A little more from Saturday...

Here's another little card that I made on Saturday night when the boys were both out and about...it's nothing all that special, but I was pleased with how the patterned paper that I made turned out.

I stamped cardstock with Plum Pudding ink and then over stamped the images in white. Then I stamped over the whole thing in tiny polka dots that matched the cardstock color...I wasn't sure about the dots...I have a hard time lining them up to get a bigger section...could be because I am the world's messiest stamper and rarely clean my blocks :) ...or it could just be that I have issues...lots of people can do it, it can't be that hard, but I can never get the images to line up perfectly...oh well...I'm not Hallmark, so it's probably okay!

I'm trying to think of a good way to yank Sanford today since it's April Fool's Day...nothing will ever top the year I was pregnant with Connor and I told him the doctor called and said we were having twins....it was beautiful! The problem of course is that I have absolutely NO ability to keep things up...I start laughing right away and the jig is up (great gravy, does anyone actually say that any more?!?) The look on Sanford's face was priceless though...even if it only lasted a few seconds. Okay..I'm off to come up with something devious ;)

Jam Session

Hey...look what I made. For the first time ever. It's tasty and it was sooo easy!

Strawberries were 88 cents a basket at Ralphs...and I bought 4...ummmm...that's a lot of berries. What was I thinking? What could I do with 4 baskets? Jam? Kinda scary. Let's google it and see what comes up. So I found this video. Ridiculously simple.

Uh-oh...I didn't have mason jars. I did have these cute jars I bought to decorate and put candy in. They had lids. How bad could this possibly turn out? :)

Obviously, things turned out fine. The whole thing~start to finish~(including washing pots and pans) took about an hour. Of course, it only made 3 tiny jars of jam...but they are sooooo cute!

I glued on some ric rac to up the cuteness factor.

And even made quickie labels. I was so pleased with myself, that I went out and bought 9 more baskets of berries and some real mason jars...tiny ones...I'm feeling all Little House days! :)

To enhance or not to enhance?

Okay...so I'm hopeless at anything computer related and my photo editing skills consist mainly of wishing that I HAD skills :( So here are two picture of the same card...this one is "enhanced" according to iPhoto...is it really better? The colors are brighter, but not as true to real life. Is it better than....

this one? It is brighter and the whites look whiter not gray...it just kind of bothers me that the pink is so different than it really is on the actual card...

Is this where I just get over it because none of you are going to really see the actual card and then say to me..."hey...that card was a waaaaay different color on your blog!"???

What do you think?? Original or enhanced? It's not dishonest...just like a little lipgloss and mascara for my paper crafts right???

is it really? Could it be?

yup...that's right, it's something crafty...that I made...that I don't hate. The first thing in over 3 months. Now, admittedly, it's not much, just a card...but it did make me park my butt in the craft cubby and actually play with things I already own and enjoy myself.

Sanford had Air Bands on Saturday night and said that there was no reason for Connor and I to go. The boy decided to play Nazi Zombies with the nerf guns (that's what they call it...and really, if they are playing outside, without crying, using nothing with batteries, can I complain??? I did check, there are no actual nazis or zombies involved :) I'm thinking the fact that I cared enough to make sure there would be no real bloodshed...or brain eating...qualified me for some uninterrupted mommy~time)

So...I made this card using a previously unopened Papertrey set (baby button bits)...I really wanted it to say "Hey cupcake" but I didn't have a stamp in the right size, in the right font....so I went with what I had. I like the enchanted evening polka dots on the spring rain cardstock paired with the enchanted evening cardstock...super simple, but I love how matchy (is that a word? must not be since it's underlined in red!) it turned out.

I'm kinda digging the argyle frosting...who knew?? I made a few more cards and even a set for Connor's teacher for a Teacher Appreciation week giftie...but I thought I might shock you if after not posting in 5 months I posted 3 times in 4 days and had multiple crafty items in one post...tooooooooo much! I'll space it out and try not to overexert myself... :)

EWwwwWWW!!

On a disgusting side note...The color hair spray may be cool and quick and bright...but man are you in for a ruuuuuuuuuude shock when you blow your nose after you use it...just sayin'...bEWaRe!!

cRaZY hAIr dAy !!

Today was cRaZY hAIr dAy at Connor's school...we went with the usual mohawk...this years variation had Mt. Carmel colors ;)

Here's the gold side...(this hairdo reminds me of Two-Face from Batman...I can definitely see some similarities between my son and that character)...we used spray color for the first time this year...it was different, but I liked it...

Here's the red side...We had some pretty good height going this year. We held off getting a haircut on purpose until after crazy hair day. I think it was a good choice.

I'm not sure what this pose is, but it cracked me up!

And here's the~what I'd look like screaming at a rock concert~ pose...lovely! It's a shame there isn't a better picture of his shirt...it's a storm trooper tshirt from our DisneyWorld trip in December...Sanford has one too, except his storm trooper is wearing Mickey ears...soooo funny!

Connor's hair was done in record time this year thanks to the spray color...it only took about 20 minutes (in the past it's taken about 45) so we got to school a little early. As I was dropping him off (it was just him in the car, the rest of the car pool was absent today), he looked out the car window and said "Mom, what if it isn't crazy hair day?" I looked out the window and had a slight panic attack myself when I realized I didn't see one child with crazy hair...ummm...did I dream the prinipal's call out? She did say today was crazy hair day right?!? oh %&*$$#!! Then a little boy got out of the mini van in front of me with some spikes, and I spotted a small blonde with 7 pony tails...and was that some green hair over by the Otter Cafe line?

Whew...dodged a bullet...I mean Connor's hair isn't exactly inconspicuous!

Once I pointed those kids out to Connor, he started to breathe again and happily climbed out of the car to begin another day of tormenting the crap out of his teacher...um, I mean begin another day of learning...

Thank goodness it's Friday! I'm sure his teacher is saying the same thing :)

Little House Days

Connor's school had "Little House" day last week. The third graders read a few of the books and have been talking about what things were like in "the olden days".

I ordered him a pair of suspenders off of ebay...$4.21 with shipping...gotta love ebay! And he wore a hat that Grammi bought him the last time she was away...I think it was from France, but I wouldn't swear to it...We wore some Levi's, a white button up and called it a costume.

I couldn't help myself and had to make all the pictures black and white...the sepia is probably more accurate, but it just looked dirty to me...I'm just not artsy enough to appreciate it I guess.

I even let Connor wear his dress shoes to school...since I may not be a history whiz, but I'm fairly certain DCs weren't around back then ;) He looked great! A lot of the girls had the full blown Holly Hobby...Laura Ingalls outfits on with the long dress and apron and bonnet...but most of the boys were looking pretty modern.

Each Third grade teacher took a different aspect of life to act out...they made butter, snacked on beef jerky and lemonade, and of course had an old fashioned classroom. The classroom was complete with chalk boards and a dunce cap...but more on that later. Connor looks so studious here :)

One room had lincoln logs for the kids to play with...I guess to teach them the construction method of choice in the day...there was another area where they washed dirty socks on washboards and a room where they designed paper quilt squares...the next two pictures are the absolute highlight! They are sooooo they way things would be if we did live back in the day!

All of the kids got a chance to be a dunce during the antique classroom section...and they all LOVED it!! The teacher in charge started out sending the kids back to the stool for small infractions...like answering without being called on or writing down something incorrect on their chalkboards...but by the end, she was calling on the kids that hadn't been dunced (is that a word??), asking them a question, and when they got it correct, sending them to the chair anyway...or saying they didn't annunciate properly or that their tone was inappropriate...it was hysterical!!

This picture is my favorite! He even has that dejected~I'm in trouble~ slump going on! Perfect!

(oh...and yup... I'm just acting like the last 5 months where I've been completely nonexistent didn't happen! :) )

Happy Thursday...