Summer Projects, Continued

First update: the dreads! We are now three weeks in. This is how they looked yesterday, down:

They are starting to knot up quite nicely on their own, and they are also looking more natural as of late. I'm quite happy with them. Today it was nasty hot, so I put them up in a ponytail with a headband and I'm relieved that I can still do that with dreads:

Yup, I'm laying on the floor as I type this. I love the floor.

So, other projects this week. First, I cleaned out the closet in my craft room and finally found a use for that old wood pallet that's been sitting on my front porch for ages. I screwed a few pieces of wood in as extra shelves and am now using it as fabric storage:

Of course you can see all of my Christmas decorations on the right side. On the left, camping supplies, Halloween decorations, and costumes (for Roswell and Halloween) and accessories including makeup.

Also, my yarn:

I made a couple of jewelry holders this week too.

One of them has all of my cross jewelry (as it turns out, I have a lot)

The other has a screen behind it and holds my earrings and necklaces. Some of these things (the bright blue stuff) is my grandma's old costume jewelry. The round ones are clip-on earrings, so I put them on a ribbon and hung them like a necklace.

Finally, I added a shelf in the living room to display the family collection of MKT model trains. My grandpa on my mom's side worked for MKT for years, and my dad worked on the railroad once upon a time, too. MKT is no longer in existence, so the models are kind of special:

The higher shelf on the right contains my mom's leather-bound Louis L'amore books. I haven't read them yet but I'll get around to it eventually. It also contains my grandma's 8th grade English book, a shell casing from the 21 gun salute at my grandpa's (dad's side) funeral this year, and a rather unique gift from a former student. The framed document above the trains is my grandpa's (mom's side) fishing license.

All in all a busy and productive week at home! I also enjoyed a long rehearsal today with my lovely colleagues and CLASString Quartet members. Grieg is lovely! And our violist, Linda, is my latest henna convert!

Wordle Classroom Posters

I have been thinking a lot about decorating my classroom and how to go about it. Since I was hired so late before last year started, I didn't have any time to plan anything. So, at the end of this school year I had the kids help me take EVERYTHING off of the walls so I can start over fresh. Once I get all the posters ordered I'm considering having a decorating party so the kids can have some say in where some of the stuff goes-but there will be a student board in the room for sure and a designated space to display student work.

We're required to post the rules to our classroom. Rehearsal etiquette is boring in a list, so I used some inspiration I found on Pinterest* and Wordle** to create a succession of posters that will display the rules (plus one inspirational thing I liked). Some of these have multiple conceptions; different colors, layouts, etc. I'll need to pick one of each. Let me know what you think! The plan is to upload them to someplace like VistaPrint or Zazzle and have them made into big posters.

*Fair warning: Pinterest is addictive. Highly so. But also amazing.

**Wordle is almost as addictive. Use at your own risk.

Fun With Photoshop

The folks over at Regretsy are holding sort of a photoshop tribute to Michael Jackson. I couldn't resist making my own and needed a place to upload it before I could embed it. The family that perms together, stays together.

Summer Projects Update

After a full week with the dreads, they are looking much tighter and I have a little less of the Sideshow Bob look going. They are still quite a bit of work, but hey, it's summer.

Also, my reupholstering project is complete!

Before and after photos are so dramatic! I'm taking this lovely new chair into my office Sunday. I also have big plans for the filing cabinets that I got from the warehouse. They are in good shape but oh so ugly!

Summer strings camp starts on Monday and I am super excited to get to work with our "concert" middle school group! It's been a long time since I got to work with the little guys and I think we'll have fun. Of course I'll have them make stand tags so I don't have to call them "hey you" all week, and I have some fun prizes to hand out for answering questions right and such. Tomorrow I'll be doing a lot of photocopying in my room to get parts ready.

In completely unrelated news, my big toe that I broke at orchestra contest on April 30th is now pretty much healed! That is a whole story I didn't post on the blog because everyone I know on Facebook found out there. But it's icky. Really icky. Open fracture, purple bruising, you name it. But the important thing is, I still went on stage. Barefoot.

The toe has healed just in time for my favorite festival-The Roswell UFO Festival! As usual I'll be going in costume. This year it will be E.T. There's also a light parade this year, so I need to make sure E.T.'s finger and heart are glowing at full capacity! I have my campground reservations booked and my events planned. Perhaps I'll find myself a nice, young, handsome conspiracy theorist.

Also, if you haven't seen the movie Super 8 yet, go! It's a great flick. It's like Stand By Me, The Goonies, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind all rolled into one, with some flavor of the first X-Files Movie thrown in (think government conspiracies and transporting top-secret materials on midnight trains.) The whole thing was well-done and there were some great nods to Spielberg's alien classics in there, as well as a pretty good score.

Stay tuned for more summer projects!

Summer Projects

It's been a very long time since I last posted. Remember when I said this was going to be more regular now that i'm back in El Paso, yada yada? Spring semester always gets in the way...too many contests, concerts, and extra events to keep me busy. Besides, I keep up with the majority of the people I know on Facebook. This blog is for the people I know who aren't on Facebook, the people I know who are on Facebook but will listen to me ramble, and to fan my hopes that maybe one day my genius will be discovered by either someone very wealthy or handsome or both. Anyway...

Now that it's summer I have time for some projects. The first:

Dreadlocks! Those of you who know me well are not at all surprised. I think I put them in to act as a sort of filter. I've discovered that far too many people who meet me assume that I am somewhat straight-laced and boring, perhaps because I have a steady job and read a lot. That couldn't be farther from the truth and I decided it's time people knew up front. I created them with a combination of the backcombing and twist n' rip methods.

Right now, they are a lot of work. Dreadlocks before they mature are like children before they mature. They need a lot of individual attention but have to be left to their own devices every once in awhile too. Some days they behave and some days they are terrible. I'm having a few issues because I wash my hair a lot-usually every day. This means that it's a little harder to keep them together, because even though dreads have to be clean to knot up the constant washing is hard on them. Summer in the desert is sweat and dust city, though, and I just can't leave that junk in my hair every night. Also, Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap is my new favorite thing.

Also, I'm totally leaving these things in when I go back to school. My AP said she doesn't care what I look like as long as I don't smell.

Second:

Warehouse finds!

My fellow teachers and quartet members went with me to the district warehouse yesterday and we picked up some cool stuff for free! My most exciting find was seven keyboards in working condition. I teach a composition class and these will come in tremendously handy for my kids in August. I also scored a couple of filing cabinets and a chair with the frame and base in good condition. The upholstery was grody, though, so I am reupholstering as we speak. Here is a before photo (afters coming as soon as I'm done):

When it's finished I'll have the coolest office chair ever!