TPT Seller Challenge : Dare to Dream!

Dare to Dream....

This is a hard one for me!  I don't dream much.  I am very simple.  I love music, my family, and God.  I am happy just the way life is.

But, if I had to dream, these would be my top three dreams:

Let's be honest, I don't work for free!  I want something out of my work, and the money definitely helps!  My first two dreams are about the money.

GET OUT OF DEBT!  This is one of the main reasons I began my store on TeachersPayTeachers.  I am currently teaching full time, and my husband is a teacher, too.  I also transcribe surgical reports in the evening as my "second" job.  So, TpT is my "third" job.  I wish I could spend more time with it, but sometimes I run out of hours in a day (don't we all?!)  And, I am a new seller, so my store is small at this point, but I get excited even when I sell something for $1!  Every little bit helps!

HAVE EXTRA MONEY TO SPEND WITH FAMILY!  We have one beautiful daughter that wants to do everything!  Having a little more money in our accounts each month really helps to make this happen.  She loves to dance, and she loves gymnastics.  I want to give her the world, and TpT helps make that happen for us!

My last dream relates to the friendships I've made so far on TpT.

MAKE LIFETIME FRIENDS!  I already have lifetime friends, and I love them dearly!  But, I have really enjoyed getting to know the music sellers from TpT.  These are people that share the same passion that I do for music.  I enjoy talking and collaborating with them on a regular basis.  I have already developed great friendships with people all over the US (and even the world!), and I look forward to continuing these friendships into the future.  I can't go to Vegas this year, but I look forward to meeting some of these sellers someday!

So, these are my dreams.  They are small, yet lofty at the same time.  They aren't outrageous.

We won't be out of debt any time soon (probably ever).

I won't be able to give my precious daughter the world, but I will certainly die trying!

And I won't get to meet all of my TpT friends any time soon, but I look forward to the day that I can!

Still, I'm thankful every day for my family, friends, and TpT!

#TPTSellerChallenge

June: Small Goals

Well, Jennifer from The Yellow Brick Road posted this blog a while back.  It's taken me almost the whole month to blog about it!  Ha!

So, my small goals for June are as follows:

#1  ~  Go to the beach/pool/water at least once a week with my family.  We live at the beach, and I feel like we NEVER go to the beach.  We do spend time on our boat, but that is sometimes not as relaxing as I would like it to be (and it's expensive, too!)  We've gone twice in the past two weeks, so I'm doing good so far!

#2  ~  Create more products.  I joined a TpT challenge group, so that is helping me create or at least revise some past products.  I have a lot in my mind I want to do.

#3  ~  Make some lists.  I used to be more organized BC (before children - and I only have 1!)  I need to make some lists so that I get things done.  I'm relatively new at being a teacher, and this summer thing is hard.  I LOVE having time off!  However, because I have time off I think "[this] can wait until tomorrow," and then [this] never gets done.  Having some lists will really help me.

I could set more goals, but she said "small goals," and I think these are big enough as it is!  Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what your small goals are.  And, go ahead and link up, too!

Thanks Jennifer for inspiring me to set some goals!  I needed it!

Makeover Madness Week 1 - 5S Line Posters

Wow!  It has taken me ALL week to finish my product makeover!  I thought it was done, but then I changed something again just this morning!  

I decided to change my first ever product on TeachersPayTeachers (which means it's a FREEBIE!!!)  My first product was a classroom management tool called Are You in a 5-S line?  When I started teaching, I knew I needed some quick way to have students line up without having to repeat myself 6 times a day.  I searched on the internet and found these cute sayings, but I didn't really like the posters I had seen, so I made my own.  

Since I was new to creating, I found all free clip art, digital papers, and frames.  There is NOTHING wrong with using free stuff!  It's great!  But, now I have amassed a great deal of paid clip art, papers, and frames, so I decided to change it up a bit.  

I was also new to using programs and was unsure of how to create shadows, use fonts, and even save things.  I started using PowerPoint to create all of my products, but I have a Mac, and some people in my Music group  talked so much this past year about how easy it was to use Keynote, that I decided to give it a try on some other products.  It is so much EASIER to use!  I will never go back to PowerPoint again!

And of course, I've learned about what styles my repeat buyers like, so I ended up creating more than just one style of posters.  That can honestly be a downfall at times, but I think you will see that more options are better!  Because of all the options I made, I ended up making a FREE and a CHEAP version of these posters.  I didn't feel that I could give away all that I had made since in total there are 9 options now!

I can see a HUGE difference between these, and I hope you can, too!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to the next Makeover Madness challenges ahead this summer!

#tptsellerschallenge