bunks' legacy lives on!

a former colleague just sent me the funniest note yesterday:

"Best to Bunks, the wisest and cutest creature of all time--oh--just reminded me, the other day, one of the newbies was saying--who was into rabbits?  the kids keep asking for math problems involving rabbits--can't you just put a few rabbit problems on the test?  ...  the kids can keep your legacy alive."

muhahaha!  my bunks is famous!

advisory secret santa

i'm an advisor for the 9th grade.  our team leader organized a secret santa, with a spending cap of $10, for all the advisors and i got my colleague ryan, who shares a cubicle with liz!  ryan has very expensive taste, so i had to make my $10 go as far as possible.  

ryan coaches the speech and debate team and travels with them to competitions, so i sewed a travel tote and filled it with lots of travel-sized toiletries: gum (in case he needs to mask the fact that he snuck away for a drink, hehe), floss (to keep the dentist away...), facial moisturizer samples from kiehls!, facial cleanser from kiehls! ($8 of the $10 limit), travel-sized toothpaste ($2 of the $10), antiwrinkle cream sample (never too early to get a head start), H tissues (his last name starts with h... and my 1st name starts with H!), hand-sanitizer (kids are d.i.r.t.y.), tiny nail-clipper, kiehl's amino acid shampoo sample, amino acid conditioner sample, a tiny empty container in case he wants to bring his own goodies, burt's bees chapstick, soap sample from sabon (my fav soap store in nyc)!

for lining, i used leftover fabric from robert's apron from years ago!!

my zipper installation was particularly stellar!!!  check out the straight sewing!  not easy though... as my sewing machine kept acting up because the zipper was thick!  i also scotch-guarded the exterior so that the fabric would repel dirt and stains!

happy holidays, ryan!  i love secret santa!

liz's christmas stocking

at work, we've been hanging stockings by our desks, to receive cute little goodies from each other.  my colleague liz asked me to make her one because i had to make myself one.  i haven't finished mine yet, but gave liz hers today!

the fabrics are mostly leftovers.  The green is from the st. patrick's day shirt, the woof/ruff flannel is from jimmy's pjs, the light blue is from june's graduation dress, the grey is from my sun dress of this summer or the cowlneck kangaroo pocket short sleeve top from a couple years back.  i cross-stitched an L on the faux cuff:

here's the back.  i was initially going to do matching zigzags...  however, time ran out.  so, i just sewed up quick colored strips:

the inside is lined with the owl flannel from the pj pants i made last xmas for myself that just didn't fit... (mom got them eventually).  i tacked down the owl flannel so it wouldn't wiggle around.

here it is, hung up by liz's desk!

can anyone spot the bunny?

hehe!

chocolate chew cookies

one of my fav cookies are chocolate chews from sunset's cookies book that my lovely godmother gave me for my 8th bday (? i forget which actually... i was quite young).  i've preserved the book.  it's got tons of quick recipes!

at work, we hang stockings by our desk and we each bring in goodies to fill them as we get inspired.  i hadn't contributed anything, so it was my turn! jimmy's gf gave me a silpat for xmas a couple years back. it is amazing! my cookies NEVER burn on it!

 i made 49 total.  yeesh!

 here they are, wrapped for work.  "happy holidays from the santabunny"...  bunks of course

blackberry pi squared

since i gave away so much of my last blackberry pie, i made another one this saturday... for ME!  i should have cut another pi on top, but against my better judgment, i opted to cut the outlines of a blackberry... yeah, fail.

this pie was actually tastier than the last one.  the filling was more gelatinous, less runny.

christmas stockings

at work, everyone hangs a stocking by their desk and receives cute little gifts from each other...  i lack a stocking so i'm endeavoring to make one for me and one for a colleague...  of course i blow up the task into something ambitious!

 quilted chevron stripes?  why not!  here is the projected striping scheme:

i'm not actually sure i'll finish before winter break.  sigh.

206 snickerdoodles

i've been asked to run student council at school.  even though the increased workload has been quite significant, i've been enjoying working with the kids a lot, particularly since most of the kids are not my actual students.  this past friday, i organized a pep rally, for which student council offered free baked goods.  each kid diligently went home and baked 2 batches of something, but since so many of the student council kids were going to be absent for various reasons, there was no way we'd be able to feed 400 people!  so i secretly baked 206 snickerdoodles to help out.

here they are in their tub for transporation to school...

unfortunately only 200 made it to the rally... i might have eaten 2 while the rest were baking... colleagues and students might have attacked me for 4 others before the rally!

blackberry pi pie

i found a great deal on blackberries this week (18 oz for $5) so i loaded up on them and made a blackberry pie.  never made or had one before.  it was delicious!

as a math teacher, of course my pie had to be a pi pie.  hehe

 final result:  (not sure how to rotate the pic on blogger...)

i worked really hard on the presentation of this pie...  isn't it neat and pretty??