A Day to be Awesome

I'm rather swamped right now but I spent time to create for the Silhouette weekly challenge. I need goals in order to really motivate me. I cut out the vinyl after the new challenge was announced and let it sit awhile. Today I finally decided to use the cookie sheet I had sprayed silver instead of cutting down the plywood piece that is painted black. A couple of months ago I had bought a new silver paint that was more sterling so this morning I sprayed the sheet again. Mid-afternoon I put the vinyl on and sprayed the stencil green. I then set it out in the sun to set/dry. Just before I left for tonight I peeled off the mask and discovered that some of the new silver paint came off also. And I had missed a spot that was now green. That is the lesson, the paint hadn't cured.

I think that having it hang in the backyard will be just fine and the blemishes won't be noticeable until someone goes right up to it. Which is highly unlikely since the backyard doesn't have a lot of traffic anyways. Well, not until my daughter's wedding this summer. The green matches the faded green trim on the house and compliments the green plants and trees in the yard. I want something unusual in the backyard and this is a good start. It'll weather and blemishes will become 'weathered'. Now I have to figure out how and where to hang it. Until then I think I'll lean it up against the fence by the table in the back corner.

Silhouette Challenge- condolence cards

Someone close to me just lost his "Grandbear" who was a very important person in helping him have a 'normal' life growing up. I really like the phrase that circulating around the Sil Facebook sites and so combined it with the shape of the week challenge. I needed to elongate it to fit the phrase but the shield shape needed no alterations. His Grandfather had dachshunds & I couldn't think/create fast enough on my feet how to incorporate them into the same item so made them as separate cards. I was going to frame them but I'll let him decide what to do with them. He loved them and apparently he showed them to everyone at the memorial open house.

A link to the home page http://blog.silhouetteamerica.com/. The link to the actual challenge is on the right column.

Silhouette Challenge--Key West visit in 2009

For this week's Silhouette Challenge I created a layout for our overnight visit to Key West Florida in 2009. We wanted to visit it even though we only had one night before heading straight up to Orlando to catch our flight home. We fell in love with the creative atmosphere that permeates Old Town. My husband was writing his doctoral dissertation on that trip and in one evening did an amazing amount of work. He said he was inspired by the atmosphere.

I welded the zig-zags together to create a lattice which I felt suited the ambiance of Key West. 

Silhouette Whale picture sound cards

The Silhouette blog has a weekly challenge where people can use the popular shape they chose or the free shape of the week. I used the free shape of the week to create picture sound cards for speech therapy use. I only created two for examples as I don't have a client at the moment so don't need all 20. I used the "w" sound and "l" sound because whale has both sounds in the word. I would laminate them to make them endure the repetitive handling by preschoolers (and me).

I'm late on posting for the giveaway but I wanted to show a different way that can make speech interesting for the child.

Mother's Day and Gardening--Both can be rewarding

Mother's Day is this Sunday...a short video about us mothers.

I know that not all mothers are always like the ones depicted in this video, some just never figured out what they need to do to nurture their children. Some never even tried to figure it out, which is sad because they sure missed out on some great times.

We don't rake or remove dead plants in the fall so that our earth can be protected during the freeze/melt cycles we have as our winter so there is a lot of work to prepare our yards for planting and the 'not snowy winter' season we are entering. I was weeding/cleaning up yesterday, and as I was pulling the green grass (nice to see green again) out of the veggie garden I thought how it was like parenting.

If a lot of effort is put in from the start the rewards are great later on. For the most part because even the most diligent gardener cannot predict accurately how the environment will impact the seeds and plants. You just do the best you can with the skills you have. If your skills are lacking, you seek out those who have those skills and learn from them.

As it is with parenting, if a parent so chooses, they can spend a lot of time with their child(ren), teaching them the values and concepts that the parent believe are important.

Some parents believe that the child should decide for themselves about religion, values and other core concepts so they don't bias their child with their own beliefs and values. I don't understand how that is advantageous because how is the child to decide if they don't have anything to compare to? And how is teaching your child indoctrinating them when it YOUR belief?  I do understand why some parents don't want to "indoctrinate" their child about values and beliefs, as there are some very damaging philosophies being taught. But be assured that the "my way or the highway" philosophy of child raising is not compatible with teaching and guiding.

 Like a garden, a child needs to be nurtured, to be guided in learning about themselves and the world in which she/he lives. And to be taught to think. If they can do the 5 W's and How they will have a firm foundation to decide things. But to decide is to have a knowledge from which to compare new information. Pass onto your child your values and beliefs! If you don't, who will? Do you really want to leave it up to chance?

Most children are really forgiving of parental mistakes, if there have been some positive interactions and efforts of some type of love towards the child. And children love their parents, even severely abusive parents (that bond is deep!).

It's a balancing act, but with practice (& lots of trial and error!) and love there are rewards to parenting and gardening.

Soooo, Happy Mother's Day...let's celebrate our good practices and forgive ourselves for our missteps & the "oops, I hope nobody saw/heard that" moments.

It's Red So It's Fast

I picked up my new road bike on Tuesday and toodled around the block before I froze.

I look forward to riding it every day without winter woolies on. I took this photo yesterday when some strange orb in the sky was glowing. I rode for about 9km in my community before I had to hustle off to my last university classes for the year.

Thanks to Ryan at Bow Cycle for fitting me on my Specialized Roubaix. It isn't a women's specific bike (that one is a Ruby), they just didn't feel right. I sat on this and it was like going home to my 10-speed BRC (which as my husband pointed out...was red also). I can't feel the bike when I'm on it. Hopefully after 3 hours in the seat I'll feel the same way!

Due to the weather (it snowed/slushed today), tonight I'll cycle indoors on my Trek hybrid and watch American Idol or something that is set in a warm part of the world.

I've just read a wonderful recounting of an event about chivalry occurring "along the flat, head windy, hot, highway of West Maui". Picture this, a moped being pushed by a sprite of a girl being rescued by a road biker. No, not the biker clad in black leather with a skull-cap helmet but one dressed in white lycra with a bike helmet. Read the story here (she tells it so well):

http://womenincycling.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-knights-tale/#more-1019

I'm going to be riding the GranFondo Niagara Falls (Ontario) this September. GranFondo means "big ride" in Italian, and it is a big ride. For me anyways. Maybe not for those Tour de Francers or Milan to San Remo types. It's about 122km or 76 miles. Kilometers sounds longer! 
I've started training...wheeze wheeze. For my birthday DH gave me a Kinetic Flow rider (fluid? I could go down to check it out but that takes energy. Yes I see the contradiction). It is really boring to cycle in my basement and I hope that the snow that is melting will continue and stay melted! I wanna ride outside!