Lately...

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day! Things have been busy here, but here I am at last!

Patterned papers all by Echo Park (Springtime collection), twine (MME Lime Twist), and bling (MM white bling)

The latest Cropchocolate challenge was to use simple shapes to make a more complicated one. I chose to make a kudusama ball, something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I found a good tutorial here and here and modified it to suit my needs. I used sixty 2"x2" pieces (two 12x12 sheets) for this project.

Patterned paper (Making Memories - Cosmopolitan 6x6 paper pack), brads (MM), Quickutz heart die, rub-ons (Fancy Pants), ink (Tim Holtz)

The CC challenge last week was to create a Valentine's Day card, using non-traditional colors. I chose to use the Cosmopolitan paper pack (6x6 by Making Memories). I am rather fond of the light blue with brown color combination.

I was really crammed for time, but managed to squeeze out a couple of cute gifts for the girls' teachers. I found these printable mailboxes from the Facebook page of Print Candee. 

And what would Valentine's Day be, without a Father/Daughter dance? I went to help this year (usually my friend Michelle comes to hang out with me, but this year, she was in Japan) - it was crazy busy! I basically stood behind the snack table all evening, handing out chips. The girls enjoyed getting dressed up and luckily, DaddyDude was able to get off work in time to be their date. Aren't those the cutest cupcakes? 

In other news... the girls made us dinner one night - chicken fingers and chicken corn chowder. Dinner was pretty tasty and the house didn't burn down - it was a good day!

And in case anybody is looking for a good stocking-stuffer for next year...  I picked up some crystal growing trees at Lakeshore Learning Store. This isn't exactly what I got (that one was much fancier), but it's pretty close. The picture on the left starts at time zero and pictures were taken at one hour intervals. They are very fragile when they're done - the crystals can easily be knocked off... it's like snow (without melting). The girls really enjoyed watching the tree grow, though.