Here They Come! #2

Busy boys: good natured Levi and playful Treyson

Some pictures of kiddos not at the craft table

And some Picasa editing experiments

In the past I noticed that when I made an edit in Picasa

then retrieved it for my blog

the edit didn't come into the blog

Uh huh

So I asked. . . . .

 My photography class teacher

pointed out that the edit notes

stay in Picasa

unless I save the photo

OUTSIDE of Picasa

Easy for him to say!

Oh no.....now it's getting complicated.....for me.

I did grasp

that one of my save choices

was to save the edited photo

to my desktop

Uh-h-h-h-h.....not a very good long term storage choice

but at least I can find it there

(Someone feel free to email me

with clues about how to

create, use and FIND

a file where I can save edited photos!)

Kissy cheek Sterling

So each of these photos got some treatment

got saved to my desktop

and the editing stayed with the photo

as I plunked it in here

Daddy Brinton and sweet Sterling

Worked out some red eye

cropped in closer

Sugar plum Daisylyn

Sorry......nothing I can do to unblur my bad focus

Tis hard to catch her in a still shot

Did my write-on-a-photo experiment here

She zipped out my front door at one point during the evening

Yikes......I zoomed out and found her on my driveway
Lock that door!

Dress up alley

Our boys are into this

as much or more as our girls

Camera Confessions

 For fun, I offered my camera to Taylee and Rylee 

during the evening of a grandkid "Late Over"

"Here. . . .take some pictures of the kids while I help the little ones" I said

And so they did

Look what happened when some thought grandma was not watching:

Couch leaping!

You kids are so busted . . . .

Your payback?

I think you owe me a load of your trick or treat chocolate!



Taylee and Rylee asked me at the end of the evening

"Did you know you have a drawing feature on your camera?"

Not really

Later, when I checked my pictures

I found this altered version of Levi . . . . .yikes!

Here they come! #1

This was the "stillest" shot of the night . . .

the one where I got the most kiddos into one picture

Calling all grandkids!

To use my daughters' term

we had a "late over" instead of a sleep over on Friday night

I invited all the local grandkids over

so their parents could have a night out

Open for Grandma time from 7pm to midnight!

12 chickadees showed up

That is a crazy grandma decision

Like a spilled bottle of mercury

they were everywhere!

Turn up the Music...Let the Drama Begin!

We had our Halloween parade on Friday

(Back to academics on Monday!)

What a blast!

I didn't get any pictures of myself

My costume version of C-3PO was pretty scant of detail

(gold hair spray, glitter face makeup, gold jacket, shiny chest disc, dark waist ribbons)

The best part was I got to push R2D2

He was a WOW character

Many flashes of parent cameras when he rolled by!

(picture way below)

Oh Yoda

You even scared some of the adults

as you rose up from your bent-over posture and loomed in their faces

No one could figure out who was under the mask

She could probably use a chiropractor now
after spending 45 minutes in a bent-over loping stance!

In her other life

this is the creative-extraordinaire

referred to in an older post

You want to have her on your how-can-we-create-it team!

Isn't Chewbacca splendid!

Chewy owes a big favor to his real time wife

She stayed up til midnight sewing the shaggies on his sweats

And, yes, he really is a tall dude

In his other life is he one of the most helpful custodians I've ever known

Always a good sport, obviously

How do  you spell Princess Leia's name, really?

I think I messed it up

Her ear buns are on a headband.....looking great!

She has long hair anyway.....so that is her mom in back

sweeping the real hair

into swirls around the fake hair buns

In her other life she talks on the phone

So I guess the buns won't be staying for long

Luke Skywalker was such a hit with the kids

His hair cracked us all up

His usual 'do:  shaved bald

so when the kids saw their PE teacher's new look

they screamed

"Mr. Maines......you have hair!!!!!!"

His reply

"Hair is over rated.....it itches!"

The darling of the parade was our very cute R2D2

(another product of our creator extraordinaire)

Don't you agree

that he could be straight off the movie set?

He had a music CD playing inside

unfortunately too soft to be heard over the chatter as we went classroom to classroom

In his former existence he was a shop vac and a salad bowl

Amazing, huh?

Leading the parade was

our own

Darth  Vader

Classic on the outside

bermuda shorts and calf high socks on the inside

"Principal"-ly, another good sport

 

The principal is surveying for post-parade opinion.

Do we want to continue this tradition or not?

How would you cast your vote?

The Making of the Queen

 This woman knows how to put it together

to make a Star Wars Queen

Almost time for the school Halloween parade

On goes the make-up

Pretty soon we'll staple down the

posterboard bodice

Must have lips

(Do you love the hair rolls?   Hair-covered insulation tube!)

Head gear made

by one of our creative-extraodinaire staff

all hot glued to a stocking cap

There is even a filial at the top

I adore the headpiece

Put it all together

(I love the bodice curliques ....that was my creativity at work)

The skirt designs are stapled on

There's a hula hoop under there foo-fooing it out

I think she's ready to stroll among the masses

Where is the rest of the party?

Sh-h-h, it's a secret

Our elementary school may be the last of its kind

We still have a major dress up parade for Halloween

Pretty much everybody dresses up

Teachers, kids....and even some visiting parents

It is a colorful riot of a tradition!

OK....here's the "don't tell" scoop . . .

The secretaries at my school plan a different secret costume theme each year for the office staff

It is hush hush . . . . a surprise for the kids and the rest of the staff

The principal barely knows....

And he's the star!

He is such a good sport

(You should have seen him as Scooby Do two years ago!)

So this year's big secret is

STAR WARS!

I volunteered to sew the dress base for the secretary's queen costume

This is the inspiration

As I sewed, I kept telling myself

It's a costume.....it's a costume......don't fret!

She brought me dyed sheets

I borrowed a basic dress pattern that looked nothing like this

My imagination coached me on how to lay it out to magic it
into something long and flowy
to represent Queen Amigdala

Sort of . . .

This is the result
Still waiting for more black ribbon
I am imagining some red poster board attached to a wire hanger bent over her shoulders
as the front fancy yoke part
(Can't wait to draw a shiny gold design and black outline on that!)

Reality check:  no matter how many times you iron an old sheet
it still looks like a rumpled sheet

Repeat mantra....it's a costume, it's a costume

I stared at the skirt design

Hm-m-m-m

I sketched my rendition on stiff felt

. . . and painted away
(kind of reminds me of altered candy corns....or a weird toucan)

That was fun

I black outlined the designs and cut them out

We plan to staple them to the bottom of the skirt

We may figure out a way for her to wear a hula hoop underneath
to hold the skirt out a bit

Someone else is designing the headdress----whew - - -

using dark foam pipe insulation as the hair bun part
(Oh my, I saw it....it is fabulous...I hope to get some pictures)

For my costime, I am whipping together a sort of C-3PO look

Last secret you must keep:

The principal is . . . .

you guessed it
Darth Vader
with dark headgear, music and voice alteration

Yikes . . . Do you think the tiny kiddos will need some counseling therapy after that?

Have you been good?

Here comes the bus!

At my school
if you're good
you might receive a
Caughtcha Bein' Good ticket
You put your ticket in a bucket in your home room

There it goes!

On special Fridays
the principal makes the rounds of all the rooms
(he is an amazing administrator)

He pulls some tickets out of each classroom bucket
Those LUCKY kids get to "shop" for a prize from the bus that
just rolled up to their doorway

You want a closer look, don't you!

Oh....the difficult decision
they have in front of them

(A little extrinsic motivation anyone?)
Works for me!

Is that just the cutest vehicle you've seen all week?



Assignment: Leaves

I am taking a 3 week photography class

from our Community Education program

I have my last class this week

My assignment is to take pics of

leaves or fruit or flowers

And of course he wants us to be conscious of

all the composition hints he's offered

I think this one might

follow the rule of thirds

Going for the leaf shadow rather than the actual leaf

Maybe I should have more of the framing leaves on the left

It's my best shot so far

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Took a few more this afternoon

I love the leaf color in this one

A Beautiful Sight

Two of my favorite matriarchs

My mother, age 96

and my Aunt Loma, age 86

They both (plus Jocile) joined us at Girls' Night

My Mother's Hand

Doll clothes from Santa . . .

My amazement that the fabric matched clothing of mine

Laying my head in her lap at church

Her hand stroking my hair

"Spit bath" on the way to church

Her hankie washing a bit of dried milk from my face

Standing at the bar

watching her hand on the wooden spoon, stirring the browning hamburger

Me, offering lengthy soliloquies about my day

My hair dampened

Scissors in her hand

I watch her stretch a length to her second knuckle 

snip snip

With the shake of paper

she straightened the Sunday funnies in front of our faces

Square by square

she read of Dagwood and Dick Tracy

Suitcase opened

clothing washed

I watched her press the long white pleats

She spoke softly about where she was going

Hrick . . . hrick  . . .hrick . . . .

her hand moving up and down 

Silver sewing scissors 

cutting through fabric 

on a green surface

I watched, fascinated, as she angled cuts

around every black arrow shape

What memory do you have of the labor of her hands?

Hands Across the Generations

Inspired by a Pinterest photo

I wanted to take advantage of having Grandma with us at Girls' Night

This is Grandma Ison, me and Alisha

Without the flash on, we are getting lots of yellow

(Flash on.....good idea. . . and I like the hands at different angles)

This one . . . .with us standing

Amber, me, Grandma Ison

Still experimenting, back to Alisha

Oh yea . . . I like the way the  purple shows up

with the flash on!



Playtime

It was fun to have some grandkids for an evening

Lizzie, Micaela and Jackson

created their own world

 Levi got a made up "toy":

a huge long wad of paper

nice and crackly

 Our Levi is fully confident

Showing his little happy attitude

with the thrust of his shoulders

You little cutie!

Ah...... a little relaxation

and the pause that refreshes

And  a fun snuggle for grandma

Grandma Ison's nook

I took my semi annual pilgrimage to Grandma's house
to watch a session of General Conference
with her

Found grandma in her TV nook

watching between sessions shows

Doesn't she look toasty in her cozy chair?
I fixed her a lunch to eat right there
Smile for the camera, grandma

That's as big as her smile got

Lately, I've noticed it is dramatically harder for her to retrieve words
as she tries to speak

Jana and I have a theory
that all her silent time
doesn't help

Kind of
a lot
of
time
where her brain
and audio body parts
 are unstimulated

So......I decided to try a new activity with her
A stroll down memory lane

I pulled out her jewelry  box
We went through it
piece by piece
Both of us were exclaiming:
I don't remember this!
(That was me!    Whose brain is faltering, LD?   Ha)
That's very pretty
Oh....this is from SO-o-o-o-o long ago
Look here is the necklace that matches those earrings
I think you made these, mom
Isn't that cute
Oh that one I wore a lot
That's a nice one

I really like this one
she said

She's always had a soft spot for
"Indian turquoise jewelry"
as she calls it

I had such a lapful
by the time we remembered and exclaimed
over each piece

Before I put it all away
I tried to talk her into wearing something that matched her sweatshirt
and be all spiffy for the day
Nope, she didn't go for that

A breath of fresh air

What a treat

This is what I found on my office table one morning last week

A sweet thank you  from a teacher

Life is full of surprises

Doncha love it when they are happy ones?