Tag Archives: heat embossing

Need My Head Examined

No, I didn’t bump it.  I think I am loosing it!!  I retired after 21 years of teaching  this past school year.  I knew that I would want something to keep me busy, as if I don’t have enough, so I applied for a few jobs as  a teacher assistant in one of our school districts.  I knew it would be a job easy to do and stress free.  That was my biggest thing…I wanted something stress free.  Being a substitute teacher for the district was also an option, but for some reason I chose to do this.  So, for the last 4 weeks I have been a Title 1 Educational Assistant in a Title 1 school.  All that means is that the school I work in gets extra federal dollars because it has the qualifying amount of low income students.  These dollars are to be used to help bridge the achievement gap between these students and others that are achieving at higher levels. Let me digress for a moment.

Although no one will ever officially say that higher income students perform better than lower income students, they usually do.  Why is that?  Maybe because the families of students that come from a higher socio-economic background can afford to do a lot of things that low income families can’t.  Things like, take your kids to see a play, the zoo, etc.  In other words, they can afford to  experience some of the  THINGS in life that you wouldn’t think would help a child achieve.  Maybe higher income families put more emphasis on education.  Maybe they can afford to have one parent stay home and help kids with their home work.  Maybe it is a lot of things.  Who knows?  Just know that no one will officially say the amount of money a family does or doesn’t have affects the achievement of its children even though in my experience it does.

Any way…I’ve been working as a part time 4th grade Title 1 Educational Assistant for two teachers.  Corralling a class of 35 fourth graders is like corralling bees.  They are everywhere and have something to say about everything!  They can be just as disruptive and disrespectful as some of the older kids I used to teach, but they got something going that the older kids don’t.  They are cute (most of the time), and they still like their teachers, and for the most part they still like school.

So why do I need my head checked?  Well you see…the school is about to hire another 4th grade teacher, because the two classrooms have too many kids in them.  I applied for the position, and I am scheduled to interview for it tomorrow.  My reasoning is, I know the kids already, they’ve already been disrupted by having a sub take over their class for the past week and a half, and I feel like I can do it.  Heck!  I KNOW I can do it.  But my stomach has been aching, and I’ve been dreading taking on that big of a responsibility again.  We’ll see…I will probably not even be offered the job.  Sometimes I hope that I am not because then I won’t have to decide and I can say, “Their loss!”  🙂

Here is my card for today.  I realized I got this stamp set for free at convention, and I haven’t even used it.

Bright & Beautiful - 1

I used two of my favorite colors on this one; Crushed Curry and Lost Lagoon.  Although, Stampin’ Up! hasn’t had a color I haven’t liked yet!

Hope you enjoyed your visit today.  As always, I enjoy hearing what you have to say either about what I’ve written or what I’ve created with my stamps.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

The Day I Left Home & Emboss Resist Technique

The day I left home, it was 1981; I was 24 and married for almost three months.  No, my husband and I did not live with my parents after our marriage.  I did.  My husband was an active duty Army officer stationed in Germany and he had been in Germany for the entire year prior to our wedding.  I lived in Ohio and I was finishing my last year of college.  He came home on leave one week before the wedding.  The day before our wedding, I was commissioned a second Lieutenant in the Army through the ROTC program at my university.    After a two-week honeymoon in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in the middle of December (we were married Dec. 20), we arrived back at my parents’ home in Ohio and spent another week together before he was back off to his assignment in Germany.   In February of 1981, I finally left home for Ft. Gordon, GA on my own for a three-month Signal Officer’s Basic Course.  I did not reunite with my husband again until late May or early June of that same year.

The morning I drove out of my parent’s drive was gray and chilly.  The weather definitely DID NOT match my spirits.  I was exhilarated!  I was finally going to be out on my own.  There was nothing my mother could do to stop me now!  I was leaving home “the right way.”  My mother’s words…not mine.

My mother was “old school”.  Born in Italy in 1931 and raised a Roman Catholic, she spent a lifetime mastering the fine art of “feeling guilty”.  She immigrated into the United States at the age of 15, and lived with her parents until she married my father when she was 23.   As I grew up, I was always told that being married and having children was the ultimate thing to experience, and if I did, I would not want for more.  Or….SHOULDN ‘T want for more.  On the few occasions I expressed a desire to be out on my own “without” a husband,   I was threatened with disownment.  I was told that if I did that, I couldn’t count on my parents for any kind of help if I ever needed it.  So, I lived at home.  Telling my parents I was joining the Army was a harrowing experience, to say the least.  It is a story in itself, so I won’t go into it here.  I’ll leave it for another time.  Lucky for me, it was the military that introduced me to my first husband, so when I finally did leave home, it was with full parental (mostly maternal) blessing.  My father always followed my mother’s lead.

Adrenaline was running high through my veins the morning I left.  I was ready for the two-day drive alone.  As I kissed my mother and father good bye, Daddy’s last words to me were, “It’s not too late to change your mind, you know.  You can still fly.”

“No, Daddy.  I am doing this, “and I pulled out into the street.  I turned and waved good-bye.  I haven’t been back to live since.  I’ve been home many times to visit.  And since my children have grown up and are out on their own, I often wonder what my life would be like had I chosen to move back home after my divorce.  I sometimes grow nostalgic for the smells of Northeastern Ohio in the summer where I grew up.  I get hungry for Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream that originated in my hometown.  I sometimes yearn for the close companionship of my extended family on a more regular basis and wonder…will I ever move back?

I still have my mother.  She turned 83 years old this past May.  She is a remarkable woman.  Unfortunately, I lost my father in 2004.  As my mother has aged, she has become more and more progressive.  I love her dearly.  I strive to be like her every day.

Here is my project for this week.  I am using one of my favorite stamp sets again…Kinda Eclectic.

Kinda Eclectic Emboss Resist - 2

I used the emboss resist technique on this card.  What’s that?  Well, I am gonna tell  you!.. 🙂

Using a Versa Mark ink pad, I stamped the image I wanted to emboss.  In this case, it was the sun burst from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set.  I then sprinkled Crushed Curry embossing powder over it and heated it with my heat tool.

Then, I used a sponge and Lost Lagoon ink and sponged over the embossed image, drying to get the color to fade off into a lighter shade in the bottom right corner.  When I finished sponging, I wiped the embossed image off with a piece of tissue to remove the excess ink.  And there you go…the ink does not adhere to the embossed image.  I think this turned out kinda sweet, don’t you?

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and the time you spent reading my ramblings.  Hope it wasn’t too boring.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

Kinda Eclectic Emboss Resist - 1

Not a Diplomat

I am not always diplomatic.

Most people that don’t KNOW me probably think I am a WITCH with a capital “B”.  The people that do know me will tell you that sometimes I can be. Just ask my husband.  What woman isn’t when she feels she has been treated unjustly or wronged in some way? I am sure the people that don’t know me well think I am this way because I have a tendency to be aloof until I begin to feel comfortable around whomever I am associating at the time. That’s a fault I have. However, the people who do know me will tell you that I am a kind person. I am a good person. I am a generous person. I am a moral person. I can also be funny. But, I am not always diplomatic.

I have more faults than one person deserves! Another of my faults is that I bottle the feelings I have until I cannot hold them in any longer, and then I explode like an ugly vomit that just will not stop. I will tell it like it is, and I can be less than diplomatic when I am telling it. Nevertheless, I believe I HAVE gotten better as I have grown older. I have strived to become more like my mother and father as I’ve aged. My father never said much, but when he did, he always hit the nail right on the head and said exactly how things were. He spoke the truth, no matter how hard it was to hear for the person that was hearing it. He could on occasion be tactless. That’s where I get it. My mother has always been the opposite. She has always been able to “keep her mouth shut”, but speaks up when something needs to be said. So, she was just like my father; although, she always had more sensitivity in how she comes across to the other person.

I used to feel bad when I would speak my mind. Even if I was tactful in the speaking, I would feel bad. I felt bad because I was afraid it would make the people to whom I was speaking my mind feel uncomfortable. I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. The truth hurts, you know. I know, because I have been hurt by it on many occasions. Now, at my age…I do not feel bad anymore for speaking my mind, because there is nothing wrong with telling people how you are feeling or have felt. I still do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and I strive to be diplomatic. However, sometimes I just am not! L In addition, I have realized that if what I am saying makes another feel bad, that is THEIR problem. Do not get me wrong, I would never INTENTIONALLY be mean to someone. Perhaps that was why other’s perception of me has always mattered. I do not want others to think I am a big meany head! That is not who I am. If a person thinks I am a bad person for speaking my mind, I have learned, that is also THEIR problem. If I don’t stand up for me, who will? I will even speak my mind when the “standing up” will not benefit me. We should all “stand up” when necessary because our “standing up” might make it better for someone else. And, if my lack of diplomacy makes a person feel bad, I am sorry for that! That’s my “bad”!

Now you know that I can sometimes be less than diplomatic.

I know I haven’t imparted any new pearls of wisdom here. You have to admit, though, I had to write about something. If you can think of a topic, I am always open to suggestions. .

Oh, and I can be sarcastic too…but that’s another blog entry.

Here’s today’s project.

Starburst Thank You-1

Starburst Thank You-2

A word about the card.  I made it by cutting the star bursts out of the white card stock and placing a piece of  the designer series paper underneath the white.  I attached the dsp flat onto the card base and used dimensionals to pop up the white piece.  The vellum piece is stuck on flat, and glue dots are used to attach everything else.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2