Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Sun Shiny Day :)

It started out as such a dreary morning, but the sun is shining now! We've had a fair bit of rain the past few days.
Makes for muddy children.
Especially boys.
Especially boys whose favorite spot to play right now is the huge pile of cattle manure that is sitting next to the garden. It's beautiful stuff for fertilizer ... the smell is gone and its nicely broken down. But it still doesn't mean I want them playing in poop soup.

Back to the morning.
Bob has Picture Day at school today.
New clothes (that he picked out so he can't crab about them) ... check.
Hair slicked ... check.
Order form for photos ... whoops.
As I looked out the window to watch him wait for the bus, something was niggling at me. Crap. Ran to get the form. Thankfully I'd filled it out but hadn't wrote the cheque. Stuffed some cash in the envelope. Ran outside. Boy gone. I could see the bus down the road at the neighbors'. It has to drive down a little sideroad to get to them and then come back up to the main road so I hopped in the van to meet the bus at the end of the road. I've become one of the disorganized mothers I've always mocked. But it could have been worse.

There's an outdoor farm show in Woodstock today that Dave is going to. He's picking up Bob at school to go with him so it should be nice and quiet around here until well after supper. The only down side is that I have to do chores again this afternoon.

I also need to get to the chiropracter and pick up groceries this afternoon. With the other two lads. The look on Paul's face when he went with me another time I was at the chiro's was priceless ... big eyes all concerned sayin' "Momma? Momma? Momma?" and making kissy noises (because he always gives me kisses if he thinks I'm hurt).

On to happier things. I started a mini album on the weekend. Cathy at Scraphoria issued a mini album challenge for the month of September. That, and the fact that the gals at Studio Calico have also been raving about minis and Christine Middlecamp recently posted an unbelievable mini on her blog, got my juices going to make a mini. I'm not done yet. Anyone who says a mini can be made in an evening is on crack. I'm four days into it and this is what I've got to show for it. There are a few pages that need a little sumpin' sumpin', but I love how its turning out and wanted to share.
I'm trying to use up the scraps I have from a few of my earlier Studio Calico kits. I've also got piles of old rub-ons laying out so that I can make use of those too. I love being able to use something that I've held onto for years.

I used a 7 Gypsies zig zag book that came with a Cupcake Scrapshop kit from a few months back. Just wanted to mention that I love the MM mini alphas but my one pet peeve with them is that they don't include apostrophes and I hate when I have to leave them out. And I couldn't figure out how to include a question mark at the end of "LOVE" without screwing up the look.

The Basic Grey border rub-on is again from an old Cupcake Scrapshop kit. They were so small and delicate that I always thought they'd look lost if I used them on a layout. They're the perfect scale for this project and I think I've used them on almost every page so far. And the Hamble ATC transparencies are also a great size for a smaller project.

One of the vintage fabric strips that came from twogirlzstuff. I had a really difficult time trying to get a photo of Molly's curly tail without including the nasty business in the back. If anyone has any tips, please feel free to share!

Come on ... What's cuter than a wet pug in a tub? I also managed to use a MME die-cut flower that has been around my stash for EVER! They were one of those things that I grabbed tonnes of when they first came out and have never really used all that much.

Prima Paintables. Ooooo. Hauled out my watercolour crayons and some of those new Fantastix blender pens (OK ... I don't know if they're a new thing, but they're new to me and I love 'em). Again, the BG rub-ons. This one is missing something but I can't quite figure it out yet.

My current favorite photo of the baby. It's my compter desktop background.
I also used Mindy Bush's Actions for PSE on these photos. They're not showing up real well on the photos of the photos here, but IRL they make all the difference. I rarely print out a photo without making some adjustment any more.

Christine Middlecamp was talking about the new Fancy Pants stuff the other day on her blog, and because I'm such a Christine Wannabe, I just had to hit the LSS yesterday to grab some. It's not there yet but she thought by the end of the week. Had a nice chat with the new owner. She's bringing in more of my favorites ... lots of Hambly, October Afternoon (coming), Pink Paislee (bought 5 alphas yesterday ... like I need any more alphas). I think she may be expanding to an online site in the future, but for now, she's just trying to get things reorganized to suit her own tastes.

Finally, I have some Proud Mama News to share. Our middle boy, Will, just started SK. The problem is that he can read like nobody's business. I contacted his teacher last week to see if she thought he was going to be challenged enough this year and she said that she'd been thinking about this all summer. She had him for JK and knew already last year that he was more advanced than the rest of the class. The principal sat with him yesterday to have him read to her and she places him at about a grade one and a half as far as reading skills and comprehension. Rather than move him up a grade, he's going to be going into the grade 1/2 class twice a day to do reading and math with them. She didn't want him to go into the grade one class because she says he's already past where they're at right now. He's so excited. And the class he gets to read with is his older brother's class. I was worried that Bob would have his nose out of joint because his little brother is horning in on his turf, but he seems more excited than Will. I'm really happy with the way that they've really put such thought and consideration to his individual situation. I don't think he'd want to be in grade 1 full time yet ... he still likes to spend time at home. And he still gets to do the fun Kindergarten things. I'm just wondering what will happen next year now. Oh well ... I can worry about that later!

4 comments:

Rita said...

Your mini is gorgeous!! Love every single detail so far! I'm a bit disorganized too...I haven't figured out a solution yet:)

Cathy said...

Your dog layouts are amazing!! What a great album!

mborrero said...

adorable plus 2

Colleen said...

loveness
all of it

and now i want a pug!!