Currently for August - Back to School Time!

So today was my first day back at work after a wonderfully perfect, relaxing summer at home with my family.  Thankfully, today was just a breakfast meeting with all of our school staff, and then our awesome new principal gave us the rest of the day to work in our rooms!  Gotta love that!

I'll post some before and after pics of my classroom when I get things finished, but for now - let me just tell you how much FUN it is to move your desks and chairs around to get your room set up!  At our school site (and most, I assume), they deep clean our rooms over the summer, and the maintenance crews basically just take everything and shove it into one corner of the room, stack all of the chairs into two ginormous chair towers, so they can thoroughly vacuum and shine up the floors.  I guess I should be happy my floors are sparkly, right?  It's just such a pain to move those desks around.  But I got it all done in an hour or so, and didn't stub any toes in the process.  Win!

Anyways, after a summertime sabbatical, I'm back to blogging  again!  I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her monthly "Currently" linky party!]

Here's what I'm CURRENTLY doing for August:

I'm LISTENING to Calvin Harris' new song, Thinking About You.  I love all types of music, but this one has been on repeat since I downloaded on iTunes the other day.  It just reminds me of my younger days and makes me wanna dance.  Good stuff!

I'm LOVING my new Essie nailpolish in Ballet Slippers.  I don't normally drop $8 on a bottle of nailpolish for myself, but I splurged at Target the other day and I'm so glad I did!  It's the perfect shade of a very light (almost white) pink.  So pretty!

I'm THINKING about how much fun I had this past weekend!  I left my hubby and kiddos for three days and went on an annual girls-only weekend to Palm Springs with some of my best friends!  We rented the most beautiful house with a pool and spent the weekend laughing, floating in the pool, sipping cocktails, going out to dinner, and dancing!  It was such a fabulous way to wrap up the end of my summer!  Can't wait until next year!





































I'm WANTING to snuggle up in my giant, cozy, California King-sized bed and watch some TV until I start to snooze... especially after sleeping in some not-so-cozy beds this weekend at the rental house.  There's just nothing like coming home and sleeping in your own bed!  Ahhh.... (snooooooore...)

I'm really NEEDING to pack lunches for my daughters to take to preschool tomorrow, but here I sit... listening to iTunes, blogging, and procrastinating.  Well, at least I'm blogging.  :)

My B2 Must-Haves:  

1.  TICONDEROGA PENCILS --- they are absolutely the BEST.  They sharpen beautifully and they last forever.  I especially like to get a few packs of the extra fat ones for my table group.  They are easy for the kids to write with, and they seriously last forever!  You only need to sharpen them once every few weeks!  I love that.

2.  EXPO markers in all colors of the rainbow!  I can't have enough of 'em!

3.   Back to School Activites and Printables!  I've been working on this little packet all summer and I'm pretty excited to share it with all of you!  It's got lots of great activities for 1-3 graders for the first few weeks of school.  Here's a little sneak peek! 

How to Create Larger Photos for TpT Products on Pinterest

I recently had another TpT seller ask me how I created my pins on Pinterest.  Like many people, she has just been pinning directly from her TpT store, creating very small photos that are too small to grab the attention of people who are scrolling through endless pins.  This was something I struggled with for a while too, but I recently discovered how to make larger photos and thought I'd share it with my fellow blog friends! 

To create larger, more eye-catching "Pin" photos for Pinterest, you need to follow these steps:

1. Use PowerPoint to create the layout of your pin, but first click on "Page Setup" and adjust the height to 22-27 inches (depending on how large you want your product). 
   
2. Then, your PowerPoint page should look like this:
   
3. Create your page layout as you would any other TpT product.  Here's an example of one of my recent creations. :)
   
   
4. Save the file as a jpeg.
    
5. Go to your Pinterest page and click on "Add Pin" 
   

6. 6.  Click on "From Computer"

7.  Once you choose your file (the jpeg you saved in Step 4), hover your mouse over your newly uploaded "Pin", and click on the little pencil (edit icon) on the upper right-hand corner of the photo.

8.  Go to your TpT product page and copy and paste the direct link to your product in the "Source" bar. 

And that's it!  It's a little complicated, but hopefully these photos will help!  It's definitely worth a little extra effort to make your Pinterest photos more noticeable!  Happy pinning!