Make: Rock Critters

by Designing Mom Liberty

This summer I've got the kids at home... So we've taken to calling ourselves "Camp Mommakiddo" ... One of our crafts this week was a nature walk where we collected rocks and used our crafty bin extras to make these funny little friends.

**Note from Cat: I want to see all of the fun projects that you are doing with your kids this summer! Please send us photos of your favorites...

Father's Day Fotos: Captain Fun

above: Designing Mom Liberty's "Captain Fun" with family.

Here are some fun pics of my kids and their amazing daddy. I think my kids lucked out and got the best daddy in the world. We call him "Captain Fun" - because he works hard and plays hard, keeping us always on fun outings and adventures. He is the perfect combo of play and nurture... And his sensitive and talented eye captures a lot of our best memories as he shoots pics of his favorite subjects... He is our superhero... We are daddy's biggest fans!

A Creative Life: Mazie Kane

by Designing Mom Liberty of Libby Dibby



On Amy at Mazie Kane (photos taken by our friend Sonja)...

What is a day in your life like?

A typical day for me begins around 6:30am when I am thrust into the craziness of getting 2 of my 3 kids off to school. The rest of the day varies with errands, a trip to the gym or a quick jog hopefully, and time spent with my youngest son. If I am working on orders or creating new pieces, I usually begin them sometime in the middle of my day before it's time to pick up my kids, begin homework or take them to classes or practices. And then of course there's dinner, bedtime and me collapsing on the couch for a new episode of Lost or SYTYCD!


How do you juggle motherhood and art?
It is sometimes difficult for me to juggle motherhood and art. I try and fit it in throughout the day if I can, since I'm just about useless at night. As a previous dancer, I still love taking dance classes and that is the most challenging. I do try and squeeze in a class here or there, but not as often as I would like.


Where do you draw on for inspiration?
I am inspired by vintage findings, especially if they are wood or some sort of metal. I also love discovering new, pretty papers. And I am always inspired and in awe of other etsy artists as well as the displays at Anthropologie!


How do you recharge your creative batteries?
If I want to recharge my creative batteries, I will check out the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market or take a dance class. Both can really feed my soul.

What's one thing on your creative to do list?
One thing on my creative "to do" list is to become more proficient at sewing.


If you could do one thing this year that was totally frivolous - what would it be?
If I could do one thing this year that was totally frivolous, it would include a spa somewhere with wonderful girlfriends and some great food and wine.

Friday Fotos: Mother's Day Love

Until I put up yesterday's post...I had completely forgotten that this weekend is Mother's Day. Between crazy deadlines, baby, juggling, juggling and more juggling, somehow it never made it onto my radar. And from just about every other mom I've talked to, it appears I'm not the only one!

This Friday foto comes from Designing Mom Liberty and kind of sums it all up: That moment we (as moms) live for. A moment of shared bliss amidst a constellation of activity and chaos. A moment, even if it is for just one nanosecond that reminds us...this is why we do what we do.

To all the Designing Moms and our mommy readers I wish you a wonderful Mother's Day this weekend!

Shop: Fabric Hungry

Ok, it's high time we start a list of our favorite fabrics around here. And who better to kick this off than textile savvy Designing Mom Liberty! And just curious..but if I were ask you to give me your top three fabrics/patterns would you be able to? Please share!

by Designing Mom Liberty of Libby Dibby

I have a super fabric problem. I once read something where they made up this funny acronym that describes me perfectly... SABLE -which stands for... Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. (yay!) but as a mom who was a textile designer in the past and who sews literally every day now... I'm still buying.

Though I live very near to downtown LA, time away from the kids is not super realistic for fabric trips very often. I prefer to shop online and have it show up on my doorstep. (as Designing mom Tori notes: "mail is fun!")

My favorite sites for shopping online are www.quilthome.com and www.fatquartershop.com - they both have huge selections and excellent customer service. I've also been very pleased with the quality of products I've received and the color representation on their websites (though this is subject to personal computer screens as well) is very true.

I recently stumbled onto the Riley Blake "Wheels" designs and went nuts. I bought what is called a fat quarter bundle and have subsequently made 2 quilts for my boys. Fat Quarter Shop also has some really cute robots that are calling my yet-unborn nephew's name (we don't even know his name yet, but I know he already wants those robots)

I'm also in an online quilting bee and recently received a beautiful fabric in one of my project packs that I learned this morning is called.... Woodland Delight by Paula Prass.
I could go on forever, but those are just some things that have been exciting me lately.

Make: Recycled Logos

by Designing Mom Liberty of Libby Dibby

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you know that Ze Artiste is a HUGE fan of HS Musical. He signs his name as "Troy" on his preschool homework and frequenty insists on us calling him such. He's memorized the "Getcha Head in the Game" dance (see it here) from start to finish ... Even before we knew he did. He's probably seen HSM 1 & 2 about 10 times each. Honestly, most cartoons are too scary for my kids, so as long movies go... We don't have much we choose from.
Anyhow, my pal Christy, gave Z this (on the left) t-shirt when he turned 3. It was nearly too small then, but he squeezed into it and wore it almost daily until I snuck it away during one laundry round. Today's quickie project for Z, though, was salvaging some favorite old shirts and moving just the logos to some bigger tees. Here you can see the shirt mid transfer.
I also did the same with an odd bulldog tank top that he kept trying to wear in this winter weather.
To do the whole deal took about 10 minutes for each shirt. When J saw how easy and fun it was, he said, "maybe you could do that with some of my old tees" (I can't believe there's something I could actually CRAFT for him!) I'll keep you posted on how that goes...


Steps:
1- cut out old design
2- use beacons 3-in-1 (best glue ever) in tiny doses to tack the design on the new shirt correcty.
3- you CAN zigzag stitch it, but for guys shirts a straight stitch looks a little better. Plus, it's fast. No need to hem... T-shirt jersey rolls slightly and looks cool as is.
All done!

Make: Mittens

by Designing Mom Liberty


This is an easy and fast project to do this winter for yourself, your little ones, and even for their (toy) little ones. My daughter, Mimi, got a new doll this Christmas which *needs* (wink) many new clothes. I'm of the mindset that I don't need to be spending tons of money on her doll's wardrobe, so we're starting to work on making some of our own. Mimi's cousin's doll was given some mittens for Christmas, so that was first on the list of wants. I used to opportunity to create a chart to get her to practice reading, and after reading 10 board books on her own, she earned some mittens for dolly. The next 10 will give her the match set. You can make these, too. They are REALLY easy.


We went to Goodwill and bought some wool sweaters to felt. We brought them home, washed them on HOT and dried them HOT as well. Then we traced Mimi's and dolly's hands to make patterns. You can see the differential that I left for seam allowances in the picture.

I cut 2 of the mitten pieces with the thumbs facing left, and 2 facing right to make fronts and backs. I even cut them along the neckline and bottom hem so that I didn't have to "finish" or do any hemming myself. Then I placed them right sides together, and stitched a seam around the sides and top (about 1/4") before flipping the finished product right side out.

There's even enough of the sweater left for Momma to attempt another piece of clothing. Might just be a scarf for this one - the red one I made is gonna attempt to be a sweater. We'll see!

Haiti Relief

by Designing Mom Liberty

It feels so helpless to simply sit back and not do something when you hear news of what is happening in Haiti. Today, prompted in part by my daughter's school - and their efforts to raise every penny possible to send to Haiti relief - I've decided to do what I can do.


Remember the collages I did when I was grieving over AJ? I really needed some stability and the image of that mountain was really powerful for me. Today I've decided to make available some postcards and also high quality prints of the mountain collage. We had some of these made up and everyone in the family got them for Christmas, so I know they look great already... they're framed and up in each family member's home...

So now on my etsy site, you can find packs of postcards, perfect for sending a little note (these work for men and women, unlike much of my stuff!). You can also find a listing for the archival print on high quality watercolor paper - suitable for framing. If you are interested, I can also get the print made on canvas in various sizes.

All of the profits from the sales of these mountain images will be donated to Child Hope International - who are mutual friends of my family and run an orphanage in Port Au Prince, Haiti. They are sending updates via their website, so check them out.


Please please purchase these to help out - and pass on the idea to your friends and neighbors - blog, tweet and share about it - this actually can do something!

Story: Baby AJ Post #3

by Designing Mom Liberty

This post about AJ has been a long time coming, but I'll be honest - for a while it was just too painful to write.


A few days after I sent Cat the last email post - wherin I included all of our deepest hopes and dreams for AJ to become part of our family, we had a wake up call to the challenges of the foster care system. AJ - though he'd never met them - had half siblings in the "system" and someone in the county literally changed their mind about him being with an adoptive family vs. being with blood. We received a phone call on a Monday afternoon telling us we had to drop him off the next morning at another (AJ's 6th) foster home. This one was not an adoptive home - it's simply another holding place, and though we've offered to be the temporary caregivers for him just to provide stability - according to the County Social Workers involved, we are "no longer on the case."

Talk about a trial by fire. Our little family was rocked by our first taste of the foster care system - and this isn't even any of the details! Though we have done all we can to try and let everyone involved know that we desire to adopt AJ - and we haven't completely given up hope, we haven't exactly been holding our breath for him coming back to us. Once again a family of 4... we hug each other a little tighter and talk about our feelings a lot.


We're still committed to the idea of foster care - with the goal to adopt eventually. We just have a little more perspective as we prepare for the next round of the roller coaster. My husband and I went out to see "The Blind Side" and I wept like an inspired foster mom throughout. I watched the true story of a woman (a designing mom, really!) who was unwilling to look at a kid as just another number or a risk. She saw him as a beautiful person worth risking everything for... and Jay and I walked out of the movie re-committed to the risk ourselves.

We'll keep you posted if we hear anything, but in the meantime, I thought I would share a piece of artwork - a collage - that I did in the first week that AJ was gone. I was struggling with my emotions and turned to artwork to help me articulate what I felt. This collage came out of it.


The other photos are precious to me. The one where I am holding AJ in front of our fireplace was the last morning that we had him... I intentionally held him in front of the picture I'd created for our mantel - as a point of remembering. Another was taken in church the last day before our phone call to transfer him came. The final pic is our family as we are this holiday... without AJ, but feeling close and still joyful, nonetheless.

Friday Fotos

This Friday Foto comes from Designing Mom Liberty and her beautiful family. It was used as their holiday card and I think it just captures all the exuberance and excitement that is to come for the new year.
Happy Friday and weekend everyone!

Story: Baby AJ...Post #2

I was beyond moved at how brave and loving Liberty and her family were when they became a foster family and welcomed Baby AJ into their home and lives (if you haven't read the first post, click here). This is Liberty's second post chronicling her family's journey and I am so thankful she is sharing such an intimate portrait with us...


by Designing Mom Liberty

These past few weeks have been such a whirlwind. I guess anytime that you add a child into a family there comes some real shock.... and to be honest, I did expect some. But what I didn't expect was that this little boy would steal my heart so fast. (And he's welcome to it, no matter what...) To be really honest, the first shock of being a mom was so hard for me that I remember feeling like I would never be "normal" or "human" again. Then #2 came along and the sheer volume of two little babies was completely enough to wipe away most short term memory. I seriously don't remember much from that season.

I never count my chickens before they hatch. Which means that I didn't get freakishly gaga over my burgeoning belly (either time). I simply counted my blessings and prayed for grace to tackle what was ahead. When my kids came out, and I got to know them I found myself slowly falling in love with them, with their personalities, their beauties. So when you talk about adding in an adopted kid - and even more distinctly, a foster kid - to the mix - you simply don't know what to expect.


I mean, we went to all our classes and we learned about the hard things we'd be facing... we learned about all the safety measures we would need to take, and we were screened, fingerprinted, taught CPR - the whole shebang... and in that mix, you can quite easily forget that you are dealing with a person, a person who you desire to love. We had no idea as to what we'd be getting- an infant, a toddler - we certainly never imagined that we'd be back in 0-3 months clothes again (our kids only wore them for about 2 weeks each).
And yet - 1 week after we had our final home study - we were driving a tiny little baby boy back in our car to our home. Just like that. (okay, and with a lot of paperwork that had to be signed). It just happened so fast! In my mind, I'd expected a long waiting period, or at least a short one... I expected an older kid who had developed a lot further, perhaps even experienced abuse or neglect. But a baby? no, I didn't picture that.

To be clear, without sharing too much of his story (as opposed to my own, which is public) - he's certainly faced a lot of transition, hardship and abandonment in his young life. One of the most surreal moments for me was getting him home into my house and laying him on his back on my bed. I looked into his deep brown eyes and held his little hand and said to him, "Hi AJ, nice to meet you. I'm the momma" - to which he (not kidding) giggled the cutest little laugh. So of course, I repeated that phrase to get him to laugh again over and over for about a half hour.
Whenever I look at him, I am blown away at the value of a human life. I'm honored to be the caregiver of such a lovely little human. There have already been people who've told him "no" in many many ways. And I look at him and I say out loud, "I have a thousand YES' for you, little boy. You are worthy." (I find it ironic that if our adoption goes through perfectly, this child who seemingly would have no one to care for him, ends up loved, valued and with the last name WORTH)


The transition from 2 to 3 kids hasn't been near what I had been told. I mean, come dinnertime, it's "all hands on deck" around here. I have asked my hubby and a neighbor friend to be here if at all possible to help with the insanity as it occurs each night - and that is literally how we are surviving... normally, my husband works really long hours, but the timing of this has been such that he's been able to be around a lot more lately.

At first, when we brought AJ home, it seemed like the adoption process was going to be on a "fast track" - okay, that's how I labeled it... since we got him so quickly. But very soon, the reality of the system that is foster care began to show its face. I've learned in the past few weeks that though this was a quick way to add another kid to our family - it's not an easy route by any means. Our agency was able to hold our hands and guide us through certification - which itself is a bear - but I have now learned that when you are working with the foster care system - you are also working with government red tape, unresolved parental issues, a daily roller coaster of information that leads you up and down between hope and despair. If you've been watching my twitter posts or Facebook status - you've been seeing me write things like "Foster care is important. and good. but not for the fainthearted." and "The choice that's inconvenient will turn your life around" - and it's true. We face a hundred unknowns with AJ. We are NOT sure what the for-sure outcome will be. We get told that we're on the road to adoption, and we also get told that he is "most certainly" not ours forever.


So, we've decided to walk on. We've decided to face the fire and walk into it with him in our arms, looking into his perfect and beautiful face - because this child is worth all of the unknowns, the fear, the joy, the laughter and tears. He's worth it when I sit through difficult parental visitations at DCFS offices, he's worth all the extra paperwork and the classes. Like any baby, he's worth the sleepless nights and the frustrating attempts at deciphering the differences between cries. He's worth the heartache. He's worth the questions.
We have decided simply to love him in a way that looks (to him and everyone else) like we are keeping him forever, because he deserves that. And yet, in our hearts, Jay and I have had to hold AJ in an open hand... knowing that we are not in control.
I guess it's a reminder that we're never really in control. None of us can be forever sure that our kids are going to be safe, healthy, and under our protection even next week... this is a reminder to me daily as I look at this lovely, happy, healthy, helpless face... that lives like this are worth pouring into.
He's worth it.
We just hope and pray that someday we are able to call him a Worth.

Our Projects: What's in My Sketchbook

Good morning! Today we get to peer into the whimsical sketchbooks of Designing Mom Liberty. And check back later this afternoon. I'll be posting another great giveaway (hint: think holiday cheer!).
....................................................
by Designing Mom Liberty

Here are a few from (1) a book I've written and not published yet! and (2) from a t-shirt design I have and my thoughts getting there.

Shop: Crochet Goodies

by Designing Mom Liberty
I have a friend from my days in Chicago who is a designing mom of 4 boys. Just looking at her site of crocheted food toys (which are the softest, most fun toys!)... you can see her creativity and marvel at how cleverly she designs all these different foods. We've bought a couple of play coffees from her for our kids and they ALWAYS reach for the crocheted coffee mug over the plastic play ones - because they look so real and feel so soft.

My hubby and I recently bought some cute travel coffee mugs that look like the disposable type... (the search in our house for the perfect travel coffee mug is a whole other story!) But we really do like these funny ones, and our kids think they are clever. For Christmas this year, I'm going to ask Tiffany to make mugs for the kids, so we can all sit down and drink our coffee/pretend-coffee from our non-disposable mugs together. (Oh, and I'm hoping to get some cupcakes into the mix, too!)

Story: Baby AJ...Post #1

When I saw photos of Baby AJ the other day I just melted into a puddle of goo. There's exciting news to accompany those photos...Designing Mom Liberty is going to be a foster mom! I couldn't help but ask if Liberty could chronicle her "story" of becoming a foster parent with all of us and she has graciously agreed. I know we can all get overwhelmed with our hectic life as mom and creatives but hopefully you can take some time today to let Libby and her family's inspirational journey rejuvenate you with all that's good in the world.

by Designing Mom Liberty

I'm not sure that 10 years ago (or maybe even 4 years ago) that I would have imagined "foster mom" as one of my titles. The 2 words together tend to bring up a lot of negative feelings, fears and connotations for so many people. 4 years ago I was pregnant with my 2nd child - who was 18months younger than my first. The next season was tough. Two kids really close together nearly did me in! I've always been the person that would be described as: "CREATIVE, SPONTANEOUS, FREE-SPIRITED... just a feeding schedule alone was so far beyond the type of structure (i.e. none) that I was used to for my days. Even in my corporate life as a textile designer I got to work thousands of miles from my bosses, make my own time, work from home or the office and generally make my own decisions. Having not one, but two demanding little bosses who were highly regimented, needed life to be scheduled, and screamed at me when they didn't like my efforts was really a stretch for me. And yet, deep down in my heart, I didn't think we were done having kids yet. I'd always wanted to adopt, I've cried at every foster or adopt commercial that came on tv - I would secretly steal glances at obviously adoptive families with the longing to be them.... the longing to do something about the fact that thousands of kids in the world need good parents.

It wasn't until about a year ago that my husband and I started putting the words into action. We were really starting to imagine that once our younger (a challenging toddler - he's stretched the Terrible Twos out over 2.5 years) child was about 3.5 - maybe we could do this? A friend of mine started to talk about adopting through the foster care system. This seemed so frightening to me... I'm not sure what scared me.... probably a LOT of things.


My friend, Becky - had a son biologically and couldn't conceive again... Well, she and her husband started attending some orientation classes to work at getting a child through the foster care system. They were IMMEDIATELY contacted about a little boy who had a sister on the way. Would they take him and wait for her? YES!!!! So we all waited with bated breath and then, there he was! Perfect, lovely, 2.5 years old. He and his new big brother were fast friends and this family was rushed through the process so they could receive baby girl a few months later. A few years later now, Becky has 4 children and her joy and excitement over this process, the agency they used and their new children set me over the edge. "Okay, let's get this ball rolling!"

This year in February, we attended our first orientation with Koinonia Foster Homes. We decided to not rush the process, nor rush our son out of the proverbial cradle - dragging out our process for the past 10 months, knowing that he needed to be the baby for a while and that the right timing would show itself. (A point to note, though: The process HAD to take less than a year or we'd have to start repeating classes for certification) I'm not sure what I expected, but the more classes I went to, the more excited I got about it. I would look around a room of 50 couples all there with the same goals and be amazed at the heart for children. There were families of all walks of life, all races, all mixes, all ages and occupations - but our agency seems to attract people that are simply put - awesome. It didn't feel so weird when we looked around a room and felt like a lot of these people were worth getting to know... we now have a number of foster families that we are getting close to that we are walking this through together (I've heard this is not common at other agencies).


About a month ago we realized we were REALLY close to getting finished with this process. One evening in a parenting class (which was, incidentally, really fun and great to use on our bio kids!), a social worker that we knew interrupted the class to ask our teacher a question. She held up a paper with a few lines, not many, of text on them and asked, "is this really all the families that we have that can accept kids now? I've just got a call and I need to find a placement immediately!" An audible gasp in the room...wow...(just a quick fact... THOUSANDS of children every month are processed into foster care every month in Los Angeles alone. Many of these are adoptable. Most kids who live their lives as system foster kids have a low success rate in life). That night was really intense for me... to see this huge need and a social worker upset that there simply aren't enough homes to take them.

At this point, I need to describe what we've signed up for. My husband and I have enrolled ourselves as what is called a "concurrent planning family" - which essentially means that we are willing to do foster care as a road to adopting. We enter into this understanding that there is the chance that a suitable family member for this child may be found to take care of them and that placing a child with flesh and blood (if it's a suitable and loving home) is always better than giving the baby to complete strangers. We were able to give the social worker a number on a scale as to how much risk we thought we could handle, as well as the ages we thought we could do. At this point, they know that we really WANT to adopt, but are willing to take the risk to love a baby that may end up with family between now and adoption - which can take between 12-24 months on the average.


Fast forward: This week, we had our home study and inspection which were not nearly as scary as I'd built them up to be. We secured all dangerous items in our house in a set of high school lockers that we painted red and stuck into the laundry room... the questions asked of us were personal and pertinent, handled delicately by a great interviewer. As our social worker (I'll call her Jane) hit save on the final draft of our home study, our inspection complete, she closed her laptop and said, "I've been asked to talk to you about a 2 month old baby boy" WOAH. My husband looked at me. We both shook in shock. Are you serious? This fast? Jane began to describe how we still needed to get all our paperwork approved by the final people who give the official STAMP that says we're good to go, she mentioned that we should go meet this baby who was staying with another family from within our agency who does temporary foster care.


So this week, we met baby AJ. He is 3.5 months old. He's calm, beautiful, temperate and sweet. He gave a smile to my husband within 2 minutes of seeing him. We called the agency while we were still at the temporary foster mom's house. "YES PLEASE!" we said. They asked us to visit him as often as possible over the next few days so that as our paperwork gets finalized and they can switch him to our home, that we will be familiar people to him. (this should hopefully happen this week) Today I watched him all day long. I took him to my niece's birthday party, where my family fell in love with him too. This week, we hope to learn that AJ is ours for the time being and that we get to bring him home into our lives.

We have so much joy and excitement in our hearts, it's simply inexplicable to look at this little beautiful human being and to imagine - "he might be ours! we get to know and love him and give him a chance at a full life as long as he is with us!"

Our journey has only just begun, but we are thrilled to share it with AJ and thrilled to share it with you.

What's in My Bag: Liberty

By Designing Mom Liberty


My kids are finally out of diapers, which means that though I still carry an extra load of clothing for everyone in my overloaded minivan, my bags these days, look a little more sophisticated. This is my latest bag - one I picked up in the San Lorenzo Market when my hubby took me to Florence this summer. It is my favorite souvenir from the trip, in my very favorite color. (It's also quite grown up feeling, compared to the last 5 years of diaper bags!) What's in my bag?
1 - my lovely yellow wallet. I bought it brand new from my across the street neighbor at her garage sale. We were out shopping once and she said, "I have a wallet just like that!" before realizing it was hers. It's big, fabulous, and my daughter's favorite color.
2 - my (also grown up) prescription sunglasses. I finally turned away from my cheapo glamour glasses that I was always losing and sitting on... and before my vacation this summer got some good prescription sunglasses, which must mean I am old for sure.
3 - my business card case - bought on Etsy from JMorrow, complete with my business cards
4 - my iPhone. I blog from it, I take photos, it's hard for me to even take the trash out without it. It's an addiction (cute leather brocade snap-on case that you can't see from Ultra Case.) While I'm at it, I'll mention that my favorite mommy app is the CameraBag app which makes regular iPhone pictures look fabulous.
5 - my journal. I made it. It's from reused board and fabrics, and has hand-carved (by me) stamp designs throughout the pages. I'm always writing or sketching something... i feel lost without paper on hand.
6 - two things here... the one is my second "key ring" that I use to keep all of those grocery store discount cards, etc, so they don't clutter my already cluttered key ring and the second is my cute little makeup bag that my friend, Amy sent me from Thailand. I love it
7 - my little baggie of "unmentionables"
8 - gum (which I now have to carry in two different flavors for my 2 different kids)
9 - toy cars - never leave home without them
10 - rubber bands - between myself and my daughter, there's always a need
11 - a small sampling of my pen addiction. This is not ALL of the pens I carry around. Usually I also have a Sharpie on hand - often in brown, my favorite color for pens.
12 - lip gloss, mascara, nail clipper... just the basics. I don't primp a lot, but my days are long and if I can get a minute to freshen up, I really should be prepared. The one thing that I forgot to include here is an image of my keys! I swear that every mom needs a key fob and my favorites are found on etsy - try here. I keep a bunch on hand.

Make: Your Own Font

by Designing Mom Liberty

I just learned from this great blog about fontcapture. I learned about it late at night and ended up making two fonts of my own handwriting in the middle of the night... (when else would I do it?) and when the kids woke up in the morning, I had them fill out the cool templates (it was very similar to what they call "homework" - which is anything that has a task to be done on paper) to make their own handwritten fonts. My kids are 3 1/2 and 5, and the 5 year old found it easier than the 3 year old, but after some cutting and pasting, I was able to assemble for my 3 year old son a font of his own with his own letters (it just took a few tries).

I'm just bubbling over with ideas now for how to use our new fonts... thank you cards, iron on transfers, scrapbooking, card making, printing big signs, labeling... the possibilities are just endless and I am really loving having their little handwriting samples preserved and USABLE! After I got the fonts loaded (did I forget to mention this is all free?), my kids fought over who could sit down at the computer and type in their own handwriting. There is something so magic for them to see their handwriting showing up on the screen in front of them. I foresee hours of fun with this.

Make: Photo Keychain

by Designing Mom Liberty

My daughter is starting kindergarten this coming week - We've had a great time doing her school supply shopping - buying new boxes of 64 crayons, folders with kitty cats on them, and a new backpack. I'm a self-diagnosed addict to Vistaprint.com and all the various ways that one can use their services, but this one has been great for marking our bags and keeping things safe.

We use the keychains available at Vistaprint.com as zipper pulls for the kids' backpacks, complete with a photo of the child, their first name, and mommy's cell phone number. In the back of my mind, I also consider it as another way to be assured that if anything ever happened, there's another way to identify and connect my kids and me.

Friday Fotos: Summer Joy

by Designing Mom Liberty

Both of these photos were taken this summer as my family was on a vacation in HOT, HOT Arizona. There was lots of swimming and water play, but these two pics capture the love of summer like none other. My son is only 3, but found leaping off the 5 foot high waterfall at the house was worth throwing everything into, and my sweet daughter found sheer joy at the water park, running after her cousins.

I will treasure these pictures as the ultimate expressions of "summertime joy in 2009"

Make: Your Own Laminate

by Designing Mom Liberty

This summer has been one of nonstop travel for our family. The extensive amounts of time en route to places has left me scrambling for car and plane activities to satisfy my 3 and 4 year olds like never before.
This is one idea that I came up with the night before we left for an early morning trip. I'd recently read on a blog about a mom who laminated a dot-to-dot book for her kid to take on a long flight. She then gave the pages to her child with a wipe-off marker so that they could erase and re-do the puzzles. This is key, because kids blow through those books so quickly and they love them. (I'm so sorry that I can't remember who to attribute that to. If you know, please tell me!). Anyhow, I didn't have time or energy to go get each page laminated... so I did my own version using things I always have around my house:
-- I bought one dot to dot book and split the pages into two books (two kids)
-- I put each page inside a plastic page protector which I bound into a book with 1" metal book rings and a fancy file folder cut into pieces for nice covers to the books.
-- At first I wasn't sure that the page protectors (they need to be the shiny type) would wipe off well, but they do!
-- As an added bonus, I also bought some post-it type alphabet letters and used some extra protectors in the back of the book to use as a word building spot. I'd wanted to find removable stickers for this, but in my rush was only able to find the paper ones.

They worked great! The books have been a hit all summer long.

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