picture 023

Originally uploaded by jendera

We’ve had a few days of hot weather here so it was time to bring out the swimsuit! This is Shelby’s fist encounter with a sprinkler. LOL. She was, umm, well unsure. She walked through the spray of water first off and then just gave me a look of shock. After that she moved gingerly around it as not to get any other part of her body wet unless absolutely necessary. Too funny.

So I’ve had a layout sitting her on my counter since Sunday evening I think. I haven’t gotten very far, and honestly, I think I hit a wall with it. I might mess with it a little more today and see what I can come up with. I’d put it away and move on, but if I do I will probably not pick it back up again for several years. Seriously! So, I need to get it finished.

It is almost time to wake Ethan up for school. This may sound crazy, but I can’t wait for summer vacation. With it comes mornings of peace while kids sleep in. Dylan is usually an early riser, but Ethan could probably sleep until noon if given the chance. He has been known to do it every so often on a weekend. Shelby is the same way. A good sleeper. I wish I slept like that! I stopped sleeping, and I mean really sleeping, the day I had Ethan. Now if I get to sleep the sound of a pin drop wakes me up.

ClarkColor.com is offering 3 cents prints on up to 100 prints. No discount of shipping and it is a one time use. Here is the coupon code: CK3PRTS Maybe I’ll try them out today. I started to upload to winkflash.com yesterday and got a lot done, but started getting upload errors. I got frustrated and gave up. I need to revisit that today.

I have no idea when Denny is coming home, so it will be a crock pot dinner today. My friends and family call me the Crock Pot Queen. I’m not sure if that is a complement or not. I like to think it is. I have a million crock pot dishes that I make. Ok, maybe not a million, but I have an awful lot of them! I’m not a measure the ingredients type of “chef” and you don’t really have to be to make most of my dishes in the crock pot. I pour and dump lol. Always works out fine for me. And so far, no complaints from anyone else either.

I’m on what I think is my last load of laundry for the day. I haven’t checked the closet upstairs yet, but I think/hope I’m done. I sure miss the laundry chute we had at our old house. Toss the clothes down and poof, they land right next to the washer. lol. Now things have to come down two flights of stairs. Mind you they are only about 5 steps each, (we have a tri-level), but with bad knees each step is a killer. If I remember I have Denny bring them down, otherwise I do it in shifts. Kinda makes for a pain in the butt and a pain in the knee.

Duty calls!

~j

bucket 003

Originally uploaded by jendera

First, I’ve gotten a lot of emails asked where I got the photo I used for my header image here on my blog. I took it a few years back (I think Ethan was 2) and the Botanical Gardens in Indiana. It is a photo of a Water Lotus in full bloom in one of their water gardens there. Pretty isn’t it? I just cropped it down some more to fit my needs.

I finished up this french bucket today. It was easy, honest. Michelle is going to gripe at me later thought. I showed her the idea and told her they would make great teacher gifts. So she decided to make three. LOL Mind you that I made the suggestion before I had actually completed one. This is the second time I did this very same bucket. The first one, well, uhh, let’s just say I had some issues. Thankfully my Dad was able to sandblast off the paint I had on it so that I could start over. So now I have a list for Michelle to help her avoid some of the same mistakes. Gee, you’re welcome Michelle.

Anyway, I think I’m going to fill it with some foam and then put in some paper flowers I’m going to make later this week. I still have to print some little photos to put on the mini layouts hanging around the top edge too. All in due time!

The supplies I used are as follows:

1.) Metal french bucket which I primed and then painted. (Don’t underestimate the importance of priming the bucket first… I’ll leave it at that.)

2.) Bazzill chipboard with the paper saying on top.

3.) Some ribbon for around the bucket and handle. There is a think ribbon stripe around the bucket itself that is hard to see here. I attached it with photo tape. (Gotta love that photo tape!)

4.) S-Hooks to hang the mini layouts from the edge via some Velcro.

5.) Heidi Swapp fuzzy rubons.

6.) Scraps of paper.

Really that is about it. I adapted this from a Pink Martini Kit I picked up.

I have a ton of stuff to do around here today. On that list is mowing the lawn. Oh yay. I actually offered to do it for Denny. The poor guy spent most of his day yesterday in our crawl space fixing a broken pipe. Some of the pipes in our house are still the originals and here and there we have some that rust through. Thats what he fixed yesterday. I really was an all day project and frankly you couldn’t pay me to spend more that 60 seconds down there! Ewww. Cheers to Denny for fixing it. Anyway, so I felt bad, and thus the lawn mowing. I’ll have to hunt around here for something to put over my nose. Allergies are AWFUL so far this year, and the grass isn’t going to help.

I’m uploading photos to Winkflash.com right now. I did eventually get my photos Foto.com but as I said in my earlier post, the customer service isn’t all that great. I want to make sure I get them here in a timely manner so I can get my stuff together for the retreat I’ll be going on in June. Winkflash has a good deal right now. Use coupon code JC53YR73 to get 6 cent prints. I don’t think there was a limit and the shipping there is a flat 99 cents. They have a lot of different sized prints too! I’ve always been happy with the prints there so give them a try if you need something printed.

That’s all that is exciting around here. See, I do lead a dull life huh? I’m off to finish the next item on my to do list - dishes and dinner prep.

I’m off…

~j

fierogt

Originally uploaded by jendera

Well for anyone that knows me and loves me, and to know me really is to love me lol, (just kidding), you know that my first car was a 1985 Fiero GT. Well I had to get rid of it for a bunch or reason and then moved on to more sensible cars. But like I said, if you know me, you know how I feel about that car. I really have/had a sentimental attachment to that car. Just to sit in it makes me feel 16 again and brings back so many great memories. I loved that car. (Did I say that already?) I had the time of my life in that car. I even had my Senior photos taken with my car. I’ve got a box full of pictures of me sitting in my car, washing my car, driving it in homecoming parades, etc. I loved it, I mean really loved it, and I am pretty sure I cried when it left. And again if you know me, you know I’m not a crier. Nor am I all that fond of washing a car, so you know that spells love.

So today Denny took me for a ride… a long ride… to Ohio! 230 miles one way. At that end of that 230 miles was a treasure. No, it wasn’t a large pot of scrapbooking goodies, it was a 1985 Fiero GT.
(The one pictured here.) I’m pretty sure I was beaming and I really had a hard time containing myself. I don’t get real wound up about anything, but this was really something special. I’m getting all teary eyed just thinking about it. So for my birthday Denny gave me this. I can’t put into words how much it means to me. I was driving my original Fiero when I started dating him. How special is that? Anyway, I think this might be one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. And it was certainly over the top.

Thank you Denny!

~j

canvas_wall

Originally uploaded by jendera

I finally finished my series of canvas projects for one of my stairwells. First I ran out of one particular paper I used, then ran out of photo tape. (You really really need to use photo tape.) Anyway, this particular wall is really a focal point and it has been blank for A LONG time. Well I finally got it covered. I did a series of three different canvas designs/sizes. I love how they all came out, and I’m loving the wall. I’m sharing a photo of it here. There is one for Ethan, one for Dylan and one for Shelby!

No big plans here for the holiday weekend. Just spending time at home with my family. We are trying to sell our 1994 Z28 Camaro if anyone is looking… *wink* I’m not in a big hurry to get rid of it, so when it sells it sells.

It rained most of the day here today, and the same is supposed to be true for tomorrow. So far Monday looks nice. Hopefully that holds up as we are supposed to BBQ with Michelle and her family. Ahhh fun times.

Enjoy what is left of your Saturday!!

~j

thankyou

Originally uploaded by jendera

Ok so I scrapped yesterday and I was working on this layout. I wrapped it up today. Really I just needed to get the journaling done. There was a lot I wanted to say and really not a lot of room so my text got pretty small, lol. I took this photo of Ethan, and his 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Costa on his FISH day. If you don’t know about the Fish day it can be found in one of my previous April posts. Anyway, I had intended to use it on the Fish Day layout that I have in my head, but I really wanted to focus on just Mrs. Costa, and how wonderful she is, so I came up with this.

The photo itself is 6×8. I really like that size. It is easy to work with on a one page layout if you are looking for more photo filler.

The printed paper is from Fontwerks by Kate Teague. I have to say I love her design work and though this paper is kinda busy, I love the colors and it worked out just fine with the colors in the photo. I don’t think I could have gotten a closer match to Mrs. Costa’s shirt!

The majority of the elements on this page are Heidi Swapp. In doing the supply list I noticed that I seem to use a lot of her stuff. Funny how you find one manufacturer and tend to stick with it. Her items are really versatile and once you get used to them, they are really a breeze to incorporate. I like to attach the ghost letters with staples or mini brads.

Now one of my new favorite this… Ranger paint dabbers. I used them on this layout as a replacement for distress ink. Being I have had a hard time finding an ink in white that is actually opaque I decided to give the white dabber a try. Well it worked like a charm. You can really control the amount of paint that comes out and it give a great distressed look that is really almost immediately dry. I used it on all the Prism cardstock and on the ghost letters. The ghost letters have both the white and a shade of blue over the sanded areas.

Ethan has a half day today and then he and Dilly are going to take a trip to the library with my Mom. Ethan is BIG into chapter books right now and the ones we can get though the school aren’t really at his level. They send home the scholastic order forms for each grade level, and the ones he gets a pretty far beneath him. Books are so expensive and he goes through them like crazy. Hopefully he enjoys the library and finds something he will be interested in.

It is sure a nice day today and I spent my morning listening to the birds and watching a female cardinal take a little bath in the waterfall at one end of the pond. My studio is positioned right next to the edge and the windows in this part of the house are just above ground level. So she was taking her bath about a foot or so right in front of my face. I sure enjoy the sounds of the water! You can hear it from just about every room in the house, so it was great placement!

Ok I’m off! Duty calls and I have yet to even get my hair done. I wanted to take advantage of the morning silence and I fell a bit behind. Enjoy your day!!

~j

Ok I had plans today to get the other part of a wall-o-canvas I have had half way completed.  Well, it didn’t go so well.  I pained the bases of them last night before my card class.  So today I started inking my papers and such only to find that one of the papers I had was the wrong one.  So, due to the cost of gas, and the lack of desire to haul three children through the scrapbook store, I ordered what I needed online.  Yes, I only needed three sheets of paper, and yes I paid to ship it.  I did order other things to justify my shipping.  That being said, I ordered from a store in Michigan (www.lifetimemoments.com) so the shipping wouldn’t be crazy and I should get it pretty darn quick.  And really when you think about the cost of gas around here, well, it makes paying for the shipping not all the crazy.  I mean a gallon of gas here is around $3.50 here or a little more.  So I equate shipping dollars in gallons of gas.  So it took me two gallons of gas to ship my paper and other stuff I ended up getting.  The store I would have driven to for just the three sheets of paper is 15 miles from me, so I’m ok with paying the shipping if you figure my gas at $3.50 a gallon-ish and my time.  It is a sad sad day when people limit their activity all because of gas prices!

Got my hair cut today, and I needed it bad!  Some of the gals in card class last night had their photo taken with me.  Yikes, I don’t even want to know how wild and crazy my hairdo was in that photo.  Dilly says to me, “Mommy, you have big hair today.”  Too funny.  I wear my hair kinda messy/spiked all over.  It is a little wild, but I like it that way.  It shows the inner me, without showing too much inner me if you know what I mean.

Today I picked Ethan up at school in the street rod.  The timing could not have been any closer to perfect.  I got there, parked right in front where I usually do.  The moment I shut the car off the school held a firedrill.  So all the kids, including Ethan passed by the car.  I think Ethan about died from excitement.  The smile on his face was HUGE.  I don’t know that I have seen him that excited since he got his Corvette for his 5th birthday.  All the kids were impressed and full of questions for Ethan.  The kid was just glowing.

Ok I’m missing the lost “catch up” episode, so I had better get moving.  I hardly ever watch it as it is on opposite another show I like a little better, so this is my chance to get caught up I guess.

Later!

~j

wildernesspark, originally uploaded by jendera.

I’m sure a ton of you get your digital photos printed via some online service. I’ve used several. About six months ago I was a big fan of Winkflash.com. However with all the deals available to new customers I decided I’d shop around. So from Winkflash I moved to Clark Photo. They have a lot of specials, but I seems to always get so busy that I miss the deadline. I did order from them, but I didn’t get the greatest deal and I thought by the end it was pretty pricey. Then I tried York Photo - well, don’t bother. The shipping was a little crazy and the prints weren’t all that fabulous… ok, but not fabulous. (I’m picky, can you tell?) On the 14th of this month I ordered from foto.com. The turn around for processing was speedy and they shipped ont he 15th. That being said, I still don’t have them. The shipping time was supposed to be 3-4 business days. Now they use USPS but I don’t think they use Priority Mail as there is no tracking data. So today I emailed them asking them to check into my photos and I got this response:

Dear customer,

Your order has been shipped on the 15th of May.
It’s possible that there were some delays at the local post office.
Can you please wait until the 30th of May before you contact us again?
Your order may still be on it’s way.

If it hasn’t arrived by then we will reprint your order.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best,

Jonathan
Dutch & English Support Foto.com

Ok so is it me or is that ridiculous! So, I won’t be ordering there again. Anyone have a printing spot they have had great success with? If so please pass along the URL.

I have card class today. 22 students. Fun and crazy. There are so many of them and only one of me. Oh how I wish I have a clone. Anyway, I really like to get one on one with students and it is really hard to, if not impossible in that situation. I hope everyone understands that. I’m not sure how many of them also take scrapbooking classes or the altered classes. As much as I’d like to remember everyone - face, name and all, I just can. So my point, for those of you that don’t take my other classes and are diehard card makers… well all I can say is that I’m really friendly, and more one on one in every other circumstance. Honest!

Ok so I got word last night that yet another scrapbook store is closing. Seems like a lot of them have bit the dust lately. There was one at 21 mile and Gratiot that had been in business for a long time and they just closed about a month or so ago I think. There was also another one on Harper in St. Clair Shores and they closed, or are in the process. Now the most recent one is in Clinton Township. They are only open until May 31st. They are a pretty big store and just moved to a new location. If you ask me, and many others, it is a poor spot. It is on a one way street and you need to make a turn around, (you know the ones Michigan is famous for), and I heard the cropping area was a little dingy. I’m told there old cropping space was phenomenal, so I think a lot of loyal customers were sad to see that the crop area went to the birds. Again, this is all hearsay as I haven’t stepped foot in there since they last expansion at the old location. So for all you bargin shoppers, they are currently offering 40% off and out of respect for the store owners I won’t mention the name here, but if you want to know please contact me privately and I’ll share the shopping bargain location.

I’m off here to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I’m down to, uhh, well about nothing in the house. I ordered from NetGrocer.com last week and it is due to come today. I got the shipment of the refridgerated items last week, but the other stuff comes seperately. The boxes today contain most of the stuff I need, so the grocery trip should be speedy. Produce and meats basically.

Ethan is home from school today with pink eye. Shelby had it over the weekend and I caught it early enough that I was able to knock it out in a day or two. Hopefully Ethan is the same. I had drops left from the last time they had it in September. All three had it at once - FUN. Ethan missed a week of school he had it so bad. I hope it is gone by morning and he goes back. Cross your fingers. My other wish for today… that I don’t come home from class to find Dylan with a case of it. Argh.

That about covers it for today. Off to the grocery store, three kids in tow. Later gator!

~j

Ok so it is another day. I did get one more nasty email (see my last post), but I’m over it. An apology would have been nice, but I didn’t get one, and let’s just say I’m not holding my breath. Anyway, I’m over it.

We went to Zak’s birthday party yesterday. The kids had a good time. It was a bowling party so they all did the bowling thing, has pizza, cake and then the opening presents ritual. I felt bad for Michelle as she had to go right to work after and flopped cake down the front of herself! Oh well, whats a little frosting right? Zak seemed to have a great time, as did my boys. I don’t know how much attention was being paid to the actual bowling. I was more of a social outing where occasionally someone happened to fling a ball down the alley.

So who watched the season finale night on abc last night? I watched Desperate Housewives, and Brothers and Sisters. I don’t want to ruin it for anyway, but if you didn’t see Housewives and you are a fan, well, you might want to hit the abc website and watch it online. It was a good one! As for Brothers and Sisters, well it wasn’t suspenseful or anything, but jsut an all around good show as it usually is. Justin left for war and a key fact about Rebecca was shared. I don’t know what is up with Saul and Milo. I have to admit I was in and out of the room during the first part of it so I may have missed something key there.

Ok, layout for today… I had journaled on it. Yes, you read that right. I very rarely use my own writing. Despite Jeannie telling me I should, I just can’t seem to make myself do it. This layout is all about Ethan at age 7. There were a few key things I wanted to make sure both he and I remembered so I covered them in this layout. I like the way it turned out, even if I hand wrote it!

Have a great day everyone!!

~j

Ok so I only have a minute here but I need to tell ya what I just came home to this afternoon. We all went to the Last Harrah at Ethan’s school They were having one last open house kind of thing before the school gets torn town. Anyway, so I just got back and checked my email before starting to prep for cards. I get this email (I have deleted the senders name)…

Jen,

Not sure if that was your van in the parking lot at 13 mile and Harper today, but I wanted to let you know that your magnetic ribbon about kids needing both parents is offensive. Yeah, it’d be great if each kid in the world had two loving, attentive, patient parents. But, the truth of the matter is that that does not always happen. Imagine kids with one parent dead or a parent who is raising kids alone because the other is abusive or incarcerated (for example) – yes, those are kids with one parent. If that kid were to read your message, they would automatically come to the conclusion that they are lesser than those with two parents. Why should he or she be made to feel like crap because of your “values” ? The world needs less judgment of others. I hope you’d agree with that.

Also, not a good idea to have controversial value statements alongside your business name. Just a thought.

Ok so let me first say… uhh, I don’t have a freakin’ van. I assume the business sticker the email refers to is really the URL for my blog, which I do not have on my car, but a few other friends of mine do. As for the parenting sticker, well, I don’t have one of those either.
Now maybe I’m just crabby today, but that email really hit me in a BAD way. I’m beyond irritated for a number of reasons. I mean hello, might it make sense to be sure you were attacking the right person before sending off an email like that?? So yes, I’m cheesed that I was a wrongful target. I’m also miffed as a past single parent. Those of you that are close to me know that I was a single parent to my oldest son from the moment of conception until he was a toddler. That being said, I’m also a mother of three. So accusing me of putting some stupid sticker on my car that was going to make a certain group of children feel like “crap” is also upsetting to me.

All of that being said, my take on it… uhh free speech, and it is a stupid sticker. If you don’t like it don’t look. I’ve seen a lot of things on the back of cars that offend me, but I don’t hunt them down and send them a nasty email about it. So the sender of this email had to follow the URL on the back of the van and find a personal email address for me to send this letter. At no point while fishing for my email did it occur to her to open her eyes wide enough to see that the URL is NOT for a business anyway.

So I’m peeved, and this lady has now added a nasty tone to my entire day. Let that be a lesson to everyone… if you have to be nasty with someone or call them out on values you don’t agree with, please make sure you are focused on the right person first!

~j

[photopress:allabouttheberries.jpg,thumb,pp_image]  I had class last night.  Two at once, which worked out ok.  The Canvas class was fantastic!  The gals were great - so thanks ladies for a great time!  Everyone seemed to enjoy the projects and picked up a few new tips and tricks that hopefully they can try at home.  Anyway, it was awesome and dispite how tired I was (and still am) the class rocked!

Apparently it is a week for new things.  My Crocs are supposed to come today.  I’ll be excited when I finally see them.  I’ve been waiting so long now that the anticipation has really built up.  On top of that I got a new washer and dryer yesterday.  Mine were 6 years old, and frankly NEVER worked well.  For those of you that have been following my ranting lately you know that my dryer broke again a couple weeks ago.  Well, it died again on Mother’s Day, and that was the end of the line for me.  Been there, done that, and I won’t go down that repair road again.  So, that being said, I got a new set.  Woo Hoo, these babies work fantastic!!  I’m thrilled with them and glad I put an end to my Maytag Neptune Nightmare.

I’m also expecting a shipment today that will have the Zutter Bind-it-All System in it.  Jeannie really wanted one, so this one will be hers.  She has promised to share, but if I like it I imagine I’ll spring for one too.  I need to see the thing in person.  Supposedly it binds everything and that would be great for class projects.  The month of June I think I’ll have mostly mini album type of classes going on.  So that would work out well.  Hopefully I can get some samples done this week and wrap up the rest of the cards for class on the 22nd.

I did the featured layout today at the NSD Crop at Little Scrapbox.  I love the colors in this and those American Crafts Thinkers are awesome to use.  I think I used some on each layout that I did that day.  Easy application (not TOO sticky) and very versatile.  They are available in a ton of different materials, from felt to foam.  Check ‘en out if you get the chance!

Tonight I have a PTC volunteer appreciation thing that I was invited to.  Last year they gave us little sliver fish charms and we had refreshments and desserts.  I assume this year will be the same type of thing.  I’m looking forward to the one night a year someone thanks me, lol.

That about covers it.  I have a severe weather warning flashing on the screen in front of my face so I better go clear off the clothesline before I’m stuck in a downpour.  Happy Tuesday to you!

~j