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We just hit the first day of Spring – and we just had another snowfall. They say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, but that transition is not always a straight smooth line. March keeps you on your toes, looking for those signs of Spring just around the corner. And then when you see those first green shoots sprouting up through the ground? Pure joy. Spring, the beautiful secret you get to re-discover every year in March. It was actually March that first inspired this entire Present-Month series. Last March, after a brutal winter, there … Read more

Hi all! So, you know all this hype I’ve been talking about moving to Boston? Well, things seem to finally be moving along! I hope to be able to share a moving date with you *very* soon, Lord willing. In the meantime, as I crazily pack boxes, get rid of stuff, prepare for our hopefully eminent move and still try to get dinner on the table, I’m going to need to change up the pace of my blog a little bit, and I wanted to let you know kind of what to expect. Fridays will continue to be the DIY … Read more

We just hit the first day of Spring – and we just had another snowfall. They say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, but that transition is not always a straight smooth line. March keeps you on your toes, looking for those signs of Spring just around the corner. And then when you see those first green shoots sprouting up through the ground? Pure joy. Spring, the beautiful secret you get to re-discover every year in March. It was actually March that first inspired this entire Present-Month series. Last March, after a brutal winter, there … Read more

I love to be amazed. I have a personal motto, “living the amazement.” I tend to get really excited, talk a lot with my hands, and laugh loudly. One of my favorite things to do is go exploring with my family and find something we did not know about before, big or tiny. Most of all I am amazed by God. Tim is the resident coffee-guru, scone-baker, hand-tool woodworker, and beard-grower. We’re an urban family, adventuring together through this life, keeping our hearts first and foremost on God.

Have you ever gone geocaching? It is the perfect activity for week 8 of our adventure-a-week challenge! Once you have a GPS, it is something you can do for free, and is a great way to explore a new area – or even to see a familiar area is a whole new light. As it is described on their website, Geocaching.com, it is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online. The fun is in the hunt – to find these hidden caches, more than … Read more

This week’s adventure for our adventure-a-week challenge has been one of my favorites so far: stargazing! For one thing, since it wasn’t a weekday adventure, our whole family was able to do this one together. For another thing – I just love stargazing! Generally the night skies are most interesting in the earliest months of the year, and with these warm days right now, it makes for some pretty optimal gazing-at-stars-time. So gather some blankets and my illustrated printable and get ready to go stargazing! We chose the particular night we did for star gazing because it was peak time … Read more

Well, it’s the last week of the upcycling hack-challenge! The project for this week is an idea that Tim heard of a while back, and we were hoping to get to do at some point in the series, and luckily we found out a couple days ago that we would be able to get our hands on an old metal basin from a washing machine – just in time! 🙂 These metal basins make excellent fire pits because of the holes all over them, which allow in plenty of air and help keep a fire going strong with very little … Read more

I love to travel – and I love to collect postcards from the places I go. They’re small, low-cost and lovely .. perfect to be able to collect some from each destination. However, most of my postcards live in a photo album and for this week’s upcycling hack challenge, I thought it would be fun to come up with some interesting and unique ways to upcycle and display postcards. And you only need one item for all of them: an embroidery hoop! Well … and your postcards, too, of course. Use the screw to loosen the outer band of a … Read more

Well, we’ve reached the end of the 6 weeks for the Creative Business challenge! And for the finale, we’ll be covering the single most asked-about topic from your handmade biz questions: marketing. I left it for last because one of the reasons marketing can be so difficult is because there are other things about your business that have to be in place first to be able to market more easily, and so I wanted to cover those in the first in the series. I hope you found those posts helpful. If you missed them, they lay out groundwork for how … Read more

I simply love re-purposing items! I had lightly touched on these planters I made awhile back, upcycled from old light fixture globes, but I wanted to revist it and let you know how I made them. (Note: I love coming up with ideas – but I’m never going to claim to be the best gardener, so see my disclaimer at the bottom of the post!) I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the best gardener. I tend to get excited about plants … then forget to water them, and then remember, and drown them. Ack! However, I’ve had some … Read more