1. Cinnamon rolls in the works!, 2. Oven-ready!, 3. Cinnamon rolls iced & ready to eat!

Thanks to this yummy Bread Machine Cinnamon Roll recipe from Money Saving Mom, I’ve dusted off our bread machine and started the 30 Day Shred again. Okay, so it’s actually a coincidence that I made the rolls for the first time on the same day I started shredding again, but certainly a fortuitous one.

1. Tried a new hair color & deciding whether I should streak it or go darker for a while. #haircolortalks, 2. My little doll, 3. The Fabulous Fox Theatre @thefoxtheatre

The darker hair color in the picture on the left lasted for less than an hour before I streaked it. The middle is of my youngest on kids’ night at Chick-fil-a; our local CFAs have the most talented face painters! The right is from a date night to Flashdance the Musical at the Fox Theatre, where we discovered that my husband never saw the movie. Thankfully it’s available for instant queuing at Netflix, so we should remedy this omission in my husband’s 80s education soon.

1. Happy Birthday, Melissa!, 2. The traditional pose-in-front-of-the-CNN-sign photo., 3. Elephants! @RinglingBros

My husband, five of the kids, and I attended opening night of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’s production of DRAGONS Wednesday night. If you think the circus is just for kids, prepare to be surprised.

The circus animals are a treat (I think the lions, tigers, and a couple of the horses have an acting coach), but it’s the performers that wow me the most. They manage stunts so difficult I can’t imagine how you’d even begin to rehearse them without serious injury.

How can eight motorcycles (a record) ride inside a metal cage at once?

Or a trapeze artist perform a triple flip before being caught by another one (they missed this one when we saw the circus two years ago – scary!)?

And how do you train lions and tigers to act?

And the horse stunts?

Wow.

Did you hear my youngest say, “Mama, I think the elephant wants to get on there for fun!”

The ringmaster actually tweeted me during the show! (I just looked at this sentence and realized how funny it sounds if you don’t use twitter.)

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performs here in Atlanta until March 3. For more details or dates when they travel to your area, visit Ringling.com.

Disclosure: Flashdance the Musical and Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus media night tickets provided. Opinions expressed are my own.

1. A girl and her bear, 2. Wow! Flowers from my secret sister. :)

My three youngest kids think Build-a-Bear’s School Cool Bearamy is the cutest thing ever. My youngest ended up with him for Christmas because she was the only one who didn’t pick any other options: Bearamy or bust. His head is huge and he comes with glasses, which unfortunately we’ve lost.

I was surprised when I received a phone call this week from a local florist checking to see if I’d be home that day. I don’t get flowers often, and when I do they’re delivered in person by my husband. These were from my Secret Sister at church! It’s been years since we’ve done secret sisters, so I’d appreciate clever gift ideas if you’ve got ’em!

1. Friday Night Jazz, 2. @justnydia Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl from Pompeii, 3. Atypical subject from a well-known artist. Do you know who?

I never get tired of  hanging out at the High Museum, although this was only the second time we’ve attended Friday Night Jazz, which takes place on the third Friday of each month. No matter how many times I tour the permanent collection, I find something I’ve never noticed or that’s been on loan to another museum and finally found its way home.

I enjoy revisiting personal favorites and often play hide-and-seek with this small Renoir painting; last night it eluded me. Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about the current Fast Forward exhibit—there are pieces I like and others I don’t—but I’m looking forward to the upcoming exhibit featuring Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring.

Now that I’ve told you I don’t love all of the “real” art in the featured current exhibit, I’ll confess that I visit the Folk Art collection repeatedly. Some pieces I find unappealing, but others capture my imagination time after time. I like this explanation of folk art from the Alliance Theatre’s program from their production of The Wizard of Oz, which featured folk art in the set design:

Folk Art is defined as art originating among the common people of a nation or region and and usually reflecting their traditional culture, especially everyday or festive items produced or decorated by unschooled artists.

The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore gives us a beautifully nuanced answer. “It is art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose work arises from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.” 

While my husband was outside putting more money in the parking meter, I saw this black and white photograph and had an overwhelming desire both for a macro lens and an end to my yearly winter photography funk, to “revel foremost in the creative act itself” again myself.

Four years later I still remember this very personal video from Zack Arias that he made for a guest post on Scott Kelby’s blog. The combined total of nearly 1450 comments tells me that I’m not the only one who struggles with this yearly creative phenomenon.

Do you struggle creatively in the winter? Wishing you a wonderful Sunday and the inspiration to keep plugging away at that thing you do!

If you’ve visited here for very long, you may wonder what became of Camera Phone Friday, which I posted consistently since February 2011. CFF derailed in mid-September, shortly before I posted 31 Days of Before & After Shots every. single. day. of. the. October. (still can’t believe I pulled that one off) and never got back on track.

So . . . I’ve struggled with whether I should post all of those camera phone photos that I’ve missed and my final answer is a simple yes. I originally started blogging to document our family’s life for my kids, and I never want to lose sight of that. I hope you find some fun and visual inspiration in the mix!

1. O lovely new Tazo mug, fresh of color and fair of form! How did I fail to realize that you would Burn The Living Daylights out of my fingers each time I hold you, you handle-less tease! Are my senses so filled with your verdant hue and the aroma of Earl G, 2. Saddle up!, 3. Pony ride, 4. Serious face paint!

1. On the road to #becoming2012 in an orange Camaro convertible. Thanks @chevrolet!, 2. Hitting the road to Hotlanta after #becoming2012. Thank you @chevrolet for an awesome experience in this hot Camaro!, 3. My boy & I, tired & dirty after our mother/son camping trip, 4. My girls are getting pink streaks at Ulta!

The top two photos in the collage above represent three of the most glorious weeks of my 2012, the days when my husband and I drove a screamin’ orange Camaro convertible to the Becoming Conference in Asheville, NC, and beyond. Apparently the pick-up date didn’t make the schedule and it stayed with us longer than anticipated. I knew no one could possibly forget this car and expected it to go any day. Now I my Chevy contact probably thinks I’m a shady character and can’t be trusted. :(

This year marks the 10th that I’ve driven a 15-passenger van, so I guess I just got caught up in the sheer ooooh, aaaah, and oomph of this car. Every day was sweet behind the wheel of that Camaro.

1. Grating a bar of soap for our 2nd batch of homemade body wash., 2. Mailing cards to friends :), 3. Young song leaders, 4. I mustache you a question…

1. I’ve talked about adding contrast to photos all months on 31 Days of Before & After Shots on my blog, so I decided to add some to my hair., 2. So beautiful. #shereadstruth, 3. Planted my first letter in my pal @holleygerth’s book #moreloveletters, 4. Roomies all checked in at Allume! @redletterwords

Dee at Red Letter Words blessed my socks off at Allume this year—what an awesome roommate!

1. @redletterwords & I tour Harrisburg!, 2. The rockin’ @lisajobaker #allume, 3. In flight #allume, 4. My daughter, the kitty cat.

1. An all-time favorite!, 2. Hermey the (Dentist) Elf puppet show!, 3. Hermey puppets!, 4. What’ll ya have?

1. Veterans’ Day event, 2. First Pizza Hut Book It visit this school year!, 3. Body art, 4. Try telling that to Miss Piggy

1. Naughty elf hanging from the angel topper & wearing a cat tail!, 2. Ceiling tiles at the Fox Theatre Atlanta, 3. Love my new Flower Earrings from @LisaLeonard. Watch for a giveaway on my blog this week!, 4. Checking out their pictures #HelpPortrait

1. Etch-a-Sketch at the tables – so smart! @ammazzahq #ammazza, 2. Hearing about the philosophy behind the new @AmmazzaHQ Italian restaurant. Gorgeous bldg! #ammazza, 3. Glitter pizza for kids – super clever @AmmazzaHQ! #ammazza, 4. Our hostess with the mostest, @StacieinAtlanta @AmmazzaHQ #ammazza

These photos (and a couple in the next collage) were taken at a blogger night at the new Ammazza restaurant in downtown Atlanta. This restaurant is owned and operated by Stacie of The Divine Miss Mommy’s family. Stacie is one of my favorite blog friends and epitomizes the pay-it-forward mentality. She is all about helping others and I’ve been blessed to be on the receiving end many times.

If you live in Atlanta, you won’t regret a visit to Ammazza. The pizza is delicious! They serve an (edible) glitter pizza for kids and have Etch-a-Sketches on the tables to keep them entertained until it arrives. Brilliant. My favorite was the Terra pizza with wild mushrooms.

They also have free parking in their own parking lot, which you’ll know is a huge plus if you’ve ever tried to find a place to park downtown.

1. Terra pizza w/wild mushrooms, “real” Coke w/sugar. Great food & attention to detail. @AmmazzaHQ #ammazza, 2. @MommyTalkShow Watching the chefs @ammazzahq #ammazza, 3. 13th birthday with friends @chloecamp_ @ayeeee_its_jennah @olivia_grace_2012 @dietcoke45 @fun_cool @jordismith_2001, 4. My youngest elf

Somehow we managed parties for our two oldest daughter, who both had December birthdays and big ones, too: 13 and 16. That covers us for a few years, right?

1. The annual Christmas Bowl, 2. Family together at Christmas – the *best*, 3. Dipping chocolate covered cherries, 4. Elfis & his goodbye note to the kids

This was our 3rd year for Christmas-time bowling, which is a whole lotta fun.

1. Final night kisses for Elfis, 2. New pets, 3. Having a @moreloveletters party!, 4. Mini Mouse (my kids don’t want to spell it right) #inrl

Recently I told you that our mouse, Luck, died. The kids (and maybe their mom) were so sad that I went to the pet store for another one. A Google search on my phone told me that the urine of a female mouse doesn’t smell (which totally confirms that Luck was male) and I’d already read about the benefit of having two mice when I’d studied Luck’s fur scratching habit.

So . . . I bought two female mice, one silver and one light brown. They’re shiny and new and instant household favorites.

I’ve officially caught up on four months’ worth of camera phone moments, my visual diary of the day-to-day. Has the new year brought any excitement or change in your family?