SHELFARI

I just joined Shelfari. I read about it on a blog, of course. You can create your own virtual bookshelf to include all of the books that you have read. You can also read reviews of books that you are interested in reading. I've always wanted to keep track of all of the hundreds of books that I have read and now I have an organized method. Best of all, it's free at shelfari.com.

It's that time of year again. Back to school and I'm subbing a few days every week. It's the perfect fit for me. I'm only a few blocks away, I get to go back and forth to school with my daughter and I go home for lunch and see our puppy. What do you ask does cotton candy have to do with substitute teaching? Well, one of the 2nd graders this week wrote a story about what he did over the weekend. He was so excited because he got to buy one of his favorite treats "cot and candy". Is that cute or what? I love their early writings. Learning to spell and putting words together. The other reason why this job is so perfect for me is that I don't have any job related responsibilities after the bell rings. I can go home to my family and wear my other hat or should I say hats. Chauffeur, chef, errand runner, mother, wife, bookkeeper, you know the routine. We all do it and love every minute of it.

I'm playing nursemaid this weekend. My husband had outpatient surgery today to repair a torn meniscus. He came out of surgery beautifully and slept most of the afternoon. Being the loving wife that I am, I said "You know I'd do anything for you." He replied: "I know I would feel better if you would make me homemade chocolate chip cookies." Okay, I do love him - but it's 110 degrees outside.
Of course I baked the cookies. And made dinner. I hope he heals quickly and is back to work soon. Gotta love those husbands.

High School Musical Two was so much fun for the girls to watch. Disney did a wonderful job marketing this movie. They had a countdown both on their website and their television channel. The girls just about couldn't take the wait. I should have camcorded them. They were soooo funny. I had fun planning their little get together too. The website had these stars available to download. I cut and pasted dangled stars from the mantle, printed out programs, tickets, picture frames and certificates. I drove to three Targets tracking down tee shirts in their sizes, raced home and baked cupcakes. What's a party without cupcakes right? And of course pink lemonade. I passed out a fun little goodie every half an hour. Tee-shirts, lip gloss, fun swirly lollipops and little games. They're still sleeping. Aaaah - quiet!

Don't forget this date! High School Musical 2 debuts tonight on the Disney channel. As if you didn't know! Lots of parties going on tonight. My daughter is having a little soiree. About a month ago, this little note mysteriously appeared on the top of our big screen. She cleverly folded it so that it would stand up on it's own. She was so afraid that she would forget to watch it. If you're having your own little soiree, have fun!

Black Cherry Soda and Orange Soda are the other two necklaces that I made this week. I can't stop!!! Good thing I'm running out of vintage bottle caps.

Daddy's soda girls. I made two necklaces this weekend using vintage bottle caps that I found at Art Unraveled. My daughter's is Orange Soda and mine is Strawberry. We wore them to a party yesterday and my husband called us his soda girls. By the end of the day, we were just "Hey Strawberry" or "Hey Orange". Today I'm making a black and red one with a Black Cherry Soda top. Very fun.

Art Unraveled took place this week in Phoenix. We went to the unbelievable Vendor Fair today. Oh my. What fun. It was like being at a flea market, art gallery, scrapbook convention, boutique and bead show all rolled into one. Vintage galore everywhere. I found German scraps, vintage game cards, two adorable vintage aprons, new scrapbook supplies, jewelry findings and fun treasures. I ran into Maija looking fabulous and the ever so sweet Tracie Lyn Huskamp. Tim Holtz had a large booth with fun vintage items as well as his own line and displays of his class projects. I would have loved to have bought one of these beautiful wooden cases with the angel wings.

I received the most generous gift. Heather from Speckled Egg made me this beautiful banner. I've wanted a banner forever and had no idea how to create one. If you hadn't noticed, it's pink, my favorite color and has lots of swirls. Don't ya love it?

Kari's having another party. What a party girl she is. You might remember that I attended her virtual tea party last year. She encouraged other bloggers to host a craft tutorial on their blogs today. This is my humble offering to show you how I alter home decor items. It involves more than a few things that I love. Home decor, holiday decor and glitter. I drove one hour away to the only Hobby Lobby in Arizona this week. I'm told that they have slated 33 more to open in the Phoenix area. Can't wait. I was browsing in the fall decor aisle when I did a double take. Is that a Bethany Lowe Harvest sign? I adore Bethany Lowe items. Once I had a closer look, I realized it wasn't. The glitter was oh so mediocre. However, I new that I could glitter it up. I brought it home, cut off the atrocious gold ribbon and found my tools of the trade. Spray adhesive, Barbara Trombley's ultra fine pumpkin opaque glitter, a children's medicine spoon and of course a paper plate. Always perform this technique outside. I used a newspaper covered table weighted down with rocks. Spray the sign off to the side. Hold it over the paper plate and sprinkle generously with a spoonful of sugar. It helps the medicine go down. Then gently shake the excess over the paper plate. Next I always bend the paper plate and pour the excess glitter back into the glitter jar. Work on a small section at a time. If you don't, you'll run out of glitter. I still had over 1/2 of a jar of glitter left over. I intend on embellishing my fall front door berry wreath with this new harvest sign.

Lucky me. I was spoiled! The fabulous Dede hosted a vintage paper giveaway contest on her blog and I won. Her wallpaper is soooo pretty. I love it and can't wait to use it. I'm also crazy about the two little girls on the vintage postcard and the little blond 60's girl on the cover of the 60's pattern. I know that Dede has more of these papers on her etsy site but they go fast. I met Dede at Sparkle Bella where I drooled over her charm bracelet loaded with Sally Jean charms. We email back and forth now and I laugh outloud everytime I read one from her.

Life Is Like One Big Amusement Park. So my son, the great philosopher says. This week is soccer tryouts at our junior high school. We have experienced one big string of unbelievable bad timing incidents. First of all, had we not moved back here from Tucson, he would have been able to just sign up for every sport he wanted to play with no tryouts. Here, there are tryouts. An entire week of them, two hours a night, for each sport. The year before he started junior high, there were A teams and B teams. The year he started junior high, the B teams were cut because there weren't large enough numbers at competing schools. So the A teams fill up really fast primarily with club team players. Last year in 7th grade, approximately 30 students tried out for 18 spots. 12 had to be cut. This year in 7th grade, only 18 students tried out for 18 positions. They all get to be on the team. My son is in 8th grade. 26 students tried out for 18 positions. 7 will be cut today after school. He has such a wonderful attitude, but I told him it was more painful for me. The next day he came to me and said "Mom I thought about what you said and I want to tell you that I look at life like one big amusement park and this is just one of the rides." Now why can't I look at life like that???

Book Club was this week. We read "The Glass Castle". I had seen the author on a news talk show a few years ago and immediately recognized her story. However several of our bookclub members thought it was based on a fictional story. It's truly amazing how this woman overcame her neglectful upbringing and become a successful journalist. Our bible study group had a kick off luncheon this week. We will begin our new study in October based on the book "Calm My Anxious Heart." I don't know if I feel more calm or anxious when I read that title. I bought this beautiful vintage pink book yesterday when I was out shopping for upholstery for our living room sofas. I love it. Please leave me a comment if you can recommend a good book for our bookclub. We are all supposed to come to our meetings with recommendations and I must admit that I'm lax on that responsibility. I read several books a month but not really books that would be good discussion topics. I love to read Christian based fiction, mysteries, books written by Southern authors and of course home decor and craft books. Being in a book club not only broadens my horizons but brings to attention great authors that I would not have known. Not to mention fun girls night outs.