It’s been a little slow to get my room ready for Monday. So after playing volleyball Saturday morning, I recruited BJ to come to school and pitch in. (Thank you1 Thank you!) We hung up some chalkboard decal, work by Andrew Bannecker, Mike Perry’s zine, Readymade WPA style posters, and one of my student’s NAHS promo poster to balance out the more traditional posters in the room. And B made sure the students could see my slight name change.
Sometimes I say things like if I was going to get married again*… usually when I eat a really delicious piece of cake or see a nice dress. But what I really mean is if we were to get married again then …
This piece from Steven Alan would fall into the “this is what I would wear to our backyard reception in Yakima next September” category. But I will probably get some more wears out of my other dresses and add a cardigan or sweater. We’re super excited for our trip back to B’s hometown as well as spending a short bit of time in Seattle.
*It’s okay, he’s amused.
My back-to-school shopping will be limited, so I’m looking for versatile pieces that could be dressed up or down, worn in the classroom or out to dinner. This hand-dyed wrap dress by Vain and Vapid fits the bill!
I’ve been called Mr. Rogers by a few observant students because you’ll never catch me without a cardigan, hoodie, or wrap because they set the a/c super-high in our building.
What we’ve been up to: cooking breakfast almost every day (and sometimes having it for lunch & dinner), using the immersion blender to make orange-blueberry smoothies, hanging out with Igby who loves to exert herself and her little legs running up the stairs, discovering that all the smudges on our window were from Igby rubbing her dirty nose against it while spying on the neighbors, stuffing ourselves at White Linen Nights, celebrating Brandi’s birthday with filet mignon and red snapper at Del Frisco’s for Houston Restaurant Week, playing sand volleyball with our family, watching several episodes of So You Think You Can Dance on Hulu (That would be me. Go Lauren!), falling in love with The Kids Are All Right, and getting back to the grind with lesson plans, cleaning my classroom, and mini but fewer “omg it’s coming so soon” freak outs.
Here are the last few instants.
The school year is starting up soon and I am a little bit nervous!
A few weekends ago, we got a text really late at night asking if we wanted  to take a trip to Austin in the morning. duh! For some reason BJ and I decided to start roasting a chicken around midnight, instead of packing and resting for the trip. So we only got a little bit of sleep before, we met up with 26 other cousins (more or less, I loss count) and caravanned to Lake Austin. Some of us only had 10 minutes notice to pack, but I’m so happy so many people could go. We jet skied, played volleyball with strangers, grilled, swam, got tangled in seaweed multiple times, and squeezed everyone into 4 hotel rooms at the end of the night. We ended the trip with a finger lickin’ meal at Salt Lick. Mmm, summer.
Woo hoo. I finally scanned all the instant photos from July. Thank you, Rice Media Center. Below are some of my favorite shots from our trip to New York, and I uploaded the rest here.
We were gifted a Diana camera and instant back from Catherine and Trevor for our wedding. More than my digital camera, it ended up documenting the majority of the trip. I guess we’ll just have an itty-bitty photo album to hold all these memories. Plenty of trial and error happened before we got a better handle of the settings, but we loved the instant results (especially me, Ms. Impatient) and having something tangible to hold and look at. Thank you, C + T!
I desperately want to buy a scanner, but I guess a washer and dryer, vacuum, and forks and spoons should be more important on the list. Unless we don’t mind a slightly dirtier house and eating with our hands ….
Next up: Austin photos.
Inspiration from the web. I love the simplicity of these posters as well as the designers’ other work. (Click on the links to see more)
Allan Peters‘ Poster-On-A-Stick. More here.
Micah Max‘s Explosion in the Sky concert poster. And in his own words:
The firecrackers and their abnormally long fuse, represent the band’s ability to go from quiet, shimmering beauty to bold, loud passages in an instant. It’s always fun to do work for a band that I greatly admire.
Hat tip: Twig & Thistle
This summer is going by way too fast and we’re getting pretty frustrated that there are way too few hours in the day after we get back from work, make dinner, clean, etc. This + Â all of the other things going on has put us in a little funk.
With the school year approaching, I’ve been filling a lot of professional development hours with workshops. Some are not so exciting but still helpful—like the two-day sessions on classroom discipline. And others—like the ones at the MFAH and Glassell—are much more enjoyable and relevant. The sessions were only a few hours each, but I got to dabble in collograph printing, pinhole cameras, enameling, ceramics, and, well, just having some fun. It was just the boost/kick in the butt I needed, and now BJ and I are considering taking an evening class during the school year.
Instant pick me up. I used to by these by the strip, but I spied a bulk pack at Candylicious in the Rice Village.
Our plates and cups seem to be chipping at record rates. I wish I knew how to do something like this.
I tried enameling for the first time and decided to do something simple and not so “art teacher”. You know what I mean?
Yes! Got to go back into the darkroom and learned how to use a paint can as a pinhole camera. The weather and lighting were unpredictable, but I still had fun shooting in the sculpture garden.
Working on a few projects and still figuring out my footing.
hah. excuse all the hand shots. not feeling so creative. again.
During our stay in NYC, the first two days were spent buying essentials that we didn’t have time to pack. Honestly, we were happy just to make it to the airport on time. So we ventured down to Rockefeller Center to pick up things like socks, underwear, t-shirts, shoes, etc. We didn’t buy too much after that, but here are some of my favorite things we snagged besides the books BJ got.
29.99! oxfords on final sale at Madewell. They kind of slip off my feet when I walk, but I’m determined to fix it!
Yoshitomo Nara towel (already doubling as my movie blanket) & a Warriors of Radness sweater from Opening Ceremony.
1968 (BJ’s favorite year) calendar towel from 10 ft. Single *
J.Crew tie & Steven Allen Tie from Bird **
Melissa Joy Manning triangular earrings from Bird
* Kudos to Lena C. for the tip
** Spotted George O’Malley + was probably very obviously about it