Currently Linking Up

Hi friends! Today I'm linking up to a few blogs to share some things I've purchased and created, and to also share my August Currently.

First, I'm linking up with Christina to share some of the things I recently ordered from Vistaprint. I bought a Groupon for $17 of $70 worth of products, and I'm pretty excited about what I made! First, I made behavior punch cards out of business cards.

In one of my very first blog posts, I wrote about my rewards system, and this year, since we're going to be a Leader in Me campus, I decided to change the phrase from "________ does great things" to "________ is a great leader"! I'm hoping the business card size won't be too small, especially because I ordered 500 of them!

Next, I ordered these oversized postcards to use on our back to school night, which for us is the Thursday before school starts. I left the closing blank because I'm planning to share these with the other teachers on my team, and that way we can each sign our name on the bottom.

I made these postcards, too; they're blank on the back and I used a rocket because my class is the Rockets!

The last thing I made was this banner, and while it wasn't part of the special deals offered with the Groupon, I only needed to spend $25 over my $70 total to get free shipping, and I figured it'd be smarter to make something else than just pay for shipping! I love this quote, and I'll refer to it to help my students remember to be proactive (habit #1).

I'm also linking up with Elizabeth's Fabulous Find Friday linky party. My birthday was yesterday, so I did a little shopping (although I bought nothing for me personally; everything was for my classroom!) and this is what I found:

I got this wonderful organizer at Michael's for around $30. I found it in the plastic scrapbooking storage section, and right now everything in that section is 40% off (the sale ends tomorrow, so if you want one for yourself, you'd better go quick!). It was originally $70, and I had a coupon for an additional 20% my entire purchase, including sale items, so it ended up being more than half off! I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use it for, but it makes me happy just looking at it - these guys have so much potential!

I found these felt crowns at Hobby Lobby for 80% off -  they were in the summer section, and with the discount, I paid $1.30 for BOTH! I'm planning to use them for birthday celebrations in my classroom! The small plastic containers came from HEB (a grocery store), and they were only $1! As soon as I saw them I knew they'd be perfect to hold dice - I pinned this awhile ago, and have been on the look out for dice rolling containers ever since, so I'm very happy to have these.

Finally, I wanted to link up to Farley's August Currently - head on over to her blog to grab your blank copy and link up!

I used my Boxy Print font for my answers - if you like it, you can find it in my TpT store here!

For my back to school must haves, I need to find a new pair of black leather flip flops. We're allowed to wear flip flops at our school as long as they're not like shower shoes, so I'm on the hunt for a new pair since I literally wore the soles out of my other pair last year! I also need a new lanyard for my keys and ID, but I've already purchased my eraseable pens! If you've never heard of these before, they're called FriXion pens, and they're made by Pilot. I had a student last year with sensory issues, and his therapist recommended he use these pens instead of pencils because they were easier for him to hold. You can buy these pens at all office supply stores, but they only have red, blue, and black. Well, after some searching, I found a website called JetPens, which sells the FriXion pens in tons of colors! These particular pens are imported from Japan, and they work beautifully. In fact, I am so obsessed with these pens that I just ordered myself the FriXion markers too! I'm mostly excited to have these for my gradebook - now if I need to change a grade, I don't have to scribble over it or use White Out; I can just erase it and write it again!

That's all I've got for today! I'll be back on Monday to finish up the second half of my Cliffs Notes version of the 7 habits (and don't forget, my giveaway for an Erin Condren teacher planner ends Monday night, so if you haven't entered, you have a few more days to do so - click here to go to the giveaway page!). Have a great weekend, y'all!

Monday Made It

Hey y'all! I'm happy to finally be able to participate in Tara from 4th Grade Frolics' Monday Made It! Last week, when I was reorganizing and cleaning up my Pinterest boards, I made a list of the things I'd like to try and make before the summer is over. Today, I realized two of the things on my list could be made using materials I already had at home, so I got to work!

First, I made this Kiss Your Brain treat jar (source; pin). I used an empty plastic rice container, scrapbook paper, left over glittery stickers from a wedding project made for a friend, and Modge Podge. I love using the phrase "kiss your brain" when a student says something super smart or inquisitive, and now my students can grab a Hershey's Kiss from my jar if I tell them to kiss their brain!

(just imagine there are Hershey Kisses inside!)

For myself, I made a spiced concentrate (source; pin) to add to my chai tea lattes. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I.am.obsessed. with chai tea lattes. Unfortunately, I can't afford to spend $5 at Starbucks every time I crave one, so I've been on a mission to try and recreate the drink at home. This concentrate is made using sweetened condensed milk and a combination of spices, and it definitely mimics whatever it is they add to the chai at Starbucks! I've made sugar syrups (both vanilla and cinnamon and then vanilla and cinnamon combined), and those made my drinks gritty and overly sweet. The sweetened condensed milk is sweet, too, but it's not so sweet that you feel like you're going to get a cavity from drinking your tea! If you're a chai tea latte lover like me, I highly recommend making this to add to your tea (I make the base of my drink from Tazo chai tea concentrate and vanilla soy milk).

If you'd like to link up with something you made or just want to check out what other people have made, click the image below to join the linky!

And, just in case you haven't checked them out yet, I made a few new fonts last week and you can win your favorite if you just visit this post and leave me a comment telling me which one is your favorite (they're also for sale in my TpT store)! There will be four winners, and the giveaway ends tomorrow evening, so don't forget to stop by!

Busy Busy

As the title of this post suggests, I've been busy, busy - but, none of what's keeping me busy has anything to do with teaching or my classroom! I know this is a teaching blog, but it's summer, after all, so I don't feel guilty about taking a little teaching break! However, I do plan on going to my classroom sometime later this week to pick up my Daily 5 and Cafe books so I can participate in this book study - it's been awhile since I've reviewed both books, so I'm excited to join in - are you going to read along, too? 

Thanks to those of you who left sweet comments on my last post - saying goodbye to a beloved pet is never easy, even if it is something that needs to happen. Both me and my other cat, Maggie, were in mourning for a few days, so my vet suggested getting another cat to help with the healing process. So, part of what has been keeping me busy these days is my new kitten, Abita. She's precious, see?

It's only been a week since I said goodbye to Corona, and Abita is not a replacement by any means, but she is certainly helping me not be as sad as I've been. I'm in love with her name, too - my friend Emily suggested giving her a beer-related name, since Corona was named after the beer, and my sister came up with Abita, which is perfect because not only does her name pay tribute to Corona, but Abita is a Louisiana beer, and I was born in Louisiana. My boyfriend spent his middle and high school years in New Orleans, so he instantly liked the name, too. Maggie is still gets a little uneasy if Abita gets too close, but she's definitely made progress in tolerating her.

Another thing that's been keeping me busy is Pinterest. Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics has been hosting a Monday Made It linky party, but I can't participate quite yet because nothing I've made has been teaching/classroom related. However, Amber from Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher is hosting another linky party called I Saw It on Pinterest, and I can link up to that one! There are a few new things I've made this summer from things I've pinned (mostly recipes), so I'll share those as well as a few things I'd like to make:

First, I made this bread, and it was delicious AND easy:

pin; website/photo source

I've been making homemade pizza dough for awhile now (recipe here), so I decided to make my own pizza sauce, too:

pin; website/photo source

I also just bought a popsicle mold at Ross (it's not a Zoku, like the recipe below shows; mine's just a regular plastic mold), and these Nutella fudgesicle pops are currently being frozen in my freezer (I made them this morning!):

pin; website/photo source

I want to make a few crafty things this summer, too, and these cute gold tube bracelets look super easy:

pin; website/photo source

For my classroom, I'd like to set up my first Donor's Choose project, and the information found here will be very helpful, I think:

pin; website/photo source 

There are many other things I'm itching to try, and you can see all my pins and boards here:

I have plenty of teaching related boards, so feel free to follow me! Link up over at Amber's blog to see what everyone else has been up to this summer!

As for now, I need to get after some cleaning and tidying - my mom is coming to town on Saturday, and she'll be staying in Austin for a whole week! I'm excited to get to spend some quality time with her and my sister, so that means I'll be absent from blogging for another week or so while she's in town. Until then, friends!

Blogging's the Best!

Hi friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I spent the majority of my day at school today prepping for the week - can't it be spring break forever?!

I still need to type up my lesson plans for the week, but I wanted to say thank you to a few fabulous blogging friends first. I seem to neglect my blog most during the week, and I can't let more days go by without recognizing these ladies! 

First, I was among the first commenters on a few giveaways, and I want to say a big thank you to Abby from Third Grade Bookworm for her fabulous St. Patrick's Day file and Kristen from Ladybug's Teacher Files for her awesome syllable game. I love that I was able to use their products quickly and easily, and didn't have to create something on my own - while I do love making my own stuff, I don't always have the time or energy, so thank you, ladies, because your products made my days easier!

    

Next, there are two bloggers I want to say thank you to because they shared some of my work! First, Courtney from Miss Third Grade used my Monster Multiplication freebie (found here on TpT) with her class and shared it on her blog! Then, Karen from KB Konnected wrote about my free font on her blog (and she also took the time to email me about how to make the Pin It! button work, which was super nice of her!). It really makes me happy to see and hear about people using and liking the things I make, and I appreciate these ladies taking the time to share my stuff with their followers! (Similarly, thank you to those of you who stopped by to leave a comment about my blog redesign - I'm glad y'all like it!!)

There are also a couple of great giveaways going on right now, and I wanted to share them with y'all, just in case you wanted to enter yourself! Molly from Lessons with Laughter is giving away a $25 Target gift card, and she's also shared a sweet discount code for Erin Bradley Designs. Then, Bethany from The Bubblegum Tree is giving away a few different goodies, like clip art (which her husband made!) and a set of Editing Ed pens (which I so want to win - I went shopping specifically for crazy hair like she used, and couldn't find it anywhere!!). Head over to her blog to enter for your chance to win! Both of these ladies had their giveaways in honor of reaching 100 followers - I think I'll do the same when I get there myself (I'm halfway there!). 

Then, I know I'm a little late joining in on this, but just in case there are a few of you out there that haven't heard of it yet, Lorraine from Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies is hosting an upper grades teacher blogger linky party - click the button above to join in! I can't wait to have some free time to go check out everyone who linked up - there are a ton of blogs I haven't ever seen before, so I hope to find some new inspiration there (and maybe some of them will find me, too!).

    

Finally, Marcie from 2nd Grade Learning Safari awarded me with the Top 10 Blog Award! I've seen this award on a lot of other bloggers' sidebars, and I'm happy to be able to display it on mine, too! I will pass along the award later this week, because I am going to need some time to snoop around y'all's blogs to see who hasn't gotten it yet. :)

Thanks for sticking with me as I went through all that! I just want to be sure I'm always giving credit where credit is due - thanks again to all the great bloggers who show and share their creations, stop by and comment, and pass along and use my ideas, too - that's what makes blogging the best! Have a great night, y'all!

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