Teachers are one of the most influential people in our children's lives. The right ones will help your children to bloom into something amazing. We have been very blessed over the years. In fact, 3 of my 4 have all had the SAME teachers in preschool. They go to a private Christian school and I LOVE it! When they tell my child that they love them, they actually mean it! They have watched 2 of my babes grow from the moment my belly started to show. This has been incredibly special. We love them and we are thankful for them!



I had NO idea what I wanted to do this year for the teachers, until. We were playing around in Michael's! We were grabbing random art supplies here and there...took them home and we were SO happy with what we put together! I LOVE letting my babes get involved! I think it makes it 10x sweeter!


{not pictured - coffee gift cards} We found these amazing signs at Kohl's and I bought all that was left!! When Valentines is over I always stock up on the Dove hearts as I think they are so sweet and a great touch to almost any gift. Fill a mason jar with hearts perhaps?! Give a jar of luuuuurve!

The earrings are from my shop and will be relisted soon! I have a ton in the works to post so check back! I also enlisted the help of my best gillie! She wrote out the names of the teachers in her beautimus handwriting! She has an amazing Etsy shop as well!


I added basket filled to each berry basket (found at Michael's!) and then my baby filled the inside with all of our goodies (earrings, candles, coffee cards and chocolates!). Be sure you stick a glue dot to the back of the doily before attaching to the berry basket. The large clip helped to hold the fun twine in place as well as the tag (also found at Michael's in one of the seasonal sections.)


Simple, yet made a very big impression! There was lots of oooooh's and aaaaaah's and I had a few messages asking where I found xy or z! Don't forget to seal the deal by including a hug! Have a blessed day!

Well everyone! The time has come! To share my FINISHED room with you all! You saw the before pictures HERE and have seen a few of the items I made for my room but how about the finished project?! I told you all that I was on a budget! We budgeted out for paint and the furniture which we purchased at Ikea (I LOVE it!). Anything extra I sold items around my home or in my room to be able to pay for.


First off when you walk into my room...you will notice that I repainted the walls AND the moulding! Goodbye wood moulding! I do not miss you! I used paint from Valspar (carried at Lowe's) and was highly impressed with them! I have always been a Kelly Moore Paint snob and unfortunately we do not have them in Oregon any longer so had to find something new! I tried lots of paint samples from various places and the quality and lack of smell from the Valspar Ultra paint and primer was unbeatable! It took a gallon and 1 court of Egg Shell based in the color Fountain Mist (I used my paint from my bathroom which is called True Turquoise and decided I wanted a light version of it so the rooms would flow nicely together!). The moulding (only took a quart and we have PLENTY left!) a Semi-gloss in the color Bistro White. In the picture above you will see that I added a mirror to my door ($5.99 at Target IN store...noticing online price is WAY higher!). And the picture above our door says Aleisha & Paul always kiss me goodnight. My sister special ordered it from Walmart of all places!


OH how I LOVE my new dresser from Ikea! I for once in my life can easily open a drawer and have LOTS of extra drawer space! It is a women's dream! (link to dresser is HERE) The green vase on top I already had and I bought the white decos you see at Ikea as well (HERE and HERE) One holds a votive candle and the other is holding some primroses!


 My desk I purchased at Ikea and it saves me 6" in both directions! I cannot tell you how HUGE of a difference that actually is! I love this desk (found HERE You will notice that we built our hutch to have the shelves on the opposite side)! Its not gorgeous by any means but when we added the hutch on top we have so much room that it decluttered our entire desk area! Drawers and shelves galore! The down fall was our printer no longer fit our desk so we bought a larger shelf (HERE and the brackets are HERE) and it now holds my Silhouette Cameo and the printer! Its really nice to have it out of the way since they are both not used regularly! We got rid of our folding chair (or shall I say retired it to the garage with the rest!) and purchased a new desk chair. (HERE) It has made a huge difference for comfort as we sit!


I LOVE these little storage bins from Ikea!! They are magnificent!! (found HERE) The little glass jars I had originally found at Anthropology for $10.99 each. I wanted them SO bad but could not for the life of me chalk up the dollars for them. To me $33 for little glass jars to hold staples, change and paper clips didn't make any sense when I was on a budget. Low and behold. I went to Michael's Craft store and was walking around and what to my wondering eyes did I see?! YEP! Identical. I mean totally identical little glass jars for $3.99 each! I combined with a 50% off coupon and the rest is history! I love them! We had to get rid of our desk calendar as it was too large. But the back of the hutch is dry erase and magnetic! So I now have my lists and a small weekly calendar attached!


My desk feels uncluttered and organized! The shelf on the top of the hutch currently has empty picture frames that I will add pictures of Olivia Joy into!


We used the nightstand I already had (we purchased at Ikea and I no longer see it online) and the lights we had purchased years ago as well from Ikea. The star I purchased used and painted it the same white I used on the moulding! I paid a total of $5 for the star!


As you know I made the headboard (tutorial HERE) and I bought all new bedding! The bed skirt was $27 from Target. The throw blanket was $29 from Target and the duvet and 2 pillow cases that match were from Ikea for $39 (no longer seeing on the website). The throw pillows we already had!


My poor dear husband has a very small space in between the wall and the bed. We had a plant stand as a night stand for many years but I was sick of killing myself every time I made the bed as he leaves his books and magazines on the side of his bed! Solution? I had a friend of ours that is a builder and does an amazing job with making furniture build me a shelf from scraps he had from his own home remodel! I painted it myself with the Bistro white I used on the moulding! (took 3 coats) I also bought a small basket from Ikea to hold all of his randoms at the bottom of the shelf!



I love how bright and cheery my room is now! The curtains clashed with the paint color and the moulding we had in here before and I honestly cannot get enough of my room! The shelf I bought at Ikea (HERE) It contains adorable containers I found at Target to hold all of Olivia Joy's items! Clothing, diapers etc! It is PERFECT! Since this picture I added 1 more thing to it.


Isn't the chevron basket PERFECT??! I love it! It now holds all of Olivia's blankets (and as you can see we have officially filled the baskets!)

That's it! That's all she wrote! I find my room to be so cozy and its such an oasis for me! I now officially have room for the co-sleeper and we can move around freely without bonking into each other! Also the furniture we chose has a wide enough space to vacuum under the furniture! HUGE for me!! Its amazing! Now all we need is our 6th addition to our household!!

Have a blessed day!

Today I turn into a sappy mush! I LOVE Valentine's Day! Yes...I know what most people say "Hallmark Holiday". But you know what? I don't care!! I hope today you are having a marvelous day! We will be celebrating with our heart shaped Papa Murphy's pizza and a movie at home! No better way to spend this day! BUT...I needed to share the Valentine's my kids took to school!


The Crayon tutorial { HERE } we put 1 crayon into a glassine bag. I let the kids tear off pieces of washi tape and then they added a felt sticky heart! Onto the backs I pre-made labels to attach (so we wouldn't have to write out each one!) We LOVED them! Emily Grace told me she had the most fun ever!!


Then for the teachers we made bird seed heart feeders! They are super easy! You need 3 packet of gelatin (clear gelatin...which might I add as the most horrid smell ever when cooking!) mix together with a 3/4 cup of water. Bring to a simmer in a pot and then remove from heat. We let ours cool a few seconds while we then gather up 3 cups of bird seed and mix together inside the pot of gelatin/water mixture! You shouldn't see any visible liquid. If so add more bird seed till liquid is gone! We then laid heart shaped cookie cutters onto parchment paper. Wax paper or even aluminum foil would work just fine too. Kids filled the cookie cutter 1/2 way with bird seed mixture. Flattening it out (we used a big normal spoon and a plastic baby spoon to help us!) We cut about 3-4" of twine and looped into the cutter. The kids then filled to the top of the cookie cutter with remaining birdseed smashing it down so it was nice and compact! We let dry a few hours and then I removed from the cookie cutters and we let them sit up over night!


I then used plastic bags (you can find at Paper Source or even possibly Michael's) we needed the larger size due to the cookie cutters we used! I then tied a bow with twine and then with red twine I attached a tag that read:


The kids enjoyed making their gifts for their friends and teachers and honestly I had everything but the heart molds for the crayons already at our house! So virtually we spent nothing this year! While we finished Valentine's we had Mushy hang hearts that I had the kids practice cutting out earlier in the day!


Now on Valentine's Day we have enjoyed 2 class parties, lunch at the park with daddy and are going to finish the night with pizza and a new movie! Happy Valentine's Day from my crew to yours!

I don't know about you. But I realized I am kind of a hoarder of crayons! Yes. There I feel better that I FINALLY admitted to this! I have crayons that I have had in a plastic shoe box for eons! Like before kids! I don't know if I should be ashamed of this or boastful?! Can I just say I had some pretty cool crayons back in my day! Sparkly, shimmery! You name it! But, alas. The time had come that we needed to part with some of these (as like any other mom in the world we were accumulating even more!). It was time to bid adieu!


First thing...park your kiddos on the floor with all the old crayons. Broken crayons (or ahem...restaurant crayons!). Have them peel the paper off (we put into a bowl) and then they get the honor of breaking the crayons into as SMALL of pieces as they can get them and placing them into a separate bowl! There are easier ways of doing this. Soaking the crayons in water and then rubbing the paper off. But I have to say the memories we made and the conversations we had while we peeled each and every crayon was priceless and I am so glad we did it this way!


I had a great picture my husband took of me spraying the silicone hearts with Pam. I edited it and when I went to add it to this tutorial...it has vanished! But I am sure you can figure that part out on your own! I bought these adorable silicone cups at Michael's. They came in a pack of 12. I really could have used 2 sets for this, but at $12.99 a package one would suffice! I had the kids set them out onto a cookie sheet. When they were done I sprayed the inside of each one with Pam. Then they sat down and covered just the bottoms with broken crayons! Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees.


I let my princess carry the cookie sheet to the kitchen where I placed them into the oven. I set the timer for 15 minutes. When they are done...


They will look like a puddled mess of yuck! You can stick your cookie sheet in the refrigerator to speed up this next process or you can just let your crayons sit on the stove top until they are completely cooled. You will then peel them away from the silicone cup just as you would a Reese's peanut butter cup! Some of them will have some crayons that didn't melt all the way and I actually think it adds to the homemade ambiance!


When you flip them over that is when you see the magic of the melted crayons! The kids love them and I am so happy we went with the more frilly heart silicone cups! Now to wrap these bad boys up for Valentine's gifts! Have a blessed day!

Welcome welcome to the NEW followers! WOW! How wonderful it is to have you here with me! I am excited to show you a super simple craft that you can actually do with your kids (under supervision as you will be using a hot glue gun!) Our Elf Snowflake enjoys hiding below this adorable tree and this year I decided I needed a second one as we love it so much!

Above is what you will need for your project. Now I go with the smaller styrofoam cone shape...but have thought about the larger. Maybe next year! BUT you will need TONS more puff balls for the larger one! Can I just say we love puff balls around here! You can use them on so many crafts! We are always out!

I used the tree last year for my dessert and drama table and just love how it set the mood for the table! Have fun...and don't burn yourself! Have a blessed day!

Do you ever go walking through the craft store...something catches your eye and you think to yourself I MUST make something with this!? NO?! Awwww...come on! Sure it does! I fell in love in the wood section of Michael's!


It was super easy to create these Naughty or Nice plaques to hang above each stocking and I adore how they turned out! The best part is I had most of the stuff on hand already! Here is what you will need:

Once dry I took red satin ribbon and cut into 20" strips. I burnt the ends with a lighter (to seal the ribbon so it wouldn't fray). You will need 2 ribbon strips for each plaque.

Yes...I know! I have CHRIST big and bold in the Christmas! That is because for our family this year we are trying to remember to keep...Christ in...Christmas! Its a good reminder for myself! I am going to show you a few Christmas goodies here and there but today's is how to make cute glass ornaments with curly paper inside! Simple yet...adorable I think! AND you can change up the look a bit by using different colored papers or even papers with different textures, decorations etc! I love them!


I used large glass clear ornaments that I found at Michael's! You know I love any place that either already has them on sale OR I can use a coupon! I used 2 different scrap book papers (12x12 size) and then cut them into 1" strips using my Fiskars paper cutter.


You will start with 1 strip of paper at a time and roll it tightly in your fingers...I started to use a pencil and found my fingers did it better and the curls were tighter like I wanted!


I then took the end of my scissors and pushed the paper out...so I could start cutting the curls.


I cut various lengths of curls like the one above. Some were longer!


Take your curls and drop them into your glass ornament until it is a little more than 1/2 way full.


Then you are going to pick up your ornament and shake shake shake! This way you are intermixing the papers!


I found some cute ribbon in my stash to make a bow. Add a hook and you can hang on your tree or even gift to friends, neighbors or teachers! I am having Emily Grace and Noah make them for their teachers as I think its easy enough for them to do! I will take them to pick out the paper themselves! Have a blessed day!