365 Project

I'm loving this project! It's starting to become a little difficult, but it has been so nice to take pictures of these little moments that I would normally overlook. I can't wait to compile all of these in a scrapbook at the end of the year.

23/365 - Laundry never ends

24/365 - Liberty Market in Gilbert, AZ

25/365 - Plaid chihuahua

26/365 - New record, makes cleaning the kitchen a little more enjoyable 

27/365 - The only plants I can keep alive

28/365 - George's Birthday :)

29/365 - Massive Gummy Bear!!

30/365 - Gum balls are so cheerful and pretty

Weekly Happiness

It's Friday! Yay!!  Here are my top 5 from the week...

1.  Tomorrow is my husband's birthday! It still feels so weird to say "husband" even though we have been married for 3 months. We are having a pretty low key and quiet birthday this year, but it will be fun and perfect no matter what we do because we will be together.

2. Yesterday was my sister's birthday! This is the week of birthdays apparently. My sister is my best friend and such a wonderful person! I am so sad that she lives so far away and that I was unable to spend the day with her. We will just have to make up for lost time when I go to visit her next month in D.C.

3. I ate at the most amazing restaurant last night with my dear friend Cindy. It was soooo good! If any of you live in the Phoenix area you need to check out Liberty Market. And if you don't live in Phoenix, you should probably come visit just to eat there. Totally worth it.

4. I was in a training for two days this week about interactive ways to teach algebra to your students. It was fascinating! I learned so many things, but I think my favorite was learning how to use algebra tiles affectively. Have you ever used those? I feel like I have been living under a rock because I didn't even know they existed until yesterday. I will have to post something about them at a later date because they are a-mazing.

5. I got the cutest affirmation today on my desk when I got back to school from my two day training. It was so sweet and simple, but really touched my heart. Isn't it amazing that when you need it the most, your students show you their love for you and it makes everything worth it. :)

Snapshots from Home

I am continuing my 365 project. This is more challenging than I thought, but I am loving capturing small unnoticed moments that we wouldn't normally photograph.

11/365 - My friend Stephanie and I at dinner at the Welcome Diner 

12/365 - Moscow Mule self portrait

13/365 - Waiting in the car for George to be done with a Game Stop "emergency"

14/365 - Olive is my sugar lamb, sweetest puppy 

15/365 - Scrapbooking adventures

16/365 - Driving together, clearly we need lotion

17/365 - Little Shop of Horrors plant

18/365 - My Jadeite collection makes me happy when I open my cabinets

19/365 - George's birthday present from my sister <3 

20/365 - Amen.

21/365 - Chihuahuas will do anything when a treat is dangled in front of them

22/365 - Sunday morning (Chihuahua photo bomb)

January Favorite 5

I am so glad I have gotten back into the swing of blogging this past month. I have really missed the blogging community and am so happy to be back!

I was thinking every month I would do a little walk down memory lane to look back on some of my favorite posts from the past month. Sometimes I think I post too many posts and people miss them. Do you ever do a "look back" on your past posts?

Here are my January Favorite Five:

My Affirmation Bags! Love them and use them every day!

I loved all of my honeymoon posts, but the most special was probably the first one. I loved sharing my memories with all of you!

My favorite vintage finds - this post just makes me happy...

My Etsy finds for the wedding - I just love Etsy, don't you?

And finally, my absolute favorite post from January, was my paper flowers DIY post for the arch from my wedding! I loved making these and I think they looked absolutely adorable, not to mention they disguised the ugly white lattice arch beautifully. <3

Student Valentines

Don't you just love Valentine's Day?

I always struggle every year on what to make for my students. I want to do something cute, but don't want to spend a lot of money and definitely not a lot of time because let's face it; they just want to eat candy, they don't really care about cutesy stuff at that point.

I wanted to do something different since I didn't want to add to the candy chaos that will not doubt ensue come February 14th.  I was browsing around Target when it hit me! Enter: Angie's Popcorn.

Target sells these little snack packs that make perfect Valentines for teachers or parents that don't want to doll out high fructose corn syrup to their cute little nuggets.

I don't think I will be a huge fan of the "vanilla cupcake" flavor, but it's a good thing they aren't for me. :) It was either this or the Tutti Fruity flavor.

Instead of using the pre written on method of personalizing my bags, I decided to go a more crafty route.

I created printable labels (see below for the freebie) that I just tied on to the bags. I think this project took me about an hour (or at least two episodes of Pioneer Woman, however you choose to view time).

I printed the labels on printer paper, but I would've used card stock if I had some handy. I used my paper trimmer to cut the hearts out.

I just hole-punched two holes into the top of the single serving bags and the papers careful not to break the seal.

I then used baker's twine (I found mine at Target in the dollar section) to tie the paper onto each bag.

I love how they turned out; super cute and easy! I decided to put the label on the back just because I thought the front of the popcorn bag was really cute and I wanted it to be displayed and not covered.

OK so now repeat these steps one billion times, haha!

Click the picture below to download the labels if you are interested in creating these for your students.

Don't forget to add a little note on your loot if you don't want your husband to eat it, haha!

I hope you all are able to use this! Enjoy!

Currently February

Side Note: Is it just me or is this Currently extra cute this month? I just love the colors and clip art.

Am I the only one who procrastinates on getting ready in the mornings on the weekends? My husband jumps out of bed, showers, gets dressed, feeds the dogs, and eats breakfast. Want to know what I've done in that time? Made coffee and blogged in my pajamas on the couch. Hair sticking up, mascara under my eyes, my my, he's a lucky man.

This week was really long - the kids felt it, I felt it. I hope next week goes more smoothly. I am just so thankful it's the weekend. I hope it goes by really slowly. :)

I really should be getting ready to go, we have a busy day and have to drop off the car to get its oil changed in an hour. If you read my previous paragraph you would know there is a lot of work to be done to make myself look presentable.

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a barista live at your house? This has always been my fantasy. Wake up in the morning, walk downstairs and you hear "Why, good morning, Mrs. Palko, what would you care to drink this morning? Oh a tall latte with honey? It would be my pleasure." Sigh...

Because I have to drop my car off for an oil change, I really need to clean out my car. My house and my classroom are both relatively clean, but my car is always a disaster zone. It's downright embarrassing; serious hoarder status.

My two truths were numbers 2 and 3. I am not that into football, but I absolutely love the Super Bowl commercials and the 7 layer dip that is a requirement at any sporting occasion. I did set my principal's hair on fire in 4th grade, haha, oopsies! It was a total accident I can assure you. We were doing a chapel service and my candle lighter thingy (technical term) wasn't snuffing out. When my principal came over to assist me with it, I got embarrassed and yanked it back saying with a "I've got it" sense of determination. Well, that move landed the candle lighter thingy squarely into her hair.

And also, I really hate meatloaf, that was my fib. It's really gross and I can't think of anything I hate more.

Don't forget to link up to do your own Currently over at Farley's Oh Boy 4th Grade blog. :)

Birthday Board Revisited

Remember this post about my 6th graders' birthday board dilemma? I realized that I never took a picture of the final product!  Sometimes I think I should quit my job just to blog but then I wouldn't have an income so that could be an issue.

I was trying to recreate this board that I saw from Pinterest from Erica Bohrer's First Grade, but wanted to include the whole grade level since our 6th graders switch classrooms. That way it could also function as a year round bulletin board and what teacher doesn't want that??

Here is the end result!

I grouped all the students in the grade level according to their birthday months and took a group picture with them holding these number signs.

I then stapled up my special birthday plates that I made earlier during the summer and printed off the months in different colored card stock.

The border is just different ribbons stapled in a random criss-cross pattern done by one of our wonderful volunteer parents last year. It was too creative and adorable to take down!

I backed all of the pictures with cute scrapbooking paper.  I feel so horrible putting these black circles all over my students' adorable faces!

This board makes me smile every time I walk by it, not to mention the students love to see their pictures up on the board. They are always letting me know if someone's birthday is coming up which is helpful since I have the worst memory. :)

I hope some of you can use this idea for your own hallways!