Making A Move

So...I'm moving. When I joined the blogging world back in June I did so with relative blindness. I knew next to nothing about blogging [still true today] or what I wanted out my piece of the world wide web [no longer true]. I've made the switch over to Wordpress reluctantly - the opportunities for customizing Once is Enough to be exactly what I want it to be are endless here, but also much more intimidating. Right now, we have a new address for a new year but that's about it. Same me, same material, new address, new look. If you're coming at me new, thanks for stopping by.  If you're an old friend, thanks for following along for the next piece of this journey. Now, you can follow me, receive email alerts of new blog posts, and check out some of the amazing blogs that inspired me to do what I'm doing, all on my fancy new sidebar. Expect new features over the next few weeks [as I learn how to work them, or that they exist in the first place].

2013, I have big things planned for you

Click here [or the link at the top of this blog post] to transfer to my new site. Bookmark, favorite, and email alert over there. This site won't stay active for too much longer.

NYE manicure

The first tutorial I ever created on my blog was a half moon manicure [found here]. A few weeks ago I saw Emily sporting a sparkly rendition of this personal favorite of mine and I've been working ever since to recreate the look at home. I tried to same process as the original half moon, with disastrous results. I came up with a new method earlier this week and I finally feel happy with the result - just in time for new years.

You'll need: a base color [I used Essie's ballet slippers], top coat, glitter, tape, scissors, and a coin [a dime was the right size for my fingers].

let your base color dry overnight

trace and cut out a half circle using the dime. trash the half circle 

you'll use the piece that the half circle was cut out of

line up the tape on your nail so the cut-out half circle is lining the area you want to glitter.

paint the area with top coat and pour the glitter on top. the top coat 

will serve as the glue that holds the glitter to your nail.

Once fully dry [at least 20 minutes] apply a top coat over your entire nail. Enjoy!

Wardrobe Bucket List

Everyone has one, I'm sure. Actually, I'm jealous of the people who don't have one because, probably, this means they don't need one. Before I knew there was a name for it, before there was a movie [which, admittedly,  I've never seen] I had one, or rather I had multiples. I have what I call my ultimate bucket list - skydive, visit every continent, learn to speak italian fluently - and I also have smaller bucket lists; equally as important to me but significantly less important in terms of world view and cultural experience. My wardrobe bucket list is probably the smallest of the bunch. Classic items that I would never purchase for myself, that will never go out of style, and that will, in all probability, be passed down to my children [and grandchildren?] one day. A week ago, my wardrobe bucket list had three items on it - the classic tan burberry trench coat, nude Christian Louboutin stilletto's, and a short mink fur [I know, but I can't help it]. Today, or rather as of two days ago, I am crossing one of these items off my list.

I'm not sure how you're going to top this for any and all future Christmases, dear fiancé. But I'll gladly watch you try. 

Sans Santa

This Christmas, in particular, felt a little bittersweet. My older siblings and I recognize this is probably the last one we will have with a Santa Clause - our much younger sister is ten and while she still believes, you can see the doubt creeping in. The obvious logistical concerns have been brewing for a few months, and she had a major safety meltdown the night before Christmas eve [if he can get in so easily, what's stopping any body else?!] I have no doubt the rest will come during 2013 and next Christmas will be the first Christmas in my twenty-six years on this Earth without a Santa. I'm a little grumpy about this, and not looking forward to giving up an aspect of the day that my peer group has, in all reality, given up more than a decade ago.

It's gotten me thinking lately about Santa Claus, and whether or not I'd like my future kids to believe in him.  For me, the season is about pausing for thanks, for giving rather than asking to receive, for appreciation of the beauty around us - whether it be physical beauty, emotional beauty, religious beauty, or any other type of beauty. Does Santa take away from my reasons for the season? Or, better question, is it possible to have him without losing those reasons?  There are some very interesting articles out there, written by parents who told their children about a very different Santa than I knew,  growing up. My favorite: Santa is a fictitious person, representing a real piece of each of us. Santa lives inside of each of us and believing in him shouldn't be something that ever goes away.

Who knows if I can actually go through it, this modern idea of a Santa. I certainly don't need to make a decision anytime soon. Did any of you grow up without a Santa? Or know of someone who is currently raising children this way? I'd love to hear!

picture source: flickr via lisa

Christmas time.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas.

and a prayer for peace on earth within our time

photo courtesy of Sandals Resort

Beauty

It's almost as if, regardless of what preparations you do to avoid it, the week leading up to Christmas is a nonstop jumble of last minute gift buying, ribbon curling, cooking baking, and running to the store for more tape [how is it that I am always running to the store for tape?!] And by almost I mean its exactly like that - every year.

For the past couple years, my parents have become very involved with a charity, Embrace Kids. Each year they "adopt" and provide Christmas for a family with a child with a lifelong illness. I attended the gift exchange for the first time earlier this week and it really was a remarkable night. Battling leukemia, this fourteen year old boy and his family had such a positive outlook that is still moving me. It's a flaw in my makeup [and probably a flaw in the makeup of most of humankind] that I need a situation as saddening and dire as a child with leukemia to remind me of what's important. Running out of glue in my glue pen that can only be purchased online and would not ship in time for the holidays is not the end of the world [although you wouldn't have known that based on the fit I threw a few days ago. Doesn't anyone know of a good craft store in Monmouth/Ocean County, NJ? And no, Micheal's and A.C. Moore don't count] But we're not going to focus on that. Today, I'm making it my goal to focus only on the beauty of the season.

Here goes...

Connecticut

I'm not sure how to write about the tragedy in Connecticut. There's so much to say, and yet nothing at all. Even here in Jersey, we went into lockdown on Friday. At the time, us teachers didn't even know what happened. We'd been at school all day, we hadn't seen the news yet. When I first heard there was a shooting in a school somewhere in Connecticut I was, of course, shocked and saddened and horrified. I was also planning what Mondays lessons would look like. Character education is something that is focused on pretty heavily in my classroom, especially now as we work on a unit project focusing on bullying in our school. However horrified I was by the events in Connecticut, I was also very excited about the types of conversations it would spark with my middle schoolers and the lessons that could be taught as a result.

So when I learned that this particular school shooting was nothing at all like your textbook school shooting [isn't it horrifying that we have a textbook school shooting?] - that bullying wasn't the cause, that the shooter wasn't a member of the school, and that it was an elementary school, no less - the entire scene took on a different kind of terrible.

We will discuss gun control. We will argue about mental illness. We will lock our classroom doors, and password protect our schools. We will hug our children tighter, and thank any and all higher powers for each day we have with the ones we love.

But we live in a world where a five year old, sitting down for story time in a kindergarten classroom, can come face to face with a gun. Is this really a world we are interested in living in?