Armor and Other Doll Things

      Yesterday was a really interesting day. At school I had to cover the geometry class that I have only been in for a week. My co-teacher didn't have power and couldn't even get out of her driveway (we had a wild storm on Wednesday). She couldn't upload any sub plans and couldn't get to school. I figured, we had not finished the notes for the new section on Wednesday, maybe we could do that. I decided to be smart about it, if I was not completely sure of something, I would wait for the regular teacher to be back before we worked on that. Better to wait for the kids to learn it than for me to teach it the wrong way. But I remembered several of the things. Now how to get it to work? Half the kids were in front of me in the classroom and half were at home. This was definitely new to me. I don't have the cool document camera... what to do? Well, turns out that I am very clever. I joined the Google Meet with my phone, had the kids all open their Chromebooks, log into the meet and pin "me". Or really, my phone. That way everyone could see what I was doing. The kids in the room helped with problem solving (They suggested a stack of books so the camera wouldn't shake or be too high). It was sort of fun. A little nerve wracking, but fun. At the end of the class I asked the kids in the room how badly I did. They said it was really good. I said yeah, you like my crazy teaching? The answer was yes, it made them pay attention more and was fun. Well cool. I miss teaching. The thing that I appreciated most today was that the kids didn't treat me like a sub. For the past 3 years almost every class that I have covered, that I was already in, the kids acted out and treated me like a sub. These kids have known me for barely a week and a half and were very respectful and helpful. It was amazing. 

     When I got home I got to work on the armor again. I still find it incredibly cool that I can turn craft foam into armor, even if it takes a while. 

      I was hoping that two coats of silver would be enough, but no such luck. I will need another one or two, maybe three. THEN I will be able to get it on the doll. And do a whole bunch of other things. But progress is being made. So I am happy. 

     I also needed to alter this dress a bit. When she came to me her dress closed with one piece of Velcro in the front and gaped open in a very unladylike way. So I moved the Velcro and took down the neckline a bit. With the larger boobs this lady will make a decent Elvira I think!

      Since I want to give the paint on the armor plenty of time to dry between coats I have been working on a batch of Western pleasure dolls. I have 5 of them in the works at the moment. 

      I have all the chaps cut out and assembled, yesterday all the outfits got sewn and I already have a couple of bodies prepped and ready for dressing. Travis has a half day today and since he had no school at all yesterday (East Longmeadow didn't have power) Ethan postponed things he needed to get done to hang with Travis. Today I can come home early and Travis and I can hang out. Maybe we can watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit and I can get a doll dressed. That could be a lot of fun.