It's Teacher Appreciation Week!

Ya gotta love teachers! They have more patience then, well, me, that's for sure.

So it's Teacher Appreciation Week . . . time to shower them with LOVE!

I was kinda sorta voluntold from another mom that I needed to come up with the teacher gift. So I wracked my brain (that was the clunking you heard over the weekend) because my son's teacher is going away on a mission trip next year so I didn't want to get her just stuff to keep, I wanted to get her  disposable things or something she could bring with her.

So I went to the Dollar Tree . . . ah, home away from home, and picked up some little goodies (socks, manicure set, fancy schmancy hand soap, chocolate kisses) to give her one little goody each day, then a gift card (probably to Wally World, still have to pick that up) from the whole class on Friday.

I wanted to tie in everything with cards and guess what? The word "TEACH" has five letters! Perfect! So I made 5 cards, one for each day, with each letter on the front, then inside each card it says something like "T is for Terrific, Talented, Tremendous, Thoughtful Teacher! - Happy Day #1 of Teacher Appreciation Week.!"  Then the "E" card would have something similar only with "E" words, etc.

Get it? Got it? Good! Then here's the pic:

All made out of scrap pieces of scrap paper and my Cricut of course! The flowers are felt flowers by Making Memories.

So she will get a card/gift each day through Friday.

I was proud of myself for getting all 5 cards done in one day, instead of putting myself under the gun and finishing each one the night before she is supposed to get it (not that I procrastinate or anything, nope, not me, wouldn't even think of that, uh uh).

Until next time!

christmas card 2009

This was a quickie, I mean, the card was done with the journaling and the date, so just had to throw on some embellies and voila! Which is good. Because those of you who know me know that scrapping holidays is not my forte. I go kicking and screaming to my scrap table to do them. You wouldn't know by my scrapbooks that Christmas is our favorite holiday (followed by Halloween). I have more 2009 Christmas pics in line to scrap . . . must . . . go . . . over . . . to . . . my . . . table . . . and . . . do . . . them!

flagler beach

The lastest (layout that is). This picture was taken several years ago when visiting my brother's house in Flagler Beach. I used my favorite poem by A.A. Milne to go with it:

"The Island"
If I had a ship,
I'd sail my ship,
I'd sail my ship
Through Eastern seas;
Down to a beach where the slow waves thunder -
The green curls over and the white falls under -
Boom! Boom! Boom!
On the sun-bright sand.
Then I'd leave my ship and I'd land,
And climb the steep white sand,
And climb to the trees,
The six dark trees,
The coco-nut trees on the cliff's green crown -
Hands and knees
To the coco-nut trees,
Face to the cliff as the stones patter down,
Up, up, up, staggering, stumbling.
Round the corner where the rock is crumbling
Round this shoulder,
Over this boulder,
Up to the top where the six trees stand . . . .

And there would I rest, and lie,
My chin in my hands, and gaze
At the dazzle of sand below,
And the green waves curling slow,
And the grey-blue distant haze
Where the sea goes up to the sky . . . .

And I'd say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea:
"There's nobody else in the world, and the world was made for me."

speaking of kitties

I got another layout done! (Okay, shhhhh, I shouldn't yell so loud because I don't want anything to jinx the roll I'm on so far this year). Anyhoosiewhatsie, this is my sweet little boy with a bunch of sweet little kitties. We've been volunteering at the local Humane Society to socialize with the cats. It's oodles of fun, except we kinda have been steering clear of the kitten room lately after they climbed up our backs last time (with claws extended). The full grown cats are much calmer and I figure they need more lovin' anyway. So far we've succeeded in not bringing one home (much to relief of our home cats I'm sure).

frozen

I do believe this title is apropos, not only for this layout, but for the current temperature outside. The picture in the layout was taken January 2009 when it was 8 degrees out, ironically, it's about the same temp out right now, one year later. How soon we forget. Sigh! Maybe I'll title my next layout 'tropical heatwave'. Couldn't hurt!

page 2 of the year

Look at this, TWO pages down and only day 3 into the new year. Whoa, my arm hurts from patting myself on the back. Okay, not really, if I have to admit it, my arm hurts from doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred 2 days ago (and not again since, sigh). But hey, one resolution at a time, right?

I really like this page, every day pics are my favs. And this is so T.J., just having fun anywhere. He just assesses the situation and decides what he can do to make it fun. Like in church this morning, he was sitting on my lap during the homily making shadow puppets because the sun was beaming in over my shoulder onto the pew in front of me. Yup, shadow puppets during mass and turning the steps outside Shoney's into his personal playground (as depicted in this layout). Gotta love the mind of an 8 year old.



This layout is based on a sketch from Becky Fleck's "Page Maps" book. LOVE that book.

resolutions

I resolve this year to do 52 scrapbook pages. That's a page a week. Quite the far cry from the 5 I did in 2009. Care to join in? Follow my progress? Cheer me on? I resolve to ENJOY doing these 52 pages, do them as I want, in whatever order I want and using as many (or as less) pictures that I want. How's that for me me me me me? Quite the attitude for January 2nd, isn't it? Well, let's hope it sticks and I don't blend into the background of what I can do for others and start losing myself again. Here's to a new year and 52 fun filled scrap layouts!

Oh yes, and since I'm on a roll, here is page 1 of 52:

A Cool Kid

My 'little' nephew (well, I have two, but they aren't so little anymore), is such a cool kid. I mean, not 'heeeyyyyyyy, I'm the Fonz' cool, but just a cool kid. I'm doing a scrapbook for him from my brother and SIL for his high school graduation present. Hmmm, did you follow that chain of command? Anyway, I'm really enjoying this project. This layout especially, I scraplifted the idea from somewhere (eeek, sorry, I forget where) then emailed my Bro and SIL and asked them for some adjectives (uh, besides 'cool'), so they emailed me back and voila! This layout was created (but honestly, I think 'cool' sums him up nicely).

Heaven

A few months ago, while lying in bed drifting off to sleep, my son, who was cuddled up in the middle of us, softly said "Mommy, when you die, then when I die, don't forget to meet me in heaven, okay?" I cried. I mean, what else could I do? It was so profound coming from the mouth of a 6 year old. Yes, I answered him with an "Okay, baby." and I lay there in the dark, my mind just reeling wondering what he had been thinking to come out and say that. Was he thinking about heaven and what it would be like and that he didn't want to be there alone? I was sorry my husband missed him saying this (hubby had already fallen asleep), but it is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. Perhaps one of the sweetest moments my son and I have shared together, and he didn't even realize it.

So, I knew I had to scrap what T.J. said, but I just didn't have any pictures. I didn't really want to take a picture of us laying in bed either, you know, recreating the moment. It just didn't seem right. Our annual hike was just around the corner and I decided to have my husband take a picture of T.J. and I looking out over the mountains. I always feel pretty close to heaven when we reach the summit of our hike and so it felt rather apropos to use this picture in my layout.

Like a Wink and a Smile

Here is one of the latest layouts I did, using a recent picture of T.J. and I. I was cleaning house the other weekend and had the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" on. A song came on and as soon as I heard the chorus, I just knew it was a scrap layout title! "We go together like a wink and a smile." Perfect title! So, of course I had to forego my cleaning and sit down and scrap. Here is what I came up with. I'm trying to scrap more pictures of our family with me in the picture instead of me always behind the camera lens.