Itch to Stitch

Last night, after Toddler was bathed, Sister finished homework, and while Husband continued to work through our taxes, I got the itch. The itch to stitch.

I don’t get that itch too often, amazingly enough, more frequently only recently. Don’t know why. I’ve always found fabric interesting, and have enjoyed seeing the groupings of fabric by color scheme, print theme, manufacturer, season, or remnant status whenever I’ve gone into craft or fabric stores. As a teacher, I can always convince myself to buy bundles of fat quarters, though I doubt I’ll ever move up to major-fabric-purchaser status like some of my friends (uh, Shannon!). Fabric is wonderful for pretend play in my classroom, decor, games, artwork, and I love quilts or quilted fabric home decor items when it comes to sprucing up my family’s personal spaces. The desire to purchase fabric in its own raw, unfinished-product form and then try to morph it into something pleasing is new for me.

The itch ended up inspiring me to dig up my felt remnants (felt storyboards and story retelling shapes are essentials for my kindergarten class) and cut out bunny, carrot, and butterfly shapes.

Did I actually do any stitching last night though? No, it was all snipping. And adding decorative brads. And pinning. Stitching will happen later today.

Because I’ve still got that urge to scratch.

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Tidbits:

*Goodbye Polaroid. I’m bummed. Some of my favorite high school photos were taken with a Polaroid camera, and I use my own on the first day of school each year, snapping a photo of each of my students with which to make “center” tags. The photos don’t have to be laminated, (I just add a hook-n-loop dot on the back so the photo can be moved from tag to tag) and last all year long. When my Super Stars are ready for summer vacation, the photos go home to parents as a keepsake reminder of their child’s first day of kindergarten. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that some other manufacturer picks up the stuff.

*The Wild World of…Macrame! The Thrift Shop Romantic had me rolling with this “crafting catastrophe of the 70’s!”

*While it’s not too chilly here in the Bordertown, it is very windy- VERY windy this month. The family is spending a lot of time indoors and has been enjoying some comfort food, much to our diet’s dismay! One more splurge, methinks, with help from Laura Rebecca’s Kitchen: Baked Spaghetti Romanoff

*As always, Doug is a good read, and I’m happy to recommend The Right Way to Teach to my younger colleagues who are struggling with the drill and kill mandates as they examine their daily school experiences which are shaping their own teaching philosophies.

*Oh, how I would love to go shopping in Martha’s Prop Room!

*Di at Designer’s Block UK discovered the cutest cupcakes- ones decorated with the tea set would be what I would order for my mother’s birthday, while the flip flops on grass would be perfect in any teachers’ lounge on the last workday of the year!

Some S’s, But Not All

Potato soup this morning for breakfast. Thick, hearty, peppery (added by me) with a toasted onion bagel and my sore throat is feeling soothed. I have some water on to boil for the preparation of green tea and honey, suggested by a friend after my ever-persistent cough forced me into pleading for a remedy, any remedy. No, it’s not a “productive” cough, merely a dry, barely-there-but-there-enough-to-not-be-able-to-ignore-it annoyance. Sleep brought me relief until last night, when the dreaded hacking decided to come out in full force for my daughter and husband. No cough syrup or cough drop could provide relief for them. You can probably tell from my complaints that we’re typically a very healthy family. A week or two (please not more!) of being inconvenienced by germs really throws us off-kilter.

I’ve done some sewing,

and the toddler has had fun stickering (probably not a word, but an incredibly accurate description) one of his coloring books, the coffee table, the carpet, and himself.

After school today I’ll be taking Daughter up to the university campus so she can set up her science fair project for judging. The campus happens to be my old stomping grounds from pre-kindegarten age. I still have vivid memories of safari animals on display, a huge train engine encased in glass, rolling down green hills, wearing red shoes, and being the one who broke open the pinata during a kindergarten Halloween party. I’m guessing if the safari, train and hills still inhabit the university, they’ll appear much smaller now. I’ll take my camera, to document Daughter, her project, and to what extent time has changed things.

Inspired by Daughter’s science project, this weekend we’ll be enjoying “That’s Not in My Science Book,” by Kate Kelly (and I’ll read part two, chapter six, “How They Learned Why We Get Sick: The Origin of Germ Theory” with great interest!).

Some suggested web reading:

Cakespy adds….. BACON and Sour Patch Kids to brownies!

Paper-and-String has made very cute felt iron-on patches…

Doug reminds us as teachers, administrators, and parents that there really *is* an art to teaching, and that our inherent nature that provides us and our students “multiple ways of knowing” shouldn’t be set aside or ignored just because someone else wants teachers and students to spend hours, weeks, or months filling in little bubbles on ineffective and inaccurate assessments.

Don’t think you can get fired up about your child’s education? What if someone told you that your child’s school funding was going to be cut, oh, say, $9000-$400,000, while the *consulting agency* hired to crunch the numbers off of the students’ failing assessments didn’t lose any funding at all? Taking money away from schools, and giving it to testing corporations…all while making sure no child is “left behind.” Uh huh.

And while some of my wool and polar-fleece-lovin’ friends in Alaska will try to tell me “fashion things” don’t really matter to them, we’ll see this spring and next fall, or even in their annual Christmas card photos, whether or not they’re hip with the forecasted color palette (thank you Decor8) that we’re to be seeing in clothing and home decor lines everywhere. I’m having flashbacks of The Devil Wears Prada (movie)…

Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This… ’stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

(Quote found here.)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, sans germs! I’m off to sip some more soothing tea…

Snippet Saturday

I’m in awe that I got to sleep in today- mind you, “sleeping in” for me since the toddler arrived has meant anytime after five a.m. He didn’t fling his bedroom door open until six today. I’m actually feeling rested, though it helps that I went to bed around eight last night. Yes, I am a sleep hog.

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I attended a memorial service for my godmother yesterday afternoon, at the same church in which I was baptized as a baby. It was a nice service, and it was interesting hearing the stories and remembrances of of such a colorful lady. She spoke fluent Greek, traveled the world as a military spouse, and even took care of King Paul’s and Queen Frederika’s lion cub for several months before it was transferred to the Athens Zoo.

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I did indeed, make another wreath, along with some heart shaped door sachets yesterday.

I still have a ton of fabric, so I think I’ll try my hand at making a runner, or some placemats with the remnants. I’ve never been the type of crafter who enjoys working specifically with sewing fabric, though I wholeheartedly support other peoples’ nasty quilting habits! :) I crochet, do cross stitch, or use fabric strips for wreath decor…heat up a glue gun on occasion, and assemble vignettes. Every few years I’ll get the sewing machine out and make a new kuspuk, so perhaps this is just my latest craft medium phase.

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Lately my dreams have been full of organizing scenes: me finding the perfect baskets for my laundry room; reorganizing the bedroom closet with all one-color hangars, shirts sorted by color, sleeve length, etc. Must be the codeine in the cough syrup, though it’s just building upon my natural inclination to have a place for everything, and everything in its place. Some people dream of scary monsters, or going on some adventure. There I am, organizing my laundry detergent and dryer sheets.

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I’m hoping we really do find out sooner rather than later where our next duty assignment will be. It takes time to apply for and receive a new state’s teaching credential, and most school districts prefer to hire teacher applicants that are already licensed to teach in their state. So far I’m licensed in Alaska, New Mexico, Kansas, and Texas. Who’s next? (Yes, yes, I know, I should have gone and gotten nationally certified all those years ago, darn you HINDSIGHT.)

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This weekend’s to-do list only has one item on it so far:

Changing out seasonal January decor. Out with the snowflakes and snowmen, in with the hearts.

I’m certain there are other things I simply must do. They’ll sneak up on me as I get caught up on reading the latest postings from my favorite blogs.

I hope you have a terrific weekend!