The Story of Us.

Conversation from the beginning of the school year:

Student One: Ms. Dudley, are you married?

Me: No, not yet.

Student Two: Wait, you're a teacher and you're not even married??!

He put a ring on it!

Guess what, Student Two?

Ms. Kristen-Crayon is ENGAGED! 

On Friday, January 27, 2012 my boyfriend, now fiance (so weird!), and longtime best friend got down on one knee in front of the Washington Monument and popped the question. We are notoriously bad about taking pictures, so it was fitting that we didn't take any right after the event. The above is in our apartment, from the morning after. I said yes, if ya couldn't tell :)

Below is a small portion of our shared history, which started in 2003 as high school seniors. There's a break for 2005-2006... the relationship ended ("ended") in 2005 due to long distance complications. But we started talking again in 2007, renewed the friendship, and by 2010 we were back together and sharing a Baltimore apartment!

 Prom time! And Nate's high school graduation party, 2003.

Annapolis, MD, May 2004.

Postcards from Nate's Eastern European adventures on my wall, 2007.

Wrightsville Beach, NC, July 2008.

Chris and Rhia's wedding, May, 2009.

Alaska! July, 2010.

Still smiling in June, 2011.

While I'm pinning away on my newly retitled Pinterest wedding board (went from "One Day" to "Kristen & Nate Gettin' Hitched"), there will not be a wedding in the near future. With only one income (mine), law school half-completed (for him), and near-crippling student loan debt, we're just not in the place we want to be to have a wedding. But I don't see that as a sad thing... I'm so incredibly indecisive, I'm going to need at least two years to plan that shindig!

Here's to the future, here's to us and everyone we love!


And here's another conversation, from yesterday:

Me: We're going to have to get engagement photos taken.

N: What are those?

Me: You know, people take formal photos to use on their save-their-dates, announce the engagement, etc.

N: That is what Facebook is for!

Me: ...

N: I proposed! My work is done!

Oh, Lordy. Help me.

:)

So, so soft.

A pre-K conversation during group discussion about texture went like this:

Ms. Kristen-Crayon: "Feel your hair. What does it feel like?"
Student: "It feels so, so soft. Like even softer than your hair!"
Ms. Kristen-Crayon: "F., have you ever felt my hair before?"

Student: "No. Can I!??!"

Ms. Kristen-Crayon: "No, no you may not."

Sometimes, color changes everything.

"I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains."

There is something so beautiful about seeing this photo in color. Anne, you are not forgotten.

For more, click here.

"Fashion is a passion for the with-it and hip..."

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

I recently discovered of the work of London-based fashion designer Mary Katrantzou when I was thumbing through an old(ish) copy of Vogue. I love the extreme colors and prints in her collections, which she designs in Photoshop and prints digitally onto the fabric. The example above is not so extreme (compared to the rest of her body of work), but the whole inspiration for posting about fashion or Katrantzou at all arose because the above florals remind me of my blog wallpaper, and I thought it would make for a nice juxtaposition :) The look is from her Fall 2011 RTW collection, click on the caption to check it out in its entirety.

And really, I can't get enough:

Inside-out.

So while I can't afford Katrantzou or anything else that I see in Vogue, in my new profession I can still have fun with fashion in ways that many people can't get away with. For example, I purchased these about a month ago:

Please just call me "Ms. Frizzle" from now on. No really, I insist.

Could there be a more perfect shoe for an elementary art teacher?

If you know me, you know that I am shoe-obsessed. When these came back in stock at Modcloth, I could not resist. It's a sickness.

 They remind me of a unit I taught to eighth graders during student teaching, called Ordinarily Extraordinary Attire: Transforming Everyday Objects into Outrageous Fashion. I made thirty cards with everyday objects, themes, or products on them: a pair of scissors, a basketball, Reese's Pieces, etc. Students blindly selected a card from the deck and became budding fashion designers. I plan on tweaking the unit for my fifth graders this year.

Prototype: Airmail envelope.

Traffic light.

Globe.

Celery!

Coca-Cola.

Stop sign.

Snow-free...

...is the way to be.

Ms. Kristen-Crayon: Why is this snowman so sad?

Student: Because even though he's a snowman, he hates snow!

We've had a very mild winter so far, and for that, in this first year of teaching, I am grateful.

My student teaching started last January, and not only did I have a lot of anxiety about just teaching those first units, but wondering whether or not I would be going in at all or having two-hour delays due to weather did not come as a relief. Sure, everyone loves a day off, but as a newbie on a tight schedule, inclement weather presented itself as an additional stressor. Is it showtime or is it not? I live in a different county than I taught in (and that is still the case this year), and never knew if the weather in both counties was going to match up-- would my school be open a few counties away, but would I have terrible weather in my county to drive through in my ill-equipped vehicle? Or best-case scenario: school is closed. But you almost never know 'til 6am, so you don't get to sleep in because you have to wake up and check on the cancellations, and you still have to prep for the next day because you're not sure if school will even be canceled. To top it off-- I'd actually lose sleep wondering about the verdict!

My fear of driving in snow and ice is disproportionate to the actual danger it presents... so I just hope the fluffy stuff (or sleety, icy, perilous stuff) stays in the clouds this year.

But despite all my feelings on snow... my kinders still made some jolly snowmen. 

Thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for lesson inspiration!

Take what you need.

After seeing something very similar on Pinterest, I decided to post the above sign in the workroom at school as a way to say "happy holidays" to the staff. I put it up during the week before break and then subsequently forgot about it. I was in line waiting for the copier when I was pleasantly surprised that people had interacted with my little message(s). I was going to take it down, but I had second thoughts. I imagine that we still need the things that remain, especially as we enter this new year.

(The ones that have been taken: faith, patience, courage, peace, passion, strength, and motivation.)

The Obliteration Room.

Yayoi Kusama has always been one of my favorite artists, and this makes me fall in love with her a little more:

Check the article on The Obliteration Room here, they say it better than I can:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/yayoi-kusama-obiliteration-room/

So who is gonna buy me a ticket to Australia, hm?

***

And here's a somewhat similar (low budget, in comparison) piece I made in 2003, using garage sale stickers:

There was a numbered dot for every day of my life, with "special events" in red, yellow, and white. Took thirteen hours to install, three hours to take down, and one sleepless night :)