Valentine Banner

This is very likely the very last banner I will ever make. On account of the eyelets have all gone. 

I can't say I'm super disappointed because the banners don't go together all that quickly. I started this one over a year ago.

I'm using a new list app though and I have to say that I've been cranking through my "To Do" list like a madwoman. And yes, I am a madwoman, but I'm speaking relatively here.

Never mind that there are still 125 things on my list, and I keep adding new ones.

I know you want to know what my app is, right? I'll get back to the banner in a minute. The new app that I absolutely love is called Toodledo. Mattie Cake hooked me up with it, and it runs on Apple devices, Droids, and even the Crackberry.

I like it because I have the ability to categorize my tasks in multiple ways and the app prioritizes them for me based on the due date I input, the priority level, and whether or not I star it.

The part that has been super convenient for me is the ability to have things recur as a To Do item based on completion date, due date, or just a specific day or date. It's incredibly versatile. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of what this app can do.

Anyway, I seriously love it and I credit it for lighting a fire under my bum thereby forcing me to get things done this year.

Yesterday I even scraped all the old caulk from around my windows and re-caulked them, just so I could check it off my list. 

Well that and it was way overdue. We had some serious drafts whistling through our house.

But my point is that it was on my list for at least two years before I got around to it. The app made me do it.

Back to the banner. Even though it took me over a year to get this done, you know I made two so I could give one away to one of my lucky Peeps, right?

So here's what I want you to do if you want to win this. I want you to leave a comment telling me three things that have been on your list for an embarrassingly long time, and what motivates you to get things on your list done. I can't wait to read your comments. Good luck!

Oh yeah, you have until 3:00 p.m. Friday, Siberia time. Whatever that is.

Doing Whatever I Want

The end of the year is fast approaching, and I keep thinking of things that I want to share with you, but I've been too lazy to get up and do something about it. I'm going to attempt to do a little of that in this post.

The first of those things is, at first glance, possibly a little boring. It's our 2011 Christmas ornaments from my Mother-in-Law, The Barefoot Contessa.

Every year, the BFC gets every single person in her extended family an ornament that is appropriate to the year they've had. Quite often the ornament makes light of a comical event in the person's year. My ornament this year is the cruise ship, and it is appropriate, although not comical, because Peanut Head and I went on a cruise for our 20th anniversary.

Stinkerbell's ornament, however, is a knee slapper.

The Stink's comical even for 2011 was the fact that she was assigned a mule at Girl Scouts Horse Camp. It's appropriate, it's ironic, and it's hysterical. The BFC gets extra points for this one.

Peanut Head's ornament had us all stumped until we asked The BFC about it. I had to slap my forehead, it was so appropriate and I had let it slip my mind.

His ornament makes light of this unfortunate event. I have to hand it to The BFC, she's good.

Zoe Bug's ornament was a horse, just because in her world it's horse, horse, horse, horse. I took a picture of it, but it was blurry so I left it out. I could retake it, but then I'd have to move. Not happening.

The BFC has a knack for finding the perfect ornament. She frequently procures her ornaments at  Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, just in case you need to know.

On another note, I'm on break from school this week and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. We don't have enough snow to play in and it's too cold to go outside just for the sake of getting fresh air, so we're hanging out inside. I'm not complaining either. I love being inside, in my sweat pants, doing whatever the heck I feel like, because I'm not constrained by any deadlines. It's pure bliss.

I'm taking advantage of the extra time by working through some Photoshop tutorials and learning how to use my new program. I've been staying up super late, and when I go to bed I dream about digi scrapping in Photoshop. It's awesome.

So I tapped into a bunch of tutorials over at JessicaSprague.com and there's so much great stuff there, that I'm going to be busy learning for a long time. Sadly, the tutorials aren't free, but the one that I've been working through has four complete lessons with five or six tasks within each lesson. I'm averaging about one lesson every other day. The lessons come with all the supplies you need to do each of the layouts too, so that's pretty nifty.

I figure I'll wait a few months before I buy another lesson because I need to give myself time to process all the new information and get comfortable using my new skillz.

I found the Jessica Sprague site in connection with Becky Higgins' Digital Project Life. One of my New Year's resolutions for 2012 is to make progress towards getting caught up on my backlog. Notice I didn't say I was going to get caught up, but instead make progress.

I don't want to psyche myself out with the stress of another unattainable goal. Not that it's unattainable, but I like to play head games with myself and set myself up for failure. This is how I outsmart myself and work around my self inflicted obstacles.

Project Life is going to help me with that, by enabling me to focus on the story and not spend so much time on the creative layouts. I'll still do layouts like the one above, but they will be scattered throughout my albums and not stressing me out with the pressure of needing a fabulous layout for every ding dang picture.

Or stressing me out because I only have one or two pictures for an event and I don't want to waste a whole page on a one-photo layout. I hate that.

The last thing I want to share with you today is the Christmas gift I gave to my students this year. I had good intentions of getting these up earlier this month, but I ran out of time. I you like the idea, you can pin it for next year. You are pinning, right?

If you aren't and you want to, e-mail me and I'll send you an invite. You must start today. Trust me.

I got this great idea that I was going to give my kids water bottles for the classroom. They drive me crazy with their up and down to get a drink every ding dang minute. I knew I couldn't afford really nice water bottles for the whole class, but I was able to score some pretty decent ones at the dollar store. I bought every last one and I was able to get exactly the number I needed. I was crawling around, digging behind plastic containers to come up with 27 cups, 27 lids, and 27 straws to make a complete set. I really lucked out. 

I cut the names out of vinyl on my Cricut and they went together surprisingly fast. Then I stuffed them with a candy cane, an Airhead, and a mint and left them on their desks for them in the morning. The best part was that my kids loved them and they were very surprised that I personalized the cups for them. That made me feel all tingly and lovey dovey inside.

I heart their sweet little hearts.

And I miss them, but I do not want my vacation to end.

Did you hear that, Father Time? Slow the bus down, will ya?

Where Have All the Eyelets Gone?

I've been hard at work making another holiday banner. You may remember the "Merry & Bright" banners I made last year. I loved the one I kept, but for some reason I couldn't get past the color scheme. It didn't really go with my holiday decor, so I gave it to Smashley. I have a lot of reds and greens in my Christmas decor, so I set out to make myself a new banner with more traditional colors this year.

Apparently it's a little late to be looking for Christmas paper and stickers because the selection was pretty horrid. And eyelets? Forget about it. It seems eyelets have gone out of style. I scrimped and scrounged through my eyelets to put this thing together.

I ended up finding enough paper that I liked, so I spent a large part of a day cutting out letters and backgrounds on my Cricut. Since I was making one banner already, why not make four?

So that's what I did. I made one for me to keep, one for my Student Teacher, Natalie, and two to give away to two of my lucky readers. 

I heart Natalie. She started the school year with me back in August, and she just finished her student teaching. Natalie has made my life so much easier this fall. She's scary smart, quick, motivated, and she has an amazing work ethic.

I'm going to miss her.

I need an emoticon.

Who can give me an emoticon for my sad face?

Changing the subject so I don't cry.

You know how I like to glitter my letters, right? Well, I asked the Renaissance Woman to help me decide what color of glitter to use on this banner, since she is the Renaissance Woman, and she suggested that I use several colors.

What? More than one color of glitter? What about matchy-matchy?

I had a hard time with that suggestion. I just wasn't seeing her vision initially, but she explained to me why I should do it. Some blah blah about complementary colors and making the colors pop, so I did it.

I figured she was the one with the art background and she knew what she was talking about. I'm just some Josephine who likes pretty things that sparkle.

I'm so glad I listened to her.

I didn't use any glitter on Natalie's banner because she's allergic to glitter.

THE HORROR!!!

I'd be a walking hive if I was allergic to glitter. It's very nearly my middle name.

I needed something to make Natalie's letters pop though, so I tried this stuff that I got from Melanie-Who-I-Almost-Killed-With-Pie. It's supposed to give your paper a raised epoxy look. I really like how it turned out.

If you could possibly squeeze this banner into your color scheme, leave me a comment telling me the one gift you are giving this year that you cannot wait for the recipient to open and why.

Please make sure your e-mail is attached to your Blogger profile, or leave your e-mail address in your comment, so I can contact you to tell you that you've won.

The contest ends on Thursday, December 8th, at midnight in Siberia. May the Force be with You.

Vinyl Crazy

I've been going a little crazy with the vinyl lately. Lately being the last two years or so.

Before school started, I ordered some custom vinyl from Janae, and I still don't have all of it up. It's been on my monster To Do list, so today I went into my classroom and I got a couple more things put up.

This Work Hard sign is my favorite. Well, my favorite next to the Grandpa punctuation piece I showed you a couple posts ago. Janae is selling this one for $22.00 here, and let me tell you, it's ginormous. It really sends the message I'm looking to send.

None of my students will get this one because they weren't even born when Sir Mix-A-Lot was kickin' it. I don't think I'll tell them about him either.  He's not really PG-13.  I'll just quietly enjoy this myself and hope that during parent teacher conferences their parents will at least get it. If you love this as much as I do, it's $8.50, and you can get it here.

This is the other quote I ordered, but I haven't put it up yet. My goal is to get it up this week, even if I have to do it in stages. Janae is selling this one for $24.00 and you can find it here. It doesn't have the web address on it though, that's just because this isn't the actual vinyl, but a web example instead.

Janae also made this Christopher Robin quote for me, and I have it at home and at school. It's one of my favorite quotes. Janae sells this one here for $24.50.

The prices are based on the size of the sheet of vinyl used. In my opinion, it is not cheaper to cut it yourself. Especially if you consider the cost of the vinyl and the transfer paper. Not to mention factoring in the time it takes to cut it, pull away the excess, adhere it to the transfer paper, etc. It takes me for-EVER, so I only do the small stuff myself and let Janae do everything else. It's totally worth it to me.

If you order any of the quotes I've linked to, please click the "Thoughts in Vinyl Only" shipping option when you check out. That way your shipping will be a flat $6.00.

This is an example of something I did myself with my Cricut. Small jobs like this are doable for me. I found this idea on Pinterest, and it's where I keep materials for each day's lessons at school. So far it's working very well.

I also did this. I really like how the white vinyl stands out on the black trays.

This is where I post missing assignments for the current week. It's very helpful for keeping the kids on top of their assignments. I put "No Name" papers in a Homeless File, so if a student sees his number up here and he knows he turned the assignment in, then he knows he needs to check the Homeless File.

At the end of the week, any assignments still on the board get transferred to a spiral notebook and the board gets erased for a new week.

Janae pretty much did all of my white board vinyl. I had some that I had done myself, but last year I had a projector installed in my classroom midyear, and I had to move all my vinyl. Time is very precious during the school year, so I called on Janae to help me out. She is really good about working up different plans and giving proofs with prices before cutting. I really appreciate that because sometimes my ideas are bigger than my wallet.

Of all the vinyl on my white boards, this is the section I love the most. It saves me a lot of time every day, and it looks clean and tidy. I tend to be really OCD about my white boards. They have to be super clean at the end of every day, or I get twitchy. I buy a lot of Expo cleaner.

This is where I post homework and reminders for the kids to put in their planners.

Janae did this for me too. I used to have magnets for the jobs, but I love having the vinyl because I can clean the white board without moving the jobs off.

Yes, Anne, I know the Neat Police job is not aligned with the rest of the jobs. It's sort of ironic, isn't it? I was so focused on making sure it was level, no lie, that I forgot to check the horizontal alignment as well. Doy. I am not having Janae cut this one again.

Well, at least I'm not having her cut it today. The next time I need something from her, I'm totally putting this one on my order again. It mocks me.

I might not have to wait too long because I've been coveting some vinyl she cut for another teacher in my hall. It's the teacher's name outside her door, with the cutest red apple with a little green stem. I die every time I walk by it, I'm so in love with it.

Menu Planning Redo

As you may know, I've talked about menu planning a few times on this blog. What you don't know, is that it is a constant battle for me to keep up with my menu planning. My biggest problem is time, but couple that with the fact that I loathe menu planning, and it's practically a recipe for disaster.

Well, a couple weeks ago the broccoli really hit the fan when we got our taxes done, and I realized that we have been spending way too much money eating out two and sometimes three times a week. That had to stop. 

So I sat down with my monthly menu planning calendar and I got to work.

I've been using this system for over a year now, somewhat intermittently. In spite of what some people think about teachers and their supposed part-time jobs, I regularly spend ten hours a day at my teaching job. Add to that a couple more hours a night that I've been spending lately on the yearbook, volunteering my time, and it's all I can do to keep the vomit from pooling in the back of my mouth when I hear about my cushy schedule and summers off. Although I wouldn't say that teaching is the hardest job on the planet, it is definitely the hardest job I've ever had.

That being said, I, and I'm sure every other mom out there as well, need every time saver available to me to manage my responsibilities. Eating out just can't be one of those time savers anymore.

So, as I was saying, last year I posted about menu planning and this laminated menu planner that I could write on and wipe off. The only problem with this system, for me anyway, is that our schedule seems to always be in flux and I would need to move things. Then I would have to apply spit to a Kleenex to wipe off the menu plan for the day, so glamorous, I know, and have to rewrite that menu item elsewhere. Such a chore for me and my impatient self. My problems are so enormous.

Quickly I took to using mini Post-It notes to write my menu plans on, because they could be quickly and easily moved around. The only negative to that system is that the Post-Its didn't fit perfectly into the the menu squares, so I had to trim them to fit neatly in the squares. Because I'm anal about things like that. Again, I have such enormous problems.

This enormous problem has led me on a quest to design a magnetic menu planning calendar that could work for me. I have seen some pretty brilliant menu planning calendars out in the blogosphere this year, but none of them were a fit for me. The biggest problem being that I don't have any usable wall space where I can post a magnetic menu planning calendar. Any menu planning calendar that I use has to fit on the side of my refrigerator.

Enter the Cricut Lite Chore Chart Cartridge. This cartridge was the springboard for my inspiration. I've been thinking about a potential solution for months, and I had decided that I needed to create a calendar grid in vinyl right on the surface of my refrigerator. The problem being, how do I cut the vinyl for a calendar grid and keep all the lines straight and in proportion? I'm sure some of you reading this could do just that with only your Cricut and possibly a program such as Sure-Cuts-A-Lot, or the Silhouette, without using another expensive Cricut cartridge, but my skill set does not extend that far. As it is, I already wasted an entire sheet of vinyl trying to figure out the correct size to cut for my available space.

For my first calendar grid, I used the Fit to Page button on my Cricut, not 100% sure of what it was going to do. I loaded up my $5 sheet of vinyl and pressed the Cut button before I could chicken out. Then I screamed and watched in horror as the Cricut cut a calendar fit for Ginormica, knowing that hitting STOP couldn't save that piece of vinyl that was already soiled. Plus it had to be done anyway, because I needed the numbers to set up a proportion problem to figure out how big I had to cut my calendar to fit in a 16 inch wide section on my refrigerator.

Listen up people, the next time you open your mouth to say "I've never once had to use algebra in all my life, blah, blah blah" this is a prime example of how useful algebra is. I want you to come back here again, bring your children and your children's children, and show them exactly how

Algebra is Useful

I'm going to make a vinyl sign. Who wants one?

Don't all jump at once.

The ginormous calendar that I originally cut with the Fit to Page button ended up being 11.5 inches by 19.75 inches, which was 3.75 inches longer than my available space of 16 inches. Enter algebra and the following simple proportion problem:

11.5      =   x  

    19.75         16         

Solving for x, I found that my calendar should be 9.316455696 inches high, which I neatly rounded to 9 inches. Sir Cricut can only cut in 1/4 inch increments anyway, so what's the harm in taking it to a nice round number?

No harm.

Now I will stop with the numbers. So scary to some, yet friendly to all.

So, before I show you the end result, here is one of the problems with the Cricut Chore Chart cartridge. It cuts the "C" and the "H" for the "Chore Chart" title with the calendar grid.

I just amputated them with my X-acto knife. Easy fix.

Then I pulled away the vinyl parts that weren't needed.

And there were so many.

It wastes a lot of vinyl, but I couldn't see any other way around it. It turns out that my first wasted cut would have been wasted anyway because I forgot to set my blade pressure to LOW, so it cut right through the vinyl and the sticker backing paper. Doy.

I was able to correct that for my next calendar.

Here is my calendar ready to have the transfer paper applied. By the way, I see no way to transfer this grid without the transfer paper. It's the only way to keep the lines straight and keep the calendar from becoming distorted through stretching.

I didn't take pictures of me transferring the transfer paper to the design because that stuff is like fly paper, and I don't have three hands. I know, excuses.

I was a little excited when I was pulling my excess vinyl away, and I made this little boo boo. Not to worry, it can be fixed later. I just need to fit a small scrap piece over the cut and no one will ever know.

I'm calling this picture "Man Does Multi-task." It's Peanut Head eating a doughnut while helping me to tape the calendar grid up so it's level.

Here I'm getting ready to pull the sticker backing paper away and slowly apply the calendar grid. It doesn't pay to rush this part.

S-l-o-w-l-y, slowly said the sloth.

Pretty slick, eh?

You may have noticed that this calendar grid only covers three weeks. That's really not a problem for me, as I have no plans to add numbers for days or even a month label. It will simply serve as a plan as I go menu plan, and just having three weeks done at a time will keep me super happy.

If you wanted it to be four weeks, you could easily cut little vinyl strips to extend the boxes into the area left for a title. I'm not planning on using that part anyway.

In fact, I just amputated it. It just takes up space. I know it's my menu plan, I don't need a title on it. Space is precious on my refrigerator.

Next, I cut out days of the week and put them on. It's a little squished in the Wednesday region, but it's such a cumbersome day of the week, isn't it?

The last step was to make my menu choices. I just typed six choices to a 4x6 print, layered on top of digital scrap booking paper, then cut my squares to 1.75 inches, mounted them on a layer of card stock, and laminated them to protect them from kitchen mishaps.

Then I applied a piece of magnet left over from my bazeeeeeellion magnetic bookmarks, and I was in business.

Pretty nifty, eh?

Now I think I'm ready to conquer the whole World Peace problem.

Since I first posted this, I have found someone will make this menu grid for you for just $9.50. If you want to buy one for yourself, go read this post for the details.

If you want a way to store your extra menu magnets instead of on the fridge, go read this post.