Easter Hilarity (2008)

in case you can't see...DS on the left is basically choking himself with the "egg tongs" (whatever they are called) while inspecting them.

Erica Hite Chic Embroidery (not just for girls!) & solids
Erica Hite In Stitches Emb. Templates
Melissa Renfro Well Loved
Syndee Nuckles Noteworthy (nest)
Keri Schueller Going Postal Frames
Hansa font
Journaling: No Michaels were harmed during the inspection of the egg tongs! And thank goodness the eggs were hard-boiled since Christopher kept trying to crack his egg on Michael’s head.

Have some Daffodils with your Blizzard

Well we had blizzard warnings here in Iowa today...and by the looks of things out our window, it probably was blizzard conditions out in the country! Very powdery snow plus 35+ mph winds, not a good combination for visibility.

Anyway, here is another scraplift...Charlene J of scrapgirls did a layout of her Swiss Chard, and I couldn't resist doing the same with our daffodils last spring. So if you are, like me, in need of a bright flowery lift to your gray and blizzardy day, here you go:)


Supplies:
Valerie Randall Avalon and Annwyn
Selfish font

Magnolias (a little dose of spring in the fall)

Since we scrappers are rarely working in the current season, here's a little dose of spring in the fall. This one goes out to those who think flowers don't belong on boy pages...to that I say PPPPPPPPPPPPPTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (or however you'd spell it!)

I really cannot claim any piece of this layout as my own (and the original was done for a boy's page too!)...This is a hook-line-and-sinker type scraplift from Thao Cosgrove at Scrapgirls for their Eternal Spring collection. I substituted Kristin Aagard's "Love in Paris" (recolored) font for the title and Raspberry Road's "Cherry Limeade" rickrack. And the photo is by DH:) It was a bit too sunny to be optimal, and of course by the time the lighting was better, Michael was asleep. So I have better pics of Christopher and me by another magnolia later that day, but wanted Michael in the layout as well.

TFL,
Cheri

Mayfest at Preschool

A week ago we celebrated Mayfest at Christopher's Waldorf preschool. Since I don't have permission to post all the children's pictures, I'll give you a sprinkling of what I can. I came early with the boys to set up for the scavenger hunt. I was on the festivities planning group this year, and managed to combine digital scrapbooking with my duties (heehee).



I sweet-talked Amy in to making the May cake since no one on the planning committee seemed to have any experience baking large cakes from scratch. I think she pulled it off quite nicely (with some decorating assistance from Sydney)...see center of top collage.

Besides the scavenger hunt, there were various fun activities for the kids. One father and his boy made a beanbag toss, someone brought various musical instruments and allowed the children to experiment (M loved the guitar), there was a recorder ensemble led by one of the teachers, one mom played the drums with them, and her older children later played a violin duet, sack race, 3-legged race, dancing around the Maypole (of course), making and embellishing May crowns, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. At the end of the evening one father brought their fire pit and the few families who stayed late sat around talking and perhaps roasting hot dogs.

I don't think I've ever had such a great dinner...lots of organic, lots of vegetarian, lots of yummy dishes including curried fish. I have had 3 or 4 different curry dishes before and have never liked the flavor at all, but this fish was AWESOME! I totally need the recipe:)

Waldorf has an emphasis on natural, especially outdoors, play. There is a wooden hilly area behind the preschool, complete with a hollow log, a teepee, and a tree for climbing. Several of the children ran amok up there much of the evening. At least twice when we couldn't find Michael, he was up there by himself, roaming around. The other time, we found him in one of the Sunday School rooms (ie. not part of the preschool places of the church) with Charley, playing with the toys.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! More pictures from last weekend...I've always wanted good pictures of magnolia blooms, so we did some photo shoots after church (the bright sunny picture with both kids) and after our excursion to the park (see last post) on the shady side of the Medical Arts Building here in town. Much better lighting, but Michael was asleep in the van (parked about 5 feet from where Jeff took C's and my picture).

We spent yesterday evening with Jeff's parents and sister/brother-in-law/niece for Mother's Day. The boys always enjoy Grandma & Grandpa's house, especially when cousin Lucy is there to play with. They all crawled around in their makeshift "cave" under the dining room table. And it seems I will be an aunt again...HURRAY!:) Late November! Seeing as how I only had one chance to be an aunt (I'm an only child and Jeff only has one sibling), I'm super happy:)

Today the boys and I went to Sunday School, then home to finish packing up to head out for Great-Grandma & Grandpa's house in rural SW Iowa. My parents met us there. First, at home after SS: C made me a card at SS, then Jeff had a card AND a Roomba ...well I'd love a housekeeper, but this is the next-best thing!:) Michael loved it, but then again, he IS certifiably obsessed with "vacuumies" :) We left it cleaning while we headed out to G & G's.

The boys ran amok on the farm (pictures to come when I get them off the card) with Jeff along for the ride. They pretended to go fishing in the boat Steve & Chris have parked at the farm, they crawled around in the granary, they "drove" the tractor in the shed, they petted The Cat, they played in the house, and I-don't-know-what-else! They were very busy little boys:) We had a wonderful visit and a great meal full of plenty of desserts for Christopher. (Hey, he likes his veggies too).

The only thing that would have made it a better day...a nice sound-proof divider between the front and back seats in the van:) I like their sweet chatter, but the occasional squabble and annoying rhyme that goes on for 15 minutes, I could do without. ;) Btw, aren't men supposed to talk less than women?! Christopher didn't get that memo...

McFarland Park Fun

We had a BLAST last weekend at McFarland Park's festival/open house! We've gone to almost all of them over the years (at least since Christopher was a toddler), but this was the first time the weather cooperated and they had the canoes out. Christopher was SO excited to ride in a canoe (just like Daddy when he goes camping!) and Michael had a super fun time too.

C & M even "helped" paddle, we saw a turtle sunning itself on a log in the lake, big snails in the shallow water, Michael almost fell asleep in the boat, then rallied for another 2 hours while we did most of the other activities. Foster Brown was there...he sings the coolest, cutest nature songs for children. We bought his CD and especially Michael loves it. We dredged the edge of the lake with nets and dumped our finds in a bucket to see what we caught...beetle larvae, snails, etc. Christopher wanted to walk around the lake, we made "walking sticks" at one of the craft stations, did most of the scavenger hunt, and ended back up at the stage area for our 5th or 6th bag of popcorn and 2nd frog-shaped sugar cookie and 3rd or 4th glass of lemonade. At this point, Michael was running around with Gray and Christopher (our friends came a little after we did), and M came up to me, looked up, and said, "Go home, Mommy" in this sweet, I'm going to fall asleep RIGHT here voice. Yeah, he was asleep pretty much before we backed out of the parking lot. Ooh, and Michael's arms weren't really long enough to dredge the lake with the net, but he really wanted to do it MYSELF!!!!...so he stepped up to his hip in the lake with one leg. :) Thank goodness for diaper bags and spare clothes, but who knew to bring spare shoes? He had to squish around for almost an hour, but didn't seem to mind in the least.

Oh, and I'm really glad this was last week when the weather was so beautiful, b/c MAN was it cold and windy this morning!

Home Decor

This was based on a project I saw a long time ago in CK magazine.
Carrie's Creations cutting files used:
Playful Banners: Frills CS00167
Easter Titles CS00191
(Can be purchased at Paper Threads

This is probably sacrilegious, but I cut the bunny ears and chick beaks by hand, and used the circle tool in RoboMaster to make the oval shapes.

Supplies:
Paper: Basic Grey, Printworks, Imaginisce, Karen Foster, Sweetwater, Reminisce, and Bazzill.
Zig and Slick Writer pens
Prima flowers
Ribbon: May Arts, Offray, and unknown
Brads: Making Memories
Button: Making Memories

I have NEVER used my cutter this much before!

Creative Team News!

I'm happy to report I am now on the design team for Carrie's Creations! Carrie designs awesome files for cutting machines including my beloved CraftRobo. This is an excellent excuse to get the cutter running more! Here's my first installment, using her very cute chick file.

Layout description: My cousin and I holding Grandpa Charlie's chicks and kittens in 1976. I'm not sure if you can see, but the little chick's leg is down in between my hands, and in the other, it looks like I'm practically choking the poor kitten...good thing Gpa is there to help!
Supplies: Reminisce shimmery chicks background paper
KI Memories blue bird paper
Bo Bunny striped paper
May Arts & American crafts ribbon
chenille fuzzy rick rack from sewing store
Memory Makers buttons
twine for button thread
Slick Writer pen
AL Serenade font for title
Color Box ink
layout based on a Becky Fleck sketch
TFL!

Incidentally, usually I just photograph my paper layouts in natural light and crop. For the design team, I made the extra effort to scan (in 4 pieces mind you, to get every tiny edge) and stitch together...may I just say Photoshop is AWESOME! It has an automated feature allowing you to effortlessly (more or less) stitch together panoramics and things like scanned SB pages!:) Worth its weight in gold anyday, lol.

Here's what I came up with for the autumn iris pictures I showed a couple weeks ago.
Journaling: When I purchased iris a couple years ago I purposely ordered two rebloomers in hopes that every once in awhile, the first hard frost would come late enough for me to see them again in the fall. Last year they sent up blooms in the fall but it froze before they opened. This year we enjoyed beautiful iris for a couple of weeks in the spring AND the fall.
What a rare treat! Oct/Nov 2007
Supplies:
TKA_AutumnGold FallWords special
TCS_Earthen Vessel paper 04 (recolored periwinkle)
CFR_LPO Spring Color paper special (plaid)
TCS_Naturescapes raffia
BHA_Stylize alpha and alpha mini
MRE_Sparkle Curls
BHA_RetroAllGirl alpha
(all from www.scrapgirls.com)
This was in response to a challenge to use the gold words background paper, which I blended with another newsletter freebie paper from last spring (to blend spring with fall, get it?:)

TFL!
Cheri

A couple years ago I ordered several iris from a catalog in search of a particular one I remembered from growing up. I did actually find one that fit the bill, and I also purposely ordered a couple "rebloomers" in hopes that every once in awhile the first killing frost would occur late enough for them to rebloom. Now mind you, I don't want global warming, just a normal, late frost every once in awhile, lol.
So this was my year...I took these pics in our front yard last week, and I'll be darned if they aren't STILL blooming today. It's gotten down to twenty-eight-ish degrees a couple mornings but iris are hardy spring/fall flowers and apparently that doesn't faze them. I purposely stood on my head and not-so-purposely snagged a new shirt getting the second pic shooting up toward our beautiful maple tree with its red leaves to remind myself that these, in fact, were autumn-blooming iris.
My friend Janet, scrapbooker and teacher extraordinaire, and fellow blogger http://ofcatsandcardstock.blogspot.com/ has tagged me:

You've been tagged!
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog -- we all want to know them).
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm actually not going to tag specific people, so if the spirit moves you, please consider yourself tagged! Post a comment here so we can zip over to your blog to read your 7 random and/or weird facts!

1. I am trying to learn Spanish, mostly on my own. It would really help out at Free Clinic and I love foreign languages. Honestly, if I could go back in time and have the resources available in the small town in which I grew up, I would want to be fluent in English, Spanish, French, AND Italian...I think Italian is the most beautiful language on earth.
   
2. I have now been volunteering virtually every Thursday night for 6 years at Ames Free Clinic as a physician assistant/PA.
3. If we lived in a community with a Waldorf school, I would almost go into the poor house if necessary to put my children in it.
4. I have more expensive things than ever before on my Christmas list this year...new laptop, new camera...well maybe, and I want to finish the half of the basement we actually use. I would love to be able to look up from scrapbooking and see a lovely color and artwork on the walls instead of the current poured foundation. Grey striped concrete is not really very inspiring. I was amazed to learn that my friend Rosalie has even more expensive items on her list, though, including a new van and a new HOUSE, not just basement, heehee. Maybe I can use her as leverage to convince Jeff to finish our basement, hehehe.
5. I'm running out of ideas, and as I told Janet, none of my seven items will be nearly as exciting/scary as hers...so I'm going to borrow the one of hers I can...my toenails are almost always polished, though my fingernails NEVER are. I simply do not like my thumbs and don't wish to call attention to them. I fully expect that y'all will check them out the next time you see me, oh well.
6. My tastes in music are rather eclectic, as pointed out to me years ago when Jeff and I were "just" dating...he saw in my car, CDs of Aerosmith, Tears for Fears, and Madonna next to each other. Basically I like anything, including classical, except country and rap/hip-hop. I can even sing you a rousing rendition of "Thomas the Tank Engine" :P
7. I hate gardening, but love the end results, so I have a rather large perrennial garden. I also love fresh tomatoes and fresh pesto, so I grow our own tomatoes and basil in the summer.