Apologies, a Sneak Peek, and Many Thanks

I am so sorry I have been M.I.A. for the past few weeks. We have had a busy few weeks in the Johnson household! Traveling to Kansas for a worship leader conference with my husband, welcoming home my brother and his new fiance from South Korea, teacher workshops, reuniting with college roommates, working in the classroom, creating little projects (like this... more info soon)

... equals no time for bloggy blog. BUT I am back and hope to share many projects from my classroom and picture tour of course!

Now onto my thanks: I have been Pinterest-ing (again, I mean- who hasn't?!) and it's the time of year when organization is key. I'm readying my papers to have for Parent Orientation (in two and a half weeks, eek!) and thanks to Pinterest, I have found two gems that have made getting organized a wee bit easier.

1)A Back-To-School information form  from Mrs. Kincaid's First Grade: I especially liked how she did her transportation section, having the parents circle car/walk/bus/daycare, and then fill out the exact Daycare: so efficient!

2)A Weekly Organizer full of all of your to-do lists, meetings, and other necessities from What the Teacher Wants: this list would be great on your teacher table, by your computer, or clipped into your personal planner!


So thank you to these two incredible blogs! Hopefully I will be back this week with pictures, projects, and more!

I'm still here!

I promise!

It's been a busy time in the Johnson household. Here is what has been on the agenda:

-setting up not one, but TWO classrooms
-my brother and his fiance (who I met face to face for the first time) flying in from S. Korea (we picked them up at the airport in Austin)
-teacher workshops
-reuniting with my college roommates for Girls' Weekend 2011 (it's a big deal)!

Updates to come!


P.S. I have a question to ask. When blog reading, if you read someone else's blog who says a line or two that offend you, do you:
a)respond in their comment section (possibly rudely) and declare your opinion, or
b)let it slide because it's their blog and they can say what they want (just like you can say what you want on your own, personal blog)?

Do tell :)

I Was Mentioned!

So did you know that Charming Charlie (the amazing accessory store) has a Blog Mention section of their website where they feature blog posts that contain their products?

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a few outfits, one of which contained a super-cute white watch from Charming Charlie.

I received a comment last night from CC saying that I was on their website for my mention. How FUN! Here's the link of you want to see my entry (July 7th, the What I Wore Wednesday post) and lots of others that feature CC products!

http://www.charmingcharlie.com/blog-mentions

San Antonioooo

So we took a mini-vacation with Nate's family (parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew) to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. Such a great time but OH so hot. We enjoyed the zoo, Sea World, and eating yummy Mexican food. Here's a few photos: enjoy!

 First up, the zoo. Lots of animals, but it was so hot! I like this picture of the turtle b/c a)it's cute, and b)it shows good detail with the camera we used.

 Nate's dad (PawPaw) and our nephew looking at a dragon.

Nate's parents, amazinggg people! So blessed to love my in-laws and them love/accept me just the same!

 Yep. I take awkward pictures alone.

 Nom, snowcones!

 Hanging out in our hotel room before dinner in our red/white/blue outfits (it was the 4th of July)!

 Day 2: Sea World! Someone was ready to go.

 Brothers. Precious.

 Ready to see Sesame Street in 4D!

Nate's brother, sister in law, and nephew :)

 Cute little boy waiting for the dolphin show to start!

 Whole fam!

 Plus us!

 Shamu! This show was awesome. Made me want to go back to school and become a whale trainer.

Shamu with BABY Shamu! Adorable.

My Favorite Thing Is...

LABELING! I feel like the #1 organizational tip any teacher needs is to LABEL EVERYTHING. That print enriches your Kinder's vocabulary and if you add pictures to your print, it makes it even better! I plan on adding pictures to my supply buckets- I just haven't yet.

Enjoy this sneak peek into my classroom: the carpets are getting cleaned next week and the building is getting exterminated, so I won't be up there for a good week and a half.

Sorry for the darkness, there is an entire wall of windows right behind this cute little ol' bucket!

I used cute scrapbook paper behind all of the labels. The tape is a little wrinkly, but Kinders are very forgiving :)

  

 

I have six buckets lined up along this shelf with our community supplies (but they're all not pictured because there is a bunch of random stuff on the shelf... waiting until the carpet gets clean to put everything in its official place!)

A couple of drawers right next to my computer.

My binders all labeled!

My books: I have them alphabetized for easy finding (for me, the kids do not take books from here. I pull books and put them in their library (actually we have a "lagoon"!) during the unit/theme, etc)

 

Ah, labels are SO pretty!

And I just took pictures of my pens and chart markers (which are SCENTED) because they make me extremely happy.

What makes you happy (organizational-wise)?

A Little Blog Help?

So this may be a ridiculous question, but I want to know how to make my cute fonts stay when I upload them to Scribd! I want to be able to share the cute pages and projects and labels that I make, but I might as well not if the cute fonts don't stay! Ha :)

I'm ALL about cute fonts. I get many from www.dafonts.com and www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts.

So the fonts that don't stay when I upload documents to Scribd are the fonts that I download to my computer. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If so, help or guidance would be appreciated! Thank you blog friends! :)

Easy No-Sew Pillow Cover

(I saw this idea here on Organize and Decorate Everything's blog)

We are revamping our living room, changing out the reds to more of a calm, soothing green/blue/yellow color palate. We've already added new accessories, a new coffee table, new art, and new pillows. Since I have regained my sewing bug, I've also been sewing some pillows.

This pillow I made is SO easy and requires no sewing. Click the link above and it will show you step by step what to do... you basically fold fabric over the pillow and tie a knot! I pinned and hot glued by the knot, just a little bit, since we have rambunctious dogs who like to mess with pillows. But here's what my version looked like!

 

Close up of the knot.

So cute! I like the loose-ness and flowy feel the fabric gives it.

 

And you can even flip it over and show the back plain!

DIY: 4th of July Candied Popcorn Gift

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

I am celebrating today with my husband's family, so as a little treat to snack on throughout our day I wanted to show up with a small gift (who wants to show up empty-handed, am I right?) :)

I saw this post on The Idea Room and became very excited. I was droolinggg. Candied popcorn? Okay :) Using simple ingredients I already have at home? Sure :)

I followed the recipe and YUM YUM YUM. My husband and I were constantly sneaking bites. It is ADDICTING! And you can definitely add other colors for other holidays (orange for Halloween, red/green for Christmas, etc)

Once it was done, I knew I wanted to package it cute. Duh :) So I saw this post on Tatertots and Jell-O that featured all sorts of cute 4th of July printables. I saw this adorable tag from Sugar Baby Boutique, printed it, and laminated it. Attached it to my container's lid with some red, white, and blue ribbon... Adorable! Check it out!

 

The candy boiling (sugar, salt, water, food coloring, vanilla)

 

The mixture is poured over the popcorn and mixed in! Yummm.

 

Both sets of colors mixed together and cooling.

 

My cute lids!

 

The finished product!

Check out The Idea Room (link above) to get the recipe and make your own batch! Yum!

DIY: Envelope Pillow Cover

I think I've got the sewing bug.

I sewed some curtains for my classroom (go here to see that post on my teacher blog) and now I have made a CUTE envelope pillow cover for one of our "blah" beige throw pillows. An envelope pillow cover is the kind where you stuff the pillow inside (instead of zipping or stitching it shut).

I saw the following video on YouTube and immediately felt two feelings: utter excitement and pure terror.

I was SO excited to get started, but very fearful that I would do it wrong! But I pressed on and I'm so glad I did! I had a couple of snags with my sewing machine and my measurements, but overall it turned out SUPER cute and I want to make about 5,000 more. I just need a larger table and cutting surface!

Here's my version: using my NEW inspiration fabric for our house. Our house was a mish mash of random colors and I want each room to flow into the next, so I'm using this fabric to inspire me. This is a new throw pillow for the living room (which used to have red accents, blah).

This shows the back and how it is an envelope cover, you can see my old beige pillow.

The pups already testing it out! And yes, Oliver got a haircut last night. He looks SO cute!

Crafty Restroom Passes

Sometimes, it can be a bit aggravating to continually hear "Can I go to the restroom?" 200 times a day.

This year, I'm implementing a new method using cute restroom passes that I made myself. Instead of students asking, if they see the restroom pass is available, they can just take it and go without asking. That way, we won't be interrupted in our day and things will be a bit more fluid. Of course, this will be practiced and the guidelines will be enforced time and time again. They are Kindergarteners, so they will need to realize that going to the restroom isn't "play time", but "do your business and return to class" time.

So: here are my cutesy passes! I could have purchased some... but this was more fun!

First, I purchased some plain, white plastic passes from educational supplier store (they were $1.50 a piece) and then I used scrapbook paper I had on hand. I used my Exact-o knife to cut the paper out by tracing around the plastic pass.

All my cutesy paper cut out and matched up! Black zebra will be on the back of all of the passes (sort of a unifying thing) and then the fronts will be different. Of course I had to use zebra since I have a jungle/animal theme in my classroom!

My best friend :) I used this to adhere the paper and letters to the plastic passes, and then I went over it to make it more glossy and sealed. It's like glue, white- but dries clear.

The finished product! I used my Silhouette to cut the letters out of cardstock.

Compassion International

You may have noticed that I have put up a new picture/gadget/link thing on the left side of my blog page. It will direct you to Compassion International's website.

Compassion International is a Christian organization that goes into poverty-stricken countries and helps bring children out of that poverty through sponsorships and donations. The neat part about it is that it is all Christ-centered, child-focused, and church-based, meaning that Christ is in the center of the program and each child has the opportunity to hear the gospel in an age-appropriate fashion.

Nathan and I discussed sponsoring a child shortly after we were married: we have sponsored George for about a year and a half now.  George is from Kenya. When you first sign up, they send you all sorts of information about his country and what a typical day is like for George: what he plays, what work he has to do, what his family does. Plus: your child sends you mail! It is so sweet to see his precious pictures (he's four years old now, so can't fully write yet) and a translator writes a message from him to us. You can definitely write back as well!

 Picture of George!

It only costs $38/month, and that covers nutritious snacks and meals, educational opportunities, health and hygiene training, medical checkups, the caring embrace of a local church, and the message of God's love through Jesus Christ.

Isn't that amazing?! Only $38 takes care of ALLLLLLL of that. Sometimes as Americans, we take for granted all that has been given to us. The food we can easily purchase at a grocery store (that is also sanitary). Our public schools. The showers and bathtubs we have in our homes. Our comfy beds. AIR CONDITIONING. Medicines. Please please truly consider if you are being called to sponsor a child. It gives the child hope. It gives you the opportunity to change the child's future forever! All in the name of Christ :)

all information from here