Creative Friday

Monday was a minimal day at school (oh, joy!). That meant that Jill and Landon were able to get here by 2:15, and Lucas didn't have play rehearsal! It felt like oh so long since we had gotten together. (Remember I lost a good chunk of time in January/early February.)

In addition to bringing me a Sonic drink (such a treat), Jill also gave me giant pink ric rac and the cutest polka dot tape! She totally knows what I like.

Lucas is thrilled to be growing! He is about the same height as me now, and he checks daily to see if he has passed me up. He and Landon had to measure themselves against each other. Looks like a draw to me.

Creative Friday is the one time I can have a hugely messy table and it doesn't bother me one bit. (I have a messy table plenty of other times, but it bugs me.)

I had made some salted caramel rice krispie bars that I found on Pinterest. They sounded delicious and smelled great, but we couldn't decide if we liked them or not. We had to taste a few to determine our reaction. I'm still not sure, but my boys loved them.

Eva went home with a friend that day, but she later came home and joined us at the table to finish working on her valentines for school. We printed them out and got everything assembled over the weekend, so I'm not sure why it took so long to just write the names on, but it was quite the laborious process. She was ready to give up at the end, so Jill and I helped her to tape on the last few treats. But of course she had it in her to make an extra one for Whitney!

Jill made and wrote cards and got some good mail packages ready to go. Always so satisfying. I have absolutely no idea what my claw-like hands are doing in this photo.

I worked on valentines, which I have been sending out in batches this week. I figure belated valentines are better than none at all, right? Also, I love wool felt. So much.

Creative Friday

Sometimes I do my hair in the morning, and I actually like it. Then I see it in a picture and realize how wrong I was. It appears I'm just doomed when it comes to my hair.

{Jill had to take the picture since my arms are too short to take a self-portrait with my big camera. Seriously. She didn't bring hers because she fears it is dying. Say it isn't so!!! Jill without a camera is too terrible to even contemplate. Send good thoughts her camera's way.}

I think this view of Jill's must be preferable to seeing my many chins when she looks up at me. I recommended she keep her eyes down at table level. You know, for her own good. I'm thoughtful that way.

After a kind of dumb lunch (burritos I threw together), we had no shortage of treats. Jill tried a piece of the chocolate peanut butter cake.

I stuck to the two kinds of homemade cookies! (We had each made cookies that morning. What are the odds?)

I have lots of pictures of Jill writing notes, but that doesn't stop me from taking more. It's just so Jill.

Check out this darling mini composition book she made to send as good mail! Love it. (And her long list of recent good mail sent.)

I'm in love with these photo cards Jill made. I'm quite smitten with my photo cards as well. And any that I receive. You pretty much can't go wrong with photo cards.

One of my favorites – I sent this to the hospice where my grandmother spent her last days to thank them for their wonderful care and facility.

I was pleased and even a little surprised to realize how very therapeutic it was to write thank you notes to various people who provided great service during the time of Grandma's death and funeral. I have been thinking about doing that for a couple of weeks, and actually sitting down and writing them left me feeling much lighter.

Just one of the many benefits of Creative Friday.

Creative Friday

This week we had Creative Friday on Tuesday, since Jill will be in Freakin' Eagle Mountain tomorrow with Andrew. Interestingly, though it had only been a few days since our last get-together, we both agreed that we were ready and that it was not too soon to convene again. Creative Friday is like that.

We enjoyed the valentine m&ms that Ciria sent expressly for Creative Friday. Sweet!

Alisa sent us some CF good mail. So fun to open a package for both of us! {photo by Jill}

Check out these adorable Eiffel Tower cupcake picks and way cool E.T. magnets. We were both smitten. Thanks, Alisa! {photo by Jill}

And speaking of cupcakes, I printed out some cupcake tags that I downloaded from Bake It Pretty. I didn't have the exact right circle punch, but I was able to make some work with my scalloped one. (I put one on a gift for a birthday party Lucas was going to yesterday and thought it looked just plain happy!)

tag carcasses

We had Tex-Mex Nachos for lunch (leftovers from Monday's dinner). This is one of those recipes that really is fast and easy, even for gad-about slow cooks like myself.

Jill had this card on top of a stack of photos, and it kept drawing my attention all day. I find it painfully cute and wish I had thought of it myself.

Eva had to show Jill the Bizarre Dinosaurs book she got for Valentine's Day. It has some dinosaurs in it that we've never heard of, and when you consider how many dinosaur books we've read and movies and shows we've watched, that is pretty remarkable.

Even with all of the history these two have, they still like each other. Mostly.

One of the self-portraits that Jill took showed only some of her hair and cheek. She was fine with this. (I would be, too.) I prefer this one that demonstrates how extremely photogenic and pretty she is, even when she feels too unsightly for a self-portrait!

valentine's day

Eva had her preschool Valentine's party on Wednesday. She had to wear her red polka dot outfit, red shoes, and valentine ribbons. She could not have been more thrilled with the whole experience. (She handed out Posh Puppy valentines, which included stickers for decorating the puppies, thus making them even more posh. It was all very Fancy Nancy.)

Lucas's party was on Friday (after a cross-country skiing field trip). He decorated his valentine box in true Lucas-style: covered with gray paper with writing all over.

On Saturday, Emily & Charlotte came over to make sugar cookies. We made Denise's recipe and Miranda's recipe. (Denise's were my favorite. I just like the thinner ones best. I do enjoy not having to chill the dough, however. Plus, I think I did something wrong with Miranda's recipe, because I had to put in a LOT more flour than the recipe called for.)

Anyway. It was fun to make two different kinds, but we made a lot a lot of cookies! So many, in fact, that Charlotte & Emily had to leave before we did anything more than basic frosting. That, combined with the fact that I ran out of powdered sugar (despite having 2 2-pound bags!) meant that I didn't do any fancy piping this year. Oh well.

Having Charlotte & Emily around is so fun, for a lot of reasons. First of all, they are just great company in their own right. Secondly, it is almost like having Denise around. They have her sense of humor, and even their arms and hands look like hers!

I love that Emily brings her knitting everywhere she goes. So that's how she gets so much done! (Although we did agree that we are not okay with taking knitting to class or to church...)

We made white, pale pink, and slightly darker pink frostings. The frosting is definitely my favorite part of sugar cookies. To me, there's just no point in eating them without frosting.

Eva went hog wild with sprinkles, but then was highly disturbed with the stickiness of her hands. She took multiple hand-washing breaks.


I made these heart bean bags for my Primary class. I gave them all instructions to perform an act of kindness for a member of their families and then to place the heart on that person's pillow. We shall see.


Yesterday, Marc gave me a new Lisa Leonard necklace for my valentine gift. The man knows how to choose a great gift!

I gave him a homemade valentine and a booklet of love coupons. I have good intentions, but not as good on the follow-through...

We got a package from my mom today. Everyone was so excited! She sent several different kinds of candies, Hello Kitty valentines for Eva (as well as a cute notebook and heart post-its), iTunes cards for the boys, and coasters and to-die-for bowls for me.

She knows me so well! You can't really tell the scale, but these are tiny, like prep bowls. The cutest prep bowls you have ever seen.

You've gotta love it when a holiday lasts for a week or so instead of just one day.

Creative Friday

Last week, Jill took my custom order for new good mail labels, and this week she cut them out for me. What service!

I love them! I'm completely smitten with gray.

Jill brought the rest of the Christmas Cadbury chocolates for us to finish off. I enjoy seeing her postal scale in the background.

Marc stopped on his way to the Sundance film festival to read us a snarky email he got from a student and his response. We thought he should tone it down just a bit. I am repeatedly amazed by the way students address their professors these days, I never would have done that!

I love this picture that Jill took of me writing thank you notes. I looked closely at another picture like this, and I was writing a note to Jill, which cracked me up.

Aerial view for maximum chin reduction. I keep wondering if I'm going to have to abandon self-portraits altogether...

We had crockpot potato soup and wheat bread for lunch. I love leftovers!

Max came home and immediately opened up his algebra book. He said that his homework about functions and parabolas was easy. I think he's mocking us.

At the end of the day, Jill was looking at this wonderful book about correspondence that she bought awhile ago. It's darling and has a lot of good information, to boot.

She also took time to color with Eva. Eva absolutely loves doing whatever she is doing with someone else, so she was thrilled.

I decided I needed to include some documentation of Jill making the post office run for both of us -- I love that she does this! She disclosed to me that she has taken to chasing down mail trucks of late in her determination to get her correspondence out that very day. What a funny visual! I'm usually content to put my stuff in the mailbox and wait for the mailman to pick it up, but then I'm not the good mail queen...

the celebration continues

The birthday gifts have still been trickling in, and man it's fun to stretch out the celebration like this!

Amy M. sent me some of her extraordinary photo cards. And did you see that photo tag?? That girl oozes innovation. Pretty much everything she does leaves me thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Esther sent this card with a lovely note.

Laurie M. sent me this darling little notepad and gorgeous card, as well as a funny note.

Jen M. sent me a Lindt chocolate bunny and some of her favorite recipes. I just love it that she sent me recipes! I'm always wondering what other people's standard, go-to recipes are. Maybe I want to add them to my rotation, you know? And now I have some of Jen's favorites. Eva is lobbying pretty hard for me to open the bunny.

Heather S. sent me $25 in Fandango bucks! I've never received Fandango bucks before --what fun I will have choosing and seeing a movie -- maybe I'll invite my boys on a date...

Amanda L. sent me this adorable card and a knitting pattern. I had admired this baby hat on her blog (her first project, by the way, the girl's got ambition). Now can I attempt to make my own!

Thank you, friends -- I am just floored by your thoughtfulness and generosity.