DIYing Up A Storm!!!!

     So I've been doing quite a bit of crafting here lately. Here are some pics of my latest projects and creations. I'm having fun recycling objects around my house and using them to create new fun items.

 Doesn't this make your heart flutter? I love Sharpies!!!! and I LOVE color!!!!

 Oh the possibilities! About to start crafting :)

 My supplies: 2 fabric flowers from the scrapbooking dept. on sale $2.00, 2 strands of coral looking beads on sale for $3.49 a piece, and rope chain on sale for $4.50!

 The finished product!!!! I love it! and it was super EASY

 Sorry about the plain gray t-shirt, but wanted to show how it looked on.

 I also got these beads on sale and threw together this quick necklace. Its going to look so cute with a gray ruffle tank and coral cardigan!

So then I decided to make some bangles and was thinking about what I could use...I also happened to be stuffing my face with my favorite chips and while I was reaching into the can..."Lightbulb!"

One can gave me 6 bracelets and thats after I messed up on of the ends trying to cut it with a dull knife.

Now a great excuse to eat all the Pringles haha!!! 

 This is my finished product...You see that cute orange button in the middle? Well thanks to that darling lil button I now have 2 very nasty blisters on 2 of my fingers...NOT FUN!!!!!! But the bracelet just turned out darling! So I guess the battle scares of crafting were worth it. 

So I've mentioned a few times that I have been working on altering an old book into a journal. This is the cover:

Sorry, not the best pic but you will just have to believe me when I say that it is really coming out just too precious ( I almost said darling but realized I have used that term of endearment already a few times in this post....seems all this crafting has really brought out the southern charm in me). I'm still working on the inside, but I'm pretty happy with how the overall look is turning out. 

Well, it's late, a school night, and I also have detention in the AM. Going make my coffee and program my coffee maker. I just LOVE that I can set my coffee to brew 5min. before I get up! I function so much better if I don't have to wait for my coffee or try to make it when I haven't had it yet. I can't believe how much coffee grinds I go through...and the stuff is not cheap!!! I think that when you become a teacher that Community Coffee should give you a yearly supply of coffee as long as you teach, I'm just saying :)

Oh, tomorrow is me and the girls first monthly DIY night. I'm super excited!! We're making necklaces out of scarves and small chains. Here is the link to it over at Flamingotoes

and we are also making the pompom necklace from over at littlemissmomma

I will no doubt be bringing my camera with me to DIY night and posting pics soon of our creations. 

~Till Next Time :)

I Need PAA...Pinterest Addicts Anonymous

     Like I have said before, I'm addicted to Pinterest. I found this on there and just loved it and found so much truth to it!

There are so many of these that when I read them I was like "HECK yeah, did someone write down my thoughts??" haha!!!!! # 4...So stinking true! #26 made me so happy to know that I'm not alone in the world when it comes to this feeling. 27 had me laughing so hard and yet another one that made me feel good to see I wasn't the only one who felt that way, and 28 really feels so true!
I hope that you enjoy this lil list as much as I did and that they make you feel just as good as I did to know that I'm not the only one out there that has these types of thoughts.

~Till Next Time

Enjoying the Dream, Creating & Creating, and a Few "Sylvia" moments

Read "The Dot" to my kids and had them create their own dot.

    

     I just have to start by saying that I'm still having a hard time believing that I get to teach art and that they pay me to do it!! I feel like I'm in a dream and that things are to good to be true. No more GLE's, Praise Jesus!!! Also, there's the joy of getting to play with paint, chalk, markers, color pencils, crayons, and all the other wonderful things that you may find in an art room :)  It seems that since taking the creative e-course Raining Umbrellas I have been busting at the seams to create. I have been sketching more, painting more, creating more, and enjoying it all. I think a lot of my current creative inspiration has come from looking at others blogs, Etsy, and Pinterest. I've been making and creating, here are a few of the things that I've made lately:


As you can see, I'm having a blast with my art classes and its only been 3 days!!  I'm loving it!

This was the classes first project...we did our names!

Last night I decided I wanted to make a new headband and ended up making one for myself and one for my sister.

Here is the one for my sister...I used an old t-shirt and just Love the color!

I then decided that I was going to try and spray paint these shoes that I was going to get rid of. I really liked the them but the glue that was used on the scalloping had turned brown and ran and really made them look funky...so voila, a shoe redesign!

From this:

To this:

The pompoms are shoe clips that I made

I painted these as well, it's a light green but I'm really not feeling it...

I'm going to respray these in a Turquoise color

  

I'm thinking this color, Blue Ocean Breeze by Krylon.

I also made a some shoe clips and for see more of these cute great accessories in my crafting future.

Love the pink and white bows on the black!!!!!

I'm super excited about two things that I bought last night!!!!

I found these great old watch faces...

...and these

I'm so excited, going to create a great pic with these! I've been brainstorming of all the great things I'm going to do with them.

I'm also in the process of making myself a new journal. I'm using this awesome old book that I bought on Etsy from Wesley Asher. Go check out her shop, she has a bunch of great stuff.

So, this book is a Lovely old book from the late 50's published for the Children's Book Club Weekly Reader Group. It is absolutely filled with awesome pen and ink illustrations on perfectly aged toothy vanilla paper pages. I did cute a few of the awesome illustrations out to frame...they are so great!! I also photographed a bunch of them and will be using them to create some great prints. 

     While on the subject of prints, I'm super excited because I found a place to print my work to put in my Etsy shop. I had a very Sylvia moment the other day. I was so excited to get my first prints in and see how my work came out. Well it seems that my dyslexia was in full force and seems that what was supposed to say "calm" was printed as "clam" on all 7 copies I had ordered. Then to top it off the other print I had made I had left the "h" out of the word whisper...Ughhh!!!!!!! I am the worlds worst at not catching typos and for flipping the 2 letters in the middle of my words. Its moment like that when my learning disorder really drives me crazy!! My family got a good laugh out of it and said that it was very "Syl" haha!!! 

     It's moments like that and moments like a few months back that remind me I have a learning disorder. The moment a few months ago involved my Brake tag (those of you not from South Louisiana, I believe y'all call them inspection stickers)...anyways, so it seems that I thought that my break tag was ok because what I saw was, 01-11 when in fact it expired 11-10!!!!!(this was a lil longer ago then what I thought haha!!!) My sister was the one that pointed it out to me and I really had to look to see it haha!!! But I'm in good company when it comes to having learning disorders, seems that there are quite a few really awesome people that had this pesky Nuisance. Here's a few:

~Walt Disney

~Albert Einstein 

~Thomas Edison                                  {Just to name a few}

~Winston Churchill

~ Leonardo Da Vinci 

~Alexander Graham Bell

     Well, I have more to share, but this blog post is long enough. I'm going to call it a night and I will post more tomorrow. I found some great finds for my Christmas tree that I can't wait to show you. I love christmas and really had to hold myself back from not putting my tree up in Aug!!!!! haha!!!

~Till Next Time :)

Hi Ho Hi Ho...It's Off To School We Go

     Today was the first day of school with the students. It was a really good 1st day, I would even go as far as to say the best 1st day I have yet. I had brought a bunch of my art work to show my students. I have had all of my students when they were in my Freshmen Geog. class and none of them viewed me as an artist. So I packed up a bunch of my art work and tried to establish myself with them as an artist. A lot of times students think that art is just sketching with a pencil. I showed them some of my painting, photography, mixed media work, scrapbooks, jewelry, and pottery that I have created. I'm so excited about my classes!!! Most of my classes are small and for the most part the kids that are in the class are there because they want to be. Today I was getting so excited talking about the up coming projects and things that we will be doing this semester. Just this little bit that I've been talking about it has gotten me wanting to create, and has me thinking about some different projects.

So, I went to this great antique store and found some great treasures, the same place that I got the Awesome yellow cart that I showed you in my last post. I also had brought my camera with me and got a lot of great shots to use to make some great prints. I'm still working on getting the Etsy store up and running. Right now the only thing holding me back is that I'm waiting to get some prints back that I ordered so I can see their quality and see what my turn around time is going to be. As soon as I get those prints in then I can start uploading things to my shop. Ok, well got a little of subject, I was going to show you some of my great finds...here they are:

 My finds!! Seems pink was the color of the day :)

So I had seen on someone's blog where they had this earring holder idea and when I came across this grater in this Awesome color I knew that it was meant to be!

I decided that I would add a little something else to my holder and I put small nails through the side with the small holes and Voila! it's no longer just an earring holder but a ring holder as well

I just love my pink frame on my end table, it's a nice pop of color.

So I really need to stop buying coffee mugs but this set was calling my name!!!! They are so bright and fun and make me Smile :)

I am starting to realize that I have a lot of polka-dot items! But polka-dots make me happy so I consider them cheap small circles of great happiness therapy haha!!! 

I have also been on a nautical them. I have bought a few articles of nautical themed clothing, jewelry, and I found these cups at Target and just loved them!! 

Besides polka-dots and nautical items being on the brain I am addicted with the website Pinterest.com I LOVE this sight and have been pinning up a storm!!! I have also come across so many great ideas, fun inspiration, and just all around Awesome info. 

Here is one of the ideas that I came across, putting your makeup brushes in a cup of coffee beans. Love the wonderful aroma early in the morning while putting on my makeup. Now you could do this in a glass container and it would make a better show, but I really like my mug that came from Anthropology. 

As far as that Awesome info that I said above, well I found this great tutorial on how to curl your hair without heat. I have to say that I really didn't think it wouldn't work but I was proven wrong! 

Here is a pic of my hair curled.

My hair does not usually hold a curl at all and this was all achieved with a headband!!! Here is the tutorial for curls. She does a really good job of explaining how to do it and I have to say I was so amazed!!! 

Well, that's what I have been up to. I have regular classes tomorrow and super excited to start on our first project.

~Till Next Time

All For One & One For All

Some of us for Spirit week...
I know, you wish you went to our school

     I worked at school today and I forgot how much I loved our little school community. I have been so Blessed to work with a great group of people that help it to really feel like a lil family at work. I just love how we encourage each other and celebrate each others victories and achievements, no matter how great or small. Today I was reminded of this when one of my friends Heidi, who is also my school neighbor, had a stroke of genius. She decided to paint the inside of her classroom door with chalkboard paint. After spending some time in her classroom with 2 cans of chalkboard spray paint, and lil ventilation, she was very excited about the outcome (I think some of her enthusiasm had to do with her bit of a spray paint high haha!!!). So of course whenever we do something in our classrooms that we think is pretty great we always call each other in to check it out... wait what am I saying, we don't just do this when things are great, we do it whenever we make any changes haha!!! So after we let her classroom air out a bit, so to save a few of our brain cells (Heidi has extra she can spare a few, I on the other hand was not going to chance it),  we all stand there admiring her Awesome door! Sammie (another one of our neighbors) says, "I love this, I'm doing my door as well...but I will give you credit for the idea!" I had to laugh, you see teacher are all about "Beg, Borrow, and Steal" anything that we can use. But it was just funny to me that Sammie wanted to make sure that when she stole Heidi's idea that she would credit her for it...that just reminded me again what awesome people I work with!!! You see I have heard horror stories from other friends who teach at other schools. Teachers getting each other in trouble, stealing each others ideas and taking credit, sabotaging each others events or ideas so that they look better, or just being down right hormonal and witchy. Trust me we have our moments but even in those we have each others back. I heard someone say something in reference to our group at school that made me smile. They said, "Don't mess with them, when you mess with one you mess with them all!" I love it!!! Not every job or workplace do you have that. I know what you're thinking, "Really, a painted door spurred this train of thought and blog post??" You betcha, because thats how I roll :)

This is the door, turned chalkboard, that we all got so excited about! Yeah, Yeah...were kind-of nerds like that! :)

They also celebrated with me about finally getting my Pop Art painting up. 

27 different canvases come together to make POP Art...now that I'm looking at this pic it looks like my painting has a bit of a gangsta lean happening...oh well who wants perfection, that's boring haha!!!

I also have a few additions to my classroom

 Don't you just love this cart? I sure did!!!!!

I also got another class "pet." In the past I have not had any luck with class fishes (may have something to do with the fact that I would only clean the tanks for Christmas break Hmm??) So I had a kid give me a pet rock. Bob has been doing well hanging out on my desk. He's a smart lil rock and super easy to take care of!!! Well I came across another "pet" to keep Bob company, AL!

This is AL, isn't he CUTE!!!!!!

     Now you make be asking, "What is Al???" Well, he is a Marimo ball and just about the cutest thing I've seen in a while! He is something right out of a Dr. Suess book!! Now you may be asking, "What the heck is a Marimo ball??" Well as this website states, "Marimo literally means seaweed ball. It is a species of filamentous green algae that grow into large green balls with a velvet like appearance. Marimo is native to Akan Lake in Japan. It was declared to be a national treasure of Japan in 1921 and people from all over the country gathered these balls in glass jars to take home as keepsakes, perhaps to bring luck, or just because they plain looked good as a centerpiece on the table at home. It is said that taking excellent care of the balls will make all your wishes come true."

I'm really hoping that he brings me some luck in the man dept. but we will see :) So now Al and Bob are making me smile and hanging out being BFF in my classroom. Bob's the strong and silent type, which works out great since Al is more quirky, soft hearted, and seems to just roll with things, they really compliment each other...what all friends should do! 

Well, as always, I am up when I should be sleeping. Tomorrow I will be presenting "Classroom Management and Organizing Tips" to 30 new teacher's to our parish. I know, Right!!... Me???... speaking to teacher's on how to manage a class, the crazy teacher with a pet rock, pet algae ball, and Magic 8 Ball, sitting on my desk? Yep, seems that the big wigs in the school board haven't stumbled across my blog and so that means I have to be up tomorrow at 5am...Yay for me!!!

~Till Next TIme :)

Etsy Shop- Under Construction!

    
     Well, I'm in the process of taking the dive and opening an Etsy shop to sell some of my pictures. I have had a few people that have requested prints here and there and have had a few friends say that they would buy some of my pictures. So I thought..."Why Not?"

     I haven't yet got around to posting any of my pictures just yet. I'm still working on some of the details such as printer and shipping cost, as well as what will my pricing be. But I did create my name, and banner, which both was a lot of work. First, it was tough coming up with a name that wasn't' taken, easy to say, catchy, and not cheesy. Making my banner was a lot easier then I thought thanks to this awesome tutorial by Creek Bed Threads. So, got the shop name, the about me, banner up, pictures ready to upload...just got to get that last bit of info and I will be up and running. Here's a link if you want to check out my Etsy shop Simply Syl's Designs...now remember nothing there yet but a bit of a tease of whats to come. Let me know what you think!!!!! Also, I'm not 100% on my banner font, but played around with it and was pretty happy with it...leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

Here's one of the pics I will be putting in my store. Enjoy :)

~Till Next Time