I have a head cold

This is why I have a blog, so I can whine about being all sicky. WAAHHHHH!!!!! Time to go watch movies and knit.

look what I made!

Last night was parent teacher conferences. None of my parents ever actually sign up ahead of time like you're supposed to because my kids always pretend like they never got he conference form. Like the whole district hasn't been having parent teacher conference night for the last nine years of their lives. I swear they're like ostriches. Anyway, because of this I usually just hang around my classroom and do either big grading or big arts and crafts procrastination from big grading while I wait for parents to come in and ask if it is ok to meet. Last night I did big procrastination arts and crafts. Check this out:
click to make it bigger.
Isn't that awesome! It is a map of all of Odysseus' adventures in the Odyssey. The white pieces of paper are (the good) plot diagrams that my kids made for each island pasted directly on that island (green paper) and then above each is the name of the island (orange paper). One of my techies showed up and helped me cut out the islands. I like how all the islands are same, but to show the difference I drew tiny pictures on them, and the underworld is black, and Helios' island has the sun. Maybe next year I'll switch it up a bit. Oh yeah, and that is definitely craft yarn that is illustrating the whole journey between Troy and Ithaca. I think this is the coolest thing I made all year.

The fall play is coming...

The fall play is almost here, and let me tell you I am excited about it. I mean yeah I'm completely stressed out about it, but I'm WAY LESS STRESSED than I was at this time last year. My crew is so dedicated, creative, and talented that everything is running smooth and, I think, on schedule. I don't want to take too many pictures because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I wanted to show you the caliber of talent we have on set crew this year. Check this out. My kids turned this:

into this -


Do you know how big that is? That gate is over teen feet tall and ten feet wide. And it works. It's on hinges and everything. People can walk through it. The best part is that I never touched it at all. That whole thing is my kids. I asked questions and helped them out with their creativity and guided them a bit, but I never touched it, not once. Isn't it awesome! I can't wait to show you the whole finished set when the play is over.

Wait... is today Tuesday?

Happy Yom Kippur

For today's holiday I rearranged the furniture. Then Andy came home and we put some of it back. The biggest decision was that we decided to give up on the roommate front and I've moved my craft and sewing stuff into the empty room!!! I now have a room in my house dedicated solely to creative pursuits. I miss having all my stuff in the "dining room" where it was easily visible and accessible, but Virginia Wolfe would agree it was time to move it into a room of my own. It was all really taking over downstairs and the various pieces that didn't fit in the dining room were cluttering up other rooms too. This is a much better use of space. I'll take a picture when it's all set up. It's going to be amazing.

Now I request some help. Use your imagination a little bit. We moved the giant shelving unit downstairs with the stereo and put it next to my desk. Unfortunately we now have a big empty wall in the dining room where the table used to be. Because we have the stereo in there we feel like a place to sit in there is now necessary... any ideas of what we can stick there? What would you do?

long day

Today was a fourteen hour day. I spent fourteen hours in the school building. Sometimes I really think I had more time to myself my first year teaching.

Parent night has really harshed my mellow.

this weekend's triumph

This is what I did today instead of grading last week's papers:
A friend of mine spotted this bowl I knit up a million years ago and felted up the other day with another project (you'll see that one when it's done). The only problem was she couldn't identify it as a bowl, so I thought I ought to do something to pretty it up a bit. I pulled out all the fiber I picked up at the sheep and wool fest in May and began needle felting this flower. I have to say I really impressed myself with my first attempt. Needle felting is exactly like I imagine painting with paint would be. I layered on small tufts of color so as to blend it all easily and make it look as real as possible. Plus the whole thing only took me an hour or so. I can't wait to try this on my bigger project!