Posh Crosswords

I am NOT good at crossword puzzles.  In fact, I stink!  My dad on the other hand is a crossword puzzle king.  Well, at least I think so.  He says that the best way to get better at doing them is to do them.  Makes sense, right? Over the years, I, along with my loving family members, have purchased "easy" crossword puzzle books for me to work through.  I begin with high hopes but in the end, I'm stumped.  What kind of clue is "Words with the chase"?!!  I want clues like "Is yellow and shines brightly in the sky" or "Has four wheels and you can drive in it".  I finally concluded that I just wasn't cut out to be a crossword puzzler.
UNTIL last weekend.  My husband and I were out perusing a discount store, picking up items and putting them back after realizing we didn't really need them, when I spotted this Posh Crossword book.

 At first I thought it was just another cute journal. But when I realized it was a crossword puzzle book (and it was only $4.oo), the interest in conquering my crossword handicap was immediately renewed, and I had to take it home with me (after purchasing it, of course!).  I've been steadily working on puzzle number two.  No helps from my husband or the answers in the back.  So I'll let you know how it goes.  I'm determined.
Other than the fact that I'm challenging myself with something I'm not good at, I also have a totally adorable little book to set on my end table.  If you're looking for a unique gift, here it is! These pocket-sized puzzle books by The Puzzle Society make you feel chic while they stimulate your mind. There are books for games from sudoku to hangman. So much fun!! Check them out at Barnes and Noble or check out this website Andrews McMeel Publishing. There's something about grabbing a book covered in a pattern that you'd actually wallpaper a room in that helps keep you interested in something you're not so great at.  Try it!

Just What I Need

Well, maybe not JUST what I need, but they would be fun to have. I stumbled across these adorables and thought they were such a fun way to stay organized.  Now that I'm teaching at our Christian school, I've inherited five new keys on my key chain.  They are color-coded but wouldn't these be so much more fun!? Cutesy-Wootsey!  ModCloth

Eye Candy

Stumbled upon this photographer, Liz Wolfe.  Instantly loved her work.  If you look closely, you'll notice there are things that are just a little "wrong" with her pictures.  These may be the things that messed-up dreams are made of : )

"Hand Punctured with Candy Stick"

"Sugar Hills"

"Chicken Feet with Lilies"

"Green Birds and Faux Blossoms"

"Butterflies on Branch / Meat Tree"

Candy Monument

"Flowers in Sugar"

"Tentacles with Synthetic Flowers"

"Popsicle / Cupcakes"

"Rainbows and Noses"

"Diseased Deer"

"Gumballs and Flowers"

"Cacti / Butterflies with Faux Flowers"

"Birdcage"

"Baby Octopi and Green Flowers"

"Happy"

"Gumdrop Tree"

"Sugar Hills with Flowers"

"Seahorses and Hyacinths"

"Shoes on Ham Tiles"

"Pink Sugar Hills"

"Meat Tea"

"Black Bunny in Candy Landscape"

"Cactus with Blue Beads, 2004"

"Tree in Sugar Desert / Green Sugarscape"

"Lollipop Garden"

Silly Bands are the most appropriately named items in history

    If you don't know what Silly Bands are then you are either never around kids, teenager, or adults who think they are kids or teenagers, or you never leave your house.  Silly Bands are bracelets that take the shape of a particular item until they are on your wrist, then they just look like messed-up rubber bands.
    During a piano lesson last week, one of my students came in with both arms full to about mid-forearm of these silly bands. After the initial "You have got to be kidding me!" I winced at the very thought of wanting to cover my arms with tight plastic bands that did little for the support of healthy blood circulation.
     I had to comment.  "So that's a lot of Silly Bands you've got there." He was proud, very proud of his collection.
    "I have three hundred at home but only around forty on right now!" he beamed.  So proud.
     He then began to take them off.  What a process!! After a few minutes, he was free of his bands, and in their place were thick purple indentions.  Eeek! It looked like it hurt, and he said that, yes, sometimes it did, especially when he slept in them.  Um....no comment.
     So we untangled the mess, and he showed me some of his pride and joys: the football, the sun, the milkshake.  He even had a few to give me. (I hate to admit that they were actually really cute.)  He gave me a fairy, a mermaid, and a unicorn that glow in the dark.  We set them aside because I wasn't going to waste time waiting for him to put all five hundred of them back on his wrists (exaggeration).  During our entire lesson, there they sat in a jumbled mess.
      I don't quite understand the attraction to covering your arms from wrist to elbow with rubber bands, but every time I see one of these bands on one of my student's wrists, I have the intense urge to ask them, "Hey, what shape is THAT Silly Band?"  So silly, right? And thus, so appropriately named.

  He gave me these silly bands.  They glow in the dark!