Birthday Surprise

We needed to have girls' night out on Wednesday this week. Wednesdays are WW days so that means a 6ish start time for the adventure so we like to stay closer to home. (Maybe it's just me who likes to stay closer to home I'm the one with the early bed time but I digress.) Staying closer to home means that Amber can go out with us which is always fun.

Now, the location of girls' night out is always a little spontaneous. We usually decide right before we go but know which night it will happen on so I thought nothing when on Tuesday I had no idea where we were going for dinner. When Amber called and asked if we could carpool to WW I just thought she wanted extra chat time. When the girls said the dinner location was not a surprise but it's fun that I was the only one who didn't know where we were going I played along. When I saw Buffy and Kakes in the parking lot of Oggie's my favorite pizza restaurant I finally caught on!


The girls had totally got me! We had a fabulous dinner that included baby entertainment, the purple princess tiara (that Ayesha, Deb, and I have all worn now) that scared Kakes, gifts and tons of fun!


Afterwards we all went back to Amber's house for ice cream cup cakes, gift opening, and now that Kakes had gone home to bed I had not convenient excuse not to wear the tiara. (Please don't misinterpret my normal cheesy grin as irritation. :)



It was a very memorable Girls' NIght Out and a fun way to kick off my birthday early!

Loco For Gocco!

I decided to start off this morning by playing a little bit. I had been so excited to try out my Gocco machine, and really a little nervous too! :) I decided I wanted to print a layer of skulls for my Halloween chunky book pages for the swap at Frenzy. I had too much fun! Jim even joined in the fun of the first printing by watching each step. (Isn't he cute!)


I plan to do a little research on cleaning screens today. There must be some way to save them.

Also, I am going to try to post on my school blog once each week so if your interest you should see what the kids are up to also. I have a link to the page on the right

Just For The Record...

every single bone in my body hurts and I feel like I'll never get "caught up". At the same time my kids are sooo happy to be back in their studio and that somehow makes the physical pain all worth it. :) I actually used a messy painting technique with my 5th graders on their very first art day. I hope the parents will find the charm in an "art day" shirt this early in the year. (fingers crossed)

Really A Week Already?

School starts on Monday and somehow no matter how many hours you put into getting things set up it never seems like enough time. I can't believe it's been a week since my last post already. I have tons to catch you up on.

First, here are my Funky Found Object Canvases from AU. I took this fun class with Leighanna Light.


Second, Deb's birthday was on Tuesday and I thought we needed to have a Gangsta' birthday party. We had bling rings, bling grills.



We read slang flash cards on the way to dinner.


We ate the best fried chicken on the planet at Lolo's Chicken and Waffels. This guy even offered to pose with Deb as her faux boyfriend!


We had so much fun!

I managed to finish my black and white and ABC ATC's this week too.



E is for Eraser.


F is for fringe.


And lastly, I finished reading Eclipse. I am about 6 pages into the last book of the Twilight series. I haven't heard great reviews about it have had limited reading time but I'll keepyou posted.

AU Shopping & Frenzy Shopping Too!

Today was Au's shopping day. Shopping at Art Unraveled is always crazy busy but I love the chase so it's great for me! I found loads of cool tape from Paper Studio.


Tons of fun doo dads, most from Hannah Grey.


And my mom even bought me two of the cutest "Ugly Monsters" I have ever seen as an early birthday gift! They were made by D. Gold.


Next, we headed over to Frenzy. I had a few stamps on hold and I needed them. We had a fun time talking about our AU classes and picking up MORE great Halloween items!


On our way home my mom and I stopped at Sprinkles to get some cupcakes that we enjoyed with Buffy and Kakes at my house. It was a great day!

More Framed Inchies

I finished framing all my inchies today at work. I couldn't wait to get them all hung in the studio! I think the kids will love them. The rainbow inchies are all from the swaps at Frenzy.

This is a set Deb made that she let me color copy because I was in love with the whole set.


Finally, the set of metal inchies I made at my mom's house when she we were playing with Christine.

Wednesday at AU

I had a great time at AU on Wednesday. I spent the day taking Landscapes Of The Mind with Anne Grgich. Watching her work on art was the best part. With help from Anne I was happy with my pieces. (I liked the boy more than the girl but my mom liked the girl so It's going to live with her. :)


With only 45 minutes left in the day I still didn't think I had done anything that I liked and magically both pieces did come together. The best part is that I'd like to try this technique again. As a bonus Anne painted on everyone's bags or aprons who wanted her to. My kids will flip out when I were my apron when we do our Anne collage project!


Adding to the coolness of the day Nancy brought me a Gocco machine from Tucson!!! ( How cool, and nice, and sweet is that?)


And Kelly brought me buttons! After talking to Debbie about these new buttons she found at Michaels Kelly went to get them for us to share. Wowie!


Am I the luckiest girl in the world or what?

Framed Inchies & Art Unraveled Day 1

I was delighted to discover that Joann has ALL frames on sale for 50% off this week. Talk about great timing! I found these great shadow boxes and love my inchies in them. I bought an 8x8 for the alphabet and 5x7 for one set of inchies. I framed the black and white set and the number set. I am planning to go back very soon to buy a 10x20 to frame the colors and a few more 5x7's now that I know how great they look.



Today was day one of Art Unraveled. I took Tiny Portraits with Juana Martinez-Neal. It was a fun class and I'm happy withthe way my project turned out.

Adventures And Whatnot

First, lets take a moment to celebrate the arrival of the new bingity-bling-bling glasses. I love the way they compliment the nose ring. :)

Things have been busy, busy , busy, but all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so here are the highlights.

First, I did manage t get a few thing done in my room and as promised here are my classroom people. I love them.


Thursday was Jim's late night at work so Ayesha and I headed out to try Pizza A Metro and ended up Getting custard with Deb as well at Leap's Frozen Custard. It was Christmas in July at Leap's which meant decorations and holiday flavors as well. It was pretty entertaining, especially trying to explain the concept of Christmas in July to "Ayesha. :) See the Christmas Frog below.


Yesterday I had an amazing day working on common assessments with my travailing art teacher from last year as well as my new traveler this year. I'm a total nerd about curriculum and we got so much accomplished it was amazing Plus it's nice to start the year feeling prepared. (I got tons done in the last two day for the before school meeting with teachers but I won't bore you with all the harry details.)

Last night Ayesha and I went to the AZ Science center for Adult's Night Out. On the first Friday of the month the science center hosts a free night for adults to check out the exhibits kid free. It's a really cool idea. We were able to check thing out with no waiting and at a much slower pace than if the museum had been packed with families.

Today is the inchie swap At Frenzy! I can't wait to see all of them!

Finally, in all of this I'm still making time to read. I'm to Eclipse page 260. (For you now Twilighters that means about 1300 pages or so in the last 13 days. Remember I'm not a big fiction reader you NEED to check this series out! Deb took the suggestion mid last week and already has my book 2 :)