TeacherShirts.com

Back in July, I received a sample T-Shirt for reviewing! My T-shirt came from TeacherShirts.com but I was able to customize it exactly how I wanted. I chose a light pink shirt with my color text logo. This shirt looks AMAZING! Even now, 6 months later, after many washes the print and shirt still look great!!

I cannot recommend this company enough!! I have worked with them 1 other time and they are so patient and willing to help. It truly is awesome!

I wanted to also share a few of my favorite designs from their websites. I absolutely LOVE their Classroom Faces T-Shirts. How cute is it that each student can draw their own picture for the shirt!

 

My other favorite would have to be the Glitter Rocks Shirt series! They have these for almost anything you can think of and they are super cute!

Let me know if you have ordered something from A+ Images! I would love to see how it turned out.

How to Relax?

I have had lots of things going through my mind lately. I never thought that creating art(?) would help relax me but somehow it does. The top image I created after having to drive my daughter to school because she got suspended from the bus. I knew it was going to happen at some point but I didn't expect that point to be within the first 7 weeks of school. 

The one below was created after my daughter came home several days in a row explaining that none of the kids will play with her. She is 5 and this is very tough for all of us but again, we knew. It was just a matter of when. 

Next, I am going to buy one of those awesome "adult" coloring books!! I cannot wait!

Currently June!!

Yay for Summer!! Thanks to Farley for hosting this fun linky!

Listening: My daughter and calm normally do not fit in the same sentence but since we started these sensory bins, I have been able to fit them together a few times. Last night I put together a Space themed sensory bin and she has been playing with it all day long! Here is a sneak peak. :)

Loving: These TOOBS are awesome! If you have ever been to a craft store I am sure you have seen them but I have recently started amassing a collection! They are the perfect size for sensory bins and come in SOO many fun options!! I have purchased the Space set, Arctic set, and the Mythical Realms set! On my list to purchase next is the Ancient Egyptian set and the Deep Sea Creatures! Really though, I want them all! I could have easily filled up this whole post talking about them! You'll see them in many of my upcoming sensory bin post too! With a coupon they are only about $5 and I think they are worth every penny!

Thinking: Ugh! I have been procrastinating my Accounting homework soo bad. I find it so awesome but so mentally draining!

Wanting: Some free time! Ugh, the amount of homework that I should be doing has me overwhelmed. Sometimes when that happens I go into shutdown mode and I feel like I cannot focus on anything. Not blogging, not designing, not homework, just family or TV. Luckily I have TOO much stuff to do so I refuse to let that happen. That's why I'm blogging right now! I think it is relaxing? lol

Needing: A maid! Don't we all want a maid? I want my house to get a good moping and scrubbing! Any volunteers? :)

Summer Lovin: I really hope to make it to a beach this summer! I will be done with my summer class by the second week in August! I love saving money! It is yard sale season and I have already enjoyed a few! I really need to have my own but that involves me having some free time. We shall see if I get to one this summer. My daughter is going to go to summer camp for the last week in June! She really needs this time to work on her social skills before school starts. I know she is going to have a blast!

FYI: I have for the first time used affiliate links in the above post. The content is my own. IF you really don't like seeing links everywhere, leave me a comment and I will reconsider. :)

$6 Arctic Sensory Bin

It is RARE that anything holds my daughter's attention for more than 10 minutes but this sensory bin had entertained for more than 2 hours! It was super easy to make and only cost me $6!

First I purchased the white tub at the Dollar Tree and then filled it about halfway with water. I added a few drops of blue food coloring to make it a bit brighter. I filled another smaller rectangle container with ice and placed it on the right side. This made the little rectangle swimming pool. If I had thought about it ahead of time I would have tilted one side of the container while freezing to make a sliding slope but this one had a little hill to it. I picked up a 12 pack of the little figures from A.C. Moore. Of course I used a coupon so they only cost me $5!

Have you made any sensory bins lately? I think we are going to try polka dot soup next!

Happy Easter 2015!

Happy Easter everyone!!! I hope you are enjoying some family time today. My daughter and I painted these eggs last night! I would love to see your Easter goodies. Leave me a comment and I'll check it out. :)

Birthday Countdown!!

March 18th my 4 year old turned into a 5 year old!! It is exciting and scary all at the same time. I am already counting down the days that she starts school. We are at 5 months now. I am a mixed bag of emotions about that situation right now.

Anyway, on to fun things!! At this age my daughter is all about countdowns! They help keep her from asking how many days until (insert fun activity here). We have a Christmas countdown, I used one for our Disney trip and most recently I created one for her birthday! I searched for hours trying to find something that would work for her online to no avail. I don't know why I spent so much time searching for one online. I am a graphics designer! This is what I DO!!

I created the version on the left but she walked over while I was working on it and of course had to change things up! First, she added her name and then we had to change the font. She called her version video game style! Both options are available for FREE download in my google drive! These are 2 week birthday countdowns. For the "video game" style I used Small fonts, fixedsys or you can download Press Start 2P from Google Fonts. Check out this Google Fonts tutorial if you need help. Of course I left off her name so that you can add your child's name! We placed random stickers on each day as they came.

Do you use countdowns with your kids? What sort of countdown would you like me to make next?

TL:DR - Here's the link, download a FREE Birthday Countdown!

Highs and Lows

This week has been a little busy for me but I am happy to be a part of this weekly linky! You should join A First for Everything too!

 As usual I am having a hard time thinking of my lows for the week. I love that. Hmmm.
-Not finishing a custom request. It has taken me longer than I would like to finish a set of digital papers.
-Finding out that my company is now open on Christmas Day and that I might have to work was also not too fun.

There have been so many highs for this week.
-My daughter had an amazing 2 days while I was off from work. She went shopping with me and I let her play on the playground at the mall. Both events went over great. She enjoyed some peaceful playtime with many kids and no one got hurt. ;)
-Part 2 of my first high is scoring some awesome deals!! I have a work party to go to and the attire is fancier than anything I had in my whole house. This week I was able to find everything I needed for my party!

Dress $6.99

Mini Jacket $8.00

Shoes $11.99

Earrings $7.50

Brooch $1.00

Hair Pins $2.00

My whole outfit, which I will probably only wear 1 time cost me under $35! I call that a huge win!

I also bought this AWESOME treasure chest pinata from Kroger for only $3.75!
-I finally uploaded my second YouTube video! I LOVE doing these tutorial. The most difficult part is finding quite time to record the audio. This video is all about how to add a URL to a PDF in Google Docs for FREE! Check it out. ;)
-I kicked off a HUGE giveaway this week. Prizes include a custom blog design by me, some Jamberrys, a T-Shirt and TONS of amazing prizes from some awesome TpT sellers. Feel free to enter.

My Life Monday: Vacations!

I am linking up with  Beyond the Worksheet for another My Life Monday! This weeks theme is vacations!! This topic could not come at a more perfect time. I am trying to decide where we will spend our vacation time this year.

My problems:

-I don't like driving. (Vacations should be no more than 3 hours away.)

-Planes are way to expensive. (It seems I can always find a better way to spend $1500 for all 3 of us)

-I hate planning vacations.

-A vacation (for me) is not spent in hotel room.

-My husband will pretty much agree to whatever vacation I choose.

I love taking vacations. I love seeing new things. Every year we end up at Virginia Beach because I give up on the "let's go somewhere new" idea pretty quickly. It's pretty entertaining but I want to go somewhere new. Over the weekend we went to the Richmond Home Show to get some contacts for some repairs and upgrades we are looking to get done on our house. There was a Virginia Beach Vacation seller that we saw. You know, the ones that give you an amazing discount if you sit through their 90 min time share presentation. I have done this 1 time before and for me it is totally worth it. I have no problem telling them that I will not be purchasing their time share. I even told the presentation seller this ahead of time. Any who, he offered me a super deal! $150 for 4 nights in an ocean front hotel! The only problem was that it was in Va Beach. Gah! I am so over Va Beach. 

We went at least 2 more times but I guess I don't have pictures for those. Check out that silly 2007 picture! I was going for a cotton candy hairstyle. :)

Help!!

Do you have any ideas on where we should go? I really want to go to New Orleans but the airfare is killing me. At least Lindsay enjoys going to Disney all the time. Disney is definitely on our to do list but I think we will wait until our daughters behavior improves a bit. Maybe when she's age 25? Hopefully around 7 or maybe next year before she starts school.

~Mrs. Bearfield~

My Goals for 2014!

What an interesting year this has been. This was us a few weeks ago at the mall! Sorry for the poor photo is was totally spur of the moment and my brother in law is not that great at photography. :)

-It started with me finally landing that job promotion I had been chasing for 2 years! I went from customer service to workforce management.

-In the middle of the year my 5 year long battle of trying to get my community college to apply my transfer credits correctly came to and end! Leaving me only 4 classes away from my Associates Degree in Elementary Education. I still have a long way away.

-My daughter is getting to that age where she has an opinion and can do things. While at times it has been a struggle I am so proud of her and all she has learned. This has spawned great moments like this:
Me: Zoey clean your toys.
Zoey: but mommy can you clean my toys?
Me: No. Can't you clean them?
Zoey: I'll clean a little and you can clean a lot.
Me: ummm why can't you clean them all?
Zoey: because you are the best cleaner in the whole wide world!
Me: Nice try
And also Wofy (that creepy little purple fish we picked up from Christmas Tree Shops for $.75) came into our lives. This is her favorite thing ever.

-Throughout the year we were able to visit some pretty fun places. We ventured to the beach and to a local botanical garden. My husband and I really enjoy carnivorous plants. We recently started our own little collection but it was nice to see some in the outdoors. We are crossing our fingers that our carnivorous plant collection makes it through the winter!

-In November I became a seller on Teachers pay Teachers and have enjoyed every minute!

What does my future hold? If I only I knew. I do have some goals for this upcoming year.

-Graduation in Spring of 2014! I still will not be able to teach but I will have an associates degree and after 8 years of schooling I am finally ready to have at least 1 degree to my name.

-On January 4th I will celebrate my 8 year wedding anniversary!

-I have a few goals related to blogging and my TpT store as well. The first goal is to reach 100 products in my store. I would like to help as many TpT sellers as I can. I have already signed up for the mentor program and I have sort of started my own TpT blog giveaway outreach program as well. It will be interesting to see how this develops. One day I would love to be making enough money from my TpT store so that I do not have to work full time and instead I can go to school full time. I don't want to spend another 12 years taking classes instead of teaching them. :)

I wish everyone a successful and happy new year. What are your new years resolutions?

~Mrs. Bearfield~