Even more fabulous finds! Yikes!

Amazon has been my very best friend for quite some time now.  And thanks to some of my recent treasures I think we may have upgraded to husband and wife.  I'm linking up (for the second time) with Fun in Room 4B for Fabulous Find Friday to share them with you!  I haven't even made one single thing with these bad boys and it's killing me.  It's also killing me that I just talked to my new principal and found out that I won't be able to get into my classroom until the first week of August!  This is super stressful b/c two days that month I will be out of town and one day is the husband's birthday.  That only leaves me two days to work in my classroom b/c  I have to start new teacher trainings the following week!!!!  Eeeeeek!  I'm always back working in my classroom by now.  I like to have everything set up and ready to go by now.  Anyway, back to my treasures...

First off is my new printer.  It really isn't any thing that great.  But, my super nice laser printer died and I've been living off a crappy $20 ink jet for too long.  It's really hard to create cute things for school with that kind of equipment.  This sucker had really good reviews and it scans and prints.  What else do I need???

I ordered this thermal laminator at the beginning of the summer.   When it arrived I realized I needed a new printer.  The things I print out with my current operation are not worthy of this laminator.  Every school I've ever worked at has had a laminator for teachers to use.  I assume my new school is the same.  However, there are some jobs that are smaller and/or need more sturdy lamination.  Plus, some days I get verrrrrry impatient and I can't wait until I get to school to laminate.  I can't wait to use it!!!!

Next, we have my new sticker maker.  I can already see how useful this puppy is going to be.  Labels for everything!!!!  I'm seriously looking forward to make everything sticky (well, everything 5 inches or less)!!!

Finally, I purchased this scanner back in May.  I plan on using it along with the classroom organizer app/program from Booksource.  I think this is going to be awesome.  My hopes are that this increases accountability (I will know exactly what books each student has) and that it will help them remember where to return the books (you can type in locations for all of your books as you inventory them).  You can also use an iphone or and ipad instead of the scanner.  However, I will not let those 5th grade paws to touch my personal ipone/ipad.  

Bookshelf #2 - Monday Made It!

I'm linking up for my second Monday Made It at 4th Grade Frolics.  I have pretty much completed my second classroom bookshelf.  You might notice in the pictures below that there are a couple of spots at the top and bottom that need a little more white paint.  I can't get to the bottom until we move this big boy out of our home office.  Plus, you can hardly even notice it.  And yes, I know I need to add one more dot at the bottom.  I can't decide what color I want.  I've been debating for a few days now.  I'm leaning towards green.  I made this one to sort of compliment my blue & green zebra bookshelf that I posted last week.  I would love to just have a turquoise, lime and zebra themed classroom.  However, I have way too many things that are all sorts of bright colors and I really can't afford to replace them.  I definitely can't justify changing it just because of the color.  So, I made this one so that it would match just about any other color that may be in my classroom.  I just threw the colored baskets in there for fun.  This bookshelf is typically full of books.  I have approximately one million and one books!  And these two bookshelves don't even come close to containing all of my books.  I usually have about 6 bookshelves in my classroom.  My new room is tiny and I gave away sooooooo much stuff at the end of this school year.  I'm really hoping these two shelves will hold most of my books.  I also have a couple of shorter shelf things that go along the white board.  I'm thinking those will need to come in here pretty soon so I can beautify them as well!  :)

I love  how  the shelves look next to my new rug!

I'm looking forward to my next project.  I need to print things out, but my really nice laser printer died on me for the last time.  I have decided to go back to inkjet.  We had so many problems with the laser printer.  I ordered a new printer from Amazon and I'm waiting until that sucker gets here before I get started.  I saw a really cute idea to help organize my chapter books.  Hopefully it will get here soon and I will be able to share my project with everyone for next week's Monday Made It!

My Fabulous Finds!

I decided to link up with Fun in Room 4B for Fabulous Find Friday!  Pretty much every one of my amazing treasures were inspired by several recent blog posts (sorry there isn't really anything new).  I tried going to Target several different days to get the awesome clear communicator boards.  My trips were a disaster because all of the bins in the dollar isle were empty. I tried multiple locations on several different days.  :(

These are the treasures I was able to get my hands on:

Because I am moving to a new school district this coming year I finally get to use Scentsy warmers in my classroom.  I immediately ordered the full size Zebra warmer for myself.  I've also scoped out some pretty awesome scores from Dollar Tree, so I went to every store within 40 mile radius to get exactly what I wanted (I surely didn't NEED any of this).  The blue and green rectangular containers might be good for books or journal storage.  I also picked up 12 of the more square baskets with the circular cut outs.  I have no idea what I will use these for.  Also, I'm a little worried where all of these baskets will go in my tiny shoebox classroom.  Those multicolored little things in that package are magnetic clips for the whiteboard.  I am queen of clipping all sorts of things to my whiteboard.  When I saw the small dust pans and mini brushes I thought they would be perfect to attach to each table group using one of those command hooks.  These will come in handy this year because my new classroom does not have carpet.  I'm super sad about this and it also leads me to my final purchase....  This super cute rug from this website that only cost me $19.99.  And when I say $19.99 I mean $19.99 exactly!  NO SHIPPING AND NO TAX!  I know, I probably should have told you to sit down before I laid that one on you.  They have larger sizes.  This one is about 3'x5' and I'm just hoping I will have that much space in my classroom...

I have a trip to Ikea planned for sometime before school starts back.  I've had my eye on a few items that I'm looking forward to sharing within the next few weeks!  :)

Classroom Bookshelf

I finally completed classroom project #2.  I have had several useful, yet hideous bookshelves in my classroom since I started teaching 5 years ago.  They were given to me by my aunt.  I was lucky enough to start teaching the year she retired.  This year I will need them more than ever.  I am very excited to be working in a new school that is much closer to my house.  However, this room is about 1/3 the size of any classroom I have ever been in.  Plus, I have always had a wall full of storage cabinets.  The classrooms at my new school only have ONE cabinet in each room.  Storage space is seriously lacking.  I had to purge about 75% of my classroom materials just to get in the room.  I am seriously worried about how everything will fit in this tiny closet classroom.  Like I said earlier the shelves I have are plain and ugly.  Revamping these shelves is at the top of my summer project list.  This first shelf is where I store the majority of my chapter books (organized by author's last name).  I decided to go ahead and paint it my favorite colors (turquoise, lime and zebra).  I had my doubts about how it would turn out, but I really like it.  The blue and green won't seem so bold once the books are in the shelves.  I just used old pain that we had in the garage.  Now to get started on my giant shelf!

This is the shelf before.  Well, after I started painting and realized I didn't take a before picture.

After

After - This gives you a better look at the zebra on the sides.

I'm linking up for Monday Made It (for my very first time).  Yay!  I'm planning on getting the next shelf completed for next Monday.  

Teacher Toolbox

I have pinned so many ideas throughout the school year that I planned on working on during the summer.  I actually completed my first project during the first week of summer.  I've been off a month since then and I still haven't completed any other projects.  I have a few weeks left and I still have big plans.  Every teacher/teaching blog has this teacher's toolbox.  All you do is go to Lowes/Home Depot and add some pretty paper and labels to create a fabulous organizer for all of your desk necessities.  This is perfect for me because I gave my teacher's desk the boot quite some time ago.  I primed mine with a plastic spray primer and spray painted it with some extra paint we had laying around the garage.  I stocked up on cute animal print scrapbook paper when it was 50% off at Michael's a while back and that's what I used for the drawers.  I just printed out the words on white paper.  Now I wish I would have used colored paper.  But would have required more money and another trip to the store.  I still love it!  BTW, school supplies are out at Wal-Mart and Target!  I am so excited.  Now I will just wait for the really good sales on spirals, glue sticks, markers, folders, pencils and erasers!!!!

Hooded Towel

So, I finished up a hooded towel a few weeks ago and I just realized that I haven't shared it!  This is actually a gift I made for one of my cousins to give to another cousin for his little girl's birthday (which was also last week). 

Here's how you can do it.  I'm actually a little embarrassed to tell you how easy it is!  All you need is a bath towel and a hand towel.  If you want to add any embellishments you can used bias tape, rickrack, fabric, etc.  All you need to do is cut the  hand towel right down the middle.  This will leave each square piece with three finished edges.  Fold the towel in half like a rectangle. (Sorry I don't have any pics of this). You are going to want to trim the  unfinished edge about an inch or two and then curve the corner.  Then sew this up.  Attach the sewn hand towel to the center of the bath towel.  You can stop here or you can add embellishments.  On the last towel I added fabric strips to the hood and some applique hearts to the towel.  I usually embroider or applique the name.  I know this may not make sense without the pictures.  Maybe I will create some diagrams to help out...

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  Yay!  One of my favorite days of the year.  Yesterday was my other favorite day... my birthday!  I turned 27 and boy was I glad.  For months I thought I was turning 28.  I felt like I got a year younger when I realized I was only going to be 27.  I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I turned 25 because I was half way to 50.  I am so freaked out about hitting the big 3-0!  Yikes!
But, that's not what I got on to talk about.  I wanted to share some Christmas pictures with everyone.  Here are a few of the decorations we had at our house this year:

Merry Christmas!

Inspired by Pinterest

First things first....  This has been a very busy week of vacation.  I started off making two different kinds of fudge and some peppermint bark.  I was inspired by some pinterest recipes, however I tweaked them a little and ended up with one plain chocolate fudge, chocolate fudge with nuts and the peppermint bark.  I looooooove peppermint bark, but I was always afraid to make it (even though most recipes seem super easy).  When I found a bag of crushed peppermints at the grocery store I just had to try it out. 

This is what you will need:

• equal parts of white and milk/semi-sweet chocolate. I used two bags of each.
• peppermint oil or extract
• peppermint pieces
• some sort of double boiler contraption
• cookie sheet

I just put the milk/semi-sweet chocolate on the foil & greased cookie sheet and stuck that in a 250 degree oven for about 5 minutes.  When it came out i just spread it around in a large rectangle that just about covered my entire cookie sheet.  Then, I sprinkled just a few peppermint pieces on top.While that was cooling I made a double boiler out of a medium sized pot and a metal bowl.  I got the water hot and steamy, but NOT BOILING.  I put the white chocolate chips in for about 5 minutes and I stirred just a few times.  Near the end I added some peppermint oil.  No, I did not measure it.  I just eyeballed and waited until I could just barely smell it.  I didn't want it to be too strong, but I definitely wanted to taste it.  I took this melted white chocolate and spread it over the milk chocolate and added more peppermint pieces to the top.  I placed mine in the fridge to chill.  After it was completely hard I chopped it up into reasonable sized pieces. 

After all of my sweets were done I sorted them and placed them in these cute little tins to hand out to our neighbors on our street.  Yes, we do that kind of thing around here and I LOVE it!  Our neighbor just brought over some homemade toffee last night and it was delish!

Now, on to my Pinterest inspired art!  All you need is a long piece of fairly thin wood (like one inch), cheap dollar store picture frames, spray paint and some pictures of various letters (I got mine from that flicker site on Pinterest).  First, I took apart all of my frames and removed the stuff on the back.  Then I painted the frames and the wood the same color. You may need to have your husband go out in the garage and cut your wood down.  Mine just happened to fit perfectly.  I also made one for my mom and diddles had to cut that one down just a bit...  And while he was out there he even routed the edges for me.  Fancy!

After I got my pics back in the frame I lined them up to make sure I liked them.

Before I used liquid nails to secure the frames I made sure to put a little hanger thing on the back.




I let it dry for a few hours before I hung it up (just in case).  And here it is now:

I pretty much LOVE it!  We needed some stuff upstairs.  We hardly even use our gameroom, but when I do go up there is is a little depressing.  Now it looks so much better, and these pinterest inspired canvases are also going to help make it look awesome.  If only I could decide what color I wanted to paint them.  Right now I think I'm going back to white.  I better decide before tomorrow.  No, it will have to be done today I cant work on my BIRTHDAY!  I almost forgot that my birthday is tomorrow...  Anyway... We are hosting Christmas for diddles' family this year and I want the house to look it's best.  I am sooooo excited.  Christmas is my holiday and I have always wanted to host the holidays at my house.  I can't wait!

And before I go I want to give recognition to my little garage troll that kept us company as we worked on these projects.  He isn't accustomed to visitors, so I was very grateful that the little demon didn't bite my arm off while I was in his domain.

AND, one more thing...  This is the awesome paint I have been using to paint my crafts.  I love the colors.  I love the finish.  I love the way it covers.  Awesome.  You can find it at Home Depot.

I'm thinking

This is just going to be a three months out of the year kind of blog.  I really enjoy blogging to share my crafty creations, however I rarely have time or energy to blog during the school year.  And if I do have free time I usually spend it doing nothing because I am so worn out!  Anyway...  These last couple of weeks have been crazy.  This is (BY FAR) the worst school year I have had yet.  I really need to find a better school closer to home... Despite the stress, I have found time to make a few Pinterest inspired Christmas crafts/gifts.  Here are some ornaments I made for my team using floor wax, fine glitter and vinyl cut using my Cricut:

 I  have a few more things that I made as gifts that I am going to post after Christmas.  I'm really excited about them.  I think everything turned out super cute!  I'm even going to the store tomorrow to pick up a few supplies to do some last minute gifts just because I'm feeling super crafty.  I've been done with my gifts for a few weeks now, but I just can't stop.  Thanks a lot Pinterest! 

Pinterest... It's a love/hate relationship

So, I've had a Pinterest account for a while now.  But, I just recently became addicted.  I can't stop pinning!!!  I've mainly been obsessed with school related pins.  It has really motivated me to get back into my classroom (this is very good because I have to go back to work this FRIDAY).   I've found all sorts of amazing things I need to try out for this school year.  However, I can't stop pinning to actually get things done!

I did find some time to try out this cute gift I am going to give to my team that was inspired by Nothing But Country. 

And I made these awesome scratch off reward tickets using things I already had around the house!

And I've even made a few shirts... like this one:

Hopefully I will get some work done in my classroom this week and I can show more of the projects I hope to do!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

I've had several friends ask me for this recipe recently, so I thought this would be a good place to share it with everyone.  Several years back my family put all their favorite recipes together and created a family cookbook.  This little book has seriously become my cooking bible (this along with all my wonderful Pioneer Woman Recipes).  This is a sweet dip that is great for parties or other get together.  I usually serve it with teddy grahams because they are the perfect size and they wont break when you dip them.

Ingredients:
1 - 8oz pk softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini choc chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. Shape it into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for another hour. Roll the cheese ball in finely chopped nuts before serving.

Little Girl's Dress

This past week I made what might have been the easiest garment ever!  I just bought one of those cheap dollar patterns to make a dress for the same friend's little girl to wear on her first day of school next week.  I had it done in no time.  I even added some embellishments to make it super cute.  It probably cost less than $5 to make and I still have material left over!

Nap Mat

I am so proud of myself for my latest creation.  Thanks to Jenny Garland I was able to make a nap mat for a friends daughter.  She is starting pre-k this year.  The directions were very easy to follow and I had it done in no time.  I know nothing about nap mats, but I thought the buttons and carrying strap were genius.  LOL!  Here are a few pics of the completed mat!

8 Gallons of Paint

I haven't had as much time to blog as I had originally planned.  I've been very busy around the house.  I spent 3 days and 8 gallons of paint to address an issue I've had with the color that has graced almost every wall downstairs.  I affectionately call it "cardboard".  Don't get me wrong it isn't a terrible color.  I might even like it in certain situations.  But, I felt like there was soooooo much of it and it really was such a dark color that it made our house feel very cave like.  It was practically the same color as our floors.  I decided that I wanted gray walls.  I have a blue and green theme throughout the house and I thought gray would be a nice neutral....  After spending about a month seriously debating on the exact shade (not too dark but not too blue/purple or beige) I finally commited to Sharkey Gray and got 5 gallons of that crap!  I later came to regret that decision.  By the end of that day our house went from this:

To this:

And I absolutely hated how it looked against our floors.  It was the WORST around our fireplace.  It looks sooo blue and UGLY to me.  But, it looked amazing in our dining room...  I spent about 24 hours staring at it constantly telling Diddles how much I hated it and showing him new paint options.  We even had friends over during that 24 hour period and they said it looked fine.  Now I know who my true friends are because they straight up lied to me! haha!  So, the very next day I went out picked up a green and blue paint chip (the colors of our dining room and kitchen) along with a floor sample that was similar to ours.  I went to the light beige section and spent about 10 minutes before commiting to a light neutral shade.  This time I only purchased 3 gallons (just in case).  I had the entire downstairs repainted by the end of that day.  And I can't believe I'm going to say this..... But...... I LOVE MY BEIGE WALLS!  Never in my life have I ever liked neutrals.  However, with the floors, raised paneling details, fireplace, windows and all the other colors in our house I think it looks great!  Diddles seems to think I just repainted it the same cardboard color.  But, If you look below you can see that there is a BIG difference.

 Below you will see some during and after pics!

During

During

After