How to straighten curly hair...

 Do you ever start a post and don't have the energy to finish it? So you leave it sitting there as a draft, only to have it nagging at you until you finally come back to it and finish it!?   Well this is one of those posts.

As the cooler weather finally hits Florida strange things begin to happen...to my hair.

 I have naturally curly/wavy/frizzy hair. During the humid months (which are most) I don't fight it and just air dry and go.  However, when the humidity drops so does my hair! It's not curly enough to be considered curly and not wavy enough to have body.  It's just frizzy!  The only answer is to blow dry and straighten.

Here's my recipe.

Str8 by Rusk!

This is not an advertisement, nobody is paying me to write about this product. I just thought I'd share. This is only my opinion, based on my experience with the product.

 I accidentally stumbled upon this hair product in, of all places Walmart. It was on the bottom shelf of the styling products section and something intrigued me. It was about $12 to $15 (I don't remember exactly). I figured what the heck I've tried everything else.

This stuff is amazing!




Here's my process.

1. Shampoo and condition as usual
2. Towel dry but not too much (don't rub, just pat)
3. Wide tooth comb-comb out all knots
4. In the palm of your hand dispence about a dime size of str8 (don't over do, too much is not a good thing). A bonus this stuff will last a long time.
5. Pat both palms together so product is on both hands and gently rub through hair from top to ends.
6. Using a wide nylon bristle round brush starting with the front brush and blow with blow dryer on hot setting.

(This will take about 15 minutes, from front to back and underside from nape of neck.)
7.  When all sections are completely dry and straight, finish with cold air from the blow dryer. Make sure you cool your whole head.

That's it.

I find that even if it rains (as long as  you don't get hair wet) hair stays straight with no frizz. And I can usually get a second day out of it. (wear shower cap when taking a shower).

Post finally Posted! (after 1 1/2 years sitting in the vault! lol)

Teaching with computers

It has been too long since my last post. Paris is behind me...sigh...we'll always have Paris!! And I will return! But for now it's back to reality! And my reality includes lots of kids and lots of computers! School is in full swing! I can't believe we are finishing week 5 tomorrow! If you find yourself needing to blend a real life environment (classroom) with a virtual world (game design and web design class) here are a few tips on warming up and personalizing an otherwise cold and techie space!

of course start with a chalkboard (a little bit of Paris)

What's more down to earth than wooden clothespins. I use this space for my EXCELLENT LISTS! and a place to post questions....

Every inch of space gets used.  Here dollar store white boards with markers hang on the metal poles which house electrical wires (magnetically attached). Great for group work brainstorming. Cute $1 pails from Target hold pencils erasers and post-it for storyboarding and group work.

For students whose computers face the wall I used cereal boxed cut in half and covered in decorative duct tape as a whiteboard holder.

 
I find having these tools at the students finger tip very helpful to the design process. Also, In five weeks I haven't lost one pencil.  At the end of class I ask the students closest to the pails to make sure there are four pencils. It's much easier to keep track of four pencils than 30!

I hope you found these suggestions for blending the real world classroom with the virtual world classroom.

Do you have any computer classroom management tips you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear them!

Chalkboards Of Paris!

Summer is here! And the school year is quickly becoming a distant memory.

 It has been quick a year. I started a new job teach video game and web design to middle schoolers! Quite an adventure it has been. I will be doing it again this coming school year.

What better way to celebrate the end of a successful school year than a trip to Paris!! Well the last day of school I left for Paris to meet the Chef, who had already been there for a week.

The chef met me at the airport in Paris and we took the train to the hotel (much more reasonable than a taxi). When we emerged from the train station in Paris chef lead me down a cobblestone pedestrian market street and the first thing I noticed was...chalkboards!! Everywhere!!

 I snapped some pictures thinking I would only see a few. But the more we walked along the more I began to realize... Chalkboards are very Paris! Very French!

 During my week long (which was not long enough) stay I continued to snap pictures of chalkboards. I didn't take pictures of all of them, that would be thousands! Just every now and than I would take a picture of a chalkboard.

 Chalkboards were displayed with frame, without frame, painted directly on buildings, hanging on trees, at farmers markets, as garden markers...

I imagine if they banished all of the chalkboards from Paris it would definitely lose some of its charm.

If you want to add a little bit of Paris to your home (and who wouldn't want to) you can purchase a chalkboard board from Chalk it up! Here is little slideshow that I put together of Paris chalkboards that I encountered:
jouir de


 I hope to be posting more pictures of my Paris trip soon! It was so amazing! I plan on returning one day...

Spammers on Pinterest

Why is it that when something good comes along there's always someone out there trying to either ruin it or exploit it?

I love Pinterest!  It is the place where I go to dream and pin.  I love adding things to my "vision" boards.  Sometimes I like to share what I think is sweet or funny etc... on facebook (with my 15 friends).  It's just relaxing, like thumbing through all of my favorite magazines at one time!  (Does anyone buy magazines anymore?) Than it's like cutting out your favorite pictures and pinning them to a bulletin board.  It's all of that without the paper mess.  I love pinterest!

But occasionally a intruder comes along.  Sometimes someone pins an enticing photo of something yummy and I click on the link only to find a fake contest trying to lore me into giving my email address for a giveaway. I imagine that the person who repinned it is unaware it's a spam because they didn't click on the link, I guess the spammer is hoping enough people won't click on it to spread it around and enough do click on it to fall for the lore (who really knows how spammers think).

Now whenever I pin something I click on the picture first to make sure it takes me to a credible source.  A source where I can learn more about the project or recipe or whatever.  If it doesn't pass the test I don't pin.

Like I said before, I love Pinterest!  And I want to help keep it SPAM FREE! So I made up this little message that I hope you will repin to spread the word.

What we did on our staycation this Spring Break

This the first time in a few years that I have not blogged at least a few times a month.
It has been a year of big changes for me and my family! After 13 years of being a "stay-at-home" mom I went back to work. It has been quite an adjustment and it continues to be.
Although I am working full time (as if I wasn't before?) I am fortunate to have a job as a teacher. Yes, this means long hours (plenty to do after school) but at least I am home every weekend, holiday, break and lets not forget the summer!
It is spring break this week and we are all home!! Even the hubby! (He is in the beginning stages for opening a restaurant as the opening chef. They are still building the restaurant so all of his work is being done from home right now)
So this week we are slowing down and having a nice stay-cation!
Living in Florida makes this so easy. Disney has a great deal for Florida residents right now, $99 for a three day pass and only $30 more for a fourth day!
Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios and rocked the park!







It was a Fantasmic Day!  Tonight should be very illuminating! 
Can you guess where we'll be?
Stay-cations rock!
What do you do on a stay-cation?

Our next break should be a vacation very far away...stay tuned

It was a Pinteresting year

The past 18 weeks have been very busy.  As you may know, if you have read previous posts, I have been busy teaching video game and web design to middle school children.  I will share more of my experience and thoughts about teaching this subject in another post.
What I would like to address in this final post of the year is my obsession with Pinerest.com. This obsession began just before I started teaching.  And to be honest, if I was not teaching I think I would be trying everything I've pinned on pinterest.  However, since time is limited, I have only been able to try out a few of the wonderful things that I've pinned.
Here are the things that I've tried (some pictures  are yet to come.  some I did not take pictures of, sadly)
1 My first pinterest project was a knitting cake for my sister's birthday!
Here's Mine and my mom's cake

Here is the pinterest inspiration:

2. Wire Organizer using tp rolls BRILLIANT!
Here's mine

Here's the pinterest inspiration

3. Balloon Garland


here's the inspiration

5.So I had to try and make this centerpiece. I figured why not!? I have branches all I needed was some silver metallic spray paint and a bag of mylar shreddings. So here it is! This was not easy to photography. It looked much nicer in person, trust me.



here's the inspiration

Ok so mine needs a little work...
5.Chocolate covered marshmallow pops.  I cover some with graham cracker crumbs, some with coconut shavings, and some with colored sprinkles.  Picture is not so good because I wrapped them in clear wrapping before taking the picture.  But they tasted good!


Here's the inspiration

6.Taping shipping boxes together(recycled ones) to use for classroom papers. I love this one. I have to take a picture of mine when I get back to school. I covered mine with neon green duct tape. This is a great one!
here's the inspiration


7. I did a pumpkin centerpiece for Thanksgiving. It turned out really nice but I can't find the picture. I may have deleted it off my camera before saving:)
Here's the inspiration

This was very easy to do and looked great. Would have been very expensive if I bought it at the florist.
8. Mini Grilled cheese and tomato soup. My chef husband made these as a light snack on Thanksgiving day before Dinner. He used a long thin french beard. It was perfect for little sandwiches for dunking in the soup. No pictures but
Here's the inspiration

9. Crayon Painting




 Here's the inspiration

10. I made this broccoli salad
Here's the inspiration

11. I made these cute acorns on Thanksgiving. Don't think I'll do them again. It was a lot of work and not really worth it. Fun to do it once but that's it. And the individual ingredients added up to a big expense.
Here's the inspiration

12/ One final project is this corkboard on the inside of the kitchen cabinets. I haven't done it yet but I have the cork just have to get some temporary adhesive.
Here's the inspiration


Thank you pinterest for all of the wornderful inspiration and all of the talent and generous contributors!
I can't wait to try more creative ideas in 2012!