Friday Favorites: Fonts - Part 7

I LOVE fonts. I use all sorts of fonts to create things for my classroom and to create my printables. Back in November and December I shared 30 of my favorites. I now have more to share. I'll be sharing a new batch of 10 weekly, until I run out of faves. I keep a list, similar to this one, in a Word document so I can see what the font looks like with the name of the font so I can easily see which font I want to use for each project. (Not all of the fonts listed below are free, but most are.)

{skinny} jeans :: Artistamp Medium :: Cheri :: Chinacat :: Cinnamon Cake :: Curse Casual JVE :: Desyrel :: DJ Squirrelly :: Doodle Basic :: DS Goose

Coming Soon...

Next week is spring break for my school district. I'm in need of a break.

I have some ideas for next week, including working on projects for future posts.

I have a secret to share...I think April's challenge will be closets.

I think a visit to IKEA is in the works for next week. Target, IKEA, and the dollar store...and maybe Big Lots. Closet and kitchen organization. What do you think?

I need more of these Socker Plant Pots from IKEA. They're only $0.99 each and are great for holding pens, hair clips, markers, name sticks (at school), etc. LOVE them!

My coat closet is organized, but non-functional for my needs. Same goes for my clothes closet. Chris' clothes closet is just a mess. We are lacking a pantry and a linen/bathroom closet in this apartment - so all of the things that belong in those closets are elsewhere. I need to simplify our "material possessions".

What are your closet challenges?

Truth is...

...life is upside down right now. I don't want to go into details in the case of "jinxing" things.

Spring break is next week, which is good. I need a break from the stress that has overcome my life. I have a list of projects to complete for post content. =]

Other than that...I'm going to go read a book and relax tonight. I will post tomorrow night (for Thursday).

Thank you for understanding.

I hope you all have amazing weather like we're experiencing here in SLC! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Have 10 Minutes? Plan Ahead for Special Events

I forgot my camera at school on Friday, so I don't have any "real life" pictures to share for this post.

Ever forget to send a birthday card? I recently did. I thought about it each week for about a month prior to the big day. And then when the time came to send the card...I forgot.

I have some ideas to share about conquering the forgetfulness we sometime encounter.

Set Up E-Reminders for Birthdays

I added family and friends' birthdays to my Google Calendar and set up reminders to be emailed to me a week in advance.

Write Out Birthday Cards Ahead of Time

Okay, so this might be lame, but I'm saying it. Have cards ready to go at the beginning of each month. Get everyone to sign the card, write a note inside, and address/stamp the envelope ahead of time. I'm more likely to remember to do this on the first of each month and have them all ready to go than to remember to do it a week before, even with a reminder.

Write in Birthdays/Events in Your Planner ... Right Now

At the beginning of each year, I'm going to go through my planner and write in all of the birthdays and events right off the bat. But for now, I can at least fill in the rest of the year.

Add Reminder Pages to Your Home Management Binder

Keep track of everyone in your HMB with this free printable. This document will only be free until Wednesday night, so download it now! {EXPIRED!}

How do you remember birthdays and special events? If you have any tips or tricks, please share!

Review & Giveaway: Rubbermaid 2-in-1 Recycler

This month we tackled organizing paper clutter. How are things going? Has this month's challenged helped you? I'd love to hear about your progress from the challenge!

Have you heard? Rubbermaid has a new product out, just in time for Earth Day (and the March Challenge: Paper Clutter)! Recycling has always been a pain for me because it takes up so much room when you need to sort it all out. I've truly been searching online, for the last 3 years, for something affordable and compact, yet able to hold quite a bit of material.

The Rubbermaid 2-in-1 Recycler is awesome. It holds two separate compartments of materials - both easily detachable from the unit so you can empty them at the recycling bin outside your home. Both compartments also have carrying handles that swing up for easy transportation.

If you don't need as much space for recyclables, you can use the bottom section for garbage. This section holds an 8-gallon trash bag and will hold the bag in place with Rubbermaid's Liner Lock™ system, making this recycler a dual-purpose bin that fits easily in your kitchen without taking up twice the space!

Rubbermaid sent a 2-in-1 Recycler to me to try out for myself. I decided to use mine by my desk and use the bottom half for garbage. I seriously throw out so much paper, it's terrible. This is definitely motivation for me to start recycling. We don't have a recycling bin at our apartment complex, so I'm going to have to take my recyclables to school with me - which is just fine because my school makes money off of the amount of materials we're recycling!

The 2-in-1 Recycler honestly makes me feel better about this month's challenge since I've been getting rid of so much paper clutter. This review/giveaway couldn't have had better timing!

Prize: Rubbermaid 2-in-1 Recycler

Number of Winners: one

To Enter: You must use the Rafflecopter widget below. It's really easy to use and makes giveaways a lot easier for me to manage. The widget will tell you what your commenting topic is! (mandatory)

Giveaway Ends: Friday, March 30 @ 12:01 a.m. (Eastern Time). One winner will be chosen using the Rafflecopter widget. The winner will be announced on this post and will be emailed to claim their prize. The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email to claim their prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Rules & Disclosure:

• You must be a follower (through Twitter, FB, GFC, or RSS/email) of The Nest Effect to win.
• The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter.com.
• This giveaway is open to readers living in the U.S. and Canada.
• Please make sure your email is either linked in your profile or on your blog OR that you include it in your comment. If I can't find your email address, I can't contact you as the winner.
• You must comment as your first, mandatory entry. All entries will be verified when the winner is chosen.
• One entry per method per person (3 total).
• This giveaway is sponsored. The prize, information, and giveaway have been provided by Rubbermaid. I was sent a product for free to review and give my honest opinion on. Any opinions about products stated in this post are completely honest and purely my own.

March Challenge: "Must Keep Papers" - What To Do With Them?

Now you get to help me. See this stack of paper below? Student loan promissory notes (a.k.a. agreements). What am I supposed to do with these? I don't know where to store them, how long to store them, and/or if I can get rid of the ones I've consolidated with the government and are no longer open with the original grantor.

That's just so much unnecessary paper.

We have a fireproof safe that is small and doesn't fit a ton of stuff. I keep Social Security cards, birth certificates, marriage license, etc. in it - you know, the usual. I don't, however, have room for all of this junk inside. I could just throw it all in my filing cabinet. Any ideas for me?

Tomorrow I'll be posting a super cool giveaway for the March Challenge. I think you're going to love it! =]

Have 10 Minutes? Uninstall Junk From Your PC

This post is for PC users. (Sorry Apple lovers.) I am addicted to technology - more specifically, PCs. I'm not an Apple fan at all - not even for an iPod. I own a PC, a Microsoft Zune (MP3 player), a Motorola Droid Razr, a Kindle, and a Kindle Fire. No Apples allowed in this house (so glad my husband agrees). But this post is not to talk about my dislike for Apple. This post is for a quick 10 minute cleaning of your PC if you have one.

I bought my HP Pavilion dm4 laptop in October 2010. I absolutely love it. I was a Dell girl for a really long time - until the last one I had. Then I bought my HP printer, loved it, and decided to go for an HP laptop. I bought it at Staples on an awesome sale. No regrets.

One thing that is totally lame about getting a new computer is all of the extra junk they preinstall for you. Yeah, thanks for the 30-day free trial of AOL and other crap I don't need or want. If it were up to me, I'd get a new computer naked...nothing on it except the basics for the hardware drivers that I need (for sound, wireless, etc.).

Now since my computer is about 1.5 years old, most of my preinstalled crap is gone. But I'm secretly a software/lame game junkie. I like to try out all sorts of software, even though I rarely keep/use it. And I play some of the lamest games for adults to play (according to my husband, who is really one to talk...playing Batman now I as I type...haha). Anyways... Luckily, my computer is still running like a dream, but I know it's time to just take a sweep through (like I did under my bathroom sink the other day) and start uninstalling.

Start >> Control Panel >> Programs >> Uninstall -- I have 129 programs installed. Funny since I only use about 4 of them.

Now, if you're looking at your list of installed programs and you're completely clueless as to what something is, don't just uninstall it. It could be something important. Google the software name to see what it is. Chances are, if it has your computer brand (such as HP) in the name, it could be something important - but most of the time even that stuff is junk. Anything with Intel in the name is important, so don't uninstall it. Java is needed for the internet. Microsoft and/or Windows could be important - unless it's a free trial that you're not going to use or that is expired. (When your computer runs Windows Updates, most of what it installs is made by Microsoft and/or Windows.) When in doubt, leave it alone.

While some of my software is uninstalling, I'm running Disk Cleanup. This comes on PCs and safely cleans up junk. (Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools) I can free 120 MB by running this. If you've never run this program before, or it's been awhile, you'll free a lot more space! I run this a few times a month, so that's why my number is relatively low. If you're unsure about getting rid of any of these things, simply uncheck the box. )I always check all of the boxes.) If you click on each file name, you'll get a description below that tells you what the file includes.

When completed, check to see if your computer has any Windows Updates. (Start >> Programs >> Windows Update) I have one important update and one optional update. The optional update is for my laptop's touchpad software. Of course I'll update that as well.

Overall it took me 10 minutes to uninstall, use the Disk Cleaner, and run Windows Update. I uninstalled 5 programs, which were actually pretty hefty in size.

If you take the time to quickly do these things today - and then once a month - your computer will run a lot smoother. Good luck! =]

Clean & Organize: Under the Bathroom Sink

On Sunday I did a clean and organize overhaul under my bathroom sink. When I was a coupon queen I would stock up on everything, even if I didn't need it. Bad idea. Uh, hello! These things can EXPIRE...and many have. My bad.

Here are some before pictures.

Now, being a coupon queen, sometimes you like to request every sample you can find online as well. Even if you know you'll never use it. I guess it's the thrill (like subscribing to every magazine I can find for free)? It was time to clear out the travel size drawer. It's not like we ever travel anyways...and no one comes to visit that often that would need these things.

Now...part of this overhaul involved me taking everything out from under the sink and wiping down the walls, cabinet doors, and base - I just don't have pictures. So make sure you do that. It's amazing how nasty it can all get.

Ah, here's one of my coupon extreme purchases...or, uh, freebie scores (??)...toothpaste and toothbrushes. I won't even clip the toothpaste coupons right now because we have way too much. We have so much "oral care" that it deserved it's own storage bucket.

The mani-pedi bucket. What a joke...for me at least. I don't have nails - I have the nasty habit of biting them. It's so bad, and it has been my whole life. I guess this bucket is so I can pretend I have nails that I take care of? Who knows. I do, however, get pedicures in the summer. BUT...I go and have them done. I don't do it myself. So really, what am I doing with all of this stuff? Sadly enough...it went right back in the cabinet. Although...nail polish is great for marking keys and the lids of contact cases (to tell left from right). So maybe that's why I have it? =]

In all seriousness though, I did throw out a ton of stuff that was just gross, so I'd say this overhaul was a success. I feel better about it all.

And here are some pictures of my storage bins, all nicely organized by product.

This bin, which looks messy but is actually organized, has cosmetic bags in it. The bags hold contacts, razors, hair accessories, and travel sized containers (toothbrush holder, empty squeeze bottles, etc.).

The rest of this post is all on a side note to bathroom organization.

I received this lovely toilet paper roll holder in the mail for free via Facebook and Cottonelle (I think?). Well, I don't need something to store my toilet paper in since we have an over the toilet cabinet to do that for us, so I use it to hold tampons. Genius, eh? (It's seriously perfect!)

I keep a pair of kid scissors hanging on the inside door of the under sink cabinet door for whatever. Best idea ever. But then I decided on Sunday to hang my hand mirror on the door, too. At first, it was a bad idea. It was clanging against the door with every open and shut. So then my brilliant mind thought of something...

appliance felt pads! So I've had this mirror since I turned 16...almost 9 years ago. If it ain't broke, don't fix replace it, right? Yeah, so I'm keeping it and I don't really care if these lovely felt pads are on the back. The whole point of moving it to the door is so it doesn't get all dusty on the counter, where it used to live. Now it no longer clangs on the door. So if you don't mind the awkward look, try it out. =]

You'll have to forgive me for the randomness within this post. It's been such a long day as I'm writing this (Monday night)...and all I care about at this moment is showing you my lovely ideas and then hitting the hay. =]

Have an amazing Tuesday!

Have 5 Minutes? Deep Clean Your Sink Faucet

It is truly amazing, the difference that you can make by thoroughly cleaning a sink faucet. Water can easily collect under the faucet handles/knobs and if the water is at all "dirty" then it can make the faucet look gross. Faucets can easily be wiped down each day to keep up appearances, but if you take the faucet knob off and clean underneath, you can make a world of difference.

I use an old toothbrush to clean around the edges of the faucet first with some Shaklee All-Purpose Cleaner. This gets all of the nasty grime and any hair that collects around the faucet.

Next, I take off the knobs with a screwdriver and clean around underneath and inside the knob. It seriously makes the knob all sparkly and clean, making my faucet look like it's maybe 5 years old instead of 15.

Now, with that said...you should see this bathroom sink/counter combo from the 80's...or 70's...who knows. It's so lovely. A marbley looking tan color with GOLD glitter sprinkled here and there. #1 I can't stand glitter. #2 it's probably the thing that bugs me most about my apartment because it's just so hideous. And do you see the lovely caulk job along the backside of the counter...it's SO bad. Haha. I might peel it off this summer and redo it myself. It's just so terrible.

And finally, for the grand finale...rub the faucet with wax paper to keep it shiny a little bit longer than usual. It will resist water spots!

The bathroom is my least favorite place to clean, what about you? Do you have any tips to share for making bathroom cleaning less of a chore?

March Challenge: Filing Cabinet Clean Out

First off, my apologies for this being a day late. I forgot my labeler at school yesterday, which I needed for this post, and I've been super sick all week. It's going around in my classroom. My students have been wonderful and taking care of one another (and me) and making sure to sanitize their hands after every nose blow, cough, and sneeze. I hope to be better soon. I'm missing out on the beautiful weather here in SLC. =[

Anyhoo...

One of the best places to accumulate paper clutter - out of sight - is a filing cabinet. Out of sight, out of mind. And yet if we categorize it, we justify it, right? Ha! Just because it's categorized, doesn't mean it's organized.

I am guilty of doing a once a year clean out of my filing cabinet, and that's it. I honestly don't accumulate a lot throughout the year, and only purge right after I do my taxes and need to add a new tax folder.

This only took me 5 minutes to do, but I know for some of you, it may take you an hour or more. If having a filing cabinet is worth it for you and your family, then take the time to organize it in a way that you'll want to keep up with it. I can't even imagine having a filing cabinet FULL of paper that has accumulated over years. Get rid of it already.

Here's the before picture.

I went through each folder and removed old papers we no longer need. I added new folders for taxes, jobs, and a few other categories.

The categories I use are: health, memberships, personal files (for records, voter registration, etc.), banking, job, taxes, apartment, Jazz (our dog), major purchases (things with warranties and such), utilities, and vehicles.

Here's the after picture (with few differences).

Not sure why I was keeping my old driver license. Most of this paper pile is old (paid off) bills from my gallbladder removal surgery - which was a financial treat, let me tell ya! Everything is now destroyed via paper shredder.

You challenge today is to clean out of your filing cabinet, if you have one. If you don't have one, I'd love to hear how you file/organize your paper!

Motivation & Rewards in My Classroom

I've created my own reward systems in my classroom to motivate my students. They're still loving it, so I suppose I'll keep them in place this year. I am so not a prize person. I didn't use them for my student teaching last year, but when I walked into my classroom at the end of November and my kids had been tossed around between teachers for so long, I felt bad for them. They had a reward system with tickets in place from one of their previous teachers. I wasn't a big fan of how it worked, so I revamped it.

I created rewards cards for free via VistaPrint during a special they had a few months ago. Before I purchased a star hole punch, I used small stickers to mark their progress on each square (along with the date written next to it with my special pens so they couldn't just add stickers to it).

The homework card requires them to bring in their homework on Friday 100% done. After 5 times of complete homework, they get a prize. (Next year this is SO changing to 10 times. In the beginning I was getting maybe 11 out of 22 homework packets turned in complete...hence why I started this reward).

The responsibility card goes along with the behavior clip chart. When they move up to one of the top two colors, they get a punch in this card. This is rare now...they've been on one lately, so I'm trying very hard to catch the amazing behavior and have them move their clip up accordingly. They need 10 punches for this one...which I've recently realized should have been 5.

Club Cranium, as mentioned in Monday's post, is a fun challenge students can complete once daily when they finish their morning work. If their answer is correct, they get a punch. I just had two students fill their cards and I had a free banner made via VistaPrint that I'm going to hang up with their stars. The two students with the most stickers on their stars at the end of the year win a special prize (to be determined by me).

The spelling card is for 100% scores on spelling tests. This is a HUGE motivator - especially for my students who struggle with spelling. The things they'll do for a rubber duck.

And the model student card is new. So new that I haven't even given one out yet. I'm going to start next week with these. It's going to be my way of letting students know when they're doing something extraordinary - such as helping others without me asking, being super polite, doing things for adults without being asked, getting started on work right away when everyone else is hanging from the ceiling, etc.

The following rewards I made and printed myself using Word.

The clean desk award is given by the clean desk fairy. As far as my students know, she's my sister, hence the same handwriting. Ha! The back has a spot for me to write the student's name, the date, and what the clean desk fairy especially loved about their desk. I leave them a treat (usually a piece of candy...I know, I'm terrible) and some heart confetti I punched out of scrapbook paper. They live for the clean desk fairy. She comes once a week on a random day to a random desk. If she hasn't come by Friday, they know that she stopped at someone's desk and it was a mess...so nothing was left. So sad.

The reading reward is for the monthly reading logs students fill out at home. Complete and returned logs get them a prize.

The subtraction expert and addition expert rewards are for students who complete the whole set of addition or subtraction math fact tests. They receive an addition or subtraction pencil with their reward.

download these rewards for free here

I also made this motivator myself.

Some of my students were really slacking when it came to doing their job. It was really unfair to others who work so hard during the week, so I created a report card. They need 3 smiley faces for the week in order to get a treat. The treat, again is candy. My bad. But hey, they don't have jobs every week. And I give a Starburst...not a huge deal, right? =]

If you are a fellow teacher, I'd love to hear what motivators/rewards you use in your classroom.

March Challenge: Making Paper Digital

Want to make paper clutter digital instead? There are so many advantages to doing this, as long as you don't need the physical paper copy. I have an example below in this post. I used to keep teaching and home decor magazines for the articles and pictures. I bought a HP wireless all-in-one printer back in August 2010 and absolutely love it. It has a document feeder on top, which I use all of the time, and is so useful. I have used my scanner to digitize all of my school handouts, magazine articles, recipes, mementos, etc. For me, keeping paper digitally on a backed up external hard drive works best. I like that I can take the files anywhere with me (especially the school files). Here's how I scan my files (of course, the process will be different with other scanners).

These pages are from Scholastic's Instructor magazines - one of my faves. I scan almost all of their articles from each issue. SO useful!

The papers get placed on the top feed tray (or can be placed on the inside glass to be scanned, on at a time.

On my computer I have the HP Solution Center software, which helps me scan pictures and documents into my computer. Documents scan in and save as PDFs, which is awesome because they can be opened on any computer. I select "Scan Document" from the menu.

On the scanning options window I select "Document to File" so it saves as a PDF and not a JPEG (which is for pictures). Then click "Scan".

The document will now begin to feed through the reader and start to show a preview as it's scanning.

Once the scanning is through, I can view all of my pages using the pictures in the bottom right corner. The large picture preview shows me the current page selected. Once the scanning is done, I can add more or delete pages, crop, change the quality, rotate, and rearrange page order.

When I am satisfied with the way my scanned images look, I click "Finish", which saves the files in a folder called "My Scans". I can then rename it to the article name. I love that it saves the files in the same place every time, that way I never lose files.

I then move the scanned file into my school folder. I have a folder in My Documents called "School" where I save all of my education files. Everything is categorized by subject, and each subject is categorized within that folder by concept. For example, the math folder contains addition & subtraction, fractions, graphing, multiplication & division, etc. Anything that is super grade specific, I'll include the grade at the beginning of the file name (for example, 3rd - Layered Curriculum - Ecosystems). I have had no problem finding files with my system. And if I do ever forget where I put something, I just go back to the mail "School" folder and use the search box to look for it.

I back everything up twice a month via an external hard drive that I keep in our safe. If anything were to happen to my computer, I wouldn't want to lose anything. I use Dropbox to sync my school files so I can access them at all times at school. I literally have thousands of files saved in this folder. Everything from worksheets to Teachers Pay Teachers units I've purchased to eBooks I buy on dollar sales at Scholastic Teacher Express.

So what do you think? Are you willing to give it a shot? Any scanner will do.