I saw a photo similar to this on Pinterest (the link has since been broken – boo!) about six months ago. The moment I saw it I immediately started planning to have one taken of our family. I can not wait to have it printed on a giant canvas for our living room!

I love the turquoise print. I created it especially for our family photos and it now hangs on our inspiration wall above the piano. (More on that another day.) As a way of saying thank you for visiting my little blog, I created this print in 11×14 and 8×10 in a rainbow of colors for you to enjoy.

(For personal use only. You may not sell these prints and claim them as your own. However, photographers are more than welcome to use them as photo shoot props.) 

Click below to download.

11×14 – Magenta, Green Apple, Turquoise, Sunshine, Stormy

8×10 – Magenta, Green Apple, Turquoise, Sunshine, Stormy

The above photo was taken by Jen of Jen Martin Studios. She is my very favorite Western Washington photographer. We drive 1.5 hours each way just to see her. She is THAT good. (She also took the photos of Zoë’s Angry Birds birthday party last year.)

The main “slogan” if you will, was “Hats Off To Our Teachers!” A few weeks before the event, I asked my photographer friend and fellow parent, John Wolfe, to take Dr. Seuss Photo Booth style pictures of all the teachers and staff. It was a huge hit at the baby shower I planned a few years ago and I still had all the props. Score! The Friday before Staff Appreciation Week, the 8×10 pictures were put on all the teachers’ doors and staff photos were put up in the staff lounge. (The hats were put on the doors by room parents on Monday. This is Zoë’s teacher and their classroom door.)

Next up, invitations. Each of the teachers and staff received this invitation in their mailbox which detailed the events of the upcoming Staff Appreciation Week. Included with their invitations were: An invitation to the Pink Yink Ink Breakfast with a Drink Order Request and Lunch Preferences Questionnaire. I asked that order forms and questionnaires be returned to me via the PTSA box no later than the Thursday before Staff Appreciation Week. (More on the drink order and lunch preferences in a moment.) The invitation is not actually neon. I’m not sure what’s going on there. I had them printed as photo cards at Costco. You can’t beat $14.99 for 50 flat cards with envelopes!

One week before, I sent home a “Hats Off To My Teachers” hat with each of the students and asked them to please color the hat, write a note to their teacher, and return it to school on Monday. If you are planning a similar event and have access to the school district’s printer definitely use them. They are ridiculously inexpensive. I did have to sort the proper number of hats per classroom, but that was no big deal.

For students that wished to color hats for additional teachers and staff, extra hats were available in the office all week long. I created a poster that was hung in the main stairwell letting students know where they could find extra hats. (To give you some idea of scale, the Cat in the Hat was 6 feet tall. The poster looks small in the picture, but it is almost 3 feet wide!)

Now that the groundwork was laid, I focused on the activities for the week, each one being Seuss themed, of course. I used SignUp Genius to coordinate sign ups with the Hospitality Committee and Room Parents for these activities. I made everything look pretty, but I couldn’t have pulled off an event like this without the wonderfully supportive parents at our school.

Monday: Gourmet “Hop On Popcorn” Bar

We had eight different varieties of gourmet popcorn for the staff to enjoy throughout the day. If you have never made gourmet popcorn, don’t be intimidated! I made Birthday Cake Batter Popcorn (that was delish!) and it literally took ten minutes to make. You can find all sorts of fabulous popcorn recipes on my Simply Pop! Pinterest board. If I had this to do again, I would have had 1/2 the varieties be sweet and the other 1/2 savory. The one savory flavor, cheese, was gone almost immediately. The Hop-On-Popcorn Menu and Circle Label printables are available for purchase here.

Tuesday: Biffer Baum Boxed Lunches
The parents made “boxed” lunches for every staff member at the school. I included a questionnaire with the invitations asking the following questions:  What is your favorite sandwich? Favorite bread? What do you like on your sandwich? Favorite chips? Favorite salad? Favorite dessert? Favorite drink? Favorite dessert? Any allergies? I asked that the questionnaires be returned by the Thursday prior to Staff Appreciation Week. Once I received them, I forwarded the answers to the parents who signed up to make lunches.

Let me just say, I was completely floored when I walked into the staff lounge and saw the “boxed” lunches. Clearly, I use the term loosely. I thought I was doing well with “Cat in the Hat” reusable bags and tissue paper for my lunches. I need to step up my game next year. WOW.

TIP: The lunches at our school are staggered from 11:15-12:30 so we tried to organize the lunches by time. There were 50+ lunches, so those first few groups had quite a few lunches to look through before finding theirs, even with the sorting.

Wednesday: Pink Yink Ink Drink Breakfast
I included drink orders with the Pink Yink Ink Breakfast invitation, and asked that the teachers and staff return them the Thursday before Staff Appreciation Week. They had the choice of a Pink Yink Ink Drink (triple berry smoothie) or a drink from Starbucks. The drink orders were printed on 3×4 shipping labels.

I took 1/2 the orders to the Starbucks about a mile away, and 1/2 to the other Starbucks a mile the other way. (Remember, I live in Seattle. We’re surrounded.) I pre-paid for all of the drinks to make pick up easy for the 4 parents picking up the 40 lattes the next morning. The baristas loved the sticker labels. They quickly and easily made the pre-ordered drinks and attached the labels. The drinks and breakfast were waiting for the teachers/staff at 7:50am. I wanted them to have time to enjoy their breakfast before school started.

I pink-a-fied the staff lounge by tying tulle to the tops of all the chairs, and on the cupcake stands. The table cloths were pink as were the cups, plates, napkins and utensils. I also placed pink daisies on the less colorful platters (like bagels). I didn’t get any good pictures of the drinks lined up (dangit!) because I was busy making the triple berry smoothies. I bought the frozen smoothie packets from  Costco. I simply added milk, blended, and voila… pink yink ink drink! What you see above is the remaining breakfast items after everyone had left. You can purchase the Pink Yink Ink Drink Breakfast Invitation, Drink Order Forms, and Pink Folding Party Labels here.

Thursday: Whoo-Feast

The most difficult part of this luncheon was coming up with Seuss-y names for the food. I had multiple parents tell me that they were not signing up to bring food because coming up with a Seuss-y name was too stressful. To save YOU the stress of coming up with a luncheon worth of names, here is the most comprehensive list of Dr. Seuss food names you will find on the web. Trust me, I searched for hours.

• Yot in a Pot
• Yan in a Pan
• Cluck Cluck Bowties
• Skipper Zipp’s Chips
• Whoo Hash
• Oodles of Noodles and Cock a Doodles
• Yuzz-A-Ma-Tuzz
• Brown & Black’s Snacks
• Prairie of Prax
• Truffula Tree Crunch
• Roast Beast Sandwiches
• Truffula Fruits
• Schlott’s Knots
• Dr. Seuss-shi Rolls
• Gertrude McFuzzy’s Berry Salad
• Green Egg Pie
• Green Eggs and Ham
• Lentil Soup from the Hoop Soup Snoop Group
• Assorted Greens and Other Things
• Poodles with Noodles
• Biggle Balls
• Remarkable Foons Sizzling Hot Pebbles
• Three Cheese Trees
• Snop Gloop on a Floop
• Hob Knobblers and Bumplings
• Nuppers Nuggets
• Red and Black Snack
• River of Knobsy Cobksy Cornbread
• A Little of This, A Little of That
• Wild Bippo No Bungus

I used turquoise polka dot wrapping paper cut in half as table runners on the eating tables. I also used it as table runners on top of the green table clothes on the buffet tables. The green utensils were wrapped in turquoise napkins and tied with white curling ribbon. The Seuss-y food labels had a turquoise background. You can purchase the Whoo-Food Menu and Folding Party Labels here.

Friday: Whoo-Treat Dessert Bar
As with the feast, the hardest part of the dessert bar was coming up with the names.  Here is the complete list of names the other parents and I came up with:

• Green Eggs and Ham (Recipe found here.)
• Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes
• 1 Fish, 2 Fish
• Yurtle the Turtles
• 10 Apples Up On Top
• Max’s Milk Bones
• Unicorn Patties
• Gingery Snappity Snaps
• ABC Cookies
• “The Big Brag” Cookies
• Clover Cake Pops
• Barbaloot Brownies
• Truffula Tree Cake Pops
• Caramel Hop-On-Popcorn
• Schlopp with a Cherry on Top
• Biggle Ball Cookies
• Sweet Yazz and Yumm
• Valley of the Vungs Chocolate Rock Blocks
• Zizzer Zoof Seeds
• Katroo Cake
• Bippolo Seeds

The color scheme of the day was lavender and pink. Like yesterday, I used pink polka dot wrapping paper cut in half as a table runner on the eating tables, and again on the lavender table clothes on the buffet tables. The Seuss-y dessert labels had a lavender background. I also used Dr. Seuss foam stickers (on clearance at Michaels) to Seuss up the dessert bar. I actually had Yertle the Turtle, Green Eggs and Ham, Thing 1 and Think 2, and 1 Fish, 2 Fish stickers! The backs already had adhesive so I simply stuck them to lollipop sticks. You can purchase the Whoo-Treat Menu and Lavender Folding Party Labels here.

Other Decorations:
Using this tutorial, I created truffula-esque pom poms to hang from the ceiling of the staff lounge, and another parent made awesome truffula trees to line the hallway leading to the staff lounge. I also found some assorted Dr. Seuss cardboard cutouts on Amazon (here and here), and a poster at Michael’s.

TIP: If you are purchasing items at Michael’s for a school event, ask if they will give you the 15% teacher discount. The checker ringing me up volunteered to give me the discount without even having to ask her. (I didn’t know they even did that! Michael’s just went up five cool points.)

We also hung Seuss-y photo of the support staff in the lounge. It was the focal point of the room. Every time I was in the staff lounge people were gathered around them, smiling.

At the end of the week the teachers and staff took their Seuss-y photos home. Some teachers decided to leave their photos and hats on the classroom doors indefinitely. The photos were also given to the yearbook staff. These are so much more fun than traditional boring school pictures!

“Hats Off To Our Principal” Album

The principal at Zoë’s school is amazing, and even though she doesn’t have a classroom, she touches the lives of every person in our school. I wanted to do something extra special for her. I truly believe that a principal sets the tone for the entire school. Our school rocks and she does too!

I asked John to please print 4×6 versions of the teacher/staff Seuss-y pictures along with the 8×10′s. I slid them into a 2-up album, and asked the teachers/staff to please write a note to Principal S. telling her how much they appreciate her. The notecards were then placed in the album next to their picture. At the end of the week I gathered up all the “hats” the students had made for her, and glued them into the album as well. The final step was the Seuss up the album a bit, so I added some ribbon and a “Cat in the Hat” sticker.

There you have it! Every single thing you need to know to have your very own Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week! You can purchase the complete printable collection here. Printables from each activity are also available a la carte.

This year, the girls and I made all natural household cleaners. (Look at me, actually doing some of the projects I have pinned!) I have mixed feelings about this. While I definitely lean more towards the hippie side of the spectrum (I live in Seattle, after all) I love any sort of anti-bacterial, disinfecting, make-my-house-sparkly product. However, there comes a point when the chemicals are worse for you than the filth they are cleaning, at least that is what I am telling myself. Not to mention, all natural household cleaners are crazy affordable. I spent more on spray bottles than I did the ingredients.

I made a list of all the earth-friendly household cleaning recipes that I pinned on Pinterest and got to work. And, of course, I had to make cute labels for the bottles. Homemade cleaning supplies need cute packaging too! The recipe for each cleaner is included on the label for easy duplication in the future. I will post my reviews below as I use the products.

Click here to download.

You will find labels for:

All-purpose Cleaner
Review: This cleaner works very well. I don’t know that I am going to give up my disinfecting wipes (they are so handy!) but I won’t be buying any commercial all-purpose cleaners in the future.

Floor Cleaner
Review: This works really well! There is no filmy/cloudy residue on the floor after use, unlike other commercial cleaners we have used in the past.

Miracle Cleaner
Review: Awesome! My girls were actually fighting about who got to use the cleaner on our evil beige carpet. (They ended up taking turns dousing the spots and scrubbing.) Who am I to take away their fun? I am going to go buy a second little bottle for Miracle Cleaner and they can spot clean their little hearts out. Do we know how to have fun, or what?! The cleaner easily got up coffee, red wine, and orange juice. I haven’t tried it on grout yet, but that is just a matter of time.

Soap Scum Remover
Review: Our glass shower doors are the cleanest they have been since we bought our home four years ago. This cleaner is fantastic! It even cleaned the white shower floor as well. Two thumbs way up!

Weed Killer
Review: Coming soon

We also made homemade laundry soap. I will report back with my results. I almost didn’t make this because Eden has such sensitive skin. I’m afraid she is going to break out into hives. However, it has gotten such good reviews online and is so inexpensive that I thought I’d at least try it. Worst case I give it to my neighbor, right? I am going to wash one load of Eden’s laundry with the new laundry soap and if all is well, then we are good to go! In addition to the laundry soap, I made a quick reference guide with the other all natural laundry tips & tricks I have found on Pinterest. (Click here to download.)

One other area of our home that is most definitely not earth friendly is our yard maintenance, the Roundup to be specific. I fully acknowledge that Roundup is pure toxic filth, however, I love my Roundup. I have a giant sprayer and happily kill any weed that dares grow on our property. I hate weeds. Hate them! The other day I read (on Pinterest, of coures) that 100% undiluted white vinegar kills weeds just as effectively as Roundup. Who knew? I have two spray bottles loaded and ready to go the moment it stops raining here. Mwahahaha! (A”weed killer” label is included in the download above.)

Thanks for stopping by! Happy healthy cleaning!

We live in a wonderful world filled with technology. My children, and probably yours, are amazingly technically savvy. It is fascinating to watch Eden (even from the age of one) quickly and easily navigate my iPhone and iPad. One of her favorite things to do is watch the slideshows I create, especially our yearly favorites slideshows. The slideshows along with our home movies are loaded on our media center computer, iPhones and iPads. We are never without our photos. My phone is always in my back pocket, which means so are 100′s of photos and slideshows.

I create my slideshows in iPhoto. I did a quick Google search and found this tutorial on how to make one yourself, if you so desire. I love slideshows. Would you like to see one? Here is the “2011 Favorites” slideshow I created in January.

I started making slideshows in 2009, meaning the first four years of Zoë’s life are slideshow-less. That simply will not do! This month I am trying to get caught up. It has been so much fun seeing the older photos that have long since been scrapbooked, but rarely looked at. (I used to stay fairly caught up when I only had one child. I’m sure you can sympathize.) So far this month I have also created a “2006 Favorites” and am hoping to finish 2005, 2007, and 2008.

Here is a list of my favorite slideshow music. I am always on the lookout for great new songs. If you have one/some, please share in the comments section!

Whole Wide World by Mindy Gledhill

The Lucky Ones by Tim Myers

The Good Life by Tim Myers

Technicolor by Tim Myers

Smile by Uncle Kracker

Fun, Fun, Fun by Pharrell

If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback

Raining Sunshine by Miranda Cosgrove

The Sound of Sunshine by Michael Franti

You Make Me Happy by Lindsey Ray

Beautiful World by Jim Brickman

Blessed by Elton John

Life, Love & Laughter by Donovan Frankenreiter

Marshmallow World by Darlene Love

Life Less Ordinary by Carbon Leaf

Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall

Sunny Days by Jars of Clay

Top of the World by The Carpenters

A New Day by Celine Dion

Life Happens by Brandon & Leah

We’re Going To Be Friends by The White Stripes

Upside Down by Jack Johnson

You’ve Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman

These Are The Days by Natalie Merchant

Here is the completed album, if you are interested. (Make sure you select “Click to See Full Screen” for easier viewing.) My timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I finished the photo book up just in time to take advantage of Inkubook’s 45% off sale. Sweet! I now have 2009 and 2010 safely tucked away for Zoë and Eden when the graduate, or get married. I haven’t decided yet.

No, I still haven’t been following the “Twelve” lesson plan, but I am loving the class. The daily inspiration emails from Stacy have been giving me some excellent layout ideas (that I have been jotting down, by category). I also created a “Twelve” playlist on my phone and have been listening to the audio messages in the car while I run errands. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?! I’m actually all caught up at the moment and have been enjoying them so much that I am going to download The Paperclipping Digi Show podcast. I’ve heard great things about it but never listened. What are your favorite podcasts?

I also tackled my “Photos I Love” albums in Feburary. I have never printed any of my favorite photos. Isn’t that terrible? I took advantage of the 8×8 sale at Persnickety Prints and ordered 95 photos! They aren’t scrapbooked in any way, simply slid into the page protectors. Most of the photos don’t have a particular story attached to them, they just happen to be photos that I love of my family. For those that do have a special story, I am going to write the story down and slip it behind the photo with a ribbon attached to make it easy for people to pull out the journaling.

Tune in tomorrow and I will tell you why I haven’t bothered to print out my favorite photos until now.

TIP #1 – Cookie Club
The Girl Scouts have a very strict rule about girls under the age of 13 using email and social media to sell cookies. They cannot provide any personal information (including an email address). Cookie Club is a colorful, kid-friendly website that allows the girls to take online cookie orders from family and friends without revealing any personal information. It walks the girls through setting and tracking sales goals, and monitoring their progress. Zoë especially loves the colorful sales graph that resembles stacked cookie boxes.

TIP #2 – Create a Sales Video
Cookie Club is all well and good, but it is a bit impersonal. If you really want to sell cookies, you need to put forth a bit more effort than clicking the “send” button. One generic Girl Scout email can be easily ignored. Nothing sells cookies faster than seeing a cute little girl in her uniform. This is a scientific fact, I’m sure. We created a sales video that I emailed to our family and friends. Think of it as virtually going door to door. Zoë could not send the email personally, but I was more than happy to help her with that. I can’t tell you how many extra sales she has gotten because of her videos. Her grandma’s co-worker saw the video and donated 10 boxes of cookies to Operation Cookie Drop without ever having met Zoë.

TIP #3 – Be Persistant
This year Zoë and I made two sales videos. The second went out a week before pre-sales ended to remind everyone to place their order. I read email on my phone all the time, fully intending to reply when I get home, and promptly forget to do so. (Hopefully I’m not the only one that does this?) I appreciate friendly reminders.

TIP #4 – Door-to-Door Sales
Going door-to-door is an excellent way to boost your numbers. Find out if your service unit has cookie costumes available for your troop to borrow. It is almost impossible to refuse an adorable Girl Scout dressed like a giant cookie. Let’s go over the basics first, shall we?

• First and foremost, smile and make eye contact.
• Make sure your daughter doesn’t just shove the order form in someone’s face and ask if they want some cookies. She should smile and give them her sales pitch: “Hi! I’m selling Girl Scout cookies! My goal is to sell x boxes of Girl Scout cookies to earn x. Will you help me reach my goal?”
• Don’t underestimate the power of a compliment. When a customer first opens the door, have your daughter compliment them on something; their flowers, the wreath on their door, anything! Make them smile before asking them for anything.
• If they say no, ask them if they would like to donate a box of cookies to Operation Cookie Drop instead. If they can say no to buying cookies from a cute little girl AND donating to our troops, they clearly have a heart of stone.

TIP #5 – Bring Cookies
I recommend waiting to go door-to-door until you have physical boxes of cookies. If not, you will find yourself hoping to catch your neighbors at home and going back repeatedly to try and deliver their cookies and collect payment. It takes FOREVER. This year Zoë is going door-to-door with cookies in hand and we have found that a) It is lovely not having a huge pile of “To Deliver” cookies in our home, and 2) Customers are buying more cookies than last year. An actual box of Samoas is harder to turn down than an imaginary box that will be delivered sometime in the future.

TIP #6 – Change or Operation Cookie Drop?
If your customer needs change when paying for their cookies, ask them if they woud like change, or if they would like to donate their change to Operation Cookie Drop instead. Every $4 equals another box to our troops. They don’t have to donate an entire $4. Every little bit helps! Most people feel like schmucks asking for $1 in change instead of giving it to the troops. (As they should.)

TIP #7 – Saying “Thank You!” + Packaging + Customer Loyalty
It sounds funny to even say/type, but your daughter needs to build up her customer base. I don’t know about your neighborhood, but ours is filled with Girl Scouts. There are at least ten on our short street alone. Last year we heard quite a few, “I’m sorry, but I already bought cookies from the Girl Scout across the street,” or “I already have a little girl that I buy cookies from.” The goal is to have neighbors saying that about your daughter.

Just as you should never underestimate the power of a compliment, you should never underestimate the power of a “Thank you!” I’m not talking the quick, “Thanks!” as you are passing off the cookies. I’m talking cute packaging + a thank you note. I won’t lie, it takes time, but it is definitely worth the extra effort. Why?

• Everyone likes receiving a thank you note. It shows that your daughter truly appreciates that they bought cookies from her.
• Cute packaging is hard to resist. It may not make a difference this year, but next year your daughter will be the one that sticks out in your neighbors’ minds as the one who went the extra mile. She will be the Girl Scout they buy cookies from.
• Cute packaging aside, it really does help keep your deliveries organized. Last year I somehow managed to loose some cookies. (I think the  “extras” Zoë sold were supposed to be delivered to a few customers.) This year, we taped each order together, attached the thank you tag with curling ribbon, and wrote the customer’s name + total on the back of the tag.

Before Christmas I decided to commission a professional artist to give Pixie Hollow a facelift. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but I am no painter. Yes, the trees did resemble trees, but they lacked depth and fine detail. When the first muralist I contacted cancelled on me, I did a Google search and found Ann Gates Fiser. I could not have found a more perfect fit for this project. When I spoke with Ann about Pixie Hollow, she asked if I had been to her Moontoe Gallery website, I hadn’t. Not only did Ann paint gorgeous wall murals, she specialized in fantasy art and fairies. It was meant to be. She transformed Pixie Hollow into a little girls dream come true (and mine, who am I kidding).

I planned for Ann to paint for 6 hours, to add detail and depth to the fairy tree, the waterfall, and tree around the doorway, but I soon found out that wall murals are addictive. I wanted more. I had Ann come back not one, but two more times. (And if truth be told, I am 99% sure I will ask her back again after the next fairy movie comes out.) Each fairy and her talent, with the exception of Vidia, is represented in Pixie Hollow. There are the garden fairy fields, the sunflower meadows, the lilypad pond, Tinkers’ Nook, and of course, the Pixie Dust tree.

After Ann finished the murals, I painted on a coat of clear matte paint to protect them. I let the paint cure for three days, then added these Disney Fairy wall decals. The end result is completely magical. Pixie Hollow has been a huge hit with not just Zoë and Eden, but their friends as well.

If you live in the Seattle area and would like a wall mural for your home, I would not hesitate to recommend Ann Gates Fiser. Not only is she an amazingly talented artist, she is such a joy to work with. The girls and I had a wonderful time getting to know her while she was painting Pixie Hollow, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

I started out with the cover. Simple enough, right? I am a straight-to-the-point kind of girl. (I will update this post with a picture of the printed books once they arrive.)

Then I created Zoë’s storybook in iPhoto. Here are a few of the pages. It is the story of our cruise, from Zoë’s point of view, using words that she is able to easily read, and detail that she will appreciate. (If you click on the pages, a larger image will pop up for easier reading.)

Now I am going to show you something really cool. Ready?

Duplicate. Learn it. Use it. Duplicate is your friend. To duplicate an album, right click on the album you wish to copy and select duplicate.

I duplicated Zoë’s photo book and customized the photos and story for Eden. Obviously, Eden doesn’t care that “When you step aboard the Disney Dream you are instantly transported to an age of adventure and wonder, where elegance and sophistication mingle with Disney storytelling and whimsy. Lavish decorative murals mingle with sparkling fixtures and furnishings.” She’s three. Her take away from our trip? The cruise ship had pretty chandeliers, she got to sleep on a bunk bed with Zoë, and there were lots of princesses. She isn’t reading yet, but when she starts I want the words to be simple enough for her to sound out, and focus on details and activities that interested her during our vacation.

Here are the Eden versions of Zoë’s pages:

I started creating these books using Inkubook. I am very happy with the quality of their photo books, but I have to say, I wasn’t crazy about the layout options for their drag-and-drop pages. The space between the photos was too large (in my opinion). I like nice tight spacing on these smaller books. While iPhoto is very convenient and I like their layout options, I have never ever found a coupon code for their photo books. I find that annoying. Still, with 20-page photo books starting at $9.99, they are still an affordable option.

I also discovered that Flickr is an wonderful resource for photos. I stumbled upon this amazing Flickr stream with gorgeous detail photos of the Disney Dream (the ship we were on) and the shows. Note: Before you download images from Flickr make sure that the owner has granted permission to do so. Kelly and I only brought our iPhones on the trip and it honestly hadn’t occurred to me to take detail shots. They were the perfect addition to the girls’ story books!

There you have it! Considering how much Eden loves her Legoland storybook, I anticipate making many more of these in the future. I also like that they are saved on my computer for easy duplication in case something happens to the first cherished copy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Enter Twelve.

Registration is closed for Twelve, but if Stacy ever offers the class again I whole heartedly recommend it. Her passion and enthusiasm for scrapbooking is infectious. You cannot help but be excited! Each week she focuses on a different topic to inspire the class and get our creative juices flowing. I have been more productive this month than I was all of last year.

So the big question is did I finish twelve layouts? You bet I did! I finished 14 2-page layouts and created 2 42-page photo books for my girls.

That being said, I didn’t exactly follow the class format. The idea for Twelve is that each month we create one layout on each of the following topics: Me, Holidays, Places, Everyday Life, Rituals, Inspiration, Personality, Things, Family Stories, Seasons, and Fun. I fully intended to. I made lists of layouts I plan to create for each topic. I have pictures edited and tagged to use, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. I simply could not focus on my twelve topics this month because I really, really want to finish up my 2009 and 2011 Life in Photos albums. If I can’t focus on a layout I end up dinking around in Photoshop moving photos and embellishments around and getting nothing accomplished. Does that happen to you?

In 2009 I jumped on the Project Life train. I love the concept. LOVE IT! I bought the kit and I was all ready to go. I was very dedicated to taking a photo each day, I still am. What I had trouble with was getting my  journaling done. I am just not a paper scrapbooker anymore. What I ended up with was an album with 365 of photos from 2009 and 365 days of journaling on my photo blog. Last year I began the process of combining my photos and journaling and created/printed layouts up through March. The rest of the album has sat empty. Creating the layouts is really fast because I am using the same templates I used in 2010 (and 2011). I simply insert the pictures and copy/paste the journaling from my blog. Soooo, long story long, I worked on those pages this month and finished up to the beginning of June. Yay! Here are a few of my layouts. My, how life has changed in two short years!

I also wanted to make photo books for my girls of the Disney Cruise we took last month. Instead of creating layouts (which I am planning to do, or maybe a photo book for the family…) I created 6×8 photo books in iPhoto for Zoë and Eden. I made a photo book for Eden of our trip to Legoland last year and she loves it. She sleeps with it, carries it around the house, and reads it pretty much every night. It is one of her favorite books. She looks at her little photo book so much more than she ever would our “Places We Go” scrapbook. (More about the photo books tomorrow.)

So there you have it! Twelve is one of the best classes I have ever taken. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be excited about scrapbooking again. I haven’t been excited about scrapbooking for years. Dedicated to taking my daily photo and telling our story, yes. But not always excited about the process. Now, I cannot wait to sit down at night and get scrapping!

Thank you, Stacy.

Before Christmas I had the idea of creating an art book for Zoë. The artwork that she had so proudly created was sitting in piles, not being appreciated. I didn’t want to recycle them, but they were taking up space and not being enjoyed. It took me about 15 minutes to scan 60 pages of her artwork. (Many of them were similar, so I chose the best of each design.) It took me an additional 30 minutes to upload the scanned images to Inkubook and drag them into an 8.5×11 book. I was so pleased with the result and it took less than one hour.

Zoë absolutely LOVED her book. She sat down in the middle of the floor on Christmas morning, with her sister and cousins opening up gifts all around her, and looked through the entire book admiring her pictures. It was one of the best gifts I could have given her. Now, this beautiful (small) little book sits proudly on her bookshelf, and her pile of artwork has already begun to rebuild itself…