Party in Pink

Craft 2: Oh, (Paper) Christmas Tree

2011-12-22T08:56:00.000-06:00

I love paper. Love. I have stacks and stacks of patterned paper in my craft room, and it's the first place I go anytime I'm at a craft store. For the longest time I would buy paper, but not use it. I guess I didn't like the idea of not having it anymore? I'm over that now. :)

When I saw this cute little canvas on Pinterest, I had to make it. It's a paper Christmas tree. And it uses lots of different pretty papers.

I can't find it on the blog it was originally pinned from (it says the page has been deleted), but it was easy enough to figure out. Make rolls of papers of your choice in incrementally smaller lengths. Glue onto a canvas in a tree shape, and embellish with brads or buttons or whatever. That's another collection I'm learning to use and not just hoard.

So here's my tree. Ignore the horrible 1am quality of the picture. I bought the canvas for $2, a few sheets of paper and a pack of brads for $3. So for about $6 and 30 minutes, I have a sweet new piece of Christmas art!

I love how it looks with my collection of As on the family room mantle.

Love my As!! The glare from the flash on my camera, not so much.

Happy crafting! I'd love to see what you've created!

Craft #1: The Glitter House

2011-12-01T18:27:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned, Avery and I decided to start the tradition of making cereal box houses each year after seeing these. So I've been saving cereal boxes and looking online everywhere for info on how to make them. I did find some tutorials and patterns, but in the end we just kind of winged it.

I started by sketching the house out and then transferring that idea to a sketch of the pattern pieces. I used the size of the box along with where it was already scored to determine some of my measurements.

I'm an English teacher. I don't really do math. So for the angles I just made tick marks at certain points and used a ruler to connect the dots. I cut separate pieces for the windows and layered vellum behind them for the panes. Then we painted, glued, glittered, and....

Ta Da!!! Our first cereal box house.

Love it! The doorknob is a crystal brad I had in my findings stash; the wreath is made from the mini garland I got to make wreaths for Avery's dollhouse. We wallpapered the inside before assembly so you wouldn't see cereal info through the door, but--did you notice? I forgot to make a door cut out on the main house portion. Oops. Oh well, easy enough to fix. That will also allow me to slip an LED candle inside and illuminate those pretty windows!

A few other things I'll remember for next year:

make sure the pattern is aligned so that the inside of the box is the outside of the house. I really thought I had accounted for that, but the back piece was the printed part of the box, and hard to cover with paint.
draw/cut both side walls as attachments to the front. I did mine as complete mirrors, so they fit together like "L"s, but that meant a visible seam on the front right.
I'm still undecided as to whether it's best to paint before or after assembly. We painted first, which made for much less mess, especially with Avery helping, but the paint did cause the cardboard to shrink and warp a bit, so it didn't fit as tightly when I went to put it together.

At any rate, Craft #1 of 12 is complete! We plan to add some bottle brush trees and a blanket of snow, but those have proved harder to find than I expected.

Linking up to Beneath My Heart's "Best DIY Projects of December"

12 Crafts of Christmas

2011-11-28T07:00:00.002-06:00

Okay, so here's my plan to keep up my crafty mojo through the holidays: The "12 Crafts of Christmas" project.

Here's how it works. Choose 12 crafts to make between now and Christmas. They can be gifts, decor items, activities with the kids--whatever. Simple, involved--again, whatever.

Once you've created, there are a few ways to share.

Join the 12 Crafts Facebook page. Share your ideas for what you want to make, get ideas from others, and post pictures or links to your projects.
Create a Pinterest board titled "12 Crafts of Christmas." Upload pictures of your finished projects, or pin from your blog if you have one. Follow me, I'll follow you back, and hopefully we'll create a whole network of great pins. The one I have created here includes pins that I plan to make this month.
Finally...link up with your projects. Be sure you label them with the number craft it is!

I'm just about done with my first craft. Avery and I are making a glitter house out of cereal boxes. We found these last year and decided to make one every year, building a little cardboard village over time.

http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/2009/12/in-lane-snow-is-glistening.html

Aren't they precious? The one we're making isn't quite as perfect, but I'm trying to let Avery help as much as possible. We just have a few more details to add before I share pictures of this year's house.

The linky is below. Please only link up to projects you have created for this holiday season, and be sure to link to the specific post, not your main blog page.

Happy Crafting!!

Where I've Been

2011-11-27T16:45:00.000-06:00

Is anyone still out there? Honestly, I'll be shocked if there is. It has, after all, been almost one year since I last posted. I've had good intentions, really, and I've done lots of blog-worthy projects, but by the time I take pictures and upload them, I've usually moved on to the next thing. But I love being busy, so I'm not complaining (though having something on the calendar every weekend for the last 11 weeks is a little much...and the next two weeks are booked,too).

Here are a few of the activities filling our calendar over the last several months...

A shower with lots of DIY details for my friend Lindsay. We have been friends our entire lives, she was one of my bridesmaids, and she asked Avery to be her flower girl. We also went to four other parties in preparation for this wedding!

Disneyworld!! We went to Orlando over Fall break and had a fantastic time. Between the flight and the crowds, I really didn't expect my husband to like it, but he can't wait to go back! I made Avery's outfit in the above picture (she wanted something special for the plane ride--her first) and an autograph book she used when meeting the characters. I'll post about that later.

And...the wedding. I know I'm biased, but i think she is about the most beautiful thing ever. She did a great job, and didn't flinch during her walk down the aisle in front of over 300 guests, even when she ran out of flowers mid-way down.

I've also had Writing Project events, and was just in Chicago for the annual meeting. And then there's teaching (just google "Tennessee teacher evaluation" to see how that's going this year. It's never good for little ole TN to make the NY Times...), and maintaining the new house and cooking and being a wife and a mommy. Whew!

I really am going to try to blog more. In fact, I have a fun project kicking off this week that I hope lots of people from around the blogosphere will join me in! More soon on that, but here's a hint....it involves pinterest!!

A Chili Story (and a recipe)

2010-12-21T08:41:00.000-06:00

We had our first snow of the year last week. Now, it doesn't take much snow to get Tennesseans all jumpy and to clear the grocery store of every item someone might possibly need for the duration, but this was a real snow. We actually made it to church that day, then heard reports of what it was doing up our way and turned around and went back home. We had to postpone our plans for hibachi and Tangled, and my school was out the next day, but canceled for the next before noon. And since I had everything on hand and had the time to prep it this morning, I decided to make a pot of chili for supper. But like any good recipe, there's a story that goes with it...

Each year I bring a pot of chili to Avery's daycare's chili supper fundraiser. Each year I lose. I really don't bring the chili to try to win, but because it's the easiest way for me to volunteer (much of the set up is done during my school day). I made chili for a cookout with Kyle's coworkers. It received raves. I made it the next weekend when another coworker and his wife came over for dinner. (I found out an hour before they were to arrive that the wife was allergic to beef--and I'd made chili!! Thank goodness for my 3 ingredient potato soup.) Kyle said it was the best chili he'd ever had, and he's brutally honest about my cooking, so if he says it's good, he means it. My parents came by to drop Avery off and I offered them a bowl. My dad was still talking about it at church the next day. The next week was the chili supper, and, as usual, I was afraid it wouldn't work. See, I have to drop it off at 7am when I take Avery, so I can't tweak it like I do at home, and I'm at someone else's mercy to turn the crock pot on. I learned after the second year to assemble it the night before but not cook it til I dropped it off. Yuck! So I'm making the chili when I realized I'd gotten the tomatoes with garlic instead of the plain ones. And I'd already put extra garlic in the meat when I cooked it.

That afternoon I'm on the phone with Kyle coordinating our plans for the afternoon when he starts reading an email that just came into his inbox from my mom (she works for the same company he does):

"Heather's chili one 1st place in the contest. I wasn't judging, but was up there when they were. It was a unanimous decision. I haven't told Heather yet, though. I figured she'd want to be surprised."

That's when Kyle said "Oops." Hehehe!

So in my last year of eligibility (Avery will be in kindergarten next year. sigh.), I was finally victorious. My prize? My name next to the trophy with a big spoon of beans on it. The trophy (thankfully) stays at daycare to be reused each year. This recipe really is yummy, and the crock pot makes it great for busy evenings. It started out life as a Weight Watchers recipe, but I have made many changes to it over the years. It is packed full of veggies and has double the beans of the original recipe, so it's very hearty and healthy!

(Ignore the horrible picture taken with my iPod after a very long day of teaching. I just needed proof that I actually won!!)

Fire Roasted Vegetable Chili
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 medium carrots, chopped small*
1 lb ground beef (I use lean, but use whatever)
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 cans Fire Roasted tomatoes*
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp brown sugar*
1/2 cup orange juice (I actually used V8 Splash Peach Mango, as I had it on hand)*
salt, to taste

Set crock pot to cook on low (mine is 6 hours). Combine onion, green pepper and carrots in crock pot, add a bit of salt. Meanwhile, cook ground beef and garlic in nonstick pan over medium heat until cooked through; salt to taste. Drain meat and return to pan. Add chili powder, cumin and coriander and stir to coat. Add meat to crock pot. Add beans, tomatoes, paste and brown sugar. Stir until everything is well combined. Add juice and stir once more. Allow to cook on low for 5-6 hours.

I put a star next to what I consider my secret ingredients. The fire roasted tomatoes really add that special something. It's really easy, even if the ingredient list looks a little long, and I usually already have these things on hand. Something about this blend really highlights the different flavors, and each one hits you separately. Love it. I'll probably make it again over my 16 day Christmas break which starts in 2 hours and 36 minutes. Not that I'm counting.

My Little Cupcake

2010-11-09T21:21:00.000-06:00

I have made all of Avery's Halloween costumes. Well, my grandmother did most of the work on the first two, but they were my designs, and I sewed every stitch of the last three. Except the Tinkerbell one that had no sewing involved...but, whatever. We're really not that into Halloween. I put out a few pumpkins, but that's more fall than Halloween. We don't have trick or treaters out here in the woods, so the last couple of years we've taken Avery to a local park where area businesses hand out candy, but that's it. Despite my whatever attitude toward the day itself, I love love love coming up with costumes for Avery and making them. Maybe it's my competitive spirit knowing all the other daycare parents will see it at the costume parade at her school. You can see my past efforts here, except for last year's Tinkerbell, which I just realized I never blogged about. Sheesh. Add that to my to do list. The flower was probably the hardest, considering I had to dye leggings green and do some real sewing. It was also the most expensive because of those teeny tiny purple ballet flats that called my name from Gymboree. Evil, that place is. :)

This year Avery decided she wanted to be a cupcake after seeing one in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog (yep. she's her mother's child!). Weel, I was not about to spend $60+ on a costume that would be worn for a couple of hours. But I figured I could make it easily enough.

Here's my recipe for a PBK Knockoff:

1/2 yard pink fleece

1/2 yard brown felt

4 pieces of .20 felt in whatever colors
1 yard brown ribbon
1 pink turtle neck
1 super cute kid (I found mine in my living room, but you can use whatever you have on hand)

Cut, sew and glue and.....

TADA!!!

Avery Olivia, 4 1/2 years old

I am really excited about how this turned out. Truthfully, I like it even more that the PBK one. I made the frosting by cutting two doughnut-like circles and then scalloping them. I glued felt "sprinkles" on, and then added a little more glue to keep the two layers together. I didn't bother with the white ruffle part, as we prefer all icing and no whipped cream on our cupcakes. This just slipped on over her shirt--no buttons, no ties.

For the wrapper, I cut strips of felt about 18" long by 6" wide. I then sewed the strips wrong sides together until I had a tube the right width. This made the pleated effect of the wrapper. Two pieces of ribbon made the straps, and it, too, just slipped over her head.

Her headband was just 3 small scalloped circles bunched and stitched and then glued on a headband we already had.

Total time spent? A few hours altogether, but that was mostly because my craft room is still in boxes.

Total cost? $10 including the turtleneck!

And you know you've creatd a successful costume when everyone asks where you bought it and someone else jumps in and says it came from PB and you have to convince them all you made it. Craft bliss, that is.

I'm really happy with this one, and already thinking ahead to my next sewing project. Hhmmmm....

What are you sewing these days? Leave me a comment; I'd love to hear about your projects!

Finally Fall

2010-10-05T09:04:00.001-05:00

After weeks in the 90s, I woke up last Sunday to sweater weather! Finally! The mornings are cool, the afternoons perfect. And just in time for fall break, which, so far I am enjoying immensely, even if it has been very busy.
I really had high hopes for being a better blogger (I say this a lot, don't I?), but life happened, as it tends to do. But, for the most part, life happening this time has been fantastic! Here's a run down of the good, the bad and the ugly:

started back to school August 6th
closed on house August 13th
moved into new house August 20th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Weekend writing retreat August 26th and 27th
Finally got phone transferred September 2nd
School Homecoming September 10th (I have several responsibilities this week; it wears me out)
presentend at a writing conference September 21st
FINALLY got internet September 21st (yes, one month after moving...it's a long story that involved threats of cancelling service at the end)
presentend at a writing conference September 25th
laptop died September 26th
VERY successful yard sale October 2nd (as in, $900 in one day)

Most of it was great, but busy. The laptop part? I'm still in denial that it's dead and hope to revive it somehow. Fortunately, all of my pictures are backed up online, and my really important documents are also on a flash drive. I have some photoshop projects that I don't have elsewhere, and I don't have photoshop on this machine to work with them even. Not the end of the world, but frustrating.

The new house is amazing, and we are loving every minute of living here. Avery is a changed child--from day one she was picking up her toys, getting up and dressed on her own, making her bed. It really is incredible. I made my first cake here the other night. Let me just say that having a level oven, counterspace to work and a dishwasher make cake decorating a much more fun experience! There are no spiders, and our first electric bilkl with us living here was the same as the one at the old house with no one living there, and it's 4000 square feet smaller. It just shows us how inefficient that house is, something we'll be even more aware of this winter when we're not constantly freezing. This house has truly been a blessing. We are slowly getting furniture, and then I can really start decorating. I cannot wait! In the meantime, though, here's a little fall inspiration via Kirklands.

We lost our nearest Kirklands in the 2010 Flood, so now the closest one to me is an hour away. Fortunately, it's in a town I visit regularly for Writing Project stuff. Check out these vignettes from an email they sent me:

There are many reasons I love this mantle: the varying heights, textures, the fact that it is clustered in the center instead of all spread out, and mostly, that it could be recreated for any season or style. I see something similar in my future!

We have built-ins like this in three rooms, and each go up 10 feet. They look great, but are intimidating to decorate. I mean, how do you fill that space? This vignette gives me great ideas. Wreaths are a great way to visually take up space without having a bunch of little things eerywhere. And I always forget about placing wall art on the wall behind the shelf! Tabletop frames, yes, but art? Love it. I don't have outlets in my shelves, (they are in the cabinets below) but I think a non-functioning lamp would still be cool. And the layering...so many possibilities.

Right now my great room bookshelves are decorated ala Kyle, which means there are some random ORB pieces spread throughout the space. Not the look I'm going for, but it's more than I have done!! Part of the problem is that we don't have furniture in there (or anywhere except Avery's room and the Dining Room, really), so I don't have colors to work with. My displays will likely be seasonal for now, as those colors are not really determined by furniture. The library shelves are filled with...books! And that is pretty much Kyle's room, so I'm leaving the arrangement of that to him. The family room shelves are completely empty, but have a very cool design to them, so I am anxious to start filling them.

Okay, so this one is not really me. What I do love, however, is the grouping of several large items instead of tons of tiny things. That is something I'm going to try to focus on in decorating this house--high-impact accessories instead of lots of knick-knacks. This is an especially good lesson after seeing the TONS of tiny things I got rid of in the yard sale!

So what are your fall decorating plans? Where do you put your money and effort--bookcases? Mantles? Porch? As for me...I'll let you know after I go shopping!!

A Character Party without Visiting the Disney Aisle

2010-08-02T09:08:00.000-05:00

When it comes to kids' TV and movie characters, I have issues. To me they belong on underwear and (maybe) sippy cups. I have never purchased character clothes for Avery, and those other people buy her (ahem, grandparents) she only gets to wear around the house. And this loathing of super commercial characteriness spills over to birthday parties.

But, alas, Avery loves princesses. And now that she's four, she has more opinions for her birthday parties, as I want her to. So how do you mix a little girl's interest with mommy's desire for pretty? Go for colors, ideas, not the character itself. For Avery's Princess and the Frog party, that meant soft blues and greens, princesses and frogs, storybook fonts....but no Tiana or Naveem.

We planned and planned...I crafted and crafted...and I'm really happy with how things turned out! This was her first friend party, and that part went well. The pictures....well, not so much. It rained all morning the day of the party, and though it cleared up and was beautiful by the time the guests arrived, we were scrambling to get things out. And then is was WINDY. Combine those, and you get windblown pictures and details that didn't get photographed. I think you'll get the idea though.

Birthday girl ready for the big day. In theme appropriate outfit, of course!

Banner whipping in the wind...it says "Avery is 4" and has dimensional frogs and crowns.

Loved the place settings! I made these plate by cutting eyes from extra plates and paper and adding a food-safe smile. The silver napkin was folded into a crown.

Paper flower centerpieces. I also found some vase gems with light purple flowers that I ran down the table.

Princess crown straw toppers. The cups had green labels and flower embellishment...with room for guests to write their name and claim their cup.

Again with the wind! The center of the tent had a paper flower chandy I made.

Lavender foam monogrammed flags mark the entrance to the party.

I found this great frog standee at Oriental Trading. I made a blindfold and pink glitter lips to play "Plant the Kiss on the Frog." It was not as exciting as the bounce house, however.

a simple lily pad for the bird bath...

all of the food had storybook names. These MnMs were called "Happily Ever Afters."

"Magic Fruit Wands," "Cheesy Dragon Tails (Cheetos)" "From the Royal Garden (veggie tray)"

I made frog hats for the boys (LOVE)...

and personalized crowns for the girls.

Avery was crowned with her special crown by Tiana, played by one of my sweet students. She called me that morning to ask that I not let Avery see her crown until the party. She came up with a whole script including taking the Princess Pledge and the official coronation. She stayed for the whole party, even through gift opening after the kids had left. It was so magical for Avery to have the "real" Tiana at her party!!

The cake!! It came out really well, despite the wet week.

I have done some figure molding with fondant before, but never have they turned out so well! I was really happy with it!! The crown was colored with silver luster dust. All of the flowers had pearl dust on them as well. I tried to save the frog, but it came back headless. Avery took it off to eat!

Favor bags had frog and crown suckers, bubbles, chocolate lips candy, frog toy for boys, lip gloss for girls.

And a partied out four year old. She fell asleep watching...what else? Princess and the Frog!

Hope you loved your party, Peanut! I'm excited to start planning #5!

Quick Cricut Goodness

2010-07-29T10:10:00.001-05:00

Mom got Avery this little yellow plastic tote to take to the beach. Knowing Mom, I figured my nephew would have one, too, so I decided to personalize Avery's to avoid confusion and ensuing arguments. (As it turns out, she did get Cameron one, but forgot to give it to him. So, it was just cute for cute sake, which suits me fine.)

I cut the sandcastle (Doodlecharms cart) from green vinyl and the wording (ZooBalloo) from the pink. Center. Layer. Done.

It took all of 8 minutes, and when Avery got home the day before we left, she found it neatly stocked with her beach toys. She squealed and told me I was the "best maker she ever had". My sweet girl loves to give compliments, and they always make my day.

And real quick before I head to my classroom to work for hours, making up for all the time I wasn't there this summer, here are some pictures from the vacation that inspired this little project.

Sweet Avery

Little Fish

(PS-she's not using her vest at all anymore)

"Helping" by putting sunscreen on all by herself

Heading down one of six waterslides at the condo

Love this sassy pic, though she's really just waving to Pop Pop

My sweet niece, Brenna. I'm really proud of how great this picture came out!!

Avery's New Room-Part 3

2010-07-26T00:01:00.004-05:00

Eventually I will make something that's not for Avery's room, but as I've said, I'm trying to have at least that one room done when we move in, and it's the room for which I have the clearest vision of what I want it to look like.

And by room, I also mean her bathroom, so....

I took these super cheap, completely not my style canvasses...

....and painted over them to create these:

I love them so. Especially the one with the quote. It's a Chinese proverb that I might have altered the wording of a bit. I can't remember. Both are mixed media, which is my favorite type of art to create. The snail was inspired (like a whole lot) by GalerieAnais. I. l.o.v.e her designs. For the quote I cut each letter out with my trusty Cricut. The flower was inspired by Lindsey's posies, but made of paper and using a fun brad for the center. Actually, the only painting on that one is the branch and the stripes on the edges.

I'm thinking the snail will look cute over the toilet, the quote/branch one over the towel bar.

The long canvas was on clearance at Target--$2.99. The square one was $4 at Hobby Lobby. I would never find plain canvases that inexpensive, and since I'm painting the whole thing anyway... I used the same trick with this trio for Avery's playhouse. I really love those. So much that I thought about recreating them in different colors to match her room. But then I decided that that's not all that creative.

I'm fixing to start in on two canvasses for over Avery's dresser, also in mixed media. It has taken me forever to come up with a design I like for those, and I'm a little nervous to start in on them. I think better in threes, apparently, as those designs are a snap for me to think up.

Where do your art inspirations come from? Share, please!

Check This Out

2010-07-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you have never visited Copy Cat Chic, you need to. Reichel finds the best looks for less. And even though I have never used any of the items she has featured, it really has helped me keep my eyes open for less expensive versions of things I like.

So when I found the Anderson Bed on PBKids, talked myself out of it because of the price, and then found the JC Penney's version for pretty much nothing, I had to tell her.

So, take a sneak peek at the bed Avery is getting (courtesy of PaPa & JuJu and Grandmommy & Pop Pop) and then spend some time at Reichel's place learning how to shop with an eye toward savings.

Cookie Sheet Chore Chart

2010-07-22T07:00:00.002-05:00

Have I mentioned that I intend for this new house to change our lives? Hey, for the amount of money we're spending on this thing, I don't think it's too much to ask. We have really tried to think about how we will use each space as we made changes to the plan, selected cabinets, planned shelving, etc. Examples: adding outlets at the top of the stairs and over the fireplace for Christmas decorations, adding a closet under the attic stairs that would otherwise be wasted space. I really think having a place for everything will be life-changing. Right now I feel consumed by clutter, but while some of it needs to hit the road, most of it are items we use (or would use more) if we just had a place for them. We have 17 closets in the new house. Seventeen. Seriously. I know, crazy, right? That's not even including the pantry. And the master closet has more square feet than our current bedroom. Oh, we have a dishwasher, too. I've never had one before, and excited does not begin to express my joy in it. Combine that with a room just for books (a library in the house is an English teacher's dream!!) and one for crafts, and life-changing doesn't seem so far fetched, does it?

Right now I feel like I do everything around here. I'm not saying I do alot, but what does get done is generally done by me. That's changing, too. Kyle has promised to help more (he mows and weedeats; it's not like he does nothing), and we're officially bringing Avery on board, too. She is so excited about this, and we're working with that enthusiasm while it lasts. But since consistency is a weak area in my life, I wanted a way to help us all stay on track.

Enter the job chart.

Isn't cute? The turquoise and apple green are the colors I'm using in the kitchen, where this will live. I spent a lot of time looking for ideas on Etsy and Google, but nothing really fit our needs. Part of simplifying my life is creating systems that are themselves simple. The simpler it is, the more likely I am to stick with it. Most of the ideas I was seeing online had too many boxes and stickers and...stuff.

There's not really a tutorial needed for this, but here's basically what I did:

Spray paint a cookie sheet (ORB for me!!)
Modge Podge two papers to cookie sheets--one about 3/4 the length of the sheet, the other 1/4.
Add stickers outlining jobs to be done.
Seal with another coat of MP.
Embellish.
Add a magnet for each job to the bottom section.

All Avery has to do is take a magnet and check off jobs as she completes them. Easy, right? We discussed together which jobs she wanted on her chart. I was thinking we'd do about four things since she is four, but she had a list of 10 jobs! We settled on these six, making them general enough that they will work as she grows and her responsibilities become greater.

Avery LOVES this. Yesterday after she got home, she ran into the den and asked which job said "make bed." I told her and she placed a magnet beside it. I went to her room, and sure enough, she had made her bed! She'd NEVER done that before...and she sure didn't learn it from me! (See Sarah's take on bed making here.) And this one made me laugh out loud: she looked at her chart and asked what she could put magnets by. "Well," I said, "you put your dress up clothes away, so put one beside 'pick up toys.'" She did, and then said, "those are clothes, too, so I can put one there, too!!" Such a multi-tasker, she is.

What daily organizing tips work for you? Comment, please! I need all the help I can get!!

Edited to Add: Ok, so I don't really expect this house to change my life. I'm exaggerating. I do think, however, that having a home that better fits our family's needs will greatly impact our day to day routines and will, by default, reduce my stress levels at least somewhat. It also gives us the space to expand our family should we choose to. We don't have room for that here. We will live in this house for the rest of our lives, so we built it with future space needs and old age issues in mind. And in a family that has deep roots in this land, I think we have constructed a home that can be passed down to future generations and become a part of the history this family has in our town.

Avery's New Room-Part 2

2010-07-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

Okay, here's another project ~~stolen from~~ inspired by blogland. I don't remember where I first saw Suzanne's Give A Hoot Pillow, but when I did, I knew I had to make it. A bit of fabric from this shopping trip, some fiber fill and three hours of fighting with my sewing machine, and Hilda Hoot Owl was born...

Even her backside is cute! Love that fabric.

Seriously, it should have taken 20 minutes to sew, but I could not get my needle threaded. I spent at 30 minutes on two different occasions trying. When I finally got it threaded, the bobbin wouldn't catch. Sheesh. It was worth the effort though, because I love love love her. I also used Heat and Bond on the piece work, which made sewing easier in one sense, but the web itself was hard to sew through and left needle marks. It also made the pillow not so soft, but it's really more for decor than head resting.

I can't wait to see how it looks in Avery's new room!

I'm linking this one to

Avery's New Room-Part 1

2010-07-20T07:26:00.008-05:00

The house is almost finished!! Hopefully that explains my extreme lack of posting. Building a house is a full time job. All we lack at this point is carpet, finishing the hardwoods and a few plumbing odds and ends. We have to close on or before August 18, so it really is almost here!! I cannot express how excited we are to be moving into our dream home. The retaining wall, nicknamed The Great Wall of Goodlettsville, ate into our furniture fund (this thing is 200' long by 6' tall at its highest point), but I am determined to have at least one room completely done when we move in...and that, naturally, is our daughter's room. At four, her room still looks like it did the day she was born. The only thing that has changed is that we converted her crib into a toddler bed. She's tiny (33 lbs finally!), so this isn't a big deal. I didn't see the point in redoing her room knowing we wouldn't be in the house much longer. Besides, her room is so small, I'm not sure a bigger bed would even fit.

Her new room is 23' x 15' (HUGE), so the timing is perfect for all new stuff. And, since I'm making pretty much everything in there, I have been able to work on it over the last several months. I'm going to start posting about the various projects for her room, and once we're moved in, I'll how everything in use.

Let's start with the inspiration:

I had planned to make her bedding out of this fabric collection (Gypsie Spring by Robert Kaufman), but then found a set in the exact same fabric for $60 at Stein Mart. I couldn't by the fabric that cheap! Plus, it's already made, so she'll have bedding before middle school.

Here's a picture of the whole set. I'm using white sheets (more on those later!), and folding the comforter at the end of the bed. A white quilt from HomeGoods will be what's actually on her bed. Also not using the striped Euro shams. I may try to find some green ones in a damask or something, but I'm not sure I really even need them.

And speaking of HomeGoods....

Here's the picture of the washcloths she picked out again. See how great they're going to tie in?!

Okay, scroll back up to the picture of the bedding. See the nightstand? I'm 99% positive that's the filing cabinet from Walmart that matches the desk we ordered for Ave's room. The one I thought would make a great night stand. Hmm...maybe once I see the quality of the desk I'll go back to that idea. I do love them...

But anyway, I promised a project, and here it is.

I knew I wanted something for Avery's dresser and something with her name on it, and when I saw these Spring Blocks from Lindsey I knew it was exactly what I wanted there. Lindsey has a great tutorial on her site, so I'll just show you my finished product.

Cute, huh? My dad cut the wood for me (all scraps from the construction site--hey, I paid for them!) and sanded them with his belt sander, saving me sooooo much time. Here are close ups of each letter.

Lindsey also shows us how to make the cutie paper flowers on her site. I used a few on this modge-podged picture frame redo.

$2 at HomeGoods and paper I already had!

So there's two of the two dozen or so projects I have planned for her room. You can watch the progress of the list over on my sidebar. Like any good crafter, though, I'm adding as many projects as I'm completing. Oh well!

I'm linking this project up at

A Little Math Problem

2010-06-02T15:40:00.005-05:00

These fabrics...

Divided by this shower curtain....

(see how well the tabs match her room colors?!)

and these pillow cases....

Plus these ribbons....

Equals several projects towards creating Avery's new room.

I'm thinking ruffles and ribbons and trims and a big fabric flower embellishment. So excited to get started!

Yesterday my friend Suzanne and I had lunch and visited the 50% off sale at Textile Fabrics in Nashville. It's the only place I know of around here with the designers I love most. Had Avery been a little more cooperative, I could have spent hours there, but even a few minutes in a store with nothing of interest for a four year old is asking a lot. But still, I was in fabric and notion heaven. I went there several times with my grandmother when I was a teenager, but their new store is much easier to get around in.

My hope is that that room at least will be almost completely done when we move in. Knowing the exact dimensions, window placements, etc makes that easy to do. And her room is the one I've had the clearest vision of during this process. And it's probably the only room where we're not taking anything from this house (we haven't done a big girl room for before this).

Oh, and the sale is going on until June 26th, so if you're local, you still have time to visit and get sewing!!

DIY Decor: the Bathroom

2010-06-01T16:28:00.005-05:00

First, confession: I am a bad blogger. Six weeks and no posts. Sheesh. And the sad part is that I have been crafting, so I have lots of things to blog about. Maybe that is the problem: I have been crafting (and teaching and building a house and being a wife/mom) instead of blogging. But as of this afternoon, I am FREE from school for two glorious months, so I will try my best to do better.

And so, here is a super cute, super easy accessory I whipped up for Avery's new bathroom. (I just want to say that I am thirty and have NEVER had my own bathroom. Avery is getting one at four. Good grief.) So here's what I made...

Cute, right? I just painted polka dots on a $5 soap dispenser from Tar-jay. I know you're thinking, "Really? That's blog worthy?" Well, I'll admit it is simple, but it's the process, not so much the product I wanted to share.

How do you get perfect polka dots when you can't trace or predraw (because of the slick surface)? I used to have some little circle foam brushes, but they were no where to be found. And I figured they would leave a texture I wasn't after. So I looked for something else. And looked. And then I found...

Yep, a hot glue stick. Round, firm enough to not spread, flexible enough to get an even image on the round bottle. I just dipped the end in paint, and stamped it on. I need to go back and fill in a few of the polka dots, but that will require mixing some colors, so I'll wait until I have some more painting to do.

I really like how it turned out. I have no idea how well it will hold up, but since it took me all of ten minutes, I figure it won't be a big deal if I have to redo it after awhile.

And just to give you a sense of the direction I'm going in Avery's suite (as the builder calls it), here are the washcloths we picked up at Homegoods.

We went to buy a quilt for her room, and when she saw these washcloths she said, "Mommy, wouldn't these look wonderful in my new bathroom?" (Yes, that's how she said it. She's 4 going on 17.) She was right, of course, as they are a perfect match for the other decor. Love them!

So that's one project blogged. I have several others to share in the next few days, and will likely have more after Suzanne and I get back from our trip to Textile Fabric tomorrow! Michael Miller, Moda, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler...Yay!

.80 Art

2010-04-16T09:05:00.008-05:00

Yes. That's right. Eighty cents. I had this planned for a week or so, but seeing Traci's $4 Art on Beneath My Heart inspired me to get it going and complete this super easy project.

It all started on browsing trip through Trees and Trends. I so love that place! I rarely buy anything, but I get a ton of ideas on each visit. I saw this little plaque in blacks and grays that would be perfect for our new house. And I took a picture for you, but it does not want to come off of my phone. Hmm.

Anyway, it was $20. That's not bad, but I knew I could make something similar for less, AND I could finally I make use of a frame that had been collecting dust in the back of our bedroom for five years. Five.

Still has the $9.99 price tag on it, but I think I paid $5. It's a nice frame. Why didn't I ever use it? Well, this is rather embarassing, but I could never find five little pictures to fit. Um, just because there are five slots in that mat does not mean I have to place five pictures there!! When I started taking it apart I found that the "mat" was really just a piece of flimsy poster board. I pride myself on seeing what something could be instead of just what it is, but it took me five years to see that in this simple frame.

Okay, so here is what I did. I found four papers in blacks and grays with a subtle pattern. They were 5/$1, hence the eighty cents. I measured the cardboard insert of the frame (22") and divided that number by 6, the number of letters I needed (FAMILY). Then I cut my papers to size, adding a little to the width so I could overlap the papers and eliminate gaps.
Next I started placing my papers. I started with the F and Modge Podged it to the cardbowrd that came with the frame, then moved to the Y, then back to the A, and so forth. I did it this way so that the overlaps would be evenly dispersed and not bulk up at the end. I also measured over the exact width each space should be so I would know how far over to overlap. You could probably do it by eye, but I did not trust myself to get it even.

Then I had to cut my letters. And, no, I did not use my Cricut. I know, I'm shocked, too. I don't have a font in the style I wanted. So I had to do things the hard way-by hand. I printed the letters from word in the size and font I wanted, then cut them out. I traced them onto some cream and black paper I already had and then cut them out again. One tip: flip the letters over and trace the reverse so your pencil marks won't show.
I Modge Podged again, then coated everything in a final coat.

This morning when I woke up, it had dried to this!

Love it. I think I already know where I will put it. I chose not to put the glass back in the frame because I wanted the plaque look. Not sure what I will do with that, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

And in other altered projects....
I asked for and received this frame/art piece for my bitrhday last week. It's from Pier 1. My mom was a little confused, she said, and couldn't decide if it was the right one or not, as the style is really not me. Then she realized I was planning to paint it. Yep! In oil rubbed bronze. Yum. So I did, and this is the after.

So much better. I have no idea what pictures will go there, but it's going in the kitchen on the wall created by the back staircase (yes, the new house has TWO staircases). So when at things for your home, consider what things can be, not just what they are.

Linking up to:

Hello Again

2010-03-31T11:01:00.004-05:00

Has it really been over six weeks since I posted? Oops! There has been so much going on--much of it crafty--that I haven't even read a blog, much less blogged myself, lately.

Here's the short version:

The new house has gone from this....

To this...

The back is actually my favorite view...

We're actually even farther along now. The brick is going up, the walls are insulated, and sheet rock is going up as I type (can't wait to see the rooms with walls!!). It's fun, overwhelming, and VERY consuming. We are really excited, though, and feel blessed to be achieving this dream so early in our lives.

2. Avery turns FOUR tomorrow. Her party is Saturday, and we will have many princesses and frogs running around outside (hopefully...). Princess Tiana is going to make a visit, but Avery does not know that. It is so convenient to have 1200 teenagers at my disposal! I think she's more excited about it than Ave will be. My house is a wreck because I spend every weekend cleaning the new house, and a few details are still undone, but I will get it all done. Hey, I have a 17-day spring break starting Friday to catch up on sleep.

3. School is crazy. I love it, but in the spring term I teach a college class and give up my 90 minute planning period to do so. Again, love it, but by 3:15 I'm exhausted, so i am perpetually behind.

4. I'm thinking ahead to the new house and have been crafting some for Avery's room. I love her nursery, but it's too babyish for my seventeen year old four year old. We're going bright and fun, with modern woodland creatures hanging around. The hard part is restraining myself since I have no place to store new things until the move!

Here's the inspiration fabric. I had originally planned to use the pink/green/yellow version of this fabric, but saw the Spring color way and couldn't get it out of my mind. And I found the perfect shower curtain on clearance at Target to coordinate! The only problem is that I will have to sew her bedding. It may be awhile before these things make it into her room.

So that's not all, but it's some of what's been going on in our world. It doesn't seem to be slowing down, either. I just emailed my husband a list of school obligations I have coming up, and it had at least 10 items on it. It's crazy, but I love it, and will love it even more once Avery and I have the same schedule. Between that, the house, and, of course, family, sleep may just become optional!

More on the party to come. Hopefully it will all come together!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-11T21:27:00.003-06:00

Are these not the cutest Valentine's ever? I was looking for something more creative than the grocery story fold and seal type, but at the same time did not want to slave over 19 handmade Valentine's that would end up in the trash before the actual Vday rolled around. When I saw the idea on nannygoat, who got it here, I knew I had to make them. A brief photo shoot, 5 minutes with Photoshop, and a few tries uploading to Walgreens and they were done. I love them. And it only cost $4.75 to have 25 printed.

Have a happy Valentine's Day, all!

Stenciled Furniture: A New Love

2010-02-03T09:11:00.000-06:00

I opened my Trees and Trend ad the other day and saw this:

Do you see the BLACK damask-stenciled chest in the center? Oh, be still my heart. I love it. LOVE. IT. I want it. I already have the perfect spot in the new house for just such a piece.

If my mother read my blog (which I'm pretty sure she doesn't), she would be laughing hysterically at the fact that I am drooling over anything stenciled. I used to roll my eyes at her constant need to stencil--a pineapple on the front door, multiple "Welcome Friends" signs, you get the idea. But this is not your country mama's stenciling. This is updated, chic, and completely DIYable.

So now I am on the look out for a chest to use for this project. I may have something here that will work, as most of what we have will not make the move with us, at least not it its current form. Much of what does come will only stay until we replace it with what we really want and what will work in the new space. When I find what I am looking for and actually do this (it could be awhile), I'll be sure to post the pictures and step by step. Sarah @ Thrifty Decor Chick did a great job stenciling an old sewing machine cabinet she found in the trash. WARNING: if you visit her bblog you will read every.single. post. Twice.

So...what have you stenciled??

It's That Time Again

2010-02-01T07:46:00.005-06:00

My sweet Avery will be four in exactly two months. That means I have two months and 2 days to get her party planned. Yikes!!

I have so much fun coming up with the themes, researching ideas and creating all the little details that really make the parties special. So far we've had:

a Cute Bug party (that I have never blogged...I need to do that.)

an Under the Sea party

and a Pink Polka Dot party

Of course, now Avery is old enough to have an (ever-changing) opinion of her party themes. At first she wanted an Ice Cream Social (my dad picks her up from daycare every Friday and takes her to get ice cream). Then it turned into a Lollipop Party like the fabulous one done by TomKat. But...the more I looked for and tried to come up with ideas, the more I realized how MUCH this theme has been used in the past year. I can see why--it's super cute and fun--but I didn't want to be jumping on this party wagon so late in the game, and really, most of my ideas had been done.

About this time the Munchkin had some party inspiration of her own...

Have you seen it yet? Definitely my favorite Disney movie since Aladdin, and that's going waaay back. Tiana is strong and sassy, and does not immediately fall in love with the Prince just from looking at him, as most of the princesses do. Granted, he is a frog when she meets him, but still. Their relationship grows as they get to know one another, as it should. And Tiana has plans outside of falling in love and never gives up on them. And she has a mother.

We took Avery to see it when it first came out: it was her first time to see a movie in the theater. I think she enjoyed the popcorn and coke and leaving to go to the bathroom as much as the movie, but nevertheless, we have been in full Princess and the Frog mode around here ever since.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I do. not. do. commercialized. themes. I don't want my parties to look like I went to the Princess and the Frog aisle at the party store and bought all I saw. But if this is the theme Ave wants, what do you do??

...A fairytale Princess and the Frog party with lots of princesses and frogs, but no Tiana or Naveem. BUT, as a subtle tie in to the movie, I'm going to use the spring green, lavendar and light blue that appears through out the movie. This paper is PERFECT:

It's actually a lot softer in person. It has all of the colors, plus a watery, lilpad-esque quality to it that I love.

I also purchased the new Paisley cartridge for my Cricut for its two frogs. By the way, this immediately became my new favorite cart. LOVE. IT. I'm going to make frog invites with googly eyes and flower embellishments (of course!).

I actually have every element planned (I can't WAIT to show you the table settings!!!), which is what happens when the sky dumps 6-8" on you here in the South. No one knows how to drive in it, so we stay put. Since I got home Thursday afternoon, I have walked to the left of my house to the new one (which has the first floor framed and is just how I imagined it) and to the right to my in-laws. I am craving a trip to Hobby Lobby so bad you cannot believe, for no other reason but to get out of this house!! I was able to get an order placed to Oriental Trading last night, so the first of the party things should arrive next week.

So even though things are planned on paper, there are a couple of things I'm going to enlist you, dear readers, to help me with:

Does anyone know how to line up the Cricut so that you can cut around pre-printed paper? I'm wanting the invitation wording to be on a frog cut out, so I would need to print it out before I cut. Can you do this?? (without simply using trial and error and tons of paper)
I have this idea to make cute signs for the food with fairytale inspired wording. So far I have "From the Royal Garden" for veggie tray, "Happily Ever After" for sweets, and "Frog Legs (they taste like chicken)" for the chicken tenders. I'm not completely set on a menu, which would help, I know, but if you have ideas for sayings, I'm sure I could make them work with whatever I decide to serve. Or maybe I'll just use those ideas to create the menu.

If you have any ideas, please let me know in a comment.

I can't wait to get started with this one. I have a feeling it will end up being my favorite yet!!

Vote for Me!

2010-01-25T13:57:00.002-06:00

Okay, so not really for me. For my kids. As you may know, I teach 11th and 12th grade English in Gallatin, TN, outside of Nashville. We have the best kids. Period. I truly love coming to work each day and watching them learn and learning from them.

In September I asked for help with collecting Limeades for Learning stickers for books for my classroom. We didn't get enough stickers (I found out about the program near its end), but the grant was funded over Christmas break by three donors and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As a result, my darlings received 43 new books for our classroom library. On the first day I had them ready to check out, 10 of my 18 standard level juniors left with a book that they chose. I didn't tell them they had to (they will, eventually), they were just excited to read. I nearly cried.

So now I'm asking for your help again for these wonderful kids. Our prom location gave our date away and now prom will be held at our local community center. That may not seem like a big deal, but for many of our kids, prom night is one of the few times they leave town. It is certainly the only time most of them dress up and have dinner somewhere nice. They are a little bummed at having prom in the place where many of them play basketball after school and smells like chlorine. I really want our kids to have a special night and to forget about the location--to be transported to their "Isle of Enchantment." And since I like to talk about decor and party planning on this blog, prom decorations certainly fit!

So here's what I'm asking:
Click Here
Select Gallatin High School from the list (we are the third from the bottom)
Enter your email to vote

You don't have to sign up for anything, get any junk email, or even give your name. You can vote once a day per email address. So if you have eight email addys like me....

I--and my students--really appreciate it. Let me know in a comment if you vote! I'd love to be able to thank you.

New Year, New Routines

2010-01-02T17:17:00.004-06:00

I DO NOT make resolutions. I never keep them, then feel guilty for not keeping them. Why do that to myself? But, the new year is a good time for starting new routines, trying new things, getting a fresh start.

So my goal for the next few months is to simplify my life, to establish routines that will make our lives easier, and to help me feel not so overwhelmed. See, I have this problem of taking on alot(September 2009: 2 out of town conferences--one I presented at, Homecoming Assembly--I chaired, friend's wedding--I coordinated, decorated and made the cake, and there's something else, but I think I'm blocking it out.) I should take on less, but I know myself well enough to know that's not likely to happen, so my hope is that if I can establish routines, our world can stay relatively orderly even when I doing 8 things at once. I'm really wanting to get this under control before moving so I don't take all of this mental clutter to the new house with us.

But here's a problem with me and organizing: I come up with elaborate plans that I can never follow through with. And I spend so much time on the system that by the time I'm ready to implement it, I'm tired of the whole thing. Does anyone else do this?

So this time I'm thinking big and thinking small at the same time. Here's the big part...

I'm all about having everything in one place, so this is the cover to our new Family Binder. Isn't it cute? I used a free digi kit from Kevin and Amanda {blog} as well as some elements from a kit by Shabby Princess. These are the colors I'm planning to use in my new kitchen. LOVE. THEM. Annnddd..turquoise was just named THE color for 2010, but I had the idea before reading that. I feel so on top of the trends :).

But the design is not what's important; the method is. If you see on the tag, the notebook will have sections for calendars, routines, meals, couponing, ideas, contacts, gifts, household info and whatever else I think of later that doesn't fit into one of those categories. That's ALOT. Too much. If I said that today I will manage all of these areas of my life with aplomb, I would quit by tonight.

That's where the small part comes in:

I'm not doing all of this. well, at least not right now. have you ever read Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography? Probably not, unless you majored in English and have taught American lit for 8 years. Anyway, there is a section in the work called "Arriving at Moral Perfection," where Franklin outlines his plan to become perfect. He basically identified 13 virtues he wanted to possess and then made a plan to focus on one until he had it down. Then he would add another virtue, perfect that one, add another....you get it. I'm not aiming for perfection, just a level of control amidst chaos, but his plan is right on. Right now I'm going to work on organizing our meals (this overlaps some with couponing, and some with my goals to re-lose weight). Once that feels in control and I have settled into a system, I'll move to the next tab. I have no idea how long this will take, and have no firm timeline in mind.

I'm really confident in my ability to do this...so long as I work on it in chunks. I'll share the meal organizing system I'm stealing next week, but for now, here is a weekly calendar I made to match the binder. Leave me a comment with your email if you want either of these files (jpg or psd if you want to edit); I'm happy to share!!

And...if anyone has any secrets to a more organized life, please leave a comment and help a girl out.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T00:01:00.000-06:00

This is BIG!

2009-11-30T11:30:00.001-06:00

When we married, Kyle and I did what every other couple in his family has done: we moved into his grandmother's house. His granfather dug out the basement to create an apartment for Kyle's aunt and uncle when they married in the 1950s; my in-laws followed in the 1960s. Each of Kyle's first cousins also called the basement home when they began their married life. I guess you can say it's a tradition.

I don't do basements. As in, I don't go into our basement, so there was no way I was going to live in one. But by the time I came around, Kyle's grandparents had passed away and the house was being rented. So...we bought it and tried to make it our own, which is hard when everyone in the family either grew up in or grew up going to your house.

We didn't talk timeline when we married, but we both knew that this would not be our forever house. It's small (I call it a 1-1/2 bedroom, since Avery's room is a walk-through), very chopped up, and lacks wall space, which makes furniture arrangement nearly impossible. We literally had to make a cut out in a built-in cabinet and close off a closet to have space for a TV and couch. The house was built in 1929 as a summer home, and the windows and doors are original. Charming, but cold. As in $500 electric bills in the winter.

Needless to say, I have been looking at house plans ever since we married six and a half years ago. Dreaming of our someday home. About three years ago I came across THE PLAN. I loved it. Three years later, I still gasp when I look at it. And it was the first place that Kyle and I were both in love with. It's huge, though, and I really thought I'd be 50 before we could afford it, so I started looking at other options. Nothing compared, and we weren't willing to settle since we know the house we build will be the forever house. (Avery is 7th generation to live on this land; leaving is not an option.)

Fast forward to this past June. As we looked at our savings we started to wonder if maybe we had enough to actually make this dream a reality. I ran into the builder we were considering in the bank one day, and two weeks later we were ordering blueprints. We held our breath waiting for the bids, and though they were higher than we hoped, they were less than we expected. It took 90 days for the Health Dept. to approve our land for septic, a job that should have taken 2 weeks. Then something happened with the loan documents and closing was delayed, but if you are reading this (I've scheduled it so I can delete it if something goes wrong!) then we have closed on the construction loan and are ready to finally break ground, 2-1/2 months behind schedule. And in the long run, the delay could save us money as subs are coming back with lower bids now that winter is upon us. As long as this is our last winter in this house, I'll be happy.

I am shocked and feel so blessed that we are going to be in our dream home shortly after I turn 30---a far cry from the 50 something I really thought it'd be. This house is the last one we will live in, and given Kyle's family's love of the land, it will likely house many more generations. We are certainly building with that in mind.

Okay...so you want to see it??

Ta Da!!!! Isn't it gorgeous?!?! At 4400 square feet, it's way more than we need, but we love it, and know that by going big it will meet our needs for years to come.

If you are interested, you can click here to see the floorplan. We are making very few changes to the plan (another reason we knew it was the house for us), basically just removing a door between the library and the master and eliminating the "morning kitchen." I am so excited about getting to choose everything that goes into this house, and not feeling limited by it as I do in this home. Where we are now we cannot expand our family, cannot place furniture like we'd like...there are many things. This house I feel will help me feel more centered and in control. And the best part? I. will. have. a. dishwasher. Maybe two, just because I can.

So guess where most of my creative energy is going to go for the next several months? I am so excited and can't wait to share the process and gather ideas from blogland.

Happy National Day on Writing!!

2009-10-20T09:29:00.003-05:00

I am a writer. There. I said it. It has taken me years to be able to say this about myself, though, truly, I always have been. As a senior in high school, my English teacher Mr. Callis said my final analysis paper was "stupendous" and that some of the analysis was "awe-inspiring." Coming from him, who did not lavish praise just for the sake of doing so, this meant everything to me. Still, I had no confidence as a writer. In Advanced Comp class in college, one piece I shared had my professor and classmates rolling with laughter, asking to hear more. Still, I didn't think I was any good.

Then came the National Writing Project. I stalked this organization for 7 years before finding a local site, and was accepted into their Invitational Summer Institute in 2007. It changed me. Professionally. Personally. Finally, I was starting to see myself as a writer. In 2008 an essay I collaborated on with my graduate Shakespeare class was published in a scholarly journal, and finding an audience for my work became important, but still scary for me. It's hard to share something so personal as writing with people. I wrote a memoir for my final graduate class that caused my professor to claim "I was wondering why a rhet comp person was taking a creative writing class. I get it now." Most of that piece was eaten my by computer, and I could cry about it at pretty much any time. Still, Dr. Rigby was the only person to read it.

That same semester my Advanced Comp teacher from so many years before stopped me in Cherry Hall. "I had you in class, didn't I?" he asked. "You write that wonderful piece about the tire swing and loving language..." Validation. It had been 8 years since that class, and yet he remembered it. He who read hundreds of student essays a term. My writing had made an impression on him, and that simple comment changed how I respond to student work and made me seek opportunities to publish.

And so this summer during ISI, I finally wrote about my experience with epilepsy. When the time was right, it wrote itself. I'm so proud of this piece, as it was the first time I consciously tried to incorporate the styles of mentor authors (Laurie Halse Anderson, specifically, If you haven't read her, go to B&N NOW), and really worked at revision even though little changed in the end. And though I wrote it for myself, others appreciated it, too. My friend Shannon, who I regard as one of the best writers I have ever known, told me my writing was some of the only work she was able to listen to aloud without her mind drifting. The comments on the NWP eAnthology were glowingly supportive.

And then, in late July, an email came asking me to submit my piece to the National Gallery of Writing. I have no idea how many pieces were solicited, but I was and am honored to have been asked. Today, the first National Day on Writing, my memoir "Falling" is published in the gallery for all to see. I hope you will read it. I hope you will write today. Writing is thinking. It is therapy. It is essential.

It's Flitterific!

2009-10-13T12:20:00.007-05:00

I have really tried hard to steer Avery away from characters. And princesses. Especially princesses. You see, I teach 16 and 17 year old girls, many of whom have been told their whole lives that they are princesses, and they believe it. I really do not want that for Avery. But I am not the only one who buys her things. I've stood firm on character clothing (underwear only), but we now have several dressup boxes filled with princess clothes and at least 5 Disney princess dolls. I tried.

This desire to avoid the commercial also applies to Halloween costumes; so far she has been a bumble bee, a flower and a butterfly. This year, though, she really wanted to be Tinkerbell. She has been in love with this little fairy for over a year, and since Avery is pixie petite herself, I decided to go with it. Besides, she's not a princess. I'm going to Hobby Lobby in a little bit to shop for supplies for her costume, but in the meantime I thought I'd post a little Tinksperation...

Pretty cute, huh? I would love those green glitter shoes for Ave, but the Disney Store is sold out of them. We'll just use her "Tinkerbell shoes" (pewter mary janes from Target--they go with everything). One thing I hate about Disney costumes is that they put a picture of the character on the costume. Something about that is just off to me. Besides, few costumes fit Avery. At three and a half, she wears an 18-24 month in most clothes. It's just easier for me to make them. They fit and meet my standards.

For this costume I'm going with a tutu dress cinched at the waist and some wings we already have. I'm going to attempt to make a lantern candy bag, but we'll see about that.

So what are your kids going to be this year? Leave a comment and let me know!!

Technical Difficulties Over!!

2009-10-12T14:27:00.002-05:00

I have been so frustrated by the way my blog was behaving in Firefox, especially since that is my favorite browser. I couldn't find a fix, even though I was pretty sure the problem was stemming from the change I made to make my header extend the width of the browser (which I LOVE, by the way). Since I am on Fall Break this week, I decided to devote some time to fixing this, and after finding another tutorial and backtracking everything, the layout finally seems to be working in FF. In the end I decided the problem was actually with something in the sidebar, which meant reinstallling EVERYTHING over there. That was a major pain, something I'm still not done with. But, after spending so much time redesigning my blog, I'm happy to have it looking right finally.

Check back tomorrow for another crafty post!

I'm Not Above Begging...

2009-09-22T15:41:00.004-05:00

Edited: 9/24/09
If you vote for my project, please leave a comment and let me know. I'm getting votes from other sources, but have know way to know where they are coming from.

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in over a month. But I've been busy. Reeeaaallllyyyy busy. So busy I haven't even read blogs in a month. Or watched TV. Or cooked dinner. Or even grocery shopped, for that matter. Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating, but not much.

But if you're still reading, despite the utter lack of posting, I really hope you'll do me a favor. You probably know that I teach high school English, 11th grade specifically. I love my kids this year. Love. Them. This is year 8, and it's the best so far. One thing that is making this year so magical is the amount of reading my kids are doing. They BEG for time to read!! They are reading so much that we are running out of books. I've been checking them out of the Nashville Public Library and bringing them to them, but it's still not enough.

So I submitted a project to Limeade's for Learning to get 43 new titles for our class library, and am really trying to get it funded. If you go to Sonic and buy a drink, would you please please pretty please use the sticker on the cup to vote for my project??? Just go to Limeadesforlearning.com, and under FIND A PROJECT search for gallatin. The project is called "Putting Books in Kids Hands." If you know me, you can just mail them to me or even email me the codes (they're case sensitive, though).

Thanks in advance for your help from my 70 darlings and me!

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

2009-08-20T00:00:00.001-05:00

Anyone a FireFox expert? I use IE at home because I prefer the way it organizes feeds, and though I use FireFox at school, my blog is blocked by our web fliter (I find this really funny, considering what makes it through), so I was unaware that my blog looked weird in FF until Heidi told me. Everything is skewed and centered and I have no idea why. It's part of the reason I haven't been posting...knowing it was all going to look wrong made me not want to bother. I've exasperated google for an answer, so now I'm turning to you, dear readers. Help!

Looking for My Muse

2009-08-19T19:14:00.003-05:00

So I haven't been crafting much lately. Mostly because I don't have any ideas, but that's mostly because I've been sooooo busy that I haven't had time to think of anything!

The upside to this is that it's a good kind of busy. We're in the third week of school already, so of course that occupies much of my time. I found out just before school started that I was needed to teach AP Lit. I've been teaching AP Language for the past three years, and was just starting to figure out what I was doing. I'll teach that one again next year, but for now I'm reading and planning like crazy. I also decided last winter that I wanted to completely revamp my approach with my juniors. It's going REALLY well, and the kids are very receptive to what I'm trying, but it's a lot of planning. I also started a creative writing club. 20 kids showed up to the organizational meeting! I'm excited about the possibilities of this. We have a lot of talented kids who need an audience.

MTWP's Fall Conference is coming up one month from today, and I'm presenting in addition to my responsibilities with technology. And we're starting professional chats next month. And we'll start planning for next summer soon. I. love. this. organization. The work is nothing because I find it so meaningful...I only worry that I'm not able to give it as much time as I need to.

My friend Cortney's wedding is in about 5 weeks. I'm her wedding planner/director/cake baker/crafter/possibly florist, and am nervous about making all of that work so that her day is beautiful. And it's the day after Homecoming, of which I am Assembly co-chair.

And there's something else BIG about to begin here, but I dare not blog about it until it's official! I don't want to jinx it (and no, it's not a baby).

So, see? I've been busy! But I can't post without something creative, so I'll share a really quick project I completed last month. It took about 20 minutes, which is about all the time I have these days! My friend Shyla just had baby number 7. Babies in her house start life sleeping in the closet since the kids bedrooms are all upstairs...and who wants to climb stairs with a baby? I'm guessing this also has something to do with space, since they do not have an 8-bedroom house. I thought baby Grace could use a little something to dress up her digs, so I threw some fun papers on the Cricut and whipped out this banner. You see these a lot for parties, but they are also perfect for room decor. Pretty cute, right? I hope she likes it, Shyla!

Okay, so I feel like I've made it back to blog land. I'll try to be more regular in my posting. Promise. And stay tuned for something BIG in the next few weeks!

I Scream, You Scream

2009-07-17T14:55:00.004-05:00

When Avery was about 18 months, my dad started picking her up from daycare on Fridays for "Bugs and Worms." That's their code for Baskin Robbins. They get ice cream and then go back to Pop Pop's to play. Avery looks so forward to this each week, and so I should not have been suprised when she informed me a month or so ago that she wanted a "Bugs and Worms" party for her 4th birthday. Which is not until April :). I've had a lot of school-related things going on lately, so I had not given it much thought. That is until this showed up in my feed reader:

Polkadots & Pirates Ice Cream Social

Jess is upto it again! She has the best party ideas and tends to post them just when I need them.

And that got me thinking. (My doctor's office called to reschedule my appointment, as he had an emergency that was going to push back my appointment to 5:30! I had some unexpected time.) Here are a few other sweet treats I dug up on Etsy.

Ice Cream Cone Cookies by TabbyCat13
Custom Ice Cream Invitation by SweetTreeStudio (this invite generated a lot of ideas for me!)
Ice Cream & Sprinkles Pendant by sugarraindrops
Ice Cream Boutique Hairbow by Shelleybean's Bowtique (this would go great withsomething made with Michael Miller's "Disco Dots" fabric!
Custom Boutique Pink Ice Cream A-Line Dress by presleys4

And this one may be my favorite....

Mint and Vanilla Ice Cream Dream Headband by Ribbon Candy Hair Bows

Okay, so maybe I need to go ahead and get in party planning mode. The early planner finds the deals! Of course before Avery started talking ice cream, she had also mentioned Tinker Bell and Zoo Animals. So maybe I'll wait just a little longer...

More Vinyl

2009-07-08T12:09:00.009-05:00

I know, I know, enough with the vinyl and the Cricut. But it's so versatile! Just look what I did with it in about 20 minutes Saturday afternoon:

I found this cute apron at Joann's Saturday. I wasn't looking for it; it was a complete impulse t was buy. But it was only $4! I looked around for iron on monograms for it, but everything was too small.

Then inspiration struck.

Yep. You've got it. The Cricut.

I'm seriously going to wear the thing out. Maybe then I can get the big bug...hmmm...another reason to use it.

I cut the "H" from the Stone Script cartridge in a color vinyl I don't love and probably won't use much. But wait...that's not the part you want.

You want the negative. Get it now? It's a stencil! The sticky back of the vinyl keeps it in place while you paint, plus the paint won't seep through it.

Simply line up the stencil in the center of your surface and paint. I use a very complicated method of finding the center called "folding in half."

And voila! I really like it, and since I've never had an apron (I know, with all the cake stuff I do you'd think I 'd have twenty), it really does have a function. I'd recommend setting it with an iron before washing.

Just think about all the thins you can stencil now! And if you're not looking to paint, you could also use the positive image stuck to fabric to give you a guide to cut around. Happy crafting!

Ballard Designs in My Dining Room

2009-07-07T09:03:00.008-05:00

Sarah posted about it first. Then Xazmin. Ballard Designs. I probably should know more about his company, but I really had never heard of them. Or if I had, I don’t remember it. But look at this beautiful piece of art. Simple, and yet impressive.

That thrifty chick Sarah made her own version using….SCRAPBOOK PAPER! Now, if you know me at all, or even if you don't, but have read this blog more than once, you know that I L.O.V.E. paper. I hoard it. And so when I saw his idea knew i would be perfect for my dining room.

Our dining room might be my favorite room in the house, which is funny since before a couple of months ago we pretty much never used it. Now that Avery is getting bigger we eat dinner there as the kitchen table was getting cramped. Anyway, the walls are painted "Dark Dove Gray." It's beautiful, especially with the white trim. We have talked about using that color throughout our new home when we build (which might be a lot sooner than I had ever dreamed!). The in-laws bought us a rug for Christmas one year, and it took me until June to decide which one I wanted! That's a big purchase, and I knew it would determine my color scheme for many years. The one I kept coming back to is a checkerboard pattern of melons, corals, greens and taupes. Again, I love it!

But back to the project. I needed some MDF, so I called Dad to see if he could cut some for me on his table saw. Just so happened he had some MDF lying around his shop, left from some packing materials. Free! I already had spray adhesive. Free! And brown spray paint. Free! It took awhile for me to find the right papers (especially since we don't have any scrapbook stores around here--just Michaels, Joann and Hobby Lobby), but I finally settled on this:

It's "Dill Blossom" by SEI. It has a good mix of large and small floral, stripes, solids and some geometrics. It was only $10 with my Micheal's coupon for 48 sheets. Fortunately there are two each of 24 designs, because I did make a few mistakes.

Isn't it lovely?! Hanging it took forever, but the actual project went really quickly. Like maybe 30 minutes not including dry time for the paint. I hot glued hanging hardware on the back since the MDF was to thin for the tacks that came with them. Sarah nailed hers right to the wall, but I was afraid the nails would show too much on the papers I chose. Besides, this way I can take them down and replace them with plaques that match my Christmas decor during that season.

Here's the view of it in room:

The table is missing its centerpiece, but I beefed it up and replaced it Sunday. I added a piece of fabric that I have had for at least eight years under it (it was the wall color inspiration) and added some silver pieces. Now I need moss balls, I think. Kyle really liked it, too, though he thought I should have centered it on the wall. I chose to center it on the entire wall, including the doorway, so that it would be centered on the table. I figure if we ever get a buffet it would go under the art, and would need to line up with the table. I may add another column, though, because he's right: there's a lot of blank space to the left.

Ooohhh! I must tell you about my table. I found it at Sam's before we got married for $250! It's solid wood with veneer inlays on the top and TWO leaves. Our chairs (purchased later at another store) are huge, and we can comfortable fit eight of them around it.

So there you go: a project and a tour. Have a wonderful day of creating. I'm off to the library and then to meet my favorite person for lunch (that would be my husband, in case you are wondering!).

A Little Help, Please

2009-07-06T19:08:00.004-05:00

Remember the shower I posted about here? Well, it’s Saturday, and I have a tabletop design dilemma. I’m using china for the plates, and my silverware, but I do not have enough glasses for everyone. Will plastic glasses look completely awful with the “real” stuff for everything else? Other suggestions? I have some really cute things cooked up for Saturday, and can’t wait to show you.

Blog Makeover Tips -- Creating a Background

2009-06-30T10:13:00.003-05:00

Kyle got me Photoshop Elements for Christmas, and I have loved playing with it to create layered documents for logos, invites, and other fun things. And the more I play, the more I learn, which is always nice.

The tutorial I used is from The Cutest Blog on the Block. It gives all the details, but basically you create a document in Photoshop or another photo editing program that is 14" by 11" at 100 ppi resolution.

From there you just play with colors and designs. Coming up with the design is the hardest part by far. Once you've done that, go to the tutorial above to find out how to host it and change the html for your site.

My house is calling to me to be cleaned, so that's it for this one!

Extreme Makeover, Blog Edition

2009-06-28T16:10:00.001-05:00

So what do you think? I was getting really tired of the polka dots, and was wanting something a little more modern, but still cute. It took me forever to decide on a design, but once I did it went pretty quick. And I learned soooo much about Photoshop in the process!

There are still a few kinks to work out--like the fact that my label cloud has disappeared and that weird box around my siggy--but for the most part everything is functional. With the writing project's summer institute over and this little project out of the way, I can now focus on the things I really need to do, like clean the house. And get back to losing weight. And plan next semester. And they say teachers get the summer off!

I'll be posting soon about some of the fun things I included in this design--maybe I'll start a weekly series??--but for now, leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the new look, and grab my button for your own blog if you'd like!

Free Paint Anyone?

2009-06-27T15:17:00.003-05:00

Yes, I said free. Gratis. On the house. Glidden will send you a free quart of paint in your choice of a bajillion colors. Peony Pink is on its way to me. I have no idea what I will do with it, but I figure I can always use some pink paint lying around. And get this: they don't even charge shipping!! What a great way to give something in your house a new look. Hurrry, though, because the offer is only good until July 2nd. Click here to go to the offer.

And speaking of new looks....I'm working on a new look for this blog, and will hopefully have it up this week sometime. Stay tuned!

Update: I checked back at the Glidden site last night, and they've given away all the paint. Hope you got yours!

May Craft Challenge

2009-06-13T10:04:00.006-05:00

It's that time again! Heidi over at Blue Eyed Blessings has challenged us all to create something with a monogram. Well, anyone who knows me knows I love a monogram, so this was pretty easy for me.

First, a couple of older projects.

Remember the playhouse? The inside is finally coming together. I still need to make curtains (if I could ever decide on a style), and I need to make a cushion for the window seat, but that foam is ridiculously expensive! But here is the art I made last summer, finally hung over the bookcase that I love. We're slowly filling it up.

The backgrounds are painted, the details are mostly paper but also have dimensional elements such as the flowers and ribbon on the "A" canvas. LOVE them!!!

Next is Avery's outfit for her birthday party. I made the pillowcase dress, but someone else did the embroidery. Just goes to show you how a simple initial can really dress up an outfit.

I don't know if you would technically call this next one a monogram since it's a whole name, but I like it and I've never blogged about it, and this seems like a good post to put it in. These plaques are over Ave's bed:

The gingham is painted with a glass paint to keep it translucent and the letters are wooden ones from Michael's glued on. No one knew what Avery's name was going to be until she was born, but I knew if we didn't hang those suckers prior to her arrival her would never get hung. So, we hung them to get the placement and the nails in and whatnot, then took them down and hid them. Kyle went home for a couple of hours to feed the dog while she was in the nursery getting cleaned up and all, and the first thing he did was hang her letters! I thought that was so sweet.

Okay. New projects. My grandmother found these chairs for $5 at RiteAid, and bought all they had (three). We put one on the playhouse porch, but didn't have room for the others. So...I took them to the in-law's patio so Avery would have a place to sit when wwe're over there for cookouts and things. A little vinyl and my Cricut, and now Avery and her cousin Kaylee each have their own seats.

And finally, my favorite thing I've crafted in a while...

How stinkin' cute is that?! I think it's called a "sports tumbler" and I'm thinking it's by Playtex. I just cut the monogram out of pink vinyl (it's the mini monogram cart) and stuck it on. I also cut a strip with a rotary cutter and added it to the top for a little extra color. The possibilities for this one are endless. I wanted to add a green octopus to Avery's purple cup for our trip to the aquarium, but ran out of time. It held up really well to a gentle wash (no scrubby sponge!), but if it gets worn out I can easily peel it off and cut another one. You'll have to ask someone with a dishwasher if it holds up in the dishwasher :).

So did I rise to the challenge Heidi?! I can't wait for the next one. Nothing like a little crafting accountability to keep the creative juices flowing. And now back to my regualrly scheduled laundry....

Finally...

2009-06-10T07:04:00.004-05:00

So I'm a little (a lot) late in posting my Craft it Forward winners. Sorry! June 1st began my work with the Middle TN Writing Project's Summer Institute. I L.O.V.E. this work, but it makes for looong days. But anyway...

The three people chosen by random.org are:
Raines, Inc.
Mama King
Trendy Tikes

Email me your mailing address at prettypinkparty[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll get your crft out to you ASAP.

Pretty Posies

2009-05-27T06:00:00.001-05:00

Isn't she beautiful? My sweet little munchkin. I could seriously stare at her all day, just like any mom.

But that's not the point...see her shirt? I made that. Well, I made the flowers and sewed them on a Target tank. Avery chose the fabrics and insisted on beads for the centers instead of the buttons I planned on. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. She, of course, dripped red cough syrup on it before we made it out of the house. It never fails, does it?!

The flowers go all around the neckline. I washed it yesterday on the gentle cycle and dried it flat. It came out great--some fraying, which I had actually hoped for.

But I couldn't stop there.

I mixed all the fabrics and added pin backs to these to embellish the cuffs of her capris purchased at The Children's Place, one of the few items I've found there without glitter and neon colors.

And I wanted some for myself!

These are three separate pins in two different sizes. Love them! There's more to come with these little flowers. Stay tuned!

Craft it Forward

2009-05-26T09:32:00.008-05:00

Have you seen the movie Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey and the Sixth Sense kid? (I know, I know, he has a name. I'm just not wanting to look up the spelling of it right now...) The main character has an assignment to come up with a plan to make the world a better place. His idea is to do something nice for three people. They each in turn do something nice for three people, and the goodness spirals out exponentially. It's a wonderful concept.

Well, this game uses the same concept to make the world a more creative place. I received my "Craft it Forward" goodies this weekend from Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessings.

A modge-podged frame, a little note pad, a red (I LOVE red!) album and a set of tiny notecards. And they're pink. And polka-dotted!! Thanks, Heidi!

Wanna play? Here are the rules:

1. Comment to this post by Monday, June 1st. I will then select three commenters using random.org (because I've always wanted to use it!).

2. I will then send each "winner" a small gift hand crafted by yours truly.

3. In turn you agree to post about the game after you have received your package and craft it forward to three readers of your blog. You could even just pay it forward with small purchased items if you prefer. And on and on it goes.

And, yes, part of my motivation for participation (a small part) is to solicit comments. I love comments, you lurkers! So get to commenting, and I'll get to crafting.

A Different Kind of Pink

2009-05-16T17:01:00.008-05:00

I'm finally getting to plan an adult party! Don't get me wrong--I LOVE planning Avery's parties, but I'm excited to do something a little more sophisticated. My friend Cortney is getting married in a few months and I'm hosting a brunch for her. I'm also making her wedding cake, which both excites and terrifies me. I've done tiered cakes, but never one with so much at stake. Oh, and I'm directing the wedding and helping with a lot og the plans. For about 10 minutes between Freshman and Sophomore year in college I considered switching to business with the idea of becoming a wedding planner. I'm glad I didn't pursue it, but still love the idea of planning weddings.

Cortney's wedding is fuschia and orange, which I think will look great! For her shower I wanted to focus on just the pink, since that is her favorite color.

Pink and my new favorite print: damask. I cannot get enough of it! Did you notice my new damask dress in the prom picture? And Avery has pink damask pillows in her playhouse. I love that it's whimsical and formal at the same time.

For this party I have found some pink damask giftwrap at Tar-jay to use as table runners ala HWTM. That girl is the queen of using paper for table decorations!

I have a few more things in my head, but we'll have to see how far I get. This is going to be a busy summer (and it starts SOON--all kids will be gone Wednesday; most are already done!!!!). One thing I definitely plan to use are these wonderful pom poms. So cheap. So quick. So lovely!

And not that I would begrudge Martha of any of her millions, but I'm not paying for the kits to make these. If you want to support women in business, however, let PomLove or PartyPoms make them for you. Otherwise, grab some tissue and get to folding and cutting.

Oh, this month's craft challenge over at Blue Eyed Blessings is to use a mongram. What I have in mind is actually for Cortney's wedding, too. Check back soon for that!

And finally...if you have any ideas for creating a fun hot pink damask bridal shower brunch, leave a comment! Or have you hosted a bridal shower lately? Let me know--I'd love to feature you!

April Craft Challenge

2009-05-07T21:28:00.006-05:00

Heidi over at Blue Eyed Blessings hosts a monthly craft challenge. This month's theme was ribbon. I came across this late, so I scrambled to come up with something. Check it out and then click the button below to see what everyone else created!

I bought these canvas monogram kits back in the fall for $1 each. I'm not sure what I had planned for them; I was probably just excited to find 4x4" canvases for a buck!

Here's a close up of the "A". I originally thought I would paint this one using the pattern given, but my hand wasn't steady enough. You'll see what I did to it with my Cricut in a minute.

See Ave wearing her new smock? It worked great, as it paint on it when we were done, but her clothes did not! We painted each one a different color...

Once they were dry we tied some ribbon scraps around them. They are meant to be hung on the wall, but these are just on my craft room floor for now. See where the Cricit came in?

And now you say, that's pretty cute, but what is it???? What? It's not obvious?? Okay, okay.

It's a hair bow holder! It also works as just an art piece. Not bad for an evening and just using what I already had lying around! Another one of my favorite ribbon projects is here. I use it every day and have had several people try to buy it from me.

Okay. Go check out the other ribbon projects now, and check back to Heidi's blog to find out what the May challenge will be!

Super Quick Smock

2009-05-03T14:55:00.010-05:00

Last night was the GHS prom. The theme was "Moonlight in Paris"--complete with 20 foot Eiffel Tower! The tables has a bistro look, a park lined one side, a quaint city sidewalk (with student artwork in the windows!) the other. Even the caterer got in on the game, bringing along a coffee bar and black and white damask platters. And little cones of french fries! So fun.

I love going to prom and seeing the kids all dressed up. And I think they actually like seeing all of old teachers there--especially with our spouses. They forget that we have lives outside our classrooms.

Here is a picture of us before the kids got there:

I can't believe it's been 11 years since our first prom! Of course, that was way before digital, and I'm not in the mood to scan right now. So no pics of that!

Okay, enough of that...here's the project I made last week. My mom found this tablecloth almost a year ago foe eighty-eight cents. 88 cents!!! It had the colors of Avery's playhouse in it, but it was the wrong size and shape for any tables I had planned. But .88! I had to do something with it.

Since the tablecloth is vinyl and easy to wipe off, I immediately thought "art smock." Of course it took me months to actually do it....but once I did it took all of 45 minutes to complete. I drew out a basic pattern on newspaper and then cut it out. A front and a back. That's it! I made sure to do a kind of cap sleeve to help further protect clothes. I sewed the front and back together at the top of the sleeves, left a lot of space for the armholes, and then sewed the rest of the way down the sides. Four seams--that's it. Since it's vinyl, there is no need to hem.

It would depend on the pattern of the tablecloth, but with this one I used the border of the cloth as the bottom of the smock. Not only is it cute that way, but it also has a nice finished edge.

My original plan was to make the arm and neck hole big enough for Ave to slip it on and off over her head, and it is, but it finally occured to me that that was a recipe for getting paint on the very clothes the smock is meant to protect! No problem: I just made a cut down the middle of the back and sewed some ribbon scraps on each side to tie it closed.

I think Avery likes it! I'm playing with a new camera, and though it does a great job of capturing Avery dancing without coming out blurry, I haven't yet figured out where not to put my fingers. Hence the dark spots at the bottom. Oh well, she still looks super cute! Happy crafting everyone!

Modge Podge Mania!

2009-05-01T17:16:00.002-05:00

Xazmin over on This is the Year hosts a monthly Modge Podge Mania project. I haven't done much with Modge Podge lately, but I'm always open to new ideas! One of my favorite projects is here: Altered Office Supplies.

Read about it and then go see what everyone else is doing over at This is the Year.

I have another project I need to post, but it might have to wait until after the PROM tomorrow! MOst teachers dread having to chaprerone prom, but I love it! This will be mine and Kyle's 6th prom, including my senior prom in 1998! I love seeing the kids all dressed up.

Happy weekend all!

Nesting

2009-04-28T18:47:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday was my church's annual Mother-Daughter Tea. It's always a fun afternoon of nibbles and catching up with people who no longer attend church there, but are still connected somehow through family and friends. When this started 9? 10? years ago, I think it was a potluck. Then someone got a hold of it and provided a menu. Then themes. And favors. And on and on it went. It ends up being a lot of work for the organizers, but really nice.

This year there was no theme, which created a problem for (one of) the speakers...ME! And so I ended up speaking on that...how difficult it is to navigate like if you have no theme. Beginning with the end in sight, I like to call it. Maybe I'll post my thoughts here sometime.

Another difference this time was that each table was responsible for their own centerpiece. The colors were robin's egg blue and yellow. A few tables included pictures of women in their family; one had grandma's old hats!

This was ours...

Isn't it cute?! It's a series of birds' nests on a cake pedestal surrounded my ffloral garland that I'm pretty sure my mom has been hanging onto for five years. Finally a use! Oh? You're curious about the eggs?? Check them out up close:

LOVE them! They're dyed with silk ties! I found the idea on Our Best Bites. They have a tutorial that explains the process really well. I provided the idea, Mom dyed the eggs (she got the ties at Goodwill for practically nothing), Aunt Connie made the little paper maiche flowers.

Who says dyeing eggs is only for Easter?

Featuring Me!

2009-04-27T19:27:00.003-05:00

Imagine my suprise and delight when I updated my feeds this evening, clicked onto one of my new favorite blogs, and found that Avery's party was the featured post! Shannon features all kinds of fun parties and ideas. I think I found her the week after Ave's party, just in time to start planning for next year! And you MUST see the design of her blog. SO CUTE! She does that, too, if you're looking for a new blog design. Be sure to check out all the fun things going on over at Creative Parties and Showers!

30 Minutes and a Cricut

2009-04-20T17:51:00.008-05:00

I love my Cricut. What? I've said that before? Well, it's true. I tend to collect craft supplies, but the Bug has seriously eliminated the need for most of them, as it does what the other things do plus some.

I finally got my craft room (okay, so it's a landing created from an old porch that was encloosed during an addition years ago, but you know...) in good shape during a day off in February. It's clean, organized, but lacking in decor. Not that there's much room for decor.

I still had some black vinyl left over from this project, and I thought I could put some to good use over the doorway leading to the kitchen.

Ta-Da!

Pay no attention to the random card table in the shot. You have to move my desk to open the closet in goes in, and I needed a husband for that, but was unwilling to wait on him before taking the picture!

I really should do a post about my kitchen someday. I love it. LOVE it. I drew a sketch of what I wanted it to look like based on Kyle's description of the space before I had ever been in our house. I still have that picture because the room matches my sketch EXACTLY.

But back to my vinyl...

I cut the "Create" out of George and the "dream" and "inspire" out of Stone Script. Provo Craft sells special tape for keeping everything in line, but I just find the center letter and work my way out. The vinyl is just peel and stick--but totally repositionable. I initially separated the words with asterisks, as I couldn't find anything better. But I got the Storybook cart for my birthday, and so replaced them with tiny chrysanthemums just yesterday. They are way cute!

Thirty minutes and my Cricut. And that was with Avery wanting to help. I love decor projects that can be done in no time for no money and with no skill!

Polka Dots Everywhere!

2009-04-10T09:43:00.017-05:00

Warning: I had a reallly hard time narrowing down pictures for this post, so it will be slow to load, I'm sure. Please be patient!

Saturday was Avery's 3rd Birthday party. I love planning parties. Love it. But I don't have many occasions for it, so when I get the chance to plan one, I tend to go all out. I realize she likely won't remember them, and that she doesn't care about the details the way I do, but I enjoy it. And really, though there are lots of details, it's more of an investment in time than money. Nearly everything is papercrafted, and paper is cheap, especially when you shop sales, as I do.

Avery is very into pink, and decided back in June that she wanted pink polka dots and flowers for her party. Those two things didn't immediately make sense to me as a theme, so I figured out a cute name--polka dots and posies--and I was able to begin visualizing it. That name was nowhere in any party things; it was just for me.

I loved the way her outfit turned out. I made a pillowcase top out of a sheet that we had never used, because we don't have a bed that it fits. I was going to make the pants, too, but then I found these at Babies R Us for $3 and decided my time was worth more than that. Unfortunately I got the 18-24 month size, forgetting I was going to go back to 12-18 for Spring/Summer since length is not as important with capris. She was trying to keep them up all day.

I started with the invites. They were simply made in Word (I had photoshop issues...the text kept printing blurry) with layered paper flowers. I bought one jar of these flowers at Michael's and used them for everything. They went a really long way. I bought large sheets of textured paper and cut it to 8.5x11 so I could print it.

I always feel the need to start with a little poem. This year's was: "They grow so fast--can you believe? Avery Adkins is turning three!"

Oh, and I always put magnetic tape on the backs of the invites so they will stick right on the fridge. One $2.99 roll has lasted through three parties (I just put four little pieces in the corners.) I can never find a magnet when I need one, and this eliminates that.

The day was beautiful--sunny, clear blue skies, and about 75. It was windy though! I was running around during the first part of the party taping down tablecloths. We put up the tent that we use for the family reunion, which gave me a way to cover the food and decorate.

And here's a close up of those paper bag flowers I made..

And another showing some of the table set-up. The party was at 1pm, so we had picky food as opposed to a full lunch. There was chips and salsa (round tortilla chips, of course), a veggie tray with round Ritz crackers and cheese that I cut into circles with a small coookie cutter, those yummy Lofthouse cookies with mounds of pink icing, strawberries with chocolate and cream cheese dip, chicken nuggets for the kids, pink M&Ms, cake and ice cream. Oh, and chocoolate dipped strawberry marshmallows on lollipop sticks. Yummy!

Here's the M&Ms up close. Apparently no one realized they were for eating, because most of them are still sitting in that jar on my dining room table. Single color M&Ms can be pricy, especially if you have to order them. Because I plan ahead so far in advance I was able to stock up on the pink mix back in October during breat cancer awareness. I would find them on Kroger plus for 2 for $7, and then use a $1 off coupon. Two coupons, actually, because I was buying two.

What about the St. Pat's mix for a John Deere party? Pastel Easter mix for a cupcake party? There's a Spring mix out right now that I might need to stock up on for a shower I'm hosting this Summer. They'll keep forever if you leave them in the package.

I love that apothecary jar, by the way. I got it for Mother's Day two years ago, and it sits atop my china cabinet, holding red ornaments at Christmas, pears at other times, pinecones...all kinds of things.

And speaking of the M&Ms, I used them for the favors, as well. I searched everywhere for those clear pillow boxes. i really wanted the M&Ms to show through. They're the polka dots!
I made the tags with my Cricut, of course, and my new Mini Monogram cartridge. And there's more of those flowers!

The kids got goody bags made from Wilton popcorn boxes. Inside was a round lipgloss, a notepad, pink pencil, one of the M&M boxes and some flower tatoos. The boys got a light up toy, and boyish pencil and stickers.

I love the way these hats turned out! Avery's special one is in the front, the others had the single flower. I made 11-onch circles, cut them in half, and then rolled into a hat. I made the ribbon loops, taped them together, and taped them inside. You can't see it in the picture, but I placed a small brad in the hole where the elastic goes in. This helps keep the elastic from coming out or the knot from tearing through the hole.

Here they all are on the table.

Rather than buy fancy tableware, I bought clear cups and forks and dressed them up with paper. I think there's some formula you can use to make the angles work on the cup wrappers, but I just used a Starbucks cardboard thing as a pattern. And did you catch the picture of the napkins and the hats? Since when does my camera take such fabulous pictures?

I set up my nephew's little folding table and chairs (two sets pushed together) for the kiddie table. The centerpiece is made of tissue paper flowers and a giant pink lollipop from the Easter aisle at WalMart. $1!

Avery got this bouncy house for her 2nd birthday. We gt so much use out of it for things like this. It's instant entertainment for birthday parties, the reunion, whatever. The kids jumped on it nonstop...

...except when they were playing in the playhouse.
Which of course was decorated, too. (Hey, to get four shades of pink, I ended up with a ton of balloons. Might as well use them, right?)

Then we ate cake. The flowers are gumpaste, quilled ala Collette Peters. I should have let the buttercream set up a bit before placing the flowers, because they caused it to fall some.

While we were eating cake, Avery enjoyed opening her gifts with a little help from cousin Kaylee. Most of her gifts were wrapped in pink, and several of the guests wore pink, too!

Of her three parties, this one was the most difficult to conceptualize, but in the end, I think it came together the best. I found so much inspiration throughout Blog World--no real specifics, but lots of things that informed my planning. That's what I love about blogging: you get to virtually pick the brains of so many creative people.

I hope you had a wonderful birthday party, Munchkin. Thank you for letting me plan it for you!

What Have You Done?

2009-04-08T08:29:00.003-05:00

I found this bloggy game on The Minimalist Mommy. You highlight/bold the items on the list you have done. This seemed apropos considering today is my 29th birthday (Happy Birthday to ME!). Last year at this time I was in a pretty deep funk: I was unable to drive because of having a grand mal seizure, was in constant fear of having another one (which I did, but the anti-epileptics seem to be working), and was completely stressed about my impending orals for my Master’s degree (which I passed with Distinction, thankyouverymuch). I wasn’t really thinking about goals and wish lists; I was simply stumbling through each day, counting down days until these obstacles would be over.

But that’s over. Though I have now been diagnosed with epilepsy, it’s been easily controlled with medication. My Master’s led to the opportunity to teach a college course through the local community college. I took on a leadership role with the Writing Project, and loving working on that side of education. We are getting really close financially to being able to build our dream home, something I thought was truly just a dream. And best of all, Kyle and I will soon celebrate anniversary number six. Life is good, and I’m looking forward to what 29 has to offer.

But back to the point of this post. Some of these things are completely random, and I’m not sure I even want to do them, but it’s still a neat exercise. So here’s what I’ve done:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band ….at school
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland /world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (second grade Country Music showcase…love those elementary units of study)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (during Hurricane Erin while on the Big Red Boat)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (Senior Prom…thanks Jimmy Kelly’s)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (in teaching we call them “mental health days”)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

28. Seen a total eclipse
29. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (see #13)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (well, they were from England and I’ve been to England…)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (that 1st seizure brought all kinds of drama with it)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain (somewhere in our 11 years I’m sure we have)
53. Played in the mud (hello church camp shaving cream fights!)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (what was it called, Shyla, Shoezy Q or something?)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen (our church does the Room in the Inn program)
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy (Corduroy now belongs to Avery)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (sort of….we saw the change at the Tower of London, and the parade leading to the change at Buckingham, but couldn’t get close enough to see the actual changing there)
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (does an article in a scholarly journal count?)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (I still love my Mustang, even if the car seat takes away a little from its coolness factor)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (schools in my area put EVERYTHING in the paper to get some good publicity)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person (three times now, though I have never found it the least impressive. Sorry Davey Crockett)
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day (I’m an English teacher, people. Of course I have!)

Wow—that’s more from the list than I expected. So what have you done? If you decide to play along leave me a comment so I can check out your list!

Spring?

2009-04-06T18:22:00.007-05:00

Saturday was 75 degrees and sunny. I actually ot a little sunburned during Avery's party. Sunday, more of the same. Today? 45--maybe--and rain mixed with tiny snow pellets that are supposed to turn into full on snow showers overnight. It's April, people, in the South. And did I mention that I'm on Spring Break this week? I finally get a week off, and this is the weather I get.

As if Spring was out to mock me, this is what I found in my flower bed this afternoon when I went to bring in some potted plants before the freeze comes:

My iris never bloom this early, and yet here they are, just in time to get killed off. And of course my lilac is starting to bloom. I braved wind and sleet and leaving Avery unattended with play-doh to cut a few blooms, since I know they won't make it. I L.O.V.E. the way my lilacs look with the dove gray wallls in the living room.

But rather than spend the whole day lamenting winter in April, I did a little planning for other areas that need landscaping. When Kyle's grandfather dug out the basement of our house, he just piled the dirt next to the house and built a retaining wall around it. He then added some steps going up to it; people often think it's a foundation to a house that once was. It's pretty neat, actually. So anyway, I have wanted to plant around this "foundation" ever since we bought the house almost six years ago. I've drawn up several plans for it, but never liked any of them enough to actually buy the plants and dig some holes. But I think this one might be it:

I found this planting plan at Better Homes & Gardens. I love the symmetry, the colors, and especially the peonies! They have lots, and all provide a list of plants as well as alternates. Check them out and send some more Spring this way, please! Maybe for my birthday on Wednesday?

edited 4/7/09: My iris survived the freezy rainy sleety stuff last night! Hopefully the lilac and hydrangea did, too. (Two years ago a late freeze caused my hydrangea to leaf out, but not bloom. That shrub is really important to me, so to go another year without its beautiful blue blooms would sadden me.)

Polka Dot Party #2

2009-04-03T21:59:00.008-05:00

I tend to have a very clear vision of what I want, whether it be an outfit, a piece of art or simple party decor. I will sometimes come across cute things, but often it's not exactly what I had in mind. And I have this thing about settling for less than what I've envisioned. I can't do it.

So when shopping for Avery's party, I found this centerpiece set:

You've seen them before, I'm sure. For some reason, though, they are almost all for 1st birthdays. I knew I could easily alter the circle part to match the theme and my style, so what I was really buying it for was the tissue stand up part. That part I knew would be difficult to recreate.

A few cuts with my beloved Cricut, and voila...

Pretty cute, right? This project took all of 10 minutes. The point is to look at things not as what they are, but they might become. Often times it just takes a little bit altering to make an item not only perfect, but one of a kind, as well.

Happy Birthday Avery!

2009-04-02T17:10:00.010-05:00

Avery Olivia -- April 1, 2006

Okay, it's official: as of yesterday morning at 10:08, Avery is no longer a baby. Not that she has EVER been a baby (she seriously could hold her head up by the time they brought her back to me from cleaning her up in the nursery. She was what--2 hours old? And that's her hospital picture--she was not quite 2 days old there.), but now she is three. Two is still babyish. Three is a little girl. Sigh. Sad as it makes me, it was so much fun to watch her really enjoy her birthday. She get's it.

She woke up to three balloons in her room. I got the idea for this tradition from Natalie. It was so simple, but really started her special day out right. She was literally jumping up and down shouting, "Today is my birthday! I'm three years old!" Too cute.

My friend Ann covered my last class so that I could make it to daycare for afternoon snack. Avery brought pink cookies to share. Of course they were pink! She got to don the huge latex gloves and pass them out all by herself. It was so cute to see her using such grown up manners with her friends: "Excuse me, Anderson, would you like a pink cookie for my birthday?"

After that celebration she received her big gift from us: a big girl bike. She was as excited as we hoped she would be, and is pretty good at riding it. We always struggle with toys like that, because she is so tiny. At only 27lbs, we never know if she will be able to reach pedals and whatnot. Yes, 27 lbs. She wears 18-24 month clothes. Unless length doesn't matter, and then it's 12-18. I have no idea where this kid came from.

Papa and Juju and Grandmommy and Pop Pop came over after dinner for cake and presents. She blew out all of the candles on the first try, and kept reaching her fork back into the cake for more. That's my girl. :) And we now are fully stocked on Tinkerbell gear. I can handle Tink so much better than the princesses, though we have our fair sahare of those, too. Oh, and her hat is just a little pink peak at what's to come Saturday. Stay tuned.

So now she's three going on thirty. They grow up so fast! Next up: the pink polka dot party on Saturday.

Creative Proposals

2009-03-31T07:35:00.000-05:00

In early February we took Avery to Western Kentucky University, both mine and Kyle's alma mater, for her first basketball game. We had fun showing her Cherry Hall, where we practically lived, and other WKU landmarks. She loved Big Red...from a distance, though she did give him a high five.

During a time out in the second half, Big Red came on to the floor for one of his skits. He say a girl down in a chair and acted as the band played "Heeey, Baby...I Want to Know if You'll Be My Girl." As the song ended, a guy walked out from the sidelines with a microphone, called the girl's name, and proposed. He said they met at Diddle two years before, and wanted to start the next chapter of their relationship there, too. I cried.

It was pretty brave of him to pop the question in front of the largest crowd of the season and ESPN cameras. Of course she said yes. And it of course brought back memories of Kyle's proposal to me, which I also thought was pretty creative.

March 31, 2002--sSeven years ago today--I was student teaching, and he had just started his first job out of college. As Easter approached, he mentioned Easter presents, something I'm sure we had never exchanged. As a full time unpaid teacher, shelling out for an easter trinket was a little stressful. I was waiting for my income tax return just to buy Kyle's birthday presents! I set the limit at $20 and got him the latest Coldplay CD.

When Easter Sunday arrived we went to his parents' house for lunch with the family. He kept bringing up presents, but was adamant about waiting to exchange them until everyone left. Then he admitted to spending a little more than $20, claiming it cost $60 instead. I was a little miffed that he was going to outdo me (if only I had known!), but proceeded to look in my Easter basket. Inside was a porcelin egg. While lovely, I immediately wondered what was in the egg that cost $60, since I knew he didn't just get me an egg. Imagine my shock when I opened it and found my ring! I had picked it out over three years earlier, and knew he had it, but never imagined that I would get it that day or that he would use Easter as a way of proposing. I was impressed!

Thanks for choosing me, Kylie! I love you bunches.

So now--leave a comment and share your proposal stories. I lov those kinds of stories!

Polka Dot Party #1

2009-03-16T19:25:00.004-05:00

I've had another post half ready for a month, but obviously it has not gotten finished. I've had trouble getting a good picture of one thing, but I'm tired of trying and so am giving up for now.

On to party planning. Avery will be three on April 1st (yep, my little April fool), and has decided on a pink polka dot theme. Her 1st birthday was a bug theme, designed around her room, and last year she had an Under the Sea party. I must admit that this party has been the most difficult to conceptualize. I've known what I wanted to do in a general sense, but my plans are only now starting to get to detail phase. That's not really like me.

So while much of her party wares are still waiting to be assembled, I have started working on some of the decor, namely these great paper bag flowers.

Aren't they lovely?! They are, of course, from Martha. You can find the step by step here, but essentially you take six paper bags, cut off the bottoms, glue them together and fan them out into a flower.

Avery's will be in all pink, of course, and will I think make a pretty good stand in for the pink Chinese lanterns that I really wanted. Unfortunately no one carries those locally, and shipping on them is ridiculous.

So that takes care of one of about a million party details I'm working on. I know it will all come together, but right now I'm feeling a little frantic.

If you are looking for more party ideas, you MUST check out Polka Dots and Pirates. I have found her ideas so inspiring, and would have used her for some of my party stuff if she was still doing custom orders. And she's a teacher. And her daughter is named Avery.

And lastly, yea for my two favorite teams! Twice my Alma Mater, WKU made it to the NCAA by winning their conference both outright and in the tournament, and Michigan sneaked in as an at large. Can't wait to wwatch them both play Thursday night!

Guilty of Blog Abandonment

2009-01-28T08:07:00.003-06:00

Dear Blog--

I'm sorry. I've been distracted by another website. It was new. It was exciting. It paid me. It's not that I no longer care for you, because I do, but I guess I just needed a break. But now I have completed it and am no longer feeling the thrill of the chase. So I can now pay more attention to you. I promise to try...

Love,

Heather

I've just finished the new website for the Middle Tennessee Writing Project, and am really excited about how it turned out! Let me start by saying that I am not a web designer. I worked for a website in college, but I did mostly copy writing and data entry. The little design I did was very template driven. Besides, things have changed A LOT in the last few years. I used WordPress to create it as it gave me a lot of flexibility and then googled constantly trying to figure out how to do what I wanted. It was sometimes frustrating, but I learned so much about web design! And I learned the most from having to fix problems.

Actually, it was a ton of fun, and I'm sure I'll continue to fiddle with it forever. And let me just say one thing: Plugins are SO MUCH FUN! Other people figure things out and you just download and insert. I was able to add a message board, mailing list and chat room (among other more admin type things) using plugins. And you see the MTWP button in my sidebar? It's grabbable from the website! I may do a tutorial on that, because it was super easy.

I also want to point out that this is not my website. MTWP is part of the National Writing Project, a teachers-teaching-teachers professional development model that has completely changed my appproach to teaching and has given me avenues into areas of education that interested me, but that I had no idea how to break into. I'm honored to be a part of the organization, and even more so to be able to be so in a leadership role. My job as Co-Technology Liaison is to use technology to further the work of the Writing Project. Which, if you are a teacher, you need to be a part of. Today. (go to NWP.org to find a list of sites in your state) Objective number one was to create a website that would be interactive, could be used for both continuity and professional development, and act as a marketing tool for the organization. I think we have a good start on that (we already have four online applications to the Summer Institute!), but am excited to look for additional ways to support the work.

So, check out the site, and please leave me any feedback you can on it. It's not perfect, but I want it to be, and I need some other eyes on it.

Next up....Birthday Party planning! Avery will be 3 in just over 2 months...and I'm behind!

Have I Mentioned How I Love a Dollar Aisle?

2009-01-03T22:41:00.008-06:00

Probably only once or twenty times. They. Are. Fabulous. Especially the one at Target. Apparently they are not doing well in this economy, which shocks me as I feel like my visits alone could keep the entire company afloat. But anyway. They have a really cute line of desk accessories in right now. I found this little clipboard...

Cute, but not really my style. So I grabbed some scraps of my favorite paper ever, some fifty cent bobbin ribbons and some modge podge and came up with this...

I so love it. It's small--it holds a mini legal pad--but perfectly pink now. I used a dip spreader to pry the rivets off the back so I could add the paper. That bent the metal ever so slightly, making it impossible to re-fasten one of the rivets. So one side is super glued down. I added some pink brads over the rivets to hide the rough side since that's on the front. I also added some green polka dot paper to the back to finish it off. And this is important--I added a coat of modge podge over the whole surface to help keep it from getting quite so dirty.

Seriously. A dollar and thirty minutes.

And since I mentioned my favorite paper, look what else I made with it!!

I found these mugs at Oriental Trading. They came with a "World's Greatest Dad" insert for kids to color, so I used that as the template and traced my inserts on pretty paper. I cut the circles with my beloved Cricut (Kyle got me two new carts for Christmas!), and used stickers for the monogram. I made these for my friends at school for Christmas and for Avery's teachers.

And speaking of the Cricut....

Santa brought Avery this little step stool for her playhouse, but let us do the monogramming in anticipation of new Cricut fonts. I cut the name from the Mini Monogram cartridge and the polka dots from George. But they're not cut from paper; it's vinyl! Lowes has their Wall Pops for $3 (though I've heard some of the stores have them for $1), so I stocked up on pink and green. They only had the dark pink, so I clipped a piece to Avery's new easel and painted right on it. Using the easel was her idea, by the way. You just peel the paper off the cut vinyl and stick it on. I first tried the vinyl out on the front door, and am now anxious to ghost the words to Michigan's fight song as a border in the den.

So that's all for my December crafting. I have a couple of pictures of a new decoration I tried this year, which I may post later, and of course "the cold Grinch" will make an appearance, but it's time to more or less move in to the new year. Or at least that's my excuse...really I just need to figure out what I'm teaching on Tuesday and launch the website for the Writing Project.

TuTu Cute

2009-01-02T08:06:00.001-06:00

One day while I was perusing Etsy I came across all these beautiful tutu dresses--a new concept to me! They are actually really easy to make, and can be done completely no-sew. You can see some gorgeous examples here. Basically, you just knot lengths of tulle onto a ribbon waistband long enough to fit across the chest and have room to tie into a bow at the back. A second ribbon is looped on the front and ties around the neck. Instead of being super short like most tutus, these extend to tea-length.

So here's what I came up with for Kyle's cousin's little girl Kaylee. It uses 100 yards of tulle in hot pink, light pink and white. With 50% off coupons, that's about $5 worth of tulle. I hot glued some sherbety peonies to the front to help keep everything modest (and pretty!).

And of course, every tutu needs a matching hairbow...

As expected, Steph was more excited about this than Kaylee. She's planning to have pictures made of Kaylee in it this spring. Those were my thoughts exactly when making it :). Avery has one, too, of course. Hers is white with the softest pink flowers on the front. And for hers I made ribbon straps instead of the halter. Hers is a tad too small, though, so I'm waiting for a sale or coupon so I can finish it.

I haven't blogged in forever, but I have been creating, so I'll get to some more things soon. Just after I make my house look a little less like Toy R Us exploded in it. And finish the website. And plan next semester. And...well, you get the picture.

Happy New Year all!!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T12:47:00.004-06:00

Happy Turkey everyone! Kyle and Avery are still at his aunt's house eating and watching our beloved Titans crush the Lions (21-3 after the FIRST quarter!), but I had to come back to get tonight's turkey in the oven. After spending the Thanksgiving I was pregnant without turkey (some was fried, the other a HoneyBaked Ham soked breast cut into completely uniform slices--ugh.), I started volunteering to make the bird. Now I couldn't get out if it if I tried!

And I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything new, but I just got back from San Antonio Sunday (had a GREAT trip...one of those where you work really hard, but none of it feels like work), and I've been a little involved reading Twilight. Okay, obsessed. I never expected to like the series; I was only reading the first one because all of my students were, and since it's so rare for them to read any book, I wanted to be able to talk about it with them. When my friend Sarah loaned me hers, she handed me New Moon as well, saying simply, "You'll need this, too." She was right. I started last Tuesday night, and am now half way through Breaking Dawn. For anyone who's read the series, you know that's about 2000 pages in just over a week. TV? Blogs? Laundry? No thanks, I'm reading. I seriously have not been this excited about a book--much less four books--since the Babysitters Club in fourth grade. And I'm an English teacher. I think it's because I skipped from BSC stright to Faulkner, missing out on the whole YA literature thing. Now I get it.

But back to crafty stuff. I saw this really cute fabric out of the corner of my eye a couple of weeks ago at Hobby Lobby, and immediately wanted to make Ave a dress out of it. So far my sewing has been limited to pillows and Halloween costumes that only have to hold up for a couple of hours. But my excited blinded my hesitance. I whipped up this little pillowcase dress in just about an hour, without a pattern. I even used a blind stitch on the hem, something I had not done in at least 15 years, when Mimi tried to teach me to sew.

Ugh. The picture turned out blurry, but you get the idea. I made her hair flower out of a scrapbooking embellishment, simply hot gluing a clippy to the back. She told everyone at church that Mommy made her dress on her sewing thing.

And that may be all for awhile. I'll be done with my book soon, especially since I have a few hours alone babysitting the bird, but I have a website to build, papers to grade and some finals to create. And a house to decorate. And shopping to do. I'm planning to do a lot of my shopping on Etsy this year, so maybe I'll start featuring some sellers instead. Any favorite shops out there? Let me know!

And to all of you crazy people hitting the malls tomorrow, have fun. I'll be hiding in my house, far away from the bedlam.

I Love a Challenge!

2008-11-14T22:11:00.002-06:00

I was checking Shyla's blog, Mothering In Grace, and her newest post caught my eye: "a challenge to my oldest friend Heather"...that's me! Shyla and I have been friends longer than either of us can remember. All our lives, literally. We were a tiny bit competitive in Sunday school Bible quizzes, something that happened each time a month had 5 Sundays. We called ourselves Daughters of Thunder (remember that?).

So the challenge? A Bible quiz. How did I do?

You know the Bible 90%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Take More Quizzes

I have no idea what questions I missed, but I think I might have somehow selected San Francisco for the city where Mary and Martha lived. Yea, it had choices like that. For the record, I know that's not the correct answer, but I tend to use my arrow keys to scroll down, and more than once that changed my answers. What an excuse after replying to a parent's email today about how a 90 in my class was perfectly fine and he shouldn't be concerned about his son!

So, Shyla--our usual lunch over Christmas break? I'll buy dessert!

~~~

The real challenge I faced today? I made a dress. On my sewing machine. Without a pattern or my grandmother to just do it for me when I grew bored and frustrated. I finished it after Avery went to bed, so pictures of it will have to wait, but trust me, it's cute! Just don't look too close at the seams.

My Pretty Butterfly

2008-11-08T10:13:00.004-06:00

No, I didn't forget about pictures of Ave in her Butterfly costume...I've just been busy teaching and writing and cleaning and cooking and running all over town. She looked so stinking cute, though, so I simply must share them...

I had to make it...just like last year and the year before. That's what happens when your 2 year old is the size of a one year old. Ave chose the black and orange butterfly, and I found the gorgeous Pottery Barn one as inspiration. But $90 for a costume? No thanks. Besides, it started at a 2-3T. Maybe when she's in kindergarten. $5 in felt, a headband from the dollar aisle, some pom poms, a turtle neck and mary janes. Done. It was actually pretty easy. Except for finding a black turtleneck in a 12 month size with no snaps in the crotch. Snaps and potty trained kids don't go well together. I'm literally having to cut the bottoms off her tops and hem them to make things work. But I digress....

This is my favorite shot, and it's getting blown up to 8 x 10, even if it is a little blurry. I think it adds to the idea of movement. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

So there you go. One butterfly and one more year of her choosing something classic over the commercial. I know those days will end soon. My little girl is growing up...in fact, they're moving her up to the 3 year old class at school. She's 2 1/2...she's only spent 6 months in Red Snapper! I like to think they are moving her up because of her superior intellect, but I'm pretty sure it has more to do with the fact that they need to move other kids into the 2 year old rooms and she's the one of the only potty trained ones, so she's getting the boot. But she is pretty smart :).

I do have some ideas for Thanksgiving projects and menu items, but those will have to come between birthday parties (my nephew's and cousin's), Leadership Team meeting for the Writing Project and a trip to San Antonio for the NWP annual meeting and NCTE convention.

Enjoy the weekend...for us Tennesseans this may be the last semi-warm one.

Pumpkins in the Classroom

2008-11-06T19:09:00.012-06:00

I think I promised a while ago to post how my kids used pumpkins in an assignment for my AP English class. So here it is.

The assignment: to decorate a pumpkin to look like a character from a piece of literature. They could use anything they wanted to make that happen, but no carving was allowed (we didn't want them getting yucky after a week on display).

The purpose: um, I should probably come up with some State Performance Indicators that this fulfills or something, but really it was just for fun. Students and faculty could vote for their favorite, and one of the clubs at school matched each vote with a donation to the new library in our town.

The result: my favorite part! They all turned out sooo cute. I have a favorite, but I'll keep that to myself in case one of my kiddos should find my blog. The mythological ones are from my friends' World Studies class.

Mercury

Poseidon -- this was the vote winner

Dr. Jekyll...and Mr. Hyde

Mean Wicked Witch of the West

Cute Wicked Witch of the West

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

Pinnochio

Brother and Sister Bear

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

"The Cask of Amontillado"

Isn't that fun! I hope to make it a yearly event for at least my AP class. But now it's back to rhetorical analysis and critical essays. Which I actually find pretty fun. I know.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

2008-10-28T09:08:00.009-05:00

It's been awhile--a crazy week, planning for a weekend retreat for the leadership team of the Writing Project, and a house in chaos--but I'm back with a few simple things.

First, I won another giveaway! Imagine my suprise when I was reading through some blogs and my mouse happened to land on the link to the winner and I saw my blog address! Wendy sent over these too cute pumpkins. They arrived yesterday--just in time for Halloween.

Don't they look great on my kitchen windowsill? Except you probably can't tell that that's my kitchen. I zoomed waaay in so you couldn't see the dishes piled up in and around the sink. Really. It's that bad. Have I ever mentioned that I need a dishwasher? My next house will have two, just because I can.

And check out what I did with one of the pumpkins we picked up at the pumpkin patch. Soooo simple, but I love the look of its little belt (as Avery called it). This what I want to do for the bottom tier of my pumpkin topiary, but I still haven't found one in the right size.

My students are working on projects using pumpkins right now, and I can't wait to show them off in the next day or two, but for now, here's a little more fall inspiration.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

2008-10-18T22:35:00.009-05:00

(Yes, I'm from the South and proud of it.) It's finally starting to feel like fall here in Nashville! I'm so excited to start dressing Avery in all of her too cute fall outfits instead of the sleeveless tops and shorts she was still able to wear earlier in the week. I'm excited about brisk, but sunny afternoons. I'm excited about oranges and browns and reds. I'm excited that fall brings us closer to winter, because winter means snow, a favorite word among teachers.

This picture of our front yard was taken last weekend. The leaves were just starting to turn--you should see them now! Hopefully we'lll be able to ride up on the hill this week so I can get some shots of the farm in full color. I'm so not a farm-type girl, but I married a man with strong ties to his family's land, and though there are still times that I think about what it would be like to go house hunting or to live somewhere more suburban, I'm finally--after eleven years--starting to understand the pull of the Hollow. This time of year, when the fields are mowed, the leaves are bright, and the animals are more visible, I feel it even more.

And so....I went looking for some fall inspiration. I LOVE these projects, and might try some of them myself...next year. Right now I still have a Halloween costume to finish, a website to design for one of my three jobs (and by that I mean paying jobs, nevermind being a wife and mommy), and two trips to take in November. Here's what I found.

And these are the projects I have tackled this season. Actually this past Monday. Hey, I don't get that many days off between August and May, so I try to get a lot done on those days I am off (hence my love of snow days).

Those house numbers are my entrance into the world of vinyl lettering. I cut them out on my Cricut from Wall Pops, which you can get at Lowes.

And here's a closer look at the pumpkin topiary in progress. I'm still looking for a larger pumpkin to add to the bottom. I may use a real one for that. Once it's done it should fit better in the pot, hiding the dirt left from the summer's flowers.

Easiest. Centerpiece. Ever. The floral/berry picks are just stuck into the spaces of the wire pumpkin.

I want to find some black pillar holders for the pumpkins, but the little silver pots work, too.

So I finally did some decorating for fall. I'm still looking for more fall decorating ideas, though, so please comment with ideas and links!

Welcome SITSas!

2008-10-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the day of the big Blog-a-thon! It should be lots of fun and a great way to support women bloggers. Not sure what SITS is? Click below to get in on the fun.

I found SITS only about a month ago, and then only clicked over for a chance to win a Cricut. I didn't get the bug, but I did find an enormous community of bloggers who reach out to each other and give us all a way to find new interesting things to read and try. The community aspect of blogging is why I started this blog in the first place. I probably post a lot more now because I know there are actually people out there who read my crazy thoughts, and that audience is great motivation to keep creating and writing. And the comments! A few weeks ago I was a saucy blog and received 22 comments on one post alone. And isn't that really why we all blog? :) Comments stroke our egos, admit it! So head on over to SITS and find some good reading material. You might even win something! Here are a few SITSas to get you started.

Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder

Made With Love and Lots of Glue

Life as a Mom at 22

STACEY

My Dogumentary

And don't forget to leave comments!!

Drumroll Please.......

2008-10-13T08:54:00.006-05:00

After over six months and I'm sure way more money than he ever intended, Avery's 2nd birthday present from my parents is FINISHED. This is by far the biggest project I have ever taken on, but the results are pretty spectacular. It started out with a plan that my dad insisted wouldn't be much more difficult than a plain Jane one. Right. I actually was sort of joking when I showed him the plan. I never thought he'd actually go for building it. It started with Dad and Kyle building it, but when the summer came it became dad and me finishing it, as I'm a little picky about finish work. I haven't had a chance to really move her in or decorate yet, but I think you get the gist. You should see the back part of my bedroom--it's filled with all kinds of pink and green stuff to pretty it up with. I've been collecting and crafting all summer! And yes, those are tiny energy efficient windows (free demos from a friend who sells windows), upgraded carpet (a remnant) and electricity (you plug the house into an extension cord running from our house) you'll see. At some point Dad wants to add a loft, but I nixed that idea for now because I wanted her to be able to play out there without me having to constantly hover over her for fear of her climbing and falling. Avery loves it, and I know she will love it for years to come. I can just imagine sleepover out there--who needs tents?!

Okay, so now for the big reveal. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, starting with construction and moving towards the finished mini-mansion. Enjoy your house, Avery. You're worth every minute spent on it!

So there it is. Avery has already had a McDonald's picnic in it with her daddy, and isready for all of her friends to come and visit soon! Tea party, anyone?

Happy Mail!

2008-10-11T20:22:00.003-05:00

We had about 100 people over this weekend for the Peay Hollow Reunion. Once they dispersed I headed past the garage for something when something white between the cars caght my eye. Imagine my excitement when I found it was a package addressed to me!

Heidi over at Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls held a giveaway at the beginning of the month, and I won! I never win anything, so I was very excited, and playing with the gooodies was a nice break between Kyle's family reunion and mine.

Look at all the goodies--papers and stickers and candy--OH MY!

And look at this little spider candle holder. She packaged everything so cutely.

And how about this great Halloween chipboard kit. I'm looking forward to playing with this, as chipboard is a medium I haven't really played with yet.

Thanks, Heidi, for all the pretties. I still have two days of my 5-day weekend, so I will certainly play with it all before heading back to school Tuesday. And be sure to check out her blog...she's a fantastic thrifter and crafter!

Look What I Got!

2008-10-10T14:00:00.003-05:00

After being in my basement for almost exactly two years, I finally found time to have my grandmother come over and help me set up the sewing machine she gave me. She bought it right after she and my grandfather married...58 years ago! She kept talking about what a pretty stitch it made, which I didn't get (like when my mil says Avery has such pretty straight legs. HUh?), but she's right! It works perfectly, and I'm excited to try my hand at sewing now. Actually, I already sewed one thing today, but it's very much a prototype, so I'll have to post about that another time. Just what I need, right? Another hobby.

Just a Tease

2008-10-08T18:35:00.002-05:00

That's all you're getting for now! {evil laugh!} Check back for more very very soon...it's almost done!

I Love Wordle!

2008-10-02T21:57:00.006-05:00

I've been playing with word clouds for a couple of months, even using them in two of my classes and adding one to my sidebar, but I never really saw them as art.

Then I saw this print on the Pottery Barn website:

Very cute, but not $80 cute. But it got me thinking. Thinking about how words arranged randomly could actually be attractive. And so I went back to Wordle.net. This site allows you to create free (free!) word clouds by simply pasting in text or typing in a link. The more times a word is used, the larger it becomes. You can also alter the font, color and layout.

So this is what I came up with for Halloween. If I'd spent more time on it I probably could have made it more square like the PB one, but I still think it's pretty neat. I could print it out, enlarge it and frame it as the one piece of Halloween decor in my home. Once you create them, they are yours to use however you like.

I wish I knew how to make it larger, but I think you get the idea. You can also see it here larger.

Any other ideas for how to use this fun word art? If you make one, leave a comment with the link...I want to see them!

Crafts on the Cheap

2008-09-27T11:23:00.006-05:00

This week has been a little chaotic, with neurologist appointments, a husband out of town for business, frantically trying to meet my deadline on the playhouse and many meetings at school. Oh, and getting Avery and Tucker (the dog) up ready and out of the house every morning. Whew! Never mind I was without my laptop since I let my husband take it on his trip. Needless to say, not much crafting happened. And actually, the only reason I'm even able to blog right now is that Avery is so worn out from the week that she fell back asleep for a nap at 10 am instead of her usual 2:30. Anyway, the result of all of that is a project I completed a while back but never got around to writing about. It's simple and super cheap. Enjoy!

Part of my DIY nature is my excitement over a great deal. I see things I love, and make them rather than pay a fortune for them. I'm not a thifter or a garage saler, and I've never been to a consignment sale, as I'm not really into used things, but even shopping retail I try to make my dollar go as far as it can. This is especially important when it cmes to things I don't really need.

So this summer I was at one of my favorites, the Dollar Tree. They've really upped the quality of their merchandise over the years, which is important to me. What goodis a deal if it falls apart? On this trip I bought a pack of four cork tiles and a package of scrapbooking embellishment.

1. I started by using masking tape to make the four tiles one.

2. Some scrap ribbon hot glued in a criss cross pattern will create a French memo board. You often see these made of fabric, but I like it being on the cork so I have the option of tucking or tacking things to the board. I taped the ribbon to the front to keep it in place as I flipped it over to glue it in place.

3. Two long piece of ribbon and four shorter ones create a nice series of intersections to hold whatever.

4. A few Dollar Tree embellishments and brads from my stash add some interest.

And here's the finished project hanging in my office/craft space/entrance to the playroom. I have a hutch on my desk meant to house a computer beneath it, but I don't need a computer in there often, and when I do I can take my laptop in there, so a little board to tack up ideas is mch more practical for me. And the cost? $2.

I Wish I Could Do That

2008-09-22T21:36:00.004-05:00

By now you know about my quest to become (and stay) more organized. I'm getting there. Right now I have a few routines going that I can mostly stick t0, and the state of the house is...okay. I could have it ready for company in less than an hour, which for me is pretty good. Avery's playroom is probably the room I dislike the most now. It was added on sometime in the late 50s or early 60s, so it has brick walls and a paneled ceiling and commercial grade carpet over concrete floors. There are three flourescent lights that take eons to come on, and that's it for lighting. The worst part is that it's about 20' x 6'....very awkward dimensions. Nevertheless, I really want to do a little something to it to both make it look nicer and help with my mission of becoming more balanced. This is what I have in mind:

I truly LOVE this arrangement. The only thing I would do differently is to put a chest where they have the bench, and only because I already have a bench in the room that can't move because the matching shelf is Mighty Puttied to the wall. (It sat in the middle of the floor for two years while we figured out how to hang it on a studdless wall.) I found this organized bliss at Tip Junkie, who found it at I'm an Organizing Junkie who found it at Organize Magazine. How's that for trying to give proper credit!

And for something else I wish I could do...

In case you can't tell by my terrible photograph (I literally had ab0ut 2 seconds of battery left), that's a Rocket from Little Einsteins hat made from balloons. The Chick Fil A in my town has this guy come out every Monday night for their kids night, and Avery asks to go every Monday (seriously, how does she know it's Monday??). So far she's gotten a rose, an Ariel, a Sleeping Beauty hat...and their may be some others I've forgotten about. This, however, was by far the coolest. He didn't know what Rocket looked like, so he pulled up the site on his blackberry and made this by that tiny picture. And he wrapped the clear balloon around his finger while he blew it up to make it coil like that. I must learn how to do this!!

The last thing I need to learn to do (for now, anyway) is to use PhotoShop. I have about twenty days left in my free trial, and I still have Christmas cards to make! I had a lot of frustrating fun making all my blog stuff. Did you see the sidebar titles? Those are my favorites! I have a few more ideas, but the playhouse deadline is looming, so I don't know how many of them will be executed before the trial runs out.

And with that, I must stop typing and start doing...

This is too easy...

2008-09-17T19:35:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago my husband needed a gift for a coworker who is having a baby girl soon. I found a really cute outfit, but really wanted to find something to match the baby's room, which she is doing in cupcakes. How wonderful is that--cupcakes! Since I can't drive (much), however, I was a little limited in where I could shop. So what's a crafty girl to do? I just made something.

The frame was $1 at Michael's, the paint was in my stash, and the ribbon also made a cute hairbow for the peanut. I couldn't find any chipboard or sticker cupcakes (I thought that would be an easy find. Hmp), but I made one easily enough using patterned paper and a brad for the cherry. And hot glue. Lots of hot glue. Avery wants one for her playhouse to house a picture of her and her cousin Kaylee. Another day, perhaps.

But you have to see the room this little frame will hopefully sit in. I'm not sure if it's worthy, though, as this nursery is quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. Tianna is very creative, obviously! See it here.

On another note, I prying myself away from my blog, as well as all the ones I read, for the rest of the week. I'm presenting at a writing conference on Saturday on...what else?....blogging! My personal blog is pretty new, but I've used them in my classroom for awhile now. Anyway, I'm nowhere near prepared for my demo and have been doing everything in my power to put it off. Now time is running out! On top of that this is Homecoming week at school, and I always underestimate the amount of time my responsibilities in that require. I'm so glad I'm off Monday, even if it is because of a doctor's appointment.

Altered Office Suplies

2008-09-16T18:24:00.006-05:00

Seen one of these before? A plain Jane set of rolling plastic office drawers (do they have another name?). This set is one I've had since college, acquired back when I thought I might actually use all of my scrapbooking supplies for scrapbooking. As I've been trying to get my office/craft area decluttered and pretty, this plastic thing in the middle of the room has bothered me more and more. Last weekend I'd had enough and decided to bring out the Modge Podge.

Suprisingly, I'd never actually owned Modge Podge before, and really had never seen the big deal about decoupage, but the main thing is that it is glue that dries without being sticky.

To begin the transformation I started with four different 12" x 12" papers (I loooove paper!). I chose three black and white graphics and a green that matches the walls. I wanted the diamond graphic to have more black than white, so I coloed in some of the design with a marker. It was an easy way to get the look I was after. Find an eager toddler to help you cut the paper to size. I have no idea what size I made these; I simply placed the paper on the drawer and made a mark where I needed the cut. (And don't worry: I helped her work the cutter, so no little fingers were at risk.)

Next cover one of the drawers with a think coat of Modge Podge. Get it into all of the crevices, and don't worry about getting too much--it dries clear.

Then place one of your pre-cut papers onto the drawer front. Push it up inside the plastic lip and press down firmly. If your drawer has a indentation like mine you might consider cutting the paper a little wide to compensate. It didn't occur to me until after the fact.

Finish by covering the whole front with an ample amount of the Modge Podge to seal and protect it. Pay special attention to the edges, as you want to be certain they don't lift.

I added some black grosgrain ribbon to the handles to finish everything off. Not including drying time, the whole project took about 40 minutes. It fits into my decor much better now, and I really like the look. What have you decoupaged lately? I have 3/4 of a bottle of Modge Podge left that I need to do something with!

I'm Saucy!

2008-09-14T12:57:00.008-05:00

Imagine my suprise when I checked my blog after church this afternoon to see what my new header looked like and found comments galore! The explanation for my new-found popularity? My blog has been named a Saucy Blog by the fabulous girls over at The Secret Is In the Sauce. I found this site that serves as a network for women bloggers when Laurie over at Tip Junkie advertised their giveaway of a Cricut Expression. When I actually visited the blog, however, I was hooked on it and the fabulous blogs I've been finding as a result.

The reason I started blogging in the first place was that I loved the interconnectedness of blogs--the communities that are created through blogging. The SITS blog promotes that benefit.

So, for all my SITStas who may be dropping by these next couple of days, here's a little about me. I'm Heather, a wife, mommy and high school English teacher just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. I love planning parties and room designs, and sometimes even executing them. When watching TV, I'm often torn between HGTV and ESPN (the Titans game is on in the background as I type this!), though much too often we're watching Little Einsteins. My wonderful husband Kyle and I started dating in high school, almost 11 years ago. We have been married for 5 years and have a gorgeous, brilliant, and super-sweet (aren't all mom's kids this way :)) 2 1/2 yeard old named Avery. I always have a thousand things going on at once, which seems necessary to keep my creative energy going.

So that's me, or at least a little bit of me. I hope you enjoy my blog and read on to find out more about my crazy life!

OH, AND WHILE YOU'RE HERE....

I just made a new header in photoshop last night. I love it, but now want to create a background to match. If you know how to make an image your background, please leave instructions! So far all that is happening is that you can't see the post text. Grrr...

Updated Sunday 9:35

A huge thank you to Queen Bee, who not only gave me the code for adding an image as background, but made me a background to match my new header!

Blogger Fun

2008-09-13T16:42:00.005-05:00

See that cute little picture that now appears next to the URL when you're viewing my blog? It's called a Favicon, and you can make one here.

Choose a picture from your computer (they are tiny--only 16 x 16 pixels, so keep that in mind when choosing an image) and upload it. You will get two options: download or host the flavicon. Choose to Host it (its the only way it will work in Blogger). Then go to your dashboard, click the customize link and choose to edit HTML. About 5 lines down you will see the command . The hosting code goes under that. Paste the code in twice, and in the second snippet remove the word "shortcut."

That's it! I did not figure this out by myself, so thanks goes to Carrie for posting this easy way to dress up our platforms. And her directions are more detailed and probably clearer, so be sure to visit her blog if you decide to add a favicon.

This is what I've been searching for

2008-09-12T17:33:00.004-05:00

I want to be more organized and less cluttered. Really, I do. Unfortunately, though, I'm much better at planning to be organized than actually being organized. I've committed to a few new routines, however, that have really helped. Lately I've been thinking about creating a household notebook, sort of a command center for our family, but lugging something like that around isn;t practical. And while I love the idea of an online planner, I can't be online always at home. Other than having five different calendars/notebooks (which is pretty much what I have now), what can I do. Enter Cozi.

This calendar is so easy to use, and makes adding events for multiple family members simple AND easy to view (something I never liked about google calendar). Also, it has a list function that will automatically send the ingredients of a recipe to your grocery list. (Again, google doesn't really integrate lists and calendars.) You can even call a toll free number and they will give you your list over the phone should you forget it when you go to the store! Fill in a little box, a message can immediately (it really is immediate--I tried it) go to your hubbie's email or cell phone. But probably my favorite feature is that you can customize it with family photos and journal entries. There are even more fun things about it, but you can check all that out for yourself. AND IT'S ALL FREE! This is everything I wanted in a calendar...and it's all in one place.

Things You Might Not Know

2008-09-10T18:41:00.003-05:00

My oldest friend, Shyla, tagged me to write six weird things about myself. And since we have been friends for 28 years (yes, that's our whole lives), I suppose I'll oblige and reveal some of my eccentricities.

My husband and I know of several times in our childhood when we were in the same place at the same time, but never met. We even went to elementary school together, but did not meet until I was 17 and he was 19, and only then by what seemed mere coincidence. We've been inseperable for nearly 11 years.
I live in an 85 year old house that everyone in my husband's family since 1930 has started their married life in. His grandparents moved in after the uncle who built it as a summer home died, his aunt and uncle and later his parents and all three of his first cousins moved into the basement apartment upon marriage. We bought the house shortly before we married in 2003 and do NOT live in the basement. Actually, I never even go down there.
I love cookie dough way more than I love cookies. When I was pregnant, I occasionally made cookie dough sans eggs so I could safely eat it.
I am what I wanted to be when I grew up. At my Mother's Day Out graduation, the emcee announced that my name was Heather, my favorite color was pink (it really wasn't, I think I said that out of peer pressure), and that when I grew up I wanted to be a teacher. I have never once wavered from that, though I usually wantd to be about five things and a teacher. I still have that problem--starting in January I will have three paying jobs in addition to my responsibilities at home.
I had a college fight song played during my wedding ceremony. And it was my idea. We're huge University of Michigan fans, and their fight song is known as one of the best. It seemed like a good way to infuse that part of our lives without making my bridesmaids wear Maize (you're welcome, girls ;)).
When I was in high school I was a tiny size 3 but wore a size 9 ring. Today I'm a 6 on a good day, but my size 8 rings fall off. Yeah...I don't know why.

...and here's one more in honor of my tagger, Shyla...Shyla and I married our husbands on the same day (June 14) six years apart and were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. I always think that's so neat :)

But since everyone I know with a blog is already a part of this tag, I guess my branch of the game will end with me. I need to teach my friends what a blog is!

Just when I was feeling uninspired...

2008-09-07T21:58:00.006-05:00

I came across a new issue of my favorite craft magazine.

It was just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing again. So much so, in fact, that I finished painting the playhouse ceiling, finished the chalkboard table, and altered a rolling office suppply drawer thing that I've had for a decade (tutorial to follow soon).

I'm not generallly a card maker (birthday invitations excepted), but I love paper crafts, and the products and layouts used for these cards can easily be adapted to many other projects. I highly reccommend that you go buy it!

And I just resist posting a new picture of my Avery. She takes naps now in her tinkerbell bed, aka sleeping bag/air mattress thing. Now that's inspirational!

Inviting Ideas

2008-09-05T17:07:00.004-05:00

The Christian girls service club I sponsor at school has been making dozens of pink tissue flowers for a Susan G. Komen Foundation benefit. Since Avery is wanting a pink flower party for her 3rd birthday (in April), alll that tissue got me thinking. I already have a ton of ideas, but the invitations are where I'm coming up empty. I had a great idea for a flower that pulls out of a pocket vase, and the party information would be on the stem, but I'm having a hard time getting it to look like I want it to (hence, no pictures!). This one also has promise, but I having a hard time getting everything to fit when I make it smaller than 6"x9", which is too big I think.
image via flickr

Then I discovered Kimberly's blog For the Love of Paper. Card ideas are all over the web, but her designs are miles above what I normally find. Here are some of my favorites that I think I could adapt to work with Avery's theme:

Sweet Little Daisy

Floral Geometry

I don't know if I'll end up doing something that really looks like any of these, but it really got my creative juices flowing! I'm hoping they don't flow too much, however, since the playhouse and Halloween costume should be getting my crafting attention right now.

Little Bits of Pink and Green Goodness

2008-09-01T14:18:00.007-05:00

Don't you love a day without work? I used my morning off to run a few non-essential errands--my favorite kind--and oh the goodies I found!

My first stop was Michael's, where my main mission was felt and other notions so I could get started on Avery's Halloween costume. And then I thought I'd get some supplies to make a frame for my husband's co-worker who is expecting a little girl next month. And then I saw a Christmas decor magazine. And then I saw the Lindt chocolate truffles at the register. The truffles I passed up, however.

But here are the preppy things I did buy:

My favorite scrapbooking paper ever. I need to start buying it in bulk because every time I go to Michael's I get at least 3 sheets.

Cute striped ribbon for the above mentioned frame. And for take two of boutique hairbow making.

Brads to be the cherry on the cupcake frame.

Too cute to do list with separate post-it calendar. I'm hoping the fairy on it will clean my house each day while I'm at work. Just $1!! (I looooove Dollar Aisles!)

My next stop was the mall to get the actual shower gift. And wouldn't you know...Gymboree was full of my favorite colors.

I'm pretty sure Avery will end up with this outfit, too, because I can't get over how cute it is.

And while looking for a navy tee at The Children's Place to go with the jumper I bought my little girl, I found the shoes. They match perfectly, and I snatched them up, even though they are a little bigger and probably won't fit when the outfit does. Here's a closer look:

And now with my shopping done, it's on to crafting. Be sure to share any fabulous pink and green things you find with me!

I have been waiting for this day for 9 months

2008-08-30T09:02:00.005-05:00

I'm sure you're expecting this post to be about pregnancy or childbirth, or possibly the end of a school year. But it's not. It has been nine long months since the end of the 2007 college football season, but the drought officially ends today!

In most American families, Christmas is the biggest holiday of the year. In our house it is the last Saturday in August. And while we'll watch any team playing, our devotion rests with the University of Michigan. My boys in blue. And lest you think I'm exagerating a tad, I should mention that we have a Michigan room in our house, complete with blue walls and a winged helmet on the TV, and that their fight song played as we exited the church at our wedding. And that Avery could signal "touchdown" before she could say "mama." At one, she glanced at the TV, saw a UM highlight on SportsCenter, and yelled "Go Blue!" before moving on to whatever toy she was playing with.

And so, of course, the three of us are clad in Maize and Blue this morning. Avery has been asking all week if it was time to wear her Mich-gan dress, as in her tiny cheerleading outfit. Before she could, though, she needed hairbows to match it (to me this is obvious, but I realize I'm a bit more obsessive about the hairbow thing than most). This is what I came up with:

The tutorial for making these bows is here.

Not great, but not too bad either, though I don't think I'm ready for an Etsy shop just yet.

The major problem I had was a lack of proper supplies. The glue I used dried too hard, and the wires I had were either too heavy or too light. The other issue was making two to accomodate pigtails. Since they had to match it took much longer than just making two separate bows would have. Still, I think they'll work for twelve Saturdays.

And since I know you're dying to see the complete ennsemble, here''s my little cheerleader, complete with her "ham hams" (that's pom-pons, for those that don''t speak toddler).

Enjoy the games, Go TOPS! and GO BLUE!!!

Template Issues

2008-08-30T08:57:00.002-05:00

Last night I was playing with creating my own header image at Scrapblog, but somewhere in the process I lost my background. And now it seems to have disappeared from the web. So, enjoy the new one while I try to decide what to do. I may look into having one custom designed (Beckky at Creative Blog Designs has a great package for only $20!), or I may test my frustration levels and see if I can figure out how to make one myself.

If you know of any great pink templates out there, let me know!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2008-08-24T15:01:00.009-05:00

Yes, I realize it is only August. And that if the humidity were any higher it would be raining (I wish!). And that I shouldn't be wishing my life away. But seriously, who doesn't love Christmas? I love planning the perfect gifts for loved ones, and decorating. and shopping, and looking at lights. I love keeping old traditions and starting new ones. I love the excitement on Avery's face at the wonder of it all. I love all those ridiculously cute little Christmas outfits that she wears twice if we're lucky. And, let's be honest, I love getting two weeks off of school.

And all of that excitement leads to weeks of stress and frenzy.

My wonderfully observant husband noted last year that I was spending so much time trying to perfect the holidays that I wasn't enjoying them at all. But I do love to decorate the house and bake and do all of those Christmasy things my mom always did when we were little, so this year I'm really going to strive to find a better balance between what the holidays are really about and the tinsel and jingle bells that remind me of that.

And that is more important now than ever. In February I suffered a grand mal seizure in my sleep. I had never had one before, and none of the many tests I had showed a possible cause for it. So I was basically told that I was fine, but that I couldn't drive for six months. Yes, one half of one year. I floundered in this, never really learning how to continue to manage my house while having to schedule things around a ride. Toward the end of my confinement I realized that I hadn't wanted to figure that out, because to do so might somehow invite that dependency to be permanent. I started driving again the first day of school...and then that Friday had another grand mal in my sleep. So now, at 28, I've been diagnosed with epilepsy. Apparently it's not that big of a deal health-wise, but I am now taking anti-epileptic drugs for the rest of my life and I'm not driving (much) again. I'm a little ticked off that I was so faithful to the no driving mandate only to have the second seizure after the six months was over. What was the point? So now I have to organize our life and find a way to have routine while learning to manage this unpredictable condition.

Enter the Holiday Grand Plan. It starts August 31st and runs for 18 weeks. All of the tasks needed to have an organized hoiday are spread out over the program, so that you can actually enjoy the time off with family and friends. Just print out all of the calendars and such and check the website weekly for the new assignment. Anyone else in?? I need someone(s) to help make sure I stick to this. My hope is that I'll be so organized this semester that I'll be able to finally host a cookie swap in December and send out Christmas cards in time for them to arrive before Christmas. That may be wishful thinking! Thanks to Belle-ah for letting us know about this great site.

Now that I've hyped up my holday home decor, I suppose I should share a few pictures. I basically decorate in bright green, dark red and silver. And before you ask, yes, matching wrapping paper is a requirement, as are trimmings that require hot glue to stay on. I add to the decorations each year as I find things that fit that color scheme. Last year I decided to add Magnolia leaves into the mix, and I think I'll do more of that. The leaves are free and plentiful! This year I may decorate our three season wrap around porch, as well.

I always switch out the pictures in the frames with ones from past Christmases. It keeps tables and walls from being too cluttered, but still allows me to show off my beautiful little girl.

We never use the dining room, but it received the most decoration.

Our prettiest tree yet, with the dining room in the background.

It took me four year to find stockings in my color scheme. So worth the wait! The fourth one is for our dog, Tucker.

Artwork Anyone Can Do...

2008-08-17T13:19:00.004-05:00

...Seriously!

I have never thought of myself as an artist. Artists draw and paint things, and while my sketches are passable, they are nothing I'd ever hang on the wall. That's why when I create artwork I generally use something else as a starting point, like this. In the case of the artwork for the playhouse, my starting point was paper.

Let me just pause here to say how much I love paper. It is so versatile, comes in all kinds of sizes, colors and textures, and is CHEAP! It is hands down my favorite craft product.

So this is the trio of collages I created to hang in Ave's house (assuming it ever gets completed...):

I actually plan to hang these horizontally, so use your imagination. I agonized over how to compose these three little prints, but I'm really happy with how they turned out. Here's the how to:

Start with square canvases in whatever size works for your application. Mine are 11" x 11" and actually were already painted with tuscan designs. I just primed them before painting them pink. The darker pink is right out of the bottle; the lighter one is that shade mixed with white. Unlike most paints, these dried lighter, so keep that in mind. I taped off all of my lines to keep the edges clean, but you could freehand the background if you wanted.

For the collages I used a combination of hand cut shapes (the vase, grassy hill, tulip), Cricut cut designs (daisies) and shapes traced from printouts (letter "a", butterfly). Most of the papers are scrapbooking papers, but the pink stripe used on the tulip is actually an enclosure card picked up on the dollar aisle at Michael's. The lesson? Unlearn an item's intended use and allow things that will work for a project to work! All of the pieces have dimensional embellishments such as silk flowers, ribbons, rhinestones (on the butterfly), bubble stickers (on the center of the pink daisy at top), brads, etc. The daisy at top and the butterfly bend away from the canvas, adding more dimension. I'm so excited with how these turned out and can't wait to see them against the green walls of the playhouse!

If you don't believe that anyone can make these, TRY! The only painting involved is the background (and you can forego the tricky patterns like the harlequin) and the flower stems. And actually, those could be paper, too. Had I had more flower designs in the Cricut cartridges I own, I probably wouldn't have hand cut anything at all.

No more excuses for not being able to find coordinating artwork for your naked walls--collage!

Time for a Party

2008-08-05T08:08:00.009-05:00

I love planning...well, anything really. It's probably part of the reason I became a teacher. About this time each year, I print off some calendars and plan out the semester's lessons. And then I do it again simply because it gives me another opportunity to plan. When my husband proposed to me, I already had about a dozen complete weddings planned in my head; we just chose the one we wanted and found a way to execute the plans. So, it probably comes as no surprise that planning birthday parties for Avery has become something of a hobby. One idea pops into my head, a picture in a magazine catches my eye....and from there the pieces (usually) all fall into place.

Last October we took the peanut to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. Her love of fish has not waned at all since. An under the sea themed 2nd birthday seemed the obvious choice.

The party details (clockwise from top left)

The cake was a two-tiered round cake decorated with all kinds of sea creatures made from fondant and buttercream. The octopus topper was rice krispies treats formed into a ball and covered in fondant with fondant tentacles.
So tired after her party! The party hats were just cardstock adorned with an octpus die cut and sequin "bubbles" found in the dollar aisle at Joann's. This is also the last picture of Avery with her binky, as she decided to throw it away a couple of weeks later.
I saw this octopus standee online for $50. Yeah right! Some cardboard, a little paint and a utility knife to cut out the openings equals instant photo booth!

Her birthday banner--more cardboard and paint, plus letters die cut with my Cricut (I love that bug!).

My favorite party detail: the fish favor buckets! I found the sand buckets for $1 and then hot glued fun foam fins and lips and googly eyes onto them. They were filled with goldfish crackers, a decorated cookie, glitter fish tatoos, and fishy goggles.

Seahorse decoration from The Dollar Tree.

The party invitations. 6 x 6" cards with octopus die cut and seaweed and fish stickers (made them very quick to put together). I used round epoxy stickers for bubbles and vellum circle "bubbles" on the front. The party information was printed on the "sand" part of the scene.

I also decorated the dining room where the food was set up with green and aqua streamers that I attached to the ceiling and twisted straight down to the floor (seaweed/coral) and accented with clear balloons (bubbles). These tissue fish were swimming from the chandelier over the cake and were also hanging in the windows. I added some left over googly eyes and some glitter glue to give them more dimension.

Making all of those things takes a lot of time, but very little money (75% of it is paper!). And I know that I appreciate the details much more than she (or anyone else) does, but it allows me a reason to craft on a large scale and to use all of the supplies that I can't resist buying.

The pink 3rd birthday party is already in the planning stages, so stay tuned for those details as I begin to finalize them. With so many pink things out there, the only challenge will be deciding when to stop.

My Best Creation Yet

2008-07-30T13:43:00.009-05:00

I haven't really posted anything about my sweet baby girl Avery, but since pretty much everything I make is for her, I decided it was time to post some pictures. She's 2, and the absolute joy of our life. School starts back for me next week, and I'm really going to miss the extra time I've had with her this summer!

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of the summer. I love how it captures the quite wonder that is so Avery. And check out those eyelashes! Sorry, Maybelline--no mascara sales to this girl!

My little family on vacation at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. This is a fantastic city to visit, by the way. We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Avery and Mommy splashing around the water features in downtown Chattanooga.

While driving into town, Avery saw a billboard advertising the Clifford exhibit at the Creative Discovery Museum. Good thing we were planning to take her there anyway, because all we heard after that was, "I want to go see Clifford!"

Marching in the daycare Fourth of July parade. We asked if
she wanted us to walk with her, and were told, "you watch...I dood it myself." Wonder where she gets that?

Avery's favorite toys are books--she even takes them to bed with her the way most kids take a teddy bear. That makes her English teacher Mommy very happy! It's so funny to see which of my mannerisms she's been watching and picking up on, like the crossing of her legs. My parents made the peanut sized couch for her 1st birthday. It's so cute AND functional!

So that's what Ave and I have been doing this summer. I'm so ambivalent about watching her grow up: I love seeing her new discoveries, but at the same time long for my little baby that gets bigger every day (well, bigger is relative here, as Avery only weighs 23 pounds at 28 months). Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

How fun is this?

2008-07-28T12:39:00.004-05:00

I'm in love with the framed word art I keep seeing everywhere. This site allows you to type in any word or phrase and it spells it out with flickr images. You can even change the indiviual letters to truly customize it.

Try it: Spell with Flickr

Wednesday's Projects

2008-07-28T11:30:00.009-05:00

On Wednesday I mentioned three projects I was working on that day. Well, I finished them all....on Monday.

First up was a cake for Ann. I make a lot of cakes, but this was my first try with making my own fondant (soooo easy!) and with White Almond Sour Cream cake (yummy!). The end result?

It was also my first try with Duff Roses. Again, EASY! Roll out a little fondant, cut three circles from the fondant, overlap the edges of the circles, roll up, cut roll in half to make 2 roses at the same time. Here's a closer look:

Unfortunately, Ann had an emergency and couldn't make her birthday lunch, and I was unable to get her cake to her. I'll have to make her another one for the next time I see her.

Up next was prepping the playhouse for paint. I never expected hanging drywall, installing vinyl siding and roofing to be items on my resume, but I've learned to do them all on a 10' x 12' scale. Mudding and sanding the drywall was the WORST. I'm so relieved that it's now finished (the drywall, not the playhouse).

ready for paint! Benjamin Moore color Stem Green

Finally, I painted a little table for the playhouse. This started life as a yard sale find ten years ago. It has since served as bedside table in my college apartments and a printer stand in my classroom. Now it's goin to be Ave's art table. I painted it white and tried striping it freehand. That didn't work. Then I did some two-toned pink stripes that I taped off. Didn't like that either. I think I finally got it right the third time.

It took forever to tape off all the stripes, but it made the painting really quick. I put the final white wash on it this morning. I still plan to paint the center with chalkboard paint (note to self--add chalkboard paint to Home Depot list!).

So that's it.

Yeah, right. There are 45 pieces of window trim waiting to be painted sitting on my front porch (aka painting studio).