Author Archives: Lady S
Hoo are you Tuesday
1. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?
It really depends on my mood, but mostly sweet. I love French Fries, but I would rather have cake or cookies. In fact right now I am eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for breakfast.
2. Name your 3 BEST personality traits!
I am a patient with others. I am persistent, I will keep trying something until I get it.
3. Name your 3 worst personality traits!
I am a terrible procrastinator. I would rather put things off and be stressed at the last minute than do them now. I am always running late. About the only thing I am not late for is theater. I hate late-comers at performances. I am a hoarder. I hate getting rid of things. I am a “what if I need it later” kind of person. Looking at all those things together, I suspect they are all related.
4. Do you collect anything?
Yarn. I have so much cotton dishcloth yarn I could make a dishcloth for every day of the month. I also have a large collection of postcards of my town, college, and vacation spot. I try to get a squashed penny whenever I have the chance.
5. What is your favorite season of the year?
Spring, no question. My birthday is in May. The grass is green. Flowers are blooming. It smells nice. It means the end of school is coming. Second best is fall.
Now you:
Here are this weeks questions!
1. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?
2. Name your 3 BEST personality traits!
3. Name your 3 worst personality traits!
4. Do you collect anything?
5. What is your favorite season of the year?
Color photo book
This is my first tutorial. Please go easy on me.
My son is in a Early Head Start classroom that serves children 6 weeks to 3 years. He has 3 awesome teachers. His teacher has made several photo books for the kids this year: each of kid in a different hat, the cars they come to school in, etc. I decided I wanted to make one for them, too. Then I thought it would make a great tutorial for the one other crafter who reads my blog.
Materials:
- digital photos of single, or mostly one, color items
- colored printer paper
- adhesive
- laminator, I bought it just for this project!
- hole punch, single or 3-hole
- binder rings
- collage making software, I used Shape Collage, but you could do it in Photoshop or even a word processor
I took pictures of items all over my son’s classroom. Toys, furniture, bags…
Then I cropped the pictures, in Photoshop, down to just the object size, but left the background. **They are only squares here because they are thumbnail images.**
Next I added them by color to Shape College and played around until I liked it. Shape Collage was really easy to figure out how to use and once I paid for registration I could export .psd files that I could play with in PhotoShop. I was able to move, rotate, and resize the pictures in the collage. I could also add the color name in Photoshop. I chose a fun, but easy to read font and added a black stroke. **In PhotoShop Elements you must add a style (drop shadow, outer glow, etc…) and then turn it off and turn on stroke.**
When I was done editing them I saved them as photo size jpgs and printed them through my favorite big box store.
I decided I wanted the book to be bigger than a photo. The laminating sleeves I bought fit 5″ x 7″ paper so I trimmed colored paper to that size and used adhesive tabs to glue the pictures on. **I left a little more room at the top for hole punching.**
Then I got to bust out my new laminator. It was pretty cool. I centered the pages in the laminating sleeve and sent it through the machine. It came out really hot, but was stiff and sealed just right.
I punched 2 holes in the top and then stuck binder rings though them. And then didn’t take any pictures of the book.
So far, the kids are fighting over it, so I am glad I printed a second copy of the pictures.
Lessons learned:
- tell people what you are doing so they don’t think you are taking creepy pictures of the kids
- objects don’t always photograph in their true color
- make your shape collage 4″ by 6″ not 5.5″ x 8.5″ so the sides don’t get cut off when you print the pictures (I started with a different idea)
- toddlers are very concrete -they expect books to open on the left, not the top, on the other hand, this shows they are learning concepts of print
- kids love books about things they see every day
Hoo Are You Tuesday
1. What is your favorite restaurant?
Nearly every Thursday my husband and I take Tumblebug for Family Night at The Chelsea Royal Diner. The Chelsea (as it is known) has traditional diner fare and some slightly more exotic things, but we get the same thing every time. I get a foot long hot dog and macaroni and cheese with a side of fries and he gets spaghetti marinara with no meatball. We know all the evening waitresses and they love our little one. From April to October we go outside for dessert because they have the best ice cream.
2. What kind of music do you like?
I listen to a lot of different music. Mostly I like the Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, Kasey Chambers, and Broadway musicals.
3. What do you watch on TV?
A lot. I watch way too much TV. I like reality like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother. I also like scripted television like How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Parenthood, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Lie to Me.
4. Do you enjoy reading and if so what kind of books do you read?
I love to read. I have been reading for as long as I can remember. I don’t actually remember learning how to read. I haven’t finished a book since my son was born last year though. I am about 2/3 of the way through The Time Traveler’s Wife. I also like to read The Outlander series, Harry Potter, and anything by Anne Rivers Siddons or Jodi Picoult,.
5. What is your favorite color?
Green
If you could go back in time and meet your 16-year-old self…
what three things would you tell yourself?
Only 3 things? Wow!
- Sweet Briar is a great college and you will have a terrific four years if you go there…but…look around New England a little more. Can you get into Mt. Holyoke? Is there a small college nearby that has a great teacher’s program? And take some classes at Keene State over summers. And if you do go to SBC? Room with Candice in Manson your sophomore year.
- You have a condition called vulvodynia. As soon as you graduate from college and Brattleboro Ob/Gyn opens in Brattleboro go see Dr. McBean and get her to fix you. You will be so glad that you did in 2000.
- And that guy, that one that has the funny hair, he is going to have the part of the dad in Bye, Bye Birdie. And in the future? You will love him. No seriously, stop laughing. Really, you will. Stop laughing! You will love him. You will even want to have babies with him. And they will be soooo cute. But only if you remember the second thing I told you.
1000 Paper Cranes
Japanese lore suggests that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. What would your wish be, and what would you be willing to do 1,000 times to get it?
Wishes. I am one of those people who would wishes for 1000 more wishes. I don’t like to make mistakes, and so often I am hesitant to put myself out there. I don’t make phone calls; I don’t take chances; I don’t ask for help. I am so afraid I will wish for something and then be sorry I didn’t wish for something else. 1000 more wishes would certainly cover that eventuality. Although I am certain I will still find a way to mess it up.
I would wish to be pain free. And for that, I would have sex with my husband 1000 times.
I would wish for a daughter. And for that, I would play trucks with my son 100o times.
I would wish for more confidence. And for that, I would speak in public 1000 times.
I would wish for a clean clutter free house. And for that, I would scrub my toilets 1000 times.
I would wish for a marriage as long and great as my parents’. And for that I would marry my husband 1000 times.
I would wish for tax payers to realize the importance of teachers and education. And for that I would speak at 1000 town meetings.
I would wish for no more teen pregnancy. And for that I would hand out 1000 condoms.
I would wish for affordable, plentiful, and wonderful childcare. And for that, I would stay home 1000 days with my child.
I would wish for 1000 more wishes. And for that, I would give them away to 1000 people.
If I had a million dollars…
You’ve just been given a million dollars. You are not allowed to keep it or give it to anyone you know personally. What do you do with it and why?
No one I know personally…hmmm…that’s hard. I would have to give the money to someone I know, but for them to pass it on to a stranger.
I would love to give a bunch of money to my college to help a girl from New England go to college there. I had such a great time at college, but I think college would be so much better if you didn’t have to worry about money.
I would give money to my Star Island conference to help pay for kids to come out to the youth conference. I would specify it would be for kids who had never been out to the Island before. That was another amazing experience of my youth and it costs 3 times as much now, 20 years later.
Lastly, I would give some to the NVA so they can find a cure. I hate that other women have to go through the pain and stress I went through. I would love to have had 2 children by now and have a normal marriage, but such was not my luck. I was so lucky to be diagnosed at my third doctor (the average is 7) and find a man that is understanding and supportive. I still hope for a pain-free life, but for now I am happy with the life I have.
Do you owe an apology to anyone? Why?
It’s probably not a very good apology if you say, “I am sorry you are so high maintenance and difficult to deal with I can no longer be friends with you.”
How about, “I am sorry your pettiness and immaturity caused me to choose others to be my friends”?
Or maybe, “I am sorry you blame me for your mistakes.”
Nope. Those probably aren’t good apologies.
I do owe apologies -and thank you notes- to nearly everyone who got me or my baby something last spring and summer when he was born. I was just so overwhelmed by life I didn’t write most of them and now it feels like it is too late. I am going to get started on Christmas and birthday and then maybe work my way backwards.
I owe an apology to some of my former students for not doing a good enough job as their teacher to help them improve. For not knowing enough to teach them better. For being too embarrassed to ask for help.
I owe an apology to my son for being a crappy housekeeper and limiting the space he can crawl in. For not moving him into his own bedroom until he was 11 months old. For still not cleaning out that room. For the pink rose wallpaper that is still on the walls.
To my friend who has passed away for not being a better friend.
To my friends I have lost touch with for not being better at keeping in touch.
To my body for not taking better care of it.
To my blog readers for being a poor blogger.
Sunday night blues
Today was a very long day.
This morning was rehearsal for next week’s Children’s Sunday program. Bug and I watched the rehearsal and then ate pancakes with the girls. It is hard to believe I have been there Sunday School teacher for 3 years. I have known all of the girls since they were babies. Now they are young women. They are all so beautiful and strong.
We only stayed for the start of church. A young friend sang the prelude (and several solos throughout the service). As soon as the piano started Bug looked up and fought to see what was going on. We were in the back and she was standing in the front. I stood him up on my lap and he moved and clapped through the whole song. I tried to keep him from yelling out, but that is like trying to catch the wind. He gets so caught up in music. He wiggles and dances. He claps and tries to sing along.
We slipped out after the children’s sermon to have time to go to Wal*Mart to pick up photos and baby stuff. Bug is teething again, but this time it actually seems to hurt him. He is getting his bottom right 2nd tooth and probably his bottom right canine and bicuspid and something on the left. He didn’t cry at all for the first 6 teeth (bottom two front in November and top four front in January) and now he is miserable. I got him some chewy teething rings and numbing gel. He hates the numbing gel to the point that he won’t even take his pacifier after because he thinks it is more yucky stuff, but the instant relief is palpable. I also ended up buying a laminating machine for the book I am working on for his classroom.
Then it was back in the car for the 2 hour -that we thought would be 1.5- trip north to have lunch with our cousin. She is actually our second cousin, but does it really matter? She is the oldest of our generation and my sister is the youngest. They are 30 years apart! She is a retired video editor from California and she only gets to Vermont once a year. She graduated from Middlebury 40 years ago and teaches a course in video editing there every J-term. This year she took a break from that, but came east for her reunion. She is a fabulously brilliant woman and we always have a great time visiting with her. Bug was smitten with her and she with him. We had lunch at a lovely little place and the food was magnificent. Then we just sat around and talked forever. Soon enough it was time to head home. Bug slept all the way home and was only awake long enough for some food and a bath.
And that is about how long I will last.