Best Buy of 2013

I have a bit of a compulsive buying habit.  Which if funny, because I also tend to not spend my money at all.  It's usually a case of "No, I can do without new shoes, new clothes, any jewelry, oh, but I'll buy this random thing.  This is a great idea."

Last year journals were the thing to buy.  I believe I bought four.  And one of them I consider my best buy of 2013 (to be honest, I haven't written up everything I bought and then chosen it as the best, but I can't think of anything that tops it at the moment):

It is a small bonded leather journal that fits in my purse.  Since a pen also fits in my purse, it comes to a perfect combination.

I love having something to write things on always handy.  There were often times when I would write poems on backs of stray receipts, but no more!  And anytime I want to write down a grocery list, remember a song or artist that someone is telling me about, or have a drawing contest while waiting for food at a restaurant, I've got the paper handy.

It's pretty adorable too.  Cute and functional.

Scattered Dreams, 1.8.13

Whose dreams are these

Scattered, shattered

On the floor?

How fell they from 

Their rightful place?

Whose hands tore them

From their homes

And shredded them 

With little grace?

Whose dreams are these?

They are crying for

And needing every day

The dreams are gone,

Will not return

For they have passed away

Praxis results

Early March I took the Praxis test for Middle School Mathematics.  The way the Praxis works, once you have a teaching certificate, you can take a Praxis to be certified in other areas.  My degree is in Elementary Education, grades 1-6.  Late last year I decided that I wanted to have certification for math, so I signed up for two tests: Middle School Mathematics, and High School Mathematics.  The first, as I said, was in March, the second will be in June.

I always have some sort of test anxiety, and of course, for a test that costs $130, and that I will only have one chance to pass, my anxiety was particularly unpleasant.  I did not sleep well the night before, waking up every 10-15 minutes between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.

By the time the test started I was tired, slightly grumpy (the proctor decided to wait about a half hour for someone who was supposed to be there, but never showed), and increasingly nervous.  Once the test started, it only got worse.

The test consists of 40 multiple choice questions and 3 construct-answer questions.  Whenever I take a timed test, I work my way through putting stars by any question that I am not absolutely certain that I got the right answer on.  In the first 40, there were three that entirely baffled me (one that I worked through, got an answer for, but it wasn't one of the options, one that I couldn't even think of where to begin solving it, and I don't recall the last one).  I then started on the construct questions.  The first one was fairly simple, I knew exactly what it was asking, and was able to make the graph, the formula, and the explanation for both.  Nervously looking at the clock, I went on to construct question number two.  Part one, easy.... too easy?  Did they seriously just ask me to answer that?  Anyway, I didn't have time to think of a harder answer, so easy it would have to be.  Part two,  didn't make sense at all.  After frantically reading it two or three times, I left sufficient space for it, and went on to part three.  This I understood, and was able to jot down some sort of answer.

I forced myself on to construct question three.  As in the second question, there was one part that wasn't making sense to me.  I put the best answer I could, and went back to question two.  Not happy with either of them, I decided it was time to use my remaining time to go over the entire test, checking through.  I didn't have time to check all of them, so I started with the ones that I had starred.

Guys, what I am about to tell you is something I will probably be ashamed of for the rest of my life.  The first starred question asked me how many more compound numbers than prime numbers there were between two specific numbers.  I had written down all the prime numbers, subtracted them from the compound numbers and come up with a number that wasn't one of my choices.  When I came back to it, I counted up the prime numbers again and found that I had previously miscounted.

I wrote down 10 prime numbers, but had counted them as 12, so when I subtracted them, I got an incorrect answer.

With probably about 15 minutes of the test left, a wave of horror swept over me.  I had no time to check the whole test over, and I just found out that today apparently I could not even count correctly to 10.  I did my best with all the other starred problems, and was able to check over the construct questions one more time, and the first 15 or so of the multiple choice before the time was up.

The rest of the day I was in a bit of a daze.  The only bright spot was finding out that Tess got engaged (yay!).  When anyone (which was basically everyone I saw) asked me how it went, I gave a sickly smile and replied, "not too well."  The best I could say was: at least I finished all the questions.

Often when I said that I didn't do too well, the person would respond with "I'm sure you did just fine", and eventually, Ellie started answering for me with "She passed, she just missed a few points."  I hate not living up to expectations, and I was horribly worried that I wouldn't pass, and everyone would be terribly disappointed.

So fast-forward to today.  I had been expecting an email with my test results, but they hadn't come in yet.  I took matters into my own hands, and looked it up on the ETS website.  I passed, with a score of 191 out of 200 possible.  I am now rather happy, and extremely relieved.  Now I am just waiting for the horror of June 7th.

Wedding gifts

I went to my first double wedding last September.  The brides were sisters, two lovely ladies that I had the pleasure of meeting several years ago.

Because I procrastinated, I was only able to put together a gift for them from their registry, kitchen ware of some kind for both of them.  However, I resolved to fix that problem, so I began tossing around ideas of what I could make them. 

During the wedding reception I started writing a poem for each of the couples.  My first idea was to write up their separate poems in some nice calligraphy, and then quill a border around it, taking inspiration from the flowers in their bouquets.  After the poems turned out less than satisfactory, the idea went to the back burner.

And stayed there until Christmas.  Christmas, however, pulled it back to the front when I received (among other things) a book on quilled flowers.  Upon seeing the stunning sunflowers, I had my idea.  I got on Facebook, found pictures of their bouquets, and created quilled pictures accordingly.

Here is Katie's:

(click picture to enlarge)

The prominent flower in both bouquets was a lovely sunflower.  There were also white roses, some greenery, and, in Katie's, hydrangea. 

Here is Abigail's:

(click picture to enlarge)

Her bouquet turned out a little more difficult for me to put on paper.  She did not have hydrangea, and the two other things that stood out in her bouquet was a sprig of eucalyptus, and some shoots of goldenrod.  I really wanted to go with the eucalyptus, but the way it was in the arrangement, I could only picture it coming almost straight out of the picture frame, and this was not something I could manage without rigging something.  Also, I did not have the right green in my paper stash.  So goldenrod it was.

 

 

I love goldenrod.  I really do.  But may I never have cause to quill it ever again.  Each "blossom" was created by fringing a 3/16" wide piece of paper.  There are approximately 130 blossoms in this single spring.  Each one has about four "fringes" (or whatever you would call it).  Once each piece was twirled around and glued, I then had to glue each one in place.  A very long process.  And unfortunately, I was never fully satisfied with the end result.  So maybe someday I will give it another go.

Back on Track

To quote a famous author, " 'I've failed sir,' I sobbed, as I made my report, to the chief Yookeroo in the headquarters fort."

It's been 26 days since I last posted, when I was supposed to post once every seven days.  Tsk, tsk.

Therefore I'll make a slight revision to the resolution, and aim for 52 blog posts this year, ideally once a week.  Sound reasonable?

So what have I been up to this month, eh?  I have no intention of telling you everything I've done this month, but  let's start with my hair cut.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have heard that I caught my hair on fire back at the end of January (month ago today, actually).  This required me to get a hair cut, which I did about two weeks later.  Below is a picture of the length of my hair back in June of last year, which is approximately how long it was before the ends burned (I got two inches trimmed off, and they had probably grown back by then).  The second picture is it's current length and cut.  (It occurred to me after uploading the pictures, that the different scales make it very difficult to tell the difference in length.  I got 6"-8" removed.)

 

The first night when I braided it for bed, my thought was "My braid has been abridged."  Quite sad.  But I'm enjoying the layers. :)

A Faerie Dance, 12.24.13

A Faerie Dance

A faerie fire brightly shone

Far beyond the trees

Their silver voices, laughingly

Came soft upon the breeze

I stood a while listening

And sank beneath their spell

Then found myself quite quickly

Beside their haunted dell

They looked at me in wonder

As much as I at them           

Not understanding they had called

Me to their festive glen

But soon their wonder disappeared

Melting with their laughter

They let me join their merry ring

                   Beside the woodland water                    

I stayed with them for hours

Danced into the night

Even until morning, when

Magic faded in the light

Still I find them, now and then

Dancing through the trees

I can join them, if I will

Our laughter bright and free

More Quilled Earrings

So, posting once a week on here is going to be difficult.  I did well the first two weeks, posting several times, but these last two I've been dragging my feet.  Eventually I need to decide what I want this blog to be about.

Here are a few more of my quilling designs for now:

 I call these ones Gossamer Wings, due to their delicate look.  I'm not hugely fond of them.

 These I designed in a mostly last minute panic.  I was at Camp David, and had been planning on teaching some of the campers how to quill some earrings.  I had thought there would be between 1 and 2 hours, so had planned a design accordingly, but then was told the day before that it was only a half hour.  So that evening I sat in the back of the staff area and designed some new earrings that would take approximately that much  time.

 These ones are super simple, but I like their elegance.  And the mug is cool too.

And, these.  I love these earrings.  I'm surprised I haven't made myself a pair yet, but I'm sure I will someday.  Actually, they are a bit too modern to fit into my wardrobe, but aren't they fun?