Hello my darlings, sorry to be so utterly neglectful but it’s been vacation time lately. I spent a few fun-filled days in Utah visiting my sister and her not-so-new baby. So ashamed that she was born in May and I’m just barely meeting her for the first time. That’s what happens when you live a thousand or so miles from your family (actually I have no idea how many miles it is but it’s a 27 hour drive).  Her name is Pippa Jane Eleanor and she is adorable, no?

I returned home from the extremely dry mountainy air just in time for my children to have a three day break from school. No idea why; some sort of teacher something-or-other. It was a very looong weekend. I mostly ignored my offspring while I tried to get several projects done. Like cleaning out my closet. Right now the closet is in the scary-horrible-right-before-it’s-almost-finished phase.  I also have almost finished decorating Arabella and Adelaide’s room. I started it three years ago.  Now the girls are a lot older and this decorating scheme is a smidge prissy for them, but they’re so happy that the end is near that they’re very excited nontheless. Here is a sneak peak:

Don’t expect to see the finished photos anytime soon. I’ve run into a bit of a snag since the fabric I chose for the dust ruffle has been discontinued. I have enough fabric for 3/4 of one bed. So it looks like I won’t actually be truly finished for who knows how long.

I also made six loaves of bread and nearly ran out of yeast.  I had bought some at the store but couldn’t find it anywhere (you have no idea how often that happens). Turns out it fell out of my car while I was unloading groceries. But I didn’t find it until it was a little too late.

So, yeah, I’ve been getting a lot done. And my kids? What have they been doing? Well, the boys are content to shoot things with airsoft guns and arrows but the girls need a little more creativity. As usual Klutz came to the rescue with their best and most wonderful craft kit so far: Shrinky Dink Jewelry.

This is such a great kit I couldn’t resist and had to make a few pieces of my own. My girls (and all their many friends who traipsed and in out over the last week) were constantly huddled over the table, coloring and cutting their Shrinky Dinks.  Not only are there tons of cute ideas in the accompanying book, but there are lots of jewelry supplies and a jillion adorable templates. The book is clear and easy to understand and full of great advice like “don’t complain that the oven window is dirty unless you’re volunteering to clean it.”  Obviously the author has children! Also immensely helpful is a ruler that tells you how big your Shrinky Dinks will be once they’ve shrunk. That’s always been a bit of a head-scratcher when we’ve made them in the past.

Here is one of my designs, before shrinking (I traced it from one of the templates in the kit with a fine-tipped Sharpie):

And after. I made it into a cute necklace with the supplies from the kit:

You can get the Klutz Shrinky Dink kit at Michaels  for $25 (but beware they won’t take coupons for this item since it’s a “book”. Jerks.)  But I got ours for about $16 here on Amazon. I ordered a couple more kits for birthday party gifts, we love it so much. If you have kids over age 5, Shrinky Dinks are a godsend. This kit kept all of us girls happy for days (even our 16-year-old!).  Refill packs of Shrinky Dink paper are about $6 at any craft store (buy the rough kind, usually called “Ruff n’ Ready”).

I wasn’t compensated for this post, sadly. But I do get money from amazon if you click through my link. Which you should definitely do.