Stenciled Tote Bags & A Fun T-shirt Site

Everyone around me is all a-buzz getting ready for Sammy's wedding today. Yesterday, Sammy's dad, Pete, came by and asked if I could hem the pants of his new suit. Katie, the Maid of Honor, was trying to fit in a little World Civ reading while getting everything together for the rehearsal dinner and then on to spend the night with the bridesmaids and bride.
While all this was going on yesterday, I was playing with my new Cricut machine. I downloaded some cool fonts and cut some stencils out on contact paper. It reminded me of painting t-shirts back in the day. I had a good time. Here are two bags I stenciled yesterday.

I put a K for Katie on a bag so she could take all the necessary emergency items for the wedding: Tylenol, bobbie pins, safety pins, peanuts (the bridal party always starves!), hairspray, etc. Katie is becoming a pro at this wedding thing!

Then I made this one for myself. I used my favorite "Clash of the Titans" phrase in a cool pirate-y font.

A fun afternoon project.

I love this. It's called Loch Ness Imposter

I wish I would have thought of this! You can find this image on a t-shirt at

Threadless.com

A Fine Line

"There's a fine line between chaos and creation."

-Sir Paul McCartney and probably someone else

This weekend my daughter said, "One of my favorite things about my mom is that she can imitate anything in world."

One of my greatest imitations was of a tastebud. A fine moment in living room entertainment history.

But I love to imitate people the most.

For as long as I can remember, I have imitated people. It's a compulsion. When I see an interesting character, hear an accent, an uncommon manner of speaking, a twitch, a facial expression - I HAVE to imitate it. I have to copy it until I have mastered it. I can't help myself.

I have had people tell me that I am mean, cruel - as if I were making fun of that person. I used to feel guilty, but I have come to peace with that accusation. I really am not making fun of people, I truly enjoy uniqueness. I know I can appreciate it without having to copy it, but I don't know why I do it - it just feels good - I guess that's the way obsessive handwashers, toothpick counters and lock lockers feel.

I love to watch movies. I love to watch good actors. When I see something that an actor does that is surprising or interesting, I watch it over and over and try to figure out why they did what they did.

I love to watch interviews with actors when they discuss their work.

When I was acting, my favorite part was deciding how a character would respond, what they would do with their bodies when speaking a line or in response to a line, would their voice go up, would there be a pause? What would they do with their hands?

When I write stories, I end up writing acting directions more than dialogue: "she looked and turned, put her hand on her face..." stuff like that.

I love to watch people. I love to watch their movements. Sometimes a person may not be immediately attractive, like perhaps in still photos, but when you see them move, they become more beautiful or handsome. The combination of movement, voice, manner - becomes a beautiful human ballet.

My husband and his father work with their hands a lot. My husband works with mechanical things and my father-in-law is a woodworker. I love to watch my father-in-law rub his hand across a sanded board or the spindles of a chair. There is understanding and appreciation in his touch. My husband's hands are big, but amazingly agile when doing intricate work. He, too, percieves through touch. My son is very tactile, also, it must run in the family. He has long, slender hands, though. I've always thought they were beautiful. I love to watch his hands, they are very careful and specific, deliberate, like a surgeon.

Then there are people's eyes, the way they hold their mouths, what they do when they are nervous. I love seeing, noticing things like that.

The problem is, like when I got caught up in the Scottish accent at Home Depot, I have to work hard to actually listen to what people are saying. Also, if someone says a word in an interesting manner, sometimes I will walk away saying that word to myself in order to say it just like they did. Then I look like some mumbling crazy person.

I don't know. I'm glad my daughter loves that about me. I'm not sure if it's good or bad, a problem or a gift.

A Couple of Cool Things

I found a couple of cool things and I want to share them with you.

The first is Metromint water.  It's mint flavored water. I ordered a sample pack and got orange mint water, lemon mint water, chocolate mint water, cherry mint water, spearmint water, peppermint water and a bottle of electrolyte mint water. It's really very good, but you MUST be a mint lover. When I first tasted it I thought of some sort of medicine because it's not sweetened and it's not carbonated. But after I got my mind and my tastebuds around the idea I really enjoyed it.

The second thing is I ordered these cute little journals for Katie for her birthday. They're from The Paperwink. They come in sets of 3 with printed labels on them. You have a choice of labels and what you'd like to have printed on them. Katie is a major journal writer and she was very excited about them. She liked the fact that they were slim. I thought that would be the thing she didn't like about them, but I was wrong.

Just thought I'd share these things with you.

Keys to My Cottage

As everyone knows I have this infatuation with the UK. When the Star Trek transporter is actually invented then I will go over and visit. Until then I have to watch British comdies, visit The Corner Shop , chat with Tina and her Mum and try to cook UK-ish type foods.

Yesterday, I had to go to Home Depot to get some keys made. I went to the key kiosk and asked the guy there if he could make me some keys. He grunted a positive response and I handed over my keys. After a few moments he turned and said, "Wha kinda cah do yuh have?" The word "cahhh" made me think of Boston immediately. I love an accent and I love to try to guess where people are from. I told him and he continued working silently.

I wanted him to talk some more and I needed to buy an new lock for my locker at school so I asked him if there were any locks that come with 3 keys. I was prepared to have my Boston guess verified when he responded to my question with a tumble of words that I could barely make out. Dumbfounded, I said, "what?" He repeated what he said in a most musical Scottish accent. A little star-struck, I asked him where he was from. He said "Scah-tlun." Without thinking I said, "Can I touch you?" He started laughing hysterically.

He motioned for me to follow him to the locks and I told him to keep talking just so I could hear his accent. He proceeded to tell me more about locks and I proceeded to ignore the information and listen to the lyrical sound of the words. I asked him if he was from Scotland why was he in Georgia. He said, "It's warmer."

He rattled on some more about locks and I pretended to listen and pretended that I was in a Home Depot in Scotland getting copies of keys for my cottage. I took a lock and my copied keys from him and we walked toward the front of the store and I thanked him for helping me and for talking.

I LOVE moments like that.

My New Banner

How do you like my new banner? My son, Joel made it for me!

I Wish My Daughter Would Start Her Own Blog!

My daughter, Katie, is the Maid of Honor for her friend, Sammy. She threw her a shower today. She planned the whole thing and did all the decorations. I made some sandwiches and dip just to pitch in. I want to show you the pictures from the shower so you can see some more of her creativity. If she would start her own blog, like I'm begging her to do, you could see all the cool stuff she makes and does.

This is the cake tower that she got her uncle to build and she decorated it with little cloth pennants. She made all the cupcakes.

Sorry for the bad lighting. Katie hung photos of Sammy with clothes pins on lines of string.

She made our living room look like a sultan's tent.

Katie got our friend, Vanessa, to lead the games. She also made brigaderros, Brazillian fudge balls, mmmm!

Katie did a lot of work and she was a great hostess!!

My Renovated Classroom

This is the view when you walk in the door. My walls are now "Pecan Sandy" instead of "Battleship Gray." That's my new birthday desk straight ahead. It's much smaller than the great wooden box of a thing I used to have. I believe it will be better for working one on one with students. They can just slide their chair across from me and we can work together. Behind the desk is my locker full of teacher's editions, resources, candy, etc. I have some of my favorite quotes above the white board.

If you look to your right when you come in the door, you'll see my one lone bulletin board. "Think Outside the Box" it says. The corner there has a world history time line at the top, various posters about Ancient Egypt, Rome, etc. and a world map. I have some art from Cambodia and Africa as well as my llama and rainstick.

If you look to the left this is a corner with my aide's desk and a table for student supplies, information and the place to turn in work, etc.

From the front of the room, at the white board, this is the view I see. The wall o' hooks for bookbags and coats. And my new "Habits of Successful Student Leaders" wall. I got some of the suggestions from Ron Clark's book "The Essential 55" and I invented some of my own. The habits include "know all the names of the teachers in the school and greet them by name" "if someone drops something and it's close to you, pick it up and give it to them" "when someone is talking to you, look them in the eye."

I added "practice good personal hygiene" and "practice inclusion not exclusion." If I can get 6th graders to practice some of these habits, I will feel successful!

(Those 2 little girls in the photo came in to get a Coke and they were impressed with my autographed poster of Toby Mac)

I have to add 8 more desks to this room. It's going to be crowded. I will hold as many classes outside as I can as weather permits, just to be able to move around and breathe.

As I look back over the photos, I realize that you can't see my poster of Michelangelo's "Creation." Well, it's on the the left wall when you walk in.

Well, that's the tour of my classroom, now you see the place where I will spend about 9 hrs a day, 5 days a week for the next 10 months.

Gilmore Girls

Well, I've started back to school - officially. That means the beginning of Fall, at least in my mental atmosphere. So, I decided to start my 2nd annual watching of Gilmore Girls and the making of as many knit caps as I can make while watching. The Gilmore Girls really helped me when Katie went away for college. The scene of Lorelai leaving Rory was very familiar.

I love Gilmore Girls for many reasons one of which is that the mother and daughter's relationship reminds me of Katie and me. Katie and Rory are the ultimate students and Lorelai and I are always trying to get our daughters to stop studying and have some fun. We all love to watch old classic movies and then include as many lines and references into daily life as possible.

I made the All-American Meatloaf Bowl tonight as previously mentioned in "Bowling for Dinner" blog entry. It was really good, you should try it!

The seed bombs as previously mentioned in "Guerrilla Gardening for My Birthday" are still not dry. I don't feel that the paper balls are the best. If I can aquire some natural clay, I will try the other seed bomb recipe.

If I can remember, I will take a picture of my newly overhauled classroom. Newly painted, fresh and nice!

This is going to be a great year!

Meg's Muffins on a Manic Day

So, if you paid attention, I have just posted 3 entries in one day! That's because yesterday was a MANIC day! It was my last day of summer break. I go back to school on Monday. Today, Sunday, I have many obligations so it's not really a day off. And I haven't blogged in a while so I was ready to blog and craft and do some things that I knew I wouldn't have time to do starting next week!!! Then the internet went out yesterday because of the storm, so you're getting an overload today!

Anyway...

...in addition to Bowling for Dinner and Guerrilla Gardening I made Meg some muffins.

Meg is the dog that lives in our house that no one will claim and that I will not buy clothes for even though my kids are grown. Meg has a tendency to develop bladder stones. So, after $700 of medical treatment, we must now buy her the most expensive dog food known to man to keep her from developing more. Meg has always loved treats and even after 9 months or so since changing her dog food, she still stands at the closet door and wants treats. I've tried to tell her that there are NONE in there, that she can't have them anymore, but she doesn't believe me.

I felt sorry for her so I came up with the idea of using her food and making her some treats with it. Same stuff, different shape, she has a walnut sized brain and she will think it's special, right?

So, I soaked some of her boring, medical food in hot water.

Added a tablespoon of chicken boullion. There was nothing on the label about giving dogs bladder stones. So, I thought it might be ok.

Then I smashed it up in the food processor and spooned it into muffin tins.

I baked them at 325 for I don't know how long because the storm blew out our power for an hour or more in the middle of baking. But I just kept them in there until they got hard and crunchy.

I gave Meg one after they had cooled and she took it from me, dropped it on the floor and looked at it like she was trying to figure out what it was, then slowly ate it like she was thinking, "The flavor is familiar, but...."

A Meg and her muffin cannot be parted.

Guerrilla Gardening on My Birthday

So yesterday was my birthday and my son called the night before and asked what I was going to do. I said, "Nothing much because KT is out of town and Steave has to work and since I start back to school Monday, I really just want to chill around the house." He said, "Well, I have a great idea for you." This is what I love about my son, he has the most interesting ideas. He said, "You should make seed bombs." He proceeded to tell me about how to make them and what to do with them.

Seed bombs are made with clay, compost and seeds formed into a ball and then lobbed over into empty lots or any place that could use a good sprucing up with flowers where a person may not be allowed into. The rain will break down the ball and the seeds will grow. Great for inner city vacant, scrubby places.

Well, this appealed to my Greenpeace, save the whales, tree hugger, slightly rebellious side of myself (as my son knew it would). So, I made seed bombs for my birthday!

I didn't have clay, so I looked around on the internet and found a recipe using paper.

So, I first tore up some old paper from my recycling box and put it in a big bowl.

Then I added hot water. I remembered that hot water broke down the paper faster from earlier crafting days. Then I kept smushing it down with my hands until the paper began to break down. It took a good 45 minutes to get it all soupy.

I poured the slimy mess into the blender. I'd like to give a shout out to my mother-in-law who gave me that blender 28 years ago as a wedding gift!! I still have it and it has served me faithfully through cooking and crafting experiences!

I blended it into a fine mess!

I needed cheesecloth to strain the water out with and since I didn't have any, I found an old piece of sheer drapery that I had that ended up working fabulously. I lined the colander with the fabric and poured a small amount into it.

Now, I wasn't sure when to add the seeds and after some trial and error, I finally settled that this was the best time, so I added some seeds that I had on hand. After the fact, I think I should have added a lot more seed.

Squeezed out as much water as I could...

...and had a nice little ball.

Then they needed to dry. It couldn't take too long or the seeds would sprout and it couldn't be too hot or it would kill the seeds. Since we were having a hot day, I put them out on the deck to dry.

I made one look like a duck and I smushed some of the mixture into a flexible mold to try that.

Well, a storm blew up and I had to bring them in. But before the rain ended, I threw one out to see if it would really break down and it did!

So, that was yesterday. Today, they are still not dry. So, I'm thinking that another shape would be better, like a small patty to help them dry faster.

I'll keep you up to date on the drying process and then I'll document my Guerrilla Gardening attempt.

Happy Birthday to me! And thanks to Joel for giving me a great gift!

Bowling for Dinner (and lunch and breakfast)

Katie and I have an affinity for eating out of a bowl. It's cozy and comfortable having all your food in one smallish container. It won't work for those of you who can't stand to have your food touching.

I also don't really care for eating at a table. I prefer to eat on the sofa, cross-legged, watching a movie, chatting and laughing. Casual-like. So, a bowl is perfect for that. You don't have to balance a plate on your knees and worry about your food sliding off into the floor or onto your pants.

So, I've decided to see how many meals I can come up with that will fit into a bowl.

This morning, I had a Breakfast Bowl. I put grits in first.

I have put crumbled buttered toast on the bottom, too. Then I fried a couple of eggs and put them on top of the grits.

                                      

I have also had scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, sausage and cheese. Any combo of those will work. Then for lunch I had a BBQ Sandwich Bowl. I told you, I'm laying off bread, so I just put the bbq and sauce in the bottom of the bowl and heated it in the microwave. If you wanted to, you could use french fries or onion rings as your first layer.

Then topped it with cole slaw. We put cole slaw ON our sandwiches in NC.

Some other Meal Bowls that I've made are:

Chili Burger Bowl: Grill a burger, add cheese if you want, ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions, chili and slaw. Cut up the burger in the bowl first so you don't have to wrestle with a knife. Then add all the ingredients that you want. I suppose you could do the same with a Chili Dog Bowl just cut up a hot dog instead of a burger.

Asian Bowl: Brown rice topped with any stir-fry combination of your choice. You could use noodles instead of rice.

Italian Bowl: Any kind of pasta and sauce topped with cheese.

Mexican Bowl: One of our favorites! Layer refried beans or black beans or pintos with seasoned beef or chicken, cheese, onion, tomato, shredded lettuce, salsa and sour cream. You could put the ingredients in any order you choose and add anything else you want. Eat with corn chips.

Chicken Club Bowl: Grilled chicken, cheese if you want, bacon, tons of lettuce and tomato topped with dressing of your choice. (Yes, a grilled chicken salad, but this is more fun to call it a Meal Bowl!)

Grilled Salmon Bowl: Same as the chicken club but with grilled salmon.

Here are some other Meal Bowls that I've thought of that I'm going to try:

Thanksgiving in a Bowl: Dressing or mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce and green beans.

All American Meatlof Dinner Bowl: Mini meatloaf made in muffin tin, mashed potatoes topped with peas.

Philly Cheese Steak Bowl: French fries, meat, cheese, mushrooms, onions and peppers.

As you can tell, you basically take anything you want to eat and put it in a bowl and you're Bowling For Dinner!