Test Day!

When I was a teenager, someone gave my dad a Hawaiian shirt with cars on it. That was the start. Over the years, he received more Hawaiian car shirts until he had quite the collection. Dad teaches high school auto mechanics and started wearing the shirts on days he was giving a test. Students would see him walking down the hall, wearing a bright flowery shirt with Corvettes, and lament about how they forgot about the test and weren’t prepared. The shirt collection continued for a number of years until the high school went to a more “standardized” faculty dress code. At that point, the shirts were boxed up and put in the attic. A few months ago, Dad gave me the box, thinking I might be able to do something with them.
So, this is what I came up with:
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It wasn’t anything very technical, but still enjoyed. Vroom, vroom….

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Teachers Love Caffeine

I almost dropped the ball with the teacher gift, but I got it together and whipped something up the day before the party. I was pretty proud of myself until the morning of the party when I forgot the aide….argh.
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I had a couple of reusable ceramic coffee cups in my stash, so I fashioned a personalized quilted cup cover and added a monogrammed zipper bag. When I bought my embroidery machine, I had grand ideas of uber-artsy embroidered designs rendered from more uber-artsy photography and graphic design…. Nope, I just monogram stuff. Oh well, if it earns the kid an “A”, then I guess it was worth it.

Tea Time

My office is on a downtown square and over the last five years, some great little shops have opened. One of them is Savoy Tea Company. They have an amazing selection of teas and accouterments and are some of the nicest folks. With their help I was able to accessorize this fun travel tea portfolio I made for a friend’s birthday.
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The portfolio has a zipper pocket to hold all the loose teas, pockets for the spoon and diffuser, monogrammed leather coaster and personalized linen napkin. This was a fun project and one I think I will be repeating!

The Maker Movement

I recently visited with two different people involved in education and they both referred to “the maker’s movement.” I guess kids these days don’t know how to make things, so we need to set up maker spaces and give special instruction, etc. In my day, we called them home economics and vocational classes….guess that isn’t cool anymore.

I like to think The Lazy E (our home) is a giant maker space.
Want to dig a hole? Grab a shovel. Want to carve a spoon from a fallen tree? Grab a saw and a knife.
Want to whip up a new outfit? Head up to the sewing loft and plug in the machines. This is how I grew up and this is how we are raising the kiddo. It makes me sad to think of kids not having the chance to create and succeed and fail.

The kiddo turns six in a couple of days and a special gift came in the mail this week…her own sewing machine (thank you Aunt Gloria). She saw someone wearing a sweater poncho and was determined to have one for her own. Let’s “make” one!
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She did a good job with the project and, although the seams weren’t straight and things weren’t perfect, she made it and she loved it.
I can’t wait to see what the kid comes up with next!