Sunday, April 25, 2010

Oh my gosh, I am so hooked on these little 30 second slideshows you can make for free at www.animoto.com! You can easily make longer ones (perfect for those end of the year slideshows) for $3 and an additional $5 so you can make your own DVD (which I, yep me, actually did). You can also have unlimited videos of any length for an annual fee. I anticipate I might take my $45 a year I spend for SmugMug that I hardly use anymore and put it towards this $30 a year website instead......
I still can't get the music quite right. Apparently it only uses MP3 files. Not a problem, but after I already found the song I wanted on a CD of mine, I didn't have anymore patience trying to figure out how to convert that......anyway, this is McKenna and I on her field trip to Silver Springs. (You can turn off the John Denver music by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of the page and clicking the pause button - sorry!)

Create your own video
slideshow
at animoto.com.

Just for fun, I scanned some recent photos to share. The first one is Andrea's high school tennis photo - holy cow!

And the second is a recent photo of the four of us. We seldom have one of these. It was taken at Sleuth's Dinner Show down in Orlando just a few weeks ago.

And I did manage to create a few notecards for McKenna's teachers at school for Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm so excited about these cards because the paper I used was especially made for The Villages Charter School. Thanks to SHE Scrapbooks for keeping such an awesome supply of paper!!!!

Okay, off to update the classroom blog.....have a great week everyone!
Melle

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Whew!

Student artshow is over for another year and our now annual "Arts in the Park" event was a success.
Since each and every day has been consumed by those events, this past weekend seemed pretty uneventful.....so since I don't have any exciting news to share, or new photos, or new creative projects, I did put together one of those 30 second free videos just for fun.
I left my external hard drive at school, which also explains why I don't have any creative photo projects to share.

Enjoy.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

McKenna's second grade field trip on Friday, so that should provide me with some material to share next weekend.

Until then, best wishes,
Melle

Sunday, April 11, 2010

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

Monday, April 5, 2010

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

Sunday, March 28, 2010

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)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

.....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

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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

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