Whoops! It's been a long time!

This crazy summer is winding down and I can honestly say I'm ready for school to start...I'm ready for a daily purpose and structured routine. By this point every summer, all the free time and hours at the pool turn my brain to mush. I end up spending hours doing silly things like finding out who the father is on whatever talk show or watching Bo*b R*oss youtube videos--hence the change in my blog name and design. I hope to keep this updated a bit better now that I'm settling back itno the real world. Here's a little sampling of the summer!

 Family vacation at the cabins!

 Fourth of July baseball game...I think they actually won!!

 Sudden trip to Vermont and a stay at this lovely B and B....

Fun and beautiful despite the real reason for going!

We'll miss you Grama.

 My niece now has the coolest, most colorful nursery!

 Painting on the wall...so much fun!

Yeaaah kayaking!

And I will now spend my last Friday afternoon of this summer at the pool!!

I bet the predicted thunderstorms roll in the minute I set up my chair. Ha!

New Paints, New Painting!

I have discovered water soluble oil paints. I'm in love. Thanks to a forgotten Michaels gift card I recently found in my car, I bought a whole set of colors and a little round palette with a thumb hole! All I need to do is put on my purple beret and I will look like a pro.

One of my new favorite Sunday activities is walking to the Delaware Art Museum. Although it is not too big and I've walked through it a few times now, the artwork is fantastic and they have a lovely sculpture garden where I can sit and sketch. By far my favorite part of the museum is the Chihuly window!!! For those of you who've never heard of Dale Chihuly, he does these amazing glass sculptures and created these large blown glass flowers that cover one floor to ceiling window in the art museum.

I took so many pictures of the window on my last visit and started a painting on "canva-paper" with my fun new paints. The colors and light in the photos are unreal and I'm hoping I can at least come close to capturing them in paint!!

Oil paints and a new palette = very exciting Saturday

Ok time to get painting!!!

Wouldn't you like to get this in the mail?!

When you have only two pennies left in the world,

buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with another.

~Chinese Proverb

I completed these four postcards awhile ago but have just now gotten around to taking pictures and posted them in my Etsy shop! They are real functional postcards made of coldpress watercolor paper. I hand painted each with acrylic paints and sealed them with matte medium. Painting on a small scale and on paper really takes the pressure off... And since the paint dries right away, the colors stay bold and bright!!!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70438343/fiery-flower-postcard

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63357905/tennessee-tulip-postcard

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70438955/red-tulips-postcard?ref=v1_other_2

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70438604/day-lily-postcard

I'm working on an actual greeting card right now but the paper has a different texture so we'll see how it turns out.... Pics coming soon!!

Something

Often times if my little minions get finished early, they have the option to "free draw." Most of them jump at the chance and I have to remind them not to rush through the actual project just to get to free draw. This little fella, however, had no idea what to do with "free draw." I guess I need to find a new meaning of free draw. Obviously telling him to draw "something" or "anything he wants" was not enough--or maybe too much--of an explanation....

On a more positive note, these are really good block letters and the spelling is correct...

Not too shabby for a first grader!!!

A Sampling of Ceramics!

My students are just blowing me away with the clay projects this year. I teach at a school that has never had an art teacher before. So aside from feeling like a rock star, my kiddies are generally happy to come to art. I'm finding out that a lot of them have done a lot of arts and crafts outside of school, which is wonderful. Even the ones with very little exposure, though, are so excited that they jump right in and do a great job (for the most part).

So far the first grade has made dragons for the Chinese New Year and my second graders worked on owls, inspired by the Greek goddess Athena and her wise ole owl.

These two are by far my favorite..although it may just be the picture! They look like old friends and have so much personality with a "hey-what-are-you-lookin-at" expression.

One of my students remarked how much fun it must be to be an art teacher. In what other profession could I spend hours gluing broken owls and dragons back together? According to some list of the "happiest" professions I read on msnbc, teaching is number 3! I think it should be #1!!

.......Oh, wait......

I just remembered watching one of my students picking paper up off the floor and putting it in her mouth...Just a little reminder of the little reasons it may have been bumped to 3. HA!

Happy Friday!!!

Pieces!

I've recently become a little obsessed with collages. Perhaps it's my need to make use of the magazine's stacking up around my little apartment! I love how random pieces from Food and Wine, Real Simple, Artist's Magazines,Art News, Vermont Life, and National Geographic fit together to create an entire new work. (Do I have too many magazines?!) It's a little like a puzzle. Without a set amount of pieces. And only a hazy idea of what the end result might be...

So bright!

Enjoy!

Too many snow days

All of these snow days make the students crazy and, in turn, us teachers crazier. Every day feels like a Monday...especially this past Wednesday when I heard myself say:

"You know.. the project wouldn't be that difficult if you stopped gluing the paper strips to your forehead....."


HA!

Happy Friday :)

I'm International!!!

Just sold a 20"x 30" print of this photograph to someone in GERMANY!

Brigittemarie has gone international!!!

:-D

WOW!

Sure made my Monday! I just hope shipping goes smoothly.

First Craft Fair!!!

Through Etsy, my friend and I were invited to host a booth at a holiday high school craft fair in Alexandria! We were a little intimidated at first when we walked in and saw the other vendors' fancy displays and spotlights but I think our little table ended up just fine. Neither one of us had ever done this before so we shared a table! We both made a few sales... SUCCESS!

We got invited to participate in some other shows/fairs later this year....although I think we'll each get our own tables!

Don't they look legit? All matted and in plastic sleeves...Fancy!

BLIP!

So much to write about. I haven't updated in so long I feel like I should either write one huge long post with many pictures....OR do several small posts separated by subject. That seems easier actually....Can you tell I'm in an organized mood? Rare!!!

It is January 2011 and it seems that I'm constantly taking a step back to analyze my life in general. One year ago, I lived in Washington, DC, had two roommates in a big townhouse, a seemingly doting boyfriend-soon-to-be-fiance and was pretty established in my 3rd year teaching at a lovely school. I was settled. For three years, when I went to the dentist and they asked if anything had changed since the last time I was there, I could say... nope!! same employer, address, insurance, and such. Nice.

Back to the present day. I live in Delaware, teach at a equally lovely Greek charter school (!?!), live in a studio apartment by myself--unless you count the possible mouse I've heard rustling around at night. I am single and definitely mingling, although dating is completely maddening. These comments between my mom and brother in-law pretty are spot on: Mother: Don't worry Brig, you have to kiss alot of frogs before you find the prince.. Brother-in-law: Well she is certainly mowing through all those frogs! HA! I have yet to even find a dentist because I liked my old one in Virginia so much. And I am filling out job applications for my former county, which feels strange enough as I forget now and then that I don't work or live there anymore...

Whoa! What happened this year?!

I moved to the random state of Delaware to be closer to my then-fiance, only to realize that he wasn't really ready after all. I hear that he wants to, ironically, move to D.C...I think we will just call this whole school year a life BLIP. One of my good friends said to think of it as a year on sabbatical. It definitely has been a year to step back, branch out on my own, make new friends, work on artwork, try new lesson plans, and generally re-invent my single self. Except with sabbaticals, you typically return to the same job, house/apartment, friends, etc. No need to re-interview, or apartment hunt, or leave entire new sets of friends behind. Last year at this time I was stressed because I had to make a huge decision to move in the spring and was sad to leave so much behind---friends, family, students. And this January, I'm faced with leaving things behind again this summer --new friends, great students, awesome apartment. Don't get me wrong, there is SO MUCH to look forward to moving this summer and I'm incredibly excited. However I am impatient and would so rather be already settled and re-employed and such. It will be hard not to wish this spring away!

Well that's it! Artwork and more recipes coming soon!!

Happy Friday
:-)