Decorations & Displays

New Library Quotes

- librariantiff 14 Comments

I’ve been back from my California extravaganza for a week now, and my world has been revolving around moving into the new library. Things are getting unpacked and the library is starting to look cute. I mean… if you know me, you know that CUTE is a major priority 🙂

A huge project that we’ve been tackling right off is putting up the new wall quotes. I loved my wall quotes at the old library and knew I wanted to do something similar in the new school. The old ones we painted using stencils, but obviously there is no painting these brand new walls! We have a Cricuit machine at school and I purchased some vinyl sheets and spent quite a bit of time cutting out the five quotes I decided on. I recruited help from my amazing mom and awesome friend BJ, and we got to sticking! Thanks ladies, I couldn’t do it without you!

  

  

How the heck are we getting these letters on straight? Mom got a laser level that sticks to the wall. Genius!

So here are the five quotes that are now hanging out in the beautiful new library (colors: teal, pink, blue, purple, green):

 

  

  

  

And here are the two decorative arrangements that are in front of the huge windows:

  

There’s still lots of work to be done and many more blogs posts to come, but I’m so proud of how things are coming along!

CMS Library Tour

- librariantiff 2 Comments

So my darling friend Tamara Cox, the Eliterate Librarian, posted a fun video tour of her library and challenged the rest of us to do the same.

You all should know by now that I love to make a video, so I was ready to jump on the wagon and get mine out there.

 

It’s so overwhelming to think about how much I’ve done in just over a year since I moved into this position. There’s nothing like middle school and I adore the crazy, drama-filled, brilliant, talented children that I get to work with each day.

I got an amazing compliment this week when a teacher came in to tell me what one of our 8th grade boys (the one that was recently voted “Most Athletic” in the class favorites yearbook poll) said about the library. He told his teacher: “You know how some restaurants have signs and stuff that say ‘World’s Greatest Hamburger” or “World’s Greatest Pizza”? Our library needs a sign that says “World’s Greatest Library.”

Good to know that I’m doing something right, especially on those days where it’s an absolute zoo in here and I feel like I might very well have lost my mind 🙂

Obsessed with Decorations!

- librariantiff 2 Comments

I’m a big believer in decorating in the library. I don’t care if you have a moldy, musty, ancient room with ceiling tiles falling in (because I do!!) — you can still make the place cute. It’s not superficial, it’s an important part of making your library a comfortable, welcoming place. This is why I went crazy decorating when I moved into my current position.

So guess what else: I think decorating for holidays is pretty important, too. Yep, I’m out of control. But the kids love it, so that makes it all okay 🙂

For November, I created a “Thankful Door” where students and teachers could grab a marker and share something that they were thankful for this year. I broke out the Cricut and cut out some Thanksgiving cuteness to add to the door. I also broke out the leaves from last fall (I laminated them!) that I brought home from my North Carolina trip. Check out our Thankful Door:

  

ANNOYANCE: The stores apparently  think that Thanksgiving isn’t uber important in terms of decorations. They completely skipped from Halloween decorations to Christmas! The only things I managed to find were this goofy little turkey man to sit on the circulation desk and this little fall themed basket arrangement. Next year I WILL have a cornucopia. It’s essential!

 

Before I left on Friday, I went ahead and took down the fall decorations. My wonderful mom dropped off my Christmas tree and some of the kids were dying to set it up.

  

Since I’m at the middle school now, I (and by “I”, I mean mom) had to make new book ornaments with my kids’ favorite books (see my old elementary tree here). Have I mentioned that my mom is the best?? She is! After we got out of school on Friday (early dismissal for the holiday…SCORE!) we rolled on over to Hobby Lobby for some more Christmas decorations. Then we went up this afternoon to put everything up. Check it out:

        

We went with the BIG lights. And some nice touches of pink…

Yes, I like to be over-the-top. Don’t hate! 🙂