Cement running shoes

Sometimes I struggle with being creative & struggle with the whole IDEA that I am struggling with being creative in the first place. Some days I wake up and feel like I have cement blocks on my creative feet and I'm in a marathon to come up with an idea. To me some people seem to just ooze creativity every moment of every day, meanwhile I have days like that but then I have days where I'm wearing my cement block shoes. Tonight I taught one of my art class's of first graders which so far has been 2 - Creative Juices 0 - cement block shoes/bad idea monster! Last session I wasn't so lucky I felt like it was hit or miss and for the life of me I couldn't find the PERFECT idea to get the kids oo'ing and ahhh'ing at the amazingness that is art! One of the students from my previous session stopped by the room to pick up their t-shirt and say hello. He walked over to the table and I proceeded to explain what we were doing (using water, paper towels, markers to give the kids a basic lesson in color theory) the student then proceeds to tell me as he watches us work on what I thought was a pretty simple but fun project, "hey why didn't you teach us things like this? This class has personality!" I immediately thought wow, out of the mouth of babes, I must be doing something right this time! This little guy came into my class again about fifteen minutes later and asked if he would be able to try what we were doing and I said sure! So I gave him a piece of paper towel and explained what to do, he LOVED IT! He then told me "if my mom asks I'm on a 10 minute water break." Oh my!

Take my hand

As I sat on my couch studying while my little man played in front of me I felt a warm little hand grab my pinky and pull me up. I sat my study guide down and followed as my little guy led me across the living room to his favorite spot, the stoop at the bottom of the steps. He sat down and pulled me down beside him. I sat there and looked down into his smiling face and couldn't help but smile. He started into a VERY important story in which only about 30% of it was English but in my book that is a win for a little guy only 16 months old! He told me about Chloe (the dog) and Cheerios and from what I gathered (by a brief scan of the room) he had been feeding Chloe Cheerios while I was studying. Moments like this take my breath away and bring tears to my eyes affirming the fact that we did pick "the perfect time" to have our first baby because we were blessed with our "perfect" son. Despite being in school as a full time student while pregnant honestly I'd do it all over again. Professors told me I was crazy and that I couldn't handle the work load and working while pregnant which only made me work harder. Noah holding my hand today made me think back to a previous post I wrote and it's still as true today (except that I am 1 semester away from graduation!) as it was then... This post was written 8/19/09
Back in the swing of things. I can't believe I am almost done with my Art Education degree, not counting this semester I will have a year left. I am one step closer to my own Art classroom! I still wonder if life will lead me to the elementary, secondary, or collegiate level. All I know is that all I want to do, all I can see myself doing with every fiber of my being is becoming an Art teacher. I can't believe how right it feels teaching my Friday & Saturday art classes, learning about how to be an effective Art teacher/teacher. Every day feels like a gift and I've never been happier. I know finding a job will be a challenge but a challenge that I will be grateful to finally be going through. I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to go back to school (again) to fulfill a dream. Now I look forward to the day when my dream (actual zzzz dream) comes true and I walk into my own classroom and the principal says to me "Welcome to our school this is your room!"

Woven Shibori

I've started something completely new to me. Independent projects always present a challange but I knew that I wanted to do something with weaving and shibori so as most people do I Googled it to see what may pop up. I had a "why didn't I think of that" moment when I found Catharine Ellis' Woven Shibori techniques, BINGO! So here I go