Happy New Year

Wait... what???  Where did the time go?  Shortly after my last post, I dropped my daughter off at college, caved in to a friend's pleas to be the PTSA Treasurer, became the finance secretary at church, tried not to fall into a depressive abyss when a dear friend moved across the country, and caught that awful cold that put me out of commission for two weeks (and then a thrid week to recoup).  I managed to create the layouts for my monthly class and put together a couple cute projects.  The pictures aren't loaded onto my computer yer, but I promise to post them very soon.

Truffles Climbs a Tree

Cappi and Truffles love to chase the squirrels.  I'm not sure what they would do if they ever caught one.  I think they just want to play.  We built a ramp for Truffles to get back onto the deck because, for some reason, she won't climb the stairs.  Imagine my surprise when I saw her climb the tree!

Thank goodness my camera was nearby...

Kayleigh Had A Little Lamb...

...it's fleece was marshmallow?!  My girls made a flock of sheep for their after school club today.  The inspiration came from a Land O Lakes coupon ad.  Since they needed so many, they decided to decorate in an assembly line fashion.  They aren't perfect, but all together they look pretty cute.

We improvised a little on the faces.  You can purchase premade candy eyes for about $4 per package.  We didn't think one package would make 30 cupcakes, so we came up with our own solution by using a little icing and cutting the licorice into tiny pieces.  The heads in the inspiration photo were made with black gumdrops, which we couldn't find.  We decided to use mini Oreos instead (yum)!

He's almost too cute to eat!  Our sheep aren't as fluffy as the inspiration photo because we started to run out of marshmallows.  We contemplated leaving one with no marshmallows at all and naming him Shorn (from Wallace and Grommit).

Poor little sheep don't know what they are in for...

Not So Papery

Sorry I've been MIA for the past few weeks.  I've been working on some not-so-papery projects.  One of my regular cleaning days turned into an entire spring cleaning project.  The entire house is clean top to bottom and in every nook and cranny... and just in time for the beautiful spring weather to appear!  I've also been enjoying a lot of quality time with my daughters engaged in some very interesting conversations about anything and everything.  We decorated some very cute cupcakes over the weekend while my aunt, niece and her friend were visiting.

The girls staged these "pie" cupcakes to make them appear to be fresh from the oven.

The sharks were a challenge to make, but the girls were very pleased with the results.  We had to improvise on the teeth since we ran out of frosting.  We took little white heart shaped sprinkles and broke them in half. They are already planning the next cupcake project.

This is a close-up of the sharks.  They are almost too cute to eat!  Perhaps you will see these pictures in a layout or two in the not too distant future.

Unwritten

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined.
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned.
                      ~ Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

In the book Sing You Home, Jodi Picoult writes "Every life has a soundtrack."  So true... and at the top of my playlist is Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. Music speaks to me.  Sometimes the music speaks for me.

This year will be a journey for me - a story unfolding...

A message to the unwritten:

It is never too late to begin the story

~choir345