A Teacher? Me? Really? ME?

Earlier this summer, I found out a new scrapbook store, or "LSS" for short, was opening up blocks from my front door. I impatiently waited all summer, and when it opened I went in to see if the owner needed any part-time help. I wanted a second job, maybe fifteen to twenty hours a week, during the day while the kids were in school. And I wanted a job in a scrapbook store.

The owner said she didn't need anybody right away, but I could check back in a few weeks. A few weeks later, I went in armed with a half-dozen projects: layouts, cards, and a mini album. Well, my work was a huge hit. The owner offered me a position then and there to teach scrapbooking, cardmaking, and mini album-making. My first class is in November, a Christmas card class utilizing the newest Basic Grey line, "Eskimo Kisses."

I'm excited. Very excited. But I'm nervous. I have never taught before. Sure I've shown people how to do things, on a one-on-one basis. But never taught a class of scrappers. This will be interesting. Very interesting. To say the least...

This is the book that I took in and shared. I will be teaching a class on making a book very similar to this in December. This is a book I made for a very dear friend of mine for her wedding. When you open the book, there are all kinds of pull-out pages, fold-out pages, pocket pages. I had a ball making it, and my friend adored it when she saw it.

Basically what I did was I cut the covers with my Cricut out of chipboard. (I use multicut 4x for that.) I used Plantin Schoolbook and Storybook to get the scalloped covers with one straight edge. The paper dolls on the cover were made with Paper Doll Dress Up. I used lots of bling and Bazzill and Bazzill bling. I am quite proud of this book and very glad that my friend adored it. This is the book that prompted the LSS owner to offer me a teaching position.

Jory's Tie-Tie

Ties. There are two main kinds. Clip-ons and the kind you have to tie in a fancy knot. Which I, being a girl, do not know how to do. This is the conversation in my house after dinner last night:

"Dad, we're playing a joke on [sixth-grade teacher] and I have to wear a tie to school tomorrow," Jory says. "Where's my ties?"

My hubby looks at our oldest like he'd plumb fallen off his rocker. We are not responsible for the whysabouts and the wheresabouts of his things.

Jory runs off to find his ties, and comes back with a handful of Christmas ties and one orange-and-blue tie. All clip-ons.

"Aw, man!" he laments. "If I wear one of these I'll hafta wear a shirt with a collar!" As if wearing a button-down dress shirt to school is the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to him in his entire eleven years of living. Piffle. He puts on a dress shirt and tie every Christmas as his gift to me. (And yes I coordinate the color of his tie with the color of Elizabeth's dress and I tell him to be grateful she's not wearing pink.)

He then looks up to his father. "Dad?" he asks. "Do you have a tie-tie I can borrow for tomorrow?" Jory obviously does not want to wear a clip-on tie with a t-shirt. Who can blame the kid, really? Fashion police would be following him all the way to school, sirens blaring.

Hubby looks at Jory and with a straight face says, "Son, I think my tie-ties are too long for your neck-neck."

Meanwhile, I'm sitting over in my rolly chair trying to get lost in scrapbooking mojo, hear this, and start laughing so hard I almost fall off said rolly chair. The things said inside these four walls...I cannot make this stuff up. I really can't.

In the end, hubby finds a tie-tie for Jory to borrow, and helps him adjust it.

Kindergarten Transition Day

This year, our school district's kindergarten class is now an all-day program. Elizabeth is a kindergarten repeater, and is so far benefiting from the new program. "Kindergarten Transition Day" was a day for all new kindergarteners to adjust to a longer school day. Elizabeth joined her classmates for a tour of the school, meeting all the teachers, and even practiced buying lunch in the cafeteria. She had a ball that day, and I got a couple of great photos!


She'd dressed herself this day on the stipulation that I dress her for her actual first day of school. I got about four pictures altogether, and when I got home I found that the Sassy Blinging Babes' weekly challenge was a school-related layout (LO), so I got cracking and did the Kindergarten Transition Day LO quick enough to be eligible for the challenge:


The background paper is from Basic Grey's "Recess" collection, the solid cardstock is from Bazzill, and I used Cricut's "Plantin Schoolbook" font for the lettering. All flowers are Prima. All in all, she had a great Transition Day and is on her way to a great year of Kindergarten...again.