Sweet!

Came home,

and... what's this?

Why, it's a gift from some of my Little Free Library patrons!

Awwwww!!!

Yeaaaah, I've Been Busy

Welp, I haven't been posting,

but that doesn't mean I haven't been getting my creativity on.

I've been actually doing activities I find on Pinterest...

... going cuckoo-bananas with other Pins

I've found on Pinterest...

... and harnessed the creativity of other teachers

to do a week's worth of

engaging math, language arts, and social studies activities.

So, yeah, I've been a busy little student teacher.

Well, This Is Surprising

Huh.

I've recently discovered I possess a weirdly specific skill:

I can write science-themed songs set to the tune of folksongs

for kindergarteners and first graders.

Presented for your singing enjoyment:

This is sung to the tune "Clementine",

which to refresh your memory goes like this:

Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin', Clementine,

you are lost and gone forever,

Oh my darlin', Clementine.

I plan to be topping the charts soon with my crow's-voice rendition of

"Thunder" 

(sung to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")

and "Hurricanes"

(sung to "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore".)

Drafting Off Genius

I someone else is a genius!

A teacher shared at a meeting that you could use a binder

with the clear, front insert as a whiteboard!

She said that you could put a pencil holder inside

with the dry-erase markers, sock eraser, etc.

But those can be 

priiiicy.

And they didn't have any at Target.

So until I find some cheap ones, how about this?

I put packing tape along the edge of a heavy-duty zipper bag,

then hole-punched it!

Genius, right?

I also added a binder clip to turn it into a clipboard.

Then the back can be used for hundreds charts,

ten frames, or whatever.

Teacher hack FTW!!!

Dia De Awesomeness

It's Day of the Dead!

I was so crazy-busy this year

 I didn't put up any Halloween decorations inside,

but I did do my little Dia de los Muertos alter.

Close-up!

It's a wonderful way to remember my

abuelas and abuelos,

my dear prima,

and my gatos and perros.

Trickery, Trickery, Trickery!

I picked up some dice at Target

to use for math games when I'm a teacher.

Cool, huh?

But then I looked inside the container,

and...

You sit on a throne

cardboard tube of lies!

Throwback... Saturday?

My sister recently unearthed some photos from her garage:

Nope, that's not some gauzy Instagram filter;

it's an honest-to-goodness photo from 1972.

I'm the one standing in the back, and the tiny red-haired lady?

My great-grandma O.B.,

born Ernestine Stockstill in 1898.

Here she is as a pretty young girl:

Family lore is that her father was a riverboat gambler,

and whether or not that is true, 

she certainly had both the affinity for cards

and the salty language to make it believable.

I dunno... I love how easy cellphones and digital cameras

have made taking a photo,

but I worry we'll lose out on the delight of finding an old photo.

Speedy-Quick Quilt

A quickie post for a quickie quilt!

I had this amaaaazing mermaid fabric.

But those mermaids are about nine to ten inches high! 

To show 'em off, I would need huuuuuge blocks.

So instead, I decided to go old school...

...and use a big ole piece of the fabric, uncut.

Here's what I did!

I used:

about 1 1/4 yards center fabric

about 1 1/4 yards of the framing border fabric

about 3/4 yards binding fabric

six different strips of 3 1/2" wide fabric

batting

backing fabric

*****

First, I cut the mermaid fabric about 40"- 41" wide by 56" - 57" long.

(I made sure not to cut off any mermaid heads.)

Then for the framing border, I cut 12 strips of fabric,

3 1/2" wide across the width, 

and for the binding I cut 7 strips,

also 3 1/2" wide.

(I like a nice wide binding.)

Now, depending on the width of the fabric, you might only need

11 of the framing border strips; 

sometimes fabric ends up 44" wide;

sometimes 40" wide.

But 12 strips will ensure you have enough.

 Sew those border strips together into one looong strip.

Do the same with the binding strips.

Now, take your six different fancy border fabrics

and cut them each into RANDOM sixths.

Don't make them all the same length!

I added a little bit of the binding fabric, 

but it turned out I didn't need it.

Sew those into one looooong strip, too.

(I did them in the same order, but you do you.)

 Then I just sewed on one framing border,

lay out the fancy border and sewed it on,

then added the outside framing border.

I quilted it all over,

bound it with a 1/2" wide finished binding, and...

Boom!  Done!

I doubt it took me more than ten hours from start to finish.

It nicely fits the top of my full futon,

and it really brightens up my spare room!

Questions?

Ask me in the comments!

Came Up the Stairs To This...

NONE SHALL PASS!!!

Unless you have tuna.

Then, sure.  Why not.

The Incredible (Book) Journey

So this showed up in the mail...

It was a book I had added to my Little Free Library, 

and had been sent from a public library a town over.

I put my address on the label so people could find their way back,

but it was nice that a book did.

And while I know this mailing stamp probably means

the package has been sent from a library...

... I'm choosing to believe it means it was sent to a library.

Because it was.

Garden Stalwarts

Do you know that in mild SoCal tomato plants can go around the bend

and make it through winter?

It's true!
We get frost rarely enough that tomatoes,
many of which are "tender perennials,"
 can just keep on chugging along.

Case in point:
this Costoluto.

 

It was a volunteer the summer of 2013,

but it's been reliably pumping out tomatoes ever since.

I counted about sixteen healthy tomatoes on its lanky stems,

including this bulbous beauty.

I also have a Black Krim that volunteered in a Topsy-Turvy last summer...

and it's also been reliably giving me super-tasty tomatoes.

So, my garden advice?

If something flourishes in your garden,
run with it.

Why fight your climate and try to grow struggling plants?

What Time Is It (Almost)?

Guess what I bought at Trader Joe's today?

YESSSSS!!!

The first pumpkin of the season!

All you Halloween haters?

Need a little visit from Kevin Bacon,

so you can get that stick out of, well,  you know.

Another Request!

There's been another request with my Little Free Library!

Fortunately, both books were available for just

fifty cents each at my local 

Friends of the Library Used Bookstore.

However...

for the third time,

I haven't had luck actually getting my patrons to pick up their books.

What's a library lady gotta do,

stake out the library with some surveillance gear?

Tomatoooooes!

BEHOLD MY LATEST TOMATO HARVEST!

Are they not glorious?


ETA:
Today's Frazz was for me, for meeee!

Garden Post!

How's the summer treating my garden?

The sunflowers are blooming!

Which is making the bees happy.

The zucchini is starting to pump out delicious green squashies...

... so is my favorite chocolate zucchini cake far behind?

The Sungolds are ripening...

... and are ready for pizzas, salads, or just snacking.

The basil is looking good, too!

Which means...

Uhhhh...

 what is that?

Well, it's homemade pesto.

I made it from an easy-peasy recipe found on Autostraddle;

the problem is the bright purple basil

which I THOUGHT would make a cool violet pesto

 instead ground up to a not-so-appetizing greenish-grey paste.

It tastes good, though!

So I'm just calling it an homage to a classic Disney dish.