Baby Shower Mobile

My dear friend Nicole has a sister who is having a little girl this fall. For her upcoming shower Nicole and I did a craft that will double as a decoration and then as a hanging mobile in the baby’s room. Here is a simple idea anyone can recreate. AND the great thing is that it’s budget minded. The whole thing was around 10$. But I bet you could do it cheaper if you had a curly-willow (or equally cool tree) in your yard.

As all good crafters do – we looked to the wonderful Martha Stewart for inspiration. Her Bird Mobile was so cute – and we wanted something similar.

Here is what we ended up doing. At Joann's they have these large bunches of twigs. We bought one bunch and some fake flowers – manned ourselves with glue guns and hit the ground running.

I was able to undo the wire that held the large bunch together and divided them into two bunches. Used the wire to regroup the twigs and began to glue on our flowers.

Nicole’s sister’s shower is pink, yellow, and peachy orange – so we bought a sprig of yellow hydrangea and a sprig of cherry blossom. We also got a branch of green leaves as the flowers didn’t have much greenery to them.  After taking them off of the plastic branches we began to glue them down.

We tried not to over do it because we liked the simplicity of the branch Martha had created. We also tried to glue the flowers at every angle that way if Nicole’s Sister decides that she wants to hang it above the crib the baby won’t be looking at the boring side of the branches.

Here is the finished branch before we put the birds on them. We got fishing line at Walmart to use in order to hang the birds. Because the shower was still a few weeks away we didn’t put the birdies on. Last year when we had a polka-dot themed shower for our friend Kristine we made polka-dot garland. Well – if you aren’t super careful it will get all tangled – so we decided to error on the side of caution so the birdies won’t be flying until the day before.

We printed the birds from Martha’s website on purple and pink card stock. I’m sure if you are crafty enough you could cut them out by hand but who doesn’t love an easy cut out! I know I do.

Happy Crafting!

School Dreams.

So yesterday two of my good friends and I went down to Ikea to enjoy some Swedish goodness.

We didn't have any meatballs. But we did act like goofballs.

Last weekend I went with Nicole to the salvation army store in town. I got a lamp for 5 dollars. Because it was half off!!! AMAZING! But it didn't have a lamp shade. So when we were in the lighting section Nicole pointed out a very cool lamp shade.



I got this lovely shade and it's very happy sitting on my bedside table.

While we were enjoying a wonderful Mediterranean meal we were talking about school. My friend Jess mentioned that she had a school dream and then I said "watch - now we're all going to have school dreams."

- Sure enough last night I had a dream about school. It was the first day of school but I didn't know what classes I was teaching and was also late getting to work so when I walked in my classroom they kids were already there. It was awful.

I don't have to go back to work until August 9th but I'm already having dreams. This isn't a good sign for my sleep habits.

Mini Vacation

So this past weekend I drove out to see my best friend Casey. She lives in Phoenix. So I packed up my little honda and got on the road. I enjoy spending time driving. It's about a five and a half hour drive and I rocked out to some mixed cds I made, and looked around at the beautiful, dry scenery.

We have been friends for over ten years. We met while going to NAU. She works in marketing, and so when I got to town I was able to meet her in her office. I don't work in an office, and have never been in that kind of work environment. It was fun to see her in her element. Casey is really good at what she does and that company is lucky to have her.

After the office we went and got some yummy Thai food for dinner and visited her community garden plot. She has sun flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some herbs. A man in her mom's neighborhood gave the community land (when he passed away) and requested that a garden be created. Each person pays a yearly fee for up keep and water. There is a food bank plot and a box for extra food that others have that would be given to the food bank. It's a really awesome program. Who doesn't love fresh fruits and veggies?!

Saturday we did some shopping and then watched My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. That was part of plan for me to go out and see her in the first place. Casey had DVR-ed the six episodes and so we had a mini marathon. It was great.

Then we went to Bingo After Dark (BAD Bingo). It was soooo much fun. Eight Dollars got us 11 rounds of bingo and a lot of glow sticks. Half way through the sessions they stop and have a dance party. There had to be 500 people in the room. AND on the last game of bingo - I GOT A BINGO! I won 150$ It was awesome.

Sunday we enjoyed some samples at Costco and a trip to the pool. The high on Sunday was 111 - soooo hot!

Monday I packed up my bags and headed home. It was a great weekend!

Summer Housewife

Why is it that when I am on summer vacation I want to be a housewife. Like full on butcher, baker, candle sick maker.

I really want to get a sewing machine this summer. I have two very dear friends that are both pregnant and I want to make almost everything from Creation Corner!

I also really want to try and bake bread. My grandmother is a wonderful baker and every year on major holidays she bakes these amazing bread loaves. Her best are her egg breads. I'm not sure of the official name but they are light and fluffy and wonderful. I really want to try these rolls. My friend Carly is an amazing woman and mother. I pretty much want to be her when I grow up. Always have.

So I'm off to attempt a few of these house wifey projects of mine.

Here are a list of things I would like to tackle this summer:

Clean out and organize the garage
Bake bread
Bake a cake from scratch
More crock pot cooking
Clean out my closet
Organize the Pantry
Craft various craft things

It's going to be a great summer!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Don't Worry I know when I'll be back. Friday Night!

Today - well tonight really. I am going to Georgia to visit my dear friend Cuirstaun. She and I have been friends for over 15 years. She was a brides made in my wedding and really just an all around amazing person.

Here were are when she visited at Christmas time. You see Cuirstaun lives in Georgia now because she picked up her stuff and moved there almost two years ago in order to make her dream of getting her masters in public health happen. She will be graduating on May 7th. I won't be able to be there for her graduation but because I am on spring break - and we got a good tax return this year I am flying out to see her.

When she moved to GA we all joked that she would finally fall in love with a Strong Black Man. As you see from the picture below - she fell in love, but with a dorky white guy. We all adore Calvin and I hope that some day soon we will be toasting to their happy future.



I look forward to our late night trips to Walmart, picking peaches in the orchards, a day in Atlanta, and eating at Paula Dean's Restaurant.

The last time we went on an adventure to my friend Michele's wedding. We ended up having one wild adventure. From trying to find cheep parking and then subsequently being terrified by walking in a creepy parking structure - to being sung to by a homeless man. We are quiet the pair and I can't imagine what we will get up to.

oh this little car of mine

I am surrounded by good people.

Today a dear friend of mine and I drove over to get some Starbucks - and on getting back to school and getting out of the car noticed that there was a river of green coolant coming from the car.

There had been a small slow week that has been there for about a month. (Yes I know that i should have taken care of it - but time and money put it at bay).

So I'm very lucky that my dear friend got on the phone with her husband. I got on the phone with my dad. And within 10 minutes - AAA was on it's way.

My dad showed up and about 15 minutes after that the tow truck showed up.

While we were waiting about 7 different staff members asked to make sure everything was okay - and that help was on the way.

I love that I work at a place where people truly care about one another!

It made my Wednesday - even though my car doesn't work.

didn't win - but i won - and there's a fire drill tomorrow

So I didn't win the chili cook-off. I was sad, kids gave me a pat on the back to try and console my broken heart. My friend Kristine won. She says she blog stalks me so - Hi Kristine!


Today I was doing one on ones for the research project and I called up this kid J who is an amazing writer. Without any of my help - he came to me this way. He's also in the creative writing class here on campus. And he sits down (he has already started typing all of his work - my other students have not even thought about) and asks some questions about his introduction paragraph. He is writing his paper on the war in Afghanistan - his thesis is that war has caused damage to a culture and that damage is becoming irreversible. It's times like this that I have one of those moments where I think I am not smart enough to be this kids teacher and then I snap out of it and remember how awesome I am. Because the following happens:

J says - So I'm trying to tighten up my language in my commentary but I'm not sure how to do it.
Me - J you are a really strong writer, at this point you have learned all of the rules of the game. What you can start to do now is break them. See here where you have the word and you can use an extended dash here - rather than have it sound so list like.

J gets this look on his face like I had just given him a prize. I smiled and asked why he looked so happy - He said that he was excited to hear that he could start to use some of the tools he had learned in creative writing in his own 'non fiction' work. I felt like I was able to release a kid from years of rules and regulations - of not allowing himself to be everything he could as a writer because the format that had been given to him for so many years was limiting.

I feel like I had won a teaching marathon! It was one of those moments that I wanted to stand up in class and yell - Why can't you all be like this. But then I thought - You can't all be like this because then I wouldn't have a job. And I l.o.v.e. my job.

So the moral of this little story is - it's good to have overachievers in the room - but it's also great to have the kids who want to do better but need a little push in the right direction.

and finally there will be a fire drill tomorrow - but it might rain, so there might not be a fire drill. Ah the joys of trying to plan a lesson when 15-20 minutes may or may not be cut out of the day. We'll just have to roll with the punches.

So I have this friend.

And I think she may be a secret agent.

Here are some things you should know about my friend T.

- She is very modest. About almost all of her life. Dress, Mind, Brains, everything.
- I work with her and that makes my day better.
- She loves all things food. Her favorite place to shop is Trader Joe's (First off, who doesn't love this place, have you ever had their organic rasberry preserves? if you haven't go make a grocery list and make sure it's the first on the list. Really, i'm not kidding.)
- She loves Dr. Pepper - Dr. Pepper lunch pail - and even brings those cute little mini Dr. Pepper cans.
- She's super smart. Has tons of ideas when it comes to teaching. And is super supportive when i have wanted to try something new in my classroom.
- She loves soccer - plays in three or four different leagues and has scored multiple goals for her team while she was the goaly - I'm not talking about someone who sadly scores a point for the other team, i mean she's so good that as the goaly she has scored for her very own team. T is just awesome.

So here is the secret agent aspect of her life.

Anytime she is asked a question about her life - she simply says - It's a possibility. OR she says nothing and laughs. Hi - to me that's secret agent worthy!

This can be about anything
- Do you like tacos? - It's a possibility
- Do you work for the government as a secret agent? - Walks away and laughs

She knows how to cook crazy amazing food - and then acts like it's something everyone should be able to do. Yesterday she brought in the most amazing looking (and smelling) shrimp fried rice... mmmm so yummy. And when people oooed and awwed about it - a simple smile and a laugh.

Another reason she may be a secret agent - i said something to my students about how i thought she might be a secret agent - it got back to her, and today at lunch she gave me this look like - if you tell people i'm a secret agent, then it won't be a secret anymore ... and then she laughed.

i'm telling you - this is proof. Plus isn't it just a lovely idea that someone you work with is a secret agent? Look around the room the next time you're at work, you'll be guessing who it might be in your group of friends.