Thursday, August 29, 2013

Nailed It

The Friday before the first day of school, I decided I needed a bit of pampering so I went in for a Mani Pedi. I knew I didn't want to be painting my nails in the first weeks of school so I opted to try the gel nail polish that's supposed to last longer and not chip. Well...two weeks in...one skirt made...a scarf knitted on...640 papers graded... many lego sets being sorted and assembled and I haven't got a chip yet!


I haven't even bitten them! The only reason these need work is because they've grown out.
I'm impressed. Insert endorsement here.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Room and The Lunch

I just can't tell you all how much I am enjoying life! Sometimes, when I get in full on crafting mode, I forget just how much I love teaching and enjoy my students! I'm at a great school with great staff and administrators and 4 awesome new teacher colleagues.


My room is decorated in a Lego inspired fashion. All those bricks on the wall were decorated by students with their names and images that represent them. Do they look like a wall of stacked Legos?


The cabinets are made plaid with masking tape, with plastic table cloth swags, and laminated construction paper bunting. The Legos on the top of that back cabinet were sorted and assembled by Team Luke and Jess on a weekend when many a feet were sacrificed to the Legos all over our living room floor.


I have not one, but TWO windows accompanied by two lovely columns adorned with lovely blue plastic table cloths and green satin ribbon. Yes, on the wall next to my desk on the right hang THE frog. No, we haven't named him yet.
On a fresh note, I have seriously been enjoying produce from my garden. Onions, basil, tiny hot red peppers, our first bell pepper and cucumber galore!!


While none of my tomatoes have made it home yet (I pick and eat) Pat contributed some delicious home grown from her garden tomatoes to my cause. I made some yummy bruschetta! A fistful of basil, 1/2 a small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, salt...


and to curb my abundance of cucumber I cut one in half, scooped out the seeds diced it up and put it in. (Inspired by my Chef cousin Chris who says anything can be a salad!) I made it the night before, for lunch, and after sitting and flavor meshing all night, the results were heavenly! The cucumber faded into a mild undertone. I started scooping it onto Parmesan baguette chips and then decided shoveling it into my mouth with a spoon was a better option. To top it off all the garlic gave me a nice personal space bubble after lunch in 5th hour.
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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Back to School

Well, I've spent the last two weeks in training and getting my room ready. Today was our first full day if school and our open house. I really like being a teacher. Here's my obligatory back to school photo!


I wore a skirt I recently finished made with Joel Dewberry fabric and the Pleated Chevron Skirt tutorial I found on Pinterest with a substitution of gathers for pleats. And pockets. Deep pockets. From now on all teaching skirts should have pockets.
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Friday, August 9, 2013

Back to School and Other Rambligs

My first week "back to school" (no students, just first year training) has begun.
We've had some extensive training sessions and as many of you know, accessing my creative side while listening helps me take in information.


Ex. Audio books while doing almost anything else.
I have seen my room, and folks, I'm so relieved! Not only do I have a window, I have TWO!


Once I'd seen my room I felt much more able to start planning.
I'm going with a Lego inspired room theme.


Thanks goodness for Pinterest! It was there that I saw this idea for making a printer template and taping the pieces you wanted printing on to the template.


I was surprised out of my socks when I got called to the office to pick up something. (To be honest I thought I'd lost something important, didn't know it, and someone had found it.) Such was not the case. Rather I found these beautiful flowers from M&R!


They're so pleasant to walk in and see after a long day of training!
On the garden front, it's been raining pretty consistently and heavily for the last two weeks or so. I haven't had to water it let alone visit it. Everything is growing growing growing. Here are some of my peppers:


One of the negative effects of te rain is that the soil got soft and so the stakes supporting my tomatoes fell over. Consequently, so did the plants. I see a tomato hunt in my future.


This was the bountiful harvest on Wednesday!


Lets just say I took a grocery bag full of cucumbers to training to give out to my fellow new teachers.


In the midst of all my adventures, Luke is in the middle of one of his biggest weeks at work. He had done quite a bit of laundry last week, but saved the dress shirts for me. Because I know how to do them. As many of you know from previous griping I am not find of laundering and ironing button up shirts, or any clothing for that matter. After much foot dragging I started to gather the shirts. Then I looked at the big stack for a loooooong time. Finally I thought "Why am I doing this if I dislike it THAT much?" So I gathered up all his shirts and took them to a recommended cleaner.


Look how beautiful and pressed they are. I think the ladies in the shop thought I was nuts for exclaiming how beautiful they looked! I'm never doing shirts again.
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Friday, August 2, 2013

Finish It Up Friday-Baby Surprise Jacket

This one is a finish it up Friday by the skin of my teeth! I juuuust finished.


It's a knitting feat because its Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket.


Why is it such a feat? Because the pattern is kind of vague and when it's done it looks like this:


It's kind of tricky to tell if you're on the right path or not. We've been planning and researching as a group of 4 of us and we've sort of embarking in this journey together as a knit along. After all the talk, I had really caught the bug and wanted to start right away. I compared it with other baby clothes in a store and I'm thinking its about 12 months sizing. A bit bigger than I had initially intended. In holding off on seaming until I show my group and buttons until I know who it's going to!
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday!
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