Crafting, costumes, jewelry, fashion, DiY grown fresh daily!
Ten years ago I had just started my junior year of college. Ordinary day turned into extraordinary.
Later that year, all the choirs at UNC performed the Britten War Requiem. It had been chosen prior to the reality-changing events of today, but it deeply struck a chord with everyone who was a part of the performance. To this day it remains one of the most powerful pieces of music I have ever experienced.
Always remembering.
The view from my desk in my nearly-finished classroom. School officially starts tomorrow, though I have been here for several weeks preparing, decorating, and testing students.
It’s come to my attention that – at least for the next little while – teaching will be keeping me impressively busy. So I shall be taking a bit of a blogging hiatus until I see how things will settle out. I want to give my students all my energy (thought I of course won’t forget to care for myself!) and focus on this tenuous first year in my career. I’m uncertain when and if I’ll be back to blogging here regularly, but I anticipate a few fun projects and great ideas will be shared periodically.
So, with much love, I bid you adieu… for now!
But what if it is? Can you fix it? Is it worth the DiY?
This rocker was left outside another teacher’s room with a sign saying it was broken. It looked in good condition, but after sitting in it (not necessarily recommended… Please don’t risk injury, haha!), I noted that the only flaw was a loose right armrest due to a missing screw. An extra screw and 30 seconds later, the chair was good as new and sitting in a place of honor in my classroom! I’d been hoping to have a rocking chair for reading, and now I got it!
Then there was this little table, sturdy and in good condition, but the top was a mess. Even after cleaning, it was patchy and stained. My solution? Paint that tabletop! Now it’s a great extra addition for the classroom, useful for students to use as a group learning area (also it fits neatly under one of the other tables, storage win!).
What DiY projects have really paid off for you?
I’ve been steadily working on my classroom, and I’ve just about got it where I want to start out. Furniture is in place, number and alphabet lines are up, library is.. well, halfway sorted. Now all I need is kids!
A lot of the walls are still bare as we’ll be creating charts with students. I love the bunting, and I’m planning on having the kids create more for the rest of the room. I’m so excited! Just two weeks until school starts! Wow!
I’ve been at it all week decorating my classroom and have come across a need for an alphabet line. My students will mostly know their letters, but an alphabet line is useful for creating alphabetized lists. I decided to keep on with the bunting idea! I went ahead and created both upper and lower case letters in a PDF file that I will printout on colored paper and trim to the right size. It’s easy to do on your own, just make sure your top margin is as small as possible!
Need an easier idea? Try the bunting printable with these cute patterns over at Ruffled! It’s so cute!
What make and takes have you found additional uses for?
OMG you guys, I can’t even contain myself. THIS IS MY CLASSROOM.
It’s a great 30’x26’ space, and I’m expecting about 27 kids for my very first class! I’m mapping out my arrangement of the room, but I’ve got a great blank slate to work with! What should I do? Throw your ideas out, I’d love to hear them!
Holy cow, is it really that time? Sure is! Most schools will be starting in just a few weeks, about halfway through August, and we sure are close to that! In celebration, here are some fun projects to prepare for the big return.
Rhonda of Dollar Store Crafts developed this adorable pencil cuff! Great for teachers and kids alike, it’s a way to show off one of our favorite classic writing utensils. Think of all the things you can do with pencils, wow!
This adorable burlap pencil case is printed with a little foam and some paint to create a block print. Super cute and of course functional! Thanks, Factory Direct Craft!
Finally, our own speech bubble chalk boards take nothing more than foamcore, a knife, and some chalkboard paint. Make any shape you want! Fun first day photos, anyone?
What are some of your great projects for back to school?
Blue is one of my favorite colors for decorating. From a pale blue-green like antique glass to a warm tiffany blue, they all make exciting statements!
Blue is generally considered to be soothing and calming, but other blues can be exciting and impulsive! Check out these examples!
I love this bold teal. It makes a great statement in a room filled with mostly other greys.
This royal blue accompanies the warm gold and wood tones of the vignette in this room very well, balancing and bringing interest!
This pretty pastel looks especially nice highlighted by the white trim and details.
What’s your favorite blue room?
Recently a purchased a FABULOUS pair of gold glitter shoes for a friend’s wedding (who doesn’t love a bride who asks you to wear GLITTER shoes?), and I am just SO in love with them! Check out the finds I’ve made by continuing the search!
These are similar to the Steve Maddens I bought, but the glitter here is darker and multi-colored! The sparkle really makes this classic style exciting!
Who doesn’t love the Dorothy-style magic of a pair of red glitter shoes? I think the strap makes it that much more fun!
If you’re a little more budget-conscious, don’t worry! Our friends at Target have a great collection of shimmering shoes to sate our appetites for sparkle.
No need for heels? Try these super simple ballet flats – comfort and style all in one!
Which are your favorites?
Happy Monday all! With school starting up, I expect to be busier and busier, so I’m switching back to Tuesday and Thursday postings (after skipping Friday, apparently. XD). Hope to have some great projects from the classroom coming up soon! See you tomorrow!
Pardon my unannounced absence on Monday; we’ve had family and friends visiting and I found myself very (and happily!) busy! Everyone is now at or on their way home, and Nick and are are delighting in the chance to spend some time together and reflect on the wonderful weekend and visits.
One of the things we got to do during the visit was accept some family heirlooms from Nick’s grandfather. Here’s some of the collection!
Some chopsticks and boxes from Japan, received during a visit to a former exchange student there.
An absolutely incredible custom jade stamp made for Nick’s grandfather on that same trip – the contents of the boxes in the first photo.
A wonderful old boy scout guide book! It has notes and letters inside, too! It’s been clearly well-loved.
What treasures have you received from your family?
Today is Nick’s and my engagement party! We’re having a few immediate family and members of the wedding party for a fun BBQ out in our local park. Here’s a few of the decorations I’ve prepped to make it festive! Most of these will also be appearing at the wedding, too!
Have a wonderful weekend, all!
[Sorry, this didn’t seem to have posted last week, so here it is a little late!]
Last night the winner of the HGTV Green Home was surprised at her home! I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t me (or Nick!), but delighted that the home is going to a fellow educator.
Nick and I were in luck because the Green Home this year was built in the nearby community of Stapleton in Denver. Because of it’s closeness, we had the delight of visiting and having a tour of the place! It was really incredibly gorgeous and inspiring to view this spectacular home in person.
One of my personal favorites was the “Do” Room, an evolved craft room that also doubles as laundry.
Both comfortable and functional, the room has places for all your crafting, but also the potential to hide it and create a serene space for just about anything!
Did you know the Green Home also has an unfinished basement? All that gorgeous space, and then some you can customize!
Congrats to the winner, and enjoy!
A recent thrift store find had me excited about making a new project. This simple wooden hook hanger was a plain rust-color when I picked it up, but I’d had this great bird printable on hand, and decided to use it to embellish the accessory!
I started with the hook, a small mirror, the printed sheet, scissors, and a little glue.
I folded the paper around the edges of the block to figure out where the corners would be. Then I snipped them a little so there wouldn’t need to be any corner folds.
Paper will of course tend to wrinkle because of the moisture in the glue, so I used a small paint bottle to roll out the bubbles and wrinkles.
I added the mirror on with a little more glue once the base dried! Exciting!
Not wanting the bare edges of the mirror to show, I picked out a few pheasant feathers to glue around the edges. I carefully overlapped the tips over the quills so they wouldn’t show.
And the finished product!
What finds have inspired you lately?
Though the first part of my weekend was dedicated to taking two additional PLACE certification tests, after I completed that chore I drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park to spend some quality time camping out with friends and fiancé. We had some amazing neighbors: about four elk who regularly wandered through our camp like they owned it (which I guess they do, after all). I have rarely been so close to wild creatures, and rarely do I get to enjoy a beautiful morning view like this one.
All personal photos taken with my Android using the RetroCam application.
Continuing on my adventure with chalkboard paint, I thought one morning as I made Nick his coffee and me my tea that our respective morning beverages would be a fun place for some chalky application. Not IN the cups, but ON them!
I started with these plain coffee and teacups, purchased for a pittance at the local ARC.
I taped off my areas for painting. This shows just the placement of the tape; I added more wax paper to cover the rest of the cups later.
And the final results!
What are your plans for chalkboard paint?
I happen to have a theme for this week, and it’s dun dun dun… chalkboard paint! I started out using it for speech bubbles for our engagement photos. After that, I made some boards into regular old chalk boards, also for use at the wedding! Those are all fine and dandy, but I wanted to see what else I could do with this versatile paint! So I grabbed a few jars that I’ve been collecting and a few other cans of paint and went to work!
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Wax paper and painter’s tape helped me seal off the areas I didn’t want getting paint on them. I did each jar a little bit differently! One jar got a complete coat on the outside (after a base coat of regular spray paint), another got an interior coat of white and a fabric cap. These two others are my favorites!
A little squat salsa jar got a coat of light brown paint inside, but the cap got a few coats of the chalkboard paint! Since I couldn’t get all the adhesive off from the original sticker, I covered it with some cute cute lunch-themed fabric and there you are: lunch money jar!
The other I added a little chalkboard ‘label’ to! First I blocked out a base for the label and painted with the same beige as the lunch money jar. Then I blocked out a slightly smaller space for the chalkboard paint using painter’s tape. A few coats later, and there we are!
The adventures will continue Friday with more chalkboard paint stories… Stay tuned!
