customizable and more can be found at my store HERE.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 11

2011-10-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

This week's (ELEVEN!) challenge of the 20 Week Photography Challenge is orange. Again, I had such high ambitions of getting things done around here and then having plenty of time to snap away til my heart's content. It didn't happen. I did manage to snap two orange items for you...

Some orange popsicle sticks, and red, and purple, and..

These circus signs are showing up everywhere around here. They're kinda creepy.

So there you have it. My pitiful attempts at orange. But maybe this weekend I'll finally get to the pumpkin patch or the castle at the top of our city to shoot some lovely fall foliage. Linking up to the challenge HERE.

Cork Monograms

2011-10-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

Inspiration from Pinterest strikes again! I've seen it several times pinned all over pinterest, so I just had to do it myself: a cork monogram. I actually just did one initial (for our last name). It turned out really really cute, so I made one for my brother as well for Christmas (shh..don't tell him!). His kitchen's decorated in a wine theme so his cork monogram should be absolutely cute and fitting.

I tried two different versions of the monogram, one with the corkends showing and one with the long sides showing. I can't figure out which one I like better. The one with the corks on their end definitely takes a lot more corks, but I think it's a more substantial piece in the end. There's really no tutorial here, since it's just as easy as it looks: you layout your letter, then once you're happy with it, hot glue the corks together. The M initial got a bit unwieldy and unsturdy due to its size, so I hotglued popsicle sticks to the backside as bracers. Thank you, Pinterest and all its wonderfully creative people!

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 10

2011-10-01T01:12:00.000-07:00

This week's photography challenged hosted by A Step in the Journey is Hands. We have plenty of cute little hands around here. Hands that get into trouble, hands that get messy, hands that explore their world, and hands that give hugs and caresses. Here's some of my favorite hands shots this week:

Linking up to http://www.astepinthejourney.com/. Cheers!

You Capture - Green

2011-09-29T01:03:00.000-07:00

This week's theme over at You Capture hosted by Beth is green. I had such high ambitions for this capture, but alas, life intervened. I've been incredibly busy with my new job, my old job, being a wife, being a mom, and just generally being. So I snapped very few photos of green, but here's what I've got:

Love the intense stare of my oldest boy while he practices soccer

Drake always has fun at soccer, here he's practicing with Daddy

Night glow sticks for bedtime as an incentive for going to bed

Spider web in the grass with morning dew

There's a bit of green still about, look closely in the fog

Linking up to http://www.ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com/. Check out all the other greenness on Thursday!

Party Time!

2011-09-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

I love doing graphic design, especially for fun theme parties. Awhile back a friend of a friend contacted me with a custom request for a kitschy party she was having in honor of her birthday party. Each table would have a kitschy theme, like garden gnomes, Care Bears, and unicorns to name a few. I was totally on board with this! I love designing and getting to cover such a wide range of designs is right up my alley. Recently she was nice enough to send along the photos of her party. Check out all the kitschy cuteness!

LOVE it. Thanks to Stephanie Proffitt (no relation :)) for providing me those photos, which were taken by the very talented Lanna Hoffman (check her out HERE).

Lazy Weekend

2011-09-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

Around here, we had a lazy weekend. We did absolutely nothing, which is what I think the family needed. We spent loads of time playing (cars, blocks, and more cars) but we kept it low-key. Everyone in the house seemed like they needed time to unwind (I'm decompressing from a nasty cold and my first week at my new job, the husband had to work weekend duty, and the kids are getting over the sniffles).

My littlest guy fought and fought against a nap. Around 4 pm I noticed it had gotten incredibly quiet upstairs, so I went to check. This is what I found:

Yeah, he'd fallen asleep on TOP of his dresser. Even though his bed's right there, and much more comfortable. I guess the dresser looked like a great place to nap. Once I recovered from my shock and worry (he could have really hurt himself if he had rolled!!!) I grabbed the camera, because it was just too cute and too funny. Silly guy!

You Capture - Industrial

2011-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

This week's You Capture was Industrial. I really thought that this challenge was going to be hard. I live in a typical German village, we don't have any industrial plants or anything like that. I certainly didn't feel like driving to the big city just to snap a few photos, so I decided to take a walk after work one morning and see what I could find. It turns out that tokens of our industrialized life are everywhere.

Take for example telephone and cable poles (above shot taken in foggy morning conditions, same pole below during bright sunny conditions).

I also found this adorable car. I don't know if it counts as industrial, but I'm sooo using it. It was too cute not to snap. Linking up to Beth's blog over at I Should Be Folding Laundry

Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese

2011-09-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

As I may or may not have mentioned a million times, I'm addicted to Pinterest. There's so many fabulous finds out there, but I really love pinning recipes. I'm not too adventurous in the kitchen (I tend to stick to the same old recipes) so I really love getting out there and trying something new. Yes, I own a cookbook. No, it's not nearly as much fun as seeing a pin on pinterest. Here's my attempt at Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese (as adapted from HERE).

What You Need:
2 ripe but firm pears
3.5 oz goat cheese, crumbled
3/4 oz almond slivers
1 sprig rosemary
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp butter

What You Do:
1. Wash the pears and slice them lengthwise into halves. With a small sharp paring knife and a spoon remove the core and seeds from each pear, leaving a round well for the filling.

2. Heat the butter in a skillet and brown the pears, skin side down, on low heat for about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven at 350ºF (180ºC).

3. Place the pears in a ovenproof dish and pour the cooking butter on top. Add half a cup of water in the ovenproof dish. Bake 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, gently toss the goat cheese with the almond slivers and the rosemary in a small bowl. Season to taste. I added some chives.

5. Remove the pears from the oven. Divide the mixture among the pears, mounding it on top of the indentation. Spoon a bit of honey and bake them again for another 10-15 minutes. Serve immediately.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 9

2011-09-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

This week's 20 Week Photography Challenge is "A Mess." Wow. That's so incredibly easy to capture around here. I have two children, aged 3 and 2. My house is always a mess. I guess maybe the hard part is finding a bit of the mess to photograph that's visually captivating.

Here's some of this week's messes:

Linking up to A Step in the Journey. Go check out some other lovely messes on Thursday!

Number Skills

2011-09-19T01:45:00.000-07:00

Around here we had a very busy weekend of doing absolutely nothing. Well, a load of laundry and the dishes may have gotten done, but that's all. I've been battling this massive cold for over a week now so I haven't had much energy. One thing I did manage to do was creating a number recognition game for my oldest son. I got the idea from Pinterest. (side note, if you're on pinterest leave your link to your profile below so that I can follow you!)

As you can see, it's really very simple but tons of fun for the little ones (plus educational, and you can't beat that!). All it takes is a paper plate, a marker or two, and a sharpie. I divided the plate into ten different spaces and put dots ranging from one to ten into each space. I used different colors to make it more interesting. Then I wrote the numbers on each clothespin that corresponded to each dot. It was Drake's job to correctly match up each numeral with the correct number of dots. He had lots of fun counting the dots and using the clothespins.

Who knew mastering our numbers could be so much fun! You can check out the original post (and my inspiration for this game) here: Naturally Chic Mama

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 8

2011-09-16T01:09:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge is black and white. I love shooting in color and then adjusting my files to be black and white (always saving the color versions of course in case I want to go back). I find that the best subjects in black and white are usually people. I'm not a big fan of landscapes in black and white (think Ansel Adams) though of course there are exceptions. Unfortunately since I've been really sick this week with a bug I haven't had much energy to take some photos. I took one which I'm submitting here:

This is my littlest guy. We were on the floor finger painting. The smudges on him are bright pops of paint. It was a messy but fun experience. Here's the color version, just so you can compare:

I think I actually prefer the color version. It gives a better narration I think. But since I'm sick and slacking on my photography challenge, that's all you get. But I will leave you with my all-time favorite photo that I took in black and white. I just absolutely love this photo of my father (Papa) with his oldest grandson (who is now almost four years old).

I love the tenderness of the pose, and the casualness of it. The juxtaposition of old life and new life. The way my dad looks to be breathing in this new baby smell of his first grandson. I think it's actually a better photo because they aren't looking at the camera. What do you think?

Linking up over at A Step in the Journey.

You Capture - Apple

2011-09-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge over at I Should be Folding Laundry is apple. It'll be interesting to see everyone's take on this. Past challenges have been more open-ended (like a color or vague subject) but this one leaves little to the imagination. I can't wait to see everyone's take on the apple. Beth encouraged us all to be creative..hmm. Here's my creative and humble submissions for this week:

Check out all the great apple submissions tomorrow at Beth's blog.

Fall Wreath

2011-09-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

You know all those cute photos that are blowing up blogs and pinterest of adorable yarn wreaths? Yeah, I just had to get in on the action. I actually created my yarn wreath about 4 months ago but just now got around to creating the flower embellishments. It's a really simple thing to create so I definitely recommend doing it if you're in a crafty mood and want a cute wreath. Here's my final creation:

I used a couple of different types of felt flowers. The four petal ones are from the Martha Stewart tutorial which can be found here: Martha Stewart. The large rosette in the middle I did following a friend's tutorial, which you can find here: A Bird and a Bean. Both were super easy.

Here's my quick tutorial for creating your own wreath:

1. Buy a skein or two of yarn (depending on how big your wreath is going to be). Purchase a wreath form while you're at it. And if you can find some fabric or felt to create the flower embellishments while you're at it, you're good to go.

2. Start wrapping your wreath form with your yarn. This will take loads of time and is the hardest part of this project because it requires loads of patience. I wrapped mine twice so that the white form didn't show through. I secured the end by a dot of hot glue.

3. Create your flowers. As many or as few as you want. Follow the tutorials on the websites linked above as those two wonderful women will explain things much much better than I ever will.

4. That's it. Enjoy!

Here's my wreath as part of my motley wall composition:

If you create a fall wreath (or any wreath for that matter) I'd love to see it! Send me a link in the comments. I'm always looking for new crafty ~~ideas to steal~~ inspiration.

The Spider in the Doorway

2011-09-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

I am deathly afraid of spiders. Cold hands, goosebumps, heart palpitations. The works. Lest you judge me, I will tell you I wasn't always this way. I used to be okay with spiders. I even used to "rescue" them from our house and set them free in the wild. My brother and I once had a wild tarantula (found on our front door one night) that we kept as a pet. I used to handle it all the time.

Now, I recognize that spiders have their purposes (like killing other pests/insects and being a creepy factor in a haunted house). But they have absolutely no purpose in my life. After I got bitten by a brown recluse (TWICE) and my skin puffed up and then died I've had ~~a bit of~~ a totally insane fear of spiders.

So fast forward to last Tuesday. I had the house to myself and I'm cleaning and getting things done. I've taken out the recycling out to the garage and cleaned the back yard up. I'm on my way into the garage with a box full of paper recycling and I stop dead in my tracks. There's a MASSIVE spider on the doorway. So I did what any sane person would do: I dropped my box, screamed like a little girl and promptly backed up ten feet or so, because we all know that spiders can easily jump nine feet. Especially when you're the grand-frickin-daddy of all spiders. This thing was easily the largest spider I've ever been witness to outside of the zoo (and keep in mind I'm an expert since I've once had a comparatively SMALLER tarantula as a pet). And this wasn't a cutish spider with fuzzy legs. This monstrosity was evil incarnate, complete with eight skinny hairless legs. It was the size of my open palm, and I. AM. NOT. EXAGERRATING. Oh how I wish that I were.

I quickly wracked my brain for ways to dispose of the spider. I can't get close to a spider, that's absolutely out of the question. And a showdown between a normal sized shoe and this monster of a spider could have gone either way, plus I wouldn't wear the shoes after that so I had to find another way to murder him. I thought about hosing him down off the door jamb and then smashing him in with a rock, but that also brought about the possiblity of getting too close. Plus, I stood a great chance of just hosing him into the garage, near where I keep my craft supplies. That would not do. I've had great success just putting a jar or tupperware over eight-legged offenders before and waiting til my hubby gets home to do the deed but this sucker was on the side of the doorway and I'm pretty sure he could have carried off my entire stash of tupperware, all at once. There was nothing for it, I'd have to phone the husband and ask for advice.

So I called him at work, in his office. He was busy, I could tell from his tone of voice and the many voices in the background, but I didn't care. He had to be witness to my death from spider if it all didn't go to plan. He'd have to know how it all had gone down. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "THERE'S A HUGE FRICKING SPIDER IN THE GARAGE."
Him: "Okay. Just leave it there. I'll take care of it later."
Me: "No. I don't think you understand. It's seen me. It knows I'm here now. It has to die."
Him: (laughing) "Okay. So get a shoe."
Me: "I don't think that'll work. It's too big. I don't know what to do. Should I just throw a rock at it and hope to hit it and smash it in?"
Him: "No. Your aim is terrible."
Me: (whining) "but then what?"
Him: "What about a flyswatter?"
Me: "That might work, but I'll have to get close. And I'll have to throw the flyswatter away later. I won't be able to use it again. I don't know that I can do this."
Him: "Really? Throw it away? Just wipe it off."
Me: "HELL no. It could come back from the dead or something. I can't do this. It would be easier to just concede defeat and buy a different house."
Him: "just do it. I'm waiting."
Me: "You're going to have to clean it up when I'm done. I won't be able to dispose of the body or the flyswatter. I can't touch them again."
Him: "Really?"
Me: "K. I'm doing it. 1....2....EEEEEEK."

The eek part was really just me screaming, loudly. Like a little girl. I did manage to kill the spider, one swat. After swinging, I dropped the flyswatter and ran. Just in case, you know, I had missed or angered the beast. The evidence is still in the doorway. I couldn't bring myself to get any nearer again. The husband urged me to "check to see if it's really dead." Are. You. Kidding. Me? Absolutely not. It's down, curled into a ball. I refuse to get any closer a second time. The first time took an incredible amount of strength. I'm not made of the kind of stuff that allows me to get near to death twice in one go.

PLEASE ONLY SCROLL DOWN IF YOU ARE NOT DEATHLY AFRAID OF SPIDERS...
I'm going to post photos of the beast. Mainly because he was pretty impressive, but you also need to understand how close to death I came. And survived. These photos are not for the weak of heart. You've been warned. You still have time to look away. Go, run now.

Okay so he looks smaller in this photo, because it's out of context. The width of that door jamb is a standard CMU (concrete masonry unit) and that's approximately 7 5/8" thick, so he's about 1/3 of that in diameter, which puts him at about 2.5" diameter. SCARY. Even the husband conceded that it was the biggest spider he'd seen outside of the zoo.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 7

2011-09-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

This week's photography challenge hosted over at A Step in the Journey is What I Wore Today. As I may or may not have mentioned previously, I'm not a fan of self-portraits. I'm usually the one behind the camera. So I may have gotten a little crafty and shown you only one piece of what I wore today.

These are my favoritest heels that I currently own right now. Though there are a pair of ADORABLE shoes at the base exchange that I covet. Secretly and without hope. They're $158. I would never ever spend that much on shoes. There's so many ways to spend $158 and getting a single pair of shoes for that much seems like such an exorbitant waste to me.

I also have to admit that I was tempted to pull a Joey on you all. You know, "Could I BE wearing any more clothes?"

Alas, that was way too much work. Linking up to http://www.astepinthejourney.blogspot.com/

You Capture - Summer Sunsets

2011-09-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

This week's theme over at I Should Be Folding Laundry is summer sunsets, or back to school. Since I don't have children old enough to go to school and I'd feel like a real creeper taking photos of other people's children, I did the summer sunset challenge. I just have one shot for you. Sunsets in Germany (atleast in my part of it) aren't that impressive. This was a real rare treat. You can check out more beautiful photos tomorrow (Thursday) over at Beth's blog

Guilt

2011-09-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Today both boys started preschool. I have very mixed and conflicting feelings about this. I'm so so excited that they're somewhere they love, getting some great attention, and socializing with other children. They're also learning how to follow directions, listen to another adult figure, and be polite. All of these things are wonderful and I'm excited because it's such great practice for when Drake starts school next year.

But it's awfully quiet here. All by myself. No little running feet. No thrown toys. No hugs or kisses. Gah. I miss them so much.

I felt like I was doing a disservice by staying home with them and not being able to devote every minute of every day while I was home paying attention to them (bills needed paid, house needed cleaning, etsy orders needed completing...). Guilt. Since I'm starting a new job they have to start daycare anyway and since the slot was available now we have to take it now (even though I haven't started my job just yet). So they're in daycare. And I feel guilt. Again.

Maybe that's the mark of a good mother (please, please let it be). That I always constantly worry about them and wish and hope and pray that I'm making the right choices for them. To give them every advantage they need. To raise conscientious and compassionate and well-rounded individuals.

Weekend Travels - Rothenburg ob der Tauber

2011-09-05T03:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we travelled to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for their Imperial City Festival. They had concerts, re-enactors, medieval camps and shopping. Some of my favorite things! The city itself was worth the two hour plus drive just for the architecture. It's one of the best preserved Medieval cities in Europe. It's absolutely gorgeous. The main part of the city is surrounded by a city wall which is free (I hope) to roam about on top. Drake and I climbed it to see the view while James and Link stayed below.

We had a great weekend! Hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend as well.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 6

2011-09-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

This week's photography challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is "from a low angle."
I took a ton of photos for this week's challenge as it proved to be an easy one (grab camera, lie on stomach, take shots) but am only showing three. I've been a bit of a digital hoarder (okay, a big time digital hoarder). I have so many photos that I'm reluctant to throw away, even if they're grainy, out of focus, or hopelessly overexposed. I'm trying to be better about this and so I've tossed most of my shots from this week into my trash bin on my pc. Here's what remains:

Linking up at:

You Capture - Peace

2011-09-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

This week's theme is Peace over at I Should be Folding Laundry. After spending many wishful moments trying to find a graffitied peace sign or a white dove, I looked around and found my peace. Peace is two brothers getting along, even if only momentarily.

Peace is also found whenever little ones take a nap (which is becoming fewer and further between). I love the sweet expressions on their little faces as they sleep. I could spend all night just watching them breathe.

Linking up to Beth's blog for this week's You Capture.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T00:27:00.001-07:00

Top Ten Tuesday - Things You Don't Know About Me

2011-08-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the top ten things you {probably} don't know about me. You also probably don't care, but I thought I'd share anyway. You're welcome. =P

10. I've never taken a single photoshop or computer editing software program class. Shhh! Don't tell my clients that I'm self-taught, they'll get crazy ideas like thinking they can design their own holiday cards and business logos too. Well, I suppose that's not an entirely bad thing. I'm a firm believer in knowledge is power.

9. I do a wicked Kermit the Frog impression.

8. I'm only 63 inches tall, which sounds much more impressive than 5' 3". Okay, okay...I'm 5' 2.75" but you round up, right?

7. The Dark Crystal traumatized me as a small child growing up. {No worries, I absolutely love it now and plan to ~~terrorize~~ subject my children to it later in life.}

6. I once drank ate and drank an entire large (64 ounce) jar of dill pickles. Because it sounded like a good idea. It wasn't.

5. I've wanted to be an architect since I was in third grade. My childhood hero was Frank Lloyd Wright. I think Legos had a huge impact on me wanting to become an architect.

4. I no longer have any desire to be an architect. Crazy how life changes you.

3. I have an addiction. I'm afraid it's pretty serious. I. Can't. Stop. Pinning. Things. On. Pinterest. I think I need a 12 step program, or just more hours in the day. Yes, that'll solve it.

2. I watch really dumb comedies and giggle all the while. I'm pretty sure atleast 40% of my brain is used up by useless movie quotes. Some of my favorites: Super Troopers, Dodgeball, and Tommy Boy.

1. I've never had much of a backbone. I have a hard time with conflict and standing up for myself. I've gotten better over the years, but it's still something I struggle with.

Linking up to Oh Amanda for her fun Top 10 Tuesday. Check out more Top 10 lists at her website!

Daddy's Pretty Crafty Too

2011-08-29T00:52:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful weekend here. Hubby had a birthday and we kept things lowkey (his favorite kind of day) and just spent some good family together time. After eight years of marriage and over a decade of knowing my husband, I can still be surprised it seems. He's got a clever crafty side!

Check out what he did to a Gatorade bottle cap for our youngest son:

The poor little guy wanted to drink out of the big Gatorade bottle too, just like the bigger people. But he kept spilling it (he's easily distracted or loses focus as he's two) so Daddy drilled a hole in the cap, inserted a straw, and gave it to Link. Little guy's so excited and proud of his new "cup" that he's dragging it about everywhere with him. Too cute! I have big plans for the hubby to drill a hole into water bottle caps too and then I can throw those in the day bag.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 5

2011-08-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

This week's photography challenged hosted by Laura Beth at A Step in the Journey is from a high angle. I may have had an advantage this week because we went to a fair (see yesterday's post for more photos) and we rode the ferris wheel. That's not cheating, right? Here's my photos this week:

To check out more great photos and fantastic people, check it out here:

The Fair

2011-08-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

So maybe I should have posted on Monday what we did this past weekend, but I was too excited to show you all my new typography art. You can check out the free printable HERE.

This past weekend we met up with some friends and hit a local festival. It was more like a fair that you'd expect from a county, but it was a lot of fun. We had bratwursts, currywursts (Germany..always with the wursts), and ice cream of course. They even had several places selling slushies. Yummy! D had to get his favorite (orange) and I enjoyed a cola one.

Here's some of my favorite photos. Hope you had an excellent weekend too!

Explore, Dream, Discover Free Printable Subway Art

2011-08-22T01:42:00.000-07:00

So I have a confession to make: I like to change my home decor atleast twice a year. I have an addiction right now to fun graphics and typography in general. It's a good thing I can design things myself or I would end up spending so much money on cute graphics. I thought it might be nice to share my most recent design with you all, so you can switch out those printables in your home too. This one is a lovely quote from Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens). I love the quote itself and really should practice it more.

It reads, "Twenty years from now, You will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." I think it's a beautiful sentiment.

Here's a detailed view of it:

And here's an overall view of the design (please don't right click and save this image. The download link is below, and it's free and without the watermark, no strings attached):

You can download this design (it's an 8x10 print centered on a sheet of standard sized US paper) for free here:

MEDIAFIRE DOWNLOAD LINK

If you do download the design, drop me a line and let me know if you've got the time. I'd love to hear from you and if you have any suggestions on future quotes or free printables, let me know!

Linking up to: Making the World Cuter, The DIY Showoff, New Nostalgia, Todays Creative Blog, Tatertots and Jello. Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 4

2011-08-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge is Dinner. Ugh. I wish I was more of a Martha Stewart in the kitchen. I tend to have a few tried and true recipes and I rotate between them. I've recently tried expanding my horizons. Here's last night's dinner. It was supposed to be Chicken Fried Rice, but since I didn't have soy sauce it wasn't exactly chicken fried rice, but it was still tasty.

It didn't photograph terribly well, but that's probably my fault. I'm simply awful at photographing food. I definitely need loads more practice. Consider it on my to-do list.

Here's my adapted recipe if you're interested in making this incredibly easy and quick dinner.

Chicken Fried Rice

What You'll Need:

2 - 3 chicken breasts, seasoned and diced
3 scrambled eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 grated carrots

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

3/4 cup peas

2-3 strips bacon, fried

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp. minced garlic

2 cups whole grain rice (non-instant)

soy sauce

What You'll Do:
1. If you have time, marinate the chicken in soy sauce or your seasoning of choice. I didn't have any soy sauce on hand so I used a splendid mixture of spices that ended up tasting like smoked applewood seasonings. Use whatever suits your tastebuds.

2. Cook the chicken in a small amount of olive oil. Drain any excess olive oil and add the shredded carrots and diced onions. Saute until the onions go clear.

3. Add the peas, garlic, and cooked bacon to your chicken mixture, stirring well and lowering the heat so as not to burn it.

4. Meanwhile, make your rice in a large pan. If you use 2 cups rice, you'll want to boil it in 4 cups water and a dash of salt. If you're using a boxed rice (like the boil in bag) be sure to follow those directions. Once your rice is fully cooked, but not mushy, drain it and add the butter. Mix well. You can also add more of your seasoning that you used on your chicken directly onto the rice as well to make it more flavorfully. Just taste after every seasoning attempt to make sure you don't overdo it.

5. Scramble three eggs and chop it into little pieces. Add the egg and the cooked rice mixture to the chicken pan. Stir. Serve, topped with soy sauce or not, your choice.

Recipe adapted from: One She Two She
Linking up to A Step in the Journey as part of the 20 week photography challenge.

You Capture - Ordinary Moments

2011-08-18T02:56:00.000-07:00

This week's You Capture theme at I should be folding laundry is Ordinary Moments. We happen to have a lot of those around here. Around here, an ordinary moment might be:

Riding on our Retro Rocket,

or playing in an empty toys bin,

or learning our colors,

playing educational games on the computer,

making lovely artwork at the table,

or maybe even "helping" Mommy clean the house.

A full day of Ordinary Moments often ends like this.

Check out more Ordinary Moments and some amazing ladies and men over at:

DIY pretty patterned binder clips

2011-08-16T02:15:00.000-07:00

Drake's starting preschool soon. It makes me incredibly happy and sad all at the same time. I don't know how he got so old so quickly. As part of a teacher gift, I created some pretty patterned binder clips for his teacher. They're really easy to make, but they're such a cute little accessory. Here's the final version:

I used an old map that I printed out from an image online. To make it "antique" I aged it a bit, which I'll explain later. You can use any scrapbook paper that you happen to have on hand of course.

Here's what you'll need:

Binder clips (as many as you'd like)

Scrapbook paper or printed images

Glue, I used quick set crazy glue

Sealer, I used Martha Stewart's decoupage glue and sealer

Tea bag or two

Here's what you'll do:

Step 1: Print out the images you'd like to use. Keep in mind that these binder clips are very small. The largest one that I had was 1.25" by .625" on each face. You'll need a strip about 1.25" wide by 1.75" tall to fit one of the largest binder clips. If you already have pre-printed scrapbook paper printed, you might just want to trim it down to size. You can hold the paper up next to the clip to get a good idea about the size that you'll need.

Step 2: Trim down the paper to fit your binder clip, making sure that the paper wraps all the way around the clip. Make sure that if you have any text that it's right side up (not upside down) when measuring it. Once you have the correct size, glue the piece of paper to the clip. Press firmly on the paper for a bit after adhering it to ensure a good seal. I suggest starting at the main face and working your way across the top and back down the backside when adhering the paper to the clip.

Step 3: Skip this step if you're just using standard old scrapbook paper and you don't want that aged look. But if you want to age your clips to give them an antique look, follow this step.

To age your clips, brew a cup of tea. Don't throw away the bag of tea, though. You'll want to squeeze out the excess water (leaving very little inside the bag) and rub the bag over your designs. Pass over the designs as many times as necessary (allowing them to dry between passes) to age the paper as much or as little as you'd like.

Step 4: Once you're happy with the "antiqueness" of your design, seal the entire clip with a couple coats of your sealer (again, I used Martha Stewart's Decoupage Glue and Sealer).

Let dry, put them in a cute drawstring pouch along with some other cute teacher essentials and you've got yourself one cute teacher gift.

Linking to: Todays Creative Blog

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 3

2011-08-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is bold colors. With two bold little personalities around here, you'd think bold colors wouldn't be hard to find. In fact, they weren't. We took the kids to a little fair in our city here and of course, bold colors were everywhere. Here's some of my favorites:

Linking up over at the 20 week photography challenge. Feel free to join in on the fun!

You Capture - Happiness

2011-08-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

There's so much happiness to be had, if only one looks or tries hard enough to achieve it. Atleast, that's how it is around here. I know that there are certain circumstances and times when happiness is hard to find. Around here, we're optimists because we choose to be.

Both him and his tricycle look happy to be enjoying a SUNNY day in Germany

Someone graffitied a smiley face onto the park bench. Can't blame about happy graffiit can you?

Link loves when Daddy's home to play with him.

Even their tricycle is happy.

My new smexy purse definitely makes me happy.

And I'll end with some of my favorite lyrics in the whole wide world, a song called "happiness" by the Fray.

"Happiness was just outside my window

I thought it'd crash blowing eighty miles an hour

But happiness is a little more like knocking

On your door, you just let it in."

There's also a line about "happiness throws a shower of sparks" which I absolutely love.

Linking up to Beth's blog for You Capture!

Bachelorette Party Design

2011-08-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

Since I don't have time for a proper post, I'll just update you all on a cute new design available in my store. It's a little black dress bachelorette party design. Love it!

The design features a modern edge and shows the bridal gown or dress in front of little black dresses along with a saying about donning those little black dresses and mixing and mingling for the bride's last days of being single! I've also added some new designs in store in the birth announcements and birthday party invitations categories (pool party anyone?). Have a great Tuesday!

Hallway Photo Composition

2011-08-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: I have thousands upon thousands of unprinted photos. I also have several blank and stark white (minus the dirty handprints here and there) walls. Sounds like a great time to create a wall composition of some of my favorite photos!

One of the largest expanses of my house that remains undecorated is the hallway near the open staircase. I hate walking up the stairs and seeing nothing but a broad expanse of white. Since we're renters here in Germany I can't paint the stairwell, so instead I've created a photo collage.

I think it fills the space nicely. It has a nice movement to it (following the climb of the stairs) and provides a nice bit of interest to an otherwise boring space. It's actually one of my favorite walls now. I love looking back at old photos of all my favorite people: my parents, my boys, my stepdaughter, and my niece to name a few.

Here's my tips for creating a nice collage wall:

I think a composition works best like this if you have something to pull it all together. You can do all black and white photos for instance, or all black frames (like I've done here). Whatever it is, you'll need a unifying element. I've used a myriad of sizes of frames as well to showcase my photos.

You'll also want to use both portrait and landscape oriented photos. I also find that it helps to do a trial run of how you'll lay out your photos. You can lay them out on the floor and re-arrange them a lot easier than doing so on the walls.

Once you find a layout that you're pleased with, start with the middle of the composition and work outwards in both directions. To hang your photos, I recommend turning your frame backwards (the photo itself is actually facing the wall and can't be seen) so that you can tell exactly where that little nail should go in your wall. This ~~will~~ should save you a ton of extranneous divots in your wall. A pencil to mark on the wall is also helpful and easily erased. I've also heard of people putting a dab of toothpaste on the hanger part of their frame then pushing it against the wall where you want it placed, then nailing in the nail exactly where the dab of toothpaste remains on your wall. Easy peasy!

The middle of my layout is a family rules type of subway art print that I created. It's 11x17 (printed on two sheets of standard US paper heavy cardstock) and outlines some of our family values, like "always tell the truth" and "mind your manners."

You'll also want to be careful about your spacing between your frames. Too close and your items will look cluttered and too far apart and you lose that collage feel. Again I recommend doing a trial run on the floor before committing yourself to anything on the wall.

And my last tip: to keep your frames nice and level (there's nothing like a crooked frame to throw off a composition) you might want to invest in double-sided sticky tape squares (like scrapbooking squares). You can place these on the corners of the back of the frames to keep them from moving due to vibrations or, in my case, little hands.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 2

2011-08-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

What makes you smile? Well, what doesn't? Smiles come easily to me. Especially when I'm surrounded by those that I love and cherish. I'm blessed with two sweet boys and the love of my life, my husband. What isn't there to smile about? Here's two of my favorite little guys who always bring happiness.

Here it is in color; I had a hard time deciding which version to post.

I had a hard time documenting this week's challenge. For some reason I haven't been taking very many photos, so in my haste I just snapped these on the couch (it's raining outside). I know that there's so many better backgrounds, but atleast this is representative of my everyday life. Sometime snapshots are so much better than all those posed formal photos, don't you think?

Check out more entries over at A Step in the Journey

You Capture - White

2011-08-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

This week's theme over at Beth's Blog is white. At first, I was a bit intimidated. White? How do you capture white!? I spent a good bit of time wracking my brain and remembering all the times that I've created coloring pages for my sons only to realize that white's a really hard thing to color in. Then I realized, it's not so hard. White's everywhere around here.

Look up:

Do you see the sea turtle in the cloud too? Or is it just me?

There. See him now? I dunno what happened to his legs.

If you look down, you're bound to find white too.

White means safety in this instance. Well, some measure of it anyway.

Mother Nature has her fair share of white too.

So beautiful they almost look fake.

No clue what these are, but they are extraordinary.

And last but not least, white is in the architecture.

Check out all the white inspiration over at I Should be Folding Laundry.

Top Ten Tuesday - #!@#$ Edition

2011-08-02T01:24:00.000-07:00

I recently have a friend remark that I have a, um, colorful vocabulary. Especially when it comes to curse (cuss) words. I have two little ones in the house, so believe me when I say that I try my hardest not to curse or yell anything inappropriate lest they become little mockingbirds. I remember when I was around fourteen and fifteen and I used to curse like a sailor (when out of earshot of my parents of course). Ah, back then I thought many things were cool. I was wrong about most of them, as it turns out. I find that I still have a sometimes penchant for strong words, but I've learned to switch them up. Here's some of my favorite, more colorful phrases:

10. Son of a pharaoh! This is my pretty standard response to when things go poorly, whether I've stubbed my big toe on the table again, or I've dropped the groceries or am just generally frustrated with a situation.

9. Oh for crying out loud...This one is usually reserved for the kids. It's for times when they've left their toys out in the yard again, or they're fighting..again (or still..sometimes it's hard to tell).

8. Well, schnikeys! A nice way to say, Well, crap. I figure crap isn't much better than its four letter S-word counterpart. I definitely don't want my toddler yelling about crap, so whenever I feel the urge to call a situation like the dung it is, I revert to schnikeys instead but really any unusual colorful word will do. You might also try, well, hoodlums! or well, galoshes! or another favorite of mine: well, muckluck! Not sure if that last one's a real word or not but it's loads of fun to say. Go on, give it a go.

7. Flippin' A nice inoffensive substitute for a similar F-word. Used as an adjective. Like, "that flippin' lady just pulled out without looking!" Usually only reserved in extreme cases where I'm caught unawares and have just the briefest of moments to PG rate my dialogue.

6. Good gravy. Good old Charlie Brown gave me this one. Well, technically he said good grief, but good gravy is just so much cooler. A phrase best used to express your particular frustration with a situation.

5. Holy guacamole! Rather than exclaiming that dung or crap is holy, it makes much more sense to claim that a certain green dip is saint-like. Don't you agree? Okay, maybe it makes no sense at all, but again, it's one of those phrases that's fun. I mean, who doesn't like to rhyme?

4. Bozo. A term of endearment for someone who's acting like a fool. This one I stole from my mother. She often reserved it for other drivers on the road, like those people that insist on tailgating or switching lanes without regard for the other cars. "Did you see that BOZO!"

3. Fiddlesticks! Again, an exclamation for frustration. This one I tend to reserve for when I personally do something silly like spill an entire box of spaghetti noodles on the floor.

2. Son of a biscuit-eater! A step up from Son of a Pharaoh. This is reserved for extreme cases of misfortune and I only just catch myself in time to lighten up my foul language.

1. Goofball. Another term of endearment for those acting silly. This one really is pretty harmless though and I catch myself calling my sons goofballs whenever they're in a particularly spunky or goofy mood.

So how do you avoid using the unmentionables when you're around young ears? Any silly phrases? Feel free to share them. I'm always looking to expand my vocabulary!

Linking up to Oh Amanda

Yearly Photos

2011-08-01T02:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a bit obsessed with photos, photography, editing, and anything in between lately. I recently stumbled across an adorable idea on Pinterest where a photographer had combined some lovely word art along with a photo of theirs to create a unique way of documenting their child yearly on their birthdays. I think it's a great idea, and definitely not your standard fill in the blank baby book page, but a wonderful way to document all those wonderful quirks of your child.

Here's a few of mine that I created (click to enlarge):

Problem is that some of my earlier photos of the children weren't exactly spectacular quality or lent themselves to this task, but I think I did alright. And now I know that on each of their future birthdays that I need to take a great shot with enough blank space to write in their yearly notes. The ones with Lincoln are a bit better in terms of photo quality, I think.

I hope to frame these in 5x7 frames, matted, and line them up, year after year. It'll be a nice way to display just how much they're grown, not only in appearance but in tastes and personality.

If you want to do these on your own, I recommend getting the free software at Picnic or GIMP. They both have a text feature (look for the T in the tools toolbar) where you can add your information. Feel free to get creative, turn those photos sepia, black or white, or even leave them in color. Experiment with different fonts and text colors. You can find some lovely FREE fonts at Dafont. Happy documenting!

20 Week Photography Challenge

2011-07-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Since I've been struggling a bit with my photography (really really really want to take a class or two) and I've been struggling with posts on here, so two birds with one stone: I'm going to join a 20 week photography challenge here online. Woot! I'm actually really excited. I really enjoy the challenges over at Beth's blog so I can see myself really getting into this. It's being hosted by Laura at A Step in the Journey.

This week's challenge is a self-portrait. Ugh. Not my favorite photo subject, but maybe it should be. I have all these wonderful photos of everything else but me. You can definitely tell that I'm always the one behind the camera (the hubby is pretty skilled with a camera too but I rarely let him steal my camera). Here's a couple of shots that I managed to snap rather quickly since there's a couple of people around here that are sick and clingy...

Your standard hold the camera away from you pose

Everyone looks better in black and white, right?

You can find all the information about participating by going HERE. If you do join the challenge, or you're participating in another one, show me! I'd love to see what you've done!

You Capture - Fruit

2011-07-28T01:38:00.000-07:00

This weekly challenge is fruit over at Beth's blog. While we have several varieties of fruit at our house and in several forms (frozen, fresh and canned) I have to admit I wasn't too inspired by this week's challenge. Maybe it's because I've been incredibly busy. Don't ask me with what, because it seems like I have very little to show for all my hours of work. Which is pretty disappointing, come to think about it, so I won't think about it. At any rate, here's my single lonely submission of fruit:

Posting up to http://www.ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com/

Top Ten Tuesday - Italy Edition

2011-07-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

So as I may have mentioned once or twice (or a thousand) times before, we recently took a vacation to Italy. I don't repeat the awesomeness that was the trip to make you jealous, but to make myself remember how grateful and how very lucky I am. It was an amazing time and I loved spending it with my family. Here's my top ten favorite photos from our trip (in no real particular order).

10. Murano Island off Venice. Beautiful scenery, lovely glassworking shops, and much serenity

9. Drake snuggling on Daddy at the Roman forum in Rome

8. Link giving his big sister a kiss on the gondola ride

7. Pompeii ruins

6. The Pantheon!

5. Big sister attracting some attention from the birds in St. Mark's Square in Venice

4. Link cooling off on a hot Roman day

3. One of the domes in Vatican City

2. The Colosseum, from the third floor

1. Traghetto boats moored up on the Grand Canal

Linking up to Oh Amanda

Vintage Cowgirl Invitation

2011-07-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

I've been updating some designs in my store, updating the pricing structure, the wording of my listings and generally just making everything better. As for designs, I've been on a vintage kick lately. One of my favorite designs is a vintage cowgirl invitation in my store:

I've recently added a printable party package in this theme as well. It includes several party staples for one low price, such as the invitation, cupcake toppers, a banner, and more. I think it turned out pretty cute!

I need to get around to making a vintage circus invitation as well as some summer inspired designs, like pool party invitations, but I guess those will have to wait until I manage to find some more spare time! I'm always taking suggestions for designs too. I really love to design.

Friday Musings

2011-07-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

While I was doing dishes earlier, I let my mind wander. Doing dishes is terribly boring and tedious and only somewhat enjoyable if you don't think about it. I passed a large part of my time wishing I had magic, you know, like Harry Potter magic. I would definitely be a Mrs. Weasley, waving my wand about to conjure meals, tidy the house, and definitely do the dreaded dishes. (I'll stop right here and admit to the fact that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, both the books and the movies and if you have no clue what I'm talking about, then please kindly exit this website and pick up J.K. Rowling's masterpieces of literature. They are definitely worth a read, no matter what age you are!)

I would alsolove to have one of these magically enhanced clocks!

So, my question to you is: if you had magic what would you do with it?

You Capture

2011-07-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

This week's You Capture over at Beth's blog is pretty much anything. She asked her son what the challenge should be and he replied with, "like trees and beautiful plants and little cute babies."

Here's my submissions for this week.

I don't know if this tree is beautiful or not, but it's certainly different.

No idea what it is.

Found it in a park on Murano in Venice, Italy.

Drake cheesing for the camera. I realize he's not a cute little baby anymore, but he'll always be my baby,

plus there's beautiful trees in the background so this totally is sticking with the week's theme.

My little baby giving his big sister a smooch while on a gondola ride in Venice, Italy

It was H-O-T in Venice (in Italy in general, actually).

We stayed cool due largely in part to all the fresh water sources.

Okay, I'm at a loss as to how this photo is "like trees and beautiful plants and little cute babies,"

but I'm going to be a rebel and post it anyway. One of my favorite photos from Venice.

Linking up to Beth's blog.

Photography

2011-07-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I should preface this with a disclaimer: I am by no means a professional photographer. I don't claim to be in any way, shape or form. I'd like to be and I like to believe that it's something I could be good at, but right now, I'm just an amateur photography enthusiast. /end disclaimer

That being said, ever wonder how people get those gorgeous photos? The ones that look too pretty to be real? In two words: post processing. Even if you think your photo's absolutely perfect straight out of the camera, it can always use some tweaks and adjustments. With the price on Adobe Photoshop Elements hovering near $100 it's never been cheaper to do some photo editing. I use Adobe Photoshop to adjust my images (since it's the same program that I use anyway for my digital designs).

I've put together some side-by-sides of straight out of the camera and edited images to illustrate my points. In this first example a bit of cropping brings out my focus much better (the beautiful tree). I wanted the tree to be the focus, but it being dead center in the image is plain boring. In the end, it's still pretty centered but just slightly less so (if that makes sense). I've also cropped out some unnecessary clutter at the bottom of the photo and gave it a bit of a grounding element with the low brick wall on the right hand side.

I also enhanced the colors and tweaked the levels to make it more a vintage feel. The browns now really stand out and give it that "aged" look I was after.

For this second illustration, I was okay with the cropping of the image but I really wanted to show that vintage, rich brown color palette. Don't get me wrong, I think the original photo is just fine but I really wanted the texture and age of the Colosseum to come through. I think the second photo does a better job of this.

A third and final illustration for the day: adding textures. For the ambitious only, adding texture to a photo can make or break it in my opinion.

On the left, my straight out of the camera (SOOC) shot. On the right, the adjusted image, with a texture added (among other various adjustments). Adding the texture really makes the photo much more interesting, giving it some depth. Textures can be tricky so they aren't for the faint of heart, but the good news is that you can always undo it (don't you wish life had an undo button?!).

I always recommend saving your alterations as different files, rather than replacing your original. If you save over the original there's no getting it back. Plus, it provides a neat way to compare what you've done post-processing compared to the original.

There's several places out there that sell or even give away photoshop actions (a way of doing a quick one button photo edit) for those that are in a hurry or too timid to try editing completely manually. Let me know if you have any questions on where to find these or if you have any suggestions yourself on where to find them. I'd love to see your before and after shots if you have any!

Back from our Italian Vacation

2011-07-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

So as the post title says, we're baaack! Our vacation was amazing. We saw some really great things (Pompeii, the Colosseum, Venice) in Italy and it was absolutely wonderful. I find that now I'm way behind on orders placed while I was away. I love graphic design, but right now I'm swimming in orders. So until I can play a bit of catch up, I had better leave this post sweet and simple. I'll leave you with some photos of our trip. Have a great week everyone!

No Bake Mini Cheesecakes

2011-07-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

It seems like I do a lot of baking around here, but I finally found a no-bake cheesecake recipe that I love. Hope you enjoy it too!

Easy, No Bake Mini Cheesecakes

What You'll Need:
8 oz. cream cheese package (at room temperature)
4 oz. cool whip
4 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6 graham cracker mini pie crusts
Your choice of toppings: I used fresh blueberries and raspberries but you can also use canned pie fillings

What You Do:
Blend together cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until creamy. You don't want any lumps and this is easiest if the cream cheese is at room temperature. Add cool whip and blend well. Pour mixture into a storage container and refrigerate until ready to eat.

When you're ready to serve your mini cheesecakes, pour the refrigerated cream cheese mixture into the mini pie crusts. Top with your choice of syrups, fruits, or whatever you'd like. I used fresh raspberries and blueberries for mine. Enjoy!

Friday Photo Bliss

2011-07-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

I'm posting one photo taken this week that really makes me happy. I'm inspired by Soule Mama. Her words:
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Vacation time!

2011-07-06T02:34:00.000-07:00

If you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because I'm soaking up the sights, sounds and culture of Venice and Rome. Starting tonight / early tomorrow we're on our way to Italy. We're enjoying a week there, focused primarily on Venice and Rome. I can't wait! It's going to be an amazing time. In the meanwhile, enjoy the beautiful photography by Laura Evans. She did an amazing job with our family portraits. I can't wait to order some prints.

Do you have any vacation plans? I'd love to hear about them and see photos!

Easiest Sopapillas Ever

2011-07-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Recently we had Mexican night at our house for dinner, so in that spirit I created sopapillas for dessert. They were so yummy and easy that I thought I'd share the recipe. The recipe is adapted from here.

Easy Sopapillas

What You'll Need:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tbsp of cinnamon sugar mixture (optional)
      tortillas (one per person)
1    tbsp honey
1    tbsp powdered sugar (optional)
1    tbsp raspberry sauce (optional)
1    oz. vegetable oil

What You Do:
Heat the oil in a medium skillet (just enough oil to thinly cover the entire bottom surface of the skillet) over medium heat. Meanwhile, in another medium skillet melt the butter and stir in the cinnamon sugar. Once the oil is warm, fry one tortilla until the bottom is golden brown, then flip and fry the other side until it's golden brown as well. Remove the tortilla from the heat, patting dry with some paper towels if necessary to remove excess oil. Move the fried tortilla into the skillet with the butter, dipping each side into the butter mixture. Plate the tortilla and garnish with extra cinnamon sugar, honey, powdered sugar or raspberry sauce to taste. Serve warm.

That's it! Incredibly easy and quick. They were a huge hit around here. My husband loved his with extra powdered sugar and raspberry sauce. I figure the raspberry sauce isn't a traditional sopapilla topping but it worked out really well. I've already gotten requests to make it again!

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! We spent some quality family time at a fair nearby. Funnel cakes, ferris wheels, and live bands...who could ask for more? Hope you had a great 4th too!

Fourth of July Free Printable

2011-07-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

In honor of America's independence day, I will be serving cupcakes with some cute embellishments. I figured I might as well share the printable cupcake toppers in case anyone else wants a quick, cheap Fourth of July decoration. You can download the file HERE.

These fit twelve to a sheet of standard US paper. I recommend printing them out on heavy cardstock and setting your printer to borderless printing or the margins as near to zero as possible. They're incredibly easy to punch out with a 2" scrapbook punch (available at crafts stores) or you can do it the old fashioned way and trim them out with scissors. Enjoy!

Close-up of one of the designs

Happy Fourth of July!

Linking up to: It's a HodgePodge Life

Free Digital Kit

2011-06-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Want to get something really cute for free? I knew you did. Well, there's a catch. All you have to do is click one word: vote. You don't even have to sign in or enter your email or give away your first born child. None of that. There's a fellow etsian who's in an awesome contest online to win a vacation and a car. All she needs you to do is click "vote" HERE. Then you can check out her ETSY STORE and pick out a free digital scrapbook kit. Even if she didn't have this great freebie exchange for votes, I'd still vote for her photo. It's really very cute. Go check it out now.

Just one of the many cute kits available for free!

You Capture - Water

2011-06-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

Water is the perfect theme for this week here in Germany. Temperatures soared to the 90s after staying in the 70s for the longest time. Luckily we have a cool little water park literally across the street from our house, and I have a cool underwater digital camera. What I lack, however, is the ability to insert the memory card in all the way to achieve cool photos. Oh well. Some photos of the boys playing in the backyard with water will have to suffice.

Too warm from playing outside

Cars driving underwater? Why not?!

Water gun fun, so much better when you have a target

Reach for the sky!

Linking up to Beth's weekly You Capture.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-06-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway. You guys gave me some great feedback on my shop, and I've gotten a couple of great new ideas to try out for new designs. I love new designs!

The winner is....Vicki in AZ. I'll be emailing you shortly to see what you'd like on your magnets! The number was chosen randomly from a random number generator.

Giveaway Hand Stamped Magnets Reminder

2011-06-27T04:12:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that my giveaway for my hand-stamped magnets (your choice of four, with any wording hand-stamped onto them) is still available. You can see the original post HERE. Please don't leave any entries here as they won't be counted. Please comment on the original post in order to qualify.

Friday Photo Bliss

2011-06-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

I'm posting one photo taken this week that really makes me happy. I'm inspired by Soule Mama. Her words:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

You Capture - Purple

2011-06-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

This week's theme at I should be folding Laundry's You Capture is purple. Or atleast I think it is. Beth's been going through a rough patch so understandably her blog has taken a back burner. I'm still really enjoying photography and learning what my camera and I can do. I've also been playing with textures. They've really enhanced some photos that I've taken on my recent forays. Here's my week's purples:

Giveaway: Handstamped Magnets

2011-06-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

So awhile back I posted my tutorial on hand-stamped fridge magnets. I hinted at a possible giveaway, so now I'm making good on that hint. Here's your chance to win your choice of four hand-stamped fridge magnets. You'll get to tell me what you want on each of your designs. Sounds great, right?

Here's the ways to win:
{This entry is required. Please leave a valid email address on each entry so that I can contact the winner!}

Become a follower of my blog. Somewhere in the right column there's a button to follow. Leave me a comment letting me know that you're following me now. If you're already a follower, leave a comment letting me know that as well.

Extra entries:
#2. Like my facebook page. Leave a comment letting me know that you've done so.

#3. Check out my etsy store. Come back here and let me know what your favorite design is.

#4. Check out my etsy store. Come back here and let me know what design or theme you'd LIKE to see. It has to be something I don't already have for sale. For example: lizards or Alice in Wonderland.

This giveaway is open to all US and Canada citizens as well as those with APO/AE/FPO addresses. The contest will end on Wednesday, June 29th. Winner will be drawn at random. Good luck!

linked up to: Someday Crafts, Katie's Nesting Spot, Paisley Passions, It's a Hodge Podge Life, My Repurposed Life, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Tatertots and Jello, Lolly Jane Boutique, I Heart Naptime, Petite Hermine, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter

My Past Week

2011-06-21T02:05:00.000-07:00

Things are crazy hectic around here. In a totally good way, though. Just busy, busy, busy. With what? Trips. Loads of fun trips. We've been saving our money and ideas for this time when our daughter is here with us. We want her to have a great time and take away some great memories. With that in mind, we've packed so many good things into such a short span of time that we're constantly busy or on the go. Here's my top ten photos from this past week (I take a lot of photos!).

10. My husband and his daughter are too much alike. Whenever they get together, it's like having a couple of extra kids around. They like to tease each other and wrestle and generally find ways to annoy each other. It's endearing, in a way.

10. Love his smile in this one; so genuine.

9. Emmy wanted to drive Drake's car and Link was running for his life. In this photo, she's laughing so hard she's covering her mouth. Little guy looks terrified!

9. I don't *think* she would actually run him over

8. A beautiful street in Kintzheim, France

7. Drake doing everything big sister does

6. Family pose

5. Beautiful castle we toured in Kintzheim, France

4. Feeding the monkeys at Monkey Mountain

3. Link really excited about the monkeys

2. Beautiful field of what I'm guessing is wheat

1. Emmy being silly in a field of sunflowers

Linking up to

Amanda's Top Ten Tuesday

Summer Cupcakes

2011-06-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

For father's day yesterday I baked some cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty cute, and I definitely had way too much decorating them. That part was definitely more fun than the baking and cleanup part.

Cute, aren't they? I made two types of cupcakes. One design features gummy bears floating on green floaties amid a sea of blue and the other design is gummy bears sunbathing on the beach under an umbrella.

They were almost too cute to eat. Almost, but not quite. The boys were unimpressed with my decorating skills and just wanted to lick the icing off the cupcakes. Oh well. Atleast I know they enjoyed the taste.

Since I'm no baking whiz nor do I have extra time to spend baking from scratch, I used a simple box cake kit and vanilla icing. I made the cupcakes following the directions on the box, and then let them cool. Once they were completely cool, I halved the icing into two separate bowls. One bowl I tinted blue (for the water), and the other yellow (for my sandy beach). I iced the cupcakes and then decorated.

You'll need fruit by the foot or the fruit roll-ups for the beach blankets (cut them to size using kitchen shears), gummy bears, and gummy rings. To make the beach umbrellas, I used toothpicks, my 2" circular punch, and scrapbook paper that I had on hand. I punched the circles out, then cut out a pie-shaped piece from each circle (about 1/8 of the total circle), then roll the paper into a cone shape, and secure it with clear tape. I then stuck the toothpick into the middle of my umbrella. Voila. Perfectly sized beach umbrellas for gummy bears.

This photo looks like they're all on different sized waves..love it!

You Capture - Bathrooms

2011-06-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry has this week's You Capture theme as bathrooms. My bathroom's nothing terribly great, but it's often filled with two rambunctious boys clamoring for a bath. They take their baths together, for now, which really makes my job easier. Bathtime is always fun-time.

Definitely the cutest (and most photographic) things in my bathroom. Linking up to Beth's website

Road Trip

2011-06-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Today we went into France, about an hour into France, for a quick road trip. We ended up at a castle which was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We got to walk around at our own pace and enjoy the scenery. I didn't catch how old the castle was since all the signs were in French and Deutsch. Bah! (I know, I know...dates are the same in any language, but the signs were crowded by the tour groups so I just skipped them and promised myself I'd look it up online later)

Any day with a castle is a great day indeed! It was the first time that our daughter got to see a castle or something quite so old. She really enjoyed it.

I might try to post some other photos later, but for tonight, I'm exhausted. We left at 7am, returned at 6pm, and I've since done all the laundry, made dinner, and cleaned up. Who says I can't be super woman?

She's Here!

2011-06-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

My step-daughter (age 13..eek!) is here! I'm so excited, as we all are. We've been very excited and anxious for her to come to Germany to visit us. We've missed her so much and we can't wait to show her around Europe. The boys are really excited too. They love having a big sister that they can ~~irritate~~ chase about.

They really adore her. Drake now tells us that he's her minion. He insisted on taking her for a drive in his car first thing when we got back to the house after picking her up at the airport. Aren't they cute?

Simple Vase

2011-06-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

When we got our orders to Germany I was forced to confront all the ~~junk~~ stuff we had accumulated over the years before the move. To say there was a lot is an understatement. I made four trips to the local Goodwill to donate a lot of stuff, and there were several overfilled trash bins on our curb a couple of weeks too. I didn't want to just move stuff from point A to point B and especially not stuff that I wasn't using or even needed. This apparently included all my vases.

My husband's a great guy and gets me flowers pretty regularly but it's disappointing to have some really gorgeous flowers stuck in a water glass. It's like wearing a glamourous ball gown with flip-flops. To solve my dilemma, I created a really simple and elegant vase.

The best part is it's free to make and incredibly simple. I used a leftover Starbucks iced frappuccino bottle (I'm addicted, don't judge!). Then I added a couple light layers of spray paint (which I already had in the house), added water and flowers, and voila! Instant upgrade from using a standard water glass as a vase. I think it'd be really cute if you spray painted it in horizontal stripes, probably divided it into uneven thirds and did varying shades of say blue. I only have two colors of spray paint on hand though (white and silver). Let me know if you try this at home. I'd love to see your project!

Friday Photo Bliss

2011-06-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Since I don't have time for a proper post (thing are HECTIC around here) I'm posting one photo taken this week that really makes me happy. I'm inspired by Soule Mama. Her words:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.