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.