iPad Flip Case and Stand Tutorial

My dad is the most impossible man to shop for EVER.  Anything he wants he just goes out and gets for himself.  For Father's Day, I wracked my brains for a long time to figure out what to give him.  Since he's obsessed with the tablet he purchased last year and has a very boring slide-in cover for it, I figured one of these would be perfect.

Unfortunately, they're expensive and not all that unique.  Now, if you have a boring, run of the mill dad then that might be fine, but my dad is responsible for some of my best party stories, so one of those wasn't good enough.

I couldn't find any free tutorials on this online, so I just made one.  Naturally, I forgot to take pictures of the process because I threw it together in a couple of hours the night before.  You get a lovely mix of actual (but crummy phone) photos and computer drawings.  I ask that you only use these for personal gifts, because I'm not making any money by posting the tutorial here.  Enjoy!


Materials:

1. Two kinds of fabric.  1/4 yard of each should do it.
2. Scissors.
3. Rotary cutter (you can also just use scissors)
4. Measuring device of some kind.
5. Rotary cutting mat.
6. Utility knife.
7. Roll of adhesive craft magnet.
8. Square (optional but handy)
9. Embroidered letters for monogramming.
10. Tablet, or if you don't have the tablet, a cardboard mock-up as a template.
11. Chalk for marking.
12. Elastic (optional-I didn't end up using it).
13. Vinyl floor tiles.  These go for between 35 and 99 cents each at home improvement stores, depending on how rigid they are.  You decide what works best for you.
14. Sewing machine and matching thread.
16. Iron and ironing board.

Assembly:
1. Measure your tablet.  If you're making it as a gift and don't have the tablet, make a cardboard template.
2. Cut four pieces of fabric 1.5-2 inches larger than your tablet, two pieces with a length that matches the pieces you just cut and a width about 2/3 of what you just cut, and four squares about 1/4 the size of your first four pieces. The color combo is up to you, but you can see how these are laid out below (pieces are numbered for future reference):

 

3. Cut your squares in half diagonally to form 8 triangles.  Place the triangles right sides together and stitch according to the diagrams below:

4. Press the seams open, then fold wrong sides together and press flat.

5. Pin the triangles in place on piece #3, right sides up.  If you want to use elastic along the edges for extra tablet security, pin that in place now.

6. Lay out your odd numbered pieces as shown below.  Stitch 1 to 3 and 3 to 5, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER.

7. Press the seams open.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 using your even numbered pieces. 

9. You now have two sides that look the same except for the corner pieces.  Place them RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER and stitch 3 sides.  Leave the top side open.

10.  Clip your corners and turn right side out.  You might need to poke the corners out.  You should now have something that resembles a pillowcase.

10.  Measure how large each of your 3 sections are and subtract 1/4 inch from both the length and the width.  Cut your vinyl floor tiles to those measurements.  (To cut a vinyl floor tile, just score it with your utility knife and then bend it to "break" it.  It's extremely easy.  Leave the paper backing in place, because they're hard to handle when sticky).

***UPDATE***

I made an error here. See that top section?  You're actually going to use two separate vinyl pieces for that.  The one nearest the end is a very narrow strip that is the same size as your magnetic strip.  So you can still use your measurements, then add the magnetic strip and simply cut that section free.  Does that make sense?

11. Cut magnetic strips to the length of the vinyl pieces and place them on the tiles as shown below.  (Back side refers to the side you're not looking at when you can see the corner pieces).

12.  Slide the bottom vinyl piece inside the case and top stitch along your previous seam between pieces 3 and 5.  Slide the middle section of vinyl in and top stitch along your previous seam between pieces 1 and 3. Slide in your third section and top stitch again. A zipper foot makes this top stitching a lot easier, since the vinyl creates a sort of ridge between sections.

13. Fold over the top (not sewn) edge and press.  Trust me, this makes it easier.  Slide in your last piece of vinyl (the very narrow strip with the magnets on it) and stitch the top edge closed, sewing as close to the edge as possible.

 14. You can now fold your case closed (the magnets should catch and hold it in place) and decide where you want to place your monogramming (optional).  If you're using those embroidered letters, just follow the directions on the package.

15. You can fold this out into a stand, as shown below.  The magnets will catch to hold everything together.  And if you're worried about magnets affecting your tablet, consider that these are the magnets rated a 2 out of 10 on magnetic strength by the craft store.  It's hard to get them to stick to the fridge.  They'll do the job for this project, but they're probably not going to damage anything.  I say probably, of course, because I'm not responsible if they do cause damage.

 The tablet should slide into the corner pockets.  My dad didn't have his tablet with him on Father's Day but he tells me it fits perfectly and he loves the case.

If you liked this tutorial, please share!

Easy DIY Landing Strip

I have a chronic disorganization problem, but to most people apparently I appear to be organized.  At school, I misplace my keys regularly, but at home, thanks to my handy landing strip by the front door, I always know where they are.  This trick is relatively simple, functional, and looks good!

To achieve this, you'll need:

1. An antique furnace grate (I found mine at an antique store for about $20)

2. Toggle bolts, or a suitable wall anchor of your choice.  There's a great tutorial at Natural Handyman.

3. A good power drill.  

4. Measuring tape.
5. Pencil.
6. Carpenter's level.
7. Round craft magnets* (the strong ones) from a craft store.
8. Giant clothespin or other fastener from the craft store (optional).
9. Spray paint (optional).
10. Stud finder (optional).

To install:

1. Decide where you want your furnace grate to go and measure it. 

2. Mark the midpoint of the wall where you'd like to hang it along with the midpoint of the grate.

3. Using the carpenter's level, draw a line level with the mark you just made on the wall.

4. Look at where the holes are for mounting the grate.  You can use the stud finder to determine whether one of them will line up with a stud in your wall, which is handy because then you can anchor it to that on the one side and not have to mess with a toggle bolt on that side.

5. How heavy is the grate?  Determine which type of wall anchor you'll use.  My grate is cast iron, so toggle bolts were really the only option.  Measure the distance from the holes in the grate to the wall.  Your anchors are probably going to have to be pretty long.  Also check to see how big the hole is; you don't want the anchor to slip right through the grate.

6.  Line up your grate on the wall with the marks you just made and mark the location where you will drill the holes for the anchors.

7. Drill the holes for the anchors.

8. Place the bolts through the holes on the grate and thread the toggle onto the end.  Make sure you do it correctly! 

9.  It's handy to have a friend for this step: line everything up, fold in the toggles, and push them into the wall.  Using your drill, tighten the bolts.  You'll want to try to work evenly on each side, so tighten a little on the right and then a little on the left and so on until everything looks good.  Trust me on this!  It's hard to do otherwise.  Hence the friend. 

10.  Place the magnets along the bottom edge of the grate and toss your keys up there.  They'll stick and you'll never lose them again!

11.  Glue a magnet to the back of your chosen fastener (spray painted in the color of your choice) and stick it to the side.  Perfect place for outgoing mail!

12.  Add some coat hangers underneath the grate for even more places to put things you need at the door.

As you can see, this is a great place to drop incoming and outgoing mail, hang your keys and ID badges, place your glasses (seriously, I'd lose mine if they weren't here!), bluetooth headset, etc.

*Important note about magnets: if you have kids or pets, you need to be extra careful to keep these rare earth magnets completely out of their reach.  If they swallow them, they can attach to one another in the digestive tract and cause severe damage and death.  My cats haven't swallowed any, but I'm pretty careful!

Do's and Don'ts of Hiring a String Quartet

It's the month of weddings, which means I'll be busy playing a lot of Pachelbel's Canon, which really means I'll be busy people watching and silently critiquing the wedding in my head while the violinists and the violist do all the work.

I've been playing in quartets for various events since high school, and I have a ton of great stories.  There was the one where the Christmas party attendees became inebriated about half an hour in and started reading poetry, at which point we plucked Christmas carols for the next hour and a half.   We were uncomfortably shoved into a corner by the buffet line, anyway, so we didn't feel terribly obligated to give it 110%. There was the one that was outside in a dust storm, and the groom's own mother was at least an hour late.  We got paid overtime, but were also treated to the bride's advice for life.  And a coating of dust.  There was the one in which the entire wedding ceremony was alternately in Hebrew and Vietnamese. Spanish, we could handle just fine, but this one had us worried.  It's lucky our violist spoke Hebrew and was able to tell us where we were as she counted the blessings.  More mature colleagues of mine have even better stories, including one about a homeless man and a guiro.

I've discovered that the easiest gigs to play aren't necessarily the ones with the most competent colleagues (although I'm blessed with very good people to play with), or the ones in the most convenient locations, or the ones with the easiest to play music.  They're the ones in which the people who hired us actually know what they're doing.  Here are a few do's and don'ts when hiring a string quartet.

DO give us clear instructions.  What you want us to play and when.  Are we starting the processional when the congregation stands?  When we can see the bride?  When the groom gives us the secret signal?
DON'T look at us accusingly or turn and ask someone why we aren't playing if you haven't given us any instructions for the bride's uncle's cousin as he walks down the aisle.

DO make sure that at least one member of the quartet can see what's going on, especially if it's a wedding.  We can repeat Canon ad nauseum, and if we can't see that the mother of the bride is already seated, we will.  It's also important that we can all see each other.  There's a certain amount of non-verbal communication that occurs between quartet members.  It's also nice to have room to move our bows.
DON'T tell us to prelude before the ceremony, and then wait until 15 minutes after the ceremony was supposed to start to tell us to stop, then look at us like it's our fault.  OR get mad when we stop one minute before hand to prevent the aforementioned occurrence.

DO pay us in cash, preferably with bills that are easily divided four ways.  We're musicians (and probably teachers).  We don't always carry around change for hundreds.
DON'T pay with a check unless we know you personally.  Odds are at least one of us has been burned before.  Plus, it likely means one of us has to go to the bank and then split up the cash.  And that might be the money we needed to buy toilet paper on the way home.

DO give us plenty of notice if there's a special piece of music you want.  We either have to order or arrange it, and that takes time and sometimes, extra money.  If it's something really out there that's not in our normal repertoire, we might even have to get together to rehearse it first.
DON'T look offended if you ask for your favorite Beatles tune right before the gig starts and we either don't have it or don't know it.  Most string quartets are pretty progressive and have a lot of pops tunes under our belts, but we don't have everything.  Standard wedding fare is probably fair game, though.  Usually we can even figure it out if you just hum it for us....you don't even need to know the title or composer.

DO feel free to book us in an outdoor venue within reason.
DON'T get upset if it is unreasonably hot or cold and we end two minutes early or have to keep re-tuning.  We play expensive instruments that are sensitive to temperature and humidity, and they go out of tune and can even sustain damage if they're left in those conditions for too long.  Even Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman didn't play live at Obama's inauguration due to weather.

DO ask questions and encourage your kids to ask questions about our instruments or what we do.  A lot of us are teachers and are happy to talk to them when we're finished or in between tunes.  We love to recruit new orch dorks, and with really little kids who are attentive and whose hands are clean, I'll even let them touch my instrument or pluck the strings with some instructions on how to do it properly.
DON'T allow your kids to run right up and grab our instruments.  (Yes, this has happened more than once).  It's not a good idea for you to do it, either.  My cello is worth more than my car, and believe me, you don't want to pay for repairs if it breaks.  My bow isn't cheap, either.  I'll be considerably more understanding if the child who has briefly escaped your watchful eye has an obvious intellectual or social impairment and they really don't know that they can't do that.  I get that.  But the moral of the story is, watch your kids.  

DO tell us how long you expect us to play, and compensate us accordingly.
DON'T leave it up to us to guess when the gig is over and give us uncomfortable signals to try to tell us that it is.  We've got music for hours and unless the gig is outside in ridiculous weather, we'll just keep going unless there's a very clear sign or you tell us we're done.  This video is filed under "Top Ten Signs That the Gig is Over."

DO hire us again and follow these tips.
DON'T get the idea from this post that I resent every gig I've gotten.  Quite the contrary!  I love to play, and getting paid for it is a bonus.  I've also seen some really neat weddings and events, and gotten some great stories out of even the worst gigs.  But these guidelines make it a lot easier for us to do the best job we can for you!

A Year in the Life

Today was our last official day of school.  It's a little strange, though, because I know I'll be there tomorrow after graduation finishing a project, as well as there on Monday fighting for some scheduling issues and finishing more projects, and there Tuesday through Friday for summer orchestra camp.  Summers in a year-round district are short anyway, but they're even shorter for those of us who teach in fine arts.

Since most of my friends (and therefore, most of the people who will read this post) are teachers, I know I'm preaching to the choir.  And I'm not complaining, because I love my job.  But I do hate it when I hear people say things like "Wouldn't it be nice to only work 180 days out of the year from 8 to 3?" or "Why do teachers need a pay raise?  I work just as hard."  Chances are, you really don't work as hard.  And we really don't only work 180 days out of the year, and 8 to 3 is a sick joke.  Ask me sometime how many people in my profession are: a)divorced, b)living alone, c)the crazy cat lady.  Our stats are abysmal.

Here, for your reading pleasure, my year in review, beginning with July of 2011 and going until July 2012.  I still have my very well-kept planner from this year, so this is easy to do! This is long, but I want it out there for all of the people who think we have an easy job.  Not so! Keep in mind that what I'm listing here is in addition to the regular school day, Monday through Friday.  I don't get to school super early, but I try to get there before 8.  I rarely leave before 6 pm.

Sometimes we'll get called to do gigs. My kids thought this made a nice picture in a library where we performed.

July 18-22, 2011:  IB teacher training in Montezuma, NM.  It was a good time, and I'd go back in a heartbeat...but it was still work!

July 25, 2011: back to school for teachers.  This is a week of inservice (meetings and trainings) as well as "work days."  This means putting together my handbook, running back and forth from the theatre department to the student activities manager to schedule my concerts, copying parts, selecting music, finalizing class lists, making sure instruments are in working order to be checked out to new students, filling out and turning in purchase orders, and generally preparing the room.

August 1, 2011 and month of August: back to school for students.  This is everything that "back to school" entails.  For fine arts, this is often teaching new rehearsal rules (and reviewing old ones), teaching completely new technique, etc.   We do a back to school picnic in which the upperclassmen make t-shirts for the freshmen and the sections compete against each other in stupid games.  It's fun, and I spend a lot of money on pizza and t-shirts.  The district orchestra teachers also hold two beginner clinics for new middle school students on two Saturdays of the month, and there is always a region-wide meeting in which we discuss business.  It usually takes the majority of the day Saturday.  If you're keeping score, that's three out of four Saturdays in the month of August that we're working.

September 2011:  ah, Labor Day!  This is usually the month when we start having head director meetings and the month in which I start after school rehearsals.  They go until 5:30 in the evening or later.   This is also the month in which football games start, and clubs and organizations can sign up to work concessions for a fundraiser.  That's a job that goes from about 5-10 pm and is genuinely hard labor.  The kids do most of the work, but a sponsor must be present and always ends up doing quite a bit as well.  Somewhere in here the high school directors usually sponsor a clinic or two to help the middle school kids with region audition music, as well as do some clinics of our own.  These are usually Saturdays or late evenings.

October 2011: we're a year-round district, so the first two weeks of October are intercession.  However, the first Saturday was middle school all-region auditions, in which I heard over 70 middle school cello players play the same two excerpts for an audition.  It literally took all day (but we do have fun judging). I spent at least two days at my school or at another school preparing my own students for their auditions.  On the last Saturday, I judged high school cello auditions, and the following Monday, judged the 9th grade auditions.  The last Saturday of the month was taping for all-state auditions.  I didn't go this year to help because I had scarlet fever :(  The last week of the month was our movie concert, and we literally started reading Christmas music the very next day.  Please don't get mad when it's December 1st and I tell you that I really can't handle "Sleigh Ride."   I've been hearing it for over a month already.

November 2011: the middle school all-region clinic was November 10-12.  I normally don't get involved in the middle school clinics, but this year I actually got to be a conductor for one of the groups!  It was a lot of fun but a lot of work.   Rehearsals were Thursday evening, Friday evening, and Saturday until the afternoon, and then we had a concert.  Fortunately, November also means Thanksgiving break.  Hooray!

At middle school region.

December 2011:  Holiday concert.  This is a massive undertaking.  This year, ours featured over 15 tunes, several of which incorporated other groups (choir, band, mariachi).  It got rescheduled due to weather (HUGE pain in the rear).  Mercifully, winter break is two weeks, and this is one break during which we don't tend to work.  However, entries for solo and ensemble were due on January 25th, so I picked out music for something like 40 events and put together ensembles before we left.

January 2012: back to school on the 4th.  High school all-region clinic was the 12-14th, and it ran much the same way as the middle school clinic.  This year I was an organizer for one of the groups, which mean that before auditions in October I had to have the folders of music ready for everyone.  I wasn't able to do a great job on this because I was sick, but it was still a lot of work.  Entries for solo and ensemble were due on the 25th, and we started rehearsals as soon as we got back from break.  Entering solos and ensembles involves collecting entry fees and an online entry process.

February 2012: middle school solo and ensemble was on the 4th, and I judged.  Again, it's literally an all-day event.  Judges are paid, but it goes through our paycheck and gets taxed until just a little over half is left.  It's a great experience but it is mentally exhausting.  Our state music convention was February 8-10.  I didn't go this year, but if I had any students make state I would have been responsible for them there.  Many directors end up going for this.  Again, a great experience, but mentally exhausting.  High school solo and ensemble was the 18th.  After hours of after school rehearsal, wrangling an accompanist, etc, the kids go play in front of a judge.  I had something like four hours of kids performing that day.  I hauled around a lot of scores, rehearsed last-minute, talked kids down from meltdowns or near meltdowns, ran from room to room, moved instruments, tuned instruments, tracked down missing music, you name it.  Again, totally exhausting.  Just for good measure, the week before solo and ensemble we threw in a jazz concert.  Why not.

My kids' response to our insane number of entries at solo and ensemble this year.

March 2012: the beginning of contest season.  If you've never experienced a Texas UIL contest, you have no idea and there's really no way to accurately put it into words.  In addition to the regular day, rehearsals were running fast and furious until about 6pm every day.  With two orchestras (five sections within each orchestra needing section rehearsals), it was a lot of rehearsals.

April 2012: our spring break this year was the first two weeks of April, which was two weeks later than it normally is.  It drove everyone crazy.  Since my IB students had their exam in early May, we had two days over break in which we did practice exams and study sessions.  I also held one two hour rehearsal a week during break.  Our pre-festival concert was April 16th, and district contest was April 20th and 21st (again, that's a Saturday gone).  TAKS testing was a whole week in late April, and the entire school devotes all of its energy into administering these tests.  Rehearsals are allowed for a little bit after school, but for the most part they're frowned upon that week.  This is incredibly nerve-wracking for those of us who still have UIL.

In 2010, I broke my big toe at district orchestra contest.  I went on stage barefoot and went to the ER only after I'd listened to the judges' comment tapes.  I'm hardcore like that.

Fun with instrument inventory.  God bless the barcodes and the people at the fixed asset office. 

May 2012: UIL contest and the IB exam were May 3rd and 4th.  Again, a whole day or two essentially gone.  This year I didn't get home from the first day of UIL until after 10pm.  Because some of my best players were also in my IB music class, we had to find substitutes for them at contest.  They were taking an exam while we were playing.  We did our final concert (with all new music) two weeks later.  May 25-27th were state solo and ensemble.  This is a long bus ride to Austin on Friday, contest all day Saturday (running all over the UT campus, sometimes with buildings a 20 minute walk apart, fighting for practice rooms, etc.)  Sunday morning the kids go to Six Flags (this means we stay in the hotel on Saturday night, which saves a hassle as well as prevents the obvious safety issue of traveling all the way through the night), then we drive all the way home.  This is essentially 24 hour duty.  This year, two other teachers and I were up until at least 3 am patrolling hallways.  It's a great experience for the kids, and a tiring one for the teachers!  When we got back, we had inventory, lots of cleaning, and a few projects, including finals.  Oh, I almost forgot, there's a Saturday TMEA meeting this month, too.

It's a very long bus ride to state.

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Re-enacting our hallway patrol, which had many of the elements of a Scooby Doo cartoon.

June 2012:  today was the last day of school and tomorrow is graduation.  I'll be at school tomorrow and Monday finishing projects.  Tuesday through Friday we'll have summer strings camp, which runs from 8 to 3 every day.  We assume that we do this for free, and if the fine arts department pays us it's a bonus.  We do a concert at 5:30 pm on the last day.  Days in June that I'm working (either school inservice or gig:) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 23, 25, 26.  So far.

July 2012: days in July that I'm working (so far): 17, 18, 19.  Teachers go back to school the 23rd, and students come back the 30th, and then we start all over again.

Well, folks, there you have it.  Now imagine doing this with a chronic illness that causes pain and serious fatigue.  Now imagine what it must be like to direct high school marching band (twice the contest plus all those football games!  Ugh!  Glad I teach strings!).  And no, our stipends aren't THAT big.  They're very nice, and our fine arts department takes very good care of us.  But it's still a lot of work.

I'm closing with a picture of my colleague and I working on making our instrument storage room a happier place.  We were tired of looking at all the scuffs and dings.  It was really kind of depressing.  And yes, I bought all the paint myself. 

Music Teacher Gothic.