Wordless Wednesday

3-D Study Guide

I'm back! It's been a long while since I've posted anything, but today I'm sharing an instructional on creating a 3-D study guide. I made mine as part of a WebQuest assignment in an Educational Psychology class I am in. While mine is aimed at a high school/college level class, you can make yours for anything!

(Instructions have been modified from the fantastic ones over at Hooty's Homeroom.)

Materials needed:
1 sheet 8.5" x 11" paper
Scissors
Pens
Tape (or paperclip) 

Step 1: Fold the top right corner of the paper over to make a right triangle. Make sure the fold is creased sharply.

Step 2: Unfold and repeat with left corner, creasing sharply. 

Step 3: With the left corner still folded down, fold the bottom rectangle up to crease.

Step 4: Unfold and check to ensure all creases are sharp. 

Step 5: Flip paper over so that the rectangle crease is to the top.

Step 6: Cut the bottom left-hand crease to the center.

Step 7: "Puff" the center up and slide one flap under the other. 

Step 8: Admire your blank study guide. At this point, feel free to do your own thing with this, modifying it for any class. 

Step 9: Unfold your paper and label 3 of the sides with different areas that you are studying. Do not label the side that will be slid under.

Step 10: Under each section that you've labeled, write notes that fall under those areas. (I color coded mine, but there's no real need to.)

Step 11: Title the study guide.

Step 12: Using tape or a paperclip, attach the two sides together. 

All done! Again, this is completely modifiable for anything you or your students are studying with 3 areas. It doesn't even have to be a study guide - you could definitely use this for lots of other things!

♥ Sarah

5 Things Learned During My Engagement

Throughout this process of planning a wedding in 5 months, I've discovered 5 things that engaged girls (and guys!) should keep in mind:

No, really, I promise. This is the wedding of two people. Not the wedding of two people, their mothers, grandparents, well-meaning cousins, and the florist. If you and your SO want something (within reason), go for it. If you don't want something, don't do it. People that love you can become so excited to help you out that they end up bullying you into doing things you just don't want. They still love you, and you still love them, but do your own thing. 

Make sure that the wedding is a reflection of your personality, not just something that is a copy-and-paste from someone else's vision. It's ok to break some traditions - how else do you think those traditions got started?! (P.S. The traditional "church wedding" comes from Roman culture and mimics one of the several types of marriages they performed, with a little Christian twist to it. It's cool to not be like the Romans, if you don't want.)

Guys, money doesn't grow on trees and I really can't stress this one enough. You and your SO sit down with whoever is paying for the wedding and decide an actual dollar amount for the wedding and the reception. If you two are paying, that's cool, but you need to do the same thing. What we've done is to make a spreadsheet with every category we could think of as the rows, with the following columns: Description, Estimated cost, Actual cost, Person Paying, and Person in Charge. (I might make a separate post about setting this up and using it. It has been invaluable!) 

Once you have the dollar amount, stick to it. If you can't afford a $5000 loft barn for the ceremony, then no matter how badly you want it (and let me tell you, it was GORGEOUS!) you have to find somewhere else to get married or compromise on another category. 

Colors, theme, decorations, dresses, flowers, food, etc. Everything in my wedding has had to change a little bit. And that's ok! What matters more than if I got the original things that I wanted is that everything, in the end, works out for good. Fight for what you love, but don't make mountains out of molehills.  

*Confession: Both of those are things I have said when being much less than nice. I was also possibly hormonal at the time they were said. I ate a doughnut afterwards and things were much better.* 

You are going to get stressed. You might even cry. Someone might say something rude or un-thoughtful to you. You might completely disagree with your future spouse on the kind of music that is and is not acceptable to play at receptions. That's tough, but you have to be nice. A party that lasts for a few hours on one day is totally not worth making people who care mad at you. Remember back to #1 when I said you should fight for what you want? You should, and you might hurt some feelings along the way, but be loving when you fight. There's no point in getting your way if your attitude makes people not want to show up on the big day. 

Yay! You're engaged to a really awesome person who you are going to get to annoy and laugh with for the rest of your lives and you only have a few months to plan the (so far) biggest day of your life. No pressure.....ha. 

There's lots of pressure. There are lots and lots of things to do. But you can burn out if you tackle them all at once with all of your energy. My future mother in law gave me a beautiful piece of advice:

Take a break to be a couple - you only have a little while to be engaged. 

She's right. I can get so caught up in getting married to The Gentleman that I sometimes forget that I am still in a functioning relationship with him. Go watch a movie together, or build something, or go workout. Don't neglect your relationship so you can marry him/her. It's not cool, man. 

Go have fun, be engaged, and rock your wedding! 

♥ Sarah

DIY Bridesmaids Request

My wedding planning is going extremely well and I've been blessed beyond measure with all of the support and advice I've received. Much of the wedding is DIY (shocker there, right?) and while I can't share all of it yet, I thought I'd go on and show you how I asked my bridesmaids. It's not the most fancy way in the world, but it is from the heart. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters. 

These are the materials:

• Small squares of scrapbook paper
• Paint pen
• Sharpies (1 fine tip & 2 regular)
• Yarn
• Rings of your choice

Choose your paper!

Fold it in half and crease tightly.

Write your girls names on!

Pick a cute phrase and write it on the card, accenting the fun words with the larger markers. (Yup, stole the wording from Pinterest.)

Use a hole punch to make a hole in one corner.

Cut your yarn around 8" long.

Double the yarn, pull it through the hole, thread it through the ring and back through the hole. Tie on the back side. 

Tada! 

(yes, there are 2 holes in that request.....mistakes happen.)

♥ Sarah