Shop ‘Til You Drop

I kind of have a love affair with laminating things. I might even hum my own parody version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song while I do it… It may or may not sound like, “Super Duper Hot Laminator… LAMINATION POWER!”

So it should be no surprise that I found immense joy in heading here last night:

*angels sing* I picked up the last of the bulletin board trim I needed, and then I laminated it. All of it. Several pieces of trim across, it still ended up being 55 (FIFTY-FIVE!!!!!) linear feet long. Thank goodness for $0.29/foot laminating!

Let the record show that after “rough” cutting all of it last night and cutting out all of the green trim you see there… I’ve learned my lesson. I’m never ever ever buying scalloped trim again. It’s awful. Not even mindless television could take my mind off of how awful it was to try and cut.

But before we came home and I tackled that behemoth, Mr. Plum, little guy and I took an impromptu “adventure” to our nation’s capital. After the teacher store. At 10pm.

It was so so so so so worth it.

I feel so privileged to live so close to our capital that, on a whim, my family and I (or my students and I), can see sights like this. That we can experience history and feel the magnitude of our collective journey as a country right there in the flesh.

Let me tell you, there’s nothing like seeing a child experience the awe of seeing President Lincoln, larger-than-life, for the first time. Or a child asking you with wonder, “who is that man coming out of that rock?” It was well worth keeping little dude up WAY past his bedtime:

I hope all of you have the opportunity to travel — more than once — to Washington, D.C. When you do, please please please make a trip to the memorials at night; it is so vastly different than the daytime experience and it is moving beyond belief. As a native to the area, even I still get teary-eyed walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at night, the Washington Monument and Capitol at my back.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a peek at some projects I’m working on, I’ll finally post that freebie, and I’ll finally (apologies to those of you that kindly thought of me!) round up the amazing awards I’ve been given over the past two weeks.

The other day my husband and I took a trip to Michaels to browse around now that we’ve both got our placements and are starting the process of preparing for the upcoming school year. Now, ordinarily I don’t spend much time in Michaels because my brain goes on “crafty overload” and somehow I lose all sense of “do I really need to spend an hour in the scrapbook paper aisle?” So imagine my sheer glee when there’s an approved trip to literally spend an hour slowly walking around the store (and taking pictures of anything and everything)!

Without further commentary about how much-anticipated this outing was, the photographic evidence (that will almost certainly compel you to print a coupon and run to your nearest Michaels!):

These great stamps were only a $1! I’m planning on using both of these as peer-feedback mechanisms, with me stealing the “great idea” stamp once and a while as I’m looking through their interactive notebooks!

I thought of several of my favorite bloggers when I passed by this display! While I’m not a football fan (I know, I know), there are so many of you that have utilized football as your theme and these — especially once clearanced — could be put to use in a variety of ways in your classrooms!

Let’s have a moment of silence. Printed craft sticks, y’all! Forget Mod Podge-ing your own and spending your time and money on that (the paper you’d use alone would be more!) — these suckers are $4.99/100 pack!!!

Oh, the bargain bins. The bins on the left are filled with National Geographic merchandise; pens, sticker books, notepads, mousepads, etc. These were all very reasonably priced (most about $2), and would be great for animal-themed units or classrooms. The bins on the right were filled with environmental-print alphabet items. I tried to convince Mr. Plum that we needed matching “P” mugs for the teacher’s lounge, but it was a no-go.

Raise your hand if you’ve pinned the salt & pepper shakers as glitter-distribution devices. Only me? Well, imagine my excitement when I stumbled on these! I didn’t end up purchasing any this trip (priorities!), but now that I know where to find them, I’m good to go! Just you wait, I will earn the title of glitter queen.

I loved both of these setups, and it didn’t hurt that they were clearanced-priced either (though none of it made it into the basket this time). I can see the watering cans being used for a great discussion on how we grow as individuals, as authors, as a class, etc. and I can certainly see the stones as being used to anchor some character education.

Origami paper. There is an origami aisle, y’all. There is an origami aisle and I purchased nothing from it. Personal triumph, ahoy!

Chevrons! Bright colors! I started to walk past this display and then I did a double-take. I didn’t end up purchasing either of these, but I definitely wanted to snap a picture to post for y’all. There are 25 sheets in each of these stacks and they were heavy-weight cardstock — for only $3!

This one I did purchase. I can’t wait to create some activities for the first week of school surrounding this book to refresh on sequencing skills, etc. I’m toying with the idea of writing my own parody to surprise the kiddos with, featuring me. Does anyone know where I could get some custom clipart made?

I picked up a few other (small) things I’m going to feature in other posts, and then headed next door to Home Goods to check it out for the first time. I was a little underwhelmed — I’m not sure what I was expecting. Certainly not this randomness! Behold:

What in the world? Also — $500?!

Thank you for accompanying me on my trip to a little slice of crafty-heaven! I’ll be back tomorrow with (hopefully) some ‘before’ pictures of my very first classroom! I took a sneak-peek yesterday and oh my word. That’s all I’ve got to describe the feeling!

Lamination Power + An Adventure

Are you there, Michaels? It’s me, Sarah.