Back to School...

Well friends, you can probably tell that I have been super busy this week. My posts have become fewer, but I plan to steadily continue. Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I am very excited. I have been thinking about and praying for the new little ones that will quickly become part of my everyday.

Here are some of my favorite school ideas that I will be testing out on them this year...

I love the idea of turning normal crates into lovely chairs... plus you can't beat the extra storage.
C.S. Lewis' quotes inspire me to think deeply about topics that I wouldn't always choose to consider on my own. Hopefully, he (and I) will do the same for my students.I've yet to meet a kid who doesn't like candy, so I'll take the help I can get to make them excited about reading.I love this idea too! What a fun way to remember birthdays!And of course I bake for them. They would simply love this. Last year I made my darlings maple bacon cupcakes, and I had them hooked. :)

So tomorrow, keep all the little children and their teachers in mind; it's going to be a long but exciting day.

For pictures click here.

Make-over and Re-Purpose

For a while now, I've wanted to refinish this yellow lamp that I have had since I was itty-bitty. I think it was actually my mom's. It was in my room, and as a mere child I took the creative liberty to draw all over it with a pen and to adorn it with stickers. While I was able to remove the stickers, the pen marks were unfortunately stuck on... sad really because it was a cool color. At any rate, I liked the shape, so I decided to spray paint it. I used the Champagne color from Rustoleum.

Fabric from JoAnn's

It turn out lovely; however, I couldn't find a shade suitable to match it. (Everything in our bedroom has a golden hue, and many shades have this too. They were all just blending into the wall.) Granted I only went to Target, but I was refuse to pay much for a lamp shade. After looking on Pinterest (*obsession*), I found a tutorial on how to make a cover for your lamp shade. All you do is spray it with glue and smooth down the fabric. It was so incredibly easy, and it turned out amazing! *Warning - Do NOT iron it; it will start to melt the shade... needless to say that side is facing the wall.* So far, I was two for two (minus the melt-age.)

This is my lovely Lucy girl investigating the new fixture.

Finally, some of our dear friends recently moved away. I offered to take some of their unneeded items up to Goodwill, and I found a lovely candlestick that they couldn't use any longer. I just planned on keeping it on hand just in case, but then, creativity struck! I decided to use it as a bracelet holder; the top part where the candle goes serves as a home for my rings. *If you want it back Jess, I'll reluctantly send it to you. :)* So I moved my lamp in too, and made a home for my lovely necklace that my mom bought me for my 25th birthday, and voila! What was meant to be a simple lamp fix turned into a full blown jewelry display, and I love it. I hated hiding my fun costume jewelry away in drawers, and now I can see it even when I'm not wearing it.

I added a mirror that I got from Target on clearance... I think it is supposed to be a place "mat." Here's to cheap fixes and re-using items. Until tomorrow...