The first 3 days are over.

The first three days of school are over. It has been crazy! We decided after gaining a second grade teacher (last minute - one week before school started) to departmentalize. I am excited to be paired up with one of my teaching friends but NERVOUS to be in charge of reading, writing and handwriting for TWO classes (with a brand new reading series). We are just getting Houghten-Mifflin's Journeys!

I have loved my three days of school so far (minute the fact that my room is the HOTTEST room in the whole school) and the fact that it has been like 90 degrees each day OR 100 in my classroom. The departmentalizing seems nice in the fact that it makes my morning go pretty quick.

We have open house on Tuesday night and of course my room still is not PARENT ready so I hope to convince my kids (with the use of donuts) to go there tomorrow. If not I guess it will be a late Monday night.

I hope to have a classroom reveal for y'all here soon (once I get the rest of the border I ordered)...and accidentally sent to my mom's house (sigh).

I love bags!

Hi! My name is Natalie and I love bags...

Haha. I really do love bags. Vera Bradley bags are my favorite. One of the games we played at my bridal shower was guess how many Vera Bradley bags Natalie has...it was 43. I am ashamed to say it is now actually closer to 50. I also love 31 bags and Kate Spade and Coach (my husband does not).

Anyways... I ran into this little gem for $3.00 at Target and just hard to share how much I love it. It holds folders and it zips up and can be stored complete flat.

A Little Bit of Info About Me

I love to tell people stories. If you ask my husband or any of my friends I often love to tell stories so much that I tell them more than once. However, this one is a good one. My favorite place in the whole world is probably Cedar Point (in Sandusky, Ohio). I grew up in Sandusky, Ohio and probably would have stayed there forever until my now husband transferred for his work. I mean who wouldn't love this place (especially on the beach). Here is is from the beach at night. I also work here (now very part-time) but used to full-time in the summer. I work for the finance department (the bank of Cedar Point) and that's all I can tell you about that but I love it. The people I work with there are my family and this is my 12th season working there. I went there Friday night to see the beach party they do with the hubs, my momma and my 2 kiddos. We were in town because my beautiful best friend Kim was getting married. Now, back to the grind and getting my classroom ready. One week left!!

Cedar Point at night (Wicked Twister)

My beautiful best friend since second grade :)

Nothing a little spray paint can't fix

My mom was a teacher for 35 years. She is my idol and she is amazing! However, when she retired from teaching I was the recipient of all of her teaching stuff. Now, don't think I'm NOT more than happy to have received all of these things because I AM :) I am very lucky in fact. However, sometimes her amazing things have seen 35 years worth of love and you can tell -- especially plastic things such as this gem (that she and I use to store stickers). So I decided I needed to either fix it up or send it to the great big dumpster in the sky. So after some research I found some information on how to spray paint this bad boy!

So I headed off to Meijer to select spray paint colors (this of course was NO easy choice either). I was tempted to go with orange and brown -- the colors of my university (usually my go to color choices - orange and brown) but decided to do something a little bit different since I already have a lot of orange and brown in my room so I chose these two colors. 

And I have to say it went for the most part (and mind you I'm spray paint challenged...) it went amazingly. I am excited to share the finished product. 

So if you are thinking about spray painting something plastic. I leave you with two pieces of advice. 1. Don't forget to buy spray paint that adheres to plastic.

2. Don't get to spray happy or you will get bubbles.

But it is possible if you are wondering and it really makes things look amazing when done correctly.

Making New Friends

Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting to meet a group of central (ish) Ohio teachers/TpT sellers to collaborate and share stories of selling and teaching. 

I got to meet these wonderful ladies at Easton Shopping center and spent a good portion of my morning/early afternoon in their company. It was truly amazing to meet people who love to create and sell just like I do as well as spend time learning more about what I can do to make myself and my store better for all. 

I hope to take time once the school year gets started and share some more about them and their stores/social media sites here on my blog.

Also, if you are a seller in the central Ohio area (think Columbus), we plan to meet again around Columbus and will be looking to expand out and invite more people to attend - so keep your eyes posted on the forum for the future.