A little blurb about teaching and reading

When a reluctant reader suddenly becomes interested in a book about bears, he might say "I want to learn to read this book!" So he would begin to read other "just right" books in order to reach his goal of reading books of his own interest. As teachers, we need to provide these high interest books and expose them to our students. This will motivate them into learning to read. Intrinsic motivation.

*Just something I was thinking about while working on my online course.

I also found a really good link to taking photos of jewellery! here

How to improve your Etsy shop...

Just found this great blog post about improving your Etsy shop.
Here is the link to Canadian Rockies Art's "10 Easy Tips to help you improve your Etsy Shop: Part 1"

Listed 2 new items

New earring pics

I just updated the pictures on some of my listings and also took some pictures of my new items that I haven't listed yet. Probably will do that later next week. But here's some of the new pics and a sneak peak at one of my favourite new earrings that will be on sale next week.

Too much reading!

I just spent the last three days attending a "Reluctant Readers" workshop for teachers. There were tons of info and a lot of good "make and takes" where we got to make some sort of useful somethings that would help us motivate reluctant readers in a classroom. For example, one of the things we made was a "buzz jar" which basically was a jar that had discussion questions inside. The students would have to pick one of those questions and discuss it with a partner or two. It's to promote a "buzz" or purposeful talk in the classroom. So other than the useful info and free stuff, we also had awesome breakfasts and lunches! Smoked salmon sandwiches, bacon and eggs for breakfast, stir fry, salad with yummy dressing! Totally worth the $40 I payed.

Now I have to work on my AQ which happens to be on reading too. This online course leaves me no time to work on my etsy shop or make new products but I've been able to sneak in a few hours before bed (no wonder I'm tired in the mornings) to make a couple of new earrings. Hopefully I can take pics tomorrow and post them up.

Now back to my online course.. *sigh*

Exhausted...

I'm tired. I just hosted a birthday BBQ party for my sister. I went around getting food, bringing it in and out of the house and making sure ppl had food. Now, I'm pooped. But everyone had fun and my sister was happy and that's the most important thing.

I made this delicious guacamole dip so I'm going to post the recipe here. It my first time making it, so if I make it again and revise it, then this recipe will be updated. It was yummy. Too bad I didn't have time to take a picture of it. Maybe next time.

Note: I adapted from here.

Ingredients:

5 well ripened avocados

1/2 a tomato diced

a handful of diced red onion

salt to taste

pepper to taste

lime juice to taste

lemon juice

Dice the avocado so that it's easier to mash. Then mash it so that it's smooth and pasty. Mix in the tomato and onion. Add the salt, pepper and lime juice for taste. Mix well. Squeeze the lemon juice to keep the avocado from discolouring. Enjoy!

Cards, Cards, Cards and me

For the past few days, I've been making some promo cards. Yes, about 100 handmade promo cards. Good thing it was kinda fun to make. I'll be sending them to Erika (ErisSensations) so she can distribute them at her crafts show. Thanks a bunch Erika!

And here's a bit about me:
I graduated from teacher's college 3 years ago and started supplying and doing a few LTOs. The learning experience is great but I want to get that permanent teaching job. Trying to find a teaching position here in Toronto is getting harder and harder. It just seems rather depressing especially when you hear other teachers in the same situation. I think I just have to keep trying and praying. Hopefully something will come up.

And So It Begins....

To start off this blog my first post is about the start of my journey into wired jewelry. I am self-teaching how to use wire in my earrings so I bought a hammer last week but I needed to find an anvil or metal block without hurting my wallet. I asked my dad for a piece of metal that I can use instead of getting an anvil and today he brings home two pieces of copper blocks! It's great to have a dad who's an engineer!

So excited to use this block of metal, I start hammering a random piece of 18 gauge wire. And voila! I made a flattened loop! Then putting it beside a reject earring and this happened.


I love it! It's still a work in progress but it's too late to work on it now. I'd wake up the neighbors.