This Simple Life

Easter Update

2012-04-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Happy and Blessed Easter to all! I am so thankful that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I am truly blessed to be saved by His grace.

Soo, obviously I seem to have zero energy during the school week....BUT I need to stop depriving my blog of my attention. Sorry... Well, here is my big news!!:

We got a new member of the family!

Her name is Pippa, and she is a beautiful.. spoiled.. 4-month old Yorkie. I love her to the moon and back times a thousand. We have had her for two months now, and she just makes me so happy! Here are some photos:

This is the first day we got Pippa. She was only 12 weeks old and weighed 15 ounces. Tiny!!

Pippa at three months old and 1.5 pounds. She found herself a feather boa. :)

Pippa at 4 months old and a new haircut. She weighs 2.5 pounds now.

Cupid Came Early...

2012-01-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

Okay... don't judge me. I really love decorating for holidays. And it's only 22 days until Valentine's Day... and I bought the decorations like a month ago... I just couldn't hold out any longer--I had to decorate! Here is my mini-labor of love:

So, this is my entertainment center. It's pretty much the only thing in our apartment that is worthy of being decorated. Not too much room for anything else. I got everything from Target, except the Valentine garland which I got from Joann's.

Red Glitter LOVE!!

I'm obsessed!!!

I saw these little glass birds at Target (only $2.99 each!!) and fell head over heels in love. They have such a vintage, shabby chic look to them. They definitely belong in my future daughter's nursery...

Well, the Next Great Baker is about to come on.

Happy Monday!

xoxo

Terrific Tuesday!!

2012-01-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

I'm in a good mood today. Why? Let's see...

1) Today was the first day of the second semester of school. Meaning... I got all new students in two of my six classes, and I can tell they are going to be some great kiddos!

2) Patrick and I have crunched numbers and agreed that we will officially be able to buy a house as soon as our apartment lease is up in April. (God willing!) This will make House #2 for us, so I am fully prepared for the whole "house buying" process again. I am sooo excited!!

3) I found some adorable (and FREE) Valentine subway art printables online. Talk about *super* easy craft projects!! The first one is all Valentine phrases and words. I got it from Eighteen25's blog. All you do is download the picture (they have a link you can click) and print whatever size you want on photo paper. If you don't have photo paper or a printer, you can always order it from CVS, Walgreens, etc. After it finished printing, I just stuck it in a picture frame I already had from my wedding a few years back. Super quick!

The second one I printed out is the 1 Corinthians 13:4 verse over love. I, personally, think it can be displayed throughout the whole year--not just Valentine's Day. I found this one at The Girl Creative blog. She has adorable ideas!

Well, I hope everyone else has a Happy Tuesday, too! :)

Favorite Fonts

2012-01-12T18:51:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite aspects of the Silhouette Cameo is the fact that I can download my own *free* fonts to use on it. There are TONS of great websites that offer free fonts; however, I always end up at Dafont.com.Here are my most recent (and favorite) downloads I got from them for free ninety-free!

1) Jenna Sue

2) Words of Love

3) Where Stars Shine the Brightest

4) MoxyRoxie

Like what you see? Then simply type the font name (ex: Jenna Sue) in the search box on Dafont.com and you can instantly download your free font. Happy Font-ing! :)

Personalize Your Silhouette Cameo

2012-01-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

Words can't express how much I LOVE my Silhouette Cameo! It is so user-friendly, and the possibilities are literally endless. One of the MILLION things I really like about it is the fact that you can personalize it and make it your own. I made a quick little picture tutorial on how to customize the control panel. Here is what you need to do:

Step One: Go to the Silhouette Software (must download to use) and double click on the Control Panel icon in your library. It is one of the free 51 designs that comes with the Cameo, so it will automatically show up in the software library. Also, do not re-size... it will fit perfect!

Drag the design to the top left corner so you don't waste as much paper.

Step Two: Choose the paper, cardstock, fabric, vinyl, etc. that you want your control panel to be made out of. I chose a polka-dot cardstock because it can be displayed anytime of the year. I do plan to change it out soon for Valentine's Day, though.
Next, click on "Send to Silhouette" button (6th icon from left at top of software screen). Follow the prompted steps and adjust blade settings as needed for the material you chose. Place material on mat, load mat into the Silhouette, and press "Cut page".

Cut out pattern for Control Panel

Step Three: Remove the plastic covering from the Control Panel. I was really nervous to do this at first, but using a small craft spatula helps to get it out of its little "grooves".

Step Four: Simply place your cut out material into the control panel slot. Place the plastic covering back onto the control panel. Congrats!! You now have your own customized Silhouette Cameo. :)

Back to the Real World...

2012-01-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

   Well, school started back this week, which means I had absolutely NO time to craft! *Sigh* However, I did stay true to my work out resolution and attended TWO Zumba classes this week. That means I worked out two solid hours and burned off hundreds of calories. Yay!
    So, the Wednesday Zumba class I attended had an instructor I have never Zumba-ed with before (meaning I knew NONE of the dances), and let's just say I made myself look like a complete fool for an entire hour trying to keep up with this chick. I am definitely NOT a natural-born dancer, but I can at least fake keeping up with the hip hop routines. However, this instructor loved salsa dances (which I am horrible at) so I ended up completely embarassing myself for an hour straight. Oh well, at least I worked out, right?

Moving on to crafts...

I went to Hobby Lobby and Michaels today (with a 40% off coupon to each store) and got the following products for $29.00. The coasters were already on sale, so I ended up saving $16 total. I love bargain shopping!

CRAFT HAUL = Armour Etch, White and Pink Acrylic Craft Paint, and 4-Piece Glass Coaster Set. I have a few projects in mind for each of these items, but nothing official yet. We shall see...

Guess what? I got my first craft "order" from a friend! She wanted an established name tile with a dark red monogrammed "H" and black lettering for the name and date. Here is a picture of the "H":

And here a picture of the completed project:

I am pretty pleased with the end result. And the good news is it only took me HALF the time compared to the first tile I made.

Alright, off to bed for me. Hopefully, I will have some more craft-time in between lesson planning tomorrow. Good night :)

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well, a new year has officially begun, and I have made a few resolutions:

1. Have a daily devotional time with God. (I tend to make this WAY harder than it truly is...)

2. Go to the gym AT LEAST twice a week. Especially since I have an actual gym membership now and all the Zumba classes I could wish for!

3. BLOG!! I definitely got out of the blogging-loop as soon as my teaching career got super busy, but I truly miss blogging. Hopefully I can stick with it this time around.

4. Establish a craft business. Advantageous (I know), but I have always dreamed of having my own business, so why not give it a try with my crafts?

Speaking of crafts... here are a few of my projects I just completed:

Gold vinyl monogramed "C" on tile. *Ignore my shadows!*

I made this for my sister. Customized name and est. sign on tile.

Before - Krafty Blok with Valentine's Day in pink vinyl.

After - I filled the block with Conversation Hearts. Tulle and mini lights could have worked, too.

Side view.

Well, that's all for now, but I plan to post many more projects to come. I hope everyone has a safe and blessed 2012!

Shapopolis!!

2011-03-01T19:07:00.000-08:00

The aliens have landed! Shapopolis is officially done and populated with geometric aliens! I took a few pictures of the finished product:

I think it turned out so cute! The students were soo excited to get to hang their aliens on the wall, too. Here are a few close up shots of some aliens:

Well, this week officially marks my "halfway point" of student teaching. Seven more weeks and I will be a certified teacher! Yayyy!

Also, my haircut turned out really cute! I was veryy pleased with it. I haven't gotten to upload any pictures of it yet. I absolutely loathe uploading pictures from my camera to my laptop. I find it to be extremely annoying.... not hard or time consuming. Just annoying. The Shapopolis pictures came from my Droid. Maybe I should just start using that as my official camera? We'll see...

Thankful Thursday

2011-02-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

My first post for February. Sad. I really can't help it though. Why? Patrick and I have no Internet at our home, so this means I have to go to my mom's house anytime I want to get online. And... most of that time spent online is for my student teaching. FYI: My life pretty much = student teaching. Simple as that. So hopefully we will be getting Internet soon. Hopefully...

Anywho, I thought this would be the perfect time to blog about the things I am thankful for. Hence: Thankful Thursday.

1) SHAPOPOLIS (a.k.a. My Labor of Love) - The 6th graders I am student teaching for have just finished learning about basic geometric terms and shapes, such as angles, polygons, quadrilaterals, line segments, etc. So I built them a geometry planet that they are going to "launch" geometric aliens on tomorrow. The students got to suggest their own names for the planet and vote for their overall favorite name. The winner? Shapopolis. I love it! So, here are the "before" pictures of my hard work:

Day One (obviously). This took me FOREVER to do!! Notice the various angles and shapes of the geometric planet? :)

Day Two. I finished Shapopolis yesterday. Yayy! I am very proud of my Labor of Love. Just in case you can't see it, the trapezoid sign says "Population of 73." So tomorrow (Friday) the students are going to launch their geometric aliens onto Shapopolis. I will definitely take some pictures so I can show off the final product. I am excited! :)

2) My Hair Appointment Next Week!! My roots are HORRID.... and I reallyyy want to get more layers in my hair. So I'm going to show this picture to my hair lady:

That would be Annalynne McCord from 90210. She has the perfect haircut. I hope mine ends up looking somewhat like that? I will just have to wait until next Wednesday to see.

Have a blessed weekend! :)

Wow...

2011-01-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

...it's been a while since my last post. Forgive me!!

So, here's a little update on the goings on of my life:

1) Student Teaching. Today marks the third official week of my student teaching, as well as my first day to teach a whole class period by myself. So far, soo good! I am absolutely in love with student teaching. I think about it constantly, and I'm pretty sure I dream about it every night, too. (Obsessed.. ?) One thing I have definitely learned about teachers is they do A LOT of EVERYTHING. When I was a student, I always assumed teachers just planned lessons, graded papers, and assigned a lot of homework. I was totally wrong... Everyday, I watch my cooperating teacher manage her students (and their parents), communicate with co-workers and bosses, attend meetings, counsel, teach (of course), plan lessons, grade papers, and everything else under the sun!!! Each day I gain more and more respect for teachers!

2) Our house is STILL for sale. It has been listed for five long months now, but no offers yet. We are waiting patiently for God to send us our buyer. He is definitely testing my faith with this house because it is soo easy to get discouraged and lose hope. Everything will work out on His perfect timing though. This I know :)

3) Holy Homes!!! This weekend, our church is hosting a Holy Homes Conference for married couples (and families) to learn how to have a more God-centered home. I am soo excited! I absolutely love anything that has to do with enriching the spiritual life of our marriage and future family.

Well, time to finish watching The Bachelor. Happy Monday! :)

I'm a Survivor...

2011-01-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

...of my first official day as a Student Teacher!!! My 14-week journey towards my teaching certification has officially begun. My placement is in 6th grade Math and Language Arts, a.k.a. My Dream Job!! It was a truly wonderful day right from the start. I walked into my cooperating teacher's classroom and this is the first thing I saw:

That's right....my own adorable desk with blue daisies. Soo cute! Another perk? My cooperating teacher is extremely gifted at teaching, and I can't wait to learn everything I possibly can from her. The students are all really sweet and welcoming of me in their classroom, too. I am truly blessed for this opportunity God has given to me, and I hope I evolve into a wonderful new teacher by the time this Student Teaching chapter of my life is over. And landing a job wouldn't hurt either... ;)

Wish me luck! Have a happy and blessed weekend!

Goodbye 2010... Hello Blog!

2011-01-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome! After months (and months) of reading/stalking other people's blogs, I finally decided to give in and start one of my own. And I know... totally cliche' to (purposely) start my blog on January 1st... but I couldn't help myself. Speaking of January 1st, allow me to share my 2011 New Year Resolutions:

1) Give up "Rated R" Movies. Let me explain. I LOVE LOVE LOVE movies. I am seriously that girl that stalks movies and is sitting in the dead center of the movie theater on opening night. However, most "Rated R" movies (in my opinion) have gone off the deep end of inappropriateness. In the past, I have felt convicted to stop watching them, but my love for movies just always made me ignore my conviction. My breaking point? Love and Other Drugs. If you have seen that movie, then you know why I made this resolution...

2) Read The Bible Daily. I think I make this resolution every year, but I have a plan for 2011. I asked my husband to buy me The One Year Chronological Bible for Christmas this year. It is simply The Bible divided into 365 daily readings. This is perfect for me because I thrive on structure--especially because The Bible can be very overwhelming if you don't have a designated reading plan. You can find The One Year Chronological Bible at any local Christian bookstore or Amazon.com for around $15.00.

3) Exercise (at least) Three Times a Week. I know... another cliche' resolution. However, I planned for this resolution in advance, too. I asked my mom to buy me Skechers Shape-Ups Toners for Christmas this year. NOTE: My Skechers are the NON-boat style (See Pic Below). They are really cute and completely normal looking. So, hopefully they will inspire me to exercise regularly and get in shape.

4) Start (and maintain) a Blog. Obviously... :)

Well, that's all for now. I hope you all have a very safe, blessed, and Happy New Year!!