Trashy Crafter Giveaway

Oh my goodness y'all - I was so ecstatic when Trashy Crafter reached out to me to do an instagram giveaway for a pair of her earrings! I am a HUGE earring person and I couldn't wait to pick some out and then be able to give one away to y'all!!!! I am such a stripe person - especially while pregnant ;) It totally thins me out (If it doesn't, just lie to me, okay?) So when I found these beauties from the Jungle Book on her site - SOLD!

 

Let's give you a little background on Trashy Crafter:

Trashy Crafter creates handmade recycled book jewelry from damaged and

outdated children’s books, novels, sheet music and maps.  It all started 5 years ago  when my Mom Helen and I were at a local thrift store, we noticed them throwing away 100’s of damaged and outdated books, it was heart breaking, so we gathered as many as we could, took them home and tried to think of how to recycle them so they could be enjoyed rather than go sit in a landfill.  It took some time to think of it, but I remembered in my 3rd grade class my teacher Mrs. Bryant taught us how to roll paper beads from magazines.  For some reason that really stuck in my head, even though it was 20 something years later, I decided to give it a try, and that was how 

Trashy Crafter was born.

Mom and I started rolling the paper beads together at night at our kitchen table, and today it has evolved into a wonderful small business we take so much pride in.  We take damaged books and turn them into beautiful one of a kind handmade, recycled book jewelry people can treasure forever, you always have a book you loved as a child that your Mom, Teacher, Grandma, Sister or Librarian read to you, or perhaps one you read in high school or college.  Trashy Crafter can take the damaged books and make them into bracelets, necklaces, earrings and lanyards that you can wear each day and have a precious memory right with you, we say “Don’t Just Read It, Wear It”. And to us, it’s the best of both worlds, helping the environment by recycling something beautiful that was just going to be thrown in the trash, and giving people the gift of wearing their most treasured memories from books they love, we’d say it’s a win win!  

The Trashy Crafter team is made of me (Kim) my Mom Helen, my boyfriend of 8 years Dave and a few friends that help me from time to time.  We love Trashy Crafter, and to be honest it has become something bigger than us, the number of stories we get from folks who wear our jewelry is so touching. We’ve had people contact us to make custom jewelry for librarians or teachers who are retiring, Mom’s who are pregnant and expecting their first child, anniversary gifts for wives, birthday gifts for daughters or Moms, and have had so many people tell us that this is the perfect gift for someone that has everything, it’s so meaningful and unique!

Within out Etsy shop at any given time we have about 50 or more books turned into jewelry, you can simply search for a title of a book you would like in our shop search bar, if we don’t have it, no need to fear, just send us a message, we do 100’s of custom orders a year.  Custom orders are fantastic if you have a certain book you would like turned into jewelry, we can use the book you own or can order a heavily used copy on Amazon.com and use that to make it.  

For the past few years we had done such a wonderful job of using all of the book pages and turning them into beads, but I always felt so horrible for throwing away the hard covers of books (often times they have such beautiful illustrations on them), so finally it hit me, why not turn them into stud earrings!  The recycled book cover stud earrings are our newest item, and let me tell you they are wonderful!  They are very light weight, colorful, fun, one of a kind (made from the actual book covers of books) and it’s a great conversation starter.  I have been wearing mine for the past 3 months testing them out, and have gotten so many compliments, I wear them every day!  

We also recently started a damaged children book donation program, as well as a broken jewelry program.  If you are a Teacher, Mom or Librarian that has damaged childrens book that have been highly loved by your kids, but are no longer able to be read because they are ripped, missing page or scribbled in you can ship them to us and will recycle them into paper bead jewelry.  We have a list of books we are in need of, and if any of those are titles you have, you can ship them to us, and when you can get us 15 used book we give you a free trashy crafter bracelet set!  We also collect broken beaded necklaces and bracelets from folks around the world to reuse in our jewelry.  If you are at all interested you can send us an email at 

trashycrafter@gmail.com

Our website is www.TrashyCrafter.com 

Our etsy shop is www.Etsy.com/shop/trashycrafter

Isn't that such a beautiful story, y'all! As a book lover, I am super excited that someone has came along and gives books a new life!!!! I can't wait to make something out of my new ones favorite book in a few years when he gets older! I am in LOVE with all that they can create. I want EVERYTHING. Seems like such a better deal to me than crazy expensive jewelry!

So, now here's the fun part!!!! I get to give YOU a pair!!!! YES!!! All you have to do is enter the giveaway and Rafflecopter will pick a winner!!!

Here is the beautiful pair I get to give you:

SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Can't wait for you to enter - It runs August 7th-August 10 and you can enter ALL of those days!!! 

Good luck!!! 

Peek into My Classroom Decor

It's that time!!! You're seeing all these posts of everyone's beautiful new classrooms and all of their decorations - I have to say I'm getting super jealous. I am so ready to get into my room and get it the most perfect way, that I can! It's so much work, but I have so much fun decorating! 

My theme and style has definitely evolved in the last few years. I went from LOUD, COLORFUL, and BUSY to dulling down with primary colors and throwing in black, to this year tribal print, pastels, blacks/browns, and home decor. 

Meaning - my house looks like a cabin, we have a camo chair, deer everywhere, bronze color, hunting style, etc. and I wanted to bring this into my classroom but make it more girlie - since my house is basically all my husbands style ;) I love it too though so I can't complain.

I wanted to share with you some things I created for my room since I am not in there yet, which I will post about that whenever I get it finished (at nine months pregnant ha!) AND offer a freebie of my subway art posters that I'm using. I LOVE the idea of inspirational posters and having the students write about what they mean to them. Hope King did a wonderful post about how she implemented it with she taught primary and I am working that into my daily lesson as well with all of the inspirational posters. You can find her post here. 

So this year I am JUST teaching writing and we have three rotations - that's why my containers say Class 1,2,3. Also I have such an assortment of pencils, I needed a BIG space to hold them. 

Okay so I know some things are crooked, don't judge me haha. It was like midnight last night when I was taping those labels in there. There's one blank cause I'm still not sure what I want in there. :) If you have any ideas, share please! If you would like these labels just let me know and I'll add them to my store! 

Hand signals. SO important. Keep my kids from getting up constantly and interrupting and this way I can just look at them and nod yes or no. The sharpening pencil fiasco is going to get to a minimum this year. I just can't deal. ;) 

These are a sneak into what my focus wall labels look like. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a focus wall! I already have my grammar signs printed too from Gretchen Bernabei's books to post up for my kiddos. 

This is my voice chart. It looks crooked, I think it's the way the hot glue stuck on the burlap. I will have to fix it, or not. I'm really not that picky:) 

These are my cursive letters from my burlap pack in my store. Click on the picture to take you to the link if you are needing some plain letters! 

Here are my rules! I loooove them. I'm so excited to hang these up for my kids this year. Short, sweet, and to the point! 

Last but not least, my inspirational posters!

I made it big so you can read them! I LOOOOVE. My walls in my new classroom are a purple color so I am trying to make sure my colors tone down the purple! I may add a couple more, just depends. 

I plan to have them journal about one a week and what the meaning of the quote is to them in their Friday journal. Make them think ;) 

You can download these here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BymTu_DhekCFY1Y1WXhtQ3VVY3c/view?usp=sharing

If you download please let me know in the comments! I love to hear of those who are using and liking my things!!

I hope you have a great school year!!! Can't wait to see pictures! 

Reflect and Refresh: Part 2

I am back with Mrs. D's Corner to talk about my FUTURE carrying out plans, after a full summer of being ridiculously pregnant :) I am going to talk about my "looking back in part one!" Which you can find here. As well as talk about what things I am going to work on implementing this next year! 

Communication 

So back at Part 1: My communication were newsletters and weekly updates. The weekly updates usually happened through texts or a quick letter home (which I found made home most days/weeks/months at the bottom of kiddos backpacks)

Which leads me to something I want to try this year: Google Classroom!

I am going to be gone 2 months on maternity leave and I want a way to see my kiddos work, and communicate with them, which I can do and access from home. 

Here is a preview of what Google Classroom looks like. I don't have any assignments up right now. 

I'm super excited to dive into this. I am hoping I can just get it all explained and set up within 3 weeks of being back at work with my kiddos.

Also, I am a huge lover of Remind 101. I struggled last year with getting parents to sign up, so I am thinking at Open House, they HAVE to sign up before they leave. Maybe I could enter the parents who sign up in a drawing? Something. Shoot me some ideas ;) 

Organization & Classroom Management

I absolutely do NOT want stuff all over. 

Looking at pictures last year makes me cringe. My husband is going to create me one of the shelves like Hope King's in this picture, except with only 6 openings, and then I am going to get the drawers. There's 3 for their journals, and 3 for supplies. That's one of my ideas. 

I have yet to see my room, so check back for a classroom reveal to see how my room looks at the end of August :) 

Content

I am super excited to teach JUST writing this year. I love writing so much, especially when I can use amazing authors and novels to showcase writing styles and techniques. 

I have went a little overboard with new novels, but my expectations are going to be SUPER high this year for my students, so they are going to have higher level mentor texts to use as sentence structure examples as well as paragraph ideas. 

I also am a huge advocate of Gretchen Bernabei's writing style. 

I'm not sure if you've heard of her, but if you haven't! Check out her page and visit my friend Kayla at Texas Teaching Fanatic who is a workshop provider for Gretchen's style! 

Here are just a few of her books that I am LIVING through next year:

If you teach upper grades 4+, PLEASE check out her stuff. It is PHENOMENAL! 

Last, but not least

My Big Summer Project(s)

Maternity plans and a YAG

Well, my maternity plans are pretty much written and developed, now to get the big sub tub and book together. SERIOUS work. Holy moly. I wish I could just take baby to school and teach at the same time? 

YAG - well I have mixed feelings about this. 

In my masters classes this summer we just learned that there shouldn't necessarily be SO MUCH dependence on following a YAG given that students may or may not be prepared, so there should always be room for "ifs", "not readies", etc. I firmly believe this. It's a great idea in theory to have it all laid out for the year, but what if a majority of your students don't get something for 3+ days and you have to completely alter instruction or go back and reteach a standard they should already have mastered. Should always be in the back in of our minds. 

Whew so, I'm totally not ready for summer to be over. My birthday is in 2 days, baby will be here in a little over a month. I am so ready. I finish my masters soon too. Busy busy! I hope y'all have had a great summer and have gotten back in your rooms, I can't wait to creep on them all!! We get in on the 10th and I can't wait to share with you my new ideas :) 

An InLinkz Link-up

August Currently

It's August - My birthday month - THE BIG 26!!! 

The dreaded month that freaks SO many teachers out yet holds so much excitement!! I am SO ready for August for multiple reasons and I will totally get to that!!! 

I can read this and think of how I am on Sunday's during the school year. Anxious, tired, excited, happy, blessed. All of those in one, for sure!!!! 

So let's get to my currently <3 

Listening: 

Blue Bloods. It's been in the background all day. I am a huge Wahlberg lover, and have recently discovered my newest guilty pleasure. 

EEKS - Donnie Loves Jenny -- I am NOT a reality TV show liker, at all. BUT, they remind me of my husband and I, which makes me wonder if it's real and they really think that way about each other. I question all reality TV, but I love love love them. So I am going to be optimistic. Don't ruin it for me, k? :) 

Loving:

Absolutely all of my new classroom decor ideas. I am going tribal print/pastels/home feeling. I am obsessed. I can't wait to do a classroom reveal. I printed out some awesome quotes and am taking a lot of pointers from teacher crushes I have, cough*Hope King*cough. Here's a sneak for you! 

Stay tuned, there will be a classroom reveal in a couple of weeks. Hopefully my pregnant self can get it exactly what I am envisioning! 

Thinking:

How much weekends literally SUCK without my husband. His work schedule has been insane the past month or so. I've seen him two days in over a month. It's devastating and I am crazy sad about it, BUT it has allowed me to read a lot and get stuff done around the house. I have been reading a book a night. I finished Rump, Fish in a Tree, and reread Fourth Grade Rats the last two days. I have two huge stacks to get through in a week!!! 

I'm so excited! Do you have any recommendations??? 

Wanting:

The only way I can answer this is completely honestly. 

I want my husband to come home, I want September to be here, I want my birthday to pass (Which is Wednesday August 5) so then I see my husband on Friday, I am so ready to hold my baby boy in September. 

We took maternity pictures last weekend while he was home. I'll share a few. 

This first picture is us, in a nutshell. He's definitely my best friend. 

(see I'm all sappy about him because I want him home haha) 

My friend April took our pictures from Tyler, Texas! She drove all the way down here for us :) Her Husband is the brains behind Daddy Diaries on facebook, he's hilarious and crazy, and she's amazing and super talented. Look them both up on facebook. Her business is called 13:13 Photography! 

Needing:

To finish going through things for my classroom for next year. The garage is getting cleaned out, yet it's all going into the office. Which I redid and was beautiful just a few weeks ago, did you see it on instagram?! 

It has a lot more decor and stuff around it and on the walls, but I was so excited to share my first painted furniture piece! Junk Gypsy Wanderlust paint - must buy! So amazing!! 

I also have to get the rest of my sub plans done for maternity leave. I'll be there three weeks and then it's 8 weeks gone. Scares the tar out of me, I'm a wreck thinking about leaving my kiddos with someone who doesn't know me, or what I do, or my kids. Ugh. I want to cry! I've got my 100 page binder ready to print and get bound. It's ridiculous. 

Also need to get whatever I think they can use during the TPT back to school sale tomorrow and Tuesday! I have two new back to school products if you are on the look out!!! 

Burlap alphabet and number wall 

I printed the cursive letters for my classroom - so stay tuned again for the reveal ;) 

New Binder Covers

B2S RAK:

I love this!! I have to do something. I need to create some goodie bags for my new teachers/partners/staff/colleagues and especially the sub coming for me. I even want my kiddos to participate. This sparks some ideas. Stay tuned and I will do a blog post about it after we get school started!!!

Go link up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade!