Thanks Giving!

Well it's that time of year again! Time to be especially thankful. Not that it should be just one day! One should be thankful for many things every day! 

This year I am specifically thankful for my family, including my extended family members, and especially my grandma who we are celebrating this year at Thanksgiving!

My grandma's 75th birthday is today, one day before Thanksgiving, and so we are having a two in one party this year. This means that we have tables and chairs for 31 people in place at our house! Uff da! I'm so excited to have our extended family gathered together for two wonderful celebrations, but it's been a busy week here as we prepare! This blog is a compilation of the festive decorations that are ready for our fun!

My first decoration location was the giant upright piano in the dining room, the perfect place for a fall vignette. It is full of fall patterns and colors, as well as some fun decorating pieces. Check out the pictures below, captions give quick explanations of each piece.

Pulled a group of vintages books from my parent's and my own collection. They coordinate with the colors that are in my fall inspiration fabrics. The yellow and gray book is especially neat because it's the book my grandpa used to study Brazilian Portuguese when he became a missionary to Brazil. :)

The vintage green vase was left in my parent's house by the previous owners. The matching colored basket is from one of my favorite stores, my friends at Vintage Hardware! Ooh and so is the little berry basket! The eucalyptus is from JoAnn Fabrics.  The pumpkins come from The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island! 

Snagged these adorable over sized tiles from the harvest bazaar that is held at my school. Thanks to the wonderful Andrea Weaver for making these! They are the perfect message for Thanksgiving!

I'm totally in LOVE with my red canister! (It has a matching short and wide canister, 2 in 1!) This was a find a couple weeks ago from Ikea! My aunt gave me the three tiered baskets as a hand-me-down that she got from a friend. The chocolatey-charcoal color worked perfectly with my color scheme and held all my fall goodies (pumpkins, Indian corn, and pine cones) so snugly.

Not sure where this lovely little gem is from, it's just been in our house for as long as I can remember. :) But it works perfectly with my red canister and fall funk theme.

Final product at the piano! 

My fall fabrics that I have used all over the house! The chocolate fabric is on top of the piano. It is also featured as table runners and one table cloth. The orange check is also a table runner and cloth. And of course... burlap! It's my favorite.

My Aunt Kathy made these ADORABLE place cards for everyone! She used vintage print music, card stock tags, and stamps. The fabric ties are extra scrap from the fall fabric. Told you the fabric is everywhere! The tags turned out so amazingly! Thanks Aunt Kathy for your creativity and time!

Aunt Kathy was tasked with the job of making tags that will fit into pine cones as tag holders.  Now the house smells like eucalyptus and cinnamon pine cones. Oops!

Almost finalized look for the tables! Just need to put the flowers in the jar in the morning.  Centerpieces are simple, leaves that I pressed, and Ball jars with chocolate covered raffia. 

Picked up these beautiful flowers from Costco! They will end up in the Ball jars Thanksgiving morning! 

Now let's hope that our birthday/thanksgiving celebration goes smoothly tomorrow! 

Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving! Full of blessings, joy, and love! No matter where you are or what you have or have not, take a moment and find one positive for which you are thankful! 

PS: I'm thankful for all my blog readers! Thanks for making this a wonderful year! Stay tuned as the Christmas season approaches! I have decorating, gift making, and present wrapping in store for you!  

Packwood Flea Market ADVENTURES!

OH MY GOODNESS!  Aunt Kathy and I went on a super treasure hunt on Labor Day weekend at the Packwood Flea Market in Packwood, Washington! Talk about some serious shopping and fantastic finds!

We scooted out of Astoria early in the morning and made great time to Packwood.  Upon getting to town, we were greeted by tents as far as your eye could see, and parking options left and right trying to get customers with the best pricing.  We drove through all of the tents and parking to the other end of town, turning left just after the Shell Gas Station. Although we paid $5 to park, which was the highest price on parking, I think the price and the location was well worth it! The guy running the lot was very friendly and was able to answer our questions and give us suggestions since we were new to Packwood! Plus since we were at the end of town, we avoided as much traffic as possible, and it made it easy to walk up one side of the highway and back down the other on our way back to the car.

There were booths selling EVERYTHING under the sun, literally..., and more. Kathy and I are both into vintage items, country chic styling, and good deals! So some of the booths did not apply to us.  But if you're searching for sunglasses and purses that aren't in a car trunk (at least not this weekend), enough Crocs to outfit a football team, or recycled cell phones... Packwood is still for you!

On this adventure, I told Kathy that I was hoping to find an old mailbox for outside my classroom door. You know the thin kind that hang on the wall and have the flip top? So we were eyes peeled!

We found endless amounts of Pyrex, Corning, Blue Willow, and other glassware. Below are a few fun photos that I snapped while exploring! I am a fan of the bright Pyrex colors and the pig tumblers! 

There were also gobs of vintage books, both hardback and paper! I found a couple neat ones at the local thrift store that are 1960's math textbooks for the 4th and 5th grade. Maybe I should supplement this year??

 There were all sorts of odds and ends! I was so excited to snag the Pepsi Cola crate, but was so torn between it and the bright red Coke box! My allegiance to Pepsi won out, but Aunt Kathy decided to the give the Coke box a new home too!

I just loved all the details spotted around the flea. Boxes of padlocks, crocks with quality stamps, pinwheels for the 4th of July, some summer time lawn games, and a secret fave... Edgar. He is just too cool!

 Not only did we shop the vendors and the thrift store, but we also had to check out this cute looking store! I just loved their signage and cheery colors.  The inside could use a bit of this punchy color and fun though!

Outside of the antique store Kathy found an old phone booth. She tried to call for help because we were lost in a world of treasures and weren't sure if we'd make it back to the car. Too bad it didn't have a phone!

Stopped in a booth that was full of many car related finds! Vintage road maps, oil signs, tools, and whatnot. I have to say, although I'm not a collector of these items, there were some very cool things like the RAILROAD two piece sign below! Bonus, the booth was arranged/displayed so well! I appreciated the owners use of burlap and wooden boxes! 

After searching for almost 5 hours for one little mailbox, coming up empty in that department, but striking it rich elsewhere, we came upon a big booth space full of vintage charm! We asked the owners if they happened to have a mailbox and... THEY DID! Kathy and I both celebrated and took pictures of the exciting find, and I was over the moon and giddy about the whole thing! The vendors were the nicest folks and said that I was the most enthusiastic customers they'd seen and were happy they could help! I told them that they made my day! They told us to come back anytime to just say hi because they liked our attitude! Haha! Or they wanted to see if I'd go off the deep end again and hug an old treasure in triumph! 

While at that booth I also found a couple great sets of vintage ornaments! I picked up the brown box below, with the "Made in occupied Japan" label and some fun striped finds! And if you want to get a small glimpse at my mailbox frenzied excitement, just peek below too!

Oh my! I am so excited for my purchases! Not pictured is an awesome old metal bed that I snagged for a low price! It's in need of a little TLC to bring it to real glory, but it's nothing a wire brush and spray paint can't fix! You'll have to stay tuned for that blog in the future! You know I can't let a good project go! Oh and  I hope to get up a picture of my mailbox in place! It may or may not be black in the end, I'm still deciding! 

The Packwood Flea Market takes place twice a year, Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Check out their site for more information!

Packwood is not for the wimpy shopper who poops out after one garage sale, shoppers come ready! Bring a cart or wagon, pack a bottle of water, dive in and get hunting!

L.O.V.E.

Oh my goodness! I LOVE the holiday of Love, Valentine's Day! Not that you shouldn't show, give, share love throughout the year, I just appreciate a day focused solely on love. What a great reason to give my students awesome Valentine's!

 It wouldn't be appropriate to create Valentine's projects without a plethora of pink and red supplies. Pink scissors? Check. Pink ribbon? Check. Red and white baker's twine? Check. Pink and red stamping ink (in a variety of shades)? Check. Pink and red pens? Check. Stamps and punches full of hearts? Check. I think I'm ready to start!

Using the stamp seen in the picture above, I used two ink colors in order to create more play on the tags. 

Twenty-five tags later!

As usual, I packed the gifts in brown, paper lunch sacks. What can I say, they are inexpensive. Cheap version of craft wrap, but in a more convenient, mass-gifting, sort of way. 

I used the same two ink colors from the tags to stamp the heart pairs on each bag.  One color at a time to increase speed by not having to keep rewashing the stamp. 

I also own the most perfect Valentine themed punch, the one that I purchased for the bookmark and card projects from last year! I picked it up at JoAnn Fabrics with a 50% off coupon and my 15% off teachers' discount card. 

So it only made sense that when I punch the hole for tying the bags shut, the hole should be heart shaped. 

 When I finished packing the bags with novels, pencils, and Tootsie Pops, I sealed them by folding the top down once. The heart shaped punch allowed me to thread baker's twine through the tags and bag and finish with a small bow.  

All lined up and ready for anxious little (I suppose not really that little) hands to open them and create big, beaming smiles. 

How can you not LOVE Valentine's Day? For me it is a great excuse to spoil my students (They actually outdid me in that category, my desk was out of control with wonderful treasures) and remind them in a tangible way of how much I care about them.

It's not a day to think about the love you don't have, or wish for. It's about giving and sharing love with ones who are in your life at that time. And perhaps people you loved have come and gone, which exactly why you have to embrace the day and love people while they are with you. Don't let a single day pass without telling, showing, sharing, love to someone.  Your love may make all the difference. ©

Book Nerd!

Let's get something clear... I love books. Heart them. Adore. Obsess. So needless to say, I am constantly adding to my classroom library, updating and sorting. After purchasing and sharing these books with my students, but I was struggling with books being taken and never returned. Plus many of my students haven't the foggiest idea how to locate books in an actual library.  In order to resolve both of these issues, I decided to make my classroom a little more official.  I purchased small labels and packing tape to use as my book-labeling system.  Then I printed the first three letters of the author's last name.  

Of course each book was labeled with care, and once organized by author, I ordered the titles too.  

Can you tell I'm a Gary Paulsen fan?! All of his books aren't even on the shelf yet! I only made about twenty labels for him. And used them all! 

I worked through author's who had multiple books on my shelf. This allowed me to create a bulk set of labels and organize books within authors as well.  Then I went through and pulled neighboring letters of author's names that were still undone.  I simply tucked books into place as I went from that point on.  

In the end, my shelves are beautifully organized and hopefully a bit more deterring from sticky fingers. 

Summer Send Off!

This year I created summer gift bags for my students again. Every gift they receive from me involves books! Duh, what else do teachers give?! Thanks to Scholastic Book Clubs, I can purchase books for $0.95 each and get more for free using my bonus points! I got the kids three books, one for each summer month. These included, Old Yeller, The Lemonade War, and I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic.

I also included summer fun items in matching colors; pencils, erasers, bubbles, and sunglasses! They looked sort of impressive and the color coordinator in me was giddy over how they matched! The pencils came in packs of 12 from Dollar Tree and the erasers came in 6 packs from the same place.  I picked up the bubbles from there too, in packs of 3.  The sunglasses came from Oriental Trading in bundles of 10. 

I used red paper gift bags that I got from Dollar Tree and then used construction paper in blue and white to add decoration.  Using the Ellison paper punch at school and the star shaped punch, I made patriotic themed bags! 

The gifts were a hit! And my students were adorable in their new shades! They were particularly awesome as we all exited to the busses! I am so proud of these kids!

Here's to a happy, sun and fun filled summer!