instafriday

Because it's been a while since I've shared my Instagram photos, I'm including about two weeks of photos in this Insta-Friday post. Lucky you!

My friend, Alisa, sent me a picture of a zipper pouch as a suggestion for a new design. I tweaked her suggestion a little and came up with this bow design for my pencil pouches. I love it! Other color combos will be coming soon.

Anybody else loving the gray and yellow right now? There is just something so striking about it. This is also a little something new for my pouches that stand up. Of course I'm working on more color combos of this as well. Hopefully both types of pouches will be listed in my shop soon.

My friend, Alana, and I scored last minute tickets and were able to hear Ron Clark speak. And we met him! No big deal ~ he's just my teaching hero, you know. You can read more about that on my teaching blog.

We followed that up with lunch out, of course. Summer is great for teachers because we can actually slow down during meals and have a decent conversation instead of speed eating before the bell rings to go pick up the students. There have been many a family dinner that I gulp down my food only to look around and see everyone only half finished. One day, Greg even said, "Slow down, you're not at school."

Isn't this lovely? I had a gift card for my favorite fabric store ~ the one with the really pricey stuff. It's been a little while since I've been in the shop, so I spent a really long time wandering around before I even picked up a bolt. I was asked by more than one shop worker if I needed help or if they could help me find something. Back off, girls!

Once I picked up the first bolt, the rest flew into my arms at a dizzying rate. I had to make myself steer towards the cutting counter before we had to get a second mortgage. As it was I went way a little over my gift card amount.

I haven't been keeping up with my 365 Drawings project the way it was intended. No matter ~ I'm working at my pace. My pace this summer is v.e.r.y. slow. I'm conserving energy for the fall. I did this zentangle while cleaning ~ cleaning out the TiVo of shows, that is.

Like it or not, school is approaching. Every year, August 1 marks the time when I start going back to school to prepare my classroom a little bit at a time. That's next week. I keep telling myself that this year I'm going to wait, but we all know that's unlikely to happen. The sadness of the summer winding down can only be soothed with back to school supplies for myself. So far I've accumulated a few of my favorites including mechanical pencils and Mr. Sketch markers. I love, love, love Mr. Sketch markers. First, they smell so delicious ~ duh! Secondly, they last all year (and sometimes two) writing on charts during lessons.

I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and saw they were putting out Christmas things. What?! Well, you know, crafters gotta get busy early. I get that. But they were putting out ornaments too. Greg told me Hallmark already has their ornaments out.

IT'S JULY PEOPLE! People are gonna be worn out of Christmas before the chill gets in the air.

It may be July and too early for ornaments in the store, but it's not too early for me to get ready for the fall craft boutiques, right? These clothes pins are going to be a super cute set to hold Christmas cards. They will be paired with twine to hang on the wall.

I'm linking up with Jeannett for Insta-Friday. You can too.

       

storm chasing

We live in an area with little variation in weather. The summer gives us hot, hotter, and Devil's Inferno. The winter gives us cold, cold & windy, and cold & knock-you-down-at-duty-windy.

So when some summer thunder storms roll in everyone gets a little giddy.

Saturday night Greg loaded Heather and I (Stephanie was at a friend's house) in the truck and we took off in search of a storm that was supposed to be headed our way.

We stopped to try to catch a few pictures of the light show in the heavens.

Greg set up the tripod and took hundreds of pictures in hopes of getting a few choice shots.

We also watched two storm systems go completely by us instead of over us.

At one point the lightning started happening in the clouds right over our heads. It lit up the whole sky, as it jumped from cloud to cloud.

Still.

No rain on us.

In this picture, you can see it was raining miles away. 

We were stationed near the outflow of a community lake and could hear the steady trickle of the stream. All of a sudden the sound of the water got louder, much louder. The wind picked up and we heard what sounded like a wall of water coming our way.

Greg screamed, "Everybody in the truck!" We ran and scrambled in the truck and hastily rolled up the windows before we got drenched.

Pfft! Pfft! Only a few drops fell. 

We laughed and laughed!

Then we got a text from Greg's sister that it was raining h.a.r.d. at her house. So of course we took off in that direction and found the rain. We also found quite a few puddles that the big truck couldn't resist. I may have peed my pants just a little on one section of the road.

It's been dry here since.

No more weather excitement.

We certainly are not ready for our own reality show chasing storms, but we sure had a good time on a Saturday night!

       

happy birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet husband!

I love you!