Having young kids plus a full time job is an around the clock venture. Now that my kids are a little older I am finding pockets of time to do some creating again. I am really enjoying messing around in Procreate on my iPad. Starting with simple tracing of images I soon started looking around for tutorials to help me understand what Procreate can really do. I have been thoroughly enjoying the tutorials put together by Teela of Every Tuesday. She does such a great job of walking through every step and has a wide variety of projects. It has inspired me to practice my lettering, which is a little shaky at the moment.

There is nothing more satisfying than taking unused items and giving them purpose. We recently needed to find a space for my youngest daughter to relax and read or draw or color. Space is at a premium in our apartment and the kids’ shared bedroom wasn’t an option.

Time to get creative. I grabbed a storage bench that had outlived its usefulness, an IKEA bed tent, and some scarves we got from our building’s share table (more on that in another post.) I added a pillow I got from amazon (the only thing I purchased for this project), a wall hook, and a few binder clips. Voila! V loves her new reading nook and when she isn’t snuggled inside we use the wall hook to fold back the tent.

Here is my first step to restarting life as a blogger. Side note, kids sure do take a lot of care and attention.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 bag Trader Joe’s fruit and nut mix
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 2 egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the egg whites mixing well.

2. Whisk egg whites in a small cup until they are frothy and foamy.

3. Stir the egg whites into the granola. Spread the granola out in an even layer on a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment, and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and well toasted.

4. Take the granola out of the oven and let it cool overnight, uncovered.

5. When the granola is completely cool, break up into clumpy chunks, and transfer to an airtight container for storage.

As you know I am big into birds on stuff. Well it looks like the folks behind the IFC show Portlandia think it is a trend that deserves to be made fun of. The show is hilarious and if you haven’t already seen it you should check it out. I don’t care, I still like birds on stuff.

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us. Personally I am not a huge fan of the holiday but I do like creative DIY projects and what better excuse to make one up than V Day. I seriously heart this fingerprint poster tutorial over at Man Made. Super clear directions and great tips (printing at a local print shop, WDITOT!?) help you come up with a personalized work of art that is not to sappy but still pretty sweet and won’t break the bank. I am thinking I might make our equation include a little tiny fingerprint. via