Join Jessica Sprague on a journey of inspiration.  For the next ten days Jessica is offering a free online class – Inspiration Everywhere.  It is designed for all crafters and creative souls.

Here is the class description in Jessica’s words:

“In our 10-day class together, we’ll make projects to help us gather and organize inspiration in five different categories. For each of the themes we’ll have a project to make, and different crafty techniques to call your creative muse, no matter WHAT kind of art you make!

• Words
• Music
• Art
• Tools
• Play

I have another purpose for offering a FREE class: to help you get a feel for what ALL of my other classes are like. If you choose to, you can easily continue your education here with me in a variety of ways: Digital scrapbooking, hybrid (paper + digi) scrapbooking, card-making, photo editing, albums, photography and more! We’ll talk more about these in class, too!”

The class starts today and goes for 10 days.  If you want to play along you need to register by midnight eastern tonight.  (I will get better about letting you all know ahead of time – sorry I didn’t!!)  The beautiful part (besides it being free) is that this class (just like all her classes) can be accessed at anytime and will be available to you forever on her site.  Love that!

The steps to register for the class (which are oh-so-easy) can be found on the same page.

Happy Playtime!

Every night I pray for “our little family”.  I always mean the family that lives under our roof.  Every night Jim Bob snickers.  I just haven’t considered six children a large family.  I grew up 4th of eleven.  11 is getting there.  6, not so much.  Our days are full of crazy fun and sometimes just crazy – that’s a given.

This summer we started getting the obvious big family jokes.  We were walking away from our county fair and someone said to their daughter, “Don’t walk with the Pipes.  You might get lost in there.”  I was a little taken back, not because I thought it was cruel or unwarranted.   I just didn’t consider our family to be big.  I responded, “We’d probably just take her right home”.  Classy, I know.  Still not sure what I would say if/when it happens again.

Tonight I’m starting to think we might be getting there.  The reason?  We opened a brand new container of yummy berry cheesecake ice cream, scooped cones for everyone and it was gone.  Crazy.  They were on the bigger side, but still.  Wow.

My prayers might be worded a little differently tonight.  😉

And I quote:

“There are five ingredients to make ice.

1.  Get water.

2.  Freeze it in the freezer.

3.  You have to cut it.

4.  It comes out nice and good.

5.  It’s cold.”

He is pretty much a gourmet ice chef.

We are so glad you were born!  There are so many of life’s lessons I have learned from you.  Life is meant to be enjoyed.  I remember loving the times I was able to visit your family.  I remember you flipping pancakes across the room for us to catch on our plates.  I remember when things did not go as planned and a pancake landed in a flower pot.  We were daring each other to eat the dirty breakfast and you just laughed and laughed about it.  Thank you for your fun-loving ways.  I remember being young and running into your kitchen after playing for hours outside in your beautiful and fun yard.  You would pull down a bucket of delicious looking cookies.  Oh, but those cookies did not come free.  A quick hug and a smooch was required.  And one of those lessons fit in as well.  You would tell me that my kisses were not to be just given to anyone.  Trading kisses for cookies was fine – as long as it was you and not just any nice looking young man.  That lesson, and my love of cookies, stuck with me.  Thank you!  When I did find a young man that I wanted to spend forever kissing, we got married and started our family.  I remember walking across campus at college and talking with you on the phone sharing the news.  We were sooooo excited, but I was also very nervous.  There were so many aspects that were brand new and I felt a touch overwhelmed.  Near the end of the conversation you commented that you hoped I would enjoy the labor of bringing a little one into this world.  I remember being shocked and thinking “really?”.  Up to that point I had heard many awful stories of pain and troubled times.  You reassured me that it could be wonderful.  How thankful I was that you shared that calm perspective.  It was a truly wonderful, enjoyable experience.  The first of many birth-days in our family.  Thank you!  As we all celebrate your birthday we wish you all the best. The best of fun, laughter-infused, kissy, cookie-filled, miraculous and magically wonderful days in your life.  We love you!!  Becky, Jim Bob and family

Asked Joshua this evening to tell me his favorite part of his day.  He asked me if he could tell me his “worst favorite” first.  Okay.  So, the worst was that he crashed his bike on the way home from school.  His favorite was that he stopped at his Grandma Wilson’s house to clean up his hands and get a little sympathy.  While there she said it was nothing a little Tom and Jerry and a brownie wouldn’t fix.  That was his favorite part.

Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the best things come about because of the worst?

p.s.  I can’t wait to be a grandma.  Especially one like Grandma Wilson.

Sometimes the beach just isn’t close enough.

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

This magical magnetic creation is made using Dani Mogstad’s “Take Me Away” vacation kit (digital):

The other supplies needed are magnetic tape, scissors, a magnetic tin (mine is recycled), and sand:

I made a fun label and printed my sandcastle sections and decorations.  Then I stuck them to the magnet strip and cut around.  I also glued some real sand onto the castle pieces.  I got a big bag at Walmart for $3 and used the rest in a tub for more sandcastle building.  When I had a nice size collection of pieces I put them in the tin.

Here are a few photos to get an idea of how big the tin is:

Wow, Katey was being a ham:

The kit was then ready to be assembled as desired.

Here’s just one of many possibilities:

Here’s to a summer filled with sandcastle building (real and magnetic)!

p.s.  Jacob’s first creations using the kit:

He even took the photo.  (Because, obviously that is what you do.  😉 )