Remnants of Christmas?

Since I'm just getting this blog business rolling, I have many delayed event pictures. I do, however, promise that these pictures are lovely, and will potentially provide you with future crafting and decorating ideas! These pictures are taken at my church, decorating credit must also go to my aunt Kathy and cousin Amy! These ideas are not only really beautiful, but also wonderfully simple to create.

1. Collect a variety of clear vases, bottles, jars, or pitchers. The more diversity the better!

2. Arrange the vessels in an order of your choice on either a window sill, shelf, or mantle.

3. Use white lights (preferably with a white cord) to fill the vessels. 

4. Make sure to shake the lights out so they fill up the jar without clumping.

Thanks to my aunt Kathy for this adorable idea!

This delicious smelling and delightful looking ornament was incredibly simple to create.

1. Find pine cones in nature (cheapest method) or purchase them. I got mine from Fred Meyers, they are about 8 inches long and smell like cinnamon!

2. Use a metallic gold spray paint to lightly coat each pine cone.

3. After they have dried, use 1/2 inch ribbon, we used both gold and white, to create a hanger. We simply wrapped the ribbon around the first layer of scales on the flat side.

1. Use the bottom trimmings from your Christmas tree or any another evergreen. 

2. Arrange to taste in a vase or jar. I used a simple, square, clear vase.

3. Add decorative pieces, in the picture I used a white silk, rose, beaded wire, and pearl floral picks.

This advent wreath is made of a grapevine wreath on a small tray. The candles were placed first then filled with greens and pine cones.  Pearl flower picks were placed throughout and gold ribbon was used as a garland. 

Thanks to my cousin Amy for the gorgeous work!

You need three things! Glass candle holders, white taper candles, and a garland of your choice. The picture garland was made of gold ribbon and fake pearls. I honestly have no clue where it came from, rather it was found in the mass amounts of holiday decor that fills our church attic! Reuse!

Another Reclaimed Treasure!

The cupboard door was discovered at Vintage Hardware but was missing glass, and happened to be orange soda orange colored... lovely... The shadow box wood was reclaimed from a sad and broken down table from my late grandma's house. The whole piece was constructed and repainted by my dad.  Awesome Christmas gift!

Get Your Groove On!

Thanks entirely to a former 4th grade teacher, the 4th and 5th graders at our school have the amazing opportunity to learn how to play the marimbas! My class just finished their 18 weeks of fun at the end of January. To cap off their lessons, my class and a 5th grade class performed for the school! I was SO incredibly proud of my students, so much so that parents commented on the huge smile that covered my face during their entire performance! Here are some pictures from their last day in marimba class! I wish I could post all 30-40 pictures but that would take an extremely long time, but let me stress one last time that I am the proudest teacher on the face of the Earth!!!

This marimba is 5 feet tall! The box is so the students can reach the mallets.

So serious!

Such a ham!

Smirking at his teacher because she's sticking a camera in his face while concentrating...

Jammin'!

Total concentration, like using scissors, mouth open, tongue sticking out...

Fourth grade ROCKSTARS!

One Ugly Green Shelf?

So my Grandma Carol passed away a year ago this March. I loved my Grandma very much, but I'll be perfectly honest: the woman was a pack rat. Thus explaining the OCD tendencies that my brother and I exhibit in regards to cleanliness and organization. There was a benefit of saving everything the way she did, there were tons of treasures in her little apartment. I acquired cute mason jars, some excellent retro books for altered art, an adorable wooden sled that my mom and her siblings used as kids, and a horrible, heinous, hideous, horrendous (any other h adjectives?) shiny, green book shelf.

Notice the atrocious color of the shelf... The awful color was also covered in a high gloss clear coat which only added to the unfortunate-ness of the shelf. But I claimed the shelf despite its sad look because I could see all sorts of potential! 

I had originally planned on painting the shelf a fresh, new color and so I started in on sanding off the original paint.

Before I commenced sanding I wiped the shelf down with a Simple Green and water solution to remove sticky residue and grime.  Then I used a circular palm sander and 3M 120 grit sandpaper to do the nitty-gritty work. Remember to wear a face mask and safety glasses when sanding, the dust it unbearable otherwise and you will have ruined your contacts! I also choose to use ear protection, either plugs or muffs, because the buzzing sound is rather irritating! 

After I completed my sanding, I vacuumed the shelf off using our brand new VacMaster Wall mounted system. Snazzy! I also gave it a towel wipe down to pick up the last of the residue. 

When I looked at the final sanded outcome, I was actually quite pleased with the color results.  The shelf had been a sky blue, which was pulled up through the green to give the shelf an awesome distressed look! Some of the shelf edges were down to bare wood which only added to the effect. Thanks to the sanding, the atrocious, gleaming, green color has been toned and I really like the look that I have left so I have decided against repainting. Well, for a while at least! :)

I am all about finding awesomely ugly pieces and reviving them into something fantastic and beautiful! 

Even if you can't necessarily pinpoint the renovated look, pieces can be saved for when an idea emerges, so scour your local garage sales and other potential "junk" locations and get going! 

PS: If you need help brainstorming, you can always shoot me a message, cause I LOVE sharing!

Little Blue Stool!

I have to preface this post with the fact that one of our spelling words this past week was stool. And needless to say, one of my clever students immediately made suggestive statements about poop... I really shouldn't have been surprised considering they all laughed when rear was a spelling word, or when we learning about the river and had the vocabulary word buoy... In their defense, they are nine...


But anyway, totally unrelated to pooing, and actually about an adorable little blue wooden stool that I fell in love with at my favorite Astoria  merchant, Vintage Hardware! I decided that this little stool would be the perfect addition to my classroom for my projector cart. The only challenge was purchasing the stool in the first place, since I didn't want to pay full price. Fortunately, my lovely aunt called me with 10 minutes to closing to let me know that my beloved stool was on sale for 20% off! Hooray! I do not recommend driving at the speed or in the aggressive manner that I did in order to reach the store in time, but it was so worth it.  


To complete my lovely monogramming project, I simply picked a font on the computer that I like (Ravie) and filled the page with a capital letter G. I then printed and cut the letter out of the paper, careful to not destroy the outline.  I then taped the outline to the stool seat and covered the remainder of the seat with newspaper.  At that point, I used a can of Rust-oleum white spray paint from Astoria Builders Supply. Let the paint dry, then gently peel off outline, paper and any tape leftovers.  To clean up any overspray, I dipped Q-tips in Goof Off and tidied up the edges.

  I left the original paint color and the all original distressing because that was the look that I preferred.  But the stool can easily be sanded and repainted for alternative uses! I recommend flea markets, antique or furniture consignment stores, or garage sales for locating stools. Then pick your paint colors and seat design and get to work! 

Using an image rather than a monogram would be really cute too. Maybe a flower, leaf, or even a gingerbread character if the stool is for a child's room! 

Story of my Life...

Considering the fact that I have been in the process of starting a blog since August... the title of my blog is most appropriate. I am finally getting around to posting about my life and projects. So without further ado, I welcome you to the internet version of my world! Scary, yes. Probably not safe for anyone, including myself. But what the heck?! Here goes nothing! Enjoy!