Monday, December 15, 2008

On the 11th day of Christmas...


Day 11 from Hellobint
Originally uploaded by imafundork
Hellobint gave to me: knitting goodness. A much needed needle roll with a set of needles, 6 stitch markers and super awesome knitting needle bracelets!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Hellobint gave to me: A 2009 Calendar complete with pictures of me and my friends. I love it because she doesn't even really know me, but picked out pictures where she thought I looked really happy. All of the pictures are so great and bring back fabulous memories! I haven't taken any pictures yet, but when I do I'll update this.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A Bad Case of the Mondays

Yesterday afternoon, I went into the office to clock out for my break and the machine said, "This code has been deactivated, please see front desk." It was a little strange, but the same thing happened a few weeks ago and on the third try it let me clock out. I tried a second time and I got the same reply so I stuck my head into RA's office. Her reply was, "That's weird. You're still in the system." I told her I'd just keep an eye on the time and make sure I take an hour. When I went to sit down at Mindy's desk, RA called out to me to come see her for a moment.
When I went back into her office, I assumed she wanted to talk to me about the days I had requested off that morning. She started with, "I'm sorry..." I thought, "Darn! I'm not going to get January 2 off! Bummer...no Savannah for New Year's for me." But instead, she finished with, "I have to let you go."
WHAT?! Did I hear that right? Did I really just get fired? What did I do wrong? Nothing, I did nothing wrong. You hear of people getting laid off everyday, but you never expect it to be you. At least, I didn't anyway.
The school has been in financial trouble since shortly after I started working there a year and a half ago. I think I'm now the fifth person to be laid off, with a few others quiting. Two more students got pulled from the school for December and another one was put to part time. And apparently, there are a lot of bills that are past due. The only thing left to do was let someone go. RA chose to let me go, out of our staff of ten, because I was the highest paid assistant. And to think, I often complained about how poorly I was paid...
I'm not that upset about it. Sure, it's come at horrible time. It's not going to be fun being jobless at the holidays. But I wasn't truly happy at the school anyway. This is just God giving me a swift kick in the butt to find something I love. Now, I can chase after a career I would really enjoy. I just have to figure out what exactly that is...

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Only I would do something so silly...

I was good when I got home from work; I went straight into the studio and got right to work. I made a pattern for something new (a medium for 12 Days Swap) and sewed it up-two of them actually. I was excited because it seemed to work out perfectly on the first try. But I wanted to hand paint something on each one, and that had to wait until later. I wanted to get more sewing done before watching a little bit of tv. So I worked some more on a large item for 12 Days. I think I'll have that done tomorrow.
Eight o'clock rolled around and I decided to take my tv break. I busted out my paints and parked it on the floor by the coffee table and set out to work. I was so very pleased with my handiwork which was completely freehand when I realized I painted it (both actually) UPSIDE DOWN! Seriously...who does that?! ME! Only me! All I could do was laugh. I honestly think I'm going to send them that way. I may be able to modify them somehow. I don't know how, but I'm going to bring them to work tomorrow and get advice. I fear if I try doing it over, it won't be nearly as cute.

Update:73/78 items complete for hellobint (74 if I send this "oops!")

Thursday, November 20, 2008

BAA + Rock

In light of the recent presidential election, I thought I'd post a picture of a young political activist, Charlotte (one of my students). Charlotte's parents took her to see Joe Biden speak just prior to the election. She dressed in full support of her candidate. There's nothing like a little liberal three year old!
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I have to say that I found this to be quite the clever shirt.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I need a Mental Health Day

I have felt so incredibly stressed/depressed/bitter lately and I'm not entirely sure why. I'm in a funk where I feel like nothing I do is good enough and that I'm completely inadequate. I hate when I get this way and I never know what to do about it. I'm ready for the next week or so to be over with.
Next Tuesday is our big Thanksgiving luncheon at school, so there is a lot do still for that. Meanwhile, Ruth Anne (my boss) took this week off and a few other teachers are out, so we are short staffed. This always seemed to happen when RA leaves. I have been sick since before Halloween and haven't taken a day off. I just want a day where I can stay in bed and do nothing to hopefully feel better. But that's not going to happen. Thankfully, school is closed next Wednesday through Friday. So if I can make it through the next week, I'll have a five day weekend....hallelujah!
I also can't wait to be done with the 12 Days of Christmas Swap. I definitely bit off more than I could chew with that one. Seventy-eight items- what was I thinking?! I have 67 items done, but the last 11 are killing me. I'm not the best sewer and those items need to be sewn. Then I come to work and Mindy shows me her latest sewn items which could be sold in a boutique. It makes me want to scrap all of the ideas I've had because I don't think they're going to be good enough. I haven't worked on anything in the past few days because I feel if I do it's going to be half-assed. I'm hoping to be in a better mood tomorrow so I can work on Day 2. One of the items is already started and the other is something I've sewn tons of in the past. It is actually the second thing I learned how to sew back when I was a senior in high school. So Bint- if you are reading this, I'm sorry if it's not the best quality, but I am trying.

On a somewhat brighter note, here are some pictures from Halloween with my nephew, Craig.
I was a (punk rock? spider?) fairy and Craig was a lion.

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Craig's an indecisive little man (much like his aunt) so he had to have two costumes. He was also a fireman and I love firemen!

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I made my tutu (out of tulle and it has about 40-50 spiders throughout it), top (I based it off of the infinity dress, but used ribbon as the straps), bracelet (out of soda tabs) and painted my wand.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Swap Drama

So I received my questionnaire for my 12 Days partner this morning and I about died. We had relatively nothing in common, but that could be worked around. The thing that really got me was that she was a smoker. I'm not allergic to smoke, but I am quite sensitive to it. I thought I had said that in my questionnaire, so I was surprised to be paired with a smoker. But I did know that the organizer had a lot of info to sort through and make the pairs. I decided to send her a message asking if she could switch partners around. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who did this. Her inbox was flooded with complaints. And she was really upset about that.
Of course, now I feel horrible that I was one of the bratty complainers. But it is a huge, highly involved swap and I wanted to have a slightly more compatible partner. It was looking like I wouldn't be involved in the swap at all. I ended up having a highly emotional afternoon at work...all the other teachers couldn't figure out what I was so upset about.
After a few more pm's to the organizer, I ended up becoming a replacement partner for Hellobint. I was so relieved to still be in. The only downfall is that she's in the UK, so I have to save all my extra money for postage. But otherwise I think we're going to be a great match!

12 Days of Christmas Swap

I just received my swap partner for the 12 Days of Christmas Swap, over on Craftster. I am extremely anxious to receive Mlookyloo1's questionnaire, so I can start preparing for this swap. I think this will be the biggest project I've ever taken upon myself. I have two and a half months to craft 78 items total for the twelve days!
I hope to have most of my days planned out by this weekend, so that I can begin crafting next week. I'll be holed up in my creative studio (aka my craft room) in all of my spare time. I am also making the gifts for everyone in my family. I'm hoping that some of the things I plan to make for my family with cross over to Mlookyloo1, so I can tackle them both at the same time.

I plan to keep a tally of how many items I have completed. Mlookyloo1: 0/78. Family: 0/???

Sunday, August 31, 2008

PINK Infinity dress!

I've had a super productive crafty weekend. I've made quite a few birthday gifts and three...yes THREE new dresses for ME! Woohoo! I'm always making things for swaps and I rarely make anything for myself. So here are a few pictures of my favorite dress I made this weekend.


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I used Rostitchery's tutorial.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

New Beginnings...

So, I've had this blog for about six months now and haven't done a thing with it...

So, today's the day! School was canceled due to Tropical Storm Fay. And that means an extra day off for me. YAY! I hadn't really been all that concerned with the storm and didn't need to be. We did get a lot of rain this morning and it's still quite windy out, but there hasn't been any lightning. We have definitely had worse thunderstorms this summer.

BUT had it not been for TS Fay, I probably never would have gotten around to posting here. My plan for this is to share some of my crafty endeavors and other life adventures.