It Takes a Village...

Over the past week I have gotten more settled in Phoenix and also started to get some bigger projects done.  There is no way I could have done these projects without advice and help. 

The first project in this picture was pretty easy and only took a few minutes. I bought empty paint cans at Ace for maybe a dollar and then covered them with duct tape. It was much cheaper than buying pre-decorated containers at a store. This is a project I did on my own but if I was going to make a lot of them I would probably have asked for help to cut back on time. I like them because they're not the normal container that other teachers will have and if they get ruined I won't be upset at money wasted.
The milk crate seat project was the Pinterest project I was most excited to try. It started in May when I asked my boyfriend to try and make it and he found out after going to a number of stores that these colorful crates come out with school/dorm supplies at Target. Two weeks ago I bought a crate and the plywood at Home Depot. The man was very helpful and made sure the wood fit right into the crate and left room for the fabric. Then this week my great aunt who was a home ec  teacher for 27 years and my mom helped me to make the seat parts. The first one took about 15-20 mins but by the last one it only took a few minutes. I love how colorful they are and that they will be something different for my students and also give me extra storage space. They cost more than I would have thought but it was mostly because I didn't already have a heavy duty stapler. 

Adding a ribbon handle made it easier to get the seat on and off. I also used the same color on all three to tie them altogether and it was the only ribbon I had.

The next project I finished were these cork board crayons. My boyfriend got a sheet of thin cork board and then cut out crayon shaped pieces. The edges of the cork start to fall off so he put a border of electrical tape so they would hold their shape. I had left over fabric from my seats so I used that to start covering the cork. My great aunt made a pattern and helped me cut out the fabric and then we just folded the edges over used tacky glue. Crayons are my theme so these will be a cute decoration but they also will be great to put in areas where it would be hard to hang things. I was thinking about putting them near my turn-in tray and putting no name papers on them. I have 3 of each size so I also was going to use them to hang pictures on of school events. 

I could have done these projects on my own, I'm more than capable of doing them. But they might not have turned out as well and it would have taken much more time. As a new teacher I think we want to prove we can do this and don't need any help to setup and run our classes. Even going to Home Depot I wanted to be able to act like I knew all about lumber but I had to admit I needed help to figure out what would work best. I think teachers both new and old need to always be willing to ask for help and let someone else teach you how to do something. I can't say that I will always be this willing to ask, but I hope that I am able to be more open to getting advice from other people.