Hello Stampers!
Today I am sharing a video on how to make this special Valentine card for the special person in your life. This one is for my husband…lucky guy! 🙂
What makes this Valentine so unique is it comes in a box, and when you remove the lid, the card pops up out of the box.
Adorable! And it is really easy to make.
I hope you enjoy your visit today! Until next time…
Happy Stamping!
Hello Everybody!
It has been way too long since I’ve posted anything here! I am just now getting back into the swing of things. It was a busy, busy summer for me. It started in June with a two-week visit from my sister and brother-in-law, a three-week visit from my mom in July, and a two-week trip back home with my mom in August. Once I got back I had a club to prepare for and then it was right into getting ready for the booth I shared with a friend at the Colorado Springs Women’s Living EXPO 2016 last weekend. I think things are back to normal…whatever “normal” is.
I’ve had this card and box done for a while. I’ve been wanting to share it with you. But I wanted to create a video to go along with the box and card.
I finally had the opportunity to create a video for them today. I’ve done this project in two parts. Part 1 is the card and part 2 is the box. I hope you enjoy. There is a PDF file you can print if you like. There is a list of items you need at the end of this post and in the printable PDF.
Enjoy yourself while you watch and create. Let me know how things turn out.
Here is the link for the PDF file I promised.
Until next time…
Happy Stamping!
If you have ever owned a home with a garbage disposal in the kitchen, then you know they don’t last forever and will eventually need replacing. The person at Home Depot said they last about 10 years. We’ve been in our home for 14 and we just now had to install a new one. We don’t know how long it was in the place before we moved in. A mid-range new unit runs over $100.00. ($149.00 to be exact.) If you are anything like we are, you will want to save on the installation if possible. My husband and I spent some time replacing our garbage disposal yesterday, and I wanted to share a few things that we learned in the process. .
1. Watch this video before you start. Make your husband watch it too. If he is anything like mine, he will not want to but he admitted afterwards that he was glad he did. It gives you a list of all of the tools and materials you will need in order to install your new unit.
2. Look at the unit you will be replacing and how it is connected. Determine the correct size of the unit you will be replacing before purchasing a new one.
3. Will you need to purchase an installation kit as the video says? Don’t let the salesperson at your local home improvement store talk you out of it if you think you need one. If you end up not using it, you can always return it. It will save you a trip to the store in the middle of the process.
We purchased our new disposal without doing any of this beforehand and it resulted in two trips to Home Depot while we were installing the new unit. The first trip was for the salesperson to talk my husband out of getting an installation kit, and the second was actually to purchase the kit. What should have taken an hour at the most, took four instead.
4. Read the installation instructions that come with your new unit. Again, your husband won’t want to do this, but trust me…he won’t be sorry if he does.
5. Do not believe the person at Home Depot when he says it will be simple. In theory, it is, but you know the person that made the video I shared used the art of editing before he posted it! Duh!
In retrospect, the most difficult part of the installation was hanging the new unit. They are heavy and neither my husband nor I were able to hold it up in place long enough in order to connect it. I have no upper body strength, and my husband has a physical condition that prevents him from lifting his arms over his head. Just as I was admitting defeat and calling my son for help, my husband gave it, one last shot and got it connected.
6. Learn to cuss. As a young child, I used to watch my father do things around the house like work on plumbing, etc. Things always seemed to go better when Daddy cussed. I tried this myself once and it worked. I think my husband cussed just as the disposal unit finally slipped into place.
7. Maintain a sense of humor throughout the process.
So, four hours, a migraine and a stiff neck later, I have a new garbage disposal! We saved at least $100.00 by installing it ourselves.
8. I almost forgot to mention one last thing we learned while replacing our garbage disposal and you should remember while you are replacing yours. When the old unit is disconnected and the new one not yet attached…remember…DO. NOT. Turn. On. The. Water! Unless, of course, you mean to mop your kitchen floor in the process.
So here is my creation for today. It uses an oldie but goodie stamp set Thoughts and Prayers.
Hope you enjoyed your visit here today. Until next time…
Happy Stamping!
I’ve been missing in action again, and that is because I have been focusing on everything but stamping and writing lately.
Two weekends ago, we had our master bedroom and another bedroom painted. If you don’t think that was a mess, well then… It took the painters two days to get the two rooms done and me another week to get them put back together.
In the process, a local school district called me about a possible long-term substitute assignment beginning April 27 and ending May 28. I agreed to a one week trial (my thinking) since I knew I was qualified for the position. In Colorado, a long-term substitute (longer than 10 days) must be highly qualified to teach the subject in which they will be substituting. This was a 7th grade Language Arts position in a very low-income middle school. If I remember correctly, the school’s exact words were, “So we will schedule you for a week and we will see how it goes after that.” What I heard was, “This might be a tough assignment, so if you don’t want it at the end of the week, we will understand.” The sub they had initially lined up for the job decided he/she didn’t want to do it after all. I spoke with the teacher with which I would be teaming and she said there had been several subs in the position since the beginning of April. The students hadn’t had any consistency since their regular teacher left on maternity leave.
Let me clarify something…Low income meant nothing for me; it didn’t scare me. I spent my entire public school teaching career teaching in a low-income middle school. Eighty-six percent of the students in this school qualified for free and reduced lunches in 2014. Forty- four percent of the student population of the school from which I retired qualified for the same program. The ethnicity of the student population in my old school was also very diverse just like the school I was planning to work in for the next five weeks. I didn’t know any of these statistics when I agreed to the assignment. I only knew where the school was located in town and knew that it was low income with a very diverse ethnic population. I don’t like going into anything with a pre-conceived notion.
During my time as a teacher, I never had any severe behavior issues with my students. They were good kids that knew the value of a dollar because they learned its value from their parents. The majority of their parents were hard-working blue-collar adults that were doing the best they could for their kids, like my family when I was growing up. Most of my students earned everything they had. I taught advanced kids, and I taught kids below their grade level. On a few occasions during my last year the behavior of some of the students in one of my classes prevented me from teaching, but for the most part, I never really had any behavior issues. I was out for a day or two here and there and had to get a sub to cover my classes. I remember one time a few of my students decided, they would act up with the sub, and the consequences were severe from both the building administration and from me because I had pre-warned them. The deal was always, “get in trouble with a sub; get in trouble with me.”
Anyway, to make a long story, which has already gone on too long short, by the end of the week, I decided not to return to the long-term position. The students’ behavior was reprehensible, to say the least. I was hardly ever able to teach because of it. I spent most of my time trying to get the students to listen to me. Not all were this way, but the majority was. I even had one tell me to “shut-up.” He didn’t like the fact that I was asking him to stop talking so I could teach, so he told me, “Why don’t you shut-up?” Another told me I was “stupid.” Finally, the student who told me to shut-up then attempted to tell me the reason the students talked back to subs was because they were, “advanced students and bored.” “You haven’t taught us anything new!” he exclaimed. I told him to tell himself whatever he needed to justify his poor behavior, but I taught advanced students before and I know what advanced student behavior looks like. It is always easier to blame our actions on something or someone else than to take responsibility for ourselves.
By the end of the week, I told the principal that I would not be back. He understood my reasoning perfectly well. Funny thing is, I was offered the position again via the district’s automatic sub caller for this week. Needless to say, I turned it down. Now I know why the original substitute and all of the others that came before me did not stay.
Here is my question. Why? Why do the kids in this school behave so poorly? Here is what I think. I think student behavior relates to parental involvement. I think the rate of parental involvement goes up with the amount of education and financial means of parents. I don’t think it is a good enough excuse, but that is what I think. I wish someone would do a study on this. Maybe someone already has.
As I raised my children, I felt their behavior reflected directly on me. You know the old saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I had a university professor tell me once that if I ever wanted to know why a child was they way he or she was to look at his parents. If my kids learned good manners at home, they would use them elsewhere. If they didn’t, they would have to answer to me. That is what my parents taught me. My parents weren’t educated by today’s standards. Neither one of them went to high school! I probably would have qualified for free and reduced lunch when I was a kid. I never told any of my teachers they should shut up or they were stupid…not aloud anyway.
As a single mother, I was low-income, and my children qualified for free and reduced lunch. They never told any of their teachers to shut up or they were stupid because if they had, they would not have lived to tell about it. They may have acted up at home, but when they were away from home, they were expected to behave appropriately. I had a friend tell another friend of mine once he thought my children were afraid of me. Her response was, “She is their parent, not their friend.” I think children need to be a little afraid of their parents. I don’t mean kids should be afraid because their parents abuse them, but afraid because their parents give them negative consequences because of poor choices they might make.
I am off my soapbox and ready to share my project. 🙂
Today’s creation is done using a piece of the Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack and two current stamp sets found in the Occasions Catalog; Crazy About You and Butterfly Basics. I also cheated a little on this card and used an already retired item. I used the spriting tool we used to have with the Hello Honey Stampin’ Write Marker to spritz the background of the card. Hope you like it.
I had to fussy cut the flowers, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I also used only a small piece of the Striped Scallop I cut out using the Striped Scallop Thinlit Die.
Hope you enjoyed your visit today. Until next time…
Happy Stamping!
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