So Much Fun!

I am having so much fun at the Arizona Art Education Association Conference! My class on making hardbound books went great! Everyone seemed to have so much fun and I had a great time too!

It is so much different teaching art teachers! It is like the easiest teaching job ever! :)

I also took a great class and got a amazing idea! It was called, get this.... The Jello copy machine! That's right, you can use the old mimeograph papers to turn a bed of jello and glycerin into a copy machine! The best part is that once you make the "machine" it never goes bad! You can use it forever. 24 hours after you do a print the ink from the mimeograph paper falls to the bottom clearing your slate! I need one at home! Here is one of my favorites from class.



Off to search the web for mimeograph papers now and three more classes today. Yipee!

Surprises

First, a surprise for Kelly! Katie commissioned me to make a thank you gift for Kelly and I knew just what she'd want, inchies!


Next, a surprise for me! Jim thinks he is terrible at surprises. A couple of weeks ago I came home to find that Jim had framed a copy of the Cloth Paper Scissors with my skeletons on it! (Turns out he had seen it in the bookstore before I did!) Needless to say I was super excited. That night we noticed a few scratches on the frame and by morning the magazine had fallen in the frame. You can imagine our disappointment. (Especially Jim who thinks he can never pull off a great surprise.) Anyway, long story short I finally got to pick up the newly framed magazine on Monday and it is still looking great!

Try This At Home

I finally decided to get started on my Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. I have had it for about 2 years and was saving it for something special or the right time or something I guess. I started by taping it up and mailing it to myself. I was really nervous it wouldn't some back but it made it. :)


This book is addictive! I started working on it and once I start working on the pages I can't stop! I love doing all of the tings you shouldn't do to books to it! You should try it too!

Product Reccomendations

I have been looking for a way to organize my cling stamps for a while now.

Months ago I oredered what looked like a great organizational system from an online company who never mailed it to me and would not answer my emails! After issuing a complaint with Paypal (who sided with me but could not recover my $70 because the seller had withdrawn my money from their Paypal account.) and then with my credit card company I was finally credited the whole payment this week but I digress....

Last Saturday at about 7 I hopped in the car and drove to Mesa because I thought Scrapbooks Etc. had what I was looking for and I needed it right that second. ;) I found a great solution to my problem! First I found a craft binder by Cropper Hopper. ( I am not mad that it is on sale at Joanne this weekend because like I said I needed it Saturday night and you have to consider shipping too.) Now the binder would not have been spectacular on its own but add in stamp storage pages and now we are talking!



I love that the pages all snap shut. This avoids one stamp falling out and having to chase the dog to get the stamp back. (From experience!) You can see through everything so it is easy to see all of the stamps. And my favorite part is that all of the alphabet stamps look right side up througthe case making them easy to find. It was a little hard for me to through out all of the original packaging but well worth it in the end. I love my newly organized stamps! They are much easier to get to than this!


I'd also like to recommend the amazing Pod Warmer from Gold Canyon Candel (Mom this misspelling is just for you!). This is an amazing little treasure! You put a small pod (dish of amazing smelling wax) on the pod warmer set the timer and let your house smell as amazing as a Gold Canyon candle without the flame! The best part is that the pods are only about $6, now you have to buy the warmer but the pod lasts as long as a candle so very quickly the cost is taken care of.



And while I am going on about Gold Canyon I also bought a Sugar Cookie Scent Diffuser for my classroom and I LOVE it! My classroom is huge and I can smell it as soon as I walk in the door even though it is a kid friendly location at the back of the room! ( If you decide you need to order these items I can hook you up with one of Jim's friends who sells them. I didn't go to a party I was able to get in trouble just looking at the catalogue. HA!)

Already A Whole Week?

I can't believe it has already been a whole week since I posted! I'm thinking I need to take advantage of the auto post option and get my act together! LOL!

It has been a busy and exciting week! I have been getting ready to present again this year at the Arizona Art Educations Association conference which is next weekend in Tempe. I LOVE this conference! Their is nothing like being with a group of people that not only speak art but education too! I am mostly ready now. I just need to pick up a few supplies today and get my sub plans done for Friday.



Now for the exciting! Alonna was born yesterday! Ayesha and I were lucky to be invited to come see her and Deb right away. (Alonna is less than 3 hours old in this photo which is why I am holing her and not Deb. I think Deb would have killed me if I put a picture of her on my blog that soon after she gave birth even though she looked fantastic!) We are excited to have another girl to add to our Tuesday night dinner crew and especialy one so tiny and cute!

The D-Backs Baby!

Sharyn asked Leticia, Ayesha, and I to go to a D-backs game this week and really we had no idea what was in store for us!

We decided to take the light rail to the game. Aside from being cursed at for miles on the way their by a girls who wanted to borrow our cell phone it was a fun trip. Especially exciting was that my aunt just happened to get on at one of our stops. What are the chances of running in to someone you know on your first light rail ride ever?



We had great seats for the game but we didn't use them for long! You see Sharyn's husband, Rob, works for the Diamondbacks and offered to take us on a tour. After putting us on the big screen & "making Leticia's life" the tour started! (Notice how I am taking a picture of us on the screen.:)



We went up stairs in one of the restricted elevators and first saw the board room.



Next, we went in to the owner's suite because it happened to be empty for this game.



We checked out the room that controlled all of the video for the game.


Then, we checked out the announcer booth which was fun because one minute the announcer was announcing and the next minute he turned around and said, "Hi, nice to meet you" in his Diamondback announcer voice.


Finally, we went into the audio booth where they let us push the buttons to play the music for the players coming to bat and they even let us choose a song to play to "pump up the crowd" We picked the clean version of Boom Boom Pow.



If all of this weren't enough, we got VIP passes to watch the after game fireworks on the field!


On our way off the field we asked a guy to take out picture next to the dugout and he let us go in! it was a messy disaster but a fun messy disaster!


Leticia, Ayesha , and I were all super excited. I kept telling Leticia, "Jim would tel us to play it like we have been her before" just to get our excitement level a little in check. Sharyn had really seen it before and had to be calm because she was at her husband's work but laughed with us and had a fun time too! I have already had phone calls this morning and we agree that we can't believe the night we had last night!

más collage

Catching Up!

I have been having lots of fun this weekend (which means I need to get to work today, well at least for a little while). I went exploring for Halloween scented candles at the mall, had dinner with some of the girls for Val's birthday, had hair day with the girls minus Mom who was not feeling well, and then Jim surprised me and took me on a dinner adventure! The restauraunt he wanted to go to was closed on Sundays so we ended up at Carlos O'Brians which is super tasty. Then he took me for ice cream at Mary Coyle and lastly we went to the dog track. I love tracking stats on dogs, (You can add it to my list of "dorky" things) but it was also 50 cent night so boy was ther some people watching to be done!

We did stay up late and I worked in a few journal pages as well! I'm all the way to the 19th of August so I'm catching up. :)

Back At It This Weekend

Even More Journal Pages From This Weekend

My Friends Rock!

Last night I thought I was going to a regular girls night out with Ayesha and Deb. I knew we were going to be celebrating my birthday but I still thought it was just a normal girls night out. To my surprise they had invited tons of my favorite people to join us too! It was a fun and amazing surprise!

More Journal Pages From This Weekend