Tis the Season!

So far my Christmas break has been absolutely wonderful! During this wonderful break I have decided that I have been doing an awful job of keeping up with my blog. This is hurting my bucket list goal of becoming blog famous. Here is an update...

1. Wedding planning is going nowhere.

2. Brandon got a new AWESOME job!

3. I want another dog for my love bug Luke.

4. We are planning on moving into a bigger and better apartment.

5. I still suck at cooking.

6. I am still dabbling in random crafts and hobbies.

AND 

7. I made my TV debut!!! Stay tuned!!

PowerPoint OverLOAD!!

I spent a TON of time tonight making things for my classroom. Here is one of them. I am thinking about using the others on TeachersPayTeachers!

American and Texas Pledge

Goodnight!!

Lifestyle

The older I get and the older my grandparents and parents get the more I realize how important it is to stay in good health. I have been self conscience about my weight since I can remember. My last year of college I decided that I needed to do something to make sure I spent the rest of my young adulthood happy with my appearance. This went terribly wrong and all to soon I was struggling with being under weight. After moving back home and getting a few reality checks from my loving parents, I reluctantly gained the weight back. A year later I feel like I am finally at a place where I don't fear that I will take weight loss to a scary level again. I have decided to take it at a slower pace and focus on having a healthy lifestyle. No crash dieting and no counting calories. I was to enjoy eating fresh yummy food and enjoy spending time in the gym and outside on walks with my dog. I know that if I am having a healthy lifestyle, my body will follow in a healthy happy way. Tomorrow, I am heading to the gym to check out memberships because going to the gym is something I have found to be enjoyable and tonight I am trying to find a green smoothie recipe that alls for things I could find at a farmers market :) Say a pray that this is a change I can handle and that I can keep perspective and not go over board.

Drink wine and forget to water your plants?

Hi my names Katie and I'm a serial balcony plant killer. However, I never forget to drink my wine :) How do I solve this problem? Make a self watering device for my plants. It's similar to those globes that people insert into there house plants but way better (free)! All you need it a pretty wine bottle. I explain how to cleanly take off labels in a previous post! Fill the bottle with water and tape the top with heavy all weather tape! Make sure the tape is nice and sturdy and pick a few holes in it. Then stick it in the plant! When plants need moisture they suck the water from the holes and stop when they don't! It's like a baby bottle for these little green earth dwellers! I added some pictures for your benefit :)

Fantastic iPhone App!!

I was cruising Pinterest this afternoon, and came across an app where you can get stellar backgrounds for your phone for only a dollar!!! DEAL! Look how pretty! There are so many to choose from :)

Zombie Attack....

Seriously!!!??? Drugs??!!!

 "LIES!!!! ALLL LIEESSS!!" - Frau Farbissina

Saying YES to the Dress!

Some of you know from following me on instagram and being friends with me on facebook that about a month ago I applied to be on TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress". After a phone interview and a few emails...I received the news that I WAS going to be on the show! Whoop!

About a week ago my parents, sister, and I made the wonderful trip to the Big Apple! Once again I fell in love with the sights and sounds! The mass chaos of the city is really breathtaking. We left Houston at 5:30 in the morning and once again having a father who is a pilot for United really played me right! The flight was pretty empty so getting on was a breeze! I even got my own row!! Oh and did I mention it was my 23rd birthday! What a fantastic birthday present!

The day we got to NYC we went and saw the 9/11 memorial. Let me just say that the people running this show have done an amazing job with crowd control. Since the memorial is literally in the middle of the city, space is rather limited for lines, ticket booths, and gift shops (yes they have gift shops...more on that later). To help ease traffic flow everything is located about 4 blocks away from the memorial. Once you go to one location and get your tickets, you get a time to go back to the memorial and see it. All they ask for is a donation! Give them one. The gifts shops are something I didn't think I would like. I didn't think I would like the idea of somebody profiting off the heartache of others, but it isn't like that. The gift shop sells things that seem to aid you in the memory of what happened, but not in a sad way, in a historical way. While I was walking around they were playing a movie about how different people's lives were changed. It totally had me tearing up, and that's saying something. Here's another thing. Straight from the Tribute WTC 9/11 Visitor Center website, "All proceeds from our gift shop and web store go directly to the September 11th Families’ Association and help to support and fund the Tribute WTC Visitor Center and its educational programs." The memorial is breathtaking.

After a quick shower at the hotel and a very scary cab ride, we arrived at the place I had chosen for my birthday dinner. The place was AMAZING and the singing was so much fun!!! I highly suggest it!!! The rest of the night was spent admiring Times Square!

The next day we woke up late and spent some time making ourselves look good, so naturally my hair looked like the evil lion from Lion King. I wore a leopard dress and some boots! My mom and I forgot socks so before hoping in a cab to boogie to Klienfeld, we stopped by american apparel! We arrived at Kleinfeld Bridal pretty early so we sat and hung out in the salon until the film crew was back from lunch. I don't want to give away any details since I want my show to be a surprise, but I had an amazing time, found an amazing dress, and met RANDY!!! He actually picked out my veil :o)

After checking a few things off my bucket list :o), we went down the street to the Pita and Hummus Company because the film crew said it was fabulous! We has an amazing dinner/snack/linner there and then went and hung out in Times Square again! LOVE it there!! The next day we came home! What a fabulous trip!!! To bad it flooded really bad when we were gone....

Wine(ing)

I know a few people that are pretty hardcore about their wine drinking and like to record their favorites by saving the label. I on the other hand am more interested in the bottle and the pretty colors of glass. No matter which description is more you, one still might find themselves picking and scraping to get the label cleanly off. Well look no further (hopefully you heard me say this in a oxy clean type voice) this is actually pretty easy to do once you know the trick! Just know this works better on some than others!

First, fill up your sink with HOT water. Second, submerge the wine bottle. Let it gurgle to the depths of the sink! Third, after a few minutes slowly peel off the label!

It's like magic :) here are some pictures!!

Do you throw old candles away?

I have always throw old unusable candles away until I accidentally figured out this trick while my uncoordinated self was trying to boil some water in my kitchen! We all know how expensive glass jars can be! So why pay money for those jars when you can use the ones you normally trash. Trust me, the planeteers will thank you!

Step one: Burn out a candle! Easy :)

Step two: Boil Water!

Step three: Pour water in candle!

Step four: Go watch tv or something!

Step five: Once the water is cool the candle will have melted an floated to the top. Break it up with a fork or knife, take it out, and throw it away. Sometimes I throw some pieces in my Sentsy if they aren't to ashy.

Step six: Wash out the glass jar and dry it off!

Done...Pretty easy if you ask me! I have been putting smaller candles in the old glass jars to add dimension! I'm sure I'll figure out something more creative soon!

I have pictures of the process but I'm doing this from my phone and can't figure out how to add them to each step so don't be alarmed when you see them thrown onto the post like a sad after thought.

Laters :)

New Design

Trying out the new design! I think I am kind of loving it, and I did it all by myself! I also found a website with a link to a blog planner. Hopefully this will help me remember to post and decide what I am actually going to post about!

STAMPede!!!

I am so freaking excited to order stamps to use next year while I'm teaching! I have waited and waited for http://www.myrubberstamp.blogspot.com/ to be back from their vacation so I can order some!!! Now for the main problem! What name should I get on my stamps? I still have a year until I am officially Mrs. Duke, but in the mean time I want a stamp for my classroom, and if I start stamping Ms. Willis on everything in my library what will happen to my books later?

I want a few different stamps. Here is my list :o)

This Book is Loved by Mrs. Duke's Class (With a Crown) 

Mrs. Duke MUSTACHE You to Redo Your Work (With a Mustache) 

Look WHO did Awesome! (With an Owl) 

Sadly, I just found out that they are STILL NOT BACK! I guess I need to save my money anyway, but just know as soon as they are back...those stamps are mine :o) I might have to wait on the stamps for the books, just because I don't want to confuse people with the name thing. That should save me some money for now because I'm pretty sure that they are quite pricey. 

In the mean time, lets discuss my day. I did nothing. It was boring and the power was out for a while. Tomorrow I will be NYC preparation at its finest. I will finish laundry, pack, make sure my outfits look good, get my eyebrows waxed, and get my nails done! Woot :o) I'm off to figure out what I should make for dinner! Laters ;)

Starting to get excited!!

Good afternoon followers (and by that I mean me), I am starting to get super excited about a few approaching events. I'm going to lay it out like I'm going to play it out. ONE. I am less than a week away from going to New York to go wedding dress shopping at Klienfeld Bridal. Oh, and I'm being filmed with a large possibility of being on the show! TWO. It's almost school time! Everybody knows how much I love school and I am so anticipating the first few days! I'm getting excited enough to start planning lessons and making things for my classroom. As soon as my favorite etsy stamp people are back from vacation I will be ordering some custom stamps from them! AND I started to design the magnets I am going to make for my students' parents with all of my contact information! Maybe a little welcome pack? Sounds exciting to me! In the mean time I am sitting around with Luke and watching TV while Brandon is at work! Look forward to more posts later! Adios people!

All my C verbs!

One of the things on my bucket list is to become a little but blog famous. Will that happen? Maybe baby! In the mean time, writing my blog will be a hobby that I will use to make me feel important because you know, I am. My blog, properly named Classroom Crafty, will follow my life as I work to conquer my favorite C verbs. Crafting, cleaning, cooking, and chilling. Today for example I have completed them all. I cleaned (still need to do more), I crafted, I chilled, and I'm about to cook some din din. 007 would be proud.

For my craft, I made a magnetic weekly menu board in an attempt to convince myself to cook more. I spent a total of 0 dollars making this gem. I spray painted an old baking sheet with old can of spray paint, glued some scrapbook paper on the baking sheet, and made some week day magnets out of snapple lids and magnets. Eventually menu items will go in the pocket and I will putt out five a week to make a weekly menu! Yay!

High off SUMMER

First off, I think this blog is going to take on a whole new direction in a few different ways. I moved in with Brandon in April and have been struggling with the domestic aspects of taking care of an apartment, cooking my own dinner, and doing two peoples laundry. Normally Brandon does a lot of this but I am on summer vacation and need to do something other than sit on my butt all day. Next, I guess I had gotten use to having no bills and decent sized pay checks. Having bills (rent, student loans, electricity) has changed that. The problem is that I have not changed my spending habits. Next year, I will also be moving to a new school. This is a change that I was not necessarily expecting, but it is a change I am feeling positive about. Finally, the MOST amazing this happened to me! On my last day of school, BRANDON PROPOSED!!! We are getting married!!! Here are the things that my blog will include...

Cooking and Food 

Decorating and Apartment

Planning a Wedding

Preparing for my First FULL Year of Teaching

Saving Money

Crafts and Favorite Things

My Everyday Life with Brandon, Luke, and Our Families <3

I have a few goals that I would like to focus on in the nest year. I want to get healthy and look amazing in my wedding dress, cook dinner almost every night, take Luke on real walks, follow the money plan that I made for myself, and take better care of my apartment. I think these goals are completely doable! Stay tuned!!

Digital Scrapbooking!

Here is my first attempt at digital scrapbooking!! I don't even know if I saved it correctly, but I can smell the potential!!!

Eeeeee!

I'm so excited about these little guys!!! It's the little things that make me SMILE :)
I wish I could take the credit for these, but all this beautiful work was done by "oh boy fourth grade"
This lovely lady is my new daily blog stock!!
I'm so looking forward to the day I can make things like this!

Consuela?!! Please!!!

Toting things back and fourth to school can get kind of crazy, but with one of these babies all my problems would be solved!!!

Click ME!!!

New blog for new beginnings :o)

Warning: I might teach English but my blog does not follow any sort of proper English sentence grammar structure. The difference between myself and another person is that I know that.

Some of you know and some of you don't, but I received an amazing blessing about a month ago. After graduating from Sam Houston in December with honors (toot toot! <that's me tooting my horn) I was offered a few different jobs. Pre-graduation I interviewed at an amazing school in my area for a kinder position. I was not offered this job but I was offered a job doing reading intervention. Along with this offer, I was offered a job doing math intervention at another school and a part time reading intervention job at my student teaching school. My heart told me to go with the first reading intervention so I accepted there offer and started my job as a temporary worker in my home town district. Two days into this job I was called and asked to interview for fifth grade at my mom's school. Again I listened to my heart and said no thank you. About a month into my job doing reading intervention I was called into the principals office and offered a job teaching fourth grade! Through teary eyes I accepted and about a month later I have just finished my third full week teaching fourth grade!!

I could not have dreamed of anything this amazing happening to me. I feel so blessed to wake up every morning, smile, listen to show tunes, and drive 45 minutes to the most amazing school in Cypress, Texas. I LOVE the people I work with, I LOVE my kids, AND I LOVE my job! I am probably the happiest 22 year old on the planet. To say my weeks have not been a little rocky would be a complete lie. Being a first year teacher is proving to be challenging, but I feel SO positive about my students future as well as my own. 

Those of you that know me know that I am very passionate about everything I do! I am very crafty and want to try to keep everything in my classroom fun and inviting as well as have fun engaging lessons for my students. This blog will track my journey from the days I'm at school until 9:00pm trying to figure out how to work grade book or drawing Bob the Builder (True Story!) to my $100 dollar Walmart trips. This blog is about the little things that make me happy (like listening to Wicked radio on Pandora while I get ready for school!) This will document my weekends that are filled with making posters, tickets, grading papers, and searching pinterest and pro-teacher for ideas. I don't have a job. I have a passion. I am the Classroom Crafty Weekend Warrior. 

Cheesy and Perfect :o)

I'm literally laughing at myself right now....