What do you do in your spare time??

I don't usually have anyone ask me that -- they can usually see that with homeschooling four children, I would not have much spare time. And ...... they would be right :-) I do, however, need to take SOME time for myself.

Most of my "me" time is spent scrapbooking. It's a hobby I was introduced to by my sister -- a confirmed scrap-addict! I love making scrapbook pages and am gradually filling my albums. My family and I enjoy looking though the albums and reliving the memories. It's awesome! I am also on a design team for Scrapbook Heaven. That means I am sent some product and have an assignment to complete a certain amount of layouts per month in return for the product. This work has a deadline, so some of my personal scrapping might need to be set aside to get this done first.

I like to make time to scrap with friends and introduce them to the fun of putting their photos on paper to be looked at by family. We recently had an all-day crop and it was a blast!

I also bake and decorate cakes in my spare time. This is a hobby my Aunt Rosalyn taught me many years ago. Between my sister and I, we have many shaped cake pans, but the majority of the cakes I do are slab cakes. I have so much fun coming up with ideas for these. Some of the more girlie ones I can treat as a scrapping page :-) and decorate them with doodles and flowers.

Most times I print off a coloring sheet and draw it right on the cake. Lots of fun! Here's one I did for a 50's party and another for a young Webkinz fan.

Cake decorating helps me with my first hobby as the money I make goes to my scrapbooking fund :-)

Another hobby I enjoy is photography. I am still learning, but and enjoying so much getting out and enjoying nature. This one also ties in with our homeschooling. We have been studying birds for several months now, and we recently bought a new camera so we could zoom in and get some shots of our bird friends.

This is not the best photo (our grass is still not green) but I wanted you to see Mr and Mrs Evening Grosbeak. They are beautiful birds and so shy. They don't come around very often and we can't get real close to them.

Our pesky squirrel friend -- he sure is cute, though!

In addition to these hobbies, I love cooking/baking and this is something I am teaching my children as well. I have two that really enjoy being in the kitchen and two that need a little push :-) We are all trying to come up with a plan for some menus and some meals that are healthy and tasty. I started a cooking blog, just so I could copy my recipes out somewhere (I figured online was as good a place as any!). I've been neglecting it lately though

I also LOVE reading books and usually have 1 or 2 on the go at any time. I just finished a set of four books by Brandilyn Collins - Hidden Faces Series. Not my typical reading but I enjoyed it. Time for another trip to the library!

When spring finally arrives (big sigh!) I will get outside to do some gardening, an interest encouraged my my mom. She teaches me what she knows about planting. The beds haven't been touched since last fall, so I'm sure I'll have some serious work to do soon!

So, there you have it -- my "spare time" in one post :-) Hope you enjoyed reading about me!