OOTD- Royal Ruffles and Marc Jacobs

Top- Royal Blue Ruffle top- Forever 21- Bought YEARS ago
Skirt- Marc Jacob's Black Pencil Skirt- Gift from family this past Christmas
Shoes- Beige wedges- Bought 2-3 years ago
Watch- Francesca's $18

I am still rocking black in the end of April. I would have adored if this skirt magically transformed with the seasons into an ivory, coral or mint crochet pencil skirt...

I tried to liven the skirt up with a pop of royal blue and the white watch. And as usual, I kept the shoes neutral to not emphasize the black.

Do you ever stop wearing black?

OOTD- Peplum and Studs

Dress- Black Peplum-Target $24.99?

Watch- Fossil/Tortoise and Gold- Macy's $150

Shoes- Tan Kenneth Cole Reaction Gold Studded Wedges- Marshall's $25

Undergarment Support- Spanx- Target $15?

Reflections:

Hair is inspired by my Pinterest Hair Board. http://pinterest.com/karoostyle/hair/ Hair style was a little messy, but easy to do and could get better as I perfect it.

This was the first time wearing these shoes and they were pretty painless. There was a little rubbing in the back on the left side. On the plus side, the rubber on the bottoms allowed me to grip the hallway (and lunch room) floor and added extra comfort.

If I had to do this outfit over, I would wear a pair of gold stud earrings and/or add a thin tan belt.

Teachers Pay Teachers

I have been recently getting many resources from teacherspayteachers.com. This is a great resource because some resources are free and many are very affordable.  The best part is the funds go to other teachers and not some big corporation!

I figured I have a few tricks up my sleeve and decided to upload a couple of products on there to see if I can make some money too.  Here is my link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Christina-Carew

I promise you're going to feel like a small child on Christmas morning on this site.

OOTD- Coral and White

Top- Free (friend gave it to me)

Pants- White skinny pants slightly cropped - from Gap 2 years ago $60?

Shoes- Tom look a likes from Marshall's for only $10 on clearance

I wore this to work and the hardest part of wearing this outfit was keeping the white clean. Since they're old pants, I didn't think about it much and fared well.

Would you wear white bottoms to work?

Free Book Source

In my local area, I am lucky enough to have a reading/book/tutoring organization that allows students, teachers, parents, (anyone really) to take donated books for free. http://newhavenreads.org/ There are limited guidelines such as a child can only take 5 books per day. A teacher, however, can take whatever he/she needs.

I sent the organization an email and requested a few certain kinds of books that would get used most often in my classes. I requested the following:

• Twilight: Breaking Dawn
• Rick Riordan Books
• Nicholas Sparks Books
• Stephen King Novels
• Any Greek Mythology
• Big Nate books (for my younger brother)
• Graphic Novels for Classic Literature

I sent my request in at around 1:00 and immediately heard back from Theresa. I didn't anticipate being in the area until later on in the week, but within a couple of hours I was headed over in that direction anyway and called to see if by any chance I could swing by. She said absolutely and that she already grabbed what she could and put together my box.

When I arrived, my box was ready with a lot of my specific requests. I was very impressed because 1. The service is free and 2. It was ready in a matter of a couple hours. Theresa also told me to feel free to take whatever else I could use. I snagged a few more popular selections and am sooo pleased. I plan on signing up to tutor there in the summer because a program like this should be nurtured.

Here are my books:

Tweet about Today

I've had this idea for a while to use twitter as a basis for collecting data from students as entry/exit slips. Just recently, I found a pre-made format on teacherspayteachers.com for this very thing!

I implemented it immediately and am very excited with the results. The kids took their time and tried to be clever with their tweet while still providing me with helpful feedback. And once I posted this bulletin board, the students were immediately drawn to read other "tweets" and check to see if theirs made the cut.