Trinkets

Isaak love to collect junk trinkets.

This last weekend I had mountains of laundry to do. I had a mission I was going to try and wash all the bedding. It got done!

In the washer I found metal parts!

I knew the washer wasn't broken. It was the contents in Isaak's pockets.

 What's the craziest thing you've found in the wash?

Best of Warner Bros 100 Film Mother's Day Giveaway!

Most of us can agree that Moms are awesome! They help us through the worst of times, and give us fond memories to! Now it's time to return the favor and celebrate this Mother's Day by giving mom the movie night she deserves! Watching a classic flick together is the perfect opportunity to catch up and share stories with your family... tell them something that they never knew about Mom.

I love movies! The app below features one of my favorite movies, Wizard of Oz! I just love that classic.

On the app above  you can:

Guess-the-Scene Game - How well do you know the silver screen's most famous love stories and sing-a-longs? I have to say the first time I took this quiz I didn't do well! Take your time to get them right. You want to pick quick, but not so quick that you do badly. The faster you do get them right, the better your score is.

Movie Night Conversation Starter - Watching a classic flick together is the perfect opportunity to catch up and share stories...this Mother's Day makes it a point to connect with your family and give them a chance to learn something about mom they never knew. Here are some conversation starter to get your started:

Waking up after sleeping in, I’m greeted with a breakfast of ________________ (food).

I’m spending the morning relaxing while watching my all-time favorite musical ___________ (movie title). I remember watching it for the first time when I was ________ years old.

Of course, I can’t watch this movie without my favorite movie snack ___________ !

For lunch, my friends and I are taken to dine at ________________ (restaurant). Bouquets of _________ (flower) greet us on arrival.

On our way home, our car unexpectedly hits a time warp and we’re teleported back to the set of my favorite romance film!

I find myself playing the role of my favorite character ___________________ (character).

Suddenly, I’m Hollywood’s next big star! I’m strutting down every red carpet and being invited to all the exclusive premieres... I’m even dating the cutest movie star __________ .

WIN IT!

One very lucky Theresa's Mixed Nuts reader is going to win the Best of WB 100 Film Collection that has a MSRP of $597.97!

Giveaway is open to residents of the US, 18+. No PO Boxes will be accepted. The giveaway will run through 5/10. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning email or a new winner will be selected. Please enter on the Rafflecopter form below.
 

Now it's time for the Mother's Day Giveaway! One of my blog readers can win the Best of WB 100 Film Collection worth $597.97:

US Only - Ends May 11, 2013
No P.O. Boxes - Sorry

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. I did receive a free product to help with this giveaway.

Stencils Online, LLC Review

I had a wonderful chance to review a custom stencil from Stencils Online, LLC.

They have a selection of clip art to put on a custom stencil and 48 fonts to choose from!

It was very easy to make an account and set up a stencil of my own. The problem was deciding on what to put on there. I thought about a dog and doing something for Isaak's room. He loves dogs! Most of his stuff is Dr. Seuss related, so I ended up going with a quote I liked. 

Like I said, it was really easy making a stencil. I could size the fonts and delete things if I changed my mind.

It didn't take long at all for Stencils Online, LLC to custom make, and ship out my custom stencil.

I had some old canvases laying around and a few other techniques I wanted to try out. Isaak helped me with this review. I let him paint as well.

Isaak is a collector, so I wanted to make sure we had some junk treasures in this image. In fact the image isn't done yet. It's done enough to review the stencil though. :)

I had a few bottle caps that I wanted to include in the image. I scanned one in the computer and duplicated it several times, colorized it with a gradient in Photoshop and printed it off on an 11X17 sheet of paper.

Then we took the actual bottle caps, colored the inside of them with markers and poured Elmer's Glue in them.

Once we had most of the things we needed, we did some transfer techniques. If you've never done a transfer technique, they are so easy! You just paint Modge Podge, or any clear paint down, then place your printed image face down. Scrape your image with a scraper, or the back of a wooden spoon. Then it's waiting time...I waited a few hours. Start rubbing the paper off with a rough sponge. The paper comes up, the ink stays down.

Once we had a few transfers done, we added our Dr. Seuss quote with the help of Stencils Online, LLC, masking tape and a painted sponge.

The stencil whipped off so easily! All I had to do is run it under the sink. I did clean it right after I used it.

Here's the mostly finished result:

And a close up:

I highly recommend making a stencil on Stencils Online, LLC! It was super fun! It made adding text so easy! They stencil is not flopping, like some I've used. It's actually very durable and reusable. You can make stencils all different sizes on their site!

Like Stencils Online, LLC on FacebookEmail Stencils Online, LLC at: mail@stencilsonline.com

What graphic or text would you put on a stencil?

Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. I did receive a free product to help with this giveaway.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Sitting Bull Hero T-Shirt Review

I was in love with the Sitting Bull Hero T-Shirt as soon as I saw it!

 

All the t-shirts at Ban T-Shirts really push the envelope. They seem to really have valid points to them. Most I see eye to eye with, others I don't. The point is, is that everyone should have the right for freedom of speech.

A few that stood out to me is:

• Illegal Immigration - Started in 1492.
• Petrolcide - Endangering the planet with the over use of natural resources. How political power is used as a personal profit  in connection to petroleum corporations at the expense of the environment and national security.

I could go on with other t-shirts they have that I feel passionate about the message behind them. Ban T-Shirts has t-shirts that have a point, create important dialog and wonderful design.

Why did I pick the Sitting Bull Hero T-Shirt?
  
I grew up with my Dad otherwise known as Grandpa creating Native American inspired artwork. He believed strongly that we had Native American blood in us. Maybe we all do some where in us. He loved their culture, used to tell me story after story about Native American's. He studied his family history and went as far as getting a genetic testing to see if he had Native American in him. My tall red headed Father found out that he had Asian in him. He was sad. I tease him about how he needs to start working on Asian inspired artwork. That didn't get him down. He still loves the Native American culture. 

I wanted to get this t-shirt for my Dad. Like I said he's super tall, and skinny. He needs special tall sizes for his shirts. 

I got it for Travis otherwise known as Daddy. He was so excited to have a package finally come for him! He's worn the shirt twice. I've washed it, and it didn't shrink, or fade at all.  

Our little family had a chance to see Brule a Contemporary Native American Dance, music and stories. It was so inspiring.

I also really love the artwork of Native American Nora Naranjo-Morse. She is featured in the movie Inspirations that I show in my Art Media Techniques class. She strongly believes that we need to protect the earth. 

This summer we are going to South Dakota for vacation. The kids will be so excited! This t-shirt will be packed to go with us.

What does the Sitting Bull Hero T-Shirt mean to Ban T-Shirts? 

From Their Site: Sitting Bull Hero T-shirt. Tatanka Iyotaka was the spiritual leader and chief of the Dakota Sioux. He is well-known for defeating Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 after being driven from the Black Hills by gold miners. -Ban T-Shirts
 

Check out other t-shirts that Ban T-Shirts has to offer. If you feel really strong about a certain topic, they may have a t-shirt that matches it. 

Like Ban T-Shirts on Facebook
Follow Ban T-Shirts on Twitter
Follow Ban T-Shirts on Pinterest
Follow Ban T-Shirts Blog

If you had to pick a hot topic to make into a t-shirt, what would it be?

Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. I did receive a free product to help with this giveaway.

Old School Blogging

Mail4Rosy posted this before me. It's a post about stepping back in time.

Me when I was 3

1. How did your husband pop the big question?

We met in college. Travis followed me around like a puppy. I was still hung up on my past punk of a boyfriend. You know that phrase, "You don't know what you are missing until it is gone."? Well he left school at the end of our sophomore year. I was sad about that. I dated guys, but wasn't happy with them. Later I went to grad school. It was then I realized that I wanted to be with Travis. I told him how I felt.

He met me at the airport. I had a Cracker Jack Box with a fake plastic ring with a note attached that said, "Will you marry me?"

He got the ring, smiled, but didn't really say anything.

That same evening he proposed. He made a real ring for me. Of course I said, "Yes!'

2.What are the three most surprising things about married life?

a) Our religious differences. I won't get too much into this, but we do have different thoughts on religion. We both have good values, so that has bridged the gap.

b) We both expect one another to drop things that we are doing to get things done. That annoys both of us. Somehow we still both do it.

c) We both have taken on our own responsibilities. I make sure the laundry is done, do the dishes, shop for the clothes, go through the clothes each season, we both cook except he does more than I do because he gets home earlier, he mows the yard and fixes things when they need fixing. Right now he helps Mica with his homework before school because he leaves later than I do. I'm sure the homework thing with change next year when Isaak's in elementary school.

d) We happily have the same taste in decor, cars, the boy's clothes and even with food.

e) Travis is much more serious than I am. That balances us out. He's more silly now. I know when to not mess with him. He's a night person, I'm a morning person. I used to be the opposite, but having kids changed that. I get up with the kids on the weekends. 

Travis and I 11 years ago

3. How did you find out you were pregnant for the first time?

We were trying, my period was late, and my breasts were sore. Sorry if that's too much information. I took a test, and the line was so faint! I  didn't know if I was really pregnant, or not. Some part of me knew I was though.

Mica and I almost 8 years ago

4. How did you choose your baby's first name?

I heard the name Micah when I was in high school. My good friend had a cousin named that. Then we had a friend in college named Micah. I always liked names that are easy to say, but slightly different. Travis thought to spell it Mica because it's a shiny silicate mineral with a layered structure, found as minute scales in granite and other rocks, or as crystals. Travis loves rocks, arrowheads, so on and so forth. I didn't expect Travis to be as picky about the middle name as he was the first name. I love the boy's middle names as much as their first names.

5. Describe where you see yourself 10 years from now.

I hope working on artwork more. It's been hard because for the last 8 years we've had one not in school full time, Travis and I never have the same weekend, and maybe those sound like excuses, but in my mind they are valid. One can not do everything. Sometimes after 8-5, which ends up being 7-6 I'm beat.

6. Describe how you find bliss either with words or images. 

The quarkiness of my kids and how many people I'm around are so creative. Even the people in my family that do not consider themselves to be artists are creative. My sister Terra makes things all the time. My Mother-in-law makes jewelery out of rolled up paper, my Father-in-law builds stuff with wood, my Mom sewed doll clothes for us back in the day, my Dad and Travis are always making things. 

Box Seats they made themselves

Bow and Arrow. 

If you don't have a feather, color, cut and tape one, or two to your head, or just made one out of a hanger and Tinker Toys.

 Even their expressions can be silly!

 Muscles, or a backpack? Why not both?

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This week I'm covering someone I first heard two years ago. Maybe she's very well known by others. She has a lot of likes on her YouTube videos. It's Mindy Gledhill.

She's been featured on the blog NieNie Dialogues. In fact two of her daughter are in the video. Stephanie who writes for NieNie Dialogues was in a plane crash was lucky to survive. She had burns all over her body. I read her blog often. She actually shut off comments because people kept calling her names and saying horrible things. :(

Mindy Gledhill sang some songs with the band I covered last week.

Mindy Gledhill is an indie folk singer. She is also known for her guest vocal work for DJ Kaskade.

Listening to her music makes me think of my sisters.

Whole Wide World

Hourglass

Website
Facebook
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Bubbles and Sleep

Isaak loves our bubble mat. I get it out many once every three months. This is the only time I add bubbles to his bath.

A Bath He Had This Last Weekend

He gets all giddy like when it's bubble time. My kids have rarely went in stages of hating bath time. They even love water going over their heads.

Last night was a little different.

Isaak hasn't pulled a temper tantrum in a long time. He's been whiny, but hasn't had a full blown temper tantrum. Last night he did.

He wanted to go swimming at the Y. I told him, "Ok go get undressed and get your swimming suit on." Part of getting undressed is that he needs to put his underwear and socks in the hamper, put his jeans and shoes away. I always take care of his shirt. He wouldn't put things away. I warned him about how if he didn't take care of his things, we wouldn't go to the Y. He still wouldn't do it. I took away the Y. He cried, threw a craft popsicle stick at me, and screamed, "I want to go live with Grandma and Grandpa! I want to go to the Y. You are mean! I want to watch a movie." Then kept repeating this stuff like a broken record.

I started up a bath because he needed one. I was hoping it would divert his thinking. I didn't add the bubbles though. That's only for good, happy boys. Still he likes baths! NOPE! He kept right on screaming. Only this time he was saying, "The water is too cold!" It wasn't. I kept checking.

I brushed his teeth, which the water was too cold for that as well. Then I got his pjs on, put him to bed, said, "I love you.", and poof in 5 minutes it was quiet. He slept from 6:15 PM to 6:30 AM.

Sometimes bubbles are the best medicine. When bubbles are out of the question, sleep is the BEST medicine.

College Life

Somehow this week is going way easier than I thought. Our plates are full of things to do. Somehow it's getting done. Then little surprises pop in. Some shake things up, some don't.

Work has been drama city. I had one student drop out early this week. She had a lot going on in her personal life; some of which I knew about, some of which I don't. Here it is close to the end, and she just dropped out. Her mom and her were fighting in the classroom. It wasn't pretty. When the mom left, I hugged the student and said, "When or if you are ready to talk, we can talk." Later she came up and talked to me. I didn't side with her or the mom. I just said, "Listen sometimes moms and daughters need time-outs from one another. She might be mad for awhile. She has a right to be upset. Just like you are upset with yourself, she's having a hard time swallowing things. She'll forgive you. You will move on. Life gets in the way sometimes." She seemed to understand what I was saying. Then she thanked me.

The student that I thought/think he has Aspergers has been great this second part of the semester. He hasn't had any real emotional outbursts. I happened to snap at him this week though. He listens, but not to the things I want him to really take in. I kind of blame him for this. I only blame him because I know he doesn't read his handouts, or take notes. Inside I think he has problems. At the same time I know he needs to learn how to function outside of his first year of college. The teachers in 2nd year don't go over things as much as I do, they don't tolerate excuses what so ever, and school only gets harder with web, 3D animation and video thrown at them. When he walked up to me this week and had his document set up all wrong, I gave him a piece of my mind. I didn't yell at him, curse at him, I was just to the point about how I covered this twice and it's in their handout. I expressed how I expected more. Somehow in the depths of conversation another student slipped that this man boy is going to be a father. I wanted to say, "What? You are not ready for kids!", but I kept my mouth sealed. Sometimes with students it's like having kids of your own; you want to know everything, but you don't. For some odd reason we have a lot of pregnant folks in this school right now.

We have an older student in one of my classes. Most of the students come straight from high school. He's always been a little different. He's in his early 50s. He was going to drop out of school recently. Instead he decided to distance himself from his whole class by sitting somewhere entirely different. It has something to do with one girl in the class. The thing is, is I've been there all year; I've never seen her bother him at all. In fact she's very nice. Everyone is really quiet in that classroom. It's all very odd. As an outsider I see an odd obsession going on there.

Just when I thought things couldn't get more odd, things got better.

I had portfolio reviews a few weeks ago. Many didn't do as well as I would have liked. Their pieces weren't bad. It was just the layout of their images on the page, and the order of their images. I spent a day writing and writing changes. Then I copied them, so I'd have a record. The only real power I have over them is with a grade. I graded their portfolios. Their resumes were horrible. Someone is supposed to go over those before they get to me. I'm sure they did, but didn't make them change things. Programs were spelled wrong. I get it programs are spelled odd (Power Point PowerPoint, Quark X Press QuarkXPress and Indesign InDesign), but if I'm seeing these things, people that would hire them would see these things as well. They had 2 weeks to make them better. If they didn't do anything, then their grade dropped even more. If they fixed up things dramatically their grades got better. Guess what? They all fixed them! :)

I had a student create this on Facebook, and tagged me:

BTW I know it's not a policy at many school to friend your student on Facebook. I don't ask anyone to be friends. I only except if they ask me. It's a private, college school. I'm very careful about what I say on there. Really I only talk about my kids, or he news. Then I don't get into trouble. I don't hang out with them outside of school.

I know it's silly, but my student making this made my day. It made all the odd things go away. The girl that made it is a great student. Just like anything, there is way more good than bad with things. I have a lot of wonderful experiences in my job!

WW: The Dog Next Door {Linky}

Isaak loves the dog next door.

 

You Can Follow Me Here:

Thank you so much for linking up! Please enter my low entry giveaways: Zevia - Zero Calorie Soda - 5 winners and OraMD All Natural Toothpaste - 3 winners.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Just a heads up, this week will be swamped. I'll try to blog some.

Just to give you an idea:

Monday

The Honda Pilot went in the shop for a recall. The emergency break has to be fixed. It was supposed to go in on Saturday, but they thought it would need a full day of service. Daddy called and got it in on Monday. We took it in, and they had no record of him calling it in. They made it sound like it was his fault. I for see a bad evaluation coming to them. Controversy in the making. I refuse to give a good evaluation to people that messed up; then want to blame us for the mess up. I wish a different Honda dealership was near us. We don't have time to run all over for this.

Daddy has to pick up some artwork at a gallery between 4:30 and 5. He may get me later than 5.

Swimming lessons are at 6:15 and 6:45.

We probably have to go pick up the Pilot after that.

Tuesday

Mica has a Music and Arts Festival at school. We missed the last event for his school the previous time because we went to the Lion King. We better go to this one. :)

Wednesday

Is Jujutsu. Mica was supposed to test for a new stripe on his belt two weeks ago. He hasn't been trying very hard, so Daddy said, "No." to that. Mica was mad. I feel like Daddy did the right thing. Mica has to learn to try. We kept reminding him that we are paying for him to go. We are not going to pay for him to test if he's not trying his hardest. He doesn't want to quit.

Isaak has a birthday party at BouceU. He'll love it.

Thursday

I'll be at work most of the evening because I have Portfolio Review Night. It's a night were many pros come in and students show them their portfolios.

Friday

Mica doesn't have school. Grandma and Grandpa will have an extra body.

Daddy has to work at the gallery where his artwork is at. I'll have the boys to myself.

Saturday

Mica has a birthday party to go to somewhere. I don't even remember where now.

How's your week looking? Are you busy to? This is usually a busy time for me because it's close to finals time. It's especially crazy because I have a student that is pregnant and needs her review sheet one week early and her exams one week early. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but it will get done.