Bye-Bye Owls, Hello Black/White and Damask!

I jumped on the owl theme bandwagon last year. When I chose owls for my theme, I honestly had no idea that they were as popular as they were.  THEN when I committed and made the covers for my binders and got them all printed out, I began to see the plethora of owl items for sale.  At the time, I was delighted, but I'm just not feeling them this year.  The kids even began bringing me owls!  I received stuffed owls, owl note-pads, an owl ring, owl mugs and the most unique gift, owl tissues.   I am all owled-out. I know that's not a real word, but that's how I feel. 

SO...as you can tell from my previous post, I've been reading a blog by a teacher who has included touches of black & white in her classroom.  I just love the damask touches she put in her room.   I've always loved damask. I even have a black & white damask lunch bag.  I am going for it.  Black & white with some damask here and there.  I already have blue and green as the main colors in my room and I'll stick with that because when you use black & white, you can mix in any other colors you like.  

Black & White Damask Pattern

I already ordered all new white magazine holders from IKEA for my own use in the classroom and I'm going to pretty them up.  My current ones are OLD and they're that not-so-attractive fake wood grain, made even less attractive by years of fading.  I also have some that are sort of speckled, for lack of a better term.  They're also all different sizes, since I cut the tops off of some of them, way back when, to make them fit on certain shelves...

Five-pack for $1.99

Now, since I do not live near an IKEA, I ordered these guys online.  I searched the entire internet (I get a little carried away.) and IKEA, by far, had the cheapest price for the plain, white magazine holders.  I paid $1.99 for five of them!  They arrived today and I am now impatiently awaiting my order from Hobby Lobby.  I ordered some really pretty black & white craft paper that I plan on using to pretty-up the room.  I was able to receive free shipping and I used a gift card one of my students gave to me at the end of the year, so I made out great.  These magazine holders will look so much better than what I currently have.

I'm currently using something I purchased at Lakeshore to hold my recording sheets and other items for the week.  There are five plastic magazine-type holders in a wire holder, but I like the idea of using these holders better.  They'll fit right on the bookshelf behind my desk (a much better spot than where I have the other contraption) and they will look so much nicer.  I want to create  a more uniform look.  My classroom is blue and I currently have accents of green & black, so I think the black & white damask will fit right in. I'm not sure what I'll do about the kids' binder covers yet, but I have some time to figure that out.