Spring Break in review.....

these were truly "Boulder Days" and I am so grateful.
A "Boulder Day" came from my summers I spent in Boulder, Colorado with my grandfather as a child. Days that were cool in the morning, but warmed up quickly to the low 80's; skies were the prettiest blue with big white puffy clouds. Schedules were filled with what ever you wanted to do and where ever you wanted to go.
Spring Break 2010 totally Boulder Days!
I didn't get to clean and purge as much as I thought I would, but I did get to
-wash the car
and McKenna washed her bike
-we got to leave a snack for the Easter Bunny

-we got to hide and hunt for Easter eggs


-I had creative breakthroughs and stamped cards and tags for Teacher Appreciation gifts
-my mom and I booked flights to Boston for a summer getaway
-we got to shop with Pirates at Downtown Disney


-we Just Danced on the wii
-I rented The Blind Side
-we saw "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3D
-we got to play Putt-Putt-and McKenna got to "make her own pizza" at Pizzeria Uno, one of our favorite places to eat on our way down to Orlando.

And finally, stayed up until we fell asleep and slept until we woke up - how sweet is that?! :o)

Best wishes everyone - may every day be a "Boulder Day"!

Love,
Melle

Finally!

Finally on Spring Break!
Finally a breakthrough in what I've been crafting!
and FINALLY a blog update! :o)

First of all, Happy Easter everyone! It was such a pretty day yesterday and I am so glad I handed my camera to someone else and allowed them to snap a photo with me in it! I am so blessed!
(Andrea 15 and McKenna 8)

Second, my apologies in taking so long to post. Those few days just before break were busy, busy, however, primary objective - achieved! My student artshow was up BEFORE I left for break! In fact, in my haste to leave, I forgot to take a photo of the completed event. (I still will once I get back to school.) I did take this one of a new addition to the show - Grandma's Feather Bed (one of my favorite childhood songs by John Denver). thanks y.m.!!

I think the best part will be (still have to finish it), I purchased a 30 second recorder, so the visitors to the show can play "It would hold 8 kids, 4 hound dogs and a piggie we stole from the shed, we didn't get much sleep but we had a lot of fun on Grandma's feather bed!" too cute!

Also, just before break, I whipped up some gift bags for McKenna's teachers filled w/ jelly beans - not my best, but I've really been struggling for creative ideas....

I even wrote the teacher's name right on the bags, not even a gift tag, how tacky! I liked these, but all I kept thinking was, "they are just going to throw these away - why did I ever start decorating brown paper bags?!"......I know, a question you probably already had months ago! :o)

Okay, so speaking of "creative block", for months and months now, I've been struggling. I've learned techniques from Tim Holtz, love his inking and destressing; I've learned techniques from Donna Downey, love her watercolor. I've struggled with whether to do digital layouts or should I create traditional layouts? I've struggled with cutesy cards for a 3 year old's invitations vs. artsy....many of you have witnessed this......

Well, I don't know if it's really a true breakthrough, but finally, finally, tonight I managed to put down on canvas what has been swirling in my head. I've wanted to create something using techniques from both Tim and Donna, but I've wanted to use my photos.......

It started with this
I believe I posted this about a week ago, but now it's all glued down and I added the butterfly.
These were flowers my students drew and painted. I just loved the colors.
Liking the watercolor technique in the background and the embellishments in the foreground, I continued with that for the following two pictures. The girls' photos were also printed on canvas. (a new product I found and was hoping I could print on it)


When I finally treated the painted canvas as a scrapbook page, everything fell into place for me.
I wish you could see these in person, cause the fact that they are made out of canvas is my favorite part. Any who....McKenna is very pleased with hers, and that's the ultimate reward.
Night all.
I'll try not to be so long between the next posts......I'm off to a craft store tomorrow for more canvas! Here's hoping!
Melle

Saturday

another beautiful Saturday this weekend;
Spring, how wonderful!
neighbors out mowing the yard
neighbors out washing cars
and children out to ride their bikes
Spring, how wonderful!



Easter in a week, I can't believe it!
On spring break in only four days, I can't believe it!
Sleeping in late for nine days, I can't believe it!

Love to all,
Melle :o)

.....some more bad with the good....

Actually, things aren't really bad, I just mean what I've said before - without the "bad" we can't appreciate the good. For example, with a rainy yucky day like today, we can really appreciate how gorgeous the day was yesterday. With working so hard during the week, we can really appreciate the weekend. With the first week of daylight saving time behind us, we can really appreciate sleeping in on Saturday.

-I did get laundry caught up
-I did get the kitchen floor mopped and the tub scrubbed
-I did get to have dinner with friends
-I did get to have lunch with my mom
-I did almost finish the thank you cards for our community volunteers.....almost
-I did get my art budget done for next year
-I did get to have movie night with my girls, The Princess and the Frog for McKenna and New Moon for Andrea
-and I did get to do some crafting, not finished, but close

The flowers are painted by some of my kindergarten students. I hope to put this on display at the upcoming student artshow.

Love to all, may you have a good week,
Melle

I am so lucky to have YOU!

(i made these tonight for McKenna's teachers when I should have been entering grades- thanks Heidi Swapp for the idea!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love,
Melle

Goin' Digital

You know, I was thinking, I've been scrapbooking ever since Andrea was about 2, so about 13 years now and when I started I was a die-hard film photographer. I was sure I'd never use one of those digital cameras - how could I, it wasn't the real thing? And I fought it for awhile, but finally, once I didn't have a place to take my film to be developed locally, I finally had to make the switch. And now, I can't imagine photographing any other way. The benefit of taking hundreds of photos and not having to pay for film or processing is HUGE! Not to mention the benefit of getting to see your shot as soon as it is taken (although, I still need to remember to look at the picture before I let my subjects run of and play! :) )

And so....that brings up my current adventure....scrapbooking digitally? Yes, or no? Am I cheating? Well, although I'm still filled with some guilt, it is quickly being replaced with convenience and instant gratification....


I fortunately had the chance to get out and "scrap" for a few hours on Friday night, well, instead of dragging all of my "stuff" with me (since I don't know what I was going to work on, or what I might need) I just brought my laptop instead. Now, the layout above was still about an hour's worth of work because I am still teaching myself how to do this, but all in all, I was really happy with it and I know, I couldn't have created the same thing with paper and adhesive.

The following I just played with a moment ago and with a couple of clicks I'm still happy with the results....




Now, please don't miss understand, i am not about to give up my paper, glue, tools, and Cricut!
I still love the hands on experience, it's just now that I have my own space to create in out in the garage, I'm not as mobile as I use to be.....

Let me know what you think!!
and my apologies for a late post this week....lost that blogging hour to daylight savings time this weekend!

Love to all,
Melle

Well, I stayed up later than usual for a Sunday evening trying to edit some photos and then to post, only to find that the blogger site was not working when I was ready.
Also, I'm still frustrated with the photo editing software I have - urgh!
Anyway, there is a reason for everything - right?!
So, here is just a quick note to say "HI" and give a glimpse of where we went on Saturday. As a family we enjoyed an afternoon at a Scottish festival in Zephyerhills (how do you spell that anyway?)


So, that's it so far...... my classroom blog is updated and that tells more of what I've been up to.
The mom who wanted 75 invitations did not order any from the samples I made. Although the money would have been nice, I just really don't have the time right now. My student artshow consumes every free moment I have in the month of March.
Okay, off to work, love to all, may you have a great week!
Melle