I can't think of a fun Wednesday feature...

so, for today, I'm just going to post this.



Just because I want to.

And, it makes me totally happy.

And also because it is my blog.

So there.

Go, have a Happy Wednesday, people!

{Trendy Tuesday} Subway Art: Halloween edition

So, has anyone else noticed all the subway art that's all the rage right now?

I have and I love it!

Here are a few of my printable faves for the upcoming Halloween season:

The girls at eighteen25 have this freebie download. And, they have it in a variety of colors, too!



All Things Simple has another version (with multiple color choices).


Bobbi posted this one for free download:



And, That's What {Che} Said posted this one:



SO CUTE! I love them all!

You can print these in all different sizes and use them in a variety of ways. I have put them in picture frames as holiday decor, printed them smaller and used them as seasonal cards or as a cute way to decorate the front of a plain gift bag. Print them even smaller and they can be used as gift tags!

See? The list goes on and on!

And, here are some of my favorite "real art" pieces.

Green Eyed Girl Crafts:


Jen from TT&J made this cutie:



Landee See, Landee Do makes these art prints for sale:



Poppies at Play made this one and even shows you step by step how to do it yourself! Yay for picture directions!



So, there you go!

I hope you like this little collection of Halloween subway art!

Now go, have fun and play with something new!

Guess what's coming up soooooon?!?

Just click the play button. Go ahead. You know you want to.



Oh yes.

Halloween, friends!!

My most-favorite of favorite holidays.

Yay for October!

I can't wait.

{Made it Monday} Lunch box notes!

So...it's been awhile.

A long while.

Let's just jump right back in to the cuteness, okay?

We all know that cuteness is what calls me here, to the dear old internet.

Anyhoo - it's been "back-to-school" time around here for - ohhhhh - let's say a few weeks. It could be a few weeks or a month and a half, but we'll just say weeks, since that could incorporate both. Sound good?

Awesome.

I love to put little notes in my kids' lunch boxes. I'm just cheesy like that. I can't help it.

I've made some of my own before. But, I like to branch out and not do the same thing every day, week to week, year to year.

Maybe I'm just ADHD like that? I don't know.

I had all intentions of making a new set for the start of this year, but as I began to look online, I realized there are so many already available that other - far more creative and wonderfully talented - peeps have made.

So - no. I didn't make anything for this {Made It Monday} post, but here's a few lunch box notes that I've found in all my travels around the 'net. I thought some of you might like to have them, too!

Chickabug has some cuties - available in girl and boy colors.



All for the Boys has some uber cool joke notes for the little dudes in your life. These passed the really high standard set by my "almost too big" kid. As long as it has a joke on it, it's okay. By the way - if you have boys, you MUST check out All For the Boys in it's entirety. It. Is. Awesome.



Makoodle also has some cute notes.



Parentella has some fruit-themed notes that are super cute! And, they have blank ones, too!





For the littles in your life, you could try these from Paper Pomegranates! So. Stinking. Cute. Seriously.



The Tip Junkie has a free sheet of lunch notes and a "pick your lunch" check sheet! Love that!



Fresh Picked Whimsy has the cutest little doodles I ever did see. She also has other reeeeeeeally cute downloads, including lunch box notes, more lunch box notes, Christmas tags and other fun stuff. You have to check it out!



Brown Paper Packages has chatty lunch notes, perfect for the older kiddos.



And finally, oliebollen has some adorable little notes. Just click to download the cuteness straight to your computer.



So, there you go! Have fun! Be sure to save the files to your computer once you have them on your screen. These are all PDF files and can easily be printed from any home computer!

And remember - these are only A FEW of what I found out there! If you do an internet search for "Lunchbox Notes," you'll find 400 different options. There are some that are specific for holidays, birthdays, special events, big tests, etc.

Check out my Lunch Notes Pinterest Board for more fun options!

Now GO! Put some love in a little (or big) kid's lunch box today!

Happy Monday!

Teacher Appreciation! Cupcakery

This is it! The last of our 2011 Teacher Appreciation Week gifts.

On Friday of last week, W&O took cupcakes to their fabulous teachers. When I had the teachers fill out their "Favorites Forms", I found out their favorite types of cupcakes. I had them made at Cakehead Bakeshop, a specialty bakery here in town.

The bakery packaged the cupcakes in a small box and I tagged them with cute toppers and labels. The topper is stamped with a digital stamp from Garden Party and the cupcake image is from Cupcakery, both by CD Muckosky.




So there you have it! Five fun days of goodies for our teachers!

Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you've enjoyed all the teacher appreciation ideas for this year!

Love and hugs everybody!

Teacher Appreciation! "Take Note"

Okay, so I got a little overwhelmed at the end of the week last week and never got around to posting our last two days of Teacher Appreciation Week gifts.

So here I am.

Ready to post!

On Thursday, the kids took these journals to their teachers.




I love journals and hope our teachers do, too!

I created the tag and wrap using Between the Pages by Kaye Wineicki and Re Kniepp. I also personalized them with a small cardstock initial at the bottom.

It wasn't until I saw my sweet friend Mel's post that I figured out how to word the tag! Mel is so fantastic and her gifts and designs are TO. DIE. FOR! Serious cuteness! And SOOOOO EASY! Love that! If you haven't checked out The Domesticated Lady, you totally should! Mel rocks!

Only one more day left to spoil our teachers! Stay tuned!

Teacher Appreciation! "We're bananas!"

Whit and Olivia took homemade banana pudding to all of their teachers today. We usually choose one day during Teacher Appreciation Week where we take a little something to everyone who teaches my kiddos (art, PE, Spanish, etc.). We even took them to our favorite nurse, lunch lady and office personnel! I just can't tell you enough how much these people mean to my kids!! Every single person they come in contact with at their school influences them daily. This was just our small way of saying "Thanks!"

So, we whipped up our famous banana pudding and we sent it to school in containers like this:


Actually, I didn't have enough of the brown ribbon, so I tied the spoons on with twine. Here's the final product, sitting in my fridge, ready to roll this morning:



Here is the topper. I used Cuties Elements and Kraftly Papers both by Val Wibbens.



I used rub-on transfers to label the spoons with their initials. It was a nice little extra touch, I think!



So there, you go! Another day down and only two more to go!

Happy Teacher Appreciating!

Teacher Appreciation! Have a Coke and "Take 5"

Today, the PTO peeps left these little treats on the desks of our teachers and staff.




I created the tags using Scrapping 9 to 5 by Kate Hadfield and My Favorite Thing (retired) by Jady Day Studio. We tied cute little paper straws onto Cokes and attached the tags to Take 5 bars.

Totally sweet!! :)

Teacher Appreciation! You ROCK!

Today my kids took these to school with them for their teachers.




I found each of the teachers' favorite candies and added an iTunes gift card in the basket.

I used Child of the 80's by Kate Hadfield and Piccadilly Paper Pack by Gina Miller to create the tags.

Teacher Appreciation! Mints

Here is the PTO gift for our teachers today.



I created the tags using Cookies for Santa by Kate Hadfield.

We stuck the tags onto Altoids mints for each teacher and left them on their desks.

Fun, fun!

Teacher Appreciation! Strawberry Baskets

LUCKY YOU!

Not only will I share my personal gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week, but also the gifts from our PTO (since I helped coordinate them).

Here is the gift we left on the teachers' desks for Teacher Appreciation Week today at Spartanburg Charter School.




I created the tags using Fruit Stand by Kate Hadfield and Shabby Miss Jenn's Designs. The strawberry baskets came from a local strawberry farm and we threw in some sweet strawberry candy.

Just a simple little way to say "we care about you!"

Come back tomorrow to see more gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Teacher Appreciation! Subway Art

Today my kids took a small token of appreciation to school for their teachers.

They will continue to do this every day this week.

It's just a small way we show our teachers how much we love and appreciate all the hard work they do throughout the year.

Today we took these:



Subway art is all the rage right now. You can find it all over the internet for each season. As soon as I saw this version on eighteen25, I knew I wanted to do these for our teachers.

I wrapped them with cherry red twine and a cute chalkboard tag.


Then I let the kids sign the tags and off they went.


Be sure to grab the subway art from eighteen25. Even if you don't use it for Teacher Appreciation Week, you can certainly use it as an end of the year gift or even a back-to-school teacher gift!!

Happy Teacher Appreciating!

{Made it Monday} Olivia's birthday album

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey internets!

I'm so glad to be back in action!

My sweet lil' computer is back on track and we're ready to roll!

I finally got around to making Olivia's 6th birthday album right before my computer went away.

Let's keep it real here and understand that this is the *ONE and ONLY* birthday album I've ever made for her (or anyone else, for that matter). Don't get all judgemental on me and tell me about how you've never made even. one. album. for your child because up until now, I was in THE SAME BOAT, OKAY???

Anyhoo.

I like it. I think it turned out cute.

I used all the Instax pictures we took on the trip. The Instax camera was one of O's birthday gifts. She loves it. I love it even more. I love how cute and tiny the pictures are (the size of a credit card) and how you snap the picture and out it pops.

Instant gratification?!

I'm a fan.

So, here are a few pictures of the album. (Click each picture to make it larger.)




















While I was working on the album, Olivia glanced over at me at one point and asked, "Mommy, why are you spending time making a scrapbook for me? I know what my birthday was like."

I sat there for a few minutes wondering this myself. Why DO I spend tons of time putting together an album full of little memories of this, that and everything else during that one little trip??

Then it hit me. The answer.

It's because I have *NO* idea what I did for my 6th birthday. Or what I was like as a 6 year old girl or what toys I was "into." I remember my favorite friends (who are still some of my faves, by the way) and who my teacher was that year, but other than that, nothing. (Am I alone here? My memory is reeeeeeally bad.)

And, that's a little sad to me.

Am I okay despite the fact? Absolutely.

(Mom - stop tearing up. I'm okay. Really. Hey! By the way - do you remember what we did for my 6th birthday? Just wondering.)

So, that's why I do all this crazy scrapping for my kids (when I can). So they can remember. When they are older with families and children of their own, they can remember.

We can remember.

All the little details.

Not just pictures in a box, but the details of the good times. The details that are so quickly forgotten in every day life.

Will they still need therapy? I'm almost certain they will.

I'm okay with that.

What they won't need help with is remembering the details that are so often lost for me.

Hopefully, they won't need help with that.