Hello! In the three days since coming back from visiting my
family (actually, it ‘feels’ like I’ve been back longer…the more we visit, the
greater the missing upon our return.
Must be some kind of mathematical equation that accounts for that; then
again, where matters of the heart come into play, logic isn’t always…logical),
I’ve managed to accomplish *some* card-making and some visiting-and-commenting.
I’m still behind in all areas, so apologies if I haven’t been by recently; I’ll
be lacing up my running shoes and setting a pace to catch-up asap!
Time with my niece and nephew is becoming more precious and
more hilarious! We spend Saturday afternoon/early
evening at West Edmonton Mall, specifically in Galaxyland, which is an indoor
amusement park. My niece certainly
enjoys the thrills of rides (she is reasonable about her selections…thank
heavens), while my nephew was content to pretend he was ‘driving’ the cart my
brother had him corralled in. Whoever decided to add steering wheels to such
vehicles: brilliant! We rode the
carousel, the train, a mini-ferris wheel, the carousel again, and on her own,
my niece “piloted” a small plane on a ride that was far too twirly for me to even
watch. By the time we left, we had two
tuckered out parents, one tuckered out
Aunty C, and two little ones who still had ‘some’ energy to burn. Great fun had by all!
On Sunday, before heading home , my mom and I headed over to
visit the kids. My niece loves, loves
and loves hearing ‘stories’ (well…’tall tales’ might be more appropriate) about
my husband’s bike racing excursions. This weekend, I told her about how I hand
him water bottles in the feed zone during certain races (those in Bend,
primarily…I LOVE Bend…). If you could see
her face when I explain the details – the intense concentration, the ‘big eyes’
fascination – you’d have a smile all over your face (Anita, from France , I
soooo love that phrase!). Of course, one telling isn’t enough…three isn’t
enough…and sometimes six isn’t enough.
Her “Aunty C, please, please , please tell me about Andy’s bike racing
and the water bottles again,’ is just
too sweet to resist. Eventually, I can
divert her to attention to other things, but she most certainly gets a kick out
of her Uncle Andy escapades…and another ‘highlight’ emerged. My nephew and I were playing ‘hockey’, which
completely enthralls him (true Canadian!), using plastic drumsticks as hockey
sticks and a soft ball as the puck. Not
exactly an easy feat to smack the ball with ‘skinny’, no blade sticks, however,
part of the fun is trying….and chasing the ball wherever it goes. While the ‘hockey’ game was going on, my
niece was running around the kitchen island, near to our ‘arena’. Each time she came past, me, I was passing
her (or taking from her) her water bottle because – yes, you guessed it – she was
in a bike race! You can picture me bent
over, whacking a ball – or the air, more like it - with a drumstick with my
left hand, and holding out a water
bottle (sippy cups…great inventions, too!), for Ms. Tour de France bike racer
each time she passed. Hilarious…oh, how
I love those two!!
Anyway, I’ve more Valentine *cards* to share, as part of the
51 total I’ve been asked to create. I
still have about 30 more kid ones to figure out, as well as 15 for the education
leaders. It's this latter groups’ cards I worked on over the past couple of
days (Mr. Mojo is still wandering..sighhhh).
I have, in my stash, a number of 12 X 12 sheets of patterned paper,
accumulated before I figured out that big patterns don’t translate well onto
cards (sometimes they do, but you know what I mean).
So, influenced by others in this wonderful community of ours to “use
what I have” (
Amy T’s decision to use her wood-mounted stamps more often is
what triggered my idea), I took out the
few sheets of Valentine-themed papers and transformed them into 6 mini
envelopes, which will eventually house a chocolate-y treat of some nature. Yes, they’re a ‘bit’ busy, but I figure that’s
okay…Valentine cards “from” kids are allowed to be busy (Mr. Mojo needs to get
back, because I’m starting to feel like I *am* crafting like a kid…eeek!).
Be prepared...these are busy...but they're fairly easy...dies cut-and-paste and stamp (it's all the dithering around I do that winds up taking me longer than it should. Must. Focus *grin*)
Let's do the tally: 15 kids' cards done and 6 teachers, which means still another 30 to go.
Wonder what will pop into my imagination next. Lovin' this!!!
Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments make my day!
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