Don't Slip on the Icy Patch

Ever wondered what the absolute best Christmas movie of all time was? Well, I am here to tell you that it is "A Muppet Family Christmas." The premise of this movie is that the Muppets and the characters from Seaseme Street are hanging out at Christmas time and take a road trip up to Fozzy Bear's mom's house to celebrate. Fozzy's mom doesn't know they are all coming, so she is on her way to some warm weather destination to spend her holiday. Turns out, everyone ends up staying and having a wonderful Christmas. Kermit's son runs into the Fraggles (from Fraggle Rock), Ralph sings with a snowman, Miss Piggy makes it just in time for the festivities and everyone slipps on the icy patch outside the front door as they come in the house. How could there possibly be a better Christmas movie? It was out of print for the longest time, but this year, Amazon finally had it for under $80 (way under, don't worry, I'm not crazy enough to spend that much on a dvd). It just arrived in the mail yesterday, and I can not wait to watch it! Did I mention that the Swedish Chef prepares Christmas dinner? Yeah. He does.

I think I mentioned in one of my last posts that I am hoping to make some fun, unique gifts this year for my friends and family. Beyond tshirts and scarves, I decided quite a while back to try my hand at home made vanilla. It is an interesting and involved process that takes quite a bit of time. I started this in about September, and I think it still could use a little time to infuse. It is actually quite simple to make. I took 3-4 vanilla beans, cut them in half, scraped out the seeds and put them in a small bottle of rum. Then put the seed pods in too. Shake well and place in a cool, dark location. The key is to shake the bottle every so often - I usually remembered to shake it about once a week. It smells like vanilla now and I am going to try it out in my upcoming baking. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I absolutely love the magic of it - the decorations, the frenzy of the shopping, seeing your family, giving the people you love a little something special, the food, etc etc. I read a quote lately that said something like "Don't worry about the size of your Christmas tree because in the eyes of a child, they are all 30 feet tall". That kind of encompasses how I feel about Christmas. I love to decorate my house, and often find myself walking by the tree remembering special people that gave me some of my ornaments. I have this horribly tacky ornament of a bride and groom that Aunt Jana gave me as a gag on top of a wedding present, and under most circumstances I would probably hate it, but it is so incredibly special to me that I put it right front and center of my tree and laugh everytime I see it.

Here's a photo of the tree this year. I love how you can use the same tree with the same ornaments and make it look different every year. I did find a Tree skirt this year that I absolutely love. And I am super excited about the wrapping job I have done this year for all the presents. I loooove to have a wrapping paper theme, yes I am that much of a dork. This year, I went with brown butcher paper and fun bows. I think it looks so classy and I am really loving the package of ribbon I found at Target of all places. I don't know what I was thinking spending $15 on a package of 5 types of ribbon, but my goodness they look good, haha. It is so hard to wait to let everyone open their presents!

Quick, What's the number for 911?

If you didn't already know, the title of this blog is a reference back to the Little Rascals. I had to start out this post with a little humor, because the events that I will be writing about aren't humorous at all.

Friday night, we had big plans to go over to a friend's house for a party. It had been a long week, so we decided to get take out and come home and watch some tv and eat dinner before we went. When Drew got home from picking up dinner, we smelled something a little unusual. We thought it was because we had turned on the heater for the first time and it smelled a little like dust burning. We didn't think much of it, and started watching an episode of Fringe (which we never finished, btw). About half an hour later, the room started filling with smoke. We were looking for the source, and moved a bookshelf out of the way to see smoke pouring in the room through one of the outlets. We called 911 and they said to get out of the house. We had enough time to throw on some shoes and a jacket (it was about 35 degrees outside) and grab the cats and get out before the fire trucks arrived. They were so fast! At one point, we had 4 fire trucks, the fire chief truck, and an ambulance in front of our house. I came to my senses as everyone was leaving and snapped this photo:
At any given time during the period they were at the house, there were at least 10 firemen filling my kitchen and den. Turns out, the outlet had caught fire because it was too old and there was too much of a power draw on the room. I was standing outside and saw a fire man dash out and grab an ax from the truck - never a good sign. They had to hack into one of the paneled walls in the den to get to the small fire and make sure the insulation and dry wall didn't catch.



This is the main damage. The floors also need to be redone from the ax and the firemen equipment. All in all, we are INCREDIBLY blessed that we were at home and were able to catch this quickly. Come to find out, the wall is lined with tar paper which could have caught fire very easily. We are thinking now that this room must have been an add on to the house and must have been built by the owner or someone who was using one of the "Add on to your house for dummies" books.

So far, we have had an electrician come out and put in a new outlet and check all the other outlets in the room to make sure there were no other problems. And we have had Tim, the guy that redid our garage, come out and look at the damage so we can get a quote for the floors and the wall. It is really looking like we might have to redo the entire room since it would be nearly impossible to match the stain on the paneling to the existing wall. That is kind of exciting, and kind of horrible all at the same time - money out of our savings at this point is never a good thing! It was definitely scary, but God definitely had control of the situation and took care of us. We are so blessed to have our house, each other, our kitties, all of our Christmas presents, our photos, and relatively small damage to take care of.

We were able to clean up the house, put a pillow over the damage and have our Progressive dinner last night for our neighborhood. I am exhausted now, but glad that we got to meet some new neighbors and have a little fun. And, I was nominated to be the Social Coordinator for the neighborhood! I hope next weekend is a little less eventful!

The Quilt

Here it is - The Quilt. Hand made by Juanita Smithee. She is amazing. You should see the stitches on this quilt, there have got to be at least 10-12 stitches per inch. Pardon the random assortment of crap on the shelf above - the cats somehow got up there and knocked a bunch of stuff down and this photo was before I could rearrange. Everything was just shoved back up there so it didn't get carried off to a closet (the cats tend to do that). Yes, I do have a container of salt on my shelf. It was a wedding present from my Meme. Apparently there is an old wives tale that says that you will never run out of money if you always have salt in your home, so that salt will stay on my shelf until I die, hehe. The shelf was an amazing antique store find in Missouri. Diane helped me refinish it. Wish we had photos of the before - truly an amazing transformation!

Happy December

Well, as usual, it has been quite a while since my last update. I have tried to theorize why it takes me so long to update, but I am at a loss... I really don't know why I am such a blogophobe. I am no longer apologizing for my lack of dedication to my adoring public (I actually found out the other day that I do have an adoring public, and that they are let down by my infrequent writing, haha). But there have been some interesting things going on lately, like... SNOW!


This is a photo of the snow where I work in downtown Dallas. I wish I could have captured the real beauty and magic of it... it so rarely "snows" in Dallas that when it happens, it is a major event, even if it's so wet you have to use an umbrella and it melts before it hits the ground. Not only were the students excited, but I heard a few squeals of delight from a few teachers as well. It only lasted about 2 hours, but it was nice while it lasted and helped bring a little excitement to an otherwise dragging week. With only 3 weeks between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break, it is so hard to get back in the swing of things when all you really want to do is sleep in and watch TV all day under a warm blanket. The school has been so cold during this week that I feel like I need gloves when I type up stories and ads for the Yearbook, haha. It's really hard to help your students with printmaking while you are wearing 2 jackets!

So, Christmas is in 22 days... I am super excited about giving gifts to my friends and family. I tried my hardest to do some hand mades this year for most of my list. I hope that there are a few people that won't check my blog for the next couple of weeks so that i don't ruin any surprises! I made my BFF some fuzzy bunny slippers for Christmas (I think I might have already posted a photo of some others I made in a previous post). I am giving my cousin one of my awesome paintings, a couple people will get hand made scarves, and my favorite thing: screen printed tshirts. I am so excited that I learned how to do this, and I have just been close to obsessed with this process lately. Here are a couple of shirts that I made:

I bought some really nice recycled organic cotton tshirts from my friend, freelisa. Who also prints really nice tshirts that you can find here, or at Make in Bishop Arts District. I originally made the screen for the black shirt on the left for my hubby since he is a scientist extraordinaire, but I ordered the wrong size shirt for him, so instead I made one for myself, haha. He will get his eventually, just have to order a new shirt. The one on the right is for my seester (that's sister in Locke family speak if you didn't know), and also made a more kid friendly version for my cousin, Gillian. I have had to tell some people (though I am sure that if you are reading my blog, you are much more intellegent than the average joe on the street!) - it says "Courage My Dear". The reason I made this is to be a constant reminder to have courage and strength. My family has gone through a lot over the past few years, and we all need a little reminder to keep our chin up. I think I might also screen some posters of this as well and give them to friends and family - I would like to have this right above my desk at school to remind myself to stay positive and strong! I already have a cut out from a magazine that says "Attack this like the wild, crazy, yet highly intellegent woman you are". Hmm... maybe that will be my next shirt idea! Yay blog!

In the next post, I will show you my beautiful new quilt that Grandma Smithee made for me. Also stay tuned for Christmas decoration photos!

Local Celebrity, Haha

So, yours truly was recently interviewed by the Oak Cliff People newspaper about an art show I have a piece or two in at Boomstick Comics right now. Here is the story, written by Georgia Fisher.

Staff Photo: Christina Barany
Marcie Dodd created this gouache print of Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire as seen in the original Rocky

So if Rocky Balboa fought a zombie Elvis, who would win? And for that matter, which tough guy would get the girl?

“I tried to think of something really iconic that people would recognize,” says Beckley Club Estates artist Marcie Dodd, whose entry in a new show at Boomstick Comics catches Rocky’s Adrian Pennino (Talia Shire) with her head nuzzled against the boxer’s neck.

Dodd, 26, used black and white gouache for her ode to the 1976 flick, which will share the red carpet Saturday night with a zombie Elvis and a reel of other icons from cult movies such as Ghostbusters and Night of The Living Dead.

The exhibit, dubbed “They Won’t Stay Dead,” is primarily paintings and screen prints of “a lot of horror, sci-fi, and pop culture characters from movies and television,” said Jonathan Kimbrell, art director of the Soda Gallery, which shares space with Boomstick.

“They’re just campy, and most of the time those movies are so bad that they end up being good,” he said, later adding that “it’s mostly just an excuse for us to be geeks.”

Call it what you will; Boomstick owner Bryan Kluger says he’ll dress as cartoon character Darkwing Duck at Saturday’s opening reception, where attendees are encouraged to come costumed as their favorite film icons and take part in a raffle for vintage comic books. Dodd may make an appearance as Batwoman, she said — “probably the Wal-Mart version of Batwoman, anyway.”

Saturday’s event won’t be the first cult rendezvous for the site. Throngs of people turned out in August for a Star Wars-themed exhibit called “These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For.”

“People came from all over,” said Dodd, an art teacher at First Baptist Academy, whose husband, Drew, moonlights at Boomstick on weekends. “There was so much excitement, and that’s what got me interested.”

In addition to the Rocky still, she’ll also hang a monochromatic screen print of the McKenzie Brothers from Strange Brew at the upcoming show.

As for the kickoff, Dodd said, “they really know how to throw a party here.”

Yeah Yeah, I know...

Ok guys, I get the message. Like I have said a hundred times before, I get busy, I forget to update, and then it gets to be too long since I have updated which in turn makes me feel overwhelmed and I never know where to start so I just put off updating until it has officially been almost 2 months since the last post and people start calling me to make sure I am still alive. Yes, I also know that was a run on sentence. All this to say, thank you all for loving me enough to me upset when I do not update. I will try to do better.

Well, school is in full swing. I had the most amazing summer of my life, and going back to school, I think I expected to feel something different... like maybe I would walk into my classroom never having looked at my notes and be able to impart all sorts of profound knowledge on my students and they would all leave my classroom with smiles on their faces thinking "wow, I feel so much more well rounded because of Mrs. Dodd". In reality, it feels exactly like it does every year. I am not saying this as a bad thing, just a fact. Whether a high school student understands or is lost in la la land, you get the same reaction - blank stares. My favorite project is coming up though, and this is one that I always get surprised exclaimations from my students - portrait drawings. I think so many people are so frightened of drawing a person, which I totally understand. But if you know the rules and let go of your inner editor, you can do it!

Probably the best story I have about something that has happened to me in the past two months happened about 3 weeks ago. Drew had parent night at school, so he was there late. While he was at work, he asked me to water the yard (looking back, it has rained nearly non-stop since this day, so I should have just stayed inside, watched tv and ate bon bons or something). Our regular sprinkler for the front yard broke, so I found one in the junk room that is the "industrial strength" variety - one that the ever popular sprinkler dance was fashioned after. I had moved it a few times in the front yard for maximum coverage and finally at around 8:30 went outside to turn the water off. This sucker moves fast, and of course Drew was on his way home and I didn't want to get wet while turning the water off. So, I did what anyone would do, I did a run/jog thing to get to the faucet so that the water wouldn't pelt me in the mean time. You know where this story is going, don't you? Yes, I fell. HARD. It all happened so fast. I did not even have time to brace myself. I landed flat on my chest and stomach - knocked the wind out of myself and bent my big toe nail all the way back. I had scrapes on my arms and thigh, and since I knocked the wind out, I really couldn't move for a while. I just laid there in my dark front yard, covered in mud, getting sprinkled on. It really was horrible. Looking back on it now, it is a very entertaining story, but at the time, I was really in pain and feeling fairly hopeless. I finally mustered up the energy to crawl to the faucet to turn the water off, and made it to the house by the time Drew got home. I wish I had a picture of what I looked like - mud from head to toe - in my hair, on my clothes, arms, legs, face, feet, etc...

Go ahead, finish laughing and then I will move on.

My favorite season of the year is here - State Fair of Texas. I love this almost as much as Christmas. For those of you who aren't teachers and don't get a free fair ticket (don't be too jealous, we get paid crap and work the equivalent of 10 full time jobs to get that fair ticket!), here is a blog which details some ways to get discounted admission: GO HERE.
Drew and I plan on going on Sunday. I'll try to post some awesome photos of our adventures.

Also coming up in Dallas, the Urban Street Bazaar in Bishop Arts District. Although I have already bought a few Christmas presents so far, this is where I plan on doing a lot of damage to the shopping list! So many amazing local artists selling their work - everything from baby to dog to gifty things to pottery to jewelry to everything in between. If you have never been to the Urban Street Bazaar before, GO!

Just about every day, I say "I should blog about that". So, now after 2 months, I have forgotten all the things I have reminded myself to blog about. Hope this will hold you over until next time! Which will hopefully be in less than 2 months!

So Long Sweet Summer....

Well, here we are at the beginning of August. School starts for me this week, and as much as I hate to get back to the grind stone, this has seriously been the best summer EVER! Drew and I did a lot of traveling, a lot of bonding and a lot of laughing! They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I can't imagine anything making me love my husband more than this trip did this summer!

We started out our trip with a few days in New Orleans, Louisiana. Neither Drew nor I had ever been before, and we were really excited about the opportunity to see the sights and EAT! I have decided to never again plan a vacation around "the sights"... no no, forevermore, I will plan vacations around what there is to eat in that area! It worked out so perfectly for us! I won't post my millions of photos, but you can check them out on my facebook page if you wish. But I will post one photo of the best thing I ate all summer long:

Hello, my name is Beignet. I come from the land of Cafe du Monde and I will make all your wildest dreams come true.

Seriously guys, we saw a big truck delivering the powdered sugar for this place. They had probably half of this giant truck full of 50 pound bags of powdered sugar... and one of them went on each plate of 3 beignets! I highly recommend this place to you. If you are a fan of doughnuts, or sopapillas, or anything fried, eat here! And their Cafe Au Lait is really yummy too, even in the middle of summer!

We did see some really neat things in NOLA besides the food, though. We went to the Aquarium of the Americas, on a Swamp Tour, and on a tour of a rum distillary. The Aquarium was so-so. I have to say, I am a bit spoiled because ours here in Dallas is so amazing! The Swamp tour (by Louisana Swamp Tours) was really awesome! Reggie, our tour guide, even let us hold a baby alligator. The Old New Orleans Rum Company offers tours of their distillary. It was really interesting to learn how they do it, and to see all of their "experiements" brewing.

After 3 nights in NOLA, we boarded a Carnival cruise and headed to Mexico! The day we left, it rained SO hard. It shut the power and the AC down in the terminal, and there were about 2000 grouchy guests trying to get loaded on the boat in the heat. Drew and I kept a smile on our faces because we were so excited to be going somewhere, we didn't care if it was hot. The cruise was awesome, and the food was great. Seriously, everything you have heard about cruise food was true. There is something for everyone, there is food 24/7, and it is wonderful!

Our cruise only made one stop, to Cozumel, Mexico. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I look forward to going there again! We were only in Mexico for 9 or so hours, but we had such a great time! Drew and I took a 4 wheeler tour through the jungle (which ended with 3 blisters for me, but Drew really loved it), went Snorkeling in clear, beautiful water, and shopped til we dropped! We came home with Mexican blankets, sterling earrings for me, an awesome Mexican shirt, Mexican vanilla, a very pretty hand painted glass, and... something else I can't remember... plus lunch and tips for our tour guides for under $100! It was so fun!

We were able to come home for 2 days, and then headed out again with our friends, Jeremy and Rebecca to head to Missouri to visit Drew's family and make our annual Dodd Family Kayaking and Antiquing Adventure. The name is a bit misleading, because the "Dodd Family" only includes the girls when we go antiquing, and doesn't include Diane when we go kayaking, haha. We have so much fun when we are in PB. I am beyond thankful to have such an amazing set of in-laws. My mother-in-law is the coolest!

And now, after being gone for about 3 weeks, we are finally home. This week marks the return of school for FBA, which means my summer is officially over. Still so much I would like to get done, but I am so thankful for the chance to get out of town and have an adventure with my wonderful husband!

Stay tuned for updates on re-doing a bedroom!