Five on Friday - Back to School?!

Happy Friday!! It is officially my very last Friday off before I'm officially back to work, although I've been back for a few days working on scheduling. I'm sad my summer with the babies is coming to an end, but I'm happy to be setting up for another year. I get so excited to start the school year, because it's a clean slate and there is so much potential to change the world! I was just thinking yesterday that I am seriously so lucky to have such amazing coworkers too - it makes those hard days about 1,000 times easier to navigate with good people to back you up, listen to you vent, and make you laugh. Life is good.

ONE.



Last weekend, we celebrated Chris's parents' birthdays and played with Chris's siblings! It was such a fun weekend. I'm lacking in pictures because the girls went wedding dress shopping and those photos are top secret! Both my children were exhausted after several trips to the pool and tennis courts though.



TWO.



Back in March, I sent out an invite to some girlfriends in the DFW area and proposed a Supper Club. Each person signs up for one month to host, they take care of everything for that one month and everyone else brings the drinks. 1 month of hosting, cooking, and clean-up and 11 months to enjoy everyone else's cooking. I hosted a very lack luster inaugural supper club in April and then, these ladies just took it and ran! It. Just. Keeps. Getting. Better. Love you, dear friends and I'm already looking forward to our August Supper Club!



Nikki really outdid herself. Look at those beautiful drinks and blueberry tarts!

THREE.



Y'all, I am having a blast distributing Lipsense! The thing I'm enjoying the most though are all the selfies people are posting on my page wearing their gorgeous colors and all of the positive, uplifting comments people are making on each other's posts! These posts make my day - more girl power, please!



FOUR.



I can't even with these two. They both had an AWESOME week back at school, even if they started unexpectedly and sooner than  I thought! Zoey has been in an amazing mood - I think she's been missing her friends, and Luke is loving hanging with babies like him. He gets so frustrated that he can't do what Zoey does all day.



Zoey got home on Wednesday and started singing "I've got sunshine in my pockets". Luckily, I know this one! I pulled up "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake and she started singing and dancing! They must play this song at school - it was so cute!



This one turned 7 months old on Monday and I am soaking up all the baby cuddles I can get - it's going too fast. Slow down, time.

FIVE.



I'm taking back my classroom and setting it up like the Pinterest room of my dreams (it looks pretty terrible last year) - designed for my incoming students' needs. I spent a couple of hours on it while taking a scheduling break and it may be worse than when I started. 



But check out my little personal space! I'm using the clipboards to hold the weekly agenda and lesson plans.



And my pencil area...I anticipate this will last a day, but I need better accountability on my pencils! You can't do math without one!

On my list left to do...set up an information wall, bell schedule, missed assignments. Hang my math alphabet. Flex seating. Data wall. Word Wall. Student files. Border refresh. Classroom management system. Not to mention the most important - lesson plans. Eeep!

 

But today, I'm taking the day off to be with my babies. Have an amazing weekend, you guys! Linking up.



See y'all next week!

Nursery Update

After purchasing this incredibly precious and perfect fabric for Zoey's room a few weekends ago...

...I finally got the gumption to make her crib skirt (my very first attempt at one) and curtains!

For the crib skirt, I followed these relatively simple instructions from Oleander and Palm and used an old bed sheet as my base fabric. 

I love how it turned out, however, for those of you with the Sundvik Crib from Ikea there's really no need to go through all this trouble. I could've easily hung a hemmed panel of fabric from the front side of the crib and it would've looked the same! The ends of the crib are solid and the back of the crib is up against the wall so only 1 out of the 4 panels actually shows. Lesson learned for next time! I'm still pleased with how it turned out!

For the curtains, I purchased the gray Vivans from Ikea, 2 panels for $9.99 and hacked them to make these custom curtains to match the crib skirt.

I measured the overall length I wanted the curtains to be and cut off that amount from the Ikea curtains + the length of my butterfly fabric. Then, I hemmed my fabric and sewed it to the curtain. 

Chris suggested we add a little of the extra fabric to the top to tie it all together. I loved the idea. :) To do this, I just ironed a hem on a small piece of fabric and sewed it close to the top of the curtains. 

I'm incredibly happy with how these turned out and they were so easy! Hacking an already made curtain helps a lot.

Zoey's Nursery is definitely coming along nicely! We now get to focus on decor for the walls and all those fun and very necessary baby items (like diapers and wipes!). More Nursery updates to come!

Spring Wreath

Just stopping by to share my new spring wreath!

As I've mentioned before, I am already over winter and very ready for warm weather! 

In honor of yesterday's beautiful spring-like weather, I gathered supplies to make a spring wreath for our front door.

1 large grapevine wreath

15 tulip stems in various bright colors (50% off at Michaels)

1 spool of burlap ribbon - It was a tough choice between stripes and polka dots!

1 wooden "P"

I already had floral wire, a hot glue gun, wire cutters and paint for my "P"

I cut my tulips in varying lengths, some with leaves, some without and rearranged them on my wreath until I was happy with the look. I used a combination of floral wire and hot glue to secure the tulips. To finish the wreath off, I created a bow out of my burlap ribbon and wrapped the remainder of the ribbon around the wreath - securing with hot glue and adding my "P". 

This was an easy 30 minute project that I think happens to look fab on our door! 

2013 - A Year in Review

Source

2013 - What a whirlwind of ups and downs.

2013 started with a low note - We lost Chris's grandpa unexpectedly and traveled to Oklahoma to be with family. We also found out I was pregnant in the spring but it ended in a heartbreaking miscarriage (is there any other kind?) at 6 weeks. At this point I was pretty much done with 2013, but in looking back on the year this morning, I realized how truly amazing the year was and how incredibly blessed we've been this year.

Out of the loss of Chris's grandpa and the pregnancy, came a renewed sense to seize the day, get stuff done and appreciate every moment with our loved ones.

February - I threw a surprise baby shower in a box for my sister. It was so hard not being able to shower her with love in person but we had fun doing it from afar!

March - We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary and seriously, every year gets better with this amazing guy! Our nephew was born and we celebrated A LOT of family and friend birthdays.

J Hodges Photography

April - I helped to prepare for an amazing friend's baby shower and passed several teacher certification exams. I was also offered a teaching position at my current school.

May - Through the struggle of a miscarriage we still had a fun visit to New Orleans to meet our newest nephew and I passed my Special Education certification exam!

June-July - We channeled our frustration and sadness from the miscarriage and went gangbusters on painting and decorating our house. We made a lot of changes and it looks AMAZING! I also started blogging! 

(Office Makeover, Laundry Makeover, My Favorite Paint)

August - I got ready to begin my first year as a teacher and decorated my classroom. We also enjoyed several family members visiting.

September - We celebrated Chris's 30th birthday and he survived! :) We also celebrated my birthday AND found out I was PREGNANT!!

October - We had our first sonogram and found everything was going smoothly. We, of course, were on pins and needles after this spring.

November - We decorated for Christmas early, had our second dr appt and announced to our family!!

December - We announced to our friends, I completed my first semester of teaching, Chris got some time off and we started some new Christmas traditions of our own. 

Every year has ups and downs but despite our rocky start, 2013 has gone down as a great year in our books. Here's to a 2014 filled with more ups and than downs and a resolution to live in the moment and make every moment count!

Holiday Cards

Chris and I had a lot of fun with our holiday cards this year! In the past, we've used Costco's one-hour photo lab for our cards and they've always turned out awesome. 50 one-sided photo cards/envelopes for $14.99 and plenty of designs to choose from. It's also great because they're done in an hour and we always wait til last minute.

This year, Costco had something new and I was in the mood to be a little more extravagant! Greetings by Costco offers premium card stock double-sided photo cards, 50 for $34.50. Not only do they have a lot of beautiful designs but they also offer free rounded corners and free return address printing on the envelopes. I priced similar designs on Minted, TinyPrints and Shutterfly and couldn't get the price below $70 (using discounts)...at least double the price of Costco.

We had my parents take our photos when they were in town over Thanksgiving and I was able to design our Christmas card, using Adobe Photoshop Elements and upload it to Costco's site. I placed our order the Friday after Thanksgiving and had them in hand that next Thursday! I am incredibly pleased with the quality of the cards and envelopes. Perfect for our extra special Christmas cards this year!!

If you haven't ordered your cards, check out Greetings by Costco. They're amazing and quite a steal for what you get. *No, I'm not paid or compensated by Costco for this post. I'm just obsessed with our cards and wanted to share!

Without further ado...I present to you the best part of our 2013 Christmas card - the back!!

We couldn't possibly be more thrilled and excited. AND it feels so nice to finally let the cat out of the bag. :) We just couldn't pass up this fun opportunity to share the news with our loved ones and friends. More soon!

Formal Dining Make-Over

Just stopping by to share Chris's make-over of our formal dining room! Before, it was a very plain room. We punched it up a little by painting and adding more dramatic curtains, but it still wasn't a room we wanted people to see when they first entered our house.

Chris spent many weekends and weekdays after work adding chair rail AND shadow boxes to beautify this room. It was A LOT of work (for him) but SO worth it! Now we just need some art for the walls and our two front rooms will be complete!

Check out our paint colors here and my easy burlap curtains here!