Paper Bag Dillemma

Ive been unsuccessful so far trying to print on paper bags. They always jam into our big printer and the printer that I used to use for craft projects and such (a canon inkjet printer which can feed the paper from back to front without having to twist it around the rollers)-- the power cord and usb cord are missing.

actually they're not missing. they're with my mother who is about 3000 miles away because I tried to give her the printer the last time she visited and since it couldnt fit into her luggage she decided to leave the printer behind but forgot that the power cord and usb cord were both packed into her suitcase.

so im stuck with approximately 185 paper bags that I can't print on directly unless i either:
A. Buy a new power cord which probably costs almost as much as (B)
B. Buy a new canon printer with the same type of paper feeding system (and Im in luck because I just saw one on sale for like 50 bucks)
C. Buy sticker paper sheets and use that big HP officejet printer we have that's been eating the paperbags in its rollers.

Right now, Im on the lookout for (C) but ive been to 5 different stores and I havent seen any! Ive seen iron-on sheets, vinyl sticker sheets, cd labels etc but no normal plain sticker sheets at all. That used to be sooooo easy to find, right next to the stacks and boxes of letter sized paper but so far no luck sourcing it out. I went to different types of stores too --- a hypermart, an electronics store, a computer shop that sells all sorts of printer accessories, a book store, and a discount store. NONE. ZERO. NADA.

i better keep my eyes peeled!

Twitter Critter

I finally succumbed and created a twitter account! Im in the midst of getting the hang of it though... and it actually feels really strange tweeting with complete strangers like um ashton kutcher. hahaha then again when i do i get embarrassed with my actual friends who are following me because they can see what i actually posted. so here i am wanting to tweet with al these people but then im thinking...

ohhhh crap. those following me will see what i just wrote... should i just discard??

anyhoo. most i guess just stalk these celebs. normally i would too but some tweets i feel compelled to actually reply to!

madness.

Olivia Popcorn bags and goody bags

Adrienne has fever so we spent the entire day at home. She was supposed to be resting but really she was playing the whole day. skipped a nap and went to bed without a fight at 6:30.

Anyway I spent my afternoon making this

and this

They're white images because I bought a whole lot of white paper bags yesterday morning (we're talking 200 paper bags in 2 sizes!) for popcorn bags and loot bags for her party. I went to a packaging supplier to get those plain white paper bags and they only came in 100s. haha. At first I was thinking of getting those chinese take out boxes in red... they're more expensive of course (for the price of 7 boxes, i get 100 of the bigger white paper bags) and although they'd look really cute, I wont be able to stuff as much goodies in them as I can in the paper bags. Anyway I had nothing to lose, the paper bags can be used for a gazillion things including Adrienne's school lunches or tons of arts and crafts projects so I got them anyway.

Now my problem is how to print them when my HP officejet 7580 keeps getting jammed whenever i load in a paper bag!!! AUGH! Ive been doing tons of google searches on how to not get a paper jam but twice that I tried, the paper bag got shredded in the rollers. A friend of mine did something similar last year (in fact, I asked her where she found her white paper bags) and I remember she told me how frustrating it was trying to print them.

Anyway im going to try printing again. hope it works at some point!

Adrienne's 5th week of school in pictures

There were no classes on Monday and Tuesday due to Parent-Teacher Meetings. I was scheduled to meet Ms Kathryn on Monday so I went and I wasn't sure what to expect.

I was really surprised. Adrienne has been doing well in school -- apart from the morning tears and refusing to finish up her lunch-- she hasn't had any problems adjusting. Her teachers told me that she's been doing the Montessori portion of school with the bigger kids already and that they are thinking of moving her two levels up next term. Most of her classmates now are either staying in the same class or moving one level up. Im not sure how Adrienne will take the change (new kids, new teachers!) all so soon. But she'll be on the reading program though so that's a good thing.

Anyway since she'll be doing 2 weeks of the holiday camp, her teachers told me that they were going to start grouping her with the kids that will be in her class next term so she'll get to know them. They'll also be going to the gym at turf city every wednesday on a bus!

Im excited for her but at the same time nervous as to how she'll deal with the change.

I also found out that Adrienne has started with mandarin lessons at school! I didnt realize that she was taking mandarin already because she never talks about that part of her day. Most of the time it's always about story time and art or cooking or what she did at the playground or how they had to make a choo choo train to go to "Montestory" (apparently the choo choo train was to move to where the bigger kids did montessori!).

Adrienne's week 4 of school in pictures

The Olivia Invite .... again!

I spent until 3am last night trying to put together a better invite because I felt version 2 was a little cluttered. It had me trying to put all the elements that my two year old wanted (i.e. the cupcake tower with the 3 on it... and eventually she wanted the background with the pink and brown dots).

So... Im down to the final 4. I do like the canvas effect but Im not sure how that will translate once printed. Anyway I still have a good two months to go before the party anyway so there's still time. Personally, I find the top 2 invites the least cluttered (and the only difference was that I put in a canvas effect for the one on the right)... and the bottom left one looks like it's Olivia having her 3rd birthday...

More rainbow cupcakes!

Spent the morning making a second batch of rainbow cupcakes...

Step 1: mix white cake mix according to package directions except I always add an additional egg and substitute 1cup buttermilk for the water called for on the box.

Step 2: pour the mix into several bowls and mix food colouring in each one to make the desired color!

Step 3: layer the colored batter into the cupcake liners. ( I do violet at the bottom, then blue, green, yellow and pink goes on top!)

Step 4: bake according to cake mix directions!

and voila! the RAINBOW CUPCAKES are done!