Out of the Box Saturday

It's all about me discovering something that is different. I don't want to post things that you and I have more than likely heard before. I want to find something different. I'll cover something sing | songy one week, and artsy | fartsy the next.

A long time ago I took a paper making class at Kansas City Art Institute. It was super fun! There were long nights of staying up in the studio. I made a paper kimono out of a white paper table cloth, pressed flowers, matte medium, and strips of sewn paper. We couldn't use any glue or string. It turned out pretty. To hold the flowers colors the matte medium AKA clear acrylic paint was used on top of them.  I had a friend that made a satchel. He found out that shoe varnish on paper made it water resistant. It was a fun class. I had a respect for paper after it.

This week I found PaperCutsByJoe. The artist is Joe Bagley. He's from Boston. What I love is that all of his art is cut by hand. No lasers used. He doesn't even use prints. It's all hand cut paper!

All artwork belongs to Joe Bagley. Please pin things from his Etsy Page to get him sales.

I really love his charming bikes that he has worked on!

This one is really neat. I like the one of Joe holding it up. It helps to see all the detail that went into making it.

 

Most of the time I'm not fond of hunted heads on the wall. Seeing that it's made out of paper, it looks way less intimidating. 

Lastly is a squid. He has a really neat octopus to that he's made.

Check out Joe's Etsy Page.
Check out Joe's Blog. He doesn't keep it updated, but it's still neat to look through.
Check out Joe's Facebook Page.

Random Tid Bits

1. When I went out to lunch with my sisters I was talking about how I get annoyed with people that cut in line. One of my sisters had me listen to this video when we got back to her car. Warning there are cuss words in video, but it's so funny! If you're stressed the video will make you crack up! If you listen to it close your eyes, and try and relax when you listen. Don't listen to it around little kids, or people that do not care for cussing.


2. I grew up with a Dad that said the F-word in normal conversations. Cuss words do not bother me. I try not to cuss, but it doesn't always work out. I never cuss at work though. I read an article once that talked about how people that swear are more honest in general. I can't find the article, but I did find one about the science of whey we swear here. People that cuss tend to let stress out, and do not hold things in. I was raised with a really honest father then.


3. I have a student that is a red flag in my mind. He doesn't push his projects, he's sloppy, and his work looks like a 4th grader did it. I pick up on weak students really fast. I told the director about him. He's being talked to weekly now by the higher ups. I work at a small college, so if we can save him to make him a better student/artist then great!


4. We did a color personality test this morning in one of my classes. I'm generally all the colors, but 1 of them is less than the others.
   
   Gold is responsible and organized
   
   Blue is a people person, and emotional
   
   Green is a researcher
   
   Orange is unorganized and the life of the party
   
   Apparently I'm not the life of the party. Orange was my lowest trait. It's true I dislike rides like at amusement parks. I love research, I'll get tasks fully done, but ask me about the details later and I will have forgotten the specifics. What trait do you think you'd fall into the most color wise? 


5. The boys have a 4 day weekend. They are pretty excited about that.

Shy

I have an uncle that's shy. For a long time I was unsure how to read him. He's nice, but given the moment he'll go downstairs, when everyone else is upstairs. I just always thought he just didn't like to talk a lot. I think shy people are often misread.  

When Mica was downstairs once I noticed he was cuddling with my uncle. It sort of threw me for a loop.

Mica has a way of getting quiet people out of their shell.

A few weeks ago we went to La Festa Italiana. It's full of food, music and fireworks. We met my friend and his partner there. I've known Mark since we were in middle school, and was friends with him from high school on. His partner Andrew is like my Uncle Steve. Andrew wouldn't disappear to be in a room by himself. He's still pretty shy. 

Mark and I were chatting up a storm. I haven't seen him in awhile. I looked across the table, and there was Mica and Isaak chatting Andrew's ears off.

What were they talking about? The Batman game that they know Andrew has on his Wii. They were telling him all about Batman 2 they have on their DS. I'm sure they told Andrew way more than what he wanted to hear about the game. - Knowing my boys.

Do you think shy people are often misunderstood? 

I once knew someone else that was overly shy. A lot of other people took her as stuck up. I kept thinking, I know her. She's not stuck up. She's just quiet. Sometimes shy people have more going on in their creative brain then other people. There are times where I didn't know if I should approach a shy person with conversation, or if I should let them be in their quiet and comfortable world. 

Picture People

*Disclaimer: All the photos below are Picture People's photos.

I used to take the boys to get their photos taken more often. Sometimes I feel like I can do just as good as most photographers. I'm not trying to gloat. It's just that if I'm serious about getting a good photo I can get good results. 

I can take 1 boy's photos, but when it comes to taking both boys I just have trouble. They are crazy together. Sometimes I just prefer that someone else snap the shots, while I try and get them to smile.

I decided since Dad was out of town we'd go to Picture People. The only trouble was Mica's hair. I never know what to do with his hair now that it's longer. Travis takes care of their hair. Mica's hair just lays there. I tried...sigh.

I showed up at our scheduled time 12:10. I think we didn't get in until 1 to start taking photos. One of my past students was one of their photographers. I was hoping for well behaved kids. She said that they acted much better than other kids that came in. Mica sang Bob Marley songs in the lobby, but hey he wasn't screaming, and they weren't running around. During the shoot they were acting like...boys. Wrestling, laughing, and bouncing on top of each other.

This is typical:

Here are more where Isaak looks good, and Mica's awkward. It's both his expression and his hair that make him look awkward.

We brought in books and Legos and tried things with those. These aren't too bad, but Mica's hair looks like a dark bush on his head.

 This one is just creepy, but the boys wanted to try it.

This is the one we went with. Mica's looking at me, and Isaak's looking at the camera, but they are both smiling. Mica's hair doesn't look like a bush. I did have the photographer rubber stamp out Mica's foot. It was sticking out of his hair.

My student was laughing at me when I'd blurt out what I really thought of the photos. It had more to do with Mica's hair then her skills of taking the photos. 

I asked if we could go eat, while the photos were being printed? She said, "It will just take a few minutes." You know those places...a few minutes goes into 20 minutes. It was 2:30 before we ate lunch!
 
Do you enjoy taking photos?

A Hairline Scrape

Isaak had a mishap at recess last week. He slipped, and fell. Off to the nurses office he went.

She put gauze and medical tape all down half of his back.

It took me awhile to convince him that the bandage needed to come off. I wanted to see why he had this on his back. Every time I tried to pull a little tape off he cried. I wet a washcloth to try and loosen the tape. That didn't work. I tried to sprinkle baby powder on the tape that had come up already, that didn't work. 

I told him to soak in a bath, and it eventually came off. Where the tape was, his skin is all red and welted. The medical tape was way worse on his skin then the hairline scrape. 

I always say, If it's not bleeding, leave it alone.  

It's as if the school nurse wanted something to do.

WW: Open House {Linky}

A few weeks ago my kids had their Open House at school. It was pretty busy. They both showed us around their classrooms, we looked at their course books, their lockers, and some work they've accomplished so far.

Isaak's Arabian Elephant

Mica's Maple Leaf Pattern

We weren't thinking they looked like Oak Leaves Either.

 

Amsterdam Falafel and Kabob

Omaha is a great place to raise kids. We have a lot to do in our wanna be big city. There are events every weekend.

We have a lot of shopping.

Sure there's some shops we don't have that I wish we did: Cost Plus World Market, Ikea, The Container Store, and Restoration Hardware. We're supposed to get a Cost Plus World Market back soon! We lost our 2 World Market stores awhile back when the economy was hurting them. Those surfing photos I put up a week ago at Ikea were were taken in Kansas City 2 1/2 hours away. We do have a lot of local shops that are super fun! If you ever get a chance to come here go to City Limits, The Afternoon and The Gadgeteer.

There are plenty of places to eat in Omaha.

My husband just got back from picking up his sculpture in Massachusetts area. He said that from Nebraska to Massachusetts, there wasn't a lot to choose from to eat. That seems to be the case whenever we travel. I'm not saying Massachusetts its self is limited in their food selection. He found lots of places to eat once he got to his destination! More than what he had time for. I'm just talking about the path from Nebraska to Massachusetts being limited. He said there are a ton of McDonalds, and that's about it. We like McDonalds. I personally feel like they get a bad rap. McDonalds is one fast food place that actually tries I think to implement healthy things. No one wants to eat at the same place for 4 days of driving.

While Travis was eating at McDonalds, I went out with my sisters to Amsterdam Falafel and Kabob. 

The owners spent years living and studying abroad. Upon their return, they longed for the exotic flavors of European street food, so Amsterdam Falafel and Kabob was created. You can get a taste of India, Africa, Turkey and/or Egypt. They have the best spices and sauces from around the world.

They are not super expensive. The most you'll spend on a single thing there is $7.

I got a Falafel served with tabouli, pickled red cabbage, carrot chickpea salad & with garlic yogurt & tahini sauce. One of my sisters added on curry fries as a side for us to split.

They do have kid options, but my kids weren't with us. They were playing with their cousins. Mica and Isaak are pretty open to different foods - thankfully! That cabbage you see in the photo below, Isaak would have gobbled up!

If you don't like Falafels they have meat options as well. Here's what one of my sister's ordered:

Amsterdam Falafel and Kabob has two locations. One in Omaha, and one in Lincoln.

The Omaha location is in the Dundee area.
 

520 N 50th St | Omaha, NE
402-504-3223

I love that their hours of operation are fairly open. They are open everyday when you'd want to eat this kind of food. 

Monday-Thursday, 11:30 AM-10 PM
Friday & Saturday, 11:30 AM-3 AM
Sunday, 12-7 PM

The only problem with their Omaha location is that it's limited in seating. We sat outside. It was a wonderful day temperature wise. Many people get their food to go just because there isn't a lot of room to sit. Their Lincoln location has plenty of room. 

What do you have around where you live that's different to eat?

Disclaimer: I did not get anything in return for this review. I'm just sharing because I enjoyed my experience at Amsterdam Falafel and Kabob.