Amazing Friends

I've got 2 amazing friends I'd like to write about today.  They agreed to come to Las Vegas with me during the heat of summer so I could go to the Teachers Pay Teachers conference.  They don't sell on TPT (but they do BUY from TPT) so they're not attending the conference.  They're just going to hang out at the pool while I'm at my sessions and then we'll tour the strip in the evenings.  I'm so excited to have their company!

So, to thank them, I made some cute little goody bags.  I just had to share these.  They're in my suitcase right now.  I'm giving you all the sneak peek.  Perhaps you are going to the conference with a friend and want to make a goody bag. Perhaps you've got a girlfriend's getaway planned and want to put together a little something.  Maybe you just really like shiny gift wrap. If any of those apply to you, enjoy the following!

Full gift bag with magnetic name tag for the Meet Up party and a pin with my logo.

Inside the bag:  Snacks, Tylenol and Rolaids just in case,
Chapstick with SPF for their time at the pool,
eye mask, and ear plugs (I've been known to snore)

Spray bottle with fan - it's going to be HOT in Vegas!
(Ice cubes from the hotel make for a lovely mist in these)

Water bottle with my logo and their initials on printable vinyl
Filled with little individual packs of lemonade mix (and white gift fluff)

 
Kirsten and Amy - you are awesome!  I can't begin to thank you enough!!

If you're reading this and going to the TPT conference in Vegas, I'd love to meet you!  Please introduce yourself if you see my logo! Feel free to leave a comment here, too, and we can try to find each other.

Thanks for visiting!

TPT Conference: Blogger Meetup Winner!

OMG!! I won! I won! I won!!

The TPT Blogger Meetup was a great experience!  I cannot begin to imagine the amount of work that went into this HUGE event!!  Look at all the people there!  You could barely move through the room.  Lots of chances to meet other people, swap business cards, share ideas, and get FREE stuff!

 

First beverage was free.  This is only about half the room!  No matter where you were standing, you were almost always in someone's photo or selfie.

Our amazing hosts from What the Teacher Wants drew names for the door prizes.  I won one!!!

This cute bag was STUFFED full of crayola products!  

Look at all this stuff I won!  There was Model Magic, Markers, window crayons and markers, watercolor pencils, erasable colored pencils, and special construction paper crayons.  I didn't even know that Crayola made some of these things!  Thank you so much to both Crayola for sponsoring and What the Teacher Wants for hosting this!  My students are going to love having these resources this year!

Some of the swag given away for free.  There was lots more, but I didn't want to stand in the really long line.  This was what I grabbed at the end as we left.  Only a small portion of what I saw others got for standing in that long line. It's all good though -- I was 1.5 pounds over the suitcase weight limit at the airport and had to put a bunch of the Crayola stuff in my "bursting at the seams already" carry-on bag so we didn't get charged extra.  

Any great ideas for using the model magic in 5th grade?  I'm going to have to head to Pinterest to get some ideas.  Got any good model magic pins to share?  Post in the comments! 

TPT conference = Awesome!!! Thank you!

The TeachersPayTeachers conference was awesome!  After many hours of sleep and then a very lazy day yesterday, I'm finally feeling like I'm ready to get something done again.  I thought I'd post some of the highlights here with more detail coming in future posts.  I still haven't totally unpacked, I desperately need to run laundry, the milk is past it's expiration date, and there's NO COFFEE!!  Grocery store trip must happen soon.  Gee whiz -- I was only gone 5 days!

First of all, there are some major thank yous I need to share:

Thank you to Kirsten for watching my house and dog while we were away.  You are the best!!

Thank you to TPT for arranging this conference for us!  I'm so glad I went!

Thank you to all the presenters!  I only got to go to 4 sessions, but wished I had been able to attend them all.  Thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and ideas.

Thank you to all the people working behind the scenes to make this event possible.  I'm sure it was a lot of work!  Know that I appreciated your efforts!

Thank you to What the Teacher Wants for the teacher blogger meet up.  That was huge fun!  I absolutely love the swag and the door prize I won!  You made me feel like I was part of something awesome!

Thank you to Crayola for donating the amazing door prize I won!  (see tomorrow's post for that story)

Thank you to the nice guy at the Venetian who helped us get a taxi at 3:30am to the airport.

Thank you to the nice guy in the yellow vest at the airport who helped us get to the RIGHT terminal at 3:45am.

Thank you to my amazing husband who put up with my panic attacks, my eccentricities, my schedule, and even came to the meet up with me and participated in the crazy meet-other-people-at-the-event activity.  He did whatever I needed him to do, whether carry my very girly tote bag up and down the strip or go to the restaurant I wanted or play goofy video slot machines with me.  Love you!!

TPT Blogger Meet up

View up the Vegas Strip

View of the Venetian

TPT Swag

Breakfast before the keynote speakers

Paul Edelman -- the amazing founder of TPT

Deanna Jump -- the most successful TPTer so far

I'll be posting more in the next several days about the conference and the great people I met.  Stay tuned!

PS -- did you post on your blog about the TPT conference?  Please share in the comments!  I'd love to hear about your experience!