Ink About It in Westford, MA is celebrating their 9th Anniversary this week!! How awesome is that?? I’m so happy to be a regular teacher there, and my Zutter class this coming Thursday is marking the kick-off of their anniversary celebration!! Remember, you don’t need to own a Bind it All to come and make the book in class, I always have mine, plus there’s another one in the store that we can use.  We’d love to see you!! Here’s a sneak of the cover and an inside page… The papers are SO spring-y and beautiful!! There’s also pockets and pull out tags for even more space to put pictures and/or journaling!! Call the store if you would like to come!! And, if you’re there on Thursday (or also Friday-Saturday) during their Anniversary celebration, you’ll be able to take advantage of their wonderful Anniversary celebration specials!!

* Early birds receive a free gift!  We have a treat for the first 25 shoppers each day.

* One $100 gift bag raffle per day. (Receive one raffle entry with every $20 purchase.) 

* One Grand Prize winner will receive a Tim Holtz Vagabond (msrp: $249.99).

* Anniversary Cake and free   Make & Take on Sat, May 25th, 11am-3pm.

* New product debuts from vendors like Hero Arts, Gourmet Rubber Stamps, Lawn Fawn, Character Construction, Penny Black, Artist Cellar, Dear Lizzy, Farm House, Echo Park, Melissa Frances and more!

So… Call the store and come to class!!! Plus shop and celebrate with Linda, Lori and the rest of the wonderful staff at the store!!

Ok, now… back to the sneak peek… Here’s the cover… You know you want to come and see the inside!! Class starts at 6:30 is only $25 and when you leave your book will be 100% complete, just add pictures and journaling!!

If you know us, you know that we’re “hop in the car and go someplace” people!  We’re always going someplace, and it’s usually some quirky out of the ordinary place.  In fact, I’m often posting some “Guess where the Kelley’s are today” pictures on facebook :)

A couple of places we’ve been to recently have been real hits!!  We headed out one weekend to Clinton, MA (not that far) to go to the Russian Icon Museum.  Honestly, it’s wonderful!! If you have any interest at all in religious artifacts, it’s THE place to go.  The collection is huge, the set-up and the displays are beautifully done, there’s a recorded “tour” with added information, and a kids’ scavenger hunt to keep the kiddos entertained while you’re reading about the icons!  It was a great visit, and we’ll probably go again we liked it so much! They have a traveling exhibit of Matryoshka dolls (the nesting dolls) coming this month, do we’ll have to plan another trip! Wait, who am I kidding?? We don’t plan :) we just go!

Of course, no trip down route 495 would be complete unless we stopped at the candy store!! Colonial Candies in Bolton :) you can see the building from the highway.  It was a little bit awkward while we were there because the 2 girls at the registers were arguing about who was supposed to ring us up… like I said, awkward… But the candy was yummy!

Coming up soon will be a post about our visit to The Orchard House and Miss Kathryn’s report about Louisa May Alcott (plus some pics of the costume I made for her)  :)

I LOVE making presents for new babies…

In fact, I firmly believe that EVERY baby should have something handmade for them :) Mike’s cousin just had her beautiful and healthy baby boy, so I thought I’d share the little quilt that I made for him.

I forgot to measure it before I gave it to them, but it isn’t huge, it’s the perfect size for playing on the floor or for a crib.  I used Moda Lil Rascals Quilt Cotton Fabric
… I just love the “old-timey” look of the fabrics!

This quilt was the very first that I quilted on my new sewing machine, and the first that I’ve free-motion quilted (so don’t look too close :)

Here’s the whole front…

Here’s a full shot of the back… Isn’t that fabric adorable??

The front is a Disappearing 9 patch made with a pack of charm squares, and then a border added around the edge. Here’s a closeup of one of the fabrics :) love that little kitty!

And here’s a close up of the backing fabric… Aren’t those pups adorable?

And a close up of the finishing touch :) the tag…

We just got the sweetest thank you note from them, and they just had the baby last week… I can’t wait to meet him in person!!

Here’s a link to the fabric I used for the border…

I have a bunch of projects that need to be posted… Now that the weather is nice, I’ll get them outside to take pictures and post them soon!

I love having the opportunity from Naturally Savvy to review some of their products… We all want to eat healthier, it would be so nice to have the time (and money) to be able to eat only whole organic foods… But the reality is that as much as we want totally holistic home grown foods, most of us just go along, eating the best we can with the time and resources available.  This book, Unjunk Your Junk Food is a wonderful resource for eating better without tons of judgement!! It has a great way of giving you choices… Listing the ingredients of a “bad” choice of junk food, and then giving an alternative better choice!!I love that the book doesn’t preach about taking all the “goodies” and snacks out of your diet, it just gives you a healthier alternative!

The glossy pages, great images, and straightforward language make this book perfect if you’re trying to eat better, but still like to eat pre-packaged foods and snacks. The pages are full of information on some of the “worst offenders” on the ingredient lists, and how to clean them up for better choices. I find myself reaching for the book often, just refreshing my (bad) memory!! I especially appreciate that the book goes into “hidden” names for some of the worst ingredients, knowing what to look out for on the ingredient list really makes shopping in a healthier way better!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of “Unjunk Your Junk Food” from the  Naturally Savvy Blogger program to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own.

We (and by “we” I really mean Sean) was so excited when we got an email from the Andover Bookstore saying that Tom Angleberger was going to be at the bookstore last week!! Sean LOVES his books! He already had most of them, and this was a good opportunity to get the new one and also have Mr. Angleberger sign them!!

Sean love, love, loved the Origami Yoda book, and the ones that followed, so meeting the author was very exciting! Every day after school he would check and make sure that we were planning to go… Friday afternoon we picked up the kids and headed right over there… The kids’ school is practically right across the parking lot, so we were the first ones there!

Mr. Angleberger was great! He did a little presentation where he asked the kids questions and added to drawings about the books… Sean got one of the drawings because he knew the name of the character from the book (he’s read them all several times!).

He also passed out green paper to everyone and demonstrated how to make their own origami Yoda!! It was fun, and the kids all really liked it!! Mr. Angleberger was so personable and fun, and really good with the kids who were all ages!  When the presentation was done, he signed books and the origami Yoda that the kids made for everyone :)

A special “Thank You” to the Andover Bookstore for holding this kids of event, and to Tom Angleberger for such a fun afternoon!