A Star for Christmas

I made some lovely 3-D paper barn stars with one of the classes at school and I liked them so much I made one for home too. This craft is fairly simple, so I thought I'd share in case some of you are looking for an easy, last-minute craft to keep or give.

Start by printing a star from the internet. I made mine almost as wide as a piece of printer paper. Cut the star out. This one will be your pattern. Precision is important in your tracing and cutting for this craft, but if things are a little off it will still turn out nicely.

Next, use a sharp pencil and a ruler to draw lines from each "point" of the star to the "valley" of the star across from it. All of the lines will intersect in the middle.

You will need to use the two parts that make up one of the points. Label one "L" for light and the other "D" for dark.

Trace the star pattern onto a piece of thick paper. This will be the base of your finished star, so pick a color that will coordinate with the colors you will use for the star. I used a piece of white card stock. The paper should still be thin enough to bend.

Now, cut out the two triangles that you labeled light and dark. Choose two colors of patterned craft paper, one that is lighter in value and one that is darker in value. Trace the "L" triangle five times on the lighter paper and the "D" triangle five times on the darker paper. Do not turn the triangle patterns over. The letter you wrote on it should always face up. Carefully cut them out. Cut them inside the pencil line that you traced so that you cut the line off. That way it won't show and the triangles won't be too large.

Now, it's time to start assembling your star. You will glue a light and a dark triangle on each point of the thicker star you cut out of card stock. The whole thing will fit together like a puzzle. If there is a little extra space in between each triangle that is fine. It will help when it is time to fold. It is important that none of your triangles overlaps another one. That will impede folding the star.

Mine are all glued. You can see that it is not perfect and that there is a small gap between the pieces.

It is time to fold. The alternating light and dark triangles will add to the 3-D look. Fold each point individually so that the ridges running to the points stick up and the ridges running to the valleys stick down. All of the folds meet in the middle. The small gaps between the triangles should make folding very easy. The paper will want to bend at the gap. Voila! Your barn star is complete.

I hung mine by a little loop of ribbon on the bathroom wall. Where will you hang yours?

If you have more time and want to be even more creative you can do what we did in school. Each kid painted their own paper first. They painted colors and patters and used stamps. One area of the paper they made dark and one light. They made sure each of their areas were big enough to cut five or more triangles out of it. They used reds and greens, burgundies and metallic golds. They painted with craft acrylics on drawing paper that was about the weight of card stock or just a little lighter. It was thick enough not to buckle when they painted on it. They were lovely!

Experiment and see what you can come up with.

Happy creating!

Wordless Wednesday

Paper Mosaics

A sampling of coil pots

Student photo for the cover of the Christmas program

See, I haven't actually deserted you all! I decided it was time to check in and share what the students have been up to in my art room. Now, I'm off to bake Thanksgiving pies and work on Christmas crafts.

School's In

From my desk. The mural was painted at the end of last year by five high school students.

It looks like a sufficient amount of space until you try to cram 21 little first grade bodies in there at one time!

Looking toward my desk from the doorway.

The supply corner. The box in front of the shelves is a cave in the making. The middle school is studying art of the stone age and is making the cave to hang their "cave art" in. More pics of this project to follow later.

School began last Wednesday. I am enjoying being back in the classroom again. Since the school is on the small side, I teach art to all of the grade levels, k-12. Also, since the school is small and yet growing, other classes besides art are held in the art room certain days and periods throughout the week. On any given day I may share my small space with Spanish III, 8th grade math, Health, or high school Bible. These few breaks during the week afford me the time needed to put up displays of art work in the hallways and work on organizing the yearbook staff.



The upside to working in a small Christian school is definitely the kids and the Christian environment. They are a nice group of students and they have very active parental support. The downside is the lack of space. My room is small and my supply budget is limited. The nearest sink is across the hall in the girls' bathroom. Also, the days are long with 9 periods plus yearbook after school hours. We won't go there with the pay situation...but suffice it to say that I have taken a pay cut from my public school teaching job of twenty years ago. All that said, I am enjoying it and look forward to each new day. My head is full of project ideas and my heart is full of caring for these wonderful kids and their families.



While I am enjoying focusing on art alone, I am finding I miss teaching all of the different subjects a homeschool mom has to cover. Where is literature and science, history and math? I am certainly glad I had the opportunity to learn right along with my kids as they worked their way through our homeschool. Shawn is homeschooling history still this year, but he is doing it independently. I may sit down to watch a lecture or two with him, but he has ownership of the course. It is not "mom lead". I have always loved learning and the homeschooling environment suited me. I will always be a learner, always curious about that which I don't already know. Now I can look back on homeschooling with nostalgia, but forge ahead towards recapturing my true vocation of teaching art. How wonderful to have been blessed with both.



Shawn and Julia are both doing really well in their courses at the community college. I am so proud of them. Julia is working on a transfer application now. She is looking at Cornell as a transfer school and wants to apply early for next year. It's a good thing I went back to work when I did. Although it will be significantly smaller than Earle's paycheck, mine will become quite necessary soon.

Summer's Best

Lazy days spent paddling up an inlet of a lake, these are the times Earle and I look forward to in the summer. We strap on the canoe and head out for the day.

Paddling up an algae-covered inlet. Our clear path left in the wake soon closed up behind us until we were surrounded by a carpet of green.

The yellow water lillies were all in buds, waiting to open.

A flotilla of turtles hovers near the bank of another inlet.

A stray bobber attracts a passenger.

Wordless Wednesday

When cats dream...

First Day of School

Remember when you first went to kindergarten and mom and dad had you smile and pose while you stood at the bus stop in your new school clothes and name tag? For us homeschoolers, sometimes leaving the house for the first day of school comes a little later.

I couldn't help but snap this pic of Shawn this morning as he sat waiting for Julia to finish doing her hair so they could leave together for the first day of classes at the community college. I also couldn't help but be a little anxious for them. It is Shawn's first classroom experience since third grade when we decided to homeschool, and it is Julia's hardest year yet with all upper level classes with scary names like Organic Chemistry and tutor and lab assistant responsibilities. Yikes. It's enough to make a mom's skin crawl.

I know they'll do well. They are such good kids. I am proud of them both and wish them well today. This momma can't wait until they come home from the first day of school to tell her all about it.

Chain Maille

What does a crafty teen who has just visited the Renaissance Festival do with her last weeks before college begins? She picks up and masters a new hobby, of course.

Julia and her friends were intrigued by the chain maille for sale at the Renaissance Fair. She bought a small bracelet that drapes over the hand in a "V" and loops around the middle finger. It was an innocent enough purchase at first. Now, she is hooked. Now, there are bags of jump rings littering every horizontal surface in the house and pliers lain askew on place mats and coffee tables. And, there is a young lady, her eyes glued to a laptop monitor in front of her, pliers in both hands, who wrestles these stainless jump rings into all kinds of intricate patterns and beautiful weavings. We have a chain maille junkie on our hands!

Seriously though, the jewelry she is making is quite lovely. When one thinks of chain maille, if they are like me, they think of chunky suits worn by knights to protect them from glancing sword blows. But, this craft has grown to be much more. There are so many different fancy "weaves" and patterns that have crossed over from chain maille's once strictly utilitarian purpose to resemble something of art.

Julia has become so intrigued with this process and so proficient at her new craft that she is even considering selling her work, which I might add goes for a pretty penny online. Bravo to her for teaching herself this wonderful pastime and creative outlet.

My kids' creativity and ability to look up how to do something and then do it and do it well never ceases to amaze me.

Tagged by Melissa!

I've been on a bit of a blogging break, as you know, but my WTM blogging friend Melissa tagged me for this meme and I am a sucker for memes! Also, as I read over Melissa's list there were so many similarities to me that I just had to do it.

6 Unspectacular Things About Me

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here goes:

1. I love homemade popcorn with lots of real butter and sea salt.

2. Like Melissa, I startle very easily and my family has taken advantage of that fact. Just ask Julia about the fake black spider...

3. I sleep with one very old, flat pillow and sometimes even push that above my head. Hotel pillows, you know the puffy foam kind, kill me.

4. I snore sometimes. Dh has earplugs in his nightstand.

5. I require everyone to leave their shoes either outside the door, in their rooms, or in the cellar. They often opt for outside because it's easier, then they get angry at me when their shoes get wet!

6. I am a nut for SciFi.

There, everything you always wanted to know about me, right?! I'm not sure I will tag anyone right now, but I reserve the right to change my mind at a later date.

Reading and Watching

Summer is ideal for reading and watching. The heat and humidity dictate either a break on the couch with a book or one floating in the Intex pool. The long days turn into late night movie viewing as cool breezes finally begin to waft in through the open windows.

I am usually a one-book-at-a-time type gal, but right now I am reading two. I thought I'd fly through a few more Miss Read books this summer, but I've gotten side-tracked and will have to pick her back up a little later in the season.

A friend loaned me To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. I'm finding it very good and rather funny, but I am not compelled to read one chapter after another. I like the book well enough, it is after all a pleasant adventure in time travel with much silliness and history. It just seems I put it down and forget to pick it up again for days.

My other read right now is open next to me on the couch. I am almost halfway through its 311 pages after picking it up at the library yesterday. At the end of each chapter it compels me to begin another, and then another...Sundays in America, A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. I don't always share the author's views, but her "trip" is intriguing. Earle and I have always talked about worshipping at a different church every Sunday. Suzanne Shea did it for a year and we are along for the ride.

Apart from reading books I have been reading a blog I discovered called Zen Habits. I am all for simplicity and the articles there are very inspiring. Hop on over and give it a try.

Movie watching has been slow but steady. We picked up a few $5 movies out of the Walmart bin to add to our small collection. Among the usual fare of Terminator and military action movies were True Lies and one of my favorites A Knight's Tale. It is a great movie. What can be better than the character of Geoffrey Chaucer, stripped naked (from the back of course) bemoaning his gambling habit! Side-splitting stuff. The other great movie I watched (part of) recently was Master and Commander. I watched it at the precise time to see my favorite part: "Don't you know that in the service you must always choose the lesser of two weevils." If you've seen it you know of what scene I speak!

Old Friend

My blog template, minima black, was like an old friend whom I missed while she was away. I tried to like my new friend. I thought she was more summery and light-hearted. But, in the end old friends are the best friends and I missed my minima. So, I gave her a call and invited her over. We're very close and having her here just feels right. She may be a little dark, but I love the way she makes the colors pop. She makes me happy.

Since I've been on my short blogging vacation, my nieces have been roaming the world, Earle and Julia have been to Germany, and my lovely sister-in-law has joined the blogging world. I think it might be time for an update soon!

Blessings to you all and I hope you are enjoying summer.

Update

I can't believe how much time has gone by. We've all been very busy here. I've had to conclude that blogging may not happen over the summer much, so don't be surprised if you come to visit and nothing has changed. This is what we have been up to since I blogged last and what we are anticipating the upcoming summer to be like.

Me:

I spent last week subbing full time at the school where I will be teaching in the fall. The teacher whom I am replacing is pregnant and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and preeclampsia which sent her home for complete bed rest and sent me into the classroom full time, early. It was a good opportunity to get to know the kids before the upcoming school year and to take stock of the supplies. I will need to order supplies, plan for the classes, organize the room, and fire the kiln a few times over the summer. I expect to be in there quite a few times.

Also, while Earle and Julia were in Germany I painted the sitting area in the kitchen which we affectionately call "the cafe" and I painted the hall leading to the bedrooms. The cafe is now a lovely light orchid and the hall a pale sea blue. I also rearranged the great room so that the furniture grouping faces the view instead of the tv. I think there will be more thunderstorm and rainbow viewing than tv watching during the summer months. Since we have been experiencing a rather severe heatwave here, Earle and I put up my Intex pool and we purchased and installed air conditioners for the bedroom windows. This week would have been unbearable without them.

This summer I will be doing British Lit with Shawn and finishing Art History with him. I will continue with my art student and will also be creating and implementing a 1/4 credit art course for a friend's high school aged daughter who wants to graduated early and needs to fullfill a fine arts requirement. Hopefully I will find some time to fit in my own art as well.

Earle:

Earle is back from his two week stint in Germany. He and Julia had a wonderful time and he may eventually find the time to update his blog so you can share his adventure with him. We will be hosting someone from Germany when they visit here for work at the end of June. Earle is off for a few days to Taiwan and Germany in the meantime. His knee swelled a little again when he and Julia were away so he hasn't gotten on his bicycle yet this year, but he will soon. He and Shawn are still playing floor hockey though and we are looking forward to taking the canoe out for its first time this season. It's been too hot this last week to even think about being out on the water.

Julia:

Julia is back working at Kohl's for the summer and spending her free time with Seth. She is hoping to make enough money to pay her share of school in the fall, buy her books, and have some left over for a few riding lessons. Anything horse related is always so expensive and the rising price of gas has put a dent in every one's pocket. She will be picking up a little extra soon as she dog sits for some neighbors.

Shawn:

Shawn is working quite a few hours at Target. They gave him almost 30 this week. He has to fit in some school work this summer so that I feel I've covered everything with him that I wanted to before he heads to the community college. He has a few weeks left of fencing then our prime objective is to get him signed up for his drivers' test. He has been ready to get his license for a while now, but we haven't had the time to do it and haven't really wanted to pay the extra expense of the increased insurance cost. Shawn will also be doing some lawn work this summer for some neighbors, the same ones Julia is dog sitting for. It sure helps the gas fund.

So, as you can see, life is busy and there is no end in sight. We all feel as though we are chained to a treadmill that keeps speeding up regardless of what we do to try to slow it down. And of course the things I mentioned above are really just the tip of the iceberg. It is all those little plates we try to keep spinning in the air that take their toll in time and put us over the edge, things like: pets, and lawn care, and meal prep, and exercise....If I had back all the time I've spent cleaning cat puke off the floor in the last few years I could have painted a masterpiece instead! C'est la Vie.

Happy summer everyone. I'm sure you'll see me around, but it won't be regularly. Enjoy your families.

Food Stuff

Have you missed me? I've been taking a small blogging break. Something had to take up all the time I usually spend here. So, we've been eating! Since Friday's Feast is on vacation this week, I thought I'd share a feast of my own making, the yummy kind. To say "we like food" at our house is understatement extraordinaire. We cook. We eat. Therefore we are.

Breaking in the new wok from Taiwan with a batch of fajitas. I know, wrong culture. It worked great though! Our stove even has a wok ring that you place on a burner to hold the wok in place. It is so cool!

Can I tell you how much I adore pumpkin? I can eat it any time of year. This particular Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Gingersnap Crust was particularly yummy last week, especially with pecans substituted for the hazelnuts in the crust.

This is truly a sad sight. I only made this batch of brownies last night and Shawn and I are the only ones home! These are the best chocolate brownies ever, ever, ever, ever.........ever.

Brownies

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8" square pan. (I used Corelle greased with butter). In a medium bowl (I used my KichenAid mixer for this recipe) combine melted butter and cocoa, stirring until dissolved. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time and mix until well combined. Stir in vanilla, flour, and salt until combined. Do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips. Spread in pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Do not over bake. There's nothing worse than dried up brownies! Test with a toothpick for doneness. Toothpick should come out of center with moist crumbs, not clean. Cool, cut, eat. Yum.

You can thank me later. Just don't send me the bill for your new pants, one size bigger.

Happy Friday everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

Busy Days

The Phi Theta Kappa induction ceremony. Apparently, Julia was in motion, and is therefore out of focus as she received her flowers!

I am always amazed at how busy this time of the year can be. Earle is only home for one more day before his next trip and we've been working feverishly to get all those springtime chores done before he is whisked off to Germany again. We've planted the rest of the garden except the tomatoes and peppers which will go in shortly. We fenced it in too, after our local rabbits had feasted on our spinach. Little buggers. It's a good thing they're cute! We even planted our deck pots with annuals, but we had to bring them inside last night because of danger of frost up here on the hill. It is a little early still for annuals, but with Earle going away again we wanted to get them underway.

This trip he will be taking Julia along for the ride. Twelve days in Germany, she is thrilled! She has waited for this for two years now. Whenever Earle had to go she was unavailable to accompany him. School. Work. More school. Finals are over, summer employment hasn't begun yet, she is off! It will be a nice reward for a job well done at school. Last week she participated in the induction ceremony for the Honor Society of Two Year Schools. We're not sure which professor nominated her, but it is a nice honor and will translate to scholarship dollars at a transfer school. All A's and one A- to round out the year. Way to go Julia! Next year will be tough, but she is very capable. She has signed up for: Organic Chemistry, Abnormal Psychology, Genetics, and I don't remember what else off the top of my head. Anyway, they are all upper level courses and all four or five credits I think. (ETA: The other course is Creative Writing) This summer she can give her brain a rest. She goes back to Kohl's for a summer job. They welcomed her back gladly. She has already started to unwind a bit with a trip down childhood lane as she rereads an old favorite, The Wind in the Willows.

We've been busy with Shawn's educational plans too. He will be taking British Lit with me over the summer and will be studying Medieval History next year using the Teaching Company lecture series as a spine: The Early Middle Ages, The High Middle Ages, and The Late Middle Ages. He also took the placement test at the community college and will be signing up for classes with an advisor of Friday. He will be taking College Composition I and Statistics. This year is not yet complete. I suspect we will need until close to the end of June to finish up. It seems as though the junior year of high school ends up being the most taxing year with the most work. After all, when you are preparing to launch into college classes the next year you can't slack off.

Speaking of slacking off, I'd better go watch Shawn's Art History lecture with him. Back to work, Mom! Tomorrow will be a busy day. Earle and Julia leave for Europe at about dinner time and I will be spending the day at the school with the present art teacher, learning about the make-up of the different classes, the schedule, the supplies, etc. It will be a busy day all around.

I will try to get my Wordless Wednesday up tomorrow before I go. We'll see. I Already have an idea for a picture. Hopefully I'll have time in the morning to post it before I head out. Also, what do you think of the new template? I needed a break from the black. I liked how it made all the colors pop, but it was looking a bit too wintry for me. I thought about installing a custom template, but Julia, my html guru won't be here to help me, so I went with one of the presets that Blogger gives you. It's a nice change though.

Lastly, did you catch the season finale of House last night? It was awesome! Now I can't wait until next year. Is the door open, perhaps, for a personality change for House? Will there be regret? An irrevocably broken relationship with his only friend? Poor 13 though, I felt so sad for her.

Wordless Wednesday

Sibling Ticklefest 2008

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was one of those relaxing, do nothing, sit around the house like a blob kind of days. It was wonderful. We attended church and came out all weepy after a very touching sermon. Then we packed ourselves full of calorie laden food at Bob Evans before heading home to slouch on the sofa reading the paper and other general "vegging".

Shawn worked eight and a half hours the day before and was tired, but he managed to give his favorite mom a very wonderful head massage which just about knocked her out for the rest of the day. He also came out of work on Saturday night with a wonderful card and luscious package of chocolates for his favorite mom for Mother's Day. What a sweetie.

Julia was tired too and glad to veg and be bloblike. She had to put in some time studying for one of her finals the next day. Today she found out she was the only one in the class to get an A on that final. Yippee! The class is Evolution and is the uppermost level biology class offered at the community college. Great job Julia! She has two more to go on Friday and then it is officially summer vacation.

Poor jet-lagged Earle was awfully tired from his two week trip that he arrived home from Saturday night. Planning ahead and knowing he would be tired, he had flowers delivered to me on Saturday. They were, and still are, beautiful and thoughtful. He also brought us home a humongous steel wok that he bought in Taiwan at, are you ready for this, Costco. He had to join Costco to buy it. We don't even have one around here. How funny is that?!

So, after we'd done our share of nothing, we decided nobody really wanted to cook. We ordered delivery. Pizza and Stromboli. Yum. Of course, the next day, and today still, I'm "bloated up like road kill" from all the salt! Earle and I washed it down with ice cold Bacardi Mojitos. I may indeed be bloated the rest of the week...

I hope your Mother's Day was also lovely and that you ate and drank well and had just the right mix of fun and comfort. Best of all, I hope you enjoyed your family as much as I enjoyed mine. Cheers!

Good News

Some of you may remember that I applied for a teaching position back in January. Well, one refreshed resume, several application essays, two interviews, and a lot of waiting later and I was offered the job today! I accepted over the phone, but the paperwork will need to be done to make it official. I will be the new art teacher at a local Christian school beginning this September. It is a full time position for art, grades K-12. I can hardly believe it has actually happened. I am about to burst. When Earle comes home tomorrow we'll have some serious celebrating to do!

When we ask Him for something that is so big we are sure we could never attain it on our own and then it happens, we know it is Him and not us who deserves the credit. I really never thought I would have the opportunity to teach full time again. I have been out of the classroom a very long time and have homeschooled, the kiss of death for a public school teacher! I wasn't sure I would even want to go back to the public school system. Then this position fell right into my lap, right at the best time. I feel so incredibly small in the hand of He who with those same hands sets into motion the whole workings of the universe. And yet, He knows every hair on my head and every need within my heart.

Friday's Feast

Here's The Feast for you! Happy Friday everyone. See you in the comments as usual. I can't wait to see what you all have to say. It's been quite a week for us here between the SAT exam, the college placment exam, the fencing class tournament, and the dog incident. I'm sure glad it's Friday!




Appetizer
When someone smiles at you, do you smile back?


Soup
Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix?


Salad
Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name.


Main Course
Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption?


Dessert
Name 2 blue things.

Photoshop Phun

Peaceful Cape Breton, Canada

Portland Head Light, Maine

The Tide is out

Cape Breton's rocky coast

I think I am becoming addicted to Photoshop. Does anyone know the symptoms? I think I might need intervention... After the week I've had and the amount of pain meds I've consumed from a solid week of migraines, Photoshop is about all the creativity I can handle right now. Photoshop and Vicodin. Hook me up. Painting, it's overrated ;-)



Is it summer vacation yet?

The original pics were all taken by my resident photo-crazed husband with his now retired Sony digital camera. If you want to see some of Earle's recent, un-photomanipulated photographs, there are some lovely pics on his blog that he took the other day in Germany. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday