Well I’m pleased to say that Denny took the pigeon out of its cage yesterday evening and according to him the bird “over powered” him and flew off. I assume it flew back home to its original owner and trainer. No bird = happy Jen. I do feel bad for Dylan though. He really liked the goofy thing and wanted desperately to keep it. When he told me that “Whitey flew away” his little chin was quivering and he had the tears welling up. My non-mommy voice in my head said, “bummer your sad, but I’m glad that damn bird is gone” and then I spit out my best impression of sadness and compassion I could muster up. So I said, “I know you are sad Dilly, but now Whitey can fly home to be with his friends.” Still bummed out, he went back out to mope about it. Still, I’m glad the bird in gone, and in a couple weeks Dilly will have forgotten about it. I think.

It’s the last day of school! Nice. I’m looking forward to more time to myself in the morning and the ablility to sleep if I am so inclined. Yippee. I got out of bed at 3am today. Again I couldn’t sleep. I hope thatgets a little better cuz like I said I may have the chance to sleep in and who wants to miss that!!

I scrapped this morning while I was up. Finished up my second layout for the DT contest at thescrapbookstand.com. I wish I could share it with you but it needs to stay a secret until the reveal the new members. That should be next week I think. I can’t stand the waiting!!! Anyway, I used some S.E.I. paper that I got at a S.E.I. party at one of the CHA shows. I’m not even sure which ones. I have the paper packs they hand out piled here. I’m not usually a big fan of their paper and I’ve never been. But the prints from the Such A Boy line really worked with the photos I was using.

Ethan has his school party here tomorrow. So far the weather is supposed to be great - 74 degrees and sunny. Hopefully that hold true. Living in Michigan means dealing with weather that bounces around on a daily basis. Today we are expecting scattered storms and wind. The inflatable people at Wacky Zone said they could deliver all our items today but I don’t know how that works with the weather. I have to admit I”m excited for it to come. It will give Shelby a chance to play before all the bigger kids get in there.

We had a local golf club building burn down completely here yesterday. It’s right down the street from us. I started burning at 2:30pm and they were still working to put it out at 6:30pm (which was the last time I looked). The building was a historical one (built in 1910) and unfortunately it was a total loss. The had fire departments from five cities helping to contain the blaze. Those flames were like nothing I had ever seen before. The good news is that no one was hurt and it was only that one building (the clubhouse) and didn’t hit the lockers or sports shop. Still sad just the same.

Ok I’m off. I want to catch some of the news before I have to wake the kids! Have a great day!

~j

I was up all night.  I wasn’t feeling all that hot around 10:30pm and it was a down hill slide from there.  I went to bed around 1:00am only to be woken up by Molly (the dog) at 2:30am for a potty visit.  After that I couldn’t get back to sleep and the sound of Denny breathing was just making it worse… that deep breathing he does sometimes… like gale force winds ripping across the bed. lol  So I got up, and got crackin’.  I finished one of the two layouts I need for my Design Team application with thescrapbookstand.com, I’d love to show it here, but I can’t, at least not till after the winners are announced, then I think I can show it.  So you lucky people get to see the pigeon.  By the way, did I mention it is a trained homing pigeon??

In an effort to distract me for the large bird that’s taken up shop at my house, I’d like to present the blog challenge for today.  What makes me smile?  That’s the question I’m supposed to address today.  That’s hard to narrow down really.  A lot of things make me smile.  The most obvious answer would be me kids.  Not true on all days, but the vast majority of them find me smiling at something pertaining to them.  Beyond the obvious, Michelle usually gets me laughing, or we get each other laughing.  I’m not sure who starts it most of the time, but it’s always funny.  My husband makes me smile/laugh.  He does some of the most ridiculous things and has gotten himself in some real predicaments that I can only smile and shake my head at.  Most of those things end up with him being stuck someplace… stuck in the basement, stuck in the crawl, stuck in the attic, stuck in a floor vent.  Leads me to think Denny has a self-image problem.  One that makes him think he is a little person maybe.  All those things make me smile.  That is a pretty good list after the night I’ve had, way to go me.

It is supposed to be hot today, with a high of 87 degrees.  I’m sensing an air conditioning day.  I’m not a big fan of hot.  I try to stick in the lower part of the house and work on things there as its cooler, and if the windows are open I leave the attic fan on most of the day.  I LOVE that attic fan.  Really, I love it.  All houses should have them in my opinion.  It brings a real nice breeze up through the hallway.   We’ll see how long I can stick it out, the heat I mean before I break down and turn it on.

I hope to get my second layout done for the DT contest today.  Dylan spent the night at my parents house so it will be just Shelby and I so we’ll see how it goes.  Wish me luck.

Ok I’m off to start my day and do my hair before I take Ethan to school.  I can’t go like this, I may scare some poor innocent child!  Yikes is all I can say.

~j

Ok I finally finished that layout that has been sitting here giving me the stare down since the holiday weekend. What a work of art huh? By far NOT my best work. But I needed to get it done. I set it aside to create an altered clock for Ethan’s teacher as a thank you gift. I figured if I took a break things would get better. Well, it didn’t work out that way, but, well, uhhh, they can’t all be masterpieces right?

The chipboard letters that I used to spell silly are from Rusty Pickle. I’m not even sure if they sell them in a kit or what. Last year at CHA in Chicago (it will be a year in July) one of the gals at Rusty Pickle (Hi Jen!) gave me a Sales Rep Package. In the pack was a pretty large stash of chipboard letters. Those are from that bag. I’ve been working out of that same bag ever since Jen gave them to me. The supply is running a little low and I’m going to have to see if I can get my hands on some more. (Note to self - Email her and see where I can find some more. ) Cute aren’t they? Anyway, I painted these ones with a Ranger Paint Dabber, outlined them a bit with a glitter pen, and then applied a coat of diamond glaze. Who doesn’t love Diamond Glaze???

Another little tip from me… You all know how I feel about the entire line of Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L products. Well, the EZ Dots are the perfect, yes I said perfect, adhesive to apply the neww Queen & Company Felt Ribbon!! I cut the black flower the adorns the corner of the top photo on my layout out of the felt ribbon and used the EZ Dots to adhere. AWESOME. No liquid mess and the bond is great. If you haven’t picked any up yet, give it a try. They have packed 49 feet of adhesive in that handy little dispenser - seriously - so you get a good bang for your buck also! Plus the dispenser is green, and I just like green.

I’m supposed to be cleaning right now. I told myself that was going to be my job for today. Housework kinda stuff… cleaning, dinner prep, laundry etc. It’s 11:30ish here… so I’m close to lunch, and I haven’t gotten a lot done. I did some minor picking up here and there, and I scanned and stitched the layout I posted today. That really about covers it. I need to get some stuff done! I’m not sure what my problem is. I think I’m just focused on Ethan’s party this weekend, and waiting for that to happen. It is a big deal for him, he gets all excited, and the planning that goes into it is fairly extensive. All of which is totally ruined if it rains, so I’ll be freaking out about that until the last possible minute. This is the second year for it, and last year I had game/activity stations that we rotated through. This year, for the sake of my sanity, we rented an inflatable slide/moonwalk combo which I figure will do 90% of the entertaining and the cotton candy machine will do the other 10%. I called to confirm the rental Monday and the guy is throwing in a carnival game on top of the other rental stuff so that will handle any overflow entertainment need that might arise. All in all I think I have it all covered for now. That is unless it rains - yikes.

I’ve been going over in my head lately what I am going to create for my DT application at thescrapbookstand.com. I already created my altered item, but I need to do some cards and layout type projects too. I have ideas swirling around up there, so hopefully I’m able to execute one of them before the deadline. I’ve been hanging out here and there on their forum and they started up a blog challenge. They are on challenge three as of today and I’m a bit behind due to all the school stuff I’ve been helping out with, and the class I had last night. I signed on to participate though, so here it goes… time to play catch up.

Blog My Biggest Fear: Off the top of my head I’m not sure what my biggest fear is. Honestly! I’m not afraid of an awful lot of things really. I’m good with spiders, and confrontation as needed. That covers a broad range of things doesn’t it? Hmm, so as I sit here racking my brain trying to think of something, uhh, I’m coming up empty. I’m not a big fan of IV’s… does that count? That was disappointing wasn’t it?

A Quote with Meaning: One of the other challenges was to publish a quote that means something to you and why it is meaningful to you. Well my quote, which I posted in my banner a week or two ago when I did my most recent “blog revamp” is one uttered by the infamous Katherine Hepburn…

If you obey all the rules,
you miss all the fun.
- Katherine Hepburn

That is so true for the most part. I’m not telling you to go rob a bank, lol, but I think most of us need a little reminder to let our hair down and have some fun. I can be a pretty serious person, and unless you know me pretty well, you don’t get a lot of my silly side, and my dry sense of humor can be lost on some people. I have several pieces of art in my kitchen and dining area that are kinda silly and out there. I’ve had people that don’t know me really well in a social scene and they see those and comment how it really gives them an insight into who I really am. (Apparently you find out a lot about people by the art they choose to hang in their house. I imagine ones underwear drawer could be pretty revealing too. )

I think that gets me caught up. See, that wasn’t so bad.

Ok now I really must get moving here!!

~j

Today is/was Roadrunner day so I went to school with Ethan today to help out.  The day is filled with both outside and inside activities.  No rain, so it was a success.  It is still going on now, but I had to come home to get a break.  I spent the afternoon there yesterday helping with a scrapbook project for Father’s Day also, so I’ve had my fill.  I left halfway through the carnival games and just before Karaoke.  I can’t picture Ethan doing the singing thing, so I don’t think I missed too much.  I don’t know how teachers do it.  Really!!  I give them all the credit in the world.  It is such in important job, and I don’t think they get enough appreciation for it.  I had to come home anyway to get things packed up for class tonight.  I’m teaching the altered clock so I had to gather up all my goodies to take with me.  I’m really beat and if I was the napping type, I would have taken one.  For some reason I feel like I’m in a zombie state today.

Yes I know this is a sorry blog post, but like I said… I’m a zombie, lol.  Off to class I go. The post for tomorrow will be better… I promise!

~j

IMG_2334

Originally uploaded by jendera

School is almost out. June 8th is Ethan’s last day. I’m sure I’ll change my tune about a month or so from now, but I’m excited for vacation. The downtime sounds so fantastic right about now. Anyway, with the end of the school year comes a tradition we started last year (after Kindergarten). We host a party for all the kids in Ethan’s class. Last year we has game stations, cotton candy, water balloons and the like. This year we rented the cotton candy machine again (can’t go without that) and a large inflatable slide/moonwalk combo. I’m not sure who is more excited, Denny or the kids. That cotton candy machine sure brings out the inner carnival worker in him. *wink* Looking at the forecast for next week it looks like it might rain, so keep your fingers crossed. I have no clue what I’m going to do with the kids if it rains. No backup plan here.

So I still haven’t finished that layout that I’ve had sitting here looking at me since last weekend. I did add a flower to it yesterday, lol. Big progress I know. Maybe today I’ll get a burst of inspiration. I might just set it aside for a couple days as I need to get the gift for Ethan’s teacher completed. I’d like to have it done by Monday.

There is a car cruise here today in Mt. Clemens. Hopefully we can make it over there in the Plymouth. Again, the rain threatens my plans. Stupid rain. Denny has been working on that car for YEARS and last year he got it done and really just spent some of the winter tweaking it here and there. So today would really be the first real cruise out in it in several years!

I’m off to my Grandmas here in a little bit. I need to pick up a paper rack that I’ve been storing in her basement and pick up some fresh fish. Yummy.

Later!
~j

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