Back To School Already?

 It's August 1st. For most of the country, there is still another month of summer to enjoy, but here in the south, school starts in just two weeks! Hard to believe, right? 

I felt like doing a little back-to-school project, so I went in the garage and looked through hubby's supply of wood scraps. I found a wooden 2 X 2 piece and asked him if he could put a point on it so I could paint it to look like a pencil. Here is the result.

I didn't think to take work in progress photos because I was having such a good time painting this big pencil. I decided that it needed a companion, so we looked through more wood scraps and found a board that I could make into a composition book. I took WIP photos this time.

I put some primer and a few coats of white paint on it.

Then I broke up some bits of  sponge to make random sponge prints all over
the "book." I masked off the white area to keep it clear.

After lots of dabbing here and there, I pulled off the masked area and this is how it looked.

I outlined the white area and used a paint marker to write the wording and draw the lines.

Pretty neat! 

Have you done any back-to-school shopping yet? Even if you're not in school or don't have kids going to school anymore, it's a great time to get office supplies or desk accessories if you need them. You can also donate school supplies to local schools and churches who may be distributing them to needy students. 

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It's Back To School Time!

 

It's back to school time. That's me with one of my painted rocks made to look like a composition book.  I made a few of these and some pencils too. I was going to sell them on Facebook to make some money to pay for my paint pens, but a friend of mine said she'd buy all of them. 

I also made this apple. I have a wellness check with my PCP coming up and I was going to give it to her as a surprise. You know, an apple a day...yadda yadda. 

School started on August 9th. I started subbing on the 7th and I'm booked through to the 18th already. The hourly pay for cafeteria subs went up to $15.00 an hour which is great. I normally don't work full weeks, but I'm at a school that only serves about 300 kids compared to other schools that serve almost double that, so it's fairly easy. I'm filling in for a vacancy. An assistant manager, (who was not a nice person), decided to take revenge on the manager by quitting right before school started, knowing it would take a few weeks to get a replacement. Little does that person know that everyone is happy she's gone and the place is running just fine without her. 

It's hot as blazes here in the south. When you open the door to the outside it feels like this....

It's no joke. I think it's hot enough to bake bread in the mailbox.
Real feels are over 100 almost every day. It's crazy.

I hope you are keeping cool wherever you are.

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Feathery Friday

It's been a good week. We've had a couple of days with cooler temps and lower humidity so I was able to take nice long walks with Zoey up at the park. I found these Blue Jay feathers along the path. No doubt the bird they once belonged to became a hawk's meal, poor thing. I took the feathers home, washed and dried them and saved them for a possible craft project.

It's really beautiful where I walk. There's a creek that runs through the park and a little bridge that goes over it. Little fishes live in the water and turtles too. Hubby and I go on weekends together and always bring Cheerios to feed them. I brought some with me yesterday and this little guy was right there waiting for his breakfast.

In our own backyard it's been busy with all kinds of bird activity. I was sitting out there with Zoey under our shade umbrella when I realized there was a bird that kept swooping around me.  I looked up and there up inside the umbrella, I saw a nest!

It's a cardinal's nest!

We are so excited! At the same time we are worried because, should a storm come through, we'll be unable to take the umbrella down and it could blow over. Not sure what to do except hope that the babies hatch and learn to fly quickly before that happens. 

I've been busy painting rocks all week. I finally finished my basket of apples and I have to say it's my personal best. I call it my masterpiece, lol

I'm keeping this one for myself. I just love it.

It was hard to think of something that could top that piece, so I went in another direction entirely and decided to do some graphic style back-to-school rocks. I had a lot of fun with them.

I posted this last photo on my Facebook page. My principal saw it and messaged me that she wanted to buy the whole set, so they are sold! lol

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At this point, you may be wondering if there is any update on my daughter. Well, last Friday she had her interview with the charter school for the computer tech job. She didn't leave there feeling very confident. The job is much more than it was described in the posting and would involve her having to go to one of the 30 schools each day on her own. Some locations are an hour away from the administration building. She said their systems are much more advanced than what she was used to working with when she was a tech aide 6 years ago. They said they'd contact her within a week and as of yet she has heard nothing. The job is still posted and has been up since May so either they are not in a hurry to hire someone or they've not found the right candidate yet.

In the meantime.....

In my last post I wrote that her computer tech interview had been rescheduled from last Monday to that Friday. Well, in that week's time she was contacted by the animation studio!! Yes!! They emailed her saying that she might be a good candidate for their team. Well, she was very excited as you can imagine. They needed her to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they could "move her application forward." She did that and then received a test. It was a background test and something not in her style at all. She said it's for them to see if the artist can adapt their skills to the studio's needs. She was given a week to complete it. 

Well, she worked on it over the weekend and submitted it on Tuesday. She then got a response saying they would contact her early next week. So at this point we are just waiting. Waiting. Waiting. If she doesn't hear anything back from the school today, it's a safe bet to say she didn't get the job, so the next thing to do is wait for the animation studio to respond. She's on pins and needles as are we all. 

Have a good Friday and a great weekend!

First Week of School Down And Some Rocks.

Although I've been back at work since August 7th, this past week was the first one with students. They started on Monday, the day of the eclipse. Turkey sandwiches were on the menu, so we didn't have to cook, which was great. We originally planned for the kids to have sack lunches to take outside for the big event, but they ended up eating inside and going out afterwards. 

We spent a lot of time the two weeks prior cleaning and decorating the cafeteria. My manager had some tension style curtain rods and we made up paper banners to hang in the windows. I created the one above. Our new assistant manager made this school bus banner below. She is crafty too.

Our theme this year was emojis, so we each made one with our likenesses. lol. 

And we put more around the cafeteria for fun.

So being back at work means less time for painting rocks. I have 7 weekends until the fall pop up market to get more inventory made. I have about 35 rocks so far, but I'd like to have 50. Yesterday I put on Pandora and got busy. I made one rock for inventory and also got some done for hiding. It's been a long time since I hid any rocks. My hubby even got into the action. Here are some we made and placed around town yesterday.

Some simple love rocks made using Frog tape and assorted glitter nail polish.

These are strawberries I had started a long time ago, but never got around to
putting the seeds on. I used paint pens instead of a brush which worked out better.

These are hubby's rocks. He really got into making and also hiding them.
I even added him as a member of our rock group.

And this is the rock I made for my fall market inventory. I love how it came out.

Punkins!

I made this gator last weekend. He's pretty cool.

And this is a book of spells I made two weekends ago. Yes, it's a rock. I found it in a pile of
dirt that was being dug up for a drainage project in our local park. It's really bumpy on the back, but
the shape just screamed out "I'm a book!"

So that's what's been going on in my world lately. I have some Furry Friday catching up to do, so maybe I'll do a pet post soon. Have a great Sunday!

Only one more day of freedom.....

I got the lunch lady blues. I don't want to go back to work.

 I just want to sell on Ebay and make comics. Heh heh.

Hey! Last night, while I was sleeping, I sold three things! That's a lot for me. I'm starting to think this Buy It Now thing is really "it." I keep thinking about opening a store, but after readling Tina's post, I'm not so sure. Anyway I woke up to find that I sold...

                                 Mickey Mouse shower rings for $19.99

                           

4 small religious book for $19.99

Jesus off the cross for $24.99




My owl bookends sold today too! $74.99 w/free shipping to.....guess where?
That's right! California!

My front porch is coming along nicely. The railings started going up today.
Photos will be coming shortly.

Meanwhile...................

Don't tempt me Muffin!