Recipe Journal

Whenever I say "Mommy is making a book" my kids get excited, especially my four year old son. He loves helping me punch the holes and putting the book together. It gives him as much of a sense of accomplishment as it does me after designing it.

Over the weeked, inspired from an illistration in a library book, my son and I set out to make a new kind of journal - a recipe journal.

A recipe journal isn't just your ordinary cook book, it's so much more. The pages of a recipe journal consist not only of recipes, but is meant for you to include photos of your culinary creations, you and family members enjoying the preparation process, and the dinning process. 

Inside a recipe journal you can place food labels, beveravage labels, write notes, stories about family meals or special meals with a loved one that you can go back and remember years later.

A recipe journal can be passed down from generation to generation and shared at family gatherings.

If you love to cook, a recipe journal can allow you to record new food ideas, recipes gone wrong, and those that came out spectacular and how you did it.

Maybe your a food critic and you use your food journal for those dinning out meals, you can photograph them, and takes notes,and write your reiviews inside your journal.

If you're a travelor, a recipe journal can help you collect recipes of the foods you enjoyed while traveling, taking pictures of the places, people, and food that you sampled along the way.

The possiblities for creating a recipe journal are endless, what else can you think of placing in a recipe journal?

You can find out how to start your own reciepe journal by reading the article I wrote most recently.
How To Create a Recipe Journal.

I can't wait to hear and see your creations!

Journaling: Getting Started

When I was in eight grade, my teacher Mrs. Smith would hand us a folder and a piece of composition paper for the first ten minutes of my english class every morning.  At first, I'd sit at my desk and stare at a blank page.  I'd look over my shoulder and see my classmates either slumped and staring too, or those who were scribbling away at their pages.

Eventually, I began to write on those blank pages, maybe it was about last night's basketball game, or just a few sentences on how bored I was.  Then one day, I started writing a story, and for ten minutes every day, I'd continue the story.  Sometimes I'd draw a picture and illustarte what I was writing. 

I knew the only person who was reading my journal was Mrs. Smith.  As long as I had something on the page she gave me a grade.

I began looking forward to those ten minutes a day, and when eight grade english was over, I started journaling and writing in my notebooks.  Those stories eventually got passed around to my classmates who were amused about the futuristic scences I'd put them in and couldn't wait to find out what happened next.

Yet, none of those stories would have ever began without that first intial blank page from english class.

It's getting past that first initial blank page that enables us to start our journals.  So, if it helps, open up your journal and rip out that first page.  Yep, rip it out.

This does two things: One the journal isn't new anymore because you've ripped out the page, and second it's not as intimatidating now because the first page is gone.

A journal is anything you want it to be.  It's your creation, reference, and sometimes best friend.  It's a book reflecting you in a period of your life. 

So what are you waiting for, push past page one and get started!

Tuscan Themed Customized Day Planner

She asked for it, and I created it.  Months ago, before Christmas, one of my sisters made the remark on facebook that she wanted me to make her a day planner.  Wouldn't you know it happened that I ended up with her name in the Christmas gift drawing.  So I went to work on creating excately what she asked for.

The day planner itself is constructed of a  "6 x "9 x 1" three ring binder.  The front and back were designed and covered with scrapbooking paper and covered with a plastic sleeve.

Inside the book I broke it into five sections:

Weekly Planner 

Grocery List

Food Journal

Address Book

Notes

Each page was designed specifically by me to match a tuscan theme.  Each week contains a small fact about Itailian culture - words,people, places, and wine making.  As you can see their is a consistant grape and wine theme flowing from one page to the other.

I'm currently working on an apple orchard theme for my mother, both the apple and the tuscan theme will be available soon in my etsy store.

I can happily say, my sister was thrilled and now enjoying her customized Tuscan Themed Day Planner, I guess this means I'll be designing another customized day planner soon for my other sister.  She too will want one after seeing this.  Oh what fun, with my sisters' birthdays less then a month a way, I'd better get busy!