Tuesday, April 30, 2013

May Basket Mayhem

When we were younger our mom used to help us make May Baskets to give to our cousins and neighbors. I have always planned on doing it with my own children, but have never actually followed through with it. So this year I am making 16 for Jayce's preschool class, 8 for his daycare class, 18 for Carter's class and 22 for Faith's class. Usta.

This year I planned ahead. We always have a ton of popcorn, Faith and I love it for snacks. Wal-Mart has some super cute spring colored plastic cups (think Red Solo Cup, only turquoise). I let each of the kids pick out candy to put in and we are going to use up some of the candy in our cupboard too.

Shannon whipped us up some fantastic little labels to spread our May cheer. Aren't they cute?

I spent a bit of time just popping the popcorn so it was ready and then the kids and I assembled our baskets.
Carter's have Spiderman candy in them. He was so excited. Faith's aren't done yet, we ran out of popcorn. Her's have fruit snacks in the bottom though. I am hoping to have enough ambition left tomorrow night to make them for my students at school. That is like 25 more. We will see.

I do have to make an emergency stop for more popcorn. I thought I had more than enough, but no. 

It's not to late for you to whip up some May Baskets for you to take to neighbors, work or school. If you do, be sure to share.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Prom Palooza {the results}


If you have been following our little blog for a while now, you may already know that I am the super lucky person who gets to be in charge of prom (sarcasm, friends, sarcasm.) Yep, Junior Class Sponsor, that's my official title. And I get paid like a whopping extra $100 a month, maybe. It's really not a ton of work until like the month before, up until then it's just a few meetings and ordering supplies. Our main fundraiser is running the concession stand at all the football games, so it is some work in the fall too.
Anyway, our theme this year is "under the sea". I let my class officers basically make all of the design decisions and just make a few suggestions here and there, but essentially it's all their ideas.
Since this has been consuming my life for the past week, I figured it deserved a post or two, right?

After three crazy days of decorating and setting up every last detail, we reached prom night and everything went great! Here's a few photos of my night :)

Getting ready in the community center bathroom. classy. I know. but much better than last year, I'm pretty sure my hair was still half wet as I was sprinting out the door to make it to grand march.
And poof!! magically I'm dressed and ready


Buffet tables....clearly this was before my caterer had set up and filled them with delicious food!


Drink and snack table...also unfilled.


The stage, for our speakers and singers.


dining tables


dining tables


and more tables....







the first centerpieces variation...











the second centerpiece variation....


And the third centerpiece variation...fishies only on staff tables!
And don't worry they found nice homes on teacher's desks after prom :)

So that was my whirlwind weekend....hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was exhausting and now I'm ready for another weekend!!

Friday, April 26, 2013

High Five for Friday!

We are back with 5 highlights from the last week. We are linking up with Lauren again this week. Hop over and check out the other participants if you want!

1. Spring has sprung!! There was still one late start day for my kids this week, but the last few days have been positively delightful!

2. Shannon and I have both registered as competitive runners (gasp) for the upcoming Race for the Cure. If you are in the Siouxland area we would love for you to come support it by walking, running or just cheering! Here is our team homepage. Check it out, donate if you feel called to do so.

3. I am wearing a pinterest inspired outfit today! Even though it isn't exactly spring colors, it is still a brave outfit for me so I'm putting it in the Win column. Here's my inspiration:


And here's my outfit:


4. Prom palooza has begun...here's sneak peek, and there's a full post coming soon.

5. I, Shannon, have had my hair and make up done everyday this week, but I have also left the house anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes late. So I think that's a wash. Next week I will get it together!! I'm still working on getting the hang of the curls that have to go along with this new {trendy} hair color. (ps. I am so not even trendy, not even a little)

Have a great weekend, keep your fingers crossed for me at prom tomorrow!!




Thursday, April 25, 2013

A dose of reality

I follow several "big-time" bloggers, Mama Laughlin, I heart Organizing, Young House Love. I know our blog doesn't even come close to these guys.
But they have pretty big shoes to fill. And I feel like a failure, a lot of the time.

When I blog about an organizing project or a craft we made, I show you a tiny snapshot of my life.
You are seeing what I want you to see. I guarantee that is not a complete picture of what my life really looks like. I am currently surrounded by backpacks, John Deere combines and dirty clothes. My husband is emptying the dishwasher and filling it because no one did it yesterday. We fed our kids broasted chicken  & fried shrimp and fries for supper. I still haven't put our Easter decorations away. I have at least 3 baskets of laundry to fold and put away along with several loads that still need washed. I had a really bad day at work today. I have a fairly high stress job, although I absolutely love it.
I know that I see these other bloggers, friends on Facebook, people on Instagram with seeminly perfect lives. They don't have them. Just like I don't. And while my mess may be messier than theirs, it also may not be.
We have to remember, you don't know where anyone is is coming from, where they have been or where they are going.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A few of our favorites...

Since I am in swamped, crazy prom palooza mode this week, I'm going project free this week. But I am going to take a few minutes and share a few of our organizing and crafting favorites.

1. Papermate Flair Markers. They are our absolute fave. We use them for everything!! Our planners, calendars, cards, grocery list, labels, and much more!

2. Scotch Thermal Laminator. We both have our own of these bad boys. We do all of our own laminating except for planner covers that we do in super thick 10mil laminating. We both got ours at WalMart for around $30. We get our laminating sheets at Sam's Club in the jumbo packs, so it's really pretty budget friendly.

3. Washi Tape. This is a recent favorite. We were a little slow to jump on the washi bandwagon, but now I love it and use it every chance I get. I have found it Target, WalMart, a few craft stores, and there's tons of options on Etsy!
4. Pretty Binders. We really like the "GreenRoom" brand from Target. They are sturdy and pretty. double win.
Those are just a few of our favorite, go-to items. We also keep a plethora of storage containers for all sorts of shapes and sizes on hands from several different stores. The Dollar Tree is one of our faves for organizing on a budget. 
We have also been known to hoard post-its, tabs, and binder clips. It's totally normal right??
What are some of your favorite? 





Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A Lovely Launching Station

I LOVE the idea of a launching station. I kind of had one. It was just a little side table with an awesome green basket on it. It was supposed to be the things that had to leave the house that day. However, it ended up being just a storage bin for things that needed to leave, but not quite yet.

I have seen tons of inspiration using bakers rack's. And I happen to have one. So, I moved it out to the living room and sorted through the leftover shelf of baskets and bins and found some that work. They are not necessarily what I would choose for my living room, but it works and the price is right.

You may have seen this picture on Instagram. Follow us there for random photos and over sharing galore!
The three baskets along the top are Faith, Carter and Jayce's "stuff". It is for things that need to go find a home. The kids know to check their baskets after school.

The white basket on the left is for library and school books. These are books we do not want to get mixed up in our own collection. The basket on the right is for my stuff that needs to leave with me. Many times already I have just grabbed the whole basket and taken it with me. All 5 of these baskets came from the Dollar Tree.

The green bin on the bottom is for stuff that needs to leave the house. It is not immediate. It is stuff that needs to be returned to other people or delivered at a later time. Shannon got that baby for me from Target. I heart it.

This set up is working awesome for us. That poor baker's rack has been in almost every room in our house so far, and served many purposes. My big goal now is for it not just to collect junk as we bring it in the house. So far, ok. I will keep you posted!

What does your launching station look like? Share with us!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Working on my April Plans

I posted last week about what I am planning to get done this month, so I figured I should check in and let you all know how I am doing (as if anyone actually cares? I'm pretending that you do though) and maybe see what everyone else is accomplishing too??

So here we go.
Time management and obligations:
 1. survive prom-- It's not prom weekend yet, so I cannot say that I have successfully survived. But I think I am down to one last shopping trip and the closet in my classroom is stuffed full of fun prom decorations. So far, so good.
2. Get bridesmaid dress altered- failed epicly on dropping it off last week. but remembered it this week. check.
3. register for summer classes- another fail, but not for lack of effort. A million emails and searching for colleges that offer what I want has only turned up frustration. All I want to do is add an early childhood endorsement, I don't want the whole two year degree. There's no time for that nonsense, especially when I already have a degree.

Home and Organizing.
1. get all labels printed, laminated, and put up. check.  And here they are now:

My laundry labels are simply clipped on the washer, with the current load on top. Nothing too drastic here. (Niki even offered our laundry labels as a freebie, here)


These wonderful babies are the best thing my dishwasher has ever seen. We have to pretty much wash our dishes before they go in, so the clean/dirty sign help to make sure nobody is accidentally putting away "dirty" dishes. I know, you're thinking "what kind of idiots can't communicate about the dishwasher?" Answer, us. Since we work completely opposite hours, we never see each other. So this means one of us is loading and starting and one of us is putting them away. This helps us to know what's going on, without having to waste the few minutes that we get to talk, talking about household chores.


I also labeled the closet. And did a tid bit of rearranging. My totes were formerly living on the top shelf and they found their way back up there again. An organizer from Target became the home for most of my shoes and the bins emptied of shoes, now hold some of the bf's pants. I feel like this crosses over a bit into....




2. finish up spring cleaning. mostly check. I'm still coming up with a few more random things to purge, or reorganize, or sort through. But as far as my actual cleaning, I've made it through the whole apartment.
3. purge, declutter, and organize coat closet- haven't made it to this disaster yet. But it's in my plans. No school days on Friday and Monday for me.
4. store seasonal winter clothes- this is also in the plans for my no school days.
5. new desk area- this area is still a giant frustration. I need some sort of small shelving situation so that things are not just sitting on the floor. However I haven't found anything that really works yet. I've even been to Goodwill and Walmart a couple times and come up with nothing.

Blog and Etsy.
1. Update items in the shop-check. I posted Monday about some of our recent new items. I am uber in love with all of the bright colors we have been using lately! They make some of the mundane lists and documents just a bit more fun. If we must have chore charts to help us keep it together, they should be pretty right?
 speaking of keeping it together, I made this cutie to put on my fridge. I have cleaning checklists that live in my home management binder that track some of the tasks that aren't done as often. But I felt like I needed a daily, constant, visual reminder. So I whipped this up, ran it through the laminator, and popped it on the fridge.
2. Get my posts written before the day they go live- this is still a bit hit and miss. somedays I'm doing great, other's I'm still like crap!! I haven't done anything worth writing about! but I have a rough plan for the month and will be using my no school days to get some stuff done. half check.
3. do some projects- again back to the no school days. I have found some cute ideas on pinterest, and think I will be starting with some simple washi tape labels and giving my finance box a good cleanout.

So I'm making progress...how are your April goals coming along?? Chat with us...share your plans, goals, accomplishments, and even set backs!





















Friday, April 19, 2013

Friday Five!

Here we are, back with our Friday Five!

1. Niki got to run outside again this week on Monday, but not agin for the rest if the week. :(

2.  Shannon is spending a no school morning working on some etsy orders, while enjoying some coffee. Not chugging it while driving to work is always a bonus :)


3. Shannon got a new hair color!! That totally counts right? Some of you may have already spotted it on instagram!


4. We get to spend the afternoon together doing a little last minute prom shopping :) hooray for a little sister bonding.

5. Shannon made a meal off pinterest and it was delicious! It totally validates all my time wasted spent on pinterest, right?


6. Niki's class is at the circus today!!! Who doesn't love a field trip?? Especially on a Friday!!

have a great weekend everyone :)



Thursday, April 18, 2013

we'll be back tomorrow...

We apologize for going MIA for a couple days. We got a little swamped with etsy orders and well, life in general. We'll be back tomorrow with our Friday Five and a full week of posting next week.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Laundry Labels

One of the things I am working on with my kids is sorting their dirty clothes. They are 3, 6, and 8. They can handle it. However, they often confused which sorter held which kind of clothes. So I had Shannon whip up some beautiful laundry labels for me, with words for the big kids and pictures for the baby.

I printed them out at my momma's house. She has nicer paper then me. :)
I just used my scissors to cut them out. I NEED a paper cutter. It's on the list.
Then I ran them through the laminator.

After that I had to decide how to attach them to the wall and then the washer. I wanted to magnet them to the washer.
Our washer and dryer in the bathroom. We just throw our dirty laundry in the washer as soon they take them off. But sometimes they just throw all of their dirty clothes in so then I have to sort them out of the washer. #firstworldproblems

I'll be honest here. I have not found a way to attach these above my clothes sorter. So, for now, I have one stuck to the washer (obviously we are currently accepting towels), and the rest are stuck to the top of the dryer hanging out next to my argyle pig. I thought about putting them all artsy-fartsy for you guys, but this is how they will be in real life. So I'm just keeping it real for you. You are welcome.

So, here is one thing crossed off my April To-Do list. How are you doing on your list? Share with us!

And because we love you, here is a freebie of my laundry labels! It will only be here for a limited time, so grab it now!