Photo Frame Calendar

For Megan's birthday this year, I made her a photo frame calendar I found on Martha Stewart's website.



It was really easy. Also, I bought the frame at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon and had the hooks on hand from a previous project, so it was really affordable. My largest expense was the photo printing.



I printed one photo for each month with much help from Megan's friends and mom.



Martha wasn't so on top of things with this project and only had calendar templates for 2010. With the end of the year just around the corner, I decided to design my own. I designed them to be 5x7 so I could print them on photo paper. It's sometimes easier and more affordable to get good quality color on heavy stock if you have your design printed as a photo instead of taking to a print shop.

Download the calendar now. 

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Birthday Bike Ride

My dad and sister-in-law share a birthday and have made a tradition over the past few years of going biking to celebrate. The plan this year was to camp at my parent's cabin and go biking on Saturday. Unfortunately, rains and flooding resulted in a change in plans.

Here are this year's participants:




Because couldn't make it to the cabin, my parents had everyone over the night before biking for a grill out and games. Get a closer look at the cake


The change in plans wasn't so bad when we saw the weather on Sunday.


Blake was not only sick, he fell while biking and then slipped and fell in the basement. Not a good day for him :(

Camping Cake

I was on cake duty for dad and Megan's birthday bike ride. Because the original plan was to camp at my parents cabin and go biking on Saturday, I thought a camping themed cake would be a perfect fit for the occasion.

Here is a run down of the items I used to decorate:







It didn't occur to me until I finished the cake that tubing weather and falling leaves weather differ by approximately 20-30 degrees. Oh well, they are still cute!

Care Package #1

Theme: Don't let the girls drive you crazy

My little brother is in college and sent me a friendly reminder a couple of weeks ago that he hadn't received any care packages this year. Who was I to turn down a poor college kid's request for candy? I decided to go with a theme because I love themes. Ben and his friend Jake are living in a house with 4 girls this year, so I brainstormed some ideas to help make living with girls easier. Here is what I came up with:

• Homemade stress ball when the girls get on his nerves
• A movie to make it easier to "listen" to their problems
• Ear plugs for when the girly screams are too much
• Tissues to make him appear sensitive when there are tears
• Chocolate to make them easier to live with when they have PMS
• Cleaning supplies for the hairspray-covered bathroom
• Subway gift card for some night when he really needs to get out of the house