I think my tag line says it best: Ideas for, diversions from, and celebrations of family life from a creative mom.

About me…

I am a wife and mother in my early 40’s with a 4 year old boy and 6 year old girl living in coastal New England.  I also have 2 young adult step-children.  I love being a mom and love babies so much I would have 10 more if I could (although my practical-self probably would say that’s too many)!  I enjoy working part-time from home as a product designer.  After working full-time for 15 year, it is a nice being able to continue to keep up my skills but with the flexibility to enjoy more adventures with my children.

I started this blog in order to express and record my love for the richness of everyday family life (think Redbook magazine), explore my interests (think Smithsonian magazine), satisfy my children’s curiosities (think National Geographic Kids), and experiment with my art (think children’s book art).  I think I just realized why I buy too many magazines!

You can also get to know more about me form My ABC’s post and about me becoming a mom from my Pregnancy Test Trees and a Pickle Baby post.

More about this site…  

I started this site in October 2011 with the encouragement of my sister who is a long time, successful blogger at Life Learning Today. Her blog is full of great advice on healthy, happy, purposeful living. Definitely check it out!

To read more about why I started this blog and my thoughts on the benefits of blogging, check out Why I ♥ Blogging.

What’s in a name?

I came up with the name Doodles and Jots early in my exhaustive brainstorming of blog names. I liked how it sounded whimsical but I was afraid it wouldn’t describe my often practical content enough.  I though of many other names which had mixed reviews from my consultants (aka husband, sister, and mother) but I kept coming back to Doodles and Jots.

Some of my practical life posts…  

• Eat better while saving time and money!
• Save Money, Have Fun!
• This is how I keep my house from slipping into utter chaos

I decided to go for it and try to live up to this name and always share spontaneous original thoughts and visuals.

It makes it hard sometimes but is good discipline for me. I am definitely honing my visual skills (illustration and photography) as well as my written skills. Honestly, I do not consider myself a writer. I am too scarred from my years struggling with dyslexia. Instead I think of my writing as sharing of my thought and ideas. In real life I have a pretty good sense of humor and I hope what I do share entertains (like this and this) as well as explains.

What do I share?  

I love observing nature especially birds and trees (check out my printable bird journal and my post about tree bark).  I am passionate about fun, practical, whole family oriented learning about the world around us. Our environment is full of curiosities!

Whole family learning examples… 

• Dreams of Darwin
• Make a water tower
• Materials Flash-cards
• Teaching Fractals
• Ripple Effect

I also love reading and LOVE childrens books.  As a matter of fact I almost studied illustration at art school!  I love sharing great books that I enjoy and my kids ask for over and over.

Book inspired posts and reviews…

• Brother Sun, Sister Moon
• Balloons Over Broadway
• Need a kids birthday party gift idea?
• Winter Reading
• Imagination books

I also get such a thrill from creating and sharing things like original mini-books and other fun printables.  Here are some examples…

• Poem
• Top 10 Favorite Vehicles
• Oy!
• Materials Flash-cards
• Get Your Irish On

I also love coming up with ideas for simple crafts or toys you can make with your children like this…

• Childhood is Magical
• Leapin’ Lizards
• Paper-doll Printable
• All Signs Point to Fun
• Easy Heart Garland Craft

My background is product design which I still do part-time from home while my kids are in school. I don’t talk much about product design on this blog because most of what I work on is confidential, but I do occasionally review products or share what I consider good design or clever ideas here and on Pinterest.

Some of my favorite product review posts…

• Ultimate Baby Nursery Wishlist (accessories)!
• This Land is Your Land, Easter Innovation
• LeapPad!

Feedback, sharing, and navigating 

If you like a post please let me know in the comments and/or share. Sharing options are made easy with my Shareaholic tabs. I love feedback and sharing and will usually return the favor!  Please consider following me (made easy with my FOLLOW ME buttons at the top of my sidebar)!  If you click on RSS feed you can choose to follow via your preferred reader or email. I also have a few more sidebar options for exploring Doodles and Jots starting with RECENT POSTS with thumbnails, further down is a complete site archive by date and title (now at 200 posts, yay!), and WAY down is a animated tag cloud by topic. Along the top of my page I have categories and MY favorite page, Visual Archive, with thumbnails of all my posts!

What is next for Doodles and Jots?

I don’t consider myself much of a planner. I really love to happily go where life (and the weather, weather, weather, weather, weather) takes me asking questions along the way. Anything else?  I would love to get more artsy and experiment with different mediums like paper cut art and printmaking techniques and perhaps try more creative writing.  Come along with me on this wonderful windy path of life!

Thanks for visiting and please share your thoughts!

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