Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas! My day was filled with many laughs, great food and even greater people. Have a safe and happy night!

Erin Condren Lesson Planner

I cannot believe it, but I am now an official college graduate! YAY! As part of my graduation gift from my parents I received something I have long had my eyes on.

 Yes it is the Erin Condren Lesson Planner! While student teaching I saw one of these wonderful planners and I fell completely in love with it! Then I went to Erin Condren's Website and fell in love with literally everything on the site. Today I am going to show what the Erin Condren Lesson Planner is all about and even give a link so you can get $10 off your Erin Condren purchases!

As you can see from the first picture the cover is amazing, you can personalize your planner and there are so many cute covers to choose from. One of my favorite things about the planner is the tabs on the side. You can so easily find what page you are looking for.

 The planner had so many amazing features, but I thought this would really come in handy. It is the absentee log where you can keep track of  the kiddos that miss school.

 There is a year at a glance page to keep track of those important dates.

 Then there is the weekly lesson plans. I personally love that it doesn't say the date on the page, you can make it to fit your schedule. I really like it because I don't have a classroom right now and I want to save this great planner until I have my own classroom. If it had the dates it would be off. This makes this planner an awesome gift because you can give it to that special teacher in you life anytime and they can decide when they want to start using it.

 Isn't the little owl just adorable!

A closer look at the weekly lesson planner.

Here is an example of why I think Erin Condren's  stuff is so special. This planner is full of inspirational quotes in cute fonts, which are in bright colors. Every time I look at the planner it makes me happy. I love cute organizational stuff!

This is a month at a glance page.

 Here are the stickers in the back of the planner you can put on the month at a glance pages to help remember important dates. There are even some blank ones!

 Here is the folder that is in the back of the planner to catch all those loose papers.

 I wanted to show you how sturdy this thing is. I am rough on my planners, I take it everywhere. With this planner I don't have to worry about the spiral bending or pulling out because there is a hefty one on this planner. The cover is also laminated with some think lamination, you wont be accidentally tearing this baby.

 There are even more amazing features to this planner, that you can see at https://www.erincondren.com/.You should really take a look at Erin Condren's  products. There is something for everyone, not just for teachers. I actually just ordered one of the Take Note! Notebooks to use on a daily basis and I literally want one of almost everything on this site! Haha For an organization freak like myself, this site is heaven!  So I know you have all been waiting for it, click here to get $10 off your next purchase. (to get the $10 off you purchase you will just have to create an account on the site)

The First Page of my Quietbook

A couple months ago I decided that I wanted to make a quiet book. I had seen so many cute and educational ideas and got really excited to make my own, but with student teaching I really hadn't found any time to work on it. I am now done with student teaching and am waiting for graduation (this weekend) and have some spare time.

I found some really cute and FREE patterns online. My favorite place to look for patterns is a blog called Imagine Our Life. Stephanie has the cutest, and most practical quiet book pages I have ever seen, you should go check her blog out!

So I went ahead and printed off some of the patterns I liked and cut them out. Then I went ahead and glued the pieces on some (what my grandma calls) oak tag or some small sheets of poster board. Before I bought the poster board I had some of those cream colored file folder laying around so I glued some of the patterns on that.

After I glued the pieces on I cut them out again so that they had the poster board glued to the back. I do this because I am hard on things and with the stiff paper on the back the pattern pieces will go through more tracing and handling. I know this seems like a long process, but it will pay off. Especially if you plan on using the pattern more than once. I keep each patterns little pieces in a little zip lock baggie and put the baggie in a page protector in my "Quiet Book Binder" with a picture and the website I got the pattern from.

So after I finally got all my paper pieces cut out, glued down and cut out again I was ready to actually start making some pages. Yay!

Now I needed to decide what page to do first. I ended up doing the snowman page I found on Imagine Our Life. This is what the page will look like.

http://www.imagineourlife.com/2012/11/14/snowman-quiet-book-page/
You can find the directions and supplies at the link above.

Cute, right! On the backside of the head there is a girl snowman face and the snowy hill at the bottom has pockets for the pieces! I love it and it totally goes along with the weather here in Iowa. I have yet to find the cute little snowflakes Stephanie has on he page. I checked Joann's Fabric, but no luck. Here is what I have done so far.

I have all the pieces cut out now and about half blanket stitched. I love how it is turning out and can't wait to post the finished project. :)

I would love to hear about your quiet book pages and where you get you patterns so make sure you comment below!

UPDATE!!!!

Here is my finished snowman page, I love it. 

My First Post!

Welcome to Crayons and Cowboy Boots! I am so excited to be posting my very first post on my own blog! It has taken me a while to get everything set up, but I finally have things how I like them (for now). This whole blog thing is definitely going to take awhile for me to figure out, so wish me luck! Thanks for visiting my blog and I will be posting about my new project tomorrow (hopefully) and you won't want to miss it! For now I am going to relax with a cup of hot chocolate and support my Pinterest addiction!