School is almost over for the semester.

YAY! It has been a long semester, even though I only have 2 classes. The first, Combined Media, is something I enjoyed. We did Photoshop and video projects. Video was new to me, but I liked it for the most part. And it inspired me to dig out our old video camera from the basement - totally forgot we had one! Maybe I'll take some video of the kids.

My final project for Combined Media was to create a video. The problem with art school projects is that they can't be "cliche" ... "predictable" ... "obvious" ... or anything like that. Hard to do, especially when your brain is linear and literal like mine is. I decided to do a video about Elmo. Remember when Tickle Me Elmo came out, 10 years ago? Now there is a new version. I decided to make a little 1 minute video about Elmo, shot from his point of view, as people tried to snatch him up when he was new. If you click this link you can download the movie.



If the link is not working, cut and paste this into your browser window and you'll get to the download page: http://www.yousendit.com/download/eG1go8GsQa95TA%3D%3D

Keep in mind, when I showed my teacher yesterday, she thought it was a success. :-) I photographed Elmo against a white background, used Photoshop to remove the background, added some hand-drawn backdrops and other elements, and then combined audio. You don't want to know how long all of that took me. Of course, it might have been a quicker process if I hadn't had a little guy who got really excited and ran to my computer shouting "EL-MO" every time he heard the freaky Elmo giggle. ;-)

My second class, Life Drawing, was not as fun for me. I learned a lot, though, and I guess that is really the whole point. I'm glad it is almost over. I loved the teacher but the projects were hard for me to do. I don't have a photo of the final project for that class. It is a big drawing - 3x4 feet, maybe? - and I used watercolors, paints, and charcoal. I'm just glad the class is almost over.

In other news, baby girl has shown no signs of making an appearance. So my dr let me set the induction date for December 15. The end is near!

I don't have a lot of pictures from Noah's birthday party, and I don't feel comfortable posting them on the internet without asking permission from the other parents, so instead I'll show you these from the last "nice" day we had.