Saturday, April 28, 2012

Garage Sale Treasures!

So I hit the streets to go garage sale shopping for my classroom with my mum this morning. I am proud to say I found some cute stuff that will be great in my classroom. Plus, I am a huge fan of neighborhood garage sales--- so much easier then finding individual ones.  Below are my finds some need some TLC but once I get them back up to beauty standards they are going to be fabulous!

1). cute metal drawers/bins
Location: Bent Tree neighborhood garage sale: hsh estate sale
Price: $1 each    
These were my first buy of the day.. well all the orange ones. I went back later for the green ones because I realized I needed them as well... too bad 2 of them had already sold but the one that was in a different room from the rest was still there so I snag it. Still need to take the white price stickers off them.
2). Glass/metal table (slash shelf) 
Location: Bent Tree neighborhood garage sale
Price: $8 
When I pulled up outside this house I knew I wanted this piece. I was kinda sad to see that it was a bit bent (which I later found out because the owner had taken a hammer to it to make the glass shelves more tight.. aka not be able to lift up). The color isn't bad so I am still debating repainting it. I need to wash it off to see what exactly I am working with.
                        front:
              side:
3) Dinosaur
Location: Bent Tree neighborhood garage sale
price: $1    and  50 cents
My lovely mum actually bought this for me, it won't be a permanent fixture in the classroom but something fun to put out during our dino week.
4) Orange shelf
Location: Millstone neighborhood
price: $5
Definitely will be painting this piece. It was in a little girl's room apparently (she wrote her name in pencil on it). It caught my eye.. probably because it was orange, but I think it will be a good little shelf for keeping student supplies on and whatnot. I am thinking of painting it a teal color.. still debating though.




with my bins on them... and of course louie had to sneak into the picture.. he was extremely excited about the dino.

Total spent: $18.50!!!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Reading Nook wall decor

After getting some inspiration via pinterest and my web browsing, I found a picture of a reading in a classroom with the word 'read' on the wall made out of wooden letters painted white with black designs on them. I knew I definitely wanted to do something similar. I wanted actual color on the letters for two reasons: 1) i have tan walls and a color scheme already in mind 2) I have read some feng shui books for the classroom, as well as, book pertaining to special needs students and for those students black and white can overwhelm them since there is such a contrast in colors. Also I learned that having lots of red in the classroom can also be distracting and make students feel more anxious. All in all, thank goodness that I was already thinking of staying more neutral, calming with blues, greens, tans,  whites, and occasional bright focus pieces. I have a travel/adventure theme already in place since it fits with the grade level (5th grade). I read once again that exploration is a big key thing to stress in 5th, plus a lot of the curriculum covers exploration in its many facets. Let us not forget I myself have the travel bug so i will also enjoy such theme (and i can use some of my travel pictures in my classroom! bonus!). Anyways, back to my latest project... I went to hobby and bought the chipboard letters (walmart doesn't carry the bigger letters anymore!), I also decided to make the project easier and headed to the scrapbook paper aisle-- which if you ever hear about me heading to hobby lobby you can always find me in that aisle.... so addicting--- and I can't help it that feel compelled to take advantage of scrapbook paper sales (which is it me or does it seem like it is always on sale at hobby lobby?!?!). Anyways I found Daily Junque paper by house of three in a pack of 24 pieces. The colors were perfect and it is actually card stock paper. The only downer was that the pages are double-sided (not the same print on both sides) so that kinda sucks. Once at home I picked out my papers to use on each letter: 'R'- I wanted bold and eye catching but not a real busy pattern. 'E' I went with a pink colored paper that had a pretty busy pattern/ collage feature.  'A'- I went with a pink graph paper that had a distressed/ stained look but helps balance the pattern on the 'e', 'D'- I wanted to something that popped but still kept balance so I went with the yellow number patterned paper.. plus the paper was too darn cute not to use. I used modpodge to attached the paper after stenciling the letters on to the paper and cutting them out. I did not use modpodge on top of the paper since I didn't want a gloss plus this way i can always remove the paper easier if i want to change up my theme. Below are pictures of each letter and then them all together! I can't wait to put them up in my reading nook in my classroom!!! They turned out sooo cute!


 I also love that the 'E' says destination on it, has a map print, and a globe-- perfect!!!