Love Your Layout Video

CTMH has launched a new Studio J video series!

I'm so excited about Close To My Heart!

So much has happened over the past few months, and I need to start documenting it! I'll start with my first (and most exciting) news--as of the end of April, I'm a new Close To My Heart consultant! My kit arrived in the beginning of May, and I've been having a great time creating ever since! I'm going to start posting my creations here and on my Close To My Heart website. I held my first gathering a little over a week ago and it was a great success. In fact, the products arrived this weekend and I'm looking forward to delivering them tomorrow.

So, over this holiday weekend, I broke out my new supplies and created this page. It is based on an add from a scrapbooking magazine. I didn't quite achieve the desired look, but I love the colors of this so much that I didn't want to trash it. I think it is a great example of how one can use a stamp set and a variety of ink pads to create one-of-a-kind background papers. I can't wait to show it off at my next gathering.

I have three gatherings booked for the summer starting at the end of June, but I REALLY want to have another one soon. It's a tough time of year for teachers, so I need to try and meet some non-teachers. This is going to be the hard part about the business, but it should make for an interesting challenge!

What a great weekend!

Karen and I had such a great time in Portland this weekend! All of my classes were great...some were brilliant! Although I spent more money than I had intended and we had some tense moments checking into the hotel, all's well that ends well. Heck, I even won 2nd place in a dance contest at the Friday night crop and was able to select a new Squeeze at the QuicKutz booth on Saturday! I plan on writing more about the weekend tomorrow, but I need to get to bed right now.

Future topics:

• Red Robin
• Quick Quotes Canvas Class
• Simon Sings
• QuicKutz Girls and the Dance Off
• Hanging Out with Karen
• Organizing My Craft Room
  

Portland CKC...Here I Come!

I just finished listening to the week 2 audio file for My Word and sent Amy S a quick note. This class, in addition to forcing me to make time to write, is giving me fantastic teaching ideas. My kids are going to work on Multi-Genre Research projects this trimester, and I'm formulating some new approaches as a result of this class...and it has only been one week!

I'm not going to take any more time to write tonight, because I'm packing for my trip to Portland tomorrow. Karen and I are going to have such a great time at the CKC and Friday night crop! My goal is to finish my "Learn Something New Every Day" album. Nothing like getting it done 6 months later! LOL!

How do I feel about books and reading?

Where do I begin? I'm an English teacher!

I think it is safe to say that I absolutely love books and reading. The only problem is that I'm an English teacher! It is so very sad, but I have little time to read for pleasure during the school year. Case in point--I have three sets of essays to grade right now, but I'm forcing myself to take a break so that I can do my "homework."

My bookshelves are filled with everything from Shakespeare to Star Trek. When we moved a couple of years ago, I forced myself to take many of my books to school for my classroom library. I love to read young adult fiction, and I always claim that it is research for teaching. I need to stay abreast of what's new in YA so I can recommend books to my students, right?! Honestly, I would still read it even if I wasn't a teacher.

One of my favorite YA series is Harry Potter! Although I think HP is still classified as children's lit. by the publisher, I find the themes and writing style far more advanced than that. I'm anxiously counting down the days (literally on my white board at school) until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I can't believe the series is almost over; it makes me sad. Especially because I think Harry is going to die. I started reading the books in 1999 when I should have been working on my Master's project. I told myself that I would write 20 pages and then read a book; well, I wrote the first 20 pages, read the first book, thought about writing my next 20 pages but opted to read the 2nd book instead, briefly thought about writing...but picked up the 3rd book, didn't even fake that I was going to write and picked the 4th book up in hardback! I was hooked! I eventually finished my 100 page Master's paper, but that's only because there weren't any more HP books for me to read at the time. Since then I have become addicted to HP podcasts and movies, and have read each of the books three to five times. I spoke to my VP today about creating a HP Enlgish elective!

When I was in high school, my husband turned me on to the Dragonlance series. I have an entire bookshelf filled with those novels. I know I should take them to school, but I can't bear to part with them. Believe it or not, kids trash books, lose them, and--if the books are really good--steal them! I'm far too emotionally attached to that series to take the chance. For instance, I named my two cats and a houseplant after characters from those books! That reminds me of a brilliant show I heard on the DragonHearth podcast hosted by author Tracy Hickman. He and Margaret Weis were at Fort Lewis on a book tour last summer, and they met an incredible young man who was injured in Iraq. At the book tour, he credited one of the characters from the novels with saving his life and that of the other soldiers in his charge, because--when he thought death was eminent--he asked himself, "What would Sturm do?" He found the strength to survive from a character in their book, so he gave his Purple Heart and Bronze Star to the authors. It's such an incredible story!

I truly could go on and on, but I must stop here if I'm going to get any school work done tonight. Yet, I can't log off without stating that my all-time favorite author is William Shakespeare! I have read, re-read, studied, discussed, performed, and viewed his plays for years, and I never get tired of them. There is always something new to discover. If I was stranded in a spaceship and was only able to take one book with me, I would choose the Complete Works of William Shakespeare!

Rainbow Connection

Now that Romeo & Juliet is over, I'm getting back to my real life. I'm taking the "My Word" journaling class and am excited to be writing every day. I watched an episode of Craft Lab today which was all about creating an art journal. I'm looking at my lonely art journal and am really excited about getting back to exploring my creative side. I had wanted to take the BPS class about choosing joy, but I had no time due to the play. I'm definitely in a scrapbooking mood since it has been so long, so I was checking out Shimelle's site for more classes I can take and ran across this link!

I haven't seen The Muppet Movie since I was a kid, but I have to admit that I owned the record and listened to it all through high school! This is a photo of me during my senior year; 20+ years later, I still have that Kermit doll in my classroom! I haven't looked at this picture in ages, but I'm glad I decided to pull it out today, because it is in an old album and the photo was stuck to the page. I had to use Un-Du to get it off. It's a really good reminder to me to get the rest of my photos out of those albums.

I want to spend some more time exploring my "Rainbow Connection," because I have this vague memory of sitting in our darkened living room on 7th street watching this film. I'll definitely come back to this, but for now, I'll enjoy the video and my photo!

"My Word" -- 1 Answer

The second half of the prompt is to select one of those questions and answer it for myself. So, I'm going with #6!

There is so much to love about my mom, that I don't even know where to begin. She has given me unconditional love since the day I was born. Even during those teenage years when I didn't deserve it, she was there for me. She was willing to let me move in with my biological father after I ran away in high school. Whether she was making the greatest sacrifice a mother could make or simply calling my bluff, it was at that moment that I realized how much she loved me. That's the day I started turning my life around. It took me awhile to earn back her trust, but we have been the best of friends ever since. She was even the Matron-of-Honor in my wedding!

Yet, the question asks me to pick the thing I love the most, so I'm going to narrow it all down to the way she treats me on my birthday. Frankly, I've always felt that the birthday of a child should be a day celebrating the mother...she is the one that did all the work. :-) Yet, my mom makes me feel like the most special person on the planet on my birthday. When I was little, she made and decorated the cutest cakes for me...one to take to my class party and one for my birthday party with friends. She let me choose the dinner menu, which was always steak and potatoes. Even when the family was going through lean times, my birthday celebration was never lacking. In college, she sent me care packages on my birthday with gifts and homemade cookies; even when miles separated us, I was Queen-for-the-day. I'll be celebrating my 40th birthday next month, and my mom is outdoing herself this year! She is taking my sister and me to Chicago for my birthday weekend!!!!! She is trying to get tickets for Wicked and Oprah. Since it is my celebration, she is even willing to give me up for a few hours while I visit the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

So, what do I love the most about my mom? I love the way she expresses her love by making me feel special. I love that she is proud of me. I love that she is able to love unconditionally. I love that she is my mom!