8 Things Friday

1. I have a major tan line on my neck around the collar of my work t-shirts and, I kid you not, from my braided pigtail that was blocking the sun for all of about 15 minutes, maybe, yesterday. For once, I forgot to sunscreen my neck. Need to wear a halter top and my hair up this weekend, or something, to even things out!

2. On the upside, 15 minutes in the sun without sunscreen = BROWN Heather!

3. My big family reunion (mom's side) is in ONE WEEK! I'm so excited to see aunts and uncles and cousins and such that I only see once or twice a year, or less. It's Friday through Sunday next week, and I'll go down Thursday after work to stay with my parents. Then in the middle of July, my two girl cousins that are a little younger than me are coming to stay at my house for a few days!

4. Incentive to get the guest room cleaned up, for reals. We STILL haven't got the bed on the frame yet, which is a priority this weekend. Then I can stick a bunch of classroom stuff underneath it and free up the floor again, clean up/out the chest of drawers, etc.

5. On that note, does anyone in town want two nice framed Van Gogh posters? They don't really "go" with the blue and pink floral quilt and stuff, now. Cafe Terrace is really big, maybe 24"x36", and the other one is long the horizontal way, about 12"x24", and matted. It's got Cafe Terrace, Starry Night, and Starry Night over the Rhone Both have black frames and are under glass, and you can have them both for $10 OBO. I think I spent about $80 on all of it back in the day when I first got them. /end of ad/

6. I'm thinking about taking Sune to the dog park tomorrow. I want her to be more socialized with people and dogs, and I think she would love to play with some dogs her size. They have a little fenced-in area at the edge of the "big dog" dog park for little ones. I took her to the Farmer's Market Thurday night and she did all right. She growled at a Boston terrier when I was holding her, but otherwise seemed just fine and very interested in all the smells and things happening. She even nicely said hi to a couple of little dogs, though one was a cranky old mini poodle that snarled at her. And she's getting better about strangers petting her. Anyway, wish us luck at the park!

7. I thought it might be fun for my summer camp kiddos to play around with some embroidery, so I got out a couple of hoops and some muslin scraps and did some practice stitches on the three small ones to teach them with; the big one is for doing it "for real." We'll see how that goes today. Hopefully they won't fight over who has which one and is stitching what on blah blah blah.... Kids fight about the most ridiculous stuff. They made tents by draping sheets over the desks and chairs yesterday, and one girl was crying because she couldn't get under a table with two other girls (and there was no room!)

(This is the same girl that bounded up to me on the playground when I got there yesterday and said, "Miss Heather, I was a sacrifice!" with the biggest smile. They were playing some kind of "get chased by the monster and scream a lot" game.)

Anyway, I got out a hoop and some muslin for myself, too, and have been stitching little flowers and stuff. Haven't done it for a while, it's nice. :)

8. I also started a feather-and-fan kind of pattern of a crochet blanket. Yes, okay, laugh at me for starting a blanket when I still haven't finished the very simple knitted shawl I started over a year ago. In my defence, crochet goes faster, I already have several skeins of yarn for it (pink, blue, and cream for the guest room), and it can be one of those projects I pick up and do a row or two on while watching a movie. I'll post updates when and if there are any.

Blessed

This week, I got paid to:

play card games
color pictures
play foursquare
hang on the monkey bars
talk about solar energy and then
make sun tea
start a compost bin
read picture books aloud
make miniature books
fold origami
read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle aloud
string beads
eat lunch outside
get a tan

Aside from the occasional fit or conflict between kids... I have a pretty sweet summer job.

P.S. Did you notice the new look my blog has, those of you who might read it through RSS?

I took pictures!

With a real camera, even, not just my phone!

This is to show the progress of my tan. It's more pronounced than this, really, so to help you see it I outlined the white parts on my right foot with purple. And yes, I'm putting on sunscreen every day.

Yesterday afternoon, I wanted a little decaf coffee and decided to make it nice. I got out one of the lovely tea cups I have and my nice sugar and creamer. (Sugar cubes, even!) Unfortunately I didn't have anything nice to put the coffee in (and didn't want to wash my tea pot) so it stayed in the ugly coffee pot. All of this on a tray next to me on the loveseat, plus the first Lord of the Rings book, made for a pleasant half hour. I totally understand why people used to take afternoon tea. (By the way, one sugar cube makes that size of a cup of coffee exactly sweet enough.)

They played Mary Poppins (the movie) at the old downtown theater last night and I went with a friend from my old writers' group. At first, I thought of dressing up as a character, but decided to go a little steampunk instead. I've had the shirt and purse so long I don't remember where they came from; the shoes and knickers are from Goodwill and the hat from the dollar store a few years ago. I got the suspenders on clearance at Claire's, the socks from... somewhere (they're cabled!) and I'm wearing Bernice's locket, if any of you remember her. Around one wrist is a "leather" bracelet with a gold ring in the middle, and on the other I wrapped around a length of leather used for a necklace. You can sort of see the leather gloves sticking out of the front pocket of my purse, and I tied on three ollllld keys with a bit of hemp string. It was fun to dress up like this, since I haven't in... forever... and it was great to see the movie in a theater: to hear little kids laugh at the silly parts, everyone crack up at the ceiling tea party, and then clap at the end of the movie.

Some Things I Have Been Doing Lately

taking walks

making scones

mopping the floor

playing fetch with the doggie

buying stuff at a yard sale for my classroom

buying stuff at a yard sale for a friend who gave me money with that express purpose, because she knows I'm so good at it

riding my new bike to work (about a mile) and just around a little


(Her name is Mabel)

reading The Fellowship of the Ring

doing Wii Fit yoga, strength, and balance (I get enough cardio at work!)

going to knitting at a coffee shop (and mostly talking with a little knitting)

being on Facebook

crocheting this collar

typing letters on my typewriter

watching the new Joshua Danger video


(I know some of the people who made this! When they are super-famous I will say I knew them when....)

sleeping in a little

laundry

having a weird, slightly scary dream about icky aliens

going out to dinner with my husband (we had a coupon!)

going to a birthday party and managing somehow to match my outfit to the wrapping to the present itself:


wishing I could sew

not wanting to clean the sewing table off

sweating a lot (at least 100 degrees for the high today!)



What are some things you have been doing lately?

Another speed update

1. My summer job at the day camp has been interesting, trying at times, exhausting (running around, playing basketball, kickball, sitting on the floor, breaking up fights, soothing fit-throwers), and generally all right. Fun and nice, at times. Hopefully we'll all (counselors and kids) settle into a rhythm soon and get along just fine.

2. On that note, if you have any kid crafts and/or games, tell me all about them! We have themed weeks, and coming up is Summer Olympics and Environment Awareness. Of course, not all the crafts and games have to go with the theme. Our youngest is 6 and our oldest is 11. It's hard to find stuff the little ones can do that won't bore the older ones!

3. The backyard is tilled, but still just dirt. If we ever have money again, we really need to get sod and sprinklers set up. Stupid not having money.

4. My grandparents found me a queen size bed frame for FREE! I have enough bins and crates from a retiring teacher that I can stack up with a tablecloth over them for a nightstand. I got a lamp from my mom. Once I clear up the last of the classroom stuff I'm storing there, the guest room should be quite nice! :)

5. This is all I have time for right now! Off to work.