Naughty and Nice Party

Carrie and Mark hosted a Naughty and Nice Party. At first I was a little confused at what this type of party would look like. I did know I had the perfect shirt!

Here is Drew in his Christmas sweater while I sport my 'Naughty but Nice' shirt.

Although some people didn't dress up at all Carrie took the cake with her Mrs. Claus outfit! Way to go all out Carrie! And thanks for a fun time. Next time I will know what sort of gifts to bring to a Naughty and Nice party and will be prepared to participate in the gift exchange.

The Word is Out!

Word has gotten out how great of a teacher I am and how awesome drawing is. I just found out yesterday that they are going to have to add another drawing 1 class to my schedule because the wait list for drawing is so long! They are going to combine my currently three advanced drawings into two classes and make my seventh hour another drawing 1. To which I said, "I love having freshmen seventh hour!" A little joke always throws my principal off, but I think I'm pretty funny.

So my classes will be full, but I think I'm off to a good start to my goal of building up the art department!

Now my room is a mess from my first semester. Debating on cleaning now or coming in later.

Tacky Sweater Day

This past week it was Tacky Sweater Day at school. Although I was lacking in the sweater department Carol Ann came through and provided one for me to wear. As a department we looked great! This is one of Tim's many tacky creations of the season. And if you ask he will be sure to tell you about how he lost out on prizes at two different Tacky Christmas parties he went to over the weekend.

Here's the art gang. (me, Tim, Carol Ann, and Trish.)

Colorado Springs

I know this Thanksgiving post is a little late, but here is goes anyway. I drove to Colorado Springs over the break with my boyfriend to visit my best friend, Kathryn, from high school. Although I don't have any good pictures from the actual Thanksgiving. Kathryn has some good ones here. These pictures are from our visit to the Garden of the Gods. We lucked out and had a beautiful day to walk around and check out the sites.

Kathryn and me!

Me and the boy!

Pandora vs Grooveshark

Now that I'm teaching high school I listen to a lot of music during the day. At first I only knew of Pandora for online music. The problem with Pandora is you only get 40 hours worth of listening time and then they kick you off for the month. Even with careful planning I was maxing out with a week go each month.

There is an account tab that will tell you how many hours you have left to listen. This month I'm doing really well and have 17 hours left! That is because I discovered the joys of grooveshark.

Grooveshark has many wonders. At first I thought you could only search the music and make a playlist. Which is pretty cool, but annoying if you just want to listen to music all day. My first hour advanced drawing does enjoy this feature because then they can all request songs and they just line them up in the playlist. When I thought this was all grooveshark could do I didn't use it very much. But then I discovered the stations.

Of course there are not as many options as Pandora where you can choose an artist and it finds like artists, but I really do enjoy it. My favorite station is the Indie station. It has great music that is mellow and the students can draw to it. We did listen to electronica once but it really just made everyone want to dance.

And the final feature that I have found is that you can search other people's playlists. You just search and instead of looking under the songs tab you search playlists. Kind of fun to see what other people are listening to. So go check out grooveshark. It is my new favorite!

My Custom Mug!

You may recall that I love mugs and that I broke a mug I bought from Rachel Akin earlier this year. I saw Rachel at the Plaza Art Fair. Although she had changed up her style a little bit she offered to remake the mug I broke. It arrived a couple weeks ago and I have happily added it back into the morning mug rotation. It is not exactly the same as the one I purchased at the Brookside Art Fair, but it is a wonderful substitution. Now I just need to be careful with this one! Don't want another freak accident in the kitchen.

Good Trade

I stopped by Tom and Tara's this weekend because Tom told me he had gourds that he grew and I should make the students draw. But I got even more than homegrown gourds. Tom took me into the garage, which apparently Tara doesn't ever go and saw the fruit of Tom's hunting. He has several different deer skulls. I was really excited. Skulls are pretty fun to include in a drawing. I have drawn several drawings of bones from college. Then Tom got excited and ran out to the yard to pull another rotting skull from a leaf pile. (Which is where you let them rot according to Tom) That one is not quite ready for the classroom but I'm hoping it will come my way eventually.

After visiting Tom and Tara I walked away with one deer skull, four gourds, and a few magazines for a collage project. All I had to give in return was one vitamin water to Tom. Thanks Tara and Tom! I love me new still life items!

Halloween!

I love Halloween! This year I threw a party at the wonderfully dated condo clubhouse. Costumes were required and everyone came out in full force. Although I wasn't very good at taking pictures, I did get a couple good ones.

Here are the girls. Tara won one of the prizes. Anne didn't want to dress up and then showed up as a homemade pumpkin. Kate was a homemaker and her husband Adam was the milkman. Erica is sporting the bee costume I made a couple of years ago, but added letters to make herself a spelling bee. She also won a prize. and Lisa is of course Twister...which she made. Very impressive ladies!

And here is baby Olivia. She was the hit of the party even when she cried because she didn't recognize her mom as the devil in disguise.

I was a peacock. Although I couldn't find yellow tights I did sport some yellow shoes, that you can't see, with blue tights. My mask spent most of the night on my forehead but you can get the full effect below. I think I left glitter everywhere I went.

Thanks to all those who came to my party! Next year I'll have to plan some themed games. I've already starting thinking about what I want to be next year.

Happy Halloween!

High School Halloween

Today is the first day I really miss elementary school. I looked forward to elementary school Halloween all year. Sarah and I would always coordinate our costumes and keep it a surprise until the parade. All afternoon was devoted to getting dressed, parading around the school, and parties!

Halloween at high school is not nearly that cool. It's just a normal day! So I borrowed my mom's awesome headband and wore my Halloween shirt. In my first hour Cooper was worried that I was trying to be cool with a feathery headband and then realized it was a Halloween headband. I guess I'm right on the edge of strange and cool.

Because I knew I would be a little sad I'm throwing myself a Halloween party so I have an excuse to wear a costume. More on that later.

Happy Halloween!

The Rodeo!

I had never been to the rodeo before this past Friday. Luckily, Kate got free American Royal Rodeo tickets! Here is Kate showing off her cute belly. Although Kate isn't sharing the name of her baby boy, she did tell us proudly that none of the cowboys bore her son's name.

And here are Anne and Nanette. We enjoyed to privacy of our own private box at long forgotten Kemper Arena. We were glassed in to separate us from the common folk. There weren't many people at the Rodeo, but we had a great time nevertheless. Since I had never been to a rodeo before it was a good thing we brought Nanette along. She told me all sorts of fun facts. For example, do you know why the bulls and horses buck the way they do? It's because they tie something around their balls and of course they don't like it!

So the rodeo is hard to photograph and here are my attempts blurry as they may be. My favorite event was the mutton busting. This is where little kids ride sheep like the cowboys ride bulls. It was pretty cute. I also enjoyed when all these kids had to wrestle calves to ground, tie a rope around their neck and then drag them to the middle of the arena. I was impressed, as I don't think I could do that.

Parent Teacher Conferences

In high school everyone treats you like a real teacher. And with this new status comes real conferences. I got lined up just like every other teacher in the commons with a little table, two chairs for parents, and a sign with my name on it. Parents stopped by and I pulled out their grades and talked about their kids. Mostly, these went really well, because most kids do really well in drawing. But there were a few special conferences. Here are a few of the highlights.

After showing her son's failing grade due to the fact that he just choose not to turn in half of the assignments, his mom said, 'Oh he is so grounded for like a month!'

One student was doing really well but ended up getting a C because he didn't turn in a big project. To which his mom says, 'You mean he just threw away an A?' I told her he could do extra credit by visiting different museums around town. Her response, 'Oh, I've been wanting to go to the Nelson. There is going to be some forced, family, museum time!'.

Another mom asked my to let her know if I discovered the vitamin to motivate. So if anyone if out there who knows if this exists, let me know.

Other than that the conferences went a little like this, ' I really like your student. They are doing really well. Is he/she signed up for drawing 2 or painting?' I've got to keep building my program and one way to do that is to put the bug in parents' ears about signing up for more of my classes.

I believe conferences were a success. I guess we'll see next year when I see who enrolls in my classes.

Follow Up on the Cup

We are delighted to inform you that you were selected as the owner of a cup from the Forever exhibition by British artist Clare Twomey. You requested ownership of Cup #711, but it was awarded to another visitor. We hope you will accept ownership of Cup #705 in its place.

Please come see your Cup on display in the exhibition and bring family and friends to see your new acquisition while it is installed at the Museum.

So I DO get one! So can you! My offer still stand if you really want one too or just want to stop by the Nelson and see my cup, #705!

CUPS!!

Last night Lisa and I headed to the Nelson, first to redeem our groupon member coupons we purchased and second to check out some art. There was some art we didn't really appreciate, but the opening of Forever was fabulous! There are rows and rows of cups. And the best part is you can become the owner of one of these cups. So we filled out the paperwork for the raffle and choose our cups carefully. They may look at the same but we still had to look around and choose.

Here I am pointing to my choice. I'm so excited about the prospect of owning something that was in the Nelson! The deed we filled out says you are not supposed to use the mug and only display it. Oh well...I just want one!

Well, unfortunately I wasn't this excited this morning. I didn't get one. But my sadness is a little less because Lisa did get one and there are more to win. So if you want one of these beautiful mugs come to the Nelson with me and I'll try again!

Milley vs The Hibiscus

Plaza Art Fair

Some of you may know that I broke a favorite mug that I bought at the Brookside Art Fair in the Spring. Luckily, the artist I bought it from was at this weekend's Plaza Art Fair. I sought her out, but my mug wasn't there. She changed up her mugs a little. I was devastated, but Rachel (the artist) came to my rescue. She offered to remake my mug! She drew it up and it will be arriving on my doorstep sometime in the near future.

Here I am with artist Rachel Akin. She has come very beautiful ceramics. Check her out here!

Of course there was plenty of other great art. And Lisa and I enjoyed checking it all out and eating at one of by new favorites, Blanc Burger.

When my new mug arrives I will be very careful it in the hope that I will have it much longer than the last one. Thanks Rachel for being so kind and remaking my mug. I can't wait for it to get here!

Completed Still Life

The first still life project is complete. With the exception of a few special friends I think they turned out pretty good. Here is the wall outside my classroom. And below are a few gems.

The next project is already underway. We are practicing three different ways of shading and using ballpoint pens instead of pencils. I have great hopes for these drawings and will keep you posted on how they turn out.