Just Beachy Collab kit!

Download wordart here

You have got to check out this beautiful collab kit by FlowerScraps, Boo Land Designs and eqrAveziur...

It's fun, gorgeous and HUGE! There are 31 papers, 65 elements and an alpha. Right now, it's also on sale at The Studio!

Here's a layout I made using Just Beachy...

I don't have a picture to show you, but I also used this kit to make a tag with a fish that said, "You're O "fish" ally in Kindergarten" that I put on a baggie filled with gold fish crackers and gave out as a snack during our open house at school the other night.

Three Day Weekends Rock!

Download wordart here

There are lots of things that I want and need to tell you, but right now I'm so tired I can't even think.

We had open house at school tonight and that made for a fun but very long day.

I just have to get through Friday and I've got another three day weekend! So, I'm going to bed now and I'll try to remember everything I want to tell you for the weekend.

8-30-12

Download wordart here

School has officially started!

Download wordart here

I know the first day of school was last week, but it didn't seem official until I walked into the building this morning and the air conditioning was out.

The teacher in the room next to me was excited about coming to school today because she hasn't has power at her house since Sunday. I guess Isaac didn't like her neighborhood very much. lol! She got over that excitement as soon as she realized that she had just moved from one place with no AC to another.

My principal was in our building this morning blowing air out of his mouth in a very bad attempt to cool the place down for us. I let him know that he was just making it worse cause he's full of hot air and he needed to stop.

It's a good thing he gets my sense of humor!

The kids couldn't stop talking about the "hairy-cane" we had no matter how many times I tried to explain that Isaac wasn't a hurricane. The best reply I got was, "I don't know how you missed it cause we had a hairy-cane." lol!

Sebastian Update!

Download wordart here

I know I should have updated you guys sooner, but last week was so busy that I completely forgot. I went to visit Sebastian in his new big kid first grade class so that I could give him a t-shirt that the boyfriend of one of my volunteers sent for him. The shirt was a child's small and it swallowed him whole. lol!

Sebastian is doing wonderfully! Although he wasn't too impressed when I kept taking steps backwards so that I could watch him walk to me over and over again. It was a beautiful sight! I am so proud of him!

He's really happy and asked me to tell all of you that he is 6 years old now.

Shel Belle Scraps CT call!

Download wordart here

Are you creative? Do you love Shel Belle Scraps' products? Do you want a chance to get them before anyone else? Now's your chance to join Shel's team--she's having a Creative Team (CT) call!

REQUIREMENTS:

• One layout and one quick page (which can be based on your layout) OR two layouts per kit (usually 1-2 kits per month);




• Blog about my products and promote via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.); and




• Post your layouts in at least three galleries, including Stuff to Scrap.

TO APPLY, send Shel an e-mail (shelbellescraps {at} gmail {dot} com) with the following info:

• Current CT responsibilities (if any);




• Blog URL and link to fullest gallery;




• Three of your best or favorite layouts (600x600); and




• A mini-bio (tell me about yourself).

The deadline to apply is Friday, September 7.

Oh yeah!

Download wordart here

Ok, Isaac brought rain, rain and more rain making it a perfect day for lying around and doing nothing between naps. So, that's exactly what I did!

It was awesome and I still have Monday off! lol!

Play Ball by Shel Belle Scraps

Download wordart here

One thing you should know about Shel of Shel Belle Scraps is that she is a HUGE baseball fan. Her love love the game is the inspiration behind her latest kit Play Ball.

This kit has 30 papers, 80 elements and two full alphas. You can also purchase a set of 8 additional alphas and a set of 43 baseball themed wordbits.

Right now everything is 50% off so check out the Shel Belle Scraps store at Stuff to Scrap and grab this fun kit!

I've used Play Ball to scrap some pictures that my friend Sondra sent me of the men in her life. Check out these handsome guys...

Thank you, Isaac!

Download wordart here

Well, my Friday night plans were pretty much rained out. I did manage to get a couple photos on Lincoln Road before giving up and walking home ~ in the rain.

I slept until 9:30 Saturday morning only to wake up and find that I had no water or air conditioning. There was a stupid main water line break that left most of south beach with no water.

Yes, this was the second time in the last couple of months that I've spent with no water. Trust me, after sleeping for nine and a half hours I had some serious bed head going on!

I went to the grocery store and it was an absolute mad house! I believe all of Miami Beach was there to stock up on water in case ours wasn't turned on before Isaac visited the area.

We got our water back around 3 in the afternoon and we are once again under a boil water notice for the next couple of days.

The best part of my day came when it was announced that there will be no school on Monday. I know Isaac is going to bring more rain and nasty weather, but that's ok cause I've got plenty of junk food and a DVR full of unwatched shows.

I've got Monday off!!!!!

8-25-12

Download wordart here

8-24-12

Download wordart here

8-23-12

Download wordart here

A new twist on an old question

Download wordart here

I haven't gotten the usual, "Do you have a job?" question that one of the kids usually ask every year.....yet!

Instead I got a newer and better version.....

"Are you pretending to be a teacher or something?"

When I asked if he thought I would be a good teacher he informed me that his PreK teacher was better. lol!

Holy Cow!

Download wordart here

I barely survived the first day of school and I do mean BARELY!

As a matter of fact it was so bad I don't even want to talk about cause I'll either burst out in tears or I'll throw the computer out of the window.

I need my computer and the tissues are in the other room so I'm going to tell you about something else.

I'm going to tell you about the Photo Hunt I went on Sunday night. It's like a scavenger hunt where you take photos of the things on your list.

We were on Lincoln Road in groups of four looking for things like...

A couple kissing, someone wearing a thong, someone getting arrested, twins, someone wearing a uniform that isn't a police officer, someone working hard or hardly working, something out of place, someone dressed in drag, something with polk dots, the sky, a reflection, something cheesy, a clock that isn't digital, someone using a payphone, someone surfing, someone smoking a hookah, and lots of others that I can't even remember now.

Well, the photos that should have been the easiest to find were the hardest! Nobody was leaving the beach in a thong and we felt like total pervs checking for them. lol! No one was surfing, but we got the photo of something out of place cause there was some dude in the ocean playing a red trombone.

The drag queens who are usually out and about apparently decided to stay home, but there were plenty of restaurant workers in uniform either working very hard or hardly working.

Let me tell you, I can't even count the number of times I have walked Lincoln Road and never noticed that there are actually payphones everywhere. Of course, no one was using them! I got the number off of one phone and called it hoping someone passing by would answer but it would only ring one time and of course no one wanted to answer. lol! I finally talked one of my friends into answering and pretending to talk.

The biggest let down of the night was when I saw a police car with the blue lights going. I ran across the street hoping to see someone getting arrested so I could take their picture. I get to the car and see the police officer inside a 7Eleven. I waited for him to walk out with the dirty shoplifter or armed gunman, but when he walked out the only thing he had was a Slurpee. Seriously!

Welcome to South Beach everyone, where the need for a Slurpee is an emergency worthy of police lights!

I couldn't hide my disappointment. I looked right at the officer and said, "Oh man, I thought you were arresting someone!"

His kind of surprised and rather amused response was, "What?"

I explained that I was on a photo hunt and needed to get a picture of someone getting arrested and asked him to please let me know when he did arrest someone. He promised he would before taking his stupid slurpee and leaving. Needless to say, I didn't see him again.

My friends and I still had fun though and that's all that matters.

Soiree by Nibbles Skribbles and Aimee Harrison Designs

Download wordart here

Nibbles Skribbles and Aimee Harrison Designs have teamed up to bring us a beautiful party kit with a grown up spin cause not only kids like parties! There are 16 papers and 67 elements. I love the colors they've used. Check out the preview...

Here's a layout a made...

Pick this beautiful kit up at The Studio while it's 40% off!

8-19-12

Download wordart here

8-18-12

Download wordart here

Free Candy Bar Wrappers!

Download wordart here

If you visit Nibbles Skribbles you can pick up the candy bar wrappers I made with her Ready to Learn kit. There's the teacher version I showed you yesterday and one for kids of all ages that marks their first day of school.

You'll actually get two versions of the wrappers! One with a message and one that is blank so you can add your own message...

AND....the Nibbles Skribbles store is having a back to school sale! 30% off of everything until the 25th.

Ready to Learn by Nibbles Skribbles

Download wordart here

I'm not ready! I'm really not ready to learn or to teach to to continue getting dressed everyday. I just want to stay in my pjs on the couch watching tv and eating junk food! Why? Why couldn't I have been born rich?

Even though I'm not ready I just have to put on actual clothes and go to school anyway. This adorable kit from Nibbles Skribbles is going to make it a little bit easier...

There are also some wordbits...

Some gorgeous solid papers...

And some fun flairs...

Now, if I can stop eating the chocolate, these are the candy bars the teachers I work with will be getting on Monday to help get them through the day.

Oh, and.....all these goodies are on sale!!!

500 Fabulous Followers!

Download wordart here

You like me! You really like me! lol!

I was happy to get home from my first day back at school and learn that I had gotten my 500th blog follower. So happy in fact that I decided to give 5 of you a little surpise.

So, Knitmachinequeen (KMQ) you're the first prize winner since you are lucky number 500. Congrats and thank you!

I used random.org to pick four more winners....

***Scrappin Mama***
***Chelsea***
***Anne Welby***
***Francesca***

I need all five of you to send me an email so that I can send you your surprises.

I also need to thank ALL of you for letting me bore you with my stories, for laughing at my goof ups and for lifting me up when I need support.

You guys are the best!!!

It's over! It's really over!

Download wordart here

Summer is over!

I officially go back to school in the morning and on Monday I'll see my new class of Kindergarteners for the first time.

I'm not ready!

I really am with the paparazzi now!

Download wordart here

Saturday night we went out to the Wynwood Art Walk to see what kind of pictures we could take. The Wynwood area is filled with art galleries and studios and all the buildings have been painted graffit style. On the second Saturday of every month the galleries open their doors for a type of open house. There are street vendors and performers and live music and lots and lots of interesting characters wandering around.

On top of the local restaurants and bars the streets are also lined with food trucks! We were walking down one of the streets and I noticed that one of the girls setting up her food truck looked familiar. It was Robin from Hell's Kitchen.

I pointed her out to my friends to see if they thought it was here too. That's when Robin looked up and saw us. I asked if we could take her picture and she very happily agreed to pose for us.

Actually, she wanted to pose with us and was a little confused by the fact the none of us wanted to be in the picture too. We didn't have the heart to tell her that none of us had pulled for her on the show or that at that moment in time we weren't even sure of her name. lol!

She was much nicer in person than she ever was on the show!

Later in the night we walked past her truck again and I waved when Robin looked up. She called me over and gave me a free bottle of water and we talked about how sexy Gordon Ramsey is. This girl is now my new best friend! lol!

Here's a picture of her standing by her food truck...

And, just because I thought you might enjoy a little eye candy, here's a picture of my friend Hector enjoying a free shot...

Isn't he a cutie? I have no idea who those other people are. They just offered Hector a shot and he took it. lol! The red head actually has Hector's camera taking a picture for him.

8-12-12

Download wordart here

Grrr...

Download wordart here

You know you're going to have a bad day when you drop the soap in the shower, it lands on your foot and before you even finish the shower you can see a bruise. Seriously! If anyone ever tries to break into your house just throw a bar of Dove soap at them. That crap hurts!

Remember when my old email account got hacked? Well, even though I changed all my passwords the losers got into my real email account today. UGH!

That meant sending out a real email to all my contacts, changing all my passwords again and dealing with the lovely customer service people at AT&T. I don't like the lovely customer service people at AT&T!

Then my neighbor and I combed our hair, put on make up and ordered fajitas for dinner. Guess what? No cute fajita delivery guy! Apparently, he thinks it's ok to just take days off with no concern at all for me.

I'm going to bed in hopes of having a better day tomorrow.

Catching up...

Download wordart here

Well, now that it's time for the weekend, I thought I would catch you up on what I did last weekend.

On Saturday I attended a wildlife/nature photography exhibit. The photos were beautiful and the photographer was very nice. She had some beautiful sunset shots! The food at the reception was pretty good too. lol!

Since the exhibit was held at one of the visitor centers in the Everglades some of us decided to head out to take some more photos. We walked the Anhinga Trail (Photos coming soon) then stopped at Pine Glades Lake to get some sunset photos. I'll show you some of those photos at the end of this post.

In true Everglades fashion it rained and it rained and it rained. For the most part we stayed inside the visitors center and avoided the rain and while we were on the Anhinga Trail the sun was out in full force. It was hard to believe that it had been raining cats and dogs just an hour or so earlier.

After we got set up on Pines Glades Lake the clouds came back. For some reason mother nature doesn't seem to want us to take sunset pictures in the Everglades. lol! So, we missed the actual sunset because we were back in the cars and headed back to civilization, but I still got some pretty awesome cloud photos!

The only really bad thing about the day were the insects by the lake. That far into the Everglades they just seem to laugh at your feeble attempt to cover yourself in bug spray. Actually, it seems to anger them and they bite you even more. lol!

On Sunday, I went with some friends to Fairchild Tropical Gardens to take more pictures since there is no admission on Sundays in the month of August.

Want to know why there's no admission on Sundays in the month of August? It's because it's so freaking hot! When you seek refuge in the bathrooms because they're air conditioned you know it's bad. lol! Of course, it didn't help that I was really tired from the day before. I got some photos though and I'll share those with you later.

The best part of my weekend didn't happen until Monday night. I attended the monthly meeting of the Miami Street Photography Club and had a blast.

By the way, I think I've fallen in love with street photography! I love taking pictures of people as they go about their lives. They aren't posed or set up and you just capture that moment in time.

At the meeting we had a mini lesson on the life and photos of Elliott Erwitt. Then we critiqued some of the photos that had been taken by other members of the group. It was fun to hear what everyone thought of the photos and there were some beautiful photos shown.

After the meeting some of us went out for a late dinner. That was also fun!

The meeting was held at the Kike San Martin Studios. On top of being a great photographer, who photographs the the rich and famous, Kike is just a really nice guy.

I made sure I introduced myself to him so that I could ask if William Levy had really been in his studio ~ the studio that I was standing in. He assured me that he had and I thanked him for allowing me to even enter through the front door. lol!

Kike laughed and said, "Follow me." He started walking and I followed thinking I was going to see more William Levy photos. I didn't get to see more than William Levy photos, but he did show me more photos that he had taken and shared a story or two about some of them.

How awesome is that?!?!

On Saturday we're going to the Wynwood Art Walk which is always a colorful and lively event. Hopefully, I'll get some more great street photography photos there. And yes, whether you like it or not, I'll share some of them with you. lol!

Now, here are some of my photos from Pine Glades Lake...

This little guy was swimming right for us, but luckily once he saw that we were set up on his path decided he wasn't in a social mood and made a right turn. lol!

Bore you again later!