Art Journals

It has been a really long time since I've uploaded any art journal images onto this blog, so I figure now is the time to do so. These pages are from the past six months or so. This page was from this spring. I was hiking a lot at Sugar Loaf, so there are a lot of stream and waterfall images from that.

Currently, my printer is not working at all. It says it is jammed, but there is no paper visibly stuck in the printer. The roller thingamabobs that suck the paper in to be printed in are not working at all. I can't print digital photos which is driving me insane. I have to e-mail myself anything I want to print, and even then, I can only print in black and white.



This page was done during the Spring while I was doing a unit on butterflies with the children. We raised six Painted Lady caterpillars. Four of them turned into butterflies and two of those four butterflies survived spring break and were released into the, well I want to say wild, but the truth is, the school is downtown. They were released into the urban chaos of Santa Rosa.


This is an interesting page. Life really sucked at the end of March. 'Nuff said. It includes a mini-zine I received from one of the swap-bot swaps at the end of April.

This is the cover of my current art journal. The book is titled "Book of Mountains" but I haven't decided on what the journal part will be titled. I started this journal at the end of March. I'm almost half way through it. I make these journals hardbound, with 80 lb sketch book pages, and I cover them with contact paper so the collage on the covers does not get wear and tear. The one time I did not cover a book like this with contact paper, the collage was wearing off at the corners by the time I had filled the book.

This is a page from my previous art journal, called Education. I titled it that because I was doing my full time student teaching and for the entire fall, all I was permitted to think about was, well, education.

This is what the front and back covers of Education look like. For the past few years, I've had a slight obsession with map like collages.

Things I've Made in the Past Six Months

This is the Butterfly Spring book. It's a blank coptic bound journal. I have it listed on Etsy, but if it is not sold by Christmas, it will probably be given to someone as a gift. So if you know me, forget you saw this posting. In fact, forget you see any of these other things I've made because if they don't sell, I'm using them myself or giving them as gifts.

This is the "Book of Love." It is smaller than most of the journals I make.

This is a beautiful memo clipboard that I decorated. It is six by nine inches, and perfect for posting recipes, grocery lists, to do lists, reminders, etc. I call it "The Birds and the Butterflies!"

This is the "Book of Fire". I must admit, a part of me hopes it does not sell on Etsy, because I will use it as my next art journal when the current one is filled up. I'm almost halfway through my current art journal. I put seven hours or so of work into this book, which is why it is listed at 39 dollars. I wish I could sell it for seventy.

I still need the money to get poor Vincent's teeth fixed. It's been over a year and I feel really bad. I have raised $140 from selling handmade stuff. That's about 20% of the total. I still need to get my own teeth fixed. When I have the money raised to get Vincent's teeth fixed, then I'll spend all my savings on my own poor teeth. I really hate my teeth. One day, when I am rich, I will travel to another country where dental work is reasonably priced and get my teeth replaced with implants. I brush 2-3 times a day and floss every day, but I still have cavities. I hate it. I also hate going to dentists. I don't even drink soda anymore. If anyone would like to donate money to fix Vincent's and my teeth, please send money to sparklebluefaery@yahoo.com on paypal. Or you can buy stuff from my Etsy store. I'm letting all the money from that build up until I can get Vincent's teeth fixed.
Unfortunately, I work for a teeny tiny private school. I don't have health insurance or dental insurance and I make about the same amount I did while working at an office while earning my BA. At least I love this job and don't hate my life anymore. I do miss having insurance though, I must say.

I am a Kindergarten Teacher!

I haven't updated this blog for a very long time. I did my full time student teaching during the fall semester in a Kindergarten class. In November, I saw a posting on Craig's List for a private school Kindergarten teacher. I decided to apply to it so that at the very least I could get the experience interviewing. After two interviews, I was hired! I started the day after my student teaching was finished. I have had the class on my own for two weeks now. It is a lot of fun and very challenging. There are three pre-Kindergarten students and five Kindergarten students. The class size is small which is very nice, but all the children are at such wildly different levels, that the main challenge is making sure each child's knowledge is expanded upon from what they know right now. I have one girl who reads at a second grade level. I have her reading chapter books during alphabet time. Then I have a boy who just turned four and knows two of the letters in his name. (Which is completely normal.)
I really love teaching. It doesn't get boring and I am always on my toes!

Smoke in the Air

The weather is not as hot as it was when I created this journal entry, but the wildfires in all the surrounding counties have inundated the area with the smell of a campfire. The first day of it (last Monday) was not that bad. I actually do like the smell of campfires. However, it has been smelling like smoke very strongly for a week now. Some days this week were quite hazy. If you stay outside for more than a few minutes, your throat gets sore and your lungs constrict. I've had a headache for almost a week straight now. I am pretty sure it is related to the awful air since it goes away when I spend quality time with the air purifier. I also read in the paper that I am not the only one who is getting headaches from the fire pollution. On Friday, J and I went to the beach and it was smokey even there. Everyone has been in a real nasty mood all week. I attribute it to the lack of being able to breathe comfortably outdoors.
Some places in the world, it is like this all the time, or worse. According to J's family, it's never been like this in Sonoma County in the past 20 years they've lived here. It really makes me stop and think about how much we take fresh air for granted and how global warming threatens the ability to comfortably breathe. The air makes you feel terrible. It's been just about impossible to exercise outdoors (which is starting to drive me NUTS! I want to go hiking or something outside. I canceled my gym membership, so the only thing I can do inside is exercise videos.



As I wrote in this journal entry, the smoke is making everyone angry. No one seems happy. I must admit, I'm thankful that neither my home nor the homes of anyone I know are threatened by the wildfires. As much as I dream of living in a beautiful house in the middle of a redwood forest, wildfires are a scary reality I would have to take into consideration if I were to buy that house. (Not that I will have the money for a house like that in the next twenty years.)

Poor Vincent

I feel so guilty now for getting a new kitten. My poor kitty (who I've had almost five years) named Vincent is so stressed out about the kitten. The worst part is that I took him to the vet. I found out that my five year old kitty has lost about six teeth and needs surgery to remove the rotting rest of them. His tests for FIV and Leukemia were negative, so that is good news. Still, he needs a surgery that may well cost a grand. I am going to have to borrow and sell to get the money. Check the link to my Etsy store. I noticed recently that they now let you post vintage stuff, so I am going through the part of my wardrobe that came from a thrift store so that I can sell most of the stuff. Hopefully, anyway. The only real sure bet is to slave away some extra hours at the office job at the hospital.
I work in the basement at SRMH. There is a sewage leak in the walls of our office, so two days out of three, the office smells like a men's pit toilet. It's disgusting and it's going to be six more weeks till they fix it since they have to shut off the water to the whole wing of the hospital, and being as the intensive care ward is three floors above us, that will be a tricky maneuver.
I feel Vincent having bad teeth is my fault, since I have genetically bad teeth. This is absolutely silly, since I did not pass my teeth on to my cat. Even though dentists say you should brush your cat's teeth, have you ever met any cat owner who does? I've had lots of friends with cats over the years and none of them had to brush their kitty's teeth. Now I've got to brush Vincent's because I don't want him to die of an infection in his mouth.
He is so depressed about the kitten, going to the vet on Thursday, and the hot weather. It is hard to tell if he is distressed from his teeth, the kitten, or the heat. It is probably a combination of all three. He has been ignoring me to punish me for bringing the kitten into the house. He hasn't even seen it yet, but he smells her and hears her.
Poor Vincent, I still love you!

Overflowing Cuteness! My New Kitten!!!

Introducing....... Violet!

My friend Dana was dropping stuff off at the dump for his work. He thought he saw a rat scramble out of a pile of trash that was about to get run over by a construction bulldozer. He heard a "mew" and took a second look. He realized it was a kitten! Not only that, there was another kitten huddled in a pipe nearby. The man who worked at the dump told him people leave kittens there all the time. Luckily, these two kittens were found by Dana who took them back to his house and cleaned them up. A few days later, I went over to hang out. He showed me the kittens one at a time. Violet was the first one I met and I think she's the cutest. Her sister is black and white and was adopted by Dana's girlfriend. My grandmother's cat Tigris had died a few weeks ago, so I went home that evening and told her the sob story of Violet and asked if she wanted a kitten. She said "I don't want a kitten, but if you want a kitten, then that's okay." I picked Violet up the next evening.
She's been incredibly expensive. I've spend about $150 on the vet and $30 on more kitty supplies. Then I took Vincent to the vet, spent the same amount and got bad news (see next post.)

Backpacking Photos

Flickr is not letting me upload pictures of the Lost Coast backpacking trip, so I am posting them here. The photo above is me with a 40 pound pack on my back, proof at the very least that I could get it onto my back. Miracle, yes I know.




On this trip, I felt the most pain I have ever felt in my life and saw the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The beauty dulled the pain to a tolerable level. J and I hiked ten miles up the Lost Coast trail from Black Sands Beach to Big Flats. There were numerous and beautiful waterfalls and flowers along the way.



This is where we started. The very last tip of land is where we went. Actually, we went about 3/4 of a mile beyond the last point you can see in the photo.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I can't believe I did that.



The sunsets were beautiful.



This was the view from our "kitchen" where we ate lunch. We drank water out of this stream after purifying it. One of the days we spent up there we went hiking in between those hills.
Perhaps later I will most more stories and pictures. I've been pretty busy even though it is technically summer. I am still working and I have this huge list of stuff to get done before school starts again. At least I can check backpacking off that list.

Why Haven't I Been Posting?

My father wanted to know the answer to this question. There is a very simple answer. Life. If I use the internet, it is generally only to check my e-mail, submit assignments, or research for school. I don't have time to ramble on about what is going on, because I am too consumed with what is actually going on.

I do still keep a written journal though. I also am still making zines. If you want to know what is going on with my life and see pictures, order my zines from Etsy!


I like making zines in my spare time ten tons more than posting on blogger. There is something much more gratifying about cutting paper, pasting a layout together, and a bigger sense of accomplishment when everything is done and I can take it to the printer (or work) and run out twenty copies. I imagine it is a minuscule version of what people who write or publish their own work feel.

So if you are really that curious about what it is like getting a teaching credential, living in California, and/or my opinions on random things, help support me and order my zines!

I also trade zines, so if you have your own, e-mail me and I'd be happy to trade with you. I like to see what other people do.

Here are some links to making zines that are bookmarked on my computer:

Grrl Zines

How to Make a Zine

Zinebook.com

I am currently working on a Spring edition of my new zine, Fairies of Disorder. (If you've ever seen my bedroom, you will know that I have an infestation of these things). It will have 40 pages and is my biggest zine project yet.
Some of the things it will include are: a detailed description of the classroom I am student teaching in (I like to incorporate some of my school assignments into my zines), artwork, journal entries, and at least one poem. There will be more stuff I just haven't come up with. I might even include a recipe for the tortilla chip casserole I invented (everyone who has tasted it says it is the best thing ever.)

I may or may not have time to post next month. I have approximately six thousand pages to write for school and four more lesson plans to plan and execute, tutoring to do etc.

Another interesting thing is that I have to write my own curriculum to tutor students for the reading comprehension section of the No Child Left Behind CRAP.

In the classroom I'm in, the teacher is focusing on math for 4 out of 6 hours a day, making the students depressed and bored.

Fairy Stuff I've Made in the Last Few Months

These pictures are photos of various fairy art projects I've done for swaps over the last few months. There have been a lot of fairy related swaps on Swap-Bot. Now that school has started, I've decided to keep some small semblance of a social life and cut back on the swaps I do in a major way.
If anyone is interested in purchasing a fairy door, a fairy doll, or a fairy bottle, contact me and I will make one and list it on Etsy.

Look! I'm updating my blog!

This is a rare occurrence and may not happen again until the spring semester is over. The photo is of a fairy doll I made a couple weeks ago for a Valentine Fairy swap on Swap-Bot.
I have started the teaching program this semester. I am taking five classes and doing part time student observation in a fourth grade classroom. So far, it has been very enjoyable. The key to success is to stay optimistic and happy, especially once things really get going and I have five papers due per week. I will be spending most of my time this semester writing papers. Luckily, I don't really mind writing.