It's a Par-tee!

  

 If you know me very well then you know that my DREAM JOB would be Party Planner extraordinaire. Now, I am no expert party planner - and I don't have the bank account that my dream job clients would - but I do tend to go a little overboard with 'themed parties'. That my friends, is why I am a self proclaimed party planner, for the budget friendly crowd.

    Our friend, Steve, had his birthday earlier this year and since he LOVES golf I had the pleasure of throwing him a Par-Tee! (Get it??) I'll let the pictures do the talking! If you have any questions or would like a template I made e-mailed to you just leave me a comment.

Front Door Sign - I used BGA instead of PGA since his last name starts with a B. 

The "Caddy Bar" All green candy in front of his cherished, Bill Murray signed, Caddy Shack poster. 

Printed Funny Golf sayings/Memes and framed them in dollar store frames 

19th Hole cake. Just cupcakes - coconut dyed green & peanut butter with brown sugar. 

"Sand Trap" donut holes, atop Peanut Butter & Brown sugar 

Bought the tees in a Big Bag at target for a few dollars, used as toothpicks for the "Sausage & Tees"
Are the bad golf puns getting to be too much yet?  

Well, you have to have a bucket of Balls! Mini Meatballs, used golf tees as toothpicks to get them, again.

Found golf ball ping pong balls!

Birthday Boy w/his new caddy shack Koozie! 

Our wonderful guests played along and dressed as golfers, too! 

I don't have golf clothes, so I just tried to play the country club girl role. 

I'm pretty mad at myself for not taking a picture of MY golf ball lanterns. But I do have the inspiration pin, I used. Saw them Here originally. I ordered my lanterns on amazon for about $6. Hung them from the ceiling with fish line. 

I think the birthday Boy had fun! I certainly did planning it! 

Summer of DIY

   When I got out of school that first week in June i told myself - this summer is the summer of DIY! I am going to finally finish my classroom projects, re-do that furniture that been sitting in my garage, organize the cabinets, etc. etc. etc. Well, July rolled around and I had yet to do a single project on my list. Oh, I was having a grand summer just not a productive one! So, I began spending some quality time in my garage with my sander and an end table. And a week later ... ta-da!

I originally got the table from my mom, who bought it at a garage sale. The original color of the wood went with nothing in my house, but I liked the look of the lines of the table and the sturdiness of it. I knew I wanted to re-do it, it just took about a year to get around to it.

This re-do project was fairly easy. The most difficult part was sanding the beveled sides & the legs, as you can see I ended up not doing a complete sand on the sides and just let the old color show a little, I ended up liking that look.

        

I am not a professional my any means but if you'd like to try something similar here's what I did: 

   1. Take the legs of the furniture. This is very important if you are doing two different colors - if you don't your lines will not be neat and clean. 

   2. Sand the furniture as best you can. The lower the grit for this part, the better (I used 60 grit). An electric sander will make this process much quicker and easier, but is not necessary.

   3. I painted the legs with a foam brush and  Behr Paint in Cotton Fluff. I used 2 coats.

   4. I stained the top with Miniwax stain, Jacobean. I only needed one coat, as the wood underneath was originally fairly dark the stain looked good (to me) with just one coat.
   5. I sanded the table top (not the legs) after the stain had time to dry. Here, the higher the grit the better. I used 220.
   6. I placed the stencil in the middle of the table and painted over with a foam brush, the same color I did the legs. If I did this again. i would probably use a roller brush, and go VERY lightly - the less paint on your brush for stencils the better. There are a few areas I wasn't really happy with the way it turned out, too much paint on my brush and it seeped out of the stencil. I only did one coat of paint.
   7. After the paint had time to dry I sealed the table top with a polyurethane coat, in clear satin. (Home depot man suggested it). However, it did turn the white paint a little brown - I think this was the spreading of the stain. I ended up liking the look though.
   8. Finally, I sanded the top again. I used 220 grit here too, but even higher would be good!
   9. Re-assemble your table - make sure those screw are tight!
  10. Enjoy your newly re-done furniture!

                                                     

                                                                  Original table in all it's glory

Stenciling the top

Sanding and painting legs

Close up of the table top

The Best Teacher Conference Hands Down!

   This past spring my principal sent me an email: "you need to apply for this conference." I had not the slightest clue what the Mickelson Exxon Mobil Teachers Academy (MEMTA) was. I put it off. My science instructional specialist came to me a few weeks later reminding me I needed to apply. So, I did. I was one of 5 people in our district accepted. What an honor!

  One of MEMTA's goals is to treat teachers well! And boy did they ever! Everything was taken car of - EVERYTHING! Hotel, transportation (flight if need be), food, food, food and LOTS of goodies to take back to my classroom. I was literally squealing like a small child when I walked into the Marriott and saw my nerdy, teacher swag and first rate accommodations.
   I met some really great teachers from around the globe, as far as Australia, that week. All whom are passionate about educating children in the STEM subjects. I learned A LOT, in a very hands on and friendly way. I developed a stronger sense of understanding the process of learning math and science for kids. I discovered new and exciting activities and learning models that I will be implementing next year and years to come. I fell in love a little with science. I kinda have a crush on it now, to be honest.
   I had the opportunity to listen to some wonderful guest speakers. I was blown away by Barbra Morgans stories and inspirations as she told us about how she made the journey from teacher to astronaut! What an inspiration!
   Dr. Calvin Mackie inspired me to tears. His words, "teachers are on the front lines," resonated with me. He truly has a passion for education, learning and the STEM subjects. His words literally gave me goosebumps. It almost made me want to skip summer and run right back into my classroom, to change some young people lives. We are on the front lines. As teachers - sometimes we are all that can make the difference in a kids life. He lit a fire inside the teachers in that room. If you have an opportunity to hear Dr. Mackie speak, do not miss it!

   So if you are a Math & Science teacher, especially grades 2-5 - Go APPLY! Like, right now!
The Woodlands (where I went) and Pittsburg Academies are only open to invited districts - so contact to your science or math district coordinator to see if you can apply. However, the New Jersey academy is open to ALL! So, seriously - go apply. APPLY HERE


Here are a few pictures of our exciting week:

Spring ISD teachers

Science & Math Journaling - a must in the classroom! 

MEMTA treats teachers right! 

Oh my stars - the desserts were good! 

sample of a pin-up our group did of our group designed experiment at the end of the week

Wedding Wine

Have you ever found a really cute picture on pinterest and thought 'Ohhh, I'd love to make that!'? Only to click on the link and find it just goes to another picture or a blog that says look what I made -  with one picture, no instructions what so ever. Actually, we were talking about this in school today (the teachers, not the kiddos) and it seems to be happening to lots of people, not just me. We all then seem to do the same thing - go crazy looking for similar pins, posts, etc. Only to have to use 5 different pictures, 2 different tutorials and some of our own creative juices to make the first picture we had happened upon.

Well, that's sort of how I was with the "Wedding Wine" - I had seen a pin labeled just that! And thought 'I love wine! I love weddings! Oh - perfect gift!' The picture was of a basket filled with different wine bottles and each had a tag on it that I could sort of read. The pin lead me to a dead end. So, I begun my search. I found several of the same or similar pictures, some were easier to read the labels than others - I was beginning to get a good idea of how I would do this project. I kept reading in blogs about the free printable labels you could download but all links seemed to be old or broken. So, I decided to create my own and customize them a bit more. (Glad I did!)

So here are pictures AND some detailed steps --->

So....  Step 1. I began my search of interesting/funny/cute/etc labeled wine bottles. There are so many great options out there!
*** here is a hint (if you're a wine-o): it may be better to hold off on buying the wine until closer to the wedding date. You may be tempted to break into the 'wedding wine' stash on nights you want a glass of vino but don't want to go to the store. You may end up buying the whole stash twice, maybe three times. Not that this happened to me or anything...***

Step 2.  I bought a plain crate from Hobby Lobby as well as wooden plaque. I used stain I had leftover from a different project and sanded and stained the crate and plaque. I nailed the plaque to the crate and hand painted their last name and wedding year on the front ( wish I had used a stencil, I don't really like the writing- but oh, well)

(please ignore the mess of my other ongoing projects - one day those will be finished, too)

Step 3. Next I created my own labels. I'm a little bit if a power point freak - I use it even when another program may be easier. I just like the way it's set up - find it easy for me to use. So I thought up my own wording (some of it is pretty cheesy) and added some little graphics I stole from google. (get ready for picture overload)

Step 4: I added all the bottles to the crate and filled the crate in with paper ( I cut brown wrapping paper into strips and curled it, along with Mr&Mrs. gift tissue I had. I wanted to use crinkle paper but both store I went to were out! Uggh! - that's what I get for looking for it the day before) I was pretty happy with the finished product and I think the happy couple will enjoy their wine! 

I've never used googledoc before so I am not sure if it'll work (fingers crossed it does) But here is a link to to the labels I made. Of course, you'd have to do a little customizing to fit you bride & groom. I know I'd love this gift if I were getting hitched, so I think it's a great alternative to the registry.

LINK:
Wedding Wine  <---- Edit: SHOOOOOT! this google doc thing completely messed up the format but at least you may be able to read all the wording a little better. 


Ohhhhh, and you know the chalkboards I made - I got to use them for the wedding as well! The wedding reception was gorgeous, the bride was stunning, the groom handsome and the atmosphere lovely. I did the writing right before the reception -  it's pretty awful, so don't make fun! But I was just excited to use my boards and the special couple does have an amazing love story - the board doesn't even begin to cover it! And the little yellow thing- it's a car... not an odd turtle. Some people were wondering. Annnnd I just realized the date is wrong on one part! Ann & Joe - I apologize a hundred times! Gosh, I feel so silly! I had written the first meeting date as 2011 originally (blame your brother for that calculation, kidding my  dear Tim - but he is one of the ones who said it was 2011) and then changed it after I saw 2010 on your wedding website. So, now the dates don't match - Sorry, guys :/

The perfect clock for me

It's true, I am not always on time. I really wish I was, but I'm convinced there is some cosmic force that will not allow for this to ever happen. I try, I really do - i am just constantly running a little late.
So, when I saw this clock on pinterest I knew I had to try a DIY version.

There wasn't a tutorial that I could find, only the actual clock for sale. So, I was on my own. I found a clock kit at hobby lobby, as well as a canvas and went to work.

I used scrap booking stickers for the words and just placed them on the canvas where I wanted them.

I then painted over the letters ad covered the entire canvas. The big problem here was that some of the letters began slipping around once I was painting. When I peeled the letters off (after paint had dryed) I realized it didn't turn out exactly perfect. I went into problem solver mode and just took white paint and filled in the areas that need touching up. I then followed the instructions on the clock kit and put the hands and motor on. The kit was actually really simple!  

It didn't turn out exactly like I had envisioned in my mind, but all together I am happy with it. Annnnd it truly is the Perfect clock for me. 

I actually did something I pinned!

 

So, I have a weakness for pinterest. Some (my lovely bf) may actually define it more as a sickness. I love all the wonderful ideas and projects I see - I pin things constantly with a little voice in my head shouting, "Oh, you could do that! You could do that better than they did!" The problem I encounter most often is that I don't ever actually do the things I pin. I am just a pinner,  not a pin-doer. Sometimes I even have the intentions to do a project, it just never actually happens.  My garage is full of awesome goodwill finds, old pictures, lamps, a box of wine glasses (one day I'll get that glass etching done), lots of mason jars, an bar stool, an old dresser and my best find:  a really neat rolling metal box that one day I will re-paint and add fabric too, to create a really neat rolling book pin for the classroom.
Sooo, over the last long weekend I had off from school I promised myself I was going to do at least one pinterest project and I did!

I found a few different pins that I followed in order to figure out how to go about the project. Most the time thought I get my own bright ideas on how I think it should work and just follow my own plan. Sometimes it works, sometimes is really does not.
so, for my long weekend project I made chalkboard frames.

Here are the pictures I bought at goodwill: ($5 each!)

I bought some chalkboard paint form home depot and followed the instructions on the can. Cleaned surface and dried the surface. I then taped off the edges with some cheap masking tape I got at the dollar store --- I had read on another pinners post that spending $ on painters tape was just a waste and that dollar store tape works just as well (I'll show you just how well, later) --- I painted the frame with acrylic white paint, then I painted the glass with a sponge brush. 

The dollar store tape didn't exactly work so well, and when I pulled it off (after it had properly dried) it also pulled off some of the chalkboard paint. If I ever try this project again I think I'll splurge for that pretty blue painters tape and see how that works.

After touching up the bare spots I am pretty proud of my FIRST pinterest project! I can't wait to use these around the house, at an upcoming bridal shower and many more uses. 

Maybe I'll do another project sometime soon... or maybe I'll just keep pinning and telling myself I'll do these projects one day.