A Freshman, A Kindergartner and one in the Middle

It has been a crazy week here in our house. School started Monday and with that we have a Freshman in high school, a 4th grader and a Kindergartner! Crazy times for sure.

We got some good pictures of them to commemorate the day.

Then I said do a crazy one.

This is what I got.

Nice. :)

And here I am. Ready for my 17th year of teaching public school.

There is so much going on that keeping the blog up-to-date is hard. Find me on twitter @artsymac or instagram @faithhopeandart if you want to see more of our life in real time!

Ready for 2014-2015!

I can't believe another school year starts tomorrow! 

I'm more excited this year than I have been in a long time.

A lot of different reasons, but having Maddie on my campus has me pumped.

And I've also finally made the place MINE.

Going into my 7th year in the same room teaching the same thing has me in a place that's comfortable and fun. I'm not having to recreate the wheel anymore. I'm just fine tuning my approach.

So here is my room.

And a panorama.


Yes, I am blessed with a lot of space and organization. In the past, it still felt crowded and cluttered. Because it was. But I have finally thrown away or given away a dumpster worth of stuff I won't use and so now I have a CLEAN space!!

Let me show you a few more pictures of my space.

 

Yep, I have to say, I love what I do!

Super 5 Swim Time

On Saturday, we celebrated Kylie's birthday by having a party at the local water park. It was

Kylie's SUPER 5 Swim Time.

My sister Katy did all of the decorations! Adorable!!

And here are a few shots of the party.

The kids had a great time and I love having parties at Splashville. It's a great price, I don't have to clean my house and the kids love it. That is a win/win!

Kylie Turns FIVE!!!!

I can't believe Kylie is FIVE!! That would be a big 5! She is very excited.

Today was a big day. Besides turning 5, Kylie had meet the teacher for Kindergarten. We are rather pumped that her teacher is also Maddie's colorguard instructor! And the school is an incredible new facility with state of the art amenities. And oh my... you should see the Library! It is EXACTLY what an elementary library should be... bright and colorful, fun and interesting! 

 

 

It truly is hard to believe that it has been 5 years. Wow. What a joy and a privilege it is to be Kylie's mom!

 

Classroom set up.

It's that time again. Classroom set up!

I love this time of the year. Everything is clean picked up and the floors are waxed.

It's the time of year where I spend time reflecting on the good and bad of the year before and try to figure out if the room set up needs to change.

This is the start of my 7th year in art. That just seems crazy to me, time is flying by. But what this means is that I'm finally making this program and room truly my own. I'm STILL cleaning out old files and records from the previous teachers, but my stamp is squarely on this art program now and I'm proud of it.

Anyway.. back to the room.  This is how I found it a couple of weeks ago. Lexi and Maddie helped me to move tables back to their homes with the use of a big wool blanket. These tables are heavy! 

I'm still working on the room, and will post pictures soon!

This is going to be a great year!

Two more quilts

So I've made two more quilts, cut a truck load of raceshirts into 12x12 squares and sewn them into shirt "sandwiches".

I've also learned a few tricks. One... if you have text or graphics on both sides, cut the shirt in half FIRST. Otherwise the back graphic gets cut weird. Also, if you have text on the back that you don't really need, cut your second piece from the side of the shirt so you have the matching color but you don't have extra print that you have to sew over. It is SO MUCH EASIER to sew when their is only text/graphics on one side!

 

This quilt ended up being larger than the last one and I really like the size of it. It feels much more substantial with the extra row.

Here it is finished.

And here is quilt number 3. I'm getting better at keeping the squares, well square.

I've had tons of people asking about sewing these for them. I've decided on $150 for a 4x6 (24 shirt) quilt and $200 for a 5x6 (30 shirt). What do you think? Does that sound reasonable?! 

Tutorial for a super easy Tshirt Quilt

I've had on my to-do list to make a t-shirt quilt for a while. I finally got around to making one. I LOVE it!! I can't wait to make another!

And if you want to learn how to make one for yourself, see my tutorial below!

Check out How to Make an EASY Tshirt No-Border Ruffle Quilt. by Emily McLemore on Snapguide.