Deck Decorating

Here's step one of the whole deck decorating process. Last summer I picked up a set of dishes that had mini little quilt patterns all over them. Too sickly sweet to eat off of, but wonderful to smash. I had a little bit of trouble sticking the pieces onto something 3D. Everytime I look at the pot now I think of all the not-so-pleasantries that came out of my mouth while I was making it. The urn underneath the pot came from the hardware store across the street from Psycho Suzies. That place is the best. It's like a new hybrid made with the quirkiness of AxMan and the usefulness of Hardware Hank. And of course it's cheap... It's like heaven.

This picture is of me right after I decided to take a break from the heat. Ooh la, la. Yes, that's dirt and sweat and maybe a little compost with manure on my face. Lovely. Oh, and I'm sun burned, too. I honestly cannot believe how hot it's been outside this week. It's fine when standing completely still if you've found a breeze. Otherwise, it's hot as hell.
Unfortunately, I've not been calmly sitting in the cool breeze lately. I've been working on a new garden around (you guessed it) the deck. Last year I dug up and tore out our lawn with a shovel where I wanted to put a new garden. It sucked. It sucked really bad, in fact. This year someone (who does not want to be named) told me the trick to creating new garden spaces. I think it's brilliant, and since this is my space, I'm including all of the steps. Just to bore you.
First I edged the space with rocks. I used a garden hose to sort of mark off how it would look first.

Then, I filled it all in with old City Pages. I got all of the pages really wet. That kept them from blowing around AND it kept me cool. I also think this might help the newspaper break down later when it's supposed to feed the soil.

Next, I threw a bunch of dirt over the whole area and started planning where stuff will go.

Alright, I'm still on a cooling off break. I might go see what kind of trash Dr. Phill is talking to today.

Reconstruction

If you've seen me lately, you'll know that our new deck is definitely one of my favorite conversation pieces. Lame, eh? I know it's lame to get so excited about something so superficial, but I can't help it. It's like we just got a new room for our house and NOW I GET TO DECORATE IT. And that, my friends, is such an exciting drug of choice. Tonight when it was too dark to take pictures, I put together some cute planters for the stairway. It's going to be a bit of a struggle for me to not fill the stairs up with plants, and go ahead and leave it open for dumb old things like walking into the house. Some people would say that I'm turning into my mother. Next, I'm going to plant all the way along the front and side of the deck to hide the footings. I'm hoping that Linder's still has some hydrangea left. Oh, and I'm also hoping to find some sort of vine to grow across the arbor. It seems like so many of the vines I'm seeing are for shaded areas. We have zero shade, so that's a bit of a challenge. I also don't want something that's going to crap out little flowers everywhere.

Here's another tribute to Frida. Zander's mom (who should have her own website that I could link to right here) recently gave me this awesome t-shirt. It's pretty boxy on me, so I took in the seams on both sides. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the sleeves. I like that they're still a few inches above my elbow, but they stick out too much. Any suggestions? The coordinating polyester number is from one of my favorite thrift scores. 2 yards of fabric for really cheap and then an extra 25% off because I bought it on a Tuesday sale. JACK POT. I used Simplicity 5505 to make some of it into an A-line skirt. (The view that's hem is straight across) It's one of those skirts that really doesn't need a pattern, because there's really only a front and a back to it, but it sure made sizing it a lot easier.

Great Necklaces over at Snapcrafty!

I love this necklace. I've been eye-balling all the cute stuff over at Snapcrafty for a while now. You can even buy the cute little trinkets to make your own.

Boom Island

Last night we piled friends and food into a Subaru and headed down to Boom Island. We, I mean I, ate way too much junk and drank a little too much Lemon Limone. There was a toddler that kept coming over to our table for a handfull of cheeze-its, there was bass pumping out of the pavillions, there was the quirky washer-throw game with it's ever evolving rule system, and seriously, you can't beat fireworks on the 4th. (Unless they're right outside your door at 4 am) What a great night guys!

Painting Sucks

So, you're wondering what I'm doing with my glamorous summer vacation? Wondering why my roots are Behr Honeydew instead of grayish-brown? That's what happens when you're painting the bathroom on the hottest day of the year and you're sweating so much your hands are slippery and you drop your diet coke into the full paint tray. Then, you've got to fish it out of there because it's leaking and you bang your head on the wall you just painted.

The shower curtains are two sheer pieces of fabric I picked up at Savers for $1.99, finished the edges, and added grommets to. It was an easy project except that I have an extremely difficult time accurately measuring and squaring large pieces of fabric. Anyone have a trick for it?


Many of you've seen this one already, but I'm still not finished, and I think working on it a little bit tonight might help my bathroom-painting-inspired-bitchiness.

Are Garden Pictures as Annoying as Cute Cat Pictures?

I love July. I still have lots of summer vacation left, it's hot outside, it's cool inside, and simple things like watermelon taste really, really good. Oh, and the sunflowers are finally blooming. Most of ours this year come from a bird feeder and a bunch of sloppy eaters. The birds keep dropping their food (or poop, gasp) and I keep transplanting the sunflowers that pop up (in the middle of the tomato area) into a better spot.

I think this hollyhock came from the same bird feed mix!

Last year this wheelbarrow was practically free from an estate sale. Of course the bottom is rusting out, but I keep telling myself that just makes for better drainage anyway. My mom, who is a brilliant gardener, gave me a bunch of her plants that she germinated over the winter. I couldn't remember what any of it was, so I just plopped them all in the dirt and hoped for the best. This arrangement cracks me up. I think it looks kinda nice, but seriously, who's the dork that mixed the big bunch of cucumbers in there?

Everytime I see this corner of the house, it makes me smile. I've been trying to get these roses to bloom for a while now. Last fall I was too lazy to cut them back and then this spring they looked SO dead. However, I still didn't cut them back because thorns suck, and I was still too lazy. The rose fairies must have visited us though, because this is what's been happening. Aren't they purdy? (Does anyone know if the purple flowers are weeds?) I need this corner to be attractive right now because the rest of our yard is frigging ugly. The grass looks dead in the front yard because I'm not going to water the lawn. The grass IS dead is the back because the wood from the deck we're building has been lying on it for a while now. And seriously, who wants to mow the only things left living, clover and creeping charlie? The deck, while not quite done, is looking wonderful. It's like adding a whole extra room to our house. It's supposed to be finished next week, and then I'll be spending the rest of my summer out there sipping iced tea and writing the most enticing and wonderful lesson plans ever. And reading... Right now I'm reading Mating. It's really good, but also a bit of a tough read. I can't let my mind wander while I'm reading it, or back I go to where I started. That's been happening A LOT lately.

Grandma's was the Greatest

We had a great time in Duluth last weekend for the marathon. Zander ran fast and didn't die, which was all I really care about, and it was really just lots of fun to be a fan around so much hoopla. When we drove the guys to the shuttle before the race, at 5:30am, there were already four men drinking beer in the middle of the street, wearing only their jock straps. It'd be an effort to not get excited. Another really great part of the weekend was staying with one of Zander's friends from Grinnell. He was great, his wife was great, and their kids are still making me laugh. Basically we want to move to Duluth and be their next-door-neighbors. Anyway, their youngest son is basically potty-trained except for an occasional "wipe". I was in the hall when I heard him in the bathroom talking to himself. "I need to wipe. Yeah, I need A wipe. HEY, SOMEBODY COME WIPE ME." I hate bathroom humor, but that was just the cutest.

If you see this guy to Z's left, call him Coach.

In other news, I'm taking a painting class at the U this week. The schedule is basically 9-5 all week, which is a bit gruelling for my lady-of-leisure-ways. Jeesh, I've even got to set the alarm. Yesterday was orientation, so we met with our prof and the other students. We all had to share what we were going paint for the class. I must admit, I had absolutely nothing in mind when he called on me out of the blue, especially after the lengthy and DEEP intentions of the woman that was called on first. He called on me right when I was thinking to myself, "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH..." I looked like an idiot. Luckily for me, most of the group seemed to be in my position. Although, the last person in the group shared two ideas that she's been working on for a while. I'll share only one of the two, both of which were said to complete strangers through tears. *SNARK ALERT* *GET READY THIS IS GOOD* "One thing I've been thinking about, um. Um, people call me a doctor, but um, it makes me so upset because I consider myself a healer. I mean, doctors have basically raped society, and that's why I don't even want to be associated with the profession. So, um, I was thinking about doing a painting about that..." A few of the people in the group nodded their heads like crazy in agreement, murmuring their affirmations. Maybe I'm not so deep, but I really almost felt a giggle coming on. Bleh. I will tell you though, my painting is roughed in and my sewing machine is present. OK though, just know that I don't consider myself a sewer, because I'm really a fabric-put-em-together-er. Don't even think anything else, or I'll get sad. SNARK. I love my professor's work. He's a Japanese-American that paints about stereotypes by using humor. Today he told me that the moment you make someone laugh, you can sneak something in their mouth that they normally don't care to eat.

I love this painting.

This one too.

Wish Zander and Mike luck this weekend while they run Grandma's Marathon! Mike has run at least three marathons, but this is Zander's first. I'm so excited for him. He's trained his butt off. I'll be sure and take lots of pictures. Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm on a kick where I'm trying not to drive much during the summer. I don't have to go to work, so why should I be burning gas at almost $3 a gallon? I'm certainly not on a soapbox here. For the most part I'm a wasteful girl. I just think it's kind of a cool, new, self-imposed game, to try and stay out of the car. I also have a bit of a thrift store/garage sale addiction, as if you didn't see that coming. I need almost nothing, but the thrill of the hunt just makes me so happy. So, I'm pretty sure I can bike to Saver's, Salvation Army, Ragstock or Value Village when the urges start calling to me. And, I'll be limited to buying only what I can safely carry in my baskets. We'll see how far I can press "safely". I expect you'll see me biking around with things stacked up like a totem pole. Now that I'm playing the car game, I can think of a million reasons why I need to drive somewhere. I NEED cedar chips. Too heavy for my bike. I NEED to go to IKEA. Too far for my bike. I need black thread. There are no fabric stores even remotely close to North Minneapolis. Normally I'd drive to the library and then drive home. When I got home I'd think about heading over to Rainbow. As soon as I'd unpack the groceries, I'd think of the next place I'd need to go. Maybe this little game will help me overcome my ADHD tendencies and combine a few trips too.

By the way, we have a dumpster in front of our house. It's there because we're adding on a deck and we're jack-hammering out the old staircase in back. I looked inside the dumpster today and it's filled with a whole bunch of used "police line do not cross" tape. If only that tape could talk, I'm sure it'd have quite a story to tell. I'm hoping it'd say that it came from Spencers at the mall and the youngsters down the street were playing a riviting game of cops and robbers.

First off, before you read this post or scroll ahead to look at the pictures, repeat after me. I (insert your name), hereby make this pledge to not judge Joolie for her chubby arms or her bad photography. I (insert your name), understand that self photography in a mirror without a flash is not an easy task. Stuff gets blurry. I (insert your name), also acknowledge that hardly anyone's arm would look good with the white underbelly showing at the angle below. I (insert your name), will be declared an unfriendly b-i-t-c-h if I still must judge after making this pledge. Amen.

I made a dress yesterday. It was really easy and took less than an hour, start to finish. I used a polyester knit that I picked up at an estate sale in the fall.

With the extra scraps I whipped up this little top using the same idea as the dress. I did change the underarm area from 8 inches to 9 inches long. It feels a tiny bit more comfortable than the dress. I'm not much of a jeans girl, so I also tried on the top with a bright blue A-line skirt and flip flops. It was pretty cute that way too.

Today is my first day at home for summer break. I'm so excited to do all of these marvelous things that I've been waiting to do that I simply can't decide where to begin. I could paint the bathroom. I could grout a few mosaic pieces. I could alter one of my new grammie dresses, so it actually fits. I could do some writing for school. Really, the list goes on and on. Speaking of lists, I should make a giant to-do list and just start checking items off. That would give me a sense of purpose and a sense of accomplishment. Both of which most of us, including myself, totally thrive on.

Yesterday we got back from New York. We stayed with Zander's cousin and his wife and baby. I don't think they read this blog so I can say this without embarrassing myself... They are the nicest, smartest, most unpretentious people ever. They're great parents too. I could have so easily felt small in their big city lives, but they just made it so easy to be comfortable. Their apartment is gorgeous. I am not lying when I say that our house could fit inside their apartment, with room to spare. I wish I'd have brought my roller skates along because I could've gotten quite a work out. Oh, and it overlooks the Union Square Garden. I didn't do much tourist sight-seeing really. I hung out in the park quite a bit, watched lots of people go by, did a LOT of walking, munched on the chewiest bagels, window shopped, had dinner in Brooklyn, chatted with Colbert and Mary, and loved up their adorable baby.

One of the many highlights of our trip was shopping in Soho with Mary. She suggested that we get a light bite to eat and something called a Vanilla Shanti at this great bar called Lucky Strike. The staff was really patient with us laughing it up with a sweet baby covering herself with every little thing within reach. Walking out of there just after noon, feeling really quite tipsy, I'd decided that my most important new quest in life will be recreating that martini. It won't be that hard though, because here it is folks: VANILLA SHANTI: Stolichnaya vanilla, lemon & lime juice, pineapple juice, and sugar. I've never heard of Stolichnaya, unless that's the same thing as Stoli. Anyway, I might add that to my to-do and check it right off again tonight.

Least glamorous news: pimple on my neck that might be eating it's way through my adams apple. I've messed with it so much, I now have a self-induced hickey. Any home remedies?

The students are beginning to trickle in right now, so this'll probably be a really short entry. I thought I was excited to just be finished with school, but now that it comes down to it, I'm really more excited for some new things to begin. I'll miss my friends at school, both student and colleage! But this summer will buy me some time to do a few things that I've been dreaming about for a while now. Some of them will hopefully involve this very website. Have a great summer Irondale friends, and I'll see you back in my dusty little cave in September.

just one more day...

Today I'll be giving finals for 1/2 of the day and then closing up shop in the afternoon. My final check-list is about a mile long, but I'm hoping to fly through most of it today, so I can take off in the EARLY afternoon tomorrow. We're leaving for the Mocca convention in New York at 6pm and I've got nothing ready yet. Not that there's much to do except throw some stuff in a bag and make sure I bring good walking shoes. Tonight... Prairie Home Companion and a bucket o' corn. LiLo, don't let me down.

TWO more days left

Here's Juno and Boo. Juno is our verion of Snuffleupagus. He hides when other people are around, but he's really pretty sweet to us.

THREE

Three little bobbles from a garage sale a few weeks ago... The woman laughed when I bought them because she'd never worn them in the tweny years she's had them. I'll proudly say that I've already worn them twice.

FOUR

With four days left of school, I think it's only fitting to have a daily-ish countdown. This one is all about our bathroom, which is quite interesting to me right now, but quite boring to the rest of the world. There are no "it's finished" photos included because it is not finished. We still need to paint the ceiling and the walls. As we're both big fans of color, including both grown up and not-so-grown up looking colors, it will one day soon become a striking shade of Honeydew Behr. One day soon, I'm also going to stencil some birds on an old sheet to hang up as a shower curtain. However, I'm procrastinating on that project right now. I have the stencil and I tried it out with spray-paint on a t-shirt. I found it impossible to control the extra spray-age and it left an aura of the outside perimeter of the stencil. Granted, it could be pulled off as intentional, but mostly I think it looks sloppy. I guess I'll need to play with it a bit more.

Ah, yes. It's that time again. My garden is quickly coming back to life. Even some cactus that I thought were dead for sure are coming back with lots of new shoots all over the place. They look like wicked little monsters and I just love 'em. I've even got a new little side garden planted by the fence. I wanted to hide an ugly corner with sunflowers, so my mom gave me some that she started from seed and I transplanted a few that started themselves under our bird feeder. My peonies are pretty much done blooming, but they were beautiful this year. Last year the bunnies ate all of the buds, so it was fun to see the bush so full of blooms this year.
Yes, yes ya'll, it's also GARAGE SALE SEASON. Oh my word, yes. This cutie little vest came with a matching a-line skirt for $2. They're both suede, which is kind of weird, but cute. I won't bore you with all the other crap (I mean treasures) that I've picked up, but it all makes me feel a bit high on life... Which leads me to our venture out last night to hear the Roe Family Singers for the first time. SO FUN. With school ending this Friday, and no more getting to bed by 10 so I can get up by 5:30, I'm planning on making it a regular stop on Monday nights.

After watching baby Joey all day, I don't quite have the motivation to go to the grocery store like I'd planned. I'd have to change my clothes, and nothing is clean at the moment. I have spit-up both on my skirt and on my top. My allergies are also going a bit, shall we say, ape-shit right now. Instead, I'm going to try and revive a bag of salad mix that's supposed to be good until Wednesday, but is looking a little limp. Why do the salad companies lie like they do? Maybe I'll dress it up with some black beans or something. Gourmet night at the Cannon house it is not. Tonight I'm going to dig into The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I keep hearing what a great book it is. Has everyone except for me read it already? Is it as good as all the three year old hype suggests?

Joey Smiles and then Julie Smiles

I just got home from work. It was kinda, really crappy. Right now I have one really difficult class that frequently tarnishes my day. Today was tarnished. Instead of coming home and enjoying the sun, I put in 10 hours, and I'm all the crabbier for it. Then, I got home to see that the bathroom contractor (who is not a good communicator) put the towel rack in the wrong stupid place. In the scheme of things, this is not a big deal. In my frame of mind, it is catastrophic. Coping technique? Bit my sweet husband's head right off, and promptly felt like the biggest b-i-t-c-h (sshh, I'm sure the students are reading) in the entire world. Luckily, I just found this picture of little Joey, and most of the drama has just melted away. Now, I just need to go attach aforementioned sweet husband's head, and all will be fine.

Student dilemma

OK, I'm going to admit it, I really wish that my students hadn't found this little journal. Sometimes I want to crab about them, sometimes I want to tell cute stories about them, and sometimes I just want to disclose more about my life than a student really needs to know about their art teacher. That being said, one of my students who checks the heck out of this blog, has a dilemma and I think that reader comments could provide some insight for her. PLEASE COMMENT. Her and her mom are moving to another school district this summer. If she wants to continue at our school next year, she'll have quite a commute every day. Of course going to another school is another option, but gosh, it'll be her senior year and that would be a pain too. The last option is taking her senior year courses over the internet. While I could not possibly be paid enough to go back to Roseville High and live through those not-so-glory-days again, I think mile-markers (like prom and graduation and trying out for the plays...) were really important to me at the time. At 34, are the memories and experiences of my senior year in high school really all that important to who I am now? What about closure?

Aren't there just so many things to love about spring? After being cooped up in the house all winter long, it's so fun to get outside and see what's popping out of the ground. It kind of shocks me when things that I planted last year are actually coming back now. I found two little lily of the valley plants hiding behind my roses the other day. They're probably my favorite spring flower. My Barbies used their petals for drinking cups when I was a wee little Barbie girl. Oh, and yesterday, for Mother's Day, I made blueberry rhubarb crisp with some of the rhubarb that Gnomie gave me last summer. It was delicious. Speaking of rhubarb, a woman from work told me that the leaves of it are toxic and that you've got to get every bit of leaf off and wash your hands, OR ELSE YOU WILL SEE DEATH. Anyone ever heard of this before?

Z and I went to the May Day parade over in Powderhorn a couple weeks ago. I love these little pod people.

I'm also loving anything with skulls these days.

Frida was at the parade too. As many of you know, she is MY homegirl and of course I thoroughly endorse her having a slice of the parade all to herself. However, don't you think this woman is a total Frida wanna-be-poser? I'm thinking about dressing up like the REAL Frida next year and hopefully finding this woman and chopping her stupid oversized watermelon in half.

Another thing I love about spring this year, is getting to babysit little Joey. I love it when he talks to me and I even love it when he's crabby. It just makes me laugh. We watched him all day on Saturday, and sheesh it was hard work. I didn't get one damn thing done except feeding him, burping him, changing him, tickling him, and trying to make him take a nap. Oh, and taking lots of cute pictures.

Find your own pose!

Check over on the CC for the latest meeting's pictures. A few highlights: 1. HoLyn as our poster girl. 2. The return of The Mess. 3. An impromptu post-crafting dance party in the livingroom. I think we were all giddy about getting out of the basement.

stencils

I adore working with stencils. I especially love making my own. Whether it's using freezer paper for t-shirts, or by cutting out a cardboard piece and spray painting the heck out of it, I love it all. However, a patient woman, I am not. And cutting out putzy little lines and pieces for a stencil makes me want to puke. So, $10 for a wide assortment of REALLY COOL stencils is right up my alley. I think the sparrows might show up in our bathroom soon.

Yeah, here's us chaperoning the prom last Saturday night. Our real-life prom picture, taken in front of a winding staircase wrapped with white Christmas lights should come be coming in the mail any day now. I can't wait to see them, mostly because I'm a dork. My friend Melissa did my hair for me. She's genius. After narrowing down my outfit options for her, she settled on an era 'do, complete with what looked like finger curls. I felt SO elegant. Speaking of outfit, I wore a cranberry flapper-like number from a clothing swap that happened more than a year ago. We had a great time. It was so fun to see prom fashion 2006. And really, if my students didn't check read my little website, I'd have way more snarky commentary about that.
Oh, and I just found Pandora over at Superhero Designs. Just type in what musician you like, and it'll make a play list of that and similiar artists.

Well, I've either caught a teenie little cold or my allergy season is starting a month early. My nose is just dripping. Lovely timing with the new piercing. Ahem. I'm feeling just under the weather enough to skip cardio kick (my FAVORITE class) and stay in for the night. Which means I can't go wish the marvelous, yet non-blogging, HoLyn a very merry birthday. JoLyn, tonight I'll raise you a glass from my couch. Bummer.

Since I'm in for the night, I'm also cooking. I bought some fennel to try out in a new recipe, and I need to use it up before it goes bad. Not like I'd know the difference, I've never even tasted fennel. Blech, it smells like anise but it sure is pretty. I'm in love with polka dots these days, so it was fun to find them hiding inside the bulb.

Today I discovered that my workplace has filtered out the use of Blogger. While I can look at my website at work, I unable to check any comments or have access to the Blogger website. Interesting. I wonder if many teachers have time to blog while they have students in the room? Mine would be look like this: Starting clay today with Art I. Must send some muscle out to get clay out of my car. I hope City Pages on the front seat isn't still opened to Savage Love. I also hope I don't get in trouble for giving them my keys. Damn, where are my keys? Oh here they are. Alright I'm back. One of the kiddies needed help finding their project. It's looking good, but how is it that only I can find things in this room? AND, I just got ink on my skirt and it's only 7:30am. We're not even using ink today, how does this happen? Good thing I wore my crappy wrap skirt today. I hate this skirt. It makes me look like a total frump, but I feel like it's casual enough to wear with tennies, and my feet needed a break this morning. I can't wait for flip-flops. Except that my toenails are awful. Oh crap, how the time flies. It's already 10:00 and I forgot to eat the breakfast I brought along today. Yogurt smells a bit funny, but I'm sure it'll be fine if I add a little Fiber One. Time for the bell to ring. Students are hanging out around my desk. Someone is playing with my toothbrush and wondering why I have one. They think it's gross that I brush my teeth during the day. Why can't I brush my teeth without being scrutinized? Back from lunch. I love Taco Tuesdays in the cafeteria. Sat in the staff room like always. One of the teachers that I like to call Garanimal was blabbing on about how she teaches the students to love to read. Thank god she didn't teach me how to love to read. I'd definitely be a books-on-tape-only-girl. This room is a mess. I must stay late and clean. I need a Diet Coke.

Here's the happy couple on their wedding day, way up on the very top of a mountain in Colorado. We had such a great time just staying at the foot of the mountain, taking in the lovely scenery, catching up with family, and for Zander, actually skiing. (He's a really good skier. I hope we have time for snowboarding lessons together next year--I think that'd be so fun.) The ceremony was on the very top of a mountain, and most of us were sitting on a deck-like structure that sort of hung off the side. The little kids kept wanting to go to the edge of the deck and get some snow to suck on/throw/kick around, while the rest of us gasped every time they got even remotely close to the sides.


Yesterday we went over to my mom's house for an Easter lunch. Hello, I ate too many chocolate eggs! You know the pastel ones, they look kind of chalky on the outside, but have chocolate inside. Yeah, I'm thinking they have some kind of crack on the inside that makes you continue to eat them long past the time that was ever considered within moderation. Anyway, my little nephew was there and I love holding him. Especially now that he's starting to laugh and make little cooing sounds. Here's little Joey laying on my knees and drooling all over my skirt.


Well, I've never claimed to be photogenic, but you'd think I could slap on some blush before I put my picture out there for the world to see. I will admit that I took about 30 pictures of me looking out this window trying to get some good old natural lighting and a decent looking picture. Where did those wrinkles on my forehead come from??? Anyway, another little piece of Easter this year was going home and showing off a new little piece of jewelry that I got this weekend. I've been wanting to do it for a long time, so it was nice to get the family seal of approval. Oh, and Zander likes it too. Yeah, and I really like it too.

Today I worked like crazy to get everything organized for a few days off from school. It was time consuming because things that come as second nature to me, obvious as all get out, easy as pie, I need to write out piece by piece for a substitute teacher. As I was prepping my students for my days away, making sure they don't miss me TOO much, really all they wanted to know... "Is the sub hot?" Anyway, we're heading out to Colorado for a family wedding where the bride and groom are going to ski down the hill as they tie the knot. Pretty exciting. Being not much of a skier myself, I'm going to ride down the hill instead. We'll be back on Sunday, and I'll update a bit then. Have a great weekend!

After school today I headed over to Savers and found some pretty incredible booty. This shirt was $1.99. And seriously, I keep reading in all the magazines how important the white shirt is this season. Especially with a little victorian looking lace going on, and BAM, there you go. I want to shorten this one so I can wear it untucked and add a couple of darts to make it fit better.

I also picked up the most perfect wool, plaid, little a-line number. $2.99 While it's pretty much perfect as is, I'm afraid it might look a bit Christmas-y. I'm thinking about adding a wide navy ric-rac trim.

1. I just found bloglines. Oh my gosh, reading my smut just got way more efficient. If you're a subscriber, I'm a subscriber now too.
2. Have you ever used Neutrogena's Lash Tint? Wonder Product of the Friggin' Year. There are two reasons why I hate regular mascara. A) While I have dry skin, I somehow manage to have oily eyelids that make me blink the black off of my lashes and on to my under eye proximity. Coon eyes. B) While I consider myself to be quite artistic, I totally lack the luster of wearing mascara without looking like Tammy Faye. I'm a clumper. While those of you with dark lashes are clucking to yourselves, "who cares, just go without..." I want you to know that I oftentimes do go without, and those are the days when people ask me why I look so sick/tired/weird/pasty/bloated/off. The lash tint solves all of these problems and more. All for under $6.
3. I have VPLs with the black yoga pants that I wear to the gym. Thongs do NOT improve the situation because when my shirt rides up and my pants ride down (even a little) there lies the tell-tale T hanging out for the world to see. Any suggestions?
4. Last night I dreamt that I had really long nails that were breaking off. I have super short nails in real life. Anyone with a dream book got an interpretation for me?
5. Only 50 more days of school this year. Ahem, not that I'm counting or anything. My students were especially charming today, and we're doing cool projects right now (like linoleum printing), so it's especially fun. Still, I do long for days spent in the sun-- when I can wake up at a natural time and not have to worry about being asleep by 10, which makes me feel like a complete LAME-O.

This will be a quickie. I'm on spring break this week and have had an absolutely LOVELY time. Zander and I went up to Door County Wisconsin early in the week. While this isn't a balmy beach scene, we were on a beach, and I'm not sure I was dying to get into a swimming suit anyway! We did lots of walking and relaxing in front of the fireplace on our little trip. Our inn was right across the street from a ship yard on Lake Michigan, so it was fun to watch the boats come in. We had a great time, and would love to go back in the summer time when there's a little more open.

We've also done some babysitting over spring break. Joey is getting so alert. He's even starting to smile, although he's not showing it in this picture.

Yeah, Boo likes him too.

Lots of crafting is going on too. Usually I decide to organize first before I begin a project. This time I just jumped right in and I'm having a blast. I'll post pictures as soon as I've got some things done.

Oh, tonight is going to be a good one over at Creative Electric. I hope to see you all there!

Here's some exciting news... The city of Minneapolis is giving us a 0% interest loan that gets paid off only when we sell our house. While we certainly don't want to change the place a ton and therefore price ourselves out of the hood, we do want to make some "quality of life" changes. Such as, oh yeah baby, a shower in the bathroom instead of down in the basement. It feels so self-indulgent to do this when the shower downstairs works just fine, but really folks, it will be heaven to shower in a proper room with a light and even an exhaust fan. We need to pick out the tile for the backsplash, and then the shower head and faucet. I think that'll be fun to pick out. Speaking of self-indulgent, why not build a deck too? I mean, we don't even have one tree on our entire property, so it's not like we can go for the cool, shady oasis that the Juice has going on. (That I'm so jealous of, by the way) Here are a couple of imperfect, but on the right track for our space, ideas that we've seen so far. Please insert all the weird crap you can imagine I'll be using my summer to find, giving these spaces oh so much more personality.



I love the shade provided in this one, but hate the metal banister.



Again, I like the shade given on this one, and I kind of like the privacy latice... but there's still something about it that I don't l-o-v-e love. I keep getting hung up on coming up with something that will match the era of our little stucco house. I'm not sure what that would be though.

On Friday afternoon I found myself in Anthropology wondering how to justify spending $68 on a tank top. Folks, I REALLY tried, and it just can't be done. Happily, lots of the stuff I liked was just a basic tank with a little birdie sewn on. Or a basic a-line skirt with an extra little vintage-looking ruffle sewn into the hem. I can do that kind of stuff no problemo! I'm going through my fabric stash this weekend, and I'm totally looking forward to hitting the sewing machine hard tomorrow afternoon.



This bird is hand sewn, but wouldn't it be adorable in a light color embroidered on a dark t-shirt that's just lying around the house? Martha has all of the state birds just ready for your downloading pleasure.

Speaking of Martha, I just might need this. You can get it here.

Wow. Last week felt like a month and it fried me to a crisp. By Friday afternoon I felt like one of those cream cheese wontons from a cheap Chinese food buffet. One of those that look a little wonky and so everyone leaves it behind to cook under the heat lamp until it becomes an inedible brick. Fortunately, the weekend was lovely and I'm feeling just as fresh as a Vietnamese spring roll. So to speak. Speaking of spring rolls, my (favorite) aunt Judy once reported to us that she tried a spring roll because the waiter told her that it's just like an egg roll. She thought it tasted like lettuce in a condom wrapper and had to immediately go smoke a cigarette to get that horrible taste out of her mouth. Haa! I love that story. Back to the weekend. We started it out with The Lynns at the Monte Carlo. I got to pick out the restaraunt and I got it mixed up with another place that's close by. I don't remember the name of the place that I wanted to go to, but it's famous for it's mac and cheese and it's either got a zebra on the wall or in the name... can't remember. The Monte Carlo had the best szechuan green beans I've ever had and the staff all had on black diner dresses with white aprons that I wouldn't be caught dead in, but were somehow lovely too. However, it does seem like a shame to spend $10 on a side dish, even if it is really good. I'd like to try out this recipe at home and add in some green beans. After dinner we rushed over to the Jeune Lune to see Amerika. It was pretty amazing. Throughout the entire play we kept thinking that the cast must be huge, but it turned out to be pretty small and the actors had multiple parts with insanely quick costume changes. Pretty much the only theater we usually hit comes straight to our doorstep from Netflix, so to get out and see one was a total treat. Saturday morning I had my second to last belly dancing class, and I'm already sad that it's almost over. Yes, my dance teacher is much nicer than my painting teacher. I'm thinking about giving her a card on the last day that reads: Thank you for not being a bitch like my other teacher. I wonder if Hallmark makes something along those lines? Anyway, I'll definitely register for the next session. I did some thrifting Saturday afternoon and got a cute little polyester a-line bright blue skirt... Perfect for any season and never needs to be ironed. Saturday night we chilled out on the couch with some cocktails and the newest season of NYPD Blue. I KNOW it sounds lame, but man-oh-man, it was nice to have some down time. Today we met my parents for a bit, and then caught up on a little laundry. We also started our power cleaning sessions. Zander sets his watch for 15 minutes and we both run around and clean up as fast as possible until the timer goes off. When it goes off both of us need to stop where we're at and go back to enjoying something else. Hopefully, if we do this everyday (or so) we'll stay somewhat organized and not have to spend big chunks of time doing it on the weekend. Wow, that feels like more lameness, reporting on our cleaning, or lack there of.

If you haven't checked out the conspiracy website lately, there are lots more posts coming in. It's certainly worth a peek!

The last class that I teach everyday is a doozie. While there are so many serious/wonderful/fun/smart kiddies in there, there are also some real, shall we say, hand-fulls/poop-heads. Right now my energy is completely zapped, I'm crabby, AND I have to go to both Weight Watchers and my last oil painting class tonight. To look on the bright side, it is the last painting class. On the flip side of that coin, I can't stand that beyotchy teacher and I'm really just drooling to write her a crappy evaluation. Staying on the pessimistic side, I chowed down last night and so I'm sure the scale will be up today for weigh-in. Dang Yo, excercising makes me hungry. To latch onto any little piece of zen that I might, I'm reading the "guiding principles." (over and over again) It's really just a list of the (supposedly) most commonly used words from the Constitution, Bill of rights, the Koran, the Bible, and the Boy & Girl Scouts of America. Here goes:

Responsibility
Contemplation
Initiative
Perseverance
Optimism
Courage
Respect
Compassion
Adaptability
Honesty
Trustworthiness
Loyalty

If I could add creativity to the list, I would. It helps me feel good. What would happen if we took every aspect of our lives and made them creative? Dealing with the disgusting bathroom at work that leaks sewage everyday? (Just another perk of being a teacher) Fold a 5 star hotel toilet triange everytime you pee. It'll make you laugh. Got another parking ticket in uptown? Mail it in with scratch 'n sniffs. The gross kind.