graduation display boards...

It was the last graduation EVER at our high school. I really didn't want to go, I thought it might be too sad. But Karen wanted to go, so I went with her. It was all very nice and there were no tear jerking moments.

Crispy and some of his friends were ushers. Next year his class will be split up. Some will go to Forest City, Crispy will be going to Algona. No more Tigers. They will be Bulldogs now.

This is Crispy ignoring me....at least his friends were smiling for me.

My display boards.....

I agreed to make boards for "the triplets" and of course they needed to be done for their party last night.

I work with their mom. When it was in the talking stages of planning, we thought 4 of them.

But when push came to shove, 3 was a better number.

their little sister called them "the guys"

4 years times 3 dresses for prom....that's 12!

I wasn't the only one helping out. It takes a lot of friends. Ann of roadtriptreasures was also busy making artsy fartsy decorations for the party. They were so cute. Lots of different things. Lots of good ideas if you need some. She also has a good picture of the girls!!! (click on roadtriptreasures to get to her blog)

Is it common every where to have these big big parties at graduation??

A person doesn't even need to cook at home....you can just go from party to party and eat!

graduation cards.....

Yesterday was the last day of school and graduation last night. I would have been happy enough to sit, drink some coffee and page through a magazine. Somerset Memories (spring 2011) to be exact.

Then something caught my eye on page 144.

It was a scrapbook page with the words....

spread your wings and fly

how perfect would that be for cards????

Next thing I knew I was at the kitchen table cutting up invitations that we had received.

Gwen, my cousin called while I was working. Her daughter graduates this year too. I told Gwen I didn't want to cut up the nice big picture of Lauren she had sent....or she would be getting one like this too. 

I am pretty sure we decided Gwen would be sending a smaller picture to be cut up.

Anyway, tractor joe grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of me on the phone, me and all my morning glory.

The first two are twins. Their party started at 9:00 am. It had already started when I was snapping photos.  We got there about 10:30 They were serving breakfast and was that ever good!

Anne's photo was already doctored on the invite...made her card look cool!

I've got more stuff.  Keepin' things short and sweet. I'll be back.

bird watching....and playing with my camera....

The birds are coming back. We have this bird feeder out front. I have been trying to get a pictures of them feeding. Hard to do with our camera. Not a lot of zoom on it and you need to be very still when snapping the shot to avoid blurriness. 

I sat down in a chair and stayed very still waiting for some action. The camera was out on my knee for stability. I took the picture this way, then cropped it right away in the camera for a closer look at the birds.

I put some grape jelly in the water dish. A bird came to inspect.

Ahhh....it is grape jelly down there, yummy!

Oh no, company has come. They squawk at each other and the baltimore oriole flies off.

They all want a taste of the good stuff.

This picture is more scary than it really is. This barn is about a 1/4 of a mile away. That night as the sun was setting, there was smoke in the air. I went to investigate, walking out to the corner of our property....it was a controlled fire in the grassy areas out at Union Slough ( read more here ) ... the fire was still miles away. 

It just looked like it was right there behind the barn.

I knew I needed a tripod to get a non blurry photo using the zoom. I don't have one. I did find a big rock and set the camera on it. That seemed to do the trick. This was probably the best of all the photos I took.

crayons in preschool....

For Christmas I bought the classroom a Crayola Crayon Maker.  Every chance we get, we have been making crayons with all the broken ones. We peel off the paper and I break them some more. The kids pick out 4 or 5 pieces to put in each tray. A light bulb in there melts them......

It is a big deal on who's turn it is to do the dumping. 

We have two hands turning the knob here, they decided they would share the job.

Next week, when school is almost done, we will sort them out. Every one will get about a dozen of these colorful crayons to bring home with them.

I brought home a couple of the smaller ones. There was some scrap paper on the kitchen table. I started writing the alphabet. I love the multiple colors that happen when drawing/coloring with these. 

I did the alphabet a few times and then I thought....

Hey, I can cut these apart and use the letters to make the names of the students for scrapbooking!

I'll have to make more letters when I get around to scrapbooking.

Who knows when that will be.

One more thing, a couple of the boys made pillows.....

I brought in some fabric for them to color on with crayons. Then I took them home to heat set them, and sew them into pillows. The boys stuffed them when I brought them back in.  They were so excited with the results. We could have made more, but these were the only two that showed interest.

Right now a big chunk of my spare time is been used making memory board type things. A gal I work with has triplets, & they are graduating next week. So, I am helping her get photos ready for display at the party.    

Eventually, I want to sew again too.

local weather conditions.....

I just checked my local weather, it is 99 (F) or 37 (C) degrees hot.
No wonder the mowing was miserable......
There were a few wispy clouds.

But it is done.

The trees have still not leafed out, just a hint of green.

block lotto blocks.....

I just finished posting these at blocklotto!

I have wanted to use this block, but never did, till now.

It really goes together easily. 

We are having a hot and humid day. I really prefer the cooler and no major humidity days....I am heading outside to do some mowing. Rain is in the forecast...and lower temps!

making cards.....

The kids are making mother's day cards. While they colored, so did I.

I wanted to make my Mom a card too. 

My master pieces were brought home. They got a squirt of my spray paint.

One became an envelope.....

...the other got cut up. It was about then I remembered tractor joe's mom!

I needed to make two.

The outside of the cards were painted yellow and orange. My tool of choice is a sponge that I cut up into small sections...and use over and over again. 

I was going to make the black and white fabric a border, but.... at the last minute, it became the stems for the flowers. It just seemed right.

Two cards, I needed another envelope. I found a scrap paper....and added more spray paint.

My envelopes are pretty basic.....

After cutting it square, I fold it in half, pinching only the very edges.

It should be cut at a nice 45 degree angle, I eyeball it and snip.

All the flaps are folded in. Here I decide which way will be up.

......and then glue down three of the flaps.

Wasn't sure what I wanted on the inside. I ended up with a heart, black &white fabric strip and cut out letters from the newspaper ads.

Found some stickers to add, and flowers that were cut from an ad selling flower arrangements.

When I had cut them out, I had no idea where I would use them, they became the perfect thing here.

The 'happy' is black letter stickers and I made a frame with a white ink pen.

This took me most of the morning to finish.

Here they are in the mailbox! They left this afternoon!

Mother's Day sure does seem early this year.