Erin Condren Life Planner and Discount

I am in love with my Erin Condren Life Planner!  If you are looking for a good deal, they are on sale right now for $30 and run from April 2014 until December 2014.  If you go to this link, you can get an extra $10 off.  Check out all of the amazing Life Planners at Erin Condren, she has lots of cool stuff!

Featured on Tip Junkie!

Tip Junkie - Giving Thanks Plate

I posted this idea over a year ago.  This just made my day! Visit KariAnne's blog for more fabulous ideas!

Vinyl for Your State Pumpkin

Welcome to Tea Parties & Baseball Games!  I'm sure some of you are visiting from Thistlewood Farm and are curious about the state pumpkin and/or canvas that KariAnne created.

I am a business teacher and one of our department fundraisers is a vinyl machine.  Needless to say, I have lots of fun designing things for KariAnne and others.  The profit helps us buy things for our department as well as send students to the Future Business Leaders of America National Conferences!

If you are interested in a vinyl state, email me at greta.ramage@livingston.kyschools.us.  The Kentucky that KariAnne used on her pumpkin is 7 inches long.  It depends on the state you want, but most of the states will be $5, with a small shipping fee.

Unfortunately, we don't have a PayPal account at school.  When you email, I can give you our school address and we can conduct business the old fashioned way - via snail mail.  The students can get your vinyl state cut in no time, once we receive your check and information.

We look forward to helping you decorate your home!

L.L. Bean knockoff

I always enjoy getting new catalogs in the mail, especially when the seasons are about to change!  I recently got an L.L. Bean copy and found myself liking one of the home decorations instead of the clothes.  I wish I could show you a picture of the Latitude/Longitude Sign that they have, but I couldn’t get the picture to copy into my blog.  Instead you can visit their website here. 

So, I started thinking of the wooden signs I had left over from the Hometalk party I had.  I figured I could do a fairly good “knock off” of the L.L. Bean version.  I looked up the latitude and longitude of my hometown. 

I used the same technique as the ones we made at the party.  I just had a few more lines to draw and stickers to arrange.  And you can tell, I don't always use the lines that I draw, lol.

I didn’t show the painting steps, but I painted over the stickers and let them dry, then peeled them off slowly.  Last I just sanded the edges a little to rough up the sign and make it look a little aged.

Here’s a few more pictures to show off my creation.  I think it turned out cute!

Making Memories

I had the opportunity to hold a Craft Night with some wonderful ladies at church.

We had a great time, visiting and crafting...and laughing!

Our craft was a simple sign.

I purchased the wood at Lowe's and had the teenager working cut it into 12 inch pieces.

My awesome husband drilled holes for the ribbon.

Then my crafty daughter and I quickly put a white base coat on the wood, so we would be ready to go at the craft night. 

We had a variety of topics chosen for the signs...addresses, job titles, simple phrases...each one fitting of its author.

I told the ladies that the hardest part of the night was picking what to put on their sign.  Then it was simply drawing lines, placing the stickers, painting the sign, and removing the stickers after the paint dried.  Choosing the perfect ribbon proved to be a little difficult also!

We did have a party crasher....this little fella stopped by with his daddy (our new preacher) and his momma caught him long enough to make an adorable sign with his handprints!

Thanks to the talented ladies at hometalk for providing our new aprons for the evening!  Everyone was sooo excited to receive them!  If you want to host your own hometalk party, they are ready to help!

Simple Chocolate Teacher's Back to School Gift

Last week, these two cuties and I went back to school.  We weren't exactly thrilled, but it was a great summer and we didn't want to complain...

I knew they needed a little something for their teacher.  I also know that teacher's LOVE and NEED chocolate sometimes to get through a particularly rough day!

I used some Crystal Light drink mix containers and filled them with chocolate.

First, I wrapped the container with scrapbook paper, cutting where it would fit all the way around.  I used a glue stick to stick it on a wrapped a rubber band around to hold it in place while it dried.

Next, I used washi tape around the top and bottom of the paper to hold it down.  Plus, washi tape is just fun to use!

To hold the container onto the desk (I envision under the desk so little hands can't get into the stash), I used magnets that came on the top of my phone books.  I recycled them by cutting them into strips and hot gluing them onto the container.

Last, I made labels for the top that read "Because sometimes you just NEED a little chocolate!"  All of the teachers loved these as we handed them out at Back to School Night!

And, yes, I did make one for my desk!  And a few for my fellow high school teacher buddies.  They were a hit with them, too!

Mother Daughter Book Club

I don't know why I haven't blogged about this earlier.  We started a year ago and it has been one of my monthly highlights.

Five little girls and four mommies reading the same book, discussing the book, having a snack, and a craft that goes along with the book.

We've read:
Little House on the Prairie
The Little Princess
A Secret Garden
Mother Daughter Book Club #1 & #2
Caddie Woodlawn
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

just to name a few!

This past month we read Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski.  It is an adorable book about life in Florida before it was really and truly settled.

Olivia & I hosted this month.  We HAD to serve a strawberry dessert.  So, half pint "cupcake strawberry trifles" it was! These cupcakes were made with a cake mix and a can of diet 7-UP!  No joke, and they are good!  I also made strawberry lime-aids for the girls.

For the craft, Strawberry Girl always had on a hat while she worked in the fields.  So, we found hats at Dollar Tree, flowers at Michael's and raided my ribbon stash.  Very cute!



I also had the girls make a timeline of the books we have read.  They used chalk and made the timeline on our front sidewalk.  Very informative, as we learned that most of the books we have read were written around 1900.

So fun, I encourage you to start your own book club. Let me know if you have questions!

We're always looking for a good book.  What was YOUR favorite childhood book?

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