Teacher Gifts: Clipboards and Personalized Stationary

Recently I showed you the clipboards I made for teacher gifts last year.  Now that school's over, I wanted to share what this year's batch looked like!  These truly are an inexpensive teacher gift, which is also easy to make!

I did two styles: colorful and neutral:

For both, I used the same black stickers for initials that I used last year.

This year's batch had a washi tape detail, which I loved!

I will say one thing: I hate the glue product with the initials M.P.!  I tried sealing these once I had glued my scrapbook paper on, and they bubbled (last year they didn't, go figure).  Anyway, so I glued them on but did not seal them and they look fine.  They might not be quite as durable but that's okay.

I also had two teachers who received clipboards last year, so they received something different: stationary I whipped up using my Silhouette machine.  These were easy to make but I think a sweet gift.

I want to encourage you that you could do a similar project even without a Silhouette.  You could make really cute stationary just using Microsoft Paint and clipart!  Print on cardstock, cut to size, and you're done!

For the packaging, we put them in plain white lunch bags, which doubled as the "card" from my son.  Woot for creative packaging!

Pinspiration Thursday No. 14: A Hit and a Miss

Most Fridays in our house are Snack Nights.  Last week I tried not one but two "healthier" appetizers to get a break from my cheese-and-crackers habit (Newsflash: I insist on inhaling cheese even if healthy apps are available.  I have accepted this about myself and am moving on).

Here are the original pins from my "Eat Healthy" board on Pinterest:

 

Photo: Skinny Taste

Photo: Skinny Taste

And my versions:

This picture cracks me up because it is so gross-looking!!  It should be on a Pinterest Fail board!

Also not super appetizing in my picture!  Sorry!  I am not a food blogger, I get that.

The verdict?  The guacamole deviled eggs were just gross!  I love guac and I love deviled eggs, but somehow they were just wrong when I put them together.

However, I really loved the buffalo cauliflower bites!  They give me an alternative to the pureed-cauliflower spiel. I was even hopeful the Hubs would like them, but alas, I did not make any cauliflower converts with these.  I agree with him that they still taste like cauliflower, so don't be thinking you will sneak these past a veggie-hater out there.  But if you're okay with cauliflower these are delicious!

Painted Chest Before and After

This project is also appearing today on my new collaboration, Craft for Today!  If you are here from Craft for Today, welcome!  So glad you stopped by!  

Hey peeps! I've got a fun project to show you today.  I was going to wait until I finish it with furniture wax, but that might never happen, so here goes!

I have had this Hope Chest for years, and it has some great qualities.  It's a lot of storage and has a cedar-lined interior.  But, it didn't quite fit with my decor, so (what else?) I painted it!

I started with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen.  Just two quick coats of that, followed by some distressing, because you know me and how I be.

Then I took this lovely graphic from the Graphics Fairy, blew it up using this awesome website, and transferred the design using the technique I described here:

(I chose this graphic because I have a little thing for jewelry).  Hand-painting is not as hard as you think! You just need to be like Captain Kirk and boldly go.  I painted this one in chocolate and gold.  Love the subtle shine!

I will ultimately wax with tinted wax, but seriously that might be in a few years!  Hopefully it won't take as long for me to show you more of this bedroom, but I am slow sometimes;)




P.S. Lovin' the Linky's at:

   

Moving On and Giveaway Reminder!

Well, peeps, school is out!!!  Yesterday was Little Boo's last day of preschool, and Big Boy's last day of 1st grade.

The only picture I took all week.  Kicking myself.

No more preschool.  I'm a little in shock, but excited about what lies ahead also.  Especially Summer!  I will most definitely be doing Mommy Summer Camp again this year, and we have a few other adventures in the works as well.

Hope your transition to summer is a fun one!

Oh!  And don't forget!  You can still be entered in the Beautycounter giveaway through this coming Monday! Click here to learn more!

Digging for Treasure

We went strawberry pickin' on Saturday morning.  (There's no other way to say it--it's "pickin," never "picking.")

This is a family tradition for us, which I love because it is active, outdoor work which teaches the kids about farming and rewards us with healthy, delicious fruit.  Love that!  We've been in all kinds of weather, but this year was perfection.  Sunny, with a cool breeze.

Pickin' strawberries is addictive, maybe because it's like digging for treasure.  You just keep thinking, what's under the next leaf?

And the strawberries are like treasure--like rubies--literally glistening in the sun.  We all love it!  We should get jobs in the fields, I tell you!

We got two gallons this year, which means I have to freeze most of them.  I like to wash, dry and stem them right away (I don't even bother with hulling).

I then lay them out in a single layer on wax paper-lined cookie sheets, freeze them for a couple of hours, then switch them into a freezer bag.  Doing it this way helps them stay separated, so we can pull out as many as we need each time.

Saturday evening, we had fresh strawberry ice cream, which went so fast I never even got a picture! Welcome to Summer everyone!

The Walk

A week ago I celebrated (very quietly, like, just in my own brain) my "birthday."  On May 13, 2001 I was baptized and officially began my life as a daughter of Christ.  However, my journey started long before that baptism, in the intense intellectual research of a very serious high-school student, on through years of cynicism and disbelief, and culminating in some very dark times.

During those darkest of times my prayer was to a "Higher Power," a nameless God that I only hoped was out there.  I spent months praying for salvation from my Higher Power.  And then He came to me, and made himself known to me...as Jesus.

You know what I did?  No, I did not jump up and down and sing his blessings.  I did not fall on my knees before Him.  Nope, I got really mad.  See, I had flat-out hated Christians for so long.  They were arrogant and self-righteous, and also (I thought) really stupid to believe the things they did.  Certain "Christians" had hurt me, and I never saw myself becoming a part of that crowd.

But Jesus didn't care about any of that.  He didn't retract His invitation...the one He extends to us all...the invitation to just walk with Him. So I did.  It took courage, and it still does.  The difference now is that I have tasted the reward. Nothing in this world will ever last. But His love?  His peace?  His joy?  My goodness, these things are everlasting.

I've learned that there are many ways to be a Christian, just like there are many ways to be a human.  My constant prayer is that I am doing okay on both counts, not alienating people from this beautiful way of life, as others had alienated me.  And not striving to be "good" for its own sake, but (hopefully) having goodness pour out as a natural consequence of  the loving relationship I have with my savior.

Thirteen years.  In some way, it seems like a long time.  In others, it seems like I am just getting started.  The most surprising thing is how wonderful the walk is, how when you take it there is always something delightful just around the corner.  Even my trials have become opportunities for joy--and that's for sure something the world never did for me.

So, now you know a little bit more about my walk.  Thanks for reading.  And just for fun, here's what happens when I try and take photos around here:

Love,

A Special Offer for Ya!

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Around the Garden

One of my greatest pleasures in life is seeing things grow, especially in the spring when everything that comes up is such a joy after a long winter.  It has been especially fun this year, in a new house.  I have been so surprised by so much that has bloomed around here!

One of the major highlights has been the clematis.

These two vines have put on a straight-up show for us.

We also had incredible azaleas!  I'll be honest, I really don't love azaleas, but these were really pretty.

Here is a picture of more azaleas, along with these crazy bluebells that came up everywhere.

That was Round One.  Now we're into Round Two and getting gorgeous roses.

How quickly and beautifully these have bloomed has been a surprise to me.  I did cut the roses back in February and fertilize when they started growing, but I can't take credit for this gorgeousness.  That's all God.

I used the roses plus oregano from the herb garden for a simple floral arrangement for my Mother's Day Brunch.  It's a trick I learned from the florist at Fearrington House, where I used to work wedding receptions: mix herbs in with your flowers for beautiful fragrance and a natural look.

So, what's growing in your garden?  I would love to hear about it...and I'll take any cuttings you want to give me;)