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The project my daughters did with me!

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Here's something I'm rather proud of. . . I have raised two successful babysitters. When they were starting out babysitting, I was as nervous as they were! What if something happens? Will they have to cook? What if the kids are hard to handle? I went over instructions with them right until they walked out the door. I canceled my plans and stayed home in case they called for help. When they got home, I'd want all the details and then go over what to do for next time. They got better and better with each job and my nerves calmed down when I realized they were great babysitters who knew how to keep kids safe AND have fun with them at the same time. Hearing from friends and neighbors what awesome babysitters my daughters are made me so proud!   But now they are getting older and getting different jobs, and spending more weekend nights with friends rather than babysitting, they're ready to pass the torch on to younger babysitters. We had the idea to put together a guide/kit ...
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Graduation and Teacher Gift Printables - End of the School Year Goodies!

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 Here it is, Maycember! Once the month of May starts it quickly snowballs into a continuous stream of concerts, recitals, final games, awards ceremonies, graduations and parties! It's almost too much, and yet, how could it be too much? This is it! This is what it's all for! All the hard work of going to school and taking the tests and practicing the piece and dreaming of the celebration, this is the culmination of all that effort!  Over of the years, as I've prepared teachers' gifts and graduation cards to use, I've saved the printable files to use again in the future or make available for others as well.  Here are some of my favorites: I like these green flowers and the Pink & White cookies at Trader Joe's. I thought they made a nice little bundle for either Teacher Appreciation week or a thank you at the end of the year (if you can keep the cookies around long enough!) Two color options available in case you are low on ink!  LINK TO LISTING Cowboy Caviar f...
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Let's peel back these layers!

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juliannlaw Here is a closeup of the endpapers in my debut picture book, THE WORKD’S LONGEST SOCK. I work digitally in Adobe Photoshop but the program doesn’t do it all for me! I knit all the pixels by hand! Haha! I do have things I do to help me work quickly and efficiently, though, like using layers. Here you get to see me take off those layers one by one till we are back at nothing but a background. The World's Longest Sock is now available on  Amazon ,  Barnes and Noble ,  Target , or wherever you  buy books !
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Book Launch Party and Pub Day!

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On November 1, 2022 my debut picture book,  The World's Longest Sock, hit shelves and mailboxes everywhere! It's a book about competition and ultimately the communities that help us succeed. To celebrate this book birthday, The King's English Bookshop hosted a story time and book signing. I thought I'd be nervous but it was just a blast the whole time. Rob Eckman read to the group of kids and friends a bucketlist item for me (he reads all the regular storytimes and I used to take my kids when they were little).  Then I talked a little bit about how the book came about and showed the long sock I've been knitting during this whole process.  We had some give aways thanks including some loopy yarn for kids and emerging yarn crafters, some alpaca yarn to inspire a new project and some darling socks from Woven Pear (a fellow Utah company!) I also designed bookmarks for either Team Chuck or Team Nina which turned out really cute.  There were also take home treats by the...
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Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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Socktober

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 Socktober is almost over and my book is almost here! I found the hashtag #socktober this year and it has been so fun to see everyone's warm and cozy hand-knit socks!  Here's mine: I was working on it this week while waiting for my car to get tested and registered at the garage. A guy sitting nearby asked after a while, "How do you know when to stop?" which would normally be a good question except that I never plan to stop! I'm just going to keep knitting and knitting until I'm out of yarn or bored to tears! I started this sock when I finished the rough draft of my book, The World's Longest Sock. I had done a little knitting in the past (I've started more scarves than I can count!) but it had been a while. I thought it was important to do the research and put in the time on an actual sock so when I did the final art I could render it correctly. And then I kept going as an act of faith! They say you should speak your aspirations out loud, putting your i...
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