Vegas Baby

The traditional  non-traditional crafters approach.

We tried something new this year. We (Valerie and I) got together our Aunt, Mother in Laws, and two of our cousins for a FABULOUS crafting weekend in Las Vegas. We had originally planned for quilting but realized we might have less time that we thought, so it morphed into a time to visit shops and sit and relax and work on portable projects.

I love that so many facets of our family can get together and have such a great time! 

 My sister's in-laws Cindy and Charlie were our hosts! On our outings we all fit into their car!

We went to Sin City Knits,

and Quiltique!

We hit some of the outlets, and even had a bra fitting....because well...the girls needed it.

Doesn't this look like an uplifting weekend?

Valerie and Neola were our beginner knitters this weekend. They're doing great!

We did some patio sitting and knitting, and enjoyed some tasty team prepared food! Val made me this sandwich. She is the BEST sandwich maker.

We even enjoyed some yummy drinks!

To top it all off we were forced to enjoy this view of the strip all weekend. Rough life eh?

Oh Snap

After recent conversations with parents of younguns and fellow knitters the general consensus seems to be that snaps are the way to go!

 My first adventure happened in Garden City, with an inexpensive kit and a very cheap tool. After two hammers the tool was less effective. As I am in Fresno at the moment, I sought out some options at Jo-Ann's. While I had a handy dandy 20% off birthday coupon and a 30% off one item, I wasn't looking to spend a LOT of money on this venture PLUS as I'm traveling, I'm not really looking to increase the amount I need to carry in my suitcase. At least not really for the sake of crafting tools. I'm not that hard core.  I went with the option below for about $7.99. There were some other more convenient large hole punch like options for about $30.

Wouldn't you know it, my helpful Aunt Maggie, who I happen to be staying with, happened to HAVE a handy dandy snap tool. It was MILES handier than the silly Wal-Mart kit..

 This following is more for my benefit than yours. The snap tool is roughly the same age as Aunt Maggie's children. It does not have a snap size written on the tool. I was able to successfully use size 16 snaps (7/16 of an inch.)

Disneyland 2014

The finale to wedding weekend was a trip to Disneyland! I've gone more times than one could count on a hand, but let me tell you, the magic is real. 

It was Matt and Valerie's wedding anniversary and they got celebration pins! 

Dumbo. My FAV-orite "no height restriction" ride. 

We did not shut the parks down. We are old(er), we love our sleep. We hoofed it back to our hotel (three city blocks ish away from the entrance) got checked in and moments after entering the room saw the fireworks going off through the balcony door. Matt put on the Frozen iTunes Radio channel and we had ourselves a fireworks show. It was perfect. 

We figured out a system for playing Pinochle in line! It was a great way to pass the time! People would walk by and say "What a great idea!" Let it be known it helps to have a skilled dealer. One person holds out two hands to be dealt cards into on behalf of themself and the dealer. The person leading the card holds their palm out with the card. Then whoever takes the trick takes the cards and stores them in their pocket. Take more than one deck. We did lose one. 

The animation academy is so neat! It's so fun to learn the techniques behind the characters. 

We learned to draw Olaf from the movie Frozen!

Another favorite "no height restriction" ride for us that is a must do is the Whinnie the Pooh ride. 

We had an afternoon cool off on Splash Mountain. 

These three left looking like they had rather large accidents. 

We got ourselves some "big ol' pickles."

We ended with the Magical World of Color. Please, if you go to California Adventures, do not miss this. It is worth an hour of waiting to get good seats. It is a high caliber show. 

We just had a great time. You'd think that at some point the magic might wear off. It doesn't. Each time there's something new to see, something I missed in times before, or something that I'm so fond of it tickles my heart!

Josh and Jen

We enjoyed a wonderful celebration of the marriage of our "bonus family" Josh and Jen! 

My sister and I have married into two fantastic families and we love that we can share our in-laws as well! 

It was fun bonus sister time for me as well! 

 This wedding was infused with Jen and Josh's wit and humor, as seen in "A Dummy's Guide to This Wedding," pictured below.

I studied it carefully....what does that make me? 

 We got to look at Jen and Josh in this inverted ceremony set up.

 The famous family cookie recipes were show cased at this decadent cookie buffet!

 They were delicious. 

 My BiL Matt dancing with his sister Jen! She had that smile on ALL night! It was fabulous!

My First Tornado...Warning

Today I was BUSY cleaning up my True Life Tuesday mess. My craft room looked like a tornado went through it. 

Around 8:30 I had just sat down to have a snack and watch a show when a Tornado Warning came on the T.V. It had been eerie gloomy and windy all day so I got out my Weather Channel App. Well when the app looks like this:

You grab some pillows, your knitting and head for the center bathroom tub. The the siren on the hospital goes off and really that's not so great for nerves either. 

Luke was at work. They really track weather at the golf course so I asked if this was a "go to the hospital basement down the street" sort of storm or a "hide in the tub in the bathroom in the middle of the house with no windows" sort of storm. He said the latter. Then he called later to make sure I decided to stay in the tub....because he was outside taking !pictures! and it didn't look good. 

Also, I think next time before I grab pillows and head for the tub I will turn off the TV. While I was listening to the wind blow, the rain smack, and the hail hit I kept hearing some kind of screaming. That was when I realized I left the TV on and the softball championship was on. Softball teams cheer for each other. 

I will also purposely keep one of the drawers in that bathroom stocked with emergency supplies: Water, granola bars, a flash light and a phone charger. My knitting was renedered useless as I was pretty much storm shocked and glued to my phone looking for updates. Within what felt like 30 minutes it was all over. It rained for a little longer and then we were done. I might still be a little storm shocked. I also probably appear to be a newbie to all the storm weathering veterans. 

Finish it Up Friday- Sheep to Sweater, Yarn

Remember back almost a year ago, last June to be precise, Uncle Doc presented me with a Merino sheep's fleece to do SOME-thing with. Well, I had it cleaned and processed in Phillipsburg, Kansas at the Shepherds Mill. They did a great job. They washed it twice and carded it into three bags full of roving just READY to be spun. It makes me so happy there were three bags full because I can chyme Baa baa black white sheep have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!!! Ooooh that makes me so giddy.

Well it arrived back just before my first year of full fledged teaching began. I knew if I even opened those bags I would not have been able to resist the urge to spin them. 

Sooooo I waited. And waited. If it wasn't one thing it was another. So on this my first week of summer vacation I went absolutely crazy. Here you can see the three bags next to the beautiful spinning wheel I have borrowed from my friend Mary. Her father made it!

 It was so thoughtfully designed! There are four bobbins so I can fill two with a single ply spin, and then use the two empty bobbins to ply the yarn. There is a Lazy Kate for holding bobbins for plying and storage built right onto the wheel! Brilliant.

Here is my first hank of yarn on the Knitty Noddy. The knitty noddy is a tool for making the big loops of yarn that are needed for setting and dying yarn. The yarn is often then twisted into hanks to showcase the yarn and balled on a ball winder after purchase or selection. 

Well I've been spinning like crazy. I've taken the wheel to two knitting group sessions and pretty much parked myself in front of the TV when I'm not doing anything else. My goal was to get about 1,000 yards to make a sweater. I've got 1,095 yards. 

I'm going to call it a worsted/DK weight but like many early attempts at hand spun yarn it varies a bit. There were 1.4 pounds of roving for spinning in this bag and I used all of it to get this yardage. (I still have two more bags to play with! Hmmmmmm.)

This project has more or less evolved into a sheep to sweater project. I will leave the yarn its natural color so that the texture of the hand spinning really shows and so that it emphasizes the whole process of taking something in its natural state and transforming it.

Here is the yarn hanging in my bathroom. Once it has been spun you want to "set" it. Before being set the yarn might have the tendency to un-spin. Much like hair in a braid, when it has been gotten wet the hair will retain the shape of the braid better. 

I have water bottle weights hanging from the yarn to kind of pull it taught and get a bit of the springiness out of it as it dries. I'm hoping this might help with the thickness consistency if I should choose to knit a sweater with work. 

I was worried too much weight might pull the whole towel rack down so I have one bottle on the floor with the weight supported and the other one is hanging down with its weight.
What a finish!!! Wahoooo!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday!

Strawberry Quinoa Salad

We've been experimenting with quinoa this year. I've found that as two individuals who do not especially enjoy pasta salad but do enjoy all of the ingredients quinoa has made a good pasta salad base substitute. 

This morning for breakfast I tried a strawberry quinoa salad variety. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 cup diced strawberries

1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 sprig of fresh mint chopped finely

1 tsp honey

1/4 cup Kefir (lactose fee probiotic shake, I used plain, vanilla would be tasty too.)

Stir together and eat! It tasted great immediately. I imagine it would also taste good after marinating for a while. This would also be a tasty desert.

The verdict: I loved it. Luke did not. He thinks it's the goat cheese or the texture. 

I may try again with a lemon juice and honey dressing. 

Happy...Anniversary!

Let me remind everyone that I am not, nor have I ever been, good with dates. So when my dreamboat husband showed up on the last day of school toting beautiful flowers why wouldn't I thank him for the last day of school flowers. Then. When he smirkingly asked me if I remembered what the day was I scrunched my face, smacked my forehead and remembered it was our anniversary. There's one for the books folks. 

Then that chivalrous guy told me that he had help as a couple with our same anniversary had been out to eat dinner at the club the night before so he had help. I felt better. He went on to tell me of the triumph of winning a stem if hydrangea (my favorite) from the florist as they had all been designated for the next days wedding. What a guy. I should marry him.

Oh wait.  I did. On May 21st. Someone please remind me next year. Let pray it's not on the last day of school again. 

My First Year

This last week wrapped up my first official year teaching. 

7th Grade Science. 

If you had asked me 4 years ago, I never would have guessed. If you had asked my science teachers they'd be asking you if there would be flying pigs too. 

I learned so much. 

I learned which classroom management techniques work for me in middle school. (And which ones don't.)

I leaned to choose my battles. 

I learned to expect more because then the teacher and students will achieve more even if it wasn't quite what was expected. 

I learned to selectively grade. Grading everything is crazy.

I learned how vital weekends are to rest and recover. While I still created quite a bit, the blogging just didn't happen. I wonder if I will ever find a balance for that or if I will forever moving between school mode and blog mode. 

I learned the power of collaboration and professional development. 

I learned to find out what my students are  good at and give them the chance to be the expert. 

I learned the power of telling students that I don't know....but I can find out. (I also learned just how many resources I have in my phone book.)

I learned about teaching 6 of the same class a day. It gets better every time. If it doesn't, something needs to change. 

 

Oh and did I mention how much science I learned? 

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Seriously. 

It was a great year. I look forward to next year and how it will all go with a year under my belt! As I wrapped up this year I couldn't help but start planning for next year!