Thirty-One Gifts & Bling!

Earlier this month, What the Teacher Wants! held a Very Thirty-One Give Away. Oh how I hoped I would win as did lots of other teachers! Now Clutter-Free Classroom is having a Linky Party - What is in your teacher's Bag?



What perfect timing! As I just discovered the importance of having a "teacher's bag." Problem: I do not own any bags. Nope.... not a single one. I have one purse and a laptop back. They are both black. They were expensive (coach) and a gift from hubby. I do not believe in matching my purse to my outfit - it would take too long to switch things from one bag to another plus I am not sure I really want to know what my hubby or sons stuck in my pursue for safe keeping then forgot about. It is truly better for me NOT to know!


So... after reading this post and gleaming I am going to need a bag, I went on a search for the top-rated, holds up the best teachers bag recommendations in blog land. I strongly believe in buying it once and not replacing it for at least 10 years (my purse is 3 years old and my laptop bag is 6! You can never tell by looking at them.). The same rules apply to the teacher's bag. I was surprised when the cuteness of thirty-one became the quality of thirty-one as well. So many teachers recommend it!

So off I went with my list of bags wanted... er... needed to hubby. He is the budgeting guru around here. I make a list and added it to his "bill pile" (giggles!) and then wait for the money to magically arrive in my bank account (it is actually ours... I have access to both just one is our spending (me) and one is our bills/savings (hubby) accounts). There is also a want stack but I like the bill pile better... It gets things faster. (shhh! don't tell hubby!). This month when hubby was budgeting everything out, he comes in with my list and asks "are you sure this is all the money you want to spend on this? It doesn't seem like very much." Did I mention how much I love and adore my husband?

So guess what I got ??
This Organizing Utility Tote:

To play along with the linky party - my bag is now holding my textbooks, my current professional reading book, my current children's literature book, all the stuff that used to be in the smurf box (mama's blue box of pens, markers, and such that is off limits to boys!), a binder of practicum info, and my professional notebook for my practicum. Notice how my binder and notebook match my bag. I love that!

I love the colors and the size is perfect. What do I wish was different - pockets on the inside, a way to zip it close and to latch the pockets so things don't fall out. I have a feeling I am going to be searching for something that was in a pocket but is now lost somewhere in the truck under a seat somewhere. Even if there was just one pocket that zipped closed to hold little stuff  would make this already great bag perfect!

During the month of February if you spend $31 your get a 31% off on a second item so I ordered this Thermal Tote for my lunch:

I am actually quite surprised by how big this lunch tote is. It has room for Tupperware containers and all kinds of goodies. Clutter-free Classroom also has a link for 15% off. What a deal!

In other news... I went shopping last night to pick up a few items I needed to complete a few projects for class and I found the most amazing bulletin board letters ever! As hubby would say there was this light shining down from heaven and angels started singing and this man held a gun to me and say I just had to buy it and... and... and... oh wait! That is the video game story!! Anywho... hubby did not understand my squeal of girly joy upon finding this:

Ubber-cute bulletin board letters! I am going to use these for my focus board. I am so excited! I just need some red fabric and I got the cutest boarder to go with it. Not sure what I am going to do for the labels yet but it is starting to come together! YIPPEE! One board down... how many more to go?