Auction Time? Great Idea for Fundraiser (or Gift)

Barn Wood Alphabet Name Plaques

Every year I've taught kindergarten, I photograph the students using their bodies to form individual alphabet letters. It is a lot of work. It involves copious amounts of sweat and silliness. And, as I've gotten wiser, at least two additional adults and a ladder.

This year I decided to take advantage of all of that work and create our auction project using the letters that were already done. The proverbial two birds with one stone. Cost is minimal, no more than $10 a student, IF you have access to old wood and basic tools.

Have children tear strips of scrapbook paper and glue onto poster board strips

Measure poster board to longest name; Some names have wide letters, so it may not be the name with the most letters; Glue on letters to form names

Cut and sand barn wood pieces (measure against poster board names)

Choose which side is the front and which is the top; Add ring screws and wire for the hanger; Regular hangers with the sawtooth edges are not strong enough for the wood

Paint the thin trim (I used the thinnest and most interesting trim I could find)

Add one coat of decoupage medium to poster board names (like Modge Podge)

Nail poster board names onto barn wood first; Measure, miter corners, cut, and nail down frames around outside edges of names; Touch up nail holes

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Quinoa Recipe Strikes Again - In a New Format

The recipe calls for quinoa, bacon, asparagus, carrots, broccoli, cream cheese, onions, kale, and mushrooms.

What I had was: quinoa, ground turkey, freshly picked asparagus, two tiny carrot sticks, no broccoli, cream cheese, onions, green onions, one wilted leaf of kale, no mushrooms, celery stubs, the end of the cabbage head, a bag of frozen green peas, cayenne pepper, Mrs. Dash, crushed red peppers, and freshly ground black pepper.

Somewhat like the original recipe!

(The blurry bits are steam. I didn't realize how hard it was to take a photo in the middle of heat!)

Was it good? You bet. Tasty, healthy, filling.

And the best thing? Leftovers. No sandwich for my lunch tomorrow.

Wild Horses

It's spring!

That means wild horses and lots of adorable babies on the Yakama Reservation between Toppenish and Goldendale. We spied many sleeping, eating, and dashing spindle-legged beauties, a refreshing sight from the back of a motorcyle.

It's worth a drive and a pair of binoculars.

Creative Mess

How do you create?

For me, creativity comes with a price.

Chaos. Mess. Huge use of space. Disaster (that would be the cat diving across the table into all of the projects).

On the positive side, 99 cards, full use of brain, listening to a complete book on CD (the neighbor did it, the cats helped discover secret things), great meals and use of quinoa, Chinese soup dumplings, chocolate ice cream with hot fudge sauce (sorry Dr. P.), visiting, sharing tools and supplies, idea swapping...

I'd say the positives outweigh the sort of negatives. Not that I mind mess, chaos, used space, or the occasional disaster.

You should see my office.