It's been a long time...

...since I sat down to write to you.  Let me catch you up on a few of the happenings here lately:

I couple of weeks ago, I joined the Women's Ministry group at our church for a Craft Night.  The craft was paperbag scrapbooks, which I really didn't have a interest in.  I am not a scrapbooker.  I do not want to be a scrapbooker.  I have no intention of becoming a scrapbooker.  However, I did want to meet some ladies from the church, and figured this might be a good way to do that.  So, I printed off a dozen pictures and headed to the church.  The scrapbook I made that night was given to my mom, to commemorate the Girls' Day Out we had a few weeks ago, so I do not have a picture.  Fortunately, I spent the entire next day making another one!

This is the cover.  The whole thing is made from paper lunch bags, cut off at the bottoms and folded in half.

The bags are left open at the sides, and we made journal tags to slide in them.

I wound up liking this project so much, that I am planning on making several more for grandparents to commemorate Madison's first birthday (next week, yikes!) and Easter.  But I am not going to become a scrapbooker.  No really, I'm not.  Yeah, I don't believe me either!

And then we had several days of mundane household duties, which I am not going to blog about, because honestly, I can't really remember what they were.  The following Thursday, I had my MOPS group.  The night before, I finished the six pairs of ladybug slippers that had been ordered for that day, and then promptly got orders for 5 more pair!  That particular meeting was our monthly craft day, and here are the pieces needed for assembling the craft:

It is (or will be) a little sewing box.  I always take my crafts home.  There are about 50 women all trying to use glue guns and scissors, and I figure that if I can ease the congestion, even by 1 person, I will.  I haven't made mine yet, because I want to stain the box first, but I will be doing that this weekend.

On Sunday, I finished Madison's birth announcement.  Here it is, although I haven't framed it yet.

I found another picture that has been waiting for a frame:

And immediately found another work in progress, that is earmarked as a birthday present for someone this summer:

I am working on this as furiously as I can.  I'd like to get it finished, and then frame all 3 pieces at the same time, while the equipment is out.  I would still like to Maddie's done by the 18th, so I may have to just do hers, but I'm hoping!

Tuesday night, I was tired.  I couldn't face any more ladybug slippers, and was too tired for such detailed cross stitch, so I made another crocheted fish wash cloth.

I don't really want to become a crocheter, either.  I want to know how, in case I ever need to, but I don't want to really take it up.  However, I have decided to make one of these for each of the girls, in their respective colors.  I'm halfway there now.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here.  When I woke up, my plan was to vacuum and dust the family room. Have any of you ever experienced a "snowball day"?  That is when you think you are going to just do this, but then, you have to do this first.  And then maybe I should do that. Oh, I may as well just do the whole darn thing.  That was me yesterday.  My simple vacuuming day turned into emptying out every one of the kids' toy bins (and there are LOTS of them), sorting, reorganizing, and eliminating some.  Then I tackled the entertainment unit, restacking DVDs and organizng the Wii games and controllers.  So now, my whole family room looks really good.  To thank the girls for helping me (yes, I know they should, because it was mostly their stuff, but it never hurts to be appreciative), I treated us to a McDonald's lunch, which we ate on our back patio.  It was really nice to soak up some sunshine, especially since today is rainy again.  Then, I had them help me make whoopie pies for dessert last night.  The recipe was in our newspaper on Wednesday, but I just read it yesterday.  We made chocolate cookies, and had some with marshmallow filling, and some with fluffy peanut butter filling, and they are GOOD!

Today's plan is to turn off this computer, and then go make a few projects for St. Patrick's Day with the kids.  Thank you again, Oriental Trading Company!  I'm also going to dust off some of my polymer clay, and help them make some magnets.  I might be sorry about that later, but we're going to give it a go. 

Next week is Maddie's first birthday, so we are getting ready for house guests and a big party.  I'm not sure when I will sit down to write to you again, but it will hopefully be soon!

P.S.- If you stop by, please leave a comment so I will know you were here.  I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Sometimes, I feel all alone here, and would like to know if I've had a visitor.