What the Art Teacher Wore #164

Memorial Monday: This has become my fave Memorial Day ensemble...especially with the addition of my few fave shoe obsessions: Converse. As I get older, my feet start doing more dictating as to what kind of footwear they'll tolerate. I have been loving colorful Cons of late. A predict a new shoe obsession coming on. dress: Anthro, couple years ago; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; crinoline: Amazon; shoes: DSW

Ahhh. There is nothing quite like the first full week of summer. I'd like to say I've spent it relaxing and soaking up the free time but to be honest, this is shaping up to be one of my busiest months yet! I might have shared with you before that I'm working with Quarry books on one of their Lab series of books. Mine will feature 52 clay projects crafted from non-kiln fired clays. My deadline is at the end of this month so y'all better believe I'm busting my backside to get everything complete. I've been using my Time Timer MOD that Time Timer sent me (more below) and it has been WONDERFUL at helping me be more accountable with my time (I'm the worst at time management, guys. THE.WORST.) I'll definitely keep you posted on when the book is complete and released (turns out, those kind of things take months). 

Something else me and some of my favorite art teacherin' buddies have been working on is Art Scouts! If you follow me here, then you've been seeing our daily #countdowntocamp. We are so exited to spend next weekend with our favorite type of folks: art teachers! If you are attending, we look forward to seeing y'all real soon. 

Hope your week has been a wonderful one. Chat with you real soon!

If you follow me or my fellow Troop Leaders Laura Lohmann, Ginger Pacer and Jennifer Alvarado, then you know we are super stoked about Art Scouts. Not only do we have so many fun lessons to share with our fellow art teacherin' types but we also have huge bags of swag from our awesome sponsors. We are so looking forward to helping our scouts earn their art teacherin' badges in Bowling Green, Ohio this weekend! If you are interested, you can find out more here. 

 Bicyclin' Tuesday: So I'm reading a book (well, restarting reading a book, ahem) called Better than Before. It's a great book about cultivating good habits. I used to be very active and since the holidays, I fell of that wagon hard. So, I'm running each day, doing a little biking and waking each night when the temp cools. I'm so in love with this Schwinn I recently got. It's so fun to cruise around on...yes, in a dress. AND yes, with biking shorts underneath (you're welcome for the visual). dress: vintage; belt and crinoline: Amazon; shoes: Zappos

Big THANK YOU to all of you that joined in on #wecanmakeitmay! It was so much fun to see everyone's post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! The last photo challenge was a Big Toothy Grin. There was plenty of that at the end of this month! 

Feelin' Peachy Wednesday: The thing I love about summer is that I can wear my fave vintage dresses. During the school year, I often dress according to my lessons...but in the summer, I wear what suits me. I love this peachy color paired with the color of those shoes. dress and head scarf: vintage, thrifted; belt: Amazon; necklace: gift from a friend; Alice in Wonderland pin: Disneyland!; shoes: DSW

After sharing my love of the Time Timer in my Art Teacherin' 101 episode, they were kind enough to send me a Time Timer MOD. I am SO IN LOVE with this little guy! With looming deadlines, it's really helped me stay accountable and keep track of each moment I spend. I have been setting it for an hour and working solid without stopping for anything: no snacks, drinks, social media or bathroom breaks. That might sound drastic but with a person who suffers from adult ADHD as much as I do, it has really helped! It helped me meet several very big goals this week and that has me so excited. Thank you, TimeTimer! 

 Just Me and Asha Thursday: I didn't leave the house a'tall Thursday and Friday. That was my way of forcing myself to workworkworkworkworkwork (sorry, I had to). This means I spend a good majority of my time talking to the plants and Asha, the cat. Who spends most of her time, when she's not sleeping, begging me for food. I always cave. That's the power of the fur. dress: vintage; cherry pin: estate sale

 The hubs and I have been vegetarian for, like, ever. The problem is that we often fall into the trap of eating the same old same old which is mostly my fault. When I come home from school, I'm usually tired and hungry. Which means I binge on nuts and chips. When it comes time to eat, I'm still tired but no longer all that hungry. All that to say, there's been many a cereal and salad nights. With summer here, I'm trying to cultivate the habit of new recipes. We juice each morning but I'm trying to expand our drink horizons. This week, I tried radish, ginger, cucumber, kale and grapes. It was delish! We also tested a recipe from my Native Foods cookbook called Russian Velvet which was lentils, carrots, beets and onions pureed. It was a winner as well! I'm looking forward to trying out more recipes. 

Freaky Weather Friday: Storms rolled in this week, dropping the temps and bringing the rain. Left me grabbing my sweater and rain shoes (uh, my Crocs. Don't judge). Thankfully it wasn't as bad as some of the rainstorms I've been hearing about. Poor Paris and Texas, y'all! dress and sweater: vintage

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What the Art Teacher Wore #163

 Field Day Monday: With only 2.25 days left of schoolin', we had a field day on Monday. What that meant for this art teacher was I spent the day in the shade transforming sweet innocent children's faces into tigers, pirates, Boba Fett, and the random requests of horses, unicorns and a rainbow cat. Yes, that happened. I didn't take face painting in college so there will be no photographic evidence of the damage that was done on that day. But me and my helpers buddies had fun! dress: made by me, here; shoes: Converse

Welp, the show is over, kids. The school year ended for me on Wednesday with another year of art teacherin' in the books. This time of year is exciting for me as I start to think about 1. All the Things that I've Done Wrong and 2. Dream Up Ways to Make 'Em Right. Plotting, planning and dreaming is in full swing. Along with resting, relaxing and vacationing, of course! We hit the ground running to sunny (albeit chilly) California on Thursday and it has been a wonderful way to kick off the break. I hope y'all are enjoying your extra long weekend as well.

In other news, my attempt at sharing with you my Me Mades for #memademay kinda flopped as I only did one other What the Art Teacher Wore blog post! My vision of MeMadeMay ended up being more MeIsCray. Pretty sure you understand. 

Until next time, have a super fab-o weekender and we'll chat soon!

 Last Full Day Tuesday: Between field trips and class parties, I only saw a couple of classes on this day. That by no means meant my day was chill. I still had to bag and tag over 100 clay projects and art show work to take down. Thankfully, the teaching assistants and some sweet fourth grade students came to my rescue! It never hurts to ask for help. I need to remember this and do it more often. sweater: thrifted; top, hair bow and skirt: made by me, here; shoes: Shoe Carnival

 Last Day, Hurray!: What better way to celebrate than a good ole fashion barbecue dress from the lady who never cooks out! It's funny, being from the Mid-West, what we think of as a barbecue is cooking on the grill and then slathering barbecue sauce on said grilled stuff. In the South, it's tooooootally different. To barbecue means to slow cook meat until it falls off the bone in shreds. Imagine my surprise when I first moved to Tennessee and ordered barbecue. I was all, "where are the grill marks and the red sauce?!" dress: made by me, here; shoes: made by me, here

Disneyland Thursday: On Thursday, we hit the road to Cali (okay, we flew because lawd knows I couldn't handle that kind of car ride). Disneyland and California Adventure are our faves. Right now, the parks are actually calm-ish (well, as calm as Disney can be. In fact, the hubs coined a new term: Bisney. When something is SUPER busy, it's as busy as Disney. Therefore, it's Bisney). We were actually able to try out a couple new attractions! dress: made by me, here; sandals: Chacos

 We got to ride Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters which entails mini-Italian style cars that "dance" in a synchronized manner to Italian songs. It was so fun! My fave part was picking out the car. 

 I had to get one that matched my dress. Of course. By the way, it's surprisingly chilly in SoCal in the evenings! I was all sorts of bundled up. 

 This ride was a total trip. But the spinning at the end just about did me in. 

 As a teacher, I find the Disney parks so inspiring. I always come away with new ideas and inspiration from what I'll teach to why and how. For example, our Diner Themed Art Show? Guess what inspired that? Carsland is all based on Route 66 and heavily vintage in theming. It's one of my favorite areas in the park. 

Shopping Friday: My other favorite thing to do in California? Shop! I am a diehard Buffalo Exchange fan (word is that there is one coming to Nashville...what?!). My faves are in Costa Mesa and Fullerton. If you've never hit a Buffalo before, you are missing out! Oh, and get you some grub at Native Foods, our other Cali fave. dress: made by me, here; belt: old, Anthro

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DIY: A Kid-Created Paint Splattery 1950's Circle Skirt

Do you know anyone who suffers from the And-Ands? Unclear as to what this ailment entails? Lemme paint a picture for you. Those suffering from the And-Ands might find themselves in a situation such as this:

"I'm going to have all the kids create clay food sculptures for the art show. AND we're going to have a 1950's diner theme to showcase their work. AND I'm gonna get them all soda jerk hats. AND I'm going to encourage them to get all 1950's-ized for the art show. AND I'm gonna make an outfit for the occasion. AND I'M GONNA HAVE THEM SPLATTER PAINT THE FABRIC BEFOREHAND." 

Symptoms may include: waking up in the middle of the night with another AND; interrupting conversations by shouting, "Oh! I have another idea!" and running away abruptly only to return with a wad of Christmas lights (deets to come); constant lip biting and talking to oneself. Sometimes in tongues. 

When to see a doctor: When you look like this...

So, yeah. I got the And-Ands. I think this time of year does it to many of us art teacherin' types. We just have so much more we wanna do and have so little time to do it in. Not that I want more time, I'm beyond ready for summer, y'all. That was just a silly figure of speech. 

My case of the And-Ands spiraled completely outta control when I was in JoAnn's a couple weekends ago stocking up on the ushe: puffy paint and glitter. I happened by the pattern department and decided to plop down and flip thru their books. I spied a 1950's poodle skirt costume and was all EUREKA! I need to make one of those! It was then I remembered the drop clothes I had purchased from Walmart EXACTLY a year ago. This lead me to the idea of having the kids do this outside my art room door...

Just after my trip to JoAnn's, I hit Home Depot in Franklin. I'm telling you the exact location because this is seriously The Best Home Depot there is. I met a very kind gentleman named Dave who not only helped me pick and mix the colors of paint I wanted but, after I explained the project to him, he also generously gave me a discount. As a teacher, I don't often ask for any sort of discount (duh, gonna start now!). I loved that Dave, Miss Mary and QT were excited to help a crazy art teacher out. BIG shout out to them, they have a customer for life!

Word to the Wise: If you are gonna do splatter painting with non-washable paint and children, have them suit up in aprons and go barefoot. Even that won't keep them clean but it will help just a pinch.

Once I got the fabric home, I threw it down in our living room just to start planning my next course of action. Of course, Inspector Asha had to take a walking tour of the fabric. 

Busted, kitten!

I wanted to use as much of the fabric as possible to really showcase the kid's splattering. For that reason, I settled on my vintage Simplicity 4884 that I picked up from Etsy a while back. I used it to stitch this shower curtain into a skirt last summer. 

Are you gettin' just how BIG this piece of fabric is? A circle skirt requires a lotta fabric but, like, not this much. Which can only mean one thing: I get to stitch more stuff out of it! I'm thinking a handbag and a tote and a jacket AND, AND, AND...(oh my goodness, it's starting again!)

For now, the only extra thing I did make was a hair bow. 

For fear that I'd be busting sewing needles right and left, I did invest in a couple industrial strength needles. I only had a few times when my sewing machine sounded like it wanted to die. So, really, no more than normal. 

Did I mention that I also have the And-Ands when it comes to shopping? Um, yeah. It's bad. "I'm gonna need saddle shoes and poodle socks and a new crinoline and pink cat eye glasses..." 

The temp has dropped a pinch here in Tennessee (just heard from a buddy that is SNOWED in Michigan this weekend. It's May, Michigan. Get with the freakin' program). So I just might have to wear my snazzy Gap Kids jacket to complete my ensemb.

Which, by the way, wasn't spluttery painted enough for me...so I added some more drips and drops. 

AND there you have it! I'm so looking forward to sharing the art show with y'all...and kicking this case of the And-Ands until next art show time!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #162

Monday, y'all: Here's a dress from way back...I try to create a Back to Schoolin' dress each year and this was one from a couple years ago. It's rather plain for my taste now...but I guess I was just working towards my wild side back then. dress: here; sweater: Buffalo Exchage; owl sandals: Anthro, old

Well, we're down to the single digit days in our lil who's-counting-we're-teachers-we-don't-even-LIKE-summer-vacation (wink/nudge) countdown. Of course, because our art show is THIS FREAKING TUESDAY, I've got tunnel vision with a laser like focus that can only see the mountains of clay projects to be displayed, the random artwork to be put up (shout out to my mama helpers for making those stacks shrink daily!) and other stuffs. I'm super excited about this year's theme of a 1950's diner. I can't wait to share photos with y'all. 

In other news, it's #MeMadeMay! Non-sewists, #MeMadeMay was started several years ago by sewists who wanted to share all their me-mades throughout the month on their various social media outlets. I almost-always forget to participate and I always-always forget to share...but I'm gonna try this month. So here's a lil what I wore (and made!) and what I over-shared (that wasn't me-mades!) in social medialand. Enjoy! 

The excitement is building. All students are encouraged to dress 1950's style (after a prezi of what that entailed) and I managed to purchase each a paper soda jerk hat that will be available for the taking at the show. I also took a snapshot of each student in the diner with their food. Those photos were used in their advertisement for the diner...but I also dropped the photos into a slideshow that I'll have going during the show. All these deets will be in an upcoming blog post (complete with video tour!) next week. When I'm fully recovered. 

 Tuesdayness!: Just another day in so-much-to-do/so-little-time paradise. dress: created during that crazy series of snow days we had last school year; scarf: vintage

 Of course, to get into the spirit, I HAD to purchase some saddle shoes, poodle socks and sparkly cat eye glasses. DUH. 

 Sad Feet Wednesday: When it's hustle mode, there's no time for anything but flats. Which I totally hate. I was even asked by the kids if I'd shrunk. another back to art teacherin' dress: here

 Because I've little time for anything, I decided it would be a good time to create a skirt for the occasion. I was gonna make a poodle skirt...but opted to have the kids splatter paint a drop cloth for me to stitch into a skirt instead. In other news, a splatter painted drop cloth circle skirt is stiff enough to, like literally, stand it's own ground. 

 Thursday!: You can tell I'm tired when I can't even come up with a clever name for the days of the week. I'm just running on fumes at this point, in case y'all haven't figured that out. dress: here; sandals: Shoe Carnival

 Oh, this makes me so happy! Our awesome bookkeeper, who also doubles as our yearbook editor, decided to use the first grader's tiger mural on the cover of the school yearbook! I love it and what  a happy memory for my firsties. You can see more about this lesson here. 

Fri-YAY: Thank you so much for your kind words about this IKEA dress the kids colored! They were literally spellbound when I wore the dress on Friday. They just looked and looked at it and for their coloring. I have a couple more kid-made fabric ideas in mind that I can't wait to work on this summer! dress: here

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DIY: A Coloring Book Dress

Factiod: I'm a super awesome starter of stuff. I'm a super miserable finisher of said stuff. 

Don't believe me? Just ask my mama. Every time I chat with her, she'll begin every other sentence with, "Hey, did you ever finish...?", "Whatever happened to that one thingie you started?", "When are you gonna get that whatchamacallit done?!" 

On those rare occasions when I do FINALLY finish a UFO (UnidentiFied Object), to the rest of the world, it looks like I just pulled a project outta thin air. Many folks have asked me how I manage to "get so much accomplished" and have commented that I "must have more hours in the day." Y'all. I'm seriously one of the most slacker-tastic peoples you'll ever know. I just happen to start many a-thing and, randomly, when the wind blows sideways outta my butt, I finish them. 

Case in point: This Coloring Book Dress!

I picked up this fab fabric from IKEA back in October (for $7.99 a yard, foolz!). This is my second dress made from heavy IKEA fabric (check out the first) and I gotta say, I'm totes hooked. Not only are the designs great and the prices right but the fabric...THE FABRIC...is simply perf for making a circle skirt. 

But I'm ahead of myself, as usual. Let's back track to the coloring of the fabric:

This year, more than any other, it seems I have kids that finish at different rates. Some that work FOR-EVERNESS on any and everything and others that zip right along. As a slow worker, I always allow those kids who need it all the time in the world (to a fault, perhaps). As for the Zippies, as they're known, if their quality is up to snuff, then I allow them to do some early-finisher activities: blocks, dry erase boards, games, books, painting the occasional mural. Or, in this case, coloring on a giant piece of fabric with fabric markers!

Here are my kindergarten friends deep in conversation and coloring. When I came over to snap a pic, the wee one on the right was explaining to the dude in the middle: "Mrs. Stephens can sew clothes. She's making this into a dress." When this was met with a Nuh-uh! we chatted a pinch about how clothing is made. I showed the kids dress patterns and even took some votes on which pattern I should follow. In the end, I did a mash-up of several patterns, as is my nature. 

By the way, these are the makers we used. They seemed to do well on the coarse fabric and held their color after one good washing. Since the kids had walked all over the fabric, it was in need of a cleaning.

When I got the fabric home and washed it, I sat on it for some time, trying to decide which pattern to use. Like I said, in the end, I decided upon a mashup. Now that I have a plethora of dresses under my sewing belt, I know what I really like to wear: a circle skirt, a cinched waist and BOWS! Anything with bows!

Having just finished my circle skirt at Anna Maria's very own shop Craft South, I felt comfortable using this pattern for the skirt. 

For the bodice, I opted to go the Butterick-route (despite my occasional HATRED for Butterick patterns, ahem) only because, you guessed it, BOWZ. 

If that there pattern looks kinda-sorta familiar, it's because I made this lil number from it last summer (ooooooh, that reminds me. SUMMER is almost here! I am so looking forward to endless days spent in PJ's and sewing projects). 

And, y'all. That cinched waist I mentioned? I've used this trusty vintage Simplicity 8087 more times than I can count!

The rest of the patterns I could toss but I do love that bold waistband. I'm not in love with the skirt or the 1960's fit of the bodice. For this dress, I did shorten that band about an inch because I didn't want to lose the cute castle design. 

I am pretty pleased with this mashup. I even went so far as to line the bodice with that sweet dotted fabric I used at the waist and the bows. I didn't want the coarse IKEA fabric against my delicately soft porcelain doll like skin, y'all. 

I can't wait to wear it to school this week! It's most definitely a twirling number. And y'all better believe I'll be hitting up IKEA for more fabric soon. Until then!

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