Five for Friday {6.19.15}

Love linking up for Five for Friday with Kacey! It's been too long...

here's what life looks like lately...

I've been enjoying my time with this Little Miss. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw my post on how much different this summer is compared to my last summer. Example: This summer I wait in the parking lot for Target to open at 8am. Last summer, I was rolling out of bed at or after 10am.

I took part in a little #makeovermadness this week. I gave one of my very first products quite the facelift. Not just the cover but the whole inside as well. Love the kick in the behind this TpT Seller's Challenge is giving me!

You can grab it for only $2 through Sunday! Click here to grab it!

When it comes to jewelry I like to stick to the classics. Items I don't have to change out with every outfit. Like, I'm pretty sure my diamond studs have been in my ear lobes since my husband bought them for me 2 years ago!

So...I thought the jewelry subscription Rocksbox wouldn't really be for me, but I was totally wrong. After I built my wishlist, they sent me the three most perfect "wear everyday, all day" pieces. Case in point, I've yet to take off this Kendra Scott necklace:

I'm seriously am so torn between sending it back for my next set of jewelry and keeping it forever.

Want to try Rocksbox free? Its the Stitchfix of jewelry!

 You can get a free month on me, just use the code below:

HALLEBFF2

I'm super-busy on the TpT front. I'm working on bundling my Main Idea resources right now. Be on the lookout for the growing bundle...you'll be able to grab them all at a pretty fantastic price!

Check them out ahead of time here.

 Did you know I have a personal blog? I'm pretty awful at posting there right now, but maybe if I had a few followers, I'd get on top of that. Visit me at Sweet Baby H by clicking my blog button below:

That's about it!

Now go link up so I can read all about your week!

Have a great weekend, friends!
~Halle

Five for Friday//February 13, 2015

It's Friday! It's the day before Valentine's Day! I'm participating in 5 for Friday for the first time in a loooooong time! It's a good day!

This little lady is 5 months old today! I would like to reinforce every single cliche that is out there: time is flying, babies don't keep, I'm exhausted but it's worth it, being a mom is a really super-amazing blessing.

Ella is sitting up {when I put her in a sitting position...she's not that advanced ;)}, reaching for things {especially the cat's tail}, and putting every.single.thing in her mouth! Things she is not doing: napping for more than 40 minutes and being predictable. Sigh.

My beautiful, amazing, wonderful mom turned 60 this past weekend!

We surprised her with a trip to the Poconos for the weekend. We had such a fun time playing games, snow tubing, eating, and hanging out in the local bar. With a baby.

My mom is seriously one of the most amazing people I know. I found this quote by Jodi Picoult, who is a favorite author of both of ours, and it sums up how I feel about my mom, PERFECTLY. I am so lucky to have her.

I am hard at work on my March Sentence Scrambles and Main Idea unit. Creating a monthly resource can be a bit of a bear at times but I have heard so much positive feedback about how they're working in your classrooms...it keeps me motivated!

You can purchase the February editions by clicking the pictures below:

How big do you do Valentine's Day? My husband and I don't do too much {read: I prefer small gestures from time to time as opposed to big holiday hoopla}, but now that we have Ella, holidays mean something entirely different!

My dad always got my sister and I something for Valentine's Day. My mom did too but Valentine's Day was the only holiday when my Dad did something specifically from him only. Dave is going to start this tradition with Ella as well. I hope she'll look back on this Daddy/Daughter tradition as fondly as I do.

I started a tradition of getting her a book every holiday. I am in love with these two books that I am giving her for Valentine's Day.

Also pictured: The Biggest Kiss

"Hug Time" is literally the sweetest book I have ever come across. And the illustrations... I melt!

PS: I will be giving Dave one of these cards ;)

I am so excited to share that I am heading to Atlanta next weekend to participate in the EdMarket Expo. I get to walk around the expo with tons of other fabulous bloggers and play around with manipulatives, games, teacher supplies, etc. and choose my favorite items for your classroom . Then, I get to blog all about it so you can go grab my favorite fabulous items {or tell your principal to buy them for you}! I am really looking forward to it!!

Now it's your turn to go link up with Doodlebugs! Happy Friday!

Five for Friday: July 18, 2014

It's Friday! And thanks to DoodleBugs, that means I get to share 5 random things with you! So fun!

1} I am totally soaking up summer.  That used to mean margaritas and sushi dates, but since I'm sporting a serious baby bump these days, it now means reading in the hammock, walking the dog, and sleeping in.  It's been wonderful, but I would still kill for a margarita on the rocks with salt!

2} I've also been baking. A LOT. Is that a sign of nesting?  Because truth be told, my hubby doesn't have too much of a sweet tooth and I haven't had any special occasions to bake for, but I keep doing it anyways.  I made this delicious blueberry crostata.  In fact, I made two {see what I mean?}.  I used the recipe from this site.

Next on the list, homemade cinnamon rolls. You know, for the two of us :)

3} I'm on a creating frenzy. I spend about as much time at my computer as my rib cage will allow. Seriously, I love being pregnant and I consider myself to have had a pretty easy pregnancy for the last 20 weeks or so, but the pain in my rib cage is no joke!

I finished, and uploaded, Oodles and Noodles of Nouns!  This unit was a real labor of love!  You can read tons about it here!  If you're a fan on Facebook, you had a chance at winning this unit before I uploaded it.  Not a fan? Make sure you are! You never know when my next FB giveaway will be!

Oodles has spawned two "siblings" that are currently in the works...

4} In the "Baby World", we've painted the nursery, finally!  We also have our crib, mobile, rug, and random decorative elements.  Our overpriced glider should arrive sometime next month.  My mom is making the crib skirt and I am working on some bunting.  (Maybe I have a Monday Made-It in my future?!)

our mobile

our crib

Our nursery is Sherwin Williams "Lighter Mint". I tried to upload a picture, but the color keeps darkening once I save it to my computer.

Weird.

What I'm really struggling with is nursery art. I absolutely love a sign I found on Etsy, but I cannot justify spending over $150 on the specific piece I fell in love with. I think I'll have to keep searching!

5} This girl got her summer cut!  She was really furry before her cut, so she had to get a major buzz this time around. She looks like a completely different dog!

Not the best pictures, but you get the idea!

Those are "My 5"!!  Now go link up with Doodle Bugs and share yours!

~Halle

Five for Friday!!

It must be summer break b/c I am blogging!

And not only am I blogging, but I am actually posting my Five for Friday (first one in foreverrrr) on a Friday!

This is serious, people!

1. You may remember, from one of my sporadic school-year posts, that I am expecting our very first bundle of joy this coming September!  With the exception of a pretty difficult first trimester, this pregnancy has been wonderful and I am so loving being pregnant!  I'm almost 30 weeks and still sleeping through the night and only peeing 792 times a day, so I call that a win!

We've had a lot of fun documenting my growing bump...

Week 28 seems to have brought on "pregnancy face", or maybe it was just the humidity.  The caption for week 28's chalkboard says, "Wedding rings are barely on."  And well, they're almost never on, but I blame the summer heat more than pregnancy weight gain...at least that's what I hope it is!

2.  In related baby news, we've decided to take the plunge and try to cloth diaper our little one!  (No naysaying comments, please!).  

We are choosing to cloth diaper for a few reasons, the first being the financial aspect. I will be taking some unpaid time off of work, so pinching pennies where we can will be extremely helpful.

The second being environmental impact.  I don't know if it's this little one growing inside of me, but I have definitely become more environmentally conscious lately.  Not that I drove a hummer, drank only from plastic water bottles, and ran my air 24/7 before, but I have definitely stepped it up a bit.  We're not turning to vegetable oil to fuel our cars or giving up cable television anytime soon, but I like being able to do my part for this planet this way.

We'll see how it goes. If it's an epic fail I've read that newborn cloth diapers have excellent resale value.  And if it goes as well as we hope, well, my baby will have one cute little bum for the next few years of his/her life!

3. In non-baby news, I'm finally getting back on the TpT bandwagon.  It's been awhile!  Mostly due to my laptop crashing and needing the Geek Squad to get all my stuff off of it!  We had been backing up my computer on a pretty regular basis, but somehow missed some important documents (read: clip art) and we needed the help of the professionals! It was hard to create products knowing the perfect background was on my other computer, so gave it for awhile!

Here's what I'm working on at the moment:

I am thisclose to finishing my Non-Fiction Passages. I hope to have them posted by the end of the month.  These passages will complete my Reading Passages Bundle, so if the bundle is something you're interested in, grab the bundle now! The price goes up once I add these, so if you purchase before, you get the Non-Fiction Edition for FREE!

I'm also adding the finishing touches to this Noun Unit I started waaaay back in 2013.  Seriously!  It took so long mostly due to the aforementioned computer crash, but also because I used it along the way with my class.  So this Noun Pack is a real tried and true product!

 It has posters and printables for all different types of nouns:

But the best part of the pack is that it comes with tons of "noun cards" that your students can use many different ways. It makes the unit truly interactive, engaging, and fun!

Keep your eyes peeled for this one!

4. In semi-TpT related news, my favorite Owls are hosting a fun and useful linky called "Show Us How You Use It".  We're taking common household items and showing you how we use them in our classrooms, then giving you a chance to link-up with your own ingenious uses for things like popsicle sticks and aluminum cans.

Earlier this week, I showed one of the ways I use clothespins in my classroom: Clothespin Math!  It's so easy and such a great way to address different skills in your classroom!

Click the link down below to read all about Clothespin Math and grab a freebie to kick it off in your classroom!

And now for nothing related to anything else in this post, but equally as important:

5. We made these chicken fingers for dinner the other night and fell in love, so I thought I'd share.  Dave is a true miracle worker in that he can actually get oven-baked chicken fingers to come out really, really crispy.  So in our house, he is definitely in charge of all future oven-baked chicken finger recipes.

{Source}

PS: Yes, we did sprinkle green onion over the top!

PPS: I think you should totally follow me on Pinterest...especially if you like food, because I love food!!  Click here to follow me!

Oh, click the picture below to grab your clothespin math freebie!!

Thanks for stopping by and remembering I actually had a blog!  Hope you're all enjoying your summer! Go link up with DoodleBugs and share your five things from this week!