Creative Friday--Special Guest Edition

Even though yesterday was the first day of school for 7th graders and my first day of school with students in the building (i.e., office craziness) Michelle and I planned a Creative Friday gathering because it was early-out (1:45) and because our great blogging friend Rebekah was in town!

I picked Rebekah up in Orem at her friend's house. She is so stinkin cute and so fun to be with. Michelle and I adore her because she is a faithful and insightful commenter (a very rare combination). She often goes without commenting for a few weeks and then will go back and read and comment on every single post she has missed! Last week I had 25 new comments from her...that's super endearing to me.

It was a very productive day because we had so many questions for Rebekah. It's one thing to know someone from their blog, but it's an even better thing to then get to talk with them in real life and fill in the gaps that are obviously left out from blogging.

Eva and her cute friend Eva (with the cutest voice I've ever heard) were around for a little bit.

Lucas showed us his incredible stash of birthday iTunes gift cards...I offered to buy back the one we gave him because now that I have an iPhone and have been reunited with my iTunes music library I am itching to buy new songs and apps.

Marc joined us for awhile to discuss his blog and some stuff going on with work.

Michelle cut out some really cute Back to School printables she'll be using for a super cute back-to-school dinner...I will not be doing anything cute for back-to-school dinner (I don't even have dinner planned, so maybe a celebratory bowl of Rice Krispies is in order).

Michelle taught Rebekah how to make paper flowers and even though Rebekah didn't think she had great crafting skills she made great flowers.

Michelle showed us the paint colors she is planning to use for her living room, kitchen cupboards and hutch. She has a lot of projects planned since Eva is starting school full day.

Our not so secret stash of treats for the day was Reese's Pieces (I love those) and some banana chocolate-chip muffins made by Michelle.

I got 4 items of good mail put together.

Michelle is letting me borrow the limb-trimmer saw her dad bought when he was visiting last week. We're good about sharing things with each other, but this was a new exchange for us.

**Have you written any cards lately?

Have you ever read Rebekah's blog?

Are you happy about school starting?

Ever used a limb trimmer?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Work is so busy, but I'm loving my new job!

Creative Friday--Last Official Gathering of Summer

Because I have to start my new job already I am losing the last 2 weeks of my summer vacation. I am handling this surprisingly well (I'm sure I am receiving Divine help with this) and taking it all in stride. It was important to me that Michelle and I got one last official Creative Friday in before I went back to work full time (which is happening next week).

The kids and I went to their house (finally!) on Wednesday at 1:00, and the girls joined us at the table right away to make some plastic bead crafts (the kind you iron to fuse into a shape). It's nice that Whitney and Eva share a love for art.

The three boys played video games for awhile.

Michelle had made mint brownies the previous night so they were chilled to perfection. It was particularly generous of her to share these with us because she didn't get to eat any during the day thanks to her iron-will.

I was writing more birthday thank you notes and was very happy to have such a pleasing array of postage, thanks to the fabulous birthday gift from Michelle. Oh how I love postage!

Michelle and I have both been reading books by Virginia H. Pearce and brought them to exchange with each other...sweet reciprocity!

Michelle spent a good chunk of her time copying quotes from Through His Eyes even though I assured her I will be returning her book when I finish reading it. She had marked so many passages that it made me even more excited to read it.

This was my secret treat stash for the week and yes, that's my new birthday iPhone! I have joined the 21st century for real and can text with 2 thumbs like a normal person.

Michelle made more of her fabulous paper flowers and was taking step by step photos for a blog tutorial she's going to post.

Eva and Whitney spent awhile jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it but Eva made several trips back inside to use the bathroom. The sliding door is broken so it can only be opened from the inside, so that meant she would stand at the door and bang on it until Michelle got up to open it.

Michelle got this great photo of the girls jumping! These two are 5.5 years and about 80 pounds apart!

The boys obliged me for a photo...they're turning into men and it's freaking us out. Lucas' voice is getting deeper!

I wrote a thank you note to our Bishop and had Landon write something in the note as well. I love it that Landon doesn't hesitate to do this and doesn't need any instruction, he just does it.

Here is his cute note.

Our very pleasing mess. Can you believe I don't even get a cup of ice anymore?! It's the weirdest thing, but ever since being treated for low iron I not only don't crave it anymore, I don't even like it when I do have it! It feels too cold for my teeth. I didn't think this would ever happen and it kind of bums me out because I used to enjoy it so much. We're saving about $6 a week though.

I was super productive and totally in the zone with my note writing!

We didn't take a self-portrait at the beginning of the day and felt too unsightly to take one at the end, so we opted for a summer feet self-portrait instead. It was kind of funny that I was wearing a black skirt with a magenta top and Michelle was wearing a magenta skirt with a black top. It's no surprise that her flip flops are cuter than mine.

We are sad that our summer gatherings are over, but we are going to figure out a way to do them during the school year because Creative Fridays are good for the soul!

**Have you ever used those iron-bead crafts?

Ever done a photo tutorial?

Do you swap books with anyone?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I took some photos for a family in our ward yesterday and I am totally sore today! Soreness is a strange and uncomfortable by-product of an hour and a half long photo session.

Sunday Thoughts

Just a quick thought tonight...

“I’ve learned that the best way to reclaim charity is to uncumber myself and simply love and serve the Lord. How do we do that? We start each day kneeling in prayer to our Father in Heaven, we hear His words through daily scripture study, and we follow the guidance we receive. We put Christ first, restoring charity’s circular love. ‘We love him, because he first loved us.’ This is the reciprocating cycle of charity. Sisters, ‘charity never faileth.’” --Bonnie D. Parkin

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm starting to feel rather giddy about summer's arrival, and I'm really loving it that we get to kick off our summer break with Memorial Day this year.

Creative Friday--Two Kid Free Hours Edition

This week's Creative Friday started with a welcome surprise of this very happy stack of envelopes for me. Michelle knows I love having a variety of colored envelopes and that I go through them like crazy, so she was kind enough to get these for me on her most recent trip to the scrapbook store. What a delight!


We took our self portrait at the beginning of the day this time, so we'd be freshly primped for the photo. We can't figure out what happens to us during our hours of creating (other than eating of course) but we look slightly haggard (is that an oxymoron) by the end of it so this was a good plan for us.


This day was the debut of my new word for the year necklace and I loved wearing it.


Eva had a make-up day of preschool (hooray) so Michelle had to get her ready to go by 12:30. Apparently this entailed shoving bamboo shoots under her nails and making her wear pricker-filled shoes two sizes too small because there was a lot of yelling, squirming and dissatisfaction being expressed during the hair brushing and shoe tying process.


But Eva bounced back and was full of funny faces and a demonstration of her technique for jumping off the ottoman onto a pillow on the floor, so perhaps she was just overreacting.


I was snapping pictures of Eva walking down the stairs to leave for school and got this cute one of Michelle going out the door. She's a good mom.


When Michelle returned we found ourselves completely kid free and at a loss about it. I said, "We can actually have an uninterrupted, serious discussion, so what have you got to say?" Ha.

We had an excellent lunch of bbq beef sandwiches on homemade rolls with a very tasty roasted pepper cheese dip.


We put a package together for a friend (who will the lucky recipient be I wonder?) and decided that we both enjoy the process of sending good mail even more than we enjoy receiving it!


Michelle also gave me a big stack of her wonderful birthday tags to replenish my supply. I recently told her she has made me a tag junkie with these, so the least she could do is keep me stocked. I reciprocate by delivering brown bananas on a regular basis and giving her all the good mail labels she can handle.


Michelle is a master list maker, and I enjoy the variety of note pads she has for all these lists and watching her write on them. This time she made a list of people to send Christmas thank you notes.

I ended up making and writing 10 cards! It's amazing how once I stop and think about it I have things to say to people, and by setting aside this time each week I am able to turn my good intentions into action. I know that Creative Friday is a luxury and that many people's schedules don't allow for such a chunk of free time, so I'm just glad that we have that time and are using it.


It's a good thing Michelle supplied me with all these colorful envelopes because I put them to use immediately. I love it that these "Celebration" stamps match any color envelope.


Max got home from school at 2:30 and sat down with us to do his math homework (we had the m&ms nearby), and I informed him that I'm sure I could NOT do even one problem in his algebra book. This is embarrassing to admit, but sadly it's true.

I was able to stay later than usual because we weren't having game night and because the kids both had plans with friends right after school, so I didn't leave until 5:00pm. I made my customary stop to mail our letters at the post office then went home. Good times!

**Did you send any mail this week?
Do you enjoy colorful envelopes?
Do your kids fuss when you're getting them ready?
Do you look unprimped after just a few hours?
Are you good at math?**

Please, please make sure to comment on my Good Mail post from Thursday, I need a variety of input for a class I'm teaching on correspondence!!

Comment Window Tidbit: I went to a fantastic Relief Society conference this morning and am feeling so grateful and motivated by it.