Monday Made-It (Meet-Up & Giveaway!)

I'm linking up again with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made It!

This week I actually didn't make much - unless you count all the fabulous goodies I made at the Make & Take class that I already shared! Click here to see them if you missed them! Between the dentist on Monday, Great Expectations training Tuesday through Friday and the waterpark on Saturday, I didn't have a whole lotta time for crafting this week! I knuckled down though and crossed one thing off my Pinterest To-Do List:

                                                                         Source: marthastewart.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I absolutely loved this vase from Martha Stewart, it totally embodies the natural feel I want my room to have! I knew I didn't want a vase though since I am more of a plant person. I finally decided on a pencil cup instead.  As luck would have it, I had a bunch of sticks left over from last week's pointer project, so that decided me!

I recycled a pineapple can and used some bronze spray paint on it just in case there were any gaps:

I then spent a solid hour cutting branches to size and then burning my fingers as I hot glued them onto the can. All I can say is thank goodness the can wasn't any bigger or I would have thrown the towel in on this one - talk about tedious! Fortunately I had The Food Network Star finale dvr'd so I managed to persevere. (By the way, totally loooove the outcome - don't want to spoil it in case someone else hasn't watched the episode yet, but I am so excited to watch the winner's new show in the Fall!)

Anyways, once it was done I tried the raffia ribbon:

Then I tried an orangey ribbon instead:

Forgive the grainy pics, I can't find my camera charger so I had to use my cell phone!

My household is evenly divided between the two ribbons. Rustle Up a Response below and let me know which you like better! Either way I now have a stylish container for all of my pens and pencils, so I'm happy I finished it! 

I did manage to get to a Target and a teacher supply store on Saturday on the way home from the waterpark and picked up some really cute stuff. I can't wait to be able to get into my classroom - depending on who you ask that will either be August 1st or August 6th! It looks like I'll be sticking with the same room since my principal is adamant about the new rooms going to 1st grade :( and I'm adamant about wanting to be with my kinders this year!

Oh! Want to hear a good one? We are getting a teacher who was...let's say...not the best last year. This person was in a testing grade and the test scores sucked. So obviously they can't go back into a teaching grade, right?! So let's just stick them down in kindergarten or first grade because those are throw away grades! Argh! It kills me when people act like the lower grades aren't important! Let's see what happens when those kiddos leave 1st not knowing how to read - test scores are going to suck for years then! Oh and of course kindergarten is such an easy grade to teach - not much curriculum at all (heavy sarcasm). Kind of want to hit people over the head when they act like a trained monkey could teach kindergarten so let's stick any old teacher in K.

Okay, rant over...let's get back to your regularly scheduled post:

Due to popular demand, the date of the Okie Blogger Meet-Up was changed! Hopefully more people will be able to attend this Saturday since last Saturday was booked solid for so many. Again, no blog necessary, and heck you don't even have to be from Oklahoma! If you're in the OKC area next Saturday July 28th we want to meet you! There will be door prizes and all sorts of fun people! Not to mention cheesecake! Just shoot me or Kaci an email and let us know you're coming :)

Lastly, I'm having a giveaway for $50 worth of Donorschoose gift cards! Click the picture to go to that post to enter!