I'm a winner!

I love Dina Wakley's blog because of her beautiful, splashy art, and saw she had a contest to win a pass to her online class. I entered never thinking I would win, BUT I DID!!! Check me out.

Stay tuned for my art journaling here!!!

I like the orange one. Or brown.

I can't help myself. I have been coveting this Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S camera. It's an instant camera, and the pictures are about the size of a credit card. Because that's what's missing from my life: credit card sized instant photos.

Starry Night

The October challenge from the ladies at ARTastic was to use van Gogh's Starry Night as inspiration. I thought of the night not too long ago when I saw the owl (Bob or Terry?) in our neighborhood. I love using stars on my scrapbook pages and have a million star brads so I decided to use those for embellishments.

My journaling, which I wrote in all caps because I love the font in the Where the Wild Things Are previews, says, Seeing this owl in our neighborhood put me in the Halloween spirit. Although the pictures aren't so great, when I see them I remember the night Captain and I followed it as it flew silently from rooftop to rooftop.



Which reminds me that in January I wanted to paint our spare bathroom like Starry Night and Corey went along with it. It was more work than we expected but I think it's fun to go in there.

Here's the before:

After:


I love standing in the mirror with the door closed, seeing the swirls and moon behind me.

If you want to make a Starry Night bathroom too, you only need a gallon of blue, and a tiny bit for the stars. I got a quart of white, yellow, and black, and it was way too much. Also, when making the stars just dab, dab, dab.

The hardest part is trying to find a shower curtain to match! I think I'm going to buy a white one and continue the mural across it with the leftover paint.

quote of the day

"In my whole life I've never seen a guinea pig pee before."
- a student (who will be 7 next week), after seeing Ratatouille pee this morning

good junk email day

One of my favorite authors (maybe my favorite), Barbara Kingsolver, has not only written a new novel, but she will be here to talk to me (and others I suppose), pimp her book, and autograph it on November 12th!!!!!!!!!!!

The email said:
In The Lacuna, her first novel in nine years, Barbara Kingsolver, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd, a man caught between two worlds -- an unforgettable protagonist whose search for identity will take readers to the heart of the twentieth century's most tumultuous events.

Barbara Kingsolver's books of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction include the novels The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. Translated into nineteen languages, her work has won a devoted worldwide readership and many awards, including the National Humanities Medal. She lives with her family on a farm in southwestern Virginia.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are the books I have that I've read. Each one is something special.


Who wants to go with?

Tomorrow it's back to school.

I had a relaxing stay-cation this week with Corey and the Captain. Our short trip to Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff gave me a taste of traditional fall that I needed.

Prudence and Pinecone is by Emily Martin.

too much t.v.

This week Scrapping the Music challenges us to make a scrapbook page inspired by the Gilligan's Island theme song. I spent about half an hour digging out pictures of me in my Gilligan Hat. That's what I call it. My students' faces are covered to protect identities.

I was about to read my old, used copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles that I've had forever and discovered pages 243+ were missing. I always like to read the end of a story, even if it's bad, so Friday I went to Borders and got a new copy for only $3.46! Sunday Corey and I watched Bored to Death and the intro inspired me for the 3rd time.

I recalled that ScrapMojo's challenge is to use a book page on your layout. This morning Captain snuggled up to share the hound story with me and I got the idea to cut apart my old copy of the book and make this page:

I traced the hound from a Basic Grey template onto a book page. I was going to trace the tree from book pages too, but it was way too intricate so I used the Basic Grey tree and punched leaves out from the book instead. The cool thing is that I tore out the telling of the tale of the Hound, randomly punched out the leaves, and these are the words on them:
cruel
profit
escaped
fortune
farm
evil days
The facts
head
evidence
foul play
untimely
Also if you pull out A Word to the Reader you can see my journaling:

Does anyone want some vintage pages of The Hound of the Baskervilles?

where the wild things are

I just got back from Captain Skippyjon Jones's nightly walk. I haven't seen our friend the owl again, but as I was admiring the beautiful full moon, a bat flew over! As of the end of August the bats have been back. On occasion they fly over our pool and eat the bugs. I don't get to see them often enough though. I love their seemingly haphazard way of flying.

Owls, bats, full moon, perfect weather, Broncos are 4-0 - I am loving fall so far!

Girl Chasing Bats is by Dean A. Kendrick.

last day of banned books week

I've been reading Fahrenheit 451 this week. Although it hasn't been banned, it gives you a glimpse of a world without books. Why ban a book if you can just burn it? Scary. Here's a great quote from Ray Bradbury: There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Today is my first day of fall break. I'm planning to do a lot of reading. Also my plan for October is to read only scary, magical, or fantasy stories this month. I did it last year and loved the Halloween Spirit it gave me. Some of the books I'm considering are:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
No Rest for the Witches by MaryJanice Davidson
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

I've already read part of Stories for Late at Night by Alfred Hitchcock, so maybe I'll finish it up.

Too bad there are only 31 days in October; I will never get to them all.

Books and Friends Go Together is by AliceinParis.

desert wildlife can be found in the city if you look closely

I had a very desert day today. This morning when I was walking Captain Skippyjon Jones I found coyote poop on the sidewalk!

Then tonight I came home and there was a scorpion in my bedroom. I love scorpions but not in the house, so on the rare occasion that it happens I scoop them up with a cup (they are so easy to catch - did you know that they don't have eyes?) and dump them in the canal behind our house. They eat crickets so they are handy. Anyway, after I dumped it out I decided to sit on the back porch because it was so nice out - about 85 degrees. All of a sudden I see a big bird fly by and it does it without making a sound. I immediately suspected it was an owl. I got out from under the porch and found it sitting on our neighbor's roof. It was about as big as a cat. I watched it for about 5 minutes until it flew (once again without a sound) off of the roof. I ran out to the front yard and walked down the street until I found it on another neighbor's roof. After it flew away again I decided to go get Captain and my camera. I tracked it down 2 more times and got some crappy pictures. But considering it was dark and the owl was dark they are pretty good.

Hopefully my neighbors didn't think I was some kind of predator taking pictures of their houses in the dark.


I love owls! I can remember every time I've ever seen an owl in the wild. There is something captivating about them.


Hello Owl is by Kareena Zerefos.

P.S. Speaking of owls, I love that new song Fireflies by Owl City. So good.

P.P.S. Also my friend Angi brought me an owl brooch back from Red Velvet Art in Missouri. It is exactly what I would have picked out for myself if I went there. I wore it to school on Monday and it was loved by teachers and students alike.

red

Darth Vader has a Posse is by 1NNU3NDO.

brown

robot - check
doughnuts - check

This picture is for me. If only the robot was riding a Vespa instead of a motorcycle it would be true perfection. I don't know who painted it. A genius of some sort obviously.

I've been coveting these brown UGGs since I saw them in the Sunday paper:

I can't rationalize spending so much money on shoes, especially ones I can wear only 1 or 2 months a year. But the heart wants what it wants.

Then I found these striped ones. I think they are more me:

{sigh} Maybe I can find some knock-offs?