Celebrate Summer - Teacher Gift

Just a quick post to share a super easy (and pretty cheap) end of the year teacher gift that they will LOVE!  I found this idea on Pinterest several months ago and thought, I would love to get that if I was a teacher! 

Here's my version.  I didn't do the sunscreen, just the magazine, towel and candy. 

The towels were around $5 bucks each.  I got Better Homes and Gardens for the magazine, but saw a couple other choices Walmart that would have worked great and were only about $2.  The boxes of candy also came from Walmart and were only 98 cents a box!

Here are a couple of links to some super cute tags you can print off use with this gift:

http://www.4shared.com/office/MHgXjTb9/Teacher_Summer_Tag.html?

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By004Xzl_7yUdnBuamxQeHdsMjQ/edit?pli=1

I ended up making my own tags mostly because of the 3 printers in my house, 2 of them are out of color ink and the other one has never made it out of the box.  It also gave me an excuse to play with some more washi tape : )

So there you have it...cheap, easy and super cute!!  The teachers will love it because it's actually usable!  And on a side note, does anyone else out there think it's crazy how fast kids grow up?! 

Exhibit A: first and last day of school pics....

Well, even if you don't use this gift idea make sure you show some love to the teachers that loved on your kiddos this year!!  And if you homeschool, then you have my permission to go by yourself a new beach towel a magazine and some yummy treats!!!

Happy Tuesday and have a great rest of the week!!

Gone But Not Forgotten

It's been a really long time since I've been on here!  I guess I took an unintentional hiatus.  In fact it's been so long I'm not really sure where to begin.  I've got about 15 different posts rolling around in my head right now so I figured I'd start small. 

Anyone out there heard of a little thing called Pinterest?  I may or may not be addicted! So many great ideas all in one place...how could you not be addicted?!  I even created a board for projects that I have completed.  Please tell me I'm not the only one that's done that....

Anyway, here's a couple of quick things I've done in the past couple of weeks.  The first one is this super cute bunting hand towel.  I made this one for my grandmother for her birthday. 

A very quick and easy project that makes a great gift.  It's super fun hanging on the stove bar too, sorry I didn't get a pic of that.  Here's my pinspiration : )

The next project was even easier than the towel.  If you have on Pinterest at all in the last couple of months than you all about washi tape by now.  I even found my washi tape at Target. Bonus!

With my washi tape I made some twist ties!  Yes, you read that right, twist ties.  But these are way too cute for the garbage!

All you need is some washi tape and some floral wire.  If you want to make some you can check out the tutorial here.

Well that's all I've got for now.  Hopefully I've given you some pinspiration!  I've got a little Disney fun to share with too, so hopefully it won't take me another month to do that : )

Spray Paint Can Do Wonders

A while back I posted here about how I used spray paint to take my entryway light fixture from "drab to fab"!  Ok, I know that is a seriously overused phrase, but it is amazing what a difference a little brown spray paint can make!

Since I was so happy with the light I did I set my sights on a ceiling fan that I've had a serious dislike for since we moved into this house.  I've been putting off painting it because I wasn't really sure how well it would turn out.  I finally decided I was just going to bite the bullet and do it!  If it turned out awful then not big loss, it needed to be replaced anyway...but, if it turned out great then it would be a lot cheaper than replacing it.

Here's the fan before...kind of a funky shade of green.  My guess is the goal was for it to look like a patina faux finish. 

Not a big fan of the glass light covers either...  Ok, enough of the ugly! Here's the quick run down on how I did it.

When I did the light in the entry way I just used regular brown spray paint, but this time I wanted something with a nicer finish.  I was really happy with with one.  Just a recommendation though, practice before you start.  You have to make sure it goes on even.  (I got lucky that the fan is up high and you can't see the drippy parts)

I taped off the air holes so no paint got in the motor.  I also taped off the wires and the sockets for the light bulbs.  Then I laid the little pieces out on a piece of cardboard and then started spraying. 

For the hard parts (taking the fan down and then putting it back up) I had my super handy step-dad!  Oh, and about those ugly light covers...I picked out the replacements at Lowe's for about $8 each. 

It's definitely not perfect and if you look close you can see all the little drips, but I am super happy with the way it turned out.  And it made a really big impact in the room!  What do you think?  Are you ready to spray paint something? 

We've Been "Egged"

Well, My house got "egged" yesterday! 

And the culprit was one of my best friends and 2 of her kiddos!

A while back I saw this print from Eighteen 25 on Pinterest and thought it was too cute and such a fun idea.  (By the way, you can download the print FREE here)  Then I was lucky enough to have someone egg us : )

My boys LOVED this spontaneous egg hunt!  I had a heads up that this would be happening during nap time.  So when my hubby got home from a meeting I let the boys run out to meet him.  Since I knew the eggs were out there I was ready with their buckets and the camera!

  

It didn't take the boys long to realize there were treats inside the eggs! It's funny to see their different personalities come out at times like this. Big man picked up a couple of eggs and was ready to sit down and see what was inside. Little man went as fast as he could to collect as many eggs as would fit in his bucket before he was ready to call it quits. 

Can you tell that right after this picture was taken we went inside to watch the Kentucky game? 

 Hope your Saturday was as fun as ours was!  You still have time...go egg a friends house!!



More Age Blocks

I finally got a chance to make up some more age blocks!  I made 7 sets last week!! I was on a roll : )

As I was looking through the pictures of the finished blocks, and I came across this one, and it occurred to me that these would also be SUPER cute to use in a maternity photo session or just as your taking snap shots of your growing baby bump!!

Three of the sets were to fill orders for 2 sweet ladies that have patiently waiting for me to get more blocks in so I could add some cute to them : )  Thanks for your patience Bethany and Jamie!  (One of those sets was just like the set from this post, so no new pics)

The other 4 sets went in the shop today!   

Great for a girl or boy

Traditional boy set (or could be gender neutral)

Super cute and girly

Not overly girly but still feminine

Have a fantastic week!! 

 

Handprint Shirt For Grandma

I have a HUGE list of different blog posts I want to do!  No really, I have like 12 different ones started (at least, they're started in my mind), but they're all kind of long posts and I'm just too tried to tackle any of them tonight. But I really wanted to feel like I've accomplished something for the blog this week and I thought you might appreciate a little bit of crafty goodness, so here goes....

A little over a year ago my friend Amy asked me to make shirts for her mom and mother-in-law for Christmas using her kiddos hand prints (the outline of their hands actually).  I immediately fell in love with the idea and came up with a plan.  Since Amy's kiddos were the only grandkids on either side, the shirts were going to be the same.

You can't really tell because of the way the shirt is folded in this picture, but the design is in the bottom left corner of the shirt.  I've never been one to have bold graphics stuck in the middle of my chest : ) 

Well, in the last year Amy's family has added one more little handprint to their family and they also have a new niece.  You know grandma's, they can't have anything out of balance when it comes to their grandkids!  So I added one more hand to Amy's mom's shirt and two more to her mother-in-law's shirt. 

Pin It

Just in case you were wondering, I did use the actual outlines of each of the kiddo's hands for the shirt.  I told Amy that her mother-in-law was either going to have to gain some weight, or we'd have to make 2 separate shirts if she has anymore grandkids! 

Here are a couple of other handprint shirts I've done.  These pictures are of the whole shirt so you can see the placement of the design a little better. 

The last two are ones that I had made as gifts for two different moms.  I didn't have access to get outlines of the kid's hands so I just used smaller hearts.  The initial in the middle is of the family's last name (funny, I just realized they were both C's).  Same general concept, just a little bit different design

Well, I hope you all have had a wonderful and restful weekend and that you will have an equally wonderful week!  

 

My Goals for 2012

I know what you're thinking..."This post is about a month and a half late!"   Well, I did start thinking about this back in January, but I wanted to take some time to think and pray through what I thought my goals should be.  Some of them I'm really excited about and actually have some sort of plan for.  Others, well, seem very daunting and overwhelming.  Which is part of the reason I'm sharing.  I'm hoping for some accountability and prayers, because I know that those are what will keep me on track!





1) Make better use of my time!

Ephesians 5:15-16 says "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil."  I think that "making the best use of the time" is a little different for everyone because God has given each of us a unique calling. And when we are faithful to God and His calling, we know full well when we are NOT making the best use of the time!

God doesn't promise us tomorrow, or our next breath for that matter, but I sure do live my life like I've got all the time in the world.  I take for granted that I have plenty of time to do the things I know I should be doing, so I do the things I want to do first. That, my friends, is just plain selfishness!  And I don't care who you are, God did NOT call you to be selfish! 

Right now, my calling is to be the wife to a man that works full time and is pursuing his PhD and to be the mom to two very active little boys and all that those two "jobs" entail.  That's where my focus and my priorities need to be and all other pursuits (however important and good they may be) need to take a back seat.  I know that it may be completely different for you (and really this one "goal" could be a whole separate blog post in itself).  But for me, the Holy Spirit has really convicted me, and I know that I have been seriously lacking in this area.





2) Cook more (eat out less)

This one is pretty self explanatory, but will most likely be my hardest goal to reach.  It's not that I hate to cook, it's more that there's always other things I'd rather be doing.  Not to mention, I just really don't care that much about food.  Don't get me wrong, if it's there, I'm gonna eat it.  Hence the reason for goal # 4 : )  I would just much rather have someone else prepare it and then clean it all up! 

What it comes down to is I need to get better at meal planning!  (Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!)
It seems like most of the time I wait until the last minute and then am frantically looking through the pantry and freezer trying to decide what to make and if I have all the right ingredients. 



3) Memorize scripture

This is one of those goals that is a typical new year's resolution for me.  I always have the best of intentions, but then quickly get very lax on the actual process.  A big part of my problem in the past was that I didn't really have a plan.  That's what is different this time around. 

I've heard this suggested by a couple of other moms that I really look up to and that's why I'm giving it a try.  I have a little notebook (actually is a bunch of 3x5 note cards that are spiral bound) and as I come across different verses that really stand out to me I write them on the note cards.  Then I will carry the notebook with me (probably in my purse because that's always with me) and whenever I have a spare moment I can read through them.  For example, the doctors office, carpool line, the check out line, etc.  There are easily three or more times, everyday, that I would have the opportunity to do this.  The more you read them, the more ingrained the verses become.  How many of your children's favorite books do you have memorized because you've read them so many times?!  Same concept!

4) Loose some weight

   7 pounds to be exact.  I know you're probably thinking "why even mention that one?", but hey, I'm just trying to keep it real.  I'm not a good diet-er so my plan is to start small.  So far I've already lost 3 of my 7! Yay!  In reality I have about 20 pounds to loose (10 pounds per kiddo that I didn't loose with the rest of the "baby weight").  I'm thinking doing it in small chunks will work better for me.  I'm pretty sure that if I can do better with goal #2 that it will help me out here too!  I've also started be more intentional about exercise.  I even went to a zumba class...once : )  It was a lot of fun, and yes, I plan to go back.

5) Actually DO some of the things I've "pinned"

Ok, so spending (a lot of) time on Pinterest is part of the reason for goal #1.  But I really do try and stay focused on finding things that actually pretain to my life like recipes, cleaning tips, etc (not random things like stuff I played with in my childhood or places I'd like to visit but never will) and I have already done several projects that I had pinned with plans to do several more.  So it wasn't really a waste of time...right?! 

As of right now I have about 6 or so completed pinterest projects and a handful more "in the works"!  I can't wait to share them with you.  My hope is to post one to two completed projects each month.  Until then you can check out what I've been working on here.  Yes, I really did create a pin board so I could re-pin all the stuff I have completed!  Dorky, I know, but I'm OK with that!

Well there you have it...my goals for this year.  Your prayers, as well as any advice or insight, are much appreciated.  I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!

** All images (except the pinterest button) in this post are from google images**