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Some fun Valentine's printables I've been designing. . . For Make and Takes : 14 Acts of Love printed on hearts: For Today's Mama , a one-of-a-kind printable gift card that you can customize for whoever needs a little love: ** Note: Thank you, Lost Type Co-op , for some fun new fonts to work with on these. Habana and Mensch . **

Hey, Lucy! I have a surprise for you! I'd like to introduce you to "chores." Some of you out there are thinking, she doesn't make her kid do chores? And I reply, yes, of course, I do. . . just without any sort of consistency or tracking. Now it's just on paper and will hopefully be a little more rewarding to a little four year old who has a hard time keeping track of days. This chore chart is available to everyone and downloadable for free! I designed it for the good peeps at TodaysMama and made it customizable/editable so you can add your kids' names and your own list of chores. Also, if anyone is wondering what "Rusty & Rosy" is on the chore chart above, it is the pre-K readiness program Lucy has been doing on the computer this year also called Utah Upstart . It's fantastic and we've loved being a part of it. . . if you live in Utah, they're pre-registering kids who will enter Kindergarten in fall 2013 now. It is also FREE but has...

I just made up that name. I made up the pie, in fact. Based on an old standard but customized for a serious cookie lover, this is what I made for hubby's birthday. Cold Cookie Pie 1 pkg double stuffed oreos, crushed 1/2 c peanut butter 3 T milk 1/4 C powdered sugar 1 carton cookie-dough ice cream 1 jar hot fudge 1 tub cool-whip lite chocolate chip cookies for decor Crust: Line the bottom of a springform pan with wax paper. Crush the package of oreos, stuffing and all, in a food processor or blender. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan. Freeze. Peanut butter layer: Mix peanut butter, milk and powdered sugar until smooth. Spread over the frozen oreo crust. Freeze. Ice Cream layer: Let a carton of ice cream soften up on the counter (10-15 minutes). Spread over the frozen peanut butter layer. Freeze. Hot Fudge layer: Heat a jar of hot fudge only till its warm enough to spread over the ice cream. Freeze again. Top layer: Finish off with a layer of whipped cream and some chocolate ...

Fabulous family photos by my favorite photographer who is also a fun friend. . . shoot, that's where the alliteration ends. (Pssst! Hey, Katherine Wallin , you need some f's or ph's in your name!)

I've always thought it would be fun to give 12 small gifts on the days leading up to Christmas. . . needless to say, I'm a little too last minute for that. My true love might get gifts the 12 HOURS leading up to Christmas. But if you have your act together and you just can't keep those gifts hidden a minute longer, you can print these gift tags for the 12 Days of Christmas ! I designed them for Today's Mama who is making them available to download and print for free. On the First Day of Christmas my true love gets Gift Tags.

Here is a little something to help you count down to Christmas! An advent calendar designed by yours truly and available at makeandtakes.com . Print one or a dozen. . . why not? They're free so feel free to share! Merry Christmas.

November 27? Seriously? Where did November go? We've been too busy to notice time flying by around here. First of all, I've been working. A lot. Teaching. Freelancing. Contracting. But we've managed to have some fun as well. Here the girls are joining me at the counter to draw. The first day of snow came at some point. It started out happy. . . and ended kind of sad. . . but things got brighter after some pancakes and hot cocoa. This is one of my projects for Today's Mama, a Thanksgiving bunting . I love the picture Lucy drew of Emmie, with "girl eyes." We put up the tree this weekend. Remember this chart? This is how you decorate a tree when you have a 16 month old running around. . . Emmie cannot keep her hands off of those shiny, sparkly ornaments. Lu has it all figured out, though. She is in control. Bedhead + favorite blankie + snuggly pajamas = cuteness The only pictures I took of Thanksgiving were of the girls dancing afterward. It also = cuteness. Oh, ...

Lucy took this pic of me. . . I kind of like that it's fuzzy and out of focus. It adds to my witchiness. This is Lucy's Halloween Costume #1, a Halloween Clown. . . worn to a church party where masks are not allowed. This is Halloween Costume #2, Violet from the Incredibles, complete with action pose. She wore this one to preschool wear she couldn't wear a mask either. Can you spot Lucy in Halloween Costume #3? Yup, the ghost. This is all she really wanted to be but we had too many parties where she couldn't wear her costume! There was no talking her into any sort of a ghost costume that didn't go over her head and have eyes cut out so she could see. When people asked what she was going to be, she'd say, "A floating ghost!" Her buddies are Josh and Jack and she is so glad they moved back from Wisconsin just in time to go Trick-or-Treating together. This is their third year in a row! A fun tradition we hope to keep. Emmie and Layla were just as excited,...

The kids are out trick-or-treating and I have twenty minutes before I have to leave to teach a class (I'm teaching design again at a local college). I figured I'd do a quick Halloween catch-up post before the month is over. I've been creating printables every week for Today's Mama and you can still go download them if you missed them! It started with a witchy wallpaper for your smartphone or computer desktop. . . Then there was a Bat Mobile Oh, and the Halloween Treat Phantom got a make-over. . . And a spooky memory game for the kiddos. We even had time to add a few new Halloween decorations this year inspired by those in Sweet Paul magazine's fall issue . You might get costume pics tomorrow. That's a whole other post. . . enjoy your Halloween night!

I like to have pumpkins on the porch throughout October. This year, I've pinned on some mustaches until carving time. . . gives them some personality. Now every time I go by them, I want to curtsy. If you'd like some mustaches for your pumpkins, you can download a printable template here . . . Cut them out of black craft foam or felt. Embellish with marker, glitter, puffy paint or whatever you have along the interior lines for a little bit of texture and interest. Tape or pin them on your pumpkins. And then curtsy or tip your hat.

Now that Lucy is back in preschool, I have more time alone with Emmie. Some days she's napping during those couple hours, but other days we get to hang out. She's trying to say "Cheese!" here. . . it comes out "Eeeeee!!!" which is ok since it still produces the desired effect. Look at those choppers. . . I realized how few pictures I have of us together so I thought I'd take some in the big mirror in her room. It didn't always work. I think I make this face all the time behind the camera when I'm trying to get the girls to smile. Now that I see it on from the other side, I know why it doesn't work. I should go back to "Say Cheese!" Emmie, I hope one day when your bigger you'll look at this picture and know that I absolutely love every minute I get to spend with you. . . alone or otherwise.

My garden is getting easier and easier each year. This year it was basically just zucchini, squash, and tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes. I love them fresh in a caprese salad or fresh in salsa, but I always have more than I can use immediately so I always have Gramma Gwen come help me can a bunch. It has become a fun tradition that I look forward to each year. These canning labels are available for free at todaysmama.com .

Two more installments in the Seriously Official Back-to-School set of printables I did for TodaysMama.com . . . Bookplates and a customizable Certificate of Awesomeness .

Is summer really over? Really, really over? I better post a few more pics from the summer. Just for fun, I made them into animated gifs.