Halloween Wreath

This is my Halloween wreath. It is made out of create paper pinned to a styrofoam base. My picture is really crummy because I took it to late at night.

Mom's Creativity

When I came home from school the other day, Joey had all the legos out on the floor. Mom was cooking and Joey was patiently waiting for grandma to come and build with him. Well, then his dad came. So, that night Mom is putting together the legos to make a semi for Joey. Pretty cool, huh?

Blog Book

This was definitely a creative process. Each Sunday for the last year Megan and I would do a blog post about what her week had been like. Sometimes she would type it and other times she would tell me and I would type it. Sometimes I just typed what her week was like. I knew at the end of the year I wanted to make it into a book but I had never done it before. I heard that it was pretty easy, well it was not so easy. It took me a lot of time but the end results was totally worth it. This is what a couple of the pages look like.



This is a list of things I am going to do different.
1. I had a lot of spelling errors in it even though I used spell check, so Ashley is going to edit the posts as we go.
2. About every three months I am going to slurp the post over to blurb.
3. I may find a few pages that I really like from the first book and mostly follow that format throughout the entire book.
4. I will continue to post weekly.
5. I am going to have Megan take more pictures of what is important to her and also have her write more of it.

I love this book and Megan is going to love it as she gets older and can appreciate it a little more.

Creative at last

So...my scrapbook room has looked like a tornado hit it. I have several ideas for projects and for several weeks I have been collecting the stuff to make these projects. Well, all that collecting has reulted in piles of STUFF. After so long, my poor brain cannot handle all the clutter and I can't think...which means I HAD to get something accomplished. So, about 9:00 on Saturday night, I decided to get some stuff done. In November we are going to have a Relief Society night centered on gratitude. I have been looking for a couple months for some easy, inexpensive craft ideas that would go along with gratitude. These are what I came up with. The count your blessings blocks were really easy---I'm not sure if I love the ribbon, but it needed something. The gratitude subway art---I really like how it turned out. It is on an 8x10 canvas that I painted brown. Then made a word art and cut the vinyl with my silhouette. Last week I broke down and ordered some good vinyl---and now I'm wondering why I waited so long. I think they turned out really cute and they are going to be pretty cheap. Now, if I can just get someone to come to Relief Society....any takers????

Sneak Peek-Melanie

I went and took Melanie's pictures today and I really liked how they turned out. We went to this old house that I really wasn't sure off, but I really like the pictures. She is getting way to told and she really shouldn't be a senior yet. Ashley added a few things to three of them, but Melanie is really going to edit them herself. I hope she likes them.



Click on picture view larger

Pink, Pink, Pink chalkboard

Okay, here is one more chalk board and I promise I won't post any more. This one is for Fayelynn. Alan really helped me out with getting my cabinet doors so I told Vanessa that I would do one for her. She wanted it to be pink and have Faye's name on it. I have to admit that I hated it the whole time I painted it. It was just to "pink". I decided to leave the middle part cream and see if that muted the pink a little. I still hated it. (maybe I have had boys for to long) Any way I finally painted a light brown coat over the whole thing and them wiped it off with a paper towel. Finally I really liked it and am happy to give it to Fayelynn. Maybe she will repaint it bright pink but anyway it is finished.

School Creativity

Wow!! It has been a crazy five weeks of school. Just this week, which is week 5, I actually feel like I am organized and know what is going on. I am happy to say that I don't have any piles of "stuff" to put away in my classroom and I am hoping (fingers crossed) that I won't have to spend 4 hours at school on Saturday this weekend. Along with all the normal start of school stuff, I am the technology person in my building---that means I have to fix all the computers ( I think somebody failed to mention that I know NOTHING about computers)---but I think they are all working this week.
So, I haven't been totally uncreative---we've had a little creativity going on in the class room. The first day of school I have my students draw a picture of themselves, then we make a frame out of black construction paper. This equals the decoration on the back of my classroom wall all year long---and we never get tired of looking at them.

These are our color wheels---this is one of my very favorite art projects. The first week, we take the three primary colors and mix them to create a color wheel (twelve colors). It is always fascinating to them how they can make all these colors out of just three. The second week I mix the twelve colors of paint and they paint twelve different cards. The third week, they take their painted cards and cut a shape out of the cards, arranging them in the color wheel.

This is a vinyl saying and three frames that I put up in my classroom this year. Don't you love that too big of a space between the words---I need to fix that.

(Don't mind the really poor pictures)

Fall Fun

Well this is copying Merlynn's post the other day about the cake pops. I had been wanting to make them and decided that if she could pull it off I could probably manage also. I decided to make the fall wood blocks and decorate them for my visiting teaching ladies. It was a good way to use up some scrap booking extras. I am not sure that I will ever make them again. I found them to be fairly messy but they are pretty tasty. They just took longer than I had time to spend on them. I do hope that the gals I go VT to will enjoy them.

Okay, I had a few balls left to dip from the other day and so I let Austin do them last night. I have to say after letting them set over night they were much easier to handle. I may do them again if just the right activity came along.

My mom has been busy doing her own crafting. I just bought her three new patterns to work on. Two for the fall and one winter one.

Sharing Time

Today it was my turn to do sharing time. The theme for the next two weeks was scripture stories and daily pray make me closer to Jesus Christ. Now keep in mind that I have been doing sharing time for a really long time. Megan was in Nursery when I started and she is going to be 9 in January, so for a little over six years. I am sure that all the kids get tired of listening to me (today they even agree that they don't want to have me do sharing time two weeks in a row). Every once in awhile I take something that is totally different that what I normally, or what the primary outline suggested. So here goes for this week. As I thought about what I was going to do I saw an article in the Ensign about tools to help us understand the scriptures better and that is where my idea started.



I got ten different tools and put one in each bag. I had a hammer, screw driver, drill, square, etc. To start off with I had different kids come up and try to put a nail in a board with no tools, a screw in the board and so forth. After no one was successful we opened up the bags and were able to put the screw in the board, take the bolt out, measure the table and so forth. The kids loved it. After we were done then I talked about how if we read the scripture and pray daily they are important tools that will help us be closer to Jesus Christ. I made a handout for each one of them. All in all it turned out really well.

School book page

A couple of years ago Becky Higgins did a school book kit and I bought one for Megan. I just finished up her 2nd grade year. It was a lot of fun to look back at kindergarten and first grade and see how much she has grown up. Here a the pages for second grade.

Cake Pops

I have seen these a couple of places on the Internet and have thought that they looked really cute. I finally googled the recipe and thought that it would be fun to try and make them with my girls.


They were super easy to make and they are really good. You bake a cake of your choice according to package instructions (we used a white cake mix). Let the cake cool and then crumble the cake up and add about 3/4 of a can of frosting (we used cream cheese). Mix the cake and frosting together and then form it in to bit size balls. Make sure the balls aren't to big, you should be able to pop them in your mouth. Put them in your fridge for 24 hours add the stick and then dip them in chocolate and add sprinkles. We used white and also chocolate and I liked the chocolate a lot better.


These make a really good and quick treat that anyone will love

Fundraiser

Who doesn't love this time of year because of all the fundraiser that are going on? Well Megan has a fundraiser (for dance) and to make it extra exciting if you order $15.00 worth of pasta your name will be entered in to win this way cute towel.



Check out this website and see all the possibilities that you can get for your next pasta dinner.

I will need to turn in the order I think by next Thursday so if you are interested please call me or leave a comment.

http://www.pastashoppe.com/index.htm

Trick or Treat Bags

When How Does She had these cute Halloween bags on their blog---I knew I had to make mom make them. She's got one done so far. We enlarged it about 1 1/2 times. We might be using it at school and do the "You've Been Booed" idea--and "Boo" classrooms at school. It seems like we always have so much to do at school ---and some teachers forget that school should be fun. So, we're going to see if everyone would be game for this. I think the kids would really love it ---and I'm sure they need more excitement added at Halloween time (sarcasm there). We're planning on make a couple others also.

I'm looking for a Gratitude or Thanksgiving craft if anyone has any good ideas. I'm thinking something like a sign that says gratitude or being thankful. I can't seem to find too much out there, so if you see something cute, let me know.

Back to School Night

I made these cute little pencils from a package of Rolos and a hershey kiss for McKynzie and Tyler to take to their teacher for back-to-school night. They were super easy. I just scored the yellow paper every 1/4 inch so it would look like a pencil, taped the kiss to the end. Wrapped a little tin foil and put a pink circle for the eraser on the top. McKynzie was so stinking excited to take it to her teacher--so cute (they are NOT that excited in fifth grade and nobody brought me any treats).

Cold Lunch

Last year at dance a mom was asking why Megan looked so tired. I told her that it seemed like she was always tired and I didn't really know why. She told me that her daughter use to come home grumpy from school everyday and they finally decided that it was because of the school lunch. I thought okay lets give it a try. Megan has taken cold lunch pretty much everyday since then and it really has made a difference. It is kind of a pain to pack lunch and I saw this idea on someones blog and thought I should give it a try.

We took a basket that we used in the summer time and put everything she could possibly need for cold lunches. Chips, drinks, crackers, fruit cups,and little packets of M&M.

Inside of the fridge we packets fruit, veggies, and meat kabobs. Each thing is individually packed and all she has to do is decide in the morning what she would like to eat. Hopefully this will be easy to do on a weekly basis and she won't have to have peanut butter sandwiches everyday.

Wedding Pictures

WOW!! What a crazy last few weeks it has been. I just now feel like I am getting my feet back under me and I'm able to breathe. I spent a couple hours yesterday just cleaning my classroom of the stuff that I've had to let pile up because I've just been running from one thing to another. I am ready to FEEL organized and prepared. I thought I would show you some of the pictures that we (Merlynn) took at the wedding last weekend. I'm not quite sure how we got into this (I do know---and some sisters shouldn't encourage people to ask us to do this). It has been a very unnerving experience and we have definitely learned a lot. I can't say that I did too much other than tag along and try to keep extra people out of photos. For as unprofessional photographers, I think Merlynn did a really great job, especially throwing in that this was at noon--not the best time to photograph.

Chalk boards

Here is the last Super Saturday post that I am doing. These are cabinet doors that we painted and used chalk board paint in the middle of to create the chalkboard. The menu one was done by a gal in the ward and she added that vinyl. I am not sure what vinyl I am going to do on mine, maybe a chore chart or just something like "Take Note" and use it for a message board.

Temple picture and frame

This is just another Super Saturday project that we are doing in October. A gal in our ward is going to build all of the picture frames for us and then someone else took the picture for us. I think that they are pretty cool and have ordered one so I can put it in the boys room. I just have one more project to post and I will try to get it up after church.

Place mat hand bags and crayon roll

Okay here are a few more of the crafts we are doing for Super Saturday. I thought that they might also fit the blog hop theme since I had to do a little sewing. The bags are made out of place mats and then just embellished however you want. The crayon roll turned out really cute but I am going to redo the car one because the cars tend to slide out of there places. I am going to add a flap to fold over the top of the cars. The pumpkin in the middle is our "free" craft that we will provide the supplies for. It is made out of strips of paper.

Blog Hop

Danelle started this blog hop. The first project was to sew something, it could be anything. I did the hand towels below. They have a ruffle on them and then on the ruffle a piece of ribbon was sewed and then a button was sewed on to that to finish it off. Please go and check out the other ladies projects they are very cute. This blog is Danelle's (she started the idea). Read about next months challenge and we hope you will join in.

http://www.missdanishandful.blogspot.com/

The other address for her blog hop are
http://flwblog.blogspot.com/

The last blog address is
http://allthingsrobbin.blogspot.com/

Check out all the cute sewing projects and see you next month.

Sew Much Fun--Ashley

For Danelle's Blog Hop, the assignment was to sew something. When we were on our trip, we had several hours to waste at Union Station in Washington D.C. This is the train station, but there were quite a few fun little shops. One of them was full of really fun jewelry and accessories. There was a headband that I loved...but I couldn't bring myself to pay $10 for it. So, I figured I could make my own. I'm trying to decide if I'm brave enough to wear it myself, but I think it turned cute.

It is about 11 small flowers that are sewn in fourths and then they are all sewn onto a bigger flower. Then there is elastic sewn on the bottom of the ribbon, which is hidden underneath your hair.

Sewing Challenge

Here is Merlynn's sewing project for Danelle's challenge. They are hand towles.