I really meant to be a better blogger. I did. I did. My life is a little crazy these days! We’ve been in our new house for a year now and I am still telling people I “just moved in.” How long does that excuse last? HaHa!  Now it’s summer again and I don’t think things are going to settle down any time soon. My kids are finishing up their last week of school and are heading in to summer break.  They have a short 3 week summer vacation then it’s back to the books. Year round school isn’t fun.

We have to pack a lot of summer fun into a short time. One thing the always ask me is to have a lemonade stand. I love this clip from Olive Us (have you seen Design Mom’s new project? It’s genius). It inspired me to make a lemonade stand kit for my kids.

Do you want one?  The file contains art to make a paper bunting, large “LEMONADE” letters to cut out for a sign, direction yard signs, a price sign, stickers to make cups look cute and custom, flags for straws to mark who ordered what, order forms, receipts, & even recipes! I’m going to laminate all the main components so they can use them over and over again. Then we’ll just print out the other pages as needed.

Have your kids get out their scissors and get to cutting! Hopefully, the prep will take one day and the lemonade stand itself another. Two activities for the price of none!  Your little entrepreneurs will love it.

It’s in a multi-page PDF file and you are more than welcome to download it for your personal use.

We just used a table for our stand. If you want to build a more permanent structure check out this cute idea.  I want one :)

Happy 2012! I know I haven’t been blogging at all lately. I hope to do a little better this year. To celebrate 2012 and new beginnings, I have a [Free Downloadable 5x7 2012 Calendar PDF]  for you. Just right click (pc) or option click (mac) on the link above and you’ll be able to save the file to your desktop to print. I hope your year is amazing!

I am hip deep in boxes, paper, and packing tape. Moving is a big task. The amount of stuff to come out of my little studio itself is bewildering. Boy do I know how to pack it in! But I need to pop in and tell you about a fun post series over at 30 Handmade Days. I am guest posting over there today with a 2011 Summer Calendar free download.  Head over there and check it out! I have a bonus freebie here on my blog and they go together like sunshine and popsicles.

I made a Summer Passport Printable with everything you’ll need to make as many summer passports as you want. PDF file include the cover, interior pages, page of stickers, and a little sheet of instructions. Then when you are done planning your summer activities on your calendar, bring your passports with you and keep a little memory book of all the fun! The pages each have a pocket to store ticket stubs or other little mementos and you can add as many pages as you want to your passport.

Have fun finding something for each activity to “stamp” your passport with. I also include a sheet that can be printed on sticker paper if you want to use those are your marking. Enjoy!

To download this for your personal use only (meaning please don’t sell them) just option-click (mac) or right-click (pc) on the [Summer Passport PDF] link and it will be saved to your desktop. Just open the file and follow the instructions on the first page. Have a great summer!

I’ll be back to more regular posting as soon as possible.

This will be a good thing for our big little family but it’s fast and furious as most things are for us. So my life will be a little nuts for the next few months. Will you stick around while I’m sorting things out? I’ll hopefully be able to pop in here a few more times before the move.

We found some boxes online and discovered quite an enterprising young person. This little boy searches around for free boxes, gets his parents to pick them up then sells them for 50 cents each. Wow! An improvement over my door to door art and junk sales as a kid. Hey, just realized in writing that that I haven’t changed much.  I still sell art and junk :)

I posted about a fun little design tool over on Good Look Cookbook. It’s an online app to create and download fun type elements. Check it out!

I have a free mini 5×7 print for you today in celebration of the Easter holiday. The other day as I was thinking about what the holiday really means to me, I came upon the word VICTORIOUS. This is such a powerful word to me. I have a lot of things in my life that I’d love to claim victory over. Jesus overcame death and sin. He is the supreme example of the word. As I go throughout my weekend, I’ll be looking at this print and remembering that because of HIM and his gift, I can be victorious too.

I wanted to make something that we could do as a family to show our thankfulness of this gift. I created little 3×5 cards that match the print. We are going to think of something that we would each like to be victorious over by the next Easter. This could be a vise, a weakness, a sadness, or just a trial that we want to overcome. I think we will write them in the present tense as if we have already overcome them so that we focus on the positive. Hopefully, we’ll put these little cards somewhere we can see them often or read them everyday and be reminded that all things are possible through Christ.

I’d love to share! If you’d like them you can right click (pc) or option click (mac) on the following link to download the 5×7 Victorious Mini Print to your desktop for your own personal use. Then just pick a good cardstock, print, & trim. You can download the Victorious 3×5 Cards the same way. They are set up to print four to a page. Have a wonderful Easter Celebration!

This was my booth at Bijou Market a few weeks ago. A lot of the things pictured here made it to new homes. That makes me happy. I like to know that the things I think are fun and interesting are living new lives. I had some of my vintage books in a suitcase below the table, baskets of things on the ladder, stuff on the shelves and piled on the floor… do you think I crammed it with too much? I wonder if I should have edited it a little and only showed a few things. Thoughts? When you shop at boutiques what do you like to see? Crammed shelves or more styled tables?

The next one is a reminder of a great talk I heard a couple of weeks ago regarding “DO” and “BE” in regards to parenting and other matters. I liked the idea that we should not focus so much on the “doing” of things that we forget to encourage the “being.”

The last one is a bigger version of a past mini print. It’s the SIMPLICITY print done with gold ink.

Helloooooooo long lost Blog Land! How’s the weather? Not that Blog Land itself has been lost, heavens no. A peek into my little reader will squash that notion. Hello, I have THOUSANDS of unread posts. Sometimes I wish blog readers could really READ them to you. Like audio books but for blogs. Then you could catch up on all your blogs while doing dishes or something. No, Blog Land isn’t lost, I just haven’t found my way here too often lately. I was going through a little blog rebellion. Have you ever done that? It sometimes seems that it’s all been done before. Makes me feel kind of panicky about blogging sometimes. So, I just don’t. I want to, but I don’t. I’m like that. And that gives me blog guilt. Or BLOGUILT as I like to call it. I tweeted that the other day. That blogging brings on guilt. It made me wonder if anyone else feels this way? Blogging should be about creation. That’s what I think anyway. Creation of good ideas, good thoughts, good energy. Every little bit of good put out into the world helps, right? But sometimes I find myself just looking at things others have created and then it stops me from creating myself. Why is that?

My husband introduced me to the writings of Wallace Wattles. He has some pretty amazing insights. For example, the quote for this week. I LOVE that. He says that every person on the earth is to create something. That we don’t have to compete for what’s already been created. There is enough and to spare. The journey is finding out what it is we can create with the unique materials that each of us have been given and then doing it.

This blog is a chronicle of my adventures in art, creativity, life, motherhood. Hopefully, it will start to reflect a truer sense of that.  So, want to see what we did this weekend?

Got chicks! Six little chirpers named Penny Pigwidgeon, Gracie May, Ethel Rose, Lucy Jane, Ming Ming, and Little Red. My kids are in heaven. We have to proclaim “chicken time-outs” every so often to give them a little break from the many hands that want to love them.

I am a market newbie. I love to attend and shop but I’ve never been a participant. Until now. I took and chance and submitted a request to exhibit at the upcoming Bijou Market. Woot! I’m excited to be there.  So, if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been absent from this little old blog for the past few weeks, it’s because I have been in a whirl of creative activity. It’s been so fun to dream up lots of little goodies. My idea list is fast overcoming the hours in my day.  I have to keep telling myself I don’t have to cram ALL my ideas into this one show.

My word, my focus, this year is “explore.” This market has been such a good catalyst for me to really put that into practice. At my little booth, I’ll be sharing my great vintage finds, upcycled creations, and handmade goodies. I’d love to have you come! Look for the “Things Created & Things Reclaimed” booth- that’s me!

This past weekend I visited a museum. One of the exhibits was some photographs by Dorthea Lange.  This photo was one of them- a young mother from Gunlock, Utah. All the photos were glimpses into the real lives of people from this small rural town in the mid 50′s. I loved the way she captured the simplest things and how they came alive in her lens. It was so interesting to me to see that bit of the world’s history through her eyes.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately that what we choose to write about, what we choose to create or make, or photograph, becomes the history for future generations. That can be kind of daunting. Seems like there is always someone better, more qualified, or already creating what I want to create.  What is there for me to contribute that hasn’t already been done? But I think Dorthea took the images that spoke to her. What if she had decided to leave the photographing to the other photographers? She told the story of the world as she saw it. I think that’s what matters. There is a story for everyone to tell.