New room and aprons, ie- post full of terrible photos

My school had outgrown its building. We had portable buildings outside, two Kindergarten classes sharing a room, and reading classes in the hall. A bit ironic since the year before our district closed several (14?) schools  because of empty classrooms. The good thing about this bit of irony is that there was a large empty school building just over a mile away from our school. So, this summer, a middle school is being outfitted as an elementary school. When they first showed the teachers through the building, it had been a dumping ground. All of the furniture from all of these schools that closed was everywhere. Naturally, all of that stuff was removed; the rooms were painted, new carpeting, doors, lockers, etc. They are not finished, but the second floor items have been moved into the classrooms. We aren't really supposed to be there, but I had to check it out on Monday and start unpacking. This is what I walked into on Monday, a mountain of crap pushed to one side.

Really these pictures are terrible, so I'm not sure that you can see the five large pallets of boxes. The giant tv stand is blocking some of it. I get a little overwhelmed with so much work in front of me sometimes. I just started grabbing one box at a time. It helped that I was afraid I was going to be kicked out at any moment. Decisions about where to put things had to be made quickly, though, of course, things can be moved later if it doesn't work for me. 

My last classroom was little and full of character. This room is very ordinary, but has an excess of SPACE. I'm not sure if you can tell how really large it is. In the above picture, you can kind of see the lower cabinets that run all along that side of the room under the windows. There are SEVEN sinks on that wall. This is a former science room, so they are those little bitty sinks. With so many though, I can assign each table its own sink! There is another little sink at a teacher area behind all that piled up stuff, and another large (wide not deep) sink all of the way to the left corner. Woohoo! Two years ago, I was moving into a classroom without a sink. I filled up a large orange water jug, which was in a cart over a bucket. No hand washing allowed. Last year, I had one little science sink, and many times I would decide that it was just going to take too long for everyone to wash their hands. I still might decide that, but not because of a lack of sinks! To the back right of the room is a kitchen. I don't have a key to it yet, but there are a couple of windows in there. It has a dishwasher and full size refrigerator. I am a little scared to see inside of the fridge. There is another locked door back there, which hopefully is a closet large enough for my kiln. 

This other photo is of the other side, with tons of cabinets again. This photo was after I had been unpacking for awhile. My son would like for you to see his new Spiderman water bottle. I realize it might look like I just piled everything on the counter, but there is just as much inside those cabinets. Some items I am pretty sure that I want to put in the back area are just stacked over near the door.  Behind me in these photos are two large whiteboards, space for my smartboard, and a very small bulletin board. I have another large whiteboard on the other side of the room and a small bulletin board. I would definitely prefer the bulletin boards, but I have worked around it before with tape and magnets. I will share more photos closer to school, hopefully it will be pretty and colorful by then.

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On to the next topic-aprons. I wear an apron at school all day, everyday. I used to only wear one when we were doing messy things, but I ruined a white shirt while we were using crayons one day. It's just become my uniform. Generally, I just wear a plain black one most of the time, and then a longer one from a clay lady workshop when we are doing clay. I started decorating a couple this past year. I gyotaku printed one of them, and had one of them screen printed with a guitar by one of our sixth graders. I am going to add "Art Rocks!" to the top. Since, I wear these everyday, I decided that I should have more that are interesting. I saw these aprons, and, immediately was drawn to the cute ruffles, my hidden girly-girl coming out, I guess. They are not particularly practical, but I thought that I could at least wear one with less messy media.

Aprons from a Crafty Weekend. 

I had a plain white apron leftover from my daughter's art birthday party earlier in the summer. I'm also a quilter, so was able to just used my scraps. I still think it is really cute, but not sure that it is really me. Photo at night, in a mirror, really nice. The red is more pink, plus every color is off really. 

My daugther, the ulitmate girly girl loves it, but thinks it would be better as a dress. My husband thinks it is just ugly. 

The same night that I made my ruffle apron, I also attempted to make this denim apron. I had a trashed pair of jeans and more fabric for the edges. 

Mine isn't quite right, though. First of all, I prefer the dark denim. Mine also fits a bit weird, but I'm not sure how to fix it. 

View one from the front, I made my edging thinner, too. 

Now, in this photo you can really see the problem. Giant gapping at the chest. I really can't wear it like this. Is it too wide? Too long? Ties on the side too low? All of the above?

Again, my daugher thinks it is cute. My husband thinks it looks trashy.

PS. Let me point out that I originally found both of these on pinterest. It is one of my pet peeves when someone only cites pinterest. It's a pinboard, original ideas don't come from there, they are generally from someone's blog or other website. Give actual credit, though I realize it is kind of hard when you have seen hundreds of different examples of the melted crayon art.