Yaaay, time to bring back the falling leaves layout

I’ve started the new look, but I’ve been too busy to finish it up I might not even keep this, but I want to finish it as a saved theme anyway… I hope you’re all having a great summer!

To celebrate Earth Day, I bought a new cloth bag to carry groceries home in. I love these bags for many reasons. First of all, I never have to grab a basket or a cart if I’m just getting a few things. Usually I will just fill the bag and go instead of buying more than what I need. Plus, all of the bags I use have long straps, so it is super easy to carry a tote of groceries on each shoulder instead of 10 plastic bags in hand. I try to keep several cloth bags in my car all the time so that I can just take one into any store. Here is some great information about getting rid of plastic bags!

Today I am going to share with you all how to make “yarn” from plastic bags.

Step 1: Lay your plastic bag out flat.
Step 2: Cut off the top (handles) and the bottom. You should have an open cylinder left.
Step 3: Fold this piece of plastic into a flat strip.
Step 4: Cut this strip leaving about 2 inches of space between each cut. You are left with some plastic circles!
Step 5: Lay one plastic circle strip on top of another.
Steps 6 & 7: Connect each piece together using the knots shown above.
Step 8: Pull the knot tight, but be careful not to tear the plastic or you will have to pull the broken plastic pieces out!

Step 9: Roll your “yarn” into a ball and it is ready to use!

Here are a few purses that I made to auction to benefit the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2008:

Finally, I made a brand spankin’ new look for www.sillylittlepanda.com! It’s very simple, but very different from what has been here before.

I decided to post something fun today: a picture survey! Let me know if you do this too so that I can see your answers too

Where you grew up:
*Trinity, NC

Where you live now:
*Raleigh, NC

Your name:
*Miranda

Age:
*21

Favorite band (s):
*The Avett Brothers and blink-182

Favorite tv show (s):
*Friends and House

Favorite movie (s):
*The Notebook and 10 Things I Hate About You

Dream vacation:
*Everywhere on this map

Dream car:
*Yellow beetle!

Favorite season:
*Autumn

Favorite dessert:
*Brownies

Favorite animal:
*Pandas

Pet’s name (s):
*Schroeder (cat), Beethoven (chameleon), Mozart (hamster)

First job:
*Pizza Inn

Current job:
*Gymboree Play and Music

I hope you all had a happy holiday season!

My website looks a little outdated, yes? The new layout is a work in progress.

My dad won a game at the fair and let me pick out this lion. Schroeder seemed to like it; this morning I walked around the corner and caught him batting it around. He looked up and tried to let it go, shaking his paw because his claw was stuck. I said, “it’s OK. You can play with it,” and I smiled at him. Then he just pounced on it!

I had been planning to make him some toys anyway, so tonight I cut open the back and stuffed in some catnip. I stitched up the back and called kitty over. This video was taken shortly after!

Beethoven, my veiled chameleon, grabbing a quick bite (large cricket).

Here he is right up against the cage drinking the water as it is being sprayed.

Today I want to make a post about something I thought I wouldn’t ever feel so strongly about: politics.

A few years ago, I would have considered myself completely apathetic about politics in general. Today I look back at my naïve attitude and realize that all too often this same apathy I felt is the same reason our country is currently in the shitter. Although I wasn’t old enough to vote in the 2000 election, I definitely didn’t ever support George W. Bush. Yes, that’s right, I disliked Bush before it was cool. Call me unpatriotic. Actually, according to the definition (dictionary.com says, “showing lack of love for your country”, I suppose that would not be true at all. In fact, I can’t see it as anything but showing love for my country.

Most Americans are so hungry for a change. In the past 8 years, our apathetic country has progressively become more aware of the corruption that we call The Bush Administration. I too am ready to focus on the future and what is in the best interest of the planet as a whole. I want all of the positive changes promised by our presidential candidates, but who is the “best” choice?

First of all, let’s all take a moment to be thankful for the fact that we even are able to vote. Imagine being brought up in a country than not only did not have your best interest at heart, but also you had no say in the matter, no opinion, and you better not show your opposition. Thank you, beautiful democracy. And I certainly would not describe myself as a total feminist, but it is so important to acknowledge the history of a woman’s voting rights. Women were not even allowed to vote until 1920. That really isn’t so long ago. Women that petitioned for their say near the White House were imprisoned and treated as less-than-scum to be “taught a lesson”. Here is a great article for more details about why it is important for women to exercise their voting rights.

Second of all, how do we decide who is the “right choice”? Between John McCain and Barak Obama, who can bring the best to the table? Which party can bring the best administration as a whole, from the individual supporters to the promises that they are making us? First, we must decide what is in the best interest of our country. We in fact need this positive change. Do you really want 4 to 8 MORE years of the Same Shit, Different Day Syndrome?

Discussing the candidates themselves would be another entry altogether. But, please, acknowledge the importance of voting and consider what matters to YOU. I encourage you to exercise and embrace your right to vote. It’s easy! (haha - can you tell we are on Letter E at Gymboree this week?)

The moral of the story is: if you don’t vote, I don’t want to hear any of your bitching!

And, just for giggles, here is a “Politically Correct Dictionary”.

Happy Friday!

I am a member in the online club The Quilting Bee. In this club we make little pixel patches and trade them to have a beautiful collection of patches for our own online quilt. Our club also has activities, and this month we are making sand castles. Here is the one that I made to enter in the contest:

Check out my sand castle ‘collection’ here! Or check out my quilt page here

I have been working a lot lately. And when I am not working, I’m often preparing for work. We have had a few training meetings in the evenings lately, plus I teach music classes.. So, I work on those lesson plans because I have to remember all of these songs for the different level classes. But, I love my job! It’s so great to see familiar faces from week to week. I also do such a mix of things. I teach music classes, art once a week, and I also teach classes in the play area. We have to know about a million songs, but that hasn’t been hard so far. I would love to have my own classroom someday!

I have a few entries that I want to post, but I need to upload some pictures first. There are several crafts that I have done that I would like to make entries for, plus some yummy meals to go in the cuisine section.

I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday (and payday)! I’ll try to get a few of those entries in this weekend

I’ve been pretty busy with training for my new job. I really like the group of people that I work with, and what I do is so fun! I now am trained to teach the regular classes that we do with the equipment in the gym area, and I’ve been learning about the art and music classes too. It’s definitely a fun curriculum to work with, but a lot of stuff to remember.

I changed the pukey background color to a blue. It’s definitely an improvement, but I’m still deciding how to set-up the rest of it.

I was thinking of joining twitter. Do any of you use it?

In my spare time I have been cleaning up and trying to redecorate my apartment a little. I’ll have details and pictures soon!