BIG NEWS, Giveway and a Name Change!

No, I am not changing the name of my blog. However, I am changing my last name! I am officially a married girl!  

Here is a quick pic my bridesmaid snapped of me before we headed out of the room. As soon as my photographer gives me pictures I will share some more pictures of my big day along with our honeymoon. It was everything I could have dreamed of and more! 

Now, on to the BIG NEWS. 

If you have been following my blog for a few months now, you all know I have been on the hunt for a teacher home! I just moved to a new city (thank you to the new husband) and left my old teaching position behind. Such a bittersweet few months! I just kept faith that God would put me in the right position as I continued to search for a new job in a new city!

The week before my wedding (2 weeks ago) I received a phone call from a principal who had seen my resume, I went in for an interview and I loved her, she was amazing! ONE hour later… my phone was ringing from HR asking me if I wanted to accept the position. Did I possibly squeal in the phone? Yes. It is what I do when I am BEYOND happy. PTL! 

Even better news… I AM BACK IN FIRST GRADE! God knew exactly what he was doing. So, this week is go mode. I get into my new classroom today, filling out paperwork galore, and I am still trying to unpack our house. Think of an episode of hoarders in a bachelor pad. Ugh, it's not good.  

So onto my giveaway. In honor of all of the amazing changes in my life and my fab followers who read,  comment and support, this one is for you! 

I have teamed up with the fabulous Lakeshore Learning to host a little giveaway. Tomorrow I will be doing a full post on a few items they graciously sent me to review, including the giveaway item. I mean seriously? I love ALL of their products. They also are giving my followers a promotional code to use during these back to school weeks. Seriously? Where did my summer go? Oh yeah, to planning that wedding of mine. :)

Want to know what I will be giving away in tomorrow's post?

Yes! Magnetic Display Clips! 

I have had sooooo many comments on these bad boys that I figured this would be the perfect Back to School Year Giveway! So PLEASE check back tomorrow and enter yourself! I promise you will LOVE these as much as I do! 

My Tips for Decorating a Classroom

Alright ladies,  since next week is my wedding weekend then it is off to our honeymoon I am going to try to do a few post before I leave!

I have been getting LOTS of emails about setting up my classroom. As you guys know I am still keeping faith that the right position will be coming my way. However, in the mean time I can live through you all and be jealous that y'all are decorating your classrooms! Ahh

Let me start by saying I am no expert. However, I am my father's child (who works in the furniture business) and he has an amazing talent for decorating. So putting together my room is just something that was fun for me :)

I tried to come up with a quick list of some helpful tips when you start off:

1. Choose 2- 3 colors: Whether you choose a theme (I did a Rock star theme) or not, it is important to be consistent with your color scheme. Last year I chose hot pink, lime green, and turquoise. Then I added zebra (black/white) to jazz it up. My inspiration came from one of my borders. I tried to incorporate the colors from the print on the border into my room! 

2. Keep your walls the same colors! If you choose to do each wall in a different print or color it will look  mismatched and not cohesive. So, for example if you are doing your room all blue and yellows, then stick to doing all of your walls the same. Or in my case I did the same lime green on four walls, two turquoise, and 2 hot pink. Also, the entire front wall of my room was an electric purple. This is not what I had planned when I first started but it turned out to match with my theme and style.

3. Patterns on the wall are HARD to decorate with. Try to keep it simple by keeping the patterns to the borders, and the solids for the wall space.

 

(This is an example of one of my first classrooms where I used a polka dot crazy pattern background? Am I right! Too much!) 

4. BORDER- This was my biggest learning experince… keep it all the same. Buy a few that match your theme and colors and just use those all over the room. AND, double up! Layer borders on top of each other, it gives a more dramatic effect. 

(Above is my box of border I bought last year, I stuck to four different prints that I used on every wall)

( Here is an example of my classroom lasted year with doubled border of green polka dots and zebra)

5. Now that you have chosen your color scheme and border, the first thing I suggest is sitting down and mapping out your room. I used post-it notes and a large piece of paper so I could envision what it would look like. Move the post-its around on the paper until you find what works for your room. This will save you the time of pushing furniture or taking down paper/ border that did not work. 

6. Once you map it out and put up your borders and paper… now it's on to the finishing touches and arranging the furniture. I always tried to make sure my room "flowed" and had an inviting feeling to the class. If you have too much furniture in your classroom, KICK IT OUT! The janitors may not love you for it, but you won't regret it! Sometimes us teachers like to hold on to our furniture because we had to fight to get it! Ha. But if it's not working, then let it go and have a home in someone else's classroom who may actually have a use for it. Plus, what comes around goes around, furniture will come and go! 

But, most of all remember to get yourself a good glue gun… it seems to solve all my problems when  decorating a classroom! :)

Best of luck decorating! 

Please send me your pictures, I would love to feature you lovely teachers on my blog for your adorable rooms!