I had an amazing time!!!

Conference was so much fun.. I learned so much about lessons, got ideas, and got to know a bunch of great art teachers. I even got to make some stuff in workshops. And, of course, the vendors! I have never been to a place like that before. I got so much free stuff. They were so nice, just handing art supplies out. I was in Heaven. Also, they were selling lots of books at discount prices. I bought several books; mostly on Mexican, African and Chinese art. These are places where my knowledge is lacking. Hey, I need to learn and improve! I had such a great experience. It is hard to put into words.

A sign:

My hotel room:

My region:

We got back late last night and then I went right into parent teacher conferences (more conferences!) today into tonight. I have to get up early tomorrow for conferences, but after that, I'm off from school until Monday. This week will be a great time to make some great art. I will post more of my pictures from NYSATA later. I might have time tomorrow. It's snowing so hard outside right now, I might pray for a snow day!!!!

I'm leaving, on a jet plane... or mini van.. or whatever.

I've packed my bags, switched my money to a small wallet instead of my huge one, and got out of bed at 5AM; everything I've needed to do before a trip I've done! I'm also taking a sketch book with me. I'm taking one that is almost full, so if it gets stolen, I know the person liked my art and didn't just need a sketch book. On that note, I've got to go get the pack and play (my Dad is probably on his way.). Everyone have a great weekend! I'll talk to you again Sunday night.
P.S. To all my artist out there, check out google today. Awesome.

Sometimes doing something difficult is only difficult until you try it.

Scared. Angry. Forgiveness. Panic. Frustration. I can honestly say I've had quite a big day. Emotions were running high in my household! Anyway, high emotions make for great art. Except I was to distraught to make any art. Tomorrow is conference, I can honestly say that I am excited to go. This will be my first time going. An entire place were people will have the exact same interest, and job, as me! I am brining my sketchbook and will post as soon as I get back on Sunday. (No post until then.) I leave you with glimpse into my life. A hallway rainbow. My students' one color collages, made from magazines. I know I said I would never put student work on the site, but I hung them on the wall. It counts, because I say so.

Our coffee filter turkeys, because I am a cool teacher, and even big kids need to have fun.

Yummy! Yes, I made these all by myself. I did these butterfly cupcakes for a teacher lunch that I went to. They were impressed, and I was too!!! They came out much better than I thought they would. And yes, you could eat every part of the butterfly.

Aaron gave me roses a few days ago. I love my husband.

Illustration Friday, Pretend and Wise

Last week I was a bad girl and started Illustration Friday, but never finished. So this week, I'll post both. The first one is a watercolor for the prompt Pretend. It is based on my youngest son, Trenton, and his friend, Trey. They are pretending to be their daddies. Don't you love the lunch box briefcase? I picked water color this week because I although I love to work in that medium, I rarely do. This is practice. The second picture, the one from last week, is for the prompt Wise. I drew a wizard. I always figured that if a person was going to be a wizard, they would have to be pretty smart to remember all the spells and such. If he looks a little Harry Potterish, please forgive me. Ben and I were watching the movie when I started on this. I think he's cute. Here is my thought for the day: if wizards existed, wouldn't they wear something more practical? I know I would be tripping over a cape/ robe that big! I can barely cook in a sweatshirt! Tee hee. Enjoy!

Oh, the things I must do...

Last night I went to a party at Maria's. It was amazingly fun. It felt good to chill out with new people. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have my husband by my side. He had to work. :o( Today was a relaxing day. I worked on my art most of the day, a little cleaning, a little cooking (not so much cooking!). I've been working on my ATCs. I have lots of ATCs that I've currently working on. My first set is for one of my bestest friends, Chris. Chris has a crush on Sarah Palin. If you know Chris, you would understand this completely. My second set of ATCs is a mixed bag; these ATCs I will be bringing to my NYSATA conference on Friday. I will be handing them out like business cards. Pretty clever, huh? The last set of ATCs I wanted to do was based on the book From the Mixed -up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It is one of my favorite books in the entire world. It is about a pair of kids that run away from home to go live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The same person, E.L. Konigsburgh, wrote and illustrated the book. The illustrations are prints, and they are so beautiful. I had two copies of the book, so yesterday I started to cover this old canvas with pages from the book. It was a painting I did for a friend who I no longer have any contact with. I covered it with pages from the book yesterday before the party, and today I painted it purple and a really pretty shade of blue. When it is finished, it will be a painting of the main character, Claudia, a character I could really relate to during different parts of my life. I tore out all the illustrations from the book and I am going to use those to make a series of ATCs. It's on the to-do list. So I leave you people here with some ATCs I made for conference.

"Never Too Much"

"Lucky"

"Spring"

"Sugar and Spice"

Sending out the birth announcements

I've named my two main characters in my novel. Dum-da-dum! Introducing Duncan and Kaden. Two brothers, Ducan is the older and Kaden is the younger. I have no middle names or last names. Small steps people, small steps.

Ugh, 5 days

So, I've been away from here for 5 days and it feels like it has been forever. I haven't been slacking, though. I've been working on NaNoWriMo like crazy, I had testing at school this week, grades were due on Wednesday, and I've battled a massive headache. I also have a teaching conference coming up next weekend, so I'll be busy at that. Then parent teacher conferences. Ahhhh! Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping (which I have started!), and Aaron's vacation. All of this stuff means I probably won't finish my novel by the end of the month and in all that time I will be neglecting my other art. I didn't even get to finish my IF this week. I started it, but didn't finish. I vow to finish "wise" and the new prompt "pretend" this weekend. I also want to paint. Painting is my release, and I really really need a release right now. Writing a novel is tough work! Ok, I will leave you with some art. The following below is called Slavery Still Exist. It is an oldie, done after my youngest was born, but I like it. It expresses who I am as a person. I HATE beauty magazines that tell you to be thin, have big boobies, perfect hair, the right clothing.... Yuck. It goes against all moral values I have as an artist and a cook. Never trust a skinny cook.... or a trendy artist.

I'm really really really doing it!!!!!!

I started my novel as soon as I finished my last post. MY NOVEL. What a lovely sound that is. 1,035 words into it already. Only about 49,000 to go. If I had 49 days, I would be all set. Ok, I'm finished writing this. I have to save my words for my NOVEL. Hahaha. I'll post snipts from what I write as soon as I write something good, I promise.

Sometimes, I have too much in my head....

I totally forgot that it was November. I am furious at myself. The reason is it is NaNoWriMo!!! It case you didn't know, NaNoWriMo is a novel writing prompt, but only for the month of November. I have been promising myself for years (3, I think) that I would do this. This was my year!!! And, guess what? I forgot!!!! I am go mad at myself. So... I am making a crazy decision to try and make up for lost time. I am going to try and write this stupid novel that has been in the back of my head for ages. That means my postings on other sites probably won't be as complete. I will post some of my oldies, just to keep up the habit. So, I will be scarce for awhile. Thank you, Neil Gaiman, for reminding me of this! Just another reason I love the man. (He didn't remind me personally! I read about it on his blog.) Here's the link:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Thanksgiving is in the air....

I decided to decorate my desk at school for Halloween with an ugly, old fake rat. Well... I didn't pick him up fast enough after the holiday... This is what happens when you leave a poor defenceless rat alone with 7th graders..... Poor rat. I hate to see what they will do for Christmas.

Oh, baby....

Here is a collage I made about 4 years ago, right after the birth of my son Trenton. Yes, that is him in the collage with his daddy. After I gave birth was a creative time for me. I had such a hard, morning-sickness filled pregnancy, it felt wonderful to be back at it again!

The reason I am posting this tonight instead of fresh work is I made a huge turkey dinner. Call it practice for Thanksgiving. No time for art when I'm full and happy as a pig. Besides, I did my creativeness for the day. I put up the first grade Thanksgiving bulletin board this afternoon. After stapling turkeys, cotton ball clouds, and foam flowers up, I'm spent.

Congratulations President Obama!

It's just been called! Sen. Obama will be the next president. Congratulations! I hope you all voted today. I know I did. It was such a busy night (homemade spaghetti, voting, Grammy's house) I did not get a chance to create any art. So I will leave you some of the projects that my students have been doing in class. I made these, I will never post any of my kids work on MY site. The first picture is a collage. The background is oil pastels and the spirals are made out of yarn.

Didn't it come out cute? The next project is a jack-o-lantern. It was made out of a milk jug, orange paint, and a toilet paper role painted green. Around the top I tied green yarn and glued it all together with green hot glue. It is stuffed with black tissue paper.

The back view of the pumpkin.

The kids "pumpkin jugs" came out so much better than mine, of course. Children have such a creative streak that adults are just lacking. And I get to work with it everyday. I love my job.

Illustration Friday, Vacant

Here is my illustration for vacant. It's Monday morning in the art room. Their minds are pretty vacant for the first 20 minutes.

The GAP sweatshirt is not product placement (I swear, no one paid me). It's just a shout out to my favorite sweatshirt. The shirt actually belongs to my husband. Now it gets to live out its 15 minutes of fame.