Summa Time

Well....I am so glad it is finally summer!! I was so busy in  May that I didn't have time to post at all!! Here is a quick recap -
For Mother's Day, Cambry and Tyler took me to the Topeka Zoo!! We had so much fun!! Cambry loved the bears and monkeys but was a little disappointed with the penguins. When we went, they didn't have any of the activities up and running. We waited in line to see 5 penguins stand in place....But the trip was still fun and a great surprise for me!


Measuring up - She is about the size of the African Penguin

A little love from the orangutan

Also is May came the end of school!! Yipee!! But along with that came packing up 1 classroom and begin moving to the next.  I still am not able to get into the room and get to work - I have a lot to do!  I've been working on classroom manipulatives though - busy cutting and copying and laminating.  Good times:)

Lastly, the beginning of June brought about the departure of Brendan to the Peace Corps.  We spend his final weekend in the states at a Royals game and eaing lots of food!  Oh yeah - and a Sunday full of packing....YOU'RE WELCOME!! We will definitely miss Brendan and we look forward to Skyping and visiting Costa Rica next summer!!! YAY!

To start our summer off, we are fixing the siding of our house. The neighsbors should be pleased that the rot in the front of our home will be gone and replaced, looking shiney and new!! Well...maybe not shiney, but definitely new!! Here is a pic of the boys getting started this morning.  I will definitely be posting before and afters :) Maybe I will fall in love with my house again....



New Motivation

So I finally splurged and bought a jogging stroller!! Cambry and I took it for a spin this evening! I can't believe how smooth the ride was and how out of shape I am....
Cambry seemed to really enjoy the ride and I enjoyed the fresh air and exercise. We will see how long I keep it up and how well the newest set of wheels holds up in the Jackson household!

**GoAl**Drop 15 lbs before the end of the summer
Should be doable if I can stay away from all the temptations and desirable. I need to convince my mouth that Dr. Pepper and donuts are yucky and the water and celery are where it's at!

After selling Cambry's travel system - over sized and bulky and taking up way too much space - I decided up upgrade to this jogger. Check it out at: Walmart. It is the Instep Grand Safari. I am addicted to the color scheme and wanted a front swivel wheel. Only complaint so far is that it isn't very compactible. The journey will continue.....

Craft Fever

As I was laying around the house today, I felt a huge urge to craft come over me. I loaded Cambry in the car, picked up my sister and headed to Michaels!  After 1 1/2 hours and $20 (after sales and card member discounts), we came home with this:

Shopping list includes - 1 canvas, paint of your choice, brushes, ribbon of your choice, and sewing pins - we picked metallic colors for more color. (I already had the staple gun)

The goal is to create a new hair bow organizer for Cambry -  one that is larger and more functional for the bows we use on a daily basis.

My 1st step was to paint the canvas. I started with a solid purple base, then added pink and white for more color. Using a dry brush, I went edge to edge to blend the colors together. End look:



After allowing the canvas to dry, I cut and laid out the ribbons. I chose to alternate the thick ribbons around the thin. I stapled 1 end of the ribbon to the back of the canvas board and wrapped it around the front and stapled on the other end to wrap around the edges. 

Next, I cut down the sewing pins so they would not be longer than the width of the canvas. I put 2 pins in the wider ribbon and 1 pin in the smaller ribbon - random colors. This gives more accent but also keeps the ribbon in place after adding the weight of the bows. Some of the pins went through the wood frame, for those that went only through canvas, I used my glue gun to fasten them on the back side of the canvas.

For the wall hanger and accessory hangers, I used a long strand of plastic dress-up beads. I snapped every 9th bead off the strand to allow a place for me to staple them into place about 1.5 inches apart for the accessory hangers. As for the wall hanger, I took the remaining beads and stapled the ends between 2 beads 6 inches apart to have an even distribution. 

I was very pleased with the end product! It holds twice, if not three times as many hair bows as the original bow organizer I made, but also has a place for sunglasses and head bands - so it should grow with us for a while!