Hobby to Business

by Ashley Kovanda  

Many people have hobbies; mine is what created a small business. I’m a mother to two, a wife and a leader. I strive hard to be the best I can to provide for my family and that’s what made me decide that I wanted to get crafty and make a business for myself. I create custom shirts, baby onesies, hoodies, and sweatpants with whatever graphic design you can think of right from my home. It started off as a hobby, and I was only making shirts for my family. Soon that turned into taking orders, and now I am a vendor at special events.

My first step was watching tons of you-tube videos. I watched how to create my design, cut it and weed the vinyl. How hard the project gets depends on the type of vinyl chosen. Glitter vinyl seems to be the hardest for me, but through practice I’ve gotten pretty good.

Step by step I worked to create my home-made art pieces. After creating my design on “Design Space,” I have to make sure that the design is the correct size and that it’s also “mirrored” if I am putting it on a clothing item. Making sure the vinyl cuts to the right size can be tricky sometimes since all the different brand shirts vary a bit in sizes.

Once mirrored, selecting the type of material I am working with is the next step. I’ve realized through trial and error you can’t always click what you are working with. After choosing the material the next step is clicking the “make- it” button, and that’s when the fun begins. The machine I use starts to cut the vinyl into the exact design I created on the computer.

After my image is cut the next step is to ensure I weed (pull excess vinyl off) the vinyl. It can be hard remembering the correct pieces so it’s best to look back at my image as I weed. Weeding is my favorite part. I use a small curved pick tool to pull the excess vinyl off and it calms me. It’s almost like an adult coloring books, picking the intricate pieces off.

After weeding the vinyl off my next step is to iron the shirt I’m going to be using. This ensures that all the wrinkles are out, and the vinyl will apply evenly. It’s required to preheat the shirt also. I have a heat press for this, and I normally set the temp to 310 for 30 seconds. When the shirt is finally free of wrinkles and is preheated for the vinyl, it’s ready to set the vinyl on the shirt. Before I heat press the vinyl make sure the design is exactly where I want it because it’s set in stone when I press it.

Most of my designs need 310 heat for 30 seconds on the front and then I peel the transfer paper off the front of the design. Then I flip the shirt over and re apply heat at 310 degrees for 15 seconds. After the last heat application on the back the shirt is ready to sit for 24 hours before being worn! Viola, 24 hours later, I have a finished piece of art!

How Karate Changed Our Lives

by Rachel Lovely

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

― Eleanor Roosevelt

I had a dream to give my children more opportunities than I had. Thanks to my best friend Elizabeth I was able to make my dream come true. I was sitting down, chatting with Elizabeth one night, and we were talking about our dreams. I told her how badly I wanted to put my kids into sports. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford it. Elizabeth, being the angel that she is, offered to pay for their lessons. I immediately enrolled my son, Jason, into karate.

When I first started college, I was required to take Math 0057. Mr. Bill Bauer was my instructor. I enjoyed this class very much. Mr. Bauer was very friendly and would share stories about his life with us. On top of being a math instructor, he was a bodyguard, and moonlighted as a karate instructor.

This made the choice of where to send Jason for karate very clear. Jason would definitely take Mr. Bauer's class. I had the thought in the back of my head to send him there, but I knew i couldn't afford it. When Elizabeth made it a reality for us, we were ecstatic.

On our first day of karate class, I couldn't wait to introduce Jason to Mr. Bauer. He introduced himself to Jason as Sensei Bill. With our history of math class, Sensei Bill had an immediate connection with Jason. He took him under his wing to show him the ways of Teikoku Shodan, a type of karate.

To describe my son a little bit, he is four years old, almost five. He is 71 Pounds, which is

rather on the heavy side for a four-year-old. I try watching his diet and his sugar intake. He is active, but the chunkiness runs in the family. There is also history of heart disease and diabetes in the genes as well. This is why I wanted for him to be in sports so badly.

　       Back to the first day of karate, he did alright. He is defiantly not a natural. He will require a lot of conditioning. He has fun and enjoys karate very much. Sensei Bill is amazing and takes his time with Jason. Jason does his kicks and punches. He does push-ups and jumping exercises. He has come a long way from where he started.

After his third class, Sensei Bill told Jason he needs to run, do pushups, and crunches at home to get stronger. Now Jason is teaching me karate. He asks to go running and do his pushups and crunches every day. Jason said if he must do it than I must do it also. Now he has me running, doing pushups and crunches. Which is great for me, because the history of diabetes and heart disease come from my side of the family.

Now we are becoming closer as mother and son through karate and exercise. Instead of watching movies we are outside running. I feel so much better daily because of the exercise I am doing. I haven't exercised in years. It is easier with Jason by my side encouraging me. We are going to live longer happier lives because of karate, sensei bill, and Elizabeth. The dream, that became reality is changing our future.

Musical Review: She Loves Me

by Emma Willis

Do you enjoy musicals?  If you do, She Loves Me, produced by the Ocala Civic Theater, is a must-see.  The musical’s cast was full of local talent including some of our very own CF theater students. 

This musical is based on a play by Miklos Laszlo that was originally directed and produced on Broadway. This musical has seen the stage and film many times and under many different names over the years. From the Perfumerie in the 1930’s, to She Loves Me in the 1960’s, to the film success of You’ve Got Mail in 1998, and back to broadway in 2016 as She Loves Me, this story line is one that has appealed to many generations. 

Set in Budapest in the 1930s, Maraczek’s Parfumerie’s shop clerk

Georg Nowack, played by Will Winter, falls in love with a mystery woman only known as “Dear Friend.” Seeking a job Amalia Balash, played by Ashlyn Gibbs, beats Georg in a sales contest, landing herself a job at the perfumerie.  Georg and Amalia instantly despise each other.  With Christmas approaching, quarrels encompass the shop.  The pen pals plan a date to meet face to face finally.  When Georg goes to meet “Dear Friend,” he realizes, much to his dismay, that “Dear Friend,” the one he thought was his true love, was in actuality his arch-rival Amalia.  He decides to keep his identity secret, but when he sees her heartbroken the next day, he begins to feel sympathy for her.  Not only is Georg feeling new emotions, but Amalia is surprised by new emotions of her own.  Will Georg reveal himself to Amalia?  Can these enemies become “Dear Friends”?  

The cast and crew did a fantastic job putting together and performing this musical.  If you enjoy plays or musicals, you should definitely visit the Ocala Civic Theater.  While She Loves Me is no longer playing at Ocala Civic Theater, there are many more plays coming this season where much of Ocala’s amazing local talent can be seen in action. 

  

The current play, Eternity, is playing now through April 21.

Bonus:  CF students can see the final dress rehearsal on the Wednesday night before the play opens at no charge with a student ID!  [Note from Mrs. Bufka --  Attending these definitely counts for extra credit.) 

Here is a link to the Ocala Civic Theater site: Ocala Civic Theater

Lonely House

 By Sarah Paar

Throughout my childhood, art was always an interest to me. It started as my favorite subject in class and metamorphosed into a hobby I thoroughly enjoy. I started to paint seriously starting at age 16. Since then, I’ve spent countless hours practicing and playing with paints, pencils, chalks, and more. My current favorite medium is watercolors.

This piece is entitled “Lonely House” and is an 8x10 watercolor painting. The content of this piece includes an older mobile home, lit only by the porchlight and the earliest of morning rays. I spent 7 years waiting for the bus right in front of this house. Most mornings, especially on the coldest ones, this house was lit exactly how it’s presented in the painting. Looking back, I feel nostalgia.

Everything about riding the bus was dreadful. There were early hours, cold moorings and hot mornings. The bus ride was long and slow, and it was taking me to a place I would have preferred not to be. Even so, the bus stop was a calm, quiet place. I believe this is why I feel nostalgic looking at this painting.

I’m not sure if anyone lived in this house after my 3^rd year at the bus stop. The porchlight was on, but the windows were always dark. After my 3^rd year at the bus stop, the dark red Jeep I would see leaving in the morning never showed up. For 4 long years, that house sat, all alone.

By the end of my 7^th year riding the bus, I was old enough to drive myself, so I stopped riding, and therefore stopped seeing the lonely house.

Half a year went by till I went by my old bus stop again. I was shocked to see what lay before me. The lonely house was gone. All that remained was an empty plot of land and the slab of concrete where the old house once stood. I still miss that old house and waiting for the bus every morning. It was a huge part of my childhood, and now it’s gone forever.

Talking is Improvising

by Christianne Wilson

On February 27th, 2019, Greg Snider presented a lecture entitled “Anyone Can Improvise.” Snider is a professor at the College of Central Florida, where he teaches saxophone and clarinet, and directs Jazz Bands and Ensembles. He is primarily a jazz musician, and as such is heavily involved in the tradition of musical improvisation. In his lecture, he strove to convey the thought that improvising is more than a musical or professional endeavor, but is an everyday practice that is applied to every aspect of life. He predicted that each audience member was already an accomplished improvisor but that we did not know it.

He began by defining improvisation, which he said is “composing, performing, or delivering without previous preparation; making, providing, or arranging from whatever materials are available.” Snider stated that improvising involves more than music. He used the example of conversation. When two people start a conversation they do not know what the dialogue will be ahead of time, but must decide with each remark what to say, when to say it, etc. His theory is that improv is part of our culture and we are taught its usage from birth.

His job, then, is to instruct his students to transfer this knowledge into music.He starts by setting the parameters. In terms of conversation, this would be things like the scene of the conversation, the size of the crowd, and the speaker's relationship to those to whom one is speaking. Musical guidelines could be rhythm, scale, and length of the song. This step guides the communicator and creates a direction or flow for him or her to follow. Snider demonstrated this by asking one of his students, Shawnli Rivetz, to improvise for the audience. Rivetz was able to convey an idea through his music that spoke to the crowd, by following the given guidelines.

In closing, Snider reiterated that improvising is simply modifying small things to add flavor to a conversation or song, and that anyone can do it.