Off to Hawaii

Well, I pulled another almost all-nighter last night (I did get a couple of hours of sleep), working hard to get everything done before I head out of town yet again. This time, however, I’m not going for work. Sterling and I are headed to Hawaii for a much-anticipated getaway!

One of the things I was frantically trying to finish was a quilt square. Justine’s sister is making a quilt for Dad (the deadline was last week), and she asked family members to make quilt squares. I intended to get it done earlier, but I haven’t made the time to finish it until now, so I have to do what I have to do! (smile)

 

I did like the way it turned out, though. I wouldn’t normally choose Tangerine Tango (definitely feels like Halloween!), but orange and black are Dad’s favorite colors. I sewed the alphabet letters on (made the letters using the Serif Essential Alphabet dies, of course!), but if you look closely, you’ll see I slipped in some stamping along the side too! I can’t do anything crafty without stamping being involved in some way!

Now upward and onward to Hawaii! It’s been at least a couple of years since we’ve gotten away, just the two of us, and Hawaii is one of our favorite places, so we’ve been counting down the days. I will work a few hours each day (I always do, it seems), but I stayed up all night so I didn’t have a ton of work to do.

I am taking a novel to read, which is kind of different for me. I love to read, but I usually choose nonfiction books. My daughters love the Twilight series though, and we already have tickets to see the movie the weekend it comes out, so the girls insisted that I read it. This trip is the perfect time to do that—I would never make the time to fit it in otherwise.

Other things I’m looking forward to are the warm weather (always a selling point for me), lots of time with my sweetheart, no meetings or appointments, walks along the beach, a few sightseeing adventures, and eight hours of sleep every night!

I don’t know if I’ll be posting or not. I am taking my camera, so if I don’t post from Hawaii, you know you’ll get a report when I come back. In the meantime—Aloha!

An Anytime Game from Virginia

I came back from our Virginia Beach regional yesterday, and it was another great event. We had almost 700 demonstrators there, so it was one of our larger events. I was worried that it might not have that intimate feeling that I love at regionals, but it was still cozy and comfortable. I chatted with lots of people, everyone was warm and welcoming, and I thought it was a wonderful success.

I demonstrated this fun Thanksgiving game, which I’m making for my grandchildren’s Thanksgiving gifts. I adapted this from a project that a demonstrator gave me at a regional earlier in October, just substituting the turkey image for the skull image. You could actually do this same thing for just about any time of year or occasion, just by choosing different images.

 My game is a finished size of 2-1/2 x 2-1/2, which means that the DSP (which is the bottom layer of the game) is 3-1/2 x 3-1/2, with ½-inch score lines on all four sides.

The other layers are watercolor paper, foam, and card stock, all cut slightly smaller (one little notch on the paper cutter) than 2-1/2 x 2-1/2.

I used the Crop-A-Dile (large punch on the watercolor paper, smaller punch for the foam) to create the holes for the BB’s to land in. I created the top and sides of the box with thick acetate, also cut 3-1/2 x 3-1/2, with the corners cut out so I could fold them.

And because I didn’t want this to EVER come apart, I used Sticky Strip on everything!

I’ve had this game sitting around the house, and I’ve laughed as people pick it up and start to play with it. Nobody can put it down until they’ve gotten the little BB’s into the holes. The games I’m making for the grandchildren only have two holes, so the kids won’t get frustrated, but if I have time, I’m going to make an extra game with a hole in every turkey feather (five holes in all) for every family so that the grownups can enjoy a little harder challenge.

Several demonstrators at the regional asked me how Dad was doing, so I thought I’d share a quick update. I had lunch today with Dad and my brother Kurt, and it was great. Earlier when I was talking to Kurt and we were talking about eating, he mentioned that I could “feast on Dad’s energy and positive attitude.” And then when I actually saw Dad at lunch, he gave me a big hug and kiss and said, “Shelli, you’ve got your old Dad back.”      

 And we just about do! It’s amazing the difference in just a week (it’s been about that long since I’ve seen him). He looks great and feels great, and I feel so thankful and grateful for his recovery. Everything could have been so much worse!

I did notice while I was gone that I had a guest poster. Sara jokes about having to sneak in a post while I’m away, but she knows she’s welcome to post anytime. In fact, I’ll have to invite each of the girls to take a turn if they’d like. It’s always fun to see what they’re thinking and doing! I hope you enjoyed her projects and ideas as much as I did.

A Sneaky Guest Post--By Sara

OK, Mom and I have talked about me guest posting before, and I figured this was the perfect time. She’s on her way back from the regional in Virginia, so she can’t edit what I have to say! HA!

The time was right—PLUS I have something I’m kind of excited to share. Last night I demonstrated a Workshop Wow at a group meeting I attended, and I actually kind of liked the samples. I always like most of my samples, of course... But, we all have our favorites. :-)

So I’m in stealth mode here, sneaking in and sharing these fun samples. Actually, I’m sure I won’t get in too much trouble—Mom and I talk about the blog all the time, and I’ve loved checking it out every time she posts something new.

When I moved up here to Washington more than a year ago, I discovered one of my neighbors was a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, and we became friends. She’s invited me to her swaps and group meetings on occasion, and I’ve loved spending time with my fellow demonstrators. So when one of her upline, also a friend of mine (aren’t we all friends as Stampin' Up! demos?), invited me to demonstrate at this last meeting, I was honored—and very nervous!

When I got there, I found out I was last. That means I had to be nervous through the whole meeting. It didn’t help any that the women who demonstrated before me showed fantastic samples; I chose easy and simple, so I was worried. When it was my turn, I told everyone that I could demonstrate at a workshop, no problem, but I was plenty nervous about the 10 minutes I was supposed to take in front of them. The difference, of course, is that the audience at a workshop doesn’t always know a lot about stamping, so if I mess up they won’t know. But at a group meeting, everyone is an experienced stamper! Everyone welcomed me warmly, though, and it was a great experience.

I had lots of fun coming up with the sample. I called the technique I showed “a different twist on emboss resist,” but one of the demonstrators at the meeting told me there was a more official term: faux emerging color... sounds good to me.

Start by stamping image(s) in VersaMark on Designer Series paper; the greater contrast the better. Emboss with clear embossing powder, then rub Chocolate Chip ink on top of that with a dauber. The DSP shows through.

I demonstrated the Kindred Spirits card at the meeting and also displayed the other five samples. I really liked the way it looked, and it was so simple and fast! With five little kids, that makes it a Wow for me. I hope you guys like it too. And if you like me guest posting, maybe I’ll sneak in here again sometime!

     

My New Virginia Friend

I've just arrived in Virginia for our regional this weekend, and I had such a delightful experience, I wanted to share it with you.

First, you have to know that in true Shelli style, I got about 15 minutes of rest--not sleep--last night. I always plan on being more prepared and getting to bed earlier the night before I leave out of town, but almost always, I don't get my act quite together, and I end up pulling an all-nighter.

Last night was no exception. I finished my project and my packing and everything, crawled in bed long enough to get warm, and then headed off to the airport this morning quite early. I did get a couple of cat naps on the plane, but not enough to wake me up much, and I landed in Norfolk this evening pretty exhausted.

And then I met Jerry. He was my cab driver, and can I tell you that from the get-go, I knew he was special--he's the friendliest person I've met in a long time! He greeted me like we were best friends, coming right up to me, giving me the biggest smile, and grabbing my luggage. He asked a few questions, including when I was returning. When he found out I was leaving the hotel at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning to catch an early-morning return flight home, he got on the phone and found a cab driver friend to pick me up because he couldn't do it himself.

We chatted for a few minutes, and then we sat in comfortable silence, listening to the quiet gospel music he had playing (the top-10 countdown on Star 94.1, by the way) until we got to the hotel.

And being comfortable in a cab isn't usually the case for me. I don't typically enjoy cab rides--you're in a strange city, dependent on a strange person to get you somewhere you've likely never been before. There's just nothing about it that's very comfortable! But Jerry put me at ease, and I enjoyed my time with him immensely. It didn't take any extra time (he was driving me anyway), but his smile, genuine concern, and real effort to serve and help made such a difference!

I don't know if his day was any better after he'd met me, but I can tell you my day was certainly better! The brief moments I spent with him refreshed me like a long nap never could.

Potty Training Ashton

As I mentioned yesterday, today was an important day—Ashton was potty trained. In one day! Can you believe it?! At first I was a little skeptical that it could be done, but several weeks ago, Shalae mentioned a book that she’d heard about called “Toilet Training in Less Than a Day.” She’d heard the approach worked, and she thought it was worth trying. The problem? It calls for being completely focused on the child being potty trained, and with two younger children, including a baby that is dependent on Mommy for meals, she didn’t think she could do it.

So I volunteered! I blocked out an entire day on my calendar and started reading the book. We actually planned to do this last Monday, but Potty Scotty didn’t arrive in time, so we had to reschedule. The basic idea is, as I said, completely focusing on the child for one entire day. I won’t explain the entire process, but I’ll hit a few highlights.

First, Ashton and I were alone in the house all day.

Shalae went over to our house with the other two children so it was just me and Ashton. Ashton started out the day by teaching a doll how to go to the bathroom—that’s why Potty Scotty was such an important part of the process. It was clear as Ashton explained things to Scotty that he knew what was going on.

I rewarded Ashton for staying clean and dry, rather than actually going to the bathroom. I wore my Stampin’ Up! apron all day, and the pockets were full of treats that Ashton got to choose when he stayed dry. I had both sweet and salty treats, and he chose salty most of the time, which made him thirsty, so he did a lot of drinking, which meant he got a lot of potty practice, which was great!

I started by rewarding him every 5 minutes. After he went to the bathroom the first time, we stretched out the rewards to every 15 minutes, and by tonight, we were only asking and rewarding him every 30-45 minutes.

The approach really places an emphasis on the child being responsible for his behavior. After the first couple of successes, I held back a bit. When Ashton announced he had to go, I’d tell him that he knew what he needed to do and I encouraged him to go ahead and do it. Of course, I wasn’t far behind, just to make sure! His potty makes music when he goes, so as I stood outside the door, I knew when he’d been successful. He also cleaned up, emptying the potty every time.

After the first few successes, I was supposed to distract him a bit, so we played a lot of Thomas the train engine and other games. We built a car wash out of blocks too.

But even with those distractions, he only had one partial accident, complete with a little leaking, a mad dash to the bathroom, and most of what needed to be in the potty ending up in the potty.

There’s a lot of positive reinforcement in this approach. Shalae left a list of people who were excited for Ashton to take this big-boy step. We talked about how happy everyone would be that he was keeping his big-boy pants dry, and when we went to our house this evening for dinner, he packed up his potty all by himself, carried it to the car and then into our house, and then announced to everyone how well things had gone. You could tell he was very pleased with himself—as he should be!

Overall, I thought everything went very well. Of course, a real test comes tomorrow morning. Once you take off the diaper, you never put it back on, so hopefully he wakes up with dry big-boy pants!

So, I guess now I can add professional potty trainer to the list of skills I have as a grandmother. I’m expecting—and hoping—to train Shalae’s other children, and any of the other grandchildren who might need a loving grandmother to help out with this important step. It was a wonderful day, with the highlights for me not necessarily coming in the bathroom but in the moments in between as we played and chatted together. Twice Ashton said to me, “Grandma, you’re my friend!” That means quite a bit from this little boy, who often prefers playing with Grandpa rather than me. There are certainly worse things than spending an entire day focused on one of your grandchildren!