Oh Lordie Bee!

You guys remember that sweet, nice, calming, reflective post I wrote last week about the joys of the last days of July?  Well scratch that!  I've moved to the I GO BACK TO SCHOOL IN A WEEK AND STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO DO post. I've moved to complete crazy. Last year, I started in the classroom literally as soon as summer school ended because Shafer and I had to switch classrooms.  I have to say I was burnt out and exhausted by the time the kiddos arrived.  This year, I'm giving myself a vacation and only going in two days (before we have to report) early!  That's blasphemy right!??!?!  All I know is that I need the break.  I need the break to be creative on my own time in my own space while watching Pretty Little Liars and eating dairy free ice cream (no joke found one that tastes just like the real stuff...So Delicious is the brand!)

Now, just because I'm not going in for another week, doesn't mean that I'm not getting ready.  Prepared is my middle name. I'm preparing daily....just from my living room. I'm even prepared to escape my sinking car in the 1/1,000,000,000 chance I go over the Bay Bridge. Yes. It. Is. In. Pink. What can I say?

I also have this little girl heading to HIGH SCHOOL in a few weeks...which is giving me so much excitement heart palpitations. 

                                       

I am taking full advantage of the five foot ball of awesome that is my little sister...while she still thinks I'm semi-cool and helping me with school stuff is fun. So, we have been getting our craft on!

The first thing we did was attempt the no-sew pennant banner that Abby did over at The Inspired Apple for a TBT post a while back.  I had been looking for something simple to jazz up the hallway outside of my classroom where I hang student work...and I figured I'd try. All I did was buy the fabric, ribbon and the double sided iron on sticky stuff from a craft store. 

Had sister friend cut, and cut, and cut, and cut.......

And then I placed and ironed.  It honestly was easy.  Of course I took a picture of the section where I screwed up the patterning (Common Core's fault for taking patterning out of K and First)  and my ribbon is fraying slightly, but other than that success! I then decoupaged (my favorite word ever) a lot of teeny weeny clothes pins with chevron, stripes and polka dots of the same types of colors to hang their work. I'll show pictures next week when its up and running hanging. 

While sister friend was cutting, and cutting, and cutting some more, I moved to another decoupage project.  Have you all seen those awesome hall pass boards with the teacher's name painted in a super cute way and then the clothes pins for the passes?  I so wanted one. And I was going to order one from Etsy...except I had already spent my "school" budget for the pay period on ink, so I had to make my own.

SIDE BAR WARNING: I hate hall passes.  Frankly, they gross me out. Seriously.  Have you ever thought about that?  We're trusting 6 year olds to carry something into the bathroom with them?  Really!??!?! Who thought that was a good idea? That is why I figured the clothes pin idea was a good one because they could stick it to their shirt, no touching in bathroom necessary and then when they get crusty and nasty I can toss and grab another one super cheap.  Don't get me wrong I know this isn't a flawless system, and the janitor is going to have my hyde the first time one of these falls down the toilet and clogs the septic system for the whole county...but a girl can dream right?!?!

Anyway, to create my own, I just grabbed a cheapo wooden S from Hobby Lobby and some cute scrapbook paper. 

I then just started cutting random chunks of paper and decoupaging. 

And it sucked and looked awful and I hated it so much I wanted to cry. It looked like a Raggedy Anne dress.  It was 50 shades of not even a little cute. So I pouted and then started over.  

I covered the whole thing in gray, added a cute ribbon and voila!  I adore it now! 

Pheww! I can see my projects and must do's dwindling here at home and I realize holy moly, lordie bee...It's that time friends. Sweet sweet summer is wrapping itself up into a cute little GET YOUR BUTT BACK TO WORK bow and there's no stopping it.  

Cami kind of has the right idea.  We know we need to be gearing up and back to school soon...but we're so comfy where we are...we're taking our time getting there. 

Enjoy your last few days friends!