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!

Maybe this time . . .

The power won't go out one sentence shy of being finished with this post - super frustrating!!!

Anyway, Aunt Teresa is supposed to be following and so I must include photos of the children or she's threatened to boycott (not really but it sounds serious enough.) So here are a few pics from recent affairs:

Tori (Birthday Girl) going down the slide - love her facial expressions and those chunky thighs!


Here are three of the grandkids with grandma - love how the girls are holding hands and wonder what they might be learning at the pond - about turtles or fish maybe?


This is one of the few decent ones from our trip to the Strawberry Farm. My batteries died (I know, how did I let that happen) so I even lost one I thought was great. Clearly she didn't get the "wear a red/pink shirt" memo I sent out.



Now on to some crafty goodness:

In honor of earth day I took a pile of my green cardstock scraps from my card pile and made a page. I recycled the Creative Memories page insert from my side loading pages and adhered all the pieces to it. Fortunately there was a bit of pink in that Anna Griffin paper which isn't old at all but I made a card out of the rest of that paper. I used lots of flowers and girly stuff and really loved the way this page turned out. Amazing what we can do when we put our minds to using what we already have.



My newest LOVE is with my sewing machine. This was my third project: a 24X32 in. baby blanket! One of our friends just welcomed Isabella this past week and I made this blanket & card for them. I even stitched on the card!

Just so no one thinks I'm bragging - Hee hee! I must include a photo of my "mess-up" I sewed a small portion of the banding to the blanket part and didn't really know a good way to get it undone without totally restarting or messing up the banding. Don't think it was too noticable and Holly was thrilled with it!

Hope you have a great week! Be inspired to do something new or use what you already have - just do it! (sorry nike) Have a great week and I'll be back later with some of my Teacher Appreciation stuff.

To Remember ...

Sometimes we need to be reminded how great our kids are. If you don't have children yet, you might find this hard to believe or think it sounds like I'm a terrible mom. We have had an incredibly busy time recently around here and it doesn't look like it's letting up anytime soon. With all that going on, occasionally we can forget, so I stole this blog idea from http://http://stephaniehowell.typepad.com/my_weblog/ I love her journaling style - how honest she is! Check her out if you haven't discovered her yet.


she . . .

... is a nurturer through and through
... is a little too big for her britches
... is a total rule follower (minus the attitude)
... works hard to do her school work well - makes straight A's!
... sometimes enjoys tattling on her brothers (cause it makes her look good, except she doesn't realize how no one likes a tattle tale)
... is going through a real tough time attitude wise
... but loves as hard as anybody I know.
... has the most beautiful green eyes.

I love her and yet struggle because she's so much like me - I look for the good but it's harder to see because which of us likes to brag on themselves?

He ...

... is so handsome (how could I forget that you ask, the attitude can mask it!)
... is super smart and doesn't seem to forget anything he learns. BLOWS me away!
... enjoys being by himself (didn't get that from his mama)
... took a walk through the woods yesterday - discovered a stream and wild blackberries - he LOVED it - all by himself.
... only wants to do what he wants to do - everything else is "adults torturing kids for fun!"
... loves to read but struggles to stay with what is approved. Wants to read Percy Jackson so bad and sometimes I wonder if he sneaks it at school.
...thinks his little brother gets to do all the fun stuff. Clearly doesn't remember his life when he was five.

The smallest he ...

...is sooo stinkin' cute!
...is the most well-rounded of them all. a little sports, a little school, and LOT of personality.
...wants to be whatever age his siblings are.
...is almost six and wants a basketball goal (we've been watching playoffs and High School Musical)
...still throws a tantrum every now and again - just started stomping his feet again - ugh!
..still loves to hold my hand (here is where my heart melts)
... sings/hums/talks CONSTANTLY! I wish I could really portray how his mouth never stops, i mean NEVER! (o.k. - so he got it honestly - but i think he got a worse does of it)

So take some time today to remember all the good things in the people you know and love - it'll make your day brighter!

New Things All Around

Love Spring! It makes you see the world new again... like brand new baby girls. I made this card for a couple who recently had a sweet baby girl - hope they treasure every moment with her!


While digging all the vines from my yard (and I use the term all very liberally) I looked up and this caught my eye. I carefully peeked inside to find these eggs. Almost every year we find a nest in the yard (different places) and it's so fun to watch the progress. I hope to get another pic tomorrow to see if anything has popped out. I get so excited!


And the newest hobby is sewing - probably start with some home decor type stuff. Is over the bobbin fear but not real excited about a pattern - more of a free-hand girl myself. This is the camera cover I made today (actually the second one because I cut my seams too short and they "ripped") for myself. The previous post shows the one I made for Melissa. Amazingly I did this one without assistance.


Hope you are having a great moment whether it's morning or night. Thanks for stopping by and tell a friend. :)

First "Official" Sewing Project :)

So this is SUPER exciting on many levels. I conquered my fear of re-threading my bobbin! I know that sounds silly to some of you more experienced sewers but it is what has kept me from activly persuing this hobby for some time. Secondly, I was able to make this really great present for a VERY SPECIAL lady in my life. Third, it shows me that I probably could be relatively decent at sewing and then boy my imagination/lists of future projects kicks in - LOOK OUT here I come...hee hee.


Just wanted to share this accomplishment with you all - of course I had to incorporate some scrapbook techniques in the gift giving/packaging process. Thanks for looking!

Cards & Flowers

So what could be better than a card with some flowers? Today I'm sharing two card ideas that are relatively quick and can use some of the supplies you have on hand - cause we know you got 'em!

First up is one for sweet Tori (who turned TWO this month - unbelievable!) I used a solid cardstock and did a version of a bi-fold for her. The hello cutie is from K&Co as well as the hearts. The cardstock is standard. I just mounted the chipboard sticker to a solid white then double matted with pink. Then I cut a strip of white approx .5 to .75 thick and adhered the ribbon to it. Basically making a sleeve for the bi-fold card.



This is what the the sleeve looks like from the back. The white/ribbon strip was adhered to the back of the chipboard mounting so the back had a smooth look. I added cardstock to the inside along with our Birthday message and then slid the sleeve on.


Another perspective. Here you can see how the strip is adhered.


Here is a quick "standard" card for my hair-dresser who recently got married. She got married on the beach so I thought the teal/blue was fitting. A little bling never hurts either!

Now to the flowers - I know you think the pic is messed up but really, it is that orange/flourescent almost. Really pretty!

Here is a bouquet for my mantle - at some point the thorns become worth it and the first clipping of the year is surely that time. Love fresh flowers in the house!

Here is the Spartan Iris that we just planted last week but is blooming already - the kids think it's cool how fast that happens (and actually, I do too.)

We've been kinda busy but I do have more activity shots for ya but thought you might like something creative today. Hope to be back tomorrow - until then, enjoy every minute!

We go on some "Wild Adventures"

WARNING: there are ALOT of pics here but I wanted to get it done in one post and hopefully (PLEASE, LORD PLEASE) get some scrappy stuff done today (along with lesson plans, piano lessons, and soccer practice!) Anyway, the first few days of Spring Break we went to Wild Adventures with some friends of ours... we had alot of fun so see for yourself. Some of these will just crack you UP!

David trying to explain what the ride will do - little did he know we hadn't watched the ride and it was quite the "spinny" ride - so glad I didn't do that one!

This is just before he took off on the formerly titled Double Shot. He wasn't scared and rode it four times in a row so I'm not sure what this moment of reflection was about but glad I got it on "film"

Can't forget the "silly face picture"

It's so fun watching them - the anticipation is the worst part. LOVE that face!

These next two are classics to my children - he's staring up trying to figure out why his car won't work like it's supposed to.....

She waits impatiently with NO CLUE why his car won't work! The story of their lives.

O.K. - this is David's fav of the trip. I snuck my camera onto the little roller coaster to try and get a close-up of his face - I think it worked.

For some reason on Day Two he was convinced it was his day to volunteer at the petting zoo. He was VERY serious about it and said we could just drop him off and come back later. Uh, NO WAY! He brushed every animal in the place and finally decided on his own to leave - apparently his shift was over! If you could've only seen how serious he was about this.

The LONG, LONG, LONG awaited turn on the go-carts.

Just "hangin' out" I love how casual she looks just spinning around so high in the air without a care in the world.

Well, that's all (not really but I don't you don't want to see ALL of them) so I'm off to do some work, some scrappy stuff, and whatever else needs to be done in the meantime. Hope you have a great day!