colored pencil joy, present joy, and joy

this picture shows just a snippet of a batch of about five hundred pencils.....almost all are colored pencils....some are just number two ordinary pencils that just didn't get weeded out......but...five hudrend pencils....and i sharpened about 400 of them...today.....really!......what did you do sunday afternoon...oh, i sharpened four hundred pencils.......that's a lot of pencils.....

a few questions come to mind....
why do you have that many pencils, e?
why did you sharpen them all today, e?
are your pencil psychoses medically disabling or do you manage to carry on in your daily life without too much evidence of the problem, e?

i have no earthly idea, actually, why i have so many......other than to say, i really, really, really like them......when i was teaching i had a nice collection of them to share with my students....and you can't just have ten.....you need ten reds......so.....lots are from that...but i also think that i tend to give them to my children...oh, you want a treat from the store? no, not candy....oh, some colored pencils? sure, honey, that's fine....nothing more dazzling than opening that brand new box of pencils (markers, crayons, sharpies, postits...the problem is far reaching!) ..... i currently have two awesome sets of colored pencils...that are in their own special packs and places.....my kids even know "those are the special ones" .....they can use them...they just can't remove them, lose them, desecrate them.....these pencils in these photos are years worth of sets, i suppose.....



...and luckily for ME ....i have a lovely reason to need five hundred or so colored pencils!!! ..... i am teaching a drawing class this week...... my church, st. martin in the fields, is hosting 75 or so children from inner city atlanta......it is "seventh heaven"...their seventh week of summer...these children are doing a summer program with the emmaus house .....an outreach of the episcopal church of atlanta...i'm not sure how many summers st. m's has been hosting them, but quite a few, i'm sure...maybe five? ......

anyhooooooo, i am teaching a drawing class.......five groups a day for the week....about fifteen kids in a group.....tomorrow we are doing texture and color with colored pencils......so i sharpened all the pencils for all the kids.......fifty of those pencils are brand new......got them at the dollar store....i tested some first, they are good ones!! .....oh! that's how i got so many colored pencils....i keep buying more.....



and one more happy note of joy here......sweet heidi sent me a present.....she knows me well and put a happy bingo card on the outside....a bingo card is present worthy in and of itself!! ....... inside, there is a paper bag scrapbook.....a dazzling art project to be...who knows what grooviness a paper bag can become.......thanks heidi! you are fabulous....your kindness dazzles me......i'm glad i know you!!

....and one more bit of joy....my assistant tomorrow in my drawing class? her name is joy.....how perfect is that.......