AAEA Conferences Rock!

I had such a great time this weekend at the Arizona Art Education Association Conference. We stayed in cabins that had one common room and four bedrooms. This was great because it meant that all of the art teachers form Cartwright got to stay in one cabin giving us lots of time to visit and collaborate.

I LOVED my pinhole photography class! I'll be experimenting more with this idea for sure. I found out that one of the teachers in my district had done this type of photography with her kids and we are going to meet up to talk more about it! She is also an expert on glass fusing and she's going to teach me to set my electric kiln at school so I can do this with my kids!!! (My glass fusing class was just okay. I'll be really excited when my piece arrives after it goes through the kiln but I didn't really learn anything new.)


I also had tons of fun in my mobile class. I learned the magical thing to make mobiles really great is swivels. Most people were doing things from nature, I was making a spooky mobile. This is not a great picture but it shows how one of the other art teachers hung it in our cabin window-how cute is that?


I had tons of fun teaching my class. It was a smaller group which ended up being great because we had room to spread out all of our beautiful papers. Everyone really enjoyed teh class, they even clapped at the end giving me a big head. The best part though was that one of the ladies in my class got on the bus to go to dinner (didn't see me) handed one of my handouts to her friend and said, "It really is to die for , wait untill you see." She was so loud the bus topped to listen. Talk about a great compliment! :)

My weekend adventure!

After school tomorrow I am heading to the Arizona Art Education Association Conference in Prescott. Not only do the temperatures promise to be a high of 80 and a low of 53 which will be a nice break but We will be at a camp, and I'm signed up for tons of fun classes!

Friday
Pinhole Photography- learning to make a pinhole camera and darkroom in your classroom
Blogging in the Art Classroom
Mobiles- learning to build kinetic mobile sculptures

Saturday
Glass Fusing in the Classroom
Critique-E-Man- making art critique exciting
Dying Paper Towel- presented by me!

I'm sure they have tons of other crazy activities planned and there will be tons of art teachers from my district and it's always nice to get to "know" them because we get together so rarely. (This year we are lucky to have five meetings.) Yay Art!

Speaking of Yay Art-this year's conference theme is "Back to the ELEMENTS...but we haven't lost our PRINCIPLES" (because art teachers teach the elements and principles of art). After I explained it to Jim, he responded, "Does that camp your going to know they are going to have a bunch of geeky art teachers running around?" It will be great!

More Pizzaria Bianco Photos

Here are a few fun photos from Saturday night.



When Ayesha saw this one she asked Deb why she had to hold up the stamp pad like we were a Tim Holtz commercial. It was hilarious! (Obviously a few members of our party had partaken in adult beverages when stamping each other sounded like a good idea but, once your stamped you have to go along with the photo op.)

Sunday Night Already?

I swear not ten minutes ago it was 10 a.m. where does all the time go? I still feel so busy with school it is crazy but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will still get easier, it has to right?

After this weekend I can say...

I am 90% ready for my presentation at the Arizona Art Education Association Conference next weekend!

I am officially done reading the Twilight Series.

I have finished adding photos to the three little books that I made for Buffy and Amber.

I have eaten at Pizzeria Bianco. Ayesha and Tyler waited in line an hour before the restauraunt opened to put our names in and about an hour while we all got ready and drove downtown so that the rest of us could show up and wait about 20 minutes! The pizza was AMAZING! Definately the best pizza I have ever eaten. Worth the wait? Can you ever really say that it's worth waiting 2 1/2 hours to eat somewhere? I still can't decide. If you want to try it out I'd say go at an off time or late and reduce your wait time definatley worth trying out. (See Jim's approval. We took all the other photos on Ayesha's camera.)


I've seen Ayesha's new place.

I was hit on by a drunk guy while my husband was physically touching me. (Yes, realy.) This guy was petting my arm until my husbands friend, Rob, gave him the back off face. I turned and said did you need to get buy me thinking he really wouldn't be attmpting this while Jim was in physical contact with me (Clearly Jim didn't think he'd attempt this either). He couldn't talk to me he was so plastered but when the manager asked him if he'd called for a ride about 10 minutes later (he was sitting behind me at a table -I didn't even know he was still there) he informed her that we were going home together. :) The manager who knows us asked if we knew him. When I said no she informed him that he wasn't going home with me or Jim for that matter and told him he'd have to come up with a way to get home. It was humorous and I'm farley certain that he didn't remember it this morning.

When You Go To Bed At 6:00...

you wake up at 12:35 thinking about art projects. Jim tells me that when these things happen I should "try to sleep." I say if you're wide awake you should finish your projects.

I needed to finish up my ABC ATCs for this weekend and I woke up dreaming of H so ...

G is for glitter



H is for hole punch

It's Almost October!

I squeezed in time to finish my pages for the Halloween chunky book swap at Frenzy Stamper today. they have a SPOOKY flap that lifts to reveal my Gocco prints I blogged about earlier.


Speaking of October have you signed up for Kelly Kilmer classes at Frenzy Stamper yet??? How about Button Pallooza with Rosie??? The first week in October will be here before you know it! Don't miss out!

My ATC Group is going To Think I Lost My Mind!

If you know me in real life or you read my blog on any sort of regular basis eccentric may be a word that you'd use when describing me. While that is true, I am hoping that I haven't gone too far this time. :)

Our ATC theme for this month is texture. I'd been thinking of ideas with none of them really wowing me until Kelly introduced me to a rather large spider in the copy room on Friday. I felt a little bit guilty after trying to smash the spider in the morning (While he laughed and ran farther into the hole he lived in) and reporting him to the custodian to be exterminated at lunch time. (I'm sure he was still there Kelly had seen him in the same space before and he was mammoth, not the time to scury around unnoticed.)

Anyway, I kept thinking about him and thought, spiders have great texture. Now I came home and tried to create a normal ATC, really I did. Step one: alternate visual and tactile textures- not interesting enough. Step two: cut up the ATC and glue it down in a different order-not interesting enough. The spider was still calling to me. I bought a pack of spiders at Walmart with my groceries but something was still missing then it hit me. I had a package of raven feather garland! That was it! Just a bit of feather garland and a spider Voila! It screames texture, is rather excentric, and I'm sure it wil confuse the hell out of my ATC group.



Also, afew picture of my book from last weekends class.



I haven't given you an update on the Twilight serries in a very long time. I am still working on the 4th book Breaking Dawn about page 550. Having to go to work really slows art and reading time down.:)

What's Up!

Wondering what I've been working on??? Here's a quick update.


Mostly lesson plans and my assessment calendar! If you work with me please try no to fall out of your chair in a fit of laughter!

I really am still doing tons of school work but did play a little this weekend. Shannon and I took a fun class yesterday. I finished the project this morning but need to bind it at school tomorrow and then I'll show pictures. Ayesha and I had dinner and met up with the guys at Santisi Brothers. And, Buffy, Kakes, and I went to the mall this afternoon. Kakes and I took pictures in the photo booth. (She's admiring the Foto Cube sheet here.)


And Babies can use forks as well as spoons!

The Official Birthday Review

Yesterday was my official birthday although I fell like I've been celebrating it for quite a while this year.

Background Info...
In Jim's line of work the 31st of every month is a magical do or die day for the customers which means no vacation, no calling in, no exceptions! So hear you have Prince Charming's flaw... (I'm sure you've been wondering what it could possible be.) he is bound to work on my birthday. This of course 1. makes him feel incredibly guilty each year although I assure him my mom and sister love the opportunity to step in & 2. gives me an extra day to celebrate with Jim.

Back to the birthday...
I had plans to get together with Mom, Buffy, and Kakes yesterday after Kakes nap. When I woke up I decided to go to Target, I wasn't sure what I needed but I could hear something calling. I was in the dressing room finding three cute tops when Buffy called to tell me that Kakes, the brilliant, was already up from her nap and ready to go. She had adjusted her sleep schedule to get together earlier than expected.

We headed to Which Wich? in Westgate for lunch. Which Wich? like which sandwich is a cute little place that I had tried 4 months ago and decided I need come to on my birthday for the Elvis sandwich. Peanut butter, banana, and honey! You can see why this sandwich should be reserved for special occasions.


My mom brought along a box of M&M's for Kakes. Kakes has about 10 words down firmly and M&M is one of them! We gave her the whole box to see what she would do. She studied it for a minute and said, "Nona M&M" It was hilarious!


We walked around for a little bit and found ourselves in Cold Stone Creamery. Kakes and I both chose Blueberry Muffin Batter as our flavor.


By the end of this adventure Kakes was covered in purple ice cream! Buffy's response. "You did such a good job with you spoon1" How cute is that? Not you are so messy, you did a good job with your spoon! Buff's all about giving Kakes experiences she says she can clean up messes later.


Kakes and I were both tired at this point. We headed home. After a little school work and a nap I couldn't believe it when I heard the garage opening around 3! Jim wasn't due home until 8. His boss sent him home with a birthday card for me thanking me for giving him up for more than 30 hours over the past 3 days. I thought it was cute. Jim clearly need a nap but we were still able to get dinner together and watch most of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Clearly my pick) before going to bed. It was a great surprise!


Among my most exciting gifts were my polka dot rain boots and my new skull lap top case! Yes, I know I live in Arizona and don't need rain boots, that's probably why I 've always wanted them. Notice how my laptop case has been enhanced with cool pins all the way up the strap. Yes, this was my 32nd birthday and I got a skull laptop case and added buttons to it.


I have tons of cool and generous friends and family who gave lots of cool surprises but have to share just a few of my other treasures! As I was gathering just a few to photograph I detected a theme:)


I'll be adventuring with Jim again today too!