way too long

I am returning to the land of blog. It has been a crazy six months around here (actually longer than that but since I last posted here) 

Let's begin with the working mom thing- I was doing the subbing gig at the elementary school when another couple of paraprofessional positions became available and I applied again. This time was the trick!! I started in January working in one of the third grade rooms and one of the fourth grade rooms. I also had the fun of doing afternoon bus duty as well as a couple of lunch duties (fourth grade and first grade). Totally loved it. Some days the bus duty was rough but it was just getting the kids to move forward to get on their buses! I remember practically throwing kids aside when the final bell rang. Not these kids. Time changes things I guess.

Waiting to hear exactly which room I will be in for the coming year but so far have heard that I am back in third grade! Very very happy about that. Crossing fingers it will be the same room as before. Totally loved working with that teacher and we got into a great rhythm by the end of the year. The kids were amazing too.

Both the kiddos did great in school and will be advancing to their respective grades come August 31st. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my Kira will be a freshman! OMG! Seriously. I was just dropping her off at kindergarten and now she is in high school. That went way to fast for this momma to handle. And my baby going into fourth grade? Someone please tell Alex he is not old enough for that! sigh.

The world of the bears is still being good to hubby. Love the new direction the company is taking and love seeing the new licenses they are getting. Minions anyone?? Or maybe Star Wars is more your speed?

Town stuff-- The elections were a process and I do believe that the right people got into the correct spots. Lots of good conversations and the direction of the town seems to be going forward instead of sitting in the past. Best part is that tuitioning of our students out of district to another district has been removed from the table. It has been a very long and drawn out process but in the end it was determined that it was not a cost effective long term solution to our school/ facilities issues. WOO HOO!! Now to determine what shall be done with both buildings- the junior senior high school as well as the elementary school. Never a dull moment here in Newmarket!

Home stuff- We had new windows installed in October/ November. What an amazing difference that made. Our heating bill was lower and the rooms were so much more cozy. And we did not have to put plastic up to keep the drafts out. Happy happy. We had also discussed the possibility of redoing our kitchen. Hubby started playing around with IKEA designs and a few trips to the store later, we have purchased our cabinets! We have a contractor who will be starting in September and a new kitchen will be happening! We have ordered all the appliances as well and are getting very excited to have a new space. Lots of before and after pictures to come.

terri's teases- after the holidays and before I started working every day, hubby surprised me with a major remodel of my office space. Like removed everything and started all over again! We used IKEA cabinets and storage and made my room so pretty! Now I can have a lovely breeze in my space from having two windows open as well as finding everything in my space. After having an open concept room since the beginning, I have discovered that I really am someone who needs to have all my stuff hidden. I get distracted easily.... squirrel.... Anywho- I have the green doors and drawers as well as the teal shelves. Guess they sold out of the teal since I cannot find the link anymore. But it is very pretty with my room. I also got a new desk! We did a long desk top with two of the drawer units at either end in white. Now I actually have space to work and be on the computer. So happy. My mom was so impressed with my space, she went to IKEA as well and picked up some of the storage units to redo her sewing space. Looks pretty darn awesome and so happy for her too.

Because of the remodel and then the whole working thing, I was not able to craft as much as I would like (none). This summer I have been making up for lost time and have created a bunch of cards. Hoping to get them listed and maybe sold. If not, I will have a great stash of cards for my own personal use.

That is about it. I am sure I have missed something. But I shall return. Thanks for taking the time to read. Off to see if I can find any pictures of the items I have created since being back at it.

disney layouts recently done

These layouts I have been working on during the month of August. I would love to say I am making headway with this trip, but alas- I am a picture taker and then cannot decide which ones to use as they are all so amazing. So I will keep on trucking along and getting these pictures into a few albums and remember all the fun we had on our Walt Disney World 2008 trip.

We met Goofy, Daisy and Donald at Camp Mickey Minnie. I am pretty sure I have already scrapped the pictures of us with Mickey and Minnie. If not they will be coming! I have used PageMaps for each of these layouts. At least all of these pages started as a PageMap. Sometimes they don't end up looking like they started but that is my jumping off point.

Kira and her Mickey head ice cream. He was wonderful until he fell on the ground. It was very hot and we kept encouraging Kira to eat a bit faster or it would fall. She was a little upset but not too bad. She enjoyed herself.

Donald did not want to let go of my girl. So cute.

Hanging around Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Gorillas at the Animal Kingdom.

Off to see what other pictures need to find their way to paper at this moment.

party for a thirteen year old

Yup. Somehow I have managed to raise myself a female human being to the ripe old age of thirteen!! Amazing!

We are having a sleepover this Friday to celebrate this achievement. I dug out some new stamps and went to work.

The top and bottom purple swirl is from a Studio G $1 stamp set in my stash, and the party information is a stamp I picked up at Michaels by Delta/ Rubber Stampede. Perfection!

I used my new Paper Smooches Spectrum stamps and dies for the unicorn and cloud as well as the small hearts I stamped. The shadow under the unicorn is from the Paper Smooches Shadows stamp set. I didn't have any gray ink so I stamped off the image once and then stamped it on the front of the card. The party! sentiment is from a Studio G $1 stamp set from my stash.

Kira colored in each unicorn in different colors using her colored pencils. Sorry for the blurry images I have no idea what happened! They all looked so crisp when I was taking the pictures!!

I added two different clear glitters from my Stickles collection. I have thought about getting a Wink of Stella glitter pen but with my LARGE Stickles collection I have a hard time justifying that purchase at this time. I placed some Stickles on one of my acrylic blocks and used a paint brush to apply the Stickles. Tried to keep the glitter from being too thick and lumpy that way.

The cute smile face comes in the Spectrum stamp set and I love how it looks on the cloud!! I popped the cloud up with some foam tape. I used some purple spray ink from Recollections- purple shimmer on the background which came out so cool!!

All of these invitations were handed out and we are going to a FULL house of teenagers this Friday. Hoping Kira's room can handle that much estrogen for the night. Gonna be a great night.

kira and mommy bonding time- wreck this journal

Kira and Alex each received a Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith for Christmas. Alex has already done a few pages as he thought it was a really cool thing to be able to write, draw, and cut a book without being scolded. Totally up a young man's alley! 

Kira on the other hand had let hers sit and collect dust. I found a few YouTube videos and Instagram feeds on how others are wrecking their journals and thought how much fun is that? I wanted to do it. Knowing Kira would not let me play with her journal, I picked one up at Barnes and Noble and then hatched my master plan. (insert evil mommy laugh)

We could have some serious quality mom and daughter time while destroying a book!! We could go anywhere they have a table we can use. If there is food and drink, that makes it a much better choice. I put together a little destroying kit with my Thirty-One bag. It includes stickers, markers, colored pencils, regular pencils, erasers, water color paints, highlighters, colored pens, Sharpies, scissors, pencil sharpener, glue, and washi tape.

Monday March 24, 2014 we headed to Crackskull's and found a spot at the counter where we could play.

We 'may' have indulged in some hot chocolate and baked goodies. But I am not telling. Kira looked through her entire book reading all the different ways to wreck, decorate, destroy, and play. I started by numbering my pages as I like order. However, you will not be able to find the page you are looking for very easily. I started numbering my pages at page number 524 and went to 602. Then I did pages 1- 30. Then I 'numbered' the pages using the alphabet, then the months of the year. I ended up starting at page 100 and going to page 13 before I ran out of pages!! Totally random and so not like me. 

She makes some of the silliest faces!

On this page she had to draw with the marker, pencil, pen in your mouth. Pretty funny. The best part of this book. You can go back in and add to pages if you want or leave them sparse. You can create a kind of art journal with this or get rid of any stress. It is also an amazing way to have chats with your tween without having the deep eye contact that lets them open up. We had fun!!

Here is her decorated cover. I will try to get a better picture on our next adventure. She was giggling at this moment.

Here is her inside cover. The markers that we have all have different types of tips (Crayola Pip Squeaks) so they mark different ways. We had fun playing with those.

Here is the cover of my journal now that I have personalized it. We discovered we need more fun and unusual stickers to add onto our pages. As well as some office supplies. I have a small stapler I am going to add to our kit as well as some paper clips.

 

And here is my inside page. I am thinking I need to add something to the inside cover. I shall have to work on that on our next journal wrecking date. It was one of the best hour and a half I had this week.

More fun to come!!

back in time disney 2008 to be exact

Yup I am still cranking through this trip! I am trying to finish up our first day. I have been scrapping out of order so I have some days done and some not and parts of other days almost done. Saying that, I had to face my OCD tendencies and get back to scrapping in order. Feeling better with this way of scrapping this trip. I really would like to have it done before we head back down in October!!

This is when we were waiting for Nana and Papa to join us (later flight) so we checked in our carryons with the hotel and visited the resort.

When Nana and Papa arrived, we headed off to Downtown Disney for lunch and some pre-park shopping. I used PageMaps for both of these layouts. Of course I edit where needed but all is good.

What I have noticed is that many pictures include Kira and not so many of our little guy. Reason for that was he was in his stroller and many times did not want to get out. If he did, he would run off! I would think twice before taking a two year old to Disney. He got overstimulated many times and had MANY tantrums. But we all survived. There are many more pictures of Alex in our 2010 trip so I think it equals out in the end.

happy belated st. patrick's day!

I hope you had an amazing green day on March 17th!! I did!! The week before I was able to help the kindergarten kiddos create a sparkly shamrock. The one below is what I created as a sample. Love the glitter!! Everything in kindergarten is better with glitter.

I was able to pin Kira down long enough to paint her nails for the occasion. She complained the entire time but she looked great on Monday!!

A blurry picture of my nails. I have been having some major issues with my nails splitting and breaking so this is as long as they have been in weeks. As the week went on, I lost three of them to me just being a plain klutz! 

We were trying to find a craft to do with the kindergarten class that wasn't too simple they were bored but also used skills they will need all through life and have meaning in their education. We had beads but could not find a craft to make them work so off to Pinterest we went. Heading to Pinterest sounds pretty easy doesn't it?? Not if you are inside of the classroom!! I had to go into the hallway to get the WiFi service. It was worth it though. I found an amazing idea for a leprechaun popsicle stick puppet!! 

I went home and got the templates and brought them in the next day to pick up paper and find out what we wanted the kids to do. There are a ton of pieces that had to be traced and cut and then put together. We had to keep in mind attention spans and time restraints! I ended up cutting out the small pieces of the buckle and belt on the hat, the face (circle punch) and the hands. The rest of the little guy I traced onto the green paper and the red beard for them to cut.

Here he is!! I attached him to the stick before I attached his legs therefore the large stick between his legs. oops.

The kids did so great!! Look at a couple of them after the completion and put into their leprechaun traps. They had fun!! Not sure if we'll do it again or not next year.

I am trying my hand at coloring with Gamsol and colored pencils. These images are part of my practicing. I enjoy coloring this way and will continue to hone my skill. I am a bit too cheap to invest in Copics. I picked up this kit from Simon Says Stamp and I am happy I did!! 

I used the duck to create a birthday card which I was trying so hard to get into the mail, that I forgot to take a picture of it. duh.

But I did remember to take pictures of the other cards I created!!

I created the background myself using a Studio G $1 stamp and some inks that I have. Inside I added a strip of washi tape at the top along with the sentiment and the stamped border. The shamrock is popped up to add some dimension.

The frog on the front of the card is on an action wobbler. I have had these for a bit of time. They were a generous gift from my amazing Alien friend and I was FINALLY able to use them. Here is the frog in action!!

I totally forgot to get a picture of me in my shamrock tee and shamrock headband. There is always next year!! Hope you wore your green and didn't get pinched!!

where has the time gone

Almost thirteen years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I won't say tiny as she was a whopping nine pounder but she has always been my little Munchkin (and always will). How can it be possible that so much time has gone by so quickly? She used to love getting dressed up all fancy or even to wear dresses and skirts. Nowadays it is like pulling teeth to get her out of jeans! But I managed it for her semi formal dance. We had a great trip picking out a dress as the skirt selection was quite small (read that as we came across three different skirts). Then we had to find some tights which led to the scarf and then the amazing shoes she picked out.

Here she is all dressed up and ready for a great night of dancing and hanging with friends.

She usually snakes one of her friends glow jewelry so this time we went to the dollar store and purchased some of her very own. She was quite excited to have them and she did look rather fetching with them.

Picture of her shoes. She picked them out herself. I guess to dance properly one needs to have sparkly shoes. She learned that from her Nana. And I see nothing wrong with it at all.

She had a relatively good time until one of her friends had a 'heartbreak' moment where the boy her friend has crushed on for four years, didn't notice her at all and was with another girl. Oh the drama of twelve year old girls! 

I am happy to say that we have instilled in our daughter a strength to be herself and make herself happy and complete BEFORE she tries to find a guy (or girl if the case may be). You cannot be in a relationship if you are expecting someone else to make you happy. You need to be happy and bring each other up to a more intense level of happiness together. That lesson is sticking with her- thank goodness. Plus it doesn't hurt that we tell her twelve and thirteen year old boys have cooties which are fatal to twelve and thirteen year old girls! We got this parenting thing nailed!

NEWMARKET--

VOTE YES

MARCH 11

it is only hair

What is a person to do when the Daytona 500 gets rain delayed for over six hours?? Why color your daughters hair of course. We had been planning to do it for awhile but the timing didn't work out. Plus we were venturing into new territory with this coloring-- two colors!!

Hubby and I had seen a really cool look that had a pink into a purple which was totally awesome. But we knew we couldn't talk Kira into pink so how about blue?? She was all for it.

Here is the during part. Poor girl had to sit there for awhile for the dye to work, but she managed.

Here is the after we dried it all. Love how it looks. I thought I had done better between the two colors but somehow managed to miss a few spots but we are happy with it.

Here is my beautiful daughter with her colored locks! She is totally rocking the look. Can't wait for her friends at school to see her on Monday!!

 Remember to vote yes on March 11th for our new school!!

disney 2008 and the fun continues

 Well look at that... more Disney fun and adventure to be had!!

The top layout was taken as we were exploring the resort. We found the giant Lady and Kira was looking for Tramp and couldn't find him.... until we turned a corner and there he was!! She was so tiny next to those huge statues!!

Yup she is there with Tramp.... you have to look real close at the base!!

Love how she is looking up at Lady! So sweet. I cut the Lady and the Tramp out of a piece of pattern paper I had and then pop dotted it. I used some of the paper at the top (the pink) I used the green to pull Kira out of the pictures!!

Our first experience with the Magical Express.... and we loved it. No driving for this family! Alex stole daddy's hat and was hiding while we waited for the bus to arrive. And then my oh so cute family on our way to the resort watching the video entertainment. The word magical is a rub on that I placed on black paper and then fussy cut out. Took a bit but I really like how it came out.

Remember Newmarket Peeps---

VOTE YES ON MARCH 11TH

valentine's day continues

Once again I called on my sweet Silhouette machine, Sybill to help me cut some hearts and she was more than happy to oblige. These first two were created with the negative that was left over from cutting the hearts that are in the next set of cards. Yup, I thought I was all that and a bag of chips!! I also sprayed the fronts of the cards with a gold mist from Heidi Swapp. Love that stuff. 

And here are the hearts! I love that some of them have the 'reflection' on them while there are others that do not. I have a ton of hearts leftover. I can see them going onto some lunch box note cards in the future. Yes that would be a reference of things to come. These cards I spritzed with the silver mist from Heidi Swapp. Kira liked these ones the best and chose to send it to her friend.

This is what the inside of all of these cards look like. Obviously the hamburger folded cards are facing the other way but they are done the exact same way. Happily using two different sets of Studio G acrylic $1 stamps and some washi tape. 

I say obviously since I totally messed up and made them all to fit into the hot dog folded cards. Seriously yes I did!! I was so proud of myself for doing the insides and then went to put the cards together and realized that I totally made a huge error. Of course I had put everything away and had to drag it all back out to make the insides over. Such is my life.

Hope you had a great Love Day!!

PSA.... Newmarket Peeps- please remember to vote and get the word out to everyone you come across in town. It is scary that some people do not realize that the Oyster River tuition agreement is off the table.

VOTE MARCH 11TH

YES FOR THE NEW SCHOOL!!

sometimes she surprises me...

... and I am totally blown away by her love and her talent.

My sweetheart of a daughter created the image below for me for Valentine's Day. She is an amazing artist and I am beyond happy that Santa brought her the drawing tablet for Christmas. Great call there big guy!!

It is her and me. She made me have purple fur and eyes. Yes she does know me so well!! I really need to get more of her artwork printed and hung. Or maybe a coffee table book?? That would be so wonderful! We keep telling her that she is going to love working for Disney Animation after college. I cannot wait to see her name on the big screen as an animator. Yup, I totally see it happening. 

This image is now my computer wallpaper as well as on my phone. Makes me very happy to see it.

And in case you were wondering.... wink wink....

she is all mine

Not sure how I ended up with a daughter who is as unorganized as mine. There are times I am driven out of my mind trying to find something in her room, closet, dresser, backpack, binder etc that she KNOWS she has placed there and now cannot be found. The best part of these times?? Finding the lost item no where near where she thought it was. SERIOUSLY??!!

We had yet another one of those moments about a month ago. The elementary school implemented a new pick up procedure wherein all parent riders now have to be picked up by visual recognition by a staff member of the school inside the building. It was pretty wild and crazy the first week and a half but it has started to go a bit more smoothly. People were asked to have their ID's with them when picking up students in case the staff does not recognize you and you need to prove who you are. Makes sense.

So I asked my sweet wonderful flighty tween daughter where her ID was in case she needed to pick up her brother for me sometime. You would have thought I asked her to solve Pi to the umpteenth place!! oh my word. She could not remember where she put it. Where she had it last. If she even got one. Nothing. (these are the times I wonder if she really is MY daughter)

Time for some serious deep breathing on my part. and shaking of the head.

We look through her room in all the places she put her ID last year. Nope can't find it. Nana even went through her entire backpack with her. I went through her binder (and did some organizing because it was driving me insane to look at!) Could not find that ID. 

Next step ask at school what she can do to get another one. She ended up having to go to the main office but the person in charge of that was not there on that particular day so she had to go back. This is a huge deal as it took her forever to 'remember' to stop at the office in the first place!! (Nothing is ever easy with this child.) She did finally get to talk to the correct person and was told they probably couldn't do anything since it was the middle of the school year. ummmm... are the kids only supposed to lose their ID's the first two days after they get them?? (Which is probably when she did lose hers!!) But she said she would check into it for her and find out how much it would cost. I didn't care how much it cost, just wanted her to have her ID!!

Friday of last week was one of the middle school dances. As I am getting dressed to take her over to the school she asks me if she should bring her ID. WHAT?? Then she tells me she got the new ID on Thursday and it is in her binder.(and it didn't cost us a penny) Sure. Bring your ID. Can she find it? NO SHE CANNOT!! I am not making this up. She could not find her ID and it had only been a little over 24 hours that she had it. (Nope she is not mine.)

A few minutes of searching in her binder and backpack and she finds it!! Here she is with her ID!!

When she got home from the dance I took the ID placed it in a very large plastic pocket attached to a lanyard and handed it back to her to place in her backpack. Now if she loses it, it will have to be on purpose because it is so much bigger than a tiny card.

For the love of all that is good and pure, this girl gives me gray hairs on a daily basis.... and I love her to pieces.