My 30 Days of Learning project came to an end yesterday, and today a new one began for December. In my learning challenge, I took classes in the following:
It was all great fun, and I did learn a lot! I’m still continuing several of them, including dance, cooking and Spanish. Continue reading
Tags: 30 Ways in 30 Days, make a different, nonprofit, ONE, Take Part, World AIDS Day, world change
Last night I took a class in hot glass making, here in Austin at East Side Glass Studio. The cool and fun Leigh Taylor Wyatt and Shara Funari were the fearless leaders of our newbie-to-glass group, which included Josh from Austin’s newest brewery, the East side’s Hops & Grain Brewery; and Richard who is also a writer – he is Mr. Smarty Pants at the Austin Chronicle. Video of my glass working at the bottom of this post – see how it’s done!
So, maybe I have a twisted mind or maybe I’m just demented, but I couldn’t help feeling as if it all sounded like an X-rated movie, as Leigh and Shara explained the process to us and demonstrated the equipment. From the “glory hole” to paddling, poking, keeping it hot, puffing and blowing…sorry. I thought it was funny. All of these terms are the terms used when working with hot glass, and always, always it is back to the glory hole. Named rather unfortunately, in my opinion, but quite amusing. Continue reading
Tags: Austin, East Side Glass Studio, glass classes, hot glass
If you have been following this blog at all, you know I love to cook. And to eat! One of my previous 30 Day projects, the “Locavore” eating local challenge, was all about shopping local, and cooking/eating local foods. I shared a lot of my home-cooked dishes and recipes during that challenge.
I’m also a fan of some of the cooking shows, especially the challenge ones like Chopped and Master Chef. I love the creativity some of these chefs bring, and I really enjoy finding products in the stores or farmers markets and trying out new recipes with them. So I knew that during my 30 Days of Learning, I wanted to take cooking lessons. Although I cook a lot, and feel that I’m pretty good at it, I’ve always thought it would be really cool to attain some more professional skills and tricks.
I’ve taken a couple of cooking classes in the past, whether when traveling (I learned how to make dumplings in China) or learning ethnic styles, such as two awesome classes I’ve taken at Thai Fresh here in Austin. So earlier this month, I contacted Central Market to see if I might attend a few of their cooking classes as part of this project. Meredith Beeman, the Cooking School manager, promptly replied that she would love to have me, and we scheduled some classes. Continue reading
Tags: Central Market, chefs, cooking class, cooking school, sauces
Last Wednesday, I did one of my most fun and exciting learning adventures during this 30 Day project – I took a flight lesson!
Just before my flight lesson
Thanks to Matt Quillen at Streamline Aviation, I had one-on-one introductory instruction in airplane piloting. I have always wanted to do this, and was thrilled when Matt offered to give me a lesson. I’ve been up in small aircraft a couple of times (once to jump out, when I went skydiving for my 30th birthday), and in helicopters a few times. But I’ve never received a lesson or in any way worked the controls of any aircraft. Matt changed all that.
I arrived at Streamline, located in a hangar at the back private airfield of Austin Bergstrom Airport, at 9 am on an absolutely beautiful, clear, sunny morning. Matt, who started Streamline with his brother Corey, introduced himself and started with an overview of the airplane we would be flying. The late-model Diamond DA40 is sleek and high-tech; it’s about the size of a Cessna, which is the name most of us are familiar with in small airplanes. But the Diamond has every technology and is lighter, and is a great plane for flight training. Continue reading
Tags: airplane, flight, flight lessons, flying, pilot, pilot license lessons, Streamline Aviation
That is what is on the back of Grace Holmes t-shirt as I await the start of my first ballet class at the Tapestry Dance Company: Rhythm is a Terrible Thing to Waste.
Grace Holmes of Tapestry Dance Company
I’m wondering if Grace has any idea just how much rhythm might be wasted on me. Grace is the director of Tapestry, which has both a professional dance company and an academy with dozens of classes for beginners through advanced, in everything from ballet and tap to belly dancing, flamenco and hip-hop.
I just hope that those few years of ballet class I had as a kid will pay off. I haven’t taken a classical form of dance class in decades. But I do remember the positions, once we go through them. Grace is patient and kind; this is a beginning class and so everyone is at some early level, although most of the others have been coming for a while. The class isn’t slowed down for myself and the other total newcomer, but it’s at a level that we can follow. Continue reading
Tags: austin dance classes, ballet, dance, learning, Tapestry Dance Company
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a Community Yoga event at Rain Lily Farm just down the street from my place, with my friends MaryAnn and Katie. MaryAnn was wearing the coolest shirt, a soft lavender t-shirt that had been upcycled with cool criss-crossing latticework. Katie and I both loved it.
What’s upcycling? It’s turning something you no longer want or use, into something awesome!
It inspired me to take a look at a stack of old t-shirts I was going to give away, and think about re-purposing them. I got to doing some searches on Google, and found a number of different cool projects to do with old shirts. But true to my 30 Days of Learning project, I also thought there might be some classes or workshops in such fashion re-dos. Continue reading
Tags: craft, recycled t-shirt, repurpose, upcycle, upcycled t-shirt, Wonder Craft
I finally got to do it – work with molten glass straight out of the kiln, to create a beautiful piece of art.
With Kevin McGehee and one of his pieces
In my 30 Days of Learning, one of the things I knew right off the bat I wanted to do was learn something about hot glass art. Today I got my first chance, at SiNaCa Studios School of Glass & Gallery in Fort Worth.
Kevin McGehee, one of the founders of SiNaCa, showed me the studio and led me through the basic process for creating glass art. Kevin and several other local glass artists started the nonprofit in Fort Worth’s Near Southside district, as a community center in the glass arts for everyone from beginners to professionals. “This place is owned by the community,” Kevin says. “It belongs to everyone.” The facility, which used to be a gas station, consists of a glass specific gallery, a glassblowing studio, a kiln-forming studio and a cold working studio. Continue reading
Tags: 30 days, Fort Worth, glass, glass artist, hot glass blowing, learning, Sinica Studios, Texas
Here it is. The last day of 2011. And with it I have come to the end of my “30 Days at a Time” challenge. During this year, I have taken on different projects to incorporate into my life for 30 days. Most people agree that it takes somewhere between 21 and 30 days to ingrain a new habit into your life, and I wanted to integrate several things into my life as well as give myself some challenges. Here I share what I’ve learned.
WordPress sent me an end-of-the-year recap of how 30 Days at a Time did, and I thought it was interesting enough to share. What were some of my top posts, in terms of readers and comments? First of all, the blog was viewed about 25,000 times in 2011. Wow, thanks readers!
The past week’s 30 Ways in 30 Days actions have centered around the holidays and what we can do at this time of year, through small actions, to make the world a better place. I’m not going to list all the week’s actions – you can find them at Take Part’s website – but here are a few of my favorites.
Last week’s 30 Ways in 30 Days actions were all about the kids. Actions included buying pencils for school children, downloading an app to make sure your purchases aren’t made with child labor, and taking the hunger quiz to feed a child.
I’ve kept up with my 30 Ways in 30 Days project, in spite of being out of the country on a press trip. Here are the actions that I’ve taken in the last few days, which include donating toys for children, saving the trees and turtles, and also thinking about what “help” means.
