10 on Tuesday

SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!! Kids are in the final stretch of school and lots of fun stuff going on this week. Can't wait for summer vacation. We have no major plans this summer other than lots of baseball, but still looking forward to it.

1. Can't get enough of Blake Shelton's Honey Bee. Seriously love this song and love him on "The Voice".

2. Starting to work on stuff for the 4th of July. Thinking banners and pinwheels. Love all the pinwheels I'm seeing. Can't wait to make some of my own.

3. Working on little baskets for the kids for the last day of school. Things like sidewalk chalk and bubbles for Audrey, baseballs for Dart, coupons for trips to the park, etc. Any other good ideas to include?

4. Excited for the Women's College World Series to start as the MU softball team made it for the 3rd year in a row. Dart is very excited as well, although if you ask him if he wants to try batting against a softball player he runs the other way fast. So glad to see that he doesn't think softball is for wimps. He says their pitches scare him.

5. Speaking of Mizzou, if you are not a Missouri native you may not have seen the awesome shirts Mizzou made to help benefit the Joplin, MO tornado relief effort. Check them out here. Can't wait to get mine.

6. Working on my summer goals. Excited to share them on Thursday most likely.

7. Feeling very inspired today and have a million ideas of things I want to do and of course time is very limited today. But I have all of it written down so hopefully later I will remember it all.

8. Making lists of things to do with the kids this summer and one thing they said they wanted to do was have movie marathons a couple of times. Trying to think of some good movies to do that with. Dart said Harry Potter, that might take a couple of days to get through. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules comes out on June 21st so I'm sure we'll have a Wimpy Kid marathon at some point. Also can't wait to go see Cars 2 in the theaters. I LOVE Cars!!

9. Working on my list of books to read this summer too. I love curling up outside in one of the chairs and reading the day away. Especially while the kids play in the sprinkler. Any books on your summer reading list?

10. Also working on a list of summer pictures to take. If you have any ideas let me know. I will be posting all these lists here at some point in the next couple of weeks.

Thank You

Those words will never be enough, but they are the best I can do. Thank you to all who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice and thank you to all those currently serving.

An extra thank you and prayers to Dustin and Trever. We are thinking of you guys all the time.

Wooosh..

That's about how this week sounded!! This was the fastest week in a long time. I think it was because I spent most of it trying to catch things up, still not there, but getting close.

As many of you know Joplin, MO was hit hard last Sunday with an EF5 tornado. I have a very dear friend who has been in Joplin since Wednesday helping with whatever needs done. She is coming home today for the weekend, but then heading back Monday or Tuesday morning. The kids school started a drive on Tuesday to gather as much stuff as they could so that a family who was heading down to see relatives in Joplin this weekend. Since Wednesday(notes went home on Tuesday) this is what the school collected:

This was collected from Wednesday to Friday morning. A lot of the stuff was boxed up Thursday afternoon, but Friday morning I think we collected more than any other day. It was so amazing to see the kids come in with stuff and proudly add it to the pile. One little boy said "Look Mrs. Weaver, I brought soup to help the kids who lost everything. I'm so happy I can help these kids. It's my favorite soup, but they need it more than I do." Mrs. Weaver and I both almost lost it when he walked away. Friday morning it was decided by the student senate that some of the money they collected from the school store would be donated to Kids for Kids, a group helping the kids/schools in Joplin. Shepard is sending over $1,000 to help.

In other news:
One of my cards is featured in an Etsy treasury right now. Please take a look at all the great ideas for graduation, including my grad cap card.

I'm beginning to think we are never going to see the sun for an entire day again. I can't believe how cold and wet it has been. It is almost June and we are still in the 60's. Not that I want it to be 100, but the 80's would be nice. I'm tired of using my heater in the morning because it is still in the low 40's.

Working like a mad woman to get all my baseball pictures and all the pictures from graduation weekend caught up. I'm proud to say that all my May pictures that aren't baseball or graduation are edited and uploaded. Same for March and April. This is the first time ever!!

This Memorial Day weekend while you are grilling with friends and family, don't forget to take a moment and remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. And also for those who are serving currently. Without them our lives would be so different.

Catching up

Still alive. Busy catching up on laundry, house and life. Hope to be back regularly very very soon.

One of my favorite pictures from graduation night.

Be back soon.

...

Playing catch up after a very busy, but wonderful weekend. Graduation was amazing. Parties were amazing. So proud of my little brother and all his friends. They are all such great and amazing kids. Can't wait to follow their journey into college.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by the tornadoes that hit Joplin, MO on Sunday.

You always think a hospital can withstand whatever comes its way, but I guess everything is fair game when it's Mother Nature.

Back later with lots of graduation stuff and getting excited about some new ideas and things on my plate.

A new found love

While working like crazy on a million things for my mom for the party this weekend I discovered a new love. Restoring pictures. Granted the one I discovered this on wasn't horrible it's still so much fun to watch it go from Ugh! to WOW!!

I was working on a picture from my brother's pre-school graduation. My mom had scanned it and her scanner bed must be dirty because there were spots all over the picture. It had also been bent at one point because there was a line all the way across it.

Before:

After:

If you click on each picture it is easier to see the difference in them. It is hard working with scanned photos, I think I need to do a little research on working with them. It seems like it pixelated it some once I started working on it. I wonder if there is a market for restoring pictures? Might have to look into that as well.

10 on Tuesday

Well on Wednesday really.

1.Working like crazy to get banners, cupcake toppers, card box and whatever else my mom wants done for the weekend.

2. Have decided that I hate shopping for clothes. It is not fun for me. Went to find something to wear to my brother's graduation and it's just not fun.

3. A piece of advice for all of you with younger kiddos; start a folder now for pictures you might want to use for graduation slide shows. I am starting one for both of mine. My mom is going crazy trying to go through all her pictures to get them together. Thankfully for all but about 6 months of Dart's life I have been completely digital. Should make things easier.

4. Can't believe my baby girl is almost done with Kindergarten. Seems crazy. She has been doing so good lately at reading much harder books. It's so fun listening to her read me a story.

5. Any Castle fans out there? I cannot believe how they ended the season. I'm still mad. Yes, I know it's a tv show, but OMG!!!

6. Excited for the Celebrity Apprentice and Biggest Loser Finales. I really hope John Rich wins CA. I like Marlee, but am a huge JR fan. As for Biggest Loser, I can't wait to see how some of the bigger people look at the finale.

7. I'm still waiting on spring to show up and stay. We had the heat on this week. I'm DONE with the cold.

8. I scored 2 free light bulbs today. Was paying our electric bill and asked about the exchange program they have. Usually you have to take in the old bulbs and they will give you new ones. Got 2 today even though I had no old ones to take in.

9. I'm really excited to show Audrey the new water bottle I found her. The kids recently started taking water bottles to school instead of Capri Sun or other juice. Audrey's was a little too big for her lunch box. Today while I was at Old Navy I found a smaller one, with monkey's on it. She is a major monkey freak, so this will be better. Now I can have her old one too.

10. Speaking of Audrey, she is wearing a dress today that was mine when I was little. Looks so cute on her. Must remember to get a picture of her in it before she changes after school.

Gifts for the Grad

In honor of my brother's graduation later this week most of my posts this week will be about him or graduation. I can't believe he's graduating. I'm sure I will be a crying fool. Since my son says I cry at every commercial that comes on, I know I will be crying at this.

Today lets talk gifts for the grads. I'm sure the most common and easiest gift is cold hard cash!!! Or gift cards. What grad wouldn't love money. Works perfect for high school or college grads. However, if you are wanting a little something extra to add to their gift or want something other than money I have a few suggestions for you.

In my family it is custom for the grad to receive the Dr. Suess book Oh, the Places You'll Go! It is a great book for the grad. I still have my copy that my grandma gave me. I believe I was the start of this tradition and plan to continue it for a long time.

I remember when I went to college computers were not something most of us had in our rooms, we used the lab. Today I would be surprised to walk into a dorm room that didn't have at least 1 computer in it already. Most likely that computer will be a laptop. Great gift idea would be a nice case/bag for their laptop. Etsy has some amazing bags/covers in all price ranges too. One of my favs for either a boy or girl, high school or college grad is this case. Don't forget there are also tons of cases for e-readers and ipads as well.

Other ideas:
This adorable necklace featuring the words dream big would be great for a girl.
For the grad getting ready to hit the real world, these pens would look great in that new cubicle!
Another idea for the grad getting ready to join the corporate world, an amazing looking business card holder.
Don't forget things like towels and bedding always work great for both high school and college grads.
Other home items are great for the college grad getting ready to move into their first place.

Etsy is full of amazing things that would make the perfect personalized gift for your grad. If all else fails find a cute card to put that cash in.

Quote Me on that

I am a HUGE quote collector. I have a rolodex file almost full of quotes. And with the discovery of Pinterest I am collecting even more. I love adding them to pictures, scrapbook pages, little notes for people, and whatever else I can think of. I'm working on making some quote prints to add to the etsy shop and hope to have them ready to go soon. I'm thinking they will be printable things, not physical products. Reduces shipping costs and makes it more customizable.

I'm hoping to start a wordy Wednesday type thing for the blog. Some weeks it will be just the quote, others it might be a print with the quote and others there may be a picture with the quote. It will just depend on what quote speaks to me the most that week.

For today it's what may be a printable item. Still working on how I like them to look. However, this quote is truly speaking to me this week.

I am:

• working on senior picture stuff for my brother and a couple of his friends. Love seeing these kids all grown up, but also makes me sad. 
• working on baseball pictures. Trying like crazy to get them caught up.
• very tired. Did leave the baseball fields until 9:50 last night. Dart FINALLY got his hit. He is so happy!
• dealing with crazy allergies. This year has been worse than I have ever experienced, my eyes and nose usually are what's effected most, with a little bit of a headache. This year it has also bee scratchy throat and ears. 
• happy with the final four in Celebrity Apprentice. I would love to see John Rich or Meatloaf win, but now that Star is gone, I don't care who wins!
• getting excited to see who makes it to the final four in Biggest Loser. 
• loving The Voice. Anxious to see how the show goes on now. 
• looking forward to a night at home with nothing to do. Last week we were not home before 8:30 any night and I'm looking forward to coming home after Audrey gets done with Art Club tonight and being done!!

 One of my favs of my brother's Senior Pictures. So excited he's coming to Mizzou next year and will be in town. Audrey is beyond excited that she will have Uncle so close. I'm sure she will think she needs to see him daily. Those 2 are so cute together. I love the relationship they have.

Happy Mother's Day

Getting to be mom to these 2 crazy kids is the best job in the world. They are loving, sweet, crazy and fun. Yes they have their moments, but even in those moments, they are great kids. Without them I wouldn't be mom! Love both of you most.

Getting to be mommy to this angel reminds me daily that I have someone special watching over me all the time. Love and miss you Kota!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, who is the best Moo Moo kids could ever have. Thank you for being a great mom and an even better grandma!

To all you other mom's out there, hope you are having a great day. To all you women who may not be mom's but have influence on young people in anyway, thank you! It may mean more to them than you can imagine.

Teacher Appreciation Week Day 1 and 2

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week. Growing up with a mom who is a teacher, a dad who was a teacher for a while and an aunt and uncle who were teachers I know how little teacher's can sometimes be appreciated. Sure they get summers off(if they don't teach summer school, which many do now days), but what so many people do not understand is how much work teachers put in that they do not get paid for. My mom is a special ed teacher and the amount of time she puts in doing paperwork astounds me. It's not just simple grading of papers, for her she has IEP's(Individual Education Plans) which require more paper work than most CEO's ever touch. And with the No Child Left Behind act it is 10 times worse. She says she still loves her kids, but cannot stand all the red tape they have to deal with anymore.

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week I am making gifts for my kids' teachers and for 2 other teachers that I help with folders and copies. Every year I say I'm going to make them something for everyday and this year I actually planned ahead enough that I can pull it off. In addition to this our teachers at Shepard are being SPOILED this year. Every day there is a full lunch being provided. Each grade is responsible for a day. Yesterday was fried chicken. They also have Mexican, Baked Potatoes and Soup, Italian, and BBQ. Wednesday after school the 5th grade is in charge of an Ice Cream Sundae bar.

Yesterday I gave them cute little post it note holders. I took an acrylic frame, added some scrapbook paper to it and the post it notes. I will most likely be adding these to my Etsy shop next week. If you are interested in one, just let me know. They will be $5.00.

These were for my kids' teachers. When I sell them, they will include the little tag/bookmark and the clothespin. Great for an end of the year gift, new job gift, or a just because gift.

These are for the 2 other teachers I help. I might have to make me one, the more I look at them, the more I think I NEED one too.

For today's gift I decided to spoil them with a little chocolate. I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew right away I wanted to do it for the teachers. Besides, who doesn't love S'Mores!!???

It includes the fixings for s'mores and directions for fixing them in the microwave. I had to test one out to make sure it was edible. Aside from getting chocolate everywhere it was YUMMY! The toppers say "We need S'MORE teachers like you!"

If you have a child with a wonderful teacher send in a little gift or note this week letting them know how much you appreciate them. If you know a teacher thank them for their hard work. If you are a teacher, THANK YOU! I know I do not have the patience to be a teacher, it takes a special person to be a teacher.

34 before 35 update

Hard to believe we are to May already. Time is sure flying although the last week of April seemed to go really slow.

Here is my list of 34 Things I want to do before I turn 35!
4. Have 100 sales in my Etsy shop.-2 sales of 3 items. Total so far is 8 sales of a total of 15 items.
5. Have 75 followers on my blog.-14 actually listed as followers.
6. Maintain 50 items in my Etsy shop. I have so many things I want to make and hopefully it will be hard to have 50 items in my shop all the time because hopefully things will be selling!-29 items right now.
9. Create digital cards. Think the cards you get at Christmas. Great for birth announcements, birthday invitations, Graduation open houses, wedding save the dates and more.-Made 2.
10. Declutter. I am tired of all the junk we have. I have started with my scrapbook stuff and actually look forward to creating because I don't get caught up in the stuff.-Make-up bag has been cleaned out and we used a lot of stuff from the cabinets.
12. Do more reading of creative/business books. I have a massive list of them to read.-Read a lot on branding this month.
13. Learn to design elements in Photoshop Elements. I really want to learn to make digital elements for digital cards and stuff.-Played with some print ideas.
14. Drink 3 bottles of water daily. Mostly to drink less pop each day. I am a huge pop drinker and need to cut back.-Not bad, but could do better and will in May.
15. Do more with photo editing. One thing is I want to go back and do some things with my older pics and also there is so much more fun stuff I can do with pictures.-Have a good workflow down for general editing, I want to do more with some creative editing stuff.
16. Have 10 custom orders. I would love to have more, but I really want to make more custom items for people. Be it banners, cards or scrapbooks, bring it on.-2 banners, up to 9 so I'm almost there.
24. Stay better caught up on pictures, editing and uploading. Upload to Shutterfly, Flickr and other spots. Also be better about backing up.-Did pretty good with the exception of baseball pictures. I take way too many and don't see myself cutting back any.
32. Participate more at Flickr, Etsy groups and Etsyprenuer.-Was doing really good and then baseball started. I will get them caught up though.
34. Do more to encourage Handmade Items!! I don't care if it's jewelry or cards or what, I just really want to do more to encourage buying handmade.-Did a blog post on ideas for Mother's Day and also told several friends about Etsy and a few little local shops. 

I forgot to take a picture of the name banner, but here is the Happy Birthday part of the banner. I LOVE the bright primary colors, especially for a first birthday party.