Elvis is back in the building

As you all know, Carter was supposed to be in his school's Idol lip sync contest a couple weeks ago. We practiced, bought the silver wide-frame glasses, watched Elvis videos and movies and even bought a wig. We ended up not using the wig, because on a 6-year-old boy, it looked a little more like Don King.

Anyway, the morning of the show, Elvis is nauseous at 5 a.m. Elvis never wakes up at 5 a.m. Elvis needs to be drug out of bed at 6:45. So, we were hoping it was just a case of nerves. But when he says he has to throw up, you run. Fast. So, it ended up being a nice case of the flu.

We were all devastated that he'd miss the show. At 3 p.m., he woke up after sleeping for about 5 hours and said, "I think I could do it." Sorry, buddy. No school...no contest. He ended up doing the little routine with his "moves" for a house full of ladies here for a bridal shower on Sunday without hesitation.

A few days later, his class wrote letters to him. They were so adorable, I almost cried. They said things like, "You are still a rock star to us." and "I know that you would have rocked good." They drew pictures on the back, which were just as adorable. Check these two out...
(I'll upload the photos tomorrow....)
The first one is supposed to be Carter up on the stage.

The second one and my favorite, is by Caitlyn. Notice the vomit. Only in the eyes of a first grader.

His teacher emailed me later in the week and said that they were going to let Carter do his little stint for the entire first grade on Friday during school. I went to his school and helped him get changed. It was right after he had P.E. so he was sweaty as a hog, and then had to put on the leather jacket. :) He walked into the gym and there was the whole first grade, a fifth grade class, the principal, assistant principal, custodian, secretaries, some parents, plus the music teacher. He drew a pretty big crowd and was really pumped up. He got out there and sang his heart out! I was so proud. Here's the video.
The first part is him in the morning before school (notice all the dirty dishes in the sink...just keepin' it real as Pioneer Woman would say) and then it goes into the song. Then we go back to his classroom and they're having a little party. I should also mention that it was pajama day, which Carter would never do in a million years. :)

Old date, new date

Stampin' Up! announced that the current mini catalog, Occasions, will be available through June 30th instead of May 30th.

Additionally, the current Spring-Summer catalog (the "big" one) will be available through August 10th, not July 30th.

Credit cards and PayPal

Good news! As of this Wednesday, Stampin' Up! will be allowing demonstrators to enter their customer's credit card information directly into the SU! ordering site to pay for orders. In the past, demonstrators have had to locate and pay for fees with their own credit card company. Now, Stampin' Up! will be letting us process your payments and they will pay the fees!

For this reason, I will no longer be accepting PayPal as a form of payment. Thanks for understanding!

Added 4/22...additionally, your orders will be submitted faster due to the new online credit card feature. In the past, I have had to wait until the next day after customers pay for their order to show up. Then, it took an additional 3-5 business days to post into my bank account. The order that my buyers club members placed last week on April 17th was just placed today, April 22, waiting for funds to not be in limbo. Starting tomorrow, there will be no more waiting. :)

Dymanic Cutting Calculator

I would like to thank Julie (justjulier on SCS) for making up this very cool Dynamic Cutting Calculator Excel spreadsheet! Click on the very first post and there is an attachment.

This handy little calculator lets you enter in the size of the layers of your cardstock and it will tell you how many you can fit on one sheet. You can also tell the spreadsheet how many projects you want to make and it will tell you how many sheets of cardstock you need, as well. This is awesome for when you're making a ton of cards or projects!

Thanks Julie!

Elvis has left the building...

Our son, Carter, who is six is infatuated with Elvis. He heard one song on my husband's iPod and fell in love. Now, a couple months later, he has every Elvis song ever made (not to mention knowing all the words), owns two Elvis full-length movies and has the DVR set to record *anything* with Elvis. He has several Elvis books and watches concert clips on YouTube and Elvis.com.

He bought himself a guitar, I bought him the glasses and he made his grandma buy him the white shirt and tie. He already had the black Harley jacket. He wanted me to dye his hair black...um, no....you are six years old. He also bought a wig but it now resembles Don King a little more than Elvis, so we vetoed it. He wanted to take the Harley letters off of the leather jacket and replace them with a big Elvis patch, but we vetoed that as well.

Tonight was the practice for his school's Idol contest in preparation for the real deal on Friday. He's going to sing "Don't Be Cruel" and he has some "moves". Here's the conversation that transpired last night:
Me: Carter, tomorrow is your rehearsal, you should practice your dance.
Carter: Mom! It's not a dance!
Me: Huh?
Carter: Boys don't dance. They have "moves".
Me: Okay. Whatever.

These are some photos. He did three go-rounds. As soon as I can get it working correctly, I'll upload the video. I can't stand how adorable it is. In the meantime, here are a few photos that my mom took....

New Name Frame..

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but I finally stamped today. I can't believe it myself.

I went to Wal-Mart tonight to get a birthday present for a party my daughter is going to on Sunday. In the middle of the aisle, lo and behold! The $3 frames! My Wal-Mart has been out forever. I only bought three of them and now I'm thinking I should go tomorrow and buy more. Anywhoo, I wanted to make something. I didn't have the brain power to be creative on my own, so I lifted this idea from Splitcoast. I have to add some embellishments and ribbon, but didn't have the right color on hand. I happen to have a handy Michael's coupon though....so I'll get some tomorrow.

One of the stamp sets I used was Garden Silhouettes. It is a retired Hostess set from the Fall-Winter 2007 Collection. If you missed out on this one, try Embrace Life on page 84. Here's a card made with it. This is my first time using this set and I just love it! I definitely need to do something else soon with this one.

Also, this is the disaster zone I created in that hour.

Cricut Opposites Attract Cartridge
Stampin' Up! supplies:
Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Heartfelt Thanks
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Baroque Burgundy
Ink: Baroque Burgundy, River Rock
Stampin' Up! Designer Paper

My favorite...

So, I haven't been stamping in a while, but I had to post this. It is a link to the floating otters that are holding hands. Watch through the whole thing...toward the end, they let go, then one reaches out for the other one. I forgot how much I *love * this video.

Otters Holding Hands

Then my nephew sent me this one from a Bear Wildlife Reserve. It's a bunch of bears scratching their backs on trees, but they set it to music. It is a riot. There's a little commercial first...

Bears Dancing

Do you have any good ones? Share them below...

50% Michael's Coupon

Here's a 50% off at Michael's coupons for my blog readers! Comment here and let me know what you get!
Happy shopping!