Catching Up!

I desperately want to catch up on some posts this evening but now Blogger is giving me a difficult time.....so, I'll give it my best shot.....hang in there with me! :o)

The last time I posted we were in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week and in the middle of my ambitious goal of handmade gifts for each one of McKenna's teachers for each day of the week....this is a photo of McKenna taking her goodies in on Wednesday.

I was so excited when I discovered paper at my scrapbook store (SHE Scrapbooks ROCKS!) that has our school colors on it. I knew right away it would make perfect notecards for McKenna's teachers. (Not to mention for a few teachers at my school, which kept me just as busy filling those orders in time for the week.) Keeping w/ the chocolate theme, I also decorated chocolate bars with the same paper.

And finally, on Friday I gave mason jars filled with teeny-tiny chocolate chip cookies (discovered, we love the Pillsbury ones, and Nestle ones....not so much). Thank you Michele for the idea and thank you Barb for the ever so adorable "chocolate chip cookie day" stamp!!!

Well, I hesitate to share the next photo with you, but after two full weeks of crafting cards and gifts (after work), this is what a studio REALLY looks like. For years I fell into that trap of thinking those studios featured in scrapbook magazines were just perfect.....perfect maybe, but not reality! Who can work in a space where everything is put away??!!

However, THIS is a bit extreme, so rest assured, I did finally clean this space up. :o)
Which was made easier when I came home to this for an early Mother's Day present from Scott!
Aren't they cool?? Drawers, drawers and more drawers and I love the fact that they are the ones that snap closed so I can take them with me to retreats, etc.

Here's why I needed those! Melle and her stacks of STUFF!
One of my first summer "things to do" is to organize these drawers....I CAN'T WAIT!! :o)

This is also what I got for Mother's Day......breakfast in bed with some of my absolute favorites;
Mickey Mouse waffles, fresh strawberry's, Earl Gray tea and my two girls waiting on my hand and foot......mmmmm, sweet!
And finally, what makes a studio......well, with this new addition I think I don't have to call it a garage anymore :o) I have wanted a sliding screen door for almost two years now and let me tell you it is everything I hoped it would be! I get to open it early morning and late evenings - love it!
Okay, more to tell, but these are the highlights...... just last week, Andrea received an "Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in Science" at the high school awards ceremony.
Science - who knew!?!
We were one proud family!
Coming up:
McKenna's awards on Tuesday and my promise not to let so many weeks slip by again between posts....it's too hard to catch up this way!
Love you all!!!
5 more days with kids......
11 more days for me and then........SUMMER VACATION!!!!!
Melle

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week continued....

Okay, perhaps I should clarify why I was so tired last night (besides crafting gifts). Another 12 hour day at school; Andrea's Spring Sports Awards Banquet was last night. I do have to admit, that it is an added bonus when Andrea plays tennis and swims for the swim team - they both are considered "Varsity" sports which means she has "lettered". Not being athletic myself, I'm not exactly sure what that means, but when I was in high school and even now, saying, "she's lettered in two sports", sounds pretty cool! She also now has the pins and certificates to prove it. Now, next year, I just hope to fork out the extra dough for a letterman's jacket - yikes!

By the by, whenever you see photos, remember you can click on them for a larger image.

Last night's photo were of decorated gift bags. One of my "regular customers" calls me Friday after school and says she has shirts to give to her teammates and wonders if I can just decorate a few gift bags for her. Well, wanting to use the green and gold school colors, and trying to keep with the Teacher Appreciation theme, those were what I came up with. I imagine the photo is hard to make out not only because of its size, but because the bags are among the mounds of clutter in the studio!!

Tuesday's gift is still a favorite but not new for most of us.

The front of the card says, "Treat yourself to a wonderful day" and inside the card is a packet of hot chocolate. I might add, that I've now given hot chocolate to McKenna's teachers on the hottest day of the year 2010! But it went w/ the chocolate theme!

Wednesday's will be just assorted chocolate candy in a bag, or some have fancy gift boxes (thanks Michele!!!). The tag reads, "Wishing you all the good things in life, friendship, happiness and chocolate"! (thanks Barb for the use of your stamps!)

I posted Wednesday's a little early as I anticipate it will be late nights at school for the rest of the week.
Love to all!!!
Melle

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Hello All,
Just a quickie before I pass out to say, I'm sorry I didn't get to update until now, but I crafted all weekend.....well, in between laundry, dishes and taking McKenna to a birthday party in Leesburg...


I crafted all weekend hoping to finish gifts for McKenna's teachers. The theme is chocolate and the plan is to give a little somthin', somthin' each day. (Thanks Michele for the idea and thanks Barb for the stamps!!) So, I'll try to keep you posted each evening as to what I did for that day.

Monday
(thanks Kendra for the idea!) I give a water bottle w/ individual Crystal Light drink mix. I added my own little flair (and trying to keep w/ the chocolate theme) and added a small package of M&Ms.
McKenna helped w/ all the names tags! (she uses the Cricut machine herself!)


May all my teacher friends have a great week!
I'll be back w/ a quick post tomorrow night.......I hope!

Love you,
Melle

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

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

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