greetingarts

welcome back[pack] to school

It happened again... the summer days flew by, the girls went another grade higher, and this time I have two school schedules and drop-off/pick-up times to figure out.

The middle schooler now has uniforms (silent "Yay!" from Mom) and I knew enough to get my photo before even getting into the car.  She's got a crazy schedule, it rotates daily and I couldn't begin to figure out where she's supposed to be when, but hopefully she'll have no problem remembering by next week.

I still made my traditional gifts for all of Jessica's previous teachers (who happen to be Rebecca's previous teachers, too). 

I pretty much followed the Mini Backpack Tutorial from the wonderful Inking Idaho (left sidebar under free tutorials, it's in 4 parts so I didn't link directly).  I filled it with Ghirardelli chocolate squares, and a heartfelt note to each teacher. 

Vacation is officially over, and I start back at work tomorrow.  Looking forward to a good school year and hectic, tiring but exciting days ahead.

first folds

We've been enjoying every moment of summer.  Mostly out and about, traveling, swimming, scootering in the park.  But once in a while we'll just stay home and pull out the crafts. 

Chronicle Books sent me a copy of Party Origami by Jessica Okui of Zakka Life, and the girls and I had a fun time checking it out and making some of our first origami projects ever.  Now that they are a bit older, and are more precise with their folds, it's a lot more fun and everything they attempted was successful.  One of these bird placecard holders was made by me, one by my 8 year old, as her first origami project ever, I think.  Can't really tell which is whose, can you?  Honestly, I don't even remember.

The book is in a cute little format, perfect as a gift because it includes the beautiful two-sided paper and is basically a little kit.  There is a *lot* of paper, 75 sheets, which is important for people like me who tend to hoard the "good stuff."  In this case, I don't really have to worry, because there is plenty to go around.  Good diagrams, simple.  It could have the potential to get someone started on a paper folding kick...

See Jessica's name there in the corner?  That's so cool.