Mini Cardboard Dubrovnik

So cute! Tiny, tiny Croatian flags fly over the walled
city of Dubrovnik

That's a skeleton dunking a ball in the

center of the tie dye!

I had a good run, and I'm proud of myself. It seems that my teaching days are, if not over, then coming to a close. My favorite time of year would HAVE to be June, because observations are over and creativity can return. This year, my school decided on a world theme, and each academy got a continent. My academy got Europe, and I chose Croatia. It was the run-up to the World Cup, and
Croatia has been my soccer team since 1998, when I thought they looked like the 1996 Olympic Lithuanian basketball team, sponsored by Jerry Garcia. Those Croatian

Dubrovnik in place in front of my classroom celebrating all
9 of Croatia's global contributions to society.

uniforms had to be donated by some third-rate graphic design team of the fledgling nation. Or, as it turns out, not. Those checkerboards were the heraldic symbol of Croatia, believe it or not! I love an underdog, so I was rooting for the new Lithuania: Croatia!

In any case, I chose Croatia, and we had so much fun. Thanks to the Croatian superstar, Luka Modric, my students recognized the flag (it features the checkerboard, so the branding works), and the centerpiece of our homage, a miniature Dubrovnik, was truly a group project. I gave the kids creative license to make a building, giving them an approximate size, and they went to town. We had painting and folding and sharpie-ing assembly lines, and I think the final product turned out amazing.

I will miss this type of thing. There is a lot that I will miss. There is also a lot I will not miss. But, now that I'm not in the trenches, I can forget about the pain and agony that went into my labor of love, and focus on the times that made me glad I tried my hand at teaching.

DIY Strawberry Costume

Trying on the dress for fit.

Another year, another costume. This year my Tootie Pie wanted to be a strawberry, and so I set to work on the design. We selected a dress from the local Salvation Army for, I think, $2.99. I wanted to buy a pair of brown leggings to go with it, but the price was unreasonable for something she would only wear a few times. I did some Pinterest searches and decided I would make a contrasting neck band, and some strawberry flowers on the head, and then did some template searches. I sized and printed on paper the leaves, seeds and flowers, and cut them out. I then traced the leaves and seeds onto thin cardboard from a cereal box, since I would be using those more than twice unlike the flowers. For the neck band, I used a t-shirt to attempt to get the sizing correct.

I used a t-shirt to get the neck
band around the right size.

Templates I used to cut the shapes

I made very fast progress on everything, until I got to the seeds. Something was daunting about this, but in the end it really didn't take that long. I tried to use fabric glue to attach the different shapes together, but the felt was absorbing it and it wouldn't stick correctly, so out came the glue gun. Tried and true. Since the dress was nice and I didn't want to ruin it, the seeds were pinned on, and the neck band was pinned on, as well. All in all, it was an easy DIY and I think it came out cute. It even won an award for "Most Creative Costume".