This little video of mine has been hidden on the internet since 2007 when a 'super cool' college professor thought it would be trendy for us to post a lesson on YouTube for credit in one of my art education classes. I knew then I didn't want my face in the film so my class partner (Jenna) and I came up with the nerdy and brilliant idea to use puppets to create our lesson.
Yes. I said puppets.
Now at the time I was just glad to get the damn assignment over with, because we all know how awful it is to work in groups as an adult. I cringe every time anyone mentions Aztecs, Puppets, or asks "Hey what was the name of that awful video you have on YouTube??"
It is so awful in fact that I now think it's awesome and want to share it with the world!
You and Jenna, wherever you are, can thank me for my amazing improv skills, inability to use my hand once it is in a puppet, and my love for funnel cakes.
(Disclaimer: If you are an art teacher DO NOT show this to your students. They will mock you)
Happy Friday everyone!
Now grab a drink and forward this gem to a friend! It is about time I started making money off this YouTube sensation!
I have been considering for a while now going to a therapist. So I can have a sounding board and unbiased ears to hear my '20 something's' rant about my quarter life crisis. While mental health is a serious matter I put it on the back burner and enrolled in grad school instead.
In January I started working on my master of art in Art Education.
It has been scary, challenging, time consuming, and probably one of the best things I ever could have done for myself.
The program I am in highlights and focuses on personal reflections as an Artist-teacher, not just an art teacher. It is designed for us in the program to create and make which often doesn't happen with a busy teacher schedule.
This has proven to be so therapeutic for me and allowed me to grow in self confidence and work harder towards creative dreams. I will admit though going back to school is not conducive to trying to grow a baby blog, (Time management please!!) but what I have learned is priceless and my blog and future will benefit because of it.
With this slow transformation of my identity as an artist-teacher over the past year and a half, my creative space has also moved, changed, and grown positively.
Here are a few snippets of my current creative space:
Thank you for staying with me on this creative journey, and not un-following my blog because of my fungus.
It has recently come to my attention that I need a new doctor. She became my doctor after I worked in the same doctor's office in high school as a file clerk. I loved working there alphabetizing patients files and never peaking to see how much they weighed.
I was a senior in high school.
Her son was a senior in high school.
So of course we dated.
He was my first real boyfriend. He would pick me up in his mustang. He would write me poems. He even sent roses to my school. He also told his mother everything we talked about and I would have to hear all about it later at the office.
So I dumped him cold turkey.
Now to be fair I had zero experience in life, relationships, and how to work a basic flip cell phone. I moved on, HE has moved on, but his mother clearly has not.
I only see his mom (my doctor) when I am at my best. Like last week when I went in for a rash on my torso. She was not in the room for more than two minutes before she was gushing about how great her son is, how fabulous his job is, and how beautiful his new wife is.
I, being polite, was trying to not scratch my rash and smile and nod agreeing with how successful he had become . I start crawling out of my skin. After what seemed like an eternity she finally asked me to lift my shirt and with a gleam in her eye diagnosed that I have a fungus.
That's right folks.
A FUNGUS.
Talk about wanting to crawl into a hole and die.
Out of all the embarrassing diseases, this one is pretty far up on the list.
Faster than I could pull my shirt down she had convinced me to follow her to her office where she preceded to show me photos from said ex-boyfriend's wedding, including bridal portraits. I get it, I am the perfect daughter-in-law that you always wanted. But I have moved on, your son has clearly moved on, and you would think after 10 years you would have moved on as well.
So the search is on for a new doctor that will only judge me for my fungus and not for rash (pun intended) decisions I made in 2003.
On a lighter note the fungus/rash is clearing up. And it is good to be back.
So as you can see my New Year's Resolution to blog more has been super successful and by far the best resolution I have ever made. Real truth- I suck at time management and my blog has take a backseat to my 'real life' priorities. Considering it's half way through the month I will give you my Top 10 highlights of March so far and resume with the regular Top 10 format in April. (fingers crossed).
1.
I got an A in my first grad school class. (Yup teacher has become student and I will fill you in on the full development in a separate post). This is my study companion when I'm not reading at the local coffee shop.
2.
I am super excited that I recently have started to replace old terrible doors in my house with free older doors. Say goodbye to bland and hello to character!
3.
My favorite new App for my iPhone is called Typic. It's my favorite App to add font to your photos! It's super easy to use and that's how I edited the photo above! Check out it here if you don't already have it!
4.
Galaxy Playdough. Homemade Playdough + Mounds and Mounds of Glitter = me living out my childhood dream as an adult! Seriously, I pinned this from Pinterest and it has been sooooo much fun.
5.
Extreme Nail Art. Not sure if I nailed this look or not... but I must say I am getting pretty darn good at using my left hand to create designs. The weird thing is I am right handed. Another weird thing is that I have terrible cuticles. Yikes.
6.
Meet our friend the angry swan. All I wanted was a picture and he was out for blood. Until we meet again swan.
7.
Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone! Hopefully you ingested large amounts of green food coloring like I did, and got a little crafty. We used a green pepper as a stamp to create Shamrocks. Of course then we buried our painting in gold glitter. For Irish luck you know.
8.
It's finally warming up here in Nashville and I have been taking advantage of the great outdoors! Goodbye winter!
9.
I have finally become cool and joined the world of Instagram. I cannot stop snapping photos and editing them with different filters. Follow me on Instagram to see my life through the lens of my phone.
10.
Last but not least, if you have not seen this video you are seriously missing out. I cried I was laughing so hard the first time I saw it. Enjoy!
Yes there were tears shed...by me...at at bar last night.
But it was beautiful I promise!
Let me explain. I tend to be a grandma/home body during the week and never leave the house once I get home after work. But my dear friend Ivy (the one that made me this knitted treat) talked me into rallying these old bones to go hear a friend of hers play at a local music venue. The 5 Spot in East Nashville was recently featured on the new drama Nashville and is a perfect place to hear local musicians.
So I thought to myself, "you should go."
Also I thought "you shouldn't sit down when you get home because you won't want to get back up."
So I cleaned my entire house before meeting up with my dear friend. (Talk about nerd alert.)
I was getting a second wind of energy after arriving to the 5 Spot. There had been a lot of build up of high expectations of Luella and the Sun and I was ready for the other bands to speed up their sets so I could hear Luella and then quickly retreat to my bed. Out walks Luella and the Sun. First off I am mesmerized by her appearance, dark blue velvet dress, long sheer lace coat, layered with a jingling gold belt and a perfect cat eyeliner. Once she uttered the first few hums, all I could do was utter "are you kidding me?!?!"
By utter I mean I screamed loudly at Ivy in shock at the beauty of her voice.
I wish all of you were there to hear what we did. The way she could belt out her notes mixed with
incredible gospel inspired lyrics brought the entire venue to silence, leaving us all wanting more. At one point Luella sang her own rendition of "His eye is on the Sparrow." This is when I couldn't help my self and teared up... yup. Me in a smoke filled room full of hipsters there stood Luella sharing God's love and connecting us all. After they had finished all anyone could do was turn to the stranger standing next to them and just whisper how amazing it was.
This is why I need to get out more. To see live shows, to see these incredible artists performing their hearts out, and allowing myself to experience new things. Maybe it was all of the cleaning supplies that I inhaled prior to the show, but my soul was moved and they are now my new favorite group.
Oh did I mention that I bought 2 copies of their vinyl record.
Did I also mention that I don't own a record player??
I am determined to fill my house with their music so the quest is on to obtain a record player.
You owe it to yourself to watch this video of them performing. Thanks Luella and the Sun for making my week! Happy Friday everyone!
If you want to hear more or see them live for yourself check them out HERE.
I wanted to entitle this post as "To the windows" in honor of a recent karaoke session on my trip to Korea town in New York, but apparently I have already used that title. (Lil Jon would be so proud.)
So how about: DIY Message Board Windows.
Probably appeals more to my followers.
If you have no idea who Lil Jon is then I was correct in my assumption.
Any who, over Christmas break I got thrifty and wanted to up-cycle some old windows a friend had given me. Like most things in my life they were stacked against a wall in my dining room. I sort of cleaned them off, removed the wooden cross bars and went to work painting two different windows brown.
After allowing 3 coats of brown paint to dry, I put the crossbars back into the window, used sandpaper to scruff up the painted edges creating a shabby chic look and set out to use the divided sections for a chalkboard, cork board, message board, and dry erase board. I purchased scrap booking paper from Hobby Lobby to be the 'backdrop' for my dry erase board and used spray adhesive to attach it to the back side of the glass.
Then on the bottom of both window frames I drilled holes and screwed in burlap knobs (also from Hobby Lobby) adding an extra hanging feature to the window message board. I am not sure what my mom and sister will hang from the knobs, but come on- they're burlap!
Lastly, on my mom's window I added an extra detail by using her initials with painted wooden letters glued on top of a stencil that I painted directly on the front side of the bottom window pane. I LOVE how her window turned out! Since these are real windows they weigh a ton! So we need to make sure that we securely hang them to the wall... minus toggle bolts. I'm trying to cut down on the swearing.
I'm thinking now that I need to use the rest of the windows and make one for my kitchen for grocery lists, menus, and to display all those adorable Happy New Years photos that people are sending out.
p.s. I promise I really have tried to live up to my New Years Resolutions... has anyone else been frustrated with not being able to upload pics to blogger?? Ohhh technology- you keep me young!
Happy New Years Everyone! What? Yes- I am alive... sorry if you got bored with the lack of postings and moved on to bigger, brighter and bustier blogs. I guess time just got away from me? I never intended to take a three month hiatus from this little blog, but hey... a lot has happened. Good things.
I guess I should catch everyone up on what you missed before I start yapping about the New Year.
So lets do a little recap from October. (ugh I hate myself, that was 10 weeks ago). For Halloween I dressed up as Zooey Dechanel from New Girl. Some people got it. Those are the cool people.
Then there was my birthday where I wanted to revive the 80's. Little did I intend- I ended up looking exactly like I did in the 80's.
Fast forward through an amazing December, this is what happened after Christmas brunch with my parents. Yes I inherited their swagger and skills.
Immediately after Christmas I hopped on a mega bus with my bestie and headed to NYC to spend the remainder of 2012 living it up and ringing in a new year! We hung out with the Radio City camels, had a beautiful snow day in Harlem, and danced the night away on a yacht with fireworks for New Years Eve.
I had an amazing time and have loved reading everyone's New Years Resolutions. You guys are extremely ambitious. I know you guys are more than capable, but seriously some lists are crazy long. I would like to list out my resolutions for 2013.
Blog More.
There. One thing at a time people. But don't roll your eyes, I intend to do more than upload posts. It's about to get real... with real working tabs! Whoop whoop! Now that I have your attention check back soon (cross your fingers tomorrow) and see what I created for loved ones over the holiday season!
