I'm doing a little dance in my chair right now, and I need to share. I just saw a freecycle post for a woman cleaning out her storage unit. She had all these random items posted, so on a whim, I e-mailed her and asked her if she had any wingback chairs. I'm getting a little desperate, as my husband won't let me store them in the house (understandable) and I'm making my last trip to the school until end of August next week when my mom visits. So if I'm going to get them, now is really the time so I can bring them over next week. Anyhow, she wrote back and said yes! She has two! They are brown and from STARBUCKS! Her daughter use to be the manager and got them when they redecorated. Starbucks usually has really whimsical, neat furniture, so I'm totally psyched. Hooray! I have that stupid 'celebrate good times' song in my head, and I hate that song! But I don't even mind, because I was just promised to great wingbacks for FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's going to ask her sister if she has a cheesy, ornate frame for my 'fat lady' or a tiffany lamp, so it could be a REALLY good day if that comes through!!!
That's like last year when I got the book shelves from CVS' fixtures sale and the turning display from the scrapbook store that was closing! Congratulations. I may need to do one of those searches for interesting items again. This is my 3,000th post!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! I too can now celebrate! :woot:
Jem, that's great! I'm a big Harry Potter fan, too. Post some pics when you get your HP theme going - I want to see.
Can you descrive your vision for your classroom? I'm trying to make a mental picture of what yu have in mind!
You are wanting something Harry Potteresque right? That is really cool! My free cycle has people wanting expensive things for free, and offers of junk left and right lol!
www.freecycle.org It's an e-mail list where people sent out e-mails offering items, and e-mails requesting items. All items must be free. My groups have always been really good, but I'm hearing some groups aren't. Anyhow, you can get a lot of great items for your classroom. I've gotten a guitar, lava lamps, books, obviously chairs, holiday decorations, pet cages/supplies/tanks, organizers, fountains, dress-up clothes, puppets, etc. It's great when you find a retiring teacher, or an office that is reorganizing. Sometimes there is more than one group for your area-I'm on the Marin and San Francisco lists. I highly recommend signing up. Always say it is for your classroom when requesting something (you just e-mail the person who is offering it), and always offer something right before or after you request something, so they know you are giving as well as taking.
These chairs are for my reading area, which I want to turn into a Harry Potter/Hogwarts area. I have ideas for it, and it's just a matter of collecting the items to do it. So the chairs are checked off my list. I want to find a large, ornate plaster frame to put around a picture of the 'fat lady' and hang. I also want to find a large domed bird cage and put a stuffed white owl in for Hedwig. My bulletin board in this area will have all of our reading stuff on it, including ways they can present their book reports, which will forms of communication from the series (they can send me a patronis-physical representation of the book, they can arrive by floo powder-give me an oral report, they can enter the pensive-make a video, etc.). I'd also like to put a 'fireplace' under the board, but I'm not sure how that's going to work yet. I want to put a Whomping Willow up the corner of the this area, but I really don't know how to do that. I saw an awesome one in the room picture archives on this board, and I think I could handle the trunk, but I'm not sure how to get the willow effect. I have very high ceilings, but I can hang things from them, meaning I could hang fishing line down to hold the drooping branches, but that is going to be very tricky. I can't wrap my brain around it yet. I may just need to get in there to figure it out. Here's a few pictures of the area I'm going to be using in my room. This is how the last teacher had it-I'm new this year-and I'm removing the teacher's desk. But the book shelves will stay, so all our books will be in this area. It will be this corner: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikuppman/2628122185/in/set-72157605921424010/ This will be my HP board, with the tree in this corner, and the chairs facing this way: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikuppman/2628945692/in/set-72157605921424010/
Looks like I might have found my picture frame for the 'fat lady', too. We have a messenger who takes mail between our buildings, and he rides a bike. He's a little strange (I really think he's a bit autistic), but he's very nice and we talk all the time. He's always finding weird things to bring me (brochures, maps, etc.). So I said I'm looking for frames, and he said he would bring me two on Monday morning that he had. They are wood, so I'm going to spray paint them gold to make them old and Hogwarts-y. I'm going to put the 'fat lady' in one and Sir Cadagon, the knight that gallops between pictures. They aren't as big as I was thinking, but that's good if there are two of them. Woot! Now I just need to make enough at this weekend's garage sale for my Hogwarts tiffany lamp.... http://www.amazon.com/HARRY-POTTER-...ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1215808079&sr=8-1
I know! I just found out I've made $30 on my amazon ads on my website (really cool, because I haven't made a penny off that site in four months (although that's not why I made it at all)), so I am very close to getting my Hogwarts lamp! Whoo-hoo! If you're making any amazon purchase, enter through one of my portals so I can get my lamp! And perhaps even Hedwig and a cage for her! And bandnerd just send me a package of HP stuff, including banners and a sorting hat! Hoooooray!
I'm jealous- I lost about 2,000 posts quite some time ago when there was some change in the site and I had to start all over. I would have been up there with ya...
Ok, now I'm on the hunt for a long/floor-length mirror. I must turn it into the Mirror of Erised. Also, network like crazy, guys. That's how I'm getting all this stuff, and I might have just scored several LAPTOPS! The computer guys from EPA just came in to the office to give me some phone numbers, and I casually asked what happened to their laptops when they are done with them. While batting my eyelashes and looking demure. They said they might be able to slip a few under my door and not remember what happened to them.... Ok, maybe that's more shameless flirting than networking. But I might have something to teach keyboarding on!!!! Huzzah!!!!
Go to freecycle.org It's a site that allows people to offer free stuff to other people via email. Everything must be free. You just have to go & pick it up. You also must offer stuff too.
So I'm halfway through my garage sale (I needed a little A-Z break), and I've made $350. I can't believe it. I thought I might make $50. So that gets me my light up palm tree for our morning meeting area, my Hogwarts lamp, and a few frog items that I've wanted. Hooray! I'm hoping I get a second sweep this afternoon that will clear everything out and get me a little more.
Congrats!!! Your room is gorgeous. We did prom several years ago and did palm trees out of the round-heavy cylinders that carpet is rolled up on. A local carpet store gave them to us. The men hammered on sturdy foundations. We covered them in a wrinkled fashion w/brown garbage bags and then cut leaves out and stuck them in the top which had stryofoam hot glued in. Maybe you could get some of those beads they use for doors, use a heave gauge floral wire about 3 feet long, wrap one strand at a time and leave it long enough to hang down. They have beaded doors at this site in moons and stars and different colors. http://www.google.com/products?q=ha...a=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title I don't know if you want to work that hard or not, but I think it would work and look great. It's amazing what people will give you. I was having some maintenance done on my car one time and the owner had a bumper sticker about parachuting. A conversation ensued and I ended up w/a used, beautiful parachute!
Thanks for the advice, Hoot! I've always wanted a lighted up palm tree. We did a luau for my graduation open house with a few friends, and I wanted to get it THEN, but one friend vetoed it, so we didn't get it. But now that I'm looking at them, maybe this more simple wood/plastic version might be better. What do you guys think? Lighted palm tree: http://www.stumpsprom.com/catalog.cfm?caid=666592 Plastic and wood: http://www.stumpsprom.com/catalog.cfm?caid=774202