Another Slow News Day

Things have been slow. I'm choosing to enjoy the last little bit of my summer vacation.

So, just to keep the blog updated, I thought I'd share one of my favorite blogs. Bad Parking usually is good for a few laughs.

More Orange Knitted Beads

More pictures from the dyeing project...

In this case I had used a rust-colored yarn originally. Because I could safely put 30 beads into the dye mixture, I also added a couple beads of different colors just to see what they would do.

The three beads in the back are the original color. The two beads in front went through the orange Kool-Aid. The dye process brightened the color just a bit. I kind of like it.

I also tried pink beads, black beads, and gray beads.

After the dye process the pink beads were indistinguishable from the white beads (they all turned the bright orange of the last post). The black beads got a bit more of a shine but still looked the same.

The gray beads...

...turned an interesting shade of brown. Very Halloween. (Far left: before felting. Middle: after felting. Far right: felted and dyed orange.)

What color should I try next?

Orange Knitted Beads

Yesterday I promised to post pictures of my dyed beads. I had a chance to take pictures today. Here is how it all turned out...

Near the top left-hand corner are white beads before felting. In the middle are the felted white beads. And then near the bottom right-hand corner are the white beads after being dyed using orange Kool-Aid.

It was a very easy process. I can't wait to try more.

Where Did All the Kool-Aid Go?

Remember my crazy project? Since then I've been accumulating beads. I've got containers full. And I have ideas on what to do with them.

The main problem with the project is finding wool yarn in pretty colors. There aren't many colors in the yarn store. The next step was to go online, but I have been too lazy (or busy) to do this.

I mentioned the color issue to my sister-in-law, and she suggested using white wool and dyeing the beads later. Genius.

I've never dyed anything before. But I remembered reading this article a while back. I didn't think too much of it at the time for I didn't really work with wool. But wool is necessary for felting, so suddenly this method was feasible.

Using Kool-Aid to dye wool? Brilliant!

So, I went to the grocery store in search of pretty Kool-Aid. What did I find? Red and purple. Um, if you go back and look at the picture, you'll see that I have those colors already. Although, I did find orange, yellow, and pink, too.

However, I did not find green or blue. Drat!

I bought the orange, and today I thought to try it. It turned out better than I expected. The orange is so day-glow, and I mean that in a good way. I'll post pictures soon. First I need to let the beads dry.

Now, I'm on the hunt for green and blue Kool-Aid flavors. I've looked a couple places. No luck. I know they exist. At least, they existed when that article was written.

I have no idea where else to try. Anyone have any ideas?

Puzzling

Yesterday I spent some time hanging out with my 8-year-old niece. We did a jigsaw puzzle.

She used to like jigsaw puzzles when she was younger. And I thought that she still might. A few visits ago, I tried to get her interested in a 500 piece puzzle, but she balked at it. So, I went in search of a puzzle that wouldn't be too hard for her but wouldn't be too easy either.

Yesterday we worked on the 100 piece puzzle that I did find. It didn't take too long.

I kind of want a 300 piece puzzle for us to try. I figured that I might be able to entice her if it has a picture that she likes (the 100 piece had a picture of Tinkerbell and her fairy friends), so I went online in search of solutions.

What I found shocked me. Puzzles with more than 6000 pieces! Yikes!

I've done my share of puzzles with 1000 pieces, 1500 pieces, and even 2000 pieces. But 6000? I don't even think I have a spot big enough to leave such a beast, and I would have to leave it for a while for it would take me a while to finish. And my niece wouldn't even come near the thing.

The other schools start up next week. Good thing. I have way too much time on my hands.

Mistaken Identity

Remember the class I had last week that was reading The Crucible? I had the same group yesterday and today. (Their teacher doesn't miss that much school, so this was unusual for her.) Yesterday they finished the movie version of the play.

Being combined day Friday, the lesson plan was for them to finish any unfinished work or work on extra credit assignments. (The reasoning is that if a student couldn't buy out and legally miss the day, then that student has work to finish.)

A girl in 2nd period had missed yesterday's finish of the movie, and she asked me if she could watch it. Since I still had the tape, I didn't see a problem with this. I put it in, and she watched.

After the movie, discussions ensued. The girl recognized one of the actresses. "Isn't that the actress from Pirates of the Caribbean?"

So, I got to explain that no, in fact it wasn't. Winona Ryder is not Keira Knightley. I was surprised, actually. I never noticed any resemblance between the two.

To prove this, I went online and found Winona Ryder's IMDb page. The student's reaction: "Wow, she's old."

Old? She's my age. Ouch!

No Pictures, Please

I've been working a lot for August, especially considering the only high school open in my district has 14 teachers total. And I'm not the only one benefiting from this largess.

Today was school picture day. Every so often there was an announcement over the PA system calling for groups of students. They did this alphabetically.

They called the first group. The right number of students left. Then they called the second group, and a couple of the D-G students remained behind.

A few minutes later, another teacher came to the door. She called out the two students that hadn't gone. While buying a picture package is optional, the students still had to be photographed for their student IDs. One girl went. The other refused.

The teacher told the girl that she had to go and get her ID picture taken. The girl told the teacher that they should just use her photo from last year. The teacher threatened to get security involved. The girl still wouldn't budge.

Security did not appear to remove the girl from class, but as it was only 2nd period, the girl could have been removed from a subsequent period.

The following announcements calling students to the picture room then stated that appearing was mandatory. As I didn't see that teacher again, I guess that there were no more issues with students from my classes.