More relaxed...

...with every passing day.

Each minute spent at my new school seems to be having a calming effect on me.  Normally, as school gets closer, I cannot free my mind for a moment from the swarming thoughts of children incoming.  It's not exactly worry, more of an overwhelming, consuming crush of new ideas, inspiration, hopes, and dreams.  One cannot help but think about one or another aspect of teaching.  Now, approaching the middle of the week of "teacher workdays" (read: overlapping meetings mixed with prep time when you can find it), I'm feeling a bit less worried, a bit more confident, and (a great relief to me) more and more able to enjoy my time at home with my new hubby!

I've tried to sew a little each day.  Mainly I've worked on projects for school (I can justify spending time on those easiest!), but soon I'll be back to quilting the charity quilt and the bunny quilt.

I've made some quilty labels...I liked the idea of labeling the parts of the room with animals instead of group numbers.  And my awesome sister-in-law gave me the idea of posting the scientific names of the animals along with them.  And so I give you:

Loxodonta africana

Chelonia mydas

and Hypsypops rubicundus

They're so fun!  The dolphin, snail, and salamander are in cue to be quilted.

I even think my stitches are getting a bit more even:

I also felt like my room of mismatched furniture--we're about to undergo renovation and will have a BEAUTIFUL building with new furniture--needed a facelift.  So I made a ruffle curtain.  Anyone else hate attempting to sew really long, straight seams???

I love that you can hide things behind it...invented storage!

I also love the curtain because when people walk into my room I can figure out if they love craft or not based on their response to the table ;)

I've also done a lot of knitting while listening to guest speakers...

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday; there's always such great inspiration to be found there.  I hope to write again soon!