Five for Friday: July 3

Lots of outdoor fun this week!  I'm linking up with Kacey for another Five for Friday.

 My friend and I met up with a local running group to do a 5K on Sunday.  It wasn't too organized, which is good for 7 am on a Sunday morning during the summer.  We just kind of ran around the nature trails.

Hopefully we'll be able to meet up more often this summer for some running fun.  See that blue water drop at the top.  It's a water park.  Wouldn't it be awesome to run a 5K that ends with sliding down the water slide and plunging into the cool, clear pool?  Yes, awesome!

Tuesday we worked at our property in the woods.  We finally blazed a trail all the way around the lake to link the two sides.  It was hard work, but so worth it!

We headed back to the property today.  Three adorable armadillos walked up on us at one point.

This guy was not concerned with us at all.  It was lunchtime and he was hungry!  He even nudged my boot!

  {Click to play video}

I'll have to share some game cam pictures of the deer and turkeys soon.  Turkey chicks are also adorable!

Jumping back a bit, I am loving the MapMyHike app.  I downloaded it a few months ago for our first forays into the woods.  I like keeping track of how far we hike, and it is nice to find our way out.  Now that I started running, I use it a lot more.  It can be set to track miles and kilometers and it tracks routes.  Most of the time I run a little further than a mile, find a natural turnaround and come home.  But it is fantastic in the woods and when we run in new and different places.  Plus it is free.  Gotta love free.

Spurred by the #TpTsellersChallenge, I revamped a few more products.  All my Working with Short Vowel units have fresh, new covers and fonts.

Love. That. Fox.

I'm currently "Making my Masterpiece".  It is a big old set of activities for reading and spelling initial consonant blends.  Wahoo!

{In my photos, fonts are Jen Jones's Hello Fonts and the arrows are from Krista Wallden.}

TpT Seller Challenge: Week 2 Dare to Dream

Running a little later this week due to Super Fun Family events spilling over into this week. One weekend can't hold us, ya'll! Today I'm linking up week 2 of the TPT Seller Challenge! This week's challenge is: Dare to Dream!

As of now, my TpT store funds some extras for my classroom and a splurge here or there.  I'm not one of the sellers that can say TpT paid for a new house or a trip around the world...yet.  I've been aspiring to those heights since I started the shop.  I am happy to say that I've had a steady increase throughout and that is really all I can ask.

Don't get me wrong.  I would LOVE spread the word of how revenue from my products helped us in big ways.

My first dream is to continue remodeling our house.  It was built in 1918 and I love it.  We are in a great location, have a nice spread of land and are close to lots of entertainment.  We just need to freshen up around the house.  We would like to have a new metal roof and renovate the kitchen.  It would be awesome to fund this more quickly so we can continue enjoying our house.

Next, we've been talking for years about taking a hike along the western Italian coast line.  For us, big vacations tend to get put on the back burner.  One of my goals is to squirrel away enough money to pay for the trip myself as a surprise.

Lastly I would love to provide keep-at-home resources for my students.  It breaks my heart when they tell me they don't have any books at home or that they can't get to the public library because it costs too much for everyone to ride the bus there.  Immediately I think of the trickle down of this situation.  Big sister doesn't have books so little brother can't get them as hand-me-downs and baby sister doesn't hear anyone read to her until Kindergarten.  During the school year I let kids borrow books to take home.  When I give students old books during a purge they are amazed when I say they can have them and don't have to give them back.  I'd love to give them new books to have and pass down to their siblings and cousins and neighbors.

We are a Title I school and can get low cost books, but even low cost books cost money (plus shipping, phew!)  My goal is to have enough extra funds to let students choose their own books to keep through First Books, Scholastic book clubs, etc.

There is still time to join in on the fun:

TpT Seller Challenge Week 1: Makeover Madness

Today the TpT Seller Challenge provided me the motivation to revamp one of my best selling TpT products.  Ya'll, it was hideous!

 

Glitter background, crazy frames and the glow!  Good heavens the glow!

It took a few hours for me to finish the makeover, but it is so worth it.

Working with Y as a Vowel has been successfully updated!  It's on sale through Friday.

The original product was posted in 2013.  It was the third product I had for sale.  It's interesting to go back into old files.  I must have just learned how to add the glow around text because all the titles had some form of the glow effect.  Most had glow and shadow.

Step 1: Ditch the entire cover. 

Melonheadz's Nerds are one of my most favorite clip art collections.  Nerds have a special place in my heart.  This cutie got the call for cover girl today!

Add Hello Fonts.  'Nuff said.

Step 2: K. I. S. S.

That's right. I looked back to junior high for design inspirations.

I can admit it-the original was tacky.  The file no longer includes any glowing or glittering objects.  Not that I am strictly apposed to either.  I like a well-place glow.  I love me some glitter.  Both were overkill.

I also simplified the frames and borders.  The zig zag was too much for the small spaces.  I went really simple with plain, thick gray lines and a nice pop of red border in some places.

Lesson learned:  Alignment is your friend.  Sometime after finding the glow effect, I must have ran across the align button.  Boy, do I love that thing!  It makes it so easy to center, distribute and well...align.

Now I think the cover is eye-catching (for positive reasons) and all the pages inside are easy to read, have good flow and won't use up all the ink, even if it is mostly color.  Hopefully I can go back and add blackline versions, too.

As I scrolled through my products list I was able to tag a few more products due for a summer makeover.

Another part of the challenge is to track stats.  My beginning digits:

We'll see how the effort over the next month changes these numbers.

Join in on the fun!