Decorating my planner

While I've told you about my planner and said I was planning on sprucing it up, I've started a new hobby of "decorating" my planner each week. 

I don't decorate as elaborately as some people you may see on Youtube but I add just little touches of cuteness to make my week happier. 
 

Plus it gives me a bit of creative outlet that doesn't take more than the extra 5 minutes a week I have. 

School trumps blogs

Remember my first post?  I said I would probably blog during the summer and then stop when school started.  Umm, Yeah, I kept that promise. 

I am not going to post a lot today either.  I just wanted to update on my September goals. I've kept them almost as well as keeping up this blog- very inconsistent at best.

There have been some successes-- at one point I had lost 9.5 pounds and the house was clean.  I don't know that either is true today though.  I hit the halfway mark on my blog posts (5 posts instead of 10).  That's how this month has been. 

I have to remind myself: 

From this pin-- link broken

This is pretty much my motto.  

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 By this measurement I've done pretty good this month.  I think this will be my entire goal for the rest of October. We will see what October brings! 

 

I'm linking up to The Yellow Brick Road's October Small Goals. 

5 Tech-y things I'm loving right now

I am home with a yucky tummy bug.  Since I have now started feeling a little better, I decided to write a blog post.

Hmmm. . . what should I write about?  It's Friday so I would like to link up with Doodle Bug Teaching for Five for Friday.  But I like to have a theme to my posts.  I don't want to get out of bed to do anything so anything requiring creating/ decorating is out.  Maybe some computer things I like/ am using currently?  Okay, let's go with it!

Cricut Design Space Link

 This is a nice Overview Video.  I love this Youtube channel for easy to understand directions. 

Not including a link as if you don't use Reading Street it's useless.  :)

 No links for this-- just play around in Excel just like Word or PowerPoint!

iTunes link to Jumbled Sentences 1

Dropbox

Cricut cards to go with my new Cricut Explore One

My Cricut Explore One is now here.  I even set it up last night.  I am too rushed to blog about it tonight-- maybe later this week.  In the meantime, here are 4 cards I made with my (old, tiny) cricut.

Source- CAS(E) this sketch

I found this card sketch challenge.  It looks pretty simple so I decided to play along.  You know I can't follow directions but here is how it came out!

This is my closest card to the original. . . not quite there.  This is my daughter's favorite as she thinks the cupcake looks yummy. 

Sorry this one is so blurry-- really cute in real life!  I am too busy to retake pictures (or at least, I don't want to get the card out again when it is put away).  I like how "celebrate" is deliberately vague.  Can be used for birthday, anniversary, wedding, etc.

When planning out this card, I thought that the bow at the bottom could be the start of the stripes at the bottom of the layout.  I couldn't figure out what to do with it though so I abandoned that idea.  This is my husband's favorite card and again, party could be for lots of occasions. 

If you can't figure out, this one doesn't really follow the sketch at all.  It was late. . . my daughter needed to go to bed.  I did cut out 4 butterflies and fluffed them out.  Then I took a picture at an angle so you can see the flutter of them.  

I won a new Cricut Explore!

Yay!  It is not here yet but here are some links to inspire me in the meantime!  (Some of these are only able to be done with the newer, bigger Cricut-- some I probably could have done already. . . but I haven't) 

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I need to decorate my school laptop-- just so I can easily tell it is mine and not another teacher's or for students.  I am excited about being able to lay out projects online before cutting them.  I am also excited about the 12 X 12 size-- I know most Cricuts are this size but my Cricut was only 6 X 12. 

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 I am not sure that I will do this exact project but I am super, duper excited that I will be able to cut my own fonts like this "Pass the Chex" font from Kevin and Amanda. 

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This new Cricut is also supposed to be super intricate-- it can cut stuff like the  banner above.  I don't plan on making that banner but I think that the cuts would make cute cards. 

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This is not really a Cricut project at all but it would go great with my newly decorated laptop.  Plus, it lets me highlight a new Cricut feature-- print then cut.  Basically you can print cutesy designs like above and then cut them out with your Cricut.  So pumped for this feature! 

So stay tuned for my wonderful posts about all the things I cut out with my new Cricut! 

"Tot School" this week

I am not one to do too much in the way of cutesy themes-- either for school or at home.  This is mostly because I'm lazy, but also that I think part of life is the randomness.  Since school has started though, I have may a conscious effort to play with my daughter, to give her experiences that I may otherwise skip because they are a pain.  

Here are 5 experiences we experienced in the last week or so-- All with the "Creativity" theme:

Playdough

Here is my Amazon affiliate link

We found this set at Kohl's about a month ago.  It was on sale and then I had a 30% off coupon.  As a bonus, if I spent $50, I got $10 Kohl's cash.  (I LOVE Kohl's!)

I really like this set.  It gives some scissors experience and is really good for "process" art with playdough.  (If you don't know about process art, it's basically where it's just playtime).

I think playdough is a great sensory toy with lots of squishiness.  Plus, we can decompose objects to try to build them.  We talk about how faces have eyes, ears, noses, etc. and try to build a face. 

Cards

I've written before about how I like to use my Cricut to make cards with my daughter.  We made a couple more cards this week.  We push the buttons together and then she "writes" in the inside.  Great pre-literacy skills.   

Beads

 

Our current fascination is beads.  We like to generally make a mess with them while occasionally putting them on a "necklace".  It's about 90% mess and 10% necklace making.  We talk about the shapes, the colors, and the sound they make when they go all over.  Plus, it's great for fine motor skills. 


Clothespin Decorations

 I bought some clothespins for a project a couple of years ago, used the 2-3 I needed and then put the rest of the bag in the craft closet.  The little girl found them while we were making cards and decided we needed to "decorate" them.  We used mod podge on them.  Great experience with a paintbrush.

Yoga

See the Youtube Channel here

I know this doesn't really "fit" with the rest but we found this yoga series on Youtube.  It tells a story while doing yoga poses.  It's good for winding down before bedtime.  I also think it's good for listening comprehension as we have to follow a storyline.

Speaking of winding down, that's it' for me.  I'm linking up to a couple of parties-- Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and #TeacherMom for her TotSchool link-up (she is much more organized than me!).

Favorite Pins from August

Wow!  Where did August go?  Oh yes, school started, with all the busyness that brings.  My daughter is doing a little better sleeping than last week and school life is in a little bit more of a routine, which makes me much happier!  

This week, I've decided to highlight 5 pins (out of the 2.7K pins that I like) that I'm lovin' right now. 

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I know this is an idea that you discovered in 1992, but I need to do this.  I have two keys that look almost exactly the same.  It drives me CRAZY as I always try to use the wrong one.  I need to do this. 

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Obviously, it's still early but we've started thinking about Halloween.  My daughter loves butterflies and princesses and this outfit combines the two loves.  I'm not a huge fan of the hat but think it's pretty cute otherwise.  Mom, are you up for making this? 

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I love mixing up how students respond to questions.  It makes life more interesting for me and for them.  I really like this idea of having some standard ways to respond that students learn.  I may change some of the ways a bit as we use some Kagan techniques but I like this a lot!

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 This entryway is so different than mine but I would like to add some of the touches to my entry.  I like the wreath on the back of the front door, the little decorative pieces in the hall intersection, and the design of the angled wall.  Sets my thinking wheels in motion. . .

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 I don't know why but I'm suddenly obsessed with the idea of Candied Nuts.  Although I think they are yummy, I'm not one of those people obsessed with them when I smell them at fairs or malls.  However, I have this idea that they will be so simple and great to make.  Weird.  I may make them and see how they turn out. 

I'm linking up to Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.