Diapers, Dishes and Dandelion Wishes

Okay...the diapers are changed, the dishes are done now it's on to my wish list. Ha!! Where to begin?! First of all I guess I should say I WISH my WISH list was much shorter since we are just a week and half away from August! I was just reading over on Heather's blog at Heather's Hearts and started thinking about all the things I want to accomplish and why I do what I do.  She's exactly right! We do all these things to make our classrooms look amazing because it's who we are! Do I expect any compliments on it from my students? Nope! Do I hope my co-workers compliment me? You bet!! LOL! At any rate...I am so grateful to all the bloggers out there that not only are you willing to put the time and effort into making your classrooms amazing, but that you are willing to share it with the rest of us.
Okay, now that I've got that out of my system I want to share a couple of projects I made and give some tips that I learned along the way. First of all let me just tell you that I am the most anti-crafiest person you'll ever meet. I have all these dreams and images in my head of what my project will turn out to be and it NEVER turns out.  I like to take short cuts for one thing and I don't have much patience or time (with my two sweet babies always at my feet)! So...anyway here they are...

Ta-Dah! My clipboard!!! (minus the ribbon at the top)

Okay so these have been floating all around the world of blogs so I have no actual idea where the idea originated. I do know that I've seen teachers in my very own building toting these things around and always wanted one.  HOWEVER...Some words of advice. One cut your paper shorter than the board so that there are pieces of the board left around all edges. I wrapped my paper around the whole darn thing and I'm fairly curtain that my paper will not last long due to this. My advice would be to paint your clipboard (at least the edges) so that when you put your paper down the paint just shows around the edges and this will make the top metal part much easier to deal with! It will also help with not having to try to line up the paper the way I did since I wrapped it from front to back :( Oh well! I am at least proud that I learned how to do this in first place!

Second.....

Glitter Clothespins!!!

I'm starting in a new district and trying to win the hearts of the building engineers ;)! JK!! Anyway, the theme for my room this year is black and white with pops of bright teals, greens and pinks! So far all I've done are silver and black clothespins. However, I do have some words of advice for these as well. Number 1- Get the finest glitter you can find. My silver are far prettier than my chunky black just due to the fact that the glitter is finer. It also seems to dry better. I simply painted the front with mod podge and dip it into glitter. Voila! My other piece of advice for these is...I sprayed mine with an acrylic type spray. Great idea! But I bought flat and it made my clothespins FAR less shiny :(! BOOO!! At any rate I am not sure where I saw this either, but it is not my idea either. I do a lot of what I call "Brain Borrowing" :) While I am curtain most of you have already created your own clothespins and clipboards I thought I'd share my experience! Tee-hee! Now I'm off to do laundry and snuggle my 12 week old baby boy! :)