Long time no see!

It's been forever.

You'll be happy to know that I'm still alive and functioning, but despite how I tried to fool myself, I was NOT prepared to go back to school.

I'm starting to get back into the swing of things now, but it has been quite the adjustment.

So, to warn you, this is going to be a long one. I'll forgive you if you don't make it all the way through.

First things first.

My classroom is finished! (Duh.)

Please excuse the crummy pictures-I was frantically trying to snap a bunch before the kids came on the first day. Half of the shots I took are blurry because I was moving so fast. I plan to add more pictures of the areas that are lacking later on.

The view from my desk (facing the door)

Small group reading/work area (and my volume level posters)

Classroom library/group area (Walter is now living on top of the shelves)

My beautiful crate seats, the fabulous table that my awesome grandpa built me (and my amazing grandma painted)

Mailboxes (that have yet to be labeled...)

Another group reading area (Are you seeing a trend yet?)

My assignment board (formerly an annoying chalkboard)

My desk (which was actually visible at one point)

Coffee maker ready to go. Remember those mugs that I painted with the student that I was mentoring over the summer? Don't they look awesome?

Pencil buckets

Extra supplies for the class to borrow-Sharpies, highlighters, dice, problem solving pencils, etc.

View from my desk (facing the back of the room)

View from my desk

View from my desk

There are LOTS of details that I don't have pictures of right now, but like I said, I'll try to add some more later on. :)

I know I said that this one was going to be long, but I think I'll split up some of the other stuff up into a couple of posts.

And I'll try to post again soon.

As in, there won't be another 3 week lapse in posting.

Hopefully.

Did I mention that I'm getting married in 33 days?!

Woot!

Crafting, tutoring, and summer shopping!

I think I have a problem.

A craft supply problem.

Yesterday I went through and cleaned out some stuff from my craft supply stashes and...well...there was A LOT of scrapbook paper in there. Except...I don't scrapbook. I haven't scrapbooked since high school. Which is why it doesn't really make sense for me to have 5 pads of scrapbook paper.

And don't get me started on all of the letter stickers that I found. Holy moly.

Here's the thing, if I walk into say, JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby, I feel an instinctive need to gather craft supplies for a project. Half of the time I don't even have a project in mine, just a rough, "This would be cool to use for something, someday."

Terrible idea.

And to top it off, none of the paper that I've collected will go with my classroom next year. So I guess my kiddos will be making super snazzy thank you notes for random stuff throughout the year.

Like for iPads if our Donors Choose project gets funded-wanna help with that? There's a link on the right.

:)

I was so proud of myself on Monday. I had gathered all of the necessary supplies (and then some, sigh) to make my super awesome teacher toolbox (you know, the one that everyone and their cat has been making lately). AND, I just knew that for once, I was going to be able to join the Monday Made It link up party.

And then, I didn't get it finished. Because I lost misplaced my label for Sharpies.

And come on, you have to have a label for Sharpies.

So I told myself, "Tuesday, I WILL finish it Tuesday." All I have to do is reprint the label.

Except, I only had 2 pieces of the paper that I used for my labels.

And only scraps were left.

So I was going to have to figure out some complicated way of printing perfectly onto that little scrap.

"Too complicated for a Tuesday," I thought.

So I didn't finish it.

To my credit, I did print that label today, but I've decided the labels should probably be laminated before I attach them to my drawers.

And, of course, I don't have a laminator lying around the house. (Though I would happily accept donations toward the "Laura Needs a Laminator Fund")

Seriously though, it's going to knock your socks off. If you're wearing socks. I REALLY want to show it to you (because it looks AWESOME), but I can't show you something that's not done yet!

Sometimes I frustrate myself.

Anywho, I met with my future 2nd grader for the first time today. We worked on handwriting for a bit; she's a lefty with some sloppy handwriting. Our writing goal for the time being is to make her writing worthy of writing a letter to a Disney princess. Have you seen this on Pinterest? Apparently, if kids write letters to Disney characters, they get an autographed picture back from the character. Cool, right?

She wanted to know how I talked to the Princess.

Man, I wish I was good at making stuff up on the fly.

I told her I heard about it online. I should have said that I'm Tinkerbell's BFF.

After we practiced our handwriting for awhile, we went and painted ceramics at a local place.

She painted "Sparkles the Cat." She decided that she will be calling her "Sparkle-icious" instead.
(A shiny gold star to the person who can figure out how to spell Sparkleicious. That just looks silly.)

My sister met up with us and painted a caterpillar.

Me? Oh, come on now-isn't it obvious?

I'm working on a new coffee mug, of course.

Go ahead, get the "duh" out of your system.

The orange part is teeny, tiny masking tape. How cute is that?!

I'll wait.

Because I'm a perfectionist, they both finished and I'm probably not even halfway done.

Hmmm...do you think there's any chance that at 13 year old boy would want to go paint ceramics with me tomorrow? Yeah, probably not.

Here are a couple pictures of my work in progress-hopefully I don't screw it up. I have a tendency to do that with painting projects...

I'll show you the final project when I get it finished and have it fired.

Since I'm not linking up with Made It Monday, I'll link up with the Summer Shopping linky party hosted by Ladybug's Teacher Files!

I'll admit it, at the end of every school year, I say that I don't really need to get anything new for my room, but seriously, who am I kidding?

I L-O-V-E getting new stuff for my classroom.

You've already seen my new chair and my crate seats, and truthfully, I have a lot more stuff on my "to make" list, but I just haven't been horribly motivated recently.

Shopping, however, has been another story.

So without further ado, my recent Summer Shopping finds!

First off, the black body pillow that I have in my reading area attracts lint and fuzz like crazy. Which of course drives me crazy.

Solution: Super cute zebra pillow case (and it's nice and soft!)

Then (because I have a SERIOUS Target addiction), I was wandering through the home decor section and found this awesome thought bubble white board. But here's the kicker-it lights up!!!

I know. Try not to squeal too much.

I'm usually a clearance shopper when it comes to school stuff, but for $15, I couldn't pass it up. And you've all seen that awesome Pinterest idea about using a touch light to remind students that you aren't available while you're working in small groups. How perfect will this be?! I can even add a little message!

Off | On

I'm pretty excited about that one. Obviously.

Then, while I was at JoAnn's (looking for scrapbook paper, sigh), I found these bad boys.

Those Command hooks aren't cheap, but they are oh so very useful.

Get this: Not only were they $1.98 on clearance, but clearance was marked an additional 50% off.

Yup, you did that math right-I got them for a buck each. Naturally, I stocked up.

But I have BIG plans for those little hooks. Big plans, I say.

But that's a topic for another day.

Then I hit Dollar Tree.

Dollar Tree is awesome. Seriously.

I spent $20 and got a TON of stuff for next year. (You know, because everything's $1)

Check it out.

That's 6 stacking bins, 5 locker style bins, 4 fun pens, an expandable file (because I promised Matthew I would keep my receipts for school stuff for my taxes this year), a roll of masking tape, and a pack of foam paint rollers (for another project).

Not bad, right?

Whew. That's a lot. And I just realized that I need to get some math practice together for my former student to work on tomorrow. Bummer.

But I'm planning on taking him geocaching tomorrow. Wish me luck. I've never done it before.

I'm getting sleepy, so I'm going to wrap this up, but don't forget--only a couple more days left to enter my 100 Follower Giveaway!

And at the rate things are going, it looks like I'm going to hit 200 followers before this one ends-which is seriously AMAZING!

I never thought that my little blog would reach 100 followers, so seeing all of this growth the last week has been super awesome-you guys are the best!

You know what, I'll make a deal with you.

Ready?

If I hit 200 followers before the giveaway ends, I'll make myself make one of the projects on my "Future Teachers Pay Teachers Product List" and give it to you guys FOR FREE. Yup, everyone will get it! But that's only if I hit 200 followers before the giveaway is up.

So if you haven't entered the giveaway yet-what are you waiting for?!

And make sure that you get those extra entries by blogging about the giveaway!

Matthew just got back from his late night ice cream cone run, so I should probably go and actually spend some time with him! :)

Adios!

Projects, Canoeing, Awards, etc....

Oh how I've missed you, my blogging buddies!

I promise, I will try to start posting more than ONCE a week. I've just been so busy this past week-but not  busy at all (if that makes any sense).

Whew. So much to cover. Prepare yourselves for (yet another) long post. 'Cause that's how I roll.

For starters, I'm pretty sure that I told you about my seating project in my last post (not the chair, the crate seats!). Since I screwed up with the dimensions that I gave the nice man at Lowes who cut my wood, I had to have my grandpa re-cut the wood for me. (As an FYI-if you buy the cute Sterilite crates from Target and want to have Lowes cut your wood for you, the correct dimensions should be 14 3/4"x 12 3/4")


After a little play time with the foam, fabric, and a terrifying staple gun, I now have these beauties for my classroom next year! And, because my grandpa is awesome, I'm going to have a custom made table that will be just the right height for my super cute crate seating-WOOT!

(P.S. I really tried to make these pictures all fit together in a nice little area like I have in the past, but Blogger is NOT having it tonight. Grrr.)

While I LOVE how these seats turned out, they were a little more expensive than I had originally thought they would be.

To total it up:

Crates-$3.50 each x 6 = $21

Fabric-$7.00/yard x 3 = $21

Particle Board = $10

Foam-$40 X 50% off = $20

Approximate Total for 6 Seats = $72

Yeah.

Not what I had planned.

Granted, I couldn't have bought 6 seats for $72, and I could have gotten cheaper fabric (like the $1 clearance stuff).

Just be warned, these little boogers are cute, but can get pricey very quickly! 

This last week has also been a week of about a bajillion firsts. 

Ok. Maybe not a bajillion. But AT LEAST half a bajillion. 

For starters, Matthew and I went canoeing with some friends last weekend. This may not seem like that much of an accomplishment to you outdoorsy types, but here's the thing-Matthew's a computer guy and I'm more of a surf the web/make stuff/blog kind of girl.

Neither of us are...how do I put it...built for the outdoors? 

But, nonetheless, we survived a 10 mile canoe trip  down Sugar Creek at Turkey Run State Park. But of course, the creek was a little low on water, so there was a fair share of getting stuck on sandbars and in rocks, and a few sunburns to top it off.

So I can now say that I survived a 10 mile canoe trip.

Woot!

We also did a bit of hiking at the park on Sunday. Am I the only one who wouldn't have considered climbing down a ladder part of the hiking experience? 

I am not a big fan of ladders, especially when they're the way off of a rock face. That one took a bit of coaxing. I'm kind of a chicken.

On Monday, a few friends and I decided to try out a yoga class. Again, this girl=lacking athletic ability. 

It probably would have helped to know that we were going to a hot yoga class. News flash: It's called hot for a reason. 

Why is it called hot yoga, you ask? Because all of the lights in the room are replaced with heat lamps, and the doorways are sealed off, and it reaches 100 degrees in that room.

HOLY MOLY.

I have never sweat as much as I did that night. So much sweat. And it turns out that I have ZERO flexibility.

I've also got a couple more firsts lined up for the next week:

-First time meeting with one of my former students in a tutor/mentor role

-First time tutoring a 2nd grader

-First time shooting wedding pictures (but not the wedding itself-whew!)

-First meeting with my principal about our plans to start student council next year (Did I mention that I'm doing student council next year? And that I know NOTHING about student council?)

I'm taking suggestions for the 12 year old boy and the 7 year old girl. The plan is basically to spend about half of my time working on skills, and the other half doing something fun. I'm planning on taking advantage of our library's summer reading programs for the little girl, but for my 12 year old, I'm wanting to think a little more outside of the box. I'm thinking about doing some geocaching with him, walking Charlie in the park, maybe painting some pottery at a local place, but I am totally open to ideas!

I'm really excited about working with this kid; he and I had a great teacher-student relationship this last year, and I really don't want to see him fall between the cracks, so Matthew and I are going to do a sort of Big Brothers/ Big Sisters type deal with him. And I'm going to give him some extra academic help to better prepare him for 7th grade in the fall. I'm SUPER excited!

Ok, only one more thing (I promise-more frequent posts so I'm not cramming SO much in!). 

I have been giving my first blog award!

WOOT!

Thanks to Allie at The Gypsy Teacher for giving my first award! I feel so cool right now!

I'll post my list of bloggers that I'm passing the award along to in my next post!

I'm going to have to do some serious list making for this one!

Time for some ice cream, my bloggy buddies. (And some peanuts, and whipped cream, and chocolate syrup, and whipped cream, and sprinkles...)

Have a fabulous Thursday!

P.S. I only need 13 more followers to reach 100! Hmmm..perhaps that will warrant another freebie...

(Successful) DIY Day

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm on a bit of a DIY kick right now.

And yesterday was anything but successful. Remember this?

Umm, yeah. I rest my case.

But more on that in a minute.

Today was "Charlie Gets His Teeth Cleaned Day." For those of you that don't know what this entails (like I didn't), you take your dog to the vet in the morning, they whip out the anesthetic, knock him out, clean his teeth, and you pick him up late in the afternoon. That's a lot of work to clean teeth, if you ask me.

Since I still needed to pick up some supplies for my projects, I had my sister come with me to take Charlie to the vet so we could run errands while I was out. We got to Matthew's house to pick up Charlie, only to find out that the leash was still in Matthew's car. Slight problem. But since he only works about 5 minutes from his house, we drove over, met him in the parking lot, and got the leash.

Did I mention Charlie gets REALLY excited about car rides?

REALLY excited.

And then, he saw Matt and was EVEN MORE excited.

But then we left.

Whoa, buddy.

Charlie was NOT cool with that.

He cried.

And cried.

And didn't stop crying all the way to the vet. Did I mention that we got stopped by not 1, not 2, but 3 trains on this little trip?!

To top it off, he was shaking up a storm like he had just experienced the greatest trauma of his life.

He was temporarily transfixed by train #3.



We finally got him to the vet, and he was NOT cool with that either. Scratch that. He was fine getting out of the car and walking into the building, but as soon as I started filling out the paperwork, he was heading for the door.

No, he was literally walking to the door.

And when they came to get him, it was the barking, the cowering, the pulling at the leash, the mid-air acrobatics. Like his adventure at PetSmart the other day, but not quite as bad.

After dropping my favorite drama king off at the vet, my sister and I hit Panera (home of the world's hottest coffee) before running to JoAnn's and Lowes to finish getting the supplies I needed for my projects.

I would like to point out that these were supposed to be CHEAP projects. So not the case.

I got my awesome zebra print fabric for my crate seating and the chair I bought yesterday. Then I went to get the foam for the crate seats. Thank goodness for a 50% off coupon, because that stuff is ridiculously
E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. Even with 50% off it was still $20 for 2 1/2 yards of the stuff-CRAZY!

At Lowe's, I found my beautiful paint for my chair (and was talked into buying a gallon of the stuff-lots of painting on the horizon). I was also able to show off my nonexistent lumber knowledge base as I struggled to explain what I needed for my crate seating. But, awesome thing about Lowes, they will cut the wood for you in store.

Turns out that it helps if you get your dimensions right. I'll be visiting my grandpa and his workshop tomorrow to make my particle board fit my crates.

Oops.

I also learned that my Jetta is not built for hauling leftover sheets of particle board. Mental note made.

Since I totally screwed up my crate seats for the day, I decided to start in on my chair. Ooo-and I didn't show you my chair yesterday, did I?

You are in for a treat.

You can't tell me that that chair isn't the most beautiful chair you've ever seen! Oh, and the fabric on the seat-LOVE IT! Absolutely gorgeous!

NOT.

So this afternoon, I sanded, I tightened screws, I painted, and I reupholstered.

Behold, my new classroom chair:

Not bad, right?! I'm pretty much in love with it. 

I also salvaged my disaster of a picture frame, which now looks like this:

MUCH better.

Ok, I know this is getting long, but when I got to Matt's this evening, Charlie was still a little drowsy from the anesthetic. 

He was so out of it.

I'll post a video later. It's quite entertaining.

EDIT: Here's that video I promised. I would like to point out that a)his right eye really can't stay open and b) he's falling asleep while sitting up.

Charlie After Anesthesia from Ms. Ellison on Vimeo.

Fail. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail.

Went to Hobby Lobby this morning. Since I usually end up spending $100 on random stuff that I don't really NEED, I felt that my $35 trip was pretty impressive.

I really wanted to find some cute fabric for the crate seats that I'm wanting to make (you know, the cute ones from Pinterest?)

But, I didn't find anything that I loved.

Ok, there was this black fabric with white polka dots and a few randomly scattered silver glitter polka dots, but my sister didn't think that my students would want glitter on their butts. Weird, right?

I did find a picture frame for my class picture (the composite one that you get with everyone's yearbook pictures), and I found a black glitter spray paint to spruce it up with.

I was all excited to get home and start painting my frame, so I ran outside and started spraying away. And then...the can started making this hissing sound when I wasn't pushing the button. When I pushed the button, nothing happened.

Thinking it would run its course, I put the lid on the can, and let it hiss away.

Bad idea.

When I took the lid back off, it sounded like it had been seriously contemplating exploding.

So despite the fact that there was still PLENTY of paint in the can, I couldn't get anymore out of it. I then noticed that there was a puddle/glob of paint in one of the ridges of the frame. Thinking that I could just dab at it with my finger to spread it out, I instead wiped all of the paint off, leaving a giant white spot.

"Ok," I thought to myself. "This is easily fixed. Just make it look like you planned it to look like that. I ran in the house, grabbed some trusty paper towels, and went to work.

Sigh.

So NOT the look I was going for.

My next thought was that I could just paint the white area a bright color, but then my sister pointed out how uneven the glitter was (especially on the sides).

I now have another can of paint so that I can attack it again tomorrow. Wish me luck.

This was supposed to be an easy project. Fail.

Then, my parents' computer had a virus(s) that needed to be dealt with. Problem was that their antivirus software had expired, and they had been without it for a week. The subscription had been renewed, but the virus was blocking the software from activating (and just about everything else on the computer, too). It even tricked my sister into paying for "System Shield," a nonexistent virus remover, with her credit card. Needless to say, Visa received a phone call from her this afternoon. Sigh.

I was able to track down and remove a couple of the viruses myself, which let me run the (real) antivirus software and scan the computer. It even looked like it cleaned everything up. Then I got the phone call on the way to dinner to let me know that the virus was back. Fail again.

We also hit a antique/thrift store this afternoon where I found a chair that I'm planing on reupholstering and painting. That's on the agenda for tomorrow.

On another note, I've been really wanting to revamp my classroom for next year, but I didn't want to start from scratch. Right now, my "theme" is bright colors on black. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, but after seeing so many AWESOME classrooms recently, I need a change. So I've decided to finally remove the multicolored bulletin board border that I've had up for the last two years in lieu of something new.

But I've been having trouble deciding. I looked at some stuff at the teacher store in town, but nothing really jumped out at me. I was thinking something black and white to accent the colors, polka dots, chevrons, etc. Then it finally hit me as I was looking at upholstery for my new chair. My new theme is doing to be...drumroll, please...

ZEBRA!

How cute will that be?!

I'm thinking lime green, hot pink, or turquoise for the paint color and a zebra seat on the chair. The crates that I bought for my Pinterest project are a coral which I think will look really good with the zebra.

I'm excited!

Hopefully I'll have LOTS of SUCCESSFUL project pictures to share in my next post!

Wish me luck!

Oh, I'm also taking Charlie to the vet in the morning to get his teeth cleaned. And I'll be trying out the doggy seat belt again. Pray for me.

Have a great night!

It's SUMMER!!! Woo hoo!!!

Whoa.


No seriously. Whoa.


Thanks to Lindsay at My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher for giving my blog a shout out in her last post! My followers have more than TRIPLED in the last couple of days! SO EXCITING!!!

And, it's SUMMER!

Ahhhh. I feel more relaxed already.

So it's been about 5 6 days since my last post, and I've missed you! (Yes, you!)

Man, the last few days of school were a big ol' bowl of craziness.

Let's start with Monday.

Can it be? Only 6 more days!

Since my last post was long and rambling, I'm going to do my best to keep this short.

I'll try.

But I can't make any promises.

Once I get going, it's hard to stop.

As our last class novel of the year, we've been reading Zach's Lie (which the kids LOVE). In the book, the main character is put into the Witness Protection Program because his dad got caught up in a drug cartel. One of the key elements of the story is the journals that the main character keeps.

After the back to school sales in the fall, I managed to pick up some cheap composition notebooks for $0.15/each. Really good deal. I love clearance. I had no idea what I was going to use them for at the time, but the deal was too good to pass up, and I bought about 30.

When we started reading Zach's Lie, it occurred to me that journaling would be a great extension activity for the book (and would get some use out of those notebooks I had sitting on a shelf). So I made cute labels with each kid's name, and handed them out. The only condition that I put on the journals was that they had to write one page per day. I don't care what they write about and they can request that I not read their entries and just glance to make sure that they did it.

Free end of the year poster!

I told Matthew that I was just going to finish uploading a file to TpT and then I would get off of the computer, but I really wanted to share my newest resource with you! It's free for now, but will be $1 in a couple of days.

Enjoy!