Silly Cat

My dirty lil boy cat laying on my clean towels after he's been outside roaming in the woods all night. 

Photo a day...

This year I am going to try to post at least one post per day on this blog...even if it is only one photo! I'm terrible at staying consistent with my blogging! Hopefully, this will help! To start, I'll post this pic and my thoughts:

Right about now, I'm wishing this tree would take itself down!

New Chalk Pastel Pencils

I got some new chalk pastel pencils and a nice size sketch pad for Christmas. I've never used chalk pastel pencils before. So, I thought I'd create a simple little sunset to test out the colors.  Afterwards, I ended up writing a Bible verse over it, and I think it fits my little sketch quite well. I'm looking forward to working more with this medium. 

Donald Duck

This weekend my sister-in-law and I made my nephew a Donald Duck costume from scratch. It turned out to be way cuter than I thought it would!  It was so easy to make. Basically, it is a blue t-shirt, white shorts, and some dyed 

tights. We used matching blue fabric and yellow ribbon to make the collar in a cape like fashion. Then, added a bow tie with red ribbon. My sis-in-law sewed white fur to the shorts to make it look more like white feathers. I also made his head from a white baseball cap. Then, I made a little beret to go on top with blue fabric and black felt. It took us about 4 hrs to complete. My nephew loves it! I'm so glad it ended up so cute!

Spirit Week Sewing and Crafting

I've been a busy little bee this week! My school has been dressing up each day in a specific theme for spirit week. We having our football homecoming this Friday. spirit week is meant to encourage the students to have school spirit!  Here are a few pics of my creations from each day this week:

Freeze Ahead Slow Cooker Recipes

School is right around the corner for most educators in the south such as myself.  Us dear ol' dedicated souls will begin to devote way too much of our time to our jobs in just a short amount of time.  Like most OCD educators out there, I always try to keep everything really organized both at work and home in order to maximize the most of my time.  Sometimes it works, other times it does not.  So, in the spirit of getting ready for going back to school, I have decided to try to freeze many meals before the start to use during the first month or so of school in order keep myself from going crazy trying to run a household and classroom at the same time.  When I leased my first apartment on my own, my mom bought me a set of Campbell's cookbooks that are full of super easy, low ingredient recipes.  Over the years, I have cooked from these recipes quite frequently.  Most are quite tasty.  One of the books is called Campbell's Slow Cooker Recipes.  Last week I went through this book and wrote down the

ingredients of 13 recipes I felt my husband and I would enjoy.  It is just the two of us, so 13 recipes equals 26 meals in our home! There are many more recipes in the book that you might find tasty. You can find this handy little cookbook at campbell's website for $8.95 or at Amazon, used.  I have compiled a list of the recipes and ingredients needed in a grocery list here.  You can buy the book for the recipe directions, or go to Campbell's Kitchen website for the recipes.  Most of them are catalogued there.  A few of the recipes will need a little prep-work with the meats before placing in a freezer bag, but otherwise they should all be fairly easy with only chopping and bagging needed in the way of preparation.  Good luck!

Super Cute Headband

I just finished up this super cute headband with a free pattern courtesy of the blog Happy Together by Jess. See link below. It is the perfect size!  It fits snugly and is wide enough to keep my hair back. It is a super easy sewing project. Go to the link and try it out for yourself!

http://www.happytogetherbyjess.com/2011/07/double-sided-fabric-headband-pattern.html.

First Summer Project

June has been a super busy month. The first week I was out of school I did a major deep cleaning on my house, and I'm still not through cleaning, yet!  Then, I had to go to several professional development sessions. At the moment I have a couple of days free to work on this sweet little baby blanket for a friend before I have my final week of professional development. 

It is my first crafty summer project. Using a heavy weight, super soft baby yarn, I have half double crocheted the entire thing. My crochet skills are not all that great. So, I try to keep my projects simple. My goal for the near future is to practice simple crochet stitches in small projects like dish clothes and baby blankets. I have a long way to go before I can fully start comprehending patterns, but I'm having fun learning!

Nearing the End!

 I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  I have two weeks left of school, and then I'll be free to craft again. This summer I hope to get enough crafts done to start my own Etsy store. I plan to make some homemade sketchbooks and crocheted items. I'm not sure what to call my store, yet, but I know it will come to me when it's time to open it up. Just a few more weeks and I'll be bag in blogging business again! 

First Attempt

I have decided to try to learn how to use prismacolored pencils better to create realistic drawings. I am going to use birds as my subject matter. This is my first attempt. A simple little blue bird. I can tell already that I need to look up techniques on the Internet, but I don't think it is bad for a first try! I love sweet little blue birds. They are so cute!

Learning New Stitches

I decided to make myself read my Learn to Crochet book and actually learn new stitches in the hope of being able to eventually read patterns. This is a little dish cloth that I'm practicing half double crochet stitches on. I'll post another pic after I finish it. 

Happy for My Students!

I just found out that four of my students were awarded awards for their art pieces in our local art guild's annual show!  I had one first place winner, two second place, and one third place. These ladies were competing against other students in their grade level in our county school districts. We have three other districts in our county. So, they were up against a large number of other students!  I am very proud to them!

Suicide Birds

As I drive to work and around town these days, I feel like all the birds have gone crazy!  They seem to nose dive in front of me as I'm driving down the road. It really alarms me!  I always try to slow down to give them time to fly by, but goodness, sometimes it is really a close call. I've taken to calling them suicide birds. Last Wednesday as I was scrolling through Pinterest, I came across several whimsical bird doodles and drawings, and of course, I thought about the suicide birds. So, on Thursday while I was waiting between parent appointments during CAPS conferences, I created a little whimsical drawing of some birds.  Here are some pics of the progress. 

I love the colors I used in this drawing. I used some basic prismacolored pencils. I've never really used prismacolors before. The last six years of my seven year teaching career has been with middle level children. So, I never spent money on expensive colored pencils. I must say I'm hooked!  I'm looking forward to getting a larger selection of them to work with! 😍

Accidental Pasta!!

I made the best veggie pasta tonight completely by accident. The hubs and I had kabobs last night with sausage, peppers, onions, and zucchini. As usual I had way more veggies left over than meat. So, tonight, after a day of heavy, greasy fried chicken for lunch, I wanted something light. I searched through my fridge and found a partial bottle of pasta sauce leftover from lasagna last week. With pasta sauce and veggies, I knew I wanted some kind of pasta. I was all ready to sauté my veggies in a bit of olive oil when I noticed a can of garbanzo beans in the pantry as I got out my pasta. So, I thought to myself, "how about replacing the beef or chicken I normally use in pasta with those beans?" And, oh my goodness, it turned out awesome!!!  The garbanzos were VERY tasty in the pasta!  Needless to say, this accidental recipe is a keeper. Here is my method, if you're interested:

1/2 yellow bell pepper chopped

1/2 green bell pepper chopped

1 zucchini chopped

1/2 onion chopped

1 can garbanzo beans drained

1 jar spaghetti pasta sauce

1 cup pasta, I used the cork screw kind

2 tbs olive oil 

Italian seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Sauté the first five ingredients in the olive oil. Add the salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning for taste. Boil pasta until soft. Add pasta sauce and pasta to veggies and beans in sauté skillet. Let sauce warm. Serve with fresh grated Parmesan on top!  Yummy!

Baby Hat

This is a little baby boy hat I made for one of my students who is expecting a baby boy in March. 

First Sketch

This is the beginning stage of my first sketch in my new sketchbook. I haven't decided what to do in the background, yet. 

A Hat for Softball Season

I just finished up this little blue hat for my nephew to wear in the beginning weeks of softball season. His daddy is a softball coach. Hopefully this little hat will keep him warm and free of ear infections. 😊⚾️🌀

Motivation

I bought this new sketchbook and set of prismacolor drawing pencils today. My goal is to draw more. I was in michael's and figured I could use the motivation of new stuff!!

Learning to Loom Knit

My mother-in-law bought me several knit looms for Christmas,and I love them!  I've been knitting on them non-stop for the last two and half weeks!  Here is a picture of my first knitted hat. I made it for Sadie, my friend's new baby.