Mail It Yourself Monday!

Make Mail It Yourself Monday!

Since the craft that I am currently working on this week is taking a little longer than normal, this week's Make It Yourself Monday is getting a makeover!  I have recently become obsessed with mailing stuff the good ole fashion snail mail way.  As I have gotten older and started blogging more, my friends and connections are becoming scattered all across the U.S.! 

In my new obsession with mailing, I felt it only appropriate that (1) I have the best mailing essentials and (2) I develop an address book of some sort to keep track of everyone.  I have gotten a head start with the mailing essentials, thanks to etsy.  I ordered monogrammed return address labels which are just tooo perfect! I have also begun collecting any and all cute stationary that I can find.

I am still looking for the best address book that I can find... Any suggestions???



Love is in the Air! ...and a little Make it Yourself Monday

In efforts to not ruin the surprise for Mark, I did not post what I made him for Valentine's Day last week.  Instead it will be my Make It Yourself Monday for this week!  Mark and I have never really been too into Valentine's Day but I decided that I would make his something "cheesey" this year and mail it to him since we are "long distance" this year.  After searching Pinterest high and low, I finally decided what I would do... "52 Things I Love About You" in a deck of cards.

Making this was the easy part... putting 52 reasons into words was the hard part!  I decided to type up my 52 reasons and then cut and paste them onto the cards.  Next step, punching holes in the cards and then binding them with the rings!  This wasn't a fairly difficult DIY but I was very pleased with how it turned out!  Mark even told me I should think about publishing... little does he know they're all over pinterest already.

Love is in the Air!

Mark decided to surprise me when I went home this weekend with flowers and the cutest little stuffed animal dog that sits on candy.  It was simple and sweet and just what I needed after a long week!  And yes, I do plan on sleeping with the stuffed animal dog.

Boys are so hard to shop for...what do you buy and/or make for them?

Organization Heaven!

In my "Procrastination at it's Finest!" moment tonight I came across some great WONDERFUL websites and blogs tonight with free printables of To Do Lists, Book Tags, Grocery Lists, and much much more!  I have already wasted plenty of ink and time on these tonight and cannot wait to see what else they have next!  These sites are perfect for anyone who is obsessed with organization!

First stop: Trillustrations! 

These book tags are perfect!  I have been just writing my name on the inside but these are soooo much better!  I will definitely be using these in my classroom library and my own personal library!

This blog has endless free printables that I can not wait to explore!

Next stop: Orange You Lucky

I know I already showed you some book labels but these are just too cute too!  I may just have to switch back and forth between the three!

And... for the girl that likes to make lists, lists, and more lists: FREE Homemade Gift Ideas

This is the list I printed tonight (it comes in many different colors!):

Last but DEFINITELY NOT LEAST: What The Teacher Wants

This site has almost anything and everything that a teacher could want and most of it (all that I have seen so far) is completely free to download and print!

Hopefully this organization can lead to less procrastination!

What do you like to use to keep organized??

Make It Yourself Monday!

Today I wanted to share with you all some of my Valentine's Day goodies that I have made! 

I put together goodie bags for my fourth graders.  They include a Valentine's pencil, heart shaped crayon (see details below), and Skittles (what kid doesn't love candy?!).  And then to finish off the bags, I put a little heart shaped note on the front that says "You're the WRITE one for me!" Hopefully the fourth grade boys don't take this the wrong way!

To make the heart shaped crayons (idea from Pinterest) you have to peel and brake tonssss of crayons, this is not the fun part, and then melt them into the shape you want... it's really quite easy!

I also baked cupcakes for tomorrow, I figured we could use some sugar while we take our exam during class in the morning!  I tried some new techniques but I still need some practice icing them.  Any suggestions or tips on a better icing to use or how to ice them better would be greatly appreciated!

Well that's it for Make It Yourself Monday!  I have a couple more Valentine's Day goodies to share but I will wait until after tomorrow so I don't risk ruining the surprise!

Have a great Valentine's Day tomorrow!

"Love is like the wind. I can't see it, but I can feel it."

                              - A Walk to Remember

Make It Yourself Monday!

I am so excited to be back on track with blogging (two days in a row)!  I do apologize as this post is going to be quite short this evening as I have accumulated a massive pile of homework after classes today.

As you may know, last Friday was my boyfriend Mark's birthday.  I really struggled with what to get him this year since he just had graduation and Christmas and received just about everything he could ever want and/or need.  So I decided to supply his fun for his birthday celebrations...

This project is really simple and can be tweeked in numerous different ways.  I put styrofoam in the bottom of the pot and glued wooden skewers onto the bottles to hold them in place.  With a paint marker and some tissue paper, we were good to!  (This project was inspired by Pinterest.)

What have you made lately?

I'm Back!!!

Life has hit me with a thousand to-do lists lately and I have been trying to get into the swing of things with my crazy semester but I have finally gotten things under control and organized... Hello Blogging World, I'm Back!

The past two weeks have been filled with trying to get used to my classes, all of my assignments, MY INTERNSHIP IN THE 4TH GRADE, and still trying to find time for myself and the gym.  Yikes!

Mark's birthday was Friday and he spent the weekend here, which was much needed and perfect!  After two stressful weeks a weekend with the one you love just makes everything better.  Next weekend, I will be going home to Charlotte to have some much needed family time!

Enough about my life, I would like to share with all of you about the life of someone else how I have found truly inspiring, Ron Clark.  I have been assigned to read his book "The Essential 55: An Award Winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child" and it is honestly changing my outlook on life and especially how I want to teach my students!  I highly recommend this book for anyone but especially teachers!  It is a super easy read and definitely worth it! 

Ron Clark was a Teaching Fellow in North Carolina and has gone to do so many great things in his teaching career, I can only hope to be as good of a teacher as he is one day!  In summary, his book gives 55 essential rules that should be upheld in the classroom; I thought this book was going to be boring and about discipline but boy was I wrong!  This book talks about teaching and enforcing respect and manners and helping your students genuinely care about others and themselves... I even found myself crying in some parts!

Goal for tomorrow, get back to my Make It Yourself Mondays! 

 I have a great new project that I can't wait to share with y'all!

Terrific Tuesday

After a great Last First Day of School as a student, I can only hope that the rest of my Tuesday's will be "terrific".  My day was filled with being handed stacks of paper (a syllabus should never be 15 pages long, this must be a joke) and being overwhelmed with assignments.  And remember the book list I had of books that I wanted to read?  Well that can be thrown out the window after I rented 3 books, and purchased 9...that's right I have a whopping 12 books for this semester to read. 

On a positive note, I got my placement for my internship...4th Grade!!!  More details on my internship will come soon but I do know that my teacher will be out on maternity leave later in the semester so hopefully I will get more time to actually teach the kids!

Oh and did I mention that we already have a field trip to Discovery Place planned for my classes!! Yep that's right, my professors would like to teach us how to "Plan and Implement a Field Trip".  Sounds like the best idea ever to me!

Hoping all of you First Day of Schoolers, Students, and Teachers, had a great day! 

Can't wait to see what tomorrow's classes bring!