A Great Weekend and Win A Classroom Decor Set with some feedback

First, I want to share a freebie with you.  This is a little student self-inventory I made awhile back to get students thinking about their strengths and weaknesses. I intend to use this inventory along with some others during the first week or two of school. Click here to get it in Google Docs and here from my TpT store.  This inventory is more of an interest inventory to give you an idea of some of your student's interests.

I hope you had a fabulous weekend.  My weekend was fantastic.  Friday, we had a school water-park day where I got to meet a lot of my students and their parents.  It was a lot of fun, and it allowed a lot of the students to meet each other and make a friend before school started.  Friday evening I did weight training for the first time in a long time.  After that, we went out with some friends for a late dinner.


Saturday, I went to yoga in the morning and then went to a flea market with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  I found a man that was making signs out of cut-up license plates.  This seemed like a unique idea, so I had him make a sign that said Mrs. Walker. I will share a picture of the sign tomorrow.
We did some other shopping that included a wine tasting and finding a new dining table.  I found someone who makes custom farm tables for a reasonable price, so once it is done I look forward to sharing some pictures.  I am also getting a quote for a custom-built dining hutch since I can't seem to find what I want.


Saturday night, I decided I needed to do something about my plethora of purses and totes.  The giant piles of them had taken over the top shelves in my closet.  The reason this became important is that my Thirty-One order arrived on Thursday.  I ordered the:

Organizing Utility Tote and Tote-ally Awesome tote

a cooler bag on wheels

I think the cooler bag will come in handy when I have to take food to someone's house or go on a small road trip. The Organizing Utility tote is the great bag that lots of bloggers have been throwing a wire hanging file folder rack in to make a portable hanging file folder organizer.  The Tote-ally awesome tote is just a giant tote bag that will come in handy when I need to carry a lot.

Saturday night, I went to the Container Store to look for bins or baskets that would fit on the Elfa shelves in my closet to organize all of my purses, totes, and duffel bags.  Almost all of my bags are green or colorful patterns.  I absolutely love Vera Bradley, Coach, and Fossil.  Now, I can add Thirty-One to my faves.  Every time I get a new bag, my husband says "How many green bags do you need?"  The answer will always be open-ended.  :)

Now, the Container store usually is more expensive than I want to spend, but actually I thought a lot of their sale items where very reasonable.  I found some linen bins that worked perfect and you can add a label to them.  I sorted my purses into duffel bags, totes, fall purses, spring purses, and small purses/wallets.  Here is one of the shelves in my closet.  I just need to go back and add labels.

All of the organizing in my classroom made me want to do a little more organizing at home.  I started with the purses because my new Thirty-one bags needed a new home for when I am not using them. I also want to get one of those cubby bookshelves that works well with fabric bins to put in my entryway to use for storage.

While at the Container Store, I noticed they have the toolboxes that teachers have been using to make the teacher toolboxes.  I purchased my gray toolbox at Home Depot. I know Lowes and Amazon also have them.  These were the first white toolboxes I had seen though, so I thought I would snap a picture and share with you.  Some of you were more ambitious than me and painted your toolbox.  I had no desire to paint mine. If I had seen these before, I might have opted for white over gray.

Sunday, I went to church, did my grocery shopping, took a nap, and printed out some of my classroom decorations as well as my TpT purchases from the big back-to-school sale.  Tomorrow, I will share with you what I purchased during the sale. 

This week in the evenings, I am working on finishing up some of my classroom decorations sets that I have started.  I have bits and pieces made, but not the entire sets.  Leave me some comments on which of these classroom decor sets you might be interested in, and I will pick some winners to give away some freebies. 

• monsters
• frogs
• pink paisley (with or without owls) or with another animal?
• green paisley (with owls)
• superheroes
• chevrons (with what accents?)
• owls with dark colors
• dots and owls
• Harry Potter Owls

I would also love to know if there are other classroom decor themes you are looking for.  What types of items are you looking for in the sets?