The Princess and the Pea & 1,000 Paper Cranes

It's been an interesting few weeks. For the last little while I've been kind of down-in-the-dumps. I'm sure it's mostly the weather (we're nearing the end of February and still the weather is freezing and we even had snow last week!), but there's also been an inordinate number of stressful and distressing news handed to me recently. This blog is not a place where I complain, I decided that when I began it nearly two years ago, so I won't go into all the details of what's been going on.... suffice to say someone I know over here is rather sick, while I've had my own health issues lately. My adult students have had little to talk about beyond the funerals they've been attending too, so I'm sure that all is contributing.

On the plus side, we're about a month and a half away from the move to the new school, and my boss gave the Town Mouse and I full reign over the colors for the walls and carpets. If they're approved, every room in the school will have its own unique color (the kindergarten room will be blue!) and I'll also have some lockers with actual locks, so that the kids can't get into all of the craft supply and toys without permission. It'll really help with classroom management.

So, things have been busy at work again, especially with getting everything ready for the move, but somehow I've found time to start a new project for my classes. It's going to be a phonics, lowercase letters recognition game based off of the Princess and the Pea- I know it won't have much long-term application for some of my classes, but it'll be a nice game to play in place of Memory or puzzles. I've finally finished the princess doll (see above). I think I might illustrate and watercolor a short storybook to go with the game so that the kids will understand the reference, but that's only if I still want to do it after making the 26 quilts, bedframe and pea necessary to complete the board game. Trying to think right now what I should use for the base of the bed.

As well, the Town Mouse and I have decided to make 1,000 paper cranes for our sick friend. I made twenty last night, and plan to make 20 a day until we reach our goal. One thousand paper cranes are said to be able to grant a wish to someone, so they are popular gifts in Japan, though they aren't always used for illness. I hope we'll be able to finish them in good time.

That's really all for now... I went to Kyoto Botanical Gardens last weekend. It was really pretty in the last snow of the year. There are a lot of photos on my Flickr account that you're free to look at here, though my favorite photo from the day is actually this one: