Day 151 - Wings

      This week's journal page for Journal52 was to do a page that was "wing-inspired".  I worked yesterday on one page.  I painted, stamped, colored with markers, added my quote and sat back and went "yuck".  It really did not look at all like I envisioned.  At all.  My brother kindly said it was "nice".  So I dug deeper and worked some more on another one this morning.  This one I am very happy with. 
       I kept the same quote.  Then I looked through my Ben Kwok templates to find something with wings.   I used half of a butterfly template.  Then I drew, tangled and assembled a tree.  The tree is for the roots.  The butterfly is the wings.  This page, while much less colorful, is much more to my liking. 

     I am not sure what I want to work on this rainy day 151.  I could do some school prep.  I could tangle some more.   I could sit and listen for a few minutes to the rain on the back porch . . .  that sounds like a winner.
     Thank you so much for dropping by and saying hello.  I hope you are having a wonderful day!!

Days 147 - 150

     The first up for day 147 is the string challenge for Adele Bruno.  I had fun playing with some tangles that are not as familiar to me.  My favorite of the bunch was probably sooflowers.  That one can be used as a border or not.

     The three letters we had to use for Diane and Carolien's challenge were VWX.  I used the tangles - vega, wavy border, xplode, and verve.  This tile really appeals to me.  Maybe because it looks different from the things I have been doing lately.  I love how vega looks with wavy border attached.  I may try that again somewhere else since it was so much fun.  Here is day 148.

     For day 149, I did the Square One Facebook challenge.  We had to use the tangle "rain".  That is a fun tangle to play with.  I liked trying to fill the spaces between the rain!

 Day 150 - really!?  That is so hard to believe.  I have been playing with this piece for a few days and decided it was time to call it finished.  I had found a star cut out when searching for something and decided to put it to use as a template. 

      I think I will try to work on my Journal52 pages now.  I probably won't finish them before tomorrow.  Sometimes I have an idea right away - this is not one of those times!  Thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a blessed day! 

Day 146 - New to Me

     For some reason the links on my side bar are not all working.  I know I did something wrong, but what?!  I will eventually sort it out - I hope!  Today's creative bit is for Susy Mosh's New to Me Challenge.  We had to use a new tangle that started with the letter R.  We also had to do something by tangler Helen Williams.  She is one of my absolute favorites.  Her style is so elegant and distinct.  Just gorgeous.  I chose to use her tangle, Morning Glory, as the center of my piece.  Then I used for my new tangle another one of hers - ripple.  I also added a bit of lime color around the edges (her site is called "A Touch of Lime"). 

    My paint got a bit "dreary" on the large morning glory, but I decided not to redo it.  It does annoy me there though.  Yuck. 
     Thanks for dropping by and I hope your day is awesome!

Day 145 - Inchie, Some Purk, and a bit of Diva

       Every Inchie Monday's word was envelope.  So I made a tiny envelope and put it on some stationary type paper I had for scrapbooking.  I think it is cute!

      I love how the tangle "purk" looks, but I don't use it very often.  Not sure why.  Maybe it is that it doesn't always fit in what I am doing.  But for Square One, purk was what we needed to use, so purk it was!

      For our Diva Challenge this week, we had to use straight lines only!  No curves.  Believe it or not this flower was done only using straight lines.  I enjoyed this challenge! 

     I hope you are having a great day!  I am enjoying a rainy day today.  Hate that it is raining but I am glad to see some rain for our yard.  I love the relaxed pace of summer.  Thanks for dropping by and visiting some!
       

Days 143 and 144

     Day 143 was work on Journal52 pages.  I still am one behind, but I will get it caught up - hopefully sometime this week.  Week 20 was "good advice".  I had all sorts of serious thoughts, but in the end silly won out.  We used to love to go out into Papa's garden and drop a watermelon on the ground, then sit down right on the spot and eat it.  Now, admittedly, they would have been so much better if we had put them in the fridge or at least under a shade tree for a while.  But that never stopped us.  Whenever we would eat watermelon with Papa around, he would give us his piece of advice - "Don't eat the seeds, a watermelon will grow in you stomach."  For a long time, I was not too sure about whether to believe him or not.  I think I will stay clear of seeds just in case.

     The other Journal52 page was for week 21.  It was a real challenge for me.  The topic was to do a list of top tens - whatever you want.  I am by nature an avid lister.  Everything gets a list.  And I do mean everything.  Seriously.  So the hard part was to figure out what to list.  Books, movies, people, quotes, foods - I thought through them all.  Finally I decided on listing the top ten ways I enjoy being creative.  (Keep in mind, there are probably tons more I could add). My top ten for the moment are - tangling, drawing in pen and ink, quilling, woodburning, making books, making cards, scrapbooking, painting, writing, and designing houses.

     Leftover water color inspired me to do another stack for Stacked and Tangled, Day 144.   I always take whatever paint is left on the palette and spread it around on scrap paper.  Then it is there if I need it and I don't feel like I have wasted it.  I stamped some flowers around on the scrap paper - just in case.  So for this tile I found an area I really liked and cut it out.  Still plenty of scrap left another day.

     Now I am off to watch some you-tube videos.  One of my summer goals is to learn how to put products on TeachersPayTeachers.  I have ideas, just no know-how.  But I will learn.
     Thanks for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine!  Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Day 142 - Diva challenge

     Woke up to a very chilly Friday morning!  Super chilly for summer.   I wish I lived somewhere where the temp was about 75 degrees max during the day.   Then around 50 at night.  I love my summer time off from work, but I don't like the heat summer usually brings.
      Diva wanted us to use a white pen on black this week - option 1.  Option two was to draw on a "found" surface - something different.  For quite a while I have been meaning to get something on the cover of my sketch journal.  This was the perfect chance.  The cover is very bumpy and I wasn't sure it would handle drawing very well, but it did.  I was just going to put the drawing in the center but the ink was so friendly, I just kept at it.  I am quite please with this.  I hope it doesn't wear off over time. 

   Now, I have the rest of the day ahead of me and I need to begin to work on some Journal52 pages I am behind in.  Hopefully they will be finished between today and tomorrow and be my post for day 143.  Lots of fun stuff to work on!
     Thank you for coming by to visit! I hope you are having a wonderful day! 

Day 141

     Lazy day!  Slept in, of course.  Played with Lakota in the yard some.  Did some tangling.  Generally a wonderfully boring day!  I am looking forward to a whole summer of wonderfully boring days!
     For day 141, I worked on Adele Bruno's string challenge.  I liked the way the little bit of green pen made it different.

     Have a great day!  Thanks for checking this out. 

Day 140 and CELEBRATE SUMMER!

  I am so happy to announce this is the first official art piece of the summer!  Yahoo!  School work is done, room packed, tons of paper work turned in - it is all over for a few months.
     Susy Mosh's challenge, New to Me was day 140.  We were asked to use a new tangle beginning with the letter X and also feature a tangle created by Sue Jacobs - who does totally awesome tangles.  I chose to use "octonet" by Sue.  Not good.  It just did not turn out the way I envisioned it.  Around the edges are XAV and Xtracto.

      Now what can I do with all this free time . . . should I look at my math notebook for next year??   Sorry, old habits are hard to break!  Thanks for dropping by!
   

Day 139

     This tile does double duty!   I am posting it over at Diane and Carolien's site for the alphabet challenge.  The letters we had to use were STU.  My tangles are tri-linz, sails, up and away, teardrops, snood, and unyun.  I am also using it over at Made by Joey's site for her challenge to use a flower string. 

 

I guess it really does triple duty because it is also day 139 of the Create Each Day challenge at Whimsy and Zen!  The triple crown of tangling!  I really like the flower, but the background bugs me.  I started a woven type background - which probably would have been too busy anyway - and made a mistake so I turned it all black! 
     Hope you are having a great day!  One more in-service day for me and then summer here I come!!

Every Inchie Monday, Day 138 and a Trip Back in Time

     Every Inchie Monday's word this week was "movie".  I had several pretty good ideas, but the one that won out was a memory.  Aren't all good ideas woven in old memories in some way?
     I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina.  At the time there was only one theater of quality in the area.  If we wanted to go to a movie, we went to the Carolina theater.  Then it was safe for mom to drop us off and pick us up in a couple of hours.  Lots of weekends were spent there while she shopped.  We also went to many movies as a family.  I saw The Jungle Book and most of the Disney classics there.  I swooned in my seat to all of Elvis's movies.  Our school took a class field trip to see The Sound of Music.

     The smell of hot (horribly bad for you) buttered popcorn lingers in my mind.  At the time it was the only place you could get Milk-Duds.  My mom loved them so much she would clean out her purse before going and then fill it with packages of milk-duds so she could have them at home.
     I went on my first date there.  It was a play and not a movie, but it was there.  Holding hands and  uh, well, it was there.
     The theater has claim to a lot of firsts.  It was built in 1927 and was the first and only building at the time to have air conditioner in the entire state!  At one time the balcony was "reserved" for blacks.  It was nearly torn down until a group of people raised money to save it.
     Inside there were these wonderful ornate pieces of architecture.  Elaborate statues in alcoves along the wall.  The seats were a deep red velvet sort of material.   The curtains were huge and posh - more red velvet.    There was an organ that announced the shows.  It was (and probably to some degree still is) GRAND.

     My poor inchie pales in comparison to the memories this place brings.  But it would take more than an inch to capture this piece of my history.

     Thanks for dropping by.  You know, I probably wouldn't see as many movies as I do nowadays if it weren't for Netflix and the convenience, but I can't help think I have lost something of the experience that the DVD and microwave popcorn have replaced.  Have a great day! 

Days 132 - 137, Another long post!

     Day 132, I worked on a challenge for Square One.  We had to use cubine.  I love this tangle and would love do have done more but this week is wild.  I have so many deadlines and things that need doing, the few moments I spent on the tile was all I had.

     Using quandry for Made by Joey's challenge and day 133 seemed pretty reasonable since I am in a quandry these days.  I just keep thinking how life will settle into a "dull" (oh yes!!) routine after school is out.  So here is quandry!  I also used this tile for the alphabet challenge - PQR.  The tangles are pinbawl, quandry, and rolling in.  I may also post it over on Stacked and Tangled.

     Diva asked us to do a duo tangle using bunzo and dex.  This is day 134.   I love both of  these tangles.  They are so much fun.  It is hard to believe that tomorrow is my last day with kiddos.  I needed a bit of meditative zen tonight.  I sat and tangled and reflected on this past year and of course, on saying goodbye.

     I almost forgot to get over to Adele Bruno's string challenge this week!  How could I forget one of my favorite sites?  Guess it was the pace of the day.  Right now though I can sit and work on day 135 and just relax.  I have moved furniture and loaded books all day.  Fortunately my class helped soooo much!  They were awesome. 

     Suzy Mosh has the coolest challenge - she gives us a letter and we have to use a new (to us) tangle that begins with it.  I try to use all new ones - sometimes I can, sometimes it is impossible.  This week I used three new tangles - eez, E, and effervescence - for day 136.  

     Can you believe that I started this monster sized post with a Square One challenge and it is already time for me to do another one?!  Oh my.  This summer, I simply must post more than once a week.  This Square One challenge was to use zingers.  So for day 137 I did a tile using zingers.  The tiles for this site have to be done in black and white only, but I may color this one after posting and add it to the front of a birthday card.

     Thanks for sticking with me on this long post.  The art work only takes a very short while, it is the posting and linking to other sites that make it so lengthy a process - well, for me anyway.  I think I will work on some school work now, then take a few minutes to do my inchie for tomorrow.  Just think, this is the last Sunday I will be doing school work for a few months!!!  Yahoo!  See you tomorrow with my inchie and thank you for dropping by!
    

Day 131

  Fun day at school today!!  My goal is to have the last five days super fun filled.  Today's theme was "Arts and Crafts" day.  Back when I first started teaching, there was time for Friday afternoon art.  Holiday art filled the walls.  Not any more.  It is cover this standard, reteach that standard . . . The fun things aren't so much around anymore.  Well, that is not totally true.  Our school (the wonderful crew of teachers) try very hard to make most lessons exciting.  And they succeed.  But either way, all of today was devoted to creativity.  We painted, cut, created.  I had a blast and I hope the kids did too.
     In addition to creating at school, I played around with a challenge or two at home.  I started a couple of challenges but the only one I finished was the one for Stacked and Tangled (a facebook group).  We used a new tangle, "4Mom".  Lots of fun.  I also combined this with the tangle challenge for Diane's site - using tangles that begin with the letters MNO, malestrom, nzeppel, and oops.

    Tomorrow's theme day is "Puzzles and Other Challenges".  I have a few things to get ready, so see you tomorrow! 

Days 129 and 130

     Just got in from sitting on a blanket in the back yard brushing Lakota.  We both enjoyed it immensely.  He loves to be brushed and I love to do it.  Sitting in the warm sunshine was a bonus.  I am super thankful for our air condition unit and the wonderful job it does, but sometime I need it a bit warmer. 
     Day 129 was time for a challenge for Made By Joey.  We had to work on black paper and do the tangle "mumsy".  I don't usually work on black.  It is fun, I just don't.   I think now that this is done I am going to use it for a birthday card front for someone I need this week.  That way it will have some use and not just stored away.  I need to give more tiles away or use them somehow. 

     Day 130, I worked on my inchies.  I did not get last week's done.  I looked everywhere for a picture of a leopard.  No luck.  So I drew one.  Then this week the word was diagram.  We had been doing these at school, so I went with the diagram of the Earth's inside.  Funny how Sunday turns into my inchie day.  Guess it is because I also work on a lot of school work that day and I have only a tiny bit of time for art work.  And an inchie is pretty tiny! 

leopard

diagram

     Thank you for dropping by and saying hello!  Only eight more days of school - great, except that those eight days are jam packed!  Busy me!

Days 127 and 128

     What a crazy week this has been!  Grades had to be in which meant a ton of make-up work and fixes required to get some things in for these kiddos.  Then to add to my growing frustration - no internet in my classroom.  In the hall - yes.  In the rest of the building - yes.  My room, no.  So I pulled a couple of chairs to the hall, left my classroom door open to monitor children and sat in the hall for most of two days.  It sort of paid off.  They came to fix it and in the process, I got a new computer - yahoo!  It is a sleek and lovely (and much faster) Mac Book Pro.  I had needed one for a couple of years, but was not high enough on the list.  I definitely am happy.
     For our Diva Challenge this week, #216, we had to use the tangle "brella".  I like this tangle.  I added some outdoorsy elements, and since we needed a brella, I thought there must be some myst around.  This was Day 127.

     String Challenge #91 was day 128.  We had to use vano, zin, and 2-n-5.  I added some color - just because. 

     Friday was field day for our school.  This is the big event for us.  Our kids love it.  This year PTO paid for an inflatable water slide!  That was the life of the party!  My kids were having a ball and getting soaking wet!  So much fun.  Surprisingly, the day was an overall success without me having to fuss at all!  Wow!  That was miraculous!
     Thank you for dropping by and leaving me some zen and smiles.  I love your comments and maybe when school is over I can spend some time leaving some comments myself.  I go look, but don't have time for even much of that. 

Day 126

    Quick post - so many things to do!  And seriously doing the art work is more fun than posting about it.  At least since I have limited time.  This challenge for day 126 is for the Square One Facebook group - "tripoli". 

    Thank you for dropping by!  Have a great day!

Days 124 and 125

     Day 124 is for an alphabet challenge to use tangles that begin with the letters J, K, L.  I also plan on putting it up over on Facebook for the Stacked and Tangled challenge.  I used the tangles - jaracu, lamar, knot rickz, luna, kunstler, and jalousie. 

     The New to Me challenge (Day 125) had a bit of a twist.  We had to use a new tangle or two that started with the letter W.  But this week we also had to use a tangle by Anne Marks, a fantastic tangler.  I am using sunflower and warangaie. 

    Back to school work.  This time of year I don't think I will ever finish it all.  I always do, but it is so hectic.  Thanks for dropping by.

Days 117 - 123

     Oh I hate this time of year!  No, I really love it, but at school this is "finish this, finish that, test this, test that" time!   I don't want to do those things - I want to enjoy my class for those last two weeks.  Not give them "busy" work so I can complete all these tasks for everyone around me.  I want to laugh and smile and build memories.  It has always been frustrating.  I hope to squeeze in some fun over the next two weeks.  Then I have to say goodbye.  That will be hard enough.
     Day 117 - I worked on the New To Me challenge.  We had to use new tangles with the letter D.  I went through my notebook and made my usual list of possibilities.  Then settled on only one of them.  I was going to add more, but really just like the simple look of only using "dream-dancer". 

     Today we walked to a nearby park with our classes to let them have a "celebration" of finishing the state testing.  It was fun, but my knee is not a very happy part of me right now.  In fact it is screaming how unhappy it is.  It is not a long walk, it is just a bad knee!  Tonight I finished up a piece I had started last night.  This is for Adele Bruno's string challenge.  I chose to use all three suggested tangles on her string - lanie, laced and garlic cloves.  This was day 118.

     There is wonderful person in our neighborhood Food Lion grocery store that we have gotten to know.  She has shown us so much kindness over the many years we have been acquainted.  Her name is Joyce and she is one of life's special people.  Just yesterday she gave me - for no reason - a wonderful embroidered lunch box!  Wow!  I was super surprised.  So to thank her I made her an ATC card.  This was just a small token of appreciation for her (and Day 119).

My new lunch box from Joyce!

     Day 120 and drawing a  labyrinth for our Diva Challenge.  I kept drawing a really good one, then discovering it was also really small.  Way too small.  Then I would draw a larger one and it wouldn't be good at all.  This took a while.  But it was fun!  I only used one tangle inside the labyrinth - "signalz".

     Today was our AG (agriculture) day field trip.  I am exhausted - and that describes it mildly.  So for day 121, here is a photo from our trip.  This should count - I took 52 of them!  Gracious!

Rope that steer, cowboy!

     I worked on my Journal52 entry for last week.  I had it all planned, but just didn't have time last week.  The topic was "treasures".  I cut a treasure chest and then filled it with things I treasure and some cut outs of jewels to finish filling it up.  What do you think of day 122?

    Journal52 for this week was "observation".  I thought of my school observations at first - we had to have six  this year!  But then another thought popped in my head.  I loved reading Harriet the Spy as a child.  It was one of my very favorite books.  I even grabbed my own notebook and carried it around like Harriet for a while.  So for day 123, I looked up the book and used the cover to draw from, then added a lot of quotes from the book around it.  I have to say this is one of my favorite pages for my journal.  I may decide to reread the book.

    And now.  I have a super-sized stack of papers to grade, some computer things to enter, and plans to work on.  Oh my.  Such "fun".  I think my creative endeavors are over for a while.  I can find the time to draw for 15 minutes or so each evening, I just can't seem to find the time to post.  So, you get to put up with extra long posts every now and then!  Sorry. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a very blessed day.