Facelift!

I have decided to come out from under the books and boxes and spiders and mess that is my classroom to do something for myself for a moment.  Did you see that I said spiders?  Yes, I have killed at least 40-50 spiders since returning to my classroom.  Does that not make you cringe?!  Welcome to my world.

Well, as I have been scouring the Internet to see how to best update my classroom so that I am the most effective teacher I can be... I have come to a couple of moments in which I realize that I am far from the teacher I wish I could be.  I know this is only my third year, but I always desire to be and do my best.  When I see these amazing teachers posting on their blogs and showing all of the products they are creating... from classroom design to center organization to reading notebooks to upcoming lessons... I think to myself...

DO YOU HAVE A LIFE?!?!?


The answer, I think, is no.  There is absolutely no way that any human being has the time to do all of this and also enjoy the wonderful blessings of life in the outside world.  I mean, at least not that I have come across.  SO, while I have beaten myself up numerous times trying to figure out how to do all of this at once, I have also had to remind myself that these people have been teaching for YEARS, and they didn't just magically wake up one day and be awesome... they have developed into that person over time.  I just have to be okay with taking on small pieces one at a time. 

For instance, my classroom has a Hollywood/Movie theme.  I saw on an old blog from The First Grade Parade, who also had this theme, a cute behavior management system that I was already planning on making, but it had CUTE clip art and fonts, etc.  I have come across this problem many times this summer.  And I have had to ask, where in the world are these people getting such cute stuff?  All these products they are making... are these teachers so incredible that they also can design clip art and fonts??!?!  The answer for the most part is no.  I've been asking people and scouring the Internet to find these gems.  In case you have been wondering where to go... here are some of the places I've found...

FONTS:
Kevin and Amanda
These are FREE and they have a variety of finds on there.  You can even submit your own writing sample and they will create it as a font for you!  NUTS.
Dafont.com
They have TONS of fonts.  Like... everything you can think of, basically... and most are free.

CLIP ART:
DJ Inkers
Their stuff is SO CUTE, but it comes on CD's that they have to send you.  Each CD comes with a bazillion items, but it also comes at a steep price.... Maybe if I was rich...
Scrappin' Doodles
Absolutely precious, teacher-friendly clip art.  They come in different size packages, reasonable pricing, and when you buy it, all you have to do is click a link to download.  SIMPLE!
Etsy!
Who knew?  I though Etsy was just for craftiness.  (Is that a word?)  But they also sell digital clip art that you can download.  Also reasonable pricing.  I ordered a package from JCSweetpea Designs.  They look like scrap booking material!  It's AWESOME!

Do you know of any other places to find cute fonts or clip art??  Let me know!

Also, as you can see, I have updated my blog with a scrappier design.  I have sat googly-eyed staring at some of my favorite blogs' headers and wondered how they created such beauty.  Welp, I have also decided to share with you my findings so you can make yours pretty, too!

Custom Blog Designs
One word... EXPENSIVE... They are BEAUTIFUL, but it costs to be beautiful, right??  Well, they have pre-made blog designs, but they are "CUSTOM" which means no design can have two owners.  You are limited to choices that no one else has already claimed.  These, though, are like $20-$30.  No, thank you.  But you can also make your own design by starting with one of their packages...  The least expensive is like $65... yiiiiiikes!  My thoughts are... unless you are starting a business blog or something... not worth it.
Shabby Blogs
YES.  This site is incredible.  They have designs that look like scrapbooks, and they are... get this... FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!  Also, they have tutorials that tell you how to use their stuff.  Wow.

So, the only problem I encountered was with blogger.com.  I got the beautifulness on here, but I'm having some trouble designing just the basic stuff on my blog.  I can't get my post background to be anything but grey.  And it took me a couple of attempts before the background worked right.  Also, I don't know how to center my header, so I just made the width of the blog smaller.....

Welll... that's what I've got.  Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Helpful hints? Sanity-to-go??

Design on!