Back To School Already??

The Back To School sales are on and it's time to start thinking about school clothes, schedules, after school activities and...gulp...homework.  I have mixed emotions about school starting.  On the one hand, I look forward to seeing my preschool kids who I've really missed this summer.  I love watching my own kids play their various sports and, hectic as it is at times, I look forward to it.  On the other hand, I love the lazy, unscheduled days of summer and being able to be more relaxed about bedtimes and the ability to spontaneously take off on an adventure.  This is what crossed my mind when I saw this challenge over on the Blockhead Stamps blog to make a mini book.  If you are a stamper and haven't heard of Blockhead Stamps then hold onto your seat and zip over to their website to take a peek.  There are stamps there for every style.  I have been so impressed with their speedy delivery and excellent customer service.  Check them out.  Seriously.

About the book...my little project looks at what we love about summer and how the kids feel about returning to school.  I used all scraps from my stash for this little project..  I also tried to pull out stamps that I haven't used in a while (or ever!).  Here goes...

The background stencil is one I just got in the mail the other day from Blockhead Stamps.  Love it.  The title kind of got lost so I doodled around it to make it stand out more.

The book is bound using a pamplet stitch.  I added some beads and a little worksheet button to the ends of the bakers twine that I used for binding.

Ahhh...summer.  Bountiful gardens, the breeze whispering through my curly locks and days at the beach.

Camping and ice cream - two of my favorite things about summer.  It's criminal that we haven't gone camping once (yet) this summer.  I used the stencil again on the cone.

The background page is a math worksheet that I printed out for one of the kids thinking they would want to stay up to speed on their math skills during summer.  Ha-ha.  Fat chance, Mom.  On the left page I stamped the days of the week using distress inks.  Then I added some water to make them blurry.  The idea being that I frequently have to stop and really think about what day it is during summer.  The summer half of the book is done; time for back to school with the date circled on the mini calendar on the right hand side.

My oldest doesn't mind starting school too much.  Other than the early wake up time she's good with it as she gets to see her friends every day and flirt with random hotties.  It's all about the social life, right?  My middle child is less than enthused.  I often have to go in several times to wake him up on school days.  Strange.  He can have a 5 a.m. alarm for hockey and he hops right out of bed.  Hmmmm...

My youngest is somewhere in between the other two.  He isn't crazy about school starting but he'll suck it up and get with the program.  He's my laid back, go-with-the-flow kid.  On the right page I stamped the days of the week again, clearly this time.  Our fall schedule is insane between school stuff, soccer for some, hockey for some, etc. Never a dull moment.  The hokey pokey sentiment was kind of poking fun at ourselves and a reminder to keep all in perspective.

Finally the back cover.  I love my coffee and between my work schedule, my Etsy shop, the kids' activities and my husband and I both playing on adult teams (hockey and soccer respectively) a little jolt of caffeine now and again is just the jumpstart I need.

If you have indeed read this far thanks for taking in my babble.  :)  Until next time...