Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I was right down to the wire finishing up the Mother's Day gifts. I made some card sets for the moms in our family. I packaged up each set prettily in a clear box. I was very pleased with how they came out. This one is for my mom:


Here is the one for my Aunt Mary:


And one last one for Mima (my SIL's mom):



My mother's day was wonderful! Jim came home from surfing early so that he could make breakfast. THEN he got the recipe for the soup that I was supposed to take to lunch at my mom's and he made it for me. AND he ordered me a big bouquet of my favorite flowers online. It was a HUGE mixed bouquet of alstomeria (I didn't even know that he could spell alstomeria), lol! AND he and the kids got me a present. Here it is, a BIG Stradivarius Wind Chime! Mima had a BIG beautifully toned windchime hanging in her backyard at Easter. I mentioned how much I loved it.. I was so surprised! Jim hardly ever seems to listen to me when I talk about stuff like that! He was definitely listening, and I LOVE the windchime! It comes in different scales... this one is Mongolian... Chris said that his ears were ringing for hours after picking out the perfectly pitched chime! It's been nice an windy last couple of days... perfect for listening to my new chimes!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Card Share

I got the idea for these simple cards from THIS post by my friend, BETH. AND, Beth got the idea from THIS post by Jennifer McGuire. I just love the internet!

I love how they come out. They were so FAST and EASY, it would make a great gift set! TFL!

Our New Feathered Friends

One more little share for the week... We had some birds nest under the eaves of the patio cover, and they just hatched! Here is the daddy. I think it's some type of sparrow. If anyone knows kind of sparrow it is, please let us know!

I hope everyone is having a great week! I am looking forward to a GREAT Mother's Day weekend!

The Season Ends, and Dimensional Details week 5

Track season is over... Chris qualified for CIF Preliminaries as a Varsity runner this year! YAHOO for Chris! Runners are numbered with their regional ranking. There were two heats in the Varsity 800m, 15 boys in each heat. Chris was wearing #14. He tied his PR at 2:14, but that wasn't good enough to qualify for CIF Finals. He LOVES running the 800m and wants to do it again next year!

I'll finish off this post with a layout share. The photos are from last Fall (Cross Country Season):

Week 4: Dimensional Details

This week's project involves paint, ink, and sanding. I sanded the edges of my photo and painted on the background behind the photos to make them POP! TFL!!!

The Strike is Over...

... and boy is Chris bummed! lol!

We got a call at 7am this morning and was told the strike was over. From what I hear, the HS students were called starting at 5am. Kids were grumpy that they got called so early. Chris said some of his friends stayed up late last night because they thought the strike was still on. I'm glad we were already up and getting ready to go to school, or else we would have had to scramble to ready to be there on time. Chris said another one of his friends didn't get the call until after he left his house this morning. He had to go back to his house, get his books and go to school... real bummer for him! A lot of other kids didn't make it because their parents had already left for work when the call came in.

One of the kids in English class asked the teacher, "Did you get everything you wanted?" The teacher said, "No..." The student exclaimed, "Then what are you doing here? Get back out there and strike!" All the kids cheered in agreement, lol!

It's back to normal routine now. Oh, and track meet tomorrow!

Teacher Strike - Day 3

Since Jim was off work last week, this was my first day at the High School since the strike started. The teachers looked like they were having a party. We passed three teachers walking up the hill to the High School carrying 15 pink boxes of donuts, lol!

Chris's English teacher assigned an extra credit project when the strike started, so Chris took some poster board to school and worked on his project today. They also did a packet on how to buy a house... oh, and they did yoga. They combined another class in with Chris's class today, so they had 15 or so kids.

The boys tried to do a track workout after class. The security guard wouldn't let them on the track, so they ran over to the college and worked out there until the college threw them out. After that they snuck back to the High School and finished the workout there.

Tomorrow, we don't know if there is strike or not... We were instructed to check the web site in the morning.

I have a photo for today and I'll add it to the post (when I can find my cable).

Week 3: Dimensional Details - April PTI Blog Hop

Welcome PTI Blog Hoppers! This month we were asked to use tissue. What a coincidence that we had a sewing project going on... We made the romper my daughter is wearing in the photo. I used left over fabric from the romper on this layout and added used the excess pattern tissue as flowers and part of the background.

I glued the pattern tissue to white cardstock using a glue stick. The tissue flowers was an idea I got from Split Coast Stampers. The flowers were blending into the background more than I wanted, so I added an outline on each layer.

Thanks for looking and Happy Hopping!

Teacher Strike Day 2 and a card share

Chris said there were only 4 kids in his class Friday. They did other "enrichment activities" like a personality test, healthly living test, and a "how to buy a used car." Chris's personality test said that he is, "romantic, idealistic, sociable,and talkative." Romantic and idealistic I can see, but Talkative? lol! His day ended with... you guessed it... yoga! Chris actually likes it. He said that the other classes have to play board games.

I didn't realize that the substitues aren't allowed to teach academics during the strike! If the strike continues on Monday, the kids are required to bring their books to class and study for finals. They have to study independently, because a group of kids studying together is considered an organized school activity, which is not allowed during the strike. Only 250 kids showed up to school on Friday. If they want the kids to bring their books and study "independently," I wonder how many kids will show up for that...

Well, on to my card share... I punched and stamped a bunch of these orange stars for my friend Mary. I had a few "flubs" leftover. Here is a card made with one of my flubbed stars.



I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Stay tuned for a scrappy share tomorrow!

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!