Back to School 2012

Here we are one full year later.  Grandkids went back to school today.  They are very excited to meet their teachers and hope to see friends from last year.  Grandma Cat hopes to get back on track.  Haven't 'blogged' for a full year because the connection from the Captive Illusions domain name wouldn't connect to the blog, which made the blog next to impossible to find.  My daughter, De'Anna, visited from Colorado a couple of weeks ago and straightened everything out for me.  Let's hear it for daughters...Hip Hip Hooray!

I've been helping said daughter, De'Anna, build inventory for a craft fair she will be doing in October in Colorado.  I used Simplicity pattern 1957 (shown below) to make these sweet miniature aprons.  I intended to make them for decorative purposes like it shows on the pattern below; however, the aprons fit Barbie dolls perfectly.



I've made 36 of the full aprons and intend to make a dozen or so out of Christmas fabric.  If I do not run out of time, I'll make a couple dozen or so of the 1/2 aprons as well.  These are fun and quick.  The first apron took about 30 minutes, but after tweaking the pattern a bit, I can now make them in 10 minutes.  They are fully lined and didn't cost a thing as I've got drawers of scrap fabric that I've saved for quilting.

Time to get this blog posted, get shipping done, finish the laundry, make some zucchini bread before the grandkids get home from school, get some accounting done, make a grocery list.....and so on and so forth!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
              &                                  &
Grandma Cat's Attic            Crafty Family

Whoops...

 Took a week off blogging by accident.  You know how it is, one thing happens, and then another, and life gets crazy and before you know it a week has gone by and you just have no idea where the time went.  Well, that's what it has been like for me this past week.  So, here I am trying to get my thoughts in order and back on track with everything!

De'Anna (my daughter) recently pointed me in the direction of Listia.  Have you heard of it?  Are you using it?  If so, what do you think of it?  I found this on Wikipedia about the company:

"Listia is an online marketplace for trading goods between people using a virtual credit system instead of real money. The marketplace uses an auction system where users bid on each other's items until the auction ends, and the highest bidder wins. The user who listed the item then arranges for a pickup or ship the item directly to the winner.   Users earn credits during sign-up and then continue to earn more as they place items in the marketplace. Purchasing credits is also an option.  Listia was launched in August 2009^{.  I}n 2010, the site passed the 1,000,000 auction mark and was named one of the top 100 websites of 2010 by PC Magazine."

Listia also offers raffles.  We are going to try setting up a few raffles, just to see what happens.  If you want to check out our first raffle for fused glass decals here is the link:  http://www.listia.com/raffle/89

I used a dragon off the Dragon Card to put on the dichroic rainbow cab and a black heart with a clear swoosh area from the Heart Card for these two pieces.  They'll get bails and cords later so they can be worn as necklaces.

Gotta get the grandkids up for breakfast...just because school is out they don't get to sleep all day!  We've got brown lunch bag puppets to make, a bowling tournament on the Wii, cupcakes to bake...and if we can fit it in to our already busy day...a trip to the grocery store.  The grocery store is not my idea of fun with 5 year old twin boys and their 7 year old Princess sister; but it is one of life's necessary evils.  Depending on how many times I have to chase them down, or ask them to behave will determine how many bottles of alcoholic beverages make their way into my cart.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                  Crafty Family

Last Week of School - Thursday

Today and Tomorrow.  That's it.  Then the grandkids will be home all day, every day.  Except for Friday nights when they spend the night at Nana and Papa's . . . 1.9 miles away.  Such a short distance, such a huge reprieve!

I'm a bit worried about keeping the kids busy, out of trouble, fight-free and keeping the house clean, eBay, Artfire and Captive Decals on track.  Their school has sent home numerous fliers for summer activities.

Calam Shrine Circus:  All 3 grandkids got free tickets to the circus on June 18th.  I found their website; adult tickets are only $12.  The circus is worth a week of keeping up chores and not calling each other names.

HREI:  The Human Rights Education Institute is about 2 miles away from us.  They offer free summer activities every Monday from 3pm to 7pm and the second Saturday of every month from 10am to 2pm.  Books to read, fun crafts, treats.  The activities are meant for families to do together; however, they also have crafts for young children through adults and fun things for teenagers.

Post Falls Library: The library has a Summer Reading program that we'll enroll all 3 grandkids in.  All summer the grandkids can bring their reading logs in to the library to check out books and receive weekly giveaways and drawings for prizes.  More information on Idaho Libraries can be found at libraries.idaho.gov/summer-reading. 

Skate Plaza:   All 3 grandkids received a Summer Skate Pass to go Roller Skating.  They'll have a blast doing that!  Probably good for another week of chores and no name calling.

Cops n Kids and Rodders n More:   Our local police department is very community oriented.  We've only lived in Post Falls, Idaho since the middle of last July and the grandkids have toured the Police Department in Post Falls twice already.  Last year they were give little autograph books and all the officers on duty signed them (the kids still have the books).  An obstacle course is set up for the kids, they get to see all the police cars and motorcycles up close and personal, they come home with a tote bag full of stickers, brochures, pencils, etc.

Post Falls Parks and Recreations:   If I really get desperate and need a week off there is always Kamp Ka-Mee-Lin Summer Kamp!  It would cost nearly $300 per week for all 3 kids, but I could pick which week or weeks I wanted the kids to go.  The weeks are themed (I'm hoping to send the kids for Dr. Suess is on the Loose! week.  Some of the themes offered are Jungle Jive, Alien Encounters, Just Horsin' Around and Nature in a Nutshell.  For $277 the grandkids would go to camp for one week from Monday through Friday and enjoy activities from 7am to 6pm.  An eleven hour a day reprieve for Grandma!

Plus coupons for free ice cream cones and Wacky Packs at Sonic, free milk shakes at Red Robin, free personal pizzas at Pizza Hut, and they will probably get more today and tomorrow!

Even with all that, I'm still worried about keeping them busy for the 16 hours a day that they are awake from June 11th to September 6th.  Got any ideas?

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals            Crafty Family

Last Week of School - Tuesday

 The twins are so excited.  Their Kindergarten class is going on a field trip to Mudgy and Millie's in Coeur d'Alene today.  It's a walking trail based on the book Mudgy and Millie about a moose and a mouse.  When all three grandkids get home from school day, their project for the day will be Smartie Airplanes to go with the Graduation Hat Cards they did yesterday as gifts for all their classmates on the last day of school.  I found this one on line for Valentine's Day.

 

Rubber Bands  $1.99 at Office Depot; probably less expensive at Wal-Mart.  We'll get 2 packs to make sure we have plenty.

Any gum with foil wrappers works great; however, the gum my son brought home does not have foil wrappers, so instead of putting a wrap around the gum with the foil wrapper showing as shown on the Valentine Airplane, we'll cover the entire piece of gum.  The gum was very flimsy and kept bending when the grandkids tried to put the airplanes together, so I cut strips of card stock 2 3/4" X 3/4" and had the kids set them on the gum before they wrapped the gum with the paper.

We bought this huge 41 ounce bag of Life Savers at Wal-Mart.     The bag has over 200 pieces in it, individually wrapped.  Yes, they have to be unwrapped to use them for the wheels of the airplane.  Sonny cut one end off each wrapper and Skyler dumped the mints out of the wrappers into a bowl.  There were only 3 broken mints in the bag.  We ate them.

Smarties are inexpensive.  We got an extra bag for the kids to enjoy!








I printed the words Congrats Smartie! several times using a word document, the font is Arial as the letter were the closest I could find to the letters the grandkids learned in school.  I used size 18.  You could write them on pieces of paper if you want, but I don't have that much time to spare.  I folded the paper so the grandkids would have cutting lines.





To assemble the Airplanes, thread the rubber band through the hole in two Life Savers.  I had the grandkids put their pinky finger through one loop of the rubber band, put a stick of gum in the loop on the other side of the Life Savers, then take the rubber band off their finger and over the other end of the gum.  Next, they inserted the roll of Smartie's under the gum and above the Life Savers.  They added small stickers for a finished look.


Too much fun and totally worth every minute!  Tomorrow they grandkids will put the Graduation Hat Cards and the Candy Airplane in clear poly bags, tie them with ribbons and be ready for the last day of school!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                 Crafty Family

Last Week of School - Monday

This is the first day of the last week of school for Trinity (First Grade) and Sonny and Skyler (Kindergarten).  We have so many projects to do this week along with keeping up with the housework, eBay, Artfire, and now that the weather has finally turned nice, yard work that we will be running around like a chicken and her little chicks.  Our after school project today is to create little 'graduation' gifts for all the kids in Trinity, Sonny and Skyler's classes.  Each class has between 20 and 25 children so we'll be making 72 gifts which should give us a few extras.  First off, I bought some cute decks of cards from Oriental Trading shaped like graduations caps.  They are on sale for $1.50 for 12 decks of cards.  I bought 6 dozen - a set in red, blue, green, yellow, purple and orange for $9.00 which is 12 1/2 cents per deck of cards!

The decks measure a scant 3" X 3".  I have labels that measure 1" X 3" that I'll set up with sayings:

Happy Graduation!  Hope you have a fun summer!  From Skyler
Congrats Graduate!  Have fun in first grade!  From Sonny
Have a great summer!  Hope to see you next year!  From Trinity

The kids will put a label on the back of each deck of cards and then decorate the label with stickers.

I'll post a picture or two when the project is finished.

To go with the decks of cards the kids will be making Smartie Airplanes.

I'll blog about that those tomorrow!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
     Captive Decals                 Crafty Family

T G I F ! ! !

Thank God It's Friday!

Can you hear my sign of relief?  Every Friday Trinity, Sonny and Skyler get picked up after school by their other grandma (Nana) to spend the night.  Nana brings them back Saturday afternoon.  This gives me 24 hours of peace and quiet.  Time to catch up on blogging!






I'm celebrating this Friday with anyone who reads this blog and purchases something from my eBay store dream77catcher, my Artfire studio Captive Illusions or off my website Captive Decals with free shipping.  Yes, FREE SHIPPING.  Quantity doesn't matter.  Weight doesn't matter.  Fused Glass Decals, Ceramic Decals, Sewing Patterns, whatever miscellaneous items I might have up for sale...it doesn't matter.  If you mention this blog when checking out or in an email when you've finished shopping, I'll adjust your invoice to reflect FREE SHIPPING!

Time to get the grandkids up and off to school.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                  Crafty Family