"LAZY" Teacher Appreciation + Race Judicata

First off I want to say THANK YOU to my new followers! I love clicking on that button and seeing the number go up - it has been slow but thank you for getting on my wagon!

Click here to see my "big" Teacher Appreciation gift from last year. http://staceylegg.blogspot.com/2010/05/teacher-appreciation-mission.html

I filled it with coordinating teacher goodies like binder clips, paper clips, push pins, and a little extra chocolate! Can't hurt right? I am foregoing this gift this time and gave nice gift cards to their favorite restaurants. I know these teacher ALOT better than in previous years and know they are well stocked in supplies department. Please leave me a comment with a link to what you did - I love great ideas (especially since I have at least 4 more years of this!)

So the Race Judicata kicks my behind! I did not feel well at all after that race so my goal is to do much better in preparing in hopes to not feel like garbage when all is over. However, I LOVE doing this! It gives me bonding time with my girls ( Abbi, Melissa, and Taylor all participated as well as my friend Jennifer who ran for herfirst 5K - shout out to you girlie!) 4 of the 5 came home with a "prize" (aka coffee mug) for placing in our age division.

Abbi beat her mama by a whole TWO minutes! She's gonna be a track star:)

I finished 4th in my age division! I know fourth doesn't sound like much but I've never placed before so that was kinda cool.

Melissa placed but I can't remember if it was 2nd or 3rd. We were kinda busy talking and we missed the particulars - sorry Melissa!

Taylor placed first her age division - GOOOO TAYLOR! She is so cute and just grins from ear to ear the entire 1/2 mile. I can't express how fun it is to see our girls into running.

Have a happy Wednesday! One of these days soon I am hoping to have a layout!

Easy Last Minute Teacher Gift

ANNOUNCEMENT: In case you haven't noticed - tomorrow starts Teacher Appreciation Week! Ha! That was sorta my way of making a joke, however, if you haven't had a chance to work on this thought and you are like me - INCREDIBLY BLESSED with some great teachers, here is a SUPER QUICK and SUPER EASY picker-upper.

To follow with my theme of "things teachers need but shouldn't have to buy for themselves because they take care of our kids all day" (whew, that was a mouthful!) I thought a box of Band-Aids would be great. Kiddos are always aquiring little boo-boos throughout the day and here is something the teacher always needs on hand.



I did a simple wording "Thank you for ALWAYS coming to my AID!" Gotta love cardstock and then punched two small holes on either side of the tag and ran the ribbon through. EASY! (and quick!)


Here's hoping by the end of this week your child/ren's teacher will know just how appreciated he or she is:) Let me know your great ideas - I'd love to see them and if you leave me a link, I'll share it with everyone else.

I have one more thing to share tomorrow so please come back!

Giveaway winner + more inspiration...

SSOOOOOOO.....drumroll please .......... the very randomly picked winner is:


Yay for Emily! Let me know how/when you want to get your goodies and they are yours!

Next week I hope to have sorted out some more stuff and am considering giving away my original Cricut to one lucky reader - thinking maybe once I hit 25 readers so be sure to tell all your friend - I would appreciate it!

So today's Teacher Appreciation Inspiration is another little goodie rom Bath & Body - portable scent/air freshener! Ever smelled those kiddos after they have had recess of P.E. - you need some fresh air- LOL!

Start with the freshener that looks like this - it's great because they can hang it just about anywhere in the room and out of reach of tiny hands.


I made another little wording: "You have been SCENT-sational!" (Get it scent?) I printed it on cardstock and then punched it with a scalloped circle punch (1 7/8 inch) and then mounted it with a solid blue and punched that with a second punch (2 5/16).

I tried to use a relatively coordinating ribbon and tied it to the back. This took me outside my box cause I would've prefered the tag be readable from the front of the give but there was no good way to tie it on.

This is the finished product - hands are shakey today but I'm sure you get the point.

Thanks so much for playing along so far, I still have a few more Teacher gifts to share so stay tuned!

Happy Weekend:0

Teacher Appreciation (there may be a theme here?)

As the week begins to unfold you may see a theme in my gifts to the kiddos teachers - maybe?!? One of the things I wanted to try to do was give them things that would help them in the classroom. For today's gift - something a classroom can never have too much of.......

Hand Sanitizer!

So I took advantage of B & BW when they had a sale - think ahead people when possible:)

(sorry the pic isn't so great but you see the point!)

Then I printed the words "HANDS DOWN we think you're the best!!!" onto white cardstock. I then had Braden put his hand over it, I traced it and cut it out. I then mounted the white hand onto a coordinating piece of cardstock and trimed it to fit the hand. Finally, we finished it off with an elastic bow (in coordinating colors, of course!) and voia - a $5 gift for day two!


Don't forget to go to the previous post & comment for the giveaway - cute stuff!

Thanks for stopping by, Happy Wednesday:)

Giveaway + Teacher Appreciation

So here it is (a bit later than I hoped since we have had computer "issues"). I promised I would be giving away some goodies here since I am trying to do a bit of spring cleaning. Habits change and styles change and so here I am with way more stuff than I'll ever use.

This first giveaway consists of a Creative Memories scrapbook tote filled with over 50 sheets of assorted papers! There is GCD, Creative Memories, Colorbok, and more! All you have to do is leave me a comment - it can be about anything you want.


Here is the inside of the tote:


and a shot of all the papers - oh and there i a mini album in there too!

Only catch is you must be local where I can get it to you without it costing a fortune to ship. Thanks for following my corner of the world!

Now, if you have little ones in school (or big ones too I guess) you probably already know Teacher Appreciation is right upon us (1st week of May). Last year we did a 4-part series on that and this the first one of this year - trying not to do the exact same things!

Here is gift #1 - to do list and note cards. I purchased both of these items at Michaels in their dolloar section and the ribbon was left over from my fall wreath so this only cost me $2 (nothing immediately since I actually thought ahead!)

I simply tied the two together with the "coordinating" ribbon and then put on a tag that reads:

Take NOTE: We think you're amazing!

Quite simple, quick, but effective I think. Come back tomorrow for another!

Don't forget to comment for the giveaway - I will pick a random number first thing Friday a.m. - Good Luck!

Teacher Appreciation - Mission Accomplished!

First a little pit stop to baby bird land - shot this today! Their feather's are coming in - their beaks are more solid - and clearly they were hungry! What was so cool was I could see mama up on the powerline watching me. She was even brave enough to stop by just after this even with me close by and feed them. I could see the worm in her mouth!



Final view of Teacher Appreciation gifts! You might be tired of these by now (cause I kinda am) however I am super, super proud that I actually got them all done in a timely fashion - began preparing early which did make a difference - might have to try that again in the future - the preparing early part.

Ms. Maddox isn't too girly so we kept hers simple.


This is my fav - love the pink/black/white combo!


This one didn't photograph so well but the ribbon is the same color as the ribbon on the "gift" bling. Worked out well.

Hopefully I'll have a layout to share (which also counts as photos Aunt Teresa) soon, like tomorrow! It's been sitting there since Sunday! Too much else to do with Teacher App., Mother's Day, Baby gifts and a wedding gift. Maybe life will slow down but then that might mean I was dead and not really ready for that. Sweet Dreams!

Teacher Appreciation Phase 4 (& sneek peek of 5)

Again Phase 4 is simple - HUGE chocolate (which shows appreciation to anyone if you ask me) and then wrap it in decorative cardstock. I used spare ribbon and punched the hole with my rectangle punch (my ribbon punch has two holes but i just used 1/2 of it) and then tied the tag on with a simple knot. So far these gifts are going over well - Braden said this am "Mrs. Childs says she owes me a Thank You note!" I love it:)


This is the "BIG" gift for Friday. A simple craft organizer filled all sorts of teacher requirements.


Thumb tacs, binder clips, magnets, hand sanitizer, and of course Nuggets of choc. to keep them sane throughout the day! I tried to color coordinate the items (office depot was great for this type stuff). This lid will be decorated with beautiful paper and their name in some creative way but that's the last part.


Hopefully you've gained a few ideas - maybe they won't be packaged the same but surely they will encourage your child's teacher of how appreciated they really are!

Teacher Appreciation Phase 2 & 3

Phase 2 - we missed photographing this one but it consisted of a small bottle of Bath & Body works hand lotion and the tag tied with a pretty ribbon read " You are SCENT-sational"

Phase 3 - is pictured here. Simply a package of Swedish Fish - wrapped with "spare" cardstock, label attached and ready to go for tomorrow. This doesn't take but a second and only a few dollars! Make your teacher feel appreciated with even the smallest things!


And on a personal note - there are days when we think we miss the mark entirely with our children and then there are Monday nights. Last night while trying to prepare the pool deck for the impending weather I commented I needed some kind of basket to put the roses in as I cut them before I brought them into the house for a container. This is where my daughter took that idea.

She guided me to the back porch and here's what I saw.. Rose petals guiding the way ....


To her "basket" for me to carry my flowers. She added the ribbon herself, filled it with water and a few roses and labeled it Happy Mother's Day ... maybe, just maybe, we are teaching thoughtfulness...and maybe, just maybe, they are getting it. So sweet, I cried!

And a quick shot of the bird nest progress, apprently one egg either isn't going to hatch or is just a bit slow - I wouldn't want to come out either in all this nasty weather.

Have a happy day!

Teacher Appreciation - Phase I

So this is Teacher Appreciation week and it's so much fun to find clever things to share with your child's teacher to show how much we really do "appreciate" them. I got this idea from another blog: www. eighteen25.blogspot.com and thanks to Lisa (who told me about it) I am hooked!

First gift: "My teacher is AW-esome!"

I found these clear boxes in my stash recently - they were used in Melissa's first baby shower which shows what a hoarder I am - hee hee! I punched two holes with my holepunch for attaching ribbon and the tag.


Then I used thin brown ribbon and filled the box with Hershey's Nuggets with Almonds (thank the Lord these are all gone now!) Another idea is just a bag of these candies with a tag that says "My teacher is Solid Gold!" That just came to me as I thought how they looked like little bricks of gold. Anyhow, I digress.


Final step is to tie the tag and the chocolates to the bottle of A & W and you're ready to go. The tags are downloadable for free at the blog above or here. http://http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/04/quick-cheesy-teacher-appreciation-gifts.html



I hope to be back in a bit with the other stages in case you want to copy like I did. Happy Rainy Monday!