Days 26 & 27

Day 26:

Painted with Kindergarten on day 26, always an adventure!

Day 27:

The only time Boo lays on one of the sections in our sectional is when there are stacks of neatly folded laundry on it.  Which should probably give me enough motivation to put the clothes away right after they are folded.  This is not the case.  I can have kind of a one track mind and unless something is right in front of me, it's kind of out of sight, out of mind.  Even though I sit about four feet from that section every night while I edit pictures, watch tv, etc., I never think to put the clothes away!

Days 21-25

Day 21:

The students were happy to be outside at recess.  The window behind my desk looks out onto the playground so I was having fun watching the kiddos play tetherball and four square.  I used to be awesome at four square.

Day 22:

An amaryllis at my parents' house.

Day 23:

Warm enough to go for a walk and- what?  The SUN was shining!

Day 24:

I love my dog.  Jared went to help my dad with something for our house and came back with a UNO tshirt.  You never know what you'll find in the rag bin.  People bring in mostly ratty old clothes for them to use as stain rags but Dayna and I (back in the day) have found some keepers in there!  I asked Jared if we could put the shirt on Boo- nothing funnier at the moment than a dog in people clothes.  We even got her to sit near the big windows so I could get a good photo inside!  This makes me smile.  I need to get a copy for school!

Day 25:

Broke out my paint shirt tonight to paint some valentines.  I bought my paint shirt at a thrift store when I was in high school on a "$2 Tuesday"- fill a grocery bag of clothes for two bucks!  My friend, RaeAnn, and I used to go there after school to see what we could see.  Anyway... this shirt has seen me through four years of high school art classes, painting at ESU, and the painting of several murals.

Days 18-20

Day 18:

No school!  While my husband was still sleeping, I spent a couple hour painting this swallowtail caterpillar.  It's on 16x20 inch canvas.  I still need to varnish it but I know it will take a long time to dry spraying it outside in this weather.  I need to look at it again to make sure I'm finished.  I remembered being happier with it than I am just looking at the photo.

Day 19:

I almost missed a day!  Jared was off work since we got new carpet put in earlier in the day so I got to hang out with him last night and wasn't really thinking about my photo until bed time.  This is a picture of the random art supplies/tools that I leave laying around the house and end up putting in this ceramic cup thing.  When I took ceramics at ESU, our first project on the wheel was to throw a dozen cylinders.  Mine weren't very good.  Works as a pencil cup though!

Day 20:

Stopped at an antique shop on my way home and bought this chalkware lettuce head lady.  I have mostly fruit decorations and just a few vegetables but I thought this was really funny.  Just need to touch up the nicks with a little paint and she'll be good as new!

P.S. Can you tell I'm getting tired of inside pictures?  I haven't complained about the weather so far, trying to patiently wait for spring but then I get seed catalogs in the mail and I'm ready to start my flower garden!

Days 15-17

Day 15:

Friday afternoon was LOOOOONG.  The lessons I taught in the afternoon went great on Monday and Tuesday but for some reason things were just not flowing on Friday.  I was doing a follow the leader drawing with my Kindergarten students and they were WAY too wound up for that to work right.  The drawings were ok it was just next to impossible to get them quiet and focused.  Somebody said it might be from the first day back to outside recess.  Sheesh!  Hopefully next Friday will be better!

Day 16:

Freezing fog again!  Boo and I went on an exploration around the neighborhood (her first walk in a LONG time due to weather/cold) and I took this picture of the "frog" on the golden rain tree seed pods in the back yard.

I have had a lot of fun watching the bird in the back yard.  (Note to self: move the tiki torch!)  I cleaned both sides of the glass so it's easier to take photos.  I need to get out my bird guide so I can identify some of these little guys!  Some aren't so little, I have two different kinds of wood peckers, saw the giant kind land on the bird feeder which looked kinda funny.  Almost as funny as the squirrels who still manage to get the seed with the cage on it.  The squirrels got the lid off and I need to put it back on but it's a mess from the snow and melted muddy snow stuff.  Anyway, enough ramblings about birds for one night.

Days 11-14

Day 11:

Drove to school in a lot of fog the other day and when I got to Pauline, the frost or ice (not sure which) was just beautiful on the trees!  This is the view from my classroom window, I wanted to play hooky and go take closer pictures.  The trees looked like this until about 2:00 but everything had melted by the time I could leave school.

Day 12:

Sanna, my little German friend, sent me these sea shells a couple years ago that she had retrieved from the North Sea.  I took them in my little jar to school where they sit on my windowsill and make me smile.

Day 13:

This is Big Foot.  Big Foot is almost 4 years old.  I made him in my Elementary Art Education class at ESU.  He lives at Pauline South where he is my classroom mascot and watch bird.  His favorite food is popcorn and he loves orange juice.  I kind of want to have some of the students write and illustrate a story about him.  Or maybe he could be the main character in a children's book. :)

Day 14:

I love cranberry muffins.  I make a batch about every week.  I was still hungry after eating lemon chicken and almost a whole can of green beans for supper so I made muffins for dessert (and breakfast tomorrow.)

Days 8-11

Day 8:

Kiwis!  I don't like to eat this fruit quite as much as I like how it looks!

Day 9:

Soooo.... Jared tried to teach Boo how to bring him a drink.  She carried the can a few times before her teeth punctured it and sprayed everywhere.  Jared was laughing so I actually got a smiling picture of him.  I love this photo.

Day 10:

Left the lemon in my drink for a while and came back to find awesome bubbles all over it!

Day 11:

I have some talented students!  We started drawings for the Jr. Duck Stamp program today and I was so impressed with my students' drawings.  This student was in 2nd grade and you can see from the reference photo I took, he is off to a great start!

Day 7

Day 7:

My parents called to tell me there were some really giant sun dogs that I should go take a picture of.  I drove out on the old highway and came across on a country road with no trouble.  I crossed Highway 75  so I could get a bigger picture.  Looked down P road and it seemed fine so I decided that was how I would get back into town.  All of a sudden, the road was drifted over and I didn't have room to turn around.  So, I thought I would just drive on through it in 4 wheel drive since it seemed to be my best option.  I got stuck.  Tried backing out to no avail.  Boo was getting really impatient.  Jared had already left for work so I called Dad and he said he was on his way.  I wasn't too far from a house and before I knew it, the owner was plowing his way to me in a bobcat and his son was walking toward the truck with a snow shovel.  My dad showed up, that's his truck in the background of the picture and they all three worked together to clear the road so Dad could pull me out.  It made me appreciate this community even more where even a stranger will go out of his way to help a silly stranded girl.

Days 5 & 6

Day 5:

I have been paying a lot of attention to sunsets.  Now that it's winter I get to see the sunset almost every day on my drive home from school.  I decided that for the sunset to be the prettiest, the cloud situation has to be partly cloudy.  If there are too many clouds, the sun is obviously blocked and if there are no clouds it's just kind of boring.  The clouds give the light something to reflect off of and it makes for more interesting colors.  I decided to take my camera with me to yoga class at the EUM and when I pulled in to the parking lot, the sun was setting behind a church (I should probably know the name of the church after having lived in Holton my whole life) and I liked the building and the branches.

Day 6:

It started snowing today at school so there was a lovely white backdrop out my classroom window that made the roots of the Swedish Ivy start in this vase look awesome and glowy.  I probably need to plant it in something but I think it looks kind of cheerful in the vase.

Days 1-4

Day 1:

I took this photo of the mixed media painting I just finished.  I created a similar picture before and sold it to one of my 5th grade teachers and wanted another one for myself!  It has a tissue paper "transfer" and embroidered details (Be Still and around the cardinals.)

Day 2:

My dog, Boo (a one year old black lab,) and I went on a photography excursion in the back yard!  We still have snow from the Christmas blizzard and it was snowing again.  I like to photograph Boo in the snow.  Her dark coat makes it hard to get a good photo without using flash inside.  Of course she is so fast outside it is still tricky to get a good picture!  I think that the contrast helps the photo turn out.

Day 3:

My husband gave me this Kit-Cat clock for my birthday the first year we were married.  I have a thing for retro kitchen decorations and remember seeing a Kit-Cat clock in a movie.... maybe Honey I Shrunk the Kids?  Something like that... I like to watch the eyes and tail move when I'm thinking because the kitchen table is my favorite place to work.

Day 4:

Today was a teacher work day at school so I got to finish putting everything away in my new classroom.  It is a MUCH better set up for an Art classroom.  I have been getting a lot of supplies donated and one of the other teachers gave me some letter magnets, which I love.  I have a whole bunch on my refrigerator at home.  I used the letters at school to spell out the elements of art on the metal front of my desk.

In the beginning

After watching a friend's Project 365 and reading more about the idea, I decided that the start of a new year is the perfect time to take on this project!  I already take TONS of photos but having the goal of taking a photo every day to record a year in my life is really intriguing.  Not that my life is any more interesting than the next person's, but everybody has something to share and something to say.  The photographic record of my first three days in 2010 are coming soon!