The Shoes on the First Day of Grade School

The Shoes Day 1
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

Yesterday was the first day of first grade for my little darling. He woke up and got dressed rather quickly for him. I had laid out his clothes the night before and made sure to loosen the laces of his new sneakers so that he could get them on easily.

When I got out of the shower he was already dressed, shoes and all, and downstairs getting breakfast together with my dad, who had come to watch him on Monday when there was no school or child care and to play paparazzi on his first day.

When I came downstairs I noticed that he was wearing his dress shoes but he assured me he had the sneakers in his backpack. Box and all.

My dad did the paparazzi thing and some of those pictures are can been seen on my flickr site. But I had to get a shot of those snazzy shoes.

I drove directly home, got out of the car and walked over to the school. I signed him out of the after school program and noticed that the shoes were not longer snazzy. They were anti-snazzy. They were ruined. I still had the camera in my purse from the morning photo shoot so I took a picture of the after effects.

Last night my son continued his lessons. No homework from the teacher but he did learn how to shine shoes from mom. Thank God we had black shoe polish.

It was raining this morning when we were getting ready for school and work. While he was using the bathroom I called to him, "You know another great thing about polishing your shoes? The polish protects your shoes against the rain."

The single word response, "SWEET!"

Getting ready for the BIG School.

My son starts 1st grade tomorrow. This afternoon there is a teacher's meet and greet BBQ at the school and we get to tour the school and drop off his school supplies.

Last Wednesday evening we bought new shoes and some clothes. Last Thursday he had his physical for school and I had to take the day off for that event. He was not a happy camper after it was all over because of the finger prick. Needles are not his thing and blood and pain are not good either so we went out and had a great day taking our minds off the band-aid on his finger.

First we went to lunch at Rainforest Café, his favorite restaurant we can't really afford to eat at often. It ain't McDonald's and that is good and bad. So after the dino-shaped chicken nuggets and Lava Mud™ dessert we set off for the other attractions of THE MALL.

We visited RIDEMAKERZ which is where he would have his birthday if I could afford it and if his birthday wasn’t the weekend before Thanksgiving. They are not booking any parties for that weekend through Christmas.  I asked.

We went to the Lego Store. We went to the Sony Style Store and the boy played a couple of games on the computer there. He even let me go through Papyrus, to see what that was about. I'd never been in the store before but when I left I felt good about my work and had a couple of ideas for future works.

But the majority of our time was spent in the Apple Store.  I spent most of my time playing on one of their fancy new iPhones and almost all of that time was spent playing WordFu. This app is the only reason I really want an iPhone. I don’t text, don’t use the internet on my phone, don’t use the offered call in gps service. I, wait for it, I make phone calls on my phone. I know it is a bit old fashioned but I just don’t see the point for a driving commuter to have a game phone.

Friday my dad arrived from Michigan and offered to take us out to dinner. Where did we go? Rainforest Café. After that is was back to the Apple Store.  I spent most of my time on this visit talking to an actual sales man and found out that, Yes, I can afford to replace my 9 year old laptop with something more up to date. It won't be a laptop, but I haven't used my laptop as a laptop in years. Stay tuned for the squeals of delight when I finally do make the purchase.

Saturday we went to a party at the boys old school and got to say goodbye one more time to the teachers and he felt much better about going to a new school after meeting high schoolers who had gone to his daycare center. He knows he can do this now.

Yesterday we went miniature golfing and I lost. I am much better when not blinded by sun and when there aren't a bunch of people waiting for me to go. I really stunk the place up. The boy got a hole in one, with an assist from mom.

This morning we timed the walk to and from school - 7.5 minutes from our front door to the main entrance of school and then back to my car. Not a bad commute. We also found out his teacher's name and peeked in the window of what I believe is his class room. He disagrees though. 

"This is a kindergarten classroom. See A, B, C. That's kindergarten stuff."

Yes this is going to be an interesting year.

playing through the stress

My son is starting 1st grade next week and he is really nervous about the whole thing. He has been at the same daycare center/kindergarten since he was 10 weeks old and he is having some serious separation anxiety.

His teachers have told me about a lot of misbehavior lately that is not his usual style. He isn't perfect but these antics are just not him. The teachers also informed me that this is normal for kids who have been at the school for a long time and, well, he has been there longer than any other student currently enrolled.

His anxiety has been weighing on me, as well as all the prep for school – getting school supplies, new clothes, physical exams and making arrangements for after school care. This is all new to me and well I'm not really liking a lot of it. Probably because his anxiety is draining all the fun out of shopping.

When I get stressed out I tend to go to old things. Comfortable things. Things I know about. This week it's the old things I've been uploaded to my Flickr site for artists to play with. I've dipped into the digital ATC world and produced a quick piece of play. A lunch time distraction from bills, school prep and real work.

Hope you like it.

Free Images

Where to find them and what to do with them when you get them

I am a collector of images. Not a great user of images, just a collector of them. Professional organizers may say "Pack Rat" but I feel much more like a librarian of sorts. Finding and cataloging images into folders on my computer for use in the future. I file them according to their subject matter, people, animals, letter/numbers and each image has a code that identifies where I got it so that if I use it I can give credit. Kind of like a footnote on an academic paper.

Some of my favorite places for images are:

DOVER PUBLICATIONS
Sign up for their email and get images for free. They also have GREAT books of images you can buy online or in brick and mortar stores (remember those?).

WEB GALLERY OF ART
The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism and Romanticism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 20.300 reproductions. Picture commentaries, artist biographies are available. Guided tours, period music, downloadable catalogue, free postcard and other services are provided.

Your tax dollars at work, U.S. GOVERNMENT PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS
Most of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license. We strongly recommend you thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use. For information about obtaining seals of Federal Agencies and the United States, please see the Government Printing Office website.

OLD UK PHOTOS
Old Photos of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland (which of course is not in the United Kingdom). Launched in July of 2006, this website seeks to preserve old pictures in perpetuity and display as many old photographs as they can of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This is a free to view website, that doesn't sell images, purely displays them for your pleasure.

KAREN'S WHIMSY PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES
What started out as as small gift to people viewing Karen Hatzigeorgiou's artwork has become a huge labor of love. These pages are filled with hundreds of beautiful images gleaned from her collection of old books, magazines, and postcards. They are all from material printed prior to 1923 and are in the public domain.

SAY IT
Says-It.com allows you to make your own funny photos and graphics - simply type in some text and choose from a few simple options. You can create your own church sign, make an official seal, have your own fire or police badge, and more. Once you've picked your options and generated your graphic, you can use it for whatever you like - save it on your computer, upload it to ImageShack image hosting for use in blog or forum posting, or have it applied to a variety of high-quality merchandise from Zazzle.com, including stickers, mugs, keychains, and magnets.

THE BOOK SCANS DATABASE
Scanned Images of Vintage Paperback Books. The images in the Database Index Page are arranged by book number within Publisher Folders, which can be accessed in the left column. Each image (anywhere in the web site) should be identified by its publishing house and number.

But my absolutely favorite place for images is THE GRAPHICS FAIRY.
Karen does all the leg work of finding and scanning vintage images for use in my art. I have used her images to test techniques and a couple of them are in works in progress (WIP) in my studioffice. When they are done I will share them here.

This image was an experiment. I had the photograph printed at Costco and when I got it home I really went to town. The girl's skin and hair are colored using Stampin' Up! markers. The background is sanded with a sanding block, I love the golden colors that are revealed with this process. I masked the girl with a thin transparent film with a weak adhesive on the back — the film was meant to be a book cover but the adhesive is so weak that it's best used as a mask for things like this. Then I got out the Tim Holtz acrylic stamps and Distress Inks and added the wings. The swirls at the top are stamped with Stampin' Up! Classic Inks.

To see the original click here: 1girlsitting004.jpg



I have begun to offer free vintage images at my Flickr site. Look for the FYAO (for your art only) collection.

Hope you enjoyed it.

*edited to remove non-active link