If you are interested in downloading the brochure as a .pdf file, you can do so on the page about World Down Syndrome Day. Just scroll down to “Ansicht Aktions-Flyer”.

It is not a big thing, but just some inspiration in form of an audio message and a handout. Quite good to get your summer photography up and running.

***

Our garden is a paradise for weeds, but, nevertheless, we do get some stuff out of it. How we manage I have no idea, I don’t think we do anything the way a gardener should, but the result is what counts.

It is rather small – that is probably why it was so inexpensive – but it is big enough for our two boys. They loved it.

***

I can say I’m officially addicted to creating bag inserts, LOL. I don’t know when I will ever use them all, soon I’ll probably have to exchange them every day to give each one a chance, but it is fun.

This is one of the last batch. Actually I meant to get it printed on canvas, but somehow that didn’t turn out the way I wanted it, so I changed it to fit the bag. It is a blatant scraplift from a paper page by Ali Edwards, shown in her Life Artist book. I just liked the looks of it so much that I basically recreated it digitally. Not that anybody around here will ever notice. Probaly the people in my area who know who AE is can be counted with 2 fingers.

Credits Background paper: mine, floral brush: Jason Gaylor, sloppy snippet: Emily Farnworth, alpha: Gina Cabrera.

The next inserts are already under contruction. I now moved to poetry, but I’m swapping back and forth between that and quotes.

Sean and Corin are having lots of fun in the garden. We bought them a little slide – actually too small for Corin, but he’s enjoying it nevertheless. Sean is having a blast, too.

And as a surprise John ordered a small bouncy castle for them. It was extremely inexpensive, I hope it’s going to be an ok quality. They both love bouncy castles as you can see on this picture. I took it at the Maybock Fest some time ago. Sean was the youngest on it and everybody was dead sweet to him.

The garden is coming along nicely, especially if you are a weed lover. God, I never knew how overpowering weeds can be. It’s like being Sisyphus – a fate I never thought I’d have to suffer. There are some flowers to be seen though – if they can make their way through the weeds, that is.

Yesterday we saw a hare (or rabbit, no idea) in our backyard. It sat there for hours and Corin watched it nonstop. Then he had the awesome idea to throw some carrots down. First the hare/rabbit didn’t show any reaction at all. I assumed that the tale that rabbits like carrots wasn’t true after all, but eventually it finally jumped towards it and nibbled away. So cute!

And finally: I created a few more bag inserts. They are already on their way to me, can’t wait to see them. One of them is for a friend of mine who saw my first insert and wanted one, too. So I made her one for her official stuff bag for the oncoming Sand Spirit 2008.

Here is one I made for myself – totally different style from the first one:

Credits: Papers: Jen Wilson; Brush: Jason Gaylor; Dead end street sign photo: Stock Exchange, jnichols; Fonts: Totenkopf, Steak, Ambulance Shotgun

 Love that quote!

As far as Corin’s tast in music goes now, when asked what’s his favorite song  he’ll say "Du riechst so gut" by Rammstein. LOL, good boy, hopefully the topic will never come up in kindergarten though.

Sean slept last night from 6 pm to 5.30 am, that was something new to us. I think that makes it three days at most that he slept through in 2 1/2 years. Am I in luck and he has got it? We’ll see.

Just for my own entertainment here is another live clip from Rammstein:

Of course we had some roast ox, Corin had fun in the bouncy castle and Sean likewise. First he was in his pram for some lunch, but after a while he wanted to get out and off he ran towards the bouncy castle. It was the first time he was in/on one and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He was bouncing up and down and rolling about – it was such fun watching him. He was the youngest kid in it, but everybody made sure he was ok. At one point he rolled down and just ran off in his socks, everybody thought he was the cutest – and of course he is.

I listened in to one of the conversations between Corin and another boy. The boy asked Sean whether he can speak already (which he can’t), so Corins says "No, he can’t. Leave my brother alone, little boy!". So the boy goes: "I’m not a little boy, I’m 4 already." So Corin goes: "I am 4, too", and there it was, the eternal argument about who is bigger, stronger, older, better – even the 4-year-olds already have it in them.

The abbey shop was fabulous. They sold vegetable plants and all sorts of organic food and drinks. Since my plan to grow zucchini from their seeds hasn’t succeeded so far we bought one zucchini plant and one Hokkaido bumpkin plant. I said to John that when we get home and check the zucchini there are probably a few coming up now – and guess what? There are 5 of those little buggers showing up through the soil, LOL. Figures! No idea what to do with all of them now. We can’t possibly plant 6 zucchini plants in the garden, they’d cover the whole area and later on I’d have to press my friends to take some of my zucchini until they are friends no more .

Here are a few pictures:

Here is the ox. Those people are no scrapbookers, they laughed about me taking the picture.

And the bouncy castle.

Here are 4 more pages of the album:

Credits: Papers and flower epoxy all by Jen Wilson – from various kits from the Spring Collection; staple: Ida; grunge overlay: DaniB; swirly overlay: Rhonna Farrer; Heart template: Jessica Bolton; antique notepaper: Meredith Fenwick; Fonts: Typenoksidi, The King and Queen

 ***

I’m trying to turn Corin into a proper music fan. Recently he started saying he was a robot, so I taught him to sing "Wir sind dir Roboter" by Kraftwerk – a good old German tune from 1978. so he’s always running around going "wir sind die Roboter, tam tam tam tam…" Too cute. Today I had a look on you tube and found this:

I made him watch it and he really liked it. Good boy. Then I discovered something else: The Pooh version of "Ich will" by Rammstein. Rammstein are German rock at its best and a Pooh version is the perfect start for a four year old.

So, on the headphones. He wouldn’t give them back to me again and was dancing to it. I taught him what song it was and by whom. Now he’s probaly telling the kindergarten people on Monday that he was listening to "Lammstein" (he can’t say "r"), which will shatter my reputation with them forever. All in a good cause though. I don’t want him to fall for some shallow boy group pop, do I?

First playdate = success!

***

My newest layout in the Digi: in deep class is a dino-page. We had to scrap something that is very important to us and make a photo in Makro mode without flash. I chose to scrap something that has a huge impact on my life at the moment, even though I couldn’t care less about it, LOL. I love how the picture turned out. Don’t they look like they have a lot of fun?!

Credits: Lomo action from atncentral; Papers, stamps: Meredith Fenwick – Technotrash; String: Dianne Rigdon; Paintbrush: Meredith Fenwick – Everyday Inspiration; Fonts: Black boys on mopeds, Caveman

If anybody is wondering about whether to take Jessica’s class next time it is offered, do it! It is awesome, you get so many things done and learn so many tricks. Yesterday I was very disapointed when I checked my mail in the morning and my daily Jessica fix hadn’t arrived yet, LOL. It came a bit later though and everything was good again…..That’s what she does to you…..