HELLO

Hi. I'm Amanda...a happy wife and mom to three awesome guys. We've lived here in Fort Collins for more than 20 years and are proud to call it home. Before moving to CO, I worked at a city attorney's office, making use of my law and Master's degrees from Duke. After settling in Fort Collins, I homeschooled my three (now teenage and older) sons and was delighted to experience music classes, soccer, karate, swim team, archery, Science Olympiad, First Lego League, parkour, and climbing (not all at the same time!). From 2005-10, I was also a contributing editor for a national scrapbooking magazine, authoring a book and a couple of monthly columns. From 2009-10, I founded and ran the Good Grief Blog. I enjoy learning new things, spending time with my family, volunteering with The Matthews House, traveling and indoor rock climbing.

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Entries from February 1, 2008 - February 29, 2008

Wednesday
Feb202008

A Card For Lois

I spent the weekend with three fabulous friends. More on that later! In doing so, though, I was reminded of the beauty of friendships and of strong women. I am so fortunate to have these ladies in my life! I know that my life would be less without them.

My friend Wilna is asking for some help for a terrific woman friend in her life. I've added a link over in the left-hand bar there. Please take a moment to pop over to Wilna's blog and consider participating. Friendships are so precious and should be celebrated.

acardforLois2.jpg

Thanks! 

Saturday
Feb162008

Button bouquets...

Have had a number of people ask about the button bouquets. Totally easy. Here's how:

Just get some green floral wire (not too heavy a gauge...the kind I bought just came on a spool in the floral department of Michael's) and cut pieces twice as long as the stems you'll want. Find yourself a bunch of buttons and layer them (depending on what sizes you have, maybe three or four per "flower"). Stick the wire up through the bottom and then down again through the top, making sure to go through the little holes for all the buttons in your stack. Twist. That's it. :)

I had about a dozen "flowers" per bouquet and just tied them with a coordinating ribbon. I'd have liked to  put them in cute little bottles with some pretty pebbles or something but didn't want to mess with mailing loose pebbles.

So, go get yourself some supplies and have fun! (By the way, lots of variations once you start thinking of the possibilities...) 

Thursday
Feb142008

Heart Day, part 2...

Me again. :) Here are some little mailboxes I filled with goodies for the boys (which, by the way, Micah's already made a considerable dent in). I'd planned on altering them with all kinds of pretty things but ran out of time and just stuck monograms on them and tied suckers to the flags with ribbon. Unsurprisingly, the boys were just as thrilled. :)

2-14-08-mailboxes.jpg 

And here's my Valentine's layout for my sweet husband. Not overly mushy this year...hee hee. 

myheart-small.jpg 

Yeah, it's not really what you expect to see from me but I had a lot of fun making it! :) Happy Heart Day, my love!

Okay, need to get these boys ready and out the door to our homeschool group Valentine's party...have a great day! 

Thursday
Feb142008

Happy Heart Day!

Yay! I'm so proud of myself. In general, I'm not a hearts and flowers sort of gal. But, I actually *did* something for Valentine's Day this year...made these cute little bouquets for special girlfriends:

buttonflowers-small.jpg 

They were so easy and fun to make! (As a bonus, I used up a good bit of my button stash, though I still have plenty left, of course.) Thought it was a cute and different way to send flowers. :)

And. Aside from the 150 (plus 26 more after we realized we miscounted) Valentines the boys and I put together for them to give out, I managed to make a few of my own:

2008myvalentines-front.jpg 

2008myvalentines-inside.jpg 

Okay, so they're not your typical Valentines, but I thought they were fun. :) (Drew the heart myself even!)

I have a couple other things, too, but don't have pictures ready...so will post those later this afternoon. In the meantime, Happy Valentine's Day to you!! Do you have any fun plans?

Saturday
Feb092008

A few new layouts...

I meant to add this to my post earlier about completing a January Album in a Year layout. Here's mine for this year:

ipredict-Jan08-final.jpg 

And two more I finished today:

share-small.jpg 

pointandshoot-small.jpg 

It was a nice feeling to just create for the sake of creating these today...hoping to do more of that tomorrow. :) Hope you're having a great weekend!!