Melanie's Photos: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

First Day of School

Well, here it is. First Day of School. **Sigh** I really don't like the first day of school.

But the kids were excited. M was nervous--big middle schooler this year! She had to be out the door at 7am. It was nice to have some time with just her this morning.

Lina and Krish decided to ride the bus this morning. Ms. Penny was right on time at 8:31am. Thankfully we had gone out the door a few minutes early for pictures on the porch.

Last week we had gone shopping. Each of the kids got a new outfit for school and a new pair of sneakers. They were really looking forward to wearing their new digs today.

I made them pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Got all of their lunches packed. And now it's just me, Bird, and Merek home for the day. After cleaning up the toy room, Bird and I did YOGA from Comcast On Demand. He actually stuck with it for the whole 45 minutes. Maybe that will be a fun routine for us to do.

I'm going to miss having the kids home all day, no schedule to worry about, no places to be . . . Summer, I miss you already.

It's 10:35am. I pick M up at 2:15; Lina and Krish at 3:25. This may be a long day.

(And it really doesn't help that it is raining today).

Sorry--this should-be-excited post is kind of a downer. Guess I'm feeling a little down today. I'll have to work on my to-do list. That should help me feel better to get things crossed off.

Thanks for understanding.

Monday, August 30, 2010

52x52 Challenge 25

This week's challenge--use chipboard, flowers, and handstitching.

A few weeks ago when we were in California, I stopped by a LSS, Scrapbook Oasis, and picked up some of the Estate Sale line from Bella Blvd. So happy that I decided to use it on the first layout I've made since we've been home. In addition to the BB products, I used some Jenni Bowlin chipboard flags, covered with JBS banner stickers. (Love that the stickers match the flags--genius idea!!).

Be sure to check out the 52x52 blog and see what all of the DT layouts for this challenge. Try it out--lots of fun :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Finally--in PRINT!!

SO super excited!! The Scrapbook Trends Holiday Idea Book is out and my JOY card is actually in PRINT on one of the pages. I cannot believe it! This is WAY exciting for me :)

I've only seen the online edition and am anxious to see the actual magazine. They are supposed to send me copies but I'm not sure how long that takes.

When I first got the news a few months ago, I ran outside to DH and the kids and yell, "I'm going to be published!" They all kind of looked at me like I was crazy. My neighbor overheard and said over the fence, "Whoo Hoo!"

I'm so glad the info on the page credits Pam Callahan's template and the Hip 2b Square kit. Really important to me that they get credit where credit is due.

Thanks for sharing in my excitement :)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Happy Smile

Today is my turn to post at Scrap Yourself. I decided to make a layout inspired by the words of my 5-year-old DS. He wanted to take some pictures of me one day while I was working on a Suduko puzzle. I gave him a couple of half-hearted smiles. He said he wanted a Happy Smile. What a cutie! I realized how much he knows about me and that I can't trick him with anything.

Thanks for helping me realize and remember that, Bird! Love ya!

(Supplies for this layout were from the May Hip Kit).

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The latest addition to our family . . .

meet Oscar. He has been our resident rabbit for the summer. He loves to come eat my blueberries and strawberries. The kids love seeing Oscar out the window and watching him hop around the yard. I'm not sure where he lives but I think it is in the park on the other side of our fence.

He is a cute little guy. Though I'm not really too fond of the deposits he has been making lately in the back yard. Oh well, at least it isn't daily. And at least it's just a rabbit, instead of something worse . . . like a rat or a mole. Ewwww!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

52x52

52 Weeks X 52 Layouts--I made the design team for this fun blog. Follow along and you'll get at least 52 layouts done in a year! :)

The first challenge Janelle gave the new design team was to create a layout using:

handstitching

orange and green

stickers

I mainly used the July Hip Kit for this layout, but added in some white and black cardstock, and the alpha sticers are from Cosmo Cricket and American Crafts.

Come play along and get some pages done! :)

Monday, August 9, 2010

July Hip Kit projects

Here are a couple of projects I made last week with the July Hip Kit. This first layout is really simple. Tell me--what is the first thing you notice when you look at the page?

I hope you said "his eyes in the bottom picture". That was the focus of the page. Everytime I kept trying to add more to it, it drew away from his eyes. I wanted the right side white space to be like the water in the aquarium he was looking in to.

Circles are such a favorite design element of mine. I cut this one with my handy-dandy new Creative Memories Jumbo Circle template. Love it!

This two-page layout is based on this sketch by Lucy Chesna. I added two vertical photos to bookend the horizontal ones.

The colors in the kit were perfect for DD's 5th Grade Play about the constitution. I made a pocket with the die-cut paper so I could fit her invitation and program on the page, too.

My nephew, Madison, turns 16 this month. I made this card for him and added an SRM Stickers sentiment.

That's it for now. Hope you are having a fabulous day!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

BULLSEYE!

Last week I attended Girls' Camp with our church youth group. I was a unit counselor, along with Emily, for 12 girls (ages 12-15). One of the workshops for the girls was Rifles. I went with the girls and had the chance to shoot a rifle. It was my first time doing that--I had shot handguns with my dad long ago, but never a rifle.

The bullseye counted if we shot inside the first two middle circles. I got two! My dad would be so proud :) The target above shows the 2nd bullseye I shot. In addition to the sight rifles, I also got to shoot an open-sight rifle and a black powder rifle. Below is the target I shot with one of the sight rifles--even though I didn't get a bullseye I was pretty happy about the consistency of my eight shots in the lower left quadrant (by the 7). I had 15 bullets in this target so you can see how several were in that one area.

Hmmmm . . . I may just take up target shooting sometime :)

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Farewell, My Friend

Ok, maybe it seems weird to be sentimental about a piano, but this was my first piano that *I* bought. We were leaving Illinois after grad school--moving on to the real world--and this piano was for sale. It was cheap and in really good condition (on the inside). It has moved with us from Illinois to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Washington.

When we lived in Pennsylvania, I saved up my piano teaching money and was all set to buy a gorgeous Schimmel. Then DH got the job offer in Washington. Housing prices in WA were double PA prices. So thanks to the money we made on our house in PA, and my Schimmel money, we were able to purchase our home in WA.

So the Baldwin Acrosonic remained with me, unreplaced. Over 40 students have learned to play the piano on this, uh-hmmm, beauty.

Well, last month, I received a mailing about a local piano dealer sale. I asked DH about it and told him I would still be interested in buying a new piano, though not a Schimmel (not enough funds in the bank). So I went to the sale and bought a new Yamaha studio piano. Simple. Sounds great. But in the purchase I traded in my Baldwin, not thinking much of it (they offered me more for trade-in than I paid for it 10 years ago!).

Until the delivery day . . . then I was having all kinds of regrets. Should I keep it? I really do love this ugly old thing. And it has such a great sound for such an old piano. The delivery men arrived with the Yamaha, took the Baldwin, and I shed a tear.

Goodbye, friend. You were good to me.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Scrap Yourself

A few weeks ago I saw a call for the Scrap Yourself Design Team. I applied and was offered a position on the DT. Kristine has set up the blog so several days a week there are ideas, prompts, and challenges from the design team to help you get yourself scrapped.

I know that most of my albums pages are full of the kids--which is awesome! But I also know I need to record things about myself as well. There are a ton of things I'd love to know about my mom (hint, hint), grandparents, etc. Maybe Scrap Yourself will help me capture some fun, interesting things about myself that my kids and so on will enjoy learning.

Today I posted about my Farm Fresh layout, focusing on one of my favorite summer activities. If you need ideas to scrap about you, check out the Scrap Yourself blog. You don't even need to make pages--just record your info in a notebook or on your blog. Everything documented about YOU will be treasured by future generations :)