Next Week!! Performing and Visual Arts Camp!

One of my really good friends who is the theatre teacher at the local high school where I teach art and I decided that this summer we would join the ranks of those people who offer summer camp. Both of us have taught camps before, but it's always scary when you venture out on your own. We were afraid it would be our 4 kids and us.. but with a few days left before camp starts we have 40 registered!! How exciting!!

Here is a sneak peak of what we have planned!!

The kids will get to SCREEN PRINT their own tshirts!! How cool is that!

Each group will be made up of the kids who are going to be in a certain skit/play/reader's theatre style piece. The kids will learn about acting, lights, set and costumes. They will make puppets and costume pieces that they will get to keep.  They will even paint a large mural (see pictures below) made up of 4 full flat sheets.

And if all that wasn't enough, they are going to make memory books!! How fun is that! :) We talked about it and decided that as parents we always wonder what the kids do at camps and so we decided to give parents the visual story of camp.

So, if you have kids who have completed kindergarten through 8th grade and they don't have anything to do June 4-7 in the afternoons, send me an email or give me a call if you live in the area! It will be $50 well spent.

Just a Typical Summer Morning

It's 9am. The middle of the week. Summer. All 3 girls have been up for a while...

Here is what we have done this morning:

• started beans in the crockpot. Brand-new crockpot got a crack in it and had to move beans to old crock pot. water leaked all over the oven and now the oven won't come on.
• cleaned 2 bathrooms
• laundry
• cleaned kitchen
• vacuumed two bedrooms
• sorted some toys
• got ready to go outside and play.
• two year old peed on the floor.
• cleaned den floor.
• cleaned up child
• cleaned up bathroom from cleaning up child.

I love summer.

2nd Generation Blogging!

Maddie created a blog a while back, but couldn't decide what to write.  This week, with summer upon us, she started writing.  Day 2 and she has 3 posts. One with pictures, one with her teaching a craft project and one with a video imbedded in it! 

Yeah Maddie!!  So, if you want a glimpse into her world, go check out her blog! And yes, for anyone out there that's worried... I'm her administrator and can yank anything I choose :)

Twenty Years Ago

I can't believe twenty years ago this week I graduated from high school.
It truly feels like it was just yesterday.

I look back on my hopes and dreams and feel so blessed to say that if I had known then what I would be today, I would have been proud of myself.

Late this summer is the reunion. I'd like to lose some of the life that I've accumulated on my hips before then! Other than that, I'm ready. 

The Last is the First

Today was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!


This has been an incredibly tough year and are so very thankful that we have made it to SUMMER!!!!

So, with an early release from school and the first day of the season for our waterpark, we were so there!

I just LOVE the Last Day of School/First Day of Summer!!

If Scrapbooking was an Olympic Sport!

If Scrapbooking was an Olympic Sport.. I think I could be a medalist!

We have two teachers having baby showers tomorrow, so.. you know it.. two scrapbooks!

First is the one for baby boy.  The desired color scheme was blues, greens, khaki and white.  I was thrilled when I found this paper!  In fact, it came in a little paperpack, so I bought two of them to get 12 sheets of matching cardstock and made the pages. The bonus here is that there were boy stickers with the paper pack!!

In the above picture, I used a ton of eyelets and put them in the polka dots at random intervals.

Can you see the buckle on the left picture? I love it!

These brad things are self adhesive. I love them. So easy!

The safety pins are holding on elastic!  It is really fun in person! I can just see this page about a Growing Boy!! Wouldn't that be super cute :) ?

The second album was for a baby girl.  The colors here were brown and turquoise.  This was harder!
But, I found a pattern that was great and went from there.  

 I love the whimsy yet elegant look of these two colors together with the silver!

 More of those self adhesive bradlets!

 The embellishment here is glittered clips!

 Ribbon on these!! I can't make an album without using ribbon!!

And finally, more sticky buttony things!

And there you have it. My favorite baby gift! Total time spent? Two hours. And no, I didn't make all the pages from "scratch." I used my Close To My Heart layout books for most of the pages, but I make a habit of ALWAYS using scraps to make more pages, so a few are my own spur of the moment designs.

6th Grade Luau

It's not all hard in Maddie world!  Tonight was the end of the year dance at school.  Wow. I can hardly believe that it's time for the 6th Grade Luau!!

We went shopping and got a new dress.  From a store that only carries adult sizes. Granted it was an X-Small, but still. No kid section for us.

I must say, she's beautiful.

After the photoshoot, we went and picked up her friend. I warned them that there would be pictures taken at school. They both groaned. It was one good quick picture and they were off!

 With one week left of school, I plan to hide my head in the sand and pretend that I am just days away of saying that I have a junior high student!

Disappointment

Some days are just crappy. Today is one of those. Not for me, but for Maddie. Therefore for me a hundred fold.

Every year, Maddie struggles during the last marking period with making her Accelerated Reader goal because her body is worn out.  In fact, until this year, she had never made the last six weeks goal. This meant that she never got to go to the "good" party at the end of the year, because she was one of "those" kids. "Those" kids meaning the kids who stereotypically either didn't care about reading, didn't have the work ethic, or didn't have parent support to help with the reading at home.  Of course, we all know that she's not one of "those" kids, but it didn't matter, she never got to go.

Well, THIS year, Maddie worked all school year to earn points for the Accelerated Reader 300 point trip. It's a huge deal and hard to attain. Maddie earned more than 350 points. (Last year she earned about 200). We were so excited! She qualified for the trip early and has looked forward to this trip ALL YEAR!

But... guess what? The trip was today and she's at home. Her body is worn completely out.  Why? Because the choir trip was yesterday so Maddie spent the day in the sun yesterday and couldn't recover for the field trip today.  I'm hurt for her. I'm mad that the school scheduled back to back trips. In fact, it's three days of trips because tomorrow is the 6th grade trip to the Omni.  I am really, really hoping that she will get to attend that.

I could go on for awhile about how I feel. But I won't.

I'm just disappointed.

I am disappointed because my 12 year old is devastated but is so used to being hurt that she hides her tears. I grieve because my beautiful and sweet tween is resigned that this is her lot in life. I'm angry because since this type of thing isn't new for her, so she doesn't even seem shocked or throw a fit. I'm scared for her, because at what point does she just give up on her dreams and goals? 

Painted Vases. Super Cheap, Big Impact

Love them.

I made 52 vases for the teacher appreciation banquet.

They were a huge hit and since I didn't have a ton invested in them,

 I could easily say, take the vases with you!! They made for great door prizes!

So how did I make them?

Well, it wasn't hard and you might even say it would be fun if you weren't making 50 at a time and on a very short schedule.  The most important tip that I can give you is do this WAY ahead of when you need them.  I painted on Thursday, let them drain three separate times and then finally turned them back over Friday morning and they dried until Monday afternoon.  But still there was wet paint in the bottom of the vase.

Oh well.

1. Collect cheap glass vases.  I gathered up the used vases that I could find and then went to the dollar store and purchased another 25.  Rinse and dry.
2. Gather up all the remnant craft acrylic paint from around the house.  I used all I had and then purchased some cheapo acrylic from the craft section at Walmart.  I bought a variety of paints, but only the cheap ones. 
3. Clean off a section where you want to work. Put down something to protect the surface and you are ready to begin.
4. Now, I knew that this was to be a big impact, not archival type project, so I didn't use any surface conditioner or anything fancy.  If I wanted these to last forever, I would either get the surface conditioner that you put in acrylics or buy glass enamel paints. 
5. Choose a paint and squirt/dribble some paint on the side of the container and let it run down into the vase.  Swirl it around. If you want multiple colors, add the other colors and swirl.  Do not wait until one coat has set. Do all colors at one time.
6. Once the container is coated, let it sit with the paint pooling in the bottom of the vase for a minute or so, then turn it upside down and let the paint run out.  I place one vase on top of the other as to not waste paint.  You will be shocked at how much paint will run out.  If you place it on a board/paper towel, you will have a big puddle of paint to reuse (or toss).

7. After the vase sits for about 15 minutes upside down, turn it back over and fill in any areas that you don't like. Give the vase a while to set up, maybe an hour or two.. maybe overnight.. if you are running out of time, 15 minutes... Then turn it upside down AGAIN!  Yes, I'm lucky that I have a drying cabinet!! Don't know where I would have stored them all otherwise!
   
8. Finally, turn the vases back up and leave them alone. For a long time!  Notice that I purposely left spots of the vase clear.  I like the "artsy" look of it! 

And just in case in all my wordiness you forgot what the vases looked like with a flower in it below are more samples.  My last tip... don't put water in the vase until the paint has had time to cure.  In fact, I wouldn't suggest EVER putting water in it unless you use appropriate paint.  For last night, we just dropped clear solo cups down into the vases that had large enough openings. We didn't use water though! The event was pretty short so I didn't worry about the flowers wilting prior to the end of the evening.

And now, finally, enjoy.

nothin special. just a friday afternoon at home.

One of the things I love to take pictures of most is just everyday life.

More than birthdays and holidays, it's afternoons in the yard and just hanging out that gets me pulling out the camera. Why? Because it's the everyday family moments that I look back on most fondly as a child! 

 

  

Where was Maddie for all these pictures? Inside the house. Being a tween.