Shopping Tips and Guidance by Mandy Claire

It is time to announce the winner of our ATC challenge. It was a real challenge for us in the DT team and it was nice to see your little art work. So many great and different kind of variations.

On aika ilmoittaa ATC haasteen voittaja. Tämä oli todellakin aikamoinen haaste meille DT-tiimiläisille. Oli kiva nähdä monia erilaisia pieniä taideteoksia.

Our sponsor for this challenge was:

Tämän haasteen sponsorina oli:

http://www.papperochsant.se/


And here is the great price they have donated:

Ja tässä heidän lahjoittamansa upea palkinto:



And the lucky winner who gets this grea price is......

Ja onnellinen voittaja kuka saa tämän kivan palkinnon on...


Mindy


Mindy, please send your address to: stampartic@gmail.com.
Mindy, ole ystävällinen ja lähetä osoitteesi: stampartic@gmail.com


Thank you and get back tomorrow for a new sketch challenge.
Kiitos ja tervetuloa takaisin huomenna, silloin julkaistaan uusi mallihaaste.

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored" on this weekend before Imbolc! Brighid of the Mantle, enfold us!

Queen Brighid the Bright is the Goddess of creativity, but she has not endowed me with the power of poetry. However, in recognition of the fifth annual Brighid Poetry Blogging (don't ask for a link, just do it), I want to contribute somehow.

Brighid blogging
On a snowy Saturday.
It would be most excellent
If I had something of worth to say.

Alas, this little site
Is short on sobriety
Humor's what you find here.
It's just my form of piety.

Laugh loud, smile more,
Brighid you will please
Excuse me if I stop now,
I think I have to sneeze.

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," deep in the heart of Suck City without a GPS! I'm your driver, Anne Johnson. What's your destination? Never heard of it.

Wednesday was the kind of day when my sense of humor got stretched until it snapped. But luckily it snapped on the right person -- Mr. Bigwand.

I had a long day of teaching and then had to go straight to night school. Where I sat through a 90 minute lecture on Bloom's Taxonomy, which is the first thing teachers learn on the first day of orientation before the first day of school. There's nothing quite like being exhausted and yet having to act interested in learning something you already know.

But the best was yet to come.

This term we are all expected to teach a 15-minute lesson, complete with lesson plan.  You know what's hard? Try teaching something in 15 minutes. Bigwand sure as hell can't do it.

So, after enduring 90 minutes of training I've already had, I prepared to listen to had four presenters scheduled to give 15 minute lessons. That's an hour right there, before even adding the post-lesson critique.

The first dude gave a PowerPoint presentation about the peripheral nervous system. Fairly simple science, a few vocabulary words. More than 15 minutes. Two days later I can't tell you anything about it.

We critiqued that puppy, with no one being impolite enough to say that it was boring as dirt. Then the next presenter stood to give her 15-minute lesson.

Her lesson required that we arrange all the chairs in a small Catholic school classroom into a circle. This alone took five minutes.

The lady put on Celtic music, littered the floor with paperbacks with titles like "Christ of the Celts," lit a nauseating Yankee Candle, and placed it on the floor in the center of the room. Then she turned out the lights and asked us to meditate on the nature of humanity.

This meditation was a short respite. The lady announced that she was going to explain the tenets of Celtic Christianity to us. First, we needed to share with a partner what we thought made human beings special.

I turned to the fellow student to the right of me, a nice Hispanic lady who teaches fourth grade. I said, "Can I take a pass on this? I don't like the direction this lesson is headed already."

The Hispanic teacher said, "I'm a born again Christian, so I'm not sure I'm going to like this either." Then the fumes of the candle made her sick, and she had to run from the room.

Our presenter gave a less-than-brief introduction to Celtic Christianity, light on details and heavy on how great it is. Then she said, "I became a Celtic Christian when my daughter was born. I couldn't believe that an innocent baby could have original sin. I had to get out of a religion that loaded me with Catholic guilt."

Readers, more than half the teachers in this night school class are working at parochial schools. To put it succinctly, they are practicing Roman Catholics. And they were pretty blunt in their criticism of the Celtic Christianity lesson. I don't blame them. It wasn't a lesson, it was a polemic ... offered to an audience guaranteed to be hostile to its message. Heck, I didn't even have to mention the bored gods! I let the rest of the people gripe for me!

When all was said and done, the lady's presentation and subsequent critique from the audience took FORTY MINUTES.

Bigwand adjourned the class, declaring that the other two presenters -- who were all ready to do their lessons -- would have to wait a week.

As we shuffled toward the door in exhaustion (and in some cases high dudgeon), I was near Bigwand. He said, "My goodness! This time just flies by, doesn't it?"

Could not help myself. I looked him in the eye and asked, "What did you DO all day?"

Defensively he responded, "I supervised student teachers."

I just turned and fled.

Yesterday I wrote Bigwand an email and apologized. I can offend him anonymously on here, but it's not good form to alienate your night school professor.

What could that presenter have been thinking to insult the Catholic Church and present a Jesus who bears no resemblance to the one in the Bible ... to a room full of Catholic teachers?

A lesson on foster kitten care is looking better and better all the time.

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" Help me today, Ogma. I have to sound wise.

My previous post sparked some debate about teachers and their safety net, better known as tenure.

I will grant you that some tenured teachers cruise. They couldn't care less about their students. Yes, this is true. I see it in my school.

However, tenure exists to protect vulnerable, underpaid workers from being fired at whim by new administrators who want to hire their own people. Tenure protects older workers from being fired because they cost more to insure. Let's see ... is anyone in any other industry being fired right now because they're getting older and sick? Uh oh! Widespread practice!

As an untenured teacher in my first year, I have been formally observed four times already. If the people who observed me also had to observe every teacher in the school four times before mid-year, it would be the vice principals burning out, not the teachers!

Tenured teachers are observed and critiqued. They are expected to participate in at least 20 hours of professional development per year. It is to be hoped that they will continue to have high professional standards for themselves after achieving tenure. Most, almost all, of my colleagues do.

If I didn't think I could get job security within a few years, I would not be able to do this job. I've never had a more stressful occupation in my life. And I love my students. I love my subject matter. I do well on my evaluations. But I just couldn't face year after year after year of such constant scrutiny. Not that I plan to slough off, but I need to feel safe.

Anyone who does not like public schools can take advantage of the immense amount of home school teaching opportunities offered in this computer age. In my opinion, however, a student is always better off at school, with peers. School is where students learn to co-exist with one another, to deal with authority in a mature manner, and to earn praise from someone who is impartial. When my students impress me, they aren't impressing their moms or dads. They're impressing the teacher.

I have a lot to learn about teaching, but I think in three years I'll about have it nailed. Either that or I'll be dead, because this is tougher than writing an encyclopedia, tougher than building chimneys out of limestone, tougher than alphabetizing cards in an Ivy League university library, tougher by far than interviewing Michael Vick upon his return to pro football.

Some nights when I get home from work (typically a 12 hour day), I literally fall asleep in the driver's seat of the car. Would I be willing to work this hard if I could be canned in ten years because I'm no longer spry? I'm not a pre-Wobbly factory slave. I'm a professional!

We at "The Gods Are Bored" support tenure in public schools, recognizing that the system isn't perfect, but also that children would be served far more poorly if the tenure track did not exist. Just like any other industry, education would love to hire a new crop of college kids every year and let the older workers go. How would that help students to learn?

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" Are you overpaid and under-worked? When you go home at night, do you say to yourself, "Gee, I could have done so much more today besides play video games! And this paycheck -- it's just so fat! Hmmm?

Me neither.

Today the new Republican governor of New Jersey posted his wish list for educational spending in the Garden State. It happens that at this moment in life I am earning a starting salary as a school teacher.

The governor wants to freeze my salary.

He wants me to work five years before achieving tenure, not three.

Once I get tenure (if I or anyone could), he wants to make it easier to dump me.

Does any of this sound familiar? "Work harder for less." It's the mantra of the age, our precious legacy from the vile Ronald Reagan.

Why can politicians make such demands? Because anyone who has a job is desperate to keep it. Who am I kidding? If my salary got frozen, could I quit? If it took me five years to get tenure, would I quit?

I. Can't. Quit.

Where does it end, this attempt to freeze, downsize, maximize individual performance? Are we drifting back into the days of Dickens? I think we are.

Lincoln freed the slaves, but Republicans have been trying to reverse that mandate for 30 years. May the bored gods show them no pity.

PS - Correction. The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977. We at "The Gods Are Bored" pride ourselves on encyclopedic perfection when it comes to fact.  FACT: The rich man is dancing, and the poor man's paying the band.

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," your instant cure for the Monday Morning Blues!

Okay, I know. Yeah. Even TGAB can't cure the Monday Morning Blues. But we do try.

My Sunday afternoon options were two: get groceries or go to the movies. Wow. That was a tough call. The Spare and I went to see Avatar in 3-D.

I had to drag The Spare. She doesn't like science fiction. For that matter, I don't either. Unless it has an underlying message that is anti-corporation, anti-missionary, and pro-Goddess. For the love of fruit flies, Avatar delivers on all fronts! No wonder it has so many right-wing pundits foaming at the mouth!

Do movies influence the way we look at the world?

I'm old enough to remember the very first Star Wars movie. I was a teenager when it came out in 1975. I remember seeing Obi-Won Kenobi in his brown robe with his Wisdom of the World demeanor, and at that moment I began to question the status quo. To this day, when I'm at the end of my rope, I say, "Help us, Obi-Won Kenobi. You're our only hope."

To that famous quote I will now add: All hail Ewah. Long may She reign. Let us be kind to our own Rock, and to the Rocks of others.

I'm Anne Johnson, and I approve Hollywood's liberal bias.

Ja vi har ju ett tema denna månad.. Billigt skapande.
Jag ska visa något jag gjorde för ungfär ett år sen i min blog på det temat.
Och nu har jag också lagt till något mer.
Detta är bara ett tips på vad man kan använda sitt skräp till istället för att slänga det i soporna.
Fantasi är det enda som behövs att skapa underbara saker med ditt skräp.

Well you know our theme this month... Cheap crafting.
I´m going to show what I did about a year ago in my blog on that theme.
And now I have added a little to it too.
This is only a tip on how you can use your scraps in another way then to put them in the bin.
The imagination is the only thing holding you back from creating wonderful things with only scraps.

***********************

När man stansar mycket får man mycket skräp.
Jag sparade det en gång för jag tyckte det var fint.
O det var så den här idén föddes.
Jag har använt Quickutz Snöflinga RS-0386.
Och jag har satt dem tight för att få plats så många som möjligt på pappret för att spara men också för att kunna göra det jag ska visa.
Linjen i bilden visar var jag hade kanten på Quickutz handtool varje gång jag stansade nästa. För att få dem så tätt det går. Jag stansade från vänster till höger.
Kanske blir lite svårt att använda annat verktyg än Quickutz handtool men kanske kan vara värt ett försök.....
Pappersremsan är ungefär 30cm x 6cm


You know when you punch alot you get a lot of scraps.
I sawed some once cause I thought it looked pretty.
And then this was born.
I have here used the Quickutz Snowflake RS-0386.
I have put them tight so that I can get as much out of the paper as possible but also to be able to
make the thing I wanna show.
The small black line shows where I had the edge of the Quickuts hand tool when I punched the next to put them as close as I could. I punched from left to right.
Perhaps it will be a little difficult to use some other tool but maybe it´s worth a try..
The strip of paper are about 30cm x 6 cm.

Här har jag tagit ur alla snöflingor och har bara kvar skräpet man normalt slänger.
Men om jag klipper på de röda strecken får jag en början på en annan snöflinga.

Here I have collected all snowflake diecuts and are left with the scraps that you normally throw a way.
But if I cut on the red lines I get a beginning of another snowflake.

Jag börjar med den delen som ser ut så här.. Och jag behöver 6 toppar. Remsan jag använde räckte till två snöflingor.

I begin with the part that looks like this.... And I need 6 peaks. The strip of paper was enough for 2 snowflakes.När jag först gjorde den så var den lite bred så jag klippte av det men glömde att fota det så här visar jag med de nedre strecken vart jag klippte.
De bör inte vara för mycket papper in mot mitten för då blir snöflingan så stor i mitten.
Efter jag klippt började jag vika som de streckade linjerna visar.
Sneda veck. För att bilda en snöflinga.

When I first made this it was to wide so I cut it but forgot to photograph that so here I show with the lines. It should not be to much extra material or the snowflake will be quite large in the middle. Well after I cut it I started to fold as the broken lines. So it build a snowflake....
Här har jag vikt runt och har ett färdigt resultat, eller nästan...
Limma lite under vecken för att få den lite plattare.

Here I have folded all around and I have the final result, or almost...
Glue some under the folds to make it flat.
Sen börjar jag dekorera den. Jag använder Distressed Stickles Rock Candy och täcker hela snöflingan (Crystal, Diamond, Picket fence eller Frosted Lace funkar också eller nån helt annat glitterlim om man vill).

Then I start to decorate it. I use Distressed Stickles Rock Candy and cover the hole thing(also ok are Crystal, Diamond, Picket fence, Frosted Lace or any other glitterglue if one wants).
Efter det häller jag löst glitter över hela, skakar av det glitter som inte fastnar och låter den torka. Överblivet glitter häller jag tillbaka i burken. O så har man en färdig snöflinga.

After I poor loose glitter all over, tap of the excess glitter and let it dry. The left over glitter I poor back in the container. Then I have a finished snowflake.
Snöflingan på mitt färdiga kort. Har satt en liten snöflinga i mitten och sen anslutat med en bling sten.

Here are the snowflake in a card I made. Have put a smaller snowflake in the middle and then finish of with a rhinestone.Kortet....

The card....Men nu var det ju inte allt jag gjorde med mitt skräp...
Jag tog den motsatta delen som blev över. Och jag gick loss med en liten hål stans.

But that´s not all I made with my scraps...
I took the opposite part that was left over. And went loose with a small holepunch.
Och så här såg den ut när jag var klar... Kan du gissa vad jag använde den till..?
Bara att titta på kortet så får ni se.

And this is how it looked after that... Can you guess what I use that to..?
Well look at the card and you´ll see.
Mitt andra kort, med en nygjord border, snöflinga och ett skräp hörn dekorerat med glitter och allt gjort av skräp!
Ett bra sätt att använda det överblivna istället för att slänga bort det!
De mönstrade bitarna hittade jag i min pappers samlingslåda så det är ett billigt kort.
Bilden är en stämpel från Bo Bunny.

My second card, with a new made border, snowflake and a scrap corner decorated with glitter all made of scraps.
A great way to use the leftovers instead of throwing them away!
The piece´s of papers i found in my leftover papers box so it´s a cheap crafted card.
Image is a stamp from Bo Bunny.

Snöflinga med knapp istället för en bling sten som på första kortet.
Texten är Snapstamps från Karen Foster.

The snowflake with a button instead of a rhinestone like on the first card.
The text is stamped with Karen Fosters Snapstamps.

Och slutligen en närbild och för att visa hur allt började.... Stansad del till snöflinga..

And finally a close up and just to show what it all began with.. The Snowflake diecut...
Jag hoppas detta kunde ge lite idéer till att inte slänga det överblivna med en gång utan tänka till lite först.
Kan jag använda detta på något sätt???
Kanske skapar man de mest underbara saker man inte trodde gick....
Hittar du på något skojigt med ditt skräp?
Lycka till!

I hope this could give some ideas to not throw away you leftover papers and such without thinking a little first.
Can I use this somehow???
Perhaps you create the most amazing things you didn't think was possible...
Did you find something great to do with your scrap?
Good luck!