Friends,

I hope you are well. I hope you are taking deep breaths, maybe a good daily walk. And I hope you are safe. This is a trying and strange time for us all, and I’m reminded over and over again how precious our friends and family are — and how much we need to be connected. I hope you have some family and friend Zoom calls scheduled soon.

I have to tell you about the cutest part of our quarantine routine: Cousins Book Club. Bambino and two of his cousins meet on FaceTime every afternoon. They are reading to each other and then they spend time drawing in their sketch books. It is such a sweet connection for all of them, and they get great reading practice in every day! I highly recommend it — especially if you have young readers in your house.

As I said last week, we have been working on small, inexpensive projects around the house. One project which we tackled a few months ago: cord management. Just taming the cords and cables around our house made a big difference! I had some help from bluelounge who sent me a whole array of their products to try, and I absolutely love all of them. Read on to see what we did and what a big difference they made!

If you are looking for something cheap (nearly free) to do with your kids — or for yourself — what about making an art journal from recycled catalogues and magazines? I love using these for all kinds of art projects, particularly collage. And Bambino and I have been using these a lot during our quarantine.

This might also be a good time to start an altered book journal. Take an old book and turn it into an art journal. I love doing this, too — perhaps a good way to record this historic time in our lives?

And just in case you need to make some masks, here’s my tutorial with three different options for attaching them. Wear a mask! Remember, my mask protects you; your mask protects me!

Be well, friends! Stay home and stay safe. Thanks for being a loyal reader and friend. You all are in my thoughts. We are in this together!

XOXO
Angela