Last Daze of School

I guess the cat's out of the bag. I got some cards from kids today...

I love this one...

Packing up a classroom is like packing up an apartment. My mom hired a friend to come and help me move today; that was awesome. All of the contents of a classroom packed into the bed of a pick-up.  It was surreal. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the giant crayons and pencils sticking out of the bed of the truck. That is a colorful memory that I will keep forever. 

I still have to pick up the last little bits - mostly papers and stuff. Then I have to get the room ready for summer school. I have to label furniture, store technological equipment, and take care of business. 

One more day. I can do it. 

Christmas

For me, opening kilns is always like Christmas.

It's down to the wire, I am and forever will be 'Last Minute Lydia.' Tomorrow is the last day of school and I have a final kiln to unload in the morning, all of my belongings will be moved out of my room, and I may or may not have to prepare my room for summer school. We'll see. At this point, it's never a dull moment, but I am SO ready for this year to be over.

Come on 2011 - 2012! Be over already! It's time to live life!

Beads and Baubles

A few weeks ago, I took a private class at Beads of Splendor. It was a silk knotting class, which I actually took more than three years ago. I had a necklace that I wanted to restring, to make new again, and also wanted to make a few options for some wedding events that I have coming up. It had been a while, but knotting came back to me rather quickly. Over the course of the last month I've made 8 necklaces!

Here is the selection that I have made for myself.

Strand 1: Faceted Amazonite
Strand 2: Fresh water pearls. (Hello, Barbara Bush!)
Strand 3: Lapis Lazuli
Strand 4: Greige Swarovski pearls

Here are some strands that I have made for others...

Strand 1: Potato pearls. (Funny name!)

Strand 2: Faceted Agate (I think...)

Strand 3: Pink pearls

Not pictured: but posted here. I also made a pretty one out of green garnet beads. 

I love natural stones, I always have. I would much rather have natural stones on my neck than fake plastic ones. My astrology sign is an earth sign, which I think explains it... That and I wanted to be a geologist when I first started out in college. I ♥ rocks!

Rocks ROCK!

Three Day Weekend

Getting ready for the wedding:

Getting ready for the end of school:

Just hanging out with my soon-to-be-hubby and enjoying summer temperatures and our neighboorhood.

Best veggie burgers from Lakewood Landing.

Happy Memorial Day. I wish to thank all of the men and women who serve and have served our country.

Thank you.

Post as Promised

My giant things post as promised, mostly has to do with with papier-mâché. I tend to associate papier-mâché with piñatas. Do you?

An Austin party place full of piñatas. Scary, no?

One thing I love about teaching art is getting to try so many different projects. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. My 3rd and 4th grade students had spent the earlier part of May learning about the artist Wayne Thiebaud. The blog, Art for Small Hands is a great blog that I visit regularly for ideas and inspiration for my lessons. I used this lesson with my 4th grade students, but wanted to try something different for 3rd. One of my facebook friends, and grad school classmates, posted a project that she was doing with her students. It looked amazing and easy to do, so I gave it a go.

My Wayne Thiebaud inspired 3D cake.

Basically, students built pieces of cakes out of cardboard, papier-mâchéd and then painted them. It took about three lesson (45 minutes each), and I prepped their cardboard for them.

After 2nd lesson:

And their results after the 3rd lesson. I like the way they turned out. 

Once, we papier-mâchéd the cakes, I set out to make my props for my Black and Yellow performance. Wiz Khalifa sings, "everything I do, I do it big!" So, I was determined to turn these mailing tubes into big crayons and pencils. 

Here's how I did it. I took some cones from the box of yarn, made circles from scraps of mat board and glued/taped them to the top of the mailing tubes.

Looks just like a crayon form, right?

Next, I gessoed the tubes. I only gessoed because I had a few bottles in the classroom. I wasn't sure if I needed to do it, but when I went to apply the paint to the tubes, I was really happy that I did.

It made the paint colors stand out.

For the crayons, I took a crayon and measured out the design onto construction paper. I wasn't sure how this would look, but I was so happy that I did.

Because if you ask me, I think the paper really sells it as a giant crayon. 

You can check out the paint brush and pencil on stage in my video.

Lights, Camera, Action!

How cute are these earrings?

I wore them the day of our performance. I've been doing a lot of shopping this week - shopping for the wedding, shopping for school, shopping for gifts. 'Tis the season, I guess... The good news is that my outfit is complete, my mom has something to wear, so does my groom, as well as ring to place upon his finger. All very important purchases. It's been fun, but exhausting especially after working all day. It's also mentally draining, because it makes me think about money. I don't like to think about money, but I am trying to change my bad habits. These were a bit of a splurge, but they are so tiny and covered in rhinestones! They make me happy.

Tomorrow, I hope to post about giant things.

Black and Yellow

Here it is! Enjoy!

Busy Bees!

Now that school is almost over, the teachers at school were able to ham it up and act silly for the kids. I did a little performance, which I will post later. Here's a sneak peak and Pre-K's version of what they saw today:

Special thanks to my partners in crime:

I am gonna miss these ladies.

Improvise

Today's kindergarten mural. Isn't it lovely?

Do you love sidewalk chalk? I do. It provides such a great activity, especially for little kids. At my school for some reason, administration is not too keen on students using sidewalk chalk on the sidewalk. I don't know why. I don't question or challenge it. It is what it is... Bummer.

Last week the power went out at my school for two hours, and our campus was not prepared. Thankfully it was sunny so I decided to take my students outside. I wanted them to have an activity, so I fumbled in the dark, found the chalk, the baby wipes (to clean hands), and grabbed the black roll of paper sitting by my door. I took my 5th grade class and headed outside. We rolled a very long piece of paper over the sidewalk, I gave instructions, set some ground rules, and then let the students go crazy!

And they did! Even at 5th grade, students were having a great time - being creative, drawing with friends, trying new things. They made a mess, but that's normal. It was such a good activity, I am repeating it with my kinders this week.

Enjoy Life

That was my mantra for today...

Sunflower from Seventeen Hundred Seeds

It's hard for me to stop and focus on the positive in life. I have so much going on that I can finally share... 

The last day of school is coming up. I have 9 days left of contract time and 8 days left with my students.  I will not be teaching art at my school next year. Actually, I have no idea what I will be doing, but I am more excited than I am scared. Someone asked me the other day if I would take the job again, knowing what I know now... What I know now doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I have learned so much and grown as a professional and as a person. I have met so many great kids! More than 600 came to my room every week! They are funny, fearless, creative, and sweet. Yes, it's been difficult to teach art with a $0 budget, lukewarm support, and some discipline problems. I think that may be normal. I know I will miss my students and job so much, but it's time to move on. It's a bittersweet time. And, yes! I would absolutely take this job again! I am exhausted. I need a mental and physical break, but I have no regrets. 

I am getting married in 3 weeks! I am excited and nervous, but looking forward to wrapping up the tiny details and having the party of a lifetime with my partner, my best friend. He's smart, amazing, kind, dedicated, everything I could have ever wished and hoped for. He's the right person, exactly what I need, and he makes me want to be a better person. He truly is Mr. Wonderful in every sense of the word. I would follow him anywhere, and I will. This summer we will move to Belgium... again.

Summer is coming. The days are getting longer, the temperature is rising - it's getting HOT in Dallas. New adventures are to be had. Am I ready? In someways, yes. In someways, no. But, ready or not... it's coming. All I can do is hold tight and enjoy life.