Some ArtSoMoFo for today... a couple more renditions in my flickr

Digital Mandalas made for October's ArtSoMOFO Challenge on Photoshop using creative commons images. This one has some filters.

Made Sat 10/11/08

After my hard work out on Monday, I took another horrible turn for the phlegm… so I have been taking it easy and not exercising again. It was a cold but sunny afternoon today and I really wanted to go for a bike ride. But this cold has been hanging around for more than 3 weeks and seems to get worse each time I exercise. My next strength training is next Wednesday, so I think I am going to rest until then and hope that it will be enough to finally kick this cold..

So enchy I am still out for travelling to meet up... next weekend?

It is the state art teacher conference this weekend too (well, Friday and Saturday) I have presented at this a few times in the past and even met Nick Bantock at the one 4 years ago. But this year it is 4+ hours away, so it is not an easy day trip. drat...

I have still been working on my October beading project, pictures will come again soon.

school is still going GREAT, the kids are mostly not driving me crazy and we are having fun. plus, I am now the official district mentor to our newest teacher in the building. which should be fun. My custodian FINALLY (after 2+ years) cleaned out the special sink traps I have in the art sinks (that collect the clay and paint etc so the drains don't get destroyed) and the whole building ended up smelling like a sewer. The sinks have been really slow to drain, one so bad it can't be used. I put in a work order every June to get them cleaned, but it has been pretty obvious the past 3 summers that it didn't really happen... even tho they claim it did. So I have been complaining every month since I came back in August and finally he did something about it. I don't even want to know what it LOOKED like (3 years of build up plus stagnant mildew and other germs and crap... I wonder how my illnesses might be related?

Shawn goes to the shop again tomorrow to have something fixed after his track day. he got new tires again (we have 3 sets in the garage now that are from his car) he leaves for a week long work retreat in Whistler on Monday so I will be pretty bored and lonely next week. Charger will be upset about it too.

I have to wear my glasses almost all the time now or my eye will start twitching... which sucks...

this weekend will be more fluids and rest... maybe a dog walk if it remains sunny

that's all the news for now

So I have become a car 'widow' as Shawn bought himself a super souped up turbo sportsy car last Jan. (being all full time Microcsoft, he is all rich and stuff now) He has since added all kinds of after market turbos and exhaust, sway bars and a bunch of other crap that I have no fraking idea of what it is or what it does, but he is at some shop or another doing something or another almost every week since March. He even drove down to Portland last week to get a special tune by some famous dude. He loves this car so much that even though he is totally NON-social he has been going to weekly meets of guys that get together and talk about their cars (all subaru turbo owners) of course he is all over the online groups and forums, but going out and meeting strangers well that is a big deal for him... and weird... he loves this car. I personally do NOT get it, like it or even want to ride in it... but hey, it makes him happy.

So for his B-day (which isn't till NOV) I bought him a one day performance training and track time at Pacific Raceways. not cheap... and I had to buy it and send him early, because due to weather the lessons close for the season after October. He did this yeasterday. He came back all in one piece and no damage to his car... thankfully. HE couldn't sleep the night before due to nerves and excitment. He went over 120+ MPH at different points on the track and totally smoked a porshe that cost over $90,000. (he smoked most everything on the track, but this was his biggest brag.) Anyways, like I said I don't get it... so I am glad he has others to talk about it with. Oh, he still talks to me about it and I politely listen and try to respond in a semi-interested manner... but well... you know... He has all kinds of other stats that he can spout if anyone cares... Apparently we will get to buy professional pics here soon too, that might be cool.

anyhoo... just thought I would share.
And thanks to optic for the idea, since he was stoked when his GF got him the same gift, I figured it must be good.

bought some more beads today to add to my October Beading project....

after day one of beading


After day two


the glasses I need to wear now....

Posted my art from the first few days of the challenge... Most of them were made at school as examples... but this one was made at home. The girl in the center is from a photo shoot I did in the early 90's when I was actually still developing my own film and printing my own photos. The other images are from a great photo sharing flicr group that posts images to be used in collage.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/collageimages/

The beginning of October’s Beaded Journal Project page. This has pieces from 5 different fabrics pieced together and using some cool decorative stitches on my machine. I like the eyelash type stitch that I did on the edge of the glow-in-the-dark eye fabric, which will also be the backing for this one. (Click to see a larger view, or make it a favorite at Flickr.) This is also my art for the day for ArtSoMoFo. I need to post my other work from this month so far as well. Now to select some beads and begin that phase.

Please be sure you are also educating yourself on the important local election issues!

Our current state superintendent of public instruction needs to be replaced. If you support teachers and education you will want to support Gov. Chris Gregoire for Governor and Randy Dorn as the new state superintendent of public instruction.

Randy Dorn, is a former legislator, teacher and principal, who is executive director of the Public Schools Employees of Washington. Randy Dorn: http://www.randydorn2008.com.

The teacher's union has put together their list of candidates to support if you are interested.
http://www.ourvoicewashingtonea.org/recommendations/candidates.php

I guess if I am feeling bad about what I have done this week/month in exercise... a quick trip down memory lane to see what I did last YEAR is quite a boost.

Last Year

You exercised 12 times on 12 days, for 8.5 hours.

You did flexibility 1 times on 1 days, for 0.8 hours.

You did general cardio 4 times on 4 days, for 2.4 hours.

You did strength training 6 times on 6 days, for 4.8 hours.

You walked 1 times on 1 days, for 0.6 hours.

This Year

You exercised 155 times on 115 days, for 111.3 hours, and a total of 390.91 miles.

You cycled 48 times on 47 days, for 30.4 hours, and a total of 317.44 miles.

You did flexibility 3 times on 3 days, for 2.7 hours.

You did general cardio 4 times on 4 days, for 2 hours.

You did other 3 times on 3 days, for 12 hours.

You ran 29 times on 29 days, for 15.7 hours, and a total of 53.22 miles.

You did strength training 37 times on 36 days, for 33.1 hours.

You swam 21 times on 21 days, for 9 hours, and a total of 12866.27 yd.

You walked 10 times on 10 days, for 6.5 hours, and a total of 12.94 miles.

12 (in 2007) compared to 115 (in 2008) exercise days! that is a HUGE improvement and there is still 3 more months in this calendar year and I will certainly exercise 12 more which will again beat my previous YEARS total. It is really amazing how far I have come. And I really only started in May! Imagine what 2009 will look like!

I am feeling a little better today, so I think I might manage to take the dog for a little walk to get my body moving again.

I apparently have found my art twin. Over the years when I was primarily working with collage on glass, and showing... I always wondered if someone else was doing the same type of thing. I had seen painting on glass... but never collage. So today this guy, Mike, from France posts a comment on my blog and it seems that around the SAME YEARS as me, he was also doing collage on glass.

Then as I look to his bio I see that he is born in a year and date very close to me. So we are both 40 something geminis (me: 05/25/67 him: 05/27/65) He also does performance and installation arts, both types that I admire and he writes quite a bit. He is very diverse in his creations as I have been... we just went off in different directions.

So anyways, for the time being I will think of him as my art twin... and I will continue to keep an eye on his work.

PS I am home sick again today this cold is dragging on for 2 weeks now and has taken a turn for the worse, as opposed to getting better like it should be. BLARG

details here

I really am excited to find out that I have gone down 4 inches in my rib cage. I got fitted for sports bras today and discovered that I need to ditch ALL my old bras because they are all the wrong size. I also got a new pair of running pants (long ones for winter) and got to buy a large instead of extra large. still going down in pounds too although slowly... but NO UPS! that is the right direction.

I think I have decided what I want to be for halloween.... now to convince Shawn... and find a party...

I was just thinking about my old jobs... as I reconnected with people via LINKED IN (ps let me know if you want to be connected there)
and I was also remembering working through the holidays (as my family makes plans for Thanksgiving)
and I realized how stressed and burnt out I was in my old retail jobs

It came to me WHY I am more satisfied now... besides doing the "greatest work by preparing our future" as our superintendent used to always say... it is the fact that there is an END. each trimester, each year, we get to start fresh. New kids, New classes, New ideas, New lessons and topics to tackle.
When I was doing retail sales, there was never an END... you were always doing the same endless thing over and over. yes, there were phases and seasons. But the dust still gathered on the shelves and needed to be cleaned, the cash register always needed to be totaled up and the schedule made. it just seemed so endless.

I like endings, but more I like fresh starts.

that is why September is one of my favorite months EVER.

perhaps this was wired into me at an early age, since we moved every 2-3 years and I had to start over, make new friends. I always thought I would reinvent myself and start over. becoming the me that for some reason I had not been in the place before. We always moved in the summer with September being that moment of the fresh beginning...

I don't know how many of you have the endless, perhaps unsatisfactory "dead end" jobs... but I am SO glad that I no longer work in that place. Besides making a difference, I get to do it better and better each year as I learn and grow and get to start all over again. FRESH.

ok... wine enticed happy rant over....

My art club (grades 6-8) has been a little different each year.

The first year was with a special grant and the SOLE purpose was to create tiles for a public art project. This was a short term thing (10 weeks) and we had an artist in residence so I was mostly a helper rather than the leader/teacher.

Before, during and after this, I did five years of a girls only technology club, also grant supported. we did some clay animation, video games, websites, digital photo art and podcasts over the years. Not strictly art, but computers with artsy leanings.

For both of these clubs there was a strict attendance policy and we usually met twice a week, working on long-term projects.

Last year I started the general art club (not tied to a grant) Anyone that has an ASB card can join, no special attendance rules or long term projects required. Last year I just had about 7 dedicated girls that came every week and just wanted to draw and talk. They probably did more talking… and I didn’t do any “teaching”. It was open studio TAB style. I let them use any supplies that were in the open centers. I helped or guided those that wanted to learn a new medium. MOST of them had been in art CLASS with me so they were familiar with the centers. IF they were new I had an older member show them around and explain centers. Things would go in phases, everyone wanted to paint for a few weeks in a row, then do clay, then back to drawing. We tried doing a long term video project. But that never really panned out. Like you mentioned, since we only meet once a week, they seem to lose interest from week to week. The main goal for them was to have fun. The expectation from the school and community was simply to have a safe, fun after school place for the kids to be. Prior to my coming there had not been an active arts program for the known history.

This year our district boundaries changed and our school gained another 150+ students. (for a total of 750+ students school-wide) I started art club a month earlier than last year, primarily because I had kids asking me “When is art club going to start?”

The first meeting was already an increase over last year with 10 kids. We talked about what kind of things they were interested in creating and doing. I tried to build up the idea of entering district, state and art company type contests. We had two groups interested in working on some clay animation right away. I showed them some past examples, talked about the process and then dug out my boxes of toys, clay, props and stages. A few others went off on their own using things from the drawing, computer and collage centers that were open. It was an even mix of kids from last year, new kids already in my art class who all knew their way around and new kids to the school who don’t currently have art. They were all excited and thrilled to work together learning about animation or exploring.

For our second meeting, I dug out some t-shirts and fabric markers and fabric paints as well as some stencils. The couple older kids went off to continue their film from last week but all the rest of the now 16 kids (the same 10 from the first week plus 6 more) were excited to make personalized art club t-shirts. We are really pushing school spirit this year to improve our overall school community and change opinions of our climate long held by people outside of our school. I thought art club shirts would be a great addition to our school spirit. I was blown away with the number of kids (I will have to bring more t-shirts next week for the kids that didn’t get one this week.) and their excitement was totally contagious.

We do offer a free snack (provided by our lunch program, since we are almost 70% free/reduced lunch status) and this year we have an activities bus that leaves at 5:15pm. This means club this year goes from 2:45pm (when school gets out) till 5:00pm (time to clean up and get settled on the bus.) Previously, I had only gone till 4 or 4:30 pm. This seemed like plenty of time. But I am amazed by how much more the kids are getting done with the new time of 5pm. I just hope they stay engaged for the full time. But that doesn’t seem like it will be a problem.

I am so JAZZED by the energy this club is already generating. I still have kids picking up permission slips and asking if they can join after cross-country season is over. Or current members asking if their friend can join. and MANY kids asking why we don’t meet everyday! I have a “cap” at 20 kids mostly for management reasons. But I MAY be forced to expand that or move to 2 days with a group A and a group B. I can only hope that it remains this vivid!

I don't know if I have posted about my school year yet. Well, it is certifiably the best one evvar. And Shawn can testify. I have a morning class of 6th graders for computer tech. They are so sweet, bright, NICE and obedient. I seriously said "good morning class" the other day... in just normal voice and no training.. they responded in unison, "Good morning ms.G" It was so cool. Middle schoolers don't normally do that sort of thing. Then I have 2 periods of 6th grade art. A few squirrelly boys but very good kids. Again sweet and excited about art. Next is a small class of 8th graders for art. I have a couple of boys in there with some impulse control issues, but only in a goofy funny way that doesn't get on my nerves too much. Not the creepy, disrespectful and sexually inappropriate way they have been in some past years. My last two classes are both 8th grade computer tech. There are again some boys that like to horse around, and a couple that have trouble following rules... but computers captivate them easily so I don't have much trouble with them when they are at school.

So classes are going great. But I also started my afterschool art club last week. WOW! Last year I had a dedicated group of about 8 girls that had been in my computer club the previous 2 years and they just wanted to sit and talk and maybe do some drawing. It was still a good club and we all enjoyed it. But this year! This batch of 6th graders that we have are amazing. They love school and totally love art club. I had 16 kids today. We made ART spirit t-shirts using fabric paints and stencils. It was a blast. We have an activities bus this year so the club needs to go till 5pm instead of 4pm (we get out of school at 2:45) it is kinda LONG but that is good because we can really get some good projects done. I think the increase in kids might also be because we have the bus. We are going to do some field trips and really build up some great school art spirit.

My fitness is plugging along, but I got a cruddy cold this week so that slowed me down a little.
I haven't done much art... so I need to get that rolling again. But readjusting to the school schedule and keeping fit is a new thing for me.

As you know working for public schools, we must have fundraisers annually in order to raise money for activities. This is our ONCE a year, only fundraiser. The money raised will fund my after school art club, as well as sports and other great after school activities. We know that between 3-5PM are when most kids find themselves in trouble and without proper supervision. So having after school clubs is a great way to keep kids safe. IF you have any magazines that you already subscribe to, please consider renewing them through this easy to use website. I have challenged my homeroom class that if they sell more magazines than me, they can be teacher for the day... help me win! and help our school keep after school activities.

Step One: Please click on the link below:
www.gaschoolstore.com (Special link for NORTH MIDDLE SCHOOL ASB) If you need it school code 1051440 and student code 222WU59.

Step Two: Shop! In addition to magazines there are all kids of gifts, jewelry and wrapping paper.

Our group gets credit for orders all year long so please save this email to save the direct link to our store that is specified above. Thank you so much for any help you can give us in reaching our goal. If you have any friends that you think can help us reach our goal, please let them know we would appreciate their help too.

thanks, Cynthia Gaub Art teacher North Middle School

I hope I don't have it. Several kids have already been out this year with it, but were at school spreading it around first. now I have a horrible sore throat, can hardly swallow, body and head are achey.... but no fever. So it could just be a sore throat. without fever I think it is safe to say it is not strep. It has been YEARS Since I have had strep, but I got it often, almost yearly as a kid. Did you know you can also get/give it to your pets? although this is uncommon.

off to drink soemthing hot and soothing.

Top Ten Pickup Lines for the Lady Pirates

By popular demand ...

10. What are YOU doing here?

9. Is that a belayin' pin in yer britches, or are ye ... (this one is never completed)

8. Come show me how ye bury yer treasure, lad!

7. So, tell me, why do they call ye, "Cap'n Feathersword?"

6. That's quite a cutlass ye got thar, what ye need is a good scabbard!

5. Aye, I guarantee ye, I've had a twenty percent decrease in me "lice ratio!"

4. I've crushed seventeen men's skulls between me thighs!

3. C'mon, lad, shiver me timbers!

2. RAMMING SPEED!

...and the number one Female Pirate Pick-up Line:

1. You. Pants Off. Now!

Message in a Bottle is a Mail art project started by Lisa Vollrath. These pictures are some of the fun goodies I have recieved in my bottles. I got a new bottle today from Corrine with some great handmade papers.

Each time a bottle goes out new addresses are added to the chain. AND I am ready for 4 new addresses to add to my next round of bottles.

How do you play? If you send me your address via EMAIL (shebaduhkitty at yahoo dot com) then I will add your address to my out going bottles. This will result in you recieving a bottle from the next person. This will then GROW by two bottles for every bottle that you send out, so BE PREPARED! You need to be able to make cool little items of art, and add some extra fun art supplies and then pay up to $2 per bottle at the post office for EACH Bottle. Coming up, some pictures of my outgoing bottles.

Tagged by Cynjon

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about some (6) unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag Some (6) bloggers by linking to them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Quirks? I think I am somewhat boringly normal so not sure if these will count...



1) I can't really sleep without Charger snuggling with me. He loves to snuggle, but is having a harder time getting up on the bed, so sometimes I snuggle with him on the floor for a little bit.
2) I read several books at a time, mostly young adult fiction with a few art related non-fiction and an occasional adult Scifi in the mix. So the stack of books by my bed is often quite tall.
3) I almost always sleep with ear plugs. Not that my sleeping partners or neighborhood are terribly loud, but they do snore and I am a light sleeper. So I always take them with me when I go on trips too. But I always seem to take them out at some point in the middle of the night, unknowingly and in my sleep. So when I wake up, I have to rescue them from the cats, who think they are toys.
4) I recently organized the books on my bookshelf by color. It looks really pretty.
5) My legs are so short that they don't reach the ground when I sit in a chair. SO I almost always sit with my feet tucked up or crisscross on the chair. This is probably not good for my posture.
6) I am not usually a big meme/quiz/blog-game person. But will play if tagged.

I will tag

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