Quilt Inspired...complete with faux sewing

I got the idea for this card after reading this post by Michelle Wooderson and seeing the very pretty quilt card she made. I had a lot of left over gypsy paper from Basic Grey so I decided to chop it all up and make something pretty. I dont sew on paper... I barely sew on material (think Halloween costumes and the occaisonal button) so I decided to use my MSE faux stitches stamps. I bought them over a year ago, I am ashamed to say today was the first day they saw ink! I also used the new spellbinders ribbon labels (picked those up at overstock.com), papertrey ink mixed messages, basic grey chipboard, PTI ribbon, and chocolate ink. I think those buttons are doodlebug but I have had them forever and a day so I really dont know.

An Award

I got an award. (BTW I had gotten a few others, and then never picked them up and played... so if I did that to you I am sorry! My only defense is that sometimes my life gets out of control. Anyway if any of you I give awards too dont want them or forget about them its A-OK. I totally understand!!) I got this award from Eileen. You can find her here. She has a great blog, its full of scrappy goodness! I am suppose to play along and name 7 other people to receive the award. So here is who I pick:

Katie at MyPaperHaven. Katie rocks, she is uber talented and she updates her blog almost daily.

Claire at Waltzingmouse makes. Claire is awesome, she has the coolest papercrafts. And she is a fellow PTI addict.

Beverly at Precious Scraps. Bev is so nice! She is also an amazing paper crafter!

Mrs. K- She is completely hilarious and a really good writer.

TKW- Another super funny fabulous writer.

Lynn at Stamperosity. Lynn is so nice and super talented too. I love her cards.

Melony at Pulleytimes8. She has six kids and is still sane. I admire that!!

Supposedly there are some strings attached to this award. Something like pick 7 people to give the award too and post them and link them on your blog. Post your award in your sidebar...etc. If you dont do it you get 7 years bad luck.... oh wait no not that, that was from the chainletter I got yesterday. LOL!

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend... I will be back tomorrow with a new card or a picture of my kids... yes my life is that exciting... dont hate! :)

It's Blog Hop Time!

Its blog hop time! Go here for all the details! This month's challenge was to work vellum. Lucky for me I got my PTI order in time to use some of their beautiful new vellum. I am using the Linen Vellum on these cards.



My idea for this card was to stamp two scenes that would compliment each other when they are both viewed through the vellum. This vellum (Papertrey Ink Linen cardstock vellum) was a little thick for this technique. You can see through it but just barely and no way could I get a picture of it, trust me I tried! However I really do like this card and this vellum. Its very pretty and it takes ink wonderfully. Here I am using birds of a feather stamps in combination with Out on a Limb stamps.

You can really see the weight of the vellum here! It makes a wonderful card base. I just love the look of this card and of course its using my new favorite set, Wise Owl.

Owl Card

This is from the Casual Midweek Challenge (CMW) over at Papertrey Ink. You can find it in the forum there if you want to play. I used mostly PTI products, spring moss cardstock, sweet blush twill, spring moss, chocolate, and sweet blush inks. I colored the owls (wise owl stampset) with tombow markers.

Non-Stamping Card

Rare that I make a card without stamping these days. I picked up these metal letters at Marshall's of all places. They are by WeR Memory Keepers. Cardstock is PTI, Ribbon is too. Ran the cardstock through my cuttlebug.

Hummingbird Part 2

Another hummingbird card, different color scheme this time. Stamps are PTI, cardstock and ribbon to. Some PTI ink and some dewdrop chalk ink.

TOTALLY UNRELATED: Remember a few blog posts back when I was talking about exercise and my little conversation with Self? Well Self and I had another conversation today.

ME: omg!!! my whole body feels like it went through a blender.
SELF: I told you not to stay for the toning portion of the spin class.
ME: omg I cant move, not. at. all.
SELF: yeah thats what happens when you do insane numbers of push ups after a grueling spin class. I told you to get up and leave.
ME: i think today might be a good day to skip the gym
SELF: for once you are thinking clearly.

Hummingbird

First I want to say thanks so much for all the happy birthday wishes for my kiddo!
I have a new card for you... all PTI except for some ink.. I have chalk ink going on in addition to some PTI palette ink. I also used a bit of stickles, because really whats a card without stickles? Stamps are from Out on a Limb and Birds of a Feather

As a side note... I read this yesterday... I found it hilarious, lots of cursing...which I find funny but just a warning for those of you who dont. If you dont have the time for the click its about killing ants and being an assassin vs. a serial killer. Well this evening I was a serial killer.... I must have taken out 1000 of those little suckers. Man, I hate ants.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

My baby turned 5 today! I can't believe it....just yesterday he was brand new.

Honorable Mention!!!

I got an honorable mention on Nicole's blog! I am on cloud 9!! I will be walking on air all day!! The folder that I made came from a template I got from Samantha (who is an amazing paper crafter and also a super sweet person. I asked her is she cared if I entered using her template, and she said no because she is just sweet like that.) You can find the template here on her blog. She even has a tutorial and her directions are so easy even I can follow them. I also have a similar project here on my blog where I used the sunflower/daisy stamp from Garden of Life. So anyway this just makes my day, my month, my year! If I had video on here you would be watching me jumping up and down screaming with my kid looking at me like I am crazy, plus you would be scarred for life because me + early morning = not a pretty site! Have a great day!

Black and White

I love the simplicity of this card. It uses the fabulous guidelines set from PTI. Stamping that pattern is so much easier than it looks! The ribbon is from Michaels, black cardstock is from MM, dew drops from Robins nest. I love those dew drops. Awesome stuff.

In totally unrelated news... I managed another spin class last night. Self, once again, thought we were going to die. But all was well... my legs hurt today but other than that I am good. Have another date at the gym at 3pm today. I so wish I could love exercising. I want to be one of those people who just loves it. I am not, pretty sure I never will be.

Crafty Things are on Hold

So I got some crafty things made but I never got around to taking pictures today. I had a lot of good intentions for the day, but as usual my good intentions did not all become reality.
I started my morning with a trip to the gym. Sad to say but I did not go to the gym the whole time I was working on the science institute...roughly seven days. Now one would think seven days wouldn't be that big of deal given that I have been working out regularly now for nearly 20 months. One would be very wrong! I decided to do a little spin class today because I felt I would work harder than working on my own upstairs on the elliptical. So I walk in and I see its the beginner level class, spin 1. Normally I take spin 3, sometimes spin 4. I do this 3x a week. So here I am, "oh level 1", I think, "how easy." I get on the bike. I go 5 minutes. I think I might die. I try that self talk, "Self you do this all the time. Self this is not hard, this is a fraction of what your regular class is. Self there is a 65 year old woman riding next to you and she is kicking your fat ass!" Self wasn't very happy. In fact, Self was demanding we leave, like 10 minutes ago. So to make a boring story shorter I did indeed finish 35 minutes of the class, I was soaked in sweat, I managed to stumble out and stretch. Then I decided because I was such a wimp in spin I would make up for it by lifting weights. UGH! It felt so much heavier than usual! I did manage to crank out some bench presses (yeah I can only press the bar, thank you very much), lat pulls, curls, and tricep push downs. Not a very spectacular effort. The weight will never come off if I keep this up! So tomorrow I begin anew, and it will be with a 45 minute class at level 2 or 3, it will be a new reason for Mondays to suck.

Finally!

Its been a long and awesome week teaching science to a bunch of K-2 teachers. I am completely exhausted, but here we are at Saturday, our final day of the institute. Mostly it has been a fabulous experience. This is by far the largest professional development program I have been in as an instructor and I have really enjoyed myself. Of course there are always one or two that have to spoil a good time. We have the participants fill out an evaluation at the end of each day. We read those and in our debrief meeting we use them to guide and help plan the next day. Most of the evals are nicely worded with helpful suggestions etc. But then there always has to be one or two who are rude and uncalled for, and truth be told completely unprofessional. You know teachers (me included) always complain about not being treated like a professional but then sometimes the way some teachers act its easy to see why they arent, kwim? In any case I am glad to be at the end because I feel like I need to sleep for a week! Hopefully I will be back with some crafty things tomorrow.

More Guidelines

So sorry there hasnt been anything new for so long. I am teaching at a science workshop all week. Its been great fun but the days have been long and havent allowed for much else... I haven't been able to craft a thing all week. We end on Saturday, so I should be back then. In the meantime I made this card a few weeks ago using PTI's new guide lines set. Its such a fabulous set and very forgiving. I would totally recommend it. The cardstock, ribbon, and ink is all by PTI as well.

Happy 4th of July!!

A special shout out to my dad who is celebrating his 58th birthday today! Happy Birthday Daddy! When I was little my dad used to tell me and my brother that all those fireworks were just for him. Of course we believed him... I mean he was our dad why wouldnt people want to shoot off fireworks for him every year?! So one time when I was 4 or 5 he asked me, "Why do they only have fireworks on my birthday and not yours?" I thought it over and then stated very matter of fact: " Oh Dad! You know why... my birthday is in the day and yours is at night!" Hehehe I was clever even back then. Happy 4th!

Wise Owls

This is a notecard holder and notecard set that I made for my daughter's teacher as an end of school gift. Her class is always known as the Wise Owls. So cute! She has tons of owl stuff that has been given to her over the years. I usually give the teacher a cookie bouquet as an end of the year gift but this week I just didnt have the time. So I came up with this. My daughter says she really really liked it. Note: The colors are really off in the first photo. The note card photo is a much better reflection on the actual colors.



Ingredients: Sassafrass Lass paper, hero arts owl stamp, PTI ribbon in berry sorbet. Berry sorbet ink, MM expresso ink. Lettering is my handwriting, American crafts pen.

Guide Lines

This is made with Papertrey Ink's newest releases. We have vintage cream cardstock, plum pudding cardstock and ink. Plum pudding ribbon and then the terrific guidelines stamps. They do have a bit of a learning curve, but they are so forgiving! Its really hard to totally screw it up. I only wasted two pieces of paper getting started. What can I say I am a slow learner. The happy birthday is from birthday basics, I believe.

Just Hangin' Around

A kiddie card! I made this for my friend's three year old's birthday. I used Hero Arts stamps. I just picked these up the other day at my local stamp store, which I must say is a very good store. They have all the latest and greatest. They even carry scor-pal and nestabilities! The name is Stamper's Corner and if you are ever in the Sacramento area you ought to check them out. Anyway back to the card. Images are stamped with palette black noir and colored with Derwent water color pencils. The green cardstock is bazzill and the white is stampers select by PTI. The ribbon is from Michaels.

We Interrupt Your Crafting to Bring You This:

Oh my this is so funny! Especially since I am related to several engineers and I, of course, own 6 cats.

More Sunflower Goodness & Some Non-Crafty Rambling

A few more of the sunflower cards. I have all the ingredients in the previous post. I really had fun using these colors I would normally shy a way from.




In other news, we are preparing to take a little trip to my husband's cousin's wedding. Its going to take a week before we are back home. The wedding is in Paso Robles. Its a cute little town. About a 4 hour drive for us, maybe a tad longer since we will have to stop for the kids. Of course, with two kids in the car, it may feel like its a 14 hour drive. We do not have an onboard DVD player. No its old fashioned travel for us. Are we there yet? How much longer? I have to go pee! Dont you wish you were coming with us?

While we we are on the road we will be sans computer. I fully expect to have withdrawal symptoms but sometimes I think its good to step away from the technology. So I am leaving the mac at home and I am going to just go cold turkey. I did upload a few blog posts to appear while I am away. More cards and crafty stuff, I hope you enjoy them.

It's Blog Hop Time!

This month's challenge was to use acetate. Let me just say that I now hate acetate. LOL. Honestly I had the worst time with this, it did not come easy. For my card I actually recycled some packaging to make a 3D window in which to hang my stamped flowers. The flowers are stamped from the Garden of Life Set. I used all PTI products on this card with the exception of the Hero Art sparkle embossing powder, DMC floss, and crystal stickles. I cut the square hole using my nesties. I glued everything down with glue dots.

Sunflower Goodness

This is a little notecard set and holder I made to give as a gift.... not sure who is going to receive it yet though. The holder I made with the help from an awesome tutorial I found over at Samantha's blog. She rocks. Her directions are super easy to follow. I made five cards; a get well, a thank you, a generic hello, and two blanks. Then I stamped 5 matching envelopes. Almost all the supplies are PTI. I will put a full list below. Thanks for coming by. I love when you leave comments, it totally makes my boring little day!


Sunflower Notes Ingredients: PTI Cardstock: Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, Spring Moss, Select White. PTI Ribbon: Summer Sunrise Swiss Dot, Spring Moss Twill PTI Ink: Summer Sunrise, Spring Moss, Lemon Tart. Stamps: PTI Garden of Life NON PTI ITEMS: RIBBON: brown: offray sparkly gold: American Crafts. INK: Making Memories brown OTHER: fiskars punch, nestabilities squares, Cinnamon stickles, Cowboy dew drops.

Ribbon Storage

I modified my MM embellishment center so that my ribbons would not have to be on the dowel anymore. I always liked the way it looked, but using the ribbon and changing them out was time consuming and tedious. So I took out the dowels and I threaded elastic through the holes. Now I just stand my spools up behind the elastic. It works great!

More Money Saving...

This time I hit the jackpot at Tuesday Morning. Oh there was so much scrappy goodness it was hard to keep a hold on my wallet! I got two sets of MM clear stamps, MM acrylic block, 3 sets of Heidi Grace chipboard Alphas, 2 pads of 6x6 MM paper, 8 mm stamp ink cubes, two huge sets of MM ribbon on a spool, a set of basic grey ribbon, 1 pkg basic grey rubons and a 12x12 pack of MM paper! All for the unbelievable price of 40 dollars! I felt like I had struck gold!! So my goodies are now home and unpacked and I cant wait to scrap some more this week.

Casual Midweek Challenge 11

Over at the PTI message board they have the Casual Midweek Challenge, I just love the name. Its like...no we dont need any commitments... just come as you are. I have spent half the morning trying to load this card on PTI's gallery but its not working for some reason. So for now I thought I would just put it here.

Recipe: PTI's Aquamist, Select white, and Lavender Moon cardstock, aquamist and versamark watermark ink, lavender moon ribbon, hero arts sparkly embossing powder, crystal stickles

Quiz Time

A bit of fun I found on Sheri's blog. I am surprised my score was that high!

53 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

A Little Birthday Crafting...

My old college roommate's son just turned three so I made him this little cupcake card. I used Birthday Basics and It's a Celebration from... where else? Papertrey Ink... yes i heart them....very very much! I think the cardstock is Bazzill but I am not positive I just pulled it out of my stash. The white is PTI's stamper's select. The ribbon is from michaels. The ink is the dew drops chalk ink and the bling is unknown, sorry I bought it so long ago, just like so much of my stuff. Hoard much? Why, yes I do. Anyway hope you like.

Cookie Gifts

I meant to post this picture two weeks ago when I made it. I was also going to post pictures of my disastrous kitchen, the clock blinking midnight when I finally finished them, etc. There is a reason the bakeries charge $50 for these things... they are a huge pain in the butt! After they were all done and I went to wrap them up I noticed that the bags were a little small. I think Michael's has stopped selling the ones I normally use. I need something between tiny and gigantic (the only two sizes Mike's is carrying). Do any of you crafting divas know where I can buy more little bags in Medium? I just love individually wrapping the cookies because it looks so professional. Anyhow, the cookies were a huge hit with my son's preschool teachers. Thanks for stopping by!

Did I Just Say That Other Card Was My Favorite?

Well that was before I made this one! I really like how it came out. I was on a card making frenzy the other night. Its been nice to be able to stay up late and not have to worry about work the next day! I have been taking my daughter to school but hey I can do that in sweats and a ponytail (Yes, I am a Glamour don't).

Ingredients: PTI Garden of Life stamps, PTI cardstock in sweet blush and white, PTI inks in lemon tart, sweet blush, and spring moss, PTI ribbon in spring moss. Tag cut using a cuttle bug die.

In non-crafty news I am working on getting to gym everyday. One failure so far. I will be back at it tomorrow. I see my endocrinologist this week. Hopefully I will find that everything is going well. (I am a type 1, insulin pump wearing diabetic). My son is adjusting to being home with mom, I am adjusting to actually doing my housework. I spent two hours on it today... a record for me to be sure. Katie asked about how the playhouse was coming along.... my contractor (fundaddy) quit. He hasnt worked on it at all! Hoping he will be back out there soon so I can get it painted this summer.

My Most Favorite Card....

well most favorite in the last couple of days anyway. All supplies paper trey ink except for some of the colored inks, those are dew drops chalk ink. The flowers and bee are from the PTI honeybees set.

Another Day, another card....

This was made for a friend of mine's baby to be. The baby is going to be named Emilia. I used Papertrey ink patterned paper, ink and boxs, bags and tags stamps. I also used a Brenda Walton letter set for the E. finally I added in a good dose of stickles.

On another note, School is OUT! Which means a good 9 weeks of vacation for me!!! YIPPEE!!! Lots of days to do absolutely nothing! Well I still have to watch my kids and take care of the house... but thats hardly anything.....

More Crafty Stuff

Another card... I have quite a pile going on my craft table... now if I could just get back into scrapbooking... I have such a back log of pictures. Anyway this little card is all PTI... including their fabulous new kraft paper cardstock... that stuff is awesome. If you havent checked out PTI you should. The link is in my sidebar.

Bee Card

I made this card as a little thank you for my dentist and his assistant. (Lets just say I am a troublesome patient). I used Papertrey ink cardstock and ribbon (summer sunrise), palette ink (black noir), PTI honeybees stamps, stickles (diamond), and glossy accents. I used my scor pal to score the rectangle around the bee. Its a nice simple card and definitely easy to make.

Saving Money AGAIN!

Just call me a Big Lots addict. Today as I was driving home from work I heard a little voice say, go to Big Lots... you have time... there is something so good there!! So instead of heading home to the burbs I turned the van to go deeper into the 'hood. I parked my car, noticed that their were the two requisite cops sitting out by the liquor store, and then I headed in to Big Lots. I just knew there was going to be something awesome. I walked over to the scrapbook section (pitifully small) and lo and behold! What do I see???? Its Basic Grey all over the place! It was all I could do not to snatch it all up! They also had some awesome MAMBI kits but I had already promised myself no more paper after my last three purchases of super sized paper slabs. So I had to pass those up...it nearly killed me!!! Anyway I was so very pleased with my haul... now to use it... hmmmmmm... maybe I will just look at for awhile.

SCARY!!!!

I found this on my computer today. I think its my boy... its beyond creepy!

Two Weeks

is the amount of time left before summer vacation! Ahhh the best part about being a teacher, you still get summer vacation! Its not as carefree as it was when I was a kid but its still awesome! Tomorrow I have a day long meeting... bleh. Then the rest of the week is business as usual, except for Friday which is movie day. Gotta love movie day! Also this week my kids begin swimming lessons... I am hoping this is the year they actually learn to swim. My daughter is so close, I am hoping and praying it "clicks" this time! The boy... well he is still trying to learn to put his head under, so I have a feeling its going take a few more lessons for him.

Another Card

This was the other card that I was working on for the papertrey ink blog hop. It also has grid style scoring. I like everything about it except that I tried to heat emboss the crown and I think it looked better before I did that. I am not sure who this will go to. Its just sitting in my stash with several others.

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

Its that time of the month! Time for the PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop! See all the details here. This month's challenge was to use score lines. It was a challenge for me.... I had to use my old grey fiskars and the scoring blade... it was tricky. I made two and couldnt decide which to show.... so I just played eeny meanie.

Some Crafty Stuff for You

I have been playing in my craft corner.... testing out my new papertreyink stamps. I made a few cards, one is for bloghop so I have to keep that to myself for now... you will see it Wednesday night. Of the two I posted, one is for my friend who is expecting a baby girl in September. I used bitty baby and lavender moon from papertrey ink. The other is made from papertreyinks new Kraft paper and the new honeybee stamp set. I was just messing around, not sure if I like this card or not. It went into my stash for the next time unexpected card occasions arise.

Been Slackin'

I have been slacking with the blog. I don't know but lately I just haven't had a whole lot to say. I have been crafting but I haven't taken any pictures of my creations. Maybe today if I find the time. I have the day off for Memorial Day. We are getting close to the end of school, just three weeks left! Hard to believe summer is almost here! I am looking forward to loafing around all day.

Some other things going on:
Gave a "scrapbooking" lesson to a friend of mine yesterday. Loaded her up with Joann's coupons. I think its safe to say that I lured in another one. She was all ready to run right out and buy a trimmer, paper, albums, etc. This after completing just two pages. Papercrafting is an addictive and expensive little hobby. I did try to give her some money saving tips: Joanns and Mikes coupons, stop off at Big Lots frequently, watch for Target clearance.

Getting a crown put on Wednesday, and not the princess crown I deserve! Man I hate going to the dentist. I am finally at the final step of this crown nonsense. I pray I never need another one!!!

Tripped over my stupid cat on the stairs Thursday. Fell on my butt and apparently jarred every muscle in my body. My neck is still aching. I think this means I am getting old.

Speaking of stupid cats, both my indoor cats have parasites and so they have to take medicine. Anyone who has ever tried to give a cat meds knows exactly what I am talking about!! These stupid cats have clawed me, bit me and spit their stupid medicine all over me! Cats are so ungrateful!

So thats the update here... you really didn't miss anything, my life still holds all the excitement of a snail.

SAVING MONEY BIG TIME!!!

What you see is an American Crafts Modern 12x12 D ring album... Its that funky cardboard color because you add your own paper and embellies to make it gorgeous. I found this baby at Big Lots... do you see the price??? A mere $5! I bought 3... which truely was showing restraint because they had 8 and I wanted to buy them all! Do you know what these retail for down at the local scrapbook store?? Let me tell you... $19.00!!! And even online they are $17 (plus shipping) Dont believe me? Look here. I feel the need to shout it from the rooftops! "Look at the amazing deal I got!" I didn't shout when I came home with it though... I kind of snuck in the house and slid the giant bag of albums (and ummm a few other good deals) under my craft table where hopefully my husband will just walk on by... otherwise he might start questioning me on why I need yet another (or three) empty scrapbook albums.

Random Stuffs*

Just a collection of random stuffs* floating around in my head:

It's May which means school (a.k.a. my job) is almost out!! I have four weeks left until summer time! Time to be lazy, hang with my kids, slide my walrus like body into my swimsuit and wish that I had worked out more and indulged in cookies less this past winter.

I have been working alot! Grades, summer project, yearbook, final edit on the newspaper... they are all eating into my crafting time. Looks as if crafting will be on hiatus for a few weeks.

My tooth hurts. I am in the process of getting a crown and its not going well. The only highlight is that my dentist is hot. and nice. And Hot. and he is uses the Novocain well. Oh and did I mention he is HOT? I wish I could think of a good reason to sneak my camera in and get a picture... but all scenarios end up with me looking like a loon, a stalker, or a desperate housewife.

I found a new blog a few weeks ago. Its heart wrenching. Its heart warming. Its sad and yet its uplifting. Its about a man and his baby and his beloved wife who died the day after their daughter was born. This all happened a mere 7 weeks ago. The writing is beautiful, the pictures are poignant. The entire thing is so beautiful and yet so sad. The link is in my sidebar. Its called Matt, Liz, and Madeline. Get your tissues before you click.

My boy outwitted me in the flip flop saga. I was outwitted by a 4 year old. Hmmmm... just what does that say about me?

Its late... ok its not... is 9:10. But I am old and I have to get up at 5:20 and I need all the beauty sleep I can get. So happy Wednesday to you all! Thanks for stopping by my little piece of the internet.

*stuffs is a word my son says frequently. I am not as illiterate as I seem to be. I have a piece of paper that says I am qualified to teach young children... hmmmmm... maybe you should be worried.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Yesterday I went to the giant bullseye and bought my boy some Transformer flipflops. Now my boy has some perfectly good spiderman flipflops but they were from last summer and he wanted some new ones. So being the good mother I am I complied. We get said flipflops home and the boy puts them on and decrees they are too tight, they hurt, and he hates them. Furthermore he is never ever going to wear these flipflops. So I put them pack in their packaging and put them on the counter so I can take them back or trade them in for a bigger size.
This morning:
Boy: Momma where are my Transformer flipflops?
Me: In the bag, I am taking them back to the store to get a bigger size.
Boy (screaming): NOOOO MAMAMMAAA NOOOOO!! I want them, I love them, I want to wear them!!!
Me: No they are too small we will trade them for bigger Transformer flipflops
Boy: NOOOOOOO!!! I want these, I love them, they fit! Please mama please I want to wear them.

Now a less experienced mother might have given them back. But I know my boy, he would have worn them just long enough to make it impossible to return them and then they would have languished in his closet because "they hurt and I hate them." So I stuck to my guns. And experienced a lovely Mother's Day tantrum at 8:15 am. So heres hoping your Mother's Days turn out a little better!!!

(BTW, Mine has gotten nothing but better as the day has gone on... I love these kids even if they do make me question my sanity.)

Guppy Update

(Sorry if you are here looking for crafty things...hopefully I will get some pics up this weekend)
So the guppies made the trip to school just fine. I wish I had a camera when I delivered them to the second graders. Only children could get that excited over a few fish. The fish are all set up in their new homes; customized two liter bottles, with blue and green gravel and some aquatic plants (and NO HEATERS!!! TAKE THAT PETSMART!) Everyone was still alive and well when I left school today. Oh and everyone had been given names....some that stick in my mind: Jazmine, Danny, Lola, Annie, Hareema LOL! I love it! Now I just need to go get some worms to deliver to my first graders and we are all set with animals until the end of the year. Which would be June 12th.. not that I am counting or anything!

Guppies... Alive and Kickin

Well they are alive and swimming anyway. My husband went to the big local fish store here and purchased them for me. 15 cents each. Plus some little plants to go in their new two liter bottle homes. He is out right now buying some food for them. Tomorrow I take them to school. We were suppose to bring them in on Monday but I just didnt get a chance to go out after them. Anyhow they are oh so cute and swimming happily in their vase for the moment. Oh and for what its worth, my husband said the aquarium lady was totally fine without them having a heater. So there, Petsmart! Take that!

Guppies and Goldfish...who knew they were so delicate?

So being the fabulous science teacher that I am, I decide that the second graders will raise guppies as part of their life science unit. Not only will we raise the guppies but we will build them tiny fish homes out of two liter bottles, aquarium rocks, and aquatic plants. Now I am not a novice at this, we did this two years ago. It worked beautifully. The guppies were happy in their two liter home and there were many happy second graders. The guppies even obliged us by having babies. Oh sure they ate some of their young but really there were quite a few. The kids didnt seem to really care. Anyway earlier this week I decide its time to go and purchase the guppies. Now the last time we did this one of the other teachers took care of procuring the fish so this was new territory for me.

My kids and I arrive at Petsmart in our lovely little suburb around 5 p.m. I am super tired, I just want to buy guppies and get the heck out of there. We go up to the fish person who is looking oh so busy twirling her hair and smacking her gum. Below is our conversation. I will just call her FP (fish person).

Me: Hi I need some guppies.
FP: What?
Me: I need some guppies, about 20 or so
FP: What kind?
Me: The cheap kind.
FP: What kind is that?
Me: Ummmm I dont know maybe feeder guppies?
FP: We have these.... waves her hand towards a tank. I see those guppies are 1.29 a piece.
Me: Wow thats a lot for feeder guppies.
FP: no not really. Look these are more... waves hand towards guppies that are 2.54 each
Me: I think these are maybe way more fancy than I need.
FP: You do have a filter and heater right?
Me: No
FP: you need a filter and a heater
Me: I didnt last time.
FP: I am a fish expert, you need a filter and a heater
My boy: MOOOOOOMMMM when are we getting fish... I want some. I want some to keeeeeppppppp!!!
Me: Look fish person I just need 20 guppies, cheap. They are going to a bunch of school kids. They will live in 2 liter bottles. I have done this before
FP: oh no you cant do that
My boy: MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM can I have this snake. PLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE??????
Me: ok fine what about goldfish. I can improvise. You have cheap goldfish?
FP: Gold fish need a filter.
Me: Are you freaking kidding me???
FP: Gold fish waste is highly toxic. Without a filter the goldfish will die in 3 days
Me: Are you for real?
FP: I am a fish expert. I am telling you they need a filter
My boy: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM I need a bird....look my hand fits in the cage.... pleeeeeeeese?????
Me: Look lady, I had goldfish that I bought at woolworths when I was 12. They lived in a tiny bowl that I rarely changed the water in. They were still alive when I left for college. Then I think my mom killed them. Point is they had no filter. I am not for a minute believing this crap about goldfish needing a filter.
FP: I cant sell you any fish
Me: Are you kidding? What fish go in the fish bowl if you need a filter for everything
FP Betas. i can sale you betas.
ME: yah. you think I am buying 20 betas at 5 bucks a pop? Are you on drugs?
FP: Look lady I am highly trained and I am not selling you any fish if you arent going to put them in a tank with a filter.
ME: yah ok, you arent selling me any fish

So I extract my child from the parrot cage. Remove my daughter from the rabbits and get the heck out of that crazy fish store. I call up Capitol Aquarium. Hi there, I need some guppies. Feeder guppies
CA: sure we have those
Me: how much
CA 15 cents each
Me: do I have to buy a filter?
CA: are you kidding? for feeder guppies?

Yah I new that FP was insane! I just cant figure out why. So the guppy saga continues. I buy them Monday. I will let you know if they all go belly up.

Hellish

Its been a hellish week, the details of which I cant go into a public blog, no matter how well I think my identity may be hidden (yeah not well at all...oh so easy to see pics of me...but I digress) So back to the main subject... yes hellish... its been hellish. I know sometimes bad things happen, and sometimes those things are completely out of your control, and you cant make them better but it still feels like crap. So thats where I have been this week...(ya know in case my one or two readers are wondering). I think I will be back in the swing of things this weekend. I have a very funny guppy story for you as soon as I sit down long enough to type it out. :)