Graduation Revisted

I ran across this photo of William from his Pre-K graduation. It was the same day as Sarah's high school graduation oh so long ago now!!! Isn't he a cutie? He won the, "Best Bear Hugger" award and sat right in front of us, so I got great photos back then :)

Happy Graduation, William!

In the Studio...

I realized that it's been quite a while since I posted any of my project stuff, so here is some of what I have been working on in the studio! Above is an 8.5x11 layout that I started by painting on a sheet of watercolor paper in a color combo that I was playing around with. It sort of sat around and I would add things to it as I walked by it sitting on the table. Finally, i decided it was time to just FINISH IT and put the definition sticker on it and called it DONE.

The 2 photos above were inspired by a class that I am taking online called Creativity Unleashed that is taught by Traci Bautista. I love her style and I have learned a ton of new techniques and ways of creating and "unleashing" my creativity since taking her class. There are 2 weeks remaining and I am not ready to be done with the class yet! There are several different types of acrylic paint, gesso, and spray inks, as well as marker for the drawing. I love these colors together! The paintings are done on a cotton duck fabric that I bought at JoAnn's.

This is a 12x12 canvas (cotton duck) page inspired by donna downey's kits. The kits are here. I just cut down the canvas to match the 12x12 scrapbook page size and painted it in one of my favorite blue acrylics. Then I painted the bird which is also one of donna downey's designs for Prima-I think the words are from a supply list she had on her website as well. I love this photo of Sarah and I from Elizabeth's confirmation night! I threw on some pink flowers and sewed a piece of ribbon on (both from Prima) and Voila!!

I did the stitching with my ancient sewing machine...

Here is a close up of the words. They are applied with gel medium and then I added some Ranger ink. (Sarah-your directions for the gel medium transfers are coming. I sent the email and then realized that I forgot to send you directions. I have them typed up, just need to send them off.)Aaaaahhhhh......good times.

While I was taking photos of my projects in the studio, Tigger decided to hang out on the ledge at the top of the landing. She looked so cute that I had to add her. Happy Weekend!!!

Obligatory Blurry Photo, the clay whistle, and other photos

Okay, folks-here it is....the obligatory blurry graduation photo. Mr. Hilby is in focus and the child is not. I have one of Elizabeth that I scrapbooked in her album-and here is one for William's. I took one of Bryan's 5th yesterday. There...everyone has been equally lucky at receiving their blurry photo. I am finished speaking of the matter.

I love your clay whistle, William! I love that you were blowing it as we walked to the car. Despite the rough morning that we experienced, I'm glad that the rest of the day turned out well. You are growing up. I am so very proud of you. Congratulations!

You are always walking ahead of us. Ever since your first day at Roosevelt. As if there is some reason that you don't want people to know that we're with you....this was exactly the feeling I wanted to capture in this photo. You want so much to be on your own. I wish you the best of luck as you move on to high school. I want you to be everything that you have the potential to be. Work hard and stay in the engineering classes-you can do it!

Thank you so much, Mom and Pete for coming to celebrate with us on this happy day! It meant so much to have you here.

We love you, William! Have a great summer and a great start in high school! Congratulations!

Bryan's Graduation

Getting ready to go to school on Wednesday morning.

Sitting in the auditorium, waiting for awards to be handed out. Every time I go to one of these, I swear that I am NOT going to bring my camera. Because let's be honest...photos taken 2 miles away indoors in a poorly lit auditorium do not turn out. Especially when I can't sit still in the first place. Yet I delude myself and let my husband "guilt" me into taking the camera every time. I will not do it again. I will take pictures outside after the event. NOT inside.

Setting up the tripod outside to take a photo with Bryan.

One of the photos that I took had a real smile from Bryan and Bill. I looked like an idiot in that photo so I refuse to post it :)

Happy graduation, Bryan. We love you very much!

Celebration Sneak Peaks

William decided to go with a nice white Calvin Klein dress shirt (and jeans...) for his 8th grade graduation on Thursday. We decided dress pants wouldn't work quite right. But he looks awesome with the tie.

Bryan decided to go with a short sleeve dress shirt and tie for his 5th grade celebration on Wednesday. They really clean up nice! I am so proud of them. I was really surprised that they both decided to dress up for their graduations! Yay!

Elizabeth even decided that it was time to learn how to tie a tie. (Confession....going to a Catholic school, all the guys already knew how to tie ties, so I never needed to learn...even my husband already knows how to tie a tie...just something I never learned to do...)

Saturday snowcones and Graduation Lilies

I found some beautiful pink lilies at Hy-Vee on Sunday morning. I love to put fresh flowers in vases around the house. It makes everything more cheerful!

We got snowcones on Saturday after we bought some Summer project supplies at Michael's. (Mostly supplies for Elizabeth...) We decided to take a photo of our brightly colored lips after the snowcones!

Home

No matter where I live...this will always be home. I love coming home and hanging out with family-especially now that we are spread out all over the place. Even the dogs love hanging out at Grandmas! Dorothy was right-There's no place like home. Happy Tuesday!