My Blog My Life: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

rain on my parade

*just as I was feeling quite good...positive & wow, even happy...it had to come to and end...right?

*it's actually been more of a trickle effect...

*in conversing with one of E's teachers, last week I learned that one of his classmates last day was this past Friday...the reason: her mother had a 2nd child (age: 6 months) and she is going to stay home with her kids now. Translation: daggar to my heart.

*today we are back at school (while the public school teachers ARE DONE...and paid more!)...we had a brief pow-wow meeting this morning and that's where I learned that one of our 7th grade teachers, who has a son just a bit younger than E....you guessed it....is quitting to STAY AT HOME WITH HER CHILD!

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

*The reason this is SOOOOO upsetting is because I DO NOT HAVE THAT CHOICE!! I AM NOT WORKING BECAUSE I WANT TO....

*So while things may be better this coming year, with E being at the preschool where I work....it still translates into days NOT spent with him and well, that just plain sucks. There is NO way to sugar coat it.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

addicted to minis

I am crazy about mini-albums...so much so that I almost make more of them than I do regular layouts. Sometimes I make them with NO theme in mind, in fact, that happens a lot I should say.

Here's one I put together recently...filling this one with iPhone pictures.

And I just LOVE these My Mind's Eye papers!!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

a day at the zoo

We went to the zoo last Saturday. Good times as shown here. I cannot believe I took 50 pictures...and only one of zoo animals (elephant). Ha!

He really did WANT to take this picture, but you'd never know it from the look on his face.

This one cracks me up, it's like Ethan is telling on the goat for doing something wrong.

We were feeding the camel and it was hilarious!! I wish you could see E's face in this one (please excuse my fat rolls!)

This is one of my favorites from the day.

Cheesiest smile possible!!

Echo Park Paper - Fresh Face Campaign

One of my favorite scrapbook paper companies is Echo Park....they have some really great papers and here are a few projects I created with their papers.

This is the cover of the 6x6 mini album the girls will be making in scrapbook camp.

The first page in my 6x6 "all about me" mini for scrapbook camp.

A fun layout of Ethan using the "Little Boy" paper collection.

A fun little birthday card...great way to use up scraps.

I Want Wednesday...

I want...

-a couple hours to check out a few of the antique/vintage stores in town, particularly this one.

-another hour to run errands quickly & effectively.

-another two hours for a really good workout (coming Friday!!).

-the school year to be over with already...come on!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

fact!

Monday, May 23, 2011

blech!

picture courtesy of clipart.com

Sometimes seeing how easily "everything" works out for some people makes me want to puke.

Just saying.

Friday, May 20, 2011

And some cards...

Before I really got into scrapbooking, I made cards. lots and lots of cards.

Now that I have a son, a job, a house & almost ZERO free time, I don't make cards...except when my aunt asks me to make here some "thank you" cards. I know she really likes them so I just can't say "no".

Here are a few I made for her recently.

Scraplifted design from K. Werner

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Scrapbook on the Road

Warning: heavy picture post!!

And here are the pictures of my Scrapbook on the Road mini-album...I don't "feel" done with it quite yet and will probably add a few more pages & embellishments, but this is what I've got so far.

You can click on the image to see them a bit bigger/clearer.

Now hopefully I'll remember to take it w/me on our trip and fill it up with good memories & memorabilia.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Muffin Pan Crayons

As promised...here are some pictures of our crayon-creating adventure.

I'm certain that I was more excited about it than Ethan although he's pretty happy with his big 'ol bag 'o crayons right now.

My thumb is crazy sore from peeling all those darn papers off the crayons. I probably need a few days of recovery before doing that again.

We (I) made THREE pans of crayons....yep, it's sorta addicting.

Breaking crayons is fun!!

Unwrapping them is not so much fun!

I have no idea what he was saying here...

Big Cheesy Grin!

Finished Product - Batch #1 of 3.

Big Bag 'O Crayons!!

And after posting pics on FB, a friend of mine said she has a silicone heart shaped pan for making these....and yep, she's loaning to me...more crayon making in my future.

Sometimes it really IS the 'little things'.

things to do

*make a new blog banner...you know, for the 3 people that visit here each month...ok yeah, so it's more for me...I need something new up there.

*peel the paper off of a TON of crayons...thanks to my super-creative friend Em, Ethan and I will be making "muffin pan crayons" tonight. Who knew that a perk to working in a school (& being friends w/the art teacher) is that she has a 4ft tall recycle bin of old crayons, of which I helped myself to a few handfuls. Crayon making fun is in store tonight!!

Side Note: it's been fun reading the names on the Crayola crayons...honestly, something I've not done for quite a while...my personal favorites: Purple Mountains Majesty & Outrageous Orange. We didn't have those colors "when I was a kid"...lol.

*take pictures of & post (here & on Flickr) the insides of my Scrapbook on the Road mini-album...created for our upcoming summer travels.

*take a picture & complete today's page in my "week of life lists" mini album. I did my page yesterday but didn't take a pic...why is that the hardest part?

*make (at least) a couple more pages for my sample "all about me" album for my scrapbook camp...honestly, with only 8 students enrolled as of this moment, putting together a big fat sample is not too high on my priority list.

*come up with/create/design one more page layout to be made at scrapbook camp.

*purchase paper kits & mini-albums for scrapbook camp.

*cut paper pieces for one of two layouts for scrapbook camp. I really debated about cutting the pieces for the girls to make their pages...I settled on having pre-cut pieces for first layout and letting them cut the pieces for the second. Hopefully this way we won't have as many errors since I do not plan to have a TON of extra paper on hand...a few maybe, not a lot. We are on a tight budget...hee!

*have a blast for next three days while it's just me and E.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Scrapbooking Marathon

With the upcoming summer travels, I decided to look into Ali's Scrapbooking on the Road Mini Album...here is my cover and a few of the inside pages peeking out. I am using the 7 Gypsies 5.5x7" book covers and a bunch of random papers & goodies for the inside. I'm really trying to use up stuff I have on hand...must purge. :)