PSF- Something Old

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Back in the late 1970's, while visiting a client, my Dad noticed a unique piece of art work hanging on his clients office wall.

The piece of art that caught his attention was a collection of old cancelled stamps.  They were carefully cut out and mounted on tiny black squares in a beautiful frame.  

My Dad was so intrigued by the collection that he decided that day that he would start his own collection.

After more than 20 years of collecting cancelled stamps (and not doing anything with them) he handed the huge dusty box over to me.

The girls and I spent several hours cutting the stamps and their cancellation date away from their dusty envelopes.

The new, and much smaller box, is sitting on my breakfast bar begging me to play with them. 

Writing assignment - childhood

This writing assignment is brought to you by funny girl Kat over at Mama's Losin it. Kat gave us some tough prompts this week but you know me, I don't do tough. So I'm picking the easiest one of the bunch.

What made your childhood bearable? Write about it

I have three words for you:

Saturday

Morning

Cartoons

Oh yeah baby! I would spend Friday evening with the TV guide in hand going over the Saturday morning line up. It was so exciting! A morning filled with nothing but cartoons, waffles and my snugly afghan.

I rocked out to Josie and the Pussycats. They were so cool!

I cheered for the lovable Underdog!

I laughed my tail off over the crazy antics of Jabber Jaw.

Got a little freaked out by the scary monsters on Scooby Doo.

And who can forget those crazy inner city kids on Fat Albert? They made playing in the city dump look like so much fun!

Ahhh, the good ole days!

Don't think that the whole morning was lost to hours of mindless cartoon drivel.

No, in the 70's and 80's we had PSA's to make sure that the sexiest, violent cartoons weren't warping our young minds.



Anyone remember Time for Timer??

This is what made my childhood more bearable. I need to run. For some reason I am hankering for a hunk of cheese!

Wordful Wednesday - Disneyland!

I'm really late with my post for Angie's Wordful Wednesday.  I love WW and hate to miss it so as the saying goes.....better late than never.

I was digging through old digital photo files and I came upon some of my very first digital pictures.  

My husband bought me a Nikon Coolpix (the swivel) back in June of 2005.  I was so attached to my 35mm SLR film camera that it took me almost 8 months before I started using my digital camera.

The camera was really nice, but it wasn't easy to use and for someone who was in love with her 35mm SLR, with all it's lovely lens and bounce flash......it was hard for me to move on.

Oh, but the thrill of being able to view your photographs right away.........digital was slowly but surely dragging me away from my film camera.

So on to the picture I want to share.  I adore this picture because of the story behind it.

It goes something like this.   We had visited The Little Mermaid the year before this picture was taken. She was one of Kate's favorite princesses and we stood in line for nearly 40 minutes so that Kate could visit with her again.

As the Little Mermaid chatted with Kate she asked if she had visited with her before.  When Kate said yes, the Little Mermaid said, "I thought I recognized you."  Kate spent the rest of the day beaming with pride that the Little Mermaid had remembered her from the year before.

I don't know how much Little Mermaid gets paid to make the day of little girls.......but my guess it isn't enough.

I {heart} Faces - Week 7 B&W

Kid entry:
I am jumping on the I {heart} faces bandwagon today!

Kate was bent over an old telephone pole playing in the dirt when I captured this picture of her. I don't remember what I said to make her laugh (aka, I told her a fart joke), but I love how natural her smile is.

PSF- Southern California Snow!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but I call them snow trees.  

There transformation from a regular green leafed tree into a winter wonderland of white blooms is a sight to behold.

The fallen blooms remind me of what it looks like when winter is ending and spring is starting. Just like the last remnants of melting snow.

This is our Southern California version of snow!

Writing Assignment

Writing assignments are being handed out over at Kat's blog, Mama's Losin It. I look forward to this bloggy carnival (is that what we call them?) every week.

This week I have something to say about each and every prompt!

And a way we go........

1.) If you were starring on American Idol TONIGHT and HAD to sing, what song would you choose and why.

If I were to sing something on idol it would have to be something from the 1980's. Why the 80's you ask? Well, no matter how hard I try, I can not remember lyrics to songs anymore. But the minute I hear an old 80's tune I can remember every single word.

I don't know about all of you, but my brain is quickly filling to capacity! So, should I start singing Mad Mad World by Tears for Fears for ya??

2.) Take a picture of yourself right this minute without primping and explain to us why it is you have not washed your hair today.

Bahahahaha.........are you kidding me with this one? No matter what time of day.......I always look like this when I am reading your blogs!

Whoops, on closer inspection it looks like I forgot to apply make-up to my right eye. So if you want to see what I look like without eye make-up just cover the left side of my face with your hand and whala!

All right, all right, I'll stop being vain and show you what I looked like Wednesday morning wearing my scuzzy Old Navy fleece pull over, wet hair and no make-up on both eyes.

Sharing is so much fun!

3.) "What do you think about the NBA All Star game"...blech.

The NBA All Star game is on?

4.) What's your number one pet peeve? 

Here is a blogging pet peeve.  Why is it that grammatical errors only jump out at you after you hit PUBLISH???

5.) Write about something mean you did to a sibling growing up.

One time I convinced my younger brother that it was OK to drink the water running down the gutter. Is that mean enough for you??

{For the record.....I have gone back and edited this post 5 times since publishing it}

Wordful Wednesday

This is just a small section the border fence that separates the United States of America from Mexico.

It is the line in the sand that says, my side, your side.

Mexico is our neighbor. Neighbors have fences. This fence isn't one you can chat over. This fence says stay out.

I always wondered what kept people who wanted to enter the U.S. illegally from simply swimming out and around the fence.

Maybe what stops them is the menacing sign posted on the fence.

It reads: "Danger objects under water."

Now that isn't very neighborly is it?

Want to see more Wordful Wednesday posts?

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Tuesday Tribute!

A Jay and Deb Production.

For the ladies in the peanut gallery, you probably remember playing dress up with your mom's high heel shoes.

I remember putting on my moms too big for me heels and teetering around the house.  I loved the way the heels made me feel more like a grown up!  

Sadly, this is an experience my girls can't get at home!  Their only heels they wore were the plastic princess heels that they had as little girls (we call those clicky shoes for the noise they made on our hard wood floors).

Why have they not had the pleasure of wearing my high heeled shoes?  That would be because this six foot tall mama doesn't own any high heel shoes. 

So my girls must find their fun in the self serve type shoe stores.  You know.....the kind that have all their shoes out on rack for you to try on? No pesky sales people laughing at your size 10 feet.

Ever since the girls were little I would let them try on a boat load of high heel shoes.  I can't tell you how many times I have almost peed my pants laughing as they parade up and down the aisle in their frilly heels (they aren't funny unless they are super ugly).  And it is only really funny if one of them falls (without snapping an ankle of course).

So my Tuesday Tribute is to self serve shoe stores.  Without you my girls would have completely missed out on a very common girlhood tradition.

By the way......I try on high heel shoes and admire how good they make my legs look.  Then a shopper walks by and I realize that I'm able to see the part in their hair so I kick them off and go back to trying on shoes without so much lift.

I've been banned!

As many of you know, I am participating in the 365 photo a day project.  That means that everyday I pick up my camera and look for something to photograph. 

Most days I know exactly what I am going to photograph, but sometimes the unexpected catches my attention.

Last week I had one of those days.  As I was putting laundry away in Kate's room  I noticed a To-Do-List pinned neatly to her bulletin board.

Kate is only 10, but she has been writing Do-To-List since she learned how to write.  I love this about her.  I also love reading her list and seeing what she has deemed important enough to write down.

So here we have her latest To-Do's:

Pretty standard stuff for a 10 year old.  

Make Bed

Clean room

Organize

Do homework

"Change Door Theme"

When I read "change door theme" I burst our laughing.  

If you are confused by what this means let me explain.  Kate sticks stuff on her bedroom door. I think her last "theme" was items most people would throw away because her door was littered with fortunes from fortunes cookies, her BFF's campaign sticker, candy wrappers, the pull off lid to a tiny Ben and Jerry's ice cream container.  I think you get the picture.

I never realized that the crap, I mean treasured items she puts on her door had a theme.  I find that kind of charming.

Later that day while the girls were home I was uploading my pictures and Kate saw a snap shot of her To Do List.  She said, "Hey.......are you going to blog about that?"  That has become a standard question around here.

So I told her how I thought it was really adorable that she was going to change the "theme" of her door and that I wanted to take a picture of her list so that I would always remember this charming part of her personality.

She thought about it for a few minutes and then walked away.  About an hour later she yelled from her bedroom and asked me to come down and check out her new door theme.

This is what a found!

Just in case you can't read the last image it says: Photos not allowed either!

Hmmmm, something tells me this months theme is all about banning the Me and and my ever present camera!

PSF - Let's go to the beach!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

On Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of rain falling.  We don't get rain very often so it was a welcomed sound.

When I walked into the dining room I could tell by the way the sky looked that there had to be a rainbow somewhere outside.  I wasn't disappointed.  This rainbow (unlike the last one I shared a few months ago) was not only a complete arching rainbow that reached from one side of the valley to the other.....it was also a double rainbow.

In between storms I decided to take my Canon down to the beach to practice using some new found camera knowledge.  It is so nice going to the beach this time of year!  Why?  The lack of people inhabiting the sand!

I did however find a lot of seagulls hanging out!  It was late in the afternoon and the perfect time to get a few reflection shots.  

The late afternoon is also good for taking shots of long shadows.  I wished I had the nerve to ask these surfers to pose for me.  Because I would have moved just a little more to the left in order to capture the great shadows they were casting.

As it so happens, I was being quick so that I wouldn't get caught taking their picture.

After photographing the backsides of a few more unsuspecting surfers I decided to sit down on some rocks near the waters edge and see what I could find to shoot.

I found the above sea weed bobber thing-a-ma-jiggy and while I was concentrating on getting the exposure and focus just so the water came up and covered my feet!

Crap!  I should know better than to wear anything but flip flops to the beach, but it was cold and.......oh, I have no excuses!  I should have known better.

The water that rushed in was cold but it felt oddly warm and comforting once inside my running shoes.  My jeans on the other hand felt horrible.  Heavy, sandy and rough!

I hope you enjoyed this little trip down to the pacific ocean?

Cheers!

Writing Assignment - Favorite Things!

Time for another addition of Mama Kat's writing assignment! This week I am going easy and will list five of my most recent favorite things!

1. My regular readers know that my hubby bought me a new 20" iMac for Christmas. I am seriously in love with this computer. It's sleek, beautiful and does everything I ask it to do!

2. I have been using the cream lotions from Bath and Body works for a long time now. My current favorite scent is the Japanese Cherry Blossom.

If you are like me and can't wear perfume, this lotion is a great alternative. The scent last and last. People frequently tell me I smell good when I wear it.

3. Taking a great picture is so satisfying and this little baby helps me do just that. Since starting my 365 photo a day project my Rebel goes just about every where with me.

4. I can not live without my At a Glance desk calendar. I recently discovered the 18 month academic calenders that run from July through December. When you have school aged children(a volunteer a lot) having a calendar that matches the school year is a must have.

5. Now I give you a favorite recipe (hey, isn't that another prompt??). One of my families most favorite meals are Salmon patties. Now you people who hate fish stop screwing up your nose. Fish is your friend.....oh, wait, it is food. It is good food.

The beautiful thing about salmon patties is that you really don't need to follow a recipe in order to make them. In fact I make them a little differently each time I break open a can of Salmon.

The basics:

1 can of Wild Salmon

2 eggs (beaten)

1 cup of fine bread crumbs or cracker crumbs

juice from half a lemon

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

half a onion and one clove garlic finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste.

Drain Salmon and remove the spine (or crush it up....it is edible). Flake the salmon and add beaten eggs, bread crumbs, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Form into patties and cook in a skillet with just a little bit of oil and a pat of butter. Cook on low heat until the outside forms a nice brown crispy crust (about 10 minutes total).

The beauty of salmon patties is that all you need to do is start with the basics (salmon, eggs, bread crumbs) and you can add from there. Love capers? Add them. Love peppercini's? Add them. Love the taste of dill.......add it! You really can't screw these babies up.

That brings us to the end of this weeks writing assignment. Want to play?

Click: HERE

Photo credit: All images were borrowed from Google images!

Wordful Wednesday

Head over to Angie's place for more Wordful Wednesday posts!

This weekend I decided that I needed to do something that I absolutely hate to do. Well, hate is probably too strong of a word, but I seriously dislike this task and almost always avoid it.

So what dreaded deed did I perform? I read the manual that came with my camera!!

I like to tell myself that I am fairly camera savvy and I enjoy trying to figure out how to use my camera(s) without the aide of the silly manual. But I recently accidentally changed the focus point on my camera and I couldn't figure out how to get it back the way I liked it.

So on Saturday morning I grabbed the manual and gave it the once over. Wow, my Canon Rebel has a lot more to offer than I realized. Who knew a manual would be chalked full of useful information?

As I was fiddling with all my new found knowledge Kate came in to see what I was doing. So of course I started taking pictures of her (and the dogs, who are always where I am).

In this shot I was playing with adjusting the shutter speed and the aperture!

Quick shutter speed equals catching the dogs tongue at the precise moment it touched my precious daughters lips! Ewwww!

Remind me to kiss her good night on the cheek.

Ghirardelli Valentines Day box!

We have been getting crafty here at One Crafty Mama.  The girls and I are making these cute little Ghirardelli chocolate box for their Teachers.

Aren't they sweet?

You could get really fancy and wrap the box with patterned paper, but I like a more simple look.

These boxes would work great for baby shower or birthday party favors.

Want to make your own?  Click HERE to see the complete tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com.

Supplies Used:

Paper: BasicGrey

Cupcake Stamp: Inkadinkado

Pens: Copic

Tools: Scor-pal, nestibilities

Bling: Stickles

Happy Crafting!

Writing Assignment - Liar Liar Pants on Fire

Ok, I really don't have time for this....but I need to work on something other than the yearbook for 5 minutes.

So I am going to take on the writing assignment over at Mama's Losin It. The prompts this week are appealing:

1.) Tell us about a lie you told that you later regretted.

2.) Choose a task you'd like someone to complete and write a poem asking them to do it.
3.) Describe a talent you have.
4.) Write a list of ten things on your mind this week.

I could take on #1, #3 and #4 but considering my time limitations I am going to choose to do just #1.

Hi, my name is Michelle and back in 1989 I told a lie that I ended up regretting. Let me set the stage for the lie that I created oh so many years ago.

I was a student at SDSU and I was the proud owner of a green Datsun 260Z.

Not a picture of the car I owned, but this is it's twin sister.  It was my very first car and I loved it.  It was low, it was solid and it was fast.  It was a teenagers dream come true.  

As I happily left my last class of the day I jumped into my little love and started up the engine. Just as I was starting to pull out of my parking spot I heard this tiny little "tick-tick" sound coming from my dashboard.  It didn't sound like a noise my car would make, but what did I know, I was young!

It wasn't until I was pulling out of my parking spot that I saw the little creature that was doing acrobatics around my car.

The escapee from the bug circus was a little hard flat green creature.  For it's small size it made an awfully big noise when it landed on anything plastic in my car.

My first instinct was to get out and try to swoosh the freaky little bug out of my car, but I had already pulled half way out of my parking spot and their was another student impatiently waiting for me to move.

So against my better judgement I decided to drive away with my little green passenger.  As I drove the perimeter of campus I tried to forget about the stowaway.  That little poop refused to buckle up and sit still and hearing him jumping around the car became a huge distraction.

As I rounded the corner of campus all of a sudden the green circus bug did a back flip and landed right on my face.  Being under attack, I freaked out!  In that split second while I was trying to keep the bug from sucking the eyeball out of my head I veered off the road!

Hello light post, meet my Datsun 260Z.  Yes, I drove straight into the side of the hill and hit the one and only light freakin light post on that stretch of road.  

If you haven't been in a wreck you don't know how freaky it is be moving one minute and the next to come to a dead stop after hitting a very solid object.  At first I wasn't sure what had happened.  Then the horror of the situation hit me.  I cried as the rubber neckers drove by and stared at me.  

I felt so incredibly stupid for what had happened, because that bug didn't jump up and try to suck my eyeball out of my head (but I'm sure he was thinking about it).  In fact, the little bugger wasn't anywhere near me.  

It did exist, it was just sitting down on the passenger side floor mat patiently waiting for me to take it to my place near the beach.

The truth is that I was watching the bug and not the road, but I told EVeRyone that the bug had attacked me!  I regretted telling that stupid lie because people thought it was funny! 

You know what happens when people enjoy a funny story?  They ask you to retell it!  It is easy to tell a lie once, but it gets harder when you have to do it over and over again.

Years later I finally fessed up to friends and family about the bug that didn't actually try to wrestle the steering wheel away from me and cause me to crash.  

They still thought the attacking bug story was funny so now if it gets brought up I just now tell it as the lie I made up to cover my stupidity.

Buried under 100 5th graders!

For those of you who do not know, I am a stay at home mom.  This title allows me to spend my days at the spa being waited on hand and foot all while snarfing down bon bons!

Ha.....if it were only so!  Actually, I spend a good portion of my free time volunteering at the girls school.  

I have two big projects that just started.  The first is the yearbook for the 5th graders.  Not only am I the yearbook committee, but I am also the primary photographer.  Yesterday I must have spent a good 10 hours editing photo's and placing them on their prospective pages.  Can you say time consuming?

My one saving grace with the yearbook is that my very creative friend Barbara already created a yearbook two years ago and she has generously allowed me to use all her hard work.  Yank her pictures out.....put mine in.  

I'm all about doing what is easy and I would be a basket case if I had to do all the layouts from scratch!

The other huge commitment is the School Performance.  I am co-directing again this year. We have two hour practices on Wednesdays for the next 14 weeks.  So until May 15th (the last night of the four performances) I will come home every Wednesday feeling like I had the life sucked out of me.  Fifty eight excited 5th graders will do that to you!

So to all my regular readers, my sometimes readers and those who might be new......blogging at One Crafty Mama might be a little bit spotty for a week or so.

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,

~Michelle <----who really needs a cool siggy.

Girl Scout cookies and awards!

In our neck of the woods, Girl Scout cookies sales started this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. sharp. 

As many of you know, I am a Girl Scout leader and my daughter and I have no qualms about stepping up to your front door and tempting you to break your New Year's resolution with our sugary treats.   

We have found that many of you have Thin Mint habits dating back to the days when you were a kid and didn't worry about how many grams of fat you were about to ingest.  You crumble so easily.

I know some of you dread our presence on your door step and you hide shaking behind your curtains until we retreat down the walk way.  But most of you welcome us with open arms, and to you we say thanks!

The girls not only use selling cookies as a means to earn money but they are also learning a thing or two in the process. The girls learn how to communicate effectively, set goals, manage money, and be assertive.  

Did you know that our council sells boxes of cookies for Operation Thin Mint ? OTM is a program set up by Girl Scouts to allow costumers to purchase boxes of cookies to be sent to our men and women serving in the military in places like Iraq and Afghanistan (an other bases over seas).  Living in a military town this is a popular option and something we are proud of!

So, what is your favorite Girl Scout cookie??? 

*********************

Now I need to thank a few bloggers for bestowing the following awards to little ole me.

Thanks to Katie at Your's mine and ours , Marla at Stolen Bon Bons , Ronnica at the Ignorant Historian , Kajamama at the Phrase Working Mom is Redundant and Maricris at Zen Ventures.

Thanks ladies.......I really do appreciate all the love and I pass on that love to all of you!