Tuesday, August 12, 2014

What I've Been Up To Lately

Warning: This is going to be a super random post with a bunch of unedited photos.  Definitely not my usual kind of post.

So it has been quite awhile since I last posted.  I've been busy...but not with house projects (but I do have a few little projects to share in this post).  At the end of July I went on a trip with my parents and siblings that we take every year to visit our relatives in the Southern Midwest.
I was born and spent the first 7 years of my life in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I still have quite a few relatives living in the area including grandparents.  It is always fun to go back and visit.

One of the coolest places in Tulsa is the Philbrook Museum of Art.  This beautiful mansion was turned into a great museum.  One of the best parts of the museum is the gardens.  Last year the gardens were closed because of a big storm so we came back this year to just visit the gardens.

This year we added some different sites to our trip with a little detour into Arkansas and Missouri. The above picture is of the War Eagle Mill in Arkansas.  It is a beautiful place.

Later we travelled to Branson, MO and visited Silver Dollar City.  It is a theme park with lots of rides and some old time craftsman and artisans.  I got a chance to take some artsy photos with my iPhone.  

I also took some time to meditate, haha.

Music nerd alert!  One of the highlights of the trip for me was buying this mountain dulcimer at Silver Dollar City.  Buying an authentic folk instrument in the Ozark Mountains is super exciting to a Kodaly trained elementary music teacher.  I can't wait to play it for my students.

After Branson we went to Kansas City and watched the Royals play the Twins.  I am fans of both teams so it was hard to pick who I wanted to win.  I went with the Royals for this one since I was on their home turf.

Shopping at antique stores has been a part of our trips for the last few years since my dad started collecting antique oil cans.  I love to shop at antique stores and it is always fun to see what funny things you can find like this lovely "flute."  I did pick up a few items for myself including this silver plated pitcher.

When I came back from the trip my living room featured not one but two couches. I should of taken a picture but I didn't, wah wah.
Our old couch was just way too big for the space.  The chaise lounge piece cut off the flow from the living room to the stairs and addition.  So we decided to downsize.

The living room looks so much bigger now!  We even have room for another chair or 2 now. I am really happy with our decision to downsize.  That old couch, while comfortable, just didn't fit the space.

Since I've been back I have been super busy with getting my classroom ready for the school year. It is hard to believe that it is so close to starting already.  I know this is a blog about my home but I want to share some of my school projects anyway.

My first project was to reorganize my teaching material binders and make some cute binder covers and spines.  I used Pixelmator which is a Mac program similar to Photoshop.  I use this program to edit all my photos for this blog too.  I would love to have Photoshop but it is so darn expensive.  This program has many of the same features but is much, much cheaper.

I also used the program to make some new hall passes.  I love owls and there are lots of them in my classroom.

I've also been working on some file folder games that I bought on Teachers Pay Teachers for music centers.  I made the envelopes that will hold the "game" pieces with my Silhouette.
This spring I had a parent who was doing work study hours cut out and laminate some rhythm manipulatives for me.  For some reason the half notes didn't get laminated so I laminated them and have been sorting them into bags.

Before I left for our trip in July, I completed some small projects in our home office.  I found some cute houndstooth wrapping paper at HomeGoods and decided to mod podge it on to the magazine holders that contain my Better Homes and Gardens magazine collection.  I also made some labels with adhesive vinyl and my Silhouette for the shoe box containers in my craft closet.

Phew, that was a long one.  Once school gets started I hope to have some time again to do some house projects.  I do have a baby shower and wedding coming up in the next few weeks so I might have some more homemade gifts to post about in the nearish future.  


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