In the meantime, I’m back to making decisions about how to finish those little samples for my beading class. Much closer to final decisions, though. The little red and white one is going to be mounted on a white (painted) canvas. It’s 8 x 10. Shall I leave it plain white or add a strip of the cording I used on the edge of the piece?

And then we’re back to the purple flowers…also being mounted on a stretched canvas. One of the things I like to do is cover the canvas with fabric when I mount a quilt, rather than paint it. In this case, I tried out color with fabric at hand. Still don’t know if that’s what I want or just paint!

Can’t see the fabric well in this one, but it’s a sheer, close to the green color in the flower part.

Now that I see this one on screen, I can eliminate this fabric.

I like this one best, but don’t know if I want this fabric or just this color of paint.

This is another sheer and I think it may dull down rather than flatter the flowers.

So, I’ll ask your opinions again because I sure would like to finish up these two little things!

Now, back to the giveaway…I have some lovely hand dyed fabric and I’m willing to part with 3 fat quarters, if you are willing to take it sight unseen! How’s that for a nice little mystery gift? A comment gets you a chance at it!

Oh, sure, we (Baby Boomers) are older, wiser, more mature, have fewer distractions, more life experience, extensive work experience. Born in the middle of it, I’m a classic Boomer. Navigating school applications, financial aid, registration, scholarships, rapidly changing technology (I’ve been learning it on the fly) and a learning disability can be intimidating and scary when you don’t know what you’re doing.

There was also one other giant obstacle blocking my path to a college degree: math (and the only-slightly lesser obstacle of a science with a lab)! I’d managed to avoid algebra and its dastardly successors through and after high school like the plague! I convinced myself I didn’t need it. I was a writer and worked as a legal assistant. When would I ever use algebra? The same could be said for science. I got by with General Biology in high school, but physics or chemistry? (Insert shiver here!)

Three adult ed math courses later, I managed to pass the Accuplacer and get in to a college math class. It wasn’t easy. I struggled through much of it, and it didn’t help that I was in a car accident (which totaled my car and caused a fracture in my foot) just as we were getting into geometry, which I’d never had, near the end of the semester. I missed some classes and flunked my final. I ended with a B plus. Normally, that would be fantastic for me in a college math class, but it also ruined a perfect GPA!

I bailed out of Technical Physics after a week. There was so much math, it felt like two courses at once. I just could not put myself through that and received permission (due to curriculum requirements) to take chemistry instead. I surprised myself with an A in that course!

I was thrilled to earn my Associate’s Degree from Southern Maine Community College last spring with a 3.93 GPA. I had a college degree at last, but I wasn’t done. It became very clear to me an Associate’s Degree would not be sufficient for what I want to do for work (public relations, publicity, copy editing, or something on the order of that). I was seeing ads for those jobs, and they all wanted a Bachelor’s degree.

I had no designs on going beyond on Associate’s at first, but I became curious about USM’s Communications program. I liked their Media Studies curriculum a lot! The desire grew and grew over the next two years. Meetings with USM’s transfer recruiter were very encouraging, as it was clear every single one of my credits would move over. I also found I could transfer the maximum 12 credits allowed from major to major.

I like to get things done as early as possible. Since USM is considerably bigger than SMCC, I feared nothing would go smoothly – that red tape would entangle me. I thought I would get “lost” in a sea of students. I was beyond wrong. I met with a Media Studies advisor soon after my graduation to register for fall – smooth as silk! I met with the head of Services for Students with Disabilities shortly after that. I was impressed! I was with him for an hour and a half and could not believe how much USM bends over backwards for students like me. This was looking better by the minute.

As I planned out what I would do for the thematic cluster (required in lieu of a minor) requirement of the Core Curriculum, my advisor noticed my penchant for history. He suggested I minor in it rather than do the thematic cluster. I still had two general electives to choose from. The history minor required 18 credits, but I forgot I had taken a history course at SMCC that was transferring over. I only needed 15 credits for the minor.

The nine required for the thematic cluster and the six from the general electives could all be used for the minor, which would carry more weight on my transcript. No brainer. I wasn’t considering the minor this time, but it fell right into my lap.

All of this transpired in June, and I couldn’t wait for school to start. So far, USM was blowing me away at every turn. Still, I had some trepidation. Would I like it? Would I feel comfortable here? How hard would it be as a conservative to move about and interact with a very liberal campus?

The day I stepped on campus for classes, I immediately felt at home. There was a sense of community I had not felt at SMCC. I liked every single one of my professors as well as nearly every class my first semester. I’ve made loads of friends (and found three classmates and an instructor who are conservative Christians themselves). I have been having a blast. I’m thoroughly in love with USM!

I was considering pursuing a Master’s in English after finishing my Bachelor’s, but that is getting complicated by the lack of such a program at USM (or anywhere in Southern Maine). With an 85-year old widowed mother 80 miles away, I really cannot leave Maine, so I’m looking into pursuing two B.A.’s and finishing the English degree I began 24 years ago. It would be fun to finish what I started and get my degree in English, too.

Now I’ve received an invitation to join Golden Key International Honor Society, so my involvement at USM is about to grow. Who would have thought this would happen in a Baby Boomer’s late 50s? I certainly didn’t!

The guild meeting also gave me a chance to work on making powerpoint presentations. I’m not too experienced there, but I made one for our summer program and one to present all of this year’s workshop instructors. I was more nervous about that than anything and they worked just like they were supposed to…whew!!

Workshop fun…

Our instructor was Sherry Peterson of SLKP Designs.

During class I had time to work on my own stuff so I got a big backlog of paperwork type stuff done. It feels good to be caught up with that.

Chatted with the woman who photographed our quilt show and she sent me some shots of one of my quilts…the quilt I love the most because it’s a beaded piece. So happy to have her good photos!

See what I mean about a mixed media weekend, though. A little bit of everything.

I even had time to work on another sample piece for my upcoming beading class. Almost done…

This has been fun–like a 3 day retreat–and I get to do it 5 times more this year. There is a lot of work that goes into coordinating everything, but our guild has been doing this a long time so the template for how everything works is very well set.

However, when Monday comes, I’ll be glad to get back to my own little studio!

We were taught by Linda Lindsey of Square Rose LLC and she was fabulous! Totally organized and presented the information in a very logical sequence. And fun things happened all along the way!

This is one of the sampler pieces that Linda brought us…and we marveled at it!

My tablemate got organized and ready to work right away!

We learned stacks–aren’t those cute mushrooms?

We learned lines and corners and curves and couching and lazy stitch and picot stitch and humps, bumps and globs! THEN we took a deep breath and learned a few more things! We embellished lines with picots, ruffles, zigzags, candy cane loops, and then more loops were mentioned! Whew!

We only had time to touch on a few other things, but we got homework! Homework! Can you believe it? We have one more class and I can’t wait. There is so much more to this beading stuff than I ever thought there was! I was addicted before this class but the possibilities that we were shown today just blew me away!

I’m so looking forward to this class and my brain is very full. I’m thinking it explode by the end of the next class, but it will be SOOOOOO worth it.

In November I had the pleasure of participating in the Northlake Wedding & Events tour sponsored by Prive Events and Planning Savvy.  I loved the concept for this tour:  rather than lots of vendors crammed into booths in one huge building, venues could be decorated as if for a wedding, and vendors really got a chance to show off.  For the price of a ticket (an affordable $15 or $20!), a bride was chauffered around the Westlake, Lake Union, and University District neighborhoods to different venues.  At each venue there was a planner, caterer, florist, and others – stationers, bartending services, etc.  There were snacks, drink samples, favors.  What a pleasurable way to interview a host of pros to hire for your wedding!

I was placed at a great venue and paired with a really creative planner.  Stefanie Wright of Forever Events and I teamed up to decorate the tent on the lawn of the  Center for Urban Horticulture  where the Food Truck Rodeo was held.  Stefanie chose a burlesque circus theme, and boy does this girl know how to decorate for a party!  Check out what we came up with!   I love these stylish images by Seattle Flashing Lights Photography.

Burlesque makes me think of rich reds, sultry tones, and drama.  I chose red and ‘Black Baccara’ Roses, black Agonis foliage,  trailing Amaranth and Rosehips.  Lots of texture!  Many thanks to Becky at  Vintage Ambience for all her awesome props like the vintage sofa, end tables, gold candlesticks.

I took this opportunity to make a few non-traditional bridal bouquets.  One is a pendant style, which a sphere of roses, a crystal dangling from a pouff of ostrich feather tips – which echoes the ostrich decolletage on the bridal gown in the background.  The other was this purse-style bouquet.  It’s fun to think outside the box!

Then I started adding big, chunky beads…heavy beads…lots of variety, lots of beads.

These pieces needed something a bit firmer to support the weight of those beads. I started looking at different interfacing products including DecorBond, Timtex, Fast-to-Fuse, Peltex, felt–different weights and thicknesses. They really all worked to some extent and I wasn’t unhappy with them. There just wasn’t one product that I felt I could ‘go to’ every time. I wouldn’t reject any of them out of hand.

This piece was made with felt as the ‘innards’ and was blocked and steamed to hang flat and square and looked great. It has been hanging here for several months, and every inch of ripple in the making has reappeared. Maybe 2 layers of felt would have been better.

I continue to look for something that is easy to get my beading needle through and firm enough to support the weight of my heavy bead choices. My current favorite is called Stiff Stuff. I think it was developed more for use in bags, totes, placemats, etc. It’s a pretty new product so I don’t have a project that has hung on the wall for months. And I’m not going to take a picture of it because it would be a white-on-white blob…it’s thicker, fluffier interfacing!

However, as I am beading with it, I’m loving it. My needle goes through it easily, it holds a knot well, it doesn’t shred or molt, and my heavier beads seem to like this amount of support. I only have a few small projects so far, but I’m going for a bigger one very soon. (Darn–I have some projects that have deadlines before I can start a big bead project!!)

I did both of these projects using it.

I didn’t want to wait forever before letting you know about this Stiff Stuff. You might have a project for which you are looking for a good interfacing and you might want to try this. Not even just beading, as I said, but my local experts recommend it highly for placemats and handbags.

Here’s a link to Joan Hawley’s Lazy Girl Designs. She developed the product and has a few other related products that you might want to learn about. I am not affiliated with Joan, by the way. I just happen to like this product!

One of my readers figured out some of my origins after reading my blog post about eating consciousness. No wonder, all that mention about eating rabbit and cow’s tongue and liver as a child gave it away. Yes I am partly French. My whole adult life, I have had issues with how to keep up with traditions. As I mentioned in previous posts, the first dilemma came when we had to figure out whether to celebrate Christmas or not. Well I figured that out. But there are so many other things. For me and my husband, a few issues come to mind. First, we’re not Catholic but both had at least one Catholic parent, then when it comes to me, I was raised in a home where food WAS a national TRADITION! I’m not joking. So, even after having figured out that we didn’t have to celebrate some religious holidays, food is always a reminder or even an excuse. Like today. Today is Epiphany. I grew up celebrating Epiphany. My mom was not really a practicing Catholic but in France, it was tradition to get the Galette with the fève inside. Whoever got the fève was crowned King or Queen. Also, every time you would visit someone during the whole month of January, you would have to bring a galette. Whoever got the fève was the next one to buy the galette. It went on until the end of the month. We also have until the end of the month to wish Happy New Year. Anytime afterwards was bad taste.

I continued all the traditions I grew up with (well most of them) because it is heart warming and I wanted share my culture with my family and kid.

After a few years, I now find those traditions more as chores and duties. I went to bed last night thinking, “oh shit, tomorrow is Epiphany, I have to go get a galette I guess” excuse my language but that is really what I thought. I started wondering where I would get it, where the best one is at, which store has the cheapest…. AND because of my new vegan diet, I honestly had no desire to even eat it. It was Christmas all over again. At Christmas, I bought a bûche de Noel but I wasn’t excited about eating it. I looked forward to my vegetables a lot more.  Traditions are legacies, I get it. But we change, people change, so why do I feel so guilty by just thinking about NOT getting a Bûche de Noel or a Galette? I think it is because all those things were fun for me as a child, but I am not a child anymore and I could care less if I eat a galette on a Holiday I don’t even believe in. I am a closeted double hypocrite. So here, I am out. I am not Catholic and I celebrate Catholic holidays just because I did when I was younger even though it was mostly because of the fun and for the food and now I force myself to do it for my kid.

Don’t get me wrong. I do like traditions but after a while, it is time to move on. For example, we used to celebrate Easter, but now we no longer go for the Easter egg hunt. We graduated from that tradition. I never baked beignet on Mardi Gras like my grandmother used to. That’s ok. I don’t make crepes that often either which probably explain why I am not rich since the tradition is that if you make crepe on a certain day, you’re supposed to be rich all year. I think I have to stop being so hard on myself. Another reason why I kept those traditions for so long even when they annoyed me was because my mother would make me feel guilty about not being in France anymore. I think she was afraid my kid would not have enough reminders of where we came from. That could not be further from the truth. We all know where we come from and we cherish it. What is more important though to us is who we are today as people. Who we are is not defined by traditions. I love my origins and I will always cherish them but I see myself more as a part of the human race than as a National of a specific country or a follower of a specific faith. We did a great job raising our child that way. This might anger some people, but I find it wrong to force kids to say the pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag every day in school. We love our country very very much in our house. 9/11 was one of the worst days of our lives. We love our American People but we do not need to assert it that way because we feel we alienate the rest of the world. Traditions are like history to me. They have to be remembered and people choose to remember history in their own ways. Some express their opinions loudly, some join parades, some make movies about it, some light a candle quietly in the privacy of their home. The way we choose to honor our traditions is up to us and we shall not feel pressured by anyone, not our parents, not capitalism (hello Valentine’s day around the corner) or our government. So I am officially over the guilt.

The other very important thing to remember is to forever create new traditions. It is actually the most fun. I have countless ideas every year which turn into beautiful new memories and traditions and it makes me happy to know that I am continuing to write our history.

Now for all those of you who wonder what I ended up doing: well, I did it. I went out and bought a Galette des Rois. When I came home I wrote this post…out of frustration. Now I think I will actually enjoy it more but I will no longer do anything just because I have to follow some tradition.

Mom and mom a la mode at the wedding

For my brother’s recent Christmas weekend wedding, my mother looked high and low to find the perfect special occasion dress to suit her VIP role of Mother of The Groom.  She found it at East West Bridals, located just outside of New York City, in Secaucus, New Jersey.

For those of you not from the NYC Metro Area, East West Bridals is a well-known, owner-run boutique that has firm roots in the Meadowlands Parkway shopping district, which is just a few miles outside of the Lincoln Tunnel.  Many of my friends have purchased their bridal gowns there, and my mom knew that by going there, she’d receive the personalized service that she was looking for.

That’s because my mom had a vision: she knew she wanted to be in Navy.  Something a little unexpected.  Not your typical “mother-of-the-” dress that traditionally included a jacket.  Something with a little sparkle and shine, but not too over the top.

And the team at East West Bridals was eager and willing to make it happen for her.

Mom consults with Nancy and the East West Bridals team

To say that the owners, Gary and Elyse, were “hands-on” is an understatement.  (They also happen to be incredibly funny!) Anytime my mother was there for a fitting, both Gary and Elyse were there, along with Nancy, the head seamstress, who each provided their expertise to ensure a gown that dazzled and fit her perfectly.

From providing helpful suggestions on the proper foundations to selecting the appropriate accessories (all sold in-house!), Gary, Elyse and their staff were all about the details.

Mom ultimately found this Navy illusion-neckline, fit-and-flare Jovani stunner made of net ruching, complete with a little train.  She amped it up (with the help of East West Bridals staff) with a rhinestone appliqué  – added to the hip of the dress for some interest — and individual stones sewn into the shoulder piece detail for a flutter of fancy.

The result: one hot mama!

Mom in a Jovani gown from East West Bridals

Know of a recently engaged bride? Or a mother-of-the-bride/groom looking for the perfect dress (at a pretty price)? Be sure to check out East West Bridals newly redesigned website to browse a sampling of their extensive special occasion collections.  And be sure to LIKE their Facebook page, where exclusive deals and promos are offered to Fans (who knows — you might even spot a few folks you know!)

Were you an East West Bridals bride or former client? Do share your experience below in the comments.

oxox
-mom a la mode

{I was not compensated for this post, but did receive a complimentary dress alteration.  As always, all opinions expressed here are solely mine.}

Read the full article and watch the video HERE.

In PETA class we learn about any types of assessment. Our lecturer served the material by using Guided Discovery learning models. We are guided to state the definition from the topic and based our opinion first. The situation is like in meeting because one day before we had a session of Student Congress. Our lecturer, Mr. Hatim Gazali like a presidium when create a discussion with us. Some of us who are join in congress know what should they do to giving an opinion, interruption, make an agreement, and reviewing back the agreement that we have created. Wow, I think that was a good way to teaching PETA looks like plenary meeting. Knowledge that should we gain not in that course then we learned there.
Since there was a National Educators Conference (NEC) 2012 there, our lecturer was so busy to handle both of this job. He are our lecturer in that meeting and he also being a moderator in NEC. I think the way that Mr. Hatim do was good to our teaching and learning process. He make a discussion to us and everybody have the same change to give an opinion, so we can more confident to state our opinion. The lecturer role is like a guide or moderator, they asked question to us and we state our opinion based on our question. In the way of plenary meeting, to give an opinion we should ask “point of order”. Our opinion also will be more valid if we use a good resource to state a strong opinion.
The question that Mr. Hatim made was which was the more general? Formative with Summative assessment or traditional with non-traditional assessment? Since I am not very clear in understanding about that material, I tried to review first with my PETA module. I agree with Tri Handoko opinion that said we cannot say formative with summative more general that traditional and non-traditional assessment because they are not in same classification. The summative and formative assessment classified as the time to process of assessing students and the traditional with non-traditional assessment is classified as the form of assessment. In formative assessment is like to diagnose the student knowledge from the each meeting or topic, we can do formative assessment by giving posttest or pretest to students. Whereas summative is like to evaluate and determine the students’ grade in the learning process. The example of summative is final exam. Different with traditional and non-traditional assessment. The traditional assessment example like multiple choices that are just want to assess what the student have learned. Better than traditional, non-traditional assessment is to assess the students’ critical thinking and opinion. In the way to create an effective teaching process, not only good types of assessment that we need, we also should give the assessment in objectively because our students have a different level of understanding.

Here is a list of a few of our favorite non-traditional gifts:

GlobalGiving Gift Cards

The gift cards from GlobalGiving allow you to give the gift of giving; the recipient of the gift card gets to pick the projects they want to support and see how their money has been put to work with updates from the field. This is the perfect gift that keeps on giving this holiday season!

Customized gifts are always a favorite, and what’s more fun than a personalized puzzle for the whole family? This 252-piece puzzle will definitely provide lasting memories!

Nature Box

Give the gift of health this holiday season by gifting a 3-12 month subscription to Nature Box. The subscription includes a monthly delivery of nutritionist-approved snacks that taste great. Each box includes 15-20 servings of healthy and delicious snacks for your friend or relative to enjoy beyond the end of the holiday season.

Prints from 20×200

The website 20×200 has one-of-a kind art prints for sale starting at $24. The website was launched in 2007 with the hope to encourage more collection of art, so join the movement and support an artist and purchases a print from 20×200.

Free Arts NYC membership 

Membership gives you a wide range of benefits, including two-for-one admission and merchandise discounts at the Guggenheim, Whitney, New Museum, and Cooper-Hewitt, among other cultural institutions. Proceeds benefit local art programs for children in need, so this is the perfect gift for the museum junkie while helping the local NYC community spread art and creativity.

Hi,

As you know, I write this blog to inform you about non-traditional ways of job finding.  I mainly write about my past, successful, job finding experiences.  It took me 18 months to find my present paid employment.  My major problem was age discrimination.

This is a common experience.  I started this blog the day I spoke with a gentleman who was younger than I but still having problems job finding because he was older.

Until age discrimination is experienced, many people are in denial about its existence.  Remember that age discrimination is practiced against all age groups including the young, the middle-aged and seniors.

However, I recently read a book by Steve Matter who, also, writes about his experience with age discrimination.  I highly recommend the reading of this book, Get Noticed and Get Hired.

Mr. Matter not only speaks about age discrimination, he, also, identifies what works in job finding. He gives excellent examples via storytelling and visuals.

His sample email about how to respond to business contacts after being laid off and his sample resume is detailed and professional. 

The action plans he includes with every chapter, especially the action plan for Chapter 2, cause one to think and thus be prepared for the various aspects of job finding. 

He has an excellent chapter on entrepreneurship and his Chapter 7, Personalities Styles of Your Boss, is a must-read for job keeping after one is found.

His book, like mine (Ask the Angels to—) is available on Amazon Kindle.

Please download both as the information in both will help with job finding.

Success to all,

Rev Barbara

author, teacher and guide

I am fortunate to live close to a business that specializes in surface design products. If you are a scrapbooker, you have probably heard of USArtquest and Susan Pickering Rothamel. If you are a quilter, not so much. Sue has been doing research and development on all of her products to find out how they can be used on fabric as well as paper and it’s perfect for me! I am exploring surface design for my quilts and Sue is having classes.

I am SO there!!!

I told you about my last class with all of the Gild’n Glitz and painting and stenciling and screenprinting. We had that option yesterday, too, but we mostly concentrated on adhesives and mica-based products.

One of my favorite new toys is called Prills. These are little beads without holes that you adhere with glue. Talk about speed beading…

Not so thrilling watching glue dry, so we moved on. Using a fusible iron-on, we made a template and then added the shiny parts. We used Mica D’lights and Mica Flakes, small bits of colored mica, with a bit of gilding.

I think I will be adding more ‘stuff’ to this and making it into a small art piece. It’s so easy…I almost hate to tell you that because “Aaaart” is supposed to be so haaaard!

Fusible dichroic fibers with a bit of opal mica flakes on top.

Then we played with a fun laminate plastic that you can stick all kinds of things under and on top of and fuse it all together and cut it into shapes, or not, and then sew through it. I am enchanted with this idea, and it’s perfect for making ‘windows’, too.

Detail:

And more…oh, yes, MORE! We made fusible fiber beads, but I didn’t save mine to show you. I actually cut them up to put under the laminate! We stamped into our fusible fibers to make cool designs…which I also put under my laminate. Mica can be embossed. We were shown how to make wonderful, unique Christmas ornaments, but didn’t actually make any. That info, however, is on the website blog.

My favorite products, that I just HAD to bring home, were mica tiles and that cool laminate. I picked up a few other items, too, of course!

And now we’re going to get open studios and more classes…I am so very fortunate to live close enough to do my exploration with the pros and not alone in my studio. So far, as commercial as it may sound, I highly recommend all these cool products. You may have tried similar things in other brands and you may be very happy with them, but you might want to broaden your horizens with this company, too. Just sayin’…

All I know for sure is that this is perfect for what I am trying to learn and do and these play days are just totally delightful for me. My other work may be interrupted but it’s so worth it. Who knows what I may be able to add as my work progresses? Can’t wait to try more new things!

Recollect

Recollect book layout