Easy Valentines Breakfast Table

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope everyone is having an awesome day so far. My awesome husband brought me tulips this morning. 

*swoon*. 

I thought I would share what I did to brighten up our morning here. Best part? It didn't cost an arm and a leg. Like I spent only $20. SCORE! 

For a $1 each, I bought the tablecloth, cups, plates, and straws. The teddy bears, set of mugs, and banners were $3 each. I already owned the leather table runner/centerpiece. Took me all of 5 minutes to put together. Which is awesome cause I was tired after bible study last night. Those ladies are so awesome they wear me out! 

Hope you all have an awesome day and get to love or be loved on by someone today. Maybe its the co-worker who isn't getting flowers, buy her a coffee. Maybe its the single mama in your neighborhood who could use a nice meal tonight. How about the cashier who looks dead on her feet, compliment her. The widow next door who still needs the snow cleared from her front porch. That kid in your class who looks like they really need a hug. Love them. Its not just about candy hearts and flowers. Its about sharing love with those around us. 

Extra bonus: little love from the 5yo. Enjoy! 

DIY Wednesday Cheap Wall Art

I dont know about y'all but I adore Pinterest. There are days when I find nothing at all worth pinning and others that I find awesome stuff. My husband always looks at me all crazy when I get excited over something on pinterest. He knows that either I have a new DIY project I want to do or a new recipe to try out and half the time its no good! After seeing several pins about using frames with scrapbook papers I decided to make a few to hang above my couch. So here is my DIY easy-peasy, cheap, take up plenty of space on my wall so it doesnt look so bare project. you need only 3 things to make em:

 

~ $5 10x13" frames from wally world

~ 8.5x11" scrapbook papers 

~ paint & brushes.

 

 

 

 

 

Simple right? I used 4 frames and painted the inside of the backing a creamy white. After its dry just use double stick tape to adhere your fav scrapbook paper in the center. Hang in whatever order you like with command picture velcro strips and you are DONE! I can change then out with every holiday and season, add pictures to the center, or use free printables from blogs I love. SUPER EASY! I like buying the $5 packs of paper from walmart because the papers inside are already coordinated to work well together!

Total cost $25.

Even the husband couldn't argue with that.

 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out one of my fav DIY projects.  :)

(ps: sorry about the crappy picture. I have yet to hang these in the new house and this is the only pic I have of them hanging in the old one! eeek! I will post an update once I get them up here!! Thanks for understanding!!!!!)

Halloween Frame on Kid Craft Tuesday

I love the Halloween craft the kids and I made last year

 

 

My inspiration came from this blog last year:

A Diamond in the Stuff - Googly Eye Halloween Frame

I cant begin to tell you how easy and fun these were. We added something else to ours. Thumbprint spiders! I believe I found the idea for those in a magazine last year though for the life of me I cant find the exact source! (If you know it please tell me so I can update!)

 

Since I used the above link to make mine I wont go into details on how to paint/glue on the eyes. Its pretty easy to follow. The thumbprint spiders were just as easy.

• Cut the cardstock to fit inside frame.
• Have little ones dip their thumb into desired paint color and press onto center of paper.
• Let dry!
• Using a ball point pen (or in our case a Sharpie no-bleed fine tipped pen), draw on the string and all 8 legs. I did the one on my 3yo's but I let my 6yo do his own.
•  Finally glue on the google eyes and let dry. Place in your finished google eye frame and enjoy!

FYI: The spiders in the frame are from this last week. I decided I will let the kids do new ones every year. Last years were just as cute though!

Happy Halloween crafting!

part 2: teacher appreciation gifts

yes i am aware that teacher appreciation was last week. my life seems to get more and more insane by the minute. the good thing is, all of these ideas could be used as end of the year gifts too. =D

each day has the teacher gift as well as the gift for the aide in his classroom.

Monday: Cup & notecards

The original idea for the cup came from pinterest and this blog:

 lisa storms: teacher appreciation week part 3

"You have all the 'write' stuff!"

"Thanks for quenching my thirst for knowledge!"

J's teacher LOVED it. She was so excited! With as many times as the original link had been pinned I figured for sure she was going to get 4 of them. NOPE!  Inside is just a piece of scrapbook paper rolled up as a filler and 4 packets of crystal light drink mix. His teacher aide got the set of notecards. I never really got to see her reaction to gifts since she was usually helping get kids off the bus when we went to his classroom.

Tuesday: Stamps & Candy

"Thanks for being an A+ teacher!"

This was just a set of 4 wooden stamps and 3 ink pads. total cost: $4!!!

his teachers aide got the small container of candy pictured in the group pic at the top. Apparently I didnt take a picture of it by itself! Whoops! =D More info on it later.

Wednesday: Candy & Notepad & Soap

3 GIFTS! Yep, Wednesday was also School Nurse appreciation day! So they got a wonderful foaming hand soap from B&BW! (I adore their 6/$20 specials!)

"to help you 'escape' all those nasty germs! thanks for all you do!"

His teacher got candy and the aide got the notepad and pencil. Total cost for these 2 projects: $5! The containers with candy came as a set of 3 for $1. So I used one for his aide and the other 2 for his teacher. 

"Thanks for being so sweet!"

"Thanks for being an A+ aide!"

Thursday: Frame & Lotion

"Thanks for helping handle the stress of our class!"

"Thanks for being so amazing!"

$3 frame from wallyworld, scarpbook paper, & a cricut = love! And a $4 bottle of lotion and a $.50 nail file make for EASY stress relief! =D

Friday: FLOWERS!

"Thanks for helping me grow"

I think I spent more time and energy on these than all the others combined. First the pots I bought for J to paint were not working at all. BUMMER! So we ended up at the PX to get new ones (and flowers!) on Thursday night before tball. He had fun painting these though. The signs took me forever to make. Thats what I get for waiting til the last minute though!!! I had all the other gifts ready to go the week before. Oh well. They loved them! Mrs. A even put hers on the table during our Mothers Day tea at school Friday afternoon!

Oh but wait there is more! On Tuesday I gave Brooklyns teachers at her pre-k (its really daycare but more structured) gifts as well! I <3 the dollar section at target.....
Each one included a slinky, a flower growing kit, drink mix, a notepad and pencil, star stickers, gum, and chocolates.

card said: "A special gift for an EXTRA special teacher! Thanks for helping to QUENCH MY THIRST for knowledge! you are a SUPER STAR teacher, with all the WRITE stuff! Its been so much FUN learning to GROW in your class! HUGS AND KISSES!"

I hope you enjoyed all the gifts and found some inspiration to show your kids teacher just what they have meant to you!

Easter Eggs

Well trying to make the best of this very Good Friday here at the Simon house. Ran to Wmart to get dye so we could (finally) do eggs. They were seriously OUT! Ok so thanks to the fabulous Pinterest I was saved. KOOL-AID! My house doesn't reak of vinegar (although I may do that kind tomorrow) and the kids had a blast helping me set it all up.

Best of all, THIS is what we ended up with!!!!

Here is the original tutorial I used from Hey! Jen Renee.

It was so easy!!!!!!!!

  It smelled like summer!               I love having lots of craft supplies         He was way too excited

             







    Some of the coloring came out A.MAZ.ING!

I love how they turned out. Well onto my next adventure of the day. Braving the Commissary for milk. Remind me why I forgot to get it at Wmart? Have a very blessed weekend!!!!!!!

St Patricks Day decor for $5!

So since I no longer have a fireplace and now the kids toys are no longer in my antique pie safe, I have started using the top of the pie safe as a place to decorate for each holiday. I just finished my one for March. The best part is I did it for about $5!! (Sorry I forgot to take pics of my valentine one and it was cheap too!)
The basket, candle and glass container I already owned. The gift bag, "grass", bow on the basket and small bucket were from Target and all $1 or less. I used scrapbook paper from the sets I bought for organizing closets to decorate the inside of the glass container, the candle holder, and the banner. All the ribbon I already had as well. I literally used the last of each one I had and these were ones I bought on sale on Black Friday!
So here is my ode to St Patricks Day. I plan on getting some gold coins to place around too but since its been snowing here all morning I think I will leave it as is for now. Happy Decorating!

Operation Organize this house!

About a week ago I made a command decision that we had to invest some money to get the house organized. I did spend a bit more than planned (hey Target had great deals!!) but its been so worth it. Best part has been the closets. I found the easiest, cheapest way to get them organized AND look awesome! 12x12x10" cardboard boxes from wally-world with a piece of 12x12" scrapbook paper on the front. My laundry room is so bright and colorful now! I dont mind being in there nearly as much as I used to! ;) And the ones in here cost me a whopping $8.60! That includes the 42 extra pages of scrapbook paper I have from the pack I bought!

I also did the kids' closets. My kids are SPOILED!!!!! This is after getting rid of quite a bit of stuff! Its been great though because now it takes all of 5 minutes to get their rooms clean.

Oh yeah thats a LOT of dress-up and baby dolls! The shelves are the only big addition. I put in the dressup clothes hooks at Christmas after I figured out she needed a better place to put ALL her dress-up stuff.

The best part is the boxes on the top shelf match their rooms. his room is baseball and hers is becoming pink/purple butterflies. I was shocked to see how well the shelves fit in his closet. All three shelves are the $15 ones from wally-world.

Im sorry I dont have before pictures but lets just say it was a HOT mess before I redid it! I have also redone our linen closet based off a blog on Delightful Order

Here is the link to the post about linen closet.

I will post pics of it after I finish the tags for baskets.

I just wanted to share what we have been up to while getting ready for our big trip to DISNEY! Trust me there will lots to blog about during that trip!

 'Til then enjoy the journey!!!!!!!