A Forest- Make a Painting

A Forest by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

"Make a Painting" was the next card that I drew.

I love this painting. It took absolutely forever though. When I draw a card I have to figure out what I'm going to do. I knew I wanted watercolor, but I didn't know of what.

After a few days I was doing laundry and hanging up my clothes. I love dresses and as I was hanging them up I noticed I had quite the collection and array of colors and patterns.

"How pretty this would be" I thought to myself. But how to approach it? I ordered the dresses in rainbow fashion (ROY G BIV) with brown, white, and black at the end. I then took several photos of close-ups.

After deciding which photo I would use, I printed it big and gridded it, I added a grid to my paper and then drew everything square by square by square. I erased my grid as I went so I wouldn't have to backtrack.

Then I very patiently started in on my white saver (a lovely liquid rubber that you paint on your paper that saves you from accidentally painting something you wanted to keep light or white) and then started in with the colors, layer by layer by layer. I really wanted to take my time and not rush myself.

I just did a little a day work-wise constantly moving around the paper to make sure I didn't bleed into already wet areas. When I felt like I would mess up if I went further I quit.

I borrowed some glitter from a friend who does crafting because the orange dress I own is glitter-riffic and I have noooo idea how I would have pulled that one off.

I'm very pleased with this piece and I think it's the one I've had the most enjoyable time making.

On to the next!

Hey!

So, I'm irritated and worried.

Probably for absolutely nothing which is what I am hoping for.

I'm not looking for sympathy, empathy, or pity (at least not yet, :p).

But things suck when it does not go according to plan.

I made a doctors appointment the other day for a physical. I am going to be 25 this year and never have had a physical so I thought it would be wise to have one.

Things went great, she looked at my skin, talked about diet and exercise, told me I probably need a new prescription for my glasses soon but that I was still well within the limits of seeing good. Then they drew some blood and said they'd call me.

They called yesterday and told me to come back in for ANOTHER blood test. I'm all, "what?" Reason being is that my white blood cells are low (wtf?) and my kidney function was not as good as it should have been (huh??). This was not the plan. The plan was for me to get a phone call with the words: "thumbs up Sara, everything is uber fine!" not "another blood test and doctors appointment to discuss everything with the doctor" >_<

Not cool.

And of course, the internet is really not the best thing to look at when you potentially have something wrong with you. There are several different types of white blood cells and whatever one you are low on is what is wrong with you. For me it could absolutely nothing or I could be anemic (which admittedly, would make sense) or it could be very very bad.

Please nothing. Please?

So I'm going today to get my blood drawn again for the white blood cell test. Then making an appointment probably for Friday to get with the doctor and chat.

I'm really not thrilled by any of this.

Salad!

So not lately but for the month of May basically (monday-friday) Evan and I decided to eat salad every night. We wanted something healthy and easy because quite frankly by the end of school we were both just absolutely sick of cooking. So we decided on uber salads, because we started going to Sweet Tomotoes and we were basically paying 20 bucks for salad.

So, our salads are so delicious I thought I would share the how-to process of making them. Mind you there is no dairy, soy, or tree nuts because of Evan's allergies.




First we have the basic salad mix. Get actual lettuce and spinach. They have actual vitamins. No iceberg lettuce allowed.




Then I add sliced baby sweet peppers, found at Walmart.



Then open up a can of beets and chop 'em up.



Then a little bit of broccoli. I try to chop near the head because the stalk is just gross.



Then we have super yummy hard-boiled eggs.



Then let us not forget the fungus among us with some mushrooms.



CUCUMBER.



Then I dice up some pickles too. I think dill relish would work fine too, or the pickle chips.



Then some kidney beans or chick peas, either one is suitable.



Then some canned chicken.



Toppings! Salt, Pepper, and some olive oil and vinegar (balsamic, raspberry, red wine, whatever) No ranch dressing here!



Then we have our finished delicious product.

Now, you probably have some toppings that you are wondering where they are at. It's fine to add or substitute ingredients. I personally hate tomatoes, so poor Evan never gets them on his stuff cause I just don't buy them.

If you hate chopping things, a lot of stuff you can buy pre-chopped or take a day like Sunday and chop everything and put it in some tupperware, then you can just quite literally throw it all into a bowl!

Enjoy!

The School Updatage

Alright, I am back from my honey moon, have a new layout, and ready to blog!

Today I would like to talk about my job as an elementary art teacher.

I finished all the grading and cleaning out of my classroom with plenty of time to spare. I worked on everything on and off all the last week of school and by Friday (the day after the kid's last day) I was able to come in the morning and completely check out for the school year. I had a meeting at 9 am with my arts boss and the rest of the arts peoples so after I was done at school I hopped off to my meeting.

Not a good meeting.

I'll spare you the details but essentially here is what is happening to me next year, because they screwed up. (I'm being nice when I say it that way, btw.) I will be working four days a week teaching elementary art for 50 minute class periods (oy, kindergarten...I'm still trying to figure that one out) and then on the fifth day I will be subbing.

SUBSTITUTE TEACHING.

I think I'll let everyone draw their own conclusions on how I feel about this, because I do like my job and would like to keep teaching.

I dragged most of my own belongings out of the classroom and brought them home so I could sort and organize throughout the summer. It's a bunch of stuff and I really just threw it in boxes, I need to go through it more. I did try to sort as I packed but by the end I was just throwing things into boxes.

I will say on the bright side I do get to stay at the school I've been at, so yay for that. My principal is still my principal and my good friend Amanda is still there as well. (she teaches choir, goooo arts!)

So the only things left is too sort some stuff, call about adding the hubby to my insurance to see how much that costs (he is currently freelancing, employed freelancing tho...it's not code for unemployed), and then change my name over once I put all the official paperwork in.

So hooray for a new post, yes?

The Alchemist; an Illustration

The Alchemist by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Next in my grab bag series. This was "Create an Illustration" which led me to discover the difference between illustrations and regular old drawings. Yes, I never knew this even with going to art college. It was never a vocab term!

Illustrations tell a story for those of you who don't know.

So, I just read The Alchemist last month and was very inspired by the story. So I was thinking of how I could illustrate it to show different bits of the story line ad kept thinking how epic it got near the end and decided it felt like Indiana Jones.

So basically I took the poster from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and tweaked it to fit my illustration.

Now my usual kinds of drawing (before synthetic platypus) was to draw one person (usually a girl) and that was it. Drawing an almost movie poster with multiple people, animals and a background? Nearly impossible. It took just about the whole month this time working on it.

You might say though, wait this is not taking you out of your comfort zone at all except for layout. t is actually. I tweaked with my brush settings a bunch and I inked it differently. The next time I work on something on the computer I am going to be doing a different kind of shading. It's a one step at time kind of thing.

I am very pleased with how this turned out on the whole and am glad I got it done within the month. On to the next!

Lack of Postage

Not the Mail Kind Either.

Sorry for the lull in posting. I have a few posts planned out (salads, grossness at school, some new art is almost finished as well, plus the update for my employment next year) but the end of the school year is catching up with me and there is packing up the classroom and grading 850 children.

11 classes down. Too many still to go.

Had and have some dental appointments, one normal cleaning and the start of getting this stuff put on my back teeth (sealant, I believe) in order to prevent cavities. Which is good because my work is cutting my dental insurance.

Plus the in-law family came over as well.

Then I got sick, which I am still suffering some after affects of that. Blech.

Real post soon, I promise. Posts everywhere really, I'm falling behind on my dA account and facebook stuff, plus I've been canceling my Geek Girl Stuff (oh and a post of my hike with them!) so busy. I can't wait for vacation to come. 2 months of nothing!

Dad Ramblings

I know it was Mother's Day yesterday but I texted my dad and it was too hilarious to not share.

So yesterday, I made a clothes line hanging under my back porch roof. Now you ask, "Why on earth would you do that?" Well, because I live in Arizona and it's 97 outside and I am inside using a clothes dryer that doesn't work very well. I was sick of it.

So I made the clothes lines, and took a picture and sent it to my dad. I do these things because I like them to know what is up in my life.

Now mind you my dad is originally from Kentucky, and here is his reply:

"Congrats you are an honorary hillbilly"

to which I say:

"Oh hush. I'm 'green' for the environment."

Dad says:

"Yeah, hillbillies were ahead of their time."

...

LOVE IT.

Weight Loss and Exercise

So I don't believe I've made it a secret that I've been on the quest to build myself a better body. I'm still doing that, it's been about a year since I started and I spent most of this school year maintaining what I lost over the summer.

Maintaining is just as hard as losing if not harder. I'm not even down all the way yet! I can't imagine what it will be like when I do lose everything.

So I've decided to step it up a notch this month, the last month of school, and try to kick-start the weight loss again. I lost about 2 lbs last month and I figured if I can lose even just 3 more I'll be rocking it out.

It's not even the weight I'm concerned about with anymore, but when lbs melt they show off the smexy muscles I've been building.

And they are there, oh yes, they are. I was putting on the pjs last night when I caught a glance at my stomach. My eyes bulged out of my head. I HAVE HIPBONES. There is not any padding whatsoever between my hip bones and skin except the normal things. From what I've read this is a precurser to ABS. I never even dreamed.

It's with good cause I never dreamed. I was on my way to sever obesity. Especially when I moved down to AZ. I was in a not good living situation having a very rough first teaching year. My solace was coldstone creamery and cheese. Plus whatever else I could scrounge up at school and there was always something.

I ballooned. I got a wii fit for christmas (not a hint, I wanted one) and I nearly choked when I got on it the first time. I worked with it and lost 10 lbs but I was still way over weight. Then I moved which actually caused me to lose more weight accidentally because I was carrying heavy boxes up 4 flights of stairs for a week making six or seven trips up and down them each day.

Then I met Evan and I make his allergies no secret that my new diet sped up my weight loss. That and he was a gym rat and part of our courtship involved going to the gym after work.

So fast forward to now. I did some math the other day because I have weight and measurments I have kept track of for years. From my heaviest I'm 28.6 lbs lighter. Then from when I lost my 10 lbs (I wouldn't even measure myself at my heaviest waaaay too depressing) If you take all my measurements (bust, waist, hips, glutes, thighs, arms) I have lost 21 inches off of my body. I am quite literally a smaller person. I take up 21 inches less of space!

But my quest is far from over. Slowly my weight is changing and my measurements are slightly moving around. In good ways. Things are reapportioning themselves around my body and I got about 10 more lbs to go until I hit my goal or 15 if I want to hit my uber goal. But I'm not too concerned with the uber goal because if I feel as happy as now in 10 lbs I think I'll just stay there.

Weight wise now though I am back to being a junior in high school. In 10 more lbs I'll be a freshman again. Which that's fun to think about in that way too.

I feel like I'm rambling now. I'm just way excited and I am going to lose my weight and I will be the best that I can be.

Are you proud of your cart?

I must admit something.

I am a bit of a voyeur. Not the pervy kind but the kind that likes to people watch in public. The kind that likes to look at what you eat and what you buy and how your clothing looks.

It's how I learn. How I have always learned really. Do what the seemingly successful people are doing and don't do what the rest are doing.

Well, I am sad to admit that I have become a bit of a Walmart shopper on a regular basis. It's out of budgeting and necessity! I swear. I didn't use to shop there because they didn't have anything Evan could eat but as the world becomes more health conscious the more food Evan can actually eat.

So we shop very carefully and buy things we actually have on the list. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies (I'm amazed at Walmart's veggies, honestly, super cheap super fresh and it's not all pre-packaged you can buy it by the pound) and non-processed foods. We like to cook and shopping helps that...we don't shop to not cook.

By the end of our shopping experience we have a cart full of veggies, fruits, 100% juices, water, and a bevy of other ingredients that are healthful. I love our cart. Evan and I always look at are cart and say what a good job we did and how awesome our cart is (we truly do this and congratulate each other on such a nice cart...I never said I wasn't an absolute dork). Then if we found something we wanted that we couldn't get at Walmart we head to Whole Foods.

So now we get to the other carts in the store. Now I know Walmart on the whole is not the best example of where you can buy the best food. But I swear to you looking at the other carts out there. These people have NO CLUE. Frozen pizzas, two liters of pop, gallons of ice cream, and boxes upon boxes of macaroni and cheese.

It's enough to make one a bit sick, really.

So it makes me ask these couple questions.

Are you proud of your cart?

and...

Would you show your mother your cart?

The Girls with Glasses

Never have I felt a silly song speak to me so much. I will so watch this when they start doing this show.

All the girls say it with me now..."I AM a GIRL and I WILL CAPTURE the WORLD!"

I Am A Girl - The Girls With Glasses Theme Song from The Girls With Glasses on Vimeo.