Summer Water Party

Last year my friend Haley had a super fun summer party for her kids and their friends on the last day of school.  I asked her if I could take over and do it this summer (I must be crazy).

I started out with these popsicle invitations.  The original idea was to use velum to make the popsicles but I just love these chevron prints from Mel Stampz and I have been using them for everything.  I printed a full sheet of the chevron paper, then I printed the free printable from Martha Stewart over the chevron paper and just cut them out and glued them to the popsicle stick.

When Haley did her party last year, she served the treats in buckets, so I thought I'd do the same... it's just super cute!

This watermelon shark has been floating around Pinterest a lot!  I didn't go all out, like some of the other ones I've seen, but the kids loved it and that's all that matters:)

I felt so bad about forgetting the jello petri dishes for my son's science party, so I had to make jello fish bowls for this party.  They were a huge hit!

We let the kids jump on the tramp with the sprinkler under it.  We also had our "vintage" slip-n-slide that my mom has saved from when I was a kid.  It's awesome because it's way stronger and longer than the slip-n-slides you can buy these days:)  I really wanted to make the bike car wash that I keep seeing on Pinterest, but I totally ran out of time:(

I had a huge list of game ideas that I wanted to play.... but the kids had more fun just doing their own thing.  We did get to play "duck, duck splash" and we played a game where they shot down towers of cups with squirt guns.... I think where I lost them was with water balloon volleyball... It was just too hard for kids this age!

This little water balloon filler was my life savor!!!  I bought it at K-mart for $4.  The kids can fill and tie their own water balloons!!!  I set them to work a few days before the party and they filled almost 400 water balloons!

I couldn't send the kids home without a party favor!  I love this "Have a Ball this Summer" printable from Dixie Delights.  I don't particularly like bouncy balls and I know how much kids LOVE gumballs, so I used gumballs instead!

I'm not sure what my deal is lately about forgetting things.... but I totally forgot to give the kids the orange cream sicles I had bought for the party:)  It's all good, most of those friends have come back at later times to enjoy those popsicles!

Granny's Cottage

I've been super busy.... and I'm getting way behind on my scrapbooking:)  Seriously, I'm a year behind and it's killing me!  Here's a little snippet of one of my MAJOR projects.  

My cousin (Libby) and I have taken upon ourselves the project of our Grandma's house.... we call it Granny's Cottage.  We've had a death in our family that has made this house vacant.  We'd love to keep the house, but it's really a money pit.  Our grand plan it to make it a vacation rental.  We've been cleaning, painting and decorating.... it's been a major undertaking.  One of the biggest problems was that the house wasn't kept clean.  Another problem was that when our family painted the house, they were very "efficient" and painted everything one color.  This turquoise room was turquoise... the walls, ceilings, trim, doors, everything... even the hinges and door knobs because, heaven forbid anyone should tape anything (okay, I'm off my soap box).  This is the first bedroom that we feel like is finished.  We have been trying to be as cheap as possible.  So, we've tried to use fabric and things that we already had. 

The back throw pillow with the pompoms was made with fabric my mom had in her stash... I love it!  Libby made the cute orange one with fabric she had in her stash.   My idea for the front pillow was kind of a combination of this pillow and this shirt.  I had the brown fabric only scraps... so I wanted something that used little of that fabric.

What's a cute cheap decorating idea?.... a bunting!  I used my map scraps and my fabric scraps. I got the idea from Dottie Angel.... super cute vintage stuff.

I already had a lot of embroidery hoops on hand from my previous craft room.  They were just sitting in a box, so I pulled them out!  We added a few more so that we could have some of the fabrics we had used in the room.  Always a super cheap and easy way to decorate a room.

This dresser was an awesome vintage find that we already had in Granny's house!  I love it!  I love the worn vintage look and I love the orange handles.  Libby wants to paint it, but I won't let her:)  The top is really quite worn, so I made this cute table runner out of doilies... got the idea here.  I wish I would have taken a better picture of my doily table runner for you:)  Libby had the vintage art from her Grandma's house.  And Libby and I have been collecting the white milk glass from yard sales and DI.  I don't know if we are going to put anything in it or not... I guess I should at least get candles:)

Now, back to my original picture of the whole room.... Don't you love our vintage bed?  This was one of the treasures that was already in Granny's house:)  Libby had the awesome afghan from her grandma.  Libby got the night stand at DI and painted and glazed it.  I found the awesome vintage lamp at a yard sale, of course!  And no night stand for a vintage room is complete without a doily:)  I made the curtain out of an old sheet and a few fabric scraps we had left.  

This has been a rather fun project for us, but very time consuming!  I'll keep posting as we get more rooms finished:)

Science Party

My little scientist turned 8 this month.  I have to say, his birthday party was a little easier than some of the other parties I've planned.  I am a science teacher, so I have access to some science equipment that made my life a little easier... and saved me some money.  

 To start, I dressed him up in my lab coat and accessorized him with goggles and a beaker.  To create his invitation, I put his photo over a chevron background layer in photoshop elements, then erased the background from his photo.... easy peasy...  Then I used the text from this invitation to create my invitation.

 The mini test tubes are actually plastic flower vases that are used when you purchase just a single rose... I bought a box of them at a yard sale for $1.  I filled them with Nerds and tied them on with baker's twine... I love that stuff!!!

 I found my bright happy wrapping paper at the dollar store.  I printed this fun clipart to make tags and tied the boxes with baker's twine!!!

When the kids walked up to the house, they found a shirt with their name on it... resembling the periodic table.

To make these, I just used Hanes T-shirt maker iron-ons and my computer.  They were super easy.  I got my t-shirts on sale at Michael's for just $2 each.  I know that these t-shirts shrink so I bought them really large.  Rumor is that the kids loved them because 3 of them wore them to school the next day.

They also picked up goggles in a basket at the door.  I bought the goggles at the Dollar Tree.  Some of them broke before the kids even put them on... sometimes that's what you get form the dollar store.

They had to "scan to enter" the house.  I love chevron print right now and used that for the border paper.  I painted my son's hand and stamped that on the paper.  And I really love washi tapes right now!  So, even though there is scotch tape rolled up on the back, I still used the washi tape to adhere it to the door as well.

I know that all of the kids don't arrive at the same time, so I had this table set up with microscopes and slides so that the kids could look at different specimens under the microscope while they waited for everyone to get there.

After everyone got there, we headed through the back door to the science lab.  I had a few sciency things set up on the table...

And another table set up with baskets with all of my supplies.

We made balloons blow up by putting vinegar in the bottle and baking soda in the balloon.

We talked about surface tension with milk and food coloring and dish soap.

We built molecules out of tooth picks and marshmallows.  The kids really loved that!

We made slime out of glue and borax.

We made lava lamps (those didn't work too well).

We came in the house and learned about static electricity by rubbing their balloons on their hair and trying to pick up pieces of crepe paper.

And for the decor... I used scraps of fabric left over from Brenner's science bedspread as a table runner down the table.  Then I put the favors, cake, kool-aid with dry ice, and science beakers and flasks full of candy.

My party favor test tubes were found at a yard sale as well. I filled them with nerds and tied a tag on with baker's twine.

The jars of candy were super yummy!

 The kids, of course, got the biggest kick out of the kool-aid with dry ice.

The blog Mrs. Mouthy is where I got the idea for the cake and most of my ideas for the party.  If you go to my Party Pinterest Board, you can find links to most of the other blogs that I used for the party.

Party land was pretty creative with the balloons.  I wanted them to look like atoms... they kind of don't, but they are still fun and unique.

I made a banner that said Happy Birthday Brenner.  I also had one hanging outside that said Science Lab, but the wind was always blowing too much to take a picture of it:(

Okay, so that sad part was that I completely forgot about my jello petri dishes until the party was over:(

                             

And I had to get a group pic of the boys!

I'm tired of the super long blog post... so, if I missed any details, I'm sorry.

Graduation Gift

It's that time of year.... Graduation!!!  Last week I had a couple of family members graduate from college. In a couple of weeks I have a family member graduating from High School.  Not to mention the most important... Preschool and Kindergarten graduation!

For the older bunch (high school and college) I found this idea at The Seasonal Home.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money... and you're really supposed to just give grads money... but since I had three, I thought it would be kind of lame to just give them a card with a few bucks in it.  So, my thoughts were, if the gift is creative, then it's okay if I'm cheap:)

I bought my umbrella at the $ Tree.  (I really wish the dollar store had cuter umbrellas). I tried to paper clip the money to the spokes of the umbrella but that didn't work.  So I just taped the money to the spokes (I guess those grads will have to earn their money taking the tape off the bills).  The tutorial I found online had them hanging from ribbon, I guess that would work too.

I found this cute tag at Oh the Lovely Things.  I have decided that there are so very many cute free printables out there that its quite a waste of my time to make my own:)  So, I just threw this into photoshop so I could add my own text.

Happy Graduation everyone!!!

Teacher Appreciation Week

It's teacher appreciation this week!  I find it to be somewhat ironic that I am a teacher.... yet I am doing all of these fun things for my kids teachers... maybe I appreciate what they do so much because I truly know what they do!

Here's the thing about Pinterest.  Sometimes, I just repin something without re-visiting the original pin site.    So, I bought my cups, made my cute little signs for the top, bought my drink packets, ya know... the usual.  Well, just now, when I was typing up this post I thought I would visit the site so I could give the original pinner the credit she deserves... and I found that it also has a free printable!!!  That would have saved me some time... so, always visit the site with the original pin!  Thank you  Lisa Storms for the cute free printable and idea.

I made these for the teachers of my boys in Preschool and Kindergarten.

 I have an aide that works with me at school so I also made one for her.

Teacher Appreciation... take 2

I volunteered to decorate a door for teacher appreciation.  The door I was assigned was my son's 2nd grade teacher.  I happen to know his teacher a little better and I know her daughter.  So, I asked her daughter what she liked and she told me Home Depot... and working on projects.  I love Home Depot too, so I thought it would be fun to go with the whole tool, building theme.

I found clipart online and used my best artistic talent to make a paper tool box.  Then I enlarged the various clipart and cut and traced the clipart on patterned paper to make the tools.  For the letters I used my trusty cricut.

To go with the tool theme, I spray painted an old tool box I had bought at a yard sale.   I printed off paper tools from the internet and took them into the school to have the kids color them and write messages.  I had parents donate money to give her a gift card to Home Depot.  Then, I stuck some plants in there for filler.  In the back is her favorite candy bar... a symphony with toffee and almonds!

I truly appreciate all of my kids' teachers and all of the work and effort they put into teaching my children!!!