What team? LeBron!

In recent years, LeBron James has become synonymous with the word basketball, the NBA, and ESPN. If you do not follow basketball you probably have a general sense of what his most recent public relations scheme has been. Earlier this week I got an update from Sports Center about an interview he had and it simply read “LeBron was talking about himself.” Now I cannot take away from his athletic abilities because he is a talented athlete, but media bias is present within this situation. Particularly ESPN has created this media bias situation. There are special segments dedicated to him on a regular basis when he has not done anything special. While he has significant accomplishments it is not fair to dedicate a large amount of time to solely him and take away from other talented athletes. Targeting one athlete, particularly as ESPN targets LeBron, also takes away from reporting about basketball.

            Basketball can be bigger than the sport itself. It is kind of odd that I am a basketball fan myself considering I grew up dancing competitively and have never played a game of basketball in my life. I did however grow up in Oklahoma City. A place where it was not a possibility to have an NBA team until Hurricane Katrina and nevertheless a title contending team. The city of Oklahoma City has transformed from a larger than average farm town to a promenade city. The economy has grown, the population has increased, and for once it is cool to be from Oklahoma because of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. All of this was possible because of the game of basketball. It does not have much to do with the teams record or and one player, but the moral boost the NBA presence brought to the city.

            Something as simple as the sport of basketball can have a greater impact than targeting one person. I have seen this happen firsthand in OKC. The NBA has programs in place targeting giving back and individual teams have their own programs targeting needs in their specific city. These programs and the positive impact brought by the NBA and other professional athletic organizations are important. Basketball is important. It makes a difference and that may be difficult to measure in numbers at times. It might be difficult to understand how a team with a losing record is turning a profit. When it is examined in further detail, you can see that there is a kid who begs for tickets to a game because he wants to be an NBA player. Or the girl who wants to be a cheerleader for the team. Or the little boy who plays in neighborhood pickup games in his favorite NBA jersey. These kids are who are truly impacted by the game of basketball and who it makes a difference for.

            Basketball is bigger than one person and bigger than LeBron. Highlighting one person for their accomplishments is great and I have great confidence LeBron appreciates the attention. The media bias ESPN has created is taking away from the potential difference ESPN could make. Spreading the coverage to a broader scope of events within the NBA could be more beneficial and more relevant to viewers. As with twenty-four hour news coverage, a problem with having so many outlets for ESPN to reach viewers and users is that the coverage becomes mundane and unfocused. Choosing to pick and choose stories that could have a greater overall impact on viewer’s verses highlighting one person or just LeBron. LeBron James, you are a talented athlete, but let’s see some other athletes once in a while.   

Just a small blurb about basketball from yours truly.


Your Favorite Redhead

Cookies for Santa

Christmas time isn't complete without a little plaid and some Christmas cookies! The two are a perfect pair to create a classic homey feel. I was given a project for my internship toward the end of the semester for a Christmas themed table complete with not only a center piece, but also a name plate and party favor. After researching on Pinterest, I decided that my inspiration was a mason jar. Yes, a mason jar. From there the rest of the concept of the table fell into place. 

Starting with the mason jar I decided that I was going to make a cookie mix to go into the jar and attach a label with directions to make the cookies. This craft is fairly common and found all over Pinterest. I also did this for a project in 5th grade too. It's great because it is super simple an cute and cheap. Plus who doesn't like cookies at Christmas time?! The ingredients needed to make 12 pint sized cookie mix filled jars include:

-3/4 cup flour

-1/4 cup sugar

-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

-1/4 cup brown sugar

-red and green M&Ms

To make the jars you'll need a funnel of some kind or you can use a plastic baggie and cut a hole in the bottom corner. Using a baggie worked pretty well for a makeshift funnel. At this point I added the flour, baking soda, sugar, and brown sugar. The order isn't a huge deal and can go almost however you want. I would recommend putting the flour first as it is messy and the most of any one ingredient. Lastly, I filled the remaining empty jar with the M&Ms. Here is what the jar looked like at this point.

Being pint sized, there were super cute on their own, but needed some kind of label. I went back and forth on what to do for the label. After several ideas floated around in my head I ended up drawing this.

I immediately became obsessed with my little drawing and started brainstorming ways of mass-producing my art. I found myself at my schools "maker lab". This is basically a crafters heaven as they kind of specialize in projects and MAKING stuff. Normally I wouldn't use the word stuff, but in this case it's appropriate as the maker lab makes all kinds of projects. After taking to a maker lab "maker" she suggested that I make my drawing into a stamp. Yes, a stamp. So i scanned in my drawing and it was put into Illustrator in order to make the white sections as white as they could be and the pencil marks as dark as they could be. It was then sent to a lazer printer and burned into a stamp material.

After the printer finished its work, I super glued it to a piece of wood.

So to make the actual tag I used a white stamp ink and black card stalk. The only recommendation I have for the stamp ink is to use waterproof ink. After stamping the card stalk, I let I dry and then touched up as needed with a white gel pin.

{this was for a letter project using different colors}

When everything had dried, I cut the tags down to a smaller size leaving a small black edge. I then took a piece of chalk and covered the tag with it in order to give it a chalkboard look. Then so the chalk would stay, I sprayed the tags with some hairspray. The card stock will curl slightly so be careful with your project. To attach them to the jar I hole punched the tag and tied it on with twine. The final project turned out like this.

For the name plate I hand wrote the names on the same card stalk I used earlier. I wrote them in chalk and touched it up and make it bolder with a white gel pin. Covered in chalk, hairspray, and folded in order to stand, they made pretty good name plates.

The bulk of what I spent and made was for these pieces. The center piece was mostly put together with items found around the storage room and really came together with the linens. Here is what the final table looked like when if was complete.

Like I said the linen brought the whole table together. The entire table was covered in a basic white tablecloth and then three plaid runners were put over them. The napkins were neat because they were not only plaid, but had a burlap like part on the inside. The main part of the table has tree stumps with candles and acorns as well as several pine cones. The center of the table had a piece of burlap, to tie in the burlap on the napkins, and coffee berries.

I was very pleased with how everything turned out and had some fun in the process. How cool is it that I get paid to not only do Pinterest projects, but make my own. Happy Pinning and Merry Christmas!


Your Favorite Redhead