She's Brilliant I tell you, Brilliant

I have been immortalized by Darcy! When I first began this little adventure into blogging...it was of course because I was looking at all these homeschooling blogs...and I wanted one, too! As I was looking, I ran across one called Life with my 3 Boybarians. I really liked the style of it...and it had fabulous music! And then I noticed that the creator, Darcy, does designs for other bloggers. I asked her to help me before my first post was published!

We did quite a bit of back and forth because I wasn't sure what I wanted. And then I had to prove to Darcy that I was quite the study in contradictions. One of the first things she asked (to get a sense of my style) was: "Pick any of these words that you think describe how you want your blog to feel: whimsical, serious, grungy, artsy, artistic, colorful, retro, shabby, clean, studious, old-world, homey, scrappy, floral, urban, loud, nautical, cottage, classic." And here is my response: "Okay...hopefully you won't feel like you want to slap me...but I like the idea of a study in contrasts - whimsical yet serious; classic, clean, studious yet loud :-)"

From there, I realized that I did not want a scrapbook look...that I liked images. One of my favorites with photography is black and white...with part of the photo in color. And then, I gave Darcy my idea of a lightning bolt instead of sunshine...kinda going with my ironic/sarcastic sense of humor. Well...Darcy just took off with that idea. She loved it, saying: "The irony of it all is *hilarious* to me, in that shocking sort of way." Well...once that was out of the way...it was just a small matter of picking colors and doing the code (cough, cough, small matter indeed!)

The journey (and different header suggestions) are up on Darcy's "Graphically Designing" website (just click on her icon to check out the site...come on, ya know you want to!). And as she showed the finished product on her website she says that I am "brilliant" and "funny, too." Gotta love Darcy. She is a smart cookie!

Okay...moving on. Happy Valentine's Day! We have had a great day here. My day started by waking up to a series of envelopes with notes in them from my husband. I think he's a keeper!

Madalyn had her Valentine party at school - and her "crafty" box looks like it has been to a great party. She also wrote a wonderful Valentine note:
We also had a Valentine party with our homeschool group today. Katie got to exchange Valentines with her friends, eat lots of yummy cupcakes, and make some crafty cards with "ingredients" that would never be brought into this house (ie, glitter, glue, and things with lots of little pieces!)

Our version of crafts

Yesterday we covered my feelings about crafts. They are not my thing. I am not creative. There is this wonderful Einstein quote that says: "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." I like it. When I scrapbooked, we called this the C.A.S.E method (you know, Copy And Steal Everything!) I also am not a fan of the mess that is made when you get crafty...all the little pieces...all the stuff that you drag out...and worse...all the stuff that you then have to put away again! I am very excited about some of the new programs with Creative Memories - I can do my entire album digitally. I can upload my pictures to my computer...and CM has software programs that I can use to be frou-frou if I so choose (all still on my computer)...and then I can upload it to their site where they will print a beautiful book for me. Cheaper than the traditional method...and just as beautiful. Okay...that rant was neither here nor there.

What I wanted to show you was the "doing" of crafts at my house. Madalyn's assignment (err...Mom's assignment) was to make a mailbox to receive her Valentines during her class party on Thursday. Not being crafty, we don't keep things that might have future use in crafts (I don't keep them...I hide them under the rest of the trash so that they can go away with no one the wiser!) - so I had to solicit friends for a shoebox. Then I had to do the Hollywood style of wrapping (you know...on your shows when they get a gift...they just lift the lid off the beautifully wrapped present...no ripping of paper happening on TV).

Then Madalyn did her "craft" - which was to add stickers to the box to call it her own! After being a Creative Memories consultant for lots of years...what I have in my house is an excess of stickers. I am not sure how I became the proud owner of such a money sucking mess...but I am! The kids love to delve into my sticker notebook. But...did I use said notebook for this project? No...I bought stickers. Not sure what I was thinking! Our homeschool group is having a party on Valentine's day...but Katie and I will be in class for most of the party. Katie made some Valentines herself to give to her friends - but nothing as elaborate as our sticker covered Hollywood wrapped mailbox!