The lazy days of summer

Whoever penned "the lazy days of summer" clearly did not have children!  I mean really.  All of you ladies out there with kids at home for the summer know it is anything other than lazy!  I rank this time of the year right up there with the Christmas crazies.  You know what I mean.

I think I spend more time during the summer driving people places or trying to get them into doctor's offices than any other time of the year.  My husband does not understand why I won't cancel the doctor's appointment so we can go to the beachhouse.  I know he doesn't understand when I tell him that I have waited 3 months for this appointment and cancelling will cost us moola and major time!   Ah, oh well.  The joy of motherhood.

We spent last week with my son completing orientation for COLLEGE!  Man do I feel old!  I took all the kiddos so they could see family while I got oriented for college.  I mean, while my son got oriented for college.  Yeah.  You read that right.  There was just as much stuff for the parents as the students!  My favorite part?  The part where the university carefully explains, like 50 times, that no matter how much money you are giving them, how much money you are giving your child to go to the university and live, or how much money you are now in debt to the university that the said university will not be able to talk to you regarding any part of your child's college life!  Period.  End of story.  Oh and by the way there is this little form called a FERPA that IF your child signs (not you) then the university can answer your questions.  Got that?  Yeah.  Basically, the hubby and I will continue to fund the son's life (ie, college) and the university will not tell us anything unless the son decides he wants them to.  OH MAN!!!!  That was a tough one to swallow!  I heard a bunch of shouting and arguing over that one!  Many, many parents and students seriously had meltdowns about that one.  My silver lining?  The fact that my son happily completed the form, looked at me and said "why wouldn't I want you to know what I'm doing here?".  Oh, how I love that child!  I will say it again.....I am so lucky to have good kids!

I enjoyed my time with all my kiddos this past week.  It is amazing what kind of things get discussed when you are trapped in the car with no phone signal for hours at a time!  Oh, quality time!  I feel very connected right now!  Back to reality......this week will be crazy.  I have some of the kids back to school next week so it is crunch time to get everything ready for them.

Scrapbooking?  I do have a class this Saturday.  It is my Inspired by Pinterest class and I will teach how to make several different kinds of pendants using scrapbooking materials.

These are some of them.  I especially like the top one.  I made it months ago, inspired by pinterest of course, and just love it.  If you are in the area, call the shop and come to the class!  It will be loads of fun.  Go to Scrapp n' Savvy website to register.

Ok.  I have to run.  There are children that have to be places!!  Really?  Aaagh.....school starts in a week!  Enjoy your day.

And the rain came down, down, down

For the last few days the Winnie the Pooh song "and the rain came down, down, down" has been humming through my head.  It has rained a phenomenal amount at my house.  I think last Thursday alone we had almost 12 inches.  That day made national news.  We have had drought conditions and fires this last year but it seems like this is now completely turned and we are flooded!  I'm not complaining.  I LOVE the rain.  I do feel bad for those who got flooded though.

Our new home sits kinda close to a small meandering creek.  Very rarely does the water level even move!  At the time we chose our lot we decided that even though the lots that back to the retention ponds are lovely (with all that green space and the "no one behind us" feature) there may at some time be enough water to fill them.  I just did not want to worry about that!  Boy am I happy about that choice!

These are pics of the said retention ponds.  I was standing at the top in what would have been our backyard.  As you can see they are full!  I can't even begin to tell you how deep they are....maybe 15 feet.  They are huge though.  What you can't see in this pic is that the little sleepy creek is just behind that line of trees.  By Friday morning the water had risen more and that sleepy little creek had become one with our ponds!  The trees looked like they were growing from water!  All around us roads were closed due to high water.  Water that was 12 inches deep and sometimes deeper.  And the rain continued.

The kids and I had a great time looking at all the water in the ponds.  Oh, and the bullfrogs.  Tons and tons of bullfrogs.  Our neighborhood pool became the bullfrog spa retreat!  They were swimming, lounging, and singing away!  It has taken several days for the water to recede.  Thankfully I think most of the flooding in other areas has also gone down but the clean up is left.

So, what is one to do when it rains all day for several days?  I have read 2 books (wonderful!!!), watched numerous movies, and crafted!  Last week I won a blog hop from Clear Scraps and received a wonderful packet full of Clear Scrap albums, cards, inks from Tsukineko, stamps from Stampendous (it was a co-blog hop with Stampendous), and a bunch of other treasures from Stampendous.  So, I pulled out some stuff and this is what I made:

I must have Christmas on my mind.  I had some of the Bo Bunny Snowfall collection left from last Christmas.  And I won the mixable 8 x 8 album from Clear Scraps.  This was sooooo much fun.  I love working with acrylic and this little album had 3 pages of it!  I wanted to be able to see the next pages through the acrylic so I keep it simple.  I used opaque white ink and stamped snowflakes all over the cover, added some sparkle, trimmed the edge with sparkle, and let it all dry.  Then I added a vellum mini envelope and tags, and of course embellished it all.  

I am also showing you my "clothesline" tags.  I made tags of all sizes and attached them to the page to crete a clothesline look.  There is a ton of pic and journaling space here.  And lastly, I added an envelope that I embellished.  I cut the flap off and made a new one of some scrap material I had.  Love the soft look of it.  I like to put envelopes in my albums so I can through extra pics in.  The back cover is acrylic so I adhered the glittered paper to the back.  Made a nice effect of seeing the glitter from the top.

This was so much fun to make.  I love the colors of this paper and the album is a great size.  Check out the Stampendous blog.  There are some great inspiration pieces there.  And if you haven't seen the new Clear Scrap stuff go to their website.  The new clear cards are adorable!

Well, children are getting up; wanting to eat.  It's that whole summer thing again!  I'll leave with this:  what do you like to do when it rains?  Let me know.........

Christmas in July

Christmas.  It's only 6 months away!  I know people who have already completed their Christmas shopping for this year.  Really?!?!  I was one of those people.  I had my shopping completed by Thanksgiving.  I always had some presents that I purchased on the after Christmas sales.  Then I got married, and had children, and became broke!  TeeHee.

I am a planner by nature.  I like to know what I can expect so I can have backup plans.  Christmas is a BIG deal.  It is by far my favorite holiday and I like things to be in place!  Fast forward 20 years from the time when I was that organized.  I now have children, 5 of them.  Oh, and I have a hubby who likes to do all the shopping on Christmas Eve.  Yeah.  Don't like that so much.  So, I try to do what I can before Christmas arrives.

Enter Christmas in July.  Christmas cards to make.  Cookie recipes to gather.  Lists begin.

Are you that person who likes to craft Christmas in July too?  Well, I thought I would share a few of my Christmas class ideas with you today.  First up is a glass snowman.  I saw something similar on pinterest in a miniature version.

I made the big one first and he's about 15 inches tall.  There are loads of details.  Then I got the snow bug and made a family for him with a variety of bottles that I had hanging around (old jelly jar, spaghetti jar, etc....).  I really love my snowmen!

And secondly I want to share the cover of a mini album I made.  It is made from a raw canvas mini album and has canvas pockets in it.  Loads of room in it for pictures.  I used the Authentique new vintage Christmas papers called Festive for the inside, a Tim Holtz hitch on the cover, and some other wonderful detailed embellishments throughout.

Let me know:  are you a Christmas in July person?  or a Christmas Eve person?

Have a wonderful day!