Carolina Blogger Meet-up

I was so excited to get a chance to attend my first meet-up this weekend in Greenville, SC! Amanda did such a great job organizing everything and it went so smoothly. The Facebook event page made connecting so much easier. I was one of many that arrived Friday evening to extend our get together time. The hotel was very nice and super convenient to all of our activities. My roomie was Kris from Poole's Pages. We had never met before but she was such a pleasure to spend time with and I'm glad we were able to hook up. 

The festivities started with an impromptu happy hour gathering in the hotel bar. We walked as a group p to The Lazy Goat. I'm totally not a foodie but I loved the atmosphere at the restaurant and I even ventured out of my comfort zone to try some different tapas. Everything I tried was delicious so I guess I should be more adventurous in the food department. We were scattered around at smaller tables so I got a chance to really visit with teachers at my table. Everyone was super nice.  

Following dinner we walked over to a new dueling piano bar called Jack n Diane's. Amanda had made reservations so they had three big booths set up for us just to the side of the stage. It was a hoot! Everyone had a great time there was even some dancing up on the stage. 

The following day we met for lunch at another yummy spot called Chicora Alley. We had a huge table so everyone could sit together. I tried to make a point of sitting by different people at each of or activities and it was wonderful meeting so many fabulous people. For our lunch there were cute name tag with everyone's blogs, goodie bags with G-Vegas themed treats as well as tasty cupcakes. After lunch we took a big group picture. I will have to add it once someone posts it. A smaller group finished off the event by participating in a vocabulary filled downtown scavenger hunt, organizer by the fabulous Ginger. There was even some shopping thrown in. 

I LOVED ALL OF IT! I'm so happy I was able to participate and meet so many great folks. I just wish I had been better about taking some pictures to document the fun.

Amanda even put together a list with the blog buttons from our different attendees. She rocks and I so appreciate all her hard work (and Ginger too).

Brooke from Whooo's in Second?

Sarah at Education Electrification

Diane at Fun in Second Grade

me (Heather) at Room 4 Imagination

Elisabeth at Twins, Teaching, and Tacos

Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

Natalie at Teachery Tidbits

Kim at Thanks to a Teacher

Kris at The Poole Pages

Brandee at Creating Lifelong Learners

Courtney at Classroom Snapshots

Ginger at GingerSnaps

Rachel at The Tattooed Teacher

Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B

Ashley from Primary Teacherhood

Tammy at Life, Love, Literacy

Emily AND Kerry at Third and Goal

Lauren at The Sweetest Thing

Jeannie at The Second Grade Surprise

Lana at 4 The Love of Teaching

Amanda at Teaching Maddeness

I guess I better get to bed since we started back to school last Thursday. 

Silhouette Cameo

I have mentioned my Cameo in a couple of Monday Made It posts as well as in a Fabulous Find posts. I can't say enough good things about it! I know there are some other bloggers out there with Cameo machines so I wanted teo mention a couple of things I have come across recently.

1. In the Silhouette store you can apply for an educator discount. The application is here and the turn around is pretty quick. Once you are approved you will see the retail price marked out and your price indicated. It doesn't seem to be a standard percentage off. When I looked down the price adjustments they seemed to be 20-30% off.This is the store where you can buy the cameo itself as well as all sorts of accessories.

2. The other that I just found out about today is a Plum District deal. This is for the store where you download different shapes and designs to use creating different projects. I got a $10 credit when I bought the Cameo and then I bought a downloadable card with a Plum Deal I did a while back.  I just purchased this deal and they have something they call "give and get". If three people purchase the deal from your personalized link you get it for free.  If you are interested in the deal I would love it if you would use my link here.

One more bit of info -  You can use the coupon code "visapromo" to take 10% off your order when using your VISA card, bringing down the price to $16.20 for $30 worth of designs!

I found out about the deal from blog Under a Cherry Tree. If you have a cutter you should definitely check out her blog. She does tutorials for tons of great projects using the cameo with the silhouette software and make-the-cut software. She used to use a Cricut so there are also some older posts about that as well.

Friday Finds

I am linking up with Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B for my second Fabulous Find Friday.

I have two quick ones to share.

The first find I consider fabulous is because they were such a deal. I have been wanting some inflatable fish for my under water classroom theme and I came across these for under $1 each at Walmart. I bought four but I wish they had some other types so I could have ought more.

The next find was from our visit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They have a super cool psychedelic jellyfish exhibit. In the gift shop I found a jellyfish that I immediately fell in love with because it is blue and purple (my favorite colors). It was not a deal but I bought it anyway. In this picture it is hanging on the door thing in our hotel but I think you can get the idea.

Thanks for dropping by

 

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Marvelous Monday

I glad to be here again sharing some new projects for Tara's

 

  But first I am excited to announce the winner of last week's giveaway.

I got in touch Saturday and she selected the purple glitter just like mine.

Shar's personalized clipboard

just a reminder what the other side looks like.

My favorite new project this week came from this pin.

inspiration pin - original source lost :-(

Here is my version

I got the adorable little mailbox from Hobby Lobby for $4. I didn't do any directions because you pretty much cut scrapbook paper the proper size and glue it on. I used spray adhesive. I did throw some paint on the flag and brad as well as cut the letters from Vinyl with my cameo.

I also did a recreation of 3rd grade thoughts project from last week because I loved it.

inspiration

my version

I made one for my classroom and one for my teaching partner. Stephanie has great directions on how to make them.

I did a couple of other quick projects last week inspired by previous Made It Mondays and other pins.  You can check them out at my Pintervention Party post from Friday.

Besides my school projects I also did two little fun ones for me and a friend.

These are some little glass tile necklaces. I made a sailboat for a friend's birthday that I race with as well as one for myself. I thought the fish would go cute with my classroom theme. I also made a flag but it seems to be MIA since 4th of July. 

 Earlier this summer while I was visiting my family in Connecticut my mother and I did a short stay at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. This promo picture is obviously in the fall but it give you a good feel for the property. 

Mohonk Mountain House

While there we explored some of the grounds, took a house tour, attended a guest speaker, did some hiking and enjoyed the fabulous food (which is included in the price). We loved our stay and were browsing the gift shop for a memento. I got a kick out of all the little "summer houses" around the grounds (a few of the little shelters are pictured below) and I fell in love with a stone necklace with a silver summer house on it. I asked the price at it was over $200! Who knows what stone it was attached to but I didn't care it was just the general look that I liked. I couldn't believe/justify the price and decided if I bought a small charm I could probably recreate my own version. I also bought some simple earring which were very reasonable.

a view and some "summer houses" tucked all around - the top right was the view from our room

Here is my version ($5 for the charm and $4 for the stone necklace at Hobby Lobby). Definitely more in my price range :-)

Thanks for dropping by

My classroom theme

I've been having fun today checking out all the themes today at Surfin' through second and decided to join in myself. I also amjoining up with Show Me Sundays from3-6 resources.

This year I'm doing an ocean theme with a focus on under water versus the shore/beach.

I am a diver and my plan is to recreate a life sized scuba diver that will hang from my ceiling using an old wetsuit with some fins and a mask. I did this years ago but I haven't put it together yet for this year since I can't get into school yet.

I have however made and purchased some fun stuff for the theme. Most of it has already been shown in previous posts but I'll pull it together here.

Several items I purchased.

a Vistaprint banner for my reading area

some more Vistaprint purchases that are theme related

ocean/fish border, cut outs, stickers, and confetti

bulletin board set

I also created a bunch of things on the computer that I wanted for my room.

a banner I made that will have all the names of the new students in my team (with one other teacher)

a calendar set with backgrounds and clip art that I purchased

some class currency for our mini economy - they are business card sized

click for freebie

click for freebie

a framed sign for recognizing birthday students

I also did a few crafty projects. I have a couple of others I will be sharing for Monday Made It so you can't see those yet ;-)

a past Monday made it that finally got it's missing D this weekend

writing banner with ocean related paper

cups I created for my teammate and I (as well as another teacher's owl)

background of letters are waves

Be sure to check out Monday Made it tomorrow to see some more fun things.

I am actually supposed to be able to get into my room on Tuesday and start putting some things in place so I can figure out what else I need to buy or make.

Thanks for dropping by!