I was making a few cards today and randomly reached for the ink pad to darken the edges of the cardstock...which I haven't done in about ten years...back then absolutely nothing was safe from a smear of ink on the side. We might be onto the second round of inked edge obsession.
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Sparkle & Shine...
I mentioned way back when I was making Christmas cards in 2013, that being a cheer mom has made me embrace all things sparkly more and more.
This year's banquet invitations are proof of that...wrapped in metallic vellum and gold polka dotted ribbon. It's funny that you can actually see the progression from absolutely no sparkle the first year, to a little bit last year, to this year. At this rate, next year might be all sequins and glitter or something.
Each invitation includes an RSVP card and return addressed envelope, like a wedding invitation. Working on this part of the invite is usually right about the time I wish we just did an Evite.
But when the stacks are done (49 total) it's worth it...and then I tried running the envelopes through my printer and it totally worked. This detail made me unreasonably happy.
Next year...
Somehow, we are almost a third of the way into 2015...which means dates are starting to pop up for 2016. I used to just grab a piece of notepaper to start keeping track of what was already planned for the next year, but this time around I decided to make an official planner page.
In case you need to start wriitng stuff down too... Twenty Sixteen Planner Page
Could not resist...
Um, there is a Hobby Lobby that just opened around the corner from my house. My little pots of herbs are really happy about that.
Really want to...
Of course the weekend, when I have an enormous amount of schoolwork to do, is the weekend I am just dying to make stuff. Here's a few crafts I really want to try...
I misplaced my flash drive this week. I just use it to take lectures to school and have everything backed up well at home, but I had invested the time to organize everything I needed for the rest of the semester which was a bummer. Until I got super lucky and found it. Now I want to make a tassel key chain to make it much less lose-able.
I want to make a crafty version of a dream catcher to hang in our room for no reason at all.
And like I mentioned I want to spray paint everything now...how cute are these spray painted jars? I need a few different colors to hold the roses I cut in the backyard.
"I Make Things" came from this set that I loved so much I bought both the actual stamps and the digital version.
It worked...
A photo popped up somewhere on Instagram a few months ago showing that someone had spray painted their plastic trashcans. After the work we did in the kitchen this past summer, I really wanted nicer looking trashcans, but couldn't find sizes that fit...and oh my goodness, are some of them pricey.
Sean was skeptical, but willing to take a can of spray paint to them for me. And it totally worked. The paint went on smoothly and has held up almost perfectly with daily wear and tear (the edge of the green lid has a tiny bit of chipped paint). It's nice to have two different colors too, green is recycle and gray is trash.
I think I need to spend some more time figuring out what else I can spray paint around here...
Number twenty...
Prepping an "apple activity" for one of my classes to do as we discuss educational inequalities.
Last week I started teaching my second eight-week Intro to Sociology course for the semester.
I figured out the night before it was my 20th class...my 10th Intro class...which kind of makes it an anniversary, right? It's been an awfully quick two years.
I have to admit though, this semester has been tough. I have some super challenging students in three of my five classes. One of the Sociology departments I work for has decided that it kind of wants to micro-manage our syllabus writing. I have both schools presenting some scheduling difficulty for next fall. One school took away a class since a full time faculty member is switching their classes around. The department also mistakenly lost the classroom one of my classes was scheduled to be in, so I have a huge time gap in between two classes. And the other school has left me in a holding pattern for two months about teaching an Intro to Women's Studies course in the fall (although I just got an email this week...fingers crossed).
I am have been a total combination of frustration, grumpiness and hopefulness. Just hoping the tough stuff is ultimately going to be a good opportunity for growth and improvement. It just kind of sucks in the meantime.
Sean and I both never want to be the type of teachers that think the best reason for teaching is summer vacation, however I am not going to lie, I printed and grabbed a frame for this today.
Kind of ironic, since we are actually both teaching summer school...and I will have so much class prep to do that I will be working for most of the summer, but it's still a more relaxed time and I need it.
Bacon & Goat Cheese Spinach Salad with Orange Marmalade Dressing
I love making various salad concoctions and this was a recent favorite...
Bacon & Goat Cheese Spinach Salad with Orange Marmalade Dressing
- 6 ounce bag baby spinach
- 8 slices apple wood smoked bacon; cooked crisp, drained, cooled and crumbled
- 3 ounces goat cheese; crumbled
- small shallot; finely minced (about 2 teaspoons)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon champagne or white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon orange marmalade
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- pinch of sea salt
In a large bowl mix together spinach leaves, bacon bits and crumbled goat cheese. To make the dressing combine the vinegar, sugar, mustard, marmalade, pinch of sea salt and shallot. Stir continuously while drizzling in the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified. Lightly toss salad with dressing and serve immediately.
Coming up this week...
This upcoming Wednesday (April 22nd) is Administrative Professionals Day. Two years ago I brought cookies and last year I made jars of a foot soak concoction. This year I did not get terribly creative with a gift for the four women that work in the departments at both schools I am at, but at least it's wrapped up fairly cute. I filled a 24 ounce wide mouthed mason jar with colorful shredded paper and a Starbucks gift card. Then added a lid and straw. I used some fabric to wrap the outside with wired ribbon and made a tag to match.
Sean is going to bake cookies for everyone in the front office of his school, so I printed out an extra stack of tags. If you are giving gifts this week you can download Administrative Professionals Day Gift Tags too.
Loooong weekend...
I am dreaming that this upcoming weekend will somehow, magically, last longer than they usually do. Hopefully by the time Sunday afternoon rolls around I will be ahead of the game and can officially do nothing for a few minutes...or hours. Granted, my version of "nothing" would still be doing something...but a fun something.
In the ground...
This year there are a dozen different tomato plants and, as of this afternoon, they are labeled with a touch of craftiness.
I grabbed a pile of wood sticks from the craft store, swiped some paint on them (it would have been fun to do all different colors, but I decided that was too much effort), used a gold sharpie marker to write the plant names, and stuck them into the ground...or the planters scattered around the backyard since twelve plants need plenty of space.
One word...
I mentioned last week that Mac had try-outs, therefore Friday started his last year on the team. Friday also started the several weeks that I run the cheer boosters for two teams, this past year's and next school year's. This weekend seemed to be 87% cheer focused (we had to sleep sometime) and the end is not in sight. Monday night is the first meeting for the new families...so if I am not back here on Tuesday it's because I am all cheered-out.
And "cheer" is typed in the font I used for this year's banquet invitations, which I also started working on this weekend.
Mailbox update...
This was a momentous project around here...our mailbox was one of the very first updates we did to our house and now we have lived here long enough (almost fifteen years) that we had to do it all over again. The post had completely rotted away and was barely being held in place by the big plant around it.
We bought a new (locking) mailbox and post, but you know me, it had to have something a little extra cute. We purchased a planter box that Sean painted white and I bought too many flowers for.
It's working great and, thankfully, some grass seed has grown in around the base. Now, we should be good to go for another fifteen years or so.
Can't stay away...
Writing a little something around here is such a routine part of life, that I can't stay away for long. Even a week feels like missing a chapter, as inconsequential as it might be. So here's what's been going on...
There is some kind of comforter situation for the bed, thanks to Sean. There is also a new lamp that I love (minus the hot pink shade). Other than that, the master bedroom is in a standstill.
There was no crafting up tomato markers or scrapbooking in the last week. There was syllabus writing (I have another eight week class starting next Monday), class website building and power point organizing. Unfortunately, none of those tasks are remotely photogenic.
Since I am on the second half of the two half spring breaks, on Monday night I celebrated not having a late afternoon class by making Crispy Lemon Chicken Pasta for dinner (and adding some zucchini and mushrooms).
And it's cheer team try-out week. The last one. This senior year stuff is going to rip my heart out.
