School’s Out for Summer!!!

The boys got out of school for the summer today at noon.  We have been counting down days almost the whole last quarter.  They didn’t use their snow days this year, so they got out a few days earlier than scheduled.  Not only have we been counting school days, this last week we have been counting hours remaining.  I noticed on the white board this morning it was minutes!

The boys go to a very small private school which means there are multiple grades in one class room.  When they first started school, I wasn’t excited by that idea, but it has turned out to be beneficial.  Nolan was in a class with 7th, 8th and 9th grade this year.  Typically the 8th grade raises money for a class trip of some sort.  The 7th graders also raised  money.  There were only three 8th graders and they didn’t raise much money.  Rather than a formal graduation they had a gathering at a local Pizza parlor, ate, received diplomas and played games.  Nolan was in 7th grade and has apparently reached the age where he no longer wants his parents crashing his parties.  We dropped him off on Wednesday night and when we picked him up the teacher had agreed to have her whole class to her house on Thursday night.  The plan was for the girls to spend the night and the boys to come home at some point in time.  Yesterday morning, Nolan called from school and gave me a list of things to bring in the afternoon, including a sleeping bag.  They worked it out so the boys pitched a tent in the back yard and spent the night as well.

The class played laser tag yesterday afternoon, and when I stopped by to drop Nolan’s stuff off they were headed to Walmart to buy food for the evening.

When I got to school at noon today, I asked Nolan what time he went to bed.  1:00? – Later, 2:00? — Later, 3:00? Later — I don’t want to know.  I went in and talked to his teacher.  Apparently, they ate like normal teenagers, and she let them have junk for their party.  She bought four cases of soda pop, baked cookies, was making cucumber swiss sandwiches that were being eaten faster than she could prepare them.  I don’t remember what all they had, but I’m sure I would have loved it at their age.   She made them come out of the hot tub at 10:30 in consideration of the neighbors.  Apparently, they watched movies and talked until 4:00am.  Then she got them up again at 8:00 for school.  Since she had the whole class they came in late.

Nolan was absolutely zonked!  On the way home I told him to take a nap as soon as we got home.  He was concerned about his Friday chores (Friday is the day we clean house!)  I told him the chores could wait until he woke up.  He went straight to bed and he is out.  I even vacuumed in his room and he didn’t stir.  I couldn’t even do that when he was a baby.

As payment for his “wild” partying, I snapped a picture of him after I vacuumed.  Poor tired kid.  I guess he had fun.

Final Week of Up & Running

This week is the final week of the Up & Running class with Jessica Sprague.  I thought the layout this week was loads of fun to work through.  Usually the more complicated something is the happier I am.  Perhaps it is the need for a challenge, or it could be that I just like to learn new things.

The picture in this weeks layout is a scan from a photo that was made from a slide.  As you can imagine, the quality isn’t that great.  The picture was in color, but part of the assignment this week was to create more of a sepia toned picture.   I really like this picture.  It is of my dad and me.  Apparently, I had no fear of standing upright in his hand.  My sister wouldn’t ever do it.  When he tried with her, she would just sit down.

  All the elements in the layout were provided by Jessica as class materials.

Importing Fabric Scans into the Bernina Software

There was a question on the QSS email list about how to import your own fabric scans into the Bernina Software for use when digitizing applique.  I  pulled up the software and was refreshing my memory from teaching the Quilter portion of the program when I stumbled across a method I hadn’t taught.  Reneah had already posted that she had free videos on her website of how to do bring the fabric scans into the program.  I watched the videos and they were a little different from the way I just discovered.  So I made a very quick video of another option for achieving this task.

“Hello, Cupcake”

We were out for lunch and then making various stops this afternoon.  As we left Best Buy, Nolan spotted Barnes and Noble and requested another stop.  Guy and Jesse waited in the car while Nolan and I browsed.  I was wandering back to Nolan and spotted this book by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson:

I picked it up to leaf through it and I ended up bringing it home.  There are some really creative ideas in the book.  When I brought it to the car, Guy told me I shouldn’t be allowed in a book store without adult supervision.  (I admit I like books and have a lot of them.)  However, the boys each found favorites.  This is Jesse’s:

This is Nolan’s:

I’m having a hard time deciding which I like best.  It is probably a toss up between these two

 

The book has complete directions for each of the cupcakes and none of them is horribly difficult.   This is a list of the cupcakes in the book:

• Corn on the Cob
• Bagels and Lox
• Buttered Popcorn
• TV Dinner
• Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Box of Chocolates
• Starry Night (Van Gogh painting)
• March of the Penguins
• Fat Cats
• Fishbowl
• Pandamonium (Pandas)
• Westies
• Crazy Horses
• Pup Cakes
• Monarchs
• Shark Attack!
• Old Swampy (a gator)
• When I grow up (occupation cupcakes)
• Party Princess
• Slumber Party
• Big Birthday Cake
• Bowl Me Over (Bowling ball and pins)
• The Big Top (circus animals and clowns)
• Sunflowers
• Black and White Party
• Play Pool (Billard Balls)
• Baby Shower
• Petits Fours
• Garden Party
• Easter Eggs
• Rabbit Holes
• Candy Stars and Stripes Forever
• Family Tree
• Wedding Cake and Monograms
• Alien Invasion
• Creepy Crawlers
• What a Hoot (owls)
• Pumpkin Patch
• Howling Werewolves
• Autumn Leaves
• Larry the Turkey
• Edible Ornaments
• String of D’Lights
• Snow Globes
• Gingerbread Boys
• Partridge in a Pear Tree
• Nutcrackers Sweet
• Frosting the Snowmen
• White Wreath

There are 230 pages total.  All that for just $15.95.

I thought I would use some of the ideas for future birthdays.  Jesse has other ideas, he thinks I should make some immediately.

Up & Running Mid week assignments combined

I was a little behind on getting to my mid week assignments for both this week and last week.  Last week we were supposed to use some white paper we were given and some brushes.  We were also supposed to use multiple photos.  This week we were supposed to use a downloaded template.  Rather than come up with two layouts, I cheated and combined the requirements into one layout.   I liked the white paper (which looks a little blue to me), but five different sheets of it in the template was just too blah.  So I used brushes to dress up a couple of the sheets.

I’m having fun finding all sorts of free downloads.  Try doing a search for Photoshop brushes and you would be amazed how many freebies are out there.  I’m also playing with fonts. 

Anyway, what to do with white paper?  White = wedding.  So I scanned in some over 20 year old wedding photos and this is what I came up with.

The paper is from Amy Teets who designs for A Cherry on Top. The brushes used were from Katie Pertiet of Designer Digitals and embroidery brushes designed by Luminicity and distributed by PS Brushes.net.  The template was designed by Jen Caputo of Studio Girls Scrapbookgraphics.

My only question, who are those skinny kids?

A Gamer I am Not, but …

My children will be the first to tell you I consider video games a waste of time.  It seems I’m constantly telling them to take a break, to quit staring at screens.  Most of the time I would happily toss the game systems and the games in the trash. 

I think I have already written that the boys will not be allowed to game during the days this summer.  Wednesday on the way to the orthodontist Nolan asked if that rule applied to Wii Fit.  That reminded me that the game had just been released that morning.  We swung into Target to see if they had any.  Sure enough one whole end unit display.  The boys agreed to each pay $20 and I paid the rest. 

This morning was the first chance I had to try it out.  After three miles on the Nordic Track, Jesse (who was home sick) got me started with Wii Fit.  First he felt I needed to create a Mii that resembled me.  He was not pleased with what I created.  Remember this is the boy that had definite ideas about exactly how Mr. Potato Head should look when he was two.  Then I set up my profile and did my fitness test.  This thing weighs you, calculates your BMI based on your weight and the height you enter (I should have cheated and added a few inches to my height then my BMI would have been better).  It also tests your balance.  There are four parts to the “game” — yoga, aerobics, strength training, and balance games.  There are a few unlocked in each section when you start.  I played two or three in each area.  The game tracked 24 minutes of workout time.  That did not include the practice time with my “personal trainer.”  After I picked Nolan up from school he informed me I can input my offline exercise time in the activity log. 

It appears there may finally be a good reason for a game system.  I now have my own personal gym and trainer.

Up & Running Week 3

Today began week three of the “Up & Running with Photoshop” class presented by Jessica Sprague.  I’m really enjoying this class, even if I haven’t had much time to play beyond the assignments.  Here is today’s layout, everything, but the pictures, was provided as class materials.

It’s hard to believe those pictures were taken just shy of 13 years ago!

There’s No Place Like Home

Mom came out of her class at 12:30 yesterday talking about a couple of rulers Kimmy was recommending in class.  We went back up to Rob’s Rulers booth and I did end up buying something else.  The “Large Curved CrossHatch” which is a new ruler (we bought two of the last three in the booth) and “Carol Thelen’s Nested Leaves” which has been around for several years.  They demoed in the booth how to use the curved crosshatch ruler to stitch the spine for feathers.  I can see many uses for that ruler.

Because of that last stop at a booth we didn’t leave the convention center until 1:00 pm.  We got home just before 9:30 pm.  It was good to be back in my own bed.  I just don’t sleep well in hotels.  It was back into the groove this morning.  Off to church and leading Juniors’ (10-12 year olds) Sabbath school.  I was happy to have leftover spaghetti sauce frozen from the dinner theater a week ago so I had something for lunch without a lot of prep work.

Tonight while watching “Evan Almighty,” which was checked out from the library, I finished marking my quilt top from the class with Irena Bluhm just before midnight.

OK there are a bunch of run on sentences in this post, but I’m finished.

MQS my last Day

I’m sitting in the courtyard of the Overland Park Convention Center waiting for my mom to finish her class so we can hit the road.  I wandered through the quilts again this morning taking pictures of those that I had gotten blurry shots of yesterday.  Once again, I couldn’t find anything else that I needed or wanted to buy from the vendors, so I really did complete my shopping during Wednesday’s shopping frenzy.

I’m posting a picture of Renae Haddin’s Best of Show.  I’m sure she will get a picture of it on her webpage soon.  I heard from one of her friends, she just finished it in time to overnight it to this show.  It is stunning workmanship and creativity as usual.

Speaking of workmanship, Ronda Beyer had at least three quilts entered in the show (all three of which received awards).  Her workmanship and attention to detail as always were spectacular.  I’m not going to post pictures of her quilts, you can see parts of them on her blog and in her webshots album.

There were some other very inspiring quilts, but I am running out of time and battery so this will have to suffice.

 

MQS My Day 2

This morning I had a three hour class with Jamie Wallen called “Threadfusion: Artistic Delights for Every Quilter.”  He is another teacher I would happily recommend.  I didn’t think it was fair to post pictures of his quilts or his drawings, but below you will find a couple of pages from my sketch book drawn during this class.  There is some shadow through from the back side on one picture.

 

 

Jamie provide loads of technical information as well as design ideas.

I spent the afternoon viewing the quilts.  There were several that were stunning.  However, at the risk of offending someone, it is my opinion there were fewer jaw dropping entries this year than in previous years I have attended.  It wasn’t just my opinion, since I overheard some comments that the quilts were “more usable this year.”  I don’t have any room to grumble since I certainly didn’t get around to entering anything.  It could also be that I have become jaded after seeing so many great quilts through the years.

I was correct when I posted last night that I thought I had done all my spending.  I didn’t find anything else today that I needed or that I just couldn’t pass up. 

I had planned to attend the MQR get together tonight, but I got to my room and I was just worn out.  So I worked on a little fusible applique and crashed.