Christmas Decorations!

Here are some of the Christmas decorations I did at Tehran's house:

Here is the "Fantle" (get it- fake mantle?) And thanks to Comcast for the "yule log" from on-demand, it looks like a real fireplace.  The fake mantle is a media shelf from Ikea.

I took the flameless candles off the pillars and set them right on the surface, and placed Christmas ornaments on the candle holders.  The stockings are from the Dollar Tree!  I added a glittery branch from a bunch of glittery branches that I bought from Jo-Ann for 50% off.  Gotta love their sales!

I used equal parts gold and silver glitter and mod podge to make the glittery ornaments.  I placed them in these glass containers which we already had.  I stuck some battery operated lights inside.  The lights looked clear, but after being plugged in, they are different colors : ( I wish they were both white, but oh well.)

Hung ornaments from the light fixture with ribbon- simple and easy.

 Normally, these glass vases have large river rocks in them, and are used occasionally for floating candles.  I put ornaments in them instead.  These are plastic ornaments from Wallmart and I had to pop the top off and fill them with water so they sink.  There is a mix of metallic colors for the ornaments.  Oooo, shiny!

Here is the centerpiece on the table.  This was already there.  It is from Ikea.  Normally, there are small river rocks at the bottom of the candles.  I cut pieces off the glittery branches.  The glitter is a mix of gold and silver glitter.  I glittered up some ornaments to match by mixing equal parts gold and silver glitter, and of course I used mod podge to affix the glitter to the ornaments. 

Oh, and how could I forget the tree!  I can't take any credit for this one though.  Tehran already had the tree and ornaments.

Not too many decorations; just a little bit of sparkle for the Holiday.  Merry Christmas!

River Rock Mat

What do you do when there is no mudroom?  Pile your shoes next to the entrance of course.  

I have seen this river rock runner at a cute store called "Chiasso" and it is next to panera, so I always walk past it.  The problem is that it is $68.  No thank you!  But if you want it for $68, it is available here.

So, of course, I decided to make my own.  First, I bought two "boot trays" at target for $4.99 each.

Then, I headed to Dollar Tree!  I love that place.  I picked up some river rocks.  They have several sizes of rocks, I used the smallest ones.  I found out that it takes 3 to 4 bags of rocks per tray- so I had to make a second trip to Dollar Tree in the middle of the project.

I had some Gorilla Glue on hand from a previous project.  It's great because it glues stone, and because it expands, which is great because stones are odly shaped.   But there are a few things to keep in mind.  It says right on the package to wear gloves or it will stain your skin.  So I thought, well, I just won't get any on my hands.  Yeah.... don't think that.  Get the gloves.  Also, use only a SMALL dot on the each stone.  It will expand, and does not dry clear.  Fortunately, it is not that noticeable because of all the colors in the stones, but any overflow glue will be a beige, bubbly blob that you can see.  Small amount of glue, on the flattest side of the stone, and drop into place. 

Start on the center of the mat and work your way out.  This is how much one bag of river rocks covers:

Keep going, and then you wil have this! ( I made 2.)  One boot tray holds 3 pairs of adult shoes.

This will be great in the winter too, because the stones will hold the shoes slighty off the ground, allowing the air to dry the unerside of the shoes as well.  And the stone mat has an easy clean-up, just rinse off.  Much easier than carpets that get stuck with kitty hair. 

Like my glitter shoes?  I DIY-ed those too, in a previous post. 

Princess Isis' Bedroom

Every girl wants to be a princess, right?  Isis is no exception. I had kind of a hard time finding insiration for this room.  All little girls rooms are supposed to be over-the-top and washed in pink fluffiness, and are supposed to cost tons of money. Search "girls rooms" and you will find this type of room, which I think are just kind of ugly or too commercial:


too commercial! source






too much! source

Really?  That is too much pink, and how is that suposed to grow with her?  Also, that stuff really expensive. And Miss Isis wanted pink AND purple.

Isis has a small room, and needed storage.  The books needed a home, and Isis wanted a vanity.  While furiture shopping, she was always finding vanities and sitting at them and "doing her makeup."  Added to that, she needed touches of "princessness."  That's a lot for a tiny room to handle! Here is what we came up with:

Ikea bookshelf and toy storage bench.  I was not finished with the cushion for the bench in this picture.  The birds were Dollar Tree birds that I painted pink and purple.

Vanity: I found the mirror at Home Goods.  It was originally $89.00 but it was missing some of the rhinestones so I got it for $30 and went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought some and hot-glued them on.  This room is small, so space is at a premium.  Creative use of Ikea wall shevles and some baskets made a cute vanity, and kept it small.  I found the chair at Salvation Army for $10 and covered the fabric and spray-painted the chair pink. 

The bedding is from wall-mart and I think is actually in the "teen bedding" section, but we wanted a look that was ultra-girly but not fluffy pinkness.

Artwork:  This first artwork piece is a painting, a POTATO print!  I painted a canvas purple and then used 2 potatoes that I cut into a wide oval and a skinny oval, and stamped them in white to make a chain-link effect, kind of like a necklace.

The second is a butterfly installation.  Super easy, and made with poster board and srapbook paper.  The butterflies are attached to the wall with t-pins (which I attached with hot glue) so they stand off the wall and it looks like they are flying.

Dresser Makeover:  Painted it white and used paint to make the handles appear silver.  Very princess, don't you think?
Before:

After:

Tray Makeover

I am crushing on Chevron Patterns lately.

Here are some pictures of cool chevron patterns:

                                                                   source

                                                        
And here is a History Lesson because I am a teacher:

What is a Chevron?  Well, Wikipedia says this about it:

The chevron occurs in early art including designs on pottery and rock carvings. Examples can be found approximately 1800 BC in archaeological recovery of pottery designs from the palace of Knossos on Crete in the modern day country of Greece.^[1]
Sparta (Lacedaemonia (Λακεδαιμωνία)) used a capital lambda (Λ) on their shields.


Anyway, I had to have me some chevron!

Salvation Army, here I come!  I found all sorts of great things today.  One was this UGLY tray.  Outdated, with a blurry image on it. Yuck.... but with potential!

Step 1: Paint it white.  (I love rustolleum paint for this type of project.) I used semi-gloss white.


Step 2: Painter's tape. 3M makes a painters tape with "edge-lock."  It is worth the little bit of extra money to get the edge lock if you are doing something with a visible pattern.  Regular painters tape works fine if you are painting and dont want to paint the base-boards. Use edge-lock if you need stripes.

I sort of did my own way of folding and cutting paper to make a template and placing painters tape around it.  But if you want a tutorial from  Sunset Magazine click here.  Here, you can download a template pdf file to do your own.

Step 3: Paint the chevron pattern.  I used a sample of paint that I had laying around.  It's Behr and the color is "Ashwood."



Now if someone could help me figure out which camera to buy so that I can have better images that are not grainy.  It's driving me crazy.

How to Create Highly Educated Rich Kids- Rewards vs. Punishment

Classroom Management.  (((Cringe))) Everybody in education knows that you can't teach anyone anything without being able to get the kids to obey you.  I work in an urban setting where social norms of school behavior are, well, lets just say that they are not quite the same as I was used to as a child.  You can loose control of a group of students in seconds.  When I first started teaching, I had dreams that everyone was running around, crazy, screaming, climbing on desks, throwing things, etc... (That seems to actually happen when there is a sub, by the way.)  I see people in the store who can't control their school-aged children all the time.  So what do you do as a teacher, when you have TWENTY-FIVE or more kids, many of whom are those throwing temper tantrums in the stores?

For 95% of children, discipline is extremely simple and works on these tenets:
1. Reward for the behaviors you want to see.
2. Punish for the behaviors you don't want to see.
3.  Do WAAAAY more rewarding than you do punishing.
(Sound a bit like Pavlov to anyone?  Well, we are all mammals...)

Other things to keep in mind:
4. Tell the kids accepted social norms prior to any situation (assemblies, field trips, guest speakers....) If you didn't tell them, you can't be mad if they don't act the way you expected, as this is a new experience and they didn't know what you expected.
5.  Be consistent:  If you say something, do it.  "I'm calling your house on the second strike" means nothing anymore if you skip it once.  Also, don't run out of prizes.  Your corrective comments kind of don't mean anything, especially at the beginning of the year, if there is nothing to reinforce them.  And don't do prizes for a week and then stop- you will be right back to yelling at people.

Now there is a lot of research to back this up, but I'm sure you don't want to read it all.  I have had the pleasure of reading many many articles and books on the subject.  Even some research that indicates that children in houses with high levels of education and income have a higher ratio of positive to negative comments about behavior and households with lower incomes and lower levels of education tend to have a higher ratio of negative comments to positive. 

Well, I want to treat the kids like highly educated rich kids, and maybe they will rise to the occasion, right?

REWARDS: There are two types of effective rewards: A reward you know is coming if earned, and rewards that are a surprise for just simply getting "caught" being good. 
For the "caught being good" type of reward I use a lot of peppermint candy or little prizes like spider rings at the beginning of the year.  For instance, "Please take out your reading books and turn to page 12." And the first 5 people who get it done are given a peppermint without comment.  And wouldn't you know it, the other kids look at that and straighten up  and get their book out quickly.  After a week of that, I have them trained and no longer need to reward for that, as they are mostly accustomed to doing what I say in that area.  I do the same for students following along with the story as we read it together, and after a while they are trained on that too- or at least  95% of them are.  I do the same for training them on walking quietly in the hallway, sitting up straight and listening on the rug, etc...
The BEST PART is that while other teachers are saying (or shouting) "Stop that! Don't do that! Get back in line!  Don't touch him!" I, on the other hand, am saying "Thank you, Suzy" and backing it up with some reward, keeping most of my interactions with students positive.
The other type of reward I use as a back up reward system.  It's a system whereby you earn enough points by the end of the day and you are allowed to pick a prize out of the treasure chest.  This helps expose the children to the concept of consistent good behavior over a period of time.  If your name is on the board, that also cancels out any points you may have earned, giving me an option for punishment.  My treasure chest is filled with prizes from the Dollar Tree. I go to the section of party favors, and buy things that are 6 or 8 for a dollar.  (Like bouncy balls and whistles)  I used to think that "bribery" was bad as it did not create intrinsic motivation to behave.  Until I realized that I would pretty much be ill-behaved at work and tell people off and act a fool if my behavior was not linked closely to my pay-check, thus being extrinsic motivation.  (That was a bunch of education psychobabble in case you didn't know.)

PUNISHMENT:
There is always a struggle when it comes to punishment.  There is no recess at most Chicago Public Elementary Schools (are you shocked? call an alderman or Michelle Obama or something.)  So, we can not take away recess as a punishment.  We are not allowed to make the kids write lines, or write things over and over, such as "I will not spit on my neighbor." There is no such thing as detention.  Out of school suspensions are reserved for only the most severe fights and aren't really a punishment anyway, as they just stay home and play video games.  So what are the punishments?  I use a system of steps.  You get your name on the board (which automatically negates your earned prizes) and subsequent infractions earn you calls home, and removal from the classroom, usually to the other 3rd grade class to sit in the back of the room for a bit.  But guess what?!  If you do tons and tons of rewarding and positive reinforcement, you don't have to do too much punishment!

"Kristen" Louboutin Shoes- yep. I made-over shoes

I love shoes just like every other living, breathing woman.  I really love expensive shoes- I have Carrie Bradshaw to thank for the love of Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo.  There are two problems with that; 1. I can not see myself spending $600 on a pair of shoes. 2. I do not like really tall shoes because they hurt my feet and because I am already almost 5'10" and I don't like to tower over the menfolk.  So what is a girl to do?  Forgo rent for a pair of shoes?  Well, it might be funny in the movies but real girls can't roll like that. Nope. I crafted my own hot shoes. Take that, Christian Louboutin!

Here is my inspiration:

HOTTTTT!

Here is one of my least favorite celebrities, but you gotta admit that the shoes are cute:

And here is "Carrie" in the shoes in the movie, and Fergie in the shoes too:

Close-up of Ms. SJP's feet in the shoes:

Ahhhh. So pretty.  I totally want those!!!  Enter my crazy-crafting side.  There is almost nothing that can't be solved with a few trips to the craft store.  But first, I needed a pair of shoes. 

Have you heard of Chernin's Shoe outlet?  There is one on Roosevelt Road, one on 87th and the Dan Ryan and there are more in some of the suburbs.  Their claim to fame is that they have shoes for $9.99 and up.  PEOPLE! They have miles and miles of shoes.  Some of which are super gaudy and would only match with a bright yellow ensamble that an old lady might wear on Easter Sunday with a big huge yellow hat, but some of the shoes are cute, and some are hot.  I needed a pair with a low heel and I wanted a round toe, but it had to be a pair that glue would stick too.  I figured I could rough up the sheen of a pair of shiny shoes with 200 grit sandpaper if necessary, but I was on the lookout for a pair where this would not be necessary.  I scored these:

Brown Suede. (Well, fake suede anyway.) Low Heel.  $13.99!  Here is the proof:

Now onto Jo-Ann fabrics (I live right down the road from a superstore!)  I needed some tacky glue and glitter.  This is the glitter I found:  It is specially made for fabrics.  I think it was $7 after my coupon.

I didn't really want gold OR silver.  So I mixed them both together.  I decided to mix the white glitter in too, to soften up the look.  I applied a thick layer of tacky glue in sections and added the glitter.  I discovered the best technique was to put a bunch of glitter onto my hand and lightly "tap" it onto the glue, being careful not to smush the glue.  The glue seemed to stick very well to the fake suede.  I did the whole top of the shoe and left the heels alone so that I had something to hang onto.  After the shoe top dried I did the heel.

This is what I ended up with:

I decided to add modge-podge over the glitter so that it wouldn't come off.  I used outdoor so hopefully it is rain-resistant.  We will see.  I can't wait to wear them somewhere with a pair of jeans and a cute top.  Now If only mine had that signature red sole...... Oh well?  I love my "Kristen" Louboutin's.  And All I have to say is "Nah- Nah- Nah- Nah- Nah."

I will post a pic of me in the shoes later.  I need a new camera.