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Book Shelf

2012-01-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

Janae lent me:

and I am loving it so far. I really enjoyed Everything Is Illuminated, and I'm excited to read another book by him! He can make me laugh out loud and cry all within one chapter.

For bookclub with my coworkers:

I'll be reading this one off and on for the next 3 years (millions of pages people)

I finished The Hunger Games (well the first one) and really- I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I'm a fan of dystopian novels (Bradbury & Atwood), but maybe that's the problem- Im comparing it to my favorites. Interesting premiss, love the strong female lead- but that love story. gag. I'm going to read the other two before I pass a final verdict on these.

I'd love to get book suggestions- so send them my way!

Sedona

2012-01-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

Road-trip to Sedona over Christmas break:

a-pizza heaven
cheap motel
wild goose chase c/o google maps
beautiful hike

Spending time with Blake is the best. He even asked if we could stop by the outlet mall on the way home.

Ba-Gua Goals

2012-01-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! I am really great at setting goals...and not so great at following through with them. I found this great idea on a friend of a friend's blog (here). She loosly followed the steps to creating a Feng Shui Ba-Gua map from this site. I don't know much about Feng Shui, but I had a lot of fun creating my map (I took some artistic freedom in following it). I love it, because it is a visual reminder of my goals.

(from left to right, top to bottom)
1. Abundance- Develop more charity and compassion, aknowledge the love coming from others.

2. Reputation- Be true to myself, march to the beat of my own drummer. Let go of comparison to others. source.

3. Love and Marriage- Celebrate the love and have fun.

4. Health- Cook and eat more whole foods. My friend Jane has completely inspired me (check out her food blog). I want to get better at yoga, and to remember that having a sense of humor is really healthy! source

5. Keeping the Plan of Salvation at the center of my life (hence it's position in the middle). Attend the temple, and recognize my potential.

6. Creative- Have the courage to ACT on inspiration/new ideas and always try try again.

7. Knowledge and Self Cultivation- expand my reading, both fiction & nonfiction...take an art class.

8. Career- visit the art museums at least once a month, apply for internships, and be prepared/enthusiastic for my students.

9. People- treasure the kindred spirits in my life, and be open to friends of all sorts.

I'm really bad at citing my sources. I just drag things to my desktop. If you know the sources, give them to me.
If you make one, send me a link so I can see it!

Surprise

2011-12-21T05:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I stare at the google search box trying to remember what I wanted to search for. The words that always pop into my mind are poop, and titmouse. So I typed titmouse. The big surprise is that it is not a mouse at all. It is a BIRD. I can't say I am disappointed, but I'm not really happy about this.

Inspiring

2011-12-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

My students just finished a clay/ceramics unit. They created some really great luminaries, of which I will post photos later. I found some great inspiration, and I am excited to experiment with clay this Christmas break!

If your interested, please come play with me!

I dare you

2011-11-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

Oh these are good (and short!). Try them (preferably while blasting Celine Dion)

The Joy of Spandex

2011-11-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

I made leggings this morning. Spandex always makes me feel like dancing...regardless of the massive camel-toe this particular pair gives me. Let the holiday music frolicking begin.

11-19-11

2011-11-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was brave and went to a basketball game with blake. I found cheap tickets so I thought I'd give it a shot ( I really hate sports). It was not bad! I actually had fun...for about the first hour, so Im glad I brought a magazine to read for the second half (baby steps). We ate at Jason's Deli for $6 with Blake's discount, and topped the night off at Yogurtland (they have the best toppings and flavors).

Saturday was my niece's birthday. She really loves blake and they danced while she sang the song from Sleeping Beauty.

My other siblings are really thoughtful gift givers to the nices and nephews...blake and I prefer to keep things cheap and last minuet. We gave her a candy bar. She didn't understand that the wrapper was not wrapping paper, so she unwrapped the whole thing.

halloweeners

2011-11-02T06:23:00.001-07:00

I love Halloween.

Loved it!

2011-10-30T18:23:00.001-07:00

I just found these photos as I stalked Brown Sugar's facebook. My girlfriends from high school threw me a batchelorette party last may. First we went to Postino's (can't wait for the one in Gilbert to open!!!) then we opened gifts, talked dirty, and and ate treats at Shanna's. I love these girls- they really made me feel special and excited for my big day! We missed you Heidi!

Inspiration

2011-10-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

My sister posted about her jr. high advanced drama audition on her blog:
http://jacobandnatalli.blogspot.com/

It made me happy because I think my most embarrassing memory (memory-because I didn't have the sense to be embarrassed by it at the time, but I cringe when I think about it now) was auditioning for advanced drama in jr. high. Like Nat, my classmates did scenes from popular movies of that time: Liar, Liar, Clueless, and Superstar. I thought I was well suited to do...

Please notice that there are only 30 seconds of her actually talking...so the remaining 2 min. of my audition consisted of me rolling around on the floor pretending to scavenge for turnips. Who do I think I am?

Thank you for helping me reminisce Natalli.

Tonight Feels Like Fall

2011-10-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

I love Arizona rain!! It's been a nice, rainy summer but this is the first rain that feels like fall. I have my window open and it smells sooooo good. It is actually cool enough to cuddle up with my blankets as I listen to conference and enter my quarterly grades for school.

I think I really like teaching, turns out jr. high students can be pretty cool. When I get stressed (and boy do I get crazy, psycho, coo-coo stressed) and think I want a career change I just remind myself that I really do have the coolest job! I get to teach ART! I love art! That being said, I CANT wait for fall break in 2.5 days.

In other news, I'm almost finished with Just Kids. I am reading at a much slower pace these days. I heard Patti Smith talk about it on Fresh Air, and it caught my attention. I really like it.

Oh yeah Bethany- don't forget your hard boiled eggs are cooking on the stove before you leave the house. Besides an apartment full of smoke, you will have a lovely little mess to clean and one more thing for Blake to tease you about.

Remember

2011-09-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

when I got a perm in Peru?

contest

2011-09-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

Some of the funniest/best entries from my 7th graders for the constitution themed art contest:

Each week of teaching is getting better. I never dreamed it would be this stressful and overwhelming...but I am starting to love my students. Good thing I have such supportive coworkers, friends and family members. Especially Blakimus maximus.

Random photo from the honeymoon- I'm addicted to the glamorous cruise lifestyle. I envision myself at the age of 80 in a sparkly pant suit on the leto deck.

delish

2011-08-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

Fortunately/unfortunately Blake works at Jason's Deli. While they have an AMAZING salad bar (and blake is a salad making expert) they also have the most delish chocolate mousse. I ask blake to bring it home a couple times a week. Ok everyday- I'm eating it now. Go get some.

Teaching

2011-08-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

I survived my first week and a half of teaching jr. high art. There are a lot of amazing teachers in my life that have been so great helping me with lesson plans and classroom management. My family and friends have been so supportive too. Especially Blake who plays a great housewife doing the laundry and cooking me dinner.

I NEVER want to be a jr. high school student ever again! Despite their angst, hormones and sassy 'tudes - they can have their sweet sides. And their ridiculous sides which are funny:
Ex:
Me- "What are you doing this weekend?"
student- "clubbin' with my b's"

It's love

2011-07-29T09:55:00.001-07:00

I'm glad he likes dress-ups too.

The Big Toe

2011-06-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

A sneak peak into my former years as an actress at BYU Hawaii (you can go ahead and skip to around 7:30 to see a very tan, young Prudance Milsap). Heidi and I were going through an intense Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen phase... so we thought we'd try out for Glen Kau's movie. I think Heidi does a fantastic job, and think we both should have pursued acting careers.

THE BIG TOE (full movie) 07-30-2004 from Glenn Kau on Vimeo.

Wedding

2011-06-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day! I loved the temple sealing and getting to celebrate with my friends and family afterwards. Blake and I both felt more loved than ever. I'm so grateful for family and friends that came from near and far to celebrate, as well as the support of those who couldn't make it. So many, many people helped me put this whole thing together! From friends emailing me inspiration and music ideas, an aunt who contributed financially, to sisters who made cakes and decorations... the list goes on and on. Not to mention my parents who put up with me acting like a bridezilla. Yikes.

PS My sister made my cake! Isn't it cute? All the ward ladies that were helping thought it was a cactus!

Blake's Family

Zac & Janae did our cute centerpieces:

Shout out to J.P. for this delish recipe!

Bridals II

2011-06-06T10:03:00.001-07:00

More Bridals:

I loved our reception! I had so much fun, photos to be posted soon.

Bridals

2011-05-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Blake and I took our bridals/groomals? on Friday. I franticly sewed the last details on my dress about a min. before the photos. In fact, Natalli sewed my sash onto me at the temple. It was nice to have Natalli & EmmaLee helping me throw things together last minuet. I get so stressed out. Natalli snapped a few photos and took some video footage while our real photographer took pictures. I really liked having Jessica Drew do our photos! The whole process made me even more excited and anxious for the big day!

I think Blake looks so dapper in his suit and wing tip shoes.

I want chicken, I want liver

2011-05-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

I got the Meow Mix song stuck in my head again...which lead me to these:

And some fan videos.
laughed so hard I couldn't breathe

Drez

2011-05-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep things simple for my wedding, I thought I'd buy a cute party dress, and add sleeves. 2 trips to H&M, and 3 failed attempts at tailoring/altering later, I decided to do what I should have done in the first place- sew my dress from scratch. I like to sew (for the most part), I'm decent at sewing...I HATE tailoring, I don't do alterations. I'm bad at it. Lesson learned. Friday night I rediscovered a vintage wedding dress my neighbor gave me. It had gigantic puff sleeves:

(Anne of Green Gables doi)

but was covered in beautiful lace. I chanled my inner Molly Ringwald (a la Pretty in Pink) and cut the dress apart. I made a quick trip to Joanns with my 40% coupon and bought some beautiful ivory silk, and started sewing.

Total wedding dress cost, $40. Ok ok including the first two attempts its close to $200. But that's still not bad for a wedding dress. I still have a zipper, buttons, trip, and belt to make. Also, I need to fix the t-shirt sleeves. I'm really enjoying making my wedding dress! It's been a good chance to forget about finding a teaching job, and to start getting excited about marrying Blake. Who wouldn't be excited to marry this boi:

dip duh dip dip doie

2011-04-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

I am not a wedding planner. I like too many different things...and change my mind too much. Thank heavens for sisters, friends and sister-friends. Shanna just finished my wedding invitations, and I love them. The blessed Kristine Metcalf (this girl needs to be a wedding planner) has been emailing me the best inspiration which has helped me stay focused. Some of the dip duh dip dip dyed inspiration:

Funny.

It's game time

2011-04-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

Wedding countdown, some say hilarious- I say essential. How else will I know when the big day is?

Wedding-Countdowns

Am I a bad bride for not getting one sooner?

Ted Talks

2011-04-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

I love the wonderful messages at ted.com I really enjoy listening to them while I sew or clean. They sort them by theme- so check it out and get inspired/uplifted.

Here is one I listened to recently:

Wedding Shoes!

2011-04-05T12:24:00.001-07:00

Hooray!

Now I can put on my red shoes and dance. Ok ok I know I'm cheesy.

engagements

2011-03-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

Although it's an outtake, I like this photo more than any other because I think it captured our essence as a couple. Notice the unity with which our eyebrows raise as we respond to a comment that is being made?

Our good friends took our engagements for us. We decided to be true to our AZ roots and went out to the Proalta trail. We had a lot of fun with the Biggs, and wish them luck as they move to Japan.

In other Japanise-ish news, I'm reading a really great book: Kafka on the Shore. It is by a Japanese author. I thought I would love it because there is a cat on the cover, and it's even better than I dreamed because there are talking cats in the book. There is more to it than talking cats. It's a good book and if you read it (or have read it) tell me, because I want to talk about it.

catz. Meow!

2011-03-25T23:43:00.000-07:00

Thank you Rebecca:

Natty and I used to watch this every halloween. Or at least 3 holloweens in a row.

Blake + Love + Cake + foooooooooorrrrreeeevvvveeeerrrr

2011-03-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

Blake and I decided to get married! Kewel!
May 27th

Here is one (completely unrelated to proposal in any way) of the 4 photos of Blake and I known to man. I guess we are a little camera shy (hence the cut and past number in my last post).

He made me Polish food a couple months ago.

Happy Meowentines Day

2011-02-15T20:23:00.001-08:00

Who does she think she is???

2011-02-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

Ew... Au Revoir Simone covered some bowie songs.
I refuse to post the sacrilege here.

Why mess with perfection?

I'm baaaaaaaack

2011-02-10T14:55:00.001-08:00

I decided its time to start blogging again. Ok, Gary decided I should start blogging again and he has blackmailed me. I can't say I'm unhappy to revive the old S.S. Bazodi, I miss having a little record of what I'm up to.

I started my student teaching at Gilbert High in January. I am working in the metals classroom and LOVE it. I have an amazing cooperating teacher. I'm so lucky to learn a new artform...even though it can be a little scary weilding a huge firebreathing monster. Also scary - walking around with said torch in one hand and a bowl of molten silver in the other.

Still dating. Enjoying it.

In September I sewed this bolero for my friend's wedding dress. I really enjoyed doing it! I'm hoping to start sewing more dresses and boleros when I finish student teaching. If you know anyone looking for a custom dress or bolero, send them my way.