Texas Half

 before the race, staying warm

 Around mile 10

 going uphill to the finish line

 after!

 the reward/Gabby's birthday cupcakes

celebratory pizza at Mama's (the best pizza in town)

I completed my first half marathon with my run club last Saturday. It was amazing! We trained well and had a great day. It was really cold and we managed to stay together and all finish within a minute of each other. I've run a couple 5k's and one 10k, but this by far blew them away. I feel so accomplished. Now where's my 13.1 sticker?

fort worth, texas

The Modern is such a gorgeous building. This piece isn't my favorite, but it's displayed so well that I love it.

I'm currently reading Texas by James Michener. I am almost to the 1800s. I enjoyed looking at the western art and comparing the dates to the timeline in the book.

I found two paintings that had little animals in the lower left hand corner. Kitties!

doggie kitties!

We took 170 students to four art spaces. We saw modern, classical, western, and local art. I was surprised that most of my students preferred the Kimbell (classical/traditional) out of them all. I'm a modern gal myself. I am a sucker for poured concrete.

DWR-UCR

Last night I attended United Commercial Realty's 3rd Annual High School Photo Contest Kick Off Party at Design Within Reach. It was Dallas in top form. The kids did a scavenger hunt with throw away cameras while the adults schmoozed and coveted designer furniture. Lisa Garza of Pantry catered and I was in love with her mini pies and macaroons. Have you every actually eaten one of those? I associate macaroons with Marie Antoinette. They are magical. Just saying. I also scored the lookbook from previous years that is full of my students work. I love the book but I am tempted to tear out my favorites and frame them.

Havin' some fun.

I always send my kids out to take pinhole photos and I never get to. Well, today that stopped. I took two class portraits. The top one is my all girl photo class. They held still for 35 seconds to get this shot. There are a couple blurries, but that adds to the coolness. The bottom one is a 30 second exposure of my Elements of Media class. Half of them stood still for the entire exposure, and the other half walked in at about 15 seconds in. Pretty cool for an old quaker oatmeal box.

Weekend Recap

-Prom with my bff, Joel
-Sewed five tops for Rachel
-Coffee with an old friend at Murray Street Coffee
-Lunch at Whole Foods and lap around North Park
-Dinner at Matt's with the crew followed by Lee Harvey's
-Sewed a Sunday dress and went to family dinner. 
-Swam for the first time of the summer
-Ate peaches and cream pie made by my Moma
-Drank a whiskey and coke and listened to Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen live
-Home at 2:30am thanks to someone in a pearl snapped shirt.

Mustache Monday

Thanks to Jessica and Paige, yesterday was Mustache Monday. I like it.

Writing with Light

We played with exposure and writing with light today in class. One of the many fun moments of my day. Happy Weekend!

Gas Leak 2010

We survived. Smells of gas left us in lockdown for a couple hours, followed by an early evacuation. I had a great group of kids that helped play into the drama. (47 tweets per hour). We listened to songs about death (the smiths, elton john, cat stevens) and had arm wrestling competitions. Trinity read through our emergency plans and insisted on wearing the whistle that came in my emergency kit. We were well equipped with macbooks, itunes, and peanut butter cookies. It was quite the memorable day. 

Addiction/Epidemic

We're hooked. We can't stop. My fourth period class now has a knitting component. 

I Love Thursdays

I love Thursdays. Our school's visual arts receptions always happens on Thursdays. There's this two hour block between the bell ringing and the reception starting. Sometimes I'm really productive and sometimes I get some girls in my classroom and we just gossip for two hours. Today was a combo of both. I did some serious knitting. I finished my pink circle scarf, and started a teeny scarf. Soon to be called the Sarah Scarf. Tonight's show was the induction ceremony for the National Art Honor Society. There's an amazing exhibition in our gallery, and a ceremony full of art quotes that give me chills. The NAHS members made 'zines as favors. I didn't want to be greedy and take one of each, so I just took five. Oops.  So I'm home now, high from new Grey's and PP episodes and obsessing over my new 'zines and scarves...

The Coozy

Coozies are serious business in my family. It has to be one of the kinds that flattens out. If you are drinking a beer at Moma and Bobby's house, be sure to claim one early. Or you might end up with the one that has feathers on it, or some college that you don't pull for. My brothers bring theirs to the bars, to their friends' houses, and get super depressed if they misplace it. I rarely drink beer, but I am so happy to have received this new coozy in my box at work.  I'll have to break it in this weekend.

Doors

I am introducing a new assignment in my photo class called Doors and Entryways. The three above are from my west Texas road trip I went on last summer. I think it will be fun and kind of adventurous. Maybe? Connie Sue, you and Gene have to play along. 

Winspear and Wyly

On Monday, I toured the Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Theater. They are both so gorgeous and so different from each other. I am dying to get onto that roof top terrace at the Wyly.

Val-o-Gram

One of the benefits of teaching at an arts high school. I must have watched this video 15 times.