Sweet Mandy asked for a better look at the notebook - I was flattered enough to jump right on it, but my camera has been on the blink. Isn't that always the way it goes (at my house, anyway)? But the camera's finally working a little so I thought I'd record the creation of my July notebook. I'm starting it a little early because Jack somehow got ahold of my June notebook and scribbled on half the pages. Bad Jack. Bad. Anyway.

The first thing I do is get out my pretty pictures file and dig through all the, um, pretty pictures, until I find some that look good to me right now. Obviously this will be different for everyone - this is also what makes this so fun. For some reason bright pink was just calling my name this month... Lots of these pictures won't get used, but I like to have plenty to choose from.

Next, I get a plain Jane notebook. The sturdier cover and cheaper price of these make them an excellent choice.

Now I start picking and choosing pictures and tearing them to fit. Feel free to use scissors if you want your notebook to be boring and dull with no cool-edgy-torn effect. Sometimes I use a piece of colored scrapbooking paper for a background, or sometimes I choose a really large picture for the background. Either way, it's easiest to have one piece that covers all the brown-ness and then build on top of that.

I like to have some words somewhere on the front because that's just the kind of person I am. Sometimes a Bible verse, sometimes a quote...one day I might do one with just words all over it. I love words. Let's move on.

Now I slap some modge podge on the cover and start placing things where I think they should go. A couple of notes - always lay it out first and smooth it out really well (see my wrinkles? the ones on the notebook, I mean!). Rubber cement works much better than modge podge, but sometimes I have to make do. I will not go to Walmart just for rubber cement. I just won't do it!

Sigh. Now it seems like I can start all over with a fresh clean slate. All those messy to do lists and menu plans and memos are gone and blank pages wait for me to craft my life in them...that's pretty deep for a 33 cent notebook, don't ya think?

Should my first homeschool conference be in my jammies?

I saw this over at Amy's (she's having a contest for free registration, by the way, but don't sign up cause I want to win!) and it looks fabulous. $19.95 is not a bad deal.

Y'all are going to think I have too much time on my hands...

but I have had a rough day (it was my preacher's last day at church...very emotional) and I just want to think about something that makes me happy. My notebooks make me happy. I've been using a plain brown steno book as my "brain" for awhile now. It's so important to me that I bought a purse with a pocket to fit. The problem, of course, was that they're plain and brown and ugly. They do not go with my pretty new blue purse! I also had a stack of magazines that I couldn't throw away because they were just too lovely (Southern Lady for example). So I tore into the magazines and pulled out every picture that appealed to me...blue hydrangeas, pecan tassies, lace hankies, a golden pineapple, peaches, whatever,,,and saved them in a file folder. Now each month I start a new notebook. It only takes about 15 minutes to dig through the pictures til I find some I like and glue them to the cover. Rubber cement and/or modge podge seem to work the best, by the way. Now I know this probably seems a little like a waste of time, but y'all it is so much fun to turn this boring old notebook into something pretty and interesting. And looking over them today really did cheer me up:)

This was taken at the end of a very fun filled day - first church, then my Grandma's 70th birthday party, then a visit to my Granny's - so I hope that explains the pizza and ice cream on Jack's shirt and the missing ribbons on Brenna's falling braids. But I just had to post it anyway - they were so excited to see all the flowers blooming. Hopefully we'll get a neater picture soon (but I'm not counting on it!).