Olaf the other reindeer

Well internet world, do you want to know what I love most about being in a classroom with 2 doors?!?! Decorating both of those doors for Christmas of course. The first door (and the one that is most frequently used), was decorated with a chain link Christmas tree. That left me to ponder what to do with the other door...

I will admit, I was not feeling the energy to spend hours prepping my door last year like I did for this door (which has become some what of a Pinterest sensation with well over 1500 pins the last time I checked). After perusing Pinterest and not finding much, I was feeling a little punny. I realized that reusing Olaf was going to be my best bet to save on time. And so, another reindeer for Santa was born!

In case you can't read it, the pun on my door reads, "Olaf the other reindeer."

Making this little guy was quite simple. I had saved Olaf from last year, so all I needed to do was create antlers and a new nose with a red pompom glued to it, cut out some new snowflakes and snowballs using our die-cut machine and put it all together. 

Not surprisingly, my students did not quite get the pun, but my co-workers and I got it and the students were just happy that Olaf came back. 

Even though this was not necessarily Pinspired, I would say this classroom door decor was definitely a pinspired treat. 

Oh Christmas Tree

It's that time of year again. The presents are wrapped, the stockings are hung, and the festive holiday door has been created. A new classroom this year meant the need for a new holiday door idea. This idea came courtesy of Debbie's Resource Cupboard.  The best part about this door? It was SUPER easy. I mean, honestly, the most difficult/time consuming part was cutting all the paper strips.

Step 1: Cutting a bazillion green paper strips to make paper chains. Okay... maybe not a bazillion, but rather 162 to be more precise. The strips were 1 inch wide by 12 inches long.

Step 2: Create 9 paper chains that are each 18 links long. **Disclaimer** The adorable yorkie is not required, but who doesn't need a helper?

Step 3: Attach the paper chains to the door, staggering their heights slightly at the top. I used stikki-clips to attach each chain to the door, which work well since the chains are not very heavy. 

Step 4: Attach the red bow to the top of the tree. Most bows come with a twisty-tie attached to them. Use this to attach the bow to the top of your tree.

Step 5: Use brown paper to create a brown rectangle as the tree trunk.

Step 6: Put presents under the tree. I used several different colors of construction paper and our die-cut machine to create these presents.

Check out the finished product!

This Pinspired door decoration was definitely a treat!

Merry Christmas from room 137!

Classroom Door Decor - same Olaf, different holiday

My original Olaf door received quite the buzz once everyone at school saw it. He was cute, festive, friendly, and definitely started a few earworms or too. After taking FAR too long to remove him from the door (honestly, he didn't come down until the first week of February), many of the students were devastated to see him go. What they didn't realize was that Olaf has not gone forever. He returned the next morning as this...

Happy Valentine's Day from room 124. 

Creating this little guy was quite simple. Since Olaf was already created (steps and directions are available through the link above), all I needed to do was create heart garland using a paper punch and some yarn, colorful heart decorations using our die-cut machine, and a new saying. This project was a quick one, and although it was not technically a pinspired project this time (I came up with the Valentine's themed option on my own), it was definitely a PINSPIRED TREAT.

***Note: It is almost Christmas and I have a new plan for Olaf this year. My students just realized today that Olaf was not in fact lost in our classroom's move over the summer when they saw him in the cupboard with our holiday decorations. Stay tuned for Olaf's latest appearance...

Arm Knitting... or knot

A MUCH over due blog post here (this project was completed nearly a year ago).

After a few crafting successes, I decided to try my luck at arm knitting a scarf. I mean, it is a pretty popular trend and I would say that in terms of crafting ability I have above average skills, so why knot... I mean not. Well, one giant KNOT is why. The following pictures demonstrate the struggle that was the arm-knitted scarf.

I did my homework on this project before I began. I watched a view YouTube videos, checked out a variety of pins to get the most detailed information. I felt like I was setting myself up for real success on this one. While attempting to complete this forsaken project, I had to watch, pause, rewatch and pause that darn YouTube tutorial at least 50 times. I tried, I really did. This just didn't work out well.

** These directions are not nearly detailed enough to allow you to do this, mainly because my struggle of an attempt through this project is NOT the example you should follow if you want to attempt the Everest that is arm-knitted scarves.

Step 1: Unravel the skein of yarn. This step was okay. 

Step 2: Tie a slip-knot. After a few tries, I had this one down too. 

Step 3: Knit the first set of stitches onto one arm. It took a few tries, but I got there. 

Step 4: Transfer the scarf to your other arm. Again, took a few tries, but I got there. 

Step 5: Continue knitting back and forth from one arm to the other. 

Step 6: Recognize that the scarf you have above looks like poo (at least on the bottom with the super loose stitches) and start over.

*** This photo was taken after I had restarted 4 times. At that point, I stopped taking photo documentation of this hot mess. 

Even after my many attempts to make this work, I would say the arm-knitted scarf was DEFINITELY a pinspired trick.

Chicken Tetrazzini and Easy Parmesan Garlic Knots - YUM!

Yes, I know it has been a while since I blogged but, no worries, I have a few things on the "to blog about" list. First up, a delicious pinspired meal - Chicken Tetrazzini (recipe courtesy of shugarysweets.com) and Easy Parmesan Garlic Knots (recipe courtesy of realmomkitchen.com).

I made this meal over a month ago while I was in the middle of enjoying winter break. The only change I made to the Chicken Tetrazzini recipe was that I did not measure the amount of cheese that I put on top of the dish because, after all, this is Wisconsin and there is no such thing as too much cheese. :)

Here are photos of most of the steps to make this delicious dish, which is great to serve a decent sized family or enjoy as leftovers if there are only a few of you.

Cooking the chicken

Mixing the pasta into the cream and chicken mixture.

Covered in cheese and ready for the oven.

Fresh out of the oven with bubbly, golden-brown cheese.

Want to make it for yourself? Here is the recipe!

Chicken Tetrazzini

Prep Time: 15 minutes   Cook Time: 1 hour

Yield: 8-10

Ingredients

• 16 oz thin spaghetti, cooked (or any of your favorite noodles)
• ½ cup butter (plus more for buttering pan)
• 4 chicken breasts, cooked, diced
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 cup sour cream
• ½ cup dry white wine 
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
• 2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. Combine 1/2 cup butter, cooked chicken, soup, sour cream, salt, pepper and white wine. Add cooked noodles. Pour into a buttered 13x9. Sprinkle both cheeses on top. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 45 minutes, covered with foil. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
2. May be made in advance and refrigerated (before cooking). However, add time if that is the case to heat thoroughly! Enjoy!

As for the Easy Parmesan Garlic Knots, they were good, but I think the next time I think the next time I make them, I will use melted butter instead of the vegetable oil in the garlic parmesan mixture. 

First knot tied - much easier than I expected!

All the knots are tied, looking pretty good.

Garlic parmesan mixture, the only part of the recipe I would change would be to swap melted butter for the oil.

Fresh out of the oven. Slightly over-done, but that was an oven issue, noting to do with the recipe or baking time.

Here is the recipe as found online. I will be substituting melted butter for oil the next time I make these.

Easy Parmesan Knots

Ingredients

• 1 tube (12 ounces) refrigerated biscuits 
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I did use the green can stuff)
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

Instructions

1. Roll each biscuit into a 12-in. rope and tie into a knot; tuck ends under. Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; brush the warm knots with the mixture. Yield:10 knots.

Alas, the final photo of our dinner (including a salad that my friend made). It was delicious and I will make these recipes again. Aside from the 1 change with the rolls, these recipes were great and should both be considered "pinspired treats."

Classroom door decor - Do you want to build a snowman?

It is almost Christmas and a few days ago the teacher next to me decided to decorate her door with inspiration from the movie Elf. After seeing all the buzz her door was getting, the snowflake I had hanging in the window of my door just looked sad. 

* Please excuse the photo quality. This is what happens when you come in on a Saturday when only the emergency lights are on to decorate your door. 

So what did I do? I took to Pinterest to get Pinspired of course!

Here is the original Pinspiration for my door decor. Thanks to Mrs. S in room 210 for the decorating idea. Once I was Pinspired, then I needed to figure out how to make it my own (and how to make it).

Now for the plan. How would I execute it? How in the world would I make my snowflakes look as cute as these (because let's face it, paper snowflakes usually just turn out awkward looking)? How would I make this my own? 

Step number 1 - Make some snowflakes. How? Thanks to Google I found a tutorial to make these awesome snowflakes. 

Step number 2 - Get all the pieces ready (including Olaf, snowball cut outs that my awesome aide helped me prepare, and the snowflakes.)

** Yes, I cheated and traced Olaf. If I had tried to free hand him, it would have been a disaster.

Step number 3 - Cut out all the pieces and make sure they match and look decent. 

Step number 4 - Glue Olaf's eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and buttons to his body. 

Step number 5 - Cover the door in roll paper for the background (after of course, cutting it to the correct size - which I did not take a picture of, but took a little more time than planned).

Step number 6 - Time to have a snowball fight... or cover the bottom of the door in snowballs. 

Step number 7 - It's OLAF time!!!!!! 

Step number 8 - His nose looked a little too small, so I made a new one that worked with the size of his face better. Here is a more proportional Olaf. 

Step number 9 - Add the snowflakes. My snowflakes are a combination of handmade and die-cuts in 3 shades of blue and white. I like the variety and they add a nice pop to the door. 

Step number 10 - Olaf was still missing something - his HAIR! Brown pipe cleaners to the rescue and Olaf has his signature do on the top of his head. 

Step number 11 (final step) - What words could I add to the door? Some that are certain to start an earworm, of course! 

*** Yes, I know the "d" should be capitalized, but our die-cut machine is either all caps in one font or all lowercase in this font. The combination doesn't look good and the all caps is not as cute of a font. 

Thanks to my aides for helping me prep the snowballs and snowflakes on Friday, one of my fellow special ed teachers for helping me put it all together, and of course Pinterest and Google for helping with the idea and snowflake demo. Four hours on a Saturday afternoon later and I can't wait to see what my students and coworkers have to say when they see it on Monday!

This Pinspired idea definitely turned out to be a treat!

Why the blog?

Let's face it. Pinterest is one of the best things that has happened for lesson planning, DIYing, and recipe trying in the technology age. As a teacher, theoretical crafter (my ideas are usually bigger than my talent), and a semi-skilled person in the kitchen, I do not know what I would do WITHOUT Pinterest. But, let's face it. When we try to get Pinspired, sometimes our plans are better than our final product. This blog will show most of Pinspired ideas. My hope is that most will be treats (or things that actually turn out), but I am sure that there will still be some tricks (also known as Pinterest fails).