Craft-o-rama

So I am now officially back from spring break and have nothing to show for it but a slight sunburn. No pictures, no souvenirs except seashells. Yeah I know I'm lame. I am glad to be home however. I have finished my taxes and I am ready to throw myself into finding a teaching job. I am also in the mood to do some really fantastic donation/charity help. I don't think people do enough of it, myself included, but I have found a group that I think is very deserving of assistance. It is called The Painted Turtle summer camp. It is a camp for children with very serious illnesses. The kids get to go and have fun like a "normal" child. They are sent home with a turtle pillow and a lap quilt so that when they are in and out of the hospital they are able to take them and remember their good times at camp and hopefully get better so that they can go again next summer. The camp really needs help with donations in any form. If you are a sewer you can donate by send lap quilts, unstuffed turtle pillows or twin sized quilts. If you are not a sewer you could always send monetary donations or donations of time if you live close by. If you would like more information about the camp and directions for the pillows or quilts go here.

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So I am officially on Spring Break and I'm visiting my mother in Lillian, Alabama. Its been an odd first couple of days. The weather should be sunny and warm but its been just the opposite or sort of opposite, sunny and cold or cloudy and hot/humid. I am really wanting to go to the beach but if it doesn't warm up I think that will be out of the question. Today my Aunt, who is also down here, showed me how to make hair bows. They are super cute and easy to make. She sells them at a consignment store back in Kansas and my mother has roped her into doing a craft show in November. She has asked me to make her an apron and sign for the show. I'm excited. We just need to come up with a good name for her crafts. I'm hoping to have a better update when I get back from vacation but I forgot to bring the digital camera so it might be a little longer than a week. We will see how things go.....

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I signed up for an ATC swap with a science theme. I chose botany and this is my project in progress. It was sent to ruffledfeather.This is what it looked like when she received it. It was a ton of satin stitch but I think it turned out very nice, except for the little spot by the one where I pulled out some stitching that I didn't like. I couldn't get the left over fibers out of it :(

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French poster
Originally uploaded by aubribanana

Okay so here are some updated shots of my giant embroidery poster. It is very slow work because I'm doing side projects on top of it. It is also going slow because I don't have much free time right now, and what free time I do have its spent studying algebra 2 so that I can feel confident in what I'm telling my tutoring students(its been a few years, like 10, since I took it). If you would like to see more of my work and crafts, you can go to my flickr page here.

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So I haven't been doing much lately. I just started working a second job. This means that when I get a subbing job during the day I'm working from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm and going straight to the tutoring center and working with kids until 8:00 pm. I'm pretty exhausted but I love tutoring. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you work with a child on something that they think they will never ever understand and finally seeing that realization that they can do it. The more and more I work with kids the more I want my own classroom. I get all these great ideas about how I want to teach and what I can do to my classroom to make it a fun and comfortable learning environment. I do think I have a principal that is very interested in hiring me so now its just playing the waiting game until they start filling the positions of the teachers that will be leaving at the end of the year. Not only can I not wait to have a classroom but the difference in pay will be mind blowing. I won't know what to do with it all. (okay so I do know what to do with it, start paying off debts. But you know what I mean.) I won't have to feel like I'm living off of my boyfriend anymore. Which I know he doesn't mind helping me but I've never had to rely on someone to survive so maybe its my ego talking but I don't want to feel like I owe any anything. Even if it is the person that I plan to spend the rest of my life with. Its a partnership and I don't feel like I'm holding up my end of the bargain. Anyways enough of my ranting. I'm going to take some pictures of the embroidery I start forever ago, Its not anywhere near complete but I think for it being my first big project and with the small amounts of time I have to work on it, its coming along nicely.

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So I haven't been so good about updating but I do have a good excuse. We were out of town for two weeks and getting onto a computer was like a battle. I am back home however and have a swap that I just completed. It was to make reusable grocery bags and it was really quick and easy. I love the bags I made and cant wait to see what I'll get. I will post pictures of the bags as soon as they are washed, dried and ironed. I think I might even make a tutorial for them (maybe?). I know there are a lot of different websites out there that have them but I thought I would give it a shot. I also have some pictures of our god awful Christmas tree and plan on posting those once I download the pictures. I hope everyone will get a kick out of them. And last but not least, the next swap that I'm doing is coming up and I will be working on a winter themed apron, two winter recipes and a winter gift. I will hopefully post all of those as well in the next couple of weeks. See you soon!

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So I've been sick, really, really sick. Congestion, green stuff (ewwww) and fever. So the fever passed after two days but now I sound like a prepubescent boy with little to no voice. I can't talk without sounding like one of my dogs toys*squeak squeak. If that isn't enough, because i'm a substitute teacher I sort of need my voice to work, so I haven't worked all week either. We are getting ready to make a 21 hour drive back home for the holidays and it has been snowing, sleeting and iceing all around(except for where I live, its been 60. I know you are jealous). So not only am I still congested, I have no voice and I'm going on a very long drive though lots of bad weather. I guess growing up in the midwest prepared me for these perilous conditions so thank you mom and dad for living in he middle of the most treacherous weather all year round. Okay enough of my rant. I have been inspired(by a couple of other blogs), while without voice, to make a few cheery christmas decorations and I'm almost finished with them so as soon as those are done pics will go up.

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