My grandfather died last week at the age of 93. The family could not find a bow with Great Grandpa on it so they asked me to make it. I was sad. I had made bows for his presents over the years, but I had not made such a personalized one for him, a man, or for a funeral. Here are some pictures. It was a great way to honor my grandfather. It now is a graveside bow.
At the house before we found a plant at the florist...
At the funeral home before the funeral, was placed under the grandpa spray.
I cant believe it was almost three years ago that I purchased this acreage with all the trash and the burn out mobile on it, and then later bought an old mobile home in cash to put on it. I got moved in and busy! Here are some before, and so far pictures. So far instead of after since we don't have the new roof on the house yet. When we do the before and after pictures should be quite remarkable. Even the satellite photos look so good with all that mess cleaned up!
Before: the old well house, barely standing shack in the background
Before: burn out mobile home
Today so far pictures:
And the best thing is I use cash for this so I don't owe anyone a dime so far. I hope to have the roof on this summer sometime.
Last year during my daughters cheer season I stumbled onto Bowdabra! I fell in love instantly, and continue to create bows for packages and hair. I can't wait to get the construction finished on my house so I can have a craft room partially dedicated to bow making!
I have even had a bow party for the cheer girls last year with our three Bowdabra's and 8 high school girls, it was so much fun and the girls left with about 10 hair bows each for cheer season!
Here are some pictures you might enjoy!
My Workstation! Three Bowdabra's one mini, one mini with ruler 1 giant Bowdabra!
Cheer pony for basketball season
OSU colors for the OSU student
For me durring Dr Suess Read Across America Week!
Read Across America Pony!
Cheer Bow we added State to one side and Coyle to the other for state final basketball game Coyle came in 2nd!
Piggy tail bows Dallas Cowboys
Football season cheer bow
The Grinch, for Read Across America Week
Dallas Cowboys
I add hair bows to Christmas Gifts
For me Read Across America Week
Sam I am, Read Across America Week!
Hair Bow added to Christmas Package
Christmas Hair bow
Hello Kitty
Hair bow on Christmas Package
not my favorite bow
hair bow on Christmas Package again
Largest bow made so far
My favorite 2013 Christmas package hair bow Rock Star!
I love this one too, nice hair bow!
Fuzzy Hair Bow
Christmas 2012 Hair bows for Kasidy, I can't find the on package pictures to share enjoy the bow-head picture instead.
Valentine's bow Snoopy for Kasidy
Are you on bow overload yet? I wish I could find the package pictures from last year. I had all of Tatum's packages wrapped in OSU wrapping paper and matching OSU color hair bows to match, and all of Kasidy's package bows as well.
Just a short update on my little coupon workshop. I had 8 or nine people attend, that was exciting! My Power Point kept me focused. I was nervous and fumbled some... If I do it again I would like to add a slide about getting one's first grocery store trip ready. Offer up a time to all go to Homeland together like a field trip. Give everyone just a quick little check list that allows someone to feel more prepared, and a little less nervous about their first trip to the store. I really pushed the coupon closet website as that the shopping list service I use.
I had two people who attended tell me they left the workshop and went to Walmart to buy the supplies they needed to start their own box. I also had teachers in my room that had not been in there before, always a plus when your new to the district :)
I will be teaching a coupon workshop this week to my fellow teachers at my school. The principal and vice have asked me to do so. I am really nervous about it. I worked on a powerpoint. These are the topics I plan on covering:
Where to find coupons:
Newspapers
websites
peelies
loadable cards
Walgreen's coupon booklets
homeland care books
weekly adds with coupons
Organization
How to create a coupon box.
How to save time cutting and filing coupons.
Planning a shopping trip:
Using coupon matching service like Coupon Closet (local) and I heart the mart (national)
Creating a shopping envelope for the trip vs. taking the whole box
Shopping:
picking a store to get started
frequent shopper cards
Know your store
browsing the clearance isle
Unusual coupon finds
milk
pool chemicals
meats
Stocking up on good deals Tracking your savings
Did I miss anything???
I read about solstice gardens and directional gardens in the
Farmer’s Almanac and instantly fell in love with the solstice garden!
What is a Solstice Garden?
Well, a calendar/rock garden that
denotes a garden calendar. How it works is the shadow of a tall stationary
object is cast on other small stationary objects on the solstices and equinoxes of the calendar year, also you can put rock markers on special days of the year
like birthdays and anniversaries.
Getting Started:
My 90 year old Grandmother “Nanny Jean” was woman of the
year for Beta Sigma Phi. The ceremony was held at a tea room/craft and antique mall in Lindsay Oklahoma. While waiting on the program to start I did some
browsing. I found a great iron trellis with a pink ball on the top of it, I had
to have it, it was perfect!
I placed it around my property and watched the noontime
shadows on days I was not at work and decided on a general place I wanted to
put in my special garden. In December I finalized my plans I found the terraces
permanent location. I also made sure the corners of my square trellis is
directional noting true north at one corner, I used a compass for this step. I
also decorated a temporary rock to mark the winter solstice 2012 at high noon. I
hope to find something prettier in the future.
Now I know what you’re thinking and it’s not true!! Until I
started reflecting on this garden this very day I did not realize that I placed
the rock at high noon on the end date of the Mayan Calendar and on the day our sun is aligned with the center of our Milky Way…. but now that I do realize that
it makes this whole thing so cool!
So… What’s Next:
Well the spring equinox of course. Now that I have marked to winter solstice and
my trellis has marked it’s longest shadow to be recorded I have a general idea
of the area my rock garden must have. I did not lay down any landscaping
material first, and I will likely need it so I will have to do that next and
create the border rocks around my shadow casting area and I really would like
to find a few really cute things for marking each important date of the year. I
once decorated a pot for my mother and I purchased a metal garden spike with a
wire and glass butterfly on it. I would love to use something like this for
family birthdays.
I promise to keep this updated each calendar addition until
complete!
I love the story The Meanest Doll In The World. I love to teach about social issues through literature Meanest Doll can help children learn how to deal with characters like Mean Mimi in their own lives. In the end The meanest doll causes so much trouble for the other dolls they start making plots to capture her! However, the meanest doll falls into her own trap, as she gets caught she pays the price for her behavior.
Here is a sample of the story from the book.
I make a brief stop in the book where the dolls are making plans to catch Mean Mimi. Meanwhile I insert a special Reading Rainbow's Stay Away from the Junkyard episode and Michael Ives!(available at Discovery Education) At the end of the storybook Burton introduces us to Artist Michael Ives who makes a moving story box~ and we have inspiration for a project!!
This clip is not the whole episode from Reading Rainbow
is a sample of the story book, not the Michael Ives vignette.
The Assignment: Create a moving story box, or diorama if you prefer, that shows your plan to catch Mean Mimi, lesson focus on character setting and action. We did this in 5 steps:
create a written plan to trap Mean Mimi
confer with teacher about the plan
setting day: create the setting in our story box
create the character of the story box
create the action of our story box
*Like Michael Ives, we create our diorama with materials we already have, we don't purchase new things!
When we finish the boxes we finish the book, my kids were shocked that the nice dolls trap plan wasn't needed after all, and we have a talk about how the Mean Mimi character, and people acting like her are setting their own traps!
At the funeral home before the funeral, was placed under the grandpa spray. 
At the church where we held Papa's funeral.
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