Last of the Teacher Gifts!!!!

It's done!!! IT'S DONE! Emily's teacher's end of the year gift. I've had this idea in my head for months and was actually going to teach one of these at the LSS before I left. I ended up just holding on to it to finish it for Mrs. Phillips instead.

I saw a Valentine's Canvas like this at a cute little stamping store near Orlando. (Impressions of the Heart) I just took the accordian idea thing and made it into a teacher gift instead.

It's a 6x6 canvas, painted and flipped. So you're actually looking at the back of the canvas here. I folded cardstock to make an accordian book that pulls out from the center. The canvas is painted red, front and back...yellow cardstock used as a frame to kind of add a little more than "just red". The ribbon that I used was from Michael's. The 3-D embellishments are from Joann's. Oh, and I doodled with my Souffle pens too. Stamped the KINDERGARTEN title with Staz-on and did the CLASS OF 2006 in Souffle too.

The accordian album inside opens up and there is a picture of each child from the class on each page. I used PSE to add the names of the kids to their picture. I didn't take a picture of the back of the accordian but I cut our "YOU ARE THE BEST" with the Wishblade and put it across the back of the accordian.

I really am thrilled with the way this has turned out. I'm SURE the teacher will like it too. She's loved the handmade goodies I've done for her this year. This was a fun one!!

Thanks for looking!!

Here's what I've been working on today/tonight. Another set of cards to give as a teacher's end of the year gift. Another set made at the request of a friend/neighbor. I've done a total of 4 of them now. I think this one and the other one that I shared are my favorites. I love the colors of this one.

It's almost midnight now and I still need to add the finishing touches to the gift bag to go with these cards and then I'll be off to bed. I still need to finish Emily's teacher's gift...but I think I can get it done in a couple of hours tomorrow morning. I've got the pictures printed and the canvas painted...I'll just need to finish the mini accordian album with the pics and then add a few details to the canvas. I sure hope it turns out the way it's pictured in this cramped mind of mine. If so, it'll be really cute. I sure hope the teacher likes it!

We've got our end of the year party in Em's class tomorrow. The last day of school is Tuesday! I can't believe it! And I'm certainly not ready for summer vacation!

I have Kyle's graduation on Thursday and then he'll be here for about a week. Not sure what we'll do that week, but I'm sure we'll have fun! I always have fun when my boys are here. And Kyle is such a crack up...there's never a dull moment. Can't wait!

We had Em's dress rehearsal yesterday. Even though I didn't get the curls right in her ponytail, she still looked all too adorable! I can't wait to see the pictures taken by the photographer. And our class picture will be so cute! Each of the girls dressed as a different type of doll. We have a cowgirl doll, a raggedy ann, a nutcracker...and a few others. Our instructor's hubby is playing a doll maker and when he falls asleep, the dolls come to life. Very sweet...but Em's ready for the recital and to move on to Jazz next year. Oh, and let me just say...I love the colors of her costume, if I do say so myself!

Josh had his girlfriend over on Saturday. He really likes this girl...and has liked her for most of the school year. But...she's on the crew team too. And they were trying to hold off till the end of the year to "go out" because they didn't want it "in the boat". She really held him at a distance till just recently too. Last week, he went over there for a couple of hours one evening and then she spent the day here on Saturday. (and they've been on the phone together quite often too)I was so proud of him...he asked her what her favorite breakfast foods were and got her Cheerios, Bagels and Smoothie stuff too. When she got here, he made her all three and they sat on the couch watching movies all day. He was happy to have her here. She's a sweet girl and I like her parents too. I guess this is all a good thing. But I'll say now...Josh better start making some of his own money if he's gonna have a girlfriend. I will not be forking out money left and right. LOL

OK...it's even closer to midnight now...I'm outta here and off to bed shortly. 6am will be here all too quickly.

Thanks for reading!

see what I did today???

I've been working on a card set for a neighbor
today. She ordered 4 of them for teacher's gifts and this is the second set that I've done for
her. I made a cute little gift bag to go with these, but I need to add a few finishing touches to it
before I'll call it "finished". They really are straight...just scanned kind of whompy...I was in a hurry.

Now...to go get the kiddos from school. So much for today. LOL









5/17 Edited to add a picture of the gift bag that
these cards will go into.

Still need to do two more sets. I should get busy!

Just around the corner...

is summer vacation! YIKES!!! Just one more week of school. No more will I have a kindergartener or a HS Freshman. This school year has flown! But, I gotta say...it's been a pretty good year for Josh (for the most part) and a great year for Emily. Her Kindergarten teacher has been awesome! We're really going to miss having her!

This is the last week of being home by myself each day. Time to get chore charts together and work on getting some sort of routine for me and the kiddos. But even that won't happen till after Kyle leaves. He graduates next Thursday and will be spending the following week here with us. It'll be great to see him too! I can't believe Brooks AND Kyle will both be in college next year. HOLY MOLY, I'm getting old!

Today, I'll be doing laundry (same as every other day) and working on getting a few things put up from the weekend. I also need to work on some card sets that I promised someone that I'd make for them for teacher gifts. I'd like to get those outta the way today and get them off my plate. I've got a project started to give to Em's teacher too...want to get that outta the way too. Maybe I'll be a little creative today...and forget about the cleaning and stuff. HA!

I'm also in the middle of sorting and tagging ALL of my digital pictures that I have on disc right now. WHEWWWWW!!!!! What a task! I've been digital for well over 5 yrs now. I haven't even put a dent in the number of discs that I have and I've already tagged close to 3000 pictures. It'll be nice to have them organized though and know where to find what pics. I'll work on that a bit today too.

If I'm going to get anything at all accomplished today though, I'd better get moving!

Thanks for reading!!

Another Weekend on the Water!!

Has it really been two weeks since I last blogged? I can't believe it! I chatted with a friend last week that I hadn't talked to in a while...she said she'd been busier than "a hooker with two beds". I almost spewed coffee all over the monitor when she said that but, OMG...I can soooooooo relate. I keep thinking that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thinking that the weekend of June 3rd will be the last of the really busy weekends for a while...then something else pops up and just shows that that light at the end of the tunnel really isn't anything more than another oncoming train!! Right now, we're waiting to hear whether or not Josh will go to Cincinnatti the weekend of June 10th for a Regatta. There was talk about going if they qualified this weekend and that they did. Now it's a waiting game while the coaches and board discuss what they'll do now. Unfortunately, they tend to dangle the carrot and then yank it away when the rowers get close. It's what they did with Nationals...they talked it up all season long and then decided a few weeks before that we weren't going. Don't get me started on that one!

We spent most of our weekend in Tampa again, on the canal. This time for the SE Regionals. Alot of folks don't like this venue, but I really like that you can see almost the entire course, no matter where you sit...and with the boats going right in front of you to go to the start line, it sure makes for some fun pics!! And some good cheer for the boats too!

The coaches decided to race 4's for this race. They usually race 8's, with some 4's, but this time, we strictly raced 4's. Josh's boat was the "second 4" which was apparently like a Varsity B group. There were two freshman and two sophomores in this boat. Making it the only boat with underclassmen in this category. And...they took FIRST place...moving them into the finals later in the day...they ended up taking THIRD overall. It sure was exciting to watch that!! Oh, and the name of the boat that they won in????? EMILY...of course, Em thought that was sweeet!!!!

Boone had a few boats that did very well in the regionals. It's going to be interesting to see if they follow through and take these kids to Cincinnatti to race again. If not, we'll be Regatta Free till
October...when we head off to Chattanooga, TN for the "Head of the Hooch" Regatta.

Alex, Emily and I ended up driving home Saturday evening since Josh's boat wasn't in any of the Sunday races. I kind of wanted to stay in the hotel for the extra night, but I'm glad that we came home after all. I was able to sleep in for Mother's Day and ended up having a very relaxing day! Alex made me a yummy breakfast and then we watched Walk the Line together. (love Joaquin Phoenix!!) I sorted pics in Photoshop Elements all day and watched Yours Mine and Ours with the kids, later in the afternoon. It was definitely a LAZY day for me...but, I deserved that...I told Alex to treat me like the queen that I am...and he and the kids did just that! Gotta love it!

But...now...it's time to get a move on. I still need to unpack from the Tampa trip, catch up on laundry and work on Teacher gifts...the kids have just ONE WEEK left of school. YIKES!

I'd better get busy!!

Thanks for reading...and be sure to leave a comment so that I know that you're reading! :D

Pictures, a layout or two and a bit about the weekend...

I left on Friday to drive Josh and a couple of his team mates to Tampa for the Florida Scholar's Rowing Association Regatta this weekend. There were 40 teams competing at the Tampa By-Pass Canal near Brandon. We got over there around 2 on Friday, the teams all took a practice "run" or two and we headed to our hotel, then to dinner and back to the hotel for the night. We had to be up and in the lobby to eat a quick breakfast at 6am. Our school had it's first heat at 7:24am. YIKES!

The weather was pretty calm early in the morning but by mid morning, the winds had picked up. Thus making it a rather challenging day to row. Josh's boat wasn't racing till 1:08 originally but ended up not hitting the water till almost 2:00 due to the delays from the wind. These were the same kinds of wind we dealt with at the Hood Cup back in March...and then, the races got scratched. It would have really been a P.I.T.A had they cancelled any of the races on Saturday. The delays just caused us to be at the canal much longer than we'd planned to be. But...it was fun anyway. And I got some great shots too! Our tent was set up on the shore just past the finish line and the boats all passed just in front of us as they headed to the start line and then again as they finished and were heading back to the launch dock. Very very cool, IMO!

See how close I got??? These were taken as they were headed to the start line. Sure wish Josh would cut his hair and keep it cut. LOL

This picture was taken as Josh's boat was heading down the canal during their race. They finished 5th of 6...there's a story behind that one...but I won't get into it. Put it this way, another boat should not be able to stop the race if their seat happens to conveniently come off just after the start. Of course, the high winds didn't help at all either!
We got back around 10 pm Saturday night...I was absolutely exhausted and was sound asleep by 10:30. Only to sleep till after 11 on Sunday. I just could NOT wake up! Alex said it's because I get somewhat dehydrated when I'm out there all day like that. I drank water...but I really wanted to stay away from those porta potties as much as possible. YUCK! Being in the sun like that always wears me out though. It just takes so much outta me.

We have one more race this season. The Southeast Regionals are coming up the weekend of Mother's Day. Gotta love the sacrifices we make as moms! That regatta is also in Tampa. And its gonna be another long one! Let's hope for calm winds, lower than normal temps and of course, LOW HUMIDITY too! That's really not asking for much, is it?