Sunday (Life)Style – July 13

 

Hi friends!

Happy weekend to all of  you! (To my Australian friends enjoying the last day of holidays – enjoy your last day and try to relax!)

Before I dive into the non-teaching related stuff, I actually went into work twice during the holidays. (I know, I know.) I didn’t achieve all my goals, but I did get some stuff done. Next week I’m presenting PD to the staff of my school and I had to prepare handout packs, and I really wanted to do my filing (which I seem to do once every twelve months – please don’t judge me!) and organise the front of my room which has been a bit of disaster zone lately.

Check out my mess! (And the paper bin was totally full by the time I was done.)

The bins underneath the the IWB and whiteboard all contain frequently access materials and rather than spend MORE MONEY on matching containers, I’ve used what I had. It doesn’t look as nice, but it’s a lot more organised than it was when I started and I didn’t waste any more money on school. (This is a goal for this financial year!)

Finally, I added this movable word wall to our big whiteboard (we do still have our original word wall with sight words on the opposite wall), but this is for those words that my kids use in their journal writing. I used Tara West’s Teacher, Teacher, How Do I Spell…? pack, and added a few more Australian-specific words and holidays.

I’m SO excited… these holidays I finished two books. I haven’t done that in soooo long. I feel very accomplished!

Matthew Reilly is my go-to author for books that I just love. Granted, I love action-adventure and sci-fi – and his books always fit into one of those categories. They are very violent (usually), so just beware. BUT, he is an amazing Australian author and his books read like Action Blockbuster Movies and I’m not even kidding.

This one is very different to most of his books, in that it’s set in the past with a Young Queen Elizabeth I, but it’s a murder-intrigue style book. It’s also very definitely for mature readers.

A 13-year old Elizabeth travels to Constantinople with her teacher Roger Ascham for the first international Chess Tournament. Check out the rest of the description here.

So, a couple of weeks ago I posted about my Fortune Cookie Soap box. Included in the subscription box was a $10 voucher to spend in the online store, so I took the opportunity to try some other goodies.

I will confess, the Candy Aisle items from the original box didn’t thrill me, only because the scents were a little sickly sweet for me (I can be quite picky with different scents). But I definitely wanted to give these guys another go, because they have some awesome products.

From the Tree of Life collection I bought the OCD Hand Sanitiser, Personal Space Air Freshener, Steam Me Up Scotty, and Whipped Cream.

From the Polyjuice Potion (!!!) collection I bought the OCD Hand Sanitiser, Personal Space Air Freshener and Whipped Cream. Of the two lines, this is my FAVOURITE. It smells divine. And I’m probably going to divide all the items between home and school so I have nice hand sanitiser and air fresheners and creams to use everywhere!

So, last week I did a video about one of my Memebox subscription boxes, and I’ve got a few of these ordered and they’ll ship out at various times of the year. This week I received the Milk box (which has unfortunately sold out at the moment) which is full of skincare products that all use milk as a base.

What I got:

• Pure Smile Milk Mask Pack (1 full size)
• Skin Ceramic Donkey Milk & Argan Oil Multi Steam Cream (full size)
• Enesti Rice and Milk Foaming Cleanser (full size)
• Pure Smile Choosy Lip Pack Milk (1 full size)
• Hello Everybody Bubble Bath Steam Milk (25g)
• Hello Everybody Nature Holic Body Lotion Milk (full size)
• Pure Smile Choose Lip Scrub (25g)

What I really love about Memebox is that, because it’s full of Korean products, there are so many things I’ve never heard of, or would have bought on my own. I’m really looking forward to trying some of these products, because milk is meant to be fantastic for your skin.

 

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a gorgeous online store called Artsyville.

They have very fun little products that would make AMAZING gifts. I, of course, only had eyes for the gorgeous washi tape and ordered all six patterns (because this is me who’s talking!). When I ordered the tapes there was a special deal where I also received a sample pack of these gorgeous, brightly-coloured doodle cards – that are perfect for notes and gift tags, etc. Her website has gorgeous prints and little gift packs, including this CUTE Super Teacher Box.

The store owner, Aimee, is lovely, and has an instagram page you can follow.

Yesterday I had my nails done AND a Lemon Crush Boost Juice, which pretty much made it the best day ever.

If you live in Melbourne and are interested in getting a BioGel manicure, check out Nails by Nancy – she’s AWESOME!

I also went shopping at Typo and bought more washi tape (picture me hanging my head in shame) and this awesome envelope template! (I thought that was kinda cool!)

I also went to Spotlight and found some fabulous things on SALE! I found some classroom border strips (all $1 each, which for teacher supplies in Australia is AMAZING), plus some cut out decals for $1 a packet. I like to use those for sight words/etc.

I also got 3 packs of Heidi Swapp stamps (each for $4, down from $7), some CUTE Halloween paperclips for my planner in October for 50c each, plus some chalkboard labels for the classroom for $1.

And that was my week!

What was something you did for YOURSELF this week?

(Remember – you are an important person! <3)

Five for Fri… Saturday and Currently!

Yeah, so this is getting to be a habit, posting on a Saturday. Apologies!

 

#1

So, I’ve been getting the urge to be all kinds of crafty recently. From gift tag giveaways, washi-decorated candles and decorating my planner pages each week, I’m washi crazy! 😀

#2

Did you hear what I said about washi crazy? The newest additions to my collection. Plus, some stickers for my planner.

#3

Sunrises. Two this week while I was waiting for the bus to work. (And yes, I’m up that early.)

#4

I’m attempting 2 Photo a Day challenges this month – one is Filofax Photo-a-Day May (#filofaxphotoadaymay on instagram) and the Teacher Photo-a-Day Challenge (#padteacherchallenge). The photos above are from the first 3 days of the Filofax Photo-a-Day (and yes, I’m cheating, because my planner is not technically a Filofax… shush!)

#5

Tell me you’re picking up the trend here…!

I’ve just finished stamping my own masking tape – which was a trial tonight to see how it turned out. I need to invest in some new inks and stamps for it to work better (and I might try tissue paper and double-sided tape, too, at some point), but this was quick and easy. It’s still drying in the kitchen!

(Can’t buy anything until June though… I’m doing a No-Spend May. Which means no spending on things I don’t really need. Like stickers. And washi tape. And stamps. And ink… You get the idea!)

And finally, I’m linking up with Farley for this month’s Currently!

Listening to The Mummy… well, it’s just finished, but it was on when I was typing this up! I love this movie. I can quote it and I still laugh at all the jokes. It’s just one of those movies for me!

Loving my Kikki-K planner. You guys are probably sick of hearing about it, but it’s totally keeping me organised and on task and has for the whole month. This is unheard of for me. Combined with my Erin Condren Teacher Planner, I’m becoming super organised. Sometimes! ❤

Thinking that I don’t want to start thinking about writing reports. My school’s timeline kicks in from next week. Which is depressing.

Wanting to buy new ink and stamps so I can make more washi tape! But I can’t, because I’m on a No Spend May. And I’m going to stick to it. Just to prove that I can have self-control (when I normally have ZERO self control… wish me luck!).

Needing to save money. See above. But I want to try and buy an apartment in the next 18 months and I desperately want to visit my best friend and her family in Canada in December. Save, save, save!

Surprise! Most of you may know Alison from Teaching Maths with Meaning, but if you don’t, she’s totally wonderful. She is my maths guru – seriously, she has some fabulous resources and ideas on her blog and she teachers Prep to boot!

And that’s all from me, tonight! Have a WONDERFUL weekend, folks!

Gift Tags Winner!

I’m waaaaay behind on posting, and for that I apologise.

I do have a post planner for the way I plan for my multiage classroom. I want to try and plan out my next week so that I have complete (or mostly-complete) planners to share with you. (I’m also contemplating doing a video, but that may post-pone it while I wait for my iPad tripod to arrive so I can show you guys properly. I’ll see how I’m tracking!)

I’m also contemplating doing an unboxing video for my recent Bellabox and VioletBox subscription boxes. Anyone interested?

But, now on to the fun stuff!

Congratulations Doreen!

Check your inbox for an email from me!

This was for the 12 handmade gift tags giveaway that I ran in last week’s Five for Friday post!

Since then, though, I’ve made a collection of tags for my sister, so I thought I’d share them with you.

(Don’t mind the alphabet letters – they’re just for reference!)

Stay tuned tomorrow for another Five for Friday post with lots of pics from my 3-day week!

Enjoy your day, my friends, and I’ll see you later!

Keeping my life organised…

… or trying to, at least!

Hi friends!

For those of you who have been following me for a little while now, you’ll know that I’ve been on this (on-going, never-ending!) venture of trying to keep myself organised! If you’ve only discovered my blog recently, I don’t consider myself an organised person in my personal life, but I’m trying! You can check out my posts on a sneak-peak into my Erin Condren Teacher Planner, my planner suitcase, and using Evernote to reduce my paperwork.

(I confess, I’ve been a bit slack on using Evernote in the classroom lately, but I’m geared up to get back into it this term!)

Anyway, I’ve just ordered (and received a shipment notice) for my second Erin Condren teacher planner (for July) because I really have enjoyed using it. However, I’ve decided that from now on it will be STRICTLY a teacher planner, because I like handwriting my weekly overview. (I do have more detailed Literacy and Numeracy planner for each week) but I do like blocking out times and special events, etc. I also love the checklists and monthly overviews, etc. If you’re interested in seeing more detail photos/descriptions on how I use my teacher planner, let me know in the comments.

HOWEVER. For my personal life, I wanted to use something different.

Enter my new Kikki-K Time Planner.

For those of you familiar with Filofax planners, this is equivalent to an A5 Filofax.

My goal with this planner is to use it for all my appointments, social events, to-do lists for around the house, birthdays, expenses, BLOG PLANNER (capitals warranted because I need to get onto this), wish lists, meeting notes, etc.

My plan is to spend about 15 minutes on Sunday nights checking my monthly calendar and updating my upcoming weekly planner (week to 2 pages) with all the things that are happening, plus things that need to be done, and a little bit of decorating. (I think I’ve told you all that if something’s pretty, I’m more inclined to use it? Totally true.)

If anyone’s interested in seeing what I’m doing with my planner, let me know and I’m happy to share pictures. It’s a work in progress, but I started using it on Monday and so far I’m really enjoying it. It’s a very pretty ‘berry’ colour and I think it’ll help keep me on track!

And… because it’s the holidays, and because I needed some cute little bits and pieces to decorate my brand new planner, I did a bit of stationary shop. Here are all my goodies (because I know teachers like stationary!):

From Big W I bought a mini-scrapbooking paper pad to create some pretty page dividers, plus some Pilot Frixion Erasable pens (these ones are 0.7 point). This don’t bleed through the pages of the planner, and can be erased if an error is made – this makes me very happy!

Then I went to Daiso – and that is a REALLY dangerous shopping experience for me. A few sheets of stickers, a few SUPER CUTE collections of sticky notes (hello cute little coloured pencils!), washi tape and giant paper clips later and I was done!

Then I stopped in at a news agency… and I don’t normally go into news agencies, but I totally found these colourful versions of my all-time favourite pens (Uniball Jetstreams). I love, love, love these pens! Plus a single hole punch because I have 2 in my classroom, but none at home.

Then it was in to Officeworks, and I didn’t do too badly. Normally I buy waaaaaaay too much at Officeworks. Here I found the Pilot Frixion pens I really wanted (in 0.5 pt), and I ended with 7 different colours. These pens have taken up residence in my Planner Suitcase now (and the black pen lives in my Kikki-K planner). Plus, two full adhesive sticky note packs (in my favourite colours!). These are awesome because basically the entire sheet is sticky except for one tiny strip that’s not, if you want to move them around.

Is anyone else as picky as I am about their pens? (Don’t get me wrong, one can never have TOO many pens because they never seem to be handy when you need them.) I started using the Jetstream pens about 6 years ago now, and they are by far the best pens. Although I do like how the Frixion pens write in my planner.

Maybe I’m just ALL ABOUT the coloured pens? 😀

Do you think I have enough washi tape? I saw this great idea in a planner organisation video about having a sample of each roll of washi tape you have in your planner so you don’t double-up, want to try and coordinate colours, etc. Well, I ended up with nearly 2 back-and-front A5 sheets covered in washi tape. And I thought that was… kind of a lot.

Then I remembered I had a stack of tape rolls in my Planner Suitcase. So… now I’m on to the third sheet.

People, I think I have a problem! 😀

What are your stationary loves?

 

 

Monday Made It

 

It’s been absolutely ages since I’ve linked up with Tara for Monday Made It, but I’ve actually made something! (Shock! Horror!)

I’ve been making some Back to School gifts for some of my besties at work/etc.

This year I’ve made them all some personalised merit stickers to hand out to their kids.

Every teacher is getting six copies of the 4 designs above:

– [teacher] thinks my work is spectacular!

– [teacher] thinks my work is un-BEE-lievable!

– [teacher] thinks my work is out of this world!

– [teacher] thinks my work is awesome!

I just printed them on some A4 size sticker labels that I picked up at Officeworks and used my 1 inch paper punch to cut them out. They’re pretty easy to peel back to give to students (or better yet, hand them out to the kiddos and get them to peel it back – fine motor opportunity!).

This is how they’ve been packaged for everyone!

I love me some washi tape. (No, seriously – I have a MASSIVE washi-tape addition and …. well, probably 40+ different tapes to pick from!)

I just picked some stylish black patterned tape and used my ink stamps to personalise each little baggy.

I think they turned out rather cute!

What have you been making lately?