Monday Made It {Recovered Cushions}

Once again I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for a fun {Monday Made It} post! 

Here's the final project, but I'll show some "in-progress" photos as well!  Two years ago I found the cute idea to make cushions for my milk crates and use them as seats around my table. I've loved using them, but each year I realize they get really dirty and I need to recover them. 

This year I was lucky enough to find some lime green fabric that will go perfectly in my "blue and green" ocean-themed room! My friend had the fabric and let me have some to make my new cushions! I think she probably saved me a few $$ from all the other stuff I would have purchased had I gone to Jo-Ann's looking for "just fabric" for this project!!

First up: I had to take the old, stained, blue fish fabric off of the cushions. I left the bottom layer of denim in place as  it secured the foam. 

Next, I cut the fabric down and got ready for a lot of folding and stapling! 

Four cushions later and they were ready to head to my classroom! 

I don't know about you, but my Summer is just flying by!! It's fun creating new goodies for my classroom but I'm going to have to start getting the "curriculum" ready to go! 😉 

What about you? Are you ready to head back to school? 

Monday Made-It: Seatbelt Pillows

I'm excited that I finally had time to do a "Monday Made-It" and link up with 4th Grade Frolics!! 

I have a road trip coming up soon and my friend thought it would be so fun if we had those cute seatbelt pillows! We are going to make the trek from Minnesota to Florida with my two kids and her two kids! 

Imagine: {2 moms, 3 girls, 1 boy, and a 20 hour car trip each way}

I've been working on making some fun things for our trip to keep the kids busy! Next week I'll share more about the road trip games and goodies we're bringing along. This week I want to share about the comfy stuff!

Last night I decided it wouldn't be too hard to whip up the pillows and I mostly had all of the materials at my fingertips. I started by making the pillows for the girls, out of some leftover Frozen fabric I had lying around my sewing room. 

I basically made a giant rectangle and left a 4" opening at the bottom. Then I stitched 3/4 of the way down just left and just right of center to form the two pockets to stuff. This leaves a flat portion in the center to wrap around the seatbelt. 

When my friend showed me pictures of these on Pinterest she found a super cute one with a pocket for your iPhone. So I went a little above and beyond and picked 2 of my favorite fabrics and made a cute chevron pocket on the pillow I was making for her and I to share {whenever we weren't driving!}! 

Of course I couldn't forget my little man! He would be lost in this sea of pink, purple and Frozen! I had just enough of this fun Superman fabric left over to make him the perfect seatbelt pillow! 

Now I better run and get back to prepping for our road trip!!

TpT Seller Challenge: Dare to Dream

I am a bit behind, but I am loving this TpT Seller Challenge as it's getting me motivated to work on my blog, TpT Store and more!!

Last week's challenge was a "Dare to Dream" challenge and we were asked to share why we sell on TpT and what are dreams are for the "business!"

When I started selling on TpT it was mostly to make a little extra spending money as I had fun creating things I needed or wanted for my own classroom. That is still my primary goal, but as I have more time to create I've realized a few other goals: 

More Time with my family

Meeting new teacher friends

Travel $$

To let my creative juices flow

I've had so much fun "meeting" new teacher friends through Instagram {follow me @teachermomoftwo} and hope to meet some of them one day at the TpT Conference in Vegas!!

What are your hopes and dreams for what you're doing? Maybe you're a teacher blogger, blog follower, teacher, or business person! Share your hopes and dreams in the comments below!!

 

Who Wants to Read?!

Everyone wants their kiddos and students reading all year round! I don't know about you, but my kids love reading books on the iPad {just like their Momma!}! 

Last night, a teacher friend of mine came over to chat and catch up on the thrills of summer and shared this {AWESOME} app with me!  Have you heard of "Epic?" It's an app that is FREE for educators and has hundreds of hundreds of awesome books available for students to read! 

After getting my kiddos set up with their accounts this morning, they've been reading a ton ~ choosing from titles like Scaredy Squirrel, Berenstain Bears and more!

As they read it tracks the amount of time they have read, number of pages flipped, and number of books read. Students can earn badges for reading books, rating books and more. My son was super excited when he unlocked new avatars for his profile picture! 

Each child gets to personalize their account with their own interests in books, age, and types of books - picture, chapter, early readers, ABC books and more!!

What are your favorite apps for having kids read? Share them in the comments!!

TPT Seller Challenge {Makeover Madness}

I'm so excited to work on my TPT Store this summer!  It seems that there is never enough time to get things done during the school year!  I am linking up with Sparkling in Second, Teach, Create, Motivate, Third in Hollywood, and Peppy Zesty Teacherista for some fun challenges over the next few weeks!

Our first challenge was to take something we have in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store and give it a "makeover!"  I chose my Animal ABC posters!  Check-out the new cover!  I'm hoping that by featuring a few more of the clip art animals on the cover it will catch someone's eye!

To make it even better - I've put it on sale for 20% off this week!!  Hurry, run and grab it while it's on sale!  Please be sure to leave me some feedback and "follow" my store for updates when I post new products!!

Follow Me on BlogLovin'

Guess what??  I've linked up with BlogLovin'!  So be sure to head over and follow me to keep up-to-date on my newest blog posts!

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Five for Friday

Woohoo! It's finally Friday! And guess what?! Tomorrow is my birthday!!

Today I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday! It's been awhile, but I'm really hoping to get back into the swing of this blogging thing! I've got so much to share, but so little time!

Last Sunday I participated in the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon! While I'm a pretty slow runner, I do enjoy it! I was able to relay the half marathon with my sister-in-law. I ran the first 5.75 miles and she ran the last 7.35 miles. My goal was to do my part in 1:10. I succeeded and finished my part in 1:08!!

Last week we were able to wrap up our research on Antarctica by having our parents come in for presentations!

The kids worked so hard and came up with some awesome posters, models, paintings, slide shows and even a poem!

In Math we are working on fractions. I love fractions because they can be so fun to teach, but sometimes they are so hard to understand! 

I broke out my Hershey Bar Fractions  book and brought in Hershey bars for everyone!

Let's just say it got the kids a little more excited to learn about fractions with chocolate!!

I love making things...as I'm sure you already know if you've read my blog!! And for my husband's birthday party I decided to make 2 more yard games to add to our stash! I spray painted a life size Twister board in my backyard as well as made a life size version of Kerplunk!! 

While I have to say they looked pretty cool, I think Kerplunk was more of a Ker-FAIL!! I think I need to buy larger plastic balls at a garage sale this summer! Turns out the balls all fell out before we could even start playing the game!

Last night I was able to present (along with 5 of my students!!) at our district's Learning with Technology showcase! It was a lot of fun to show off some of the things the kids have been doing in the classroom with technology! 4 of my students shared their slideshows on Google Slides that they created for their Antarctica research and one student demonstrated how we use iPads with our Persobalized Learning Plans!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of you happy mommas out there!!