Summer is Here!

Yesterday brought the last day of school. I always look forward to it thinking its going to be so much easier with only getting myself out the door in the morning but usually a week or two into summer break I am reminded that there are other problems. But it's the first official day of spring break today and I am not going to worry about that just yet.

This past week has been busy, busy, busy! We decided to make some teacher gifts this year. Earlier I posted a pic of the thank you card for Kendra's teacher. Well, Mrs. Bates also got a flower bouquet. We figured she would probably get lots of flowers and we wanted to give her one that would last longer. Before you start thinking how clever and talented I am, you must know that I completely copied this idea from a post on the cricut messageboards. I will have to go back and find her name but saw these posted and knew we had to do them. We cut flowers from the Walk in My Garden cart and pop dotted them to wooden skewers. We bought a ceramic pot from Michael's and added some flower foam and moss to poke the skewers into. Voila! A flower arangement that doesn't require watering!


We also found another great craft on the cricut message boards for Thank You Candy. That place is a wealth of information and ideas!! When I find her name, I will definitely post and give credit. This was another joint effort between Kendra and myself (just like the flower bouquet). This one involved covering theater size candy boxes with two different cardstocks (I used the DCWV Elementary pack). Kendra cut an apple from the Doodlecharms cart. The apple was layered with red, green and brown and shadowed with black. She then cut "Thank You" from the the Alphalicious cart in yellow and shadowed in blue. I used stickles to add some oomph to the whole design. After the stickles dried, we glued it all together and added a red raffia bow. We made 14 of these. Kaitlyn took 4 to school for her house teachers and Kendra took the other 10 for current teachers, past favorites and the principal and staff. We were so impressed with how these turned out that they are going to become our new birthday card. (We are currently making our first for a party today... will post a picture when it is done).



This end of the school year turned out to be a little more crafty than normal but we had a great time making it all.

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My Birthday Celebration...

Last Saturday was my birthday... not a milestone one... just a plain old ordinary one. However, I was determined to do whatever I wanted on that day and it did not include cleaning, laundry, etc, etc. Unfortunately for me it started with me leaping out of bed at 6:30 a.m. thinking that I had forgotten to set the alarm. Before I could go wake up Kaitlyn, the hubby told me that it was Saturday. Well, once that adrenaline got pumping thru my veins, it was pretty much guaranteed that I was AWAKE. So even though my day started earlier than I had intended, my morning was still a lazy, relaxing one.

By 11:30 the girls and I headed over to Serendipity, a local scrapbook store. They had sent me $5 on a minimum $5 purchase... how could I not go take advantage of that. It also happened to be their customer appreciation day which meant a free gift with purchase (I chose buttons) and a free lunch of hot dogs, chips and cookies. How cool! My birthday and I didn't have to pay for lunch. Score! While we were there the girls and I also took part in one of their make 'n takes... an adorable owl card.

They include phrase such as "You're a HOOT!" and "Thank you for being so wise!" Kendra made hers for Mrs. Bates, her 5th grade teacher, I made mine just because it was too damn cute not to and Kaitlyn made one just because (or so I thought).

After Serendipity, we ended up at the mall and guess what?!?! I didn't have to pay for anything! The girls had gift cards, coupons and their own money to spend. Woo Hoo! Another birthday treat for me. While we were there, Kaitlyn asked if Kendra and she could go to Boston Store to look for a birthday present for me. I let them go in after reiterating that they did not have to get me a present. They were only gone about 20 minutes but were rather pleased with themselves when we joined up again.

We headed for home after that. Jeff had said we could go out to dinner, my choice. I had a craving for Mexican and decided to try a Mexican restaurant that we hadn't been to before, La Estacion. It is a converted old train depot complete with trains still in the station. We were seated in one of the old trains... the kids thought that was pretty cool.

The food was yummy, the portions were huge and the margaritas were perfect. When our waitress asked if we wanted dessert, Kevin made a point of saying that it was my birthday. When she heard that she asked me if I wanted a piece of cake or get this... a tequila shot! Since it was family night and I had just had two margaritas, I chose the cake.... it was also easier to share!



Oh... I almost forgot to mention my birthday present from the girls... a black leather purse. Kaitlyn knows me well. My old one had just broken and I have decided to use a light weight tote for the summer. She however left the original price tag on... $108. WHAT?!?! She assured me that they got a really, really good sale... I hope so as I have never spent that much on a purse.

Crafts, shopping, food, time with my family... It was a great day... probably one of my best birthdays.

Think Big

This is a single page layout I did last week. I belong to a Yahoo group, MegaScrapHappy. It's a great group of ladies who share their love for scrappin'. It is a great place for inspiration, challenges and help. Each month a different member offers to host a montly challenge.... it can be just about anything, just so that each day there is a new challenge presented. This month it is all about sketches, which I love.

This layout is based on a sketch from Inspired Blueprints, a sketch site that is new to me but one that I will definitely return to. This was the sketch...

Usually I find that I am not very original. If I have a recipe, I tend to follow it pretty closely. The same goes for sketches. If a sketch is laid out in a particular way that is usually the way that I will do it. Part of this challenge posted with this layout was to alter the sketch... a little or a lot. I really didn't think I would be doing too much altering. But once I decided on the pics I would be using, I already had to alter it since I was going with vertical. Then one thing led to another and my finished page was quite a bit altered from the sketch. Sometimes scrappin' just happens that way... I think I have a layout all figured out and boom! What I end up with is completely different. Here is my interpretation of this sketch...


The journaling reads... Look at the expressions on your face. I can't help but wonder what big thoughts are going thru your head. Think BIG... Dream BIG!! Summer '96

These pictures of Kaitlyn were originally put aside to do a Cheerios layout. But when I pulled them out to use for this sketch, I couldn't help but focus on her expressions. She really looks like she is thinking on something big.

Teacher Thank You Notes...

Kendra and I have been busy making presents the last couple of weeks. I made 30 of these Thank You notes to give to her 5th grade teacher. They are pretty basic and simple just an apple cut with the Making the Grade Cricut cart, a simple green on green polka-dot ribbon (don't remember where I got it from) and a stamped "Thank You".

Kendra's been steadily working on a gift to give to her and we both combined efforts on a simple Thank You to give to current teachers and some of the office staff. I will have to take pictures of those when they are finished.

Welcome back...

Why is the theme song from Welcome Back, Kotter running thru my head right now???

I have wanted to get back into blogging for while now and just haven't found the time or inspiration. I thought maybe by starting over completely from scratch I might have better luck. Don't you like my background... isn't it cute?? I haven't fully decided the full theme of this yet... it's going to be a little bit of everything for right now... family, life, scrapbookin' and whatever else I feel like.

Sit back... enjoy... read a bit... look at the pictures... Time to be Carried Away....