Lots to see today!

First off, my bff Kymberlee (aka BEST CIRCLE PAL EVER) sent me these amazing cozies custom made by Kathy's Cozies. In addition to the pieces you see (Imagine, E2, and Gypsy covers) I also received an E cover, cuttlebug cover, a cord bag, and a small scrap trash bag for my desk. The fabric she picked out is just absolutely perfect! Thank you so much!! 

Here is something that's not creative, just random... one of the teachers asked me to make her some apples for her behavior chart, and I just happened to have laminated cardstock at home in all main colors. She was shocked when I gave them to her laminated the next day. How weird am I to have laminated paper laying around, "just in case"??? lol... glad I had it, since the laminator was broken.

Here is a box of goodies my dear Kymberlee sent me. How amazing is she?!!? I got another package the next day of about a gazillion sheets of scrapbook paper. It was the most wonderful surprise! I've sorted it by color and used some already.

In each of our boxes, we include an "ultimate challenge bag" with random things the person must use to create a project. First, she had to make something green, I had to make something out of trash, she had to make a girly card, and I had to make something using a red journal and a kit of random knick knacks. I was able to use everything in the kit except two blue gems (that didn't match anything) and an empty vial, which was too big. I think my journal turned out pretty well. The paper on the front (under the tags that came in the kit) is from the box she sent full of paper. It was my favorite so I just had to incorporate it.

And the view inside... every 10th page is decorated

And here is my imagine with her new endcaps Kymberlee sent me.

And here is a picture of Mabry Mill, one of my all-time favorite places in the world. I took this with my camera phone on Sunday evening. We got there at 7:05, and they quit serving dinner at 7, but we were able to find a neat, rural place called the Mountain House down the road in Meadows of Dan. If anyone travels along the Blue Ridge Parkway, you've got to check this place out.

And a final project... if you remember last year I created a bulldog house for "caught being good" tickets... which is a great program for elementary schools... anyway, it went so well that this year we are having two "bulldogs of the week"- a K-2 student and a 3-5 student. This means they needed another box for the K-2 names. This is what I created... using a piece of 12x12 chipboard cut into 6x6 blocks.

Completed the roof so that the kids can slip their forms in easily, and the roof comes off for the drawing each week easily.

 I hand-cut the bush, and the other flowers are from Freshly Picked. I hand cut everything else, including the 1-inch red siding. I used a brad for the door handle. I love it!

Here is a thinking of you card I made, which I think turned out nice. 

I have been super busy preparing for the new year in my 2^nd grade classroom. I made curtains for the windows (partially blocking the playground view- yay!), an alphabet banner to match the nature theme I have got going on, and several other pieces throughout the room. My dear husband assembled and hung my compasses for each wall. I also made paper dolls for each child (they picked out their skin tone, hair, and clothes on Business Day) but haven’t taken pictures of those yet. *Adds that to the ever-growing list of things to do.*

Other than that, I haven’t sat down in weeks, I don’t think. Oh yes, one more thing. My miniature schnauzer, Sophie Grace, had her second litter of pups on Aug 10. We were expecting 3-4, since she was just a little bigger than she was last time with 2, but we ended up with 7 precious babies! 5 girls, 2 boys. 3 of the girls are solid black, the other 4 pups look like they’ll be salt and pepper. I call them the "Martial Arts Puppies" because my DH named them all themed names... except two, which you will get if you've seen the move Talladega Nights. Their names: Blackie Chan, Bruce Flea, and Jet Flea are the black females, the two males are Walker and Texas Ranger, then the other two females are Dr. Quinn and Medicine Woman. *sigh*