So, I finally designed holiday cards for a client, who didn't mind them posted on the web. I posted them the other day, but I'm reposting them here with the final draft. I'm not a big fan of the final, but in the end, the client had her own ideas. She couldn't choose between the three original designs, so she wanted to combine elements from all three. Fortunately, the card didn't turn out looking too busy. All that matters is that she was extremely happy that I was able to execute her idea. Below you'll find options one through three followed by the final design. Feel free to comment.

In other work news, Lula Washington Dance Theatre's Kwanzaa show is coming up in December. I choreographed one or two pieces. The show will be at the studio this year on December 28th and 29th. Mooch is performing, too! More details later.

I go on maternity leave from teaching from December 5th-January 9th. I don't think I've stopped teaching for that long in my entire 16 years of teaching! I shall enjoy it. Keep the design work coming, though. I have web designers, photographers, and graphic designers sub-contracting during my leave. I hope to keep my blog going. We'll see.

P.S. Yesterday, I bartered with a client, who wanted a holiday calendar designed (a different design for each month of the year plus a cover). In exchange, she braided my hair, so I won't have to worry about it until long after the baby is born. That was great!

Option 1


Option 2


Option 3



Final (With Customer Revisions)
Front


Back

Labels: graphic design, teaching, workin' wednesdays

People are always asking me all these strange questions about home schooling. They act as though I should be worried that Mooch is not getting an adequate education. I'm pretty sure the kids in the kindergarten class down the block at our local elementary aren't doing half the stuff she's doing. I decided to follow her around the house taking pictures of everything she did when she got home from her half day of school. She attends school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9am-1pm. We do the rest at home.

This is Mooch doing math. She is on my bedroom floor next to my bed. This lesson teaches place value.


All Mooch has to do is match the number on the card with the number of tens and ones it takes to compose that number. This keeps her carrying and borrowing skills strong, because she has a deep understanding of numbers, patterns, and multiples.  She's really into it.


This is Mooch fiddling with a replica of the human body. She knows all the parts and she likes to assemble and disassemble it. We've studied the digestive system in great detail, because it interested her. She's now interested in the skeletal system, so she'll be all bones for the next few weeks.


Though she's been reading for about a year and a half, Mooch's reading really picked up over the summer. She read 5 chapter books in 4 weeks. She loves Junie B. Jones!


We went to the library to explore some other books, and it turns out she really likes Judy Moody as well. She finished half of the book today.


The last thing Mooch does each day (usually about an hour before dinner) is write in her journal. She is free to write whatever she feels. I don't bother her about grammar or punctuation yet. That will come next year as she has already mastered it in speech. What I do is pull out all the misspelled words on the page, and those become her spelling words for the week. A couple of this week's words are: second, leader, and meander.

Labels: teaching, tuesdays with mooch

"...it's hurtin' so deep. I've got my pride. I will not cry, but it's makin' me weak. I'm not your super woman." --Karyn White "Superwoman"

Okay, so I haven't been so good at posting regularly lately. It's not that there's nothing to blog about. I am just incredibly lazy sometimes busy lately. Once it's been a week or so, I start thinking, "Ooh, I have to come up with something really kickass to make up for taking a long break." Then I start obsessing about that and psych myself out and before you know it, it's been two weeks since my last post!

Anyway, welcome back. I'm going to start blogging everyday starting next week. Really! I promise. See, I even made banners:

Labels: design, fiction, marriage, Parenting, teaching