My intentions for this blog are fairly simplistic: mostly I would like to use this space as a means of encouraging myself to continue creating and growing by forcing myself to share my progress with anyone who may be interested. While I may share bits of my personal life, what I really want is to share my scrapbooking with all of the amazing bloggers already out there.
My darling
Lisa, how wonderful are you?
Lisa bought me the most thoughtful (double entendre) belated birthday gift. Not only was it so elegantly wrapped and perfectly suited to my personality/personal tastes, it was also a great tester for my literary knowledge. I will not pretend that I am as well read as my beautiful friend but I did pretty well. (I have not yet brought myself to tote any to school for fear that a student may get their grubby hands on them and they may never return.)
Speaking of reading, I did manage to get a few books read this summer. A very few for me but one stunner stood out from the rest:
Room by Emma Donoghue.
Now I definitely only judge books by their covers; books, not people. Promise. I DO NOT read the back/jacket of books. I like to let them unfold as the author intended, not with my own preconceived notions or expectations. Room (based on the cover) was a no brainer. I had heard that it was a dark book. I had also heard that it was a story of hope. I had also heard (from April who lent me the book) that many nouns were capitalized and it annoyed her :) I found the proper names given to everday objects clever and necessary. (We disagree about writing style again Apes :)) It spoke to the human condition and the determination of the human mind to create meaning in the (seemingly) meaningless. I really enjoyed the authors style and there were few artistic liberties that bothered me. April and I both agree that this book was excellent and, I speak for both of us, would highly recommend for an easy but powerful read.
I'm really excited to be teaching Kidz Kamp at TM again this year. Our first crack at it went so well last year we decided to give it another go. Apparently KC is cooking up something for the winter as well... She asked if I would be okay with that. Ha! what can I say? She had me at "kids". I love 'em. And they
usually think I'm alright too :) So here are a few sneak peaks of the upcoming classes but you can find more info
here and
here.
Last night was the athletics banquet at school. I simply love seeing the kids dressed up - they almost look human :) I joke, I joke. We had a nice meal and some laughs, handed out some awards and parted ways by 7:00 p.m. A success in my books. I have only one (YES ONE!) more teaching day left of school. The rest will be filled with supervision, marking and catch up... and I can't wait! This challenging year has taken a toll on me but even more so my students. I have simply not improved as a teacher as much as I would have liked. I guess I should repeat what I say to my students to myself sometimes: "life is hard and then you die". Oh wait, I say that when they are complaining..... "Live and learn". That's the one I use when they don't do as well as they would like. One of my delightful swim team managers made me this re-purposed notebook as a gift. She came to raid my recycle bin earlier in the day promising to show me what she made out of it at a later. It's so cute! It has the story of "the starfish" on the front. It's the one about the old man throwing starfish into the ocean one at a time and then a young man comes by and asks him why he bothers when it won't make a difference (the old man's efforts are futile in the young man's opinion). The old man replies, as he throws another starfish in, that he made a difference "to that one". Awww. So nice! And with a nice little personal message inside to boot! You know, as much as the kids are getting to me these days I truly do love my job and them.... it's when they are all together that the problems start ;)
Oh my, oh my, oh my! I should really be doing school work so I'll make this quick. I made another mask for the weekend crop. This one is African/jungle animal inspired. Cheetah print mask with feathers and rhinestones says "jungle" to me... Jill and Victoria sang most of the original score from "The Lion King" while I worked - a delightful experience. Then Vic and I (we were trying out new names for Victoria, I'm going to push for "Vic") staged a photo in the backroom in front of a fake evergreen. African? Sure! Nobody mention that I'm a biology teacher...
Must. Get. School work. Done. I really need to get to it so that I can watch the Royal Wedding! I'm sort of into the Royals. I was named after Princess Diana (Kirsten Diana) so I feel compelled to watch her first son get married.
And Kate is just stunning and I'm dying to see her dress :)
I've been helping out at the
store a little, reving up for National Scrapbooking weekend...which also happens to be my 28th birthday celebration! There are so many AMAZING prizes from so many great companies. All of the scrappers are going to be so excited and have such a great time.
I
would be jealous
if I wasn't having a hilarious, catch-all, drag queen, tickle trunk party :) I'll post whatever pictures I can.
Here is my mask for the crop. Each staff member got two masks to decorate. I have an idea for my second but some how managed to leave it at home tonight, instead of bringing it to the store. Sigh. I used the new and fabulous Basic Grey paper, some grey lace and some ribbon to create this unique mask. I hope however wins it, loves it as much as I do.
Photo courtesy of Jill's iPhone and
Jill and
Lisa's beautiful spring display.
Wow. This whole spring break thing is a really good idea. Went to TM today, played with Junior, Anna and Scarlet for hours. Got covered in drool. Loved it. Worked on my mask for the TM National Scrapbook weekend. Bought myself a staple gun and recovered some hideously defaced stools. All in all, a good evening.
Here's one of the culprits on the formerly maimed chairs.
And here is the stool in my basement now. I was too lazy to get out a sewing machine so I just folder the corners - anything is better than the ratty stool I had before. The fabric is from IKEA and was dirt cheap. I bought two yards and have a lot left over to re-craft into something else. I was so lazy that I didn't even cut off the excess fabric nicely. I was getting a bit concerned when David mentioned that I could take off the feet. Aha! I jammed the excess under the feet to hold it up and cut the rest off. Great cheat! Such a smart husband I have.
And a picture of the other culprit, just 'cause he's so darn cute!
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming swimming... stitch a sweater, sew a button, stitching, stitching... holding it together and in the meantime making cute sweaters even cuter. I bought this cute cardi from Old Navy the other day whilst shopping with mon mere. Loved it just as it was but I was really in the crafy mood so we went and bought "Grandma's Bag of Buttons" from Michaels and some embroidery thread and I went to town. I still want to add some more craziness but here's what I have so far...
I wore it to school and the several STUDENTS complimented me, so it MUST be okay. Ha!
Also, what is with my cartoon face. Honestly. Who has a nose and eyes the size of mine. Drop an anvil on my head and run me off a cliff. That's all folks!
Hello World! Wonderful, beautiful, bright world that I can SEE!!! Wow, laser surgery was traumatic, though I went to a wonderful clinic with wonderful doctors and technitions (
Eye Q Premium Laser) and they made it the best that it could have been. I won't go into the gory details but the bottom line is I can see. I had 20/20 vision less than 24 hours after my surgery and it has been the best thing to happen to me since sliced bread. Honestly, I still feel like crying when I think about it. Glorious! So what did I do with my new found eyesight? Well I can't do a heck of a lot at the moment. Ensuring proper healing of my eyes excludes working out and dust, excluding many household chores and going out in the sun for prolonged periods. A person who usually has multiple jobs and commitments does not do well under these conditions. My dear friend April and I were discussing the sheer therapy of coloring the other day and I became inspired. I printed off one of the first coloring pages available on Google and got to it. So relaxing! Despite my own best advice, below of a sampling of my latest most nerdy adventure.
Why not? I ask you. Color. Get out your pencil crayons, or perhaps your kid's pencil crayons as I fear most grown adults do not have their own 60 color Prisma Color set, and color. You NERD :)
So I've been working on a few new projects for the
TM Kids Camp that happens to start this week. I'm really excited for the camp and I think that KC and I have put some cool projects together. The first class is creating a Card Kit and then one or two cards. I'm still finishing up the cards. (Check back tomorrow for pictures.) The second class is a canvas class. Having just recently started in this mixed art form, I think this will be an excellent way for tweens to be creative. If young Kennedy is any indication, I'm sure that they will come up with some wicked ideas and have canvases that surpass the demo. Hopefully pictures of the other projects will be posted soon but I wanted to share my favorite creation yet. You've seen this before in a smaller version. A few weeks ago I made earrings. Today I made a sweet ring. In large form it was even easier to create, so much so that I'm sure little hands will be able to enjoy creating these funky statement peices.
Also, I was blog surfing (thanks
Lisa for always leading me to the
most beautiful things on the net) the other day and found
this.
I thought: "Where does Samantha get her flowers?". She must buy them and then glue them to handbands and other adorable things? Do you think? 'Cause her flowers look a heck of a lot better than mine but not all that different... Headband anyone?
So. I'm dumb. I never did give our FAB photographer any credit in my engagement photo post. Her name is Ashley Champagne and you can find her
here. She is incredible and has photographed Gaga - who, she tells us, introduced herself as "Gaga" not "Hi! My real name is Stephanie Germanotta but I prefer to be pretentious, disyllabic and completely deranged." What a weirdo. Anywho, Ashley came to our reception to take some candid shots and man did she ever. I will just post a few of the details (I know you crafty folk like the details) and a couple of my favorites. "Cootie catcher" favors (they were fun to design and fold - not- thanks for the idea Martha) with chocolate bars nestled within - yum!
Also my beautiful tropical inspired centerpieces were created by none other than Lindsay Best. She is amazing and has recently started a
new blog to showcase her incredible talents.
The head table had long intertwined pieces of bamboo with orchids and palms and other beautiful delights wrapped around them... so cool! I found a similar design on internet and Lindsay did it even better!!!
Dave and I love to laugh. I heart this photo for that reason.
Grammy. I had a reception in Edmonton with the hope that both my Grammy and Grampy could attend. Unfortunately, Gramps was ill but Gram was looking fineeeeeeeee....
Anyone notice that I've uped the posting? Woot! Woot!
Well I finally have some crafting to post. I worked at the store on Saturday and I realized just how much I miss the creative world, and so, this evening I got my hands dirty - literally. Lisa inspired me a few weeks ago with a picture of orange flower earrings. I had a cream pair myself but never did I think "I can do that", until now. First attempt = not too shabby.
(The cream flower is the earring I bought and wear all of the time. My ears will don the others soon.)
In other, more exciting, news WELCOME BABY SCARLET!!! I can't wait to meet you. I was already crazy about your furry brother, who knows to what extent I may lose my mind around a real living, breathing bundle of joy.
Well... believe it or not, I have been creating as of late. I just haven't taken many pictures and thus I have no prove. Until now, that is.
I made these cute candy cane vases and filled them with flowers for my teacher friends. They were super easy once I figured them out and I think they turned out pretty well. Now if only they will survive the trip to school....
More Christmas crafts to come, but in the meant time, I lurve me some presents under a festive tree! Ta-ta :)
My beautimus friend Amanda gave me a gorgeous charm bracelet as a wedding party gift. I love it soooo much and I wear almost everyday. I even have a name for it - my jingle jangly. You don't have to say it. I know I'm a dork. Anywho, here's this evening's work... if in a rather dark, but somehow appealing photo.
Well... teaching summer school is certainly something I will never do again, but on the positive side I have been forcing myself to do the following (as a form of compensation to yours truly):
- reading, even if it's just a few pages, every night (new Wally Lamb!!!)
- planning my wedding, shopping for dresses, etc. (my turn!!!)
- crafting... I even tried painting... it was going really well and then things went a bit sideways... but I have a plan of action and I will not give up on the painting thing yet
- relaxing (currently having beer with David's youngest sister and loving an evening of no work and all play!
Other happy things:
When I called home today, David said that he bought me a prize for a "real teacher". He even picked out the plant!
AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made another necklace. More chunky. More my style... but not in my colors. Meh! It was fun just to craft. I know Lisa, you could have done some fancy magic with my camera but I was just so excited to prove that I did something tonight I took one shot and here it is:
I know. A post. Shocking. I'm worse than Mernickle now ;)
So me and the boss lady did some crafting this past late night crop. Here are the fruits of my labor. Lisa was kind enough to model them on her BEAUTIFUL freckled skin (I heart freckles)but the pictures just didn't have the same level of detail.
In other news I got a new camera. Hooray! And it takes really nice photos... including the first ever nice picture of me. I know. I've shown everyone... and it's my facebook profile picture... but you don't understand how I tend to ruin photos. I'm a relatively decent looking gal in real life but NEVER in pictures. Look ma! No scrunchie face!
Christmas!!! I do love Halloween but who can argue with Christmas?!? I had a rough day today as my own mother hit my beautiful car with her even nicer car - rest assured it was a total accident - but I was still very upset. The solution? Crafting! I really enjoy the tree that stands in front of the cash at TM. I accurately named it the "Who tree". I've seen similar trees at Homesense, etc., so I decided that I would attempt one myself. Some foam, wire, pins, sequins, a bottle of sparkles and a whole lot of craft glue later, this is what I came up with. I think it's hilarious and it looks even better in person. (Ohhhhh ... sparkles...) And I've just convinced Daver that he should make me a stand for it. Tada!
I spent part of this morning crafting some new buttons; something that I have been meaning to get around to. Some are really cute (hello man and heart!*cough cough Lisa cough*) and some leave a little to be desired. But, a wise woman (Jilly) once said, "
someone is going to like it
somewhere". I'm still working on a few other ideas before I sell them at the store but I thought I'd put them "out there". Also, apologies for the crummy pictures... my camera has been less than cooperative, even post-coercive beating.
