Things are lookin' up.....

Well, you know it's been a recent philosophy of mine; it is difficult to appreciate the good without goin' through a little bad.....
So if the last week I posted about was Heavenly, you can fill in the blanks and know that I mean the week I just finished was He--!
As mentioned, the yearbooks had arrived and all in all, their arrival (and box opening) wasn't as stomach wrenching as I thought it would be......however, the delivering and distribution of 500+ yearbooks was. For the sake of this post, it doesn't matter why (although I will keep good notes to myself and make major improvements for next year).
Wednesday was to be the day books were delivered to teachers and Thursday the books would go home with students.
Well, Wicked Wednesday was wicked because our school sprayed some pesticide for snakes!!
It's not the snakes that upset me; it was the PESTICIDE. Oh my word, the smell was so very strong. It was so very strong in our special area building! I had a headache w/in about 10 minutes and the kids were beginning to have reactions; nose bleed, difficulty breathing and dizziness......
Well, of course we went outside......but.......but......I only had 3 lessons left with these students......I was hellbent on watercolor painting......move a class of students suddenly outside.....outside and do what......well, lots of creative things......but not watercolor painting......not spur of the moment anyway.......
Anyway, I managed with pencils and paper and we "sketched" for about 30 seconds and then it was "Mrs. Broaderick, I need my pencil sharpened." "Mrs. Broaderick, I have to pee." "Mrs. Broaderick, save me I have a spider on my paper" (a spider that took a microscope to see).......we then moved on to sidewalk chalk drawing and that engaged them for about 60 seconds more.....my classes are an hour long.........

It was a rough morning.

Then, my precious planning time on Wednesday was meant for moving yearbooks from my Primary building to the Intermediate building only I hadn't been in my room during the morning to arrange for custodial help.......

You can see how this was going......

Well, books got to the Intermediate center that day and they got delivered to the teachers.....once with teachers.....well, that was another circus.....again, for the sake of this post I won't explain here.....but oh the notes I will write to myself for next year.......I was in my toxic classroom until almost 6pm taking care of "yearbook issues" and then I finally went home......I even wanted a beer with dinner but was paranoid of the adverse effects the alcohol might have with the pesticide chemicals that were in my system.....crazy I know......but it was a traumatic day.

Well, the title of this post did say, "things were lookin' up" and they were, finally, by the weekend. I never slept very well the rest of that week, so I really was grateful to sleep in Saturday. I also played in the studio and went to the movies.....you know how I love to escape at the movies.......
Lookin' up even more, I had time to work in the studio again on Sunday and worked on one more page in my Inspiration Journal. Scott and I also went to the movies again, this time for a spontaneous "date night".

Can't remember if I've mentioned Christy Tomlinson's blog that I came across but I so enjoy her "style" and her latest post inspired me on my Saturday morning.

(sorry for the color quality.....I took them on my cell phone......)

I've got a few other ideas in my head.....perhaps they will be the art on the front of note cards? Not sure, doesn't really matter for now, I just got to play and it was wonderful.

Love you much!
Melle

Mother's Day so SWEET!

And a sweet week too!

The yearbooks are in! {squeal, squeal}
They haven't been passed out yet.....shhhh.....this is the first peek!
Our school wide reading theme this year was "Solving Mysteries One Book at a Time" so the yearbook follows the same theme. (our school mascot is the buffalo)

I took a day off this week so I could help chaperon on McKenna's field trip to see James and the Giant Peach in Orlando.

My Lion King tickets are here!
{squeal, squeal, jump, jump, scream, scream, pass out from shear joy}
I've told the story over and over this week to family, to friends, to passersby, but I guess I haven't told it here.....
Well, it may require another post a little closer to our trip, but I'll give you the short version for now. In June, Scott and I are going to his friends wedding in New York City! That Thursday night, we have Yankee vs. Red Sox tickets. Friday night Scott will be at the bachelor party so I will get to see The Lion King on Broadway with a very special former student of mine as my handsome date! Saturday is the wedding and Sunday we fly back.
Did I mention my Lion King tickets are here?!

This morning was breakfast in bed with my favorite - a Mickey Mouse waffle!

Okay, okay, this was a photo from last year's Mother's Day....but I don't think I ever posted it and this morning's was almost exactly the same (including a cup of Earl Gray), but I was much too bleary-eyed this morning to take a picture.

And bested treat of all, I got to spend 12 hours in my studio this weekend......
Oh man, well, alright......12 hours cleaning.....the place was a wreck......
Oh come on! Okay, this photo was from two years ago when the studio had just been completed...it sort of still looks like that today......gosh, so picky!

I think you should be impressed that I could find photos from the past year....and earlier!

And well, finally, my car didn't get washed, but I did catch up on every bit of laundry....it took two and half days, but as the girls and I sit here wrapped up in a blanket thanks to the chill in the room......every BIT of laundry is all done! {wink}

Love to all,
Melle
(I finally added words to my last post, so keep reading..... )

Easter Weekend

Here are a few "non-traditional" photos in honor of a "non-traditional" Easter Sunday of sorts. Actually, we did get to go over to Aunt Ellen's for a yummy lunch with ham, turkey, green beans and many other treats, but our Littles* are so much older and the New Littles** couldn't be there this time......so, since McKenna is in the "I'm probably too old to hunt Easter Eggs, but it's still a lot of fun" stage, I hid eggs for her in the front of our yard. Turns out Andrea is in the same "stage" and hunted eggs with her. It was fun to watch them.
*Our Littles were first Logan and Dalton, Andrea and McKenna, then Emily
**New Littles are Nicholas and Layla and now new little Aydan....who'll be ready for next year :o)



Fortunately for us, Easter Weekend included Good Friday which also meant an extra day off of school. A three day weekend allowed me a long overdue chance to just play in the studio. Artist (that I adore) Donna Downey encourages us to "just play" in our Inspiration Journal at least once a week....so I caught up on 5 weeks worth!

Okay, if I really was any kind of a "real artist" it would have occurred to me that I could use watercolor and acrylic paint together with the acrylic resisting the watercolor. So I played....
Liked the flowers until I added the black marker, but liked playing with the green and blue watercolor.....green was too high, but still fun.....it's just play :o)

I was still struggling w/ stems, but I liked this one okay. It is still only the first layer and is ready for more when the inspiration hits me.

With this one, the background had been done earlier....waiting for inspiration. I was very happy with these colors and the stems are better......I did do the marker first this time.

The red fabric was left over from a previous play date, but I totally had lots of fun with the stems this time....in fact, so much fun I used the same technique to make the grass. I started with green card stock, stamped it with a text stamp using StazOn and then watercolored that with 2 to 3 different shades of green......again, lots of fun on that......did the watercolor in the background and got the right height for the green this time.

And finally, this was my favorite and my last piece of the weekend. The hand is all wrong and it's not an original idea, I saw something similar in a magazine, but I still love it. The blue and green watercolor in the background was just right; I stamped the flowers; used acrylic in the flowers; I watercolored on the cut flowers; stamped on the paper for the dress; and used pink tissue paper for the dress ruffle......This had several layers and that's the way I like it.
Here's to another play date in the future!
Love,
Melle

Another successful Arts in the Park!

Thank you friends and loved ones for your continued patience and understanding during this time of year.....weeks to prepare for the student show, days to hang it up, hour to take it all down....
but I am all done.
{imagine big smile on my face}
Enjoy.

Miscellaneous

1. With the rapid rise of gasoline prices, thought I'd share this little gas saving tip someone shared with me: When parking, try to pull through when you park. Backing up to pull out of a parking space uses more gas. It may seem small, but every little bit helps, right?

2. While wanting to take McKenna to a walk-in clinic, or to a "doc in a box" this week, we first visited a place called "Urgent Care", only to find it closed at 5 pm.....good thing it wasn't "urgent". Then we went on to a second place. It was called, "Express Care", two hours later, we left with prescriptions in hand for her earache.....good thing we weren't in a hurry.

3. After lots and lots of hours of work, the student art show is up!
Woohoo!
So, kindergarten's evening will be Wednesday and first grade's evening will be Thursday.
It's nice that we will have Friday off. :o)

4. I bought a new top and a new skirt today....mmmm, new clothes feel wonderful.....but the new skirt also needed a new slip and new shoes......mmmm, that wasn't as much fun....

5. And thanks to Scott's decisiveness looks like I'll be going to NYC with him in June to attend his friend's wedding. It's only a four day trip....he wants a ball game, I want Lion King, with the bachelor party on Friday night, I wonder which we'll choose.

Love to all,
hopefully many more photos on my next post....
Melle

Uneventful.....

Thankfully, we've had a little break from all of our activities.....
For Andrea, tennis is all done;
For McKenna, she had one short performance after school with her school choir;

And I have shorted through each one of my students' piles of art work; matted and labeled and will be ready to hang the student art show in 5 days.....
uneventful (for us) indeed. :o)

Things I am looking forward to:
Friday, April 22nd, the day after the student show is done!
Friday, April 22nd, Disney's movie African Cats comes out!
Saturday, May 21st, Karen Russell Photography workshop!
Tuesday, June 7th, I'll be on summer vacation!
Friday and Saturday, June 17 & 18 Donna Downey will be at She Scrapbooks!

Love to all! Thanks for the comments last week :o)
Melle

There's no place like home.....

As I sit here tonight, cuddled up in my bed, I can happily say "there's no place like home"....
We have returned from Oz and I feel as if I walked the yellow brick road myself!
The high school students put together a great show! Four shows in 3 days to be exact and McKenna was fortunate enough to be among 14 of the elementary students who were invited to be part of the show. They had three parts: the Munchkin Landers, helped in Emerald City and the Jitter-bugs, who were used by the witch to capture Dorothy. The addition of the little ones was a big hit!



Our Dorothy was AMAZING and oh so sweet to all the little ones.

Although not looking this way, McKenna is the fourth from the left. The little ones got to come out and take their bow first.

McKenna with Andrea

McKenna with one proud mommy!!