• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

A little bit of everything. Life, animals, family, crafts, recipes.

  • About
    • About Jessica
    • About Animal Quest
  • Blog
    • Daily Life
    • Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums
    • Animal/ Zoo stuff
    • Travel
    • Crafts
    • Tutorials
    • Recipes
    • Journaling Prompts
    • Classes
    • Kids/ Babies
  • Recipes
    • Baby & Toddler Food
    • Entertaining
    • Gluten Free
    • Healthy Family Meals
    • Low Fat
    • Low Sodium
    • Sweets n’ Treats
    • Hidden Veggies Recipes
    • Vita Mix Recipes
  • Freebies
  • My Book
  • Contact

Archives for 2009

Life at the Zoo

October 25, 2009 by Jess 8 Comments

Really? Oct 9 was the last time I did an update? It feels like it was a couple days ago. Things here are going well, but even busier which I didn’t think was possible.

Last week was crazy but also very cool for all of us “first years” at the zoo. The second year students all went away for a week to go on field trips throughout Northern California, sooooo that meant we were left to look after the animals at the zoo!!! EXCITEMENT!!!! We were all assigned different animals, anywhere from 2-4 people on each animal. I was in the Primates area for the week so I was care-taking for Samantha the Gibbon and the three Spider Monkeys (Indy, Maya and Cindy Lou). Unfortunately with the primates (or at least these particular ones) there isn’t a whole lot we can do with them directly, so it was mainly just feeding and creating some cool BE (Behavior Enrichment)  to keep them busy. Depending on the animal, there were some care-takers that were able to take their animals for walks and do training sessions with them. I was envious of them.

sam

here is Samantha, she’s awesome – I just love her! She makes the coolest happy monkey sounds : )

sam1

Here she is going through the box of goodies I gave her.

So, some other things that have been going on since I last posted on here:

I recently found out that I’m allergic to Soy which really sucks. It was a huge part of my diet and I couldn’t understand why I was getting so sick all the time. I had been totally addicted to Edamame and was eating a ton of it everyday, plus soy milk every morning, and soy protein shakes and bars, etc. I cut all of it out of my diet last week and have been fine ever since! (I did test it out one day and ate something with soy – sure enough within the hour I was sick). ugh, its amazing how much stuff has soy in it too, I’ve been checking labels like crazy. Dairy products don’t do so well with me either but I have discovered a really tasty Almond milk so that’s one good thing.

I did get an afternoon off a couple weeks ago and got to go to Disneyland with some of my friends from school (we are all annual Disney passholders). We wanted to see the special Halloween stuff they had there and the Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas in it was awesome!! Space Mountain’s new “Ghost Galaxy” was a huge disappointment, especially considering we waited almost 3 hours to get in. The Halloween fireworks show was amazing though. We had fun, even though the park was INSANELY BUSY – it was the busiest I’ve ever seen it, it was so hard just walking around there were so many people (and strollers…).

disneyhalloween

Oh, something funny did happen though. We got stuck on the Indian Jones ride, it literally broke down right when we were in front of the big rolling ball near the end of the ride!! The anamatronic Indiana Jones was dangling directly above our heads, it was a little unnerving! All the lights came on so we were able to see all their secret hallways back there and stuff and the big ball kept rolling in front of us but we were able to see how they do it. The secret has been revealed! haha! It took them half an hour to come get us out of the jeep, we had to climb down on a little ladder and then follow the cast member through the hallways to the front of the ride. The good thing was we got fast passes for whatever ride we wanted to go on next.

right above our heads!

 

Oh – I’m totally into pomegranates right now – it helps that we have a huge tree full of them in our backyard! I picked these a couple days ago:

poms

But my most exciting news actually began this week. The second year students are going away again – next week so we get to care-take on all the animals again – this time different ones! I am in Carns this week (Carnivores) so the animals that I’m assigned to are: the Hyena (Savuti), the Wolf (Lengend) and the Serval (Spitz). I’m SO EXCITED!!! I got to hand feed the serval yesterday and go on a walk with him, and today I got to meet Savuti and pet him through the fence (He is a protective contact animal). I haven’t yet met Legend close up but hopefully I will tomorrow (I’ll also get some photos of her then).

savuti

savuti2

Savuti on his back waiting for more scratches – he was loving the attention!

spitz

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life

more scrappy stuff

October 25, 2009 by Jess 7 Comments

 

Since we’re smack in the middle of Fall, I thought I’d share a Fall mini I made that was featured in the last issue of Memory Makers Magazine last month. Fall really is my favorite time of year and this little book means a lot to me. I actually made it about 8 months ago and it’s with photos from last year (obviously, haha). But it is full of all my favorite Fall things, and all things that I had back home in BC, none of which I have here in Southern California. It’s a very different Fall here – it’s still very green, and warm! It’s been in the 90’s all week, and it’s almost November!

fallmini11

fallmini21

fallmini31

fallmini41

fallmini51

fallmini61

fallmini81

fallmini91

fallmini101

fallmini121

falmini111

fallmini131

fallmni141

Filed Under: Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums

More ups than downs

October 9, 2009 by Jess 5 Comments

As I was walking across campus today it suddenly hit me that it’ll be mid October next week. Here we are in Fall already and today really was the perfect Fall day. Blue skies, not a single cloud to be seen anywhere. Warm but not hot, just right for a tshirt but too warm for a sweatshirt. A slight cool breeze in the air that made me think of Fall, however the grass and trees are still green, and there are no leaves on the ground. A Fall like I have never experienced it before, but I like it.

I’ve mentioned this before, how things get really overwhelming – there are good days and bad. Yesterday was one of the not so great days, was just feeling really tired, worn out, missing home, overwhelmed with tests and projects. When I look at my daytimer and see how many things I have coming up, it makes my head spin. Occasionally those questions do pop up such as “why am I here? why did I give up my whole life and what I had to come here? Was it worth it?” And then this morning I got my answers. Watching the sun come up while walking around the zoo with a miniature horse, feeding a gibbon, going on a walk with a wolf and having the 1500 pound water buffalo lick pellets out of my hand. It’s just these little things that can make an entire day and remind me why I’m doing this. And this is just the beginning.

walter

Walter the Water Buffalo

nick

Walking with Nick the miniature horse

nick2

kingsnake

with Coraline the California King Snake

kingsnake2

kingsnake3

tegu

Walking Max, the Black and White Tegu

weezer1

Weezer, the Opossum

weezer2

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life

October giveaway!

October 9, 2009 by Jess 18 Comments

2 very cool Tim Holtz Idea-ology products!!!! Adage stickers and Adage tickets!

To be entered, just leave a comment here (or on any post in October), remember you get 2 entries if you complete this months mini album challenge : )

My question for you this month is: have you started working on any holiday projects? (Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas). If so, I’d love to see them to get some inspiration! Please leave me a link!

octoberprize

Filed Under: Giveaways

Where to begin….

October 6, 2009 by Jess 2 Comments

So much has happened here the last couple weeks…it’s a little overwhelming trying to remember everything!

A couple weeks ago we had the chaos of the wildfires burning here in Ventura County. My very first experience with them and I’ll admit, it was a little scary! One fire came within a mile from the college/zoo so we were all prepared to evacuate the animals from the zoo. Luckily, it didn’t come to that. Another fire was over not too far from my neighborhood and we were right on the border of evacuations. I had stuff packed up just in case but thankfully once again, we didn’t have to evacuate.

firesmoorpark

Right in the middle of the fire situation, I came down with a bad cold and was really sick for days. I still went to school and did my regular zoo duties but each minute I had off, I was sleeping. It paid off though and I was all better in a week which is fast for me! I usually get sick for weeks and weeks!

School is going good and I cannot believe it’s half way through the semester already! Excitement is coming up for all of us first years as the second year class is going away on field trips for a week coming up mid October so we all get to be caretakers on the animals while they’re away! This means getting to feed them and getting closer to them than we normally do! I’m going to be in the Primates area and I’ll be caretaking on the 3 Spider Monkey’s and a Gibbon. : )

We also just got our “Handler” status at the zoo which means we can take out certain animals now – any of the reptiles, the rabbit, the chinchilla, the opossom, the emu…  it might not sound like much, but its a big deal to us – when we haven’t been able to touch any of the animals and now we can finally touch at least some of them – this makes us very happy! haha

withsally

with Sally the Snapping Turtle

giraffe

I got to pet this giraffe at a Wildlife Education Center fundraiser

On the home front, the pets are doing great. We have added a new baby to the mix – another little rat. I thought Bella needed a friend so I got a little dark colored rattie from one of my classmates whose rat had babies. Her name is Pip and she is the sweetest little thing. The rats both actually adore Fro so much – its pretty stinkin’ cute! They climb on him and try to snuggle up underneath his chin, and he’s really good with them. I think he’s just happy to have their attention.

pip1

pipfro

angussayinghello

frorats

zoeyinbed

I got this cute picture of Zoey a few days ago – I found her in bed like this with her 2 favorite stuffies all tucked in under her chin and arm. : )

Besides school, zoo duties and studying (I’ve never had so much homework and studying before in my LIFE), that’s pretty much all I do. I did make it out on the weekend to go to Knotts Scary Farm with a group of friends from school. (Knotts Berry Farm gets transformed into a haunted park). It was fun – there were some scary mazes, and yeah I did scream quite a bit. My throat was sore the next day because of it!

group

Part of our EATM group at Knotts : )

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life

This month’s prize, a new challenge, classes and a tutorial!

September 30, 2009 by Jess 14 Comments

This post is strictly scrapbook related! I will post an update post in a few days – about the fires here last week, another new ratty baby, zoo life and more stuff : )

First of all, September’s challenge is due by tomorrow (also if you just want to enter the draw for this months prize, please post your comment by tomorrow night at midnight (Oct 2). All challenge entries get 2 ballots.

Here is the mini I finished for this challenge – sorry for the awful quality of the photo – I’ll take some better ones – and also of the inside pages – when its light outside tomorrow and post them up later.

changesmini

I did a tutorial on how to make this mini if you’re interested – it’s really quite quick to make (and easy and cheap – what could be better than that?) The tutorial is posted at the bottom of this post, so scroll on down : )

Here are a couple other entries for this challenge:

petey-book12

petey-book10

Hop on over to Leigh’s blog to see all the other pages in this adorable mini! Isn’t her pup just the cutest?

rosemini

Here is Rose Stannell’s awesome mini about changes in the homes that she’s lived in. Great idea Rose!

Now for Octobers Challenge!!

Theme: A week in the life

Mini Book style: Accordion – there is a tutorial here for this particular type. (If you use this tutorial, just add a couple extra pieces on so you have 7 pages in total)

These are the most fun to look back on I think, as our lives tend to change so much, even in the span of a few weeks or months. Do it on a week in your own life, your kids life, or your pets life! Have fun with it!

Remember for this challenge, you can choose to do both the theme and mini book type, or just one or the other.

I will post a picture of October’s prize after September’s winner is announced on Oct 2.

Online Classes are coming back!!! I will be offering my series of FREE techinque classes again with Techinques 101 starting on October 12. If you’d like to sign up please send me an email or leave me a comment here. There will be 4 weekly lessons and you can do the class at your own pace. Techniques 102 will start at the end of November and will run for 6 weeks, then 103 will be offered in January and is also 6 weeks. I am thinking of adding a new class in the new year – Mini Book Techniques. : )

Now for the mini book tutorial:

changestut1

You will need:

– Crafty board or chipboard sheets

– various papers

– binder rings

– crop-a-dile to punch holes through chipboard

– various embellishments

This is a great project to use up scraps! A very low cost and quick mini album to make.

changestut2

1. Cut you chipboard sheets into squares measuring 4.5 x 4.5″

changestut3

changestut4

2. I like the look of rounded corners right now, so I rounded all 4 on each piece

changestut5

3. For these pages, I kept some just as straight chipboard as I love that natural look. For the others, I covered them with patterned paper and trimmed the corners off.

changestut6

changestut7

4. Sand all the edges of each page with a sanding sponge until they are smooth.

changestut8

5. Shaped paper is fun to cut up and use – remember that you don’t have to completely cover each page – use a shaped piece and you’ll get a fun look.

changestut9

changesmini1

Filed Under: Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums, Tutorials

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • …
  • Page 10
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

View More: http://kristinnicolephotography.pass.us/reedyfamily

Popular Posts

Archives

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Archive

Handcrafted with by Jessica. Get in Touch.