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!