New Direction

This summer is looking promising, especially compared to last summer, which involved a lot of working for school that did not involve monetary compensation of any sort.

I considered getting a job for the summer.  The thought of having another income while still getting paid by school was really enticing.  But then Spring semester happened, and I'm just barely hobbling along to the end of the semester--the burnout is hitting me hard for this year.  On top of that, the precarious position all teachers in Texas have found ourselves this year has been a stressful struggle.  Texas lawmakers are dumbasses.  At any rate, the uncertainty about my job status came during a time in which I was already considering a career shift, perhaps a change altogether.  The thing I enjoy most about my job is creating well-designed, research-based materials for my students.  And I've basically designed two textbooks this year.  When I stop and think about it, it's absurd.

Anyway, I've been considering a shift to textbook development/design because I have the skill set, the education, and the creative knowhow/ability to do it and do it well.  The only issue is getting a little more relevant experience to make that shift.  Thus, I am taking a vector graphics class this summer, and probably going to take a graphic design basics class in the fall.  I took that stuff as an undergrad as part of my art minor, but it has been a while, and now the information would have more relevance to my life, rather than just being random classwork.  I'm super excited about it all!  I'll share some of my work here as I go along this summer.  There are two major textbook companies here in town, and several small educational companies that create online learning programs.

Additionally, last year I had planned that I would make and sell lots of fun stuff on Etsy...and then reality hit and dissolved those plans.  So I'm renewing it and will be preparing a shop-full of items and opening the store at some point this summer.  Definite updates will be posted later, as well as sneak peeks of items to come!

And one last fun thing for you: I started playing the ukulele earlier this year!  Isn't she lovely???

I am in love with this instrument!  I've had a guitar for a number of years, and I couldn't really get into it, but I can't put the ukulele down!  I have a good little routine of songs at this point, adding to it everyday. Perhaps I'll share some with you this summer ;)

feather-brained!

My favorite book is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.  Magical realism is by far my favorite literary device, and this book is just overflowing with it.  I recently started reading it again.

My favorite character in this book is a parrot that talks as a human would--he is clever and witty, and truly is a central character.  If I were a character in a book, I'd want to be him.  So I researched parrots, and what I found made me smile!  This is actually one of my long-time favorites:

 By Clarence Edward Zuelch. I really liked the nondescript face/beak of the pastel by Zuelch; I've noticed in other photos and artworks of parrots that the beak and eyes always seem to turn out menacing and grotesque.  It's no judgment of the artist, but parrots don't have faces that are easy to paint.  It seems leaving them nondescript is the only way for them not to look strange or cartoony.

I love this painting (that I can't seem to find an artist name for other than the one in the link, kristen byers? can't seem to tell if that's just the person who blogged about it).  It's electric!  Exploding with energy, I just can't stop looking at it.  There is so much movement in the lines.

One more.  This one is adorable, but not cutesy--with the parrot all fuzzled and nestled in its own feathers (artist  Nkolika Anyabolu):

I just love it when animals do adorable things without meaning to.  It's something humans find more challenging (the unintentional part, that is).  Well, and humans are generally less fuzzy than animals, which automatically means animals win.

So I hope you enjoyed these random parrots!  They are great works of art!

Helloooo again...

It has definitely been a while.  Second year of teaching has far surpassed first year of teaching in stress overload.  I really set the bar high for myself this year, and I've been teaching a new class, so it has been kicking my butt for 10 months.  Nevertheless, I am seeing that light at the end of this tunnel, and baby it looks good!

Anyway, due to my workload, many of my "projects" since August have been creating materials for my classroom that are, frankly, not something I should really be doing for this salary.  The time, thought, etc., that has gone into them just was a bit overboard.  For that reason, I am officially going to try to go the route of textbook development/design, which will still involve me teaching for a few more years.  I'm going to start with some graphic design classes this summer (it has been quite a while since my last one), and perhaps some type of editing.  I have the education background, and I've been essentially developing my own curriculum--in some cases for lack of organization of the existing curriculum, in others because the textbook materials are not based on current research.  So there!  I'm extremely excited about getting back in some art classes!  Considering a ceramics class too :)

I have, of course, found some time for projects along the way this year.  Jeff and I moved in December to a much more awesome abode, which left a bit more space for a few new pieces of furniture.  I rarely buy new furniture, so here is the stereo/record cabinet we bought:

We got it for dirt cheap at a thrift store.  Someone had removed the old stereo--though we're not sure if they wanted the stereo itself and not the cabinet or wanted to put a different stereo inside it.  It was strange.  Anyway, we were very happy with the situation because we had a vintage stereo/turntable/speakers that had no home.  It was a surprisingly difficult project (they really used to make furniture well!), but it turned out amazingly well:

We are quite pleased with it!

And also, we found ourselves in need of a hutch of some sort to store all the dishes/barware we got for wedding gifts (2 years ago, yikes), so we found a delightful piece with an undesirable paint job at a different thrift store just days later.  We had to sand it:

Added some much-needed wood glue:

Then a few coats of semi-gloss black, and here she is (not a great quality photo, unfortunately):

That's all for now.  I hope to update more often now that school is about to end for a little while.