Personalized Cups

I bought these cups at IKEA (during Spring Break?) for maybe$2/4 cups. I was going to use them in a gift, but didn't end up using them. So, I had ordered some outdoor vinyl that is supposed to be dishwasher safe. Mom is always going through paper cups with all the kids around, so I decided to make the kids their own little cups. Originally I was going to do monograms, but two of them have Ts, so I decided to put their entire name and then a cute little picture. I think they turned out really cute and I am excited to see how the vinyl holds up on them. I can see doing this for a ton of things. I was going to do water bottle for my kids at school, it would make a cute birthday gift or for a baby gift---put the name on sippy cups. I'll show you how I used the vinyl on a large tube later.

Cute Gift

I know---enough with the teacher gifts. But, I just had to share this one. I was showered with gifts the last day of school--which is not usually the case. Actually, we don't usually get too many thank you gifts, but this year I received a lot. What I love the most are the cards---which you can tell their moms made them write, but some of them are very thought out and honest--which always makes me laugh. Anyway, this cute thing was given to me by one of my girls (which I only had 8 this year--and 17 boys---YEAH--crazy). She was so excited to give it to me that a week ago, she told me in detail that she had this really cute thing to give me. It is a flower pot--with an real flower planted in it. Then, they took school supplies, taped to a popsicle stick with floral taped and stuck in them. It is so cute--- and clever.  Now, if I can just keep the flower alive.

Thank you for teacher

I know...another teacher appreciation thing. But, it's the last day of school. Megan will be giving this super easy, but cute gift to her teacher. I got the idea from here (printed the tag right from the blog), bought the cup at Wal-Mart, put some drink packets, and a hand-written note from Megan inside. EASY gift.
http://lisastorms.typepad.com/lisa-storms/2011/05/teacher-appreciation-week-part-3.html

Bags

I needed a thank you gift for a mom who had helped with our 5th grade PTO program. She invested A LOT of time helping, so I had mom make a bag for her. I had a horrible time picking material, especially when it was for someone I didn't know really well. So, we made three and then picked from that. I think they all turned out cute. We ended up using the brown one with the polka dot bow.

Quilt No. 1

There is kind of a funny story with this quilt. I had this idea of making a quilt for the aide I have had in my classroom this year for a deaf student. She has done SOOOO much for me. So, I wanted to get her something at the end of the year. I thought it would be cute to make a quilt and let the kids tie it (they really love her).  So, I bought this funky, fun material at Wal-Mart. Mom sewed it up---it was HORRIBLE!!!!! (of course, I deleted the picture of my camera). It was truly the ugliest quilt I have ever put together. So, mom took it apart and made it into a smaller quilt, which we gave to Aubrie for her birthday.

So, I went to the store again... on a quest for some cute material-----which has not been easy to find lately. I settled on this, orange and turquoise, and I was really nervous about it. We decided instead of tying the quilt, to do a rag (because it would be cheaper). This meant, in order for the students to be involved, they would have to sew on the muslin square. Mom assured me they would be able to do it. I was VERY reluctant. Imagine---sewing---25 needles---25 needy, whiny, needy students sewing---at the same time!!!! Yeah---I was not very excited to do it!!! I have to say--it wasn't all that bad and the kids did okay---the top of the square look really good, but the bottoms definitely give it character. They actually liked doing it, a lot because they love her so much. I think it turned out really CUTE!!! I'm putting it in a fun basket with picnic style treats. I hope she likes it.



Senior Pictures

I am sure that Melanie is so glad that she is graduating, that means no more pictures, (she thinks). These are a couple of my favorites from the spring pictures. Once we finally had a nice day, I will say that at of all of them, I like the fall pictures the best.

I don't know why but I really like the above picture.


Not be left out, I went and took Cade's pictures and he really didn't want anything to do with it but he pretty much had no choice.



Now I will send these to Ashley to do her photoshop magic. I really should learn how to do it.

Pillows

These are some really cute pillows that my mom made me for my birthday. Ashley will have to explain how she made them.


This pillow is just covered with material and then has two ruffle strips sewn on it.

This pillow is much cuter in person. There are nine folded flower rosettes sewn on this pillow. We had seen a cute one at Target--for only $25.  By the time we were finished, it just might have been worth the $25.

Indianapolis

Okay, I know it has been like 6 weeks since I went to Indianapolis---so that must give you a clue as to how behind I have been. It was a really neat city. Very clean, and everything was connected by this skywalk--so you didn't even have to go outside. We did go outside because it was gorgeous, especially considering that we left snow here the day before. They had beautiful buildings. The first picture is this old church that was across from the conference center. The next picture is the capital--which was the view outside of our hotel room. I went with two other teachers and I felt really self-conscious about taking pictures, so this was all I got. Do you ever feel like people think your crazy because you take tons of pictures?

Hair Do

We will see how creative this look is in the morning. Ashlynn needs curls for dance tomorrow, I really hope this works.

Mother's Day

This is my Mother's Day project for my class this year. I have to say it is NOT my favorite  project, in fact it may be my least favorite thing I've ever done. I think I have officially run out of steam, along with the kids. they wanted to just hurry and get their pictures done---and it showed on many of them. I don't think I will be repeating this one.

i really do have a picture--but blogger won't let me put pictures!!! Ugh

Day 5

This is probably the most meaningful day and it is also the day that I dragged my feet the most on. I really didn't want to do them, and I can take no credit in them. They are books with notes from each of the students telling their teacher why they like them. The kindergarten drew pictures and they are pretty funny. We had the librarian at the school have the students write them during libray. Ashley made the covers and then the girl that is helping me put them together and rounded the corners. I guess I did cut them so I helped a little. They turned out really cute and I am glad that we ended up doing them.


Besides the books we did a muffin bar with some treats. This week has been fun and also a lot of work and stress. Hopefully the teachers know how much we appreciate them and that this is just a small way of saying thank you for teaching our kids so much.

We gave the rest of the staff soap. Some of them we covered with vinyl--polk a dots and then a monogram. The other ones we spray painted.

Day 4

Today is Cinco De Mayo so of course we had to follow that and we did chips and salsa. I also decided to add cheese sauce. I had three kinds of chips so there should be something for everyone. Ashley made the tags and added a special one that said no double dipping.  The teacher that was in there before I left thought it was pretty funny.

This is the flower arrangement that I had to make to set on the cupboard when there as nothing for that day. It turned out pretty good I thought, I really like the colors and it did add a lot to the counter.

I must say that I am a little sad not to do this next year, this week has been kind of fun and I am pretty sure that the teachers have all loved it. I will be glad next year to not worry about it when the school year starts.

Here are my teacher appreciation gift. It is not fancy but I figure I better get something done. Austin is also giving his homeroom teacher a gift card to barnes and noble. That allows me to be cheap on the hand out right. Maybe next year I will have to use some of Ashley and Merlynn's cute ideas.

Day 3

Today is a pretty low key day, I am giving these flashlight out with a saying on them. I got the flashlight with the help of Cinda this summer, they were the free ones from Harbor Freight, but they give out a lot of light. Nothing to exciting but still a little note of appreciation.

Day 2

Today was a candy buffet, the colors were green and blue and we used, M&M, cinnamon bears, pretzels, salt water taffy,nuts, and few other things. It turned out really cute and I hope they liked it.

This banner is made from material and is really cute, my mom made it and it added a lot to the room.

Day 1- Teacher appreciation week

I called a lot of parents and asked each one to decorate a door in the school. We put up the door decorations on Friday and it was really fun to see the ideas. Here are a couple that we ended up doing.





When I went in this morning I am happy to report that every parent followed through and the teachers were loving it. I saw a lot of them walking down each hall to see the fun ideas that people had. We have a lot creative people in our school. Thank you to everyone who helped.

Teacher Appreciation Week

These are some things that Tyler and McKynzie are giving their teachers this week. They are all just simple, inexpensive gifts---and useful or edible.