Recent Happenings In Pictures

Some tile samples arrived from the magic internets...via the magic credit card (always gets paid off in full I must add! Don't want any financial advisors coming after us!)


The red is right on the money, looks like yummy jolly rancher candy and will eventually be for the guest bathroom floor. The hot pink for the kitchen backsplash is a difficult one, maybe just not hot pink enough--but nobody has what I'm looking for.
We went to the fabric store in Macon last night and bought these magnificent fabrics for some upcoming projects.

We also thought it would be fun to visit the Salvation Army there to find some nifty props..didn't find any but Julie was as giddy as a kid with a lollipop when she found these records for $.50...she bought them for her nephew Chad who collects records.

Julie and I saw this last night:

I have to say, while the movie was exciting and good, I just can't get into Christian Bale as Batman. I strongly, strongly dislike him as Batman. I HATE the way he tries to make his voice sound like the sexy, deep Batman voice---he goes over the top with it and just sounds like he needs a Halls cough drop! George Clooney, now there's a perfect Batman...SEXY. Also this being the only comic book series movie/character I've ever gotten into (must be the rubber suit and misfit bad guys!) it's important to me that they pay homage to the old school 80's-90's Batman movies. For instance---they are trying to go darker for these Batman movies and while the Joker came off as evil-maniacal--we felt like he didn't do the crazy Joker laugh quite enough. Oh well, that's the problem with re-making something sometimes. Gotta take the good with the bad.
After three days, I was able to draw on the fridge:

Robot Print

I drew a robot drawing in class one day when the kids were doing something low maintenance that didn't require me walking around every five minutes...we were looking at old Ed Emberley books and that's where I got this cute little robot from. (Believe it or not, but I never had any of his books until this year when the Media Specialist cleaned out some old books and now I have two--the Big Orange Drawing Book and the Big Purple Drawing Book. I am now addicted and want ALL of his books!!) I played around with my drawing in Photoshop and this is what I got:

This one has a film-grain texture on it and a darker contrast. You have to click on them to see the texture better.

This one has a brighter contrast with a texture applied.

I can't figure out which one is better.

30 Year Olds Forget Things...

One mustn't forget when she is baking records in the oven! Bomar has been cleaning out her room this week and had a bunch of old records that she hasn't used in 20-something years of teaching, so I took them off her hands. I had seen a project on t.v. a few years ago where they melted records and molded them into bowls and was waiting for some free records to fall into my lap.

This afternoon I was multitasking---letting the cleanser sit in the toilets before scrubbing and also melting my first record at the same time...well I came to the computer and started to smell a little something odd. Apparently it doesn't take any time at all for the records to melt and luckily I caught it while it was JUST smoking and not actually blazing in the oven!

Have the slightest twinge of a headache now from the burnt smell (I'm sure it's not the safest thing to be breathing in, but we'll survive)! Here are the three I've done so far...I am excited to paint the labels pretty colors. If anyone would like one or SOME to give away, tell me your color preference(s) and I'll hook you up with some for no charge at all!! :)

I think they will be nifty with fruit in them or for crafty supplies, etc... People actually sell these suckers on the web.

Holiday Candles

...that should most definitely be said in the voice of the Target Lady from SNL...if you've never seen those skits...you are missing out!! Try NOT to laugh! ANYWAY...here are some pics of some of the holiday Art projects I did with the kids. My second and third graders designed their own candy canes, 1st grade did the ornaments on a tree branch, and second and third did holiday candles! :) I think they turned out rather well!




SNL - Target

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A Night of Fun and Farkel

Wednesday night we went over to Natalie's house and hung out with Nat, Kinsley and Lee. We were introduced to the dice game Farkel, which is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it and it's easy to learn. The final results ended with me losing BADLY and Natalie kicking our tails. I think a few of the others were somewhat close behind her though. Juliebean was rolling the dice like a high roller in Vegas baby! Nat gave me the scoring paper to keep as a memento and so that I could have a nice token of her wonderfully crafted font-like handwriting (because we had discussed it)...but this is what is left of it after I washed my pants without taking it out. Nice. ;) She also surprised me with a yummy birthday cake with these awesome, oh-so-like me tie-dyed looking numbers. The number 30 never looked so good! Thank you to Nat and the other ladies for a night filled with laughter and fun times!
The next picture is of a bulletin board I just did for Montana that her mom's getting her for Christmas to match the new sheet set she just bought.

Finished Bulletin Boards

Here are some bulletin boards I very recently finished for a few co-workers/buddies. I think I'm most proud of the Texas Longhorns one because I was terrified to draw the Longhorn dude, and when he turned out well, I was pleasantly surprised and RELIEVED! My favorite though is Gabe's because the design reminds me of Gabe somehow...Out of this world maybe. :) Hope you love both of your purchases Lennye!

Finished Project

Don't you just feel so good when you finish a project that has been sticking its tongue out at you and taunting you for weeks?! I DO! There's a mental file folder in my brain of all the projects I need to start/finish...ones that won't even be started until I make more money, ones that I never really want to begin, and ones that require more muscle than this scrawny body will ever possess...but they are there tucked away in my brain nonetheless. Some days I can go without thinking about these things...other things keep me occupied (like school children chewing up my erasers or dripping paint across the room) so therefore, I'm so "in the moment" that there is definitely not enough brain power to even attempt to dwell on these other matters. But, then there's those nagging days and moments where I feel exhausted by just the thoughts and mental lists alone that I have made. I can be brushing my teeth and instead of thinking about brushing my teeth, I'm thinking about the color grout that will look best with the colored tiles that have yet to be picked out/purchased/installed! Maybe Julie is asking what we should do for dinner and I bust out with how a hot pink backsplash with high gloss white cabinets and black/grey concrete countertops in the green kitchen will really pop! I blame this on HGTV and all these awesome shows that really just torment the hell out of me and make me feel like a person who is not good enough or doesn't MAKE enough time to do these amazing things! Sure the shows are SOOOOOO fun to watch, but afterwards I'm left thinking about how I CAN do that, I SHOULD do that, etc... Create my own concrete countertops?! Well certainly! These people totally make it sound like something you can do and in just a couple of hours with very little money! Days like that where it starts getting to me that I absolutely cannot tile a floor and pour new concrete countertops on my own at the moment, I have to remind myself that not everyone has the money or time to renovate their entire house in two months and not everyone teaches 550ish children a week how to paint and be creative when most of them really just want to come to specials just to talk. I mean really, after a while, wouldn't that start to suck the creative visions and inspirations out of most people?! That's my pessimism for the week. Here's my optimism...a finished project!! I did this to take to work for an example of a bulletin board that I can paint for people to give away as presents (hoping for some holiday business). I think it turned out rather nifty. Now, to sand the doors to the cabinets in the laundry room or surf the web a little more....