what I did over the weekend

i was a bit busy this weekend. Patrick was away so I took advantage of jennyjen sweat shop time. In between spending time with BEST...BBQ on Saturday and our monthly meeting this morning...i manage to make a couple of new items.

50 is my lucky number today!

Today, i made my 50th. sale on my etsy site as well as received my 550th. heart! Thanks everybody for the hearts and kisses!

Old School Exhibition...thanks Poppy talk!

Today was the last day for us teachers to work in our classrooms before the kiddies arrive on Monday morning. decoration day, i call it. I pulled out all of my art posters...thank god for SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) ...they give us the best posters! I like to collage all of the art postcards and exhibit announcements jumble up with any other collage materials as the year grows. I went onto Poppytalk to find pictures from the Old School exhibition opening up this weekend over at Uppercase in Calgary. I've been looking forward to seeing what ever images I can for this show. I'm quite bummed not to be living in Calgary... i know deep down I am met to be Canadian. I love this concept. I think there should be an aesthetic theory named after this style. I'm still kicking myself in the ass for not taking an alphabet line chart from the book room when I was teaching in an elementary school. I bet those are worth money now...I don't think they teach cursive anymore.
all photos from poppytalk.

saying howdy! summer vacations photo's

Remember those special trips during your summer vacations? I hope they are not going extinct due to the roaring gas prices. I remember going out west and my dad being winded by the $.65 a gallon...hey where is the cents key! I guess that is extinct too! Did we ever a cents key? feeling too lazy to font find it. I love Patrick so much...he will always make us go away every summer. Even if its ocean shitty...we will always go on some sort of summer vacation. Even with our piggy bank very dry, we found a way to go to Whistler this summer. A great summer it was. here are more summer vacations photo's from my past! Such happy memories....when I wasn't doped up on Dramamine!

back to school....remember those great days of summer

i've just spent my third day of the first day back to school. it's teacher meeting week and get your classroom in order and get ready for the kiddies week! Today was a great professional development day with other art teachers....and you try, real hard, not to make a smart ass remark to every stupid question posed . it scares me, sometimes, how disconnected some teachers are in this country. they give us teachers a bad rap and they need to get out and find another career. yes , it isn't right when smoke is screaming out of your kiln.....no the mouse cord does not connect to the Ethernet connection in the wall....this is not how you get the internet to work....your phone will not get a dial tone if you plug it into the Ethernet plug. ugh;( i really wish i could use the f-word professionally. anywho, tomorrow we build more studio walls for my increasing AP class.I am very excited about my Advance Placement kids this year!
i am off my intention for this blog entry ..i wanted to find a good last day of summer pic....i love this one. we use to go play at the German orphanage in Catonsville as kids and there was this amazing swing that could swing a ton of kids at one time. It had a center pole as its axis and a round bench that we all sat on with a pole you held on to and it would swing around as well as side to side! I loved this playground ride that I'm sure has been destroyed and knighted dangerous! Along with many a merry-go-round and sea saw! Today's playground's may be safe...but not quite as fun! I'm the one in the pink dress!

I am A Crafty Bastard!

YES!!!!! I got in...Tricia and I will be at Crafty Bastards , September 28th. Check out other vendors and info here.

new eye glass case designs

i've worked mr. owl and mr. preacock into my eyeglass case designs! you can get one at one of the upcoming fall craft shows : Catonsville Fall Fest , Sunday, September 7
Hampden Fest,Saturday, September 13 and
Crafty Bastards in DC, Sunday, September 28.

You Tube a little on the late side

the latest three posts were from two weeks ago....sorry they seem a bit out of place. Can't wait to see the W movie...and its always good to see that opening for Mad Men. Its off to Loch Raven for my morning solo ride! I love these days...get up, eat some pancakes and a couple cups of coffee...a nice ride in the 70 something weather...and then back to the sweat shop! Patrick is away all day in the mountains of PA..so I get to have some jenny time. happy saturday!

Mad Men: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

i am so behind on this one.....how could I have missed it! if you haven't been watching Mad Men ON AMC get caught up on demand and share in my favorite aesthetic! just hope you're not trying to quit smoking!

Mad Men Opening Credits

W.

is that Parker Posey playing Laura Bush? Can't wait to see this one!

Friday Favorites...Broken Plate Belt Plates

The Broken Plate Pendant Company specializes in giving new life to old dinnerware, ceramics and anything else in my way. I love Juliet's intro on her etsy shop. Giving new life to ignored, thrown away, stuck in the junk drawer jewels is a big part of the diy phylisophy that I am still trying to grab my hands around. Juliet is having a great contest on her blog in which you have to guess the amount of plates she has in her basement! I can only imagine the stories tld around al of thse plates..the meals served...the day one had opened up a big gif box to see a set of plates.the days of glory for these gems. juliet has made them honorable again by making beautiful pendents with them. I particularly love these new belt buckels. I really need to get one...school starts on monday...meaning the paychecks are a coming!

My Summer Soundtrack...White Hinterland

You know how songs remind you of different times of your life and how wonderful those reminisce of sounds can bring memories full of emotion, smells, visions and events that roll around your head and bring big smiles(hopefully) I've been listening to Phylactery Factory, White Hinterland's debut album featuring 22-year-old Casey Dienel, who plays a nice combination of jazz and indie pop aesthetics. I kinda feel like I'm walking through the local Anthropology store as i listen to this.I've been listening to the entire CD for the past three days...and just can't get enough of it! Its a perfect listen for when those afternoon thunderstorms come around with its cloud covering and cool breezes! Take a listen to Dreaming of Plum Trees here.

Photo by David Greenwald

Change for a ten

i'm piggy backing the BEST entry today with some other examples from their blog. Being a thankful teacher of a fairly sizble budget for an art department I feel I need to do my best to share! Sounds like a better project to work on instead of curriculum writing!

ART 180, a nonprofit organization that gives young people in challenging circumstances a voice through the arts, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. In honor of the occasion, they have created a super-cool, large-scale collaborative project called Change for a Ten.

Visit their website to download the template, then paint, write, sew, or draw your own $10 bill about the change you’d like to see in the community. Use any material you like - just keep it the size of a dollar bill. Submit along with a real $10 donation to ART 180 (0 East 4th Street #56, Richmond, 23224)

All of the "dollars" will be exhibited at a special anniversary celebration at VCU's Brandcenter on October 10, 2008. You can see what they've gotten already or read about it on their blog.

back to school...trying to get excited!

so its been my week back to the grind by writing curriculum this week, with a break tomorrow to attend our leadership retreat with the theme of data and rigorous teaching ...shoot me now!....boy do we need a new leader in this country to change this crap! so i need some motivation and who saids going back to school like finding new items to write in! every year I make this goal of being more organized and really need to stick with my calendar and write sh*t down and try to be on top of everything. And what better motivation than these
new line of notebook covers for the Moleskine Cahier refill books by Chikabird ,a collaboration of Chika Eustace and Jean Lee. Every randL product is made of 50%-95% recycled materials. Some are silk screen printed, others printed on fabric. All available through their Etsy shop here

Portraits by Erin Fitzpatrick

I love these portraits! I've been getting a portrait in an email from Erin almost everyday since the beginning of August! Which means I 've been searching through town for these people! I have admired Erin for ditching her teaching job for being able to be an artist when she wants! Wish I had the balls to do that! Go see her work at R0cket to Venus on the 24th! I'll be there, even though I'll have to go to school the next morning to teach my little sweethearts!

New Mr. Peacock Coctail Totes

Taking Mr. Peacock to a new venue! Mr. Peacock in a smaller, more intimate size can be found in my etsy site for $40. More colors to come..

Lee Miller

The SanFransicoMOMA is currently having a retrospect on Lee Miller's work until Sept. 14th. which spans her career as a photographer and explores her transformation from muse and model to groundbreaking artist in her own right. And since I live here on the east coast, i have to rely on the SFMOMA web site to fill me in. They did an excellent job by including an online feature explores the trajectory of Lee Miller’s short but extraordinarily diverse career, and includes an interview with her son Antony Penrose; video commentary by art historian Whitney Chadwick; an archival audio clip of the artist herself; and zoom-enabled images of some of Miller's best-known works.

last day of my summer vacation:(

it is an amazing day outside and i am quite thankful for my last weekend of my summer vacation to have such great weather! today i went over to my buddy Anne's house to finally complete a pillow project that began over a year ago! sorry about that Anne....anyway, Anne is a wonderful mommie of twin girls, Violet and Piper, who are almost 14 months old. Full of laughs, burble noises, coo's and the occasional scream and cry..both happy and sad! So making a sock monkey felt applique pillow is a bit of a challenge with the girlies around. But we did it in less than half a day ! I took lots of photo's because it will be my tutorial post on the BEST blog next Saturday on how to make a felt applique pillow with piping! So stay in touch for the big post! I thought I would give a sneak peak of our fun filled adventure!Have a great weekend everybody...now get outside!

Mad Men

Ok...i know I am soooooooooooooo late jumping on the bandwagon about this one. And now I am almost obsessed with this show on AMC...Mad Men...about the advertising men of Madison Avenue in the late 50's early 60's. I absolutely love the aesthetic of this time period and this show! I am very glad that I became a woman after the 70's ! I would have been the beatnik artist chic during this time. A Kerouac fan that I am, I would have loved to have been a rebel during this time. I have to say I'm a bit pissed that no one told me to watch this show! Thank God for on demand so that i can get caught up. Its been nominated for more Emmies than any show ever nominated and I can see why. So go check it out if you haven;t yet. If you love the retro feel I keep trying to produce in my work....check it out! If you're trying to quit smoking or drinking cocktails during the day....maybe not check it out!