How was my day at work?

Wondering what a preschool assistant does during her four hour day?
No two days are alike, but as an example: here's today...

Arrive at 8.00.
Turn on lights.
Check my email, as my home computer was acting wonky this morning.
Chat with Meghan a bit, before letting the monkeys in at 8.15 ;o)
Tell kids to get out their snacks and library books. Normally Friday is our library day, but as we are going to the theatre tomorrow, we switched days.
I have a few kids looking at me with wild eyes- no library books...
I sit on a tiny chair while the kids who brought their books, return them, wait for me to find the appropriate cards and send them off to get three new books.
I then sign out the new books for them.
And write five reminder notes to return books on Monday, please.

Meghan starts the class (she was testing kids on their transportation words during library) and I do some filing and write out names on outgoing newsletters. Kids move to circle time and I draw circles on red paper for ladybird wings for next week. I then prep for today's craft (Thursday is craft day). The kids painted beautiful butterflies yesterday and have to cut them out today and glue a popsicle stick to the back. I get out the white glue, try find popsicle sticks, until Meghan saves me from the craft-cupboards-of-doom and points to the kitchen/office where she already has them out (she found them in the box marked 'square colored cardstock'...sigh). Distribute to each table.
Cut out said ladybird wings, while kids get crafting.
Clean up after the messy white glue.
Wonder about the one kid who is so slow to finish his work, that he didn't get to start his snack until there was only two minutes left. I then clean up after a messy snacktime... I mean pistachios??? In their shells... OY!
Have one kid tell me she forgot to get her new library books as she was busy being silly this morning. Deal with three new books taken out.
Realize I in fact have time to cover some new library books. There's a basket full just waiting for these moments of free time. I got five covered today.
Help kids with gloves and shoelaces (yay for velcro) as they leave.
Finish covering those five books.
Open the door for our handyman/technical work teacher who came to put together the new shelves we had ordered. I can't wait for tomorrow morning to see those shelves.. the old so called shelves sucked. Big time.
Told Niina to get ready and got dressed myself.
Walked up the stone steps. Haven't counted them, but by the time you reach the top, you are out of breath and your knees are begging for mercy.
Go inside the 'big school' with the Primary 2 kids.
Take the beasts to lunch. (it's interesting how many times you have to leave your lunch to go tell someone to behave) Today's lunch was beef sauce with potatos and salad.
My day ends with recess duty with the kids.
I'm out free 12.15pm.

PS. I found a dress for the wedding today!!!!

Tired tuesday

Yesterday was still a holiday here, so today feels like monday.
The upside is a short work week.

Mind you my calendar is really full as my bro's wedding is coming up in less than two weeks. Shoe shopping, dress hunting, hairdresser appointments, making of the hen night photo album, planning flowers etc.
And once the party's over (and the happy couple have returned from Rome, Italy...sigh) it's full force onwards in getting my mom's stuff packed, sold, donated and sorted.
Oh yay.

So if I'm not around much... you'll know I'm buried under one thing or another.
Just the thought of the tasks ahead makes me want to take a nap.

Piano Man

Or the reason why my iPod is now filled with Billy Joel's greatest hits.
Finnish Idols 2007.

And mainly these two fellows:

Ari Koivunen

and Kristian Meurman. (he was my personal favorite... sigh)

Ari just won the whole competition.
He could have won hearts by that babyface alone.
But then there's that VOICE.
It stops you.

If you feel adventurous go check his Deep Purple cover of Perfect Strangers on You Tube.
Ian Gillan, watch out!

Once You Tube has tonight's vocals on there I'll share Ari's opposition: Anna.
That girl can sing.
Our third run of Idols was the best yet.
I enjoyed watching every episode.

But is there an upside for Idols being gone from Thursday nights?
Yes there is.
ER is back on.... [grin].

Mary's nook

This room is starting to come together.
I finally got curtains made (that involved lots of straight pins and spray starch) and I found these cool Indian pillows that fit my story of Mary perfectly.

I love finding finishing touches.

Mary's also having some work done outside the house...

That will eventually be a greenhouse.
I think.
I'm completely winging this one...

ba-da-dum...

That's been the soundtrack in the house since Saara borrowed my bro's electric bass earlier this week. Good to see her enjoying learning.

Me? I'd probably hurt my fingers...heheheee

But I'm real good at retail therapy.

Grin.

Picked up this shopping basket and the bottle bag on friday.

And look at that, they are just the shade of green I love.

I'll be stylin' at the grocery store now.

How's this for a creative self-portrait?

Yup, in the car.

Want to see some cute Easter witches?

I made these in kindergarten. Only one has lost her broom, I have to fix that.

Oh, OK.. here are even cuter witches:

And for those of you going "Huh?", witches on Palm Sunday is a old Finnish tradition.

In fact I explained it all last year on this post.

Witness The Loot:

SWEET!

Literally.

I'll have to show you this cool model of a penguin "city" Saara is working on. I think I'll wait a couple days so she can finish it. It is so cool. Mountains with ski lifts, igloos, a skating rink, a disco...oh and a lighthouse too! All made of PAPER.

I'm very impressed.

Just goooooooooooorgeous!

The weather that is.
Sunny and bright.
So warm.
14C/57F.

I can feel my freckles coming out in the sun.

And I'm really enjoying working at the school.
I love the fact that no day is the same. I could even enjoy this [gasp] full-time in the fall.

Have you checked the photos of my beautiful girls in the previous post?
Not that I'm biased or anything... LOL!

OK, I better go make dinner now.
I've just scrapped 2 pages for my DT commitment (cutting it a bit close this month) and I still have book club brochures to sort for the class...
See you on the flipside!

Mr. and Mrs. H.

My cousin's wedding where the girls were flowergirls.

I've used some of my own tweaking on these photos but also a duotone action I uploaded from the web and an action called Angel Baby by my friend Ange (for example in the above photo).
Make sure you click the images to see them bigger :o)

It was my god father's birthday yesterday also. He looks quite pleased I must say.. and my cousin looked so beautiful.







This has to be my favorite shot.
Dude.. I nailed the catchlights!

Sooooo... this was a practice run.
Because in four weeks I'll be the main photographer at my bro's wedding.
No pressure there... ha!

Red roses

Three hours on the floor...
Here are the end results.

Bride's bouqet:

Close-up of the ribbon:

The same bouqet and the smaller for the maid-of-honor:

For the flowergirls (I'll still trim them shorter):

For the groom, bestman and fathers:

YIPPEEEEE!!!!!

HUGE congratulations to my sweet friend and DT buddy Courtney Kelly who just won HOF!!!!!!!!!

Happy dancing around the room here!
Come join me!

Gooooo Courtney!

And gooooo Cindy Liebel for getting an Honorable Mention!!!

This is one KICKIN' design team.
I am so proud of you both!

I shine today

Craft day at school... the kids made cute fishes. With gold glitter details.
I shine. And shimmer. And sparkle...

Here's an action shot of me:

Must have been one of my first tries, as that brush isn't resting against my shoulder as it should be..

These I picked up yesterday.

The bouquets for this wedding will be easy to make, only roses and organza ribbon.
You'll be seeing very different flowers a month from now.
Orange, lime, white...

Niina agreed to one photo.
Barely.

She's going through a "don't point that camera at me" phase.

I have laundry to wash, bills to pay and men's figure skating to watch.
I might even get some scrapping done tonight..
Maybe.

Its a small world after all...

Did you all wonder where I disappeared?

Well... over the weekend Saara and I took a cruise to Stockholm, Sweden for a miniature exhibit.
It was so much fun!
And for once everything we bought fit in our purses, hehehee.
Our favorite seller was the guy who made kits for all these chairs:

I bought two kits to make the shaker chair on the left and Saara bought a kit to make the chair called Tilt (it's the spring green one in the photo).
I absolutely loved this greenhouse:

I wouldn't mind having one.
Maybe one day... I guess I could add a greenhouse to Mary's house, right?
So many new ideas. Now just to find the time to create.
All in all we had a good time.

Even if I was sore on Sunday in town.
My muscles on the sides of my neck, in my arms and my legs hurt.
And I have a huge bruise on my thigh... not to mention the groin muscle I pulled.
Why?
Because I started my Saturday with two hours of this:

Curling.
Now it looks so easy on tv.
Very deceiving.
It is all about cordination. Skill. And it does use muscle power as well.
The pulled muscle? The shoes you wear... one is normal and the other has a slippery teflon bottom. I was brushing the ice when my "good" shoe slipped... instant splits. Ouch.
The bruise. Oh man. Brushing again, only I wasn't looking.. and tripped on one of the stones. The handle hit me. The stone? It didn't even budge, those babies weigh about 20kg/40lbs.
But we had a blast!

So why was I curling?
It was my future sister-in-law's hen night. Or more like hen day since we started at 8.45am and I heard the party went well into the wee hours (I was on the ship by then). Once I get the photo of me down on my knees after doing the splits, I'll share.

My first day of work today :o)
I like the four hour day. Just perfect.
Today I got to be friends with the copy machine... that room needs air-conditoning. That's all I'm saying. The kids were all giggling at me.. I guess it was funny to see one of the moms in the classroom. For real, you know. Not just visiting.
And after 22 years, I'm back eating a school lunch.
Didn't quite picture that happening.
Spinach crepes today (yum) and chicken soup tomorrow.

What else....
We had parliamentary elections here over the weekend. Big change was that the social democrats lost. The national coalition (our conservatives.. they resemble the US democrats... the folk here aren't quite so conservative) was the big winner. Quite an interesting result really. If you are interested in our local politics, that is, LOL.

My cousin's wedding this coming saturday. Which is the girls' first flowergirl gig. Rehearsal is tomorrow.
I'm doing the flowers for the wedding. Red roses. And gold.
I WILL remember to take photos.

Alrighty.
I think I'll go work on a mini chandelier...
Told you I was inspired ;o)

Too much

I'm so ready for bed.
Almost 9pm.

-I've cleaned my desk that holds my scrap supplies
-found Niina's speech therapy papers, so we practiced the elusive rrrrrrrrolling R
-folded four loads of laundry, hung up two more on the line to dry
-dug the dreaded basement storage room where everything falls on you for clothes for Niina
-hit my head once
-trimmed the appletree, we are talking branches the size of small trees...
-blew some bubbles :o)
-made dinner
-baked bread

Did I mention I was tired?
yaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnn... streeeeeeeeeeeeeetccccccccccchhhhhhhhh..
G'night.

Yes, I'm alive, heh...

I've had a few comments about being silent.
Nice to be missed.

Lets just say it's been busy here.

And that spring has thrown us a bone...
It is GORGEOUS outside today!
The snow is melting faster than I type. Yeah baby.
I need to go get some seeds this week. I'm thinking hollyhock. Love that flower. Yes, I'm definitely feeling the need to grow hollyhocks this year.
And for you Finns reading, hollyhock= salkoruusu.

Today I got a box of goodies I ordered from AMLT.
Mmmm....
The Perhaps line of Basic Grey papers.
A 7 Gypsies knob.
American Craft felt stickers.
And cool new Heidi Swapp stuff.
I think I want to play.
Oh lets not pretend.
I want to play.
Period.

What else is new?
The Sims 2 Seasons expansion pack.
Sims 2 is a computer game, for those not in the know. This I think is the funnest (is that even a word?) expansion pack yet. Especially if you are the gardening type ;o)
Love tha fact that the sims finally have bad weather.
Or that they can get really really hot in the sun.
If you're a Sims fan, go buy it.

I start work in one week.
Yikes.

We have our estate inventory tonight.
I dread the coming inheritance taxes already.
Yes, we have inheritance taxes.
Sucks.

And for smiles, go check out this link.
Some fun photos by George Lange.
And a lovely bit of Clive Owen also... wink wink.

I promise to come back tomorrow.
:o)

Sick day

Niina had an upset tummy, so she stayed home today. We spent the morning creating together. She took out the watercolors and painted..oh about a gazillion pictures.
I borrowed the paints to color some tissue paper. And out of the tissue paper (plus some wire, laser cut ivy, and an opened teabag) arose this lovelyness.

It will be placed right next to Mary's front door.

This smaller pot is for sale at my Etsy shop along with a few other new goodies!


The sun is out.
The snow is melting.
I think I'll take the patient out for a little walk to the grocery store as we have no food.
Now how did that happen?
Here I thought a new fridge would solve all my problems.
But apparently even it can't help me with what on earth am I making for dinner today...

Go, RUN... now I tell you!

The new gallery is up on AMLT!!!

Some fabulous stuff there this month.
I swear the gallery is on fire.

Our assignments this month were to make a page with products ONLY from our favorite manufacturer and buttons.

Go and get inspired.

Small things

Yes, I do believe I think miniature thoughts also, heh.

I made a geranium.


Mary's quite pleased with it.
It's made with tissue paper, wire and and...oh.. can't think of the word in english now..ugh.. We call it 'painter's tape', you know that off white tape you use to edge when you paint? The leaves are made with that and acrylic paints.
I might have to make a few more for Mary's window box... with ivy and... hmmm... what do you think would look nice with those two?

The other day we played with polymer clay again.

Some Stilton cheese (sans the odour...LOL)

Pork chops and...

some ham.
Some of these will appear in my Etsy store in a bit.

Today I've been cleaning the shelves in the basement so I can get the tools from the kitchen moved over there so I can get room for my kitchen stuff that was evacuated as the cabinet was torn down (how's that for a run-on sentence...).
My basement storage room is also a horrid mess. Most of it is fleamarket stuff. I'm tempted to shuffle that stuff over to my mom's house... ya know, just until we have a garage sale. Reallt tempted. Seeing as I can't get a foot in there...

Tonight I'm off to meet all the preschool teachers... over pizza and blueberry pie.