Just Add Stickers

Last Friday was a snowy day off school and I happened to have the day off work too so we had a classic stay at home crafty day! It's been so long since we had one of these days and it was so much fun! Since the kids are getting older and I am back at work, we have less of these days and I will take them when the opportunities comes around. One activity that I have been wanting to try is making ice cream outside in the snow. I used a two ingredient ice cream recipe, very simple, using whipping cream and condensed milk. We added cocoa powder to make chocolate ice cream. Step one, dig a shallow hole in the snow. Salt the snow, this will help the mixture freeze faster. Pour the can of condensed milk,container of whipping cream and cocoa (if using) into a large bowl and start whipping.  My one comment on the process is to use a large bowl. My bowl was too small and the liquid was taking too long to freeze. After 15 minutes it was only starting to thicken. I separated the mixture into tw...

Valloween, where Halloween meets Valentine's Day. It makes total sense to me, what is scarier than love? Just kidding but there is something to be said for celebrating Valentine's Day (or any holiday)  in a way that speaks to you. This year I am absolutely loving this trend of ghosts enjoying different seasons and activities!  I always have a few ghost decorations out year round but there is something so cute about a little ghost holding a red heart. More and more, I am seeing ghosties in the stores outside of Halloween, which I think is great for spooky people! To embrace this twist on Valentine's Day, I decorated with a spooky winter forest vibe with touch of red and pink.  When I was taking down my Christmas decorations I decided to leave out these grey felt trees and some snowflakes. I wanted to keep a wintery feel in my decorations. These trees remind me trees in group of 7 paintings, civered in snow and swaying in the wind. I added these pink and snowflakes and of c...

It is time, once again for my reading journal set up post.  This year I decided to incorporate my reading journal into my daily planner. I ended up with far too many planners last year. By the end of this year I might decide that my planner is far too full and go back to using separate journals. We will see what works out best. I had my last readingg journal for 2023 , 2024 and 2025 . Each year had a distinct sections with reviews and books trackers. For my book tracker last year, I stamped different colored flowers for each book that I read. The end result was a beautiful reading garden of 36 colorful flowers.  In order to add everything into my Happy Planner this year, I purchased a tracker bundle from Etsy. I am very excited to use this new book tracker. I printed out 2 copies of this book tracker page, punching out holes in one of the pages to add it into my planner. I cut out the little books from the extra page and taped them on top of the little books in my planner. Th...

  I am so excited to start my planner for 2026 and to share my new setup! I have been thinking about this planner for months, yes months. I was not happy with my planner from last year. For many years I have used Happy Planners, for 2025 I decided that I wanted to try something different. I chose a planner written and published locally. I chose it for the extra pages at the end of the planner, there were habit trackers, size trackers for members of the family and a whole expense tracker section. The day to day layout wasn't exactly what I wanted, however. In July I ended up switching for a smaller planner and in December I printed out some festive habbit tracker pages and tucked them into my original planner. By the end of the year I ended up with a mish-mash planner. I decided to go back to my favorite planner the Happy Planner classic planner. To make it even more perfect I got the Gilmore Girls Happy Planner for Christmas. With the matching planner stickers. My sister and mom al...