This year, at my school, we are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in style. Our slogan (catchphrase) for the month, which we are celebrating during all of October, is "Be Like Frida".  To be honest, at first, the kids had NO CLUE what we were talking about and they just made fun of Frida for being a weird artist with a unibrow and mustache.  Standard.

But then, something magical started to happen as we talked about her to our students, they fell in love!  Frida represents a lot of GREAT, INSPIRING and all-together awesome ideas that young people living in 2013 can really relate to.  She stood up for the people in her country without rights, she had a unique style, she rebelled against the norm in almost every way possible, she broke the rules, she challenged peoples' ideas, and she represented feminine beauty in a whole new light.  Any teachers out there who want to share our AWESOME Power Point presentation, email me!

I have been researching and studying Frida now for a couple of weeks, and now all I want to do is visit her beautiful town, Coyoacán, Mexico and see her amazing home, La Casa Azul.  #traveldaydreams

Also, check out these related links:

La Casa Azul, in NYC 

Frida, the movie! (note: awesome!) 

Frida, the kids book (my little one loves it and my students do too!)

Coyoacan Mexico travel guide

Great Latino Book Club 

Do you remember meeting your best friend(s)?   I giggled as I thought of writing about this because some friends just magically appear in our lives, while we meet others in the funniest (and often times most awkward) situations throughout our lives.

Take, for example, my little brother.  He came home from his first day of 3 year old nursery school with a new best friend: "the boy in the orange shirt".  Unfortunately, Benjamin (as we later came to know him) wore a different colored shirt the next day.  The story ended well with the kind teacher helping my brother find his "new best friend".

I have an "eclectic" group of best friends.  They are awesome.  

Katie is my lifeguard buddy who I met in a pool.  Literally, while swimming in the pool, we said to one another (I remember it as clear as day!), "we are friends".  That was the end of that.  How easy!  Our friendship has been easy (like having an awesome big sister that doesn't judge and literally reads my mind telepathically) ever since.

Bethan is the first friend I made in high school.  I don't remember exactly when it happened, but I do remember seeing her in a lot of my classes and one day striking up a conversation where we literally decided that we were not only best friends, but also sisters.  We decided that since we looked alike, we should be friends.  Period.  The antics began and they haven't stopped many years later!

Megan is one of the friends that I don't remember meeting very well.  She was in my homeroom freshman year and I remember loving and admiring her silliness from the beginning.  All of the sudden, I was telling people that we were friends, no questions asked.  That's exactly how she is.  We are friends, no matter what.  No questions asked.

Katie (not to be confused with Katie above) and Mo (short for Maureen) were a two-for-one friendship deal.  I had classes with both of them and remember thinking "gosh, those girls are cool, I wonder if they would be my friends?"  (Note: This is awfully embarrassing to admit.)  Well, it worked out fabulously and we became a little gang of not just 3 friends (yes, they allowed other people into their force field of friendship!), but 5 (see the two characters above).  We are the type of friends that will go to the beach together as old ladies and sit together in the tide with our drink coozies and giggle until sunset.  I love these girls like sisters.

So, the question is.... How did you meet your best friend (s)?  Do you remember?

Happy Tuesday,

M

I love Etsy.  What a friendly little community of creative nerds like me.  If only we could have all sat together at the same lunch table in school, imagine what we could have come up with!  (sorry, thats the high school teacher in me talking, I digress).

Today, I stumbled upon a great treasury list, (called "Beachy-Keen") featuring MY ART!  Thank you Sophie.

Now, quit reading my blog and GO BUY SOME (of my) ART!