raheem tech

I think this summer may go down as the one I went to Walmart, LOST MY MIND, purchased all of their round beach towels and stitched them all into circle skirts. And you know what? I'm okay with that. Cuz now I'm the proud owner of an assortment of super absorbent, albeit VERY warm, food-tastic skirts. Perfect for all occasions. National Pizza, Donut, Watermelon, Kiwi, Orange and Hamburger Days. I should know cuz I've already marked my calendar.  Because I know you will want to make your own, I've provided a handy tutorial. What this tute is missing is...pockets!  That's right. After I made my pizza skirt, I realized that not having pockets was just THE WORST. What kind of monster makes a skirt without pockets? This one, apparently. I knew adding pockets to the last five skirts would add more time but, c'mon. Pockets are always worth it.  After I made the pizza skirt and it was so simple, I literally hit Walmart and bought EVERY round towel they had. The lady at t...

  Hey, kids! In my last post I shared that during our LIVE chat , we'd be sharing our WHYs. Why do we teach? It's such a simple and important question that I can honestly say I've never been asked or given thought to. WHICH IS JUST PLAIN CRAZY.  The question was brought up during our online bookclub chat. We are currently reading The Wild Card by Hope and Wade King. You are always welcome to join our chats, even if you are not reading. This summer, I've been going LIVE every Wednesday at about 9:15pm CST.  Last week, during our chat, we decided it would be fun to come up with our WHYs, put them in kid-friendly terms and make a work of art featuring our WHYs for our classrooms. I started to paint mine while live last night and, in usual form, it looked like a flaming hot turd. However, now I'm pleased as punch with it! So here is my WHY:    I've had this round canvas forever and I thought it would make a fun surface to paint my WHY on. Once I decided upon my WHY...

  Howdy, friends! I've been busily plugging away, getting my art room ready. My students will be here in just three short weeks...which I know sounds like plenty of time. However, I go back in two weeks (and two days, but who's counting? ME, THAT'S WHO) and have decided not to come in at all next week. That leaves just this week to get my room ready...and I decided to only allow myself two days. If you follow me on Instagram, you were able to see my progress. I drank two pots of coffee AND GOT SO MUCH DONE! Proper room tour to come...once I clear the hot mess off my counters (like, did an art supply store bomb go off over there or what?!)   In case you didn't know, I've got a book club happenin' over on my IG and my FB pages. Every Wednesday evening, I've been going LIVE around 9:15pm CST to chat with y'all about The Wild Card, our current teacherin' read by Hope and Wade King. Recently, in the book, they mentioned finding your WHY...why do you teach...

My goal this summer was to stitch up one dress a week. After sewing this beast a couple of weeks ago...I've since changed my lifetime achievement goals. BECAUSE THIS DRESS WAS A MOTHER-LOVIN' BEAST.  Here, lemme show you why:   Now look, don't get me wrong. I LOVE this dress and wanna wear it every day and make about a million more in a variety of colors. But.You.All. I cherish the sliver of sanity I like to think I have left. And therefore I will not be making another dress like this for a while. It's gonna be like the Halley's Comet of Dresses that only makes an appearance every 75 years.  I started with a sketch...where all bad things take form: And, like, I'm kinda thrilled that my dress actually kinda-sorta looks like my drawing. That NEVER happens! Mostly because my drawing looks bananas but also because I can't sew and 99.9% of the time, I'm just winging it.    I decided to go with a 1950's pattern bodice and my trusty Anna Maria Horner circle...

I got a joke for you: Crazy art teacher walks into Walmart and sees these:   Totally ignoring the words "beach towels", she immediately thinks CIRCLE SKIRT and the rest is extra pepperoni history... Now if you've been around this blog during the holidays, then you already know that I have a thing for buying tree skirts and making them into lady skirts. When I spotted these round beach towels, I thought of doing the same. I mean, why should such an amazing print like this be limited to just the beach?! While stitching last night, I filmed the process so you could see just how stinkin' easy it was. I wasn't quite sure if it was all gonna work out so at the time, I only bought the pizza towel. Y'all better believe I went back to day and bought ALL OF THE REST OF THE TOWELS. Can you even blame me?   I totally went to Walmart in my skirt. As I was leaving the house, a neighbor drove by and shouted "is that a PIZZA skirt?! AWESOME!" I didn't get much a...