Thinking

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'" -- Erma Bombeck

Lilypad Blog Hop

A lovely thing is happening this weekend. The Lilypad, digital scrapbooking store extraordinaire, is opening public forums. With chatting and hanging out. Challenges. Galleries. And did I mention chatting and hanging out? Woot!

And to celebrate, we are having a blog hop. You have arrived at the ninth blog stop, mine :)
I have this awesome quickpage to share with you, created by the fabulous and talented Rezika: Thank you Rez!

*Download here*

To continue on to the next blog, Go here: Valorie's!

If you need to start at the beginning (there are a total of 14 blogs, each with a little gift) or want to read about the prize for collecting and using all 14 gifts, visit this blog (Amy M's).

And don't forget to come visit the forums and join our little pad :)

~Peace, Kristin

TGIFriday...

Is there even possibly any other kind of Friday than a TGIFriday? :)
This morning as I was leaving for the office and our youngest son (5 years old) was concurrently waking up, I said to him,
"iiiit's Friday!"
And he replied with "What's that mean?"
"Well. It means, there's no school (for the older siblings) tomorrow. There's no going to the office tomorrow..."
And he says:
"I like the sound of that!"
Oh, so do I :)
Bring on the weekend, and the family time and the home time.

It's new release 'Froggy Friday' at the Lilypad:

Click to view larger and see supply credits.

Ciao! ~Kristin

it's a new week

I'm ready for the optimism that is Spring. image via designgeist.org

Cookbooks

I have collected cookbooks since I was a teenager and cooking in 4-H. (an aside: I had to laugh as I looked up that link, that when I was a teenager cooking, there was no internet to look up. How weird it is to say that. How weird it is to think about that!) Some five+ years ago, in reorganizing our home and life for child#3, I boxed up all but 3 and stored the box, reasoning that when I cooked, it was faster/easier/handier to look up the recipe I wanted on the previously-mentioned internet, even one I knew I had, and that is what I was doing. Exclusively. I hadn't even purchased a cookbook, probably since Rosie's Bakery All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed No-Holds-Barred Baking Book. So, that was valuable space to be gained.
Now, fast-forward to the last year. I have rediscovered cooking for pleasure, not just sustenance. And related to that, I found a whole new world of food blogs. And related to that, I have come full circle: because of the internet, I find myself drawn to the cookbook aisle in the bookstores. Specifically, because of these blogs especially: Smitten Kitchen, and French Laundry At Home, and 101Cookbooks. I would have came home with French Laundry recently, when I came across it unexpectedly at Borders, but it was $55 and it was two days before Christmas. And I didn't want to cook with it, haha, just read it.
But now, it is after Christmas. ....And because of that, I don't have $55 dollars. HA. and Borders is 99 miles away and it snowed. But anyway... I just read this Smitten Kitchen blogpost. And amazing Amazon will deliver to me on January 7th for only 14.98 the hardcover version of said cookbook. Click. Log in. Confirm. And I have just bought my first cookbook in at least 8 years. I am so looking forward to many more :).