Weekend Warriors! Save your pennies!

I think by now you have figured out that I love link ups!  It gives us all so much more to think about and for us newbies to the blogging world, I think it also lets people know who we are!  So, I was reading one of my favs this morning, Lucky to Be in First and grabbing the fun freebies she is giving away today for the Letter V and scrolled back to find out about Weekend Warriors!

And, it's all about Money Saving Tips & Tricks for Teachers!  Who doesn't like to save money!?!  So, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite tips and tricks with you!

I know, you are probably wondering what in the world that could mean but I'm famous for using the back side of copy over-runs for scratch paper for meetings, cutting lessons for my small fries and great drawing paper for rainy day recess.  I know it isn't cute and doesn't have smart clipart and sweet designs on it but it sure is handy and it eases my guilt of wasting paper! :)

Yep, if you are a Silhouette or Cricut owner you gotta know about Expressions Vinyl!  I stumbled upon them when I owned my scrapbook store and they are my #1 one go to source for vinyl!  They are quick, efficient, have great customer service, every color of vinyl and their prices are crazy cheap!  a 12x24 sheet of regular vinyl is only $2.50!  The same thing from any local craft store is $9.99 for 12x48.  I know you can use a coupon but I never find the colors that I want in the big box stores!  So, if you need vinyl to cut your cute stuff before school starts, try them out!

You know that everything you read says to get plants and pets into your classroom!  I know, they are a pain but for 18 years of teaching I have always had a pet in my room and I have had some pretty creative ways of saving money once they get there!  I've had snakes, hamsters, fish, turtles, frogs, iguanas, rabbits, chinchilla, birds, rats, guinea pig and even a hedge hog!  If you've been reading my blog long, you know, I love some animals! :)  So, a few years ago I learned about Pets in the Classroom!

This amazing service allows you to write a ONE PAGE grant and then sends you a letter with coupons for free and drastically reduced animal and care items!  We are adding a hamster to our classroom this year and I can't wait for my kiddos to meet her!  

We have thrown around quite a few name choices here at the house but I think we will wait until school starts to make a name official!

I have more but many of them are listed in other fabulous posts that are linked to this party so hop back over to and check out all the great ideas from fellow teacher bloggers!

Happy Back to School Saving!

Five for Friday

WOOOHOOO!  It's here again!  Wait, it's summer.  And I'm a teacher.  So, every day is like Friday!  Anywho, Five for Friday is here again!

1. Finished this first book in the trilogy in about 2 days!

I picked this one up at Books a Million on clearance.  It's set in South Carolina on Sullivan's Island and a part of this transplanted Southern girl would secretly love to be part of an old Southern family.  So, I was hooked in about half a page and now I'm in search of the other two.  

I'm not a big book buyer.  I have a thing about reading.  It's a thing that makes it so I only read a lot during the summer.  I'm a picky reader.  If the story doesn't catch me in the first 5 pages it goes back on the shelf. I know, I'm fickle but ain't nobody got time for slow stories.  I will race through at least 10 books this summer.  Mostly life stories.  Nothing to heavy.  Just fun frivolous stuff that I get all wrapped up in and then move on to the next story.  Check it out, it's good!

2.  This fabulous Lilly print makes me smile.

Now, typically I'm not a Lilly girl.  Don't get me wrong, I love color and I love flowers but I don't love crazily over priced color and flowers.  But then this happened for a teacher end of year present from one of my sweet families who's Mama is also a teacher!  She acknowledged that I'm not a Lilly Girl but also noted that the print screamed happy!  She is oh so right!  I love it and might possibly be hooked!  I might have spied the matching towel at the pool yesterday and might have gone on line to find one! And in the process I might have accidentally spied this dress and really, really need it for #TpTVegas15!

I know, this girl looks a little creepy, Barbie, no thighs-ish but i LOVE the dress!

3.  How stinkin cute is this!?!  Some end of year teacher gifts are, well, special.  And then there are awesome gifts like this!

This is the front and back.  The front says Mrs, Mandrell, Thank you for helping me bloom!  

Love, Suzie

The back has two flowers wrapped around it.

It's a personalized flower vase from Thee Freckled Owl!  It came with a big beautiful bunch of flowers in it and I will love using it in my classroom!  Check out the designer's etsy store!  She is really reasonable.  

4.  This is my newest Mexican food obsession!  I stumbled upon it on my way to Philadelphia for the National Montessori Conference in March.  We had time to waste in the Charlotte Airport and came upon this fabulous place called Salsarita's.  I ordered these:

The picture doesn't do them justice.  They are beyond fabulous!  The chips are just the right bit of salty, the cheese is not just shredded, its also the white, runny, queso fabulous kind too.  One very cool thing about Salsarita's is that wether you order nachos or tacos or burritos, you get to add all the toppings of your choice!  No extra charge!  

When I came home from my little jaunt I was so sad because I figured it would not be a place I would visit often and low and behold, I found one in downtown Columbia!  Follow the link and find one near you!

5.  If you haven't seen it

go today!  What a great way to teach kids and adults about feelings!  Take Kleenex though...its possible a drop or two might leak out!

Be sure to hop back over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check out the other great bloggers who are linking up with her!

Monday Madness

I don't know about you but I am usually rain and ready to go on Monday.  My to do list is long and I have lots of energy to ge the week started.  I'm one of this girls that hits the wall on Tuesday.  But Monday, boy howdy.  I've got papers to copy and print and laminate and things to finish making and a to z readers to print and folders to stuff...you get the picture.  So, the summer isn't much different for me with the exception that I tend to lose track of the days during the summer.  If we ain't countin' them, I ain't rememberin' them!  Anywho, I decided to get started with a Monday Madness post so it will be habit when school gets started again!  Give me another week and I will have a link party created and you can add your Monday Madness!  In the meantime, feel free to add a comment and link to your blog and tell us what your up to this fine Monday morn!

Here we go!

1.  Creating my to-do list!  I have a few going already but I am going to make a list of all the things that I want to have ready for the first day of school.  Specifically I am thinking about folders, notebooks, labels, etc.  I am a Montessori teacher so I hang with the same kids for three years.  I get new kiddos each year but 2/3 of my class stays the same. That means I can get everything ready with the exception of a few names!  I'm using this form that I made to make that happen!  It's a freebie, so grab it if you'd like to!

And although there wasn't space on the freebie I want to give a HUGE shoutout to http://www.mycutegraphics.com!  What an AMAZING resource for creating things!  She has great freebies and just as many adorable high quality paid clipart on http://www.whimsyclips.com.  I think I like her best because she loves teachers!

2.  I'm going to attempt to paint these babies!  

Turquoise and apple green are my classroom colors of choice this coming year so the rainbow is a little much.  I'm going to do an every other pattern using the paint below!  There was a Pinterest post about paining them but its a dead link so I'm on my own for this one!  Stay tuned for more details!

3.  I'm starting my weekly emails to my families!  Being a Montessori teacher means I get to bug my families all summer as well as during the school year to keep those brains moving.  Each Monday I send out an email with age appropriate books to read, educational apps to check out, summer happenings in our community to get involved in and links to my teacher Pinterest Boards for them to peruse.  It must be worth it because my families that graduate always beg to stay on the list for another summer!

4.  Keep on working on sprucing up this blog.  There are so many little things that I want to do to make it user friendly.  If you are just getting started, don't get discouraged!  There are a zillion awesome people out there in the blogging world who give free tutorials on just about everything!  Search around the blogs you love, make a list of things you want on your blog and then check them off one by one!  It takes time but hey, teachers have the summer off, right!?! :)

My list is getting long and I've got lots to do!  So have a marvelous Monday!

thankful

here are my first few pages of my thankful album that i am making due to the arm twisting inspiration of the fabulous cathy zielske!  she posted this snappy little album and i snatched it up along with all the parts and pieces.  i am not usually one to snatch things off the internet.  i usually have to think about it until the holiday or occasion is long past but this time i got crazy and just did it.  coulda been the fact that our nation had just been hit by hurricane sandy and so many people are facing such extreme devastation that i needed to give extra thanks for all that i have or it coulda been i just needed to get my craft on.  nonetheless, i purchased and i am oh, so happy for it!

waste of time or just plain thankful?

well, it could be deemed such.  this girl can waste some mad time messing with fonts and colors and sizes and widgets and links on a blog.  i think it's what bogs me down every time i venture into this blogging world.  there are too many things to play with.  and then i spend all my blogging time messing with the layout. that being said, dinner calls but i am hoping to get back to this in order to post my thankful pages from cathy zielske's cute album idea!  thats why i'm attempting again...stay tuned!