Blackout Poetry

I have been studying to become both a high school physical education teacher, as well as an English teacher for the past five years. The program I am a part of has prepared me very to teach PE, there is no doubt about that; however, I feel a bit underprepared to step into an English classroom and have lessons prepared for dozens of minds, eager to learn (yeah, right…). So, during my recent practicum, I was happy to have the chance to sit in on an Creative Writing 12 class, where students were in the midst of presentations about their favourite type of English tasks. The one that I found most intriguing was “Blackout Poetry”, originally created by a writer by the name of Austin Kleon. Apparently, the first work of black out poetry was made out of sheer frustration, involving scribbling and screaming. The famous “Overheard on the Titanic” poem was born:

As you can see, a blackout poetry is created by blacking out all words that are deemed insignificant, to create an entirely different take on the original intention of a piece of literature or poem. In “Overheard on the Titanic”, the original work  was a New York Times article regarding  historical references about the famous ship at the bottom of the sea. In the class I sat in on, I was invited to give blackout poetry a try with either an excerpt from their  history 12  book, or a page from Alice in Wonderland. Naturally,  I chose the latter, and ended up with something about flamingos and  other strange things shocking the queen. It was fun, so I decided to  try it again.  Below is an excerpt from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, in both its original form, and after I got a  hold of it with a black  marker.

 

 

 

Mexican Fiesta Bridal Shower

My cousin is getting married. I am her bridesmaid. My Mom wanted to throw her a party – a non-traditional one. What better idea than a Mexican themed bridal shower with lots of booze?

Margaritas!!

Cervazas!

Guacamole!

Mexican Mango Salsa!

A chili pepper  pinata full of risque gifts for the bride!

A sombrero with a veil on it!

Festive decorations!

I was busy preparing for this shower all day yesterday, which is my excuse for no blog (even though I promised I would do one every day for the month of May..). I will just have to throw and extra one in here somewhere along the way!

Hemp Jewelry How-To!

 

I first learned how to make hemp bracelets when I was about nine years old, and I got one of those “do it yourself” kits for my Birthday. Even then I found them to be a really easy project. I started making them again this year as a cheap alternative to expensive gifts for my friends. That, and the fact that hemp is readily available in Victoria at all times (because there are so many jewelry stores downtown – check out bead world here). They are the kind of present that you can hand out to people you love “just because”, and one of the great things about them are that they are suitable for both guys and girls.  There are a range of styles you can make, but this post is a how-to for the most basic style of hemp jewelry.

 

 

 

For this project, you will need hemp, (as seen to the left), beads of your choice (as seen to the right), and a pair of scissors. On a side note, the hemp does not always come in a big ball like that, I only purchased that one because of how cheap it was. It is actually a bit thicker than I would prefer, so if you’re thinking of purchasing, I would recommend a thinner hemp. The thinner hemp gives off a completely different look, and most of the time, the beads fit better on it.

 

 

 

 

To start off, you will need to measure the hemp by wrapping it around your wrist three times (and a little extra just to be sure). Cut this length, then make two more pieces the same length. With your third piece, fold it in half, and cut it, so that you now have two long pieces, and two short pieces all together. Next, take the  four pieces, and  tie them all together into one loop at the top, making sure that the two shorter lengths are in the middle. Like this:

Next, you will begin to tie the knots. This is the most complicated part, so I will break it down into a few steps. Start by taking one  of the  longer lengths, and designating it the  ”lead” length. Do this by tying a temporary knot at the  end, so that you will always know which one it is (in this case, it is the  length on the  right). Bring this   length overtop of the two shorter middle pieces.

Next, take  your lead length, and  place it underneath the longer length on the  opposite  side (so now the lead should be  on top  of the two short lengths, and underneath the  longer length).

For the next step, take the long length that is NOT  the lead length, and  put it  underneath both the lead length and shorter lengths, and pull it through the loop that has formed on the  right hand side.

Pull the knot tighter…

Then  pull it as tight as you can.

From here, you continue to make the same knots, ALWAYS MAKING  SURE  YOU  LEAD WITH YOUR LEAD LENGTH!

You can begin to add beads…  Like  I said before, the hemp is fairly thick, so if you can, put both pieces of short hemp through, but if only one  fits, that works too.

And continue to add beads as you please…

Until it looks  something like this:

When you are finished, there  will be a few lengths that  need to be trimmed off. I like to keep the two middle short lengths as the ones to  tie  through the loop. Voila!

Homemade Gifts: Natural Lemon and Orange Body Scrub

 

Have you ever had a body scrub that was purchased at a store, and was very waxy, sticky, or hard to get off your skin? I have to say that 9 out of 10 body scrubs I have used possess at least one of these qualities, and the 1 out of 10 that don’t are far too expensive. As another homemade Christmas gift this year, I made a lemon body scrub that is completely natural, leaves no residue, and will rid you of rough, rigid, dead skin. It is inexpensive, and very easy to make. You need 4 ingredients, and the batch will be enough to fill 2 – 4 small jars.

You will need:

- 1 cup sea salt

-1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil, but if you have it, almond oil, coconut oil, or even vegetable oil will suffice)

- 1 tsp of grated lemon rind/ lemon juice

- 1 tsp of grated orange rind

 

 

 

Mix the sea salt and oil together in a mixing bowl, then add the lemon and orange. if the consistency is watery, you may want to consider adding a bit more sea salt. The biggest thing I noticed with the scrub was that the olive oil and the salt separated. This can be easily solved by shaking the jar.

Also, the scrub should last a few months without going bad because it is oil-based, so do not worry about the lemon or orange going mouldy.

 

Homemade Gifts: Crayons on Canvas

Since my Mom is a grade 1 teacher, I thought that this would be a suitable Christmas gift for her to put in her classroom. I call is the “crayons on canvas”, and I was inspired to make it from a website I stumbled upon. I got an awesome deal on the canvas, and just bought a 64 pack of crayons. I think I ended up using about 60 of them. What you need for this project:

- Blank Canvas

- 64 Pack Crayons

- Hot Glue Gun

- Hair Dryer.

It’s really simple. All you need to do is line the crayons up in order by colour, glue them onto the canvas, and melt them with a hairdryer.

Glueing the crayons onto the canvas.

Melting the crayons down.

Homemade Gifts: Bird’s Nest Necklace

In an effort to save money, this Christmas, I attempted to make my own gifts to give to my family and friends. They actually turned out to be quite successful, in that the gifts, particularly this one, were cheaper if more were made. For example, I had to buy a bulk spool of jewelry wire (that could be 24 – 26 gauges) to make these necklaces, which was somewhat pricey (about $14 if I recall), but I was able to make 7 necklaces with wire to spare! In addition to the wire, I needed to buy 3 beads (I opted for the fake pearls – about $0.75 each), a chain ($1 – $2), and a clasp ($0.75); all of which are available at “Bead World” in Victoria, or any regular jewelry supply shop. This came to a total of about $5.00. It would also be helpful if you have a pair of pliers that can tighten the wire at the end.

The necklaces were great because although they were cheap, they still look classy, and they can be personalized by using different colours, or by being different sizes depending on how much of a statement you want them to make.My friends and my Mom loved them.

The steps you need to take if you want to create a necklace like this of your own are simple:

First, put all three beads on the wire side by side, then manipulate the wire to get them into a triangle shape. Leave about 2 inches of the wire on the end to make the loop for the chain.The loop can be made simply by twisting the remaining wire around a small loop big enough for the chain (this is where the pliers come in handy).

Second, wrap the wire tightly around all three beads, after you wrap around about 5 times, it should start making a circle shape rather than a triangle. The first necklace I made was OK, but I feel that I did not wrap enough wire around. After adding much more wire to the second one, and created a much thicker “nest” I realized how much better it looked. I would estimate that I wrapped the wire around about 25 – 40 times, but you can tell how much wire you think looks good as you create it yourself. TIP: leave the wire on the spool instead of cutting a set piece. This make it easier to manage, manipulate, and gives you the freedom to add wire or take away wire as you please.

Once the nest is thick enough, tighten it by wrapping the wire around the nest in three separate places. Each “place” should be equal distance from one another, and each should be wrapped 2 – 3 times.

Finally, hold the loop made for the chain next to the nest, and secure it by wrapping the wire from the spool around it a couple of times. To make it extra tight, loop the wire from the spool underneath one of the “places” on the back side of the necklace.