Teacher Strike - Day 1

The teachers are on strike. The kids were supposed to go to school and be provided with "enrichment activities." Guess what Chris's "enrichment activity" was at school... go on guess...

They split the kids up alphabetically by grade. All the Junior M's were in Chris's class (which had 10 kids)... only about 500 out of the almost 3000 kids showed up at school today. Chris said his class was medium sized... the Junior N's only had 3 kids.

So Chris and Phil, went to their assigned class... Chris peeks in the door at the substitute and tells Phil, "OMGosh! Our teacher looks like a drug dealer!" Phil says, "No, Way." He looks in and says, "No, Our teacher looks like Jesus!" Chris said their teacher was the talk of the school, everyone wanted to see the teacher who looks like Jesus.

Chris and Phil's teacher is a substitute Yoga teacher, so you guessed it! Chris and Phil's "enrichment activity" of the day was four hours of yoga!

After school the long distance track team (just the kids) got together for a run. They got caught by a security guard, who said they couldn't run together on the school grounds, because it would look like a school sanctioned activity. So, they all went across the street to the college to run.

I just got a call... the strike continues tomorrow. Stay tuned for day 2...

No more stinky shoes...

I have a non-scrappy crafty share! Chris has been complaining that he doesn't like putting his cross country bag in his school locker because it smells so bad... If a 17yr old boy says it smells bad, you can bet it smells REALLY BAD! My mom found an article and my dad forwarded it on to us. It had instructions on how to make shoe deodorizers. All I did was dump some kitty litter in a pair of socks and sew the tops closed. Then, he just slips these babies in his shoes after practice. Believe it or not it works!!! I asked him if he's shown this idea to his running buddies. He said that he would, but they're PINK! ooops...

I was remiss in reporting on last week's track meet... it was very very forgettable. The meet was against the #1 track team in Orange County. Track scores 5 points for 1st, 3 points for 2nd, and 1 pt for 3rd. There are 10 running events, 4 jumping events, plus shot put and discus. Capo came home with only 16 points. Needless to say, they lost...

Chris ran in the Varsity 800m again and finished in 1.16. It was last place for Capo, BUT he was not last place overall! WHOOHOO!

A Couple Cards to Share

I had another one of those days where what I saw in my head was nicer than what I ended up with. I made a couple of guy cards up for an online challenge using left over PP from the Pink Paislee Fetching line. The smaller card is sized to be a gift card holder. Neither came out as nice as I would have liked...

Week 2: Dimensional Details (BONUS)

This first photo doesn't have anything to do with the scrapping class.... I just wanted to share. I had two coupons for Joann's. Cheryl was too busy studying to go with me, so I got Jim to come (two coupons needs two people)! As we were walking around I saw this little garden ornament and it made me laugh, so Jim bought it for me! Isn't that sweet? Love you, Jim!

On to Dimensional Details Bonus Day! I can not believe that I actually finished a bonus project... and I made four tags instead of just one! I had a great time making these, there was no way to get it wrong!

Start with white cardstock and stamp a background image with white acrylic paint. When the paint dries it resists the ink. Rub, daub, smudge with ink (I used Ranger Distress and some cats eye chalk). Then stamp an image in black on top of it, and it's done! It was fun to get messy with paint and ink and very fun to make!

How to Make a Brad Bracelet

I was asked by some online friend for directions on how to make the brad bracelets that I posted back in February. They are light weight, comfortable to wear, pretty, and super easy to make.


Start with some chain... I got a card of this chain from Michael's. There was about 4' of chain; enough for 5-6 bracelets.


Cut a length of chain big enough for a bracelet (Mine are 13-15 links long) and use a couple of jump rings to add a clasp.


Gather two flower charms (use wire cutters to carefully snip off the loop and file it smooth), a couple of small brads, an three large decorative brads (only one pictured). I purchased a package of Basic Grey brads and it contained everything I needed. They have them in the CP store HERE. There are enough brads in one package to make 4 braceletes.

I found the flower charms on eBay by searching for "silver flower charms." There are lots of different styles to chose from.


Thread the small brads through the charms and through a bracelt loop.


The tines of the brads are soft and easy to work with. Use needle nose pliers to wrap the tine around the loop and tuck it under.



Now do the same with the big brads. The tines on the big brads are longer. Trim them shorter with wire cutters before wrapping them around the loop.


And that's it... so easy!

Week 2: Dimensional Details

Dimensional Details is the new class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. My pages are mostly clean and flat. I thought it would be fun to learn a new style.

What happened to week 1, you ask? Well, week 1 just a review of distressing techniques that we incorporated into the homework for this week. The layout for this week had to included a paper pieced background, distressing, stenciling, all on Kraft cardstock. Here's my layout called: 3 Generation of Little Black Dress. I got the title from my mom. I just love this photo of the three of us.

Spring Break

Well, my big guy is on Spring Break this week... and Cheryl is in school and Jim and I are working. Not a very fun week for him. He's making the best of it though. He's been chatting online with his friends. One of his friends gave him a cookie recipe. So, today he went on a 10 mile run and stopped at the market on his way home to buy ingredients. He made this oooey-gooey chocolatey goodness! His friend calls them chocolate balls, but they don't look like balls to anyone here. LOL!

They were melt in your mouth yummy! As you can see, there aren't many left... that can only be expected when a teenage boy is home by himself with 18 fresh baked cookies. It's a wonder that he saved any to share!

Thanks for the cookies, Chris!

Happy Easter!!!

Look! The tulips are up, just in time for Easter!

The kids are 17yrs and 20yrs and we still dye eggs. We leave them by the back door and the bunny comes to hide them in the backyard. After an egg hunt at home and deviled eggs for lunch, we head to Mima's house for Easter dinner...

Hey Look! The bunny's been to Mima's house too!

Oh, look BUNNIES! LOL!

I can't call him a bunny and get away with it... Mima has a gorgeous, lush yard. It's perfect for an HUGE Easter Goodie hunt!

Here's the staging area... Chose your basket...

On your mark, get set.... GO!!!!

Chris found some goodies... How did the biggest kid get the smallest basket, and where did he get that bag of marshmallows?

...And here's Tango! He's a chocolate sniffing beagle, and he's ready to find all the candy the kids have left behind!

We had a great family Easter (minus the 7.2 earthquake in Mexicali). The earthquake wasn't too bad at Mima's, but I heard from our neighbors that it was really rocking and swaying at home.

I hope everybody had a Happy Easter!

April Fool!!!

Cheryl and I played an April Fool on Chris yesterday. We got a pair of really obnoxious boxers and stuffed them in his track shoe. He found them at his track meet yesterday, LOL! He actually got off easy... Cheryl wanted to stuff a thong in his shoe, BAHAHAHA!

Speaking of track meet... Chris ran the Varsity 800m again yesterday. He started out in a good position, and finished his first 400m in 1:03. I pasted this photo together, but the field was really that close together after the first lap. Unfortunately, the entire field passed Chris during the second lap (Phil doing his typical and passing Chris just feet before the finish line). The field was very close... The winner finished in 2:07. Chris finished LAST at 2:13... A NEW PR FOR CHRIS!!! He keeps getting better!

Happy Birthday - Take Two

We waited until my mom and dad got back from Kauai before having Chris's family party. We celebrated this past weekend with Papa, Grandma, my brother's family, and my Aunt Jane! It was great seeing Jane... my kids just LOVE her and think she's so FUNNY! Chris got some nice plaid shorts picked out by my SIL, Cat. Cat has a great way with picking out clothes. Cheryl and I have tried to get Chris plaid shorts before and he refused, saying that they look stupid. Cat picks them out for him, and he thinks they're COOL and wore them to school on Monday. I don't know how she does it. Cheryl always loves the clothes she picks out too. I must have taken 50 photos for the treasure hunt game, and I only have this one photo from the party. I didn't even get the traditional "kids behind the cake" photo! That is a BIG scrapbooker FAUX PAS. You like the hat? I think the hat is going to be another birthday tradition around here (along with the tiki man). Jim's really going to love that... NOT! LOL! Yeah, he'll think it's stupid, but I know he'll play along.

On to other news, Chris entered a contest at Capo to design a cover for next year's planner. Here is his entry... Does it look like a winner? He still thinks he wants go get into graphics design. Unfortunately, graphics design doesn't fulfill his fine arts requirement. So, if he takes graphics design, cross country, and pre-calculus (for some reason he really really wants to take pre-calc), he will have to take 7 classes his senior year. Most seniors (like Cheryl) take only 5 classes. Since he is taking the classes he wants to take, he's totally okay with that.

We have a busy day tomorrow... starting with the typical work/school. Then Cheryl has soccer practice with her little girls while Chris has a track meet. After all that we head to Home Depot Center for the Super Clasico against Chivas! GO GALAXY!!!

March - PTI Blog Hop

Welcome! It's the hoppiest time of the month... yeah, that was corney... Welcome PTI Blog Hoppers! This month we were asked to use buttons. I wanted to do something creative with sewing the buttons to the card and here is what I came up with. I planned to use the PTI Around and About Sentiments to stamp the circles, but the stamps were too small (or my circles were too big). Anyway, it wouldn't fit, so I created my own circles in Photoshop, printed them out, and glued it all together.




I LOVE this pretty PP from Basic Grey. TFL!... and happy hopping!