Bringing DIY to my Classroom

To say that our classroom was filled with Christmas cheer this week would be a mild understatement. For one of our activities, I had my students create an ornament with their big 'ol 5th grade smile tucked inside for their families. Last year, I made a few ornaments for my own tree that you can read about here. It was fun bringing the spirit of DIY to my classroom and equally exciting having my students create a gift for a family member - now I'm just hoping that gift made it home and found its way to a tree. :)

For the project, we used a ball-shaped ornament, and a photograph to roll up and stick inside. The end result was pretty stinkin' cute. 

Stuffing the Ornaments

What holiday crafts did you complete with your students?

Happy weekend! 

Sending Love in a Box!

If you've been a follower of my blog for some time, you may know that I'm an aunt to the cutest and sweetest niece and nephew. Now, I don't live in the same town as them but I'm close enough to pop over for dinner or invite myself over for the weekend. That's something aunts do, right?

This year, I wanted to surprise BDE and Libby on Valentine's Day with a gift. My original plan was to ship a box full of goodies in the mail and have it arrive on Valentine's Day. Since I was making a trip home to celebrate my Dad's birthday, I decided to present the gift in person! (Sorry Post Office.. you'll get my business next time). I had intended on making BDE wait until Valentine's Day to open the present, but I quickly realized that would have been cruel and unnecessary punishment for a 3-year old.  I have so much to learn.  

Inside the box, I stuffed loads of candy (you're welcome, sista!), onesies and dresses for Libby, and Jake and the Neverland Pirate goodies. Did I mention my nephew is a pirate? Yes, he's a pirate. On top of the gifts, I cut out several hearts on my Cricut and dumped them in the box. 

BDE made sure to bypass the paper hearts and get to the stuff that mattered ... like tootsie rolls and skittles. I can't blame him, those are my favorite candies as well. :)

He dug through the box and found his Jake goodies, but I had to reel him back in to find Libby's gifts. After, of course, he stood inside the box. 

Even though I won't be able to spend Valentine's Day with my favorite little ones, at least I was able to shower them with love in the form of paper hearts, candy, and coloring books - all wrapped up in a box.

What Valentine's Day plans to you have in store?

It's O-FISH-AL!

I love how holidays provide perfect opportunities to give gifts with good puns. I wanted to give my students a cute little Valentine with a clever pun attached. Now, I can't take credit for the pun, but I can take credit for the execution! 

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

Pumpkin, Oh Pumpkin!

The season of Fall makes my heart skip a beat. I think it's a combination of warm scarves, football, hot chocolate, and pumpkins that make me so happy. You can substitute any other Fall staples in that equation above and I would still be happy.  Lately, I've been soaking up all things pumpkin! 

My bf and I visited a local pumpkin farm over the weekend. I snapped several photos of the massive amounts of pumpkins overflowing the farm! 

The farm was full of... pumpkins. Loads of them. 

Yes, I Took One Home! 

Last week I got a little crafty (or attempted to) with pumpkins. Instead of carving, which is an impossible task on my end, I decided to PAINT! One of my painted pumpkins was a birthday gift for my sweet grandma. I painted a pumpkin white and polished it off with an "F" made of thumbtacks. Now, by the time I got to my hometown to deliver my gift..... the pumpkin was flaking!! It did have a bit of a vintagey feel at first, but I'm positive that no white paint remains on that pumpkin. Oh well, my Grandma still has a lovely monogrammed pumpkin on her front porch. :) Needless to say, she loved it! Grandmas are the best for that kind of thing. 

Grandma's a Cutie!

I had a grand vision of painting a striped pumpkin to sit neatly on my table..... Well, it's more of patches the pumpkin. It does kind of have a spooky affect though, right? I need a step by step guide for striping pumpkins!

Keep Calm & Learn How to Stripe.

My last pumpkin got a fresh coat of chalkboard paint!! I wish I could paint everything in chalkboard paint, but that would be a little weird. Actually, it would be really weird. I'll stick to only chalkboarding a few things. Right now, my chalkboard pumpkin is rooting for the Cardinals in the post season! 

Beat the Nationals!

Love & Marriage

Christy Robbins

Say "I" if you've seen this ornament floating around Pinterest... I!

When, I pinned this a few months ago I knew that I had to make something similar for my newlywed friends. In October, my sweet friends Emily and Kyle said, "I do" in beautiful Key West, Florida. Then, in November they held the par-tay of the century (also commonly known as a reception) back in Columbia for family and friends (like me! Although, I would argue that I would like to join the family as well).

Now, it's late November and the Christmas holiday is approaching and it's the PERFECT season to create ornaments. Plus, I have five days off of school.

Christy Robbins has an excellent step by step guide to making an ornament of your very own. I had full intentions of finding a clear ornament and making a duplicate of the one above. Until Wal-Mart had other plans for the Newlands. Which means, they didn't sell any clear ornaments....

Yikes - Ignore the price! How tacky of me. 

I used the following supplies:
Ornaments
Wedding Invite
Scissors
Pen (or pencil to roll invite)

I cut the invitation (sorry guys...) into tiny strips and then rolled each strip around the pen. Again, click here to see photos of the step by step process. Then, I stuffed each strip inside the ornament. Luckily for me (and Wal-Mart) the ornament I picked matched their invite and wedding colors.

Merry & Bright

Then, I got so excited to show the happy couple their gift I demanded that they drop everything and FaceTime with me. I knew my blog would be published before I saw them next. Don't worry.. they liked it!

Unrelated, doesn't it look like this reindeer is ready to party? I thought so too.

Here For the Party!

Gobble Gobble!