I’ve been hacked
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Ugh. I've been hacked. I'm technical enough to know it happened, and that other than being annoying, it isn't causing any viruses to be spread. I've run multiple virus scans, including Google's, and there's nothing dangerous. It's just an obnoxious thing where my site appears to be perfectly fine, but when search engines index it, it changes my titles to ridiculous things about buying prescription drugs that I've never heard of.
Needless to say, I'm annoyed. Who on earth would want to do that to a craft blog? I'm not even running a craft business, at the moment.
In any case, since I would someday like to run a reputable creative business again, I have to uninstall my blog and reinstall it to make sure everything is fixed. It's entirely possible my whole site will disappear in the process. I've backed things up, but still, you never know.
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There are lots of versions of project 365 {google it and prepare to be distracted for hours} but my personal project is just to take and upload a photo a day to the app, and add a line of text about what we did that day, what's happening in the photo, or something my kids said or did that I want to remember.
Most days, I take pictures of my kids without even thinking about it. The hard part is on the days that I work {luckily I only work two 9-5 days a week} because I'm tired when I get home, and just want to have dinner and get the kids ready for bed before it gets too late. Some days I take a picture of myself or something at my office, but usually I remember around bath time and end up with a really goofball shot of one of the kids. It all counts.
Confession: two months is the longest I have ever kept up a daily creativity project. Ever.
I had a part time jewelry business for five years. I blogged usually a few times a week for most of that time. I made thousands of pieces of jewelry, along with lots of time spent on other creative stuff, like writing, knitting, crochet, attempts every so often at art journalling or collage, periodic attempts to learn to use a camera well...but I was never able to stick with a daily art project, until now.
Why it works for me: I always have my phone with me, so I've gotten into the habit of taking a few snapshots throughout the day most of the time. If doing this project depended on my carrying around another camera besides the phone, it would never happen.
I definitely recommend finding an easy daily project - it has to be something that, on most days, won't be difficult to remember or take up very much time - but it is so satisfying to have something done every day. I chose a photo project for ease of keeping up with it, but also because while my kids are young, I want to record memories as much as I can, but it's hard for me to tackle projects {like a traditional photo album} that require long chunks of uninterrupted time or lots of materials that my kids will want to play with. A quick digital project turned out to be the perfect solution! 
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It's been a while since my last GIMP tips and tricks post, so if you aren't familiar with the series & want to get caught up, 
I got my February Digi Files goodies this week - 7 full kits with lots of fun stuff to play with, and some fonts, which was exciting for me since I've been checking out that designer's fonts in her shop. So now I can sample a few and see if I like them. Most of the designers this month are new to me, which is part of why I enjoy the digi files so much - I get to try out a bunch of styles and build my digital stash without spending too much. This banner takes you to the site, if you want to learn more or sign up {no pressure!}:
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I have a fun digital scrapbooking freebie today {scroll down to download the .png files} - two abstract heart photo masks! I think they would be perfect for making kind of an artsy Valentine scrapbook layout.
As with my other free digiscrap elements, these are for personal use only - please contact me if you want to use any of my graphics for a commercial project. I would love to see your layouts or other projects if you use my graphics - feel free to leave a link in the comments. If you know someone who would like these, please send them to this blog post. Thanks!
Credits: I used a bunch of different heart brushes, including some by Hawksmont and Obsidian Dawn {although it might not be obvious since the result is pretty abstract}. Did you know you can use photoshop brushes in GIMP? It's pretty awesome.
Download links here:
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Taking a break from my digi design obsession today to share a great kid activity: the ice block treasure hunt. You probably have everything you need for this one lying around the house, and while I was using it as a rainy day activity, I bet it would also be really fun outside on a hot summer day.
[caption id="attachment_2546" align="alignnone" width="584" caption="the ice block: ready to start"]
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The how-to is easy.
1) Get some kind of flexible plastic container {I used a cheap plastic cup} and add about an inch of water to the bottom. Optional: add a little food coloring. Optional: add the first treasure if you have little kids, because it will be easier to get it out than if you freeze a layer first.
2) Freeze it until fairly solid.
3) Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you have a good sized ice block full of little treasures.
4) Now for the fun part - put the ice blocks into trays {to catch all the melting water} and give your kids some excavating tools. I used warm water and paint brushes, but you could be more creative with this part. As the ice melts, they find their treasures.
[caption id="attachment_2547" align="alignnone" width="584" caption="finding a purple coin"]
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TIP: give each kid their own ice block, and put the same number of treasures in each one.
Treasures that work well: plastic animals/figures, glass or plastic beads, coins, decorative glass marbles - basically anything small enough to embed in your ice block that won't be damaged by water.
[caption id="attachment_2548" align="alignnone" width="584" caption="blue ice block"]
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[caption id="attachment_2549" align="alignnone" width="584" caption="treasures found!"]
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linking to: 
is tempting me - if anyone reading has used it, can you tell me what you think of it? I love the idea of being able to scan things using a smaller, more portable device, especially now that I've been doing some digital designing - I think it would work much better than a desktop scanner on things like old books. {Yes, that's an affiliate link, but no, I don't actually know if it's a good product or not - I just think it sounds pretty awesome.} On a side note, does anyone know of a super-compact printer that is inexpensive and works well? We live in a tiny house so smaller is always better, and we don't print at home very much so I don't want to spend a lot...
For all you craft nerds {and yes, I include myself in that group!}, I saw some stuff about the CHA show. Here are some 
by Rosemary Wells. She is also the author of the Max and Ruby books that my brother and I had when we were little {and my kids enjoy those ones too}. The bunny planet book is better for bedtime though, it's a sweet sing-songy book with kind of a dreamy illustration style, so it's more relaxing. The Max and Ruby books are funny, so they are better for daytime storytime.
And my favorite book to read when I feel like a failure as a mom is 
by Adam Mansbach. A word of warning: if you have kids who can read, don't leave this book lying around. The f word is on just about every page. Even some adults will be offended by the language. But if, like me, you've spent many, many evenings trying to get babies or young children to go to sleep, and you've experienced trying to be soothing while wanting to rip your hair out....you'll probably relate. There's a video on youtube somewhere that has Morgan Freeman reading it out loud, again, beware if you are around children or at the office because of all the cursing!