Think Pink

Valentines Day approaches, but what does Valentines Day really mean? Valentines Day can be very emotional for some people and meaningless to others.  This season I'm focusing my energies and thoughts to how to better love others, rather than looking at it as merely a romantic holiday between me and my husband.  So, the question of how to do this keeps coming up ...

As Valentines Day approaches pink stuff seems to be everywhere.  When I see pink makes me think of Breast Cancer, which makes me think of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. So, in honor of thinking pink, and of my resolution to make it a more meaningful season, I've decided that for any pink items sold in my Etsy shop between Jan 26 & Feb 14th I will donate 20% of the proceeds to Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Haircut

Life is full of patterns and I am in the beginning of a new phase of a cycle I seem to have embarked upon a few times before.  Let's see how long it lasts.  What is that pattern? Due to a variety of circumstances I find I can't stand having long hair anymore so I opt for a dramatic change.  I usually keep the shorter - higher maintence hair cut for a while then let it grow out, it gets long, I wait till it's long enough to cut a ponytail for Locks for Love and cut it off.  Well there's a ponytail in my purse right now waiting to be shipped out & for the first time since I was a preschooler I have curly hair.  How did that happen?

Masterwork challenge

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I am a member of the Art Dolls Only Team on Etsy.  They have a variety of challenges to keep the members inspired and working.  The one I just completed (albiet late) is producing a doll inspired by a painting by a master.  I chose to do a doll based on a figure from a John William Waterhouse's The Crystal Ball painted in 1902.

Here are some pics of the finished doll.

And one of the doll next to a print of the painting ...

New Year = new posts

I rarely make New Year's resolutions, as like most people I struggle to keep them.  This year I am hoping to start off on the right foot and keep up with more regular posts to this blog.

Since my last post I have seen the winter concert season come and go, with an unnecessary amount of drama in getting the kids outfitted.  (I am one of the uniform co-chairs of the music boosters).  This year's crop of new band members are unusually small.  We had a lot of tuxedos in the 40-46" range and a lot of boys who need sizes in the low 30s and even some in the 28" range.  Due to new systems in the Delaware school systems POs take AGES to process, and despite starting 6 weeks before the concerts we finished all the concerts without any word that they POs for the new tuxedos had even passed the school district hurdles much less the state level.  That meant I had the "pleasure" of trying to temporarily resize a handful of pants from 35" waistbands so that they would stay on kids with a waist measurement under 30".  As we finished outfitting all the academic music groups (bands and choral ensembles) we got to start over with the marching band uniforms.  Why deal with marching bands in late December?  Because we were taking the WP Marching band to Walt Disney World over Winter Break!  I got to experience Disney World for the first time chaperoning 50some high school kids. 

While I was daunted by the idea of going to Disney World over Winter Break (most crowded time of year) with 72 people, it turned out to be a great experience!  While there were low points (16-18 hours sitting up in bus seats while we headed to and from Orlando, FL on the way back feeling distinctly UNwell, there were a lot of wonderful moments.  Many of the other chaperones had been to Disney several times and were generous with thier time, friendship and knowledge of the parks.  When not actively chaperoning our specific charges many of the regular music boosters who were chaperoning stuck together and made sure I got the most from my first trip to Disney World.  Thank you to all of you! 

Now I am home and 2011 is underway.  I hope to list new items in my shop more regularly, to post to my blog more regularly and to complete all the planned and unfinished projects on my to do lists. 

Just a couple more pictures: me & my favorite Muppet (OK so Sweetums was not actually posing for pictures or signing autographs he's still my favorite so I posed with his picture.  And last but not least, some of the band moms and the new "Band Mom Bag."