Valentine's Day Project: Woven Heart Baskets

Since I've been into crafts lately, I really wanted to make my own V-Day cards to give to everyone at work.

I thought that Woven Heart Baskets would be a good way to venture into paper crafts. Boy, was I wrong.

After doing this project, I remember why I have not gotten into scrap booking. I am Terrible with paper.

Suddenly, my school years come back to me. Glue everywhere. Misshapen crafts. ugh. But....I did the craft anyway. They didn't turn out as well as I wanted them to, but I will still give them to my co-workers and, with a big cheesy smile, say, "I made these alllll by my self!"



The finished product in 3 variations. I like the red and white best. You can't tell from the pic but the white paper has these little embedded hearts.








If anyone would dare to challenge me, you can find tons of tutorials on the web. One good one is on a Texan teaching site (go figure, its a kid's craft) at http://www.laits.utexas.edu/hebrew/personal/toolbox/acm/heart/heart.html

See me rollin', flossin'

I have been doing most of my running at work during my lunch break. At first, I wanted to avoid telling my co-workers for some reason. But then I thought that maybe I could motivate them somehow. So I tell them when I'm running. I tell my teammates, I tell the woman at the desk, I tell my friends. And I have to say, I like that they know my schedule. It's kind of motivating me. Yesterday, when I was just walking to the bathroom, I had three people, in a row, ask me if I was going running. "No, but I am tomorrow.""No, but I am tomorrow.""No, but I am tomorrow."


I digress. The point of this blog will be to describe how exactly I can run in one hour. One of the most important aspects of running at work is preparation. Not the H type. Although that my help some. :-)

What I do is pack everything I need to run and to clean up after the run, the night before. I use my old college bookbag which is great because it is a big back with 3 different sections. To pack my running clothes, I first fold everything in half, then I place my "shield" on the outside: my coat, a long-sleeved shirt, and my outside pants, if applicable. Next is my "insides" such as my t-shirt and second pair of pants (these are usually cotton or some other thin fabric). Last, my really, really inside: bra, undies, and socks. One thing about the undies, I usually change out of my work undies (who would've thought I'd have such a thing) for my run. This helps a lot in making me feel cleaner when I change back. That's as far as I'll go to describe that! Lastly, I roll all these things up. This rolling is very important when it comes to changing in the bathroom's handicapped stall because there is a little shelf that I can use to unroll all my run clothes.

Okay, so I run, run, run. Come back and I will do 3 important things. First, I will use flush-able baby wipes to wipe myself. If anything, it wipes the sweaty smell off me. I also splash my face with cool water and swipe it with some Oxy pads. The third most important thing for post-run, work-ready freshness is a hair dryer. I stole the little portable one from my boyfriend and its great. I use it to dry and style my hair but I love to use that Cool function to, well, cool off. Ahh, it feels soo good some days. And I'm ready. Some other extras that are important: deodorant, body spray, and make-up (if you're that type of person).

When I first got into this routine, it took me about 15 minutes to change. I'm now able to do it in about 10. And, I am getting much better at putting on my sock while standing on one foot! And, I need to add, today I wore a skirt. There is something empowering about going for a run and then changing into a skirt.




Shell layer.




























Insides Insides







































The final roll.







































My running bag waiting to go. Note my favorite shoe bag, "Politics is My Bag."

























I love to run at work now. There is a great path by my work (that is currently under snow) that I would love to run on come Spring. Plus, I may have a few running partners. Hey, maybe talking about my running is paying off after all.

First Big Jewelry Project: Lucky Charm Necklace

I got this idea from the book "Beadalicious" by Sonya Nimri. Its such a great book that has a lot of trendy jewelry ideas. I'm excited to have found a book that has cute ideas instead of the books that are focused towards older women. This one was definitely made for young women.

I made this necklace because I need more gold in my accessories and this was a pretty necklace. It was hard to make because I obviously couldn't find the exact charms but I used my creativity and worked with what I had.

I'm still trying to figure out how to wear it!

The beads I that I bought at Michael's were the big heart (love it!), the leaf, and the Chinese coins, and of course, the gold chain and the beautiful green "semi-precious" stones in the back. No wonder my total at Michael's was $45.00!!

The two I had from my own collection were the rose pendant and the ruby heart (reminds me of my mom).

Now I just need to find something to wear with it!

My Run Today

Today I was blessed to run with my boyfriend Chanh! He hasn't ran in months so I figured it would be an easy run but it wasn't because the weather was against us. When we checked weather.com the weather was 8 degrees, feels like -5. But we ran anyway. We planned on only running 2 miles (because of his hiatus and the fact that I ran 3 on Friday) but we kind of got lost around the neighborhood so we ending up running 2 1/2. Towards the end of the run, things got hard. I think it was because I started off fast so it was hard to keep that pace. I don't think I dressed warm enough because my shirt was riding up and after the run I had a red mark on my belly. I think it was from the wind and cold even though my overcoat/windbreaker covered my tummy. That's how cold it was! It was no joke!!

I wore the following: two pairs of pants, cotton yoga pants and windbreaker pants, two shirts, a running t-shirt and a longer cotton shirt, big snowboarding gloves, a neck protector, and a sweat resistant cap.

Chanh wore running tights underneath some cotton workout pants. He was wearing 1 long-sleeved cotton shirt and then the windbreaker. He also wore a great warm, sweat-wicking cap. Can you tell he loves Nike??

Here is the front of our apartment building with all the snow.

Running and Shunning

Like many other highly dedicated runners do, I've decided to start running at work so I do not have to run at night when I get home at about 6pm. I have been doing it for about two weeks now and I have to say that it's pretty fun. Of course, there are some downfalls; I have to change twice, I eat my food at my desk, but mainly the sidewalks are not shoveled around my work so I have to run on the road (as runners are encouraged to do anyway by running communities). The problem is that my work is located in an industrial park where the surrounding streets are heavily used and have high speed limits. So I just run up and down the hill in front of my building. This hill looks low when I'm sitting at my desk or even at the bottom of the hill. But once I start running up the hill, its is obvious that the hill is steep. I tried to take some pictures of my weekly run. See below. The captions for the pictures are below the pictures.

This is the road in front of my work. Again, you can't really see the hill part from the bottom.

This is the top of the hill where it flattens out. Can you tell that it looks like it drops off?

I run by this area everyday. This is my idea of what it looks like as the icebergs melt. They're all dirty and the ocean is dark, dirty, and cracking.

Now this post was intended to be about my latest running exploit at work. However, since I had my camera with me when I went to Planned Parenthood to get my last month of birth control from them (thank you insurance), I figured that I would take a picture of the crazy people that stand in front of the building to yell at the patients. This is an attempt to show everybody what women and girls in Aurora have to go through to protect themselves from being pregnant at the wrong time in their lives. These people really annoy me. They are protesting abortion but the funny thing is the abortion services weren't even open when I went to the clinic. So they were protesting my supply of birth control. I have thought of so many things to say and do to them but then I realized that it would be in vain. They would still come. Nothing would change their mind because they mindlessly do these things without an independent thought in their head. See the robots below.

I thought this picture was ironic. These people are standing out there with their rosary beads so they are obviously Catholic. The third person from the left is wearing a blanket with a pattern on it that resembles a Native American pattern. The irony is that Catholicism had a big hand in civilizing the American Indian. They had schools for all the savage Indian children where the children weren't allowed to speak in their native tongue, sing their native songs, or even see their parents. Now they are civilizing all of America. They're on a rampage!

I stopped my car in front of them and took a pic just to piss them off. It looked like it worked. Dummies. Revenge is sweet.

But not sweet enough. I think I will try to volunteer at Planned Parenthood. I will sit out in the cold. But I will be in front of the building, and not on the side of the road. I will talk to the patients. But just so they can't hear the protesters. I will hand things to the patients. But just so they know the clinic's hours of operation. I will win.

Dazed and Content

I seem to be in a funk that I can't get out of. I just caught myself gazing out the window. I think its because I am so close to being down with student teaching. I worked really hard to get through that. And now that its over, I can't stop myself from relaxing. And I think I am starting to realize that its okay to relax. Gosh, its even hard saying that. I'm thinking, "yeah, relax. But not too much. You still have a lot of work to do." And its true. I do. I still don't have a job. For the summer or for next school year. The early bird gets the worm. So I have my cover letters printed up. I just need to get them on special paper so I can deliver them Monday and Tuesday. That kind of sucks that those are the only two days I have to deliver these things. And I have a dentist appointment on Monday night. I just need to leave early, 3-ish, on Monday to deliver them. Then I have to try and get that interview at my main school. I do want to work there. Despite the drama. Um, okay. Maybe I'm not too sure. I would like to experience something different. I guess its safe to say that I will work there if they offer.
Back to gazing. I am forcing myself to go to a party or two that I don't want to. I am not doing anything here. I might as well go out and do something around other peeps. It'll be good to get out of this funk.

The Close of Student Teaching

So I have just a few more days of student teaching left. I am ready to go. I am ready to relax. I counted all my time and I've put in 609 hours in 16 weeks. Now granted, that is around 40 hours a week, but many of those hours occurred within a few weeks. I was working a little the weeks before I started teaching and ALOT the weeks I taught. I really hated working under close quarters with someone that was constantly criticizing me. As much as I hate to admit it, I often cracked under pressure. I forgot what I was saying, what was going on, what I was talking about. It was terrible. My brain is fried. It's time to relax. But going back on the freedom concept. I feel that once I have my own classroom, I will be a better teacher. I am confident that once I can do my own rules, I will be a great teacher. I will also have the authority to control my classroom. That was another problem. I never had authority. Some of it was my fault. I was weak, I didn't research or plan enough, I never found my voice. Some of it was my CT's fault. Whether it was dropping things on me last minute, or correcting me in front of the class, or asking me about something which I have no idea. Either way, that is something I won't have to worry about once I am in my own class. These wistful feelings are usual for me. I am always one that is ready to break free from restraints. I left home as soon as I was 18. I initiated my much needed divorce. Now, I can't wait to be a teacher. Today I taught freshmen and I had a lot fun. I'm not sure if it was easy stuff or if it was because I was closer to their level. But I clicked more with the freshmen than I did with AP or Honors. And that's good. Because I will be teaching those kids when I start. I am excited about my future.