tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70529026543093675062024-03-14T00:27:05.561-07:00Random Musings from a Random GirlA Barrel of Monkeys and Circle of FishSynthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-78129187407324534742012-08-03T11:56:00.000-07:002012-08-03T12:08:22.954-07:00Organization in the Art Room<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qLhJLpH-I4M/UBwPkjRSOLI/AAAAAAAAA6s/ldNO8pquW5I/s1600/2002-Barbie-Art-Teacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qLhJLpH-I4M/UBwPkjRSOLI/AAAAAAAAA6s/ldNO8pquW5I/s320/2002-Barbie-Art-Teacher.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I am an art teacher, I keep no secrets about that, and last year I was moved to a new school (there was a shuffle for everyone, I was not alone) and every time I'm in a new classroom (this is the 5th classroom I was in in 4 years) it presents challenges of organization, layout, and how to make things work for me. I did not like how I had my classroom last year, I made it as fun as I could but there were just too many things that frustrated me. Plus, I has to organize EVERYTHING stuff was just thrown around. So over the summer I thought long and hard and probably perused Pinterest a bit too much.<br />
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Picture Heavy (and word heavy!) Post after the Jump<br />
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<a name='more'></a> So last year my room was pretty boring, I didn't even take a picture of it. I'll draw a picture of the room (not to scale):<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ThDLHwkXhQ8/UBwSzl9DgtI/AAAAAAAAA7I/tL2jkCbMwmc/s1600/artroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ThDLHwkXhQ8/UBwSzl9DgtI/AAAAAAAAA7I/tL2jkCbMwmc/s320/artroom.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
I have 8 tables in the big part of my room with stools that were just in 2 rows of 4. Meh.<br />
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This year I really thought long and hard about what did and did not work for me in my room. First the things I didn't change: my cupboards are still organized fine, my storage room, while a little messy is fine, everything is still where it should be. The kiln room was well, it's nice and clean and organized. What I really changed was the big part of my room with the tables and organizing frequently used student materials.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rvtR_Pv7HY8/UBwUZU-kUDI/AAAAAAAAA8I/BBlW_FCtV68/s1600/tablesview2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rvtR_Pv7HY8/UBwUZU-kUDI/AAAAAAAAA8I/BBlW_FCtV68/s400/tablesview2.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div>
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Here is a big view of my room, this was taken at the outside door of my classroom. Tables have colored signs above them, I do ROY G. BV then black and white. Each table has 4 stools at them. So this year I did a modified "U" shape with the tables instead of 2 rows with 4 tables horizontally. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a48vudAhx9c/UBwUXs8GF4I/AAAAAAAAA8A/GWJ0RsqvRz0/s1600/tablesview.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a48vudAhx9c/UBwUXs8GF4I/AAAAAAAAA8A/GWJ0RsqvRz0/s400/tablesview.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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You can see the back of the "U" in this photo. There is enough room for me to walk around the tables, teach at the whiteboard, and for there to be a line of children going to the door. The pink chart is a behavior log for the classes, when there is a class that spells "ROY G BIV" then they get a class prize and they only get a letter if they keep the "ART" on the board by not being too loud. I also have a "Helper Table" sign on the board with all the table colors and a chart with crayons under it so I can keep track of which tables help me with every class every week. I had a lot of students say I pick the same kids to pass things out, so now they can't complain.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n69XqmS5AHI/UBwUT-7_YFI/AAAAAAAAA7o/DEaYaE1yGHs/s1600/dryingracksmondrian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n69XqmS5AHI/UBwUT-7_YFI/AAAAAAAAA7o/DEaYaE1yGHs/s400/dryingracksmondrian.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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This is the back of my classroom, I have a drying rack for large artwork and then last year I bought (and never used) the stack of paper holders on the desk next to the drying rack. Well that stack will hold tiny wet art to dry because the big drying rack SUCKS at holding little things. I always had stuff dropping onto the floor then getting lost or misplaced. Not this year! The grey door is my kiln room and then I used electrical tape and construction paper on my office door. I don't actually use my office, but there is an extra computer in there for students to use and a whole wall of deep cubbies I use for storing my personal things I'm not currently using for teaching and I have a bunch of empty ones this year I'll be allowing my students to use when we are doing our clay projects. There is also a high desk in between those two doors and that is my "Time Out" spot for students. Inside the desk I have a behavior reflection sheet for them to fill out.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WiWh4JVU2LQ/UBwUaiN8SKI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/b9QeRWssixQ/s1600/whireboardclassboxes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WiWh4JVU2LQ/UBwUaiN8SKI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/b9QeRWssixQ/s400/whireboardclassboxes.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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In this view of the whiteboard you can see another small table under the Nyan Cat head with five bins. Each one of those is labeled Monda-Friday and has large folders folders for every class in it. Inside every folder is 8 pieces of construction paper that correspond with table colors. It helps keep work separated by table color and easier to pass out. Next to Nyan Cat are posters of Thinking Maps (really big in my district and I am hoping to use them more) and my ART rules poster.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vcLnGY1G3yo/UBwUWQnPqAI/AAAAAAAAA74/9sL8kiPuhI4/s1600/sinksstools.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vcLnGY1G3yo/UBwUWQnPqAI/AAAAAAAAA74/9sL8kiPuhI4/s400/sinksstools.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div>
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Nothing very exciting in this picture except the stools. My room is not made for tiny ones and I teach Kindergarten thru 8th grade. I did not have the stools last year. Kind of a mess, so I bought foldable and hangable ones and now the students will actually be able to wash their hands!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xxRSXEYt6Pw/UBwUVLX179I/AAAAAAAAA7w/uUhFkYDUNpo/s1600/frontviewwrug.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xxRSXEYt6Pw/UBwUVLX179I/AAAAAAAAA7w/uUhFkYDUNpo/s400/frontviewwrug.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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Here is the front view of my desk, the area I want to focus on is actually the filing cabinet on the right. I never use my fling cabinet. The metal portion that is used to hold folders I have to buy myself and I have other things I want to spend my money on. So this year I have labeled the drawers by grade levels (K &1, 2 & 3, 4 & 5, 6,7,& 8) and I'm going to put materials for all the projects in the drawers. I used to lay everything out on the counter but then when students line up they mess with EVERYTHING or during clean-up things would get wet. Now there is nothing on the counter so out of sight and out of mind. The file stand on top of the cabinet is for my middle schoolers, it has a folder for rubrics, art history homework sheet, and grade checks for my athletes because they ALWAYS forget theirs.</div>
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I also have a rug in my room this year for my little ones to gather on, there is a basket of books and fun things to do when kids finish early under the table and also pillows hidden under the table.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SvY71-Re-80/UBwUPphEHdI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/WAuQQScQcuU/s1600/cleaningstation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SvY71-Re-80/UBwUPphEHdI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/WAuQQScQcuU/s400/cleaningstation.jpg" width="225" /> </a></div>
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This is my cleaning station that I am ever so excited about. Brooms, dustpans, garbage can and buckets with spray bottles, sponges, and rags in them. One for every table. My biggest pet peeve last year was the cleaning up. I had huge sponges (you can see them on the top in the clear bin), I swear to you you can take a shower under them they hold so much water, the students aren't good at remembering to squeeze the water out and I would have flooded counters, floors, and tables. NEVER AGAIN. Spray bottles and 2 tiny sponges to wash the tables and then a microfiber cloth to dry them and I'm good to go. The spray bottles were actually full of Spic and Span but empty spray bottles are expensive to buy and really cheaply made. The Spic and Span was 97 cents a bottle and the bottle is amazing, I just emptied out the chemicals into a bin at home and using it to clean my house. The garbage can is for a student to go around to tables and help pick up scraps.</div>
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On the left is a drying rack I bought from IKEA for 10 bucks. Sponges and rags can be laid on top of it so they can dry out in between classes.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9CS5S75FDY8/UBwUcXX8XGI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/GyGBmfQ66nQ/s1600/wideviewdesk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9CS5S75FDY8/UBwUcXX8XGI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/GyGBmfQ66nQ/s640/wideviewdesk.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is my desk area, I know no teacher desks is all the rage but with 900 kids a week I need my desk, it's my area of peace. I just bought the chair this year, it's super comfy. I have my own tiny trash and inside the desk where a computer tower would be is my copy paper, it fits perfect there and is easy to grab when I need it. The paper sorter in front of my desk is full of pre-cut construction paper for ease of grabbing and on top of it is my turn in basket. It's not in the photo but I have another basket the is the "No Name, No Fame" basket I will put work with no name, even though there is a reminder in the turn in basket for names and teachers. </div>
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I also have a coat rack and storage ottoman for my personal things, there is really no place to put a coat or purse. </div>
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I also love the "Hi" sign at the top of my desk..a student made that for me out of melted crayon last year for teacher appreciation week. <3 p="p"></3></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_6IJIQ0txok/UBwUSd4cfTI/AAAAAAAAA7g/xQVyD29DlGE/s1600/deskwshelves.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_6IJIQ0txok/UBwUSd4cfTI/AAAAAAAAA7g/xQVyD29DlGE/s400/deskwshelves.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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Another view: those pinboards will be full of student drawings by the end of the year, that's where I put my fun gifts from students. I moved my paper cutter too, to the front of my desk because it was in my office room and I didn't like not being able to see my class when I needed to cut paper because I miscounted. </div>
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The little white board is a weekly schedule so I can put special things on it...I used to make a paper one but I like how this is reusable. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U6gLmvx-2aM/UBwUQ9gxD1I/AAAAAAAAA7Y/hgN0FVGoAxM/s1600/deskcloseup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U6gLmvx-2aM/UBwUQ9gxD1I/AAAAAAAAA7Y/hgN0FVGoAxM/s400/deskcloseup.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here is a close-up of my desk. I used to have all the stuff that are in the crates on top of my desk but I never felt like I had room to work, so I moved that table in front of my desk and placed the crate there as shelves. I have to reach a bit more for certain things but I love how clear my desk is. The mini tool chest in the top left holds push pins, staples, paper clips and more. The silver organizer holds my master copes binder, emergency subplan binder, and my weekly binder for lesson planning, grading, and seating charts. I have my prize vases underneath that, and then I have my snacks, tea, and hot water maker on the bottom left. </div>
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I have two lights on my desk too. The on my desk is a sunlight lamp...I have no windows, I work in a dark purple room with no windows, it actually messes with my sleeping and then I have a regular desk lamp above that because I have a "wonderful" piece of technology in my room. It's a motion sensor that turns the lights off to conserve energy...but when you are working nicely at your desk grading during your prep after 3 minutes your lights turn off. I literally have to get up and walk across the room to get my lights to go back on. So now I have lamps.</div>
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One of my goals this year is to have my desk clear at the end of every work day for some peace of mind.</div>
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I know this was long winded but I hope it gives you all a better idea of how I think for my art room and gives you ideas too.</div>Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-9147575462247597182012-07-25T10:50:00.005-07:002012-07-25T10:50:50.917-07:00Household Organization ahoy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TFtZzw-8oo4/UBAijL74P9I/AAAAAAAAA40/-v0Bkz0UVu0/s1600/walkinbefore3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TFtZzw-8oo4/UBAijL74P9I/AAAAAAAAA40/-v0Bkz0UVu0/s320/walkinbefore3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
What is this monstrosity you ask? Well, this was my walk in closet in the extra bedroom/reading room in my house. It was clean at one point but then the hub had to take over the office closet with business stuff and all of the brand new storage stuff I SPECIFICALLY bought for that closet had to get crammed into the extra closet. Everything was shoved in and you can see the result, but I took care of that and more! Picture heavy post after the jump!<br />
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Let us take a look at this closet closer up (the floor is lined with bags of clothing for the next Geek Girl Clothing Swap!<br />
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This is the right hand side of the closet. We have an exercise ball, bin of child hood memories, office storage, electronic storage, empty bins and empty boxes. Plus a bag of pillows and box of photos.<br />
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On the left hand side of the closet are my dresses, my bedroom closet is double rodded on both sides so there is no place to hang dresses which is why they have been relegated to this closet. I have a 4ft Nutcracker, wrapping paper, biking and running stuff, the Mom bin, paper towels, and bin of kid clothing. Plus our small freezer chest (we buy veggies and meat in bulk and freeze things till we need them).<br />
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So first thing I did was drag out everything from the closet and the shelves, which pretty much filled up the room (ugh!). I tried on all of my dresses and started my piles.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Nah8W7N6FLA/UBAlcBZ-XnI/AAAAAAAAA5E/6UfiMwVOFsg/s1600/geekgirlpile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Nah8W7N6FLA/UBAlcBZ-XnI/AAAAAAAAA5E/6UfiMwVOFsg/s320/geekgirlpile.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We have the Geek Girl Clothing Swap Pile...Geek Girls should be excited I am getting rid of some amazing things.</div>
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Take to school pile, random art supplies and books that I can make use of in my classroom.</div>
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The Garage Sale and Bookman's Entertainment Exchange Pile.</div>
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Trash Pile, broken things and empty packages.</div>
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As you can see this was a lot of sorting. Then I had to sort and rearrange everything I was keeping. The biggest plus out of getting rid of STUFF was that I had emptied out all of the canvas square bins I had bought from Target and they fit wonderfully on the shelves, so I moved stuff from the plastic bins to the canvas bins.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMqyD_xja34/UBApOpBYQ0I/AAAAAAAAA5s/eNHs-Tq1ZXs/s1600/emptybins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMqyD_xja34/UBApOpBYQ0I/AAAAAAAAA5s/eNHs-Tq1ZXs/s320/emptybins.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Empty Bins!</div>
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I used those bins to house the clothes and sale stuff in my shed outside. So they are still pretty useful.</div>
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So after a few hours of nitty gritty work I was left with almost perfection (perfection would be if Evan let me get a closet from The Container Store.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7l0rLyzZa5Y/UBAqHr2ZBnI/AAAAAAAAA6E/y3WvpQwJDGs/s1600/walkinafter3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7l0rLyzZa5Y/UBAqHr2ZBnI/AAAAAAAAA6E/y3WvpQwJDGs/s320/walkinafter3.jpg" width="240" /></a> </div>
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Oh my gosh, nothing is falling over!</div>
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The right side of my closet, I moved the dresses toward the front so I could get to them easier and actually wear them (and they are in color order) and you can see all the wonderful canvas bins. The plastic one has my baby clothing in it, I'm going to get all of that made into a quilt.</div>
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And the left side! I have empty shelf space! My goal is to keep it empty. I have my running stuff up there and the office supply storage was completely redone and can actually find pens and stamps now.</div>
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It's beautiful and I love that closet now. But organizing that closet got me on a closet bender...</div>
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Here is my entryway closet. Coats are everywhere, purses are falling down and my vacuum is crammed in there. There s also a back massage thing that goes in a chair and a couple games up there.<br />
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So I took the games and back massager and moved them into the newly cleaned walk-in closet (since I had room) and hung my coats up with the dresses. I had to throw away one of Evan's hoodies cause the zipper was busted (BUSTED) and wasn't worth repairing, then I straightened up my purses and umbrellas.<br />
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Here is my after! Only Evan's Coats and sweaters are hanging in this closet. The vacuum actually fits, I can find my umbrellas, The purse I'm currently using can be hung up and the rest of my bags are lined up neatly if I want to switch. This works so much better now.<br />
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I've also done several other organizing things around the house. I reorganized the dog area (food, treats, and stuff) so it all fits in the designated cupboard. I cleaned out the shoe thing by the entry way so I can start putting the shoes I wear most often to work in it. I cleaned out my dresser and nightstand. I bought some containers and organized all of my hair stuff (brushes, rubberbands, clips, and headbands), lotions, and make-up so it's not falling out of the cupboard when I open it and I can actually find everything. Then I organized my half of the bedroom closet (In ROY G BIV order!) and my scarves. Then I organized the drawers in my office so I could fit school planning stuff in there. I even cleaned out my bookshelf again and got rid of some books too because I had some that just wouldn't fit how I have my shelves. Then I went through all of my magazines and put a bunch in the take to school pile for collages.<br />
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I have been a busy bee and I'm not close to being done. School is about to start and if I want to actually have time to work on the comic, exercise, cook healthy meals, and teach my new curriculum, and keep a school blog (seriously! We are supposed to have one on our website this year!) then I need my spaces to be cleaned and organized or everything will just go to pot. It's always worse at the beginning of the school year too, I just get so tired after work. It'll be good to have things organized in a way that will help me.<br />
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So I hope I haven't bored you all to tears. I love having clean and organized things and I like talking about it. <br />
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<br />Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-81669962640959845462012-07-19T19:57:00.000-07:002012-07-19T19:57:16.417-07:00Jewelry Storage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So this is the pile of jewelry I have decluttered from my accessory storage, this is essentially half of everything, so imagine twice this and then stuffed into a crap 3 drawer plastic storage bin tangled up in baggies. This was my life. </div>
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The story of how I fixed it after the jump...</div>
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So I;m really tired of not wearing my jewelry. I have some very pretty things but can never find it. The only jewelry I do wear on a consistent basis are my earring because I corralled those tiny suckers way early on:</div>
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p.s. I love the container store. </div>
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I do go through the earring fairly often and get rid of things I don't wear. This is actually way fuller than normal, my grandmother left a baggie of earrings with my mother to give to me, I just went through those and added the ones I liked (about half) and got rid of the rest and a few extra that I already owned. This is on my dresser and very easy to access. I wear these things all of the time.<br />
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Other jewelry not so much, so today I got rid of....1 lei, 12 buttons and pins, 16 necklaces, 5 bracelets, 10 earrings, 4
rings, 8 necklace charms, 1 scarf pin, 1 sweater clasp, 28 brooches and 1
watch. All in this crap drawer thing, that were in plastic baggies.<br />
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See? I wasn't kidding about the baggies.</div>
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So now I needed to put every away, well I didn't want to throw everything back into these drawers, I'd be back to where I started so I looked through pinterest to get some ideas (by the way not everyone wants all their crap hanging out to see, I like my stuff put away and pinterest ideas are all about displaying them.)</div>
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So I brought into my room a multidrawer container (like 15 mini drawers, usually used to hold screws and whatnot) an egg basket, and 3 egg cartons. I was on to something. I ruled out the egg basket first thing, not going to work at all. I unwrapped the plastic off the minidrawer unit but deemed it useless for my necklaces that left the egg containers...that fit PERFECTLY into the drawers I already was using.</div>
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Here's the 3 drawer thing. It really wasn't working but I made it work :D</div>
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So here is the top drawer, I placed the egg carton inside and then put all my smaller brooches (some doubled up) in each egg portion and then I placed the larger pieces in the lid section.<br />
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The middle drawer is necklaces and rings, the chunky necklaces are in the lid as are 3 rings I keep in boxes. Tiny necklaces each have their own slot, and 3 necklace charms share a spot. The rings are each up on the pointed portion on the right, they fit perfectly.<br />
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Then the last drawer, this has more kinds of jewelry in it but it fits neatly. There are bracelets in egg slots and some bigger ones in the lid, I have 2 watches in the egg slots, my scarf pin, tie clip, and cardigan clips there too. I have one cardigan clip in the lid, a lid to a box for tiny pins, the box for tiny buttons, and then my large buttons in the back.</div>
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I am now in organized jewelry heaven, I rarely wear any of these things since I couldn't get to them or put them away easily so hopefully that will change now!</div>
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<br /></div>Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-288886364458320462012-06-05T12:45:00.002-07:002012-06-05T12:45:59.216-07:00Goodwill: The Skirts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here is the 2nd post about my Goodwill fashion sense and clothing (Scroll down to the next blog if you haven't seen my first post!). In this blog we'll be looking at skirts I have bought at Goodwill and how I wear them. I do want to note that these are not all of the skirts that I own from Goodwill, over the course of styling and taking the photographs I had to make the decision to get rid of six(!) skirts. Three of the skirts didn't even make the initial cut, they were cute but I never figured out how to wear 2 of them and one hit me in the middle of my shins and made me look dowdy. Two more made it into the photos but upon looking AT the photos...those skirts did nothing for me. The last skirt was one of my favorites but it's a size too big and kept slipping down 3-4 inches making it very frumpy, so it went with the other.<br />
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Also: I had to start taking pictures inside the house, summer in Arizona, have to love it being over 100 degrees by 9 am. <br />
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Picture heavy post after the jump!<br />
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Buh-buh-BUBBLES</div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: The skirt is lined an shimmery, I feel like I'm in water when wearing it.</div>
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Shirt: Goodwill: Grey and Button down, the buttons are fabric covered, giving it a more polished feel.</div>
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Cardigan: Goodwill: The buttons are clear plastic flowers, they look like glass.</div>
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Belt: Goodwill: Velvety</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: Born Brand</div>
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Brooch: Estate Sale: From my parents</div>
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Earrings: Defunct Seller on Etsy</div>
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Monotone Flower Power</div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: It's a stretchy jersey fabric that hangs well</div>
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White Shirt: Goodwill: The silver part of the design sparkles</div>
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Layering Tank: Whole Foods: They have THE best tank tops. So comfortable and really not that expensive.</div>
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Shoes: Walmart</div>
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Scarf: TJ Max: I was specifically looking for a black, white, and red scarf to go with a t-shirt for work a few years ago, I don't work at that school anymore but I still love the scarf.</div>
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Scarf Pin: Estate Sale: From My parents</div>
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Earrings: Defunct Etsy Seller: Oxen! I was born the year of the ox.</div>
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Twirl and Twirlability </div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: Not going to lie, purely chosen for how it twirls. LOOK AT IT.</div>
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Tank Top: White House Black Market: I love this store, I don't buy things from it often but when I do I have no regrets.</div>
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Shrug: Geek Girl Clothing Swap: Nothing like free. Super soft and it's cashmere.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: Born Brand</div>
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Brooch: Estate Sale: Picked out by my Father</div>
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Earrings: Von Maur: Oh goodness I wish we had these out here, it is the only store credit card that I own. I used to buy all of my clothes in MI from this place.</div>
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Prep Daze</div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: Hangs flat and is a nice navy color, it doesn't hang on my legs and is very airy.</div>
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Shirt: Goodwill: Fake layered shirt, the green caught my eye and the rouching doesn't hit in a weird spot which usually happens in these types of shirts.</div>
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Cardigan: Goodwill: This is my favorite sweater, I wear it quite a bit and it has held up well for being two years old and from Goodwill</div>
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Shoes: Walmart</div>
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Earrings: Comic Convention: LIGHT SABERS, how could I not buy them?</div>
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Golden Girl</div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: I love the gold threading on this skirt, this was one where I was surprised when I bought it, it's so nice. It was also too tight and I couldn't wear it for a while but vowed I would get in it. I just couldn't pass it up. Now I wear it freely!</div>
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Shirt: Goodwill: Bought for a different skirt that didn't make the cut, a nice yellow polo that went better with this skirt than the shirt I had for this skirt!</div>
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Belt: Buffalo Exchange: Bought when I bought a fun tunic, the belt that came with the tunic was FUGLY.</div>
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Shoes: Macy's: Reefs brand</div>
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Scarf: Birthday Present from my friend, Connie, straight from India</div>
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Earrings: Birthstone Studs from my Folks.</div>
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Red Delicious</div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: This is a winter skirt, it's fully lines and thick, paired with tights it is awesome down here during the cooler months.</div>
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Shirt: Downeast Basics: Just a plain 3/4 length sleeve shirt.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: Borns</div>
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Scarf: Downeast Basics: It was on sale and bought on a whim. This became one of my favorite scarfs this winter.</div>
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Earrings: Victoria, Canada: Gotten on my honeymoon. </div>
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We Be Jammin'</div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: I was on a mission to buy some jean skirts. I haven't owned jean skirts in years. It was time to re-introduce this concept to my wardrobe!</div>
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Shirt: Goodwill: I'm a poser, I don't listen to Bob Marley, but I loved the design on the shirt and the pink fabric has a worn-retro look to it. It's also super soft and comfy.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: Born Brand</div>
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Earrings: Comic Convention: I have a black and pink SuperGirl Symbol hat too. </div>
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Skirt: Goodwill: This is my pride and joy right here. When shopping for jean skirts I picked this baby up on a whim, front pockets, silk lined, and dark denim stretch. I don't usually worry about brand names but I looked this one up the morning after I bought it out of curiosity. They carry this brand at Anthropologie and this skirt was originally almost $200. I got it for five. I told everyone I knew that day and now I have told the interwebs.</div>
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Shirt: Goodwill: An odd cut with the tight bottom, but I love how it hangs and it almost seems to be made to be worn with that skirt.</div>
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Shoes: Walmart</div>
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Earrings: Defunct Etsy Seller: They are chickens with eggs. That is all.</div>
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I hope you all enjoyed this second post about my Goodwill clothing as much as you enjoyed the first. It is super fun to do these mini photo shoots and write about my clothes. I still have quite a bit of Goodwill clothing to show, so more posts to come!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-79333124367904784282012-05-31T12:07:00.000-07:002012-05-31T12:07:21.554-07:00Goodwill: The Dresses<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have a confession...I love shopping at Goodwill. There. Go ahead and attach whatever stigma you have to shopping there to me because I LOVE SHOPPING AT GOODWILL. GO AHEAD AND JUDGE. *ahem* The biggest reason I started shopping at Goodwill is because of my profession. I'm sorry, I'm not going to buy a 50 dollar pair of pants and then get ink or paint on them from my students. It would be wasteful and I just can't justify that. Anyways, I got an idea to pick a blog post theme a month and I decided I would document my outfits that I specifically bought from Goodwill. Yes, there might be stuff I'm wearing not from Goodwill but the main pieces are from there and I wanted to show that with a little bit of shopping perseverance and a good eye for colors and patterns that you can create outfits that: A) Are stylish and cute and B) Don't look like you got them from Goodwill!<br />
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Warning: Picture Heavy Post after the jump! <br />
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Summer Lovin'</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: This dress is awesome because it has pockets and the heart motif is flirty and fun. Even though it's flouncy it doesn't spring up in the wind and it keeps me super cool in the AZ summers.</div>
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Sweater: Dillards Clearance: Originally bought and worn for my wedding :)</div>
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Belt: Buffalo Exchange: Also was worn with a pink belt that came with a skirt from White House Black Market.</div>
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Shoes: I've had them since I lived in MI, I don't remember.</div>
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Earrings: Dia de Los Muertos Festival 2011</div>
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Flirty Fun</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: I picked out this dress to replace a more expensive dress that I LOVED but could no longer wear when I dropped weight. It had a bright and fun floral pattern like this. I love the A-Line skirt portion and it hits me right at a perfect point on my knees.</div>
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Shoes: Skechers: 2 yrs ago (Evan picked them out!)</div>
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Earrings: Pearl Studs, from my Mother</div>
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Necklace: Garage Sale Jewelry: I don't go very often but when I was younger I had quite the costume jewelry collection. I weeded out the atrocious and kept the more simpler pieces.</div>
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Yellow Crush</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: I was really unsure when I bought this dress, I LOVE the color but was really nervous about the cut, while I haven't yet had the chance to wear this one out in public yet, I can't wait to do so. </div>
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Shoes: Skechers</div>
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Earrings: Cortina Festival</div>
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Brooch: Estate Sale from my Mother</div>
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Fit to be Tied</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: I got this dress because I loved the unconventional ties on the sides instead of the usual on the back. Plus, you can never go wrong with a green and brown pallet</div>
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Sweater: Goodwill: I love sweaters, I have several that I have bought from Goodwill and they keep me just as warm as regular priced ones.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: I tend to not skimp on the shoes since I stand for the better part of my day. These are Born brand and probably cost me 90 bucks.</div>
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Earrings: Freebie set from another order of earrings from a now defunct store on Etsy.</div>
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Aloha</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: This dress is a very recent addition and I love it. It's so soft and comfy and I wore it with a blue t-shirt underneath to work and it was like wearing pjs to work. Also have been worn with blue ballet flats.</div>
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Shawl: I believe a relative crocheted this in the 70's.</div>
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Shoes: Still can't remember</div>
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Earrings: From the Russia store in Alaska! Bought on the honeymoon.</div>
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Blue Moon</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: I always loved white with blue prints and this 50's inspired dress with the peekaboo nylon hemline would be perfect for afternoon tea.</div>
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Scarf: Estate sale from my Mother</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: another Born pair.</div>
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Earrings: Comic Convention: LEGOS</div>
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Artsy Teacher</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: A simple purple tunic dress with a tie back and tuxedo styling on the front. I pair it with the scarf to break up the PURPLE. It's a lot of purple, it's also shiny.</div>
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Leggings: Sams Club: Came in a two pack with brown or grey!</div>
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Scarf: Antique Mall: This scarf is colored pencils and pencil shavings! I went to this Antique mall twice and bought it the second time, I just kept looking at it and succumbed to temptation. In Chandler, I love this place and it usually takes me 2 hours to go through the store when I go, so much to look at!</div>
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Shoes: Walmart Special</div>
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Earrings: Cortina Festival</div>
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Life of the Party</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: I don't normally go for empire waist dresses but the hemline was short enough where it doesn't look like I'm pregnant and it lays pretty flat. It ties in the back for added shape.</div>
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Headband: Forever 21: It's flouncy!</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms: Born Brand.</div>
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Earrings: Now defunct store that was in the mall by my house. They're people made out of paperclips!</div>
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A More Somber Look</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: Not my usual bright and cheery colors but I love the shaping and the fabric on this dress. Its heavier so it hangs nicely and the bodice is fitted just perfect.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms, Born again</div>
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Brooch: Estate Sale from my Mother</div>
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Earrings: Present from my Parents</div>
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Purple Passions</div>
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Dress: Goodwill: I have always wanted a button down dress but they are not usually cut for my somewhat ample hips, this dress with made with pockets so I think that's why they left it looser on the bottom. Plus the cinch tie waist is sublime for adding that hourglass shape.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstroms, Born brand...noticing a trend?</div>
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Earrings: From My Grandmother. She has a thing for strawberries. I love these ones because they aren't red so they usually surprise people and elicits a response from them.</div>
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Everybody Polka! </div>
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Dress: Goodwill: One of my favorite dresses. Bright, flirty, fun, POLKA DOTS. It has a tie back for shape, an A-line skirt for twirlability, and a v-cut front that is teacher friendly. I heart this dress.</div>
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Shoes: Nordstoms, Born Brand</div>
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Earrings: Birthday gift from a few years ago from my good friend Kayleigh. I wear these earrings quite a bit because of all the different colors in them, they go with a lot of things.<br />
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I hope you enjoyed this post and these looks! There will be a few more Goodwill posts coming in the next few weeks. I am having too much fun doing this. :D</div>
</div>Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-58597978979954135922012-05-06T08:14:00.005-07:002012-05-06T08:14:52.912-07:00The Lost Dutchman MarathonThe Lost Dutchman Marathon 2012<br />
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So on February 19th, 2012 I ran a marathon. I’ve blogged about previous races that I’ve done but this, THIS was the one that this was all for. I trained for 23 weeks to run a marathon. I ran a 12k, a half marathon, and a 5k, in preparation for the race. I ran for hours every Sunday building up mileage, every Tuesday I upped my time training in speed and hills (mostly hills), on Thursdays I built up slowly with regular running. For 23 weeks I ran 4 days a week. I only missed ONE run due to illness and if I couldn’t do it on the day I rescheduled my week and made sure I got it all in. I did stretching, yoga, ice baths, ice packs, reading and more reading, juices and gels. Then I went and did the cutting back at the end, the wind down, so I could heal and have all my energy for the race. I was full of panic, thinking this was going to hurt me in the marathon, I was going to lose my running ability, but I did not…<br />
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<a name='more'></a>And I ran a marathon. In the mountains. There was elevation changes, terrain changes, weather<br />changes, and it was crazy. It took me a while to write this blog because it was such an immense event in my life I needed it all to settle and I needed to remember the event as best as I could. So let’s start the night before the race…<br /><br />I had everything ready. My number was pre-pinned to my shirt (Batman, naturally), my running sock<br />and shoes together, all of the pins for my hair, my water pack filled and snacks put in, I even premade<br />a smoothie to drink in the morning, since I knew actual food was not an option. I wanted to go to sleep and be able to wake up seamlessly with the only thing I need to do was get dressed and wake Evan to drive me.<br /><br />That’s exactly what happened. I got up before dawn, got dressed and ready, and got Evan up and we<br />were on our way. He dropped my freezing self off (dude, it was cold) and I climbed into the bus that<br />would take us up the mountain to the start. I’m really glad we left when we did because when I was on the bus I heard the radio go off and that there were not enough buses for people to start the race on<br />time. Getting early really helped me stay calm and ahead of the game. We got up to the starting area<br />and it was like a marathoner refugee camp. There were pads of carpet on the ground with tiny little fires between them and we were all huddled on them freezing. They had some breakfast options for people to eat but my nerves and cold were too great and I drank my smoothie in silence.<br /><br /><br />
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It started getting light out and we were nestled in the mountains of the Superstitions. We were<br />instructed to go to our corrals and wait for the start. There was about 600 people at the start and with a small cheer the gun went off and off we went.<br /><br />
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I was not concerned with my time too much. I needed to keep about a 14 min a mile pace and once<br />I made it to the halfway point I knew I’d be able to relax more. I had ran my half marathon without<br />stopping and I was determined to do the same for my marathon. We started off and it was amazingly beautiful and I got to see some Big Horned Cows, they were watching us run very confused. They were giant Cows, not just the horns, the cows were the biggest cows I have ever seen. I was slightly afraid they would get pissed and start running after us all, but they were content to chewing their cud and watching us crazy people.<br /><br />
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I did really well for a really long time. I wasn’t really passing people like I did for PF Changs half<br />marathon, but I kept up a good clip. I reached a mile 11 and I had to start taking walking breaks. Oh my goodness, the hills. It was just this steady uphill motion that would last for multiple miles with a slight decline and then more incline. It was too much and tried so hard not to stop until the halfway point but my legs said, “If you are going to finish this thing you best start walking” So I listened and walked for a bit. I alternated about every three-quarters of a mile, I would run the .75 then walk a quarter. There was just so many hills.<br /><br />
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At about mile 15 it started to get cold and drizzle, it never fully began raining which I was thankful for but I started texting Evan on my walking breaks. I texted blue the entire time, you’d have thought I was a sailor. I kept going though. I even started passing some people who started off too strong and were falling behind, and some people who I passed at the beginning passed me near the end. I didn’t even care, my goal was to finish. I had too many people waiting at the finish line to give up.<br /><br />No seriously, I had Evan, my parents, my 3 teacher friends, and 2 geek girls who were there. Plus all<br />of my friends in MI knew I was doing this and the rest of my friends who couldn’t come. I couldn’t let everyone down, including myself. 23 Weeks is a long time to train, I’ve never kept up something like this for that long. I was going to do it.<br /><br />My friend Rochel started texting me every once in awhile with praises and cheers, she was super excited I was doing this. I was texting Evan about every 15 minutes (what it was taking me to finish every mile, thank goodness I had done all my math correctly on pacing.).<br /><br />At about mile 20 I started getting misty, I was 6.2 miles from my goal and I was about to achieve it. I<br />was going to finish, I wasn’t going to quit and no one was going to sweep me up from being too slow.<br />The enormity of the situation was almost too much. I couldn’t cry yet, it’d mess up my breathing. I<br />persevered.<br /><br />
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Then at about mile 25 I saw someone running the wrong direction. Rochel. She had broke onto the<br />course to run the last mile with me and cheer me on. I cracked up I couldn’t believe it. She was bounding along, took pictures with her cell to post on Facebook, and to keep me going. It really was what I needed.<br /><br />
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We ran the last long stretch of road together and then we turning the corner to the path to the finish. I<br />could see it but my legs were set on one running pace: slow. I didn’t care I was going to finish with my head held up high, posture perfect, and a smile on my face. So we ran and then Rochel broke off for me to cross the finish in my own glory. On the left side of the finish lane were my friends, and on the right were my parents and Evan, and they were all yelling and cheering at the top of their lungs, I thought I would cry right there but I smiled big and crossed the finish. I got my medal and waited for everyone to come and meet up.<br />
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Hugs for all! I was giddy from being done, my parents; although supportive were absolutely amazed.</div>
My dad said, “I never thought I’d be doing this.” “Doing what?” I asked. “Cheering you at a race.” (I’ve never been one for athletics; this is a new hobby/passion for me.) But they were really proud of me. I got a huge hug from my hubby who had rollerbladed with me the entire time I was running ( a big shout out of thanks to my rollerblading, hottie husband/bodyguard!) We then walked around the grounds of the marathon, where I got some food, a picture with the “Lost Dutchman” and got my medal engraved with my finishing time.<br />
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It really made my finish really special to have all the people there and it was an amazing experience.<br />I was sore for a week and ended up sick as a dog during my recovery. Which apparently is pretty<br />common. I’ve wandered from my running path but am starting again strong and full of vigor and I<br />have a new running partner. My husband. He caught the running bug and has given up the rollerblades and begun his own training. We are going to do a half marathon on my birthday. I’ve also begun incorporating swimming to my regimen as my big goal for 2013 is to do triathlons. I will probably do another marathon (one that is less hilly) at least one, if not more. I will NOT do the Lost Dutchman again. It was beautiful and gorgeous and a great life experience but it was so painful by the end. I won’t do it. But I am glad I did.<br />
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So here is the race low down:<br /><br />Distance: MAR: 26.2 miles<br /><br />Clock Time: 5:13:20<br /><br />Chip Time: 5:12:37<br /> </div>
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Overall Place: 457 / 531<br /><br />Gender Place: 172 / 209<br /> </div>
Division Place: 20 / 20<br /><br />Pace: 11:56<br /><br />Halfway: 2:21:49<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-5890260838520668902012-04-22T08:49:00.003-07:002012-04-22T08:49:42.739-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle you could have surprised me and NOT rained.<br />So Connie and I got to Emerald City around 10:30 taking a cab from her friend’s house. We had all of our wares (we had wares this time!) to sell in a suitcase protected from the many elements of Seattle (what am I talking about, one element: RAIN). We got our badges and set-up shop.<br />
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Then we went and got a bowl of delicious delicious pho’ and coffee. It was so cold and rainy while I was there that it is understandable why there is literally a coffee shop on every corner. I also apparently broke a Seattle taboo and carried an umbrella when it started to rain. I even heard complaints from people around me. I don’t care, it’s raining and I live in Phoenix, I’ll melt.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Scott Kurtz! of PvPonline Fame</div>
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Gordin McAlpin: Multiplex (SUPER NICE DUDE)</div>
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Adam Warren: Illustrator of Empowered</div>
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I went around quite a bit on the first day to just enjoy the con, I had a list of several artists that I wanted to see and doggone it, I was going to see them (I also had a list of artists I had already seen and if I had time I would hit them up again). I did hit up people periodically throughout the show, especially on Sunday since it was the last day.<br />
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Some Doctors and our TARDIS Print</div>
<br />I would say for the most part all of the people I met were awesome . I really admire these folks and what they do and sometimes it can be worrisome to meet your idols and heroes. I wanted to get some stuff from some other web artists that were there but they were a bit too rich for my blood. (I had a budget I needed to stick to, I had a garage sale and all the money I made at the sale was what I was allowed to use for meals and art) and some of the artist were polite but very not interested in talking to their fans. A bit disappointing since one of them I’ve read since I was 10. But polite and I got the stuff I wanted.<br />
<br />I didn’t get a chance to see any of the movie and tv folks they had at the show and I didn’t get to meet Kevin Conroy (SUCH A SAD PANDA) but I do have a story about another person I’ll save for the end (:D).<br />
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Wil Wheaton's Drawing</div>
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My Sailor Moon in proximity to Wil Wheaton</div>
<br />Now onto what happened to us for our booth! Our prints were pretty distinct as no one else was doing what we were doing. We had a Dr. Who set and my TARDIS was very popular. The super hero logos, not so much but I think I might have better luck in Phoenix. I also drew for tips and I had several that I wish I would have taken pictures of but a short list of things that I was asked to draw and deliver: a few characters that people have created, a few portraits, Delirium, Tesla fighting a steam punk batman, just to name a few. People also brought sketchbooks for artists to draw in, two people had themes. One was “Heroes and Villains” and I drew Sailor Pluto in that one and the second (which was my favorite theme) was the “Cone of Shame” the cone that animals wear to keep themselves from scratching after surgery. I flipped through the book to get ideas (freaked out at all the great artists that were already in it and my drawing is DIRECTLY behind Katie Cook) so I drew Batman wearing the cone of shame saying, “I’m Batman, my parents are dead” and the guy was truly pleased he laughed quite a bit. Another person brought a scroll of paper and had anyone drawing on it. My drawing is near a person Wil Wheaton drew on it, which boggles my mind a bit. With all the prints we sold, and all the tips from drawings we were able to pay off our table (not our plane tickets) and we were able to place an order for 100 color copies of our comic book, which is super exciting and we will be able to sell it at Phoenix! All the people who came to the table were great and I got lots of compliments on my work and sketches, thank you folks for the giant ego you have given me.<br />
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A girl wanted herself riding a tiger, I obliged.</div>
<br />One Pseudo celebrity sighting, I was walking to get some coffee and I bumped into this chick and guy. I apologized and did a double take, they were walking away and I was like, “I KNOW that person,” but I couldn’t remember from where. Then it hit me about 2 minutes later. It was Erika from Penny Arcade and her new husband. They must have gone to see Scott Kurtz.<br />
<br />All in All it was pretty successful and fun, I ended up sick as a dog after which my brother said was the true mark of a comic artist.<br />
<br />Now the best for last…ROB PAULSEN. Voice of beloved characters such as Yakko Warner and Pinky from Pinky and the Brain. Connie and I were checking in at the airport and the lady who was taking our luggage told us that there was this guy from the convention who does voices. I look over and I’m like…I think that’s Rob Paulsen… So she takes us over there and sure enough it’s him and he’s on the phone. As big of a fan girl as I am, he’s a person. I’m not gonna bug him. So we stand around for a second and he gets off the phone, I go up to him and quietly ask, “Excuse me, are you Rob Paulsen?” and to which he replies, “Well yes I am and who are you?” We introduce ourselves and we talk to him and he DOES THE VOICES, he starts talking in Yakko’s voice and then switches it to Pinky and I am a giggling fool. He was wearing a Michigan hat (where I’m from) and I ask if he’s a fan. He is from there! Near where I lived too and he still has family there and correctly guessed what my alma mater was. He was the nicest sweetest guy and I just wish my hair was better in this picture (stupid Seattle weather!). <br />
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Thank you Rob Paulsen, you are the voice of my childhood and meeting you was the highlight of my trip. Thank you for being so nice and friendly and not disappointing in the least. I called everyone I knew and told them about my amazing meeting with you. My brother even tweeted you to thank you for being awesome to his sister and you tweeted him back. You are amazing.</div>
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So Emerald City thank you for being hospitable (even though your weather is CRAP) and I’ll see you next year apparently!<br /><br /><br />Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-41000294637535168932012-04-04T06:28:00.002-07:002012-04-04T06:28:36.830-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello to any new readers I've gained from Emerald City Comic-Con! I had a blast at the show and I just wanted to acknowledge how awesome the folks I talked to all weekend were. No creepers! YAY. Thank you!<br />
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A recap of ECCC 2012 will be appearing within the next week and I will be working on making my prints available online as well, by the end of the week. There were a few of you interested in commissions so drop me a line please! I'm still very interested. <br />
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Just a quick hi to everyone for the moment!<br />
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<br /></div>Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-91650748260206405682012-02-04T08:11:00.002-07:002012-02-04T08:12:43.709-07:00P.F. Chang's Half Marathon Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So I ran my first official half marathon on January 15th. The race was awesome and I wanted to write about that day. So let's start at packet pick-up the previous day on January 14th. <br />
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Connie and I drove to Phoenix to the convention center (the very same convention center that Phoenix Comic-Con is at!) At the start I got my race number off a board and went inside to turn in everything to pick up my actual bib and shoe chip. We then meandered in further where I got to get a technical shirt (actually very nice to run in and have run in it several times) and a swag bag (lots of neat free stuff, plus the bag is awesome for carting around my laptop). We walked around and got lots of free samples (Larabars = AWESOME AND DELICIOUS) and bought some things as well. I got this water backpack for my marathon and I've been using it while training and it really holds a ton of snacks and water. The expo was really fun and it was really interesting to see all the different runners and what they were buying. I also registered for real time facebook updates as I was completing the race (which didn't work!) and had fun in general. Our friend Rochel met up with us and we met up with another friend, Rebekah, and her friend who was running the full marathon (jealousy!). After we all had walked around a bit we left for lunch and then headed home. <br />
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I filled out my emergency card on the back of my bib and chipped my shoes and generally got ready for everything that evening so I wouldn't be panicking in the morning as I am wont to do when I am doing new things. Then I headed to bed for what I thought would be a full nights rest...my husband picked a WONDERFUL night to begin sleeping on his back and snoring, but I digress. The next morning I got up, ate a bit of toast and peanut butter, grabbed the drop off directions and the Hub and I took off to Tempe.<br />
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Using the directions we headed toward downtown where it started to rain, that's when I began to have a slight panic attack...I dislike running in the rain, especially with my glasses, I can't see a thing. It cleared up when we hit a detour (the directions on the website said one thing, in reality another thing) so we go to Mill Avenue and I hopped out of the car (after a good luck kiss from the Mister) and walked the rest of the way to my race corral. My corral was 17, which was actually quite a ways down, it was early but the crown was brimming with energy, it was super exciting. But I had to wait quite a while for my energy to actually be expended. It took forever to get through the corrals. They were letting a few minutes pass between each corral so the runners would be staggered and we could all fall into out natural pace. As we got up to the starting line I discarded the sweater I brought with me (that was neat to do, I felt like a real runner!) and headed through the start. <br />
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I have to say that running through the center of Mill Avenue is really exciting. There are always cars and it was just neat to have the road to run on. And run I did.I hadn't really looked too much at the map of the course because I wanted to be surprised about where I was. I know 13 miles is not as long as 26 but we really covered a large area.<br />
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This photo is from the Relay switch area, which was about halfway through the course. I had been making really decent time and very excited. Also: I will forever wear this Batman shirt to my races, because as I was running people (absolute strangers!) would shout "Go, Batgirl, go!" or "Woooo Batgirl!" and I knew they were cheering directly for me. Which as someone who has never played sports I will say that people cheering for you is AWESOME. It's make me correct my posture and quicken up my pace. The crowd really does give one energy.<br />
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The race really consisted of me weaving through people. My race pace is apparently a lot quicker than I thought and on pure adrenaline I am able to NOT EVER WALK. This happened with the 12K I ran in December. I just fell into a comfortable pace and just kept going. I was able to not walk during the 12K so during the half marathon I told myself, "Okay Sara, you can run 7.5 miles without stopping to walk so we are going to do that for the first 7.5 miles and then reevaluate how you are feeling." SO I kept running, got to the 7.5 mark, "Okay," I thought, "Now run without stopping to the 10 mark, you feel fine." SO I hekpt going and when I got to the 10 mile mark my thought process turned to, "Screw it, it's only 3 more miles, pick up the pace and finish this thing." And I did.<br />
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I finished the race with the biggest smile ever. I got to run into the stadium on ASU campus, people cheering like crazy My hubby was waiting for me as I walked through the Finishers area to get my medal, water, bananas, and gatorade. I don't really like gatorade but when you run a race it turns into a most delicious liquid. A few of my friends tried to make it but apparently I ran too fast for one of them (:D) and parking and traffic were atrocious for the other. It means the world to me Evan made it and that my friends did try, thanks ladies!<br />
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After I gathered all the last of my things, I got a solar blanket from the marathon people and walked with The Hub to the car which was about another mile away. As I was walking I heard my last name being screamed and looked and 2 of my students were in a van with their parents. And there I am in my shorts, awesome, but the girls were waiting for their sister who had done the half as well. They were surprised I was there (what, a teacher can't have an active life?) but they like me at school so they were happy to see me as well.<br />
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The solar blanket is now hanging up in my classroom now. It's a giant banner essentially and is fantastic on my walls. So here are the final stats of my race. The mileage on my phone might differ slightly from the official race results but it gave me an idea of how I did! I was able to keep an average pace of 10:32 mine/mile. Which is a minute less than my normal running. I'm really proud of myself and I can't wait for my marathon. I really liked doing the half-marathon and I will definitely be doing more of them in the future.<br />
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<u>Phone Times:</u></div>
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Mile1: 11:01</div>
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Mile2: 10:27</div>
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Mile3: 10:52</div>
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Mile4: 10:52</div>
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Mile5: 10:56</div>
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Mile6: 10:39</div>
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Mile7: 10:18</div>
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Mile8: 10:26</div>
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Mile9: 10:39</div>
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Mile10: 10:15</div>
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Mile11: 9:46</div>
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Mile12: 10:13</div>
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Mile13: 9:37</div>
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<b><u>Official Results:</u></b></div>
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<b>5K: 34:14</b></div>
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<b>10K: 1:08:06</b></div>
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<b>10Mile: 1:47:30</b></div>
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<b>Finish Time: 2:18:24</b></div>
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<br /></div>Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-56098628088791362472012-01-11T21:45:00.001-07:002012-01-11T21:45:10.272-07:00Biggest Loser<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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TEACHER EDITION</div>
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So every year at my work after the first semester they do a biggest loser contest. Every school in the district (including the district office) gets a team together with 8-12 people. There are weekly weigh-ins done by each school's nurse and it lasts for quite awhile. I have tried to be apart of it the last two years but was sick on the day the invite went out the first time and then next time the team filled up instantaneously and I didn't want to be on the "miscellaneous" team with three other school's teachers.<br /><br />I got in this year with the school I am at. I'm actually quite excited. While I don't have that much to lose left (like..10 lbs? I'm really close to my goal) the fact that I could enable a bunch of us to win some money? Hey, I'll play those odds. I'm already in the midst of weight-loss why not try for the prize?<br />
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I am somewhat worried though. I had an exchange today which was, albeit <i>funny</i>, I'm concerned that this will be a continuing trend.<br />
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Secretary talking to Head Biggest Loser Person: I want to join!<br />
Me: Yay! I've joined too!<br />
Secretary: What do you have to lose, a leg?<br />
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See? Yes it's funny but it is the kind of comments that I get that start to eat at me after awhile. I get the same thing when I turn down a treat at work because it contains dairy (of which I can consume NONE of) lots of side commentary of "THAT must be why you are so skinny." Um, no. I'm more fit because I eat right, treat myself only occasionally and kick my bum exercising and running. Please don't diminish my successes because you feel bad about yourself.<br />
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Speaking of running I am progressing quite well for my marathon. I was sick yesterday but did my 5 miles of hill and speedwork in good time today. Tomorrow I'll be heading over to Tempe to run 9 miles on the trail around the lake. Really hilly, no cars. I'm really pushing the hillwork these last few weeks before I taper. I'm up to an 18 mile Sunday this weekend, but 13.1 of those miles will be the half-marathon I'm running. It's the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Series in AZ. So I'll be running those 13, coming home, running five. I might be slightly insane. Ah, well. <br /><br />Marathon Countdown: 38 Days until the marathon. <br />
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<br />Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-75993952431720562262012-01-08T18:16:00.001-07:002012-01-08T18:16:44.333-07:00Super Smash Sisters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A few years ago *cough* 2003 *cough* I drew a picture I titled "Super Smash Sistah's" It contained all the female characters in Super Smash Brothers for the GameCube, a game that totally owned me and my brother when we both lived in MI under my parent's roof still. We loved this game. Here is the picture I drew back then:</div>
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So I finally got off my duff this year after a 6 month hiatus of focusing on on nothing but work and the comic art-wise and I drew another Creative Grab Bag card and I drew "Design a Poster" well since I am going to be at two comic conventions this year with a table it would be nice to actually have something to SELL theoretically. So remembering this picture I decided to revisit this idea and make a "Super Smash Sisters" poster using the female characters in Brawl, which includes now zero-suit Samus. Here is my final result:
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<a href="http://syntheticplatypus.deviantart.com/art/Super-Smash-Sisters-278420815">Super Smash Sisters</a> by ~<a class="u" href="http://syntheticplatypus.deviantart.com/">SyntheticPlatypus</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/">deviantART</a><br />
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So, I'm thinking I've improved a bit, yes? </div>
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If you would like to purchase a poster from me please contact me through comments or e-mail.</div>
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<br />Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-33149404246003994732012-01-06T19:40:00.002-07:002012-01-06T20:29:58.192-07:00No More Netflix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Hub (husband) and I decided to, a couple months ago, cancel our subscription to Netflix. Now, this was not because of the absolute stupidity of the people in charge, it wasn't because of the price hike, it wasn't because there was nothing good on it, no it was because watching television was sucking the life out of us.</div>
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I would come home from work, wait around for the Hub to be done working, maybe exercise, kind of throw dinner together, and while we ate we would sit on the couch and begin the netflix. We had all sorts of stuff on our instant play and we watched our way through seasons of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and so much more. We would finish eating, throw the dishes in the washer and then sit down again and continue watching. Until we had to go to bed. Wash, wince, repeat. This was my life. Downtime on weekends would be spent watching movies.</div>
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We would discuss and dream about a time without Netflix but we were reluctant to give up this luxury. We don't have cable, we don't buy DVD's (not anymore, I will do a post on my mini-quest with minimalism eventually) and we only have rabbit ears for the TV that don't work well. To get rid of Netflix was to forgo television itself. Could we do it? Did we want it bad enough? </div>
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Looking around the house and at ourselves we found things being neglected, our dog for one, laundry, fixing things, putting things together, dishes, our hobbies, and ourselves. We sent back our last disk and hit the cancel button.</div>
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We haven't looked back.</div>
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Let's start with some unimportant things... my dishes are getting done (they are still the biggest pain ever and I wish my morals would allow me to buy paper cups and plates to throw out but I just can't do it!) laundry is actually being put away when clean, my garage has been organized and cleaned, and the bar my parents bought for us, I put together myself (Hub helped at the end holding the doors for me to screw on, thanks Hub!). I feel as if I have time to actually get things done, Hubby actually cleaned out a lot of the detritus from past projects that was in the yard, even going so far as chopping wood. There is still more out there but every week it gets more and more cleaned out.</div>
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As for our hobbies and ourselves, things are going so much better. I have been working on the <a href="http://www.mirrorworldsaga.com/">webcomic</a> more, I've even started drawing my own things again slightly, and I've been a lot more active physically, with training for a marathon. I'm running three days a week and I'm trying to do something else at least two of the days I don't run. I also became a meet-up planner for the Geek Girls here in AZ and now plan something fun at least once a month. So I am also more social because of this! I'm also reading, I have two books I'm currently reading and just finished a graphic novel series. Das Hub is also improving himself trying to get a business started on the sidelines and is working out with me and rollerblading with me when I run. He's also playing Skyrim (and loving it). We also go on walks with the dog. We cook more too.</div>
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So as you can see we filled our time with LIVING, not just numbly sitting on the couch as the box spewed entertainment at us.</div>
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Now don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning Netflix at all. I have bought my parents a year subscription for the past three years, they love it (my dad especially, he was telling me all about the near Oscar winning film: "Hobo with a Shotgun"). My friends all have Netflix or cable and if there is truly something I want to see, like "True Blood" then I ask a friend if I can come over and we make it a social experience too. So Netflix works for a lot of people, television works for a lot of people, it just doesn't work for us. Not having it also forces us to think of additional things to do, like today I was bored and didn't feel like drawing, didn't want to go to the gym, and didn't want to read...so I went on a two hour bike ride. I could have zoned out in front of Netflix if I had had it (and most likely would have) but I chose to take a relaxing bike ride instead. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To each their own I guess, but I make it no secret that I'm glad we made the choice we did. I haven't regretted it for a second. I'm accomplishing so much more now than I thought was possible and I'm so happy and proud of myself because of that. Netflix was inhibiting me from achieving my goals and making that decision to get rid of Netflix allowed me to see how important the goals are to me. So I'm just going to keep on going until I have accomplished all that I have set out to do and then do more.</span><br />
<br />Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-4786611798685338912012-01-04T16:22:00.000-07:002012-01-04T16:22:52.319-07:00Back to the Blogging GrindHello Non-existent reader world!<br />
<br />
I miss blogging terribly and have decided that I am going to start again with renewed vigor! I have so much to say and so much going on that it's hard to focus on WHAT exactly to blog about. To get readers it seems I should just choose a singular topic essentially and blog about that. That seems boring to me a bit. I have a life of varied interests, hobbies, and plans that just to pick ONE topic would be leaving out 98% of the rest of my life. I want to blog about what is important to me, why it's important to me, and how I incorporate it into my life.<br />
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There is just so many things that I love to talk about and want to share...<br />
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such as (and in no particular order):<br />
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Exercise and Fitness<br />
Healthy Eating<br />
Working as an Art Teacher<br />
My own Arting<br />
<a href="http://www.mirrorworldsaga.com">MirrorWorld</a><br />
Married Domestic Life<br />
Geek Girls<br />
Travel<br />
Living in Phoenix<br />
Scarves<br />
My new Origami of the Day Calendar!<br />
<br />
and much much more!<br />
<br />
So I'm going to be blogging again and if I ever actually get readers we can have discussions in the comments about what you want me to blog about more of or discuss why these things I talk about in my blog are important (or unimportant) to you.<br />
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Here's to a new year of following my many passions!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-64997285113799963042011-06-14T07:49:00.000-07:002011-06-14T07:49:22.811-07:00ComicingSo I've talked about <a href="http://www.mirrorworldsaga.com"> Mirror World </a> many a time on the blog but I thought I would perhaps explain what am doing now as opposed to the first three pages that I've done. In the next batch of pages I'll post some pictures of the process.<br />
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So the first three pages I worked on individually from start to finish. Get scripts for page 1, thumbnail page 1, get approval of thumbnail for page 1, scan page 1, ink page 1, color page 1, shade page 1, word balloon page 1 up, and send page 1 to Connie.<br />
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As you can imagine I was freaking sick of page 1 by the time I was through. It is so boring to look at the same page day in an and day out for several hours at a time (especially since I am still figuring my process out, it takes way longer than you would think)<br />
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So then Connie got me the scripts for pages 4-7. I tried doing page 4 completely differently but I ended up having to start over to not do it SO differently. But while avoiding the redo of 4 I began 5, 6, and 7. Once 7 was drawn out I went and did page 4 again. <br />
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So then I currently had 4 pages that had gotten approved and were drawn out and ready to be inked. Do I just work on page 4 or do cycle through the whole batch?<br />
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I chose to cycle. I inked all the pages first, then I colored the backgrounds, then I colored the characters (I broke these into pieces as well: clothes, skin color, eyes, eyebrows, hair, etc...cycling through the pages on each part), then I colored the misc items that got missed. Then I straighten up my layers (I need to start doing that as I go) now I'm working on straightening up my edges of the panels, then shading, then word ballooning, then I'm done. So I'm like 85% f the way done with 4 pages! My goal is to finish the batch by Wednesday. Cycling seems to be the way to go, I feel like it moves faster that way.<br />
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The even better part is that Connie already got me the scripts for pages 8, 9, and 10 and I already worked with her on the thumbnail and got those approved. So as soon as I am done with these 4 pages I can work on the next three...and I'll post progress updates with pictures!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-47664138784330332552011-06-04T13:44:00.001-07:002011-06-04T13:44:31.678-07:00Con Report, Phoenix Comic-Con 2011<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/BO6ClWbEpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rV4Voyq_Gzg/TeqYjADtQEI/AAAAAAAAAho/SgQfpYc2H60/s512/258392_10150199809140782_638300781_6902773_6154925_o.jpg"></a><br />
So we had a glorious 4 day convention that was super fun and super helpful with learning on what to do an what not to do. <br />
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But we have learned and we will grow and I suspect any con that we do now will go oh so much better from now on! <br />
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Alright, so the Wednesday before we went and picked up our badges, which was helpful because we were able to figure out parking and where our booth was located.<br />
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Thursday I was super late with the prints because I blew out a tire. So I got there and the preview night was in full swing. We were next to this guy :<a href="http://1nch.deviantart.com/"> Inch by Finch aka Patrick </a> and this guy: <a href="http://web.me.com/vdeporter/Site/Welcome.html"> Vince Deporter </a>. Both were super cool and I think Vince and my hubby are new best friends. I had Vince draw me a picture with Sponge Bob in my art room, which I'll post on another day when I discuss the art I've bought or brought into the house.<br />
<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/9P6myHKd9f" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Bg9v3IY49hQ/TeqV2qDtDFI/AAAAAAAAAfY/N6K6SkU1wTk/s512/DSC_1727.JPG"></a><br />
<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/e0sotjZgo2" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-JfqsXd_Mhkc/TeqV6NZVbMI/AAAAAAAAAf8/CoZEV4YGXpY/s512/DSC_1731.JPG"></a><br />
<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/xgJuYC1yVQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GbLhHSZPPGE/TeqV9_yMd4I/AAAAAAAAAgE/JZl2tXq1wcc/s512/DSC_1732.JPG"></a><br />
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Friday and Saturday went by like a blur, I figured out to have free sketches t talk to people (and by drawing on the back of our flyer!) and then Saturday I put a "Tips accepted sign" which actually worked quite a bit. I have no complaints. I ended up selling one print, and a few drawings of super heroes that I whipped out and laid on the table. <br />
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<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/aZNZMeHSkc" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qECDPCyrVr4/TeqWEbqM8UI/AAAAAAAAAgM/N1dY4tKeDf0/s512/DSC_1736.JPG"></a><br />
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I talked to Randy of <a href="http://somethingpositive.net/"> Something Positive </a> a few times. He is a scary hairy man, but he is so sweet and nice and gave us some suggestions and a fee sketch, I bought an issue of Super Stupor from him and he gave me another issue for free! You're awesome, man!<br />
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<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/e45lrs0XEl" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-r8raTwJMYpE/TeqWDka47CI/AAAAAAAAAgI/hTv4bquvM6o/s512/DSC_1737.JPG"></a><br />
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I eventually got to meet Danielle Corsetto of <a href="http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/"> Girls with Slingshots </a> and bought a little print off of her, she is way nice as well!<br />
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I also mingled my way up to Joel Watson's booth <a href="http://hijinksensue.com/"> Hiijinks Ensue </a> and bought a print off of him.<br />
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I didn't stand in line to meet any celebrities but I did get to speak with Will Wheaton (which I may do a video of me talking to fully express what the heck happened and how awesome it was).<br />
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<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/QknpTXj1cq" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-6JCG-lvY-jo/TeqWAoIR6qI/AAAAAAAAAf4/kpf0hARb-bA/s512/DSC_1735.JPG"></a><br />
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Then a surprise happened for me...J. Scott Campbell was there. HOLY CRAP. J SCOTT CAMPBELL! Creator of Danger Girl, artist of many issues of Gen 13 and basically hot woman drawer extraordinaire! I bought a print off of him and got myself a pic with him...hooray!<br />
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<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/Fzg9SxIfHq" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uWA_uswgUz8/TeqVuhMu0hI/AAAAAAAAAfA/ZjAnQFuPAyQ/s512/DSC_1720.JPG"></a><br />
<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/UImEZl7yOi" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ZstHUi0oHt0/TeqV5yW2raI/AAAAAAAAAfg/M_lKFyRyF64/s512/DSC_1729.JPG"></a><br />
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I met lots of nice people and got many compliments on my stuff, people were really interesting and it was super busy. I was very tired after 4 days but I was able to get through it and look back fondly on it! I drew lots of different things (including an Angry Bird giving a wedgie to a Gnome) but I just thought of it as practice! I really can't wait to do it again. We have already purchased our booth for next year's con and I know we have a table for Emerald Comic Con but I have no idea if I'll be able to go. So hopefully!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-72906258416360293152011-05-31T07:48:00.001-07:002011-05-31T07:48:07.206-07:00Con ReportIs on it's way for the end of the week. I just wanted to say that I had a ton of fun and w already have our booth for next year!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-90455515822741131322011-05-14T09:46:00.000-07:002011-05-14T09:46:08.912-07:00Phoenix Comic Con<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/gGJXEgZu0T" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_iTZ6XcauyCA/Tc6xXICdN9I/AAAAAAAAAeI/BoTfLK2ead8/s512/IMG_1130.JPG"></a><br />
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Apparently Connie got us a booth and they have room so we really have one!<br />
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OMG.<br />
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So I'm at Booth 747 during the Phoenix Comic Con. We'll have a mini-comic of highlights of <a href="http://www.mirrorworldsaga.com"> Mirror World </a> and some handouts and postcards. I'm making a poster for behind us and I'll have some prints for sale. I'll also be doing some sketching and ATC's so if anyone actually reads this and is in the area during the 26th-29th come on down!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-46363803227615389662011-04-30T11:07:00.000-07:002011-04-30T11:07:36.496-07:00Sweet TomatoesI don't know if many people have Sweet Tomatoes near them. <br />
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If you do not I am sorry and you should move near one.<br />
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It's one of my favorite restaurants and it's basically an all you can eat salad bar. I adore this place. Plus it is great for people watching because it has other things than salad and it is amazing what people eat at this place and call it "healthy." <br />
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As in an entire plate of croutons is "healthy" cause it's from a salad bar.<br />
<br />
o_o<br />
<br />
Anyway, I went there with my brother the other day and I was asked a amazing question (an amazing question to me at least) and that was if I wanted to purchase a bigger cup for 50 cents more.<br />
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Now mind you, this is a place that you can just GET UP AND GET MORE when your cup is empty. It's not one cup full and you have to pay for refills or wait for someone to come and refill you. You just get off your bum and get some more to drink.<br />
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I asked the girl why I would want to pay 50 cents extra and her reply was for the convenience factor. I wouldn't have to get up as much.<br />
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...<br />
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To me this does not perpetuate a healthy lifestyle. I dunno, what do you think?<br />
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Would you pay more to not get up as much?Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-19477548286665619592011-04-16T09:34:00.000-07:002011-04-16T09:34:07.589-07:00Back to Normalcy<object width="450" height="560"><param name="movie" value="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="id=205114492&width=1337" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" flashvars="id=205114492&width=1337" height="560" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/205114492/">Brewster Bunch</a> by ~<a class="u" href="http://syntheticplatypus.deviantart.com/">SyntheticPlatypus</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com">deviant</a><a href="http://www.deviantart.com">ART</a><br />
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A wedding picture for my friend at work. Her and her newly blended family! This looks amazing printed and framed and she loved it!<br />
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Lots of moving around and drama at work. I'm not going to complain, so all I will say is that I get to continue teaching art to children full time, which is what truly matters. It's still my dream job. I love teaching kids how to draw, it's official.<br />
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So with rumblings of the job I've had to start really thinking about how to file things for next year, how I'm going to deal with the influx of projects, making actual units for students and having the folders of the units as portfolios. It's massive amounts of craziness. <br />
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I've been nicking away little by little with the comic, once summer hits I'll throw myself into it, especially since I won't have the sub day to work on things during class :D<br />
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People should head to down town Chandler soon too. There has been a public art initiative and there are five local artists that have made ceramic tiles and decorated bus benches all over on Arizona Ave. They are really neat and you should check it out!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-7650449357030251672011-03-14T12:08:00.000-07:002011-03-14T12:08:58.418-07:00We Inturrupt the ProceedingsWow.<br />
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Hecticness. I can't believe how much has been going on.<br />
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Let me talk about last week a little. The reason there was no blog post last week was because we were at the hospital. How did we get to the said hospital? In an ambulance.<br />
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So...excitement abounds.<br />
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Let me break it down. Evan and I were eating dinner. We were in the living room eating dinner and Evan was watching Carpal Tunnel Surgery (he was researching it for himself) and he finished watching the video and told me he wasn't feeling well from the video. I turned to look at him and all of a sudden he slumps over and begins to moan, gurgle, and twitch like he is having a seizure.<br />
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I leap up shouting his name and yell that I'm calling 911. As I am dialing I run back to him, he was leaning back in the chair reclining it more as he is twitching. I am reaching to take his pulse and calling his name. I'm talking to the 911 operator as he comes to. This only lasted about 35 seconds but I'll be damned if it wasn't the longest 35 seconds of my life.<br />
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He came to and told me no ambulance that we'll just go to the ER ourselves. So I packed a bunch of stuff in a bag and got him into my car. We were driving there (it's like 3 miles away) and he did it again. This time with the words "I'm going away again" and so without crashing my car I pulled over 3 lanes to the gas station and called 911 again and had them send the ambulance.<br />
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Evan came to again and was sweating profusely. The very nice firemen paramedics came and got Evan out of my car and got info from me and then the ambulance came. and they loaded him up. I called my brother to get my car from the gas station and called Evan's mom to tell her too.<br />
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We got to the ER and then proceeded to be in the ER for 7 hours. We didn't get home to 12:30 AM.<br />
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Evan is fine though. What happened was the his body shut down after the surgery video to protect itself. The twitching was caused by his blood leaving his head and extremities. <br />
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It is a type of seizure but it didn't affect his brain or heart.<br />
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It was really the worst day of my life and I am so glad that he is okay. Our One year anniversary is on the 20th of this month and I'm happy we are going to be able to celebrate together.<br />
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I love him very much.Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-18283577618732833752011-02-27T18:42:00.001-07:002011-02-27T18:43:24.466-07:00Neighbors<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/HDRf7Re0wT"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_iTZ6XcauyCA/TWr9QmzYucI/AAAAAAAAAdY/ZVFBQngi8Rc/s512/IMG_1121.JPG"></a><br />
Folks I gotta say this quite frankly...<br />
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People can be DICKS. Holy Goodness. So I got two stories about my neighbors one ends happily, the other not so much.<br />
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The hub and I take our Pup, Gala, for walks most evenings. We like to traipse around the neighborhood and take many different routes and see different things around us.<br />
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Well Evan and I both have separately taken the same route and had the same thing happen. There is this guard dog (I'm thinking it was Cerebus...you know the guard dog of HELL) and it likes to throw it's entire 80 lb body weight against the bottom of this gate/door thing. And it was only clasped in the middle...so this quite frankly, RABID looking dog was almost getting out and would try to kill us through the door every time we went past. <br />
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Well Evan decided he was going to talk to the guy about it. He apparently had a very frustrating 20 minute talk with the guy about how dangerous it was and if the dog got out how deadly it would be. The guy brushed him off and told him nothing would happen. Evan's parting words? "Yeah we'll find out won't we?"<br />
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Well we went on a walk a week after that and went past the house and what did we find besides the hell beast? I length of chain holding the bottom of the door together held by a padlock. A 5 dollar fix that probably prevented some mauling in the future. <br />
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Yay, win for us!<br />
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Now the losing story.<br />
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We have this 20 ft Mexican palm tree in the back corner of out house. I never liked the thing because it's ruining the back wall, the roots are pushing it up. Well a while back our neighbors behind us saw Evan on the roof and talked to him about the leaves from the palm falling into their pool. They said they would go in for halfsies for trimming or whatever and Evan said to come over and we would talk more about it. They never did so we forgot about it.<br />
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Well, Friday I got home from work and went to look outside and I was greeted by a 5 ft tall x 5 ft wide pile of palm tree leaves that were thrown over our wall. Umm...I don't think they are allowed to do that in the first place and what dicks they are for being so passive aggressive about it. They never talked to us and it looks like they saved a bunch of them just to make a point. We got the HINT. I called a guy to give us an estimate and he came out and we said we would talk to the neighbors about getting half. The tree guy called me on Saturday and said he's knock a hundred bucks off if we did it Monday morning. So we are just doing it. <br />
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Thanks dickwads.<br />
<br />
ERG.Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-44730831603894796222011-02-22T18:57:00.000-07:002011-02-22T18:57:31.512-07:00Borders<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/YKRXZCuaiU" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_iTZ6XcauyCA/TWRo1Rg4jgI/AAAAAAAAAc8/VaQP2PB43pI/s512/IMG_1119.JPG"></a><br />
Hey look a bum! :D Just practicing my life drawing. This woman appears a lot in my book and I love her curves. <br />
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Well, I am super sad that Borders Books has declared bankruptcy and is closing 200 stores across the states by April. There are two on the chopping block that are near and dear to my heart so I am a bit crushed at the prospect of losing them.<br />
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The first is right near where I currently live. UGH. I liked having a bookstore so close but my area is just dying economy-wise. There's like 4 areas on this stretch of road near here that just have abandoned buildings and this Borders is going to make another one.<br />
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The second is back home in MI. My Ann Arbor Borders is closing. That is the one I grew up in essentially and it makes me sad. It's also on the corner of this strip mall thing and I have no idea what they would put in such a huge location.<br />
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So nerdy book reader platypus is sad.<br />
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In other news...we went and saw Bodyworlds at the Science Center. I had seen it before in Chicago on a vacation and gotten ill. It's PEOPLE, folks. PEOPLE NOT FAKE PLASTIC, PEOPLE.<br />
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Anyway I took Evan on Friday and he really enjoyed it and I didn't get sick. We examined the body and all these things and it was really educational and enjoyable. Evan really liked it and that was the important thing, I knew he wanted to see it so I made it happen. Cause I LOVE him. <3Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-29112431516986568422011-02-12T22:03:00.001-07:002011-02-12T22:05:35.709-07:00Mirror World Preview Page 2!<object width="450" height="616"><param name="movie" value="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="id=197219738&width=1337" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" flashvars="id=197219738&width=1337" height="616" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/197219738/">Mirror World Saga Preview Pg.2</a> by ~<a class="u" href="http://syntheticplatypus.deviantart.com/">SyntheticPlatypus</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com">deviant</a><a href="http://www.deviantart.com">ART</a><br />
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Mirror World Saga Page 2 Preview!<br />
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Since I am almost done with page 3 I thought I would get page Preview up.<br />
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I'm trying to drum up interest once Miss Connie starts posting again!<br />
<a href="http://www.mirrorworldsaga.com"> MirrorWorld! </a><br />
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Read and catch up with the story so far!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-24375556056846371462011-02-12T16:23:00.000-07:002011-02-12T16:23:33.373-07:00Disasters and Other Good Things<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/h02ySE5iTz"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_iTZ6XcauyCA/TVcQvCaD9nI/AAAAAAAAAcg/BkVjH4d2EH0/s512/IMG_1114.JPG"></a><br />
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Random sketch from breaking in them markers!<br />
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Alright so a few things. If you live anywhere near Scottsdale please go to SMOCA (Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art) and go to the "Wishes" exhibit. It is amazing. The walls have all these holes poked into them and in the holes are ribbons. On the ribbons are someone's wish printed on it. You take a ribbon and you can leave your own wish on a rolled piece of paper there. The ribbon has to be tied around your wrist and knotted three times and you wear it until it falls apart and it should come true for you (if it's your wish or if you're wearing it for someone else). I am currently wearing two ribbons.<br />
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"I wish to be recognized as a great artist" and "I wish to be skinny" both are knotted three times and on my left wrist together. Hopefully this will help!<br />
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Next I went to <a href="http://ignitephoenix.com/">Ignite Phoenix </a>last night. It was AMAZING. I loved it. My friend <a href="http://shaunastacy.com/">Shauna Stacy </a> did a fantastic job with her speech about Shaun of the Dead. There should be videos posted soon, you should go check them out...especially the 10 year old who did the speech on 3D printers, this kid was epically AWESOME.<br />
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This did make me get inspired and I'm thinking of trying out for the next Ignite Phoenix in May. I have a topic in my head and just need to outline it. Maybe...maybe not. We'll see.<br />
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Page 3 of <a href="http://www.mirrorworldsaga.com/">Mirror World </a>is almost finished. The inks are done and I am in the middle of coloring. All that is left after that is shading and I'll be adding just a few textures to the mix on this page. It's especially exciting because on this page is our first look into the Villains! OOoooOOoooh. The next 2 pages are in Alice's apartment and I am really super excited about that and can't wait to use some airier colors!<br />
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My disaster of an extra bedroom and the closet has been completely tackled. It's done and I'm done and I am so happy. The office furniture has been moved around in the other room and I am actually working in it again and getting things done. It is much more conducive to creativity now.<br />
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I lost my phone the other night at the park. It was night and I lost it sometime on a walk I was doing with my Geek Girls. So it was gone gone gone. And I was sad. I started looking at new phones and changed passwords to a bunch of things cause I was logged in to a bunch of stuff and that was all I needed was for someone to start mucking about with things. <br />
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BUT<br />
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a very nice gentleman named Brandon and his dog found my phone and called my mom. He called Evan and he went and picked up my phone. Brandon didn't even take any money as a thank you. I called him and told him I appreciated his honesty in giving it back. He has restored my faith in humanity a little bit. I'm glad my phone is safe and back with me!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052902654309367506.post-28629566942422364192011-02-08T20:39:00.000-07:002011-02-08T20:39:03.775-07:00Self-Portrait and Avatar and User Pic<object width="450" height="560"><param name="movie" value="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="id=196729552&width=1337" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" flashvars="id=196729552&width=1337" height="560" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/196729552/">Synthetic Platypus</a> by ~<a class="u" href="http://syntheticplatypus.deviantart.com/">SyntheticPlatypus</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com">deviant</a><a href="http://www.deviantart.com">ART</a><br />
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Not on the art list but I needed to create a user ID for several functions so I knocked one out finally. <br />
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So here is me, Synthetic Platypus in all my glory.<br />
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I wanted something simple but fun and poppy. This is the current style that I am using for the comic I am working on [link] (my stuff is not showing yet, but read it anyway!)<br />
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I am a big fan of wearing scarves so I thought I would incorporate the platypus into it for my pop of color. The platypi are nicked from my business cards sans the polka dots, I wanted it a bit more simple.<br />
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Now here is the issue. I desperately want this scarf to exist in real life!Synthetic Platypushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01244690348607091386noreply@blogger.com0