It’s always fun when someone hires you to make a book and they trust you enough to just let you run with it. The book below is a perfect example.

Theresa has had me make several books for her over the past few years. Mostly she has ordered gifts for others, but this time, she wanted a prayer journal for herself. And she said I could design it any way I wanted!

I experimented with exposed board for this book. I cut ruby-red bookbinding cloth in a wave shape to cover the spine and connect the covers, and the white part of the cover is raw Davy board, which I shaded with a white Prismacolor pencil.

I then added snowflake brads to the spine for symbolism and to give the book a little embellishment.

Inside the book, I designed the paste pages. I printed the lyrics to the worship song “Nothing But The Blood” and accented that particular line.

I knew Theresa was planning to use this book as a prayer journal, and I wanted to keep this reminder at the forefront of her mind every time she opened her book.

Theresa: Thank you again for being such a loyal customer. I always enjoy designing books for you. I hope the pages of this book are now filled with answered prayers and reminders of God’s provision in your life!

Be blessed!!

***

Boys certainly have their own agenda. If they want it, they are going to get it. If getting it requires too much effort, they just find a way to place themselves in the path of their desired object.

Such is the way with Beau and the toy box lately. I can understand his logic: it IS much easier to put one person inside the box than it is to pull forty-seven toys out of the box. And it’s also cleaner, which helps Mama maintain some of her sanity. Win-win!

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Check out some other folks doing Project 52: Lucas & Mahina; Shawna at StyleBerry; Wicked Kate

If you are participating in this year’s Project 52, leave me a comment and let me know…I’d love to link up with you!

I mentioned in this post that I love making books for other artists. Some times, other artists are even willing to trade their art for mine. Win-win!

Abi and I were meeting up to do a photoshoot for BodSchool, my personal training business. She takes incredible photos and I wanted to bring a thank you gift that I could give her until I was able to make her official sketchbook.

In college, I purchased a book that teaches how to bind books without any glue. As you can imagine, that makes the process much quicker, as you don’t have to wait for anything to dry!

I had some burlap scraps another friend had given me and decided that would be the perfect material to try something new.

I chose to make a “quarto” sized book (a fourth of a page) from 8.5 x 11 paper. The final size was roughly 4.25″ wide x 5.5″ tall…a great little book for stuffing in a purse or camera bag!

I burned the edges of the burlap to give it a more finished look (and also in hopes it would keep it from fraying so badly). Have you ever smelled burnt burlap?! Eww.

Since Abi loves green, I chose olive-colored paper for the pages. It also looks really great with the earthy burlap, don’t you think?

The stitching I chose was Long Stitch/Link Stitch. The sections are sewn together so the stitches are exposed on the spine like this:

I really like how you could see the stitches if you knew to look for them, but that the twine also blended in nicely with the burlap.

This was a really fast book the make. The thing that took the longest was learning the new stitch, but even that went quickly once I got the hang of it.

Abi, thank you again for being willing to trade art! I love making unique things for unique girls like you!

According to my mother-in-law, my husband was born with boots on. When Andrew and I met, he had already finished up his career as a pro-rodeo bareback bronc rider. But the cowboy spirit is still in his blood. I believe it always will be, whether he rides or not.

Both of Andrew’s daughters have grown up doing rodeo, and Beau has been going with us to watch them compete since before he was even born {let me just say that being 9 months pregnant and sitting out in the 100-degree Oklahoma heat for hours is so. fun. But it’s worth it to be able to cheer on our girls.}

Now our son is taking a liking to all things cowboy…the hat, the boots, the animals, the hustle-and-bustle of rodeos. And I’m not sure his smile could be any bigger than it is when he’s riding a horse with Daddy.

Long live cowboys!

***

Check out some other folks doing Project 52: Lucas & Mahina; Shawna at StyleBerry; Wicked Kate

If you are participating in this year’s Project 52, leave me a comment and let me know…I’d love to link up with you!

I’d also like to mention how much of a thrill I get out of planning a party on a limited budget. It forces me to get more creative! Maybe that’s why it reminded me of my wedding…I did the same thing with that event: achieved the biggest WOW possible for just a fraction of what other brides spend.

At any rate, I had been planning Beau’s woodland party for months and wanted everything to be perfect!

I’m SO GLAD I thought to book the amazing Abi Martin as the party-day photographer. There is no way I would have been able to corral my kiddo, play the part of hostess with the mostest, AND capture all the details and precious moments of the party. Abi is not only a talented photographer, she is also incredibly fashionable, VERY personable, and a dear friend to my family. Abi, thank you for capturing our day. I am speechless over these photos.

Beau’s birthday banner was one item I was able to create WAY in advance. It’s hard to tell, but I added glitter glue around each letter. I also attached each circle to the ribbon using tiny brads. That way, the skunk and the number could be changed out for future parties, or I could even sell it to someone with a different name!

Remember my sketch from Tuesday’s post? Messy though it was, it helped me pull off this spread:

I LOVED deciding which snacks we should include for this theme. These chocolate nests were one of the first things I thought of. Because one of our guests has a peanut allergy, I substituted butterscotch chips for the peanut butter called for in the recipe.

I framed 12 photos, one favorite from each month of Beau’s life, and interspersed them among the decor.

Stanley the Gnome helped hold down the fort.

I found this cool jar at a Hobby Lobby outlet store here in town and filled it with rocks, moss, and a doe and her fawn.

Here’s a shot of the goody bag contents: one finger puppet, one bird whistle, two colored pencils, two magnets, all contained in a burlap bag.

And since I believe in EVERYONE getting a party favor, I made acorn cookies for the adult guests.

Another shot of the food table, this time, with my cake topper included as the centerpiece. You’ll notice the cake stand is perched on top of  a log. FREE! from my in-laws’ woodpile!

Me and my birthday boy. He’d just woken up from his morning nap, so he looks a little stunned. But, MAN, if he isn’t just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

The cupcakes below are exactly what I envisioned as I was planning out the food table. I’d never covered cupcakes in fondant before, but the technique worked perfectly for creating smooth mushroom tops. The white polka dots were made out of royal icing that I blopped out and dried several weeks in advance. The risers were borrowed from my friend Mikie and covered in green Canson paper that I cut to look like grass. The cool thing? Mikie used these same risers (sans grass) last summer at the baby shower she co-hosted for Beau and me.

For those who aren’t huge fans of fondant, we also had a handful of buttercream-topped cupcakes with paper toppers I made.

To balance out the sweetness, I made sure to include some good ol’ Chex mix!

Another easy (read: inexpensive) centerpiece I made was a 14″ tall cylinder vase full of acorns (picked up off the ground at my in-laws’ house!) and topped with a friendly gray squirrel.

“Trail Mix” is a necessary component of any woodland party, wouldn’t you say? I made Fawna’s version using peanuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, mini marshmallows, and Reese’s Pieces. Sweet AND salty. Mmm.

Here’s the cake topper from Tuesday’s post. Doesn’t he look right at home on top of that two-layer chocolate cake?

Whenever I host a party, I’m always looking for new ideas for cute displays. I used B’s party as an opportunity to try another technique I’d seen: creating paper cones to hold snacks.

Interesting side-note: this “grass” is actually the bottle drying rack we received as a shower gift when Beau was born! I just added a thin hunk of styrofoam to the base so I could insert the sticks that held up the cones.

I also made my little birthday boy a shirt, using scraps of fabric that my mom and mother-in-law already had in their attics. I’d only made two other shirts before, and the design for them was much easier. I was curious to see how easy it was to create a character using multiple pieces and interfacing. It worked well! And now that the shirt has been through the wash a few times, the canvas I used for the beard and eyebrows is beginning to fray a bit around the edges, making it that much more beardly.

Seeing as how it’s been over 100 degrees every day for the past month (or since time began, it seems!), I made sure to have icy-cold drinks. I had a simple ice-water-with-lemon combo in a huge cookie jar I’ve had for years and I made cherry limeade punch in a cool drink dispenser I borrowed from my friend Natalie.

I received many compliments on the punch. And it couldn’t have been easier to make! I used this recipe, with a slight alteration. I started with a double batch, following the recipe as written. Then, because it was a bit tart for our liking (and I needed to make sure we had plenty), I added an additional two bottles (2-liters each) of Sprite. Perfect!

Beau’s little pals were so cute in their swim suits. Check out this guy: such a poser!

One of my artsy-mom friends has the cutest kiddos! We were so glad they could come to our party!

We had a puddle pool available and B and his little friends had the best time filling up cups, containers, and squirty fish.

After swimming, it was time for cake! And, boy, did Beau like it when we all sang “Happy Birthday to You.”

He started with a small nibble of fondant, before realizing that the entire cake in front of him was not only destructible, but tasty, too!

And he wasted NO time tearing it up!

The last picture is one my sister Sonny captured. It’s so fun to see the pure joy on his face!

Oh, what messy fun it is to turn one!! I love you, baby boy. It’s an honor to be your mama. Mwah!

TEETHING.

He’ll be five months old on the 23rd, but I guess he’s dying to eat some ‘art’, so he figures he’d better grow some chompers.

Today’s creativity: Peanut Butter Brownies

Some friends of mine (via my Aunt Rouye) are driving up from Dallas, so we’re having a dinner party at my aunt’s house tonight. I asked if there was anything I could bring, and “Dessert!” was the response. It wasn’t until I hung up the phone that panic set in. “What should I make? Do I even have any ingredients?”

So, Google to the rescue! (Sort of.) I searched for “simple desserts” and got no help from the powers that be. So, I fell back on my ol’ reliable site: Tasty Kitchen.

And, let me just say, HOORAY! I found a recipe and had all the ingredients on hand!

Here’s how they turned out…

My poor baby’s congestion got the better of him and he refused to nap. Well, he cat-napped. But only as long as I was holding him.

Needless to say, I am lucky to have been able to do much of anything (I got in a cardio workout, made a quick trip to Kohl’s, washed three loads of laundry, AND managed to make dinner!)

I call this “Mish Mash Pizza”…I really didn’t have much of a dinner plan, but what I did have was a half-cup of pesto sauce, some pre-cooked chicken strips, a tomato from my MIL’s garden, some bacon, and a tube of Pillsbury pizza crust. Ta da! Dinner is served. And my fridge is sorta tidied up, too!

I also managed to whip together a little project using this relic from the bowels of our closet. Ever since I had my baby, none of my clothes seem too appealing to me. About a week ago, I remembered seeing this book and, LUCKY ME, the library had it!

One episode of “The Office” later, and I had this new redesigned tee to wear.

It’s cute…with little drawstring accents and everything.

I took some step-by-step pics of the process, but Lord help me, I’m tired after such a long day. I learned some things I’d love to share and I also came up with some tweaks I’d like to try.

I think I’ll do this again sometime with a new shirt that doesn’t make me look so boxy. In the meantime, this one will be perfect to wear while I make artistic messes!

Despite the fact we’ve been together over 3 years and married for nearly half that time, it’s as though my question gives him dinner amnesia and he can’t come up with any ideas when I put him on the spot.

And in all fairness, sometimes I even forget what yummy dishes I’ve made before and thus we fall into the same old pasta/chicken/salad/meatloaf/spaghetti/sandwich rut week after week.

NO MORE!

Today for Art Every Day Month I made a nifty 1950s-inspired menu list. Ta da!:

I’ve printed this graphic on 12×12 cardstock and will list out all the yummy dinner entrees I have made before. As I try new recipes that we deem “keepers”, I can add to the list. I plan to eventually make coordinating lists for side dishes and appetizers/desserts. That way, when it’s time to answer the age-old question, “What’s for dinner?” yet again, I’ll have some ideas at the ready, and hubby and I can avoid the suppertime blahs.

How about you? Do you have artistic or creative ways of making meal planning/prep fun? I’d love to hear them!

Our oldest girl has a science project due Monday, so we spent the morning constructing a model of a sulfur atom.

I’ve also worked on a few more paper pinwheels (see yesterday’s post).

I’ve also started mapping out what I’ll need to fill up a collage frame. My MIL has had it sitting in her house for months and she’s just too busy to put it together, so I offered to do it for her.

So, lots of creative things happening, even if nothing is quite “finished” today. Happy Saturday, everyone!

Well, I ran across a recipe that would allow me to make them at home (yikes), and I haven’t been able to get them off my mind since.

The result:

HEAVEN.

The recipe said to cover the cookies in cling wrap and let them sit overnight, but I didn’t read the entire recipe until I was ready to start baking (oops) and I didn’t have the luxury of waiting that long. I took them to bible study and they were delicious anyway. I brought home the leftovers and will let them sit and see how they taste tomorrow. (You mean I’ll have to eat another one?! Oh, shucks. I guess I will, in the name of scientific research!)

I learned a few things, and even had some ideas on changes/substitutions I’d like to try (i.e.: how about chocolate cookies with minty icing? Or white cookies with lemon icing?)

But these “originals” ain’t bad, folks!