Trashed Stash

Here is my school handy dandy stash of everything an inquisitive and eager student could ever want. Need googly eyes...I've got googly eyes ( not I don't need an operation....plastic ones...different colours and sizes...yep could still be my own....go away) To continue- need coloured match sticks, fancy scissors, different widths of tape, ribbons, wheels, gears, rubber bands, icy pole sticks ( coloured

and plain) big beads, little beads, tinsel, sequins, glitter, metallic pens, pastels, balloons, paper plates....the list goes on and on. You need it- I got it. And this is just the public stash.These shelves are in the art area of my classroom. There will be no pics of my office or craft cupboard at home...or the spare room for that matter!!!!!!!!  A little crazy I know since I buy the boxes as well as fill them but there is nothing more annoying than getting a kid or a group or your class all revved up and ready to go on something only to find that you haven't got absolutely everything to anticipate their every little creative and technological whim. I have to sweeten the hard slog of spelling and tables and punctuation and neater handwriting and reading and equations and real world story problem solving ( they HATE that one) with the chance to do something educational but different.

So...where was I ...thats right. Nothing so annoying except .........................when you open this...

and find this.........

Remember Coates Patons? Well if you do then you will remember it closing down.When it did there was a big sale and one of the things that were sold cheaply and then given away were things like this....

And this is what was suppose to be in the box. But over the last few years the situation has deteriorated to the point where too much thread was being wasted and I was going to have to go and buy more and I have already spent my class budget twice over on English Board games, tables practise cards, and stuff...lots of important stuff...( week 14 is it????) So I decided to sort out the thread. Not that I am cheap...I could easily just go buy more embroidery cotton for the little brats to tangle again but I am also a teeeeny bit obsessive ( don't talk about the hand sorting of 5 kg of mixed, really really really mixed seed beads incident.) So the picture above of the threads on the cards kind of neat and sorted are the ones I have rescued from the tangle so far. The bundle was quite a bit bigger before I started.

And here is what it is being used for.

2paw came out to school on Tuesday and led us in the creation of these lovely mobile phone pouches.

Mother's Day presents.

Wont the mothers be thrilled?!?

"Snort" , as my Internet friend AmyP would say!

I did check...everyone had a mother and every mother had a mobile phone and none were going to St Ives.  The kids are delighted with them although I am afraid they are a bit of a trap for the unwary in handbags....some of the decoration is a bit dingly dangly but if you love your kids, you are gonna love these!!!! And if you don't...too bad and shame on you!!!!! It has taken about 4 hours of solid steady hard complicated thinking , stitching, unpicking, threading, fiddling, unpicking, comparing, dropping, pinning, unpicking and admiring to get these done. And that was just me and 2paw !!!! Imagine how hard the kids worked. Dislike them at your own peril.  I love them in the "these were sewn with love by a 10 year old with the ability and creative taste of the dog" kind of way .Because I have to tell you .....these are the tasteful and well sewn ones. These ones are goooooooooooooood. These ones were done while 2paw was there helping us out. More were done today with just ME helping them out. So if you ring the mothers of the kids in my class on their mobile phones next week...let it ring a little longer than normal....they will be soooooooooooo busy admiring their new phone cover they will be taking a little while to answer.

 

Comments

[Suzi]

Ah tangled threads! If it were me I would have made use of the fancy scissors by now....I am not a patient person by any means.

[AmyP]

Snort? I'll have you know I'm much more of a "snarf" person!
Well done on your continued corruption of young minds.
My mum must be a great actress given some of the crap (technical term) I gave her when I was younger. I like to think I give her nice stuff now!

[Lois]

Lucky Mums!!!! :o

[Katt]

does that one say "mum no!" ?? is that a kid crying out for help cos mummy is on the phone too much? lol

the joys of being a mum... i am wondering what my girls will give me this year..

[linda]

oh these are just too cute aren't they. and boy!! I am so impressed with your art room stash! very impressive. I did laugh when I saw the thread box though coz mine looks like that at home!!!ps yes I went to the Coats Patons closing down sale too