Photo albums

I am currently sitting at my computer waiting for yet another set of photos to upload to Mypix so that I can have them printed. This will be my third attempt to find a site that will print them since I have been having rotten luck today. I like to have the white borders on my photos and I swear that all the sites used to do this but today, I can't figure out how to do it. So frustrating and such a waste of time. This will also be my second order for Georgia's first year photo album, although you could call it the third order because when I did Ella's album, I ordered doubles of lots of shots... and then forgot. I started sorting the photos into chronological order and realized that I had two or three of some prints and was missing whole months. Seems that I also forgot that I had randomly transferred a bunch of photos off the C:/ drive when a movie download got blocked due to lack of space. I never sorted things out so I ended up spending an afternoon sorting through badly labelled files trying to find everything I needed. Hopefully, if all goes well, this will be it and I won't have to worry about it again for another year.

Don't get me wrong- I LOVE having photo albums. It reassures me that even if I have a computer meltdown, I have copies of my favorites photos. I always scoop up my doubles and send them off to appreciative grandparents and great-grandparents. I end up flipping through the books far more often than I look through my old back-up discs. Ella has started to take down the albums and flip through them on her own, which makes me feel like all the work was worth it. BUT it takes so long! And it is soooo expensive. The prints may only cost a few centimes each but when you print out 400 photos (several times over...) it adds up. And albums! Cripes, you would think that a 100 euro photo album was some thing more than black paper between two pieces of cardboard but nope- thats all it is. I finally remembered that there is a Swedish company called Ordning & Reda that does fairly well priced albums and they sell them out of the Bodum shop at Chatelet. I popped over one morning last week and scooped up 5 in a nice blue linen fabric for Georgia. They had such a great selection in some really nice colors that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I would definitely recommend stopping in and having a look. I think I might run back and get some more because the pages are actually quite small and I can tell that I am going to need quite a few. I hate the idea of having to by a new model every year so I prefer to just have 4 or 5 extra albums on the shelf for the years to come and then be done with it.

Well, no time to get my order in today. The photos are still uploading and I have to run off to do English with Ella's class. Honestly, this is turning into the most ridiculously drawn-out project. I seriously just want to be able to eat dinner at the table again one night before leaving for summer holidays.

Easter's on its way

So, I think I finally have the finish line in site, regarding all my Easter projects. A quick rundown:

1. I finished decorating the girls' Easter baskets. I had to make one from scratch for Georgia, since last year I didn't bother to do anything. I found the basket at the quincallerie on rue des Ecoles last week and popped up to Rougier et Plé on Monday to pick up some crepe paper to make the flowers. I spread everything out on the dining room table( crepe paper, wire, florist tape, yarn, beads, and my green Happy Tape) and have been knocking out a few flowers every time I get a few quiet moments. I think that they turned out so well! I made daisies, lilies, clematis, forget-me-nots, a sort of hyacinth/lilac thing, and tulips plus some regular generic sort of flowers. After I got Ella's basket out of the cave, I thought it looked a bit scruffy next to Georgia's so I spruced it up a bit with some new things. Now, the next big hurdle will be transporting them to the country this weekend (and back again) without having them completely destroyed. It was hard to get everything well attached to the baskets without a glue gun. I guess that is the next item on my craft shopping list. Just when I think that I have every possible tool any crafter could ever need or use, up pops something like this and I wonder how I managed for so long without getting one. Yeah, so I may have to confiscate this basket from Georgia the Hun as soon as she finds it on Easter morning so that I can keep it safe til I can do it right.

2. We dyed Easter Eggs. I think that they turned out beautifully despite the fact that I had to improvise with gel food coloring, which wasn't all that easy to do. On Tuesday, I had to walk up Blvd Beaumarchais on my way to the craft store and I passed in front of a Franprix. I remembered that I was completely out of diapers and so I took advantage and popped in to pick some up. While wandering around I stumbled upon a stack of white eggs! Now, you non-Parisians will think that this is no big deal but here in Paris all the eggs for sale in 99% of the shops are brown eggs, which are not fun to try and dye. There are years when I have gone into a dozen different grocery stores and chased up leads from all my girlfriends only to come up empty handed. So really, this was a stroke of luck. I was also excited about doing them since my friend Hestor brought us an egg decorating kit from Holland. If only I had read the directions BEFORE starting the job. To get the plastic bands to shrink to teh egg, you dip them in boiling water. Ella had already dyed the eggs but most of the color came off in the boiling water, as you'd expect. I was all ready to drag out the dyes a second time, but then I had a lightbulb moment. I realized that Ella was happy; no one else cared the least little bit how brightly our eggs were colore; maybe, just maybe, I could let it go? And I did. People, this is huge.

3. I have a basket ready for to be planted with spring flowers to give to my mother-in-law as a sort of centerpiece. I also stumbled across a store in the 11th called Le Fiacre which had a ton of stuff for Easter- baskets, stickers, cards, gift bags, towels, etc. I bought some stickers for Ella to put in her basket as stickers are always always always a winner with her. A also managed to find some really nice little English coffee cups for my MIL. Last time we were at her house, she broke nearly everyone she had in some freak dishwashing accident. I also got some mugs as I hate having espresso in the morning and I HATE drinking cafe au lait from a bowl. I will never be that French. I am hoping that the present of something that she needs will win her over and she will accept the mugs (under normal circumstances, she would just open the box and then hand it back to me, saying, 'Keep them, I don't like them.' She is nothing if not blunt.) We shall see.

4.The girls have matching yellow dresses. Georgia will be wearing the one Ella had when she was 1 and Ella will be wearing a really pretty little sun dress from Chloe that I found at Fifi de Vem. How funny that the last three items of clothing that I bought Ella have all been Chloe. I never thought that it would be my go-to brand for dressing my kids but what can you do? The children's line of clothing is To Die For.

5. I have my closet packed with chocolate treats for the girls but I am a bit miffed at Georgia. The other day I popped into one of my fav chocolate shops, just off the Place des Vosges and bought a few bags of friture for me and B. As we left the shop, it started to rain and so I ran home, not paying very close attention to Georgia in teh stroller. I should learn my lesson. I got in the door and she was missing a shoe (she is the middle of a stage of taking them off and then immediately screaming for them to be put back on. We can do this a hundred times in a row and she does not get bored.) So I had to grab and umbrella and go back out to find her damn shoe. Then I went back into the apartment and unloaded all my bags from the pousette, only to find that the bag from the chocolate shop? It was empty. The sales girl had given Georgia a sample - which she inhaled- and then she kept pointing to the sack and saying 'Num-num? Num-num?' which is her word for 'feed me!'. I didn't think she needed another piece and obviously I should have learned by now that if there is one thing that will motivate Georgia, it is food. By the time I discovered the empty bag it was pouring rain outside and I was done. So I may go and get something else or I may just call it Fate's way of reminding me that I am on a diet.

Happy tape project

I just saw this on Ohdeedoh and think that it would be a fantastic project for my Happy Tape. And how appropriate now that I am entering Birthday Season.

So the superhero capes are ordered and I'm just waiting to see what they are going to charge to put a rush on the order to get it here in time for the party. I am so mad at myself! I've been looking at them for about two weeks and trying to figure out with Ella how many kids we would have to the party but basically just procrastinating. Now I am literally going to pay for it. Sigh.

Off this afternoon with Georgia to brave the cold and find a Sam Sam book to use to make invites. Now that I have bought the capes there had better be a kid here to wear each one and the only way to do that is to get the invites out ASAP. Kids are so overbooked these days that I might even be cutting it close giving only 2 weeks notice.

Did I mention that I also bought capes for me and B to dress up as super Mommy and Daddy? This is going to be such a fun party.

Happy Tape project

I think it was the blog Oh Happy Day that I first heard about Happy Tape, but since then I've seen it on a few blogs about crafting and I've been dying to buy some. I didn't want to pay for it to be shipped to France since I figured it would cost more than the tape was worth- especially if the package got caught in customs. So I sort of filed it away in my mind, for a rainy day.

Then over the holidays while in Wisconsin, when I finished up my Christmas shopping, I decided it would be a good idea to give a thought to what I wanted to get the girls for their birthdays since lots of things are so much cheaper (and easier to find) in the States. Suddenly, I had the idea of ordering Happy Tape for Ella for her birthday since she LOVES using tape. She is in heaven when I let her have a roll of regular Scotch tape and will easily spend an entire morning taping things together- paper to paper, paper to wall, paper to finger, finger to finger- anyways, you get the idea. This is the perfect present, better than the box o' balls that I got her when she turned 2 (ie, I got a packing box and just filled it up with every kind of ball that I could find. She adored it!) or the box o'flashlights that she got when she was 3 (you can figure this one out I think...).

The tape turns out to be kind of pricey, but more so because its so hard to choose. I ended up ordering a big 10 pack of spring colors, a pink mix, a blue and red patterned pack, and a pack of 'neutrals'. The rolls actually seemed quite small when I finally received the package- I don't know how much is supposed to be on each roll, but I suppose that since this is masking tape, in my head, I had imagined masking tape sized rolls that you use for taping off when you paint walls. They are actually about a quarter of that size. But saying that, once I started using the tape, it seemed like it there was a lot on each roll and it will last a long time. 7

Because OF COURSE I couldn't wait til February 10th to crack open the tape. It was singing its siren song and finally I couldn't resist! Besides, I had the best project- I had gotten a little notebook for Christmas, one that I could carry around in my purse. I was happy with the leather cover, since I figure it will hold up to the assault that it will suffer getting banged around inside my purse. But it was a bit blah. Enter Happy Tape! OK, so maybe stripes is a bit obvious, but I think it turned out so awesome. The edges are a bit ragged and I think that I should cover it all in clear plastic to keep the tape from peeling up at the edges, but overall, it turned out prefectly.

I know that the majority of the tape I need to leave alone so that there is something to wrap up for Ella, but I can't stop thinking of all the neat things that you could do with it. I think it will be really neat to use for wrapping presents. I want to get a few rolls of plain white wrapping paper (PS Parisians- Bon Marche has 40% off all their wrapping supplies. I think it is a great time to stock up.) I was thinking it will be cool in photo albums for 'framing' photos. I also thought that it could be used on photo mats in frames. I'll be great for labeling jars and bins in the kitchen, since it is easy to write on. Ooo- I'm thinking it would be fun to order some of the wide tape to use on bins of toys in colors to match each of the girls rooms. I wish it were less expensive so that I could be really indulgent but like I said- it might go a lot farther than I think so I won't harp on that issue any more. And in the end, I'm sure Ella will have lots of great ideas of fun ways to use it, so I can hardly wait til her birthday next month (honestly, I'm wondering if there is time to have another order shipped to my mom so that she can ship it to me?)

One more idea for Happy Tape that I just put to use- use it to add a few stripes to a piece of plain card to make a really sophisticated and expensive looking thank you note. I had to write one to the delivery man at Monoprix. I ran to the grocery store after picking up Ella from school and only realized once I was at the checkout for deliveries that I didn't have my wallet, only a 100 euro bill. I apologized and asked what I could do. The cashier wanted me to put my cart on the side and come back once I had my wallet but the delivery guy said to just pass my things through. I didn't quite understand, til he pulled money out of his own wallet for me! He loaned me enough money to pay the bill and said to just give the money to whoever came to my house later with my groceries. How nice was that! Especially on a freezing cold day like today, when I really didn't feel like having to do the trip twice. Honestly, I might have to stop complaining about rude Parisians.