Back to School

 For most schools here in Texas, yesterday was the first day of school.  This is an event my boys have been anticipating for the last month.  Once all of our summer travels were over, they would excitedly ask, "when do we go back to school??!?!?!?!?"    For the last few weeks ,the excitement has been building.  The boys met their teachers last week and they haven't been able to stop talking about school since they walked out of their brand new classrooms on "Meet the Teacher" night.  Excited would be an understatement...for all of us ;)

I decided to do a little something special for their first day back.  This was completely unnecessary and over the top.  Ridiculous and absurd.  {Insert your adjectives here}.  BUT...every now and then I like to do things that surprise even myself ;)  And it was an added bonus that I didn't have to buy ONE.DARN.THING for this little special back to school breakfast!  Being a teacher with lots of goodies on hand sure has it's perks ;)

Like I said, I had everything on hand.  I randomly collect globes, so yes...I had those, too.  The only thing I really had to do was print out those little subway prints and put them in a few extra frames I had in my closet.   I haven't done anything like this in forever and I forgot how much I really do enjoy it.  Lawd knows this may never happen again ;)

My youngest, Grant,  woke up in a terrible, horrible, no good mood {I'm blaming it on the nerves} and my oldest, Landon,  was FIRED.UP.  He was SO excited about his special back to school breakfast.  Grant pretty much told me it wasn't that cool and refused to eat the blueberry muffins and fruit I woke up early to make from scratch.  So honey buns it was....nothing like a big plate of processed food for breakfast.  No time for arguing on the first day.  At least he sat at the table to eat.  We'll call it a success :)

After breakfast, Grant was in much better spirits.   He was even willing to take our annual first day pics.  Landon has started to do this funky I'm-smiling-but-I'm-really-not-smiling kind of smile and that's always fun to look at after the fact.  Bless.  Gosh dang I love these boys.  Fake smiles and all ;)

I made their little first day prints in the frames.  If you have kids going back to school this week or next, you can make these, too!  I created a little power point file with grades Pre-K - 5th and all you have to do is insert your info.  Here's the fonts you'll need...

You can download the power point and insert all of your own info :)

I know I told you this before, but I absolutely LOVE the boys teachers.  They are so sweet and so precious.  I know it's going to be an AWESOME year!!!!  Because I love teachers so much, I REALLY love to treat the boys teachers to little unexpected goodies throughout the year. There are a MILLION of these floating around out there, but I went and recreated the wheel because these are the "favorites" I wanted to know from their teachers.  There are lots of other teacher questionnaires out there, but they didn't have all these exact "favorites" included.  If this is something you think you can use, just click the pic below to download your copy.  

Speaking of little treats, I made these for the teachers for their first day of school!

I LOVED putting this together!!  I got plain terra cotta pots {Michaels} and painted them with black acrylic paint.  They dry in about 2 minutes so this was a SUPER quick project.  Then I just took a white paint pen and wrote the teachers last names on the surface.  I found that great little leopard print burlap ribbon and Michaels and used that to tie around the rim.  I only needed one roll of the ribbon.  Our school colors are blue & white.  I found that polka dotted tissue paper in the party section at Target.  Then I just started piling all the goodies inside.

Here's what I included....

There are TONS of ideas for teacher survival kits on Pinterest if you're wanting to assemble your own!

I tied little tags around each item with a little "blurb" about what it was for.  I did this BEFORE I realized it would've been easier to just type up a little something to put in the basket.  

If you want to create a little survival kit for your child's teacher...or your teammates...just click on the pic below for your printable download.

Well that sure felt good to just dive right back in and start blogging after such a long hiatus!  I've been stockpiling recipes and randomness to share.  And I have a new blog design coming SOON!  Can't wait to get back on this train :)

Music Repurposed

I LOVED playing the piano when I was younger.  I never had any formal lessons, but my mom taught me how to read music.  I was far from a Beethoven in training, but I loved the piano nonetheless.  About a year ago, we gave away our piano.  I was sad, but Mr. Spouse threw a party in the wake of it’s departure.  He HATED that thing.  Randomly, my mom gave away her piano this year also, but she decided to keep all the sheet music and piano books that she had growing up.  These are the same piano books and sheet music I played when I was a kid.  Being the nostalgic sap that I am, I asked mom if she wouldn’t mind parting with all those piano books and she gladly handed them over.  Now, as much as I wanted the piano books for memory’s sake, I wanted them for decorating even more. I've been DYING to make a vintage music sheet wreath and now I had PLENTY of music sheets to start my project! 

You’ll need a styrofoam wreath, some white ribbon, music sheet, and some hot glue.  First you’ll need to cover the entire wreath with the white ribbon.  I ran out of ribbon and ended up finishing it off with some random off white burlap I had leftover from another project.

Now you’ll need to start rolling your sheet music.  I *might* have thrown out a few choice words as I was starting this part of the project.  I couldn’t get the darn sheets to roll the right way, so it took a few little trial & errors before I perfected my method.  This is what worked best for me…

Start by rolling your paper on the bottom right side of the paper.  I found that it was easiest to roll when the very tip {bottom} of the cone was in the middle of the paper.

Now just keep rolling…

and rolling some more.  Roll ‘til there’s nothing left!  When you get to the very last little bit of your paper, take some hot glue and run it along the edges.  Finish rolling to secure.

I made a little over 60 cones for my wreath.

When they cones are all rolled, it’s time to start securing them to the wreath.  I placed a cup in the middle of my wreath so that I could get the tips even all the way around.  This was just a good little guide.

Now start gluing the music sheets down all the way around the wreath in one single layer.  I don’t have pictures of this part because I was slackin’.  After you get the first layer secured, take the additional cones and secure them on top of the first layer.  I secured mine in the middle of every other cone.  {Is this making ANY sense at all?!?!?!?}  I liked the way it looked, but I wanted a little something *extra*, so I made a little accordian-fold pennant and glued it to the center of the wreath.  Then I made a burlap rosette using THIS tutorial and hot glued that to the top of the pennant. 

It turned out a bit larger than I expected, but I.LOVE.IT!!!!!!  I made it with the intention of keeping it up just during the holidays, but I think it’s got a permanent home in my foyer.  It just makes me happy :)  I think I want to take a small monogram and put it in the middle of the rosette, but that *might* be overkill ;)

I hung it up by taking some ribbon and making a loop that I hot glued to the foam.  Worked like a charm!

Everything’s bigger in Texas, and this wreath is NO exception ;)

A Little Thing For My Bling

I’ve been LOVING all the framed earring displays like this one from PB…

I have this little wall space in our master bath right next to my vanity that really needed some fun & frivolous decor.   I knew that a framed earring holder would be PERFECT for the look I’m goin’ for.  I found the perfect 8x10 {gold} frame from my favorite little store…Ross :)  So I brought it home, gave it a few coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint, and whipped out the staple gun to attach the wire.  MUCH better than the gold, but still not what I had in mind.

 

So I gave it a bath in my favorite Valspar Antiquing Glaze.

 

Definitely better…

Our bedding has shades of blue, orange, cream, brown, & tan, so I really wanted to incorporate the orange into the frame somehow because I love orange & blue {our bathroom wall color} together.  I found the perfect orange & cream fabric that I attached to the back of the frame to finish it all off.

LOVES. 

really, REALLY, LOVES.

 

And I loves it even MORE with my bling!

Project by project, the bathroom is finally starting to take shape…

 

 

The Look Of Love

It's beginning to look a lot like Valentine's Day around the house :)  Since February is the month of love, I'm not in any rush to take any of it down!  And if the decoration tear-down process works anything like it did after Christmas, we might be lookin' at this stuff until April!  HA!!

Remember these little balls I made that I got from this chick?! I had these hanging from my chandelier but decided I'd rather use them as a centerpiece for the dining room table.  I like this MUCH better!!

I LOVE my apothecary jars, but had NO idea what to do with them.  I took my favorite and filled it with conversation hearts.  Gotta love the Dollar Tree!

My fun little Valentine project...

These frames were a fun little project.  I used sheet music scrapbook paper for the backing & used my Cricut to cut out a heart & the #14.  Then I used my distress ink pad {LOVE that thing} to dirty up the edges...

I left up the red shutters from Christmas...PERFECT!!

Another little 14 frame…

I made this LOVE banner with my Cricut & distress ink pad, too!  The fun little sparkly hearts were a random find at Wal Mart.  I had NO idea what I was gonna do with 'em when I found 'em, but for $2 a pack, I couldn't pass 'em up!

 

 

And a little something in the kitchen :)  I made these for my sweet friends last year for our little Valentine playgroup!

I really do love this time of year!!!