The End of Another Year

Boy have I been a bad blogger or what! I guess I can blame it on the business of the end of theschool year, but not that it's over I better get on it again! This school year has truly flown by. The year started off rocky with 10 out of 12 of my students being boys. I struggled with their wild personalities, and rambunctious ways, but I have truly come to love each of them. We both taught each other a lot and I will truly miss them. The one negative with teaching upper elementary is not seeing your students in the following years. Our school now has a 6th grade, but it is small and not all students will be returning. Many of them go to middle schools that are 6th-8th grade. So for many of my students, this is the last time I will see them :( I love how I have gotten to know each one of their spunky personalities, and getting to watch how they have changed throughout this year.

Well, not that it's officially summer, it's time for vacation. Matt and I (and Cooper too :) leave next week to meet his parents up in the Sierras to go camping. The main activity to do up there is fishing, which I will probably take part in one or two days while we are there, but other than that I will most likely be sleeping in, knitting/crocheting, and reading. Not the most exciting vacation, but it is definitely relaxing and beautiful. We are also going to Lake Powell in early August. This is probably my 18th going to Lake Powell, so it is clearly a family favorite. Again, a beautiful place to go, relax, and have fun. Other than that, I will be hanging
out at home cleaning, organizing, and doing whatever each day may bring. I am also looking forward to hanging out with my bff who is pregnant! She is also a teacher, so I'm sure we will have fun shopping and planning for her little bundle of joy to arrive :)

Hopefully I will be a better blogger, now that I have more time on my hands, and my next post should be full of vacay pictures!

New Blog

I have recently started a new blog specifically for Crochet Creations. Here I will be posting new projects and taking orders. Please take a look and feel free follow me! :) http://crochetcreationsbychelsey.blogspot.com/

Headband Madness!

As you know I have been having a lot of fun crocheting and knitting different projects. Well, recently I have had a lot of people asking me if they could buy them! How awesome is that!? Doing something I love and making a little bit of $$. Well I just created a group on facebook called Crochet Creations. I will be posting new projects on there as well as taking orders. I am super excited and I hope to eventually create a blog that is dedicated to Crochet Creations. :) Please join the group if you haven't already and checked out the cute products and "models" that are showing off the items! Here are a few pictures of some of the item's I am selling. The adorable baby modeling is my friend Val's little girl, Brooke. I LOVE her! :)

Friday night my mom and I had a fun girls night out. We started the night by going to CPK, followed by seeing the movie "When In Rome" and finished it off with Baskin Robins ice cream. While I was making my way out of the Baskin Robins, devouring my mint chip ice cream, I spotted the always delicious looking ice cream cakes. This instantly reminded me of my childhood birthday, which got me thinkin...why is it that birthdays are just not as special and eventful as they were when you were a kid?

I ask this because my 24th birthday is coming up this week and there is no great feeling of anticipation. It's not because I am at the stage where I dread turning another year older, its just there isn't as much to look forward to. No mom to make me my favorite breakfast in the morning, and to bring in my favorite treat to share with my class. Actually last year my mother-in-law DID bring in cupcakes for my students, and her and my mom surprised me with a catered lunch for all the teachers! I guess I'm still a little girl in some ways :)

Looking back at my childhood birthday celebrations, my mom went all out. I usually had 3 birthday parties. 1 with friends, and 2 more with each side of the family. I remember playing fun games like trying to drop the close pin in the bottle and find the safety pin in the rice. At least they were fun at the time lol. My mom would always decorate everything so cute. My favorite part was hanging balloons from the ceiling with thumb tacks. I still remember one of my favorite birthday gifts was from Jennifer Wilson. It was a clear box decorated with puffy paints that spelled out my name. It was also filled with colorful yarn to make friendship bracelets. It seems cheesy now but at the time I thought it was the greatest. I actually think I still have it! lol Go figure I am still obsessed with yarn today :)

Well, 24 years later my birthday celebrations have matured a little bit. Dinner with family and a shopping trip with mom, which is actually something I always look forward to. And on the topic of yarn, here is my newest completed project....

Excuse the ugly self portraits. It's harder than it looks...but you get the idea :) I am currently working on an adorable baby sweater but it's taking FOREVER. So hopefully I'll be done by my next post.

Craftiness

I decided to post some of the things I have been working on lately. There have been many more projects than these, but I managed to give them away before having the chance to take pictures of them. So here are a few things that I have recently completed and also still working on. And since I do not have a baby of my own to model my items, my lovely vase will have to work :) Enjoy!

Here are some clothes dividers I made my new baby niece Polly. Super easy and fun.

I am currently working on this baby beanie.

And my newest obsession are these adorable headbands. I also make them with a flower...see below.

I had to borrow Val's baby girl, Brooke, to model them :)

Starting Fresh

Lets give this one more try...I tried this whole blog thing about 2 years ago. I kept up with it for a couple months and then got too busy and totally forgot about it. I forgot about it so much that I have know clue how to even log into it now that I'm ready start back up! So I decided to create a new blog and hopefully it will last :)

Things have changed quite a bit since my last go at this. 2 years ago I had started students teaching and had just gotten married. I am now in my 2nd year of teaching 5th grade at Norwalk Christian Academy and just finished clearing my credential. Matt & I have also just celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Tuesday. We have also gotten a puppy who is now 1 year old.

I have also been quite crafty this past year. I have always loved to creating things and I first started scrapbooking and making cards. In addition to those things I am currently in love with knitting and crocheting. Yes, I know, isn't that something older woman do?? Matt continues to remind me that I look like his Grandma, sitting on the couch at night knitting away, but I have no shame! Some projects I have completed are these adorable baby beanies & headbands. I have two special babies in my life, my cousin Annalisa's new baby Polly, and my friend Val's new baby Brooke. They are both so adorable and look equally cute in the things I make them which makes it even more fun! I will make sure to post pictures of all my projects as I complete them :)

Well, that wasn't so hard. My goal is to update at least once a week. So here's to a successful new year of blogging!