Spring Break To-Dos Update

Half-way through Spring Break and here is what I have accomplished so far:

• plant an herb garden
• buy and fill planters of varying sizes to "hide" ugly heatpump on the patio
• take Sadie to the vet for Rx refills and checkup
• start on Christmas and birthday presents for nieces and sisters
• trim the unruly boxwood in front of the house
• take Sadie to the dog park

And here are the things I still need to accomplish:

• paint kitchen (we're thinking a light cornflower blue) -- my project for Friday
• go to the dentist (I'm currently on a wait list because I waited too long to make the appointment - bummer!) -- don't think this is going to happen
• create and stock up on birthday and holiday cards
• find a small table/chairs for the patio -- doing some serious searching on CraigsList
• come up with Cooperation lessons for grades PreK-8 for April -- gotta get those ready
• make school-themed goody bags for grades 1-5 lunch bunches (ideas: smarties, erasers, pencils, stickers, small toy for each group's theme: train engine for 1st grade "I think I can", race car for 3rd grade "study skills expressway") -- this can wait, still have 2 more sessions before the end

Oh, and I got a new camera!! A Nikon D3000 and I love it!! Here are some pictures of my projects taken with my new camera...

A tin full of goodies including homemade scavenger hunt cards for my niece's 7th birthday.

A jar full of "sunshine" to help my sister in Colorado make it through the last bit of winter. I got the idea from here.

Old Navy dress, homemade hair barrettes and a card for my niece's 1st birthday.

Paper-covered birds for Mother's Day. Idea found here.

Handmade Father's Day cards.

"Gourmet Girl" notes and cards set from Michaels, all wrapped up with a cute blue spatula for my best friend's birthday.

To Do's for Spring Break

I am off from school next week for Spring Break and have a long list of things that I want to accomplish. I am going to give myself one day to be a bum and then after that it's full speed ahead!

Here is what I want to accomplish, in no particular order:

• paint kitchen (we're thinking a light cornflower blue)
• plant a vegetable/herb garden
• buy and fill planters of varying sizes to "hide" ugly heatpump on the patio
• go to the dentist (I'm currently on a wait list because I waited too long to make the appointment - bummer!)
• take Sadie to the vet for Rx refills and checkup
• start on Christmas and birthday presents for nieces and sisters (I'm thinking bead and ribbon necklaces and flower headbands)
• create and stock up on birthday and holiday cards
• find a small table/chairs for the patio
• trim the unruly boxwood in front of the house
• take Sadie to the dog park a couple times
  
• come up with Cooperation lessons for grades PreK-8 for April
• make school-themed goody bags for grades 1-5 lunch bunches (ideas: smarties, erasers, pencils, stickers, small toy for each group's theme: train engine for 1st grade "I think I can", race car for 3rd grade "study skills expressway")
  

Sadie's Puppy Party

We celebrated our dog, Sadie's, first birthday on Saturday. Since we adopted her from the Humane Society and she was born in a barn, her birthday is just an estimate. She's about 1 year old now, so we decided to celebrate. Of course everything had to be pink! Actually her "colors" are pink and brown with accents of green. :)

We had a great time and I got to play around with my step-mother-in-law's Nikon D40 camera. These pictures were taken with her camera and I really like how they turned out. I'm looking to get my own "real" camera.

The Birthday Girl

The table spread -- Mini burgers (sliders), ham & cheese in puff pastry, cru di te and roasted red pepper dip, polka dot cupcakes, puppy chow, and assorted pink candies.

Close up of the sliders

Chocolate polka dot cupcakes

Everything in pink!

Birthday banner

The Beginning

Well, here goes my attempt at a blog. The inspiration for this blog comes from my love of anything crafty as well as my love for my job as a school counselor. Any opportunity to meld the two together is bliss for me.

I wanted to start a blog for selfish reasons - I needed a place to jot down ideas, think through projects, and be able to keep all of my fun lessons and craft ideas in one place. I am often looking for fun ways to incorporate crafts into my guidance lessons and wanted to be able to share what I come up with. I spend a lot of time Googling ideas for bulletin boards, supplements to lessons, and fun group counseling activities but sometimes don't find what I am really looking for. So, on the occasion that I come up with (or in some cases tweak existing ideas) fun and crafty ideas, I thought it would be helpful to share them in case there are other school counselors out there looking for similar ideas.

So, I guess I should give a little background info on myself. My name is Ann and I am the full-time school counselor at a Catholic PreK-8th grade school in Northern Virginia. This is my second year at my school and I absolutely love my job! This year I started a new monthly virtues program for all grades. It is very similar to the character education programs adopted by many schools and districts around the country. Each month we focus on a different virtue and I conduct classroom guidance lessons touching on that month's virtue. It has been a great jumping off point for guidance lessons but still allows me the freedom to incorporate other topics into the monthly virtue. For example, the virtue for the month of November was Stewardship. I took a career exploration and education spin on the idea of stewardship with most of my lessons. In the lower grades, we focused on the importance of all jobs and the idea that all work has value. In the intermediate grades, we looked into talents and skills and how these can be used to better our community. With the middle schoolers, we took a career education approach, focusing on career clusters and interest surveys.

But, November wasn't one of the more "crafty" series of lessons, so I probably won't touch on that anymore.

Other things about me: I was born in St. Louis and am married to my high school sweetheart. My husband and I got married in June 2008, but celebrated our 10th anniversary as a couple in January 2010. We bought our first house in November 2008 and adopted our pound puppy, Sadie, in June 2009. Sadie will be celebrating her 1st birthday later this month and I have to admit I am going a little overboard with the party (but more on that later).

I think that's me and why I created this blog in a nutshell. I can't wait to post some ideas!