Author Archives: Alison

Feb3

I Love Toms River

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I Love Toms River

Last night we attended the Winter Concert at Intermediate East school. My folks came up to see Audrey perform. The auditorium was standing room only, and the performances were wonderful. It made me feel so good to see such a large group of kids participating in the music program, and doing so well, too. The enthusiasm of the students and teachers was wonderful. Mr. Cupo is the director of the Wind Ensemble, and while I’ve heard that he’s tough with the kids, it’s clear that whatever he’s doing, he’s getting wonderful musical results. I remember some of my toughest teachers with great affection because they brought out the best in us.

Today I took my parents on a drive-around tour of town, with stops also over the bay to Seaside Heights, Ortley Beach, and Lavallette, and a quick turn around Island Heights. Even though the weather was yucky, they could see why we’re so happy to be here. I’m already getting antsy for beach weather. . .

Jan31

More Crafts

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More Crafts

These are plain, ordinary plastic switchplates. I found the images online, tweaked them with Photoshop, and printed them on the inkjet printer.  After a few tries, I figured out that I needed to paint the switchplate and the back of the paper with Mod Podge, attach the image to the front of the switchplate, and let it dry.  After that, I glued the excess paper onto the back of the switchplate, mitreing the corners.  Then I cut an x into the hole for the switch from the back and pulled the paper through and back, and secured it with more Mod Podge.  I cut x’s into the screw holes and pushed the paper in with the end of a paintbrush.  For more depth, I added some liquid leaf in florentine gold, dabbed into the corner and feathered across the flower.  At that point, I raised the plates up on cans and sprayed them with a gloss acrylic, several coats for good coverage.  They’ll be dry enough to put up in 24 hours.  Try this at home, kids!!!

Jan29

Things to Spend Money On!

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Things to Spend Money On!

On Friday, hubby was working from home, so I went out to see “Brokeback Mountain”.  I’m glad I didn’t try to get him to come along, and I wouldn’t have even thought to bring the kids.  I really enjoyed it, and I was astonished at how good Heath Ledger was.  It did take a while to get moving, but there was very good reason for that – it needed to be that way for  the story to be effective.  It was really powerful, and had a lot more going on than two cowboys in love.

After that, I headed over to Circuit City.  We’d finally decided to splurge on the big TV.  Now, I don’t know why men distrust my superior spatial relations perception – hubby has questioned me for almost 18 years, and I’ve been wrong about what size something is exactly twice in all that time.  The guys at the store came out and looked at the van and immediately said it wouldn’t fit.  I told them it would, I’d put a refrigerator in there the day before.  They shook their heads, but I insisted, and it slid right in, and the top corner just touched the back windshield.  Sheesh.  So we got it home, watched a couple of special effect intensive movies and reveled in the joy of having a new toy. 

So, of course, that got us to thinking about how ugly and uncomfortable the miscellaneous furniture odds and ends were, and we saw some things we liked the look and price of in an ad, went out and sat on things, came home, measured, and I went out and ordered a nice sectional today.  It was a major shock to the system – it’s the first time we’ve ordered furniture instead of picking it up from IKEA in ages, and I’d forgotten about the 6-8 week delivery turnaround.  Woe is me!  Of course, it does give us time to fix the drywall in the ceiling that was ruined by the roof leak before the new furniture arrives, so I guess that’s a good thing.