Keeping Busy: Latest Projects

Being a teacher means that I have summers off from mid-June until the beginning of August. Obviously I keep thinking about teaching, curriculum, my past students, what I want to do differently, what I can improve on, etc. etc… But in between all of that, I have to actually DO something productive or I will go crazy! Pinterest has been a great resource for finding fun and (somewhat) useful projects to fill my time.

Here are a few of the things that I have made over the past few days:

 1.) I have turned some of our old T-shirts, that we did not necessarily want to get rid of, into re-usable bags! After about 4 of them, I was cranking out a bag in 10 minutes flat, with just a few simple cuts and one zigzag stitch to close up the bottom.

Although they look like my brother's workout shirts, these are actually a few of the bags I made.

One of the bigger shirts (Adult Large) is a great size for carrying all of the bags that I made and keeping them somewhat organized in my car, between uses. This is also a good idea of what the bags look like when they are filled. 

If you would like to know how I made the re-usable bags, read on!

 1- First, cut open the neck. I used a dinner plate and a fabric pen to trace out an even semi-circle and make the hole bigger. This will be the opening of the bag.

 2- Second, cut off the arms following the seam on the sleeve. These will be the bag handles.

 When cutting off the arms, do not cut the seams. As you can see in this picture, I left the original stitching in tact to strengthen the handle.

 3- Now for the bottom. I flipped the shirt inside out at this point to sew up the bottom of the bag. Using a zigzag stitch to secure the bottom.

 To make more of a tapered corner for the bag, I folded the corners in, pinned and sewed shut. 

 There is the final project!

Another project I have taken on is to create a place to store our ticket stubs in a fun and organized way:

 This is what we used to have. A small photo book with clear plastic sleeves. As you can see, some of the tickets are too big for the album and fall out easily. 

 To solve this problem, I took another idea from Pinterest :) Using a shadow box frame (5 x 8), I removed the back and placed the tickets inside. That's it! Simple and cute.

I think I underestimated just how many ticket stubs we have all together and our box is already full! I would like to try and find a new shadow box frame, maybe something long and not so tall, to give us more space to display our ticket stubs!

New Job

Just some exciting news… I got a new job! Tomorrow is my Teacher Orientation at the Cupertino Union School District!

After getting pink-slipped in the Campbell School District, I set out applying for jobs on all of the major teaching hiring sites (public and private). After a few weeks of seeking out positions and making calls, we left for our Anniversary Trip to Costa Rica (pictures to come) and I put the job search on hold. I got a call from the Cupertino District asking for an interview, two days into the trip and since I was out of town for another week, I asked if we could hold a Skype interview. Gratefully, they had the technology to make that a possibility and 2 days later, I had an interview with the HR Director. 

I was in for a shock because at the end of the interview, he asked if I would accept a teaching position in Cupertino! I will be teaching 4th grade at Collins Elementary School with a great team of teachers (I met the two other teachers I will be working with at an interview with the principal at Collins) and I can't wait for a new experience at one of the best school districts in California!

Visiting The Girls (and Kelly and Dan:)

A little while back, during Spring Break, I spent a few days in Utah with Kelly, Dan and the girls. It was fun to spend time with them after not seeing them since Christmas and not being out to Utah since their wedding last July. I loved spending time just with Tessa and growing to love her goofy personality a little bit more. 

*Side Note: Kelly: Your girls are the cutest girls ever and you (and now Dan) have done such an amazing job raising them. Thank you for letting me come and be Aunt Dani for a few days! 

For your viewing pleasure, I have included a few videos of the girls and pictures of Tessa. Tess and I got to spend some good time together as we watched movies (George of the Jungle) and made our own videos on my iPhone (Tess got a kick out of seeing herself on the screen and making funny faces).

On Wednesday night, we all went to Sky High (an indoor trampoline park). I was a little worried at first, seeing all of these big kids jumping around and me thinking that Callie (who is afraid of no one and jumped wherever she pleased) and Tessa (who stayed mostly in the kiddie area) would be squished by an unaware teen. But they jumped around on the cool trampolines and into the foam pits and we left no worse for wear (well.. maybe not all of us… Dan). I was impressed with Callie's form as she jumped in to this pit a few times in a row, so I had her repeat it for the camera. 

And lastly, I found this treasure while Tess and I were drawing one afternoon. You can tell from the handwriting that Callie drew it and added the labels herself. I snapped a picture and sent it to Matt right away. It made his day:)

Something I Cannot Forget...

I am working late... again and as I am inputting my student's book orders for this month (yes, it is the last day of the month) I came across a book that promised many hands-on activities to teach Literary Elements. At first I was intrigued. Something different and new to add to my collection of teaching books, and then I read the blurb and got all I needed to from these few sentences!

"Activities like Setting Pop-ups, Paper-Chain Characters, Plot Mini-Book, and Theme in a Bottle help students learn by doing....."

All fine and good but I stopped at the "Paper-Chain Characters" and I got an idea that I don't want to forget and since I will forget it if it is not on Pinterest or my Blog, here it is.

Paper- Chain Complex Characters- Students build a paper chain by first starting with the character's name. Then, as they think of adjectives to describe their character (or themselves, maybe as a beginning of the year activity) the chain gets progressively longer and longer and thus, more complex! How visual and cool is that?! I may even try it with my class this year to try it out before trying it next year. We will see.

Well, there it is. My idea that I cannot forget! I will post pictures if I try it with my kiddos this year.

Wrapping Up The Break...

After a week of working on various projects and just enjoying a week of sleeping in and lounging, I finished my sewing project and here are the results…

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(With no zippers, elastic and just a tie in the back, it is pretty easy and pretty fun to make too! Fluttery sleeves are harder to pull off than I thought. I might be altering these later on.)

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(Since it was a little chilly the first Sunday that I wore this dress, I grabbed a turquoise cardigan to throw over it. Even though it is hard to see in the photo, the pattern in the dress also has some turquoise in it as well so the colors went well together.)

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Overall, I felt like it was a success. I might attempt to make this dress again (following the same pattern) in a jersey or knit fabric and see how that turns out. But I probably wont attempt that until the Summer:)

President's/Ski Week Break

First, I want to apologize for the lack of posts. The only excuse that I have is that I have been attempting to keep my 4th grade class from exploding with all that we have been doing and trying to stay on top of it all!

But, now that I have a week off (!!!!) I can catch up! Here is what I have been up too this past week!

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I have been reading and laughing at comics like this…

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I have been altering a few of my shirts/pants. After looking over Pinterest ideas, I got inspired to "skinny-up" and shorten a pair of jeans that I had been rolling up to wear with sandals during the summer. (Inspired by: http://cottonandcurls.blogspot.com/2011/02/busy-busy-day.html)

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After going fabric shopping with some girls from the ward a while back, I saw a sample dress in the store in a beautiful brown and paisley pattern and a very cute/simple cut. After a little deliberation (about 1 minute), I checked the tag for the pattern number and got ready to run around the store looking for that exact fabric. I found all of the materials and then it sat in a bag in my closet for about 3 months. I figured it was time to pull it out and test my sewing skills on this new project. So far, I have just cut out each of the pieces and the interfacing. I had to grad sharper needles today and soon I will be putting it all together! I will post the final result as soon as it is finished!

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And finally, I have been taking advantage of the GREAT weather and soaking up the sun! Today, I read/tanned outside for a while and then I returned outside a little later to get some work done. I am so grateful for this beautiful yard and I am sad to be leaving it in the near future.