Well, not so much...

So, as it turns out... our trip to Carson is now postponed. It's supposed to snow 9-14" in Washoe Valley, making a trip staying in Reno, driving through Washoe daily, and getting to Carson... downright nasty. Of course, now Breanne says it's only snowed like 2".... now that we've changed our flights to come home for Dad/Mike's birthday in January. Oh well... now we have a few days to hang out together and have time off together this week!

Oh, and I wrote about how I wish I'd taken pictures of Kai in the snow... well, here's her devouring a Starbucks sandwich wrapper with lily pollen all over her ears, (there's a bouquet of lillies sitting on the table beside her). Whoops! :)

It Snowed In Portland Today!

Now, if only I'd gotten a picture of Kai playing in the snow (dammit).... cutest thing!

It rarely snows as much as it did in Portland, and it's going to be below freezing for the next week, to boot. A cold stretch like that apparently hasn't happened since the 70's! Mike and I will be equally freezing this week, however, in Reno/Carson City, Nevada. It's time for another visit to my family, this time with Mike, thank goodness. The first Christmas celebration at home without mom. Ugh. Not looking forward to that. Also not looking forward to the snow that is sure to be covering Washoe Valley in NV. It will be good to see everyone, stay with Breanne, and drop off many Christmas presents. Yay!

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope everyone has a fabulous week! :)

Love,
Katery

A Few Favorites...

I've been wearing my leather jacket a lot this winter, and I started thinking about all the fabulous leather pieces I've seen on Etsy, especially a jewelry artist who does BEAUTIFUL leather work. It's quite lovely.... so here's a little collection from my favorites! (Obviously, my last day of student teaching is going pretty slow). :) Enjoy!!

Flickr-ful: Winter Weddings!

I love searching through Flickr and finding beautiful pictures. This morning I'm searching winter weddings, also the first Treasury I created for Etsy. Check out the beautiful shots I found below!

Reminds me of a Great Gatsby wedding, full of 1920's glamour!

Such pretty vintage loveliness!

A winter wedding shot from the 1940's...

A modern-day wedding... full of vintage-looking, handmade touches. Looks like an Etsy shopper to me! :)

I Almost Forgot...

To promote the fact that my Etsy store was on the news, courtesy of my fabulous friend Stephanie. Thanks again, Steph! Check it out! :) Story link: http://www.kgw.com/business/money/stories/kgw_112108_business_SYD_holiday.1d636f\ 816.html Video link: http://www.kgw.com/video/business-index.html?nvid=306353

UWIB = Unbelievably Wonderful Items to Buy!

Okay, really it stands for Unique Women in Business, the Yahoo group of entrepreneur chicks I joined. There are so many fun, fabulous artisans in the group, and it's such a warm, supportive community to be a part of. I just added some of my favorite UWIB items from Etsy to my favorites, in the hopes of creating my next treasury with them. I haven't had a treasury in a while, seems like my timing's been off. But hopefully I'll catch one soon!



In the meantime, I'm wrapping up my student teaching experience at Benson. I have a week left at school, before I finish up my final class for my graduate degree in education. Once that's done I'll officially apply for my diploma, send in my application for licensure in Oregon, and then wait for my license to come through. Hopefully that will happen in early to mid-January. I plan on substituting for the remainder of the year, scoping out schools in advance of my first full-time teaching job next year!

Teaching at Benson has been a lot of fun. I absolutely love all my students, despite how frustrating they can be as a group sometimes. I'll miss them a lot, and I feel like it's unfair that I only get to teach them for the first part of the year. I'd rather stay (and get paid) by finishing out the year with them. :) Oh well, at least I'll be able to come in and sub once in a while for Rob. That's also on my to-do list -- market myself as a sub!

Oh, one other thing... the best part of my day yesterday was getting a "My Favorite Teacher" slip. :) Another teacher at Benson has the kids fill out these little papers once in a while, either an "I'm struggling" slip or a "My Favorite Teacher" slip. I had an anonymous sixth period English student write about why I'm his/her favorite teacher. Apparently, I'm really nice and help a lot with English homework. It was, I'm sure, something small for a student to do, but it means a lot to me. In fact, I think I'll include it in my portfolio as proof positive that I get along with my kids so well!

That's all for now. Hope everyone's fabulous! :)

Much love!!!

Can I just say...?

I'm in love with Joel Pryzbilla. Ever since Mike and I saw him at Tiffany's when we were picking out my engagement ring... he's hot. He's so much fun to watch at games. Mike and I went to the Trail Blazers game tonight and watched the Blazers beat the Sacramento Kings 91-90. It was a nail biter... too close, but a good time!! Especially the free beer courtesy of the ex-boyfriend bartender who was pouring around the corner from our section. Anyway, cheers to the Blazers! I should totally create a Blazer inspired jewelry piece. :)

Love,

Katery :)

TFGIF!

You get the picture... It's been a BUSY week! Papers to grade, papers to write, PowerPoints to watch, lesson plans to create, jewelry to promote, bridal showers, concerts, (Carrie Underwood; hate country, but love her), dinners, etc. All a part of this busy week before Thanksgiving. Let's hope next week is a breeze! I'll fly home next Wednesday morning to spend the Holiday (sans husband) at my parents' house. Okay, at my Dad's house. That seems weird to say. I'll just call it home instead. :)

I've been really emo this week about the passing of my mom over the summer. I think it's a combination of how busy I am, (leaving little time to reflect on grief), the dreary weather, (although it's sunny this morning), the onslaught of the Holidays, (this is a year of firsts without Mom), or if I'm just drained and overwhelmed from the combination of it all. I'm still fairly happy, productive, excited about life, etc. But at the same time there's this small little nagging feeling in the back of my mind, no, the back of my heart, that just wants to be sad. At least ignoring this feeling isn't turning into anxiety. Instead, it's turning into making me want to cry over just about anything. Like watching Grey's Anatomy last night and the little girl who wasn't sleeping so she could take care of her dad. I look over at my husband with tears in my eyes. It's ridiculous. I also talked about this with a friend at dinner the other night. It's like a GD sappy commercial can have us both in tears. Anyway... sigh, breathe, move on... I'll give myself time to cry later this weekend and will feel much better.

So for now I'll use art as a coping mechanism. I absolutely LOVE the colors orange and turquoise, (our entire bedroom is plastered in this pairing), and I've recently found a lot of beee-you-tee-full Koi items on Etsy, all kinds of oranges, blues, teals, tangerines... mixed together with a bit of Asian influence. Another love of mine. Hopefully these items will end up on a treasury in the near future. For now, here they are. :)




Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and a good weekend.

Oh, and DUH, the story Steph did about me and my jewelry collection airs tonight at 5pm on KGW, Channel 8 in Portland. Check it out if you can. For local friends -- I'm so DVRing! :) Yay! I'm hoping for a boost in sales as a result... we'll see. :)

Chicks Drink Beer, Too!!

Like beer?

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=21405

Happy Saturday. :)

Taking My Love of Wine into the Collection!

I've got Shakespeare on my mind, and wine seems to be there a lot lately, too. Shakespeare -- because that's the unit I'm teaching in freshman English right now, (we just finished watching Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, pictured above. And P.S. -- doesn't that actor look just like Zach Efron? I'm ashamed I know who this person is, as I'm not a teenage girl, but that's what I get for reading Perez Hilton's blog daily). Anyway, wine because it appears teaching is turning me slowly into an alcoholic. Okay, not really. But some days I just need to come home and stare at a wall for about an hour before I can move on with anything else. A glass of wine is like sitting in front of a wall and staring at it. It helps me unwind a bit! My neighbor and BFF (ha ha) Catherine and I were discussing this the other night. The conclusion: in a world like the one in which we live, a little self-medication is harmless, so long as it doesn't interfere with life. Hey, I can still make jewelry after a couple glasses of wine. I grade papers BEFORE, and I never drink in the morning. Sounds pretty stable to me, right?

Anyway, that night of discussion I also had an epiphany. I bought cute little wine charms months ago that don't really seem to provoke much interest as earrings. But Catherine has adorable little wine charms for her glasses, and AH HA! I can turn this in to sweet little charms, too! :) Hence, my latest Etsy listing:

So, that's the inspiration, and that's the creation. More to come, (I have martini charms, too). I think these will be great for Christmas gifts. Easy to make and fun to use! I'm quite happy to incorporate this new stuff into my otherwise all-jewelry store.

In the meantime, another thought on Shakespeare and wine. Here's some trivia: In which Shakespearean play is wine most often mentioned? Think about it... here it comes.

Yes, that would be Antony and Cleopatra. There are eight references to wine in the play. However, in The Tempest you'll fine seven, as is the same for Othello. Wine and its effects permeate the very fabric of Antony and Cleopatra. You could even interpret the work as a struggle between the forces of sobriety -- Octavius Caesar -- and the champions of indulgence -- Antony and Cleopatra. FYI, I don't just know this. I happen to be sitting here with a box of "After Dinner Shakespeare" cards. Fun stuff. Now I'm off to study! :)

Flickr-ful: Pinup Girls

I'm discovering what a wealth of awesome photography there is on Flickr, and I've decided to become a Flickr curator from time-to-time on my blog.

Aside from being a wannabe curator, I'm also a wannabe pinup girl. It's so hot! Not trashy, classy pinups. You know, Bettie Page style. She inspired the chopped bang job I pulled a couple of months before Mike and I got married. She inspires the fishnets I bust out on a semi-regular basis. She inspired this blog. Clearly. :)



That last one is my favorite. In fact, I have a bathing suit just like it, you know, with less skirt. If only I had lived in the retro days of pinup girls... I could wear my bleach blonde hair in pin-curls, rock red lipstick on a regular basis, and wear flowers in my hair every day. If only.... As of now, all of the above happens just once in a while. :)

Cheers to a rainy Wednesday night! I'm going to tear myself away from the computer, (where I spent six hours yesterday), in order to make jewelry, clean, and have a glass of wine while I'm at it!

Time for a Treasury! :)

I woke up this morning and dragged my butt out of bed specifically for the purpose of creating an Etsy treasury. I looked last night and guessed in about 12 - 13 hours there would be an opening. So, I checked, waited for another hour, and bam.... I got one! Then... my computer freaked out... took "T ' W" as the title of my new, precious little treasury... and that's what I'm stuck with! Hey, at least I got the treasury going! It's such a good promotional tool for my site! I'm also in the process of becoming a member of "Unique Women in Business". More to come on that! Anyway, here's a link to the fabulous treasury.... yea, the one that was SUPPOSED to be called "T ' W ' I ' G ' G ' Y"! :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=20711

Wedding Pearls

They're not going in my Etsy store, but they're going up on the blog! These pearls are a wedding gift for Sonya, Anthony's fiance, so let's hope she doesn't see them yet! :) They're a mix of new freshwater coin pearls and round pearls, in addition to two strands of pearls from Anthony's recently deceased grandmother. The tiny pearls at the clasp were also hers. Something old... plus something new for the bride! :) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this necklace!

The Etsy Shop... Finally On the BLOG!! :)

Here it is... with new items, too! :)

A Glass of Wine, A Chick Flick, and A New Treasury on Etsy!

That is what I've accomplished since 7pm.

Cheers! :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=19250

Oy vey! Really?!

Well, I put in quite a bit of work to prepare for my final evaluation today. The Vice Principal called out sick, and nobody told me. So, all that hard work goes to waste. Okay, that's absolutely not true. Some of that hard work was wasted, (the parts I wrote specifically for her); however, it was a great lesson, and I thought students responded really well to it. That definitely isn't a waste of time! :)

Today's lesson was about Shakespeare's sonnets, all 154 of them, to be exact. Students were asked to do a "Think/Pair/Share" activity in which they respond to the essential question, "Why are Shakespeare's poems still so popular today?" Then, I lead students through a PowerPoint presentation about sonnets and iabmic pentameter, before students began making their own couplets. I think they had fun with that. Here's the PPT presentation I put together:

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

Quand la vie te donne des citrons…

That's right, when life gives you lemons... I make lemon earrings! :)



I put these sweet little earrings together last night. Sure, it's not summer anymore, but that doesn't mean you can't wear a sweet, citrus-ey pair of earrings to juice things up during the cold winter months!

Speaking of the cold, I checked the forecast this morning, and it looks like our awesome autumn weather is over. We've had beautiful, clear days showing off the bright leaves and warming the crisp weather, often all the way up to 70! Well, this morning's forecast on KGW shows a seven day look-ahead filled with rain and fog each day! I'm sure that's going to freak out my friend Amanda, a new reporter at KGW. She mentioned over the weekend how much rain she saw in the forecast. Before moving here in September, Amanda lived in Florida for a couple of years. Poor thing, (yes for both living in Florida and now dealing with rain). I don't mind the rain at all. In fact, some of my favorite days are those rainy days that clear up just enough in the afternoon so there are sunbreaks splitting through puffy clouds.

In fact, I can remember ever since I was young loving the rain. I used to go to summer camp in Colorado for a week or two each summer. I remember one year laying in my top bunk during our afternoon mellow-out time, writing letters home, reading books, and writing in my journal, with the rain pounding down on the tin roof just feet away from my cozy sleeping bag. I think there's something about the rain outside that makes me appreciate being in my warm condo in bed or on my couch or reading in a great chair. Listening to the elements come down outside, refreshing the environment, while I'm warm and comfortable inside is so comforting!

Well, that's it for now! Time to go plug away on the Romeo and Juliet unit for the Freshmen! :)

*Kate

Wedded Bliss!

Wedding pics to match the new treasury. :)

New Treasury!

A pretty new treasury on Etsy. Check it out:

Ooo la la... A Winter Wedding

:) I love putting these things together, and, of course, I included my latest design in this one!

*Kate

A quick hello. :)

Happy Friday! I'm off for a teacher in-service day in a few but thought I'd update the blog first. :) I met up with the owner of Presents of Mind on Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland last night and sold a bunch of new jewelry to her. Check it out if you can. Here's the store web site:

http://presentsofmind.tv/

In the meantime, here's a pic of one of that store's favorite items... now available with garnets, amethyst, aqua glass (as shown), or a Rainbow assortment of Swarovski crystals.

Take care, and have a happy day! :)

Etsy Store

So, I haven't quite figured out how to place my store as a permanent feature on the blog, but I guess I'll get there someday. Nor, as I mentioned yesterday, have I figured out how to upload that slideshow I posted yesterday as a permanent fixture. It helps that I've got computer genius students available at school to me everyday. With the help of my sophomore aid, Ben, I got my etsy treasury set up: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=16593 (check it out!!). Seriously, he was bored so I had him sit in front of the computer and yell at me in the other classroom when the treasury listings got to 335. Score!

Ben, our newspaper editor-in-chief, Brian, and another student, Kyle, have also all helped with uploading a Snoop Dawg video from the internet to my computer, editing it, and then inserting it in a PowerPoint presentation. I know. I pretty much rock. I'm working on that Romeo and Juliet unit, and in the first lesson we're going to talk about how language evolves. I'm learning new things while creating lessons, too. For example, did you know Shakespeare created 1,500 words? I didn't! Among them are "eyeball" and "alligator", (spelled Allegator at the time). Random. So, anyway, we talk about words Shakespeare invented, and how our language has changed since then. Like, how rappers can add language to the culture, (I figure students learn better when they can personally relate to the information we're talking about). So... hence a clip of Snoop's "Drop It Like It's Hot" ended up in my lecture for the day. I've got the "So don't change the chizzle, turn it up a little, I've got a living room full of fine-dine drizzles" etc. line embedded for students. I think the booty shaking in that part of the video, while it's there, is minimal and acceptable. Also, while I was in the process of getting this all taken care of, Brian, (newspaper kid), informed me my statement, "I need this Snoop Dawg video for a Shakespeare lecture so I can demonstrate how language evolves", is, quote, "The whitest thing I've ever heard anyone say."

You know what? It's true... but I do own the CD. So there!

While I'm On My Home Computer...

Here's an oldie, but a goodie. More from la escuela later! :)

The Shakespeare Trend Goes On!

Check out my treasury page on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=16593

A few of my favorite items... all together in one pretty spot! :)

A New Twist on Shakespeare

So, for Freshman English right now I'm working on a Romeo and Juliet unit. At the same time I'm beefing up my web site http://www.katerydesigns.etsy.com/, so guess what? You got it... Shakespeare is slowly infiltrating my jewelry collection!

I find it odd that I never really appreciated Shakespeare when I lived a mile away from one of the most fabulous Shakespeare festivals in the country. Doing research and really examining the literature is motivating me to understand just how beautiful Shakespeare's writing really is. In fact, once I'm licensed to teach, I think I'll take a graduate course on Shakespeare, to further motivate and educate my teaching and my jewelry.

My favorite piece with this new Shakespearian twist is this sweet little pair of sparrow earrings, "Parting Is Such Sweet Sparrow Earrings":

They're sweet, sparkly, and pretty, and I love! Check out the student reader copy of the play doubling as my artsy background. Who knew there'd be such a connection between student teaching and my side project?

Katery Designs... adventure in blogging!

I'm a writer. I'm a teacher. I'm a journaler. I'm a creator. Why can't I be a blogger? I've tried this whole blog thing before but not quite successfully enough to make a dent in the blosophere. Well, now's a beautiful time to try again... and this time at least create a scratch! :)

I've got designs to promote, ideas to churn, rants to rave, and friends to update. Perfect! It'll all happen right here. Screw MySpace and Facebook. The too personal pages and too impersonal updates just aren't doing it for me anymore. Plus, I'm sick of being "friends" with people I don't actually want to be friends with.

See? Ranting already!

http://www.katerydesigns.etsy.com/

Okay, forget the ranting for now... and check out my web site! I've got an etsy shop to push and some spare cash to make! The added income is nice, but the creativity gives anxiety an outlet. That's what it's all about. Now, if only I were a bit more organized, I could actually keep track of my spending/income and see if I'm making money. For now, I'm having fun designing jewelry for friends, myself, family... and adding stores around Portland to the Katery Designs mix.

Here's my favorite pair of earrings. They began last summer during an afternoon of me wishing I knew how to garden and grow tomatoes. I figured I'd make "tomatoes on the vine" earrings. Well, once they were created they looked more like apples to me, hence the "red delicious" earrings I've come to love. Still, half the people who see them think they actually look more like cherries. Call them what you want. They're my favorite item so far! :)