Saturday, April 19, 2008

Saturday

The cold and flu has been going around, not only at work, but at home too. So I'm not feeling to well, hopefully, I'll be blogging in a few days with something to talk about.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Thumbprint artwork

Here's a better photo of the artwork we did last week at school. Very cute and fun with just ink pads, paper, markers and your thumb!

And another work in progress, simple white apron with some embroidery on the front.

Friday, April 11, 2008

A typical day at work

In case you didn't know, I work with children for the school district at a before and after school program. Actually, my title is "School-age Child Care Activity Assistant"! I work part-time, just the mornings from 6:30 to 10:15, sometimes I stay a little later to clean up or take care of paperwork, but the children are all off to school by then. In the mornings we usually have an art project for the children to do. Some choose not to do art, so they are either doing home work, playing board games, cards, toys, coloring, drawing, you get the idea. We have roughly around 35 children (and the afternoons are twice as many!). It's a crazy morning schedule, because some go to tutoring at different times, some have guitar lessons, then there is my bunch that I walk to the cafeteria for breakfast, then the Kg through 5th graders are sent to school at 8:15, and of course I have the later kindergarteners who I walk to school at 9:30. So it can be a hectic morning. Our building is on the school grounds, but they stuck us way on the other side of the parking lot. We also have themes every week, this week it's "Bugs, Bees, and Butterflies". This morning we made thumbprint bugs and insects. Take a look .....

Not such great photos, I used my cell phone, but I still wanted to share. This turned out to be a fun and creative project that I wasn't crazy about at first when I looked at the schedule this morning. It's based on Ed Emberly's book on fingerprint drawing.

Sorry, these are pretty blurry. I'm going to take my real camera to work and retake these pictures.
Later in the day I subbed at another school for their afterschool program. It's something I don't normally do, but in certain situations, when asked it's always hard for me to say no. I've been subbing the afternoons for the last two weeks and I'm pooped! I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks where I'll just work my contracted hours and have my afternoons free! Whew!

In a nutshell, this is sort of what my work day is like.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Fondue, Cupcakes and Wine

Yesterday my daughter celebrated her 23rd birthday with her friends at the house. Well, it was supposed to be a pool party and bbq. Forget the "pool" part, it was cold and overcast and I know the water is too cold for swimming. We don't heat the pool, except for the spa, since the gas and electric bill has almost doubled with having a pool. Anyway, her friend suggested she have a fondue as one of the appetizers. I have never made fondue but always wanted to try it. It was easy, fun and very tasty. Yumm, I'm definately making it again!. Friday I spent the evening making 4 dozen chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and it was well worth it. The cupcakes were a hit, especially the vanilla! I wish I had taken a picture they looked so cute and a real eye-pleaser on the food table when the guests walked through the kitchen to the patio. The recipe is on the Martha Stewart website, which is from Billy's Bakery in NYC. They are delicious, and if you want a good cupcake recipe this one you have to try.

Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes

And here's a funny, I was talking to my mom yesterday and telling her how I came home from work after stopping at the store and buying last minute things for the party and I was sort of frazzled-out from a week of working "fulltime" which I'm not use to doing and knew I had to get going on those cupcakes. She laughed when I told her "forget it, I'm baking but I'm also having a glass of wine or two while I bake!" Thank goodness, I didn't screw up the recipe.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Happy Birthday, Ange!

Today is my daughter's 23rd birthday. (yeah, I'm old) Just a shout out, I don't think she knows I blog, but I couldn't let this day go by without saying "happy birthday". She's planning a pool and bbq party for this Saturday and has invited around 30 people. Okay, ..... yikes!

Today I won an ebay auction of these cute Mexican Motifs for kitchen and breakfast nook. I've wanted for a long time and now I can't wait until I receive them. Hopefully it won't take me forever to embroider them like everything else in my life!

I'm back cross-stitching

  Well, not yet, but real soon because my daughter found a Halloween cross-stitch booklet that I thought I lost forever. So my plans are to ...