Music I'm Listening to These Days...


Thursday, May 31, 2007

Is it still Thursday??

I HAVE to take some pictures of my artwork to post - I may try the Art Techniques (Yahoo group) newbie ATC challenge. Question - how do you get such clear closeups? Just cropping? I wish my studio was finished, I either work at school or on the kitchen table and both of these are temporary solutions... I have a 10X20 building that needs to be resided and redone inside(I'll take before pictures - it is a mess right now!!) I've sanded most of the floor, and I have some cool ideas for the walls - I want to collage over the old icky paneling, not too fussy, but maybe old sketchbook drawings, xeroxed family photos, pattern pieces, maps, etc. and some old picture frames painted bright colors with cork inside, so I can pin up everything nearly, because I really do suffer from BSS (Bright and Shiney Syndrome) I am so easily distracted by ANYTHING!!! It's a joke, but then again...and then there's a terminal case of OSOM(Out of Sight, Out of Mind) - if I don't see it, it doesn't exist(guess my mental developement stopped at Peek-A-Boo when I was a baby!)
Well, time to spend an hour in the garage - have to make a stickie note(I LOVE STICKIE NOTES!!!) or I'll forget to go get tortillas for fajitas and my medicinal chocolate(Russel Stovers mint patties - awesome)

More Thursday ramblings...

It finally worked!! I'll be adding pictures of my art work, classroom, studio, travels, etc. I really think it would be imposssible to keep up with this during the school year, but I will try...it's fun, that's for sure! It will be a good way to keep up with family things, once I get it going. And I hope to have a real webpage for my art department this year too. Most folks out there don't care what I'm doing here in West Texas, but maybe a few fellow teachers and artists will be inspired by the links I'll have eventually, and the art tips and workshops. That's my hope anyway. Is anyone out there??? ^_^

My picture

Here's a picture of me for my profile, eventually it'll be old news and hidden deep in the archives, but for now, I need it to have a URL and this is supposed to work...

Adding pictures.....

I am SO slow to figure this stuff out. My students all have MySpaces and my daughter too, but this seems more 'mature'. no? Anyway, I think I finally understand how to do this - we'll see! I have to put my picture in the blog, then it'll have a URL so I can put it into my profile - I think! Here goes!!!
Hmmm...it's not working again....keeps saying 'error on page' when I press the picture icon...it did this before, then it worked and I added the pictures..I wrote down what it said to do, but now it's not doing it! Is it me??

Prom 2007




Prom is part of my job, I design it and build it with LOTS of kid help. This year's theme was Hollywood Lights. One picture is the entrance to the cafeteria, the others are in the dome(80' across) We work on this all year. Last year we made over 700' of 12' tall 'walls'. It covers the entry hall to the school, the entire dome and half of the cafeteria.

Me and my husband Dan

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

First day all alone!!!

Every one in the family is back at work BUT ME!!! My first real day of summer. I cleaned and washed clothes and looked up realestate in Galveston, TX, Cloudcroft, NM and Texas City, TX…just for fun…we’ll be looking this summer.The first week off, I clean house. Clean out the house actually, having done a superficial job of it at Christmas, this is really a once a year thing - who has time the rest of the year?My Mother died May 6th…we’ve been going through her papers, trying to find personal and financial things she ’squirreled’ away. She kept a planner nearly every year since 1963 - couldn’t find any earlier than that - that was the year my dad went to Germeny for 2 years, and she stayed home with 6 kids. Guess I’d write alot too, especially since there were no relatives in El paso, Tx -so anyway, I got all my school papers and cards and letters I’d given her - my Dad wanted to burn it all - all of us(there are 7 ) got all our things she’d kept. It is still the most surreal feeling that creeps up now and then - my mother is dead - I don’t cry, and I don’t really know why, I just can’t, not yet.But the reason I want to clean now, the reason it’s so important, is that I don’t want my kids to get their papers when they’re 53, and I don’t want my life reduced to paper sacks, of ‘keep’ and ‘burn’. So I will get rid of 1/2 of everything I own this summer. And make scrapbooks, and give things away, because, it’s better to do it now while I’m alive, than to wait until I die.I don’t know much about how this blog stuff works - I’ve checked it 20 times since I wrote the first time…guess I thought the community would be instant…

Summer is here!!

As with every summer for the past 10 years, I HAVE A LIST!!! Not just any list, but the list from 2004, with the years crossed off, so I can reuse it AGAIN…now this might seem depressing, but it gives some comfort - no new giant projects have appeared and I have made some progress on the old projects. Maybe I should start fresh with a new list, but then I’d find the old list 5 years from now and think ‘Oh my GOD!!! I am still working on the same old things, I just THOUGHT I’d accomplished things each summer!!’ This way, I know what’s coming, and am not afraid -mildly amused, a little sad, but mostly, fired up!Every summer is like every new school year - bright and shiney and NEW, filled with potential and so very long - this year especially, because Texas has school starting a week later, so we get an extra week of summer! Kids don’t come back until Aug 27 - woo hoo!!!So I’m pinning hopes on this summer to be the best ever, and not sit on my behind playing on the computer or watching TV(except the 200+ hours on Crafters across America, scrapbooking and B’original I’ve Tivo’d since January..)I’ll meet with my incoming Art 2-4 kids and get some individualized plans for each of them, have a swimming party for my art club kids(I don’t get wet - the ‘poof’ doesn’t ‘do’ wet!), clean out the garage, remodel my studio, clean the artroom at school, clean out Prom storage, take on the dandelions(again), and do some fun trips to Corpus Christi, TX, Dallas Metroplex(visit grandaughter), Cloudcroft, NM, and Half Moon Bay, CA - can I do it all??? no way!! But with such big plans, and a bright shiney NEW summer, the possibilities are endless! I’ll keep you out there in blogland posted - maybe some art teachers, procrastinators or packrats who want to brag, challenge and/or commisserate will write to me.