Girls Night Out

Last night Amber, Deb, and I hosted Girls Night Out for our school. We ended up having 12 brave teachers from our school in their most formal gowns going to dinner at Buccca Di Beppo. With such a nice sized group we got to sit in the Pope Room, which was a very exciting opportunity. The Girls assigned me to the pope chair and I had no arguments as you can see by this photo. Amber, Deb, and I played it up big. Since we had this crazy idea, we started by getting out hair done. Of course we went to see Laurie for the best up doos ever. (Look how cute we are!) Amber and I even had time to get a pedicure before some of the girls got to her house to go to dinner. We had a great time at Bucca. Afterwards we cotinued the fun at Ambers house. We invited the guys and enjoyed Peter's Witches' Brew and Pumpkin Cakes from Deb and Ben. It was a great day all around.

Art Journal Pages Galore

I have been working on my collage pages for my art journal every chance I get. I show Jim the pages I make each day. Last night he said, you know you could be working on this Journal for two years. It was funny, and true. The best part was that Jim was able to look at the collaged and painted pages and just know that even though they looked done they weren't even close to being finished. You never realize how long a project could take if it takes on a life of its own. Here are some of the pages.

Cool!

I overheard two of my fifth grade girls talking the other day the conversation went something like this:
Girl 1- "I hope she says it again."
Girl 2- "Yeah, me too."
Girl 1- "I love it when she says cool."
This story is mostly for Jim, Buffy, and Shannon who have been calling me on it for years.

Arizona Art Conference

November 1-3 is the Arizona Art Education Association Conference in Sedona. I feel a little spoiled because for the last two years my school has paid for much more than most art teachers who want to go. This year they paid for my conference fee, my sweet hotel room, and I will be reimbursed for gas also. I was talking to the treasurer of AAEA who also teaches in my district and she said her school has never paid even for her registration. They seem to loose her paperwork at least for the last two years in a row even though she has turned in her paperwork three times this year.
Anyway, this year I decided that I was interested in teaching a session on using iMovie in the classroom. I had to submit my proposal almost a year ago and now it's finally show time. I put together my handouts today. Me, being me, could not just do a "normal" handout especially to give to other art educators. I had to incorporate junk into the binding. I love junk! And, why would anyone use a staple to hold a group of papers together when you could use a zip tie? I was happy with the way they turned out and am hopeful that all of my finishing touches on the presentation will go as smoothly.

Jimmies

I love Jimmies! You now the delightful little chocolate or rainbow sprinkles that are found atop your favorite sugary treat. Think about it, really. Donuts are better with sprinkles, cupcakes with sprinkles are more fun, top your favorite ice cream or frozen yogurt and it's like a party for your mouth. Desert Swirl does the best job with sprinkles adding them to the bottom of your dish as well as the top. With this ingenious strategy one is sure to find a lovely crunch all the way through their tasty dessert. Besides, how could I not love a sugary treat that has such a sweet name? (I love Jim too!)

Rapunzel, Rapunzel

Okay well maybe not yet but as of Sunday I officially have the longest hair of the Tuesday night dinner group. You can clearly not tell from this picture but when Ayesha arrived in town with a cute new doo she gave me rights to longest hair of my short haired friends. My hair is longer now that in 10 years check out this "then" picture. Aaaha, yes, that's really me.

Bad?

Is it bad that discovering a ribbon organizer has made me so happy? If found these two ribbon organizers, on sale for 50% off I might add, at Joann this weekend. They make me so happy! Not only do they hold spools of ribbon, when you close the lid there is just enough space for the tail of ribbon to hang out so it actually dispenses the ribbon as well. How can you not love a ribbon dispensing organizer?

A Day With Kelly

To celebrate my last official day of break I spent the day taking classes at Frenzy Stamper with Kelly Kilmer. First from 10-4 we made this amazing the amazing tape journal to the right. It is hard to understand the magnitude of its fabulousness from this picture but I love it! Painting all of the pages and playing with all of Kelly's fun decorative tapes was a blast. I am now a tape junkie and will be looking for decorative tape everywhere.

Next, from 5-7 I took a class called Composition and Design 101. Don't be fooled by the name this class was built for all ability levels. I made several great collages that I can continue to add to right in my tape journal. The three below are my favorites and I especially love the one with the Mehndi hands on it. before this class I never would have used so many colors or textures together. I was surprised how well it works and how much I loved it. I'm already itching to work in my book.

Diet ATC Swap

Another swap went out in the mail this morning. The theme was diet. I had to incorporate a hole in the corner of my card so that the cards can be hung from a ring that can be carried with you. The lady who is hosting the swap mentioned that people were making two sets of nine so of course I had to make two as well. The first set has a little fit file that opens to reveal treasures like my before and after picture, one of my favorite weight loss quotes right now, "You have to love yourself enough to keep the weight off.", and a little fortune that you can find in some pay scales. This along with somw glitter and it was good to go. The second set had another of my favorite quotes, "How does one learn to fly? You have to want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar ." and the back says, "What is your goal? Take one day at a time. Believe that anything is possible." The front was stamped with my circle stamps and finally I added a clear acetate butterfly with a silver brad and pulled up the wings so it looks like it is flying off the page. I can't wait to see what comes back in mid November.

Lesson Planning With Jim

There is something about being off work for an extended period of time that tends to make you uninterested in going back. It is much more fun to sit around and do nothing than to actually have adult responsibilities. Anyway, while I was whining about needing to lesson plan this morning I told Jim, "You just do it for me." To my surprise he agreed so I played along, "Alright then what should kindergarten do?" I asked "Finger paining," he replied, "they like that." "And first grade?" "Stick figures." Between my laughing I said, "How about second grade?" Not sure how much longer he would really play along. "Clay ashtrays" he said. "Ashtrays, I laughed" "Yeah, really they are supposed to be bowls but they all just look like ashtrays instead." I fell on the bed laughing it's like he has really worked with kids and clay.

Baggie Swap 2

After a conversation with my mom I decided it would be fun to solve my own "baggie problem" by creating an ATC with the contents of the baggie I had sent on for others to solve. This is what I came up with. How is it related? Only by color and that it is a bunch or random stuff I had lying around. But I am happy with the card and can't wait to see how other people sloved this "problem".

The Baggie Swap

What's with all this junk? Well, my mom has been telling me to join some of the Yahoo groups and get going on some swaps for eons now. I finally got interested when she told me about this baggie swap. I loaded up four baggies each with the same four crafty item and sent them to Virginia. In a few weeks I will receive four new baggies each with completely different items in them. I will use the contents of each baggie plus what ever goodies I have lying around to create four different ATCs, again I will mail them to Virginia. A few weeks later the contents of my original baggies will return to me as ATCs. It will be so exciting to see how other artists interpreted my stuff.

I also signed up for an ATC swap with the theme of dieting. The group leader asked that we put a hole in the corner of each ATC so that they can be put on a ring and carried around as insperation for weight loss. How cute is that?

Cardinals Football

Yesterday, Jim & I went to watch the Arizona Cardinals take on the Carolina Panthers in the University of Phoenix Stadium. (How's that for drama?) Really though, it was my first time in the stadium, which was amazing, and the first football game I have been to since college. The sad part of that statement is that I didn't go to very many football games in college because the fanfair at one NAU game was slightly less than I was used to at one Peoria High School game. I guess that's the difference between having a good team record and a mediocre one. Anyway, I digress.

After walking around the entire stadium to check everything out we settled into our seats and I learned some interesting facts about the University of Phoenix Stadium by reading the Kickoff Magazine prior to game time. Did you know that there are/is.... 12 family restrooms, 29 men's restrooms and 32 woments restrooms in the stadium? enough air conditioning to cool 2,300 valley homes? 900 miles of concrete in the construction of the stadium, enough to make a sidewalk from here to LA? The list goes on and on, really. Another fun fact is that Phoenix Magazine voted the name of the stadium as one of Phoenix's worst decision in 2007. I read that in Phoenix magazine not the Kickoff magazine. And finally, to answer your question, no, I did not see anyone else actually reading the Kickoff Magazine but there must have been someone or why else would they print them for every game?

Mr. & Mrs. Kauffman

Tonight was my cousin Tricia's wedding to her beloved Kevin. It's funny, you know a girl her whole life and never know that she has a hip-hop alter ego that goes by the name Tricialicious until you give her Maid of Honor a microphone and the truth comes out in one fabulous speach.

Really, it was a quite marvelous wedding not just because the weather was perfect, or that we got to watch the sun set while we were eating tasty little sandwich rolls and the best trail mix ever. And, it wasn't the trees filled with little white lights after dark, the perfect dinner, or the ice cream wedding cake that made it marvelous either. There is something special about watching two people, especially one that you have grown up with, on their wedding day and really getting the sense that this day is the happiest day in their whole life to this point.

I just wonder if Tricia realizes that Jim too has a hip-hop alter ego that lives by the "g-code". Oh, yeah he is straight G here in Arrowhood. Just ask him, he'll tell you all about it.

A Spooky ATC Swap

This morning was my October ATC swap at Frenzy Stamper . Our theme was Halloween or Dia de los Muertos. Just in case you don't know about ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) they are 3 1/2 X 2 1/2 pieces of art work that artist get together and trade. My cards for this month are above and the ones from the people in my group are below. Consider this eye candy. Nice on the eyes and the hips.

Artistic Endevors

I love having a break from work when it can really be a break. Usually I schedule so many things in that even the fun lunches with friends become a chore just by sheer quantity. This break I have had time for lots of naps, lots of movies, and have gotten in a few art projects as well.



To start I finished my pages for my Dia de los Muertos chunky book swap. A chunky book is a tiny little collection of 4 x 4 pages from a variety of artists. That's where the swapping comes in. I mailed out 21 handmade pages that were exactly the same to the swap group leader along with return postage. In a few weeks I am expecting 21 pages to arrive in my mail box, one being mine and then 20 little surprises! Once they arrive I will be able to bind them any way I like. I can't wait to see this little masterpiece.


I also had time to make some miniature spooky greeting cards. It is always fun to do a project that leaves ultra fine glitter all over your clothes for the day.

So, are you wondering what could possibly be next? Today I will start making Fimo clay tiles for my Dia de los Muertos shrine. I found this great shelf and Art Unraveled at the Junkyard Queens booth. It was just begging me to turn it into something fabulous! I plan to mosaic it with handmade and store bought tiles. Here's the before.

Wahahahaha!

It's starting to get very spooky at my house. All of the decorations are up on the inside of the house. All of the spooky dinner invitations are out and all of supplies have been purchased- withstanding food of course. Today I'll be making the final frightful menu and then it will just be a matter of time. Wahahahaha!

The Wiki

After our WW meeting last night Amber and I made time to get some tasty Stir-Fry Paradise (Of course Desert Swirl followed.) together. Along with charming personality and witty conversation I was reminded of our Wiki. Not that you could forget about a fabulous place to find pointastic recipes and shopping tips but somehow in the day to day shuffle it is nice to be reminded of these sorts of things. I have attached a link to make it easier to get to-not that it was hard to find before but I’ve eliminated all of my excuses, and I have also updated my Trader Joes shopping list and added the Pumpkin oatmeal recipe. Are you getting curious??? Check out the Wiki.

Ah, Fall.

I think it was Saturday that I actually noticed a difference in the weather. It felt cooler and seemed darker when I took the dogs out in the morning. I got excited about all of the slightly warmer clothes that I had been longing to wear to work. I actually went into my closet to visit them knowing I would need them soon. It was then that it hit me. Ayesha had missed it. It is Ayesha’s first year in Arizona and she was on an airplane back to Michigan when fall came. That’s how it is in Arizona. You wake up one morning and suddenly you find that the weather has gone from boiling to cool. 60’s in the morning is a nice change and while I am sure Ayesha won’t feel deprived that she “missed it” it was a little sad. Maybe. The weather change made me think of this spooky picture.