The run down… I am pleased to say that my Crocs finally shipped yesterday. I’m sure you all care. And the eye doctor trip with Ethan yesterday was totally fruitless. I was told it the tic was not eye related and that I should take him to a pediatric neurologist. So that is the next stop on my list. Uh, what else… hmmm nothing really. I’m prepping for cards a bit today and as of my last count I need to go get more envelopes. Wonder if they are open on the weekend??

This weekend is full of fun for me. I have a manicure/pedicure with my mom tomorrow at Olympia Salon and Spa. It is a Mothers Day treat from my mom. She says I’m the mother of her grandchildren so she was taking me out. I’m really looking forward to it. Denny asked what I wanted for Mothers Day and I told him fondue and my scrap room cleaned. So tonight we go for fondue at the Fondue Room. I love gong there. It takes a long time to eat fondue and thats a good time to catch up with Denny. The kids are going to my in laws so we can go alone. Sunday my mom is coming over as is my grandma for our annual Mothers Day thing. We have the men order us pizza and thats about it. LOL Well none of us can cook – it’s Mothers Day, duh!

I really need to go to the grocery store before we all starve over here, and I thought about it today, but I didn’t really feel like it. Thus, I didn’t, ha ha.

[photopress:IMG_4455smaller.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Ethan had one of his friends over from school the other day. She is such a nice kid! Ethan just adores her, and frankly so do I. Denny and I took all the kids to Pump It Up and they had a blast as they always do. They get a ton of exercise and just wear themselves out. Denny likes to get in on the action too and starts bouncing around in the inflatables too. I snapped this photo of Ethan and his friend while they were waiting for the place to open. They were actually nice enough to open it just for us. That was pretty cool!!

Ok I’m going to have to pack everyone us here in a minute to go get Ethan from school. On nice days we walk there and then I don’t have to leave so early to get in the car pick up line. Have a great weekend, and enjoy Mother’s Day!!

~j

[photopress:outletsp.jpg,full,alignright] So a couple of years ago I started seeing Crocs pop up all over the place at trade shows. Now, they are everywhere. I broke down and bought a pair last summer and now I have several different styles. I have a pair suitable for each season I think. I love them and I can’t say enough about how comfortable they are and easy to maintain. I’m on my feet a lot and I chase after three kids, and again, I can’t say enough about these shoes. That being said, at the moment I’m pretty cheesed off at Crocs. I ordered one of the new Spring release shoes on the 24th of April. A few days later I got an email saying there were out of stock. So I called and said just to replace the color I ordered with something that was in stock. So that was all taken care of on the 30th. Yet here I sit on May 10th waiting for my shoes. I’ve called several times now, including today, and was told at least the last three times that they were shipping that day. As of the call I made today they still have not shipped and all I get is the run around. One person will they me they are out of stock, and then come back to the line to tell me oh maybe they are in stock. Bottom line, I don’t have my shoes, and not a single person at Crocs seems to be able to tell me why.  If I log in tomorrow morning and they still haven’t shipped I am really going to hit the roof.  Ok rant over..

Ethan has an eye appointment today.  I have terrible eyesight, and I have ever finger I have crossed that he does not have the same issue.  It is actually another issue entirely that has be taking him in.  My little Ethan has had this facial tic with his left eye for years.  That being said, it is something that seems to come and go.  I’d say he has gone a good 6 months or so with no tic at all.  However, now they are back, BAD.  We went up to the school a week or two ago and his teacher actually commented about it, so I figure it is time to take him in.  Frankly I wasn’t really sure where to start so I thought the eye doctor might be a good starting point.  So that is where we are headed today.  The fact that he could use an eye exam is just gravy if you know what I mean.  Anyway, I’m not sure what will come of it, if anything at all.  I’ve been doing to research on it and I’ve read that some children just have a childhood tic and that for the most part it is something that they grow out of.  I don’t know what to think of it.

Ok I’m off to get Ethan from school soon.  Wish us luck!

~j

      card4, originally uploaded by jendera.

So I’m having what I’d describe as a manic day. I have a list of things to do. I always have a list. However, I can’t seem to get myself motivated to do any of it, but at the same time I’m pacing the house trying to think of something to do. I just can’t seem to get into the groove today. I “wanted” to get some cards done today for class, but I can’t seem to get beyond the base part of the card. I think I want to diecut something for the top of it, but frankly I don’t feel like getting the cutter set up to do it. Nice huh? I’ve got a ton of things I could be doing really, but hardly any of it will get done I’m sure. I want to clean my studio, really I do. Yet, somehow I don’t see that happening. So that takes me back to making my list, which I probably all I will get done today.

I am slowly cleaning out some of my stuff I don’t need around here. I posted some paper racks on CraigsList the other day and one was picked up today. That felt good to get one out of here. On that note if anyone needs any of them, I have a ton to get rid of. They are $40.00 each, cash and carry lol. I still have two more sitting in the house, several more in the shed and a basement full at my Grandmas house. So I should probably make more of an effort to get rid of them. I’m getting tired of cleaning around them really.

I went to a 14 hour crop on Saturday at Little Scrapbox in celebration of NSD. A good time was had by all, but I only finished 5 layouts, one of which I am REALLY not happy with, the other four, well I have one that I really like, and another the is a close second. Again I found myself having trouble getting into my groove. I’m not sure what is up with me lately. I must have too many things on my mind and it seems to be blocking my creative mo-jo.

The computer nerd in me did get some things done last week. I decided to download Mozilla Firefox internet browser. Holy cow, what a difference. It works SO MUCH better that Internet Explorer. If you have the ability to give Firefox a test drive, I’d suggest you do. I may never go back and I’ve been using IE for a very long time. Anyway, give it a try.

Ok so todays image is one of my cards for the May Card Club. If you can make it I’d love to see you! As usual we will be doing 12 cards with envelopes. Just about everything is precut, and prestitched, etc. Class is May 22nd at 6:30 at Little Scrapbox. Come check it out!

That about covers it for today. Have a good one!!

~j

  

   bubbles, originally uploaded by jendera.

Well today is Ethan’s Fish Day at school. His school celebrates children each year individually for displaying what they call “fishyness.” They have a philosophy there called the fish philosophy and its all about caring for others, etc. Anyway, Ethan’s celebration is today and he is pretty excited. Michelle is nice enough that she said she could watch Dylan and Shelby while I go to the school. I’m not sure if Denny will make it or not, but I’ll be there and so will my Mom and Dad.

In other big news I let Ethan walk to school today, kinda. We are the third house down from the school, but I usually drive him or walk with him. Today he really wanted to do it himself. He wanted to ride his bike like the other kids, but we don’t have a chain to lock it up and frankly I don’t think I trust him to be cautious enough to ride his bike there. Anyway, so I walked him to the first house next to the school and let him go the rest of the way by himself. One of the other mothers was about 2 feet in front of him with her triplets taking them to school so I was ok with that. Anyone who knows me knows that I”m a little on the freakish side when it comes to the kids being out of my sight or far enough away that I can’t grab them if I needed to. Anyway so both of us had an exciting morning.

So onto today’s layout. I got one of the EK Success Cutterflys about a week or two ago. I call it the scrapbookers swiss army knife. The thing is packed with tools. I used the rotary cutter to cut the cutter on the piece of printed paper and then stuck it to the cardstock. The line of brads all the way down the side are the mini sprinkles by Queen & Company. I love the way those things look, but the backs are really hard to get apart and those suckers are SHARP. I wounded myself several times. But it sure looks cool, lol. The title is done with American Crafts Thickers. These ones are a foam like texture and puffy. I cut the circles with the new Circle Scissor Plus by EK Success. This one is an improvement over the last edition, but there are still some tweaks that need to be attended to. The little dashes are done with a Sharpie White Paint Pen.

Well that’s all for for now. I need to get the kids ready to hit the road, then off to Ethan’s Starfish Day.

~j

  

   funtobe4, originally uploaded by jendera.

Ok so I don’t know who said it first, but where did the “terrible twos” concept come from? So far my kids have never experienced it and I only have one left and she will hit 2 years in July, so I’ll know soon enough. However, that being said, when Ethan turned 4 there was a lot of screaming and hairy fits being had around here, and now that Dylan has hit four we have the same problem. I have a theory, and I’m not sure how much water it holds, but maybe it is a communication/frustration issue. I like to think that the problem stems from not having enough words to best explain thier feelings at that age, and thus frustration and anger is the result. If that isn’t the case, well, maybe they just become posessed at that age, and don’t return to normal behavior until 5 years old.

At any rate, Dylan has been difficult to say the least over the last month or so. As usual Dylan has his moments. He really is one of the most sensitive and caring kids. He shows genuine concern for others, and can’t stand to see anyone, or anything hurt. We stopped at an Auto Salvage place today and he was very upset to see the damaged cars and trucks. “Aww, poor truck!” he said. Cute. Anyway he can go from sweet to total CRAB in under a minute I swear. Anyone else experience this, the 4 year old crazy behavior I mean? If you have suggestions, I’m open to them! Hopefuly this will pass, just as it did with Ethan.

We spent the day today going all over town looking for a specific part for Denny’s truck. It turned out to be a wild goose chase and out of all the driving and time spent, we got nothing done. It seemed all day that for every step forward we took two steps back. I don’t think I’ve had a day like today in a very long time, if I’ve ever had one at all. I’m glad it is over, but we still don’t have the part we need.

On to the layout. I did this last week using mostly My Mind’s Eye products. I seem to be a big fan of thiers lately. Even the buttons are a MME product. I actually used almost an entire package of the MME buttons on this project, lol. I think I had five left out of the whole bottle. The rest is all stickers, paper, and a rubon. I did machine stich the cardstock. The text in the title is all custom die cut from cardstock.

Ok I’m off. I’m beat and the pillow calls. Have a great night!

~j

  

   lilpiggies, originally uploaded by jendera.

Ok it seems like I am always saying how busy I am. I’m glad the week is over, lets put it that way. I’m so pooped I have decided not to go crop at all this weekend. I know, you’re shocked. Grandma was in the hospital most of the week (Saturday-Wednesday), Monday my dryer broke again, class Tuesday, two field trips and two doctors appointments. Ack! See I told you I was busy. Today was catch up for me as my house is was a disaster area, and it seems I haven’t done anything around here in far too long. So I washed the floors and all that good stuff. At least I managed to get the part for the dryer, so that is all back to normal. That thing seems to break all the time. It is only about 6 years old and it has broke at least 3 times now. It defense of Maytag, I do a lot of laundry, but still, aren’t dyers supposed to go on ages??

I’ll be typing up supply lists shortly and I’m in the process of uploading some photos to have printed. I haven’t gotten any done since school started, lol. So I’ll be uploading for awhile. I’ve printed a few here and there at home and at Little Scrapbox for projects, but really that’s it since September.

So the layout I”m posting today is really simple. I used just about an entire package of Prima Whispers with the jewels. I really like those, a lot of embellishing power, yet it doesn’t take away from the photo at all. If you have yet to see them in person they are fabric like and outlines with a puffy paint of sorts. I adhered them with PhotoTape by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and hid that with the jewels.

Also one of my new favorite tools, and I do have a lot of them lately, is the scrabbles template by Sweetwater. If you happen to be doodle challenged like me, this is the tool for you. It is really just a collection of templates but the selection is great and them come on this handy little ring. Cute and useful!

That is about it for now. Time to move on to the next thing on my to do list….

~j

  

   2peas, originally uploaded by jendera.

Ok I’ve been super busy and I know I’ve been neglecting the good old blog. I do have an excuse though… classes! It takes a long time to prepare for classes. Cards for example. I like to have everything cut for students, and even inked if I have the time. Anyway, all that takes time, and a lot of it. So thus the lack of posts. I’m full of excuses.

It is finally nice out here. I’m guessing it is in the mid 70’s, and sunny. Weather like this makes me happy and hopefully it holds out though tomorrow so that I can spend some time outside with my family. We plan to work in the yard and I’d like to get some flowers planted in the yard. Cross your fingers for me!

I did this layout a few days ago and I love how it turned out. It is really very minimal on embellishments but I don’t think it really needs anything else. I painted the “2″ with a Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabber. Those are super handy and I’m slowly collecting them in each color available. Each one is equipped with a built in applicator and if you want to paint freely just remove the cap and dip your brush. The jewels are Prima as is the flower accent. The printed paper is Basic Grey. Anyway I really like how it turned out. It helps to have a cute photo though!

Get out and enjoy your Saturday!!

~j

  

   timepiece, originally uploaded by jendera.

First let me start this post by saying how sorry I am for all of those involved in the VA Tech tragedy. I know we are all asking “why?” and are trying to wrap our minds around how something senseless like this happens. Charlie GIbson mentioned a book yesterday entitled “Bad Things Happen to Good People” and I think that might just sum it up. Sometimes there are no answers or reasons, some things just happen that we can’t control.

Frankly, nothing else seems all that important to say today other than the expressing sorry for the VA Tech students, faculty, and families. So, as for the image posted…

I created this clock (pictured) the other day for a class. I used a wax resist technique that I like, and I’ll be covering it in class.

~j

  

   sweet, originally uploaded by jendera.

Ok, I have really had enough of this now. I mean really, how can it still be snowing on Easter. The photos in this layout were taking at least years egg hunt. Notice Shelby is wearing short sleeves. We didn’t go this year. It really doesn’t sound like fun doing it in 23 degrees and hunting for eggs in the snow. URGH!

Anyway this layout is one of the projects for the Flower Power for the Girls class I have coming up in May at Little Scrapbox. This is one page of two. All the layouts are two pages, but I find I’m better off to only show one before class. Also I only show one page sample. This one won’t be on display until the night of class. It is pretty hard to tell here in the scan, but the flowers around the one edge are cut from another piece of paper. I can’t give away all my secrets, but they are dimensional. *wink*

Ok so Ethan started asking about the Easter Bunny last night… “Is the Easter Bunny real?” We kinda of glazed over the question. Well today he was on the phone with my Mom and told her that the Easter Bunny wasn’t real and that Mom and Dad go to the store and buy the stuff and put it in the baskets. Ethan is 7, and turned 7 in February, so he is a young 7! Is this normal?? I’m thinking someone at school must have made reference to it, and that’s where all this is coming from. Either way, I don’t like it.

Ok, on a brighter note, the Easter Bunny brought Sea Monkeys! If you don’t know what a Sea Monkey is you must have grown up under a rock, lol. SO we filled the tank with water this morning and in 24 hours we dump in the eggs and wait for the hatching to begin. I had Sea Monkeys when I was a kid. I used to get them at the Dime Store, so this is very exciting for me, lol.

That about sums it up! I hope everyone had a great Easter.

~j

    

   snow 2005, originally uploaded by jendera.

So it is April 5th and guess what… there is a layer of snow on the ground! Ugh. Really, this is a cruel joke. Frankly fresh snow in April is disturbing on so many different levels. I’m not a big fan of snow, or cold. However that is the COLD reality of Michigan, shorts one day, snow pants the next.

So why am I still here? Well my family is here. 99% of my family anyway, and all of my immediate family. It would be really hard for me to leave my Mom and my Dad. I’ve only been close with my Dad for about the last ten years or so. Well as close as two people like us can be. We aren’t “feelings” type of people if you know what I mean. I’m not a hugger, or a snuggler, and it kinda freaks me out to tell him I love him, but he knows I do. My Mom and I are close, kinda buddy close, and I’m happy about that. She knows how I feel about the whole hugging thing, lol, but apparently sometimes she just can’t help herself. I forgive her. *wink* Anyway, she knows I love her too. Anyway, like I said it would be a hard thing for me to leave, and unless I really had no choice, I’d stay put. Snow and all…

Which brings me to this layout. That’s Ethan with my Dad, sledding obviously. Those two big time buddies, and Ethan is all about his PaPa. I think my Dad would do just about anything for that kid, including back breaking labor like pulling that kid up a hill. I don’t think I’d do it, lol, of course I don’t do snow. (This coming from an ex-downhill skier… long story.) Anyway, I started this layout, uhh, in 2005 probably and I finished it maybe a month ago. No, it wasn’t this big tricky thing, but I put it away, and well, didn’t get back to it for awhile. That’s what happens if I don’t finish something in one sitting, I just loose interest. So this simple page took me a couple years, lol.

I really have to finish a page kit 2 page spread today. I have one side complete, but just printed the photos for the other side last night. So I must get to that today and I might even start it here in a few minutes. Kids are sleeping, it is just now 6:15 am, so I have some time yet, might as well get it done! I should put in a load of laundry too. Notice I said should.

Here is to Ginger for helping me out the other day. I just love her. She is a REAL person, not one of those all fluff kind that just says what she thinks you want to hear. Her baby girl just turned one, and has a full head of hair. I’m jealous of the hair. The one year old part, not so much. Shelby is so much fun right now that I can hardly stand it. The expressions and the cute little “bye bye” with her waving away, well she just cracks me up. However, a little more hair to work with would be nice. Dylan insists hair grown with water and that I should put Shelby in the shower and water her like we water flowers.

~j