A Little of This and That

Good morning!  I'm still blissfully on vacation up in the mountains, away from the 104F heatwave that has struck back home.  Even better, this afternoon/evening we are expecting monsoons! I LOVE monsoons! Monsoon season is my favorite "unofficial" season.  Something about the thunder echoing through the canyon, lightning bolting across the sky, rain pummeling down as if we were in Florida...  It's a wonderful thing. :)

Let's see. I've now been on my mini vacation for 9 days.  What have I accomplished?  HA! Not much!  Other than reading three books and a smattering of other little things.  I started a bit of back to school shopping (the online stuff) since I'm gone a big chunk of July and August. 

I've purchased a class set of clipboards! So excited to have these! I have always wanted a class set, but have never bitten the bullet and done it. Not I want to cutsie them up with some scrapbook paper and modge podge. I'll have to take pictures when I am done so you can see the finished product.

Oh, and I may have purchased one of these... I couldn't help it! I am one of those people who fortunately and unfortunately do not have access to my classroom and/or the school during the summer. It is closed.  They even take our keys!  I really want to get a head start on laminating some new centers, activities, etc before school starts (while I actually have time!) and I don't want to constantly be running to Lakeshore for laminating needs, so I bit the bullet and got a little laminater. And I am so excited!!! Who knew a laminater could make me so happy?!

While home in the mountains, I've been going on long motorcycle rides with my dad, shooting some pistols and rifles, trying to save our Mountain, and am gearing up for the Jazz Jubilee which kicks off this evening.  I'm helping our local Women's Club with their bake sale during the concert, which is always fun. I plan on spending the next couple of days at  the Jazz Jubilee soaking up some live music, dancing, and visiting with great friends.

My dad and I went out to the gun range a few days back to shoot up some cans and targets. So fun!  I definitely had the best shot of the day, annihilating a root beer can. The day before we went on a 100 mile motorcycle ride through the mountains. Heaven. :)

This was my Grandfather's pistol. The can was killed using a different pistol (9mm), but I forgot to get a picture! 

Our poor little mountain community has been traumatized over the last few weeks by the CEO deciding to shut it down for the summer AND next winter! Our town is in utter shock.  We had a huge town hall meeting on Tuesday evening (with around 300 in attendance!  There are only about 500 people IN this town!) that lasted for 3 1/2 hours discussing the closure, it's financial ramifications to the town and the county, and pretty much begged for the CEO to keep it open.  This could potentially be devastating to so many families and the economy up here. So sad! I grew up skiing on this mountain.

Meanwhile, our silent, quiet, sleepy little town has been humming with the sounds of helicopters, big trucks, security officers, and paparazzi due to a movie being filmed right by our house.  A little movie featuring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman.  I am thrilled they are filming here in JL, but I really could do without the film helicopter flying low over our houses at 6:30 in the morning. Mom and I took a walk down to the set the other day before filming commenced.  Here's what it looked like.

Oh, and on a random note, this was my view out the window when I was reading the other day.  I was not alone....

Monday it's back to reality. And the heat.  And air conditioners.  And my stamping room.  And back to school sales! (Though I usually try to avoid those until at least August. But I'm just so excited this year!  The temptation to shop is strong!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday on a Sunday

Good morning!  My card for today feels perfect.  Giving thanks... I am so thankful to be home with my family, soaking up the mountain air. I am thankful for toffee from Cathy's Candy.  I am thankful for home-cooked meals.  I am thankful for the cool breeze.  I am thankful that I get to see some old friends in just a few days.  So much to be thankful for!

I finished this card before I left town earlier this week, but saved it until now to post.  Nothing like submitting at the last moment! I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch, which, admittedly, had me thinking for a while. The sketch just felt lopsided to me...  It needed something in that bottom left corner to ground it, in my opinion.  And that's what got me thinking about this dp in particular. I love the flowers over the newsprint! It was perfect!  I added a little flower from Grateful Elegance (it only felt appropriate.  I mean it is named Grateful Elegance, after all.) by stamping directly onto Ocean Tides cardstock and adding some highlights with a copic marker.  Oh, and a little copic-colored jewel in the middle finished it off.


Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Give Thanks Plain Jane, Grateful Elegance
Paper- Ocean Tides, Dark Chocolate, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Lost & Found- Breeze dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, nestabilities, jewel, copic markers, dimensionals, tea dye stains, scallop edge punch

A Huge Celebration

I'm dropping in one more time today to share a huge giveaway happening over at Peace, Love, and Learning! It's her blogoversary and she has tons of goodies up for grabs! How can I not share and enter?!

If you are a teacher, make sure to stop by and check out her blog and the giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Sketch For You To Try

Good morning!  I really am not sure if I have missed the deadline for this sketch or not, but I thought I would play along anyways. It's been sitting, saved on my desktop for a few weeks and needed to be used on a card.  Leave it to me to save it until the last possible moment...

I pulled out some Authentique: Blissful dp and pulled my cardstock straight from the color palette. The flowers are my much underused Beautiful Blossoms #1 from Papertrey Ink. I love these flowers and yet I so seldom use them. I always forget about them, truthfully.  There are so many amazing flower stamps out there that I usually get sidetracked.  Tough problem, eh? ;)

I added some buttons as the flower centers, a whole lot of twine, and even an extra little strip of ruler dp across the middle. A couple tiny dots of glossy accents helped my twine stay where I wanted it to stay.

Hmmm... Yeah, submissions are closed. Darn! Oh well. That's what I get for procrastinating. ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Signature Greetings
Paper- Whisper White, Basic Black, Authentique: Blissful dp
Ink- Basic Black
Accessories- twine, buttons, nestabilities, beautiful blooms #1 die

Currently

If all has gone well, I'll be on the road or home in the mountains when you are reading this!  Hooray for escaping the summer heat and chilling in JL for a week. Or two.  I plan on reading, soaking up some sun, attending some fireworks, hitting the Jazz Jubilee, visiting some good friends, and cooking lots of food for the family.  It's always more fun to cook for more people than just myself. :)

I am joining up, for the first time, with Farley's Currently linky for July!  This is something I discovered through teaching blogs and it looked like so much fun, I couldn't resist this time around.

So, without further ado:

Yay! Sucess! It took me a few tries to get this to save as an image instead of a document. Ah, technology.

Listening- I am a Pandora addict. Broadway, Big Band, Film Scores.... Enough said. Oh, and I had my kids addicted to the "How to Train Your Dragon" soundtrack last year. :)

Planting my summer veggie garden is one of my most favorite things to do each spring. I usually plant during Spring Break, but life was a little crazy this year and I didn't end up planting until Memorial Weekend. I ended up purchasing slightly more mature plants that I normally would to help compensate for the late planting.

I am just now reaping the fruits of my labor!  Cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapeno, cilantro, tomatoes coming out of my ears!  Yum!  Add in some fruit from the farmer's market, and you have my daily summer lunch.

In addition to Pandora, I'm a bookaholic. I admit it.  I've been on summer break for a whole two and one half weeks and I have already finished eight books. Yup. Eight.  This girl is in heaven!


I am procrastinating the washing of the dishes. I don't want to do them. Nope.  Maybe if I ignore them long enough, they'll clean themselves?!

As for reads:
1- I absolutely love to read Junie B. Jones to my kiddos!  I usually bust them out around January (it takes everything within me not to do it earlier!).

 I selfishly read around three chapters every day (am I the only one who thinks read aloud is the BEST part of the day?!  This is the first thing I keep pushing the kids stamina for at the beginning of the year.  By January, I read alound for 20-30 minutes daily, and the kids usually beg for more!), do voices and the whole deal.  I love Junie B. Jones!

When we finish the series, the kids are always so sad and wonder if Barbara Park will write a second grade series. :)


2-  This is an oldie but a goodie. I read this during grad school and continue to read it every August before school starts.  It's just such solid, common sense advice that I need to be reminded of every fall. Those first few weeks are SO critical in setting up rules and procedures.  I'm going on year eight as a teacher and I plan on reading this again starting in a few weeks.  It's definitely my "beginning of the school year" go-to book!

Well, there you have it. My first Currently!

Thanks for stopping by!

Going Retro

Good afternoon!  I'm a little late posting today due to some serious sleeping in.  Oops! I think my late night on Saturday finally caught up with me.

How late, you ask?  Well, let's just say I didn't get home until 2:40. That's 2:40a.m.  Yikes!  And what was I doing on this late night?  Having fun at Disneyland, of course!  A dear friend and I met to take part in an annual passholders only event: An amazing showing and filming of World of Color using these amazing LED Mickey Ears!!!  They had some sort of wireless receiver in them and were synced up with the performance.  Imagine several thousand pairs of these ears all blinking, shutting off, glowing in synchronized colors all at the same time! It was amazing!  I have some video from my phone. I'll have to see if I can get it uploaded on here for you to see....

We left Disneyland around 12:40a.m., but wouldn't you know there was traffic on the way home! What normally takes 45 minutes to drive took two hours! Ugh!  Needless to say, I put some showtunes in my CD player and belting every world.  All the way home.

I {heart} summer break and not having to get up to go to work after a late night!

Well, on to the card.  I am playing along with a new sketch (to me, at least) that I have seen a bunch of people use over the last few weeks.  It's the Retro Sketch!  I loved the little ascending images on the sketch this week and was immediately seeing buttons in my mind.  And why not make them ascending rainbow buttons?!  This is most definitely a CAS card!  Easy to mass produce.  Super-fast assembly. Can you say 20 minutes flat?! Nice!  Most of that time was spent playing with which buttons to use... Sizes, shades, layout: staggered, straight line, etc)...  A little sentiment in the corner.  Done!

I'm trying to whip out a few cards since I'm headed out of town tomorrow morning. I'm heading home for the Fourth.  I love the small town parade and fireworks and there is nowhere I would rather be. Not to mention, it's cooler up there than down here.   Home being the mountains.  High in the mountains.  Like 7600-8000 feet in the mountains. Here's hoping we get some monsoons while I'm there! LOVE monsoons!

I'll have a couple of scheduled posts going up, but they'll be a little more spread out than every day posting. It's summer! I have stamping time and time to travel.  Somehow those two always negate each other...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Signature Greetings
Paper- Whisper White, My Mind's Eye One the Bright Side- One
Ink- Basic Black
Accessories- ribbon, buttons

So Berry Sweet

Good morning!  I have a massive project to share with you today.  When I sat down to stamp yesterday, I decided to create a little gift box to have on hand for one of those moments when I need a last minute gift/raffle item/thank you.

I pulled up Jen's Deconstructed Sketch from Thursday, which lent itself to a simpler card (which is great for mass-producing!) and went for it.  Then I spent the next, oh, two or three hours creating this box set. So much for quick and simple! I think it was the sewing... Or the coloring... Or the twine... Something in there took a long time!  Oh, well. At least they look good. ;)

I used one of my newer Taylored Expression  stamp sets. Love the little faces on the fruit and the "punny" sentiments!  Too cute!  The dp was another goal of mine: Create a whole stack of cards using the same 6x6 pad.  Check!  I used all My Mind's Eye Lime Twist: Life of the Party to create every single card. Including the packaging. Phew!  I am not quite sure why that was a goal, but there it is.

Now to figure out whom these will be going to...  Someday...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- TE: Fruity Friends
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, MME Lime Twist- Life of the Party dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- nestabilities, baker's twine, ribbon, button, sewing machine, dimensionals, copic markers, jewels, pearls

Mojo Monday

Good morning!  Three posts in a row! Woohoo!  It feels like a serious achievement after that last four months.

I had an amazing, incredible time visiting with my family yesterday.  I know that I have been incredibly blessed call my family "family."  And these particular cousins are so close, we often refer to each other as brothers and sisters.  Jeni's three kids are a crack-up and I love them to pieces! I don't know why, but they have taken to calling me Miss Kristi (this happened a few months back when I was visiting them in Texas). We explained to them that they don't have to call me that. I'm family. Their cousin.  But it stuck.  So I am now Cousin Kristi, Auntie-Cousin Kristi, and Miss Kristi to my cousins' kids.  Too fun!

Anyways, on to today's card!  I have used this week's Mojo Monday sketch with some newer dp (to me, at least). I love the blues and greens in this background dp and it was the launching point for this whole card.  It's pretty basic in set-up. I added some pearls to give it a little umph.  More tea dye staining. Lots of layers. I seem to be favoring layers lately...  Oh, and baker's twine. I'm in love with baker's twine. But I need to get me some olive green baker's twine. I only had this bright green, which I think I get away with on this card thanks to that gingham dp, but it would be even better with some olive baker's twine. I might need to get on that. Now.  As in, I'm going shopping.  Right after I finish this post. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: 
Paper- Night of Navy, Old Olive, Whisper White, Lily Bee Design- Double Dutch dp
Ink- Night of Navy
Accessories- nestabilities, baker's twine, pearls, tea dye stains, dimensionals, woodgrain impression plate (PTI)

Sweet Sunday Sketch #161

Good morning!  It's going to be a cooker outside today. I think summer has officially arrived weather-wise.  Ugh. Not happy.  I love the vacation time. Detest the hot weather. It makes me lazy and want to hide inside all day.

Though, I am off today to visit my cousin and her family today. They are in town for the weekend from Texas and I so seldom get to see them in person these days that I need to seize the opportunity!

Today's card offers a glimpse at what kind of weather I wish we were having. Cool, maybe a little rainy. In other words, I want spring back! I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch for this card (oh, how I've missed playing along with her sketches!  Watching them go by eat week on facebook was painful, lol!) and pulled out some cheery dp.  I popped up the umbrella, clouds, and sentiment to give them some dimension. I also went slightly crazy with my tea dye stains. I don't think I will ever get tired of using them.

That's it for me today! I'm off to go visit and barbeque and get my fill of adorable first-cousins-once-removed.  But I go by "Auntie-Cousin Kristi."  It's a special title. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps- PTI: Mega Mixed Messages, Scattered Showers
Paper- Pure Poppy, Blueberry Sky, Rustic Cream, My Mind's Eye- One the Bright Side dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue
Accessories- ribbon, apron lace punch, clouds die (TE), circle punches, tea dye stains, tea dye stains, jewels

4 Months?!

How in the world has it been four months since my last post?  How does time go by so quickly?

I really do have a good excuse. Really.  Ready for it?

Here it is:  I fell in love with teaching. Again.

Isn't that the BEST excuse?!  I just finished up year seven as a teacher, my third in first grade, and I am falling more in love with being a teacher with each day.  The school year came to a close about two weeks ago, and I have to admit that I was actually a little sad to see it end.  I was having that much fun. And I had a great group of kiddos, which always makes life good.

During this downtime from blogging, I was still stamping away, just didn't get around to photographing or posting anything.  I just couldn't get it to be a priority when I was having so much fun teaching. Weird, eh?

What was the cause of this abundance of joy and enthusiasm for my career?  I discovered teaching blogs.  First grade teaching blogs. AMAZING teaching blogs packed with incredible ideas to help teach those little mundane, everyday topics. I've always said to anyone who has asked that one of the things I love best about this occupation is that when someone has a great idea, you share it!  This isn't a secretive, competitive field.  It's a "Wow! This was a great lesson and the kids really got it. Can I tell you all about it?" field.

And teaching blogs do just that. With a little help from a website called Teachers Pay Teachers.  LOVE this site! I love paying teachers for something incredible they have created to align perfectly with the curriculum that we are all using.  It's genius!  Think of it as ebay for teachers, except there is no bidding.  And there are tons of free items. :)

Long story made short, the last four months of school were a whirlwind, but some of the most fun I have had teaching, well, ever.  I loved what we were doing each day. The kids loved what we were doing each day.  It was fun. I know. I still can't get over it.

Not that I didn't like my job before, but now it is just so much better!  I'm already excited for the new school year and planning some crazy fun things to enhance our curriculum for the first few months of school.

To show you some of the fruits of my labor over the last four months (and believe me, all of this inspiration created a whole TON of labor... Can you say late nights and Saturdays in the classroom?!) I have some photos from our Open House this year, which was only about two and one half weeks before school ended. Some of the products were original (I did them in previous years), some were tweaked due to new inspiration, and some were brand-spankin'-new.  It was a packed room! Not sure I could have squeezed one more thing on a wall, or desk, or table...

So here we go.  A little picture tour of my classroom circa May 24, 2012.  Enjoy. :)

This picture is of our desks.  We had flag books (symbols of America), computer and monthly writing books, frog life cycle books, butterfly life cycle books, and food chain nesting tubes (These were a new discovery and so much fun!  The kids loved them and they are such a clever way of demonstrating a food chain).

This is my back wall (my back is facing the white board).  We have (from right to left) butterfly life cycle leaves, ladybug writing and craftivity, and "Hey, Little Ant" opinion writing about respect.

This is the rest of that wall. We illustrated and wrote about a food chain. So fun! The kids brainstormed a bunch of animals, what they would eat, and what would eat them.  They turned our GREAT!  Our butterfly net finished off that wall. 

This is a just a shot to show what it all looked like put together.

This is continuing to the left around my classroom. You could see the light from the door in the previous picture.  In language arts, we learned about synonyms and antonyms.  We spent a day being "synonym roll" chefs (thus the silver tray with "synonym rolls"), and an-toe-nyms. We took off our shoes in class (definitely had the door open for that activity, lol), traced our feet, and then wrote/illustrated a pair of antonyms.  See what I mean? So fun!  And the best thing?  The kids really GOT it.  For the rest of the year, they were finding synonyms and antonyms everywhere!  It's music to my ears to hear my little first graders using such big academic vocabulary. :)

This is standing in the door and looking in to my classroom. Synonyms are to my right, big back wall to the left.  That is our insect mural in the back displaying our insects and insect reports. It's hiding my word wall during Open House.

This is looking to the front of my room.  I had a slideshow going on the left side of the whiteboard. Some adorable poems on the right side (this is the "Make Mom cry" wall, hehe).  Underneath (also visible in the first table shot) are our graphing projects entitled, "I Mustache You A Question." Took pictures of each student wearing a mustache. The kids had to come up with a survey question, collect data using tallies, and then turn their data into a bar graph. Love it! 

Kind of like this....  Forgive the angle. It was taken by one of my kids. :)

 To finish out our year, we had Pirate Day to help celebrate learning about r-controlled vowels in words (ar, er, ir, ur.... But especially aargh!)  We dressed up like pirates, played pirate games, made pirate art, ate Pirate's Booty, found buried treas-aargh.... Need I say it again? SO FUN!  I literally taught up until the penultimate day of school.  There was just too much learning fun to be had to stop any earlier.

So, there you go.  What I've been up to for the last four months in a nutshell.  Tomorrow, it's back to the cards.  After finishing up jury duty (yes, during my first week of summer break. And I made the jury.), I am finally on the sleeping in, reading maniac, card-makin' machine!

Thanks for stopping by!