Sunday, June 17, 2012

Summer Projects


The past four days have been great! I've actually given myself a chance to relax for once. Even though it's summer, I will be starting camp tomorrow—which runs from June 18-July 20 (with a week off for July 4th), from 7:30-4:00 each day. So.... I will basically be working the same hours as school—not that I will be doing anywhere near the amount of work I was doing during the school year! Once July 20th rolls around, I will probably take another couple of days off and then try to get back into my classroom to either pack it up to move to a new room or begin decorating my old room again. It all just depends on what grade I teach next year. Either way, I will have a lot of work to do! Thankfully, I tried to make things a little easier on myself by going ahead and taking everything down and storing it. That's one less step I will need to do at the end of the summer. Look at the before and after:

Before (well... this is the beginning of the year pic... but it looked basically the same)

After. Totally clean!

On that note, since I am only teaching during weeks 2 and 4 of camp, I am going to try to do a “summer project” every week or so. I can not for the life of me remember which blog it was that I was reading a few weeks ago where the blogger said she was going to post a new project every Monday to hold herself accountable, but I am going to try to do something along the same lines. I'm not making any promises though! :) I have a couple projects that I already know that I would like to complete this summer (I'm sure the list will get bigger... but I'll handle that later).

Here are some of the things I really would like to get done.

  1. CLEAN- First and foremost, I have got to clean my apartment. I mean it is a WRECK. A disgusting, messy, I'm-never-home, wreck. I already spent half a day cleaning out the fridge, my part of the pantry, and my closet (holy crap... now that was a project in itself!), but there is still the rest of the kitchen, my bathroom, my bedroom, and the living room. After that is done, I can start on some new projects!
    Look, you can see the floor of my closet! I don't think it's been this clean the entire time I've lived here!
    I forgot to take a "before" picture of the closet... but this is after I had taken all of the stuff out of it to organize and put back in it.

    After! I even left space on the side for all of the school stuff I need to put in here. I do plan on reorganizing my clothes and possibly getting a shelving unit, but this is SUCH an improvement!

    2. Gallery wall- My roomie, Brittany, and I moved into our apartment almost a year ago and I still have not finished decorating my bedroom. I have an entire wall that I have been planning on turning into a gallery wall since I moved in but never got around to it. Brittany even bought me some frames for Christmas to get me started and I still haven't done it. I have been so consumed with decorating/organizing my classroom that my apartment kind of took a backseat. Well, now that I can't get into my classroom for a while, I have to look at my apartment all the time! So, maybe that will inspire me a little bit.

    3. Pirate theme- I need to print/create some pirate wall art for my classroom. I already have my pirate themed CAFE signs and writing posters. Now I need to print out the ABC letters I bought (is that even appropriate for 3rd grade still, if I end up moving?), classroom rules, and some cute signs I plan on framing. I also want to do a couple paintings. There's a lot of things I can't do while I'm at home, because it takes materials that are at school—but I'll worry about that in August!

    4. Organize- I need to find some more organizing things for my classroom that look good together. I am a bin hoarder, but none of the bins match and all of those bins together still don't make things look organized. I plan on doing a lot of yard sale-ing and spray painting this summer!

    5. Read- I know that I am definitely reading the CAFE book and some books on writer's workshop... but I am going to read some books for fun too. I finally finished the last book in the Hunger Games series last night, so I will be moving on to some other novels I've been wanting to read.

    6. Lose weight—Ohh the constant goal that is on everyone's list. I managed to lose 15 pounds earlier in the school year (not really due to diet and exercise, more due to the fact that I was very sick) but I have gained it all back in the last few months, because I haven't been sick anymore. As glad as I am to not be sick, being sick was a very easy way to diet! Haha, I'm kidding. My goal is to get healthy and feel better and continue to not be sick; hopefully, in the process, I'll go down a few pants sizes at the same time! ;)

    7. Randoms—Here are a few pictures that I have pinned that I would really love to create this summer. I'm not good at writing sources correctly, so I'll just put the link under each picture where I found, if it is available. I am a pinaholic, so this narrows it down for me just a little bit:

    Seashell Lamp
    I've already started collecting a lot of shells and it gives me an excuse to keep going to the beach. :)


    Anchor Paintings

    I know that these are beach towels, but I want to paint at least one painting with an anchor on it, but in red and white to match my classroom.


    Mod-Podge Filing Cabinet

    I will probably not actually use mod-podge because I want to be able to take the paper off it I want. But I want to cover my cabinets with red, black, and white paper.


    Scrap Paper Organization

    I have a ton of scraps and end up throwing away even more because I have no real way to organize them. I want them to be organized enough to look good, while still being easily accessible for the kids. No more wasting paper!


    Pirate Bulletin Board

    I want to create one of these, without the “Captain of the Week” at the top. I want to use it to put near my desk to hold personal pictures. Right now I have only one personal picture up in my room and would like some more to remind me of all the people I love!
    http://mchaffiek.blogspot.com/search/label/pirate%20theme


    Guess I'd better get to work! :)


2 comments:

  1. Good luck with your organizing! And I love, love that lamp!

    Sara :)
    Smiling In Second Grade

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  2. This all looks wonderful! I love the lamp too...it reminds me of my favorite place: the beach. =)

    I am happy to be your newest follower. I would love for you to hop over and visit me when you get the chance. =)


    Heather
    Heather's Heart

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