This'll continue to be a hodgepodge mix of observation, art, food, and experience and hopefully a good motivator to keep me on track collecting new creative projects, recipes, contests, media, and more - to share with you.

A comfortable, organized environment with plenty of Supplies is key if I want to get anything done, so I spent some time yesterday getting things in order and discovering items that had been tucked away and nearly forgotten.  A ton of art Paper that I'd rolled up in heavy duty cardboard tubes (stored in the back of the closet) now live in a clear rolling paper tub under the bed.  I was pleased to find a variety of brand new sheets that will make great book covers.  (Though my tastes have apparently changed a bit.)

Our Craft room (i.e. our walk in closet that still needs to function as a closet) is overrun with my supplies, but I managed to clear some more room and make everything more accessible.  Those tubs need some labels!

I also took some time to reorganize the small bookcase I use for all our art, craft, and design books.  An unfortunate Christmas day incident resulted in Christmas tree water pouring onto some of them, but I managed to salvage them all with fairly minimal water damage.

Here are some of my favorite titles (click to view on Powells.com):

Real Life Journals

500 Handmade Books

The Handy Book of Artistic Printing

1000 Fonts: An Illustrated Guide to Finding the Right Typeface

Simple Sewing

Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones

Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts

Stencil 101

So what's in store this year?  Hopefully lots of book making and paper craft, refurbished furniture (?!), photography, typography, crock pot recipes as well as those that take me 4 hours to make, prizes, outings, craft nights, vacations, and everything in between.