Happy Halloween -Sort of Pinterest Style

 
Crazy busy weekend getting ready for what might be my last day of work before the baby comes! Whoo hoo! Well, I thought Halloween was going to be my last day, but my sub got sick and I still have tons of things I wanted to complete and prepare for her. So, I may just work another couple of days to get stuff done and spare myself from writing sub plans. Writing sub plans is more work than actually teaching sometimes. I am going to play it by ear tomorrow.

Any leftover energy I might have had for crafting is used up making a baby. Thank goodness Pinterest has been there to inspire me. I would never of thought of this cute pose all on my own. Here is the original pin. Love the lighting and the pose is better too. But you get what you get and you don't get upset when you pull over to the nearest city parking lot p' patch and ask a complete stranger to imitate a professional photographer! Can I hear an "Amen?"

In other news, I continue to have the highest of hopes when it comes to making my beloved Crayons festive treats. I actually thought I had found something easy enough to make as directed. But, no. I was too busy to go to the grocery store this weekend and ended up having to use what was in my pantry.
The Pinterest Inspiration Cupcake:

Source: somethingswanky.com via J on Pinterest

My Cheesy Imitation

I truly thought I had the ingredients to make the "slime" frosting, but alas I was out of corn syrup.

I will say this. God sent me a little angel to remind me that cheesy cupcakes, overwhelming to-do lists, sick subs, blah, blah, blah- I have no *real* problems. As I walked into the dollar store on the way home from church to pick up bug toppers for these cupcakes. A voice yells out, "MISS LITTLE!!! MISS LITTLE!!!" And low and behold there is some child that I don't recognize screaming my name across the store. She runs up to give me a  hug and exclaims with such excitement, "I didn't know you lived in this neighborhood too!"

Well, I don't and if she goes to my school, as I assume she must, she shouldn't live around here either. We are bursting at the seams overcrowded and I know that technically I should report any out of district students. Anyway, I am going to look the other way on that one because tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of my maternity leave and what's one more student in a school of 700?

So she follows me around the store dashing between my aisle and her mother's aisle filling her in on who I am so loudly the whole store must know I am one of the FOURTH GRADE TEACHERS!!!!

While helping me search for bugs, she tells me that she won't get to trick or treat this year because by the time they get home on the bus it will be too dark. So I say, "Well that's OK, we are having a big parade at school tomorrow with lots of candy."  Then she tells me that she can't participate in the parade because she doesn't have a costume. They can't afford one this year. Mind you folks, we are in the dollar store. 

Doesn't that make your heart break?

Never fear. I may have the dumbest looking non- Halloween cupcakes in the world, but I do have a BIG box of costumes in my classroom and an appointment with one little girl whose name I don't even know first thing Monday morning. 

Who says Halloween isn't a Christian holiday? Not me. I think I just got schooled by the big guy Himself.

Luck Be A Cloth Diaper Tonight...

I have had some great luck with contests lately. More details shortly. One big thing is an extra special gift.  Anyway, I  thought I should keep playing and see how long this streak will last.

Here is a contest to win 3 FuzziBunz diapers. Yes, I am going to try cloth diapering. Looking forward to it too. If it doesn't work for us, there are always disposables just around the corner. Really want it to work though!


Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

CSI Challenge: Nursery Nook Closet Makeover

I haven't been too crafty this pregnancy. Maybe making a person takes all the creative energy I have? Mostly I "pin" all the things I'd like to make.

Recently, this donation of newborn clothing from one of my former colleagues forced me to take baby storage seriously. Holy onesies Bat Girl! Just in time, the CSI girls announced their closet makeover challenge and that motivated me to put some fun in functional.

Before....

After!
We have decided to have our wee one sleep in our room for the first 6 months or more. We have a lot of out of town family coming to help us. So, maintaining the guest room for their visits seemed wise. Fortunately for us, we have a large master bedroom/bath with a big nook in the front of the room. It even has it's own little closet!

After I removed the ill fitting mirrored doors,  I cleaned out the whole closet. My wedding dress preserved in that big box will go under the bed my dad made. My good dresses have been stashed in Cliff's closet for now. Most of those shoes and purses will get donated. Sadly, my feet are growing and the boots barely fit. Sigh. At the end of the day, it wasn't too hard to give up this closet for a while.



Here you can see the closet empty. There are a few issues. First off, it's directly behind our bedroom door and not three feet to the other side is a wall. It's an awkward spot. To get into the closet you have to close the bedroom door completely. Also, it's a very dark spot as you can see in these pictures.

I briefly considered a curtain door, but decided to leave the whole closet open for ease of use. Also, I want to look at all those beautiful baby things. They are so sweet and so many were gifts from friends who share in our joy. Actually, there is nothing about this time that I want to hide behind a curtain. I want to savor it all. Since it would be visible, I wanted to make it cheery. To make temporary "wallpaper" I hung a favorite sheet that I had been saving for just the right project.

The metal shelf was a hard worker in our pantry at the old apartment. After we moved it became semi-retired in Cliff's closet holding a baseball cap, a gym bag, and a pair of shoes.  I knew I could do better, so I recommissioned the shelf here. Lucky for me, the 99 Cents Only store had these nice collapsible fabric bins. I had seen similar bins at Target and K-Mart for nearly $8! Score!
 
The thing about dollar store purchases is limited selection. In the size I wanted, navy blue was the take-or-leave-it color. While navy probably wouldn't have been my first choice, I do like navy and pink together. I simply looped fabric scraps to make these girly pulls.

I really like the effect.

The labels are scrapbook paper with a bit of clear contact paper. Easy enough to change as Baby Girl's wardrobe progresses from mostly onesies to more variety.

Also from 99 Cents Only were these two pink baskets. I hung them with cup hooks and clips so that they would be angled down slightly. I really do love binder clips!

Another simple project was to make closet dividers out of old CD's. This worked well for me because the closet rod was so tight to the shelf. As soon as we get more clothes, I will be able to add them in an organized way right from the start.

Looking at the picture above became a total "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" situation. My other improvements made the scuffed up clothes bar look dingy and worn. So I had to paint it.  I had to paint it pink.
 
Much sweeter!

Since this is a temporary living arrangement, I really wanted to "shop" our apartment as much as possible. I had this little lamp from the old apartment and it's perfect in this area. I painted the cord to match our walls. I really like that it is a low watt light. This area is bright enough without being too harsh.

I also dug up this Eames knock off coat rack that I made several years ago. I love those cheery little knobs!

I wanted to have room to grow in this little closet, so I bought a great little closet bar doubler. For under $10 I think it is a great product. In this set up, the bar rests nicely on the metal shelf unit, but in another closet I can hang both sides to double the hanging space. It's perfect because baby clothes are so little.

By shopping my home and getting lucky with a few dollar store baskets I was able to create a sweet little closet for our wee one for about $15! That's pretty frugal by nursery standards!


Thank you CSI ladies for inspiring me to finish this task! I am also linking up with another favorite "Frugal Friday" at the Shabby Nest.

And, last but not least...

Simple Project- CD Clothes Dividers

While searching Pinterest for nursery nook closet inspiration, I saw a lot of cute clothes dividers. The kind that allows you to separate your 0-3's from your 6-9's. My closet bar is super close to a shelf above it, so I decided to make my own dividers out of used CD's.You know those leftovers that used to upload software to a computer you recycled three years ago?

Step 1- Cut out a wedge in the CD using kitchen shears.

Step 2- Cut out the inner circle to a depth that works for your closet rod. Eyeball it. My closet rod was very close to a shelf so I also had to trim the top off.

Step 3- Decorate. If I was more productive I would have spray painted these and used rub on letters. Instead, I covered them with scrap paper and some clear contact paper.

Using what I have...easy peasy lemon squeezy!

The Kids Christmas Gift for 2011

lI am a big believer in gift multiples.  A few years ago nearly everyone on my list got stockings. Before that I made many rice heat packs and cool eye masks. With multiples I feel as though I am being fair and enjoy the ease that familiarity brings to a project. With each gift it just gets easier. I also like seeing how I can personalize each project.


This year I have six kids on my list between the ages of 5 and 10. They all live long distance and that requires advanced postage planning. I am not sure, but I have been told that having a baby rocks your world. So, I anticipate that getting to the post office in time might just be a challenge this year.

So I was looking for an idea that would be easy to mail ahead of time and suitable for school age kids.

When I first saw this amazing project on Pinterest...

Source: mylittlemochi.typepad.com via J on Pinterest

I just about died with cute overload! A gum advent calendar How sweet!!

Then it hit me! This is an affordable, light weight and easy to mail gift for kids ages 5-10!! And, it's designed to be sent early!

Then I wondered if I would ever need to come up with my own ideas again. Pinterest is just so awesome. I have found pretty much everything I have needed since joining this summer in a matter of minutes.


I questioned whether it was even worth blogging all my Pinterest knock offs. Then it hit me in the middle of this project, My need to be cheap always throws a monkey wrench in everything I copy. Maybe other people would like to see how I solve those glitches?

Like for example- the gum used in the inspiration project above has 12 pieces per pack. The gum I bought at the dollar store only has 8.  Believe me I was shaking my head when I discovered that. It never occurred to me that gum that comes in similar packaging could be both a different shape and have fewer pieces. I was so blinded by two packs for $1 that I never counted the pieces! Whoops.

Thankfully 8 is a multiple of 24 so I could still make the calendar! Whew! What would I have done if there were 10 pieces?  My books just need to fold in thirds. It took a little playing to get the first one, but soon it was easy! Thank goodness for multiples.



Another change I made was to use acrylic paint for the nose. Wouldn't you know it, my orange Sharpie was dead. I applied the paint with a toothpick and it worked perfectly. Maybe even better than a Sharpie.

These two are headed on the slow boat to China. My cousin moved her family of six to China last year. I was so sad, but thankfully facebook has actually made it very easy to stay in touch and see pictures of the kids. Hard to send gifts though. This project is really a blessing.

But first I need to  make another gum run to the dollar store!


Breakdown:
Gum 2/$1 - 75cents per book.
Paper, paint, Sharpies and hot glue from stash.
Postage to China???

Pinterest Rocks My Teaching World

This year my district is going from a largely whole group direct instruction reading program to a largely centers/small group instruction model.  There are centers for English Language Development, reading and math. It's a good change, but it's going to take a lot of work and organization to make all those transitions and activities run efficiently.

Instinctively I am not such a great organizer. Boo!

Thank goodness there are hundreds upon hundreds of brilliantly organized teachers sharing all their ideas on Pinterest. I could read teaching blogs all day and not get all the ideas a quick ten minute browsing of Pinterest provides.

This idea., though, knocked my socks off.

Source: newmanagement.com via Nicole on Pinterest

 The little white thing highlighted here is a plastic stand that makes any binder into a flip chart!
They only cost $2 and look like they would be a good investment. I immediately began to search for them on Amazon. No luck. It seems that they are only available here.

Here en-lies the rub. I am super cheap to begin with and have already spent a ton of money and time on my classroom this summer. We have potentially five furlough days again this year so it's really important to stay within our budget. And, the site above charges $7 dollars to ship 5 of those little plastic things.

So I made my own.



First gather up two large binder clips and a short piece of ribbon-about 5" long.



Clip the clips to the binder covers and tie the two closest metal thingies together. Done.

Dear Ms. Plastic Binder Holder Maker,
I love your holder. Really I do. I would buy 5 for my classroom. I would. But you see, I have free Amazon Prime and I have become spoiled. Paying 70% of the product cost for shipping is just too steep. If your product shows up on Amazon, I will be the first to buy it. Promise.  In the meantime, Yankee ingenuity all the way.
Love, Mrs. L

That Was Easy! Nursing Cover

Last week Cliff's parents came to visit. We heard lots of little tales of our 6 month old niece. One such tale involved her nursing cover. My mother-in-law could not recommend getting a nursing cover more highly. It seems that when Cliff's sister is fixing to nurse the mere sight of the brightly colored cover gets my niece all excited.

So I set out to make a nursing cover. I can't say I was too excited. I seem to have an aversion to making straps. It's the turning that drives me bonkers. I hate turning tight tubes of fabric. But off to my stash I went in search of nursing cover fabric.

 
That's when I found this wrap around skirt. It was my mother-in-law's and she gave it to me with a bunch of other fabric. I love this vintage print and have been saving it for a special project. If it wasn't a size two I would probably wear it.

Anyway, it kind of looks like a nursing cover already.  A quick trim and a few adjustments to the already sewn straps and I could be done. All the hemming is done. I could make a slit in the top hem and slide the boning right in. This could be the easiest nursing cover ever!

As I studied it I tried to imagine myself wearing it out in public. Nursing underneath it. The fabric is a twill. That could be hot and heavy. Also, this print screams,"Look at this cool print! Notice me!" And that is pretty  much the *last* thing I want when nursing in public.

So I went back to the stash and found this beige and lavender print. I followed the tutorial from Diary of A Quilter.   It was so easy. From start to finish including clean up it was an hour. Not too bad. Turning the strap was indeed annoying because I get annoyed by that, but over all it made up so quickly I really didn't mind so much.

This pattern says, "Please respect my privacy."  Actually, it's called "Cherished Memories" by Robert Kaufaman. I hope nursing in private or public does become a cherished memory.