Teacher Appreciation Week

Well hello there!! Long time no blog post!! Gosh being back in school full time has become quite the juggling act, but I had to post about some super easy, inexpensive teacher appreciation gifts!! 

Last week was teacher appreciation week at my kids school. The PTO at our school decided to have the kids write a note and give a $ donation to purchase a gift card for the teacher. At last nights PTO meeting I got to see first hand how much the teacher loved their notes and gift cards. I, of course, wanted to give my kids teacher just a bit more. It didn't sit right with me that it is teacher appreciation "week" but we did not have something planned for each day of the week for them. So I did a quick search on my favorite sight Pinterest and came up with a few ideas. I came up with five small gifts to give to my son's teachers each day last week (it was super hard to narrow down all the awesome, creative ideas to 5). The best part was I was able to whip all this up for under $10.00 per teacher!!

Glue Sticks - I bought a 6 pack, split it 3 and 3, found this super cute tag, printed, and washi tape it together.

 Source: Sweet Rose Studios

Gum - Extra Gum, cute saying, washi tape it all together

 Source: Sweet Metel Moments

Nail Polish - nail polish (any kind), cute saying, washi tape it all together!

 

Source: Teachers Pay Teachers

Crayons - 1 box of crayons, and super cute saying. Washi it all together!

Source: I Should Be Mopping the Floor

Berry Lotion: 1 small tube or bottle of any type of lotion that has the word berry in it. I found strawberry at Bath and Body Works (I really need to stay out of that store!), super duper cute saying and you got it......washi tape it together. 

  

Source: Three Little Monkeys Studio

So I hope you have found and idea or two for your children's teachers as I think they have a pretty tough job and could use some appreciation!

Valentine's Day Decor

I love Valentine's Day (no pun intended!). It amazes me that Halloween and Christmas has boat loads of decor items to purchase, and then Valentine's Day comes along and there is hardly any decor to buy. I have some "store bought" decor but I wanted to add more Valentine's decor this year. I ended up getting creative to make some of my own Valentine's Day decor. Most of my decorations are on my mantel.

I love my white lanterns (I will love them more when we paint our walls!). I made a bow and added a red candle to give them some Valentine's Day love. The heart topiary I found at Micheals. And the picture frame a score at Hobby Lobby.

My glass hurricanes are my favorite pieces in my home. I love that I can stuff the inside of them with items that go with the season or holiday. I used Valentine's Day garland this time. The love sign also came from Hobby Lobby.

On my tables I used other wood signs and a cute candy heart tree I found at Kohl's. 

Last year I found this subway art from the talented girls over at Eighteen 25!

I needed something for my breakfast bar in my kitchen but after combing the stores for a the perfect decor piece I came home empty handed (insert sad face here). On a run for scrapbooking supplies I stopped at the floral area at Michaels. I decided I would just make a flower arrangement using Valentine's Day colors. I think I got the red bucket at the Hot Spot at Target. 

 

I might have to cut a vinyl heart or something, to add to the bucket though - I will have to put that on the to do list! My house is always filled with love but now my decor has some love too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wine Bottles

Anyone that knows me, knows I like a good glass of wine! So I usually have an empty bottle or two sitting around. I received a chalkboard painted bottle for a gift from a friend. I keep it in my wine themed kitchen on the counter and love to write messages on my bottle. At Christmas I wrote Ho! Ho! Ho! at Easter a Happy Easter wish and when it is a family members birthday I write a birthday wish on it. There were many times I wish I had two more bottles to split the message up on 3 bottles. That's when I began to collect the empty bottles over the winter. As spring was approaching I got my bottles ready by removing all the labels.

I soaked them in hot water and used a razor blade to scrape off the all paper. Any left over residue I used a little Goo Gone to clean the bottles off. I then set them aside to dry and wait for warmer weather to spray paint them.

Here in Chicago we had a slow go from winter temps to spring temps. Actually I think summer is hear now but we had some unseasonable low temps. When the weather finally warmed up a bit to paint we had terrible winds. No good for spray painting! Finally I had a nice, warm, non-windy day and got all the bottles primed and painted! 

I added two extra bottles to my existing one on the counter and plan to make a count down till our Florida vacation on it. 

The next thing I wanted to do with the bottles was add some to my upper cabinet for wine decor in my kitchen. I first thought I would write one letter on each bottle of our last name. Well that would take 7 bottles and really who thinks our last name is decor let alone fits in my wine themed kitchen! So I decided with 4 bottles each one spelling out Vino. Much better!! I first tried to write with my chalk pen but did not like the results. I then tried with regular chalk and decided it is just my handwriting that I am not happy with. So I had to come up with another way to spell out vino on the bottles. I was cleaning up my scrap room and came across my vinyl.......light bulb! I immediately pulled out my cricket, found a font I liked and cut my letters out.

I loved how they came out! I gave them a home on top of my cabinet and can't wait to add some lighting!

Do you have any interesting things you have made with wine bottles? I would love to see them. Please leave me a link in the comments!

Teacher Gifts!

Wow, these last few weeks of May are flying by! I have so much going on with the kiddos before they get out of school. Just a few weeks ago it was teacher appreciation day. The kids always give their teachers something small to just let their teachers know they are appreciated.

I found the cute printable tags on one of my favorite blogs eighteen25! I love, love their ideas. You can find the printable here on their blog.

For the end of the year gift for the teachers I like to do a bit more to give them a BIG thank you for all that they do. Here is what I pulled together for the teachers last year.

You can find my post about it here. I got wonderful feed back from the teacher on how much they loved them. This year my boys gave me the best Mother's Day present created by my Mom. I loved them so much I decided to make them and give them to the boy's teachers.

Aren't they so stinking cute??? They were so easy to make. All you need is a pair of rain boots, rocks or gravel, dirt, and herb plant of your choice. I also added the colorful duct tape for more color but it is not easy to put on with out any kinks! My husband drilled holes in the bottom of the boots for drainage. I filled the bottom of the boots with rocks to weight them down and then filled with dirt. Planted the herb, gave it some water and attached a to/from tag to it. My son who was in preschool is finished now and his teachers absolutely loved them!

What are you giving the teachers for the last day of school? I would love to see.

Organizing the Master Bathroom -Reveal

I had a great week of getting my Master Bathroom organized.  I feel great getting my bathroom neat and organized. As I stated in my previous post I accidentally deleted my before pictures so I only have my big reveal pictures only. Sorry about that but lets get to it. 

I have a large bathroom but not large in storage. Our linen closet consists of some wire shelving in our closet and is something I want to work on in the future. So I have to work with what I got which is my vanity drawer, 3 drawer on the cabinet and the other half of the cabinet is open. Function was the key element for me when planning where my things would have a home. I need to have any item required to get beautiful at my finger tips. 

The first thing I do in any organizing project is empty everything out, see what I got and what I can get rid of. I then prioritize items based on needs. I find storage for like items, that serve a purpose, and are functional. 

I LOVE color so when I found this super cute liner I knew it was going in my drawers (Hubby was not interested in having his drawers lined in it - gee I wonder why?).

Now I didn't want to cover up that pretty paper so I found some clear drawer organizers and put my everyday items that I use in them.

Next I lined, and organized the 3 drawers in my cabinet. The first drawer houses my make up and contact, oh and my iphone charger (hehe!)

The second drawer holds my teeth items and some extra supplies like my razor refills, extra toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The last drawer is more of a storage drawer. I do not like lots of items on my counters so I tuck my tissues, travel make-up bags and a few smaller daily items I use.

Under my sink on the other half of the cabinet I have used bins to help me stay organized. A drawer organizer holds all my medicines and vitamins. A bin holds hair product, mouth wash, and contact solution. I thought about lining the bottom of this too but couldn't decide.....I may go back and do it :)

I maximized my height in the cabinet by using stacking bins. Most areas under the sink are hard to maximize the space because of those lovely pipes, but they have to be there so just try to find storage that will adapt to your space limits.

I love to label so as you can see the top bin holds extra hair items like rubber bands, clips, barrets, and headbands. The second bin holds all my smaller/travel size items for when we travel. The last bin holds all items required to paint up and take care of my nails! 

Bins ~ I love them. In my supply bin I keep all larger items that will not fit in my drawers. Keeping items I use on a daily basis close to the front and less frequent items or replacement items towards the back.

Many of these items I used to organized I had already and most came from dollar stores.

Organizing The Master Bathroom

I need to get organized! I am going to start with my Master Bathroom.

I wanted to post my bathroom before pictures but I had a whoops....I accidentally deleted my pictures. Boo! So I thought I would share some inspirational ideas I saw on Pinterest.

I love the pull out drawers on this one!

Source

Trays are my favorite. They help to keep items where they belong in drawers that open all the time!

Source

I love lining the drawers with colorful paper!

Source

I love labels, therefore I love labeled bathrooms!!

Source

For those of you that share a bathroom I loved this idea.

Source

And one more, remember to get creative and use what you have in your house. I loved this bucket idea

Source

Now it's time to take some of this inspiration and get started on my Master Bathroom!

Chalkboard Painted Herb Pot

Spring is finally here in Chicago and the flowers are starting to arrive in stores. The problem in Chicago is our weather is crazy. Right now it is 70 degrees outside but they are predicting a chance of snow on Friday! Since our weather is unpredictable in the spring I have to grow several herbs and flowers inside until the weather is more predictable. I knew I needed to start growing my basil right away. I love basil and cook with it all the time, all summer long! But I also knew it would live on my kitchen counter for awhile so I wanted a planter with style. I looked in the stores but of course any planter I liked the cost was too much for me. I had an old terra cotta pot in my storage room so I decided to give it a new look with chalkboard paint.

I then grabbed my favorite chalk pen, dirt and picked up some sweet basil seeds in the store. I wrote basil on my pot with my chalk pen so I would know what was growing in it. 

My youngest son helped me pour the dirt, dump the seeds and give it some water. Wa la ~ a cute pot of basil that can live on my kitchen counter! I love it!

Organizing the Playroom!!

 This week I worked on the playroom. My kids are the luckiest kids in the world as we finished the basement in our new house just for them. They pretty much have the run of the basement, for now. 

Clean up time can make or break us! My youngest always needed direction when cleaning up, what to pick up and where to put it. I dreamed about the day that I could say clean up time and my boys would just do it. 

Well that day has come, after some organization happened. So let's dive right in. Here is the playroom area before me moved in. A lot of space and I knew if it wasn't organize it would be a sea of toys in no time.

In comes Ikea. I love their goodies! My husband and I went there for my scraproom and the playroom. We have a lot of Legos here.....I mean a lot! My son is a Lego engineer, and is always building so I knew I wanted a space for him to store, display, and build. So we created a Lego area.

I love the Ikea piece I picked out. It has bins for all his legos, and he can display what he has built on top. My son and I separated all his Legos by color, and gave them a bin. I then label by color so the youngest can find the color, and put the right color Lego in the bins. We even have some empty bins to grow the Lego collection. The table from Ikea is nice and wide and gives both of them plenty of space to build. 

I am currently in school to become a teacher so of course I have a school area! After school, and after snack, we come down to do our homework. Each child has a bin (labeled with their name) with a pencil, dry erase marker, eraser, scissors and glue stick so we don't waste time getting our supplies out. Next to our table I have a 4 drawers that hold our supplies, markers in one, other supplies in another, paper in one, and our learning flash cards in the bottom drawer. I use clear plastic bins to hold our coloring items, and the other two hold our school workbooks. The kids seemed to pull out coloring/workbooks when they can see them. The kids get their homework done and out of the way giving them more playtime later and I fulfill my passion to teach! Even my youngest saves his preschool homework so he can do it with the big kids! 

The next area I had to conquer was the the toy area. Before we moved we had bin after bin after bin of toys! As we packed our old house I had the kids go through their toys, and pick what they were ready to give away. They did great at this! In our old house I had used one of the Ikea Expedit bookcase and laid it on it's side. I purchased baskets and all our toys went in there. It worked for us so I knew I would be using that system again. We purchased two of them, put the baskets in, and filled them with toys. Each bin contained certain toys, and I wanted the boys to put them away in the right bins. I searched the internet for a picture of the items that belong in that bin, printed it out, cut, laminated, and tied them onto the bins. The kids love it! The picture helps my youngest one know what items go in the bin and my oldest is starting to read so he love to read the tags. When we change the toys in the bin we change the tag! It also helps when our kid's friends come over! 

I also have my DIY chalkboard table. That was such a fun project and you can go here to read about it, and see my before and after pictures. The kids love to draw on the table, and their easel is near by to continue their imagination.

What's behind door number two.....storage. We kept part of the basement unfinished for storage. In here is our old Expedit and I have filled most of the bins with toys. When the boys are bored with the toys in the toy area they can just switch out the bins. The shelves hold all of our games, some larger toys too big for the bins, and the plastic bins hold toys that we can rotate into the bins when we do a toy swap.

I love how our playroom is evolving. We still have ideas that we want to put in place but my main focus was to give my children a space of their own and organize it in a way that would make it easy for the kids to take care of their space. Clean up time is no longer a struggle

 (well we have our days here and there). 

 Happy Organizing!!!