End of Year Teacher Gifts

 

 As the school year came to a close, I was asked to take over the planning of Tessa's end-of-year class party. This meant coordinating the teacher's gift too. We had such a diverse class this year, so I thought a bouquet of gift cards and notes of appreciation would be nice. I started with an inexpensive clay pot (Home Depot), wrapped it in twine, and embellished with a few fabric flowers.  For the "bouquet" I used wooden dowels inserted in green foam blocks, and on the dowels I glued clothespins to hold candid photos of the kids, as well as the gift cards (most of those were added later on the day of the party) and notes. I also used some buttons, bookpage flowers, and leather die cut butterflies. And there you have a Gratitude Bouquet!

 

For the many wonderful "specials" (PE, Art, Music, etc.), I bought key fobs (www.mythirtyone.com/ch31), added a tag (printed the words on notebook paper which fed nicely thru my inkjet printer), and a skeleton key (I found these at Home Depot in a 2-pk. for less than $2 per pk.)

 

Teachers work so hard and I love finding ways to thank them for all they do!

My One Word for 2013...

Early in 2013 I read a wonderful book, My One Word by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen. I took about a month and chose FOCUS for my word this year. I have many reasons for choosing FOCUS.

1. I need to focus on Christ, and God's will for my life, choosing to spend my time and resources in ways that bring Him glory.
2. I need to focus on the many projects and activities I start but often do not finish.
3. I also need to focus on gratitude and being thankful in all circumstances. I am learning to count my gifts/blessings and focus on those things. I am thankful for another wonderful book I read this year that is helping me with this: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp (about 10 ladies are joining me in the DVD Bible study to learn and fortify our practice of daily gratitude.)
4. I need to focus on my family, church, and friends, and try not to allow my focus to shift to worldly temptations and technology.
5. Focus reminds me of perspective and seeing others as Jesus sees them, looking at the world through God’s lens.

 

 

 

To help me remember my one word for the year, I had it embroidered on one of my Thirty-One tote bags. I also plan to find other ways to keep it in front of me throughout the year. I posted my word over at the My One Word site and will be receiving monthly reminder emails... I need accountability to stay focused this year!

 

I encourage you to read this book! I plan to re-read it every year in January as I select a word for the year. I've never done very well with New Year's resolutions. I think the practice of focusing on one word (allowing God to teach me through it) and writing down scriptures, life lessons, and gratitude gifts will help me be more of the woman that God wants me to be. I hope to be more joyful, more productive, and more of a blessing to others.

It's Been Too Long...

I have not posted in a long time. I have not scrapped in a long time. But I still create. Banners... decorations... recycled T-shirt necklaces...and a few other things here and there. I've even taken one knitting class (and trust me, the result is not worthy to post yet... but maybe one day, if I keep practicing!)

The most "creative fun" I've had in a while is the "Thrift-themed" table I hosted for our church's "Calendar Coffee" back in January. I re-purposed or made most of the things on my table. The "tablecloth" is a queen-sized sheet. Almost everything was purchased at Goodwill, Freedom House Thrift, or some other local thrift/consignment shop.

I loved making little favor neckaces (tied around the water glasses) from leather swatches a dear friend gave me, and Scrabble tile pendants. The silverware pockets are just that, pockets cut off jeans (I cut around the pocket with a rotary cutter) embellished with denim flowers I made from scraps, crocheted flowers I cut from a crocheted sham, and glued on buttons. Goodwill plates and candlesticks glued together make the centerpiece tiered stand. Twine wrapped around cans, bookpaper modge-podged to the back of clear plastic plates, and Big Shot cut shapes from bookpages and denim are a few other things you see. I used a black Sharpie marker to make the initial cups (all different, all less than $1); I baked them at 400 degrees for about 15-30 min. to help set the permanent marker. This didn't work on all the mugs I found and I'm not sure how permanent it will stay, but they made nice favors for the evening.

 

 

 It was such a fun table and I hope it gives you some ideas you can use!

 

Sunday is coming...

Today is Good Friday and this week my kids asked me why it is called "Good" Friday. We discussed the "good news" of Jesus Christ but this morning I found a quote from Billy Graham posted on Facebook:

"What appeared at first to be a tragedy was in fact a triumph -- because by His death on the cross Jesus Christ purchased our salvation. We are separated from God because of our sin, and because we are sinners we have no hope of eternal life. God is pure and holy, and even one sin -- just one -- would be enough to keep us out of heaven. But by His death on the cross, Jesus Christ became the perfect and final sacrifice for our sins -- and because of that, heaven's door is now open to all who put their faith and trust in Him. And that's why we can call the day on which Jesus died 'Good Friday.' In fact, it was the greatest Friday in the history of the human race, because on that day Jesus Christ won our salvation. At one time, the Bible says, we were 'without hope and without God in the world' (Ephesians 2:12). But now we have hope, because Christ died for us."

So, we prepare to celebrate Easter. Tonight we will dye eggs. We may have some hunts in the yard tomorrow. Today, Tessa and I made some Easter cards to share with friends and neighbors.


While there will be some gifts discovered Sunday morning after following a trail of jelly beans to Easter baskets, and we'll have a family dinner of ham and deviled eggs, we know the real celebration is about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We look forward to worshipping at church Sunday morning, celebrating the best news. May your family be blessed by the true meaning of Easter!

Nuts About Sketches #200!

Wow, Shawn has published sketch #200! Congratulations Shawn! I love this sketch and enjoyed creating this layout:



Please be sure to head over to Nuts About Sketches to see the Sketch #200 and the other wonderful layouts created using it!

Happy New Year!

And here's a new layout with Nuts About Sketches #195:

Be sure and go over to Nuts and check out the other layouts! And Shawn has a new Design Team call going on right now, so page down to the Jan. 4 blog post and read all about it!

We started 2012 in Mississippi at Grandma's house... we left here in 2011 right after Christmas and returned home the 2nd day of 2012 to finish Math and Science projects, lots of football watching, lots of XBox and iPod Touch playing, and a minor surgery for me. All is well and we are feeling quite blessed already in 2012!

It's December...

and that means we have recently had our annual Christmas Card Photo Shoot. It's a tradition. PJs, Santa hats, humoring mom for 15-20 minutes...

Today I share some of the photos on a layout done for Nuts About Sketches #191. I loved working with this sketch!


While our photos don't show it, we do cherish this Christmas season for it's true meaning, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And just in case I do not post in December again, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Oh, what a glorious day!

I don't have many pictures to share yet, but Saturday 11-12-11 was a glorious day! We celebrated Ken & Annette's wedding and the beginning of their life together. Kent was Best Man, Seth and Tessa were Junior Attendants. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and touching. Don't ask about Friday... let's just say we are giving glory to God and thanks to the many who prayed for Tessa to be well on Saturday (she felt fine and was a lovely junior bridesmaid). We are so happy for Annette and Ken and hope they are having a wonderful honeymoon/vacation this week. I look foward to having more photos to share in the future (esp. since I don't have one of the "boys" in their tuxes!) And my apologies to Pastor Chris for the blurry photo, but the expressions on the bride's and groom's faces were so perfect and so "them" that I had to share!

Nuts About Sketches #183

Today you can see fun, festive sketch #183 from Shawn at Nuts About Sketches! Here is my layout of my precious and much missed Nanny:



Head over to Nuts and see more inspiring layouts of this sketch!

Sketch #181

For Shawn's Nuts About Sketches #181 layout, I went back a while and scrapped some older photos of our "Tessa the Messa" when she was just earning her nickname... now she's almost 8 and her face often looks this messy when she eats a popsicle... or ribs! Go to Nuts About Sketches and see a lot of other great layouts using this fun sketch!

Nuts About Sketches...

I'm so happy to announce a new "gig" with Nuts About Sketches! Shawn makes scrapping easy with her fun sketches and she has a great mix of one and two-pagers. I am honored to be a part of her design team and have my first layout to show you today! Here's my layout:



Now you have to go over to Nuts About Sketches to see the sketch (week 177) and all the other wonderful layouts that the team did with this sketch! Shawn reveals a new sketch each week, so be sure to bookmark her blog (or become a fan or FB follower) so you won't miss any!

Almost "Back to School"

Sunday are the kids' Open Houses. Next Tuesday is the "Welcome Back Breakfast" at the elementary school. Since I'm in charge of PTA's Staff Appreciation, I'm working on the table decorations for the breakfast, as well as a little something for Tessa to give her 2nd grade teacher and English teacher (she attends Spanish immersion school, so will start taking English this year). Here's what I've done so far:

I hot glued the crayons around a $1 tin (and another one that is larger and will hold the napkins). The "supply centerpiece" is mostly held together by glue dots and rubber bands (so it can be disassembled and most of the supplies used later.)

For these little "survival kits" I found the free printable labels online at Bee in our Bonnet's blog and the little storage boxes in the clearance section at Staples.

I also plan to put bundle some pens, expo markers and pencils for all Tessa's "specials" (Music, Art, Computer, Library, etc.) and use these cute labels from Itsy Bitsy Paper by Lindy.
Now, if only the kids supplies would label themselves, we would be ready!

Summer's flying...

Summer has been quite busy here so far... a few hightlights:

Soccer Camp for T

VBS for all of us

Basketball Camp for S

Swim Fanatics Camp for T (and an afternoon trail hike)

A 4th of July visit to "the cousins" in Hendersonville

Grandma comes from Mississippi

Day trip to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte

Dress shopping & a Bridesmaid's Tea at the O'Henry for T (junior attendent)

T's first sleepover party

S hanging out @ Isaac's

Soccer Camp for S (indoor, thankfully, since temps are ~99 this week!)

and still to come, dog-sitting for a week and a half (a nice test for T to see if she likes having a dog as much as she thinks she will), Art Camp for T, Basketball Camp for T (with S volunteering), some playgroups, trip to NatSciCtr, maybe the NC Zoo... and who knows what else August will hold!

Haven't been scrapping much but I posted one recent layout (from this July 4). Hope your summer is going great!

Saying good bye...

It's the last day of school and my kids are saying good bye to their teachers and friends for the summer. I'm always sad to see the school year end when they've had a wonderful teacher (or teachers), and both have been blessed with some incredible teachers this year. I am hoping my son will snap i-photos with some of his today (middle school = 7 teachers). My daughter is pictured here with her 1st grade teachers, Senora Alen and Senora Geniac. They had a terrific class this year, learned so much and had a lot of fun, too! She is also saying good bye to one of her favorite "specials" Senorita Castillo, who we think is returning to her home country of Chile in July. I am so thankful for all the amazing teachers she's had so far at Jones Elementary (Spanish Immersion Magnet).

I'm also saying good bye to my design term at The Scrapping Spot. For the last 10 months I had the honor to create with Jill and Cathy's wonderful kits and I had a blast! Their June kit is perfect for your summer fun photos and memories. I'll show you the projects I made using it:

Today I say "good bye" to some peace & quiet and "hello" to summer, hopefully not one spent with a "referee whistle" in my mouth, but one filled with fun activities and enjoyable memories for our whole family... we'll see, wink!

Project 12 March... using TSS May Kit

I love the whole concept of "Project 12" and am so grateful to Davinie for her inspiration and for the wonderful Pagemaps sketches! I also love using new kits from The Scrapping Spot for my layouts! This one is the May kit (on sale May 1... another blog post with more layouts later.)

The Scrapping Spot's April Kit - no April Fool's joke!

I had so much fun designing with The Scrapping Spot's April kit, on sale now in the store.

I thought I'd share my projects with you today.

This kit is a fun way to welcome spring; I highly recommend it!

Project 12 - Feb. Captured

Wow, it's snowing a bit here in NC on March 28 - you can be sure I took a photo of that this morning!

I'm enjoying the "Project 12" monthly summary layouts. You can find all the details here at Davinie Fiero's blog: Project 12. I used the sketch this month and The Scrapping Spot's April kit with Bo Bunny's Ad Lib line.

I can't wait to do a March layout, but there's still a few things to enjoy this month, especially for Seth, who will be turning 12 in a few days!

The Scrapping Spot's "Twig-licious" March Kit

I ♥ the March kit from The Scrapping Spot.


It is sold out but they have some more wonderful kits coming this Spring, so stay tuned! Here are my March designs:

March "marching on" and I'm just trying to keep up! Dr. Seuss celebrations, basketball (for Seth and on TV... ♥ March Madness), soccer starting for the kids, other school activities, and Seth's birthday at the end of the month are making for a busy but fun March! I'm glad Spring Break is in April this year (what we have left of it after losing days to snow make-up days). Hope your March is "marching on" in the direction you'd like! Thanks for stopping by!

Janurary 2011 Layout (Project 12)

I love the idea of doing one summary layout for each month of the year. That way, if my mojo is slumping or I haven't been scrapping much for some reason, I'll still have a complete picture of our year. So, I've found Project 12 on Davinie Fiero's blog and thought this would be a great way to get started and keep up in 2011! I intended to use the sketch provided, but found I wanted to do something a bit different and include a calendar with many of the details. I found the free printable calendar at Creative Mamma. I used the March kit from The Scrapping Spot and Unity's Bella Doilies stamp set. I look forward to doing a monthly layout all year!