Wednesday, June 24, 2009

June 21, 2009

The other night when I wrote the really long sentence that I made the run-on comment about, it made me think of my high school English teacher, Mrs. Billye Crawford. I remembered a note that she had added to the margin of one of the free writings I did in class. This particular writing I think all I did was complain. It was just one negative thought after another with very little in the way of punctuation. Her note to me was a list of things that bugged her. Topping the list was the repeated use of run-on sentences by a student that she knew had better grammar skills than she was showing. I've long since forgotten the other items in her list. This happened over 25 years ago but it stuck with me over the years. It made an impact on me. At the time I didn't realize that she was one of the best teachers I would ever have.

I found out yesterday that Mrs. Crawford had just passed away. Surprisingly, it was Facebook where I found out. One person had posted the news and many others had commented about this wonderful teacher we all had. We are all better people for having known her. I'm sure the news of her death brought sadness to all of her former students at Tuckerman High School. She was very loved and respected.

June 18, 2009

This first entry comes exactly two weeks after I had originally planned to write it, it was even posted a few days after that. I got so caught up in the freedom of summer break ... sleeping late, reading into the wee hours of the morning, searching out new-to-me creative blogs - all wonderful things. However if I don't watch myself, that's all I will do all summer long and come the end of August, I won't really have accomplished anything at all.

Each year at school's end I tell myself that this is the year that I'll get that beautiful quilt sewn, work in my art journal regularly, make Hannah B. lots of cool clothes - all this in addition to being a super cool aunt who has loads of fun with her favorite kids. (whew, talk about a run-on sentence!) This year I want to do a little of that but not to the extent that I deprive myself of being able to sleep the morning away every now and then. What good is it to have the whole (well, almost) summer off and force myself to stay busy working on things all the time. It would be kinda like my school year, just with less kids - only 2, Alec and Hannah, the loves of my life.





Even though I've done a good amount of wallowing in bed half the morning, I've still accomplished a few creative things. I reworked my screen frame earring holders from a couple of summers back. I liked them just fine until I saw a post on Centsational Girl's blog where she made one of these for her daughter's room. Her's was so pretty that my plain Jane ones just wouldn't do. I made a WalMart run for pretty yellow and turquoise paints and screw eyes to use for hanging necklaces. We had some better sturdier wire than what I used before so I used it instead of the original screen window wire. I really like them now. I'll have to take photos to put in here. I love them and the color I used is very similar to the blue-green paint in the verdi gris finish I painted on my antique iron bed years ago - another summer project. The yellow just makes me happy.

Making, or re-making, as it was, made me want to do more creative things. I bought a new rotary cutter to start my summer quilt project I've wanted to do for a while. I know where the fabric all is but I haven't found the pattern book yet. I know I saw it not too awfully long ago but I can't remember where. Luckily I did find a back up pattern to use if it doesnt' turn up soon. I'm just not sure that I'll have the right amounts of yardage and since I bought the fabric 2 summers ago I know I won't be able to match it to buy more.

I have started weeding through my books so surely I will find it. I listed and sold several quilt books on ebay (Yay me!). I hadn't looked at them in years so hopefully I will never miss them. I do tend to get attached to my books. After I am done sorting through them, I'm going to move on to my scrapbook magazine and idea books as well as my stacks of romances. Most likely any profit made will be used to buy new books so I'll be defeating the purpose of de-cluttering.

I've started a couple of other projects but I'm going to save them to another day to share. I've been plenty chatty enough tonight as it is.

Lastly, I am really enjoying Facebook. I don't know why it took me so long to decide to do it. I had good intentions earlier this year when Lori talked to me about it. It's been nice to hear from my former classmates that I havent' seen in ages. I can't help but be a little bit envious of those who seem to have it all - husband, kids, a great job. I need to remind myself of what I do have more often.