Butterfly Girl

Patterned paper (American Crafts), diecut title (Quickutz), Fiskars border punches, bling butterfly (YSS)

I just finished this - I'd been planning to submit this for Challenge #8, but the linky unexpectedly closed early. Oh, well - c'est la vie! I wish I had had time to start those challenges earlier but at any rate, I'm grateful to her challenges, since I made a few layouts and a card. =) I may end up submitting this for YSS's sketch contest as one of the layouts, but I'm not sure.

I'd been meaning to make this layout for quite some time - it's Mika's first "clothing" for a real person. She has - since then - gone on to making angel costumes, suits of armor, and shoes... =) What will be next?!

More challenges...

Ah, more challenges to work on! Another Crop Chocolate gal held a crop challenge last weekend at her blog (Chocolate Daily),with the submission deadline of tonight. Her challenge #7 was to create a card or layout with a primarily red, black and white color scheme. Here's mine... (which is, incidentally, based on a YSS sketch)...

Challenge #3 was to create a card or layout using glitter or fiber. I used some Glitz Design glitter letters, along with an old Making Memories crystal brad and a foil diecut embellishment from K & Company. This was loosely based on another YSS sketch.


Patterned paper (Making Memories - Cheeky), diecut felt border (Queen & Co), canvas tag (MM Just Chillin'), glitter letters (Glitz Designs), embossed flower (Prima), diecut embellishment (K&Company), crystal brad (Makig Memories), ink (Signa-Uniball)

For Sketch Lovers Out There...

One of the gals at cropchocolate.com recently began a new sketch site called Sketch Mania - check it out! Since I'm a huge fan of sketches, of course I wanted to participate in the weekly challenges. It's been awhile since I've scrapped... I've just been feeling.. a bit tired and unmotivated. BUT - no more! Sketch #1 is no longer open, so I made cards for the next 3 sketches and used (primarily) materials purchased from Crop Chocolate to post on their Sweet Talk (so that McCall can take those pictures and post them under the product when they are listed). It's always nice to see your work out there... =)

Here's Sketch #2...
Here's my take on it, rotated 180-degrees...

Patterned paper (Making Memories Whimsy Collection), diecut flower (MM Whimsy), ink (Colorbok chalk ink)

Here's Sketch #3...

And here's my take on that one (rotated 90-degrees clockwise)...

Patterned paper (Making Memories Just Chillin' Girls Collection), cardstock (Bazzill), staples (EK Success Fastenater), creme tricot ribbon (yourscrapbookstash.com), printed ribbon (Heidi Swapp), flowers (Prima), glitter (Stickles), love sticker (Heidi Swapp), ink (Colorbok chalk ink), scalloped square punch (BossKut)

And finally, here's sketch #4...

And here's my take on it (rotated 90-degrees counter-clockwise)...

Patterned paper (Pebbles - May Bouquet Collection), flowers (Daisy D's), rub-on (Scenic Route), buttons (Autumn Leaves), tools (Fiskars border punch, Marvy-Uchida corner rounder, EK Success corner punch), glue dots

Are you a scrapper looking for something fun and free to do?

Check out the Big Idea Festival sponsored by bigpicturescrapbooking.com. This class begins on August 12th and runs for 13 days. You don't need a kit to participate - just use the instructors' ideas to be inspired! You do have to register but the class is FREE! =) I'm signed up (this my first class as well) and looking forward to it - the timing couldn't be better, since the kids will be back in school!

Other free classes are offered as well.

And so it begins...

Today, Miss Mika officially began taking piano lessons from me. I played for 10 years while growing up (aren't all Asian children tortured in this way?) and was pretty good at it. Yes, I'm well aware that there may be issues. It's not like either of them are destined to be concert pianists or anything, so I think I should suffice.

I chose to wait until Mika was finally picking out tunes by ear on the piano. She was able to learn how to read notes right away so now we need to get her fingers used to moving across the keyboard. Even as I type away, Mika is playing some Hanon scales (without the music). I think she's starting at a good age - hopefully she will progress quickily (versus if she was five).

Marika can read well, but she didn't grasp the note-reading readily, so she was excused from lessons for the time being. She's still young and her hands are tiny. At any rate, it'll be easier to teach Mika alone (and I know Mika will enjoy teaching her little sister after her own lessons).

I have to admit, I would welcome little piano recitals by the girls, versus their singing/dancing routines. =) I cannot possibly imagine the piano recitals making the house so messy either!

Hangin' out...

Both girls successfully completed their swimming class (and were promoted to the next level). I thought it would be better if the girls spent the rest of the summer "practicing" and becoming used to being in the water, rather than taking more lessons. Thanks to Daddy Dude's employee benefits, we can get into Open Swim for free (passes otherwise were 10 for $45 - kind of pricey, if you ask me).
Here's Miss Mika teaching her little sister how to do the starfish float. Not surprisingly, it's been pretty darn crowded at Open Swim, since the temperatures have been near or above 100 degrees out here.

We finally got together with our good friends for dinner last Friday. These kids have known each other for practically all of their lives (they certainly can't remember a time when they didn't know each other) and get along marvelously well. Holly gave the kids some tokens for the arcade and naturally, the kids had fun winning tickets. The selected prizes, though, were... interesting.

Here's my buddy Collin with his fangs. =) The rest of the kids chose erasers!

Some enabling for (frugal) book lovers

For those of you who love reading but lack bookshelf space, consider the ebook. If you're on the fence, check out barnesandnoble.com - right now, they are offering free ebooks (12 this week, supposedly more each Friday), all of the classic variety. It's easy to download their BN eReader (free) and if you travel with your laptop, it's a handy dandy way to bring a bunch of books without the bulk!

If you're the type to like hard copies of book and enjoy browsing through the store, check here (expires 7/25/10) and here (expires tomorrow,7/18/10) for some printable coupons. At the very least, it's a great place to chill your heels in this hot summer weather!

Speaking of books... if you have a youngster, you can pick up a B&N reading program flyer from the store (grades 1-5, I believe). Kids have to read 8 books. Mika handed in her completed sheet today and chose Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. She's been on a reading tear, thanks to the intense reading program at the local library - she's actually reading books on her own now, instead of being poked and prodded. =)

Scrapper al may be super impressed to know that I have now collected 7 out of the 9 Little House on the Prairie books - especially since I've probably only paid $3.82 so far. Only two left to go... On the Shores of Silver Lake and The First Four Years. I'm also trying to collect the complete Anne of Green Gables series now - and already have 6 of 9. Mika should be ready to read these within the next year or two - I can't wait for her to enjoy them!

Here's another bookstore recommendation: Betterworldbooks. I haven't ordered directly from their website, but they are my favorite seller at half.com - their customer service is phenomenal (they truly stand behind their products)! They offer free shipping and right now, there's a bargain bin area, where books are 5 for $15.

Tidbits...

Just a quick post with a few links some of you may be interested in...

1. Did you know that Scenic Route (one of my favorite scrap manufacturers of all-time) has morphed into a store selling discounted kits and bundles - from a variety of manufacturers? It's been interesting watching this transformation... you can check out their selection here.

2. Like to join birthday clubs? Like Red Robin? Sign up here.

3. Did you know Chili's has an email club? Sign up (click on the tab on the bottom left) and you'll get a printable coupon for a free chips with queso (our family favorite!).

4. Scrappers know that Big Lots can sometimes have fabulous deals - click here for a 20% off printable coupon good on 7/18/10 only. Happy shopping!

5. Last but not least, those of you with kids probably have tons of Legos. But can you have too many? Probably not! Here's a printable coupon for "buy one, get one 50% of" at ToysRUs. Expires 7/17/10.

Daddy Dude's Fan Club is Growing

Hey, look, Daddy Dude! Seems you have some more fans! =)

Sketch contest at YSS!

I love sketches! What time savers! YSS is having a sketch contest - you can see the details here. I haven't scrapped since vacation (low-energy) so this should light a fire under me! =)

Speaking of blogs...

In my last post, I mentioned Lollychops, a great crafty blog with fabulous gift ideas. Today, I was introduced to Made by Joel. He has some wonderful ideas for toys/crafts for kids. Check out this downloadable/printable Paper City - complete with buildings, people and a couple of other links for helicopters and vehicles. Very cool and fun for kids!

Hope everybody is staying cool during these hot summer days! The girls are sweating up a storm right now- practicing tap-dancing on the tile floor...! I finally remembered to look up video footage of the legendary Gregory Hines. You can check some vintage Mr. Hines out here.

And last but not least, Basic Grey is offering free downloads for their blog headers and banners for 30 days! I just got mine so I will warn you that even though it will cost you $0.00, you still have to provide billing information. Also, the button to "download all" did not work for me BUT it did still count as one download (you are allowed 3 total), so don't use THAT button, unless you're sure it will work. It took only a few seconds (or less) for each file to download.

P.S. For those of you on the west coast who love Fresh & Easy supermarkets, there is a new printable coupon out for $6 off a $30 purchase (and did you know you can stack coupons?) - it expires 7/18/10.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Today the girls attended their very first drama workshop. Ms. Didi, who also runs the monthly library arts/crafts hour, is an accomplished stage director and invited the girls to come to the free workshop. For 45 minutes, Ms. Didi taught them the fundamentals of stage acting ("when you're on stage, it's a big 'no no' to wave to your mom or dad in the audience!"). The kids got to wear costumes, say some lines, and of course - dance to a musical number while "swimming" across the stage. Since the organization sponsoring the acting workshop received a grant from Pepsi, we all got some free product afterwards (although the kids had to pose with the product for a picture). Marketing in America, right?

At home, we are always treated to concerts. I was tickeld by their innovative Tinkertoy microphones. =) This was from yesterday's performance.

Mika wrote her first song called, "the Dance of Love". It really helps when she writes the words down, because today the girls tried to sing a new number, "the Love song" but Marika - apparently - was not taught any of the lyrics. By the end, I was confused and not sure if the song was about sisters, or bugs, or what...!

The girls are becoming more creative - learning how to embellish! - which I enjoy seeing. These were the "gifts" distributed at their concert today. Inside, we received a huge number of bookmarks. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I can't read more than 3 books at one time... =P

And speaking of gifts... I wanted to make a special thank you gift for my good friend Holly, who kindly took care of Daisy (our guinea pig) while we were in Arizona. Daisy is a special high-maintenance guinea pig, because she absolutely refuses to drink out of her water bottle. I don't know what her problem is!

So here is what I made Holly - it's a baking mix with almost everything in it - she just has to add butter, milk and some vanilla extract (I think) to make some chocolate cobbler. What is it, you ask? I had no idea, so we had to test-drive the recipe last night and let me tell you - IT WAS DELICIOUS! It's like chocolate cake/brownie with some chocolate sauce. We ate it with some vanilla ice cream and yum yum YUM!

I know you're all dying to know how I came up with this wondrous creation. I didn't! Last week, the YSS blog mentioned the Lollychops blog with regards to making tea toters. I looked around the blog and this woman is AMAZING. She's very crafty and she has several beautiful free downloadable printables for making special gifts - these will come in handy when it comes time to making teacher appreciation gifts, or even holiday gifts.

So in other words, you follow Lollychops' directions to pack the mixtures, print out the template to make the packaging and voila! You have allowed your friend to make a scrumptious dessert with minimal effort. How cool is that?

Lovin' it!

Crock pots are cool!
Mom's boyfriend, Fred, dropped this off last month. It's an oldie, but goody. We'd actually been thinking about getting one for the last couple of years (our friend Sandy has been raving about them for years) but weren't willing to invest in something we considered "iffy". But, how can you complain about a FREE crock pot =)

I can't tell you how nice it is to spend only a few minutes in the morning prepping dinner - and enjoying a hot meal 8-12 hours later. We've made chili verde, a couple of beef stews, meatballs and a pot roast so far. The meatballs were really easy (just ground beef, egg and bread crumbs) but Daddy Dude loved them in his Hero sandwiches - even the girls liked them! If anybody has any recipe or cookbook recommendations, please let me know!

I had a realization this morning, as I took the girls to the car dealership for an oil change. Daddy Dude has taken care of all of the car maintenance appointments ever since the kids were born (and yes, that was a long time ago!), because taking them with me always seemed like such a hideous pain (the waiting, the crying, the whining, not to mention the woes of changing diapers, etc.). He's been working a lot and it's very difficult for him to fit them in now, so the girls and I sucked it up today and took the car in ourselves. Despite being a little anxious, it was surprisingly easy. The dealership recently renovated so the service department is incredibly streamlined and the waiting area is impressive. I was actually able to enjoy a nice hot cup of Starbucks coffee (snagging a coffee collar for a scrapbooking project, of course) while the kids played happily in their own special waiting area.

So what was the realization? We've reached another milestone of child care - where taking them places and handling other errands is no longer really problematic! I mean, how cool is that?!

Back at home...

The girls began swim classes on Monday. After a week of swimming in Arizona, they were very excited about taking classes - THANK GOODNESS! Before vacation, Marika had been really unhappy about this and we had had to bribe her with ballet class (more on that).

We had the girls re-tested (before vacation, both tested at Level 1). Marika remained at Level 1 (she couldn't take one breath while swimming, she just holds it) but Mika was declared a Level 2. We were so proud of her!

Here's Miss Mika swimming away. Today was their 4th class (out of 8). She was able to do the backstroke ALL BY HERSELF! The lifeguard didn't have to touch her at all, except to occasionally steer her back into a straight line. They've also been learning how to freestyle and to float both face-up and face-down.

And here's Miss Marika. She doesn't seem to like it when her face is wet, so every time she gets out of the water, she has to wipe her face. Before she goes underwater, she takes a huge breath (see left). She's really good at holding her breath, though. That's my Goggle Girl!

We discovered yesterday, that Daddy Dude's benefits include free Open Swim privileges (otherwise, it's at least $45 for 10 passes) so I'll start taking the girls at least twice a week to practice swimming. This means, of course, that Mika will get even DARKER, which is impossible to imagine!

On Tuesday, the girls began their first ever dance class - ballet/tap combo. Don't they look adorable in their clothes? There were only about 8 girls total in the class and the teacher was young and very sweet. After one class, I can already tell you that the girls have NOT missed their calling as prima ballerinas. =) They are, however, having a lot of fun. Once Daddy Dude burns the videotape footage onto DVD, the girls can practice their steps and drive me insane with the leaping, twirling, and foot-tapping for the rest of the summer...

The girls love the mirror, of course. I was watching the footage I had shot and noticed that there was a huge lag between the teacher performing the step and Marika following. I asked her, "are you following Mika or the instructor?" As I suspected, she watches Mika, who was right in front of her. What do they call that, the blind leading the blind? ;)

As many of you know, the girls love to match their clothes - we never make them match, but we do allow them the option. I made these two dresses for about $10 total. It was $7 for one yard of smocked Tinkerbell fabric from Joann.com (they sent a little extra) and then I had to buy some ribbon for the straps. The girls are posing in one of the gardens at the local library... they are participating in a massive summer reading program -in addition to reading books, there is also a scavenger hunt to find things in and around the library (they were looking for a bird nest here).

Though the reading program is a lot of work for the girls, it's keeping Mika's reading up to par and Marika is also working really hard. In fact, I'd say that Marika is reading where Mika was - at the beginning of first grade. However, her reading comprehension is not as good. Sometimes I wonder if she's just reading the words and not paying any attention to what the words mean! It may very well depend on the book, though...

And some big news! We're expecting! No, not us - Hissamina!!! A couple of days before we left for vacation, Marika came running over to me and shouted that there was something yellow on Hissamina. I imagined it was a parasite or that Hissamina was dying, but when I looked more closely, I realized that that yellow blob is actually her egg case, or ootheca. Here's a website that has a huge number of pictures... if you scroll near the bottom, you'll see more oothecas and finally, baby roaches.

For those of you who won't even look at the website (I know who you are!), here's a summary. Madagascar hissing cockroaches are unique in that they retain their egg cases until they hatch - so it *looks* like they are having live births. From what I gleaned from the internet, Hissamina was simply aerating or turning her egg case, before she retracted it again. When we returned to the house 3 hours later, she looked like she always does, as if nothing extraordinary had occurred. We are still waiting for her to deliver, but we did coat the top of her cage with more vaseline.

When I told Marika that Hissamina could have 20 babies, Marika paused and then said thoughtfully, "Mommy... I don't think I can come up with 20 names!". So, in case there's anybody out there who wants to adopt a few roach babies, please let me know... =) On the bright side, we will no longer have to buy any more roaches (we had been planning to buy 1-2 more, to keep Hissamina company).

Marika, of course, is asking when we will start rearing darkling beetles. I guess that that will be later this weekend... and she's already begun rearing her second batch of triopes... and where did we buy these lovely creatures? Michaels doesn't just sell crafts! Marika used her Michaels gift card (a present from her Aunt Misao and Uncle Ken) to buy this and a magic kit. =)

And last but not least... I scored 3 goals during my Monday soccer game! Woohoo! A hat trick! I've never done that before! Unfortunately, I learned during our vacation that I am definitely getting older. A week without any ibuprofen was rather... uncomfortable - because I felt the pain of every ligament I've pulled over the last few months. *sigh* It's my goal to continue playing soccer until I'm in my 50's, but we'll see if that'll happen or not... =) It's obviously time to buy a new pair of running shoes (I think my current pair has over 1000 miles on it) but do you know gets my goat? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY SCRAPBOOKING SUPPLIES I COULD BUY FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY?

Yup, some of you do. ;)

WOW, was it HOT!

If you thought southern California was hot, you ought to visit Arizona! We spent all of last week in Scottsdale, where the daily high was over 100. That was at least 10-15 degrees warmed than back home! We learned to tolerate it and spent almost all of our time by the pool.

R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G...

Perhaps the best part of the trip was the girls learning how to swim! By the end of the week, both girls were able to swim at least 15-20 feet by themselves. Mika learned how to take breaths in between but Marika refused to learn - so she learned how to hold her breath instead. Hey, whatever works, I guess!

This is "Goggle Girl". =) Neither girl will "look" in the water without their trusty goggles on.

Daddy Dude also participated in a cannonball contest at the pool. We are very pleased to report that he won a free marguerita as one of the top 5. =) I also got to show off my entomology smarts by capturing a tortured blue mud dauber and earning the awe of some terrified pool staff... =)

All in all, it was a very good vacation - we did a lot of relaxing! I spent the first 36 frantically scrapping for a Cropchocolate.com Chocolatier crop and managed to finish 5 challenges (out of 10 challenges). Did I win anything? Well, kind of. There was ONE challenge without a cash prize (credit at cropchocolate.com) and wouldn't you know it? I won THAT one (for my Iao Needle layout)! Once a month, they'll be featuring a Chocolatier on the CC blog and I'll be the FIRST. I was so pleased that I'd won and then I started to feel some panic. Such attention! What will I do?! *gulp*