School's out!

School is officially out for the summer and the busyness of summer kicks in by next week! For June, I have Sam signed up in a 3 week science class, they both have swim lessons, and Vacation Bible School. June will fly by.

Sam did really well on his report card as I knew he would. I was pleased to see his reading tracked so I know exactly what level he is at. He just finished 1st grade and is reading at a level close to the end of second grade! He did really well in everything AND, he got the teacher we really wanted for him for next year! We are thrilled! And, one of his best friends will be in his class again making it their 3rd year together. We tried calling his other best friend, Anthony, whom I have a terrible soft spot for, to see who his second grade teacher will be but we haven't been able to get hold of him yet. We are feeling impatient. Sam and I will both be disappointed if Anthony isn't in his class next year. I plan to make reading to his class a weekly thing next year as well and also Max's class. We still don't know who Max will have for kindergarten but with the two teachers I put down as my top choices, I can't go wrong.

I got the results back from all the skin biopsies taken last week and they all came back clear! No skin cancer this time! I'm thrilled and relieved. It is great news.

Max's bear

I found this drawing of Max's underneath the coffee table yesterday when I was running the vacuum cleaner. Isn't it the cutest thing? I just love it and think I may have to figure out how to get it on a t-shirt for myself!

Being vulnerable

I just read on a friend's blog "I wish I could draw or paint watercolors like that"... she was talking about ME!!! Well, I am honored with the praise. But what I'd really like to do is encourage.... it never looks good when you are just starting to learn something that takes a ton of practice! Perseverance is the key! When I finally decided I wanted to learn to paint, I found out that there was a prerequisite of 2 semesters of drawing before I would be allowed to take the painting class... and with good reason! (but I weaseled my way out of the second semester :] ) I signed up for the drawing class and had not picked a pencil up in many years. THIS is the drawing from that class the first day of class! We were not permitted to throw our AWFUL drawings away as they would be reminders of how far we'd come by the end of the semester. I'm so glad I didn't throw it out but truthfully, few people have ever seen this hideous piece! But I have decided to show it so maybe it could be encouragement to someone who really wants to learn. There's always a starting point and it's usually ugly, as you can see... but if you stick with it, you will learn and soon, you will like what you see on the paper.

Recycling with jeans

OK ya'll, I came up with the cutest idea yesterday! I was cleaning out my boys clothing drawer of pants, since they won't be wearing them for a long time now, and pulled out all the pants that Max put holes in the knees. It was quite a stack! I decided to cut them all off for "play in the mud" shorts, or whatever. Anyway, when I got all the legs cut off, I looked at my little stack of legs and picked up a denim leg staring at it when the idea came to me to sew up the cut edge and make a gift bag out of it! I needed a gift wrapping idea for Max's little tins of magnets for his 4 teachers and these turned out to be the PERFECT size! And aren't they cute?! This idea would work great on shirtsleeves too! Since I chose to close up the end that I had cut, I already had a hemmed end for the top of the bag. This project took all of 30 seconds to do! And, since Max ripped all the knees out of his pants at school, I thought it appropriate that his teachers got gift bags made from them! I remember one week he tore knees out of 3 pair of pants! I was happy to have shorts weather come because I was desperate needing to go pants shopping and didn't want to have to buy more so close to the end of the season! We barely squeaked by with me doing laundry really often! I think next fall, I'll put patches in all the knees of his pants ahead of time!

I also sat yesterday and made cards for a total of 15 teachers/workers at the kids school. I simply took black cardstock (my most favorite color stock) and sewed on photos I printed off of some of my favorite pieces of artwork. Because my black envelopes are 6-1/2 in. squares, I jsut cut my cards as one sided 6-1/4 inch squares and wrote notes on the back of them. They all turned out nice. I love the clean look of a card without a bunch of stuff... just a main focal point. It gives the appearance of a framed piece of art with the black cardstock appearing as matting! And they are fairly quick to make. I'm thinking of making some card packets to sell in my Etsy store.... maybe....

My 16-year-old niece, Cassidy, is in town from Florida. She's staying at my mom's most of the time but we are going over to see her after school today and she is staying the night with us on Friday. We'll be picking her up Friday morning so we can have the whole day with her. The boys are beyond excited!

Max's magnets....

were a flop! The ink from my printer ran on the paper even thought I sealed it. Then, I added a little more of the clear stuff last night and it made the whole magnets look cloudy and ugly. So, since I didn't have enough bottles caps or enough magnets, I needed to try to salvage these. I got out my alcohol inks and inked them then added a very thin layer of the Aleene's paper glaze and sprinkled a very light sprinkle of fine glitter. Max thinks they are beyond cool. Here they are:

My only disappointment, really, is that I'd wanted them to be something that was a personal gift FROM HIM! It hasn't turned out that way. Next time I'll take my images to kinko and have them laser printed... or send scans to Fran and bribe her to print them! I'm thinkin' it wouldn't take much of a bribe! LOL! Anyway, maybe Max can make pretty cards or something. Bummer!

Etsy

OK, I've been thinking for months that maybe I'd open and Etsy store. For those of you who don't know about Etsy, it's an online store for artists to sell their things. Well, I finally set one up and listed a couple of items. I have some canvas pieces to post but I"m trying to figure out the shipping costs for something like that as well as where I'll find boxes for shipping of that shaped of an item. If anyone has advise, I'll take it! Trying to guess at shipping costs is hard! Anyway, here's my Etsy store. www.Artvisionz.etsy.com Please keep in mind that it's bare bones right now. I know I still need to add a banner and jazz it up a bit but for now, I'm getting my feet wet... and for those of you who know me, I don't like swimming.

Now, I'm a little bummed about the outcome of Max's bottle cap magnets. I used an inkjet printer and sealed the paper before using it with a wet medium... however, that didn't stop the ink from running. They aren't a total loss, as far as I'm concerned... they look more abstract. BUT, Max hasn't seen them yet and I'm thinking he's gonna' throw a fit! And now, I don't have enough bottle caps to start over! I may be shopping tomorrow....

Sam's book

Well, Sam and I finished his book! It is titled "The Bermuda Mystery". I think his teacher will love it! Here he is holding it. Didn't it turn out cute? If anyone is interested in reading the story, e-mail me @ princessburninghair@cox.net and I'll send you the document. It is quite a story!

We decided to make bottle cap magnets for Max's teachers using drawings of his. I had him draw 3 different flowers with markers and then I scanned and sized them to fit. I have them all drying right now. They turned out really cute. At Max's preschool, he has 4 different teachers that work with him so teacher gifts can get costly. Especially when I buy for all of them at Christmas and the end of the year! I think it will be more special to have something that Max helped make. They will each get a set of 3 magnets in a cute tin. I think I'll try making some of my sewn photo cards tomorrow to go with all the gifts. Busy, busy....

I'll post pictures of Max's magnets when they are dry.