Snowed In

It's like we were destined to not go to school today. I woke up to a beautiful 6 inches of snow in my yard. We are in the lower elevation of our area, and I heard much of our area got hit with multiple feet of snow. Then the power went out for hundreds of people in our area. If life was "normal" I'm sure we wouldn't have been going to school. 

So today was an inside day anyways. Today didn't feel like we were suffocating in our house or in quarantine or social distancing. Today felt "normal" for a snow day, because it was literally a snow day for us, complete with sledding down our hill, a nice fire in our wood stove, and not leaving the house because our cars can't make it up our driveway. 

Today's COVID-19 Developments

• We had our first confirmed case in Nevada County. Rumor is that this person is in Truckee, which is an hour from us. 
• Our school district delayed distance learning efforts and officially closed schools this week. They should be able to get us stuff next week. I love that The Little's teacher sent home lots of work in anticipation of a shutdown. We're set for two weeks. 
• Trump called for stricter guidelines and asked people to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.  We've gone from mass gatherings, to 250, to 50, and now to 10 in about two weeks. 
• Governor Newsom is calling for several Bay Area counties to shelter in place starting tonight at midnight. They would like this to happen for three weeks. THREE WEEKS! Things like this remind me that this isn't going to just go away tomorrow. And it looks like it's still on the upswing of getting worse. 
• There's already scams going on, and the rumor mill is hot. I had to fact check a text my mom received about a national lockdown happening. Part of me doesn't want to discredit that text, but the other part of me had to debunk that lie because it's not true right now and we don't need that fear.  

Schooling at Home

I read a post about an avid homeschooler calling what we are doing schooling at home, not homeschooling. So, since I'm not a bonafide homeschooling mom, I'll talk about our schooling at home experience. 

We started it, and The Little did great. She was focused and did what was expected of her. Halfway through the day, which was going great, I get a communication from the superintendent of schools saying that they are delaying distance learning due to miscommunications with the state and unsafe working conditions at school. I decided to stay the course since we have a packet of work to do and had a good start.

In addition to her school work, I decided to supplement with Scratch Coding to help prepare us for programming the new Spike Lego robot for First Lego League. We worked through one lesson together and then she took off on her own for three hours and designed and programmed a short cartoon she titled Space Princess. 

Keeping Busy

• It was a normal Monday at work for the husband - busy, chaotic, with lots of calls. He telecommutes during normal times so this is not anything new to him. 
• I worked most of the day on my Bible Study Fellowship preparations. We are transitioning our class to an online class. 
• For "PE" today, the Little chose to go sledding down our hill. She was outside for about an hour until she came back in cold and wet. We also did a few rounds of Just Dance. Even with a sprained foot, I can win. 
• Dinner was Spaghetti and steamed broccoli  We still have plenty of Girl Scout cookies to get us through. 
• No family game time tonight due to a miscommunication and the Little's insistence on doing more Scratch coding. 
• We watched a few episodes XMen: Evolution on Disney+. The Little notified me today that she likes Netflix better. We may be renewing our Netflix account soon. 

Final Thoughts

I was scrolling through my pictures this afternoon and found the first CoronaVirus meme I posted (memes are my love language). It was from January 28th. The news of the virus was just starting to catch my interest, and I was cracking up on all the memes. I'm still cracking up on all the memes, but life definitely is heading in a direction I could not fathom, and it's ultimately not a laughing matter. Each day feels more and more restricted and I am having a hard time imagining what life is going to look like next week. This is all SO WEIRD!!

Does this feel bizarre to you too?

Coronavirus.

Social distancing.

Flatten the curve.

So many new phrases and mandates and suggestions. It's been a weird and bizarre last week as life became full of regulations, expectations, caution, fear, and distance learning, or forced homeschooling as I'm calling it.

I'm not the first to say this, we are living in an interesting time. It's all new to everyone. It feels bizarre and surreal and it's upending all of our lives. We all need to work together to flatten the curve. We all need to work together to stop the spread. As much as I get this. As much as I want to be part of the effort, it's hard. It's hard to be flexible and to live in a state that causes so much uncertainty. Will we go to school next week? (nope) Can I return my library books on Monday? (nope) Will I be able to work out at the gym? (For right now, yes. But you're better off staying home.)

Last week it was announced that my daughter's school will transition to distance learning until April 13th. I'm declaring us homeschoolers,  and we will treat it as such. I want to document this time, because it's just so bizarre and unprecedented. It's weird. It's frustrating. It's scary. So for the next month, I'm just going to write about my experience. You're welcome to join in.

Today's COVID-19  developments:

• CA Governor, Gavin Newsom, orders all bars and wineries closed. He mandates limited capacity in restaurants, and tells people over the age of 65 to self-isolate.
• The Nevada County Library announces that they will be closed until April 12. (Good thing the Little and I checked out a dozen books on Friday in anticipation of this happening)
• All California Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) classes will be transitioning to online classes. I've known this for a few days, but it went public today in our class. 
• The NM Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, announced that all NM State Parks will close. All thoughts about going to NM for spring break have been squashed, and I can only imagine what came out of my brother's mouth when he found out that he can't go fishing at Elephant Butte State Park. 
• The CDC announced that people should avoid gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks.  There's a mandate already in place that discourages gatherings of more than 250 people. 
• Our Girl Scout Council extended cookie sales to friends and family for one week. Thank God they did not extend cookie booths. I'm done. 

Wasson Household Homeschooling

The Little's teacher had some foresight and sent her students home with two full weeks of work to do, so we have stuff to get started tomorrow with our forced homeschooling. I've always wondered what it would be like to homeschool, and now I get a free one-month, possible two-month, trial.

Today, we discussed expectations and made a plan. I wrote it out for my Little and made her agree to it and sign it. Tomorrow will be day one of homeschooling. Let's see how that goes.

Keeping Busy
As a family, we made a list of things we would like to do during this time of.....(what is this time?).....social distancing. We have some cleaning goals, a goal to play all the games in our game closet, some crafting goals, and a list of movies we want to watch. The Little and I thought about working on some Girl Scout badges. The weather has been horrible, so we have been stuck inside, but once things clear up, we also have some yardwork goals because once the Coronavirus passes it will be just in time for wildfire season to take over.

What we did today:

• church (it hasn't been canceled yet. I'm expecting that to change this week)
• Science experiment - growing crystals
• Played a round of Yahtzee (The little won)
• Laundry, because if there is ever a time to have clean underwear, it's during a global pandemic
• nightly movie; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (the husband wants to watch all the movies, so we started the series tonight)

Funny Things I Saw

I know that the CoronaVirus Pandemic is serious stuff, but sometimes you still have to look for the funny and laugh. And today this video, which is a few years old, had me laughing so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes. I watched it over and over and over and over and each time it got funnier and I laughed harder. It felt so fitting as I begin to help set-up the local BSF school program to an online platform. 

Thanks a Latte

I believe I have mentioned before that I fell in love with the July's Paper Pumpkin stamp set. If you missed that post, let me say it again...I love July's Paper Pumpkin stamp set. That tea/coffee cup stole my heart and I just could not stop using it. 

This cute envelope-looking thing is actually a gift card holder made with the Gift Card Envelope & Trims Thinlits. Wouldn't this be perfect to give someone a gift card to a super expensive coffee shop? 

Stampin' Tips:

• Colors: Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla, Tempting Turquoise
• Papers: Bohemian DSP, Silver Glimmer Paper
• Cut a 1-1/4" x 6-1/2" strip of Very Vanilla to serve as your belly band. Cut a 1" x 6-1/2" strip of DSP to adhere to the Very Vanilla strip. 
• Punch out four stars from Silver Glimmer Paper. Adhere two stars to the ends of the baker's twine, sandwiching the twine between the stars. 
• Don't adhere any of the flaps. Allow the belly band to hold everything together. 
• Use the little swoop image from the Work of Art stamp set to add a little bit of Tempting Turquoise color to the cup. If the color is too dark, stamp off (stamp once on a scrap piece of paper and then on your cup). 

Are you still on the fence about joining Paper Pumpkin? May I suggest taking advantage of the Half Off promotion. Visit My Paper Pumpkin website and use the code HALFOFF to join Paper Pumpkin before September 10, 2015 and get 50% off the first two months! After that, keep the creativity coming for only $19.95 + tax per month (shipping included). 

Happy Stampin' 

Carmelita 

Hello New Holiday Catalog!

Christmas makes me happy. Stamping makes me happy. So the Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog makes me extremely happy.

I'm one of those people that tend to get grumpy with change, and I'll confess that as much as new catalogs excite me, I often get a little grumpy and overstimulated with new catalogs. That did not happen with this catalog. I could not get enough of this catalog when I first saw it.

It. Is. Amazing.

Check it out for yourself! And then head over to my website to make your first Holiday Catalog purchase.

Enjoy!! I believe you will not be disappointed.

Happy Stampin',
Carmelita

Happy Bokeh Birthday

Have you heard about the Bokeh technique? It's a neat technique that mimics the photographic Bokeh effect which is on trend in photography these days (or so I'm told). The Bokeh effect involves blurring part of the picture that is out of the focal point. I am often drawn to the circles of light that seems to be highlighted in these photographs. Some very talented crafters have adapted this effect to ink and out came a fun technique to use your aqua painters, whisper white craft ink, and circle punches. I have grand plans of writing my own Bokeh technique tutorial, but usually I have grand intentions of doing all sorts of things and nothing ever gets done. I need better time management. Until then, I encourage you to check out a fellow demonstrator's blog for a picture tutorial on how to accomplish the Bokeh technique. 

One of the unique characteristics of the Bokeh technique is the circles, which you can't really see in this picture. I promise they are there. This is one of those cards that I feel that a photograph doesn't portray how cool the card is. Maybe if I was a better photographer I would be able to highlight those Whisper White circles a little bit more. 

Stampin Tips:

• Colors: Mint Macaroon, Delightful Dijon, Whisper White
• Apply the Bokeh technique to a 5"x3.75" piece of Whisper White Cardstock. I used Delightful Dijon and Mint Macaroon on my background. 
• Stamp "Happy Birthday" from the Happy Birthday, Everyone stamp set in versa mark on Vellum. Use gold embossing powder to emboss the greeting. 
• Use a few glue dots to adhere the vellum to the card. Make sure your Bokeh background has dried. 
• Cut a few sequins from a piece of Gold Sequin Trim. Use glue dots to adhere to the card. If any of your glue dots underneath your vellum sheet can be seen, use a sequin to cover it.

I had so much fun with this technique. If you have tried this technique, head over to my Facebook page and post a picture of your project. I would love to see how you use the technique.

Happy Stampin',
Carmelita

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Throwback Thursday: Snowflakes in Mint

As an active Stampin' Up! demonstrator, it is my job to keep up with the latest trends, stamp sets, and accessories that Stampin' Up! has to offer. We are often encouraged to use only current product in our classes and workshops. I do this because I want to provide my customers with the latest and greatest...but....sometimes it's hard to let go of really awesome retired stamp sets. Festive Flurry is one of my favorite retired Christmas stamp sets. As I was preparing entries for the County Fair, I kept  picking up this stamp set and relishing the moments I got to stamp with it. I love love love love this set.

Also during my fair prep I kept reaching for the Mint Macaroon cardstock. You'll see in the upcoming Holiday Catalog that Mint Macaroon is on trend with the Christmas colors, so I decided to try it out. It's an interesting color to use for Christmas, but I think it's going to work, as you can see in my Festive Flurry card.

What retired stamp set (or stamp sets, because I know I have several) do you absolutely cling to? And what do you think of Mint Macaroon as a Christmas Color?

Happy Stampin',
Carmelita

Project Life meets Paper Pumpkin

My two favorite Stampin' Up! offerings lately have been Paper Pumpkin and Project Life by Stampin' Up! I have been spending most of my crafting "free time" playing with these items and recently I decided to combine the two.

Each month, Paper Pumpkin sends you a kit with a ready-made project that you can stamp and assemble. But what's even greater is that you can use the included stamp set for future and personal projects.

I loved July's Paper Pumpkin stamp set. The mug has become one of my favorite stamps and I used it on several projects. And then I thought about how cute the images in the July Paper Pumpkin stamp set would look on Project Life cards. So I quickly made a few using the Moment's Like These card collection and accessory pack. I have yet to use them on a page, but they are sitting in my card box ready to be used when the time is right.

Have you used your Paper Pumpkin stamp sets outside of making the kit? If not, I encourage you to do so. Follow me on Pinterest to keep up with some of my ideas or follow the Paper Pumpkin boards for even greater inspiration. 

Happy Stampin', 

Carmelita