Currently...

I am jumping on the linky party train! I was not sure how it all worked at first but I must say I am glad I made the jump! Check me out!! I am on board with Farley and he Currently Linky Party!

I have also been working on making my very own clip art!

Make sure you check it out on TPT you can get some of the items for FREE for a limited time! 

My newest and still in progress project is a chevron alphabet!

Tips & Tricks!

I am newer to rafflecopter but one thing I have noticed is how much easier it is to like a facebook page, a TPT account, a pinterest page when there is a clickable link. So when you are typing the requirements into your rafflecopter you want to first start by typing the title. Then when you go down into the text box first you want to type in something like, "Love me on Pinterest!" Then highlight Pinterest and click the world with a link icon. Then it will change to [Pinterest](http://insertyourlinkhere.com). You want to highlight the (http://insertyourlinkhere.com) and paste in your link. That is all you have to do! Then it will be easier for people to follow you! :)

I hope you are currently enjoying your summer!

Five for Friday

This is my very FIRST time linking up with the Five for Friday linky party! I am pretty excited to be joining the party and sharing about my week! It has been one long and interesting week!!

ONE

On Monday I was doing quite a bit of wedding work! Check out my blog post Wedding Brain

TWO

On Tuesday I joined the group of bloglovin giveaways! You do not want to miss this! Check out my post Love me on Bloglovin and you can have a chance to win $10 to TPT and 2 free items from my TPT store!!

THREE

On Wednesday I created my very first Paper Pack! Chevron Paper Pack by Teacher Lady Doodles. I also realized that I had 500 followers on Instagram!! This week I am feeling the LOVE! 

FOUR

On Thursday I started back at school getting ready for Summer Literacy Camp to start! Those of you who are friends with me on Instagram know that I had NO decorations and an empty classroom to work with! My OCD and need to have things looking nice was killing me.... but I survived and think it turned out pretty good considering the challenges! 

FIVE

On Friday I needed a day to relax! My best friend (also a teacher) and I went on a shopping trip to do a little retail therapy! Spending time with her makes me feel so much better! There is no one quite like your best friend! They are that one person who can finish your sentence and make you feel better even when no one else can. They know when to listen and when to talk you down! :) She is the BEST and I am lucky to have her!! 

While together today we realized I now also have 100 bloglovin followers!! WOOHOO!! You can probably tell from my doodles that I was pretty excited!! :)

Hope your week was full of fun and full of sun! 

Wedding Brain

Hello Friends,

I have been so busy doing wedding prep that I have had NO time to think about my classroom. I figured since I've been busy doing other things that I would give you a sneak peak at some of my wedding stuff!

We will start with my favorite things!

Bridesmaids Gift Bags! You may have seen these on my Instagram!

I wish I could show you what is in them! I will post a picture after the wedding :)

 My Little Flower Girls Bags

LOVE the Chevron! Hobby Lobby

The groomsmen's gifts are in brown craft bags

with raffia bows and I am going to cut their names out of matching chevron paper!

(If the girl they are walking with has a blue bag, they will have a blue chevron name tag)

Too much? A little Crazy?... NO WAY! ;)

Then I also got matching tissue paper to correspond with the chevron paper

Hobby Lobby had the colors I was missing! They sell tons of individual colors for just $0.99!

I loved this multicolor chevron also!

Being the CRAZED planner that I am - I created a pre-wedding timeline for my wedding party

It would not be complete without a chevron background :)

Pink is for girls (two sided) and green is for the guys! 

Super easy to do :)

The Chevron background is by Emily Wean! Check her out!

Dad's Surprise Gift! 

He does not get to open it until just before we walk down the isle!

Our Ring Bearer is so sweet! His sister is our flower girl. She got to bring her dress home from the shop and he was so upset with Aunt Autumn (really cousin lol) because I did not send his fancy clothes home with him! I got some cute pictures from their mom of them practicing to dance! Too Cute!

 This is his gift :) A Monster Truck that turns into a dinosaur! Ohh Ahh! I love the bow!

 Gifts for Parents! Again I love love love the bows!

I had scrap material so I am going to write their names on these hearts some how! 

If you have a good idea be sure to comment on the post!

Working on our programs now!

This is a rough draft of what they will look like.

I still need the stick to make it a fan and a pretty ribbon :)

Wedding Favors! Davey (my almost hubby) is very "earthy" 

and I would say I am also somewhat earthy lol but we decided to to seeds

as our favor. Then I had to wrap it up and make it look pretty! So this is the package

but it still needs the tag! Mom is working on those this week!

The one little thing that means a WHOLE lot to me is 

my sisters picture for my bouquet. I am missing her big time as I prepare for this wedding!

Now onto the decorations!! Woo Hoo!

First the guest book table

Here are some close up of the items on the table!

 Just as a sidenote. Davey and I met in high school but never dated. We were always friends and I think we both knew there would be more to the story! Well we both went off to college (I was in Florida - He was in Maryland) and he sends me a MySpace message lol and tells me that he is coming to Florida for spring training and wants to see me. So as any smart girl would do I said SURE! I went to see him on March 9th, 2008 and we have been together ever since. We always say baseball brought us together and that is why we have this little touch of baseball here and there throughout the wedding :)

Did I mention that I LOVE Instagram!? :)

We are not having a traditional wedding cake. The Pennsylvania Bakery is going to make a small cake for Davey and I. Then we are going to have Pies, Cookies, and Pie Pops for our guests! I am super excited! Here are some pictures to explain my vision!

Our cake will be similar to this one

Decorations for the table! 

Cookie Jar for the Cookies!!

Pie Pops!

This old door is going to be used to write the guests names & table number

The window is going to say "How sweet it is" on the glass and it is going on the Pie Table :)

Davey has been working hard building our arch for the wedding. Here he is working hard!

:) Just love him!

Here is what it will look like when it is done!

 My future Momma-in-law spoils me! She wants everything to be perfect! She painted all of her beautiful outdoor pots to match the wedding and even got all these matching flowers! Are they beautiful or what? I think so!

Speaking of Momma-in-law aka MIL!  (I am her DIL)

she wrote a very sweet blog post yesterday that I HAVE to share

Click Here... Holly McCall

If you missed our engagement video last time around here it is :)

I will upload our wedding video once it is all done! If you live in or near Pennsylvania and need a videographer for your wedding you need to check out amweddingstories.com! The Aumen brother are AMAZING!!

AD engagement from Aumen Media on Vimeo.

THE Planner

Teacher Lesson Planner
by Erin Condren

Alrighty friends, 

There has been all of this debate over whether or not the teacher lesson planner by Erin Condren is worth the money. So I have decided to share some pictures with you and give you my thoughts about the planner. If you are on the fence I understand why! My friend Kheila at Two Friends in First told me about it a couple weeks ago and I said, "You want to spend how much??? On a PLANNER??" After watching the video together my head started spinning and I was trying to decide if it was just teacher hype or if it was worth it. I went home, went onto erincondren.com and looked at as many pictures as I could. I still do not know if I really had a justified reason to buy it, but I decided to take a leap of faith and spend the money.

They have lots of options when you are purchasing! I did decide to get the colored pens, extra sheet protectors, and the pen holder. I also personalized the front cover with my name. I put a note on my order that I would like the colors on my book to match my blog. Which they did, and it turned out great!

Sheet Protectors - In the back of the book

Pen Holder - It is adhesive and you decide where to place it

The Color Pens!! Could you buy something similar at Staples.. YES, but the colors are not going to match and you are going to pay very close if not more than what you pay on her website!

So I have now ordered my planner and then it is the WAITING game! It took about 2 weeks after I placed the order to have it in my hands. Not bad, but when you are dying to hold it and look at it, it feels like an eternity! 

These are some of the silly things that ended up on my Instagram!

When I got home... this was waiting at the door

ugh and of course I was doing the potty dance! 

What is it as soon as you walk in the door you have to the bathroom?

Then it was time to open, but not before a photo shoot :)

There it is... in all its glory :)

Free stickers!! That say Mrs. Zaminski!

Here she is! 

I feel like she needs a name or something?

You can probably tell I am a little nutty.. 

Well I was at Hobby Lobby and I saw this stand and I thought....

It was only $3 and it looks SUPER cute! 

So now that I have told you about the journey to get it here, it is time to analyze this baby! Was it worth all the money and energy I put into it???

You can see from the pictures above what the front and back cover look like. They are a harder laminated cover. The pictures below will show you what all this planner has to offer on the inside. 

In the front it has a Dates tab

Here you will find a listing of dates that would be important to a teacher

Then there is the Absent tab

there are several sheets where you can record your students absence and whether or not they turned in a excuse. Personally I think that is AWESOME! I can never keep track of who turned in notes and I am hoping that this binder will help!

Then the Graph tab

Here you can graph data or just do your seating chart :)

I am loving this year at a glance! You can put the MOST important things here

so that you do not forget them when planning! I am already starting to fill mine in, do not mind the writing :)

Then there is a tab for each month. Here is an example of the month view for July

The numbers for the date are not filled in.. that was a bummer in my opinion!

Other than that I liked the layout!

Behind each month spread is a notes section that just says,

"What's going on in July"

Here is another example of a monthly spread without my writing ;)

Here is the Lessons tab

I really like the lesson layout. My only complaint is that there are only 

42 weeks in the book. I am teaching summer school so 46-50 weeks worth

of planning sheets would have been nice. (It might be something easy I can request for next year)

Student Checklist tab

I think you can see what this is used for!

I wish there would have been a separate grade section in addition to this section

Notes tab

preprinted stickers to use throughout the planner ~ LOVE THESE!

blank ones that you can personalize!

Pocket folder so that you can store items you need

Then the laminating sheets!

A small pouch to hold some cute little items!

two year calendar

So this is my thought. I could either make a document very similar to this or buy one from TPT, but it is going to take time, patience, and a lot of energy just to make the thing. 

I would have to send it to the office supply store to get it printed and bound. It is going to cost you $0.49ish per color page on regular paper (lets say there are 150 pages take that X .49 and it equals out $73.50.) Now you have to pay to get the cover laminated and get it bound together. We are talking close to $100.00 for a finished product! 

Do I think it was worth the $59 I paid for it.... the answer is YES YES YES! I love this planner already. Erin Condren did a fabulous job thinking about what will really work for teachers. I think it will be nice for me to keep all my information in one place and no longer have to worry when I have a meeting. I will just grab it and go! Ordering on the website was easy and their customer service treated me great! I will order from her again, that is FOR SURE! 

I hope this helps if you are on the fence about buying one :)