what my blog would look like if it was a Mr. Potato Head

P.S. I don't know where the giraffe pictures are from but I found the feet on inspire me now.

Michael Kors Similes

Episode 9 (Race to the Finish)
A Michael Kors first this season...he used a simile as a compliment!!!

"I think the back is really kind of dreamy. I think it looks a little like a Kentucky Derby horse ribbon exploded."

I know I used this picture before but I like it:

Did anyone else think Mondo's Kentucky Derby horse ribbon dress looked like something Jeffrey Sebelia would make?

Here are the insult similes and metaphor:

"I think they look like bridesmaids under the sea."

"And then to style her like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind...I mean, could you turn around please? Hello! I mean she's got ALL the curtains from Tara ripped off the wall and put into the one dress!"
(By the way, Gone With the Wind is a banned book and one of my favorites if you're still looking for an awesome banned book to read this week. And if you can read it in one week I bow to you.)

"It looked like she was dragging a bolt of fabric behind her."

And my favorite quote of the episode comes from Michael Kors:
I think it's an unbelievably tight race for hideous today.

P.S. That's Beau in the top photo and it was taken by Marie-Lynn Hammond.

Happy Banned Books Week!

One of my favorite things about Banned Books Week is that one group of people went out of their way to make certain "unseemly" books are unavailable for others to read, then as a result another group of people go out of their way to read them. Ah, America.

Right now I'm trying to finish up Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John. It has all the disturbing background stories similar to those my refugee students went through and I never wanted to know. But it is a hopeful story so on I read! (It has not been banned.)

When I finish I'll read a Banned Book from my bookshelves. Here are the ones I haven't read or am considering rereading in case you'd like to join in and don't know what's been banned:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (banned in the USA for moral reasons)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (banned in Turkey and the USA for moral reasons)
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence (banned in the USA for moral reasons)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - reread (banned in the USA for moral reasons)
The Call of the Wild by Jack London - reread (banned in Germany, Italy, and Yugoslavia for moral reasons)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (banned in the USA for moral reasons)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (banned in Argentina, France, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, and USA for moral reasons)

Any recommendations? How are you planning to celebrate Banned Books Week?

P.S. Smart Mudflap Girl is from Cafe Press.

Ain't she sweet?

I joined a scrapbooking forum called Dixie Pieces solely because they are having a Glee challenge for the next 6 weeks! (I love Glee! Do you watch it too?) This week the challenge was to use the title of a Beatles song as the title of your scrapbook page. There were 10 to choose from and I chose Ain't She Sweet. I'd never even heard that Beatles song before yesterday but I bet my friend Stephanie knows it by heart.

I wound up looking up a lot of things about the 60s to assist in my scrapbook page making. I looked to 60s fashion and used rickrack and polka dots.

I used a red and white color scheme partially because of that line from the Beatles song "Come Together": He got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola.
I learned that in 1966 Coca-Cola started using cans with a pop tab so you wouldn't have to use a can opener. I also used my cursive stamps to go with the Coca-Cola font. Sometimes my hand stamping looks good and sometimes it makes me swear. This was a swearing time.

Looking at the album cover for A Hard Day's Night gave me the inspiration to arrange my photos in a row. That's our girl Caprica Six wearing her new Arizona Cardinals football jersey. (She wanted to be like her cousin Berry Pebbles). In the 60s the Arizona Cardinals were the St. Louis Cardinals, but they still had red and white team colors. Next we are going to get Captain Skippyjon Jones a Broncos jersey for game days.

Happy Full Moon Fall!

Though this picture may not look autumny, the title captures the first day of fall feeling to me:
Early autumn wind, lingering memory of summer (by Shuichi Nakano).

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

I chose this book for my Colorful Reading Challenge (it's 5/9) and I'm so glad I did. It was easy to escape in this sweet story about friendship, family, love, and overcoming racism and hardship.

The story begins in 1929 in Whistle Stop, Alabama and centers around the Threadgoode family, in particular 2 lesbians, Idgie and Ruth, that run the Whistle Stop Cafe. It is told in the 80s from Idgie's sister-in-law's (Mrs. Threadgoode's) perspective, as she recounts anecdotes from her day to a woman (Evelyn) escaping visits with her mother-in-law in a nursing home. As Mrs. Threadgoode shares her memories with Evelyn each Sunday, it somehow begins helping Evelyn with her own midlife crisis.

Also sprinkled throughout are witty local news blurbs from the Whistle Stop bulletin, and at the end of the book there are real recipes for all the delicious food you could have had at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Too bad I don't cook.

If you're looking for a feel-gooder, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe will feed your soul.

Now I'm ready to rent the movie. Also, Fannie Flagg's birthday is on Tuesday. She'll turn 66.

Michael Kors Similes

Episode 8 (A Rough Day on the Runway)
The Jackie Kennedy challenge must have meant a lot to the judges because they were pissed at the people who didn't pull it off! meow!
Before I get to the similes, I have to share my favorite quote of the episode, coming from Tim Gunn:
Jackie Kennedy would not have cameltoe.

And now a few words from Michael Kors:

She's an old lady on top and she's a cheer leading ice skater on bottom.

If someone said to me, "The inspiration was MC Hammer meets, you know, The Beverly Hillbillies grandmother," I mean, that's what that looks like.

Her shoulder toilet seat cover? I mean, it was an odd choice.

P.S. If you are a Jackie Kennedy fan, you should watch Grey Gardens with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. So good. My Life at Grey Gardens: 13 Months and Beyond by Lois Wright is on my wishlist.

probably not the first time

Happy Constitution Day! That's right; the Constitution was signed 223 years ago today. Every year on Constitution Day I practice the Pledge of Allegiance with my class and read a book which gives them an idea of what each part means. Then they get a certificate if they can individually recite it to me properly. I had a first this year from an earnest boy:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,
Dalmatians under God,
indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

Which is why we practice (but I think I like it better his way).

P.S. Poppy Field is by Todd Young.

awkward

One of my students told me last week, "My mom and my dad are getting married in two weeks. He always kisses her on the hand." Oh my god, how sweet is that?!

I saw his dad today after school and said, "[Insert boy's name here] told me you guys are getting married! Congratulations!" The dad basically told me in a nice way he would never get married. I think for the next minute I said something like, "Oh, um, ok, alright, I was going to say, that's, uh, yes, ok, I take it, err..." Hopefully the part about kissing mom on the hand is true, but I didn't dare ask.

P.S. I love the hand-kissing in Romeo and Juliet!

Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead

Coal Black Horse is a Civil War story centered around a teen boy named Robey. After Robey's mom has a spooky premonition, she sends Robey off to retrieve his soldier dad who is fighting with the Confederate army. Immediately Robey sets out on his busted old farm horse, but good fortune a la Red Dead Redemption allows him to upgrade to a coal black Hanoverian.

And how does a boy find his dad in the middle of a war without a cell phone or MapQuest? Does he grow from boy to man along the way? Where does his all-knowing steed get his mystical powers from? What was the Battle of Gettysburg like? This is the story Robert Olmstead tells in a creative and graphic way.

I thought there would be more focus on the relationship between the horse and the boy, but I still enjoyed the story and I appreciated the image of what it might have been like to live or fight in the South during the Civil War.

And for your viewing pleasure, a gratuitous Coal Black Horse picture I wish was taken of me:

P.S. Summer Dream is by Jo Bradford.

P.P.S. This is my 4th book of 9 for the Colorful Reading Challenge I'm trying to complete before January 1, 2011.

Michael Kors Similes

Episode 7 (What's Mine is Yours)
Oh Michael Kors! You are adorable.

"It just looks like a weird assemblage of clothes from Forever 21 that were on the sale rack."

P.S. The assemblage of identities is called "Because She Believed" and is by Kathy Jeffords of thedreamygiraffe.

dogs these days

We love that little Caprica Six but she is a messy eater! When she finishes eating there are all these little bits of dog food on the floor all around their bowls and under the dining room table. I always say to her, "There are little dogs starving in Third World countries young lady!" but she continues to eat with her mouth open.
I decided to document the mess for my blog:

...and as soon as I started taking pictures the dogs came over and began eating up the mess:

Is that all it takes?

teamwork:

Captain Skippyjon Jones got so into it he even licked the floor clean!

Are there 100 new little dog food crumbs on the floor today? Yes. Time to get out the broom...or the camera.

Michael Kors Metaphors!

Episode 6 (You Can Totally Wear That Again)
Michael Kors must be reading my blog because in this week's episode he used almost as many metaphors as similes to describe the outfits he didn't care for. Buckle up because here come both.

"I mean, she's young and cool and you're trying to make her look, I don't know, like she's at the church bring-a-pot dinner."

"She's got an avocado goiter."

"It's like you turned her into, like, Nursing Grandmother Chest."

"The dress looked kind of like a really bad tennis dress gone wrong."

"She's kind of a secretary from 1987 on the bottom."

P.S. The photo I used is not from this episode and it wasn't taken by me.

The Bird Catcher by Laura Jacobs

I won this book as an Early Reviewer and felt excited to read what I thought would be the story of the 5th Sex in the City girl. Margret dresses windows for Saks Fifth Avenue and loves birdwatching. Unfortunately The Bird Catcher did not live up to the hype created in my mind.

I don't mean to make it sound like a bad book (I gave it 3 out of 5 stars). The story was interesting but lacked intensity for me. One of my big hangups was being pulled away from the story every few pages by art references that were obscure to me. I only took Art History 101 in college and that was awhile ago, so I was lost reading sentences like, "Charles, who had seen them dressed like this at an art department cocktail party in the year before he and Margret were lovers, had said of Emily, 'She's a Modigliani inside a Braque,' which was perfect, Margret had to agree." Oh, me too. I totally agree. ??? Usually I enjoy looking up new things I read in books, but I'm not even exaggerating when I say in parts of the first half of the book I would have had to do it every 2-4 pages.

I wish I was a cool art girl. If you are an art aficionado who's hip to the lingo I think you will really enjoy the esoteric art innuendos sprinkled throughout The Bird Catcher. Otherwise I think you should catch another story.

P.S. O.K. I looked it up. In case you are having trouble picturing "...a Modigliani inside a Braque," here's a Modigliani:

and here's a Braque:
("Jeanne Hebuterne in Red Shawl" and "Violin and Candlestick" respectively)
(I like Jeanne!)