What can I say? Blog neglect

I have definitely been neglecting this poor blog.  I will try to do better, especially  since I like the blog format.

1.  I am still teaching kindergarten and loving it!!
2. My new class has a whole bunch of 4 and 5 year olds (27 altogether)
3. We have a new reading program...ahhh!  Benchmark Advanced
4.  I have been working in the sewing room after school almost daily for the last week.....I feel it helps me relax and gets my creativity working again.   I forgot how great it is to make something with your hands.

New floral tool belt

New tentacled creature tool belt

Thank You Gifts for volunteer moms

I  just love the moms that help me with breakfast in the classroom.  It is a huge undertaking.  Every child, assistant, volunteer and teacher at my school gets free breakfast.  I believe the program was made possible by smart people who wrote for a bunch of grants.  It is messy at times, especially with kindergarten.  But, my volunteer moms make it super easy and fast.  They come in help set up, open all those childproof mini milk cartons and help clean.  We made these thank you gifts for them out of the students  fingerprints.  Needless to say they loved them and it even made them a little teary eyed, even more so because their children are in my class.  Once again, a great idea from we got from Pinterest

Dusty Blog

I can't believe it's been so long since I have even looked at my poor dusty blog.  It has been a crazy and fun year since the last time I wrote.
I am still teaching kindergarten and love it.
I went back to my WW meetings trying to get back to a healthier me.
I finally cleaned the sewing room and today I am actually in the process of making some new tool belts and other goodies.
My oldest son has joined the Navy and will be going to boot camp in March 2014, then to school for nuclear engineering.  I always new he was brilliantly smart.
My youngest son is finishing up his senior year in high school.
We are installing solar energy panels on our roof.  I hate the department of water and power and their exorbitant rates they are free to charge.
I am often alone in the house, as everyone is on a different schedule and I am not required to be the family chauffeur any longer.  A little sad......
I do enjoy this time, cooking, laundry, dog feeding, reading, and catching up on my spanish novelas (soap operas, with amazingly good looking actors all the time).

Just some thoughts on this beautiful and cold winter day.  Back to the sewing room for some cutting of fabric.

Etsy upload

     I had not realized that I did not have any of my creations up on my etsy site.    I guess with the beginning of school, football and life, I had let them all expire.  I renewed a bunch and I will be uploading some new ones in the next couple of days.   
     All is well and I love my new class.  I love my room and its new decor....I love the themed look.  This is the first time I have ever done it and it looks fantastic.  I love coming to work everyday.  

    I just realized I don't have any pictures of the room on my computer. I will take some then upload.  

Mini Tool Belts.....useful for many, made by me.

     As I finish with the last of the posting of the new tool belts, I ponder what to make next.  I have been thinking about making some solid colored ones, some gingham ones and maybe I will dig out some fabric from the stash that is buried under the rest of the stash. 
     Unfortunately I have to go back to work on Monday, so this means limited inventing time....

I found a new site to put my tool belts in.  It is a site for teachers to share and sell their plans, bulletin board sets, lessons and other useful things.  The site is: Teachers Notebook, this link will lead directly to one of my tool belts, but spend time and you will find great things for a classroom.  The best thing I like about the site is that all the money a teacher charges for their idea or item goes directly to them.  There are no listing fees, I only paid a one time shop set up charge of around $20.  Hopefully this will be quickly recovered by selling some of my awesome tool belts. 

     Enough talk.....here are the pictures of the new belts.

New Mini teacher tool belts

I have been on spring break all week and have been busy with all the "must do's" on my list.....car recall repairs, getting a physical, and those such things.  Finally I was able to work in the sewing room yesterday and some today before our marathon lasagna making later and tomorrow.

I posted a bunch of new mini tool belts and have included some cute felt flower pins to go with.  I am also offering free shipping if you "like" itsthebag creations on facebook. 

Now back to the posting......

New bike...

I started to excersise a few weeks ago and decided that a new bike would be nice.  I was riding my sons' bike but the seat is way to painful.....  So I started to save some $.  I was able to get the bike today.  It rides really nice, even though I only rode for a little over 2 miles.  I am hoping to go for 10 miles tomorrow or Sunday.

Vacation

So it's Thursday before Christmas.  All the shopping is finished and wrapped.  I want to work in the sewing room, but am not feeling inspired to do anything.  I have to finish my Christmas eve dinner napkins, so I guess I'd better get on with it.
Will be going to Costco later today....
Enjoy your day!

Saturday in the sewing room...

So today I was finishing up a few stray items I have been working on.
I am sending my niece her Waldorf-style doll with some custom clothing made by me.  I could not send her so much swag without sending her little brothers something.  So I made them some cats along with a story.  The cats they can have now, the story is for later.  Here are the cats and the beginning of the cat's tale.....

Here is Ms. Truffle, she is Ms. Lemon's twin sister.  The other cat in the picture is a stray that Ms. Truffle found in the alley behind the muffin shop on her last visit.  She was out looking for some nice Ahi tuna muffin tops, when she stumbled upon "Caesar", an Italian stray who was hanging out to see what he could pick up.  Ms. Truffle was instantly smitten by this sleek, black Italian cat with his smooth romantic accent, she could not help herself and had to bring him home.

Happy Tuesday...

Today was a much better day..... nothing chewed by the animals in my house.  Well, except for the avocado pit I found in the master bedroom.  We have an avocado tree in the front yard and the people in our house never get any of the very few avocados that the tree manages to grow.  The animals in the family and the neighborhood critters always seem to reach them first.  If it's not the squirrels, it could be the raccoons and finally, the ones that make it to the ground, are eaten by one of our dogs.  So when today I found yet another pit inside, I went outside and picked all the avocados I could reach without climbing on the roof.  It helped that we have this long tool with a basket on the end made for picking fruits.  In a few days when the avocados ripen up and are ready to eat, all the people will be very happy. :)

DOGS!!

So I come home today from a day of tending 4 and 5 year old children.....only to find that my dogs have eaten a pair of my son's new shoes.....they cannot even be saved at all....then I walk into my bathroom and find that one of the dogs has ripped out one side of the toilet paper holder that was in the wall.....then I go to the laundry room to do  some wash and find that the bath mat in my older son's bathroom is soaking wet, like there was a flood......
What a great end to my day!!!!!
Now I must finish dinner.....I think everyone will eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that they make themselves.

I AM FINISHED....

Not a typical Sunday.....

     I have been working on stuff for school the entire day.  Well, except the hour I spent on Skype with my sister in Virginia and my cousin in Mexico City.
   The school stuff needed to be finished and it has been haunting me since the second week of school.  If I stop wasting time online, I will finish in time to watch my new episode of Dexter. 
     So off I go.....have a great week.

Last day of summer for me...

Today is the last day of my summer....I must return to work tomorrow.  I am excited about starting my new school year.  My new students have been invited to join me.....their name tags are ready, crayon boxes and pencils in their caddies on their desks.....The room looks great.  We have staff meetings tomorrow and then the students arrive on Wednesday.
I will be working the Noho Taco Cook off Festival on Saturday, September 24th, 11-6 pm,  if anyone wants to join.  There will be many food trucks, a taco cook off contest, vendors and live entertainment.  The best part is that part of the proceeds go to the Forgotten Dog Foundation.  So come out for some good food, fun, entertainment and vendors for a good cause.  

Summer is almost over....

Calendar Bulletin Board

          

New reading interactive bulletin board

Library Center

Today is so much closer to the end of my summer....  I will return to my classroom the Wednesday after Labor day to start teaching my new group of Kindergarten kiddies.  I have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for their arrival.   I can't wait to see who comes through the door.  As I spend today creating more labels and room signs, I can only think of the myriad of things that I feel I have to complete before starting.  It doesn't help that our district got a new reading program after 11 years with the last one.  All I can say is that it will be a year of lots of learning on both my part and my students' part.  Happy Saturday everyone.....

New Doll Clothes

    I have always wanted a Waldorf style doll and bought supplies and stuff to make my own doll months ago and had s-l-o-w-l-y been working on her for the last 7 months. It was like torture....So I finally placed a custom order for a Waldorf-style doll sometime in early July.  The sweet lady, Melissa at isajoydesigns, who made her was super easy to work with and allowed me to make payments over time.   My own doll is finally finished and my new doll arrived last Wednesday.  

     I know understand why these custom made dolls are so expensive.  I have the ability to sew and consider myself to be creative......however putting a doll like this one together was soooo much work.  I will now stick to only being a dolly dress designer/seamstress.  I will leave the doll making to the experts.  

     With that being said, the doll arrived and I did not realize that she would be so big......I decided to give her to my niece who just turned 5 years old a few days ago. My mom decided she would split the cost of gift between her, myself and my brother.(although he doesn't know yet....)

    I could not send the doll away to her new home without creating a new wardrobe for her to wear.  She came with some cute pants and a shirt.  But, since I love me some doll clothes, I went to work.  I have since made two pairs of pants, a shirt, a pair of flannel pajamas and a mermaid outfit, complete with tail...... 

     I have been emailing my sister pictures all along and my niece keeps wanting more clothes.  I have my mom working on a tutu/ ballerina outfit and I will be making some pink silk brocade pants for her as well.  I am off to  switch laundry loads then to the sewing room...

Laura

   

Closet Cleaning....

Today was a very productive day.  We cleaned out all the closets in the hallway.  I am now able to see all the goodies inside and have storage for more.....  I made a trip to the Goodwill to donate all the extra stuff that we had out grown, don't need, haven't used in a long time and simply "what was I thinking when I got that" stuff.  I even remembered to get a donation slip from the nice gentleman that helped me.
I also got to cut out some more teacher tool belts and will get some sewing done on them tomorrow.
I am waiting for a package to arrive.....it is my Waldorf-style doll that I ordered and have been patiently waiting for since the middle of July or so.... I will post pictures as soon as she arrives.  

Saturday.....

We are finally finished with our summer project for this year.  We added a bigger window to our living room and painted the entire room (it's HUGE) with more than one color, 3 to be exact.  It turned out really nice. 


I also just finished 3 days of training for our new reading program, California Treasures.  It was a bit overwhelming, but we had great presenters and it was informative and helpful.  Now I think I will be able to start the new school year with those kinder kids with confidence that they will learn from my teaching.  


It will be a very busy weekend.  We have a dinner to go to tonight for a while and then a dinner we have to prepare for 24 people tomorrow.  The nice thing about the one we have to prepare is that it is at the beach.  So we will have a beautiful day tomorrow for some tri-tip and chicken barbecue. 


For today though, we will go to the Rise n' Shine for some coffee and breakfast with some friends.  Then  I will spend time in the sewing room.  My favorite thing to do.  The laundry will also get some attention.  


Pictures will post later, time for some biscuits and gravy.....


I know the pictures are out-of-order, but alas, I am still new to the art of arrangement of stuff on blogs......Happy Saturday.

Old ugly finish.

New window almost finished along with the new wall

Some of the debris

Highest corner to reach

Tim working on the inside of niches

Me up on the high ladder, mudding the wall

Wall being rebuilt.

My favorite area, the bar.  I loved how the red color turned out.

New nicer finish, before paint.     

Before adding wall adornments.

Before painting.

View from the office.

Finishing the window.

New finish.

My hard-working son.

Before adding the red paint.

Nice day for some sewing.....

I started off the day by having breakfast at my favorite breakfast place....The Rise n' Shine Cafe.  They have the best biscuits and gravy.  One of the specials today was the country eggs benedict.  It was super delicious, a fresh-baked hot biscuit, sausage patty and a perfectly poached egg smothered in home-made gravy, sitting along side some home style potatoes.  I could not have asked for a better start to this beautiful day. 
So for the sewing......I cleaned up a bit, then proceeded to create some more teacher/artist tool belts.  I find the process very relaxing and creative.  So along with the beeping of the washer and dryer, I have spent some time in creativity. 
Summer school for me tomorrow, but only for a half day....then some sewing, then some summer baseball.   Love the summer.....

Teacher Tool Belts....

Out of need comes inspiration.....I need certain things to be super handy during the school day....white board markers, a green marker, a yellow marker, band-aids, my keys and especially my glasses.  I was always asking my kindergarteners where my stuff was.  They must think I am old and feeble.  So, one day I saw one of the first grade teachers wearing what looked like a carpenter's(not cute) belt with her stuff in it.  I asked to see it and that is where my beautiful teacher tool belts were born.  So for the last 2 weeks, I have not lost a thing and my "tools" are exactly where I need them.  They are gaining popularity with the other teachers and I have actually sold a few.  If you are interested email me and I can give you  details and then you can get one of your own.   Happy Weekend:)

Check out this fabric give away....I love fabric....

Beautiful fabric.....I want some...
http://vignetteinstitches.blogspot.com/2011/03/guess-what.html