kellicrowe

hand dryers in the ladies room

See? I really DO take my camera with me everywhere.

The Ladies room at a truck stop / Dairy Queen / mini grocery store / pizza place / pet grooming.

Ok, so I made the pet grooming thing up...but it was huge and a def. wash your hands after you touch anything kinda place.

Ya know, wash your hands if you even look at anything.

My boys LOVE automatic hand dryers. Love them. Like on the Christmas/Birthday list kinda of love.

Like voice gets animated(er) and with very raised eyebrows they say, "MOM, these are AU-TOE-MATIC!" And this bathroom had two. Nirvana.

In their minds it kinda made up for the fact I still force them to go into the ladie's bathroom with me. Alex is the one who is getting really ticked about this. Nothing like pushing my fears about a news story I heard like 6 years ago off on them.

But back to the hand dryers.

We were on our way home from NC visiting the fam. Trying to beat the rain storms and tornado warnings from the hurricane. We did. It is rainy and icky....but nothing like when Ivan whipped on up here.

Abbie has spoken with her family down in Pensacola. Lots of flooding and a curfew - so they still haven't been able to make it back to their house yet. But they said it was so not as bad as Ivan.

So yea about the hurricane. Yea that we had so much fun in NC. Yea that we all thought we pulled off a surprise party for Mom that she really knew about the whole time. Yea that our trip home was one without heavy rains. And Yea...for hand dryers.

kelli

don't do this

"Hey Mommy, you don't do this"

Max, just out of the blue....showing me you don't stick you tongue out at people.

There have been a lot of things lately that Max has shown us that are not ok to do. Dumping things out...like flour in the new clean pantry, cookies on the sofa, drawing on the chair, pulling reams of tape out of a cassette, sneaking oreos, pulling clothes out of the drawer, throwing books down the steps, or taking all the linens off the bed.

Before you say it - I have already thought it: Who is watching this kid? The answer - me.

But I do blink from time to time.

David is getting disrespectful.  Alex is whiny and Max is whiny and wild,

Time to reign them in. No more multiple warnings. I have gotten slack. I was having too much fun. And the pretending not to hear the whiny voices...as just gotten them to project their voices more. Great for public speaking, not so much for the whines.

Oh - and we are leaving EARLY in the morning for NC. So I better get packing. And, oh man......where is MAX NOW?

God Bless America

God bless America, Land that I love

Stand beside her, and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above

From the mountains, to the prairies

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, my home sweet home!

Irving Berlin

 

Hope you have a fantastic July 4th!!

Pics from the evening on the hill....just the hill right outside of our house.

A little watermellon, Alex got a limbo game going and, of course, David battled the monster tree (a willow). I managed to snap a cute pic of Alex and Max in front of the only place in our yard where there is no grass. Nice. (More sod arrives in a few days:)

Last night we put the kids in bed and then 30 minutes later our neighbor started setting of fireworks. They were all still awake....so everyone went out to the front porch to watch a very small fireworks display and to be feasted upon by mosquitoes.

Today, friends over, ribs on the grill and big time fireworks show in town. We've never done ribs on the grill - so it could be friends over, Chick-fil-A drive thru and then fireworks. We are hoping for the first one. I am ready for a day when even the news isn't all about catching America at its worst. I am ready to just get to hear about what a fantastic place it really is here. Because it is.

God has truely blessed us. Mar and Patricia - happy July 4th. I know....Canada and Mexico rock too. Let here it for North America:)

kelli

7 gypsies cku-m project

7 Gypsies CKU-M class project: This groovy cool book. Now, I like everything to be uniform. So I am not a small book makin' kind of gal.

I am SO glad I took this class! Most classes had a very small, if at all, tool list to bring. This one required an awl (or japanese screw punch - man, if this thing is at all in your price range - get it!) and various other tools. I was kinda bummed to take so much stuff. BUT I am so glad they made me do this product instead of having the holes and stuff done for me.

This class moved so fast - but I didn't ever get behind (I did in some of my other classes). I felt like I was 1.learning 2.creating somthing worth making 3.successful. These are what I looked for in all classes.

Here are the pictures:

1. The album...and my fat knuckles....I DID pop them often as a kid.

2. Inside the spine

3. Three pieces of cardboard were uses to make the spine. The left big piece is the back cover of the book. The top piece is about 1.5 inches wide. There is like 1/8th an inch of space between the back cover and the top piece. The gaffer's tape runs the length and it the only thing holding it together. Same amount of space between the top piece and that front flap. The 1/8th an inch is perf. space for the book to bend.

4. Other fun things to do with the tape: make a pocket using two pages next to each other secured at the top and bottom. The tape tears length wise very easily and straight once it has a small cut.

5. Fold down a page and fix with a small piece

6. Make a fold out page. We actually just tore out pages from the journal and trimmed the fringe. A measured piece of additional card stock works great too. I used this idea (minus the g-tape) in Stacey's CJ. Yes I am wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in these pictures because it is like an ice box in parts of the house even though it is HOT outside.

7. No tape on this - but fun variation for the small book idea - just trim the length of the page to reveal part of the next page. A sticker is highlighting the edge of the page on top.

8. Another pocket idea that I did use just like this in Stacey's CJ.

9. This flip down page was suppossed to have a flip up part too - but we ran out of time at the end of class.

10. Gaffer's tape: I got the two on the left - letters and numbers before I went to CKU. I realized the fun uses of it there...and realized it could do a lot more than just lay flat on my page like ribbon tape. I now like the gaffer tape with script writing (or 2peas has a plain black) because you can rip it in half and over lap it better without it being all that obvious. It took almost exactly one roll of tape - with lots torn in half length wise - to make this little journal.

11. Just looking through the 7 Gypsies stuff and saw this little book for like $2.50 at Jill's. How cute is it??

12. There are a lot of pages. A sweet pea (ok, Stacey) said a fun idea for a tall book would be to collect lists of things. I am going to start collecting these for David's stocking. He LOVES small books and fills them with drawings right away.

13. So maybe I posted this pic before with Me, the 7 Gyps lady and Patricia. I thought when she was talking about her man it was like her new husband or something. She looks so young. NOPE - her hubby and her 4 kids. She showed us the cutest pics of her kids. Youngest two are twins. One pic was her son in underwear, a cape and goggles standing by a barn. Don't ya just love it when you see a pic and can picture one of your own kids in that exact moment? I do.

I could so see David like that...although we discourage the underwear outside now that he is 8.

kellicrowe

my mom

Anyone else noticed my mom is doing stand up comedy in the comments?

Here is a pic of my aunt Angela and my Mom (on left). I think Angela had a kitten in her hands that had just decided to climb over her shoulder. Couple of babes.

Yest. was my Mom's birthday. We are going to see her on Tuesday. Road trip - just the kids and me - to NC. Unless my head explodes from the kids asking about going.

Alex seems to get the concept...but David and Max...not so much.

Max is truely dissappointed every time we leave the house that we are not going to Grandma's. David is majorly ticked that he has to wait until Tuesday. We will get in the car and within 20 minutes - he will start in on the "How long is it now?" questions. And really, unless the answer is we are turning into the driveway now....he is not going to be pleased with whatever I say.

Anyway - in honor of Mom's birthday - here are a few things she used to tell me that I never believed until I grew up: 

1. If you paint your room lavender...you will grow to hate the color I still really don't like the color any more 

 

2. If you make your bed, the room WILL look cleaner.

3. Buy good scissors, tie a ribbon around the handle, and then never ever ever cut anything except fabric with those scissors. You'll be glad. Put the fear of serious wrath in your family so that they will also abide by this rule. 

4. One day you will want to take naps. I remember when she said it - we were at my Grandmother's house. I remember thinking she was nuts - ain't NO WAY I would ever voluntarily take a nap. I think I feel one coming on right now....actually. 

 

5. Sure it is a lot of fun until you get hurt. A variation of the all fun a games cliche. I think I most recently said this when the kids were riding crib mattresses down the steps. 

 

Ok - so these are the ones off the top of my head. Things that just so happened to be true after all. Happy Birthday Mom! We are coming your way on Tuesday. Buy some Dr. Pepper:)

Tim Holtz

Tim Holtz at CKU-M in Nashville.

So Tim Holtz is the new rock star of scrapbooking. I've been saying that ever since CKU... so when it catches on and everyone is saying it - you will know it started with me.

And I am not just talking about his hair.

#1 Me, Tim Holtz & Cindy B. from my Yahoo group for CKU. Just FYI about her outfit - it was school spirit day:black, red and gold are the colors of CKU. I went with the black...she specialized int he red and gold. Anyway - we were both in Tim's canvas class.

#2 What I brought home from the canvas class. Ok - it is so not done. I want to darken it up, ad more stuff....but this is the basic idea. I went to CKU with the idea of having fun and making prototypes of things to bring home and make exactly how I want them. Tim said this class was a hard sell when they were pitching ideas for classes.

One teacher there told Tim he was going to get eaten alive.

Here is why: We were given these natural canvas sets (white will not work) and then he passed around a box of letters. You couldn't look at the letters - just use which ever one you pulled out. Hardly anyone switched at all. In retrospect - I wish I had used the L in family.

The class moves quickly - but leaves no one behind. I am not sure how he did that. We had time to learn about the inks, wax (which melted wax is what is all over the inked canvas), and the embellishments, we made a glass frame (mine isn't on there yet), learned how to use those tiles Tim designed for Junkitz.It was so fun to play with that stuff, learn about the products I have never used before and actually get to make something fun and unplanned.

# 3 This was Tim's color class...I forget the name. We made these tag books, hand colored a picture, and played with the embellishments. I loved hand coloring the pic!! The whole time I was thinking how Stacey or Cami would get into this. I learned so much about inks. All of these projects are in Tim Holtz's new book. Yes - those are rulers as the binding - very cool.

# 4 This was the make and take we did on the first day after registration. If you haven't been to a CKU (this was my first) they have a large...huge....space where all the vendors are set up for you to try out their products with specific things you make. Hence the name - make and take. We went to Heidi's booth first and Tim's was second.

This necklace thingie is what we made. Used Junkitz clearz (I have just started seeing these on line) and alcohol inks and stamps. Mine is ok - many turned out way better. Still - my son Alex is thrilled with it. It was at the make and takes on the first day that I realized how much I was gonna like Tim's classes. It is all product I have never used before. It is presented in easy, yet face paced steps. I like that. I felt successful. I learned. I had something worth transporting home. Not everything at CKU was like that.

# 5 Ok - so Tim Holtz has a web site. I have been surfing around, trying to find these products to make more of the same from the classes. On his web site, you can order his DVD: SHOWING you haw to do some of his projects. Hello - how many scrappers are visual people? I'm guessing a lot. So, when you order it - they ask how you want it personalized. I said "to the world's best scrapbooker" and then said jk...signed it great. Guess what? It arrives like 4 days later - signed to the world's best scrapbooker. Hey - who am I to argue with Tim Holtz? I totally recommend anything he teaches. 

because you asked

Because you asked - here is what is in the drawers in my craft room.

 

1. packaged embellishments, a few tools

2. two drawers of file folders organizing my pics that still need to go in reg albums or scrapbooks

3. rub ons letters, tools, adhesive, punches, small embellishments in containers

4. letter stickers, large tags, flat stickers and embellishments, letters

5. ick - misc scrap stuff I never use, extra album for Mom, the guts to my Karen Foster bag, extra cutting board thing

6. ribbon for gifts

7. bows that I let the kids use and stick like 10 on a package, gift bags

8. icky paper - a few I still like in here but mostly old wrapping paper that I let the kids draw on the back of it. Much cheaper than rolls of craft paper.

9. kid's art and drawing tablets, paper

10. felt, foam...maybe a little more than I could possibly need

11. the wrapping paper I actually like, I have started collecting for Christmas already (gonna go with all greens I think - maybe some red...we shall see)

12. Misc. extra wipes, tapes, gloves, zip locks

13. fabric (everyone has orange and brown fur on hand - right? The Old Navy July 4th shirts my boys have worn every year - gonna make a quilt out of these some day.

14.more fabric - mostly for making puppets or costumes - green fur:)

SO, there ya go. I do not like to run errands - so I like to have a lot of stuff on hand. Most of it is not for scrapping. I would have had those drawers in better order if Stacey Kingman hadn't made me clean up other parts of the room first. A lot of the stuff is for craft projects with the kids. Just 'cause you asked:) 

ps - this looks all nice and lined up right now - but it always looks so diff when I actually post it - HOPE it stays with nice straight lines!!

Scrapbook room: suggestions part 2

so here is a pic of the counter cleaned off looks kinda bear and off balance. so i am waiting..... kelli

Scrapbook room: suggestions please

Why is it that I can not just clean one area at a time. I must go and plunder and dump out and pull out all over the house.

So the pantry is done.

Toys are in good shape. Now my craft room. Stacey Kingman - the room was clean until I started to work on your CJ. Now it looks like this. I'm not trying to blame anyone...but it sure seems like you should help me clean it up.

Try to contain your advice on how to not wreck my house. That isn't what I am asking fer. (yes - fer. sounds completely right when said with a Yosemite Sam accent)

This counter is where I scrap. Here is what is staying - the cropper hopper vertical paper holders on the right, cup of pens, jars of ribbon and the black scrapworks albums (that you can't even see right now) on the left. I liked the memory board and the printer's drawer there for a while - but it just gets too cluttered up. Oh, and all the junk sitting on the counter - moved.

So, what I am asking - should I paint that little piece of wall behind my jars and stuff? Make a full size memo board with fab fabric on it, cork it all? I know - you are probably thinking come back to me when you have a real delima. Anyway - I am taking suggestions. This is where I scrap. Where I get inspired.

The answer to this could influence LO's. Thusly, influencing the way we remember our kids lives here. And (cue music) there by influencing history. SO, do it for the kids! (Big finish on the music). Ok - the 3 people who read this - what do ya think? Probably should have started the music earlier.